Chapter 15
Those Who Wander With Triggered Death Flags
René wandered through the streets, peering into the heads and hearts of everyone around her as she went .
The cold edged malice gently chased after her, keeping itself at a good distance .
――Hoo? You’re approaching me?
I might’ve just hit the jackpot here . But why Iris? Why now?
They found out right away that the Earl hired Dragon’s Throat? If not… The target’s me, René .
Well, whatever it is, I have to get to the bottom of this .
――Pulling anything in public’s a bad idea . Diana might catch wind of this too… Guess I’ll try luring them away .
Iris turned into one of the narrower, less populated paths . The pursuer swiftly followed in suit, perhaps seeing this as a chance .
René believed the lunatics from the Order of Knights wouldn’t hesitate to pick a fight outside and in broad daylight . They were crazy about their brand of justice, so this behavior meant something entirely different…
“Who’s there?”
Iris stopped in her tracks and flipped around .
There approached two men, draped head to toe in the most common traveler’s clothes . Even as she faced them, they made no attempt to hide their desire, their chiseled and sharpened edge of ‘hostility’ .
Her fingers behind her, René quickly drew up several gestures in the place of chants and layered her body with magical buffs .
This might seem to be a normal thing to do at a glance, but because of her buffs, low level spells would have little effect on her . It was a very useful skill to have .
“Is there something I can help with?”
“Stop working with the Earl . ”
One of the men declared out loud .
René almost passed on to heaven from relief, but managed to still anchor herself in this plane . The Order of Knights had yet to find René it seemed .
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To hell with that, Night Python just freaking came up to me themselves! It’s like a duck just walked up to me, pot and spices and all, just begging to be eaten! What the hell kind of suckers are these!?
Once they were done bothering with their threats, both men pulled out their swords .
Perhaps they wanted to teach her a lesson by hurting her . Or perhaps they would use her as a warning, kill her here and send her head back to the others?
Their sandals dragged across the dirt as they approached . Iris took a step back, her staff held out in front, as René pondered on how long she should boil these two alive to get what she wanted out of them .
Let’s see… For now, I shouldn’t do anything that outs me as Not Iris . So all I can do as Iris is… Push them back using magic and run away .
They can’t get out of these back alleys, that’ll attract attention . Will they run straight back to their hideout? No way .
――One of the biggest problems I’ve got is Benedict’s nose . Heck I might not even have to get blood on me… I get the feeling all I need to do is just be around blood for him to take a look at me and go, ‘I can smell someone else’s blood on you . ’ or something . Cutting them up in any way is a big No Go too… What the hell is this, hellmode? I ain’t no masochist, damnit .
Umm… Well, the thing is, there’s also a spell called ≪Deodorant≫, and it’s exactly that, but it might make everyone double-down on me . Anyway, I’ve got very limited options . I need to settle this without getting caught by Benedict’s nose .
I have to make do with what Iris is currently capable of . That means I can’t use any magic Iris isn’t capable of using . Even with that, there’s a chance one of them might start puking blood or something . That’s bad . Fire-based magic’s gonna leave a burnt smell so that’s definitely outta the question too . So I’ve gotta… Not leave a mark on myself, not leave any smells, not leave any blood . Hmm .
――Guess I’ll go with that then .
René fired off her magic while there still remained some distance between them .
“≪Ice Lock≫”
Shards of ice shot at them through the air .
However, they never reached their target . They shattered against an invisible wall mid-trajectory .
It wasn’t as though the men had put up anti-magic barriers or anything . They simply wore magic repelling talismans .
These kinds of items were commonplace in this world, magic items built to repel magic .
These ‘talismans’ were made so no harm of the magical kind would befall their carrier .
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――…Ah! So they did have them after all! Well, they were gonna go up against a Wizard . Guess that’d be a given, ya know .
Their plan was likely to fend off her attacks using their talismans and capture her .
And once they saw Iris move a step, the two immediately shot off after her .
“≪Ice Lock≫……≪Ice Lock≫! ≪Ice Lock≫!”
René rapid-fired off magic at the two, foregoing chants entirely .
However, she quickly caught on how the feel of her magic output had changed, so she lowered her output to a level befitting ‘Iris’ .
“≪Ice Lock≫!”
Finally, the talismans had run out of fuel and were no longer protecting the two men from her magic . Frostbite began running up their fingers .
And then .
“Geh-!”
In seconds, their arms were covered with ice .
Moreover, their arms were drawn to each other like magnets, linking together in an icy cage, as if they became bound with chains .
≪Ice Lock≫ . A low grade ice elemental magic that latched itself to their target, creating frozen shackles that bound and prevented their movement .
It was, at its core, magic that aimed to bind the target without doing any damage, but if one left people restrained like that, frostbite would take away their fingers and hands . That by itself made this spell quite the scary thing to deal with .
With their hands bound, the two stopped before Iris .
Perhaps to ponder on what their next move would be, having fallen into a situation outside of their thinking .
――Good! You guys go on and think that your talismans were defective!!
Just now, René had unleashed an edge of her true magical prowess for only a split second to burn out the talismans, then immediately lowered her output to prevent them from detecting it was her doing .
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With this, while they may find it odd, at the very least they wouldn’t think that inside Iris is the world’s strongest undead monster .
――Now now, they won’t just go, ‘Our arms got taken out . Let’s just switch to Capoeira[1] now . ’, right?
Or perhaps, they could smash their frozen shackles off, at the expense of their hands . However, these two did not seem to be so keen to fight to the death like that, so they turned heel and fled .
They rushed through even small roads, ducking around corners to disappear . It seemed chasing after them by foot would prove to be quite difficult . However, with the power of an Abyss Spirit to read thoughts and emotions, pursuing them was an easy matter .
René focused, spreading her net-like consciousness over as wide an area as she could manage .
El Tareff was not that big of a town . If she wanted to do so, she could cover over half of the entire town just by standing on the border .
René felt a vast amount of emotions course through her mind, like static of a radio turned to the wrong frequency, with only whispers of what she truly wanted coming to her . She slowly tuned out the static, focusing and amplifying the emotions of the two fleeing from her .
Likely because they failed in their attack, their raw malice was gone, leaving only a slight tinge of confusion, mixed with teaspoons of terror and hesitation . Even bits and pieces of their pain came through, likely caused by their hands being encased in shackles of ice .
She felt them stop, only for their feeling of pain to disappear .
The thugs didn’t seem like they could use magic, but they must have kept potions for recovery on them . It seemed that after they put considerable distance between them and Iris, they used the potions .
――Think you got away, eh? Well, you get an A for effort . Now, where’d you guys really run off to…
Just as there was a branch of the Adventurer’s Guild present in town to orient the adventurers, there must also be a Night Python base of operations here .
‘The best cure for weeds is to uproot them’, or so René believed as she followed the two to their hideout .
Once Adan and Jonas were back in their temporary hideout, they leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground .
A shrill silence of only laboured breathing echoed in the empty halls . Adan was the first to open his mouth .
“We… failed…”
Jonas remained silent . Adan didn’t need to say what they both already knew .
Adan took out a piece of metal from his breast pocket and flung it to the floor .
The object that ought to shine as brilliantly as gold, was as dark as charcoal, fuming out white smoke as if it were only brought out of the maws of a furnace .
That was a talisman . A disposable item that temporarily blocked the influence of magic .
Their opponent was a Guard-rank Wizard . Even if it were a bit of a chore, their job was simple . Buy time to get close with the talisman and capture the target .
However, the talisman got fried within a fourth of its expected uptime .
A brat’s a brat, Guard or whatever . Can’t have that much magic in ‘em . So that leaves…
“Those Night Python bastards gave us 2nd hand goods, goddamnit . ” Adan spat out .
“Yeah I thought so, those pieces of shits . ” Jonas nodded .
They both thought that the talismans they were supplied with had already been used previously, so they gave out much faster than expected .
The two were only taking up dirty work for money .
What they were really worried about was the reward they lost and the penalty for failing . If their reason for failing lay within Night Python, they could negotiate their way out of their mess . They could get further leeway because of how their lives were at risk (or perhaps at risk of being arrested as well) .
If their circumstances were so, they were in the clear . The two gave not a shit about how this failure affected Night Python .
“We’re supposed to get in touch tonight, right?”
“Yeah, at the usual place . ”
“Alright . Let’s take turns on keeping watch and sleeping until then . ”
The two nodded to one another, blissfully unaware of the web they had become so entangled in .
Translator: Fried Hedgehog