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Chapter 16
No, he hadn’t flown—he had jumped by stepping on something. Even so, the height he reached without a running start was unbelievable.
A bluish, translucent aura gathered in the air.
Aura. It was aura.
In that brief moment when the wall exploded, he released a massive amount of aura and used the recoil to spring himself upward.
“He can control aura this skillfully?”
Glen, who had landed on the wall behind, scanned the alley with sharp eyes. His blue eyes gleamed with a flashing light, the same color as the aura. It was the same gaze he had when he had cut down enemies without hesitation the day they were ambushed in front of the Gringen Church.
Breaking through the wall leading to the square, a pack of wolves charged. These were no ordinary wolves. They were monsters shaped like wolves, covered in smooth, glass-like ice instead of fur, with a bluish tint.
They were Frozen Wolves, mid-level monsters most often seen in the Colden Mountains.
The Frozen Wolves stretched their necks and let out ferocious howls. The alley froze in an instant from the air-rending sound.
Ariletti quickly ducked her head to look down the opposite alley.
“Master Soga, behind us—there’s more…!”
It didn’t look like there was a proper place to set her down. The pack of Frozen Wolves pouring into the alley even turned toward the houses.
Glen adjusted Ariletti in his arms and quickly checked the situation. Then he said something absurd.
“Baby, close your eyes. You’ll get motion sickness.”
Motion sickness? That didn’t seem important at all!
Still, Ariletti realized that Glen had remained completely calm. Though his eyes narrowed, there was no sign of panic or urgency.
Glen inhaled sharply.
“Sir Tombell, have the people all been evacuated?”
His strong voice carrying aura echoed far and wide. From the other side of the square came Tombell’s booming reply.
“Yes! The square is clear!”
“There’s a child, so let’s go quickly and cleanly.”
“Ah, the baby is there! Understood, Master Soga!”
Glen drew his sword from the sheath at his side.
The moment the blade scraped against the scabbard, it was no longer an ordinary sword. Blue light spread from his hand along the length of the blade. Condensed aura filled the sword heavily.
Using the propulsion from releasing aura backward, Glen swung the sword. A crescent-shaped blade of energy struck like lightning through the narrow alley leading to the houses.
KWAANG!
A tremendous roar echoed, and dust clouded the area.
Ariletti widened her eyes to take in every moment.
“Ughhh.”
A stupid, involuntary sound escaped her lips.
A pit had formed in the ground, easily twice the height of an adult man in both width and depth.
A Frozen Wolf caught its foot in the crack and fell into the pit. Behind it, it was dominoes. The other wolves tripped over each other, stuck in the fissure as a single mass.
Having thrust the aura-infused sword into the ground to block the path to the houses, Glen landed lightly.
The ride was so smooth that Ariletti felt no dizziness or motion sickness. Glen clicked his tongue.
“Babies shouldn’t be watching things like this, ma’am.”
Whether baby or ma’am, only one should exist—there was no way to follow the sword’s movements despite staring wide-eyed.
Thak, thak, chaat, zheeong, srrk!
A chain of strange sounds rang out.
The fluttering of hair and the stinging wind across her cheek revealed that he was taking down monsters with terrifying speed. It wasn’t the wind—it was Glen moving through the air at incredible speed.
At some point, the noise stopped.
Glen lightly swung his right hand and sheathed the sword.
“All done. Surprised?”
The bodies of the Frozen Wolves, their heads and torsos cleanly separated, lay scattered throughout the alley.
Glen dusted the small specks off Ariletti’s back.
Her bangs disheveled, Ariletti blinked in a daze.
“Ah, it’s not over yet…? The square…”
“Hm? Ah, the uncles will take care of the rest.”
The uncles?
Glen gently lifted Ariletti and walked toward the square. The sight there made her jaw drop again.
Captain Tombell was facing three wolves at once, each larger than an adult man.
Thunk, thuk-buck, thunk!
Every time Tombell’s sword struck a wolf, metal rang and cracks formed on the hard ice shell.
“Haaap!”
Pulling aura into his lower abdomen, Tombell strengthened his fists and feet and struck directly at the fissures in the monsters’ bodies.
KWAANG!
With an enormous crash, the three wolves were thrown into the fountain in the square.
‘Eek… to fight monsters with bare hands…’
A real knight existed…
As she gaped, a lightning-like realization struck Ariletti’s mind.
“Wait. If it’s this easy, then…!”
While Ariletti was stunned, Glen strolled leisurely. Tombell spun the last Frozen Wolf around on his muscular shoulder, wrestling it like a toy.
“So, how did this happen, Sir Tombell?”
“Ah, Master Soga. Since yesterday, a few Frozen Wolves have been wandering the mountainside, and it seems they eventually came down to the village.”
“From over the mountain? Father should be at the border garrison at the summit.”
“If anything had happened to the garrison, a red flag would have been raised.”
“True. First, send soldiers to check the garrison. Are these all the Frozen Wolves?”
“These usually travel in packs, so there are probably more nearby. Everyone has evacuated, so we’ll finish clearing them out.”
“They come in packs? Ohhh! That’s perfect!”
Dunken and Roel cheered, twirling their knives.
“Yeah!”
Ariletti cheered along.
‘I knew it! Money’s coming!’
Frozen Wolves are monsters that live only in polar regions. In the north, they’re common, but they’re never found inland.
‘They were at least B+ in the monster compendium. Fearsome elemental monsters even seasoned mercenaries don’t dare touch. Rare!’
At eight years old, in her first life, Ariletti had become used to begging and now worked at a shop that handled monster materials.
“Work” was generous; her job was cleaning the shop that reeked from monster innards and gathering the scraps.
The shop accumulated every kind of monster carcass the mercenaries brought in. The owner took what he needed, and Ariletti disposed of the leftovers.
Her pay was a small room to sleep in, leftover food, and clothes the owner’s son had discarded.
Even that felt like a blessing. Hunger, thirst, cold, and heat made the stench feel trivial.
Yet the owner, suffering decades of stench, complained constantly.
“I have to freeze all of this or it’ll rot. Damn it! Polar monsters are everywhere, but why don’t the explorers go to the Arctic? I’d pay big if they just brought them here!”
Rarity means high value. That means expensive.
‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner? The Colden Mountains and the Teberta Snowfields beyond are elemental monster heavens!’
Judging by the stacked Frozen Wolf bodies in the yard, there were more than fifteen. Even selling a few to the city would bring in a tidy sum.
This is it. This is the chance!
Dunken shouted at Tombell with a face that looked like he wanted to kiss him.
“Today, we feast!”
Huh?
Ariletti froze with a bright smile.
Feast? On what?
“Aril, tonight we have grilled wolf!”
“Ah…?”
Feast? On that precious thing?
