"Huff… Huff… Huff…"
Conquering her pain and exhaustion, Sylvie continued to crawl ahead.
Only distance mattered.
Crawling just one more inch further away from this monster.
And so, she crawled.
For the longest moment in her life, the longest singular instance for her thoughts to be centered on just one thing, she dragged her body across the street, desperate to get away.
'He clearly has some business with the group. If he's chasing after them, why would he go back for just mere me? If there's any reason governing his moves, he will go the other way, as long as I'm far away enough for it to be inconvenient to make the detour…'
Sylvie's mind was preoccupied with the singular task of convincing… well, herself that there was some hope in what she was doing.
There had to be!
Because, after she saw the disinterested look in that monster's eyes, she knew there was no hope of salvation by reasoning with him.
He looked like that caring son from the caravan, and yet…
'Even if he follows me, at least I will be able to confirm it…'
Sylvie continued to crawl, all the way to the point where she… Regained enough strength to walk on all fours.
Then, with no one to pursue her, she got up on her wobbly legs and made the first few, shy steps. Then she walked…
The time moved in a strange way. It all felt like just a single moment… but stretched into infinity. And there were only two constants in this instant infinity.
The agonizing pain of her burning muscles and the stable rhythm of her heavy breath.
Sylvie crawled, moved on all fours, walked… And by the time her body recovered enough, despite all the former strain, for the girl to start running, right as she neared the end of the plateau's path…
The monster caught up with her.
'He's here.'
This wasn't a deduction, gut feeling, or foresight.
Even while stubbornly refusing to look back and acknowledge the danger, Sylvie knew.
His presence was simply that insanely overwhelming.
The mana that flew through him was like nothing Sylvie had ever seen before in her life. It was dense, wild, not channeled at all… And yet, despite going against every teaching of the mage's tower, it was leagues more organized than what the mages at the tower thought possible.
And in all of it… There was hardly a hint of intent in it, revealing just how casual and matter-of-fact this level of mana control was to this otherwordly being.
But even with all of this… Sylvie continued to walk.
Because what better she could do, rather than just hope this being would give up the chase now that it pretty much caught up?
Sylvie inspected her mana reserve… or rather whatever mana managed to regather in her core during her frantic escape.
'That's what I get for pushing myself…'
Slowly realizing just how sure her doom was, Sylvie slowed down her steps.
There was only so far that she could go when her end was absolutely assured.
"Stop."
The being only said a single word. And Sylvie, like some sort of pupped suspended on a set of mana strings, had no other choice but to obey.
"Turn around."
The monster spoke in a clear common, only to even further ascertain its superiority.
A monster that could talk?
No, a monster that could understand the concept of family and act upon it to hide out in the open? A monster that wielded a country-snuffing level of power… while understanding the benefits of hiding his strength and then perfectly playing the role it assigned itself?
'Was that woman… just another victim of his?'
Unable to do anything but follow the monster's orders, Sylvie turned on her heel.
It was merely a moment of stupid defiance, courage born out of the indomitable spirit of a wind fairy posing for a woodland elf that made her raise her eyes… and actually look at this apex predator, hidden underneath the cloak that made it look like a human.
A cloak so perfect, Sylvie's fairy eyes couldn't pierce through its effects, making this monster seem like just a slightly more than ordinary human in the short moment before it reached out and pressed the palm of its left hand against her face, covering her eyes while grabbing at her head.
'To think I've even managed to get the token…' Sylvie thought, her mind now ascending beyond the fear of death now that she could do absolutely nothing to stop fate from taking its course.
Yet, right as the monster's fingers dug into the skin of her face and pressed into the muscles of her head…
"Tsk…"
********
"Stop."
I called out while gripping the handle of my saber with my bloodied fingers.
Who knew what this girl could do the moment I lowered my guard?
'After that big let-down of an opponent… Who knows what other upsets are in store?'
My enemy from before turned out to be a mere shadow of who he posed as. An inflated balloon of ego and artificial enhancers boosts that never became part of that man's proper, true strength.
But if an opponent I deemed worthy of opening the Hero's Gate for could turn out to be such a disappointment… Then who knew what kind of surprises was this girl hiding?
With my memories still fragmented, though, I wasn't exactly sure how to proceed.
'I've followed her not to leave any loose ends untied, but…'
While fragmented, this one picture remained vivid in my memory. The moment this girl turned her head and put on her mean face while raising her staff, only to end up struck by her own party and then carried away as if nothing had happened.
Was it an illusion of my mind taking a few bits of my actual memory and then piecing them together into the story that made the most sense? Or maybe it was some sort of a fake memory, a possibility I couldn't discount after that let-down of a warrior used some sort of skill to cloud my memory in the first place. Or maybe…?
"Turn around," I ordered while measuring the girl, searching for any hint of aggression…
But,
'What the hell?' Something deep in my soul twitched. 'She's terrified!'
While already hinted at in her posture, it was a hint I took for perfect acting, an attempt to make me lower my guard with a message sublime and then convenient enough for me to relax. Because why should I be on my guard when this girl was clearly on the verge of pissing herself in fear?
That's what I thought when I caught up to her. After all, why would she be scared if she didn't see me yet?
It wasn't until the girl turned that I realized that the fear in her eyes… was real. And when I reached out for her head, a sense of peace and liberation flashed in her eyes, as she made peace with all that troubled her prior.
Still, blatantly ignoring the girl's state, I reached out for her skin and pressed my hand against her face while making sure to hold her head still, a hostage of sorts if her genuine fear turned into merely a genius-level acting and a trap on a level that would even fool me.
'Haaa…'
I released an internal sigh as my suspicions were confirmed.
The moment I touched this girl… it was as if my memories started to gather up and piece themselves together.
Bit by bit, what used to be nonsensical images and scattered scenes arranged themselves in ways I could never guess, all to make a rather coherent fragment of a memory.
It still wasn't enough for all of my memories to be restored… But it was good enough for me to confirm one thing.
As it turned out, by using the girl's flesh as an anchor to restore my memories, I inherently infused them with some of the girl's own memory essence. And so, when I looked back upon the very scene that made me hesitate before taking this girl's life, now played out in its entirety… and with added commentary of the girl's inner voice.
And so, I squinted my eyes a bit…
'It's going to be a tough battle…' Sylvie thought to herself. 'So we need to take every advantage that we can!'
For a second, their group approached the bandits… Only for the perspective to change to one where both the forest bandits and Sylvie's group now stood by one of the caravan's carriages as they discussed a deal.
'Just hold it in for a little bit longer, without the advantage of a surprise and initiative, we are all screwed!'[
The perspective shifted again, this time to just when Sylvie and her group turned around and, as per the terms of their deal with the bandits, started to walk away.
Walk away with all of their money, all of their belongings, and all of their health. By selling the caravan out, they've absolved themselves from any reason that would make them fight the bandits and vice-versa. And yet…
'Now!'
Counting her steps, Sylvie turned at a precisely agreed-upon moment, raising her spells in order to eliminate the most dangerous of the bandits right from the get-go…
The memory ended, the rebound of now watching the thing in more detail causing my eyes to open wide.
And as I stared down at the girl's head within the hold of my hand…
'Loose thread.'
'Unnecessary risk.'
'Get it over with.'
There were countless reasons for me to just… close my hand and squash this particular head into pieces.
She belonged to the group that was supposed to protect the caravan. And while her sin could be lesser because she truly seemed to attempt to do her job… her group still failed, even if she wasn't directly responsible for it.
She accompanied the caravan for quite some time, and judging from the look on her face when I first encountered her… She recognized this body. Judging by the level of terror in her eyes, she was likely to somehow be able to sense at least some part of my strength.
Lastly, she was again, a loose thread. A potential source of rumors about me that would only make my life in this world harder. If I wanted to start anew as some lesser, landless noble, I couldn't have anyone going around remembering how I'm actually just a son of a farmer, could I?
But…
'She's innocent.'
I've come after those adventurers mostly because I felt like taking vengeance on those responsible for the death of my mother. Killing them off to clean up the loose threads was just an afterthought, a standard procedure that provided me with the results that I desired.
And with that in mind, would it be right for me to just kill her… for convenience's sake?
"J-just do it…" the girl opened her mouth, her lips brushing against the inside of my palm. "I r-really don't want t-to p-piss myself before I-I g-g-go…"
The pleading tone of her voice as she begged not even for her life, but just to end her ill fate. The slight shaking of her body born out of its natural, instinctual desire to do absolutely everything possible to preserve the life…
'INNOCENT.'
My soul screamed into my heart, painfully reminding me of this beautiful thing I've long lost the grip on and nearly forgot about.
'That's right,' I internally sighed before clicking my tongue… and relaxing my grip on the girl's head before fully letting go. 'Isn't innocence what made me pick up the mantle in the first place?'
A bunch of memories of my past lives flashed before my eyes.
Times when despite many more obligations weighing me down and the circumstances tragic enough to make a grown-up man cry… things were simpler. They only got hard when I decided to take charge of my life and tread ahead, irregardless of whatever comfort I could gain by simply following someone else's will.
And now, this deep and forgotten desire of mine acted up, forcing my body to pry my fingers open and the let the girl go.
After all, save for the unlucky pick of a team, she was guilty of no crime.
"Even if you are a loose end, there's nothing for me to punish you for," I spoke out while retracting my hand and then taking a step back. "Scram and never speak of me in the future."
Throwing one last look at the girl, I rolled my eyes before turning around and moving back the way I came, ready to now pick up the slack and return to chasing down the rest of this girl's group.
They've made good use of the time I've wasted, nearly quadrupling the distance that separated us before I immersed myself in the exercise.
In other words, they were now getting dangerously far away from me… while coming uncomfortably close to the city I could sense at the other end of this damned road.
'There's no more time for me to waste,' I thought, taking a step and reigniting my chase, only for this girl to…
"Wait!"
With hardly any momentum in me, there was no momentum for me to lose when I stalled my step and looked over my shoulder.
'Is she suicidal or what?' I thought, baffled by the idea someone that scared just a moment ago could actually call out for the very thing that scared them so.
"You want to catch them, right?!" The girl called out right away, overcoming her own fear and its physical manifestation, all to voice some sort of message. "If you want to catch them, I beg of you, wait!"