chapter 24

As we left the imperial city of Gheil and headed to the city of water, Aquarth, we were swung back and forth in our carriage.

In front of me sat Rifill and her head knight, and beside me were Meryl and Glenn.

“Whoa! So this is a royal carriage! It’s way fancier than a normal one.”

To my left, Glenn acted like a child.

Did we choose the wrong guy to bring along?

The head knight had a dumbfounded look on his face.

On the other hand, Rifill laughed, and Meryl smirked.

“Fufufu, Glenn’s a funny guy.”

She seemed to be revealing her true self to Glenn.

Rifill’s knight seemed to know about this and kept silent.

“Sorry about that. He’s a good fighter, though…”

When I apologized to the dumbfounded knight for Glenn’s behavior, they smiled and told me not to worry.

We were taken aback, but he seems like a nice guy. It seems like Rifill has excellent taste in people.

Unlike other knights and nobles, this guy didn’t seem to look at me with prejudice—a far cry from when the first time I met Rifill’s knights.

“We don’t seem to have introduced ourselves. My name is Gil Arion. I have been serving as the leader of Rifill-sama’s knights for a long time. Sorry for the rudeness you encountered yesterday.”

“No, I didn’t notice any rudeness, so don’t worry about it! I’m Asou Aruto. Nice to meet you!”

Captain Gil and I shook hands.

But as we shook hands, Gil continued to look me in the eye.

“Uh… What?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

With a wry smile, Captain Gil looked away and let go of his hand.

“I didn’t know you were planning to build your own guild, though.”

“I was wondering how to best help people, and I arrived at this answer. Of course, I’ll have Meryl help out with it too.”

“Yes! I’ll do my best!”

Seeing us laughing together, Rifill’s eyes sparkled with suspicion.

“Hm. So Veig’s info was right?”

“Eh? What sort of information from Veig?”

“Eh? You wanna hear about it? Hmm…”

“Mm-hm! Rifill-san, please go ahead!”

Rifill was about to convey Veig’s info, but blushing, Meryl raised her voice, interrupting her.

I didn’t know what was going on, and I tilted my head at it, but Glenn held his stomach and laughed, for some reason.

What was all that…?

Just as we were talking about such trivial things, the driver called out.

“We are approaching Zaigan Valley!”

We started to keep our eyes peeled, ready for a fight at any time.

“Careful, everyone. This valley is deep, and it’s a Skill Prohibited Area.”

“Skill Prohibited Area?”

Unclear with the term, I tilted my head, and the captain explained.

“Just like the name, it’s an area where you aren’t allowed to use skills or special skills. There won’t be any powerful monsters, but if you rely on your skills to fight, you’ll be in big trouble.”

So those kinds of areas exist…

“Aruto-san, you should especially pay attention to that!”

“You’re the last person I need to hear this from!”

As I was retorting to Meryl, the carriage suddenly stopped.

“C-captain! A robed figure has appeared in front of us!”

“What…!?”

They came…!

As we walked out, several knights were already surrounding the robed figure.

I couldn’t see the robed figure’s face, but from their height, they appeared to be a child… or a woman?

“This is a warning! Surrender now, or I will draw my sword!”

The robed figure did not respond to Captain Gil, and instead drew a sword from their left arm.

As it had been hidden by their sleeve, we couldn’t tell that they had a sword.

But wasn’t their only weapon supposed to be a chainsaw…?

“There’s no choice… Pull out your swords and go!”

At the instruction, the knights pulled out their swords and leaped toward the robed figure.

However, the robed figure didn’t move to avoid and they instead turned sideways.

Then, the robed figure released countless slashes from its sword, knocking the knights who attacked it back to us.

One by one, we saw the knights falling to the ground, and we held our weapons at the ready.

“Meryl! Protect Rifill along with Captain Gil and the others! Glenn, let’s go!”

“Alright!”

I left protecting Rifill to Meryl and Captain Gil, then dashed in.

Taking the lead, Glenn attacked, but his sword was parried by the robed figure’s own.

It then punched Glenn in the face.

“…gh!? This bastard…!”

Glenn was dazed for a moment, but immediately swung his sword.

But no matter how many times he swung, his blade was blocked.

“Alright then… Flame Body!”

Glenn covered his blade in flames.

The robed figure tried to escape, but Glenn grabbed their arm.

The blade covered in crimson flame hit the robed figure, who took damage—or should have…?!

The robed figure didn’t cry out or seem to have taken damage.

This surprised me.

“I-impossible…”

Then, after freeing their arm from Glenn’s grasp, they kicked him away.

The blow was so powerful that Glenn cowered.

Then, looking down at him, the figure turned their right palm towards him, and to my surprise, the center of their palm opened up, revealing the barrel of a gun.

“…?!”

With the barrel pointed at him, Glenn was unable to move.

I immediately started slashing with Enzetta.

The figure blocked my attack with their sword, causing their attack with the gun to be interrupted. Afterward, the gun returned inside their palm.

The robed figure then targeted to me, then turns the sword in their left hand into a chainsaw.

“I didn’t think I’d see one of these in this world!”

Brandishing the noisy chainsaw, the robed figure slashed at me repeatedly.

I continued defending with Enzetta.

No, it’d be a mistake to keep defending against the chainsaw.

And their movements… were so agile!

Not liking my chances, I kept my distance.

As I formed a stormcloud up above, the robed figure approached.

While defending against the attacks, I ran.

As I was moving, the stormcloud formed.

The robed figure saw that it had formed and kicked me in the stomach.

I was knocked away, but I immediately brought my hand down.

“Thunder Bolt!”

A bolt of lightning from the stormcloud hit the robed figure.

There was a small explosion, and fumes rose out.

With that, I kept my guard up.

As the smoke cleared…

“…danger levels rising…”

The completely burnt robe came off, and behind it was a small girl with green eyes and blue hair in twintails.

She seemed… around 10 years old!?

“A-a girl!?”

“This brat… was attacking travelers and merchants?!”

Behind me, Meryl and the rest of the group shared my surprise.

With that, the little girl spoke.

“…You are not like the others I’ve fought. You are strong enemies. Therefore, I will eliminate you.”

As she said this, the girl made a fist and stuck out her right arm.

Was she going to pull out the gun again…?

Then…

Her right arm came off, and like a rocket, it came flying towards us.

“Are you kidding me?!”

I couldn’t avoid the surprise attack, and I blocked the rocketlike arm with Enzetta, but the sheer power of the attack blew me back, and I crashed into a rock.

The girl’s right arm came back to her, and she was once again ready to fight.

“Did that thing’s arm just fly off!?”

“Could that girl be… a Sally Doll!?”

As Rifill spoke, we turned to look at the girl.

“What’s a Sally Doll…?”

“A doll that moves through magic power… I heard they stopped producing them a decade ago!”

So that’s how it survived Glenn’s fire!

“Heh. To think that I’d see not only a chainsaw, but a rocket punch in this world!”

“Correct. That was ‘Knuckle Missile’.”

The girl looked at me with a face that said, “don’t mix them up.”

Well, it remained the same, though…

“My bad! Then, I guess I’ll have to get serious, too.”

I used Wing to fly up in the air.

If I conducted a sneak attack from the air, it should work…!

Just as I thought, the girl was shocked to see me from above.

To my surprise, the girl flew towards me.

I looked at the girl’s back.

“A jetpack…?! Wait, isn’t this just a robot?!”

She flew through the air with steel wings and a booster on her back.

And so we had a midair battle, her chainsaw and Enzetta unceasingly clashing.

I continued to defend as sparks flew everywhere.

However, as she saw me slow down, she disappeared from in front of me.

“…!? Behind yo-“

I turned around, but the chainsaw was already swinging sideways, aimed at my stomach.

Realizing there was no way to guard against it, I flapped my wings and flew backward.

However, the chainsaw cut into my belly slightly.

I suffered pain from having it cut…

But if I hadn’t moved backward, I would’ve been dead meat for sure!

“Aruto-san!”

“I-I’m fine!”

“Stubborn…”

With a disgusted look, the girl once again held the chainsaw…

I didn’t want to keep getting attacked like this over and over.

If that was the case, this next one would decide it!

Flapping my wings, I dove towards the girl.

Expecting my movements, the girl dove towards me too.

With our weapons at the ready, we tried to slash each other as we passed each other…

But before I could get hit by the chainsaw, I changed stance, dodged the attack, and moved behind her.

“…!?”

“Gotcha!”

I broke the girl’s flight unit with Power Punch, and smoke rose out of it.

Then, a small explosion happened, and the girl started to fall towards the floor of the valley.

“Yikes…!?”

If she falls from this height…!

I dashed towards her and held her in my arms.

However, as I ended up entering the Skill Prohibited Area, my wings disappeared.

Meryl, Glenn, Rifill, and Captain Gil looked at me falling down the valley, and shouted my name.

“Uwaaaaaa!?”

But I fell, with the girl, into the depths of the valley.