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Towards a New World
The start of the second section.
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Two years later.
Since then, I continued to train my body with everyone’s cooperation, and I—who also had gotten taller—had turned five years old.
Surprisingly, he had gotten rid of those openings the next day, and because of that, my educator spirit throbbed at Dee’s good sense. He’d probably become much more stronger if he trained, but I think it’s a pity: given that he has been saying that he wants to become a cook. He’s actually good at cooking, and he was extremely delighted when I taught him cooking recipes of my previous life. I would like nothing better than to get him to pursue his dreams.
The preparations for attending school are also proceeding steadily.
There’s three years left; it’s okay if we go forward unhurriedly, yet steadily.
It was on one such day that I received my menkyo-kaiden from Dee. He said: ‘There is already nothing left for me to teach. If anything, I’m the one being taught’. I was a five-year-old child, but it doesn’t matter even if I walk around by myself, therefore—also partly as training—I had run around the hills and fields.
And today, in order to rush out towards a new world……I was running in the sky.
To explain the current state of affairs, I ought to talk about two spells.
The first is [Boost].
……up to this point is the [Boost] written in the book.
After I investigated it by experimenting…this is just simply covering the body with maryoku. You could think of it as wearing a powered exoskeleton called maryoku, but to be frank, there’s a lot of wastage. In my case, because I have medical science knowledge and understand the structure of the human body, I eliminated that wastage. From the flow of blood, to the contraction and relaxation of muscles, and the motions of the skeletal system, I know which parts I should selectively protect depending on what the situation is.
It’s a ‘I’ve stopped being a human’ feeling.
The other one is an original spell: [Air Step].
Going as far as running through the sky, the direction I’m heading is towards the neighbouring continent that is separated by the sea.
Our house is on the [Merifest] continent, but perhaps because it’s on the edge of the continent, once you cross over one mountain there’s a sea that stretches outwards.
It is said that at the port of the urban center, trade takes place frequently and a round trip takes two days. In other words, a one-way trip takes one day, but—although it’s just an estimate—from here the distance appears to be one that could be covered in an hour.
However……that’s if you travel by ship; it has nothing to do with me, who runs in the sky.
Tomaa, I’m letting my curiosity reign free, and am springing towards the new continent.
It would’ve been troublesome if it came to my father’s attention on the other continent, so I didn’t continue towards a town; I thought that it wouldn’t be a problem over here and had some expectations……but there’s absolutely no signs of humans. It can’t be helped, shall I let my maryoku recover and then try and look for people from the sky?
It might seem like a joke, but once I attune with the maryoku in the surroundings, my maryoku recovers in the blink of an eye. Not even written in the book, it’s a technique that was impossible for Noel. The reason is still unknown. I’m leaving it as it is because: there are no problems with my body, it’s my ryugi to utilize things that can be utilized, and I think it’ll eventually become clear why.
And now I run in the sky again.
(———— -)
Just now, I felt that something was off.
In the case of the spell, my own maryoku is shot out like a wave, and I sense other parties with that reverberation. It’s one of the probing magic spells, but because it’s emitting maryoku over a vast range, it has a flaw where other parties can tell you activated it. However, in my case, there’s almost no difference with the maryoku in the surroundings and so according to Noel, it’s at the level of ‘if you focus your senses, then you’re vaguely aware of it’.
This time’s search for the enemy is performed with the mental image of detecting maryoku, but perhaps because it’s a forest, there are a countless number of demon, animal, etc. responses. Within those responses, as if almost indistinguishably mixed in, are five human-type maryokus……no, six. I don’t know the cause of my sense of discomfort, but I had finally detected some humans. I put away the water, and rushed out towards the position where the humans are.
Now then, it’s my first encounter with people other than my attendants, but abruptly greeting them with a konnichiwa is a bad move. There’s the possibility that the other party are bad people, not to mention that I am a five-year-old child. There’s an extremely high chance that it’ll turn into something troublesome.
At worst, if a fight breaks out, then I’ll probably manage if I run away with all my strength. I don’t think they’ll go as far as chasing me in the sky.
I was thinking ‘because they’re in this sort of place, what kind of person is it’, but unexpectedly, it wasn’t someone of the human race but someone of the peoples who exist together with the forest: the race called the ‘Elves’. Moreover, it was a female with long, horizontally pointed ears, and emerald-green shining long hair that flowed down her back. The combination of: emerald coloured pupils dwelling in almond eyes, and a chiseled nose and mouth, is—in one word—unmistakably that of a ‘beauty’. Her womanly balanced proportions are mystical yet overflowing with sex appeal; it was an enthralling woman who I definitely wanted to become acquainted with.
Her breathing is abnormally heavy, and she clings to a tree while heavily perspiring, desperately enduring as to not fall down. The mantle she is wearing is in tatters, and the clothes that she is wearing underneath it are completely visible. At the seemingly light chest protector that is probably made out of leather, her navel is exposed and she has a bright green skirt with a slit in it. The hem of the skirt reach her knees; it was probably equipment that placed an emphasis on easy movement. There’s a lot of bare skin; it’s also extremely goo eye candy.
As she is scowling in that direction, a glittering object flew out towards her from within the trees, so she repelled it with a knife from her breast pocket. The flying object landed near me, so I collected it without being noticed.
The leader-esque man—standing one step in front—has an eyepatch over his left eye, but the point all of them had in common was that they were all expressing a vulgar smile. I don’t want to become acquainted with these guys. No matter how you look at it, they don’t appear to be elf-san’s comrades; aren’t these current circumstances that of a scene just before a crime? Let’s wait and see for a little longer.
“Oo, that’s amazin’. Repelling my knife even after getting hit with that poison?”
“Heh, you can stop putting on a brave front. No matter how you look at it, aren’t you just barely standing up?”
“No, no, might it unexpectedly be exactly that? Even though she went to so much trouble and escaped us, she deliberately called out to us and waited, y’know?”
It’ll probably also send those men flying, or so I thought, but the wind promptly subsides, and subsequently the only effect was stirred up leaves fluttering down.
“S-, scaring us like that… Boss, what happened?”
“So it means she’s that much of a high quality good? With her, it seems like we can spend our time enjoying ourselves for a while.”
“You idiot! Naturally I’m first. You guys are later, later!”
“Oi oi, is it alright for you to die? You said it, didn’t you? That you’ll show your parents your healthy face.”
At that moment, the male leading figure had swung both of his arms.
“Shi-!? Ku!”
Nevertheless, elf-san also isn’t defeated yet. Regaining her balance, she repels two of the knives, and she twists her body and dodges the remaining four knives, and they lodge into the tree behind her. But one of the knives that she dodged grazed her flank in passing. To have been able to get through—to such a degree—having multiple knives thrown at her simultaneously, her abilities are magnificent.
“You……sleazebag!”
“It’s all right. As strong as it is, it’s made to not kill. But it’s also that much more expensive.”
“So that’s how it is. If you like, shall I stab her another two, three times? It’d be troublesome if she struggled.”
“You might feel too good and go to heaven, hahaha!”
“Who is i-? Gua!”
A knife pierces the hand of the leading figure, and I rush out in front of elf-san from between the trees. I added several tricks on the way there, and stood in the front of the men, blocking their way.
“Boss! You! Who on earth are y—……an?”
“A shitty brat did…how dare you go and do that!”
“It’s u-, useless! Please run away, bouya!”
They were already harassing me, so there was no need to go as far as provoking them, was there? Looking behind me, elf-san—who was desperately trying to get up—is shouting in my direction. I understand that those eyes—frantically begging me to run—are genuinely worried for me. Good grief, even though she knows that she’ll be attacked if I ran away…what a good person she is.
If that child were to shout ‘father is there‘ at a position behind were they themselves are, then it would be natural to watch out for a surprise attack and turn around. And behold, in front of me were men full of openings, standing in a line.
“ “Ga!” ”
“T-, this brat…!”
“B-, boss. Medicine, give us the antidote!”
However, this antidote-looking thing…no matter how you look at it, there’s only one person’s worth of it.
“Fuun, there’s only your own share here. Things like your comrades aren’t worth worrying about eh?”
“Y-, you’ve got it wrong! There just wasn’t enough.”
“You! Don’t tell me, with those intentions, you……”
“To begin with, there’s something strange with you being the leader!”
Arara, I was going to stir them up a bit more, but they fell into pieces faster than I had anticipated. This kind of occasion is one when their everyday dissatisfactions would erupt. Even though he has skills, it seems like he doesn’t have any charisma.
“Ee……leaving that aside bouya, what exactly are you?”
“That shit, let’s kill the brat first!”
Otto, I guess I was noticed?
“……I understand.”
“Wai—!?”
I activate [Boost] and lifted her up. Naturally, in a princess carry.
And then, carrying elf-san in my arms, I ran away.