Volume 4 Chapter ss1: Extra Story - If I Can Go to Meet With You
If I Can Go to Meet With You
「──Dig Volt──」
Purple light got shot from the hand of a small person wearing a robe. Several goblins got entangled by the lightning attack inside the dark dungeon.
『......GIIIIII!』
But one of them didn't die even after getting burned by the attack and leaped with its rusty short sword.
「──Gust──」
A gust burst out from the hand of the robed person in that moment. It blew away the goblin just before its attack landed.
「──Guillotine──」
The right hand quickly fired a wind blade and lopped off the goblin's head. The head rolled on the ground with an expression of anguish and exposed its red top part.
「......fuu」
That robed person──Carla Lester pulled down her hood and let out a sigh.
She was in the fifteenth floor of the large scale dungeon, located in a territory under the direct control of the royal family that was managed by Lester House. She had continuously entered inside by herself, but this area was her limit. She would be able to go slightly deeper if she camped inside the dungeon, but even that would be difficult because she didn't have any comrade who she could trust to stand guard.
「............」
Carla flipped her arm sleeve and exposed a gash underneath it. The gash was turning into purple color. It was clearly poison. The short sword of the goblin that grazed her just now must be coated with poison.
「──Treat──」
Carla licked the wound to ascertain the poison and simply neutralized the poison, but she postponed healing the wound for later. She left that spot and found a place that was located in a blind spot. There she reached her limit and sat down.
Her complexion clearly looked bad and not just because of the poison. She prioritized neutralizing the poison despite having Poison Resistance skill and postponed healing the wound despite her low stamina because.......
「......My mana isn't enough.」
Carla muttered and took out a vegetable cookie from her spatially expanded bag. She nibbled on it and washed it down with mana recovery potion.
The group of monster that appeared at the fifteenth floor would stop being rank 1. Monster of rank 4 and above still wouldn't appear in that floor but, in that place rank 3 monsters would start appearing in group. The monsters she defeated just now also weren't mere goblin, but rank 3 goblin variant called 『Red Cap』. They had scout type skills and used poison.
Carla was also rank 3 but, the risk of her getting wounded would increase if monsters that were also rank 3 appeared in group. After all there was also a case like just now where she failed to defeat the opponent in one attack.
Few of the sorcery with rank below 3 was area attack. There was only the Water Ball of water sorcery among the ordinary sorcery, but it wasn't strong enough to be used against enemy of rank 3 and above.
To solve that problem Carla used lightning type sorcery that was a combination of water and wind, but Dig Volt simply had the tendency of scattering. It was hard to call it as a proper area attack. The damage it dealt on multiple opponents was unevenly distributed.
Because of that she would suffer wound and used sorcery even more to heal her injury and defeat the enemy that got away. It consumed her mana pointlessly and also slowed down her exploration speed.
She put rations and potions into her spatially expanded bag so she could dive into dungeon for a long time, but there was also a limit to that. From the start she was a light eater and she wouldn't even mind to skip eating, but the prolonged battles shaved down her stamina that was already small from the start, making her needing to take a break no matter what like now.
「......If it's her, she'll definitely be alright even by herself.」
*Pakin*......She munched on the hard baked cookie while her mind turned toward the "ash covered girl" who changed her fate.
The aloof girl who said that she would kill her, Aria.
When she heard the rumor that the Ash Crowned Princess who destroyed a branch of assassin guild was also still a very young girl, Carla got the hunch that it was Aria.
She was alive. Even now she was placing herself in a battlefield for survival and continued to polish her fangs. She was being very spoiled compared to that. A battle where the strength of the encountered enemy was known was no different than mere work. She too had to become stronger no matter what for the coming battle to the death against that girl, Carla thought with a dark smile.
「I need to go a step higher.」
The limit of ordinary person was rank 3. Putting it another way, even ordinary person could reach that stage as long as they didn't slack off and put in effort. Going above rank 4 was a territory that could only be reached by those who surpassed their own limits. Carla imagined that she would reach rank 4 during her stay in the academy, but she felt that would be insufficient compared to Aria's resolve.
「I want strength......」
Since she killed her brothers when she was five, she dreamed of killing her father and engulfing this country in flame. She was seeking strength to make that dream came true. She couldn't live without getting stronger. Day by day her father, mother, and servants were wishing for her death....... She also obtained Poison Resistance during that and since then Carla stopped eating food in her home.
She wanted to become strong in order to live and kill. But just that alone was no good.
The current Carla earnestly wanted to become even stronger for the sake of Aria who accepted that she would fight her to the death.
『BUMOOOOOOOOOOO!』
「............」
Her lovely dream of fighting Aria to the death got disturbed. Carla looked at the three orcs that suddenly appeared with a chilling gaze and stood up.
「Die.」
She created multiple Fire Javelins instantly and angrily fired them to mow down the orcs.
*DOOOOOOOONN!!*
『......BOOOOOOOOOOO!』
The orcs crumbled inside the flame. But, one of them didn't die in one hit just like the Red Cap from before. It threw a stone axe in its dying moment, which grazed Carla's side and knocked her away.
「............」
Carla hit the dungeon's wall and vomited out blood, even so she slowly stood up on her own feet and put her hand on her cheek with a troubled look.
「This is troubling....... Am I actually weak?」
.
▼ Carla Lester Race : Human♀- Rank 3
[Magic Power : 154/410][Stamina : 6/47]
[Strength : 6][Endurance : 3][Agility : 10][Dexterity : 8]
[Overall Combat Strength : 472 (Sorcery Attack Power : 708)]
.
Carla let out a small sigh like an ignorant young lady who went shopping without even knowing the value of currency. Even though she was soaked in blood with the smell of death drifting around her, such gesture really suited Carla who was an actual daughter of a high ranked noble.
The status of Sorcery Attack Power wasn't simply representing the power of a single attack, it was a number that was the equivalent of the body strengthening of close quarter fighter, showing the sorcerer's versatility from possessing multiple attributes and their destructive power. There should be almost no rank 3 who could win against Carla if it was judged just from that number, but that was still far away from the ideal that Carla was seeking.
She was used to put her life in danger where she shed blood. She was also used to pain and suffering. She didn't even feel fear toward death. Even if she was wounded with something that would kill even an adult, she wouldn't die right away if she radiated mana of light from her heart's magic stone immediately. That was just a daily routine for Carla. There wasn't a single thing in her current situation that satisfied her.
「......As I thought, perhaps I should try making use of that.」
Although she wanted to burn the capital, her stamina that was like someone at the death's door worried her. Because of that before this she was also thinking to draw those who wanted to harm the kingdom into the country.
At that time Carla had already encountered Aria and lost interest toward such trifling matter, but then she recalled of the strange story that she once heard from the information broker she was using at that time.
.
「I think it's around here......」
Two days after she decided what to do inside that dungeon, Carla made her way toward an area with bad public order inside Lester territory.
Carla's father, Count Lester had a strong sense of arrogance and apathy toward anyone below him. Although he was brilliant as a royal court sorcerer, the same couldn't be said about his capability as a ruler.
Lester House had no interest in anything else than sorcery and their social standing. They left the ruling of the territory to their steward and even that ruling was being done simply by strictly enforcing the law. But the law being strict wasn't equal to the public order being good.
Merchants with sharp wit had left Lester territory. Those who remained only had their sight set on anything related to dungeon and the adventurers. The source of funds for the territory was mainly being covered by the subsidy of managing a large scale dungeon.
Even so the state of the territory wasn't particularly worse compared to other noble's territory. There were many noble houses that ruled like that when they had local specialty or other source of funds. But, there was no way the eyes of the ruler reached until every corner in that kind of place, allowing illegal organizations to take root in that land.
──*za*
There was the sound of small pebbles being stepped on. Carla stopped walking and caught sight of several ill-bred looking men at the corner of her eyes.
「......Oi, girl. Are you the brat who did the killing around here?」
Carla quietly turned around after feeling the hostility that the men were directing toward her.
Carla was really thin despite her growth from her magic power. She felt nothing from being called a brat. But to anyone who didn't know Carla, it must be an unnatural scene seeing an adult man asking a kid if she was a murderer.
Carla spoke toward those men without any tension.
「Do I know you guys? I'm searching for an information broker of the underworld though.」
「......I'm asking you if you did it or not.」
The middle aged man who seemed to be the leader asked with a threatening voice after seeing Carla playing dumb.
「If you don't know then that's fine.」
Carla only glanced at that man briefly before losing interest. She then turned her back on him. The man's vein on his forehead throbbed from that treatment. The youngster behind him lost his patience and rushed forward.
「You shitty brat, don't ignore big br──」
*DOGON!*
Without even looking back, Carla lightly waved her hand and rock bullet shot out from there. It pulverized the head of the man who rushed forward.
Just how much strength was put into that sorcery? The body of the man whose head was pulverized didn't get blown away. It only swayed gently before falling. At the same time a lot of blood spurted out and dyed the men around it red.
「──HIIIIIIIIII!?」
The youngsters who instantly had gotten showered in flesh and blood screamed. There were even some who lost strength in their waist and couldn't stand up. But the leader still glared at Carla even under the shower of blood.
「......I know it, you bastard is the culprit!」
Several murder cases had occurred around this area. Nobody would care if the victims were just some beggar or slum dweller, but there were relatives of the men among the victims.
The leader howled pulled out a short sword and attacked Carla.
His combat strength was more than 400......he had the strength of an upper rank 3. This man was an assassin has-been who was well known as a skilled fighter even in the underworld. There was a distance of seven meters between Carla and him. It might not matter if the opponent was an ordinary person, but to this man, this distance was short enough to allow him to kill her before she could finish casting.
The man didn't underestimate Carla at all as a mere kid. Their base combat strength was around the same. But, because she was a sorcerer, she would be helpless in this range if he moved earlier. There was simply no kid who could overcome their fear of death when someone came at them with a blade ready to strike.
(Got you!)
The short sword's tip was about to enter Carla's throat. The man was convinced of his victory.
But, the man noticed at that moment how Carla was looking at him without even blinking. He felt a chill on his back.
「──Dig Volt──」
*DODON!*
「────!?」
Lightning attack was fired from in front of Carla. It struck the man and blew him together with his underlings behind him.
Lightning attack had no physical impact. But, by adjusting the lightning's strength, the living target that got hit by it would convulse at the moment before their death. It would cause them to be blown away by their own strength.
Even so there was no child who wouldn't get scared seeing a blade approaching right before their eyes. There were only two exceptions to that rule....... It was the man's misfortune that one of them was right before him.
Delicate magic control and courage that a child shouldn't be able to have. If even just one of them was missing, it would be Carla who got defeated. But for Carla this result was an inevitability. It was also the limit of this man who could only measure his opponent based on their combat strength value.
「......Damn......youu」
「Oh, you're alive?」
The rank 1 and 2 underlings behind the man couldn't endure the lightning and they all died, but the leader alone was still alive even while lying down with smoke rising from his whole body.
But Carla wasn't even bothered that she failed to kill him and looked down with a smile while narrowing her eyes that were surrounded with dark circles.
「Well, no wonder. You tried to divert the lightning by quickly filling the blade with mana right? That's too bad. Even though you might be able to kill me if you didn't abort your attack.」
「Ku......」
He lost because he prioritized saving his own life. He lost because his courage was inferior compared to a kid. Carla made such provocation and grabbed the hair of the man who was unable to move. She lifted his head and quietly brought her face closer.
「But, this is fortunate. I just can't reach the place because even when I find someone who looks like they know the location I'll just kill them right away. Can you show me the way to the "thief guild"?」
.
It wasn't just the thief guild, but any organization that was aligned with the underworld was hidden from public eye.
Small organization would be disguised as a company or hiding in a residential house, while organization that had existed since a long time would become an existence that couldn't be perceived as a part of that city's history despite being in contact with the public.
In the case of a large scale organization like the thief guild that Carla was searching for, it didn't have a headquarters where everything was managed. Each branch would hide in their respective region and periodically changed their base to escape from the investigation, so Carla couldn't find it.
「This is really troubling us young miss....... We already asked you to not lay your hand on our member didn't we?」
The location was in the reception room of a company that was handling imported goods from other country. The thief guild was using it as their camouflage. There the man was making such snide remark to Carla who was sitting elegantly on the opposite sofa. But she simply smiled cheerfully without any care.
「It's your fault that you moved your base. It was them who tried something with me even though I was only asking for the address. You aren't educating your men enough.」
「......I'll be more careful next time.」
That man......the chief of this guild branch Lloyd harbored muddy black feeling toward Calra's attitude. Even so he put on a sincere smile on the surface.
It had been three years since Lloyd got involved with Carla. Their first meeting was caused by a scammer who was a member of the thief guild trying to swindle Carla who was planning to sell materials from dungeon in large amount. The scammer got killed but, Lloyd realized Carla's abnormality quickly and chose to join hand with her rather than getting into hostility with her.
Dungeon materials were precious but, his guild bought them off from Carla with higher price than the market price. He considered it as him paying protection money to Carla.
That decision wasn't a mistake. Right now he wanted to praise his past self for his excellent decision. But at the same time he also regretted. At that time he should abandon everything to the wind and ran away as fast as he could.
The underworld would definitely call him a coward or insane condescendingly if he said something like that. But, the militant big shots and the green underlings who thought like that and tried something with Carla just because they thought she was a child had all gotten burned to death.
It was just as Carla said. He should have taught the members about Carla's appearance and strictly ordered them to not lay their hand on her. But Lloyd didn't do that. He moved the base's address and didn't notify her of the change because of the faint hope in his heart that he might be able to cut off contact with Carla like that.
「I also heard how the rumored woman is also a little girl who's still so young. I wonder just what's going on with the young woman of this generation......」
Lloyd muttered while sighing tiredly. But then he was startled when he saw Carla's eyes shining fierily after he said that.
「......Don't tell me, you know her?」
「Yes, she's the only one who can kill me in this world. She's my important person.」
「............」
Hearing those words made Lloyd wanted to curse god for making him having to get involved with this kind of girls.......
The girl who destroyed the northern branch of assassin guild and crushed several branches of thief guild that tried something with her......"Ash Crowned Princess" ──.
In the thief guild there was the militant faction that wanted to take revenge on her and the moderate faction that wanted to refrain from getting involved with her to avoid the damage. But even the council that was made up of the representatives from the influential branches managed to decide the policy that the thief guild should take against her.
The damage kept piling up at the present, so the opinions were leaning toward "not getting involved with Ash Crowned Princess", but if the council found out that Lloyd had a dealing with a person who was involved with such character, his position as a branch chief would be in danger.
(......No, that might not be the case.)
She was a business partner but Carla was also counted as a dangerous character by the thief guild. She said that the "Ash Crowned Princess" would kill her but, as someone who knew Carla well, he could easily imagine that surely this thing between the two girls would lead to a duel to the death between them.
Regardless of what the council would decide, he refused to try anything with such dangerous character and die because of that. But, if these two extremely dangerous people fought each other to the death, then there wasn't even any point to intentionally take any risk to do anything to them. If Lloyd brought this information to the council, it might enable him to become a member of the council.
But that would be a dangerous gamble. If he leaked information carelessly, he might turn both Carla and "Ash Crowned Princess" into his enemy. To prevent that he needed to curry favor with Carla to some degree.
***
Three months after that......Carla could be found in a noble territory along the western border.
Distance-wise it should be possible for her to arrive here quicker, but even Carla needed to make some preparation first.
「Now then......I wonder where are they.」
According to the information that he obtained from the thief guild, there was an eyewitness of that around one year ago. After that there was no more eyewitness report, but it seemed that the number of people who went missing from the remote villages increased since that time period.
People went missing actually wasn't that rare of an occasion. That was even truer at remote villages near the border. Place where human could live in this monster infested world was limited. Mankind was gradually expanding their living habitat from the region along the sea, but then they were unable to get any further after some point.
The reason of the stagnation was because places that were habitable for human itself were rare. Mercenaries who specialized in exploration, the adventurers would find habitable places and removed the monsters from there, but powerful monsters would mercilessly bare their fang if they kept expanding forcefully.
Even if the monsters were removed, people got dispatched, and a village was build to display to the enemies that it was a human habitat, a pioneering village that got reduced into half their number would have to retreat in several years because of the monster's threat.
In case of missing people, naturally the majority of them would be because of monster attack. But even then the victims would be hunter going into the forest or villager who got too far away from the village. It was impossible of people inside the village to go missing without even leaving behind a corpse like the cases this time.
Naturally in such case the villagers would consider it as crime and send petition to the feudal lord, but the incidents would stop happening when knight or soldier got dispatched. Then after a while the missing cases would occur again but in different village.
Setting aside the missing cases, the thief guild in that area also thought whether they could sell this information to the noble, but there was only one eyewitness report and even that information couldn't be firmly proved as being related to the missing people cases, so the idea got discarded. That branch felt dissatisfied about that and sounded out several branch chiefs about buying the information.
Lloyd bought that information was an upfront investment, thinking that perhaps supporting information would appear in later date and he would be able to sell it to some influential noble. But his expectation wasn't answered. No additional information appeared. At that time he also offered it to Carla for a reasonable price, but this time Carla was able to obtain the information for almost free.
Carla then used her connection as a noble and bribed some corrupt officials to gather even more detailed information that was related to the missing people cases. Using the gathered information as base, she combined all her knowledge from books including the banned books in Lester House and drew a single hypothesis.
First assuming that the eyewitness report was accurate, the reason of the culprit's appearance was infiltration into Claydale Kingdom. From there they abducted people to gather information and also as terrorism. They had the reason to do such thing.
They weren't human and unable to enter inside city. They who were hostile against human should be able to create a base if they relied on the underworld but, they were unable to do that. If she considered that the reason was related with the missing people cases, she could imagine what might be their reason.
They were meeting difficulty in their infiltration exactly because they had a reason to abduct human. They were still needing to continue changing location while abducting human, so they still couldn't do any proper infiltration. And then even though they kept changing places, their need to abduct human periodically caused them to be predictable.
.
「Finally found you.」
「──!?」
Late at night in a certain village, the culprit who was attacking the villager in the hut for charcoal making bared their fang toward Carla who suddenly appeared.
「As I thought, you are "non-human".」
An existence who wasn't "human" despite looking like one.
Many of such existences had the trait of targeting human as their food. An existence that had the same way of thinking as human but had to eat human to live. Human society couldn't accept them and even the underworld avoided them.
But, there was a bigger reason why they couldn't enter human city and tried to infiltrate into human country like this.
That was──
「Nice to meet you. ──Evil race──」
「You-!」
Evil race──it was a derogatory term for dark elf, and the general term for those who were hostile against human nation.
It wasn't written in human's history book but, according to the banned books, the native people of this continent was none other than the dark elves. They were designated as "evil" and chased out by the holy church of humans who migrated here from another continent.
They loathed the holy church and hated the human nations that believed in it. They were chased away from their home and had to live in harsh environment. She heard that in order to secure fighting strength, they even recognized "non-human" as subjects.
That man was a dark elf who was called as evil race, and he was also a repulsive non-human.
「I'll kill you!」
That dark elf who got found out yelled with voice that had accent and pulled out a weapon.
「Hmm~mm......」
.
▼Non-Human Man Race:Dark Elf♂・Rank 3
[Magic Power:194／212][Stamina:153／230]
[Overall Combat Strength:360×2(720)]
.
The strength that she sensed from him was around rank 3. But, the combat strength that she saw with Appraisal was far beyond that.
The strength of dark elf was no different than forest elf. But this non-human man was rank 3 but with strength that was nearly rank 4. Carla believed that she wouldn't lose easily even if she fought him, but that wasn't her reason for searching them.
「Wait. I come here with a good offer for you all.」
「............」
The man stopped moving from Carla's words. It wasn't that he trusted Carla. It was because he had also sensed Carla's strength using his non-human instinct.
He wouldn't get out unscathed if they fought seriously──she had "something" that made him thought that. Of course as a non-human he didn't intend to lose against mere human. But, it was because of his inhumanity that he felt Carla's abnormality and hesitated to attack.
「What do you want?」
「I'm glad that you're listening.」
Carla who had also considered fighting first in order to make him submit smiled sweetly while hiding her subtle killing intent that couldn't be fully covered up. That smile provoked the man's suspicion even more, but because Carla looked like a sickly kid at the outside, his pride as an existence that surpassed human drowned his impulse.
「I know that your group is trying to infiltrate this country. And also how it's not going well at all.」
「......What about it?」
Because some evil race had appearance that was far removed from human, it was non-human race like them who came to infiltrate with few number of elites. But dark elf was known as the natural enemy of human nation. They had to eat human but they couldn't get involved with human. Because of such difficulties, in reality there hadn't been any progress with their plan even after nearly one year.
「But, what if there is a place where there won't be a commotion even if people go missing, can be used as a base, and has a lot of buildings that doesn't belong to anyone?」
「......What do you want?」
The man repeated his question just now one more time. Certainly they wouldn't have this much difficulty if they had that kind of place. Their field of activities would widen if they had a base. They would finally be able to take the first step to their objective. But, what was the benefit for this human girl in helping them like that?
In respond to that question, Carla smiled with a dark gaze that sent a chill to the man's back.
「It's simple. Because I have a lot of people who I want dead.」
Carla told the man.
About her life......the people who toyed with her fate, the people who overlooked it, those who played around and laughed to each other happily while not noticing that such thing was going on. She wanted to burn down "everything" of that. For that purpose she wanted to draw the evil race that also held similar grudge toward human into this country and made use of their strength.
The man was overwhelmed from feeling such repulsive hatred and sentiment from so close. Even so he felt that anger and hatred were similar to them the evil race. With that he finally obtained a reason to understand Carla's motivation.
「I understand your desire. But, I can't decide this by myself.」
「I don't mind. Then, where is the one who can make the decision?」
「Right now we're moving separately. But, if it's just with some of us then you can meet them immediately.」
「So you will bring me to them? My name is Carla.」
Carla offered her hand for a handshake even knowing that the other party was a non-human. The man felt anxiety seeping out from the bottom of his heart seeing that. Even so he quietly shook her hand.
「I am......call me Musa.」
Naturally Musa still wouldn't talk much even after deciding to hear about Carla's offer.
Even so Carla guessed from bits and pieces of his words that he didn't have a lot of comrade with him. She imagined that at most their group only consisted of ten-odd people. It seemed that Musa was categorized as weak among that group. Carla who sought strong existence in order to burn down the capital nodded in satisfaction.
That was because if all of them were non-human, they would have combat strength that was more than their actual rank suggested. That was exactly the reason why she searched for evil race. That would make this worth it for her.
「Let me give you this as present.」
Carla showed her "present" in order to obtain trust. It caused the color of Musa's eyes to change. After all the infiltration of Musa's group didn't go well because they couldn't obtain that.
When entering another country as a spy, it was the first thing that had to be obtained even if they had to contact the local underworld and paid a lot of money for that. That was.......
「A map......is it the real thing!?」
「Yes, you need it right?」
Musa stared hungrily at the details that were drawn on the map on Carla's hand.
They had tried to obtain map in this one year but, they couldn't even contact the assassin guild that was rumored to even accept monster into their rank. They even braved danger by moving the members of their small group separately just to obtain map.
But there was no way they could obtain proper map from attacking remote village or merchant caravan. Even if they found some, they were all just simple map of the surrounding. But the map that Carla brought with her was very detailed with Claydale Kingdom's major highways and major cities drawn on it.
Musa's hand reached out and grabbed the map on Carla's hand. Their plan would progress if they had this. Thinking that, Musa's hand moved to pull the map toward him. It was then──
*Rip......*
Carla strongly pulled at that moment. The map got ripped into two from its crease. Now each person was only holding half of the map.
「I'll hand over this one after you have properly introduce me. For now even just that half should be enough right?」
「Kuh......」
The half of the map in Musa's hand depicted the western region of the kingdom──the region where the evil race was lurking right now. Certainly just with this would make it easier for them to search for a base. But, the geographical information around the capital that they needed was in Carla's hand.
「Got it. Tomorrow I'll be able to contact with several of my comrades. Are you fine with that......?」
「Yes, of course. I'll be waiting for a good news.」
.
The night of the next day──when Carla showed herself at the abandoned village that Musa designated, Musa confirmed that she came alone and met her.
「......You came.」
Musa grimaced slightly seeing Carla looking around with interest.
In the past this might be a pioneering village with population around 300 people. It looked like this place had been abandoned for more than ten years based on the decay to the houses. The reason why this place got abandoned was unknown, but it looked like even the evil race couldn't use it as their base.
There was a recent trace of repair inside the house. Even so they had to give up on it. From Musa's perspective, Carla's gaze on that failed attempt might feel like an insult.
But Carla looked around not because of such trivial reason.
「The others over there aren't going to come out?」
Those words of Carla caused the "presence" from somewhere around to waver.
「......So you noticed, girl.」
Immediately, a man who was accompanied by two dark elves appeared several meter behind Carla.
They felt very strong even just from their presence. The two who were accompanying him were also around the same level like Musa──she felt that their strength were around rank 3, but the evil race who was the only female among them was making a displeased look. It was because the wavering presence came from her.
The strength of the three of them including Musa was around the same or slightly lower than Carla as long as she didn't pay attention to their combat strength. But, the man standing at the middle was in a different level than them.
「Hee......」
.
▼Evil Race Man Race:Dark Elf♂・Rank 4
[Magic Power:234／254][Stamina:328／389]
[Overall Combat Strength:925×2(1850)]
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If Musa and the other two rank 3 were in charge of information gathering, this man who possessed high combat strength was a warrior of evil race who was chosen in order to fulfill their objective.
It seemed the man had also appraised Carla's combat strength. He took out a map from his pocket with a slightly condescending look.
「I have taken a look at the map. It seems to be genuine.」
Unlike Musa's halting speech, this man spoke the official language fluently while waving around the halved map.
He treated such important thing slovenly was to show off their superiority against Carla and also because they had finished copying it.
「With this it will be easy to find a base. The same with finding food. It should also become possible to attack the capital with the remaining half in your possession. But you know......」
The man glared at Carla arrogantly. He had such attitude more because he was a non-human evil race rather than dark elf.
「Girl......you said that your name is Carla? I heard about your objective from Musa. Apparently you want to make use of us for our strength huh? I'll overlook your human arrogance but, what is it that you wish from us?」
Even if they worked together, both sides wouldn't be able to grant everything that the other wanted.
The evil race was thinking that they would be able to draw even more useful things from Carla seeing that she already gave them a map from the start. But in order to do that they first had to compare and adjust to each other's wish.
The rank 4 evil race was pressuring Carla persistently. Partly it was for making the negotiation progressed in their favor, but it was also partly because they were looking down on Carla who was a human.
They too didn't become "non-human" because they wished for it, but the strength that came from it was one of the things supporting them. That was why they unconsciously looked down on Carla and got on board with her offer even though she was clearly someone suspicious.
「Can you tell me your name before I tell you about my wish?」
Carla smiled wetly as she asked him that. The man frowned, even so he generously nodded thinking just that much should be fine.
「My name is Suraiman.」
「Washim.」
「......It's Seda.」
The rank 4 man was Suraiman. Next the tall man introduced himself as Washim and the woman was Seda.
「Thank you. Those are good names. Suraiman, are there still others who are as strong as you?」
「Don't worry. Those who came here are the warriors of our clan. We aren't as strong as the clan chief but, we won't fall behind the human warriors.」
Hearing that, Carla thought I see.
There were more rank 4 other than him. But, he placed the 『clan chief』 above him and treated the other warriors as his equal, so there was no rank 5 here. Perhaps that so called chief was rank 5. That was Carla's hypothesis.
「That's good to hear. Weakling isn't needed.」
Carla unconsciously let her "true feeling" slipped. It caused Seda to instantly look angry. Suraiman lifted a hand to hold her back while jerking his chin to urge Carla to continue.
「My wish......let's see, will you listen to me for a bit?」
Carla felt that his limit was fast approaching. She had pretended to be friendly until this long. It should be fine already. She discarded the robe she was wearing and started walking while pinching on the bottom of her dress as though she was dancing.
「I want to kill everyone. I want to burn everything....... But, I'm very weak. I can't even kill a thousand people by myself.」
A sudden monologue──she looked like a revenant who came back to the country of the dead, and yet her voice was lively like a girl in love.
「I was "alone". Nobody would understand me. But one day......a 『prince』 appeared before my lone self......」
Suraiman and others gulped when Carla looked back a little toward them with fiery eyes.
「I want to die on top of the mountain of corpses that I killed. But, I don't want to die in the hand of the people who said that they don't need me. That person is the only one who understand "me". That person is the only one who understand "my" true wish.」
Carla's atmosphere started to change gradually. A look of bewilderment also appeared in the faces of the evil race. They were slowly feeling that something was out of place.
「How wonderful it will be if we can fight each other to the death on top of a mountain of corpses....... But it's no good. That person is getting stronger in the worst environment, and yet I'm too spoiled. It will be insincere of me if I'm unable to kill that person who say that she will kill me.」
「......What are you saying?」
Suraiman unconsciously cut in. His face was showing bewilderment and "anxiety" toward something unknown.
Carla would help them while also asking for their help. That was because she couldn't obtain satisfactory result if she only relied on her current strength.
Carla sought strength from the evil race. It was so that she could make use of their "strength". The evil race too also understood her reasoning after hearing that.
But, the premise itself for all those assumptions was mistaken.
Because──
「I'm happy that you all are strong. Because......」
Carla turned around. The evil race saw her genuine smile and shivered as though they had just seen a monster.
.
「I'll be able to become even stronger if I can kill you all.」
.
Suraiman raised his voice in respond to the pitch black killing intent that was radiating from Carla.
「SCATTERRRRR!!」
Suraiman jumped back. Musa and Washim followed suit a moment later. But, Seda who was unable to comprehend the meaning of Carla's smile and words for a moment got enveloped with powerful fire in the next moment.
「aAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!?」
「Seda!」
Musa hurriedly used water sorcery to Seda who was writhing inside the flame.
「Stop her!」
Suraiman sensed Carla's mana swelling up and threw a "needle". Washim rushed forward at the same time.
But Carla didn't dodge. To be more accurate she kept her eyes wide open and let herself get hit by that evil race's needle that was around 30 cm long even while firing sorcery to the two defenseless opponents.
「──Dig Volt──」
The lightning attack struck through Washim who was about to leap at her and Seda who was being showered by a mass of water.
「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
Flame and electricity──the water got instantly evaporated. And not only that, the water acted as medium for the electricity to burn Seda's body from the inside. Her body was carbonized and crumbled into ash.
「Aa, as I thought. Even "vampire" will die after getting damaged that much.」
「You-!」
Musa's eyes opened wide from Carla's words.
Vampire──they were human who changed into monster that sucked blood, but she heard the evil race that had small population overall was accepting even those who changed into monster as clan.
Even so compared to the ordinary dark elf, they were living with a feeling of inferiority because of their need of human as food. The evil race could only accepted them just barely because they attacked the people of human nations as their food. Without that there was no way that a small clan like them would be given a dangerous mission like infiltrating other country where there was a high possibility that they might get annihilated.
Even so it was decided that they would do this mission because of their high status and immortality due to being vampire.
Their body would regenerate as long as they had mana. The only way to kill them was to behead them, crush the magic stone in their heart, or burn them to ash. Vampire had no need to care about their physical limit thanks to their high regenerative ability and could obtain high combat strength.
But, any creature would die when they were killed as long as they had flesh body.
「You bastard, is this your plan from the start!?」
Carla responded to Suraiman's words with a thin smile. Their worry was correct. From the start Carla's wish was only one──
「Please become the "nourishment" to make me stronger.」
Weak opponent couldn't serve as nourishment. Human could finally become stronger only in the middle of battle where even just a single moment of carelessness could kill them instantly.
Carla casually pulled out the long needle that pierced her stomach. Then she laughed joyfully with her face that had gotten even paler.
「KILL HERRRRRRRR!」
Suraiman furiously yelled.
The vampires were persecuted even within the evil race and they volunteered to undertake this dangerous mission for the sake of their comrades. Because of that their bond with each other was strong. Seeing their comrade getting killed made the anger and hatred inside them exploded.
「That's right, come at me seriously.」
「Enough talk!」
Washim recovered from the electricity's damage due to his regeneration. He grew his claws longer and rushed toward Carla once more in respond to her words.
「──Stone Shot──」
Carla's stone bullet intercepted him. Washim's arm was broken, but he paid it no mind swept the stone aside, but the strength of the shot pushed him back. But──
「It's over!」
At the same time with that, Suraiman vanished and leaped out from Carla's "shadow". His needle that was made from magic iron pierced Carla's chest.
「!?」
There Suraiman saw Carla's white hand reaching toward him. He reflexively took some distance from her.
How was she moving with her chest pierced like that? Why was an immortal like him jumping away from her? That was because of the "premonition" of death that he felt for the first time since becoming an undead. He couldn't describe it with words.
「......Still no good.」
Carla murmured with the needle still sticking in her chest. The three including Musa who had recovered from the paralysis surrounded her.
「You, are you immortal......!?」
「......There's no way that's the case.」
Carla slowly pulled out the needle from her chest. But, the blood that should spurt out from there immediately stopped. Suraiman noticed how her whole body was enveloped in faint light and realized that Carla was using healing sorcery.
However, no matter how talented she was in healing sorcery, human should die when her chest was stabbed. And yet Carla was still alive. How?
「......oAAAAAAAH!」
Washim couldn't endure it and screamed.
The opponent was just a single rank 3. Furthermore she was a child and a sorcerer who couldn't even fight in close quarter. Even so Carla's mysteriousness and her abnormal way of fighting......and seeing a fellow vampire Seda getting killed so easily made his mind reached the limit. He grew his claws once more and leaped at Carla.
His broken arm was already regenerating. Both Washim and Musa would have been already out of the fight from their wounds if they weren't undead.
Washim survived thanks to his immortality and attacked Carla recklessly also because of that. He couldn't endure the incomprehensible fear even though he had immortality.
「Wha-!?」
The claws that were swung with superhuman strength were dodged in a hair's breadth. Even so Carla failed to dodge completely and blood spurted from her shoulder. She frowned seeing that.
「UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Seeing that Nusa also attacked Carla with a short sword. Washim also swung his claws at Carla as though he received a push from something. Carla dodged the two's fierce attacks in a hair's breadth.
Although she managed to dodge in a hair's breadth, she didn't get away unscathed. She only avoided getting lethal wound while her body and dress were getting torn up and dyed with blood.
From the start Carla only had the stamina of a toddler. Even just a little bleeding might become lethal for her, even so Carla didn't fall.
「............」
Suraima was staring at that scene with a glare. He wasn't a pure swordsman but a sorcerer. But his mana capacity wasn't that big and normally he used darkness magic to fight like an assassin, but it was because he had gotten serious that he was looking for a chance to use sorcery.
But, there was small confusion and impatience inside Suraiman's eyes as he observed Carla.
Vampire couldn't grow. In exchange of their regeneration and immortality, their physical body wouldn't grow and they couldn't learn new Skill.
Suraiman feared Carla. Unlike them who could only fight without concerning themselves of life and death, Carla who was changing in the middle of fighting was scary.
「UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Musa swung his short sword. The moment Carla whose speed was several level below him dodged──Suraiman's body trembled and his eyes widened in shock.
「──MOVEEEEEEEE!!」
Suraiman screamed. He used that as replacement for activation word and fired level 4 fire sorcery Fire Breath.
Musa and Washim who were absorbed in attacking returned to their senses from that scream. They swiftly jumped away and at the same time a wave of flame assaulted Carla who was standing still. Then──
「......I understand.」
A blade of Ice Lance grew from Carla's hand. With her powerful magic control, she swung the produced ice like a sword and cut apart the Fire Breath's flame.
「──tsu!?」
Musa and Washim held their breath from witnessing that unbelievable scene. Suraiman who was the only one understanding what Carla just did made an astonished expression.
What was the true identity of the anxiety and fear that Suraiman......that the vampires were feeling?
Vampire wouldn't grow. But human......child could grow with shocking speed. The reason why Carla threw herself into this reckless battle was truly to use them as "nourishment" for her growth. They finally realized that.
.
▼ Carla Lester Race : Human♀- Rank 3
[Magic Power : 327/410][Stamina : 3/47]
[Strength : 7]△1UP[Endurance : 3][Agility : 11]△1UP[Dexterity : 8]
NEW
△1UP△1UP
[Overall Combat Strength : 511 (Sorcery Attack Power : 766)]△39UP
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「Aa......I finally understand.」
Carla's bloodstained skin was regenerating as though she was an immortal creature. Washim felt something indescribable from seeing that. It made him attacked Carla without any thought of how it made him looked.
「......uGAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」
There was a large difference between human and vampire's physical ability. But Carla dodged the attack with a movement that couldn't be compared from before. She then used Water Ball to push away Washim along with the other two.
Carla had obtained Martial Art skill that had reached level 3 instantly. Originally it was a skill that needed to grow step by step by accumulating practice, but she was able to skip that process because she took part in a hopeless battle that pushed her to do that.
Her opponents were three people who were around her level or stronger than that. As a sorcerer she would have no chance of winning if they closed the distance with her.
That was exactly why Carla thought it was worth it to take on such challenge.
There was something that she could see only because she was standing in the interval between life and death. Within the deathly battle where the average person would have died for more than ten times, she intentionally let herself hit by the attack that she wouldn't be able to dodge fully anyway. She only took care to avoid getting her heart hit.
The banned books that Carla read also included the description of human dissection. Carla had also practiced the dissection using the body of her attackers. Like that she dodged attack where the line between life and death was just a step away, she healed her body with healing magic, and obtained Martial Art in that extreme situation.
Then the Martial Art skill she learned influenced her to become able to use body strengthening. The influence from that increased her Magic Power Control to level 4, which granted Carla the competency to cut apart even Suraiman's sorcery.
Carla's rapid growth in Magic Power Control enabled her to accelerate her thinking speed by forty percent. She used that while taking the sight of Musa, Washim, and the still dumbfounded Suraiman in her eyes.
The world really looked different. It was as though the world that she had been seeing until now had changed completely.
She became able to see the enemy's movement thanks to the thought acceleration she obtained. She also became able to use sorcery with even more precision thanks to the extra leeway in her mentality.
「......AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!」
Carla laughed loudly from her feeling of exaltation. If it was now she got the feeling that she would be able to understand "something" even more.
「Washim, get back!」
Musa yelled at Washim who was lying on the ground. It seemed getting soaked in water made him remembered of Seda's last moment.
Even electricity that could kill human instantly was survivable for Vampire if it was just a single hit. But Washim wouldn't be able to dodge the second hit while lying on the ground like that. Musa instantly concluded that and he rushed forward while spreading both his hands in order to use himself as shield for his comrade.
But, Musa saw Carla's hand was emitting cold air and made a triumphant smile on his face.
「Something like that won't work on us!」
Unlike flame or lightning that they were weak against, vampire was strong against cold. They had resistance against ice sorcery.
Musa smiled thinking that he would be able to kill Carla as long as he managed to endure that attack. But then Suraiman's scream reached him from behind.
「Musa! Don't let yourself get hit with that!」
Suraiman wanted to provide back up, but because Musa spread his arms to act as shield, it also prevented the vampire side from attacking.
Musa might be able to win against Carla if he abandoned Washim to his death.
Suraiman might be able to kill Carla if he abandoned Musa and fired his sorcery.
But they couldn't do that. The anxious tone in Suraiman's voice and the darkness in Carla's eyes made Musa realized his blunder.
「──Ice Lance──」
Ice type sorcery destroyed the target more with its hardness and speed rather than its coldness. But Carla used her Magic Power Control so that the Ice Lance she fired prioritized coldness rather than destructiveness.
The water clinging on Musa's body got frozen. Using that as medium, even the inside of his body got frozen. Then a stone bullet that Carla fired smashed him into pieces.
「Musa!」
Carla laughed under the sparkling pieces of ice that were raining down while the other vampires screamed the name of their dead comrade──
「Even vampire will die if they're smashed to pieces right?」
Carla's voice sounded delighted. In respond Suraiman narrowed his gaze in resolve.
「Washim......die.」
「Got it.」
Washim agreed without any hesitation to Suraiman's sudden demand.
They were facing a terrifying opponent....... The two vampires of the evil race had stopped thinking of Carla as a mere rank 3.
Although Carla was a terrifying opponent, she wasn't a warrior that they could respect.
Even though she was still a little girl, she showed abnormal mentality and growing speed and killed two vampires with those. If they left Carla alone like this, she would surely become an enemy that brought about disaster for the evil race.
They had to kill her here and now......this would be their last chance to kill her with certainty, now that she was she still just rank 3. Both Suraiman and Washim understood that.
「NUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Washim roared and rushed forward just like Musa in order to seal Carla's movement.
But doing that would only lead to the same conclusion like with Musa against the current Carla who had obtained body strengthening and thought acceleration.
「Perish here, Carla!!」
Suraiman yelled and unleashed his mana. He wouldn't let Musa and Seda's death to be in vain. Suraiman and Washim had resolved themselves to kill Carla even if it cost them their life.
「──Fire Breath──」
Suraiman was a sorcerer of darkness and flame. His skills stopped growing because of his transformation into vampire, but he had raised his skill's precision after so many years.
No matter how strong she was, a rank 3 like Carla wouldn't have any way to resist──that should be the case.
「Aa......so you use that.」
To Carla whose Magic Power Control had grown and felt like she was just a moment away from grasping something, seeing Suraiman's sorcery that had been polished for many years multiple times became the last impetus that gave her inspiration.
「──Fire Breath──」
Immense mana also surged from Carla's hand and a wave of flame burst out. The two Fire Breath hit Washim from front and back and evaporated him instantly.
「DAMN YOUUUUUUUU!」
「AHAHAH!」
Suraiman's yell and Carla's laugh filled the air. The two flames clashed amidst that and scattered sparks of mana to the surrounding.
.
▼ Carla Lester Race : Human♀- Rank 4 △1UP
[Magic Power : 327/440][Stamina : 2/47]
[Strength : 7][Endurance : 3][Agility : 11][Dexterity : 8]
△1UP
△1UP
[Overall Combat Strength : 732 (Sorcery Attack Power : 1098)]△221UP
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Impossible......Suraiman's eyes expressed that after seeing Carla's combat strength.
Suraiman and his subordinates didn't become vampire because they wanted it. Even so they possessed exceptional strength among the evil race clan. It was because of that strength that they were shunned even among the evil race, but if they successfully land a serious blow to human nation through this mission, than their clan's evaluation among the evil race should change.
But, that hope that should be within their reach thanks to their existence as powerful immortal creature was thwarted by just a single person......a growing human girl.
The difference between vampire who stopped growing and power that surged from achieving even more growth broke the equilibrium between the clashing flames. At the end Suraiman looked up to the night sky with a sorrowful look.
「Forgive me......chief......」
The figure of the "girl" who dispatched them here crossed Suraiman's mind. Then Carla's flame burned him to ash together with that memory.
.
Carla vomited blood from her mouth due to the recoil of powerful magic power while quietly placing her hands on her chest. She looked up to the moon like a girl in love without sparing any thought at all for the vampires she had just killed.
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「With this finally......I can have a fight to the death(go to meet) with you. Aria......」