Chapter 14: Heretic and Playing Cat and Mouse.
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"Are you sure you saw that monster heading this way?"
"Obviously. I have the Hunter developmental ability — you think I'd make a tracking error?"
"Heh heh… That bird-human heretic last time was appraised at 800,000 Valis. What a waste — the deal went sideways, the merchandise died, the buyer got killed too. Probably that Ratna bastard getting greedy and running off with the cash."
"I honestly don't get what's so special about those monsters that they're worth that kind of money."
"Depends on the goods. That bird-woman last time — human body, bird head, all the right curves, and female on top of that.
Guaranteed to fetch a premium from wealthy buyers with particular tastes. Now if it were some goblin, I wouldn't bother with all the trouble of hauling it back alive. Just kill it and let the ability points do the talking."
"Fair point."
Perhaps from spending so much time on this floor, the five heavily cloaked adventurers tracking their quarry showed little in the way of vigilance — chatting and laughing as casually as if they were on a morning stroll.
Kihara followed behind them, piecing together the conversation while also learning the name for those special monsters kept in cages: Heretics.
[These people are essentially poachers, Master. Shall we intervene?]
[We still don't know how they're transporting monsters to Orario, but if we eliminate four and keep the leader alive, we should be able to squeeze out quite a bit of information.]
Having made up his mind, Kihara drew Ebony and White Ivory, activated Time Acceleration, and leveled the barrels at four skulls before squeezing the triggers.
To guarantee instant deaths — and to make his entrance suitably dramatic — he followed up with two shots to each of their hearts.
"TIME OUT!"
One moment they were laughing. The next, four heads detonated in unison. Bone fragments, white matter, and arterial spray rained down on the leader like a sudden crimson downpour, splattering him head to toe. He seemed so thoroughly shattered by the sight that he simply stood there, frozen, not even capable of screaming.
Then cold steel pressed against the back of his neck. The blade's edge breathed an unmistakable aura of death, and Kihara pinched his voice into something low and graveled as he asked:
"You're poachers, aren't you."
"N-no! We're just ordinary adventurers!"
"Ordinary adventurers capture and sell Heretics?"
Kihara gave the cleaver the gentlest flick. A shallow line bloomed red across the man's throat — nothing fatal, just enough sting and enough blood to make the message perfectly clear. The poaching ringleader's survival instincts overrode his tongue in an instant.
"I'LL TALK! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! DON'T KILL ME!!"
"Tell me everything you know, and I won't kill you."
"U-understood!!"
Kihara ran him through the classic interrogation loop — ask once, verify once, ask again — until he was satisfied. Then Shinobu extended her right hand from within his shadow, black wood pistol in her grip, and fired into the man's heart at point-blank range. Multiple shots.
Kihara hadn't even had the chance to deliver his signature line — "It wasn't me who killed you. That was Shinobu" — when dozens of streaks of light came screaming toward him from a distance. Someone was launching a magical barrage from long range.
Shinobu hauled her upper body out of the shadow, twin guns blazing, and detonated every incoming magical projectile out of the air one by one. The display left Kihara quietly impressed.
[Your marksmanship is incredible.]
[You may now address me as Shinobu Dual Eagle.]
The ambush had failed. From the distant shadows, a slender figure wrapped in a cloak stepped slowly into the light. Pure, glass-like cyan eyes burned with undisguised fury as the figure's voice dropped to a low, seething demand:
"…You killed all of them?"
"That's right. They were planning to capture monsters and traffic them to Orario. As an adventurer, cleaning up that kind of filth seems perfectly reasonable to me." Kihara tilted his head. "Although you attacked me without a single word of warning. Are you their associate?"
"I am nothing like those animals."
Ryu's anger spiked at the accusation. She had traced her leads to this very place, hunting the remnants of those who had destroyed her familia — only to find her quarry already dead at a stranger's hands, and to then be accused of being their ally.
Fury won over reason. Both short blades cleared their sheaths in an instant, and she launched herself at Kihara with the blinding speed she'd spent years honing. She would teach this presumptuous adventurer a lesson.
[Master, she appears to be an elf. Shall we break her limbs and confine her somewhere for some specialized… remedial correction?]
[I don't have anywhere near that level of twisted taste. She's not showing killing intent — probably just an impulsive elf. Rough her up a bit and let her go. If she actually tries to kill me, she can join the poachers as fertilizer.]
As a Lv. 4 adventurer, Ryu's top speed was well beyond what ordinary eyes could track. Against a typical Lv. 1 adventurer, she would have ended the fight before they hit the ground.
Unfortunately for her, the person standing in her way had been forged through sparring against Kazami Yuuka — a creature who existed several tiers above the concept of "ordinary." Kihara didn't even need to look.
His body moved on pure instinct, hand closing around Crimson Blade's hilt as he swung backwards into empty air behind him.
Clang.
The sharp ring of steel on steel echoed through the cavern. Ryu stared, eyes wide and disbelieving. She could not comprehend how someone had blocked her attack without even turning around.
Even stripped of her god's blessing and unable to update her stats — she had once stood as a rising star rivaling the Sword Princess of the Loki Familia. How could her attack trajectory be predicted so effortlessly?
Refusing to accept it, she rocketed backwards, then launched a relentless multi-directional assault, striking from every angle in rapid succession. Every single blow was stopped cold.
"Standing still and defending is getting a little dull," Kihara said. "I think it's my turn now."
The words hit like an alarm in Ryu's chest. In that fraction of a second, she sheathed both blades and snatched her wooden staff instead, breaking into a chant:
"O canopy of the far-gone forest, infinite stars set in the boundless night sky—"
"START UP!"
The scenery lurched. She wasn't sure how it happened, but in the next breath she was pinned against the cavern wall, wrists locked behind her back. Two sharp, dry smacks rang out, and a stinging heat bloomed across her backside — humiliation flooding her brain alongside the pain.
Not only had he touched her bare skin —
He had spanked her.
As an elf, Ryu permitted physical contact only from those she genuinely recognized. Kihara was nowhere on that list. And what he had just done went far beyond a boundary violation — it was an outright insult. The last thread of her composure finally snapped.
"I am Gale Wind — Ryuu Lion! My name is on the guild's criminal blacklist! Do you have any idea what you've just done to me?!"
Kihara's expression, however, was one of complete and genuine puzzlement.
"…Who's that? Are you just making things up?"
"You—!!"
The response nearly caused her lungs to implode. Her chest heaved against the cavern wall, flushed and furious.
She had been subdued by a rookie adventurer?
"Well, whatever. You don't seem like a bad person. I'll let you go this time."
Kihara released her wrists and stepped back. Ryu spun around in a flash, both short blades up and level between them. Their eyes met and held for a long moment.
Then, slowly, she retreated into the shadows and disappeared.
[You clearly recognized who she was, Master. Was this your way of playing cat and mouse?]
[Five points to whoever guessed correctly. No — fifty points from Gryffindor.]
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Thank you for reading.