"Are you guys ready?"
"Princess—"
"Say nothing."
And coughing emblematically in one of my hands, marking the beginning of a speech, I continued. "Gentlemen. As you might well be acquainted with, we're having an issue. My party is unfortunately in conflict with yours." I didn't stop grinning. The kinder elf, Kinder, made to talk, but I held out a hand to him. He stopped. "Now, let's just get straight to the point. We all know here, as grown-up adults that, issues beget conflict, and conflicts beget violence. And, uh, how to say, violence, in its turn, begets… some other things. Bad things. Wrong things. That's why…" My playful expression vanished. "Quite honestly, I like you two. Despite the fact that you two are huge pains to deal with, I took a liking to you guys. So I warn you, by following me in, you agree to truly become my enemy. If you become my enemy, I will kill you. Or you can always go back now. I'm serious. No regrets then? Let's get in."
Pressing the handle of that door— Ring! ? Character's Creation — 1/1 ? I apparently finally headed over to the old man's house within the forest. Huh? I wasn't aware of the progress of that quest at all, up till now. ? Character's Creation — Keep the old man company and warm his old, lonely heart. 0/1 ? No. This wasn't supposed to be a joke. All I could ask was, "Pardon me?"
I froze, thinking of what was behind those notifications. In actual fact, the quest had progressed further to new instructions without my knowing it. Now that I thought about it, I understood what must have happened. During my sleep, as I was forcefully dragged through that forest, the System must have seen it as if I was going about the quest. The instructions I received were validated one by one. And after some time, I needed to head over to this place? What a coincidence. Or is it really? Whatever. I'd think about that later.
Every door loved to creak. If a door didn't creak, then it wasn't happy. Our door, the door that I opened just now, creaked. Very loudly and slowly. It was warm inside. This shelter breathed good energy. Entering the house, I eyed the old man, slightly bowing my head to him. When I did so, he only snorted and I took it like a hello. When he carried it on by taking a very long sip of his teacup, I took it like a "How are you?" So, by giving him a bright smile and slightly bowing my head again, I responded tacitly saying "I was good, thanks."
Aaah, or maybe any of that conversation I just imagined never happened. The old man must have been too old. Or maybe just as tired as I was. I wasn't sure he even saw his guests. Senile old man, I inwardly said, sorry for the trouble then. He quietly rested behind his small table, in a formal sitting position on a leather carpet. From then on, I paid the old man no more attention.
After I got in, the two elves followed behind me. They were just behind me, and their business couldn't be delayed any longer. Or rather it wouldn't. They and I understood that once we were in, we would fight to the death. And so, rather than just being behind me, from where they stood, they had me cornered into that house. That meant I couldn't run away as I did before. Now, even though they feared what I showed them earlier, they were filled with more confidence.
They only needed to buckle down to it, and my capture would be a done deal. The old man again loudly sipped a long mouthful of tea—both the elves and I confused that sip for drum wars, urging us forward to a long battle under the sun, and we began then.
Let the battle begin. I turned and faced them. Ten feet were between us.
White-haired uttered the name of a spell. Holding out a runic sheet in between two fingers, he began to chant something longer. The chant was only many whispers. I thought I'd better hurry. You never know what new tricks they'd have up their sleeve. I glanced at Hideous. From the side, he entered a battle stance, and he placed himself sideways to his colleague. The elf was ready to bounce at me at any moment, now. These guys. They were prepared. Now I could be—or rather, the elven princess could be proud of her little subjects. Too bad for them I wouldn't go down easily.
Regulating my breathing, I sharpened my senses. Without a stance. I was looking down on them, not for no reason. I just wanted it to be made clear by the end of the fight. I was way mightier than them. If they wanted to run away afterward, I wouldn't chase after them. So I was ready too. Facing them both, I now showed them my back, turning to a certain tool, upon one of the shelves of that house. That would lure them in attacking me, I was sure. To my surprise, I was wrong. They truly were prepared and didn't go about fighting me rashly. I could really be proud. Or rather, the princess could.
At once, my body shot forward to the old man's shelves. The sheet Kinder held also shot forward as I did. Was it the moment he waited? Yes. It pierced through the air quicker than I dashed, closing in on me super quickly. That much was nothing to fear. Unwilling to repeat my past mistakes and only concentrate on one foe in a team fight, I tried to give Hideous as much screen time as I could, too. Throwing a quick glance to the side, I saw him. The elf still waited for the right moment to jump at my throat. The piercing runic sheet went to a halt in my back, stopping midair, flattened on an invisible wall. All of which happened in a blink. I was still dashing onward when Hideous stepped in.
"Hah!" Jumping at me as I had expected, he produced a magic rope from behind his back. And I mentioned they had me cornered. Except I was only in their mind. Resting on the shelves I finally reached, there were knives. Some were of greater length than others. In all of them, my expertise in the art of the warrior saw a sword. I inherited strong swordsmanship. After I snatched one of the knives, they had already failed. And then the runes activated: a blinding light shot all around us, robbing everyone who dared look of their sense of sight.
Quickly leaning in down to the floor. I pushed myself down and landed on both hands and feet. From there, slithering like a snake, I sneakily slid to the right. A brightening light had shot up above me, and it didn't stop shining yet—it was the runes White-haired had worked up—I shut my eyes tight, evading both of the elves' attack.
I actually overheard these two's strategy before.
That's how I knew the brightening light wouldn't last long. The runes on the sheet quickly consumed themselves. Those runes would momentarily blind anyone who dared look at it directly. No light reached my pupils, however. Even if it did, I still had Mana Perception. But damn even with my eyes so tightly shut, I could still feel a slight burning sensation and the shrinking of my pupils in my eyes.
Hideous had jumped, and now he landed on the ground where I'd been supposed to be. His eyes were also shut as he didn't want to go blind right now. In their minds, drawn from their calculations, I must have been right in the middle of their explosion of light, blinded and directionless. And so he, the hideous elf, only had to act accordingly and plucked me where I was blinded. He knew just when to open his eyes, too. With quick movements of his hands, he tried to grab his prey, only to find I wasn't under him at all. They schemed their plan, and I schemed mine.
"Huh!?" Hideous couldn't pluck me. I wasn't there. It was only when the light declined that he opened his eyes and saw I was away. Both he and White-haired cursed at once. That was proper teamwork.
While he gripped at absolutely nothing, I gripped at my knife. And so, still slithering, I closed in on him and aimed at his heart. With a whipping movement— "Wha—! Haaah!" He managed to evade me. Instead of his heart, the knife went right through his left hand. Crying out in pain, he held out his hand in a stiffening position. Blood leaked on his tunic. "Agh~! My hand—!"