Chapter 120 October 17, 2022
Chapter 120 – The All-Ferocious King of Beasts (2)
As she couldn’t evacuate from the Kunst auction house, Elendil could only grit her teeth at the ambushers who had been blatantly aiming for her since.
“Why did I even come here?!”
She should have just rested in Sören!
“Over there! The princess is over there!”
The Liberation Army member immediately rushed at her with frightful spirit.
To the Liberation Army, Elendil, who’d inherited the royal blood beyond aristocrats, was their enemy and target whom they had to definitely defeat.
Most of all, if they killed her, the heinous royal family would be afraid of how dangerous and strong the Liberation Army was.
Even if it was the death of him… No, he rushed toward her with the determination to die.
The Liberation Army member had prepared his suicide bombing vest.
Silence of Fire was no use.
Because the bomb used a special gunpowder, something like magic would be powerless as well.
“Your voice is too loud.”
At that moment, Casey Selmore, who had been hiding herself, stepped up.
“What?!”
The Liberation Army member was perplexed at Casey’s sudden appearance.
Even more, she showed up from thin air as if she’d walked through a curtain.
Elendil’s eyes sparkled.
‘That’s the skill of a wizard who received a color title.’
It was Casey Selmore’s unique magic that surrounded her with a thin water curtain in midair and distorted light so she could hide herself, Mermaid’s Raincoat.
As she dispelled the magic, Casey Selmore aimed her wand at the Liberation Army member who was rushing toward Elendil.
“Stay still.”
At the same time, atmospheric moisture gathered around the Liberation Army member, and it changed into bubbles before he got locked up in it.
Without hesitation, the Liberation Army member floating in the air gritted his teeth and attempted to explode the suicide bombing vest installed on his body.
“I-it doesn’t work?”
The bomb that could work well even within Silence of Fire that suppressed the use of gunpowder got locked up in the bubbles and was supressed.
Casey sneered at the confused Liberation Army member.
“Even if it’s a special gunpowder, it’s still useless if it gets soaked in water.”
The method that Casey used was simple.
—She only drenched the gunpowder that the bomb used using atmospheric moisture.
The worst misfortune to the Liberation Army member was the existence of Casey Selmore in that place.
Who would have guessed that a wizard who handled water which could be said the polar opposite of bombs would be there?
“D-don’t get all puffed up just because you overpowered me! My compatriots are still around here! Soon, they will—!”
“Oh. You mean those guys?”
Casey looked at the still prideful Liberation Army member while raising her hand flatly and pointing in one direction.
The Liberation Army backup arriving on the scene got brutally trampled by two women and collapsed to the floor.
“They got defeated right away.”
“Wh-what the hell…?”
According to the Liberation Army, the two women held no importance in their memory to the point that the womens’ names were unknown.
However, the two women knocked down all of them without a scratch.
It was obvious for them not to know who the women were.
One of the two women who’d defeated dozens of Liberation Army members with only their bodies was from the Nightcrawler Knight Order of the Security Department, and the other one was the assistant of the genius detective Casey.
“Casey! We finished taking care of them!” Betty cheerfully waved her hand.
Enya Joynus, beside Betty, hurriedly approached Elendil.
“Y-Your Highness! Are you all right?!”
“Oh? You, you were the one who was with Commander Terina back then…”
“I-it’s an honor that you remember me! I’m a Knight of the Nightcrawler Knight Order, Enya!”
Enya finished her self-introduction with a loud voice.
If her senior, Lloyd, was there, he would have scolded her to not publicize her identity as a member of the Nightcrawler Knight Order.
Elendil smiled awkwardly as she showed an absent-minded appearance in front of her and didn’t know what to do.
Enya had knocked out the ambushers cruelly without any change in her expression.
As if her recent chatter was a lie, her appearance when she was overpowering the Liberation Army silently with a cold face was obviously suitable to the title of being a Knight of the Nightcrawler Knight Order that criminals feared the most.
‘And that woman, too.’
The girl named Betty who’d arrived with Casey Selmore…
She had a small physique and a cute appearance akin to a doll, but she was an opponent that could never be looked down upon.
Surprisingly, she possessed a herculean strength that enabled her to grip and swing a huge guy thrice her size with one hand.
If Enya was a mannerist who made sure to get rid of the enemy using her long-practiced techniques, Betty was crude and immature, but she pressured her opponents using her overwhelming strength.
‘Where the hell did that herculean strength come from within that small and slender body?’
‘It’s not what’s important now.’
Elendil turned her gaze toward Casey.
The woman was in the middle of interrogating one of the captured Liberation Army members.
“D-do you think I’ll confess?!”
“Hmm. If you don’t confess, it will be a bit painful for you.”
“What?”
“You know what? I’m a water wizard. I don’t know how to use magic other than water, but that means I know how to deal with all types of ‘water’.”
“Wh-what the hell are you trying to say?”
This Liberation Army member didn’t seem to at least know about what kind of existence a color wizard was like.
—So Casey Selmore decided to show him just a taste of what she could do.
“Can you see?”
She pointed at her fingertips.
The surrounding moisture gathered and created a drop of water.
“I can deal with water. Of course, there’s a restriction to the distance and amount of it, but there’s nothing more fluid than water, you know?”
The droplets of water soon changed into a myriad of fish, they swam in it and soon changed into the shape of a deer hopping in the air.
Then the deer grew wings, turned into a bird, flew in the air, and changed into droplets of water and splashed to the floor.
The water on the floor evaporated and disappeared.
“Like that, and to sum it up, it’s like this…”
Nod.
As she moved her fingers, the bubble locking up the Liberation Army member approached Casey.
“How much water do you think is within a human’s body?”
“Wh-what?”
“The right answer is more than 70 percent. I’m talking about all the blood that’s flowing within your body. If that water is boiled hot or frozen cold to some point… What will it feel like in the end?”
“Heeeek!”
The overpowered Liberation Army member screamed at Casey, who stared at him with a frightful expression.
“Oh, um. Do you think we should stop her?” As she watched, Elendil got anxious and spoke to Betty.
Betty said that she need not worry while shaking her head.
“It’s okay! It’s okay! Even though Casey often does things according to her own will, she wouldn’t do such a horrible thing!”
As she spoke in such bravado, Betty suddenly recalled her past with Casey.
Herself, who was always swayed by the unruly Casey and suffered in pain.
“…Maybe?”
“Then we should stop her!”
Just in time, Casey, who had finished her interrogation approached them.
“I found out the big picture of their goal. Oh? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“N-no, never mind.”
“Ahehem. It’s because I believed in Casey!”
“Aha. I was wondering why.”
In the end, the genius detective noticed it right away.
“Really. What do you think I am? What I said just now was only a threat. I’m not actually going to do it, and I don’t intend to do it in the future.”
“O-of course.”
“Unless they were a severely vicious person, I wouldn’t utilize such a method, so you can relax.”
“…Does that mean you would do such a thing if your opponent was a vicious person?”
“Sadly, I haven’t met a human evil enough to be called vicious according to my standard. Ah, of course, there’s one.”
She seemed to recall someone.
Casey shut her lips tight and seemed to be immersed in a deep thought.
When Elendil was about to ask her something, Casey snapped out of it and spoke first.
“Anyway, I think the current situation is really bad. It seems like all kinds of criminals used the chance of the loosened security and everything went awry, so the foremost thing to do is to escape from here.”
“Ah, yes. Sure.”
“Your Highness. I will be your escort!”
“Yes. I’ll trust you.”
Casey confirmed the faces of the women while stroking her chin.
“This is a pretty good combination. Two vanguards and two rearguards.”
Moreover, each of their fighting powers was excellent as well.
Elendil the third princess naturally possessed a great amount of mana due to the imperial blood she’d inherited.
Enya Joynus was from the Nightcrawler Knight Order of the Security Department where only the elites could enter.
And Betty, her doubtful assistant, possessed real ability.
And then there was her, a water wizard with a color title.
If the fighting power was that great, they would be able to safely escape from the chaotic Kunst auction house.
Roaaaaaaarrrr───!!!!
As she was thinking so, a beast’s scream that was full of despair and grief resounded from afar.
She felt goosebumps on her skin.
The four people instinctively recognized that the scream belonged to an extremely dangerous being.
“What was that scream just now?”
As Elendil spoke with a trembling voice due to her fear, Casey answered in an unusually serious tone.
“I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t the scream of a common beast. First of all, we should escape from this place safely. As fast as possible.”
“I-I agree. Let’s hurry up and go.”
Boom.
The Beast of Jévaudan, who fell while demolishing a part of the Kunst auction house’s structure, couldn’t endure the huge height and bowed his upper body while laying down with his four feet.
His two arms were closer to a human’s than a wild beast’s.
The three heads atop the black, wild animal scanned the surroundings.
His tail, with the black, flowing mane going down the length of it, left a dim afterimage and seemed to vanish.
Boom!
The outer wall of the Kunst auction house exploded, and the debris scattered to all sides.
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Run!”
At the appearance of the unprecedented beast, the people who’d frozen in their spots finally felt the severity of the situation and fled while screaming.
The Beast of Jévaudan looked down at the fleeing people with a murderous gaze and slowly stretched his arm.
Grrrr! Woof woof!
The myriad heads of the beasts in his hand exposed their fangs and howled while staring at the fleeing people.
The people looked back and turned ghastly pale at the approaching huge hand.
“Evade, everyone!”
At that moment, a white flash flew and cut one of the fingers.
Whine.
The beast’s head on the finger painfully cried before it died while sticking out its tongue.
The people that recognized the sudden appearance of the new group brightened up.
“The Clockwork Knight Order!”
The elite Knight Order affiliated to their city.
At the appearance of the Clockwork Knight Order, which was affiliated with Leathevelk city and a few others, the people cheered.
Grrrrrr.
The Beast of Jévaudan glared at the Clockwork Knight Order’s Knights.
It was hardly possible for him to feel good at the appearance of humans who disturbed him all of a sudden.
The Clockwork Knight Order Knights gulped while looking up at the Beast of Jévaudan in the distance.
“We received a sudden report that the auction house was ambushed, but how the hell is that monster…?”
“Everyone, silence! We have to defeat that monster for the sake of the citizens’ safety.”
At the sudden, stern order of their commander, the subordinates shut their mouths.
Each of them maximized the generating capacity of the horse-shaped magic golems that they rode.
Creaaaak.
White steam gushed out the magic golems’ mouths.
At that time, the Beast of Jévaudan moved.
Roaaaaaar!
The myriad of beasts in his body roared all at once, and the Beast of Jévaudan raised his huge hand and struck the Knights.
“Evade!”
The magic engineering golems that the Knights rode moved and scattered to all sides.
The Beast of Jévaudan’s arm cut down to the ground, and an intense shock wave spread while a cloud of dust arose.
The ground that’d been chopped by the huge palm was cracked and dislocated.
It seemed like it’d destroyed the sewer pipe in the street, as water surged out from the cracks.
Gaaaaaaaah!
However, the Beast of Jévaudan’s attack didn’t stop there.
His huge tail swayed like a whip and mercilessly swung in every direction.
Along with the sound of air exploding, the windows and outer walls of surrounding buildings were destroyed, and the land exploded.
The Clockwork Knight Order Knights focused on avoiding using their superhuman eyesight.
They would die instantly if the attack grazed them.
As he frantically moved, cold sweat flowed on the Knight commander’s back.
‘It’s an unbelievable speed that doesn’t befit his huge body. Where the hell did that monster come from?’
* * *
The partially destroyed outer wall showed the night sky of Leathevelk.
The bleak wind made a creaking noise through the half-exposed iron bars and critically shook them.
Ludger stood there and looked down at the scenery under the fierce wind.
A huge beast with three heads and atypical horns…
Looking at the myriad of beast mouths over its body, it was obviously the cryptid that Ludger remembered.
However, it wasn’t the monster in his memory because Ludger had killed the monster in person back then.
‘Hans…’
He’d given the crude dagger made from a fang to Hans just in case.
It was Ludger who’d given it, but it was purely Hans’s natural will that could use it.
Even after Ludger gave it to Hans directly, he didn’t think that Hans would use it.
—Because Hans had a reason not to.
However, in the end, Hans had decided to use it anyway.
The roaring beast in front of him proved it.
Hans obviously hadn’t made the choice lightly.
There was no need to think of what kind of corner Hans had been driven to for him to stab the fang into his body.
“Hans…”
The crazed beast looked distressed.
The Beast of Jévaudan, no, Hans suffered from the Knights’ swords on his body while he destroyed everything in his surroundings.
“I can’t just leave behind the colleague who has been with me for so long.”
He didn’t feel like fighting, but he didn’t think of avoiding it if that’s what he needed to do.
[āter Nocturnus]
A black shadow covered Ludger’s body.
A black cape fluttered behind his back, and he put a black crow’s beak mask on his face.
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