World Traveler 039

A/N: I changed my way of writing to using Past Tense now. Tell me what you guys think about it after a few chapters. I want to know whether it is better to use Past Tense as most stories are or keep using Present Tense to bring out more immersion (Probably...)

 

 

In the end the rope gave out due to three people weights. It was good that we were not too high to begin with but it still hurt being squashed by an armored guy.

Mary fell unconscious after she spent nearly all of her mind power to hold the gate. Yuni has put a blanket over her for the time being.

After placing the warrior and child on the roof, I checked their situations. Frank climbed up on the bunker rooftop in the meantime. I called him up a while ago.

“The child had a very good luck when she hit the armor. If it was her head, she would have died.”

Now that I could see the armor, I saw a dent right on the chest. I still felt the warrior’s calm breath so the dent didn’t obstruct his breathing. I then checked the head of the child which turned out fine.

I wanted to check her back but there was Frank so I refrained from it. I will ask Yuni to do that later. I looked back at the Frank and found him stunned.

“Frank? What is it?”

“Eh? Ah yeah. What is that thing on her head?”

Frank pointed at the child. I looked back to the child.

“Hmm? Fox ears. So she apparently is a fox-kin.”

“...You’re saying it like it’s normal to have it.”

“It is. Wait… Do you mean that there isn’t anyone like her around?”

“No way. It’s strange to have that kind of ears. I don’t even know what a fox is.”

“.…We will talk about it later. Come on. Help me carry them down.”

I ignored Frank’s inquisitive stare. I picked up the warrior and walked to the edge of the roof. Frank soon followed with the child. He was still curiously staring at the child’s ears.

Suddenly he seemed to feel something different. He picked up something with his left hand. The child spontaneously jolted and nearly fell.

“Whoa!”

“Frank! Don’t touch her tail!”

“She got tail as well !?”

Frank hurriedly released his left hand from gripping on her tail and she instantly lost her tension again. I warned him not to do anything again. We then jumped down the roof.

***********

“Un…”

Mary woke up not long after Erwin and Frank took off carrying the warrior and the child. Alishia followed along as she also curiously stared at the child. There was only Yuni beside her.

“Where am I?”

“Ah, Mary. You woke up. Here, drink first.”

Mary drowsily got up. Yuni held her back up and gave her a cup of water.

“How do you feel?” Yuni asked.

“I am fine. Just a bit dizzy from nearly overdrawing my mind power. Ah… I forgot to teach Alice about mind power.”

“It’s fine. You should rest for now. We need to wait for Erwin to come back.”

“Why?”

“He will bring you back to the main building. Hehehe. You need to see how he refused to let Frank carry you back even though I can carry the child all the same.”

“Child?”

“Are you deliberately ignoring something? Nevermind. Yeah. There are two people going through what you called as a [World Gate] before. One of them is a fully armored warrior and the other is a child. She is so cute with those ears and tail.”

“Ears? Tail? Uu…”

Mary shook her head a bit and blinked a few times. Yuni laid her back down again before saying.

“You rest first. You will meet them later. Ah. Erwin is back.”

A hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the bunker.

“Okay.”

Soon Mary closed her eyes and slept again.

***************

When I arrived at the bunker again, I seemed to have hear some voices inside. I looked inside quickly and saw that Mary is still asleep. I said to Yuni.

“I thought I heard some voices.”

“Mary woke up a moment ago. I asked her to rest so she is sleeping again. Look at how she trusts you. Hehehe.”

“Oh I see. It’s good that she is fine. Come on. Let’s go back.”

I approached Mary and picked her up. Is she getting lighter? Seeing her sleeping face, I smiled a bit.

“Hey hey. Don’t look too much or she will get shy.”

“I am checking her complexion. No hidden intention. Come on.”

“Then why did you refuse Frank that much before?

I walked out of the bunker. Yuni followed up behind me while murmuring. Ignore whatever it is that she murmured.

I didn’t know if it is because of the [World Gate] but the blood stench has been reduced by quite a lot. When I thought of the other side of the gate, shouldn’t it be more unbearable with all those monsters on that side? It looked like [World Gate] isn’t as simple as I think.

Hmm? I seemed to have forgotten something important. I turned around and asked Yuni.

“Did I forget something important?”

“How important?” She asked back.

“I don’t know. I just feel like I have forgotten something. Well, nevermind. Let’s go back first before th---”

“The smell is unbearable. Why do I have to come here in the first place?”

An annoyed voice rose up from the main square. Yuni and I looked at each other and quickly ran there. In the middle of the square a young man in his twenties was waving his hand in front of his face. He wore a white shining armor and a sparkling red cloak.

Wait… What’s going on!? It was sparkling!

Oh… Is that gold thread? I have a bad feeling about this.

“Hmm? Who is there?”

He turned around and saw us. His cloak turned to the other side and now I can see him properly. He had a stern look on his face as he glared at us. I glanced Yuni beside me.

“How handsome.”

Yuni’s eyes glittered for a bit before she suddenly shook her head. I can hear her whisper ‘dangerous’. I wondered what danger he brought with him. I looked back at the unknown man again.

The man’s eyes also glittered in almost the same way as Yuni. He was staring at Mary.

‘Fast.’ I thought as I saw him suddenly ran up and said.

“Oh what a beautiful lady. It is more appropriate for me to embrace her instead of you. Let me help you, commoner, to carry her. Thank you for your hard work until now.”

He stretched out his hands to Mary while saying some ridiculous things. The moment his finger touched Mary, I kicked out sideways while evading his hands. In full force of course.

“Whoa! It’s dangerous.”

The unknown man jumped backward for quite a distance to evade my kick. He pushed out his hand and a gust of wind hit my body. I kicked the ground with my still-on-ground foot before losing my balance.

Yuni got behind me and took out her bow and arrow. Her hair fluttered under the wind but she stood firm on the ground. She nocked an arrow on her bow and prepared for battle.

I landed in crouch position and held Mary closer. I freed my right hand then took out my sidearm, aiming at the man.

“Dangerous.”

He was fast and can use magic. Without Mary’s magic, we might be hard pressed. Good thing his magic was wind. There are hardly any defensive type magics on that element. My sidearm is enough to take him out.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You didn’t know who I am? How ignorant of you. Ah I see. You’re just a lowly brute so of course you won’t know me.”

He used his fingers to caress his long blonde hair. He flicked his finger and created a wind that flutter his hair and cloak. He closed his eyes and said.

“I am Earl Harvey, a handsome and virtuous Second-Ranked Wind Magician. Every citizen love to see me. You should be glad that I allowed you to talk with me.”

‘What the hell?’ crossed my mind in an instant. I could never be more stunned than this moment.

“So now that you know who I am, could you please let her go?” He continued.

“No way.” I reflexively answered. Well, even if I was given more time to think, I would say the same thing.

“First, I don’t know who the hell you’re even after knowing your name. Second, she is my partner. Third and the most important, there is no way I am going to hand over someone I care about to a disgusting man like you.”

It just made me cringe every time I remembered his self important speech. Better forget it.

“Is that so? Then, off with your head.”

A distortion appeared not far in front of him as he raised his hands. I aimed at one of his arms and fired my sidearm.

*Bang*

It missed and hit the brick wall behind him. The distortion has quite a power. He flinched a bit from the sound of the bullet passing through his side.

Yuni released her arrow. Compared to me who was not allowed to kill without justifiable reasons even in self defense, her arrow was aimed at the man’s chest.[1]

However the distortion can even make a bullet veer off its trajectory at such a close range. Not to mention an arrow. It veered off and stabbed itself to the ground in front of the earl.

“Dodge!”

“Die!”

I rolled sideways while protecting Mary. Yuni ran to the other side while taking out another arrow from her quiver. A [Wind Blade] passed through where we stood before. It sliced a wall, leaving a fairly big mark.

I once again took aim. This time I can’t see any distortion so I fired close to his ear. Judging by his flinching a while ago, he wasn’t trained for war. This should be enough to scare the hell out of him.

*Bang*

A bullet wheezed through right next to his ear. The wind cut his ear a bit.

“Argh!” He screamed while holding his slightly bleeding ear. There was only a little blood…

A brick flew over from behind the earl. It hit right at the back of his head. A thud can be heard and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.

“Nice throw!” I shouted. I glanced behind the earl and saw Frank.

“Er… I didn’t do anything wrong… Right?” Frank scratched his head and asked in uncertainty.

 

 

 

[1] A/N: Just a reminder since it’s been a while. The Expedition Force aren’t allowed to do anything harmful as to not cause any bad relationship unless it is an absolute necessity or the target is harmful even to the people of that world.

 

Chapter end