Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival-Chapter 116.2

As I searched the area, I suddenly noticed a non-human “gaze” watching me from afar.

I turned around and stared into the darkness deep in the forest.

“…Nero?”

[…]

Coeurl, the phantom beast, appeared again, and by chance or necessity, Nero, as I had named him, stared at me silently, as if sizing me up.

In the dim morning light of the forest, we stared at each other as if checking each other out, and I pointed my black dagger silently at Nero.

“If you are in my way, I will deal with you. If not–“

[Gaaaah!!!]

At that moment, Nero’s tentacles, which had sprung out of the darkness, intersected and collided with my black knife, and I switched positions, thrusting the dagger between Nero’s eyes.

“Lend me your strength, Nero.”

–This–

Nero replied, moving to my side with an agility that defied his huge body, and then he brought his nose close to the ground where the path was no longer distinguishable.

“…can you tell?”

[Gah…]

Why don’t you know? I felt like I was being told something like that.

Why would Nero side with me? Did he recognize me from that battle?

When we parted, Nero called me “Moon”. Carla said I was like the moon and that she would reach out to me.

I wonder how “I” would appear in the “world” they see…?

“Let’s go, Nero.”

–My Moon–

Nero started running after me, and I ran alongside him. As we continued running for a while, I caught sight of two knights in the distance, trying to push a schoolgirl in school uniform into a carriage.

“Nero!”

[Gaaaah!!!]

Nero’s roar startled the knights and causing them to turn around, whereupon I rushed in and directed the schoolgirls to get down.

“Get down!”

The knights were momentarily confused by my voice, the “enemy”, and the two girls reflexively ducked down.

With my body fully reinforced, I jumped up, twisting the strings of the pendulum around the branches, and the knights, who had unintentionally followed it with their eyes, were sent flying by Nero, who came rushing at them at the same speed, leaping with his huge body.

“This is the end!”

With the knights in the air, I too wrapped two pendulums around their necks as I floated in the air, spinning around to kick up into empty space, snapping the knights’ necks with centrifugal force, and then just like that, I removed the strings and threw them into the surrounding forest.

“Are you all right?”

“Ye, yes.”

The girls were the young ladies who were supposed to leave with us. What were they doing here? The Viscountess replied, though she was more frightened of Nero, the huge beast, while the Baroness looked surprised before she began to speak.

“The Princess and the Baron in vestments are still being held captive! We were told that having so many of us would be a hindrance…”

“And where is Elena-sama?”

The source of this c𝓸ntent is freewebnøvel.coɱ.

“She’s about a quarter of an hour’s walk in that direction!”

I looked in the direction the baroness was pointing, then I turned to the ladies again.

“You two stay in that carriage. Relief will come for you later.”

“Yes.”

“Take care of the princess!”

“Let’s go, Nero.”

[Gah]

The girls fold their hands in prayer as we continued on our way, and we started running again to hurry onward. If it took them 30 minutes to get there, it would take me and Nero less than 10 minutes.

I climbed to the top of a tree to make sure we didn’t miss anything, and as we moved along, looking around as if we were jumping from tree to tree, we saw a large tent like those used on battlefields in an open area of the forest, and we turned our feet in that direction.

“Wha!”

Nero flicked off an arrow that flew by on its way with his tentacle.

They had prepared archers to stand guard. They were different from the bandits, after all. Determining their position from the direction from which the arrow flew, I counterattacked with a poisoned crossbow from the [Shadow Storage].

The archers fell off the tree, perhaps by a lucky shot. But because of my counterattack against the surprise attack, we were unable to ambush them either, so we jumped out of the tree, leaving ourselves in a bad position, and ended up appearing in front of the knights who were near the tent.

“Aria!”

“Elena…are you safe?”

No time to be relieved at the sound of that voice I heard, the knights drew their weapons and moved into formation, wary of me and Nero.

A group of Rank 3 knights, who appeared to be about the same level as Joey, surrounded Elena and a boy named Nathaniel, while a man in his thirties, who appeared to be the leader of the Squadron, and a middle-aged man who appeared to be a nobleman stepped forward quietly, protected by the knights.

“You are part of ‘rainbow-colored sword,’ aren’t you? Even at your age, you’ve already caught up with us, probably after defeating our men…”

“Rudiger, what is that beast? Do they have such creatures at the academy?

“No, Viscount Savoie. I think it was most likely a demon tamed by that adventurer girl… Miss Aria, please make that beast leave this place. If it rampages here, I would make sure that this boy would suffer from an unhealable scar on his face.”

“Hiiii!”

When Nathaniel was threatened with a dagger pointed at his face being held as a hostage by the knight, he let out a frightened little scream, and the knight captain, called Rudiger, continued.

“If you are also the princess’s bodyguard, you would understand this situation. Lay down your weapons and surrender. To be honest, we don’t want to antagonize a party of renowned adventurers. If you continue to escort the princess on our side, I promise you a reward of equal or greater value.”

“…Nero, step back.”

[…]

I called out to him, and Nero, understanding the situation, went back to the forest and concealed himself.

The aristocratic faction, which had been quiet for a while, was on the move again…. The Viscount Savoie made a smile of relief when Nero disappeared, and spoke to Elena, who was being held captive.

“This was somewhat unforeseen, but could Your Highness Princess also ask your escort to surrender? If you are obedient, I will do nothing, but if you are so rebellious, I will have to rely on this.”

“…”

Elena’s face twisted in disgust as the Viscount Savoie wagged his finger over the small black bottle.

That bottle…I saw it once at my master’s place. It was empty inside, but it must have been a protective bottle that held a special medicine used by the [demon] tribe.

I didn’t know what kind of medicine it was, but from the look on Elena’s face, it was probably some kind of drug that would take away her free will and would make her one step away from being a cripple.

Elena looked around, took one look at the frightened Nathaniel, then let out a small sigh and turned a wry smile on her face to me.

“Aria…thanks for coming. It was a pleasure to have you here.”

Elena exhaled once there and turned her straight eyes to me.

“You can do whatever you want from here, but if you decided to follow me, you’ll be in big trouble. I want you to live ‘freely’.”

“…Elena.”

“Princess, you shouldn’t have…”

“kuh.”

Viscount Savoie waved his arm, and the knight holding Elena twisted her arm.

I see…Elena, you have made up your mind.

Then I would do as I pleased.

“–[Irone Rose]–“

At that moment, my figure vanished from their sight, and with a wingspread of light, I moved at super-speed to cut off the heads of the knights who had captured Elena and the others, and with Elena in my right arm, I grabbed Nathaniel’s collar with my left hand and descended to a place far away from the knights.

“Aria…”

“Elena, I’ll ‘do as I please’.”

My peach blonde hair turns a gray-iron color like scorched ashes, and I muttered in a voice as cold as iron as I look down at the Viscounts of Savoie, whose eyes were still wide open, unable to grasp what was going on.

You people…

“You’re all going to be killed here!”