As she wrapped her hands around my neck, I felt a soft lumpy force resting behind my back. The sudden pressure of these parts pushing on like a fluffy marshmallow made me tense a little bit.
"...!" My reaction was like that of a normal school boy, pure and innocent to a woman's touch. Granted I couldn't blame this body that it was younger than I was back then, so it meant that this body was experiencing the first touch of a woman.
"Are you okay?" asked the woman as she was oblivious to her action.
"...n-no, I'm fine." I said. Calmly I started walking into the thick forest, with the drops of rain getting less and less frequent the deeper we went in.
With my senses sharpened, I was constantly on the look out for any monsters that might come our way.
"Are you sure going through the forest is the right way?" she asked worryingly as she felt the nervous tension that the forest was giving off. With the constant drizzle of rain and the chipper noise of nature surrounding us at that moment, she couldn't help but feel restless throughout the walk.
But I on the other hand didn't mind this feeling. It felt like I was walking through a mountain, experiencing nature at my youth. Gazing at each leaf and plant as if it was a beautiful picture. To me this was a field trip of sorts.
As I carried her through the woods, she began to fidget behind my back…its been at least ten minutes since we got under the forest. Worried, I asked her if she was okay.
"Are you okay?"
"N-no, my leg is starting to hurt again!" her tone was bit rough, and from the looks of it the potion I added wasn't helpful. I had doubt's back then since I poured it on her injury like it was nothing but I knew that it was expired so the blame was on me…The effectiveness of that potion must have worn off and the bacteria from the Wolf's bite might have acted faster than normal because of her slight fever.
"...Then we better speed up the pace." I began jogging through the forest with her on my back.
"Agh!" She began shouting as the pain was starting to become even more worse by the minute.
As I ran pass from trees to trees, I suddenly heard a signs of pattering feet on the wet grounds. It was monsters, and from the looks of it They were gaining in on me. From the way they smelled, it was similar to that of a Goblin yet at the same time a Robin Wolf.
"…" I turned around to see what it was that was following us and to my surprise, the monsters that followed wasn't something I expected.
'Fuck! A goblin riding on a robin wolf…that's crazy' I thought as I fastened up my pace through the forest and I was now moving at the speed of 30 km/h.
They were clearly aiming for the both of us so my worries were piling up. I couldn't attack them because of the girl on my back, so the only option I had was to run away.
"What's wrong?" She asked, curious as to why I was running at this speed.
"We're being chased, hold on." I said to her.
"!?..Okay." Her immediate response was to hold on even tighter to my back.
As I ran from those monsters, I kept a certain distance away from them. About 20 meters away from me. At that point the wolves were still full of energy despite the goblins on top.
As the chase went on for another 20 seconds, Finally I could see the end of the forest ahead of me. But as I ran straight forward, my instincts suddenly felt an urge to slow down and turn to the side.
".…Something's up ahead."
I activated my mana and enhanced my vision. I focused forward to what was up ahead of me and saw a trap. Folded under the bushes, two goblins were in waiting with each holding a club in hand.
'Two Goblins waiting ahead…'
I made an Immediate decision and jump pass them.
*Thud* as ran through the forest, I suddenly speed up to create momentum and jumped the second I used mana on my legs.
"Hnn!"
"Wha!" The girl was caught off guard from the force of my jump.
As I went over pass the trees, at the peak of my jump I finally saw the road up ahead. Looking at the conditions of the road, it was untouched. But the heavy rain made it somewhat of a slippery constant.
Descending down from the jump, I was finally through the forest and as I was landing down on the ground, I needed to make a smooth landing so that the girl wasn't hurt from the impact.
Falling from my jump, As I made contact with the ground, I smoothly sled through the muddy ground and continued on running from the pack that was following us.
"You okay?" I asked her while I was running. I wasn't sure if she was fine after that jump, so I had to ask for her condition.
"...Y-yeah, I was just not ready from that." judging from her tone, I could see that she was fine.
"Okay…the Gate is only a few minutes away. If we go on this straight line, we'll reach it in no time." I said, assuring her that we were nearly there.
"listen, T-thank you again, I wouldn't be alive right now if it wasn't for you." She started talking to me, thanking me again for what I did.
"...Don't worry about it. You can thank me later after we put you in the medical center."
"Can I ask you for a your name?"
"...I don't think now's the right time for questions." I said right after four Robin wolves came jumping out of the Forest. Each of those wolfs carried one goblin on their backs.
~Woosh~
~Swoosh"
Each wolf was able to maneuver well despite the muddy road they were running on
"KRRRAAA!!" The Goblins were getting furious from us always being ahead of them.
'If I keep it at this rate, they won't catch up to us and if we arrive at the gate, the guard watching over the gate will help us fight of this bastards.' is what I thought while running on a wet road.
"It looks like their slowing down." said the girl as she peak back to see what the situation was.
"What?" I was quite surprised by the decision those goblins made. Something must have happened for them to change their minds…Goblins were weak but they were also Sly, cunning when it comes to their own hunt. So to change course now when they were at our tail was strange.
Unless…
"They must have found a easier target…" I muttered to myself.
"What did you say?" asked the Girl.
"Nothing, it just seems like it's our lucky day today." I said back to the girl while trying to change the outlook of the situation.
If my hunch was right and they did find an easier prey, then we were now safe. But for the unlucky group that caught their attention, I just hope that they'll survive the barrage of monsters coming their way.
It may seem like it was an unfair thought to begin with but…this was how the Gates work, or maybe yet how the Law of nature works. You either get lucky enough to survive or you don't, all that comes your way is a challenge for something that you want. For the goblins and Wolves, it was food and for the hunters, it was the profit of hunting valuables. either way, it leaves me with a somewhat guilty conscience.
"Say, since we aren't being chased anymore, can I ask for my savior's name?"
"...Hamil…Hamil Crux."
"Hmm, Hamil huh…what a weird name, hehe." she said as she giggled from my somehow weird name.
"...And yours?" I asked back.
"...Ranzy." She said while being somewhat hesitant about it."
"Ranzy?"
Just as I said her name, I could see the gate finally in front of me.
"Oh look, the gate's up ahead." I said pointing it out to the girl whose name was Ranzy.
Beside it was a single guard standing with a sword on his hip. He guarded the gate for any upcoming monster's that would pass by the gate because monster's could easily go through the gate and walk out into the other side. Gate's didn't just appeared out of nowhere for the accessibility of only humans but it also allowed monster's to go through, because it was a Dimensional Portal.
We finally arrived at the Gate, but just as we walked in front, the guard on duty immediately walked up to us and looked Ranzy in the eye.
He had this shocked look that made me quite nervous. He began to sweat in buckets and shakily reached out to his pocket, bringing out what seems to be a radio of sort.
"Come in Base…..this is Guard 042 in Gate F-1, I've got a code Silver wound, I repeat I got a code Silver wound." His voice was a bit restless and shaky. He wasn't like this to me when I went through, so the only explanation to his reaction would be Ranzy…
[This is Base, please identify the Silver Tongue, over.]
"Its Misses Ranzy Savez, Ranzy Volde Savez…over"
[.…Okay, Medical attention is on standby, let them trough]
"Okay…over."
"Wait, so you're a..." I was about to say something but, the guard told us to go through.
And as we pass, we were met with three people who wore white lab coats, one wore a stethoscope, while the other two were nurses, carrying a medical kit and a wheelchair.
They all greeted Ranzy who was on my back and told me to put her down, so I laid her down the wheelchair. There she finally receive her treatment.
"My name is Ranzy Volde Savez…" She told me her full name while she was being given treatment. She looked me in the eye while doing so, unfazed by whatever needle they were injecting into her injured leg.
"A full complete name…so you're a noble?" I asked her for confirmation.
"Yes…I am part of the Savez Family."
Nobles had the privilege of having to take in the maternal surname and be placed in the middle of the person's name. It was one way to quickly figure out if a person was a noble or not in this world…or in this Kingdom at least. While commoners only had the paternal surname placed on their name.
"Are you bothered by me being a noble?" She asked me with a bit of worry in her eyes.
But all I could give her was a simple smile and a shrug on my shoulders.
"No…not really, in fact I'm more curious as to why you were here all by yourself in the first place."
"...I was trying to get experience in hunting a Gate." She said
"Why?"
"It's because I'm attending the Royal academy this year."
"Really?
"Yeah…"
As she talked about her reasons, the nurses pulled her wheelchair and she asked me to follow her into the medical center.
"Did your parents even allowed you to go hunting in the first place?" I asked her while we were on our way to the center.
"No, they didn't. They were to scared for their little girl to hunt in a Gate, even though I got myself a Hunter's license a few month's ago." she said while expressing annoyance towards her parents.
As she talked, we finally arrived at the entrance of the Medical Center, there she told me to wait for her. It was only going to take a few minutes of treatment and she would be out. This world's advancement in medicine was way superior to my old world, they could even regrow limbs of people who lost parts of their bodies. It was written many times in the novel of how the MC always visited the hospital.
I know that she wanted to repay me for saving her but…I didn't really wanna get myself involve with some high authority. But denying it will only make things more complicated. I should just accept the reward if there's any and go back to the gate if the cores I gathered isn't enough.
25 minutes later…
I stood by the entrance where she told me to wait and just simply stared at the floor, waiting for her release.
".…Hmm, should I really be doing this?" I had doubts as time went by, but I didn't left.
Suddenly a female's voice called out to me.
"Hey."
I turned my head to see who it was and there I saw Ranzy, standing straight on her two legs like nothing ever happened to her.
"Hey…so why did you make me wait?"
"...I'm sorry." She apologized.
And I didn't know why.
"Why are you apologizing?" so I asked her.
"I mean you must have waited long."
She apologized for making me wait?
"Nah, it wasn't that long. Anyway, what did you want?"
"I wanted to pay you back for saving me."