Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 84

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TL: ALT

Chapter 83 – Unreliable Back

◇Shinozaki Honoka’s Point of View

There was a flood in the Tengumine Shrine dungeon――

I was halfway through my training when I heard the news.

“Honoka-san. I’m sorry, but your training has been canceled.”

The priest who had taken on the role of instructor for my ascetic training said this.

Of course, there was no objection.

I was also worried about my mother when I heard that there was a big Flood in the Tengumine Shrine Dungeon.

I will go to the shrine with the head priest and the other mountain priests.

Thanks to my ascetic training as a mountain priest, I have become adept at running through the fields and mountains.

The head priest says, “Honoka-san has the sense to blend in with the mountains.”

According to my mother, it was the influence of the elven blood I inherited from her.

But compared to my mother, who was a pure elf, my sensitivity to nature seems inferior.

I can only vaguely sense the presence of spirits that my mother could easily sense.

I think I have gotten a little better with training, but I was just thinking that I still have a long way to go.

Even if I am not as good as my mother, there should be no other elves in this world.

If that is the case, I think my half-elf qualities could be an advantage that neither Yuto-san nor Serika-san have.

But it is that kind of greedy feeling that seems to be keeping the spirits away.

I thought about this as I walked along the roadless path in the mountains to return to the shrine, probably because I had been so careless.

The A-class Yakushokaku Guild is small but known for its talented members.

It is said that they could become an S-rank guild if they expanded their scope, but the mountain ascetics avoid expanding their scope, believing that training is their true mission.

In addition to these powerful explorers, my mother remains behind.

She has powerful spirit magic, the ability to scout derived from the elves, and a wealth of experience that comes from her age… I know she will get angry when I say this, but above all, she has a lot of determination.

Thanks to the elixirs Serika-san and Yuto-san gave her, she has been in amazingly good health lately.

In addition, the head priest’s partner, a Shinto priest, is also a very competent explorer.

These are all people who can handle a B-Rank Dungeon Flood or so.

Even though some of them were away from the shrine for training, the rest of them should have been able to handle an ordinary Flood without any problems.

“Something was wrong.”

The head priest stopped in the mountains outside the shrine grounds.

At his request, the mountain priests spread out and ran to check the situation on the shrine grounds.

But without waiting for the results, the anomaly was immediately apparent.

“Daidara at the front?”

The Daidara were walking around in the back of the temple.

And their level was over 1,000.

Fortunately, they seemed to be wandering aimlessly away from the main shrine.

“Even for Flood, this is unusual.”

“H-how about Mother and the others?”

“There’s no response from the guild chat.”

“No way!”

“Calm down. Don’t assume anything is wrong yet. They could just be hiding.”

“B-but…”

“It’s unusual for the dungeon bosses to be everywhere, but that doesn’t mean that Haruka-san has to be left behind. There must be enough power left besides Haruka-san.”

The head priest thinks as he says this, stroking his square jaw with a thick finger.

“…There was a shady man who visited Haruka-san before.”

“Did such a thing happen?”

“Oh, I see. I don’t know if I should have told Honoka-san about it.”

The head priest said with a look of “Oh, no!”

“You want me not to worry about my mother?”

“That’s right. I don’t know if it has anything to do with that man, but…”

In the middle of the head priest’s words, I heard my mother’s voice.

Far away, in the direction of the main shrine.

I don’t know what it sounded like, but it sounded like she was arguing with someone.

“Mother!”

I couldn’t help but run out.

“Hey, wait!”

The head priest rushed after me.

When I reached the main shrine, I found my mother facing a strange, foreign-looking man.

“Mother!”

“Honoka!”

“Oh, you came back just in time.”

The foreign-looking man―a beautiful young man with blond hair and a rough, frivolous appearance―gave me a fixed look.

Chapter 84 – Unreliable Back, Part 2

The eyes―they were different.

There are men who look at me in a sexual way.

As a person of elven blood, I am easily attracted to the eyes of the opposite sex because of the spiritual energy I unconsciously give off.

This seems frightening to me these days as I have come to know the meaning of the gaze of the opposite sex.

There is nothing more frightening than to be judged by an unknown man without realizing it and to be schemed by him to somehow “get his hands” on you.

It is as frightening as being thrown into the savannah, where predators abound, with nothing but the clothes on your back.

I used to think I was overly self-conscious, but Yuto-san actually saved me from a dangerous situation.

Since then, even when I was overly self-conscious, I felt that I needed to protect myself.

However, the cruel-looking, beautiful young man in front of me has no sexual tint in his eyes toward me.

He does not see me as a woman―or even as a person.

It was as if he was looking at a mindless object.

And yet, in the depths of those eyes, a sticky flame of hatred is smoldering.

How can I use and destroy people I really hate?

This man is trying to measure me by my value as an object.

At the same time, by treating me as an object, he wants to completely deny that I am a person.

He is arrogant enough not to consider me a person and delusional enough to hate the person he claims not to consider a person.

My breath is caught in a swirl of emotions as muddy as sludge.

“Stay back, Honoka-san!”

The head priest catches up with me, grabs my shoulders, pulls me back, and steps forward.

“Hmph, trash. O spirit of fire, burn that trash.”

“Nnm! Guaaaah!”

Flames suddenly engulf the body of the head priest.

“Head Priest-san!”

“This is Resist Fire!”

The priest extinguished the flames with fire-resistant magic.

However, it might not have prevented the flames completely.

The head priest fell to his knees with a pained look on his face.

It was a very quick spirit magic.

Spirit magic takes a little time to activate because it requires the cooperation of the spirits.

Even for a user as skilled as my mother, it would take more than a few seconds, depending on the magnitude of the phenomenon.

Even if you narrow it down to the smallest scale, it will inevitably take a second.

This man’s spirit magic seemed to be triggered almost instantly.

This is no different from being held at gunpoint.

Moreover, the power…

How could he immobilize the head priest who excelled in defense with a single attack?

“Oh, you can withstand it?”

“Stop it! Your target is me!”

Mother shouted.

“I was just trying to burn some trash.”

“You mean you’ll kill him if I don’t obey you?”

“Hmph, whether you obey me or not, I’ll only kill those who can be killed. I see no reason not to.”

“Why do you hate humans so much?”

“Well, humans are lower life forms, not much different from goblins and orcs. I don’t even hate them. I just find them disgusting.”

“Is it because I broke off my engagement to you and married a human?”

“Ha, don’t be so conceited, you slut. I would never wish for a lowly elf to open her legs for a human. It makes me sick to think if I married the wrong one.”

“You are so selfish. I never wanted to marry you. You are a small man with a small capacity.”

“You… foul-mouthed woman! If you behave yourself, I was thinking of making you one of my wives when I return to the other side.”

“Oh, I thought you didn’t like lowly women betrothed to human men. After all, you haven’t forgotten the humiliation of having your engagement broken off by me, have you?”

“Tch… I told you something I shouldn’t have. But do you think you can be so conceited? I could kill that monk right now, or I could kill your daughter who is cowering behind him.”

“Hyii…”

The man’s eyes were serious.

It was not even that he had no choice but to kill to scare people.

There was no conflict in killing; rather, he wanted to kill as soon as possible.

The man is holding back from killing me in order to control my mother.

“How did you acquire such power, Clovis?”

From my mother’s words, I learned that the man’s name was Clovis.

From what she said, he was probably an elf, just like my mother.

The man’s appearance, like my mother’s, seemed to have been disguised by spirit magic.

I should have realized that he was an elf when he spoke to my mother in a magic language.

I have the Magic Language skill, so I can hear their conversation as if it were in my native language.

“After the Great Collapse, the world was in turmoil. But it was also an opportunity. I wanted to use my power to conquer and enslave the humans and create a golden world with the elves at the top. But those stubborn elders rejected my advice and had me thrown into prison…!”

Clovis even made a sound and clenched his back teeth.

“I escaped from the prison and turned the elders into a bloodbath. Hahaha, look at that! I killed the entire clan so that they would not take revenge on me! And then I led the elves who followed me and raised an army to slaughter the filthy lowlifes! I am king now!”

“You fool…”

Mother shakes her head from side to side.

“Foolishness, huh? It is against the natural order of things for elves, who are spiritually and intellectually superior, to follow other creatures! There is no reason to let these lower creatures, who do not understand that they are kept alive by warmth and who occupy the land as their own, continue to linger on the land! I have steadily conquered the human lands… with the elves who were enchanted by my lofty ideals… But…”

Clovis clenched his fists as hard as he could, his face contorted into an ugly expression of rage.

His face looked like Hannya in a Noh mask…

“They betrayed me! They threw me into the Abyss!”

“The Abyss…?”

“Harkafia, I’m talking about the dungeon that collapsed and swallowed you. No, it can no longer be called a dungeon. It is a pit of hell where evil spirits of rivers and mountains abound… The hole that swallowed half the world is still trying to swallow the rest of the world.”

“…That world was barely spared from destruction. But why would you want to return to a world in such a state?”

“Of course. The reason is revenge. They must taste even a tenth of the bitterness I experienced in the Abyss…”

“Were you lying when you said that there were other elves who came here?”

“Hmph. I don’t believe that anyone but me could have stepped through the Abyss and landed in this world. It is only because of my firm belief that my soul was not torn apart in the space between worlds.”

“I see.”

Mother let out a small sigh.

“If only my people could return to their original world and be happy. I was willing to sacrifice myself for that…”

“Mo-Mother!”

“But if you want me to fulfill your every selfish wish, I don’t even feel it’s worth answering you.”

“But you have no choice but to obey. If you don’t want your daughter to be killed, you will obey me.”

“How can you guarantee that you won’t really kill Honoka?”

“It’s a shame that I can’t eradicate the human mixture, but that’s a small matter before the big one. If you have elven blood in you, it’s not even possible to turn you into an ‘object.'”

“Object…?”

“Don’t worry. All I’m trying to do is pry open the Abyss from this side and make it bigger than it is now. If you obey me, I won’t have to kill you, and I won’t have to sacrifice you.”

“Ara, you’re too kind.”

“Come, Thunder Gryphon!”

At Clovis’ voice, something clad in thunder descended from the sky above.

It had the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.

It was a magical beast called a gryphon.

“Now you come, Harkafia.”

“How long has it been since you had an escort, Clovis-kun?”

“Get in!”

Clovis, astride the gryphon, pulls my mother up.

“Mother!”

“Honoka, it’s going to be okay. You can rely on Yuto-san.”

“Don’t you dare chirp in front of the king!”

Clovis dropped his elbow mercilessly on my mother in front of him.

“Ugh!”

“Mother!”

The gryphon Clovis and my mother were riding on flapped its wings and quickly gained altitude.

“Mother!”

“You’re such a noisy girl. I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to kill you.”

“S-stop it! I won’t cooperate with you if you hurt Honoka!”

“I don’t care if I have to sacrifice you. Either way, the ritual will be completed.”

“That’s not what you said!”

“I can choose not to, but I can choose if I want to. It might not be a bad idea to get rid of the evidence of your infidelity before I return to the world as king.”

“Please don’t! I will do as you say!”

“Kuku, if I can make you do my bidding anyway, it would be a good sideshow for me to make you hate me for killing your daughter! And if you disobey me, I’ll just beat you to death and sacrifice you!”

“Run, Honoka!”

“Mo-Mother!”

I tried to run away, but in front of me was the head priest, who was suffering from severe burns.

I can’t just run away and abandon the person who was injured while protecting me!

“Fool! Why don’t you just run away?”

“I can’t do that!”

“Kuhahaha! It’s funny how irrational they are! Garbage should be burned while getting along with each other! Spirit of Thunder, give these garbage an extra-large thunder hammer!”

“Stop it!”

The moonlit sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and thunder rumbled in the midst of it.

“Nnhh… Resist Thunder…!”

The priest tries to cast a defensive spell, but it doesn’t seem to have much effect.

The magic the priest is trying to use only reduces the lightning attribute damage.

It does not completely block it.

Lightning flashes through the dark clouds.

Each time, the bolt gets bigger and faster.

When I thought a bolt had gathered right above us, it flashed violently.

Is it possible to see the lightning strike you visually?

The lightning, faster than sound, leaves the thunder behind and strikes us silently.

In my last moments, the words that came out of my mouth were those that called out to my loved ones.

“Yuto-san…!”

Lightning flashed above our heads.

In a world that had gone white with lightning, I thought I was completely dead.

But I was alive.

My eyes, which had been dazed even through closed eyelids, gradually regained their sight.

Fearfully, I looked ahead and saw a very large back.

I think it is a standard size for an adult male.

If I were to compare only in terms of size and muscularity, the head priest would be more impressive.

Having trained as a mountain ascetic for many years, he has the appearance of a modern-day Benkei Musashibo.

But… I wonder why.

I prefer his back.

Is it a reliable back?

I don’t think so.

My favorite person’s back always shakes a little unreliably.

I don’t think he’s a strong person by nature.

He has overcome many hard things over and over again.

He knows how helpless he is.

Still, he fights when something is unforgivable and helps those in need.

This is a very dangerous way to live.

Especially as an explorer, I think it is a fatally dangerous way to live.

But it is the only way to live.

He knows his own weakness better than anyone else, but sometimes he overcomes it, sometimes he accepts it, and sometimes he fights for what he cannot compromise.

I think it is because he is like that that I fell in love with him.

“Yuto…san?”

He looked back at me over his shoulder as I mumbled the name of the person I was thinking of who should not be here and said.

“――Sorry. I’m late, Honoka-chan.”