The Lazy Swordmaster

Abyss and Andal, who were looking at her until she leaped onto the rooftop… whether they had gone down to the ground or had risen to the sky, their nose was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh?"

Riley, who was sticking his face out of the rooftop, could roughly guess what the situation was by Iril's stuttering who was as if in bewilderment and crumpled his face.

"They're gone?"

"No, that… Up until just now, they're definitely…"

Iril stuttered once again, pointing her finger at the road, to be precise, where Andal and Abyss stood before.

"They're… definitely over there though?"

Realizing that Abyss and Andal suddenly disappeared from Iril's reaction, Riley gently closed his eyes and began to widen his senses.

Nothing.

Even if he looked for them with his eyes, widened his senses, and looked around… Neither Abyss nor Andal could be seen or felt.

"They're not here."

Riley told Iril, who was bewildered, that they were definitely not around here, then pulled his face back that had been sticking out of the rooftop and looked at Sera.

"You don't think so too, right?"

"Even if you ask me… It's impossible to answer such a question simply by senses."

When Sera shook her head, Riley, with his arms folded, asked Iril while thinking where Andal and Abyss possibly were.

"Did these guys say something?"

"No, they didn't say they were going anywhere."

When Iril answered with a sullen look, Riley put his hand on her head as if it was okay, and slowly continued.

"It could also be a clue. There must be a good reason why they suddenly disappeared without telling you anything or giving a clue."

Iril, who had lost confidence, nodded laboriously at Riley's words as she recalled the last conversation she had with them.

"If I act on the young master's memorial stone… he said that a saintess named Helena might come, and the other parts might come here as well. No matter what movement you make, there will be ones approaching this way, so at that time… ah?"

Iril, who was muttering what Abyss had said, talked to Riley with an expression that she had remembered something.

"Whether it's the ones under me… He said that, too."

"Under?"

"Yes, Abyss's subordinate…the one he thought might also come to the memorial. He definitely said that."

Riley thought of several possibilities at Iril's words, then lowered his hand that was holding his chin and spoke.

"Anyway, it would be too much to find Abyss and Andal right now… The acting he made you do was probably 'the follower who acts me', right?"

"Yes? Ah, yes… that's right."

"Once again… why did you say 'I'm back!' on top of my memorial?"

"I'm, I'm sorry…"

Still, the cunning Helena must have missed it. It's definitely that if remembering that the four capable men who had just fought against Iril melted away in Helena's way.

"Abyss's strategy… I think it's half successful."

After pondering over the words of the masked men who muttered while looking at Iril, 'You are not him,' Riley looked out of the rooftop again to look at the memorial.

"As he said, either way, it will move."

In the middle of the city, Riley muttered softly as he looked down at the people who didn't care about the memorial.

*****

Inside an abandoned building that rarely passed by people, a blue light flashed and three people appeared there.

"…huu."

It was Nainiae's group.

"It might be a shabby place to use as a hideout, but please understand. Because it'll be convenient in a place where there aren't many people."

When the old gentleman in the group, who was teleporting supported by the girl wearing the white beret, asked for understanding, the girl, who had been staggering as if dizzy in the aftermath of the teleportation, answered with a slight smile.

"It's okay. I've slept in worse places with commander Nara, you know? I'm rather grateful if it's this much."

After teleporting, Nainiae, who had checked the safety of the two who were talking, slipped away and stopped at the end of the abandoned building.

"Is it… evening soon?"

Nainiae muttered as she looked up at the increasingly darkened sky and was worried about Riley and the other parts that scattered around.

Will everyone… be okay?

Nainiae, who was lost in thought while fiddling with the ring in her pocket, squinted one eye when the back of her hand began to throb all of a sudden.

"This?"

The trap she had set up on the side of the memorial informed her that someone nearby had used mana.

Is there another part near the memorial?

Knowing that people in this world couldn't use mana from Riley's memories, Nainiae noticed that the person who used mana near the trap was one of the parts that came over with her.

We have to go back.

It was when Nainiae turned her body from the sunset and went back inside the abandoned building to tell Priesia and Ian that the trap had been triggered.

"Ms. Priesia! Mr. Ian! The trap set on the side of the memorial…"

"…urrrr."

Inside the abandoned building, a throaty sound could be heard.

"Did you just hear something?"

"I heard it."

It sounded like an animal 'growling' and getting angry, but it's subtly different from that… Ian narrowed his eyes, judging that it was like the sound made when a person mimicked an animal.

"Nainiae!"

As Ian thought it would be better for her to join them, he loudly called Nainiae. Nainiae nodded and joined the two with a blink using close teleportation magic.

"Can you feel it?"

"Yes."

When Nainiae answered yes with a nod to Ian's question if she felt the 'living', he pulled out his beloved sword that had transparent magic on it.

"Anyway, it's unusual."

"It wasn't the cry of an animal. It's human's."

Judging that the throaty sound they just heard belonged to a human, not that of an animal, Nainiae followed the presence hiding in the dark with her eyes.

"…light."

Nainiae lit up a certain place inside the abandoned building that was getting dark as the sun was setting with a magical light that floated in a light sphere. Then she frowned when she found a 'human' staring at them.

That?

The human was covered in blood, and his suit was torn in tatters as if he had been through a thorny vine.

"Oh my God…"

Priesia was terrified at the sight of the blood-stained man. She gathered divine power in her hand and as she tried to step forward to heal him.

"Wait."

"Mr. Ian?"

"You don't have to do that."

When Ian grabbed Priesia's shoulder and said that there's no need to heal him, Priesia tilted her head as if asking what that meant.

"Because the blood that's on him isn't his."

Surprised by Ian's words, Priesia once again looked at the man who was staring at them.

As Ian said.

Although the man was covered in blood as if covered in red paint, only his clothes were torn while his skin was not showing any common scratches.

"That means…"

When Priesia blankly blurted her words, Nainiae swung her right hand once, creating dozens of fire arrows around her.

"It's an enemy."

Looking at the fire arrows behind Nainiae's back, the blood-stained man began to wriggle his eyebrows like a caterpillar.

"…kikk!"

As the man burst into laughter, exposing his yellow teeth, Nainiae, who was looking at the man with a cold look, fired the fire arrows that she had created all at once.

"Ms. Priesia, behind me."

As the blood-stained man bent his upper body and dangled to avoid Nainiae's fire arrows, Ian pushed Priesia back and fixed his sword.

"Be, be careful."

When the fire arrows burned the walls and floors of the abandoned building and made a 'bang!' sound, the blood-stained man, who glanced back at it, giggled again and rushed forward.

"Is he a purple human?"

Seeing the man move sleekly even without mana, Nainiae murmured, wondering if he was a capable person.

<Mr. Ian, let's test it for a moment.>

As if wanting to find out the man's true identity, Nainiae turned her eyes and met Ian's.

I'll buy you time.

Ian nodded knowingly and swung his sword towards the blood-stained man who rushed at him.

Clang!

When the man's arm and Ian's sword collided and sparked, Priesia, who was standing behind Ian and watching the two fight, opened her eyes wide.

Arm?!

Realizing that the man's arm was harder than steel, Ian crumpled his face openly.

"This guy…"

As the sword and the arm collided and their faces came closer, Ian was able to make eye contact with the man and wriggled his crumpled facial muscles, and threw out his right foot.

"Keek!"

The blood-stained man, who had been hit in the stomach by Ian's right foot, was pushed back with a strange scream.

"Kik, kik!"

Even though there's mana on Ian's foot, which had kicked him in the stomach, the blood-stained man seemed to have no damage except to be pushed back.

"This guy, how many people did he kill…"

Ian murmured as he saw his eyes filled with bloodthirstiness.

"Huu… kik… hungry."

"…?"

"Hungry…"

When the man suddenly muttered 'hungry', a tendon grew on Ian's forehead.

"The old man… isn't delicious. The girl… looks delicious."

"You… no way…"

"…"

Ian's face turned red when he noticed that there's a lot of blood around his mouth, while Priesia's face turned pale.

"Someone like this needs to get his ass kicked!"

Nainiae's expression grew colder when she realized that the reason the man had committed murder was to eat something that shouldn't be eaten.

…it's her work, huh?

The man's behavior, the man's gaze, the man's atmosphere…

Nainiae, who thought she had seen it somewhere, recalled the 'children' Riley had encountered in his previous life.

She made him like this.

The man wasn't a 'purple human'.

"It… must have been a year…"

That was… Riley's most hated thing to do.

And Riley's biggest regret.

"Still…"

Since Riley shared his memories with her, Nainiae, who knew exactly how he felt while cutting down the 'children' who had become monsters, was genuinely angry.

"How dare… you do something like this!"

When Nainiae shouted, the blood-stained man who was facing Ian and Priesia sharply turned his head!

"…?!"

The reason the man turned his head was not because of Nainiae, who had a few small fire arrows floating around.

Hwaruru.

Nainiae built a wall of fire so that the man couldn't escape to another place. She walked towards the place where he was standing, in a fiery rage like her teacher.

"Na, Nainiae?"

As Nainiae had never been angry before and now she walked with a cold expression, Priesia and Ian, overwhelmed by her anger, shrank their shoulders without realizing it.

<Don't move.>

Nainiae told the two not to move through their minds. Then she warned the blood-stained man standing opposite her.

"You were originally a human being, weren't you?"

"Urrrr…"

"When it's young master's time, he could communicate with them though."

In Riley's previous life, the children who turned into monsters still had enough rationality to communicate.

"Now, you didn't even let them do that, huh?"

Perhaps he realized that Nainiae was not an ordinary opponent, the man's fingernails and fangs began to grow longer and longer.

"Ku, ugh, ughhh!"

Moreover, when something like a black horn sprouted from the man's forehead, Nainiae, who was clenching her fists as she watched the process, put her hand into her pocket.

"…I will help you."

Nainiae took out the ring she had kept in her pocket. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but she still put the ring on her ring finger and continued.

"On young master's behalf."