Heroine Survival Vol 3 Chapter 11

Nostalgic Place

「Aria……youuu, you went back by yourself leaving behind your teacher.  After that a scout came back with fast horse bringing information, so I  managed to slip in the commotion and escaped but, it’ll be better if you  don’t show our face in this town’s guild for a while. Aa, also I got  the payment for the magic stone with me.」

「Right, sorry. Thank you.」

As I thought it really became troublesome. Even so I couldn’t  possibly just stay silent without reporting, so I only handed the  information while pushing off everything else to others, but it looked  like the scout in that town was capable and immediately came here to  notify the guild about the extermination of the orcs.

「It will be hectic for the lord and the adventurer guild after this.」

「Oi, don’t act like it’s someone else’s problem. But well, guess this  is still better compared to having to face the orcs head on.」

Baron Horace wouldn’t be able to cancel his reinforcement request to  his caregiver and other noble houses based on only report from  adventurer. He would have to send his soldiers in great hurry to verify  the information.

If the information was correct than the soldier’s dispatch had to be  stopped, but he would still need to pay some reparation even if he  stopped it at this point. Well, even so it was just as Viro said, it  should still be better compared to having his town getting attacked by a  group of orc and his people and soldiers got exposed to mortal danger.

「Anyway let’s confirm our plan going forward.」

「Roger.」

I was waiting in Galbas’s workshop and Viro also returned there. We coordinated our schedule in there.

Viro was supposed to take command for the orc subjugation that  suddenly got requested, but that problem had been solved. It seemed that  he was told to stay here for the time being until the baron’s soldiers  had verified the truth, but even that would be finished in around one  week.

I was also not in my best condition, and Viro too wanted to go to  pick up one more comrade, so we arranged to meet three months later in  the territory of Duke Helton at the west part of Claydale Kingdom.

It should also be possible for Grave to move on to another place if  we took that much time but, in that case Viro said that he would leave  behind message to me in the adventurer guild of big cities like at  Dandall.

With this I got time to stop by at master’s place but…….

「This request, is it from that “organization” as expected?」

When I confirmed just in case, Viro lightly crossed his arms and made an unusually serious face.

「Are you still doubting that organization? I don’t know the reason  why Grave turned traitor but, at the very least that organization didn’t  give any order to kill you. There isn’t even any reason for that, or  rather, in the first place even the reason why Grave attacked you is  unclear.」

「At that time Grave said it was because a noble got interested to me.  He also said about me getting too close to royalty. What does he mean?」

By royalty he must meant about me getting too close to Elena. As for  the matter of noble……was there still any biological family who was  looking for me?

「That’s……I don’t know. Perhaps someone like Sera will know but, should I try asking her?」

「No need. I’ll lower my wariness but, I’ll continue keeping distance to that organization for a while. Is that alright?」

「It’s not like I’m a member of that organization, so I can’t tell you  what’s alright or not. After all it’ll also be dangerous if you  completely believe them. But, is it alright if I at least tell Sera and  her son that you’re alive?」

「Hmm……that’s fine.」

Viro made a slightly relieved look when I nodded. ……As I thought, it  seemed he was also requested by Sera or someone else to investigate  about my wellbeing.

「Also, if you’re still planning to get involved with the princess  from here on, you better prepare yourself to get involved with that  organization too. I can tell you now that organization is this country’s  『black ops』. Even if you’re planning to live as adventurer, you’ll  definitely get involved with them one day when you’re this strong.」

「……Got it.」

I had assumed that to some degree by the time Elena was involved but,  as expected, they were a black ops organization, this country’s  intelligence agency huh…….

A black ops that had intelligence network spreading throughout the  whole country and also have influence in the open. Making them enemy  would be even more troublesome than with the assassin guild. I would  have no other option except running away to other country the moment I  made them into enemy.

(……So it’ll soon be the time for me to resolve myself huh.)

I whispered inside my heart and let out a deep sigh as though to let out the thing accumulating inside me.

I had simply been running away until now but, I decided that I  wouldn’t run away anymore. If there the people who were involved with  the so called Otome game and the family looking for me tried to drag me  into destiny again, I would remove them forcefully.

If my strength was insufficient……at that time, let’s also held the  resolve to throw away my life rather than living as controlled “puppet”.

Until then I needed to become as strong as possible.

My destiny belonged only to “me”.

The other person who Viro would pick up was apparently a former party member who had retired.

Now that he mentioned it, it felt like I had been told once about a  sorcerer retiring and him looking for a replacement. His party must  still be unable to find a replacement if Viro needed to pick up that  person. Even so……that person should be retired due to advanced age,  would it be alright?

.

First let’s return to master’s place after so long……. I chose to  return to master’s place partly because my body was unwell, but there  were also two other important reasons.

I made the string for pendulum two years ago but, I had used it in  many battles, and now the only string I had left was the ones connected  to the two pendulums. Galbas made me four new pendulums so, right now I  wanted double amount of strings including for spare too.

Besides, I also wanted to ask about the last technique I used to  defeat Goljaoul──the origin Battle Technique. Normally even just using  it would endanger my life, but if it was master then perhaps she knew  something.

By going through Count Taurus’s territory and Dandall, it would take  me one month to reach master’s place no matter how much I hurried. From  there it should also take more than a month to go until the territory of  Duke Helton where I promised to meet Viro.

The place that Viro would go to pick up his comrade was at the  territory of Marquis Wankarl that was around two weeks distance from the  royal capital, so I didn’t think that they would be late to the meeting  place. With that I couldn’t possibly allow myself to be the only one  coming late.

……As expected I needed a method of transportation. With this  itinerary I would only be able to stay in master’s place for one week.  That was why I decided to pass through a dangerous forest area in order  to shorten the time needed.

In a straight line between this territory of Baron Horace and the  territory of Baron Seylace, there was a forest where it deep inside it  was adjacent to a “monster habitat region” where monsters were  prevalent.

The northern side of the forest was a monster habitat, but that place  wasn’t a territory of Claydale Kingdom. But, for the national border to  be drawn until that forest in this territory meant that there should be  people who explored until there and casted the sorcery barrier that  acted as national border.

Perhaps it was an achievement that was left behind from the era where  mercenaries who specialized in exploration, “adventurers” were carrying  out their original work.

That was why, it wasn’t an unexplored land because there was national  border there. If there were people who went until that far, I assumed  that at the very least there was a “path” that human could pass through  along the border.

I bought a lot of salt and sugar in the town and also bought spare  mantel as substitute for blanket. Viro had also brought the payment for  magic stone to me. It really helped me a lot from getting detained in  the guild.

By the way one orc magic stone was equal to five silver coins. The  magic stone from orc soldier was four gold coins, and the magic stone of  Goljaoul, the orc general gave me five large gold coins.

In total I got paid nine large coins and some change. It was a lot of  money but, I should be able to get twice of this if I could also  harvest the materials from the orcs. I didn’t harvest them and just left  them there because I couldn’t bring them all by myself and also because  I wanted to leave behind some for the other adventurers’ reward. It was  that kind of stupid reason.

Several days had passed but my stamina and magic power still didn’t  recover above 70%. But that was enough for now. I wasn’t going to fight,  just cutting open a path. I should be able to manage somehow even with  my current state.

Finally I found some good quality dry fruits and roasted nuts in a  stall so I purchased them. I stored only the items that looked like they  could get moldy into the Storage where things were kept in sterilized  state, then I left the city and headed straight to east.

.

I started running with 60% of my speed while using Stealth. If I  adjusted my mana amount while using Body Strengthening moderately,  I  should be able to traverse the same distance like riding a horse without  forcing myself.

But, that was only assuming that I was running on a flat ground. Flat  ground was rare inside a forest and my travelling speed would lower  dramatically.

Before that happened I would use Magic Power Control and trained my Body Strengthening.

I removed the attributes that acted as “off-flavor” from the magic  particles just like when I used that original Battle Technique and  suppressed the magic particles from rampaging using my willpower.

As long as it didn’t go out of control, Body Strengthening would only  exhibit the normal strength but, the training of Magic Power Control  skill wouldn’t be a waste.

The testing I was doing right now was heightening the fluidity of  magic particles to increase the efficiency of Body Strengthening by  using less magic particles to achieve the same result.

Even so……perhaps because my body was too used to using magic  particles, my arms and legs didn’t get thicker despite my height getting  taller. It wasn’t like I didn’t have muscle. The muscles in my whole  body were properly developing but, I wonder why my stomach wasn’t  showing toned abs?

Even if my muscle structure was “monsterized” with the premise of  using magic particles, I had seen the orcs and Feld having such bulging  muscles all over their body, and yet with my body……. Well, my body  stayed being light was a good thing. Let’s just keep it at that.

I went out of the highway and entered into the forest. Just like when  I was chasing after orcs, I didn’t step on the ground where tree leaves  were lying around and leaped around on rocks and fallen trees.

I didn’t do anything to any goblin or demon wolf that I found on the  way. In the first place the low rank monsters didn’t sense me while I  was using Stealth.

I wouldn’t kill living creature meaninglessly.

I killed animal for “eating”.

I killed enemy because that was the most “logical” way to solve a problem.

That was why when killing “enemy”, I didn’t “feel” anything. I didn’t  kill other based on emotion and I also had no reason to show mercy to  them.

That was why I didn’t feel hesitation with living.

.

I became “shadow” and ran through the forest. I only ate fruits that I  found and the preserved food I brought with me. When I got tired I  would take a short nap on a tree. I didn’t know the precise location of  the national border but, I was able to find traces of “people” on large  rock or cliff while moving through the forest.

「……Barrier?」

I noticed that inside the forest there would be spaces that purified  magic particles that were laced with negative attribute……miasma in each  interval.

Human could live in this world that was filled with monster because  the higher ranked a monster was, the smarter they would be. That kind of  being knew just how threatening humans were in group.

That was why stronger monster had the tendency to avoid human  settlement. Most likely these purified spaces were from magic stones  filled with light magic particles that were buried into the ground, just  like in the surrounding of village or city where humans lived.

That was a warning to monster that the place was where human lived.  This was a trace that human had visited this place which formed a  “path”. And this path was definitely leading to a place where human  lived.

Even so, as expected from this location. I had caught sight of  several powerful monsters, perhaps because of the proximity of this  place to the monster habitat.

Beast demihuman race Ogre that was a monster with strength of upper  end rank 3. A rank 4 tree monster Treant. Rank 5 mythical beasts Griffon  and Troll.

I managed to avoid the Griffon because I noticed it first but, the chance I died would be higher if it found me first.

「……There.」

I passed through that forest where death was always lurking around  closely and after ten days, I was able to see a big lake through the  gaps of the forest from a rocky place where I was standing.

That was the lake at the border between the territory of Count Basshu  and Baron Seylace that I passed before this too. The only big lake  around here was there so there was no doubt.

I headed straight to the lake from the rocky place and then I headed  north from there. I finally arrived at human settlement there and stayed  for a night in a nearby town, and then I spent four nights travelling  before I finally arrived at the territory of Baron Seylace for the third  time.

.

The brother and sister of Seylace House might be at the age to enroll  into the academy around now. Were the two of them in the royal capital?  Perhaps the big sister had come of age and returned here, but either  way I had no plan to go meet them.

The problem of mysterious person who attacked the people here had  been resolved, so I had no more reason to meet the two of them.

Even so this was the place where I fought Grave and lost. This place left a deep impression to me.

「…………」

Grave……you tried to kill me after considering me a danger from  getting too close to a royalty. But this time I’d be the one hunting you  as an existence that might harm Elena.

Regardless of what kind of reason you had, I’d deal with you as “my enemy”.

It had been nearly a year since the last time I showed my face at  master’s place to report about the destruction of the assassin guild. I  arrived at master’s hermitage bringing a lot of salt and spices as  souvenir. There I found that field of medicinal herb had grown a bit  bigger with the addition of some grasses I didn’t know.

「I’m back, master.」

I entered inside the hermitage that was filled with nostalgic  medicinal smell and put down my luggage. Master came out from the  alchemy room in the back. She smiled suggestively while lifting up her  face that had the characteristic glossy black skin of dark elf.

「You’re late, surly disciple. Even though I had been making  “preparation” because I thought it’s about time you come back, all my  efforts would get wasted if you take any longer.」

「……Preparation?」

It was as though master had predicted my return. She put the potion  bottles she was holding into a box without any hurry in her movement.  Then she approached me and hugged me inside her arms.

「You have grown a bit bigger again. But aren’t you getting a bit thinner? Welcome home……Aria.」

Like this I returned “home” to where the only person in this world who I could call family was living.

「Yes……I’m home, master.」

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