WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ The Regressor and the Blind Saintess ◈
Chapter 46: Friede
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The following evening, with one day remaining before they reached the Great Forest.
Vera entered the campsite and sat in the carriage with his eyes closed, waiting for the meal preparations to be finished. Then, the presences that had been grating on his nerves made him frown.
...We have a tail.
They had been following at a fixed distance ever since they left the village, all through the day.
It could not be a coincidence that they were traveling the same road.
The road they were on led straight into the Great Forest. There were no villages or notable places along the way, so the only reason their routes overlapped had to be because of them.
Vera clicked his tongue softly and turned to look at Rene.
A faint weariness lingered over her face as she rested with her eyes closed.
We cannot travel through the night.
He could not demand that Rene press on through the night when she was still suffering from the effects of her hangover. The most important thing in Vera's schedule was Rene's well-being.
That left only one option.
“Saintess.”
“Yes?”
“May I take a look around outside for a moment?”
“Ah, yes.”
He would get rid of those following them.
At Rene's permission, Vera dipped his head slightly.
“I will return shortly.”
Vera stepped out of the carriage and approached Norn and Hella, who were preparing the camp, speaking in a low voice.
“We have a tail. I will take care of them, so please keep watch over the surroundings.”
Norn jerked at Vera's words, then nodded and asked,
“...Are we not leaving immediately?”
“We will stay here tonight. The Saintess has not yet recovered from her fatigue.”
“Ah...”
“It will not take long. I will see you shortly.”
Vera turned away as soon as he finished speaking. Norn watched his back, then spoke to Hella.
“You stay by the Saintess's side. I will prepare the camp.”
“Got it.”
Norn raised his gaze to the sky.
It was still early evening. The night was only beginning.
* * *
Vera focused on the scattered presences hiding nearby as he considered their purpose.
Where had they come from, and why were they following them?
The answer came quickly.
...The Saintess's drunken antics.
The words Rene had shouted while drunk in the inn's dining hall.
“I’m not the Saintessss!!!”
It might have sounded like a drunkard's nonsense, but there must have been people who found it suspicious.
Those following them were either people who had doubted it themselves or those who had heard about the incident. In that case, their goal was obvious.
Clench.
Vera balled his fist, his eyes gleaming as he looked toward the presences.
How dare they.
They were after Rene.
Shing.
Vera drew his sword and tensed every muscle in his body. His mind rapidly began considering the most efficient way to fight.
Sanctuary...
He could not use it. No, it would be more accurate to say that using it would be inefficient.
It was an ability that stood out far too much, and since he did not yet know exactly who his opponents were, it would be difficult to choose the restrictions to impose.
...Then.
Quietly and swiftly. He would dispose of them before they even realized they were under attack.
Vera moved his lips slightly and activated his Holy Mark.
“From this moment until I defeat all enemies, I will not open my left eye. I will take fewer than twenty breaths per minute, and I will not unclench my left fist.”
It was the primitive form of covenant he had used before using Sanctuary.
What he needed now was to use it to maximize his physical capabilities.
“In return, I will gain greater speed and sharper senses throughout the battle.”
Hum...
His Holy Mark flared. A golden vow rose over his dark soul.
With his sharpened senses, Vera counted the presences around him.
Twenty-one.
They were spread out in groups of three.
Vera turned toward the nearest three presences and stepped forward.
Swish.
All that remained where he had stepped was the sound of wind brushing against fallen leaves.
* * *
Vera knew very well how to deal with pursuers.
He could not help knowing. He had spent his entire previous life being pursued. It would have been strange if he did not.
Pursuers generally moved in an encirclement, keeping the groups separated by distances each group could cover.
It allowed them to search a wide range and pressure their target by narrowing the encirclement.
Naturally, Vera, who had always broken through such pursuits, knew how to destroy that formation.
It was what Vera did best.
He only needed to carve through the encirclement with his sword and throw it into disorder.
Slice.
With one clean strike, Vera severed the heads of three people. Without even looking at the bodies, he immediately shot forward.
Unless the pursuers were fools, they would certainly have a way to communicate.
He had to cut down as many enemies as possible before they noticed something was wrong.
This was the fourth group. There had been twenty-one pursuers in total, so three groups remained.
That would not be a problem.
Even now, the power of the Holy Mark filled Vera with tireless vigor.
Setting aside the other restrictions, it greatly eased the strain of moving while limiting his breathing.
Vera spread his senses wide and focused on the presences around him, then frowned as the pursuers suddenly began acting differently.
They noticed.
They seemed to have realized they were being attacked.
One could say they had been slow to notice when more than half had already fallen, but it was not good news for Vera, who had intended to pick them off one by one.
Nine.
They were all gathering in one place. The direction they were gathering toward was...
...The campsite.
Toward Rene.
Crunch.
Vera ground his teeth and moved faster.
Boom!
Vera's figure shot forward even more swiftly.
* * *
Far ahead, Vera saw nine figures gathered together and heading toward the campsite.
At this speed, they would reach the camp within ten minutes.
He had to settle this here.
Vera pushed divine power into the tip of his sword, coating the blade with it. Then he swung it broadly, sending the divine power gathered at its tip flying.
It was an art he had once seen knights perform with aura. He was merely imitating it.
The released divine power pierced through two figures.
Their bodies swelled in an instant, and then...
Boom!
They exploded at once, scattering chunks of flesh through the air.
“Gael! Ron!”
Those seemed to be the names of the two who had just exploded.
Hup!
Vera held his breath and tensed the muscles in his legs, rushing at the figure in the center of the pursuers, who appeared to be their leader.
A clean horizontal slash.
The leader's head flew into the air from Vera's strike.
At that point, Vera sensed his victory and moved again.
No matter how capable the pursuers were, they were not stronger than Vera. The reason he had been moving so stealthily was not because he was wary of them, but for Rene's safety. What followed was naturally a one-sided assault.
Three figures charged at him without becoming flustered. Vera twisted the paths of their swords and made them stab one another.
Three remained. Two drew bows, while the last turned to flee.
Vera gathered divine power at the tip of his sword once more. This time, he swept a wide area with a horizontal slash.
Great amounts of divine power were spent.
The sight that followed was clean enough to make using so much divine power feel worthwhile.
Boom!
The three figures exploded at once, scattering chunks of flesh through the air.
Once Vera realized all nine remaining pursuers had fallen, he erased the covenant engraved upon his soul.
“Phew...”
A long breath escaped him.
Vera steadied his breathing, then looked down with a subdued gaze at the corpses of the pursuers who had retained at least some of their form.
Naturally, he wanted to identify them.
They had moved with considerable organization. Their combat ability... He had cut them down too quickly to judge its exact level, but considering one had tried to flee at the end, there was likely a larger group behind them.
That escape attempt had likely been meant to relay information safely.
He wanted to tail the fleeing one and wipe out their base as well, but he could not move any farther from Rene. That was why he had chosen to kill them instead.
Step.
Vera approached the head of the leader he had killed first and picked it up.
Long gray hair. Beneath it, the face stared with wide eyes, still wearing an expression that had not even recognized its own death.
Young.
That was the first thought that came to mind.
They looked quite young, with a rather neat appearance. If he had to describe it, their looks were so androgynous that it was difficult to distinguish their gender.
Vera turned the head over in his hands when something suddenly caught his attention, stopping him in place.
The ears...
Were gone.
More precisely, scars marked the places where the ears should have been, as though they had been cut off.
Vera narrowed his eyes at the scars and continued thinking.
...Noier.
Elves who had turned away from Aidra. Outlaws of the southwest.
Their androgynous appearance and severed ears made Noier the first possibility that came to mind.
Vera frowned slightly as he considered the thought, then threw away the head and headed toward the body.
There was a way to turn suspicion into certainty.
Vera placed a hand on the grotesquely sprawled corpse and began removing its clothes.
If they are Noier, they should have no genitalia.
Since they had originally been elves, there should be no reproductive organs between their legs.
As Vera removed the headless corpse's clothes...
Whoosh!
Wind shot past directly in front of Vera's nose.
Vera flinched, quickly rising and drawing his sword.
It was not wind in a figurative sense. Actual wind itself had been fired past him.
Vera knew who could perform such an art.
His eyes narrowed. His waist lowered. Muscles tensed to their limit bulged, and his senses sharpened.
A presence was rapidly approaching from afar.
Rustle.
Vera narrowed his eyes and focused his gaze on a single point, watching the slender figure approach through the dense trees with the sound of wind.
Golden hair that shone even in the dark night under the moonlight. Delicate features, and striking green irises beneath them. That figure, whose gender was difficult to distinguish, was...
...Freide.
One of the heroes Vera had fought in his previous life, Freide, the Wind's Bowstring.
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