Chapter 131 – Episode 131. Top 10 Strong (1)
After escaping the scene, leaving Verdia behind.
After joining Heira, Ymir finally had time to throw his tired body on the floor.
“Ymir, are you okay?”
“Are you okay… It’s just because I don’t exercise enough.”
She tried to catch her breath by making up her own excuses, but her pounding heart showed no signs of stopping even the moment she left her limbs.
No matter how stubborn she was to refuse to admit it, there was no room for denying that the previous situation was that dangerous.
‘Yes, she really almost died this time.’
Ymir quietly puts his hand on my neck.
I could still clearly feel the cold sensation I felt when his weapon was pointed at me.
I’m confident I won’t blink an eye even if a knife is stuck in his neck, but it’s hard to ignore the mental exhaustion of a life-and-death fight…
‘… You have to be careful. If you’re at a party, you’ll have to go through many more dangerous things than this.’
That’s right, now, rather than being disgruntled or terrified, you should remember this defeat and try to use it as experience.
I don’t know if it was before, but now I have something to protect.
As an adult, he cannot sit still when he has not only an inexperienced warrior, but also a companion who will be with him for the rest of his life, and a junior who depends on him.
“I’m fine, so let’s go straight to Dave. It would be difficult if I spent it alone and ended up in a rough situation.”
Unlike them, who were in charge of evacuating citizens as well as rectifying the scene, Dave has already set out to track down the person who is believed to have requested the kidnapping of Celica earlier.
However, no matter how much you take your own medication, you must be prepared for the danger.
Since the previous battle had not gone smoothly, Ymir had no choice but to be swayed by such anxiety.
“Verdia.”
Do you have a different opinion from yourself?
As she was about to leave, Heira looked around and spoke in a cautious voice.
“Is it okay if I leave Verdia alone?”
“… You mean that armor?”
“That person is strong.”
The road that Ymir passed through.
Long after they left the scene, she looked back at Verdia, who was still there fighting.
“It was more agile than any animal I had seen in the mountains in 100 years.”
She is a Heira who honestly talks about her feelings.
You might think it’s just a mountain beast, but if you accumulate 100 years of experience, it’s bound to rise to a level you can’t ignore.
He only has little social experience, but his skills are comparable to those of former snipers. Such an evaluation was a fact that Ymir, who had been with him for the past month, felt more.
“… Surely. There’s no way a guy who breaks through that barrage is pathetic.”
In the first place, it poured out enough fire to turn the whole area upside down.
Wouldn’t anyone think it absurd to walk through it and bite off an arrow that was aimed at his head?
“Then, I must go help now…”
“No, it will be fine.”
Nevertheless, Ymir tried to persuade Heira to go to Dave, holding on to Heira who was expressing her anxiety.
The reason is simple.
Unlike Heira, Ymir had seen Verdia’s strength beforehand.
“Are you okay, why?”
“Because she is stronger.”
“… Verdia?”
“Okay.”
Confident tone.
Ymir did not explain further.
It was a fight with an obvious outcome that needed no explanation, because she knew best, having faced Verdia herself.
***
Yes, words are superfluous in a battle between the strong.
Even if words or sums are exchanged, only the beginning of encountering each other is usually done quietly.
You can roughly guess each other’s superiority and inferiority by gauging the strength of the opponent you can see and comparing yourself with yourself.
“It’s quite different from before.”
Bardos, who had estimated the Verdia she could see, immediately began to look at Verdia, bursting with a snort at her.
“See?”
On the contrary, Verdia answered bluntly.
She, too, had finished her task of estimating his power, but she nevertheless maintained her loftiness without expressing that evaluation.
The opponent is someone who prefers anomalous tactics, using traps and tools rather than their own skills.
In addition, there is a change in power due to doping, so the ups and downs when entering a full-scale battle will show a big difference from what is visible.
“Yes, the first time we met was when we were carrying out a quest by order of the royal family, right?”
It is an old memory that such an unusual man recalls with a cigarette in his mouth.
It was the first encounter with a new officer who had just taken the position of knight commander at the time when he was about to make his name as a professional adventurer.
“Even at that time, he had the same strength as when he was young, but he was too inflexible, so it was difficult to deal with.”
“But you used to be quite free-spirited and skeptical about your day job. Adventurers are usually like that, but since you have responsibilities according to your position, you have to be an example to others, but I used to disapprove of you, who took even the instructions given by the royal family carelessly.”
“Even if you don’t like that appearance, you are a senior who has been eating battlefield jjambab for a long time than you, but seeing you nagging at everything, I wondered how courageous you were, but such a cheeky junior is now a strong teenager… You never know how the world will go.”
A rookie who is expected to grow later.
The evaluation he had observed at the time was not wrong.
What I didn’t expect was that I thought it would only happen 20 years later, but to be there in less than 10 years.
“Anyway, even the 10 strongest players on the continent must have gone out of fashion.”
“… Are you serious?”
“Haha, what did I say wrong? Except for you and Darkan, all of them are old or long-lived.”
Even one of the longevity servants is currently missing in the fight against the demon king’s army.
Other than that, it was only natural that her evaluation of her newcomer to the top 10 might be devalued, as most of her were either a dying old man or a result of her tradition.
“… You are arrogant, as always.”
“I think I can be arrogant enough.”
“That arrogance is allowed because it comes with responsibility. Do you think you deserve it, for abandoning that responsibility and running away into the shadows?”
“Haha, it is said that with great power comes great responsibility. Do this or that while looking forward to what I said to eat and live well… Are you very sick of it?”
The 10 strongest players on the continent.
At first he thought he was a big man, but it didn’t take long to realize that it was just a sham excuse to lead the crowd.
They arbitrarily appoint them to the position and treat them as criminals if they don’t follow their advice, but how could they be glad to have become an adventurer for the sake of a freewheeling life?
“In that sense, living in the shadows is the best. No alcohol, no drugs, no women… Here, if I have the strength, no one will nag me and I can do whatever I want.”
Of course, I’m tired of all that, but if I look for something stimulating to replace him, I’ll find it again someday.
However, the problem is that the other person is bad enough to induce sympathy for him.
“… In the past, I thought he was still a light-hearted guy, but looking back on it, he’s pretty trashy. Bardos.”
“If you come here and play a little, you will understand. Of course, in your mind, nothing will ever come in your lifetime.”
A paladin who gave everything to the cause fell into the shadows.
Such a thing would not happen unless she was suppressed by the hands of her superior and forced into her sex slave.
Yes, I don’t know how strong it is, but that loftiness is something I can’t defeat.
While watching that, Verdia quietly closed her eyes and revealed her true feelings to Bardos.
“… Surely we won’t understand each other. Even if we are in the same position, the gaze we see is different from beginning to end.”
An adventurer who yearned for freedom in search of a life unrestrained by anything had no choice but to walk a different fate than a knight who swore to sacrifice his body and mind for a greater cause.
Verdia understood that too, so she decided not to harbor the weak heart of correcting Bardos’s heart.
“If you still have pride in your power… Won’t you say you’re going to run away now?”
Just bump
I only think about it and gather my heart in front of him.
“… It should be. I’m also a body with pride.”
I want to refrain from losing battles, but since I am definitely a junior, should I run away from here?
With such confidence, Bardos gently removes the clothes covering his body.
At the same time as his clothes fluttered, the blue smoke that leaked from his mouth covered all directions, and his tempered body began to appear in front of Verdia.
A body that has been trained without change even after living a prodigal life.
It can be said that the power derived from it is no different from before.
It just fell into the shadows, and the dagger held in that hand could never be said to have rusted.
“Then let’s check it out. How strong is the junior who came to fight this Bardos alone!”
A youthful voice.
Together with him, he deeply sucked the cigarette in his mouth, his eyes flashed, and the blood flow throughout his body began to accelerate like crazy.
The physical ability explosively increased by the drug made it easy to receive the mana attracted by the heightened mind, and the explosion of physical force created by adding all of that turned the body into an afterimage.
– Wedges!
A noise too sharp for the body to cut through the air. When he realized that he had heard the sound, Bardos’ body was already positioned behind Verdia.
Speed amplified by a unique step method.
A slash that exerted all its might by receiving such acceleration would sever the target’s neck at once.
‘If I can’t stop it, I will die.’
No, even if I block it, I will cut it out with the guard.
If you could release her secretly collected mana all at once while talking to her.
– Hard!!
However, as if denying such an expectation face to face, the dagger in Bardos’ hand could not pierce Verdia’s neck.
Not blocked Vardos’s dagger had already reached her throat.
Even though his neck was wrapped in armor, his dagger had the power to sever the entire armor and suffocate it.
‘What is this…’
Like a steel wall…
It felt like hitting the shield used by the previous archmage with bare hands.
‘No, it’s different, it’s not just hard.’
Yes, if it was just hard, it would not be able to withstand the collision and would have to be pushed away, but her body, which received my sword with her neck, did not show a single shake from the spot.
It’s not just solid, it seems to be accompanied by an absurd weight.
“It’s light.”
As if to show that the evaluation was not an illusion, Verdia immediately spoke to Bardos.
“It is infinitely light.”
A voice that is not much different from before, even after entering battle.
Bardos, who was wary of his attitude, which was so quiet that even felt bored, hurriedly stepped back from his seat and stared at Verdia.
“… What did you do you.”
Shaking hands and cold sweat on his face.
By the time her first laid-back attitude disappeared, Verdia let out a deep breath and said,
“Bardos. You must have thought I was weaker than you when you first saw me.”
Yeah, at least on the surface.
Her physical abilities and her sense of the mana that was guided by her unconsciousness, her approximate strength could be said to be one step below her own.
He will struggle harder than the two people he faced before, but he’s not an opponent he can’t win.
“That assessment is not wrong.”
Verdia didn’t deny that either.
“Maybe I’m much weaker now than I was when you just rose to the position of a strong teenager.”
Still, she doesn’t give up.
I still maintain a lofty attitude and gradually spread the power I created by forming my heart.
“But I am not alone.”
Before long, the brilliance that covered its body was overlaid on its armament, and it gradually took shape.
It is the power of the mind that cannot be measured with the eyes. Equipment crafted from the faith of a priest.
“Even if I stand alone on the battlefield, everything I have to protect behind me is giving me strength…”
The brilliant armor that was finally made embodies the armament of the goddess that exists in mythology.
Even though her body could not exceed human limits, her heart was an equipment that only those who reached the sky were allowed to wear.
“Yes, I am a vassal who has sworn allegiance to the Argentine royal family, and a shrine maiden who serves the god of war. A warrior who wanted to shoulder all the responsibility that came from it…”
Anyone who encounters the equipment will realize it.
What she sees in her eyes is her responsibility…
That it is the weight of the great task of carrying all of humanity.
“Bardos, can you really handle it?”
A heavy shield created by forging such a responsibility.
In front of the renegade who took responsibility at this moment, she began to show off her brilliance.
