Chapter 18: CH 18

Attack

The next day, I once again got up before the sun rose. This habit was now part of my life cycle. It wasn’t that I was getting old and liked to get up early.

When I checked my status, I was thirty-six years old. Yes, things were going well. In the world I used to live in, I would be considered just a little older than a young man, I guess?

I put on my armor, cloak and backpack so that I was fully equipped. My MP was also recovered, so I was in top condition. While I had only been in this room for five days, I felt strangely sad about leaving it.

When I looked at my face in the mirror, I could tell that I really was younger. And though I thought that going from forty-two to thirty-six was not dramatic enough to make people suspicious, I pulled my hood down just in case before going down to the dining hall.

There, I told the innkeeper, who was preparing breakfast as always, that I was going out.

“Are you not taking bread with you today?”

She asked. But she had never been friendly towards me before, so what was different today?

My heart started to beat faster. Perhaps she had noticed the change in my face.

“I heard that you’re leaving town today. Here, take this. It’s a parting gift.”

She handed me the two loaves that I usually took. I was very grateful! But I also wished that kindness hadn’t been reserved for today.

“Thank you. I plan on leaving when the gates open.”

I said, pretending to be perfectly calm.

“Traveling is dangerous. I will pray for your safety.”

“I also hope that you will be well, madame. Good bye.”

…Ah! My nerves!

Why must I suffer a pounding heart and sweaty brow in the early morning!

I pushed it aside and chewed on the bread as I headed towards the place where the passenger carriages were waiting. Normally, you were supposed to reserve a seat, but I hadn’t come, as I was worried that they would notice my reverse aging. And so I went around to the different carriages and asked the drivers if there were open seats.

“Are any of you headed towards Ilrak?”

“We’re headed for Eiril.”

“The capital.”

“We’ll be going towards Ilrak in three days.”

Unfortunately, I could not find a carriage. Ilrak was a city that was two villages away from Powarso, and would take five days to reach on foot. However, I could not back down now. And so I decided to walk. Perhaps I could gather herbs at the villages on the way.

I had pulled up my hood when searching for a carriage, and so I pulled it down again and headed to the east gate.

“Hey, you. Raise your hood.”

Said the guard at the east gate. Huh? Did they always check your face when leaving?

As I did not recognize the guard, I raised my hood and showed him my Adventurers plate.

“Hmm? You’ll cause confusion, so always take off your hood at the gate.”

“I’ll remember that.”

They had never done checks like this before… Today was not off to a good start.

As for why I decided to go to Ilrak, there wasn’t a big reason for it. As I had said that my homeland was Chiltsia to the east, I thought that I might as well go in that direction.

Going to the royal capital was another option, but I heard rumors that the capital was a tough place for low ranking Adventurers, and so I decided against it.

After leaving the east gate and walking for about two hours, the forest came into view. It seemed that you had to walk longer to reach it from the east direction. I was walking on flat terrain, but I could no longer see the town of Powarso at all. If I entered the forest, there would surely be monsters. I unsheathed my sword once and then put it back in. And with renewed determination, I entered the road that ran through the forest.

…As for inside the forest, it was peace itself. I kept my hood down and was watchful of my surroundings, just in case, but nothing happened. I preferred it that way, and was able to make good progress.

After some time had passed, I heard the sounds of hooves hitting the road. A horse was coming.

And so I moved to the side of the road so that I wouldn’t get in the way. Two riders then appeared. As they were armed, perhaps they were Adventurers? One held a spear while the other had a bow and a sword. I tried to not give them more than a glance as they passed by.

But just as they passed, I saw that they were smirking.

This…gave me a bad feeling.

Eventually, they were out of sight. I moved away from the road and into the forest until I could barely see the road through the trees. And then I started walking again, parallel with the road.

It would be fine if I was being paranoid over nothing. Unfortunately, after I had walked farther on, I saw that the horses had been tied up in the forest. Surely they were not on a quest in such a place. What could they be doing?

When I looked, one was hiding in the bushes by the side of the road, and the other was pointing in the same direction with his bow. Ah… They were waiting. I had been suspicious, and I now saw that they were ready to kill.

Perhaps there was still a one in a million chance that they weren’t trying to ambush me. However, they could hardly blame me for making that assumption, when they were waiting while directing their weapons at the road. I could not walk down there with an arrow pointed at me.

And I couldn’t just go around them either. Even if I did, they would just chase after me. Perhaps I should just wait here.

And so with bated breath I hid in the shadow of the trees. That’s when I saw that a goblin was walking towards me.

If the goblin saw me, then they would see me too. This was terrible.

My bad luck today was continuing.

Thankfully, their backs were turned towards me, and they hadn’t noticed yet. I could make the first move. I quietly put my bag on the ground, unsheathed my sword, and sneaked up to the man with the bow.

20 meters…no, I was still fine…10 meters…hmm…did he detect something? He was starting to look around while holding the bow. Damn it.

I threw a stone in the direction of the goblin. It hit the ground, making a faint noise.

The Adventurer with the bow turned his head in surprise. He saw the walking goblin and unleashed his arrow.

In that brief moment when he was open, I rushed forward. He immediately noticed and turned to me, but I could tell by his expression that he didn’t understand what was happening.

“Hah!”

While my eyes were still on his uncomprehending face, I swung the sword and sliced his neck right open.

“What!?”

The spear-wielding Adventurer stood up and pointed his weapon at me.

Blood sprayed from the headless corpse, but I ignored it.

There was 7 meters between us. He had a spear, which gave him an advantage.

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“Bastard!!”

He was fast! In a flash, he dashed forward and closed the distance between us.

“Tsk.”

I was able to block the first thrust with my shield, but it was so powerful that my hand became numb. He was clearly a level above me…

Not only that, but my sword could not reach him. This would be no match if I fought fairly. And so I followed my instincts and threw the sword in my right hand.

“Woah?”

“Hah.”

He was shocked that someone would have thrown their main weapon. As he dodged it frantically, I took two steps forward. And with just those two steps, I was now too close for the spearhead to reach me.

“Take that!”

I bashed my shield into the spear and then punched him in the face with my empty right hand.

“Gah!”

As he stumbled dizzily backwards, I took out a small cloth bag from my pocket and threw it at him. A cloud of powder exploded in his face.

“Buffo!”

It blocked my own vision for a second as well, but I held my breath and pulled out the short sword at my back and swung it where I thought his head would be. I felt it hit something.

“Gaaaaahh!”

My vision cleared, and I saw the man holding his face. Apparently, I had cut him.

However, it was far from a lethal wound…

The spear was on the ground. He must have dropped it when he held his face. Before I could think about it, my hand reached out and snatched the spear up.

“Ha!”

As he held his face with both hands, I thrust the spear through his throat.

“Gaaah!”

And then he fell to the ground.

“Ha…”

I dropped the spear and then fell to my knees with a sigh.

“I have finally done it.”

My heart was beating rapidly. It had all felt like a dream while I was moving. But now I had really killed someone.

My hand still throbbed after the punch.

I hadn’t even been ambushed yet. It was attempted murder based on circumstantial evidence. In no way did I feel that I had done something wrong.

Had I continued on, they would have definitely directed their weapons at me. Life was cheap in this world. If someone pointed a weapon at you, that meant they were going to take your life.

However, while I had been wearing gloves, my hand still hurt. I could still remember the sensation of the blade slicing through flesh.

That’s how it was. And yet it was a long time ago that I had decided that I would dirty my hands if something like this ever happened to me.

“Hahh…”

After coming to this world, I have taken many lives. And some of them were goblins, who were the same shape as humans. This wasn’t a world where you could just go to the supermarket and buy meat. And so I thought I was used to the idea of taking life in order to eat and in order to survive.

And yet, it turned out that killing your own kind was a very different thing.

I had seen my share of corpses since I arrived here. And so I did not become nauseous. And yet the truth of my actions felt like a great weight was on top of me.

“Status Open.”

I had to check it, but my level had not risen.

And this was in spite of the fact that they were clearly above me.

“I guess the gods do not bless the killing of your own kind either.”

Well, I better find out who they were.

I took off their equipment and kept anything valuable. …Ah, there they are. The Adventurers plate.

Siblez

Rank: D

Gender: Male

Party: Greenhill Claw

Base: Nomasen

Affiliated: Powarso

Trefonto Lowdel

Rank: D

Gender: Male

Party: Greenhill Claw

Base: Lemarian

Affiliated: Powarso

One of them had a family name…I would pretend that I didn’t see it.

So they were both D-Rankers from Powarso. No wonder they were tough.

I shuddered just thinking about the fight. Ultimately, I had beaten them without a scratch, but it had really been a close call. They were so much more skilled than me.

I wasn’t sure that I would have won had I not have that flour bomb. It was a dangerous bridge that I crossed. However, I also saw that my body moved a lot closer to what I imagined. It must be an effect of getting younger.

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