The ghouls' leader who had thrusted his hand and made a hole in my belly laughed insanely before yanking out his hand. The result of his hand being pulled out was that the pressure holding back my blood from leaking out disappeared as well, causing a severe bleeding from the attack earlier.
Shit. I'm losing too much blood.
My body was feeling numb, I didn't feel pain but my body was reacting quite naturally and I fell on my sides. Still bleeding out.
"Onee-chan!"
The children screamed in unison while seeing my body on the cold floor. I noticed that they started throwing rocks at the ghoul to help me but it was ineffective.
"Kahahaha! Did you really think you adventurers could kill me with such a measly spell?!-"
Before he could finish his presumptuous insults of victory, I stabbed him from the back with 5 magic swords that I manifested behind him. His range was close enough and I made sure to put 10% of my mana pool on each sword. Surely he survived that magic attack, but can he survive this one which I believe is also somewhat physical and target concentrated?
"Heh?"
It mumbled stupidly as it's eyes took a glance at the swords impaling it. His face distorted in apparent anger before his claws extended again. He tried to land a decisive blow upon me, aiming for his unreasonable revenge.
*Blood Drops*
I will not let that happen. So I sent another sword impaling him on the chest from his front. Due to it's closeness, he couldn't avoid it and plunged right in. The swords went through his body just like his claws injured mine.
If I get damaged any more than this, I will surely die. So I had to remain perfectly still while maintaining... ah... shit...
My head hurts, I lost too much blood.
"Seven!"
I could hear their voices from here. Looks like the others have arrived, but I can take care of this myself.
"Seven! She's hurt, go heal her, Ledge!"
I had no time to respond and tell them I'm fine. Before I could die from blood loss, I grabbed a paper from the storage ring and it burned in blue flames within a second. It was the precaution I set up before embarking on this quest.
Seriously, I understand that they're worried. But they shouldn't approach someone so recklessly when the enemy is still alive. It's making me relive a horrible game experience when I thought my party killed the boss, only to find out it was still alive and killed our healer.
All my wounds vanished instantly and the lost blood was restored. The ghoul had an astonished look on his face. So was everyone who witnessed this.
"I-Impossible! That's just cheating!"
"Sorry, but it's your fault for letting your guard down."
I said to him coolly while wiping the remnants of blood from my mouth. Looks like he still has some vitality in him. Ledge who was on his way to me, stopped in his tracks after realizing I'm already healed.
I summoned a magic sword and wielded it with my right hand while walking over the helpless ghoul. My body was bloody and so was my clothes, but atleast the hole on my armor was automatically repaired already.
I pointed the magic sword at his sweaty forehead.
"Any last words?"
"Go fuck-"
I summoned two swords above and below his neck then made them cross against each other in breakneck speed which caused his head to be separated from his body before he could finish speaking.
"Certainly, I'll have to do just that later to restore all this lost Affection Points I wasted on you."
Deep inside, I was enraged. I almost died any second there and wouldn't have survived if he immediately finished me off. It's only thanks to his carelessness I was able to win.
I stabbed the magic sword I was holding at the entrance of his neck. Making it look pretty gore in his situation.
"Seven, what the hell was that?"
My team and allies came running to my direction, taking a quick look at the deceased ghoul then onto me. I dispelled the spell and the swords had vanished into tiny particles of mana.
For now, let's pretend I'm tired and go to sleep so that they won't ask me anymore questions.
I dramatically dropped on the ground to make them think I fainted.
"S-Seven!"
"Pick her up! Be careful!"
They panicked and I felt that I was being carried by someone who's probably Durian. I'm not that unhappy with being carried by him since I'm mostly only touching the shield from his back. But still, I hoped Aria or Arlet carried me instead! But I can't say that though because they're both not physically strong like me.
I made One follow us from a certain distance. She served as my eyes while I'm pretending to sleep. Honestly, my back hurts already but I'll have to hold it in until later. For now, I triggered the 2nd Stage to start absorbing mana and refill my magic core since a tremendous amount of mana was used earlier to kill the last ghoul with the 9 magic swords. Meaning I exhausted a total of 90% of my own mana pool which could have been dangerous if I made one more.
But because of that, my magic swords slightly improved again and my magic core widened by probably 5% which is a good amount.
Hmm, come to think of it. They saw me restore my health earlier, didn't they? I should try erasing their memory of that time later when I get a kiss from either Aria or Arlet. Well, I guess I should try waking up now.
"H-Hm..."
"..! Seven is awake!"
Durian cried out to the others and the first ones to rush in was the two girls with anxious complexions. I love them. I want to marry them.
"Seven! How do you feel?"
Aria asked me while I climbed down from Durian's body.
"Yeah, I'm alri-"
"Wife! How did you suddenly get healed earlier? You were literally going to die!"
Arlet! You keep messing with my privacy damn it. Great, now everyone is expecting an answer from me. I suppose I'll just make things up.
"I don't know. Maybe it's that Deus Ex Machina again?"
So I oppined, looking as innocent as possible while avoiding eye contact with everyone here present.
"Wow, it happened again, huh?"
"Maybe the gods are being active lately since the Dark Lord really probably appeared."
Yay! Everyone believed me! That aside, there really are gods here? But I didn't meet one when I reincarnated though. But come to think of it, there was a name on my status, and for sure someone who could give me this much power is a god, or is it possible that the orc who summoned me is the one in my status?! Ah... Nevermind, if he really was the one then I shouldn't have been capable of escaping.
But right now, let's just go and finish this quest. That was really dangerous but it couldn't be helped.
▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️
After we made our report to the village chief, we returned to the capital through the carriages. We did not sustain any casualties which could be taken as more than a success. Since originally, this isn't a quest posted by the guild or the village, we did not receive any rewards. This was all for charity work afterall but it didn't bother me all that much, even though I almost died. It went according to plan afterall, but if that ghoul had come right at my head, there was no doubt I could have died right at the spot.
So currently, I'm located at Aria's House, to be more precise, her room. For what reason exactly? I'm replenishing my Affection Points. Ofcourse to make it faster, I brought Arlet along with an additional intention of going rough on her.
Five days has passed and we were to go to the Aries Kingdom to take an exam. Honestly, I don't know why I'm going back to school, I just thought it would be fun going to school in another world. I know I just graduated from college but it still sounds fun to try out new things.
"Arlet, how do we get to the Aries Kingdom again?"
Arlet was resting her head on my right arm at the moment. She seems sound asleep now but she's actually faking it. It's atleast 3am in the morning which is when she usually wakes up.
"Normally, people go to a nearby teleportation device. Our city has one at the center of the market district."
"Owh, you mean that large white circle thing from the other day?"
Arlet nodded while I recalled the image of the teleportation device. As far as I remember, it looked like a giant disk and people were to stand above it to work. Everytime it activated, the people and their belongings would be engulfed in greenish light.
"But it costs 240 Platinum Coins."
"What?!"
I was appalled but Arlet seemed to have kept her composure. I mean, how could I not be shocked at that ridiculous amount? That amount is literally 240,000 Mithras. Even if I sold the remaining statues I wouldn't be able to pay it off. One other thing to add is that Aria and Arlet are included. Should I use that power again? I don't think I should use it though...
"Then... How can we get there? That's too expensive for me!"
"You don't need to worry about that. Alric will take care of it."
Alric Ruthenford? That guy?! So the Guild Master was extremely rich afterall! I should have asked for more money!
I tried chewing on my fingers in regret.
"Is that guy so rich?!"
"Fuhaha! I think you misunderstood, something, wife. He won't be paying for anything."
She told me casually, as if putting total trust in Alric. It honestly made me jealous and gave me thoughts of getting rid of the guy for so many reasons.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean to say he can teleport us with magic."
"There's a magic spell for teleportation? I thought those only work for magic devices or scrolls."
"Hn, that's right. I don't know how he does it, but Alric can cast a kind of teleportation spell with his magic alone."
I can't believe this. The reason why the teleportation spell is only used through magic devices and scrolls is because it could wipe out a Grandmage's entire mana supply with just one use. Thus, only something that utilizes mana like magic devices with magic crystals and scrolls with mana of the creator are suitable for the use of teleportation magic. But depending on how many people there are, the mana cost would tremendously skyrocket.
"That's very weird..."
"Agreed."
I found it peculiar that Arlet was speaking almost seriously while talking about Alric. There was a tinge of envy and admiration in her voice but surely she isn't feeling anything about him.
After a few minutes of closing her eyes, she finally fell asleep. Seeing her adorable figure, I couldn't help but gently peck on her cheeks before carefully leaving the bed to head down stairs.
The bar was still there, but as it was early in the morning, only a few people are here eating breakfast. Quiet and peaceful, the workers were still even sleepy.
I figured I should say my farewells to everyone before I depart to another country. First things first, I should go to the Adventurer's Guild and inform Nina-san, then the adventurers I know.
"Nina-san."
I greeted the guild receptionist, she wasn't having any customers yet so she was busy dozing off instead. Although it was ended immediately when I came along.
"Good morning... Hah... Seven..."
She said while yawning in between her sentence and looking at me languidly. She didn't even ask if I needed anything.
"Erm, I came here here to inform you that I will be leaving later."
But that all paused as her expression suddenly turned grim. Slamming the desk to the point it wouldn't be a surprise the Guild Master would barge in and complain about the noise.
"Where are you going?"
"I will be going to school, I'm sorry if I didn't inform you..."
"Umu, so that's how it is. Goodluck, Seven-sama."
She seemed let down, but I shouldn't let it get to me. Was she expecting me to keep working here? I don't know, I think I would rather explore this world rather than stay in one place all my life.
"Please, if some people asks where I went, please tell them I left to the Aries Kingdom. That way they'll atleast know where I had gone to."
"Are you really sure? Going to another kingdom, your Guild Card would lose it's function and if you join another country's Adventurer's Guild, your rank will be reset."
"I know, I'm fine with that. Actually, it doesn't bother me at all. Anyway, I'll be going."
I didn't receive a reply from Nina-san. All she did was smile at me and since I found it awkward, I turned around and walked by the Guild's exit.
Before I could leave, I heard someone's voice from behind.
"See you in the future, Seven!"
Nina-san yelled while waving at me gingerly. I could see that along with her bright and cheerful smile, it was accompanied by a streak of tears.
I waved back and left the girl who I had been working with in a month, she was a great receptionist and friend. I came here today to ask her a favor but I now feel bad that even after doing something like leaving her, I even requested for something.
"Do you want to drink some Majo Juice, One?"
I asked the squirrel hiding behind my back's small bag. She gave in with a squeak which I took as a yes and we both shopped in the marketplace for food that we can enjoy.
▪️▫️▪️▫️▪️
"I guess we'll just have to wait for Alric in this place."
Earlier when we were eating breakfast, Arlet told us that we'll be meeting Alric in the middle of the woods. Honestly, I don't even know where we are, it's like we're lost which made me wonder how Alric would even find us. By the way, I don't even know which forest this is! This world is so full of wildlife!
"A-Arlet, you don't know where we are, do you?"
"I don't."
Aria and I exchanged looks of befuddlement, then redirected our gaze to Arlet who was walking even deeper even after she claimed she didn't know our whereabouts.
"Don't worry, we don't need to worry about getting lost when we end up in the Aries Kingdom anyway."
She replied, turning her head with a smug grin.
"W-We know, but how is that Alric guy going to find us?!"
"It's fine, it's fine. He'll be able to find us somehow. Ah, speak of the devil."
An earsplitting sound was getting nearer, it sounded like the sound of an airplane passing by so I had to look up and see. It turned out to be a man flying up the sky with Wind Magic. Although I couldn't see his face due to the sunlight, I can tell it's Alric.
"Yo."
It was the overly care-free son of the Guild Master. I hate them both. But I'm relieved that right now I'm not feeling that charm spell or something that I keep getting whenever he's around.