Chapter 2: 2

Volume 1 – Chapter 02 – What ‘Man’?

“Look, if you really wanna help, then go 500 meters to the east – to where you will encounter a roving squad of knights. I heard they are scouring through the woods to find a missing young lady, who I believe is you.” Yun Qiu spoke as he pointed his thumb somewhere far away.

The girl was slightly taken aback by the man’s strangely detailed directions: from how the man smoothly and concisely stated the location, it almost sounded as if he had just been with the knights a moment ago.

“Wait, the Knights are nearby…?” But then, she immediately understood what Yun Qiu was speaking about, as a glimmer of hope sparkled in her eyes.

“Alright, if that’s the case, I shall stall the orc while you go and contact the Knights for help. As long as the Knights arrive, we should be able to get out of this predicament safely.”

“Whaddya mean by ‘stall the orc’?! How do you exactly plan to stall it in your current shape and form? There is a better chance that a shooting star will come crashing down and obliterate the orc than you successfully stalling it for long enough!”

Yun Qiu snapped while outright rejecting her plan without a second thought; if he genuinely considered her strategy viable from the start, he would’ve immediately fetched over the Knights from the beginning. 

But the problem is that he cannot meet the Knights right now: because, based on his past experiences, if he does meet them, it will trigger the opening of the 「Encounter with the Knights」 route, where its endgame storyline is insanely tough to do and clear.

And besides that, if Yun Qiu left, the girl definitely wouldn’t be able to hold on against an armed orc with her current state and gear long enough before reinforcements arrived.

Between the lull of conversation between the duo, the orc relentlessly continued to assail Yun Qiu. 

Although evading the slow and sluggish swings may not be an issue, know that once a swing grazes you for a tiny bit, it will immediately mean game over. Every seemingly slow, sluggish swing packs a lethal amount of raw, heavy power if successfully struck.

Beads of cold sweat began to emerge on the girl’s forehead as she watched the man and the orc entangled in an exhilarating deadly game of tag.

She began to step toward them as her mind rapidly processed and analyzed the chaotic situation; she didn’t know who he was or what is his goal in risking his neck to save her. But one sure thing is, looking at his unwavering and uncompromising attitude to remain and fend for the rear, she can already see how hopeless it would be to persuade him to switch places.

The girl had a conflicting internal debate on whether to leave the man to fend for himself or not. One side inside her claims that the man’s skills and prowess are adequate to last until help comes and that continuing to linger around here will hinder and distract him.

The other side further cements that not only will her identity help assemble the Knight’s help quicker, but it might also cut down the time needed for unnecessary explanations.

Glancing toward the man, she knew she didn’t have the time to afford to hesitate. So, reluctantly gritting her teeth and making up her mind, she yelled at the man tangled with the orc from a distance:

“HEY! — CATCH THIS!”

The girl didn’t know what Yun Qiu’s name was, so she could only shout like that. And without hesitation, she yanked off her necklace wrapping around her neck and tossed it to Yun Qiu in the distance.

The thin silver necklace sparkled while it drew an elegant parabola in the air before getting snatched by Yun Qiu’s precise grasp.

“On the jewel of that necklace—!”

“—Hid a one-time use of a wind magic spell, yes? Yeah yeah, I know. I will properly use it during a crucial moment. Now, will you shoo?”

“……”

The girl was unexpectedly interrupted by Yun Qiu’s blunt interjection before she could fully finish explaining its uses. Suddenly having one of her secrets revealed that effortlessly and directly, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes in bewilderment.

She forced herself to turn around and dash to the area where Yun Qiu had pointed earlier as she forcibly repressed the shock in her heart.

I cannot afford to waste a single second! I must get going as quickly as possible!

“You must hold on no matter what! I swear that I will be back soon! I promise!”

…

“ROOOOAAR–!”

「BOOOM——!」

The enraged orc swung its massive club; Yun Qiu relaxedly took a few steps back as the club missed and collided with the earth instead, forming a billowing cloud of dust.

“Oh, finally, I guess this counts since I was able to shoo her away for once. Geez, no matter how many times I encounter her, the noble young lady’s personality is still a pain in the ass to deal with.” Yun Qiu sighed as he helplessly shook his head.

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Now with the only spectator gone, Yun Qiu turned and properly gazed at the orc for the first time during the entirety of the fight.

“Hey, it’s been a while, old chum. Since we’re old pals and all, let’s skip the pleasantries since I’m really in a hurry right now.”

“ROAR!”

The orc truthfully doesn’t understand what the man is rambling on about: it can, however, keenly discern various facial expressions of its prey and others. The orc, noticing the man’s taunting face, became even more furious than before; it furiously took massive strides before initiating a frenzied charge.

But before the orc could fully charge, a cold glint suddenly glistened from the thin air. Yun Qiu flits past through the orc’s enormous torso, followed by a vibrating, rhythmic「Hum」 of metal smoothly rending the air that echoed through the now silent, still forest.

The orc stiffened; it convulsed before eventually collapsing while crimson pooled into a morbidly beautiful pond around its now silent, still body.

“I’m sorry bud, but as I said before, I’m in a hurry.”

Yun Qiu apologizes as he casually sheathes away a dagger he prepared in advance back to his waist as if what he had done was mundane and insignificant. Turning around, he booted the now orc’s now lifeless, bloodstained corpse off the cliff.

Now scrutinizing the necklace the girl had hurled in his palms, Yun Qiu’s lips raised into an amused grin. He was quite familiar with the girl’s plans: her plan consisted of luring the orc to the edge of the cliff and then activating the wind spell from her necklace to force the orc off. 

Sure, the amount of wind magic imbued in the necklace is nothing to scoff on. 

But if everything went smoothly and according to plan in life, why would Yun Qiu still bother coming over here, even when she has such a powerful item at her disposal?

Holding the necklace, Yun Qiu still felt the lingering traces of warmth in his palms. Thinking about it, in this world of magic, many accessories, like necklaces, serve as intimate and treasured objects while at the same time serving as a highly-portable self-defense tool in sudden emergencies and so on for girls.

Considering this fact, the noble young lady just now yanked off her necklace and tossed it over to a stranger she had just met for the first time in her life without any hint of hesitation. You can only speculate how anxious and worried she was for Yun Qiu during the prior circumstances.

Helplessly shaking his head, he chose not to dwell and think too deeply on that topic for too long. Soon, he put away the necklace and swiftly exited the scene.

……………………

On the other side, the girl hurried over in the direction Yun Qiu pointed at her quickest speed. Soon, she noticed a party of about a dozen people cruising equipped with heavy plated armor: the standard, recognizable equipment of the Knights of 「Norland」

At the same time when she spotted the knights, the knights also spotted her. The Knights halted and immediately rushed to her with relieved, glad expressions.

“Milady! Lady Irene[1], we’ve finally found you at last! You’ve made all of us so worried…”

“Hand me a sword!”

Irene didn’t have any time to spare to listen to their ramblings. She swiftly bolted towards a nearby Knight and seized his sword hanging from his waist with a 「swish」 in a fluid motion before quickly turning around.

“W-Wha!? Wait, Milady! Where are you going? Please, follow us back to the city! It’s too dangerous for you to continue to wander around the forest!”

“Where am I going? To rescue someone, of course! The man you saw earlier, in order to save me, is desperately battling and holding on against an elite orc warrior as we speak! Are you willing to let such a man suffer from such a vain death here?!”

Irene, right now, was especially peeved about how the knights were ‘playing dumb‘ at such a crucial juncture. If the man from earlier encountered the knights, had heard their dilemma, and volunteered to help them, then in her eyes, it was all the more necessary to rescue him back.

Earlier, Irene had snuck out of the city to cool off and soothe her anger because of a recent 「Incident」. If someone gets seriously harmed because of her actions, she will surely regret and lament about it for as long as she lives.

Most nobles, in general, wouldn’t be held accountable for the well-being of the commoners, nor would they even care. But Irene, possessing a strong sense of justice, was clearly different from these typical nobles.

But Irene’s words caused every Knight to glance at each other in apparent bewilderment and perplexity; they appeared to have no clue what the young lady was talking about.

“Erm… Pardon us, Milady, but may we inquire who that ‘man we saw earlier’ might be? We arrived all the way from the city, and we never once encountered anyone during our travel.”

“……Pardon?”

Translator’s Notes:

[1] Raws: 艾琳, Pinyin: Ài lín

‘Aileen’, ‘Erin’, and ‘Irene’ are all suitable names, especially Aileen. I chose to stick with Irene instead of these 2 because they sounded more ‘noble’ and ‘medieval’, based on the settings and background of the novel. Let me know if you have a better name, or if you want specifically want the different options.

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