Rio was surprised, guessing that this was her husband. And judging by
how he was coming home drunk in the early hours of the morning, he
probably wasn't a good one.
An unbearable feeling came over Rio, but he didn't want to act on it and
complicate their family matters any more than they already were.
"Ugh..."
But he couldn't help but feel helpless as he watched Rebecca touch
where she was hit in pain. Rio sighed and approached her. He feigned
chanting a spell, and manipulated his essence to heal her pain.
"Huh? It... doesn't hurt anymore? T-Thank you!" Rebecca made a
surprised face at the pain disappearing, but instantly understood what Rio had
done and bowed her head in gratitude.
"What? What did he do?" Meanwhile, her husband glared at Rio
doubtfully. He didn't understand what Rio had done, and was in a worse
mood after seeing Rebecca being defended.
"Stop it! That's one of our patrons!" Rebecca tried to stand in front of her
husband in a panic.
You'll only get hit again doing that...
Rio was fed up. He knew she was a woman with a high sense of
responsibility, but this was rather tactless.
Sure enough, her husband's temper flared, and he tried to smack her once
again. With a sigh, Rio closed the gap between them, neutralized her
husband's movements, and gently touched the man's head.
"Purgo."
Rio's hand started to faintly glow as he chanted a fake spell once more.
Several seconds passed until the husband regained his senses.
"It's a sobering magic. Do you feel refreshed now?" Rio asked in a cold
tone.
"Huh...? Y-Yeah. Sorry about that," the husband said, perplexed by his
suddenly clear state of mind.
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to Rebecca," Rio said in a tired voice,
glancing over at the woman. Her husband turned to the proprietress with a
guilty look on his face.
"Sorry."
While he was a furious drunk, he didn't seem to be unreasonably violent
when sober.
"I-I'm really sorry for the trouble!" Rebecca bowed her head at Rio in extreme gratitude.
"No, I should be the one apologizing. Thank you for the lunch. Bye
now." Rio chose to say his farewells before things got more complicated,
then left the inn.
Well, that didn't really solve anything...
The scene that had happened in the inn just now would most likely occur
again in the future. His actions had been meaningless... A temporary solution
at best. The thought made his morning a bit more gloomy.
Time to get a move on. He decided to leave the city and put his bad mood
behind him as quickly as possible.
After walking east along the road into the forest for a while, Rio checked
to see if anyone was nearby, before deliberately straying off the road. It was
still early in the morning, so the forest fog made everything difficult to see.
Rio leisurely started to run.
Not long after he'd changed his pace, he discovered a figure lying on the
ground in his path. He stepped toward it it to see that a person was there,
lying face-down.
Even one step outside of the city walls exposed you to the risk of being
attacked by monsters and carnivorous animals; that risk rose exponentially
once you entered the forest proper. This person could have potentially been
the result of that hazard — but it was possible that they may have just
collapsed in the middle of their journey.
With that thought in mind, Rio approached the body.
It wore a robe that covered their entire figure. Judging by the size, Rio
thought it was a child.
Why is a child all the way out here...?
It was a little unsettling, but just abandoning them would leave a bad
aftertaste in Rio's mouth, so he reluctantly decided to call out to them.
"Hey, are you all right?" he asked as he shook them, but there was no
reaction, though he could feel some body heat through the robe.
So they were still alive — Rio relaxed for a moment and tried to peek at
their face through the gap in their hood.
Suddenly, the person — a girl, he realized — opened her eyes; they
emitted a faint, murderous intent. Rio directed his gaze at the girl's hand,
only to see a knife with a long blade clutched in her hand.
The girl thrust the knife towards Rio's body, but he twisted himself around with a flinch, avoiding the attack. The girl's knife had swung through
empty space, narrowly missing him. However, it seemed as though she had
read his first evade as she seamlessly moved to use a follow-up attack.
With a heavy puff of breath, the girl blew at Rio's neck. In her mouth
was a small flute-like pipe — a blowgun.
Rio felt a sting of pain at his neck, making him frown. But he knew he
had to create distance between them, first and foremost, and reflexively
shoved the girl away, while taking a step back.
The girl's hood fell back, revealing a very cute face and pale orange hair
that reached down to her shoulders. She appeared to be two or three years
younger than Rio, but there was a terrifying amount of cold-blooded
murderous intent lurking in her scarlet eyes. Two fluffy fox ears grew out of
her head, strongly demanding attention to their presence.
A werebeast?! Rio's eyes widened at the girl's features. Suddenly, all the
strength in his body drained away as he fell to one knee.
The dart from her blowgun had been covered in a fast-acting poison, Rio
determined. He pulled the dart out of his neck with a trembling hand. Then,
before the poison could travel throughout his body, he covered the wound
with his hand and secretly began to neutralize the poison without the girl's
noticing.
The girl assumed he had no form of antidote and watched on, waiting for
the poison to circulate through him.
Meanwhile, as Rio administered his detoxification ability, he carefully
observed the girl's face. He had read about them in books before, but this was
his first time seeing a real werebeast.
Werebeasts and other demi-humans were very rarely spotted if one lived
a normal life in the Strahl region, making Rio's surprise justified.
The two stared at each other as Rio continued to remove the poison from
his body. Once he deemed himself ready — and checked the strength of his
grip — he gave the girl a small smile. The girl finally noticed that the color
was, for some reason, returning to Rio's face. Surprise flickered across her
emotionless face.
Rio kept an eye on the girl for any movements as he removed his
backpack and dropped it on the ground, making him instantly lighter. Now,
he was ready for a fight.
In the next moment, the girl burst into a run towards Rio with
tremendous speed. She had probably used Augendae Corporis beforehand,
but even if she did —
She's really fast!
Rio was shocked at how fast her burst of speed was; of all the people he
had met, until now, she was definitely the fastest. Despite her young age, her
natural abilities as a werebeast had probably awakened... But that didn't mean
Rio had to fall behind her. He could manipulate his essence to allow his body
to surpass its physical limits, and draw out his abilities too.
Rio let his essence flow out of his body, which instantly strengthened it.
Then, at a speed that was equal to the girl's, he dove to the side. The girl's
eyes widened slightly at Rio's speed, but she changed her trajectory to match
his.
So she's able to keep up...
Rio tracked her movements calmly as he took out a knife from his robe.
He threw it at her leg, but the girl jumped to evade it. She grabbed a
moderately sized branch and pulled herself up, jumping lightly from branch
to branch to climb up a tree. Rio burst into a run — faster than the wind, he
charged straight towards the girl, making her reach into her robe in a panic.
She took out several throwing knives and flung them at Rio.
Rio drew his longsword from its scabbard midair; although it wasn't
anything flashy, a fairly famous blacksmith had forged its razor-sharp blade.