Chapter 121: Feeling Like My Opinion Always Goes Against Everyone Else

Chapter 121: Feeling Like My Opinion Always Goes Against Everyone Else

“It would be better if we retreated inside to find somewhere safer, my lady.”

Rand turned to speak to Faima.

“I’m fine. More importantly, let’s quickly assess the situation outside.”

Despite being suddenly attacked, Faima remained quite calm as she responded, accompanied by a pat on her left chest – something akin to a troop inspection before the battle. Come to think of it, since we first met, our group has been under constant attack, so this isn’t exactly our first rodeo.

“Let’s hurry and run…”

However, behind her, both father and son – Papet and Marito – showed no signs of being used to such situations. At least the boy’s father still managed to maintain some semblance of composure.

“It’s alright… surely the Knights are protecting us outside… but wait… if they were doing their job, why are we under attack?”

“No problem. Our Knight Order has undergone extremely rigorous training to ensure we can handle all situations under the Captain’s command, including counter-ambush and assassination defense. This includes target protection – if enemies attack, we will stop them.”

When Kalkudo affirmed this confidently, the worry on Faima’s face eased slightly.

“I see. I look forward to witnessing the results of that training. But what kind of training was it exactly?”

“Well… that… it was rather harsh…”

At this point, I noticed the eyes of both Phantom Dragon members darkening, their dry smiles suggesting something unpleasant had happened.

“Back at the training camp, we were constantly attacked by our superiors, including the captain. Because of that, we were forced to maintain constant vigilance, without a moment’s relaxation. Once we could handle things at a certain level, the Captain would increase the intensity further. That time was truly hell.”

Real-sama, what on earth did you do to them? Torturing both their bodies and minds…

Before I could add any tsukkomi comments, Papet-san spoke up.

“But we’re still under attack right now.”

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“Yeah, looking at these small numbers, trying to face off against the two strongest Knight teams in the Order would be like throwing eggs at a rock. It’s pretty easy to deduce that they must have more forces in reserve.”

Following Agaht’s words, Rand nodded in agreement.

“Even though we’re under attack, we can’t stay here forever. Let’s quickly retreat inside to ensure our safety first.”

With the bearing of a commander, Rand proposed the best solution for the current situation. Most people nearby were convinced by that commanding aura. But not me.

“Everyone, wait a moment.”

My words stopped everyone who was about to retreat inside.

“Kanna-shi, what’s wrong? I don’t see any other issues here.”

“Ah… well, Kuro-chan, always rushing like that can mess things up.”

Hearing my words, Kuro jumped slightly, her face blank with a huge question mark over her head.

Ignoring that question mark, I walked over to the assassins lying on the ground. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“Hey, Nii-san, what are you doing? We need to hurry inside…”

Young Marito quickly grabbed my arm and tried to pull me toward the interior of the ruins. But I gently brushed the boy’s hand away and approached one of the assassin’s corpses on the ground. Bending down, I tore open his clothes with the ice dagger in my hand.

These people… from the moment I first sensed their presence, I had a nagging, familiar feeling. And now was the time to verify it.

“Hey, you’re doing that again?”

Agaht was doing the same thing as when I did this to Kuro in the valley. But as soon as he looked at the corpse’s chest, the hand pulling my shoulder immediately stopped.

“This looks like… those who attacked us in the valley.”

That’s exactly right. On the chests of the corpses here, there was also a strange stone embedded into their flesh.

As I said before, their presence felt familiar, but my memories of the valley incident weren’t very clear anymore. However, thanks to the few remaining fragments of memory, I had figured out who these people were.

“This… they’re also…”

Kuro had also seen that ugly ornament and showed a complicated expression. Unconsciously, she reached up to touch the scar still marked on her chest. That’s right, that spot had once been embedded with something similar.

Fatima walked over to the corpse, touched the stone, and closed her eyes as if to concentrate on confirming something.

“Indeed, the magic formation we dealt with that time and this one are the same type, created by the same person.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s extremely complex, with unique characteristics based on the creator’s habits, preferences, and skill level. It also has distinctive writing methods, sequences, and operational features related to trigger mechanisms, execution methods, and so on…”

Faima dropped her hand from the gem and muttered continuously.

“Mom, please speak in plain language…”

“Eh… ahem… I can’t say for certain since this isn’t my specialty. But to put it simply, whoever created this gem is a top-tier mage.”

Is this the time to be praising such an inhumane person? Well, at least I know the person behind this isn’t someone to be taken lightly.

“That’s clear enough, but shouldn’t we hurry even more if that’s the case?”

As Kuro said, things outside would only get more complicated with such a powerful puppeteer pulling the strings.

“The attack on us in the valley and the current one are related. It’s good that we’ve realized this. But because of that, we all need to be even more careful. There could be more people like this waiting inside. We must hurry outside.”

Everyone agreed with Faima’s words.

While continuing to keep watch around us, we quickly ran toward the entrance of the ruins. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any fighting out here yet, so the path remained fairly clear.

Unfortunately, besides that ugly stone, I couldn’t find anything else on the assassins. However, since they were like Kuro before – just people controlled by those stones – I prepared ice coffins with lids for both of them at a minimum. According to what detective and forensic novelists say, this should prevent odors from decomposition or something like that, though I’m not sure if that’s true.

Those were the minimum things I could take care of before leaving the ruins.

Somehow, I had imagined there would be chaos outside with people fighting people. But no, there were only monsters fighting against humans out there.

Outside was a battlefield with a horde of goblin and lizardman monsters. I couldn’t count their numbers, but there were many.

All the Knight Order members outside were sweating as they dealt with the monsters. Even the members of the Heaven Dragon team riding on their dragons were darting back and forth with their pets. As Kalkudo said, without a doubt, everyone had their powerful skills. However, the numerical difference was too great, to the point where even skills couldn’t bridge the gap.

“But wait a minute, why aren’t the dragons flying in the sky?”

The Heaven Dragon team was also participating in the battle, but their Celestial Dragons were just running back and forth. Although they looked somewhat like waddling ducks, their maneuverability and combat ability were quite good. However, if you take away the Celestial Dragons’ advantage of aerial capability and attacks from above, their power has been greatly reduced.

“Let’s show them our presence, shall we?”

I recreated the ice hammer, pulled out several large ice mines from my chest pocket, and tossed the whole handful into the air.

“This is called… Freezing Grenades… Go…”

Toward the monsters that were about to attack Phantom Dragon from a blind spot, I threw the massive cold-air grenades in their direction.