Vol. 1 - Ch. 304 - Holy Land Lunazert (8)

Chapter 

Back at the royal capital's train station, just as we'd prepared to leave, Kiana-san pretended as if she happened to meet us there. It was obvious she had been acting on the command of my master, who probably feared the abduction was a mere trap to lure me out, and was keeping an eye on me from the shadows. 

But, I had already entertained this possibility, even if she hadn't.  

They'd deliberately made use of Rina, seemingly to provoke me. They must have hoped I would come to the rescue of Jeu and Rina alone while keeping the knight order out of the picture. 

If I do abide by their intentions, and chase after the culprits alone, the latter would've no use for Rina or Jeu. Plus, they'd been deliberately taking help of Red and Tomora, someone too unprofessional given the severity of the situation. They must have planned to turn them into scapegoats to protect the true mastermind if they failed in capturing me. 

Regardless, trap or not, I had to take the risk and jump into the lion's mount, just as the enemy wanted, to ensure their safety. Once I would be there, anyone with common sense could tell they would use hostages against me, and have me completely 'disarmed.' And that's where Kiana-san comes into picture, a two-step strategy.

Back at the station, I guessed her intention, but she was vague with her words presumably due to Coco's presence. If he knew I would be safe under the watchful eye of a knight, there would be no panic, and that might alert the enemies. 

In fact, the surveillance had been set up to tell me that. Well, it's also true we both knew each other to some extent, hence I could understand the hidden meaning when she told me 'Your master has commanded me to keep an eye on you.'

Now, all I had to do was keep an eye on the surroundings while sneaking inside the Holy Land. She would then wait for me to give a signal. 

Kiana-san, too, must have her focus on the central tower. The situation inside had been hidden by curtains, but she would've surely noticed the ruckus and tight security around it. 

"......I can sense you, Kiana-san! I know you're here!"

I controlled my wind magic, and caused the curtains to flutter, and just light had poured inside the room—

An arrow with a familiar arrow feather pierced through the window, scattering the fragments inside. A second arrow followed with hair-breath margin, and pierced Red who had been holding Rina hostage. 

"Aaargh!"

Red held his pierced shoulder, and fell on his back. 

The arrow rain didn't stop there, and within a fraction of a second, another arrow pierced the deacon who was just about to swing his axe at the boss. 

Unfortunately, and as I had feared, Jeu happened to be in the blind spot. I had to do something about it.

"Run, Rina!"

In the meantime everyone else was frozen at the unexpected ambush, I, already prepared for this, immediately shouted at Rina. Rina didn't waste any time, and broke into a dash.

"Tch! Get away!"

The geezer, who had been taking delight in torturing me until a while, hurriedly came out of his stupor and tried to capture Rina. I took that chance and smashed my knee against the back of his head.

"Gaahh!"

"I don't think you should be looking there."

I took Rina into my arms as she jumped at me, using the fallen geezer as the stepping stone, and heightened my concentration.

"Use the Mandrago's stinger on the girl, Dolittle!"

Suddenly, the pompous old-man shouted while laying down on the floor, covering himself, just as I turned my attention to Jeu.

"Wha—!! It can be dangerous, and Jeuri may—"

"Open your eyes and think! As long as we create a situation where the Saintess can't be rescued without our help, no one should dare to lay their hand on us, no matter who!"

The pig—Dollitle, I think that was his name, resolved himself and approached the nearby side-table, leaving Jeu. 

It was my chance. I pointed my right arm in his direction, and used that.

"—Wind Cutter!"

A tunnel of thin ice erupted out from my stretched hand, its surface scattering light like a jewel, and drew toward Dolittle in a straight line. 

"Ar, aagg......?"

Dolittle's eyes turned upside down. He pressed on his throat while gasping for air as if suffocating, and fell to his eyes.

"Rgh!"

A groan unwittingly escaped from me as I gradually approached Dolittle. 

I hadn't completely mastered the Wind Cutter. It was magic to create a vacuum in a distant spot. Obviously, it guzzled the hell out of my mana reserve. During my experiment, I calculated the mana cost seemed to increase in proportion to the cube of the distance. In short, the consumption was intense. 

I would've already fainted had it been another place, but—the Holy Land happened to be a mana density spot. My instantaneous mana compression efficiency was like day and night here.

Blood burst from my nose. My vision swam, my bloodshot eyes spinning as the world lurched, and I dropped to one knee.

“Aaaargh—!”

I somehow kept a thread of my consciousness intact, and continued to sustain the incomplete Wind Cutter. 

Dolittle body shone in brilliance. He must be using holy magic. He moved his mouth like a goldfish, but no voice came out of him. 

His face turned purple, stricken by oxygen deprivation and sudden drop in body temperature, and spat out blood. It hadn't been even five seconds, and he had already fallen to his knees. 

Perhaps, his lungs had collapsed. 

A sudden exposure to vacuum didn't mean instant death. Instead, it was like ripping the air out of lungs by force. It deprived one of oxygen faster than if you’d taken a deep breath and dived underwater. Yet, you must never open the mouth in such a scenario, or that would be hastening one's own demise only.

Holding onto my fading consciousness by sheer will, I stayed on one knee, wheezing as I steadied my breathing and began gathering my mana again.

Since I was held in by my condition, Rina ran toward Dolittle, and used the key hanging from his belt to undo Jeu’s restraints.

There didn’t seem to be a matching key for the mana-sealing chains, so those remained in place, but at least the cursed chains suspending her were released. Freed from them, Jeu let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Then she approached me with a dignified posture that gave no hint of the extreme conditions she’d endured over the past several days.

“Haa… haa… Sorry to keep you waiting… Jeu.”

Jeu slowly shook her head.

“I believed in you. I knew you would come to save us, Allen-san. I knew you would overcome something like this. I—”

Keeping her usual composed expression, a single tear slid down her cheek as she gently embraced me, swallowing the rest of her words.

As Jeu quietly sobbed against me, I spoke my gratitude honestly.

“Thank you, Jeu. Thank you… for protecting Rina.”

◆

“Kh… fuhyah! Ahyahyahyahyah!”

As I stood up with Jeu’s support, Tomora burst into deranged laughter.

“Magnificent… So you can use wind magic even while wearing mana-sealing chains? Now that makes things interesting. As expected of you, Mad Dog! Hyahyahya!”

…What on earth was so funny?

I’d had a bad feeling from the look in his eyes earlier, but it seemed Tomora’s mind had already slipped well past the point of sanity.

“…What… did you just do? In this room… you casually broke through Archbishop Dolittle’s holy  protection…?”

The man I’d knocked unconscious earlier with a knee strike finally managed to prop himself up and speak. 

The earlier arrogance had completely left his face, now bearing a visible twist of fear in his eyes. 

“Hmph. It wasn’t anything special. That was just the most basic of wind magic—Wind Cutter. …A defective version, though.”

When I said that with a thin smile and pointed my right hand at him, he stumbled backward and fell on his rear.

“Gah—!”

...It was just a simple gesture to flutter another curtain. And within a moment, Kiana-san’s merciless arrow flew in and pierced the man’s left shoulder.

...He must be an idiot. He just put himself on a clear line of fire, and got pierced unsurprisingly. 

The strain from using Wind Cutter was significant, even with the buff from Holy Land. So, obviously I had no more strength to cast it again. It was just a bluff.

At last, the seemingly hotshot geezer—he had hidden himself behind his subordinate all the while—finally opened his mouth.

"......So you'd your trump card all along, huh. But, you made the mistake of attacking the Holy Land while it's under full lockdown. As we speak, the paladins should already be at their trials, and from your condition, you didn't seem able to use your power of wind for long, can you? We still have hundreds of paladins and deacons ready. You believe you can make an escape despite all that? ......In particular with that dead weight on you!"

At the sharp emphasis on his last words, Rina flinched and drew her shoulders in.

I gently patted Rina on the head. 

…What an idiot.

From the moment I charged in, I could already see how this would play out. There was a reason I endured the torture and deliberately bought time. Meanwhile, Coco had managed to turn the clock in our favour. It was enough. 

I shook my head in a dramatic gesture, letting out a weary sigh.

"What makes you believe we are running out of this place? I don't care if this is some Holy Place, or the 18th level of hell, I only have a motto—anyone who dares to stand my way will be obliterated."

“Oh? And how do you plan to do that?”

It appeared he wasn't good with head, so I gave him the answer.

“…Can’t you hear it? The approaching harbingers of your doom, that sound of wings...?"

I walked up to the window behind me and pulled the curtain aside.

Comments