Chapter 110: Furious Ruti
Translator: Tseirp
At the same time. On a street at the south side of the Central District of Zoltan.
Tise was walking at a steady pace along the road at night with a bag of oden.
Ugeuge-san was on Tise’s arm staring into the shopping bag she was carrying.
There were chicken dumplings, radish, beef tendon and eggs inside. There was no chikuwa because the fishermen were afraid of the Veronia warship and their activities slowed down, causing the price of fish to go up. As chikuwa is made of minced fish paste, a small oden stall like the one owned by Oparara would not be able to cope with the rise in price.
She tried to cope by increasing the number of minced meat-type of choices like the chicken dumpling but the taste was too drastically different after all.
“Unforgivable.”
The Veronia warship had become an unforgivable existence to Tise who strongly believed that chikuwa was the greatest ingredient for oden.
The essential points for investigations were already in the works.
Although it was difficult conducting an investigation at the remote region of Zoltan, during the winter solstice festival, there were Veronian sailors and other nationals who came over to trade.
In addition, although it has already been several months ago, Tise also had the information she acquired from the Assassin’s Guild.
(The Pirate Champion who scoured the seas of the three kingdoms was now at his death bed.)
Of course, Veronia’s king, King Geyserik did not show weakness such as lying on his bed during this difficult time. He participated in important ceremonies and paid full attention so as to not affect national affairs.
However, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, the fate of those close to death can’t be altered. Assassins such as Tise who have witnessed various deaths could sensitively catch the scent of King Geyserik’s impending death from the information they gathered.
(About time?)
There was another couple hundred meters to the mansion where Ruti and Tise lived. After entering a secluded alley, Tise lowered her bag on her left and pulled out her concealed short sword.
“I was discovered huh?”
A long-eared man appeared from the shadows behind her.
It was one of the High-Elves that was behind Prince Sarius.
“As expected, you don’t seem to be an ordinary person.”
The High-Elf gripped a trident in his right hand. And in his left hand was a folded net.
(Even I can tell with that equipment. He possesses the divine protection of the 『Gladiator』.)
Tise guessed her opponent’s divine protection. There was an overwhelmingly small number of divine protections that specialized in that particular combination of weapons.
『Gladiator』was a divine protection that specializes in fighting competitive battles in front of an audience. Of course, even without a crowd, the majority of their combat skills could still be used.
The High-Elf’s well-defined mouth distorted into a grin.
“So strong. But I am not here to fight.”
“What do you want?”
“We have your companion. If you want them to return safely, please accompany me to our ship.”
” ...... ”
Tise pondered after hearing what the High-Elf had to say.
(My only companion would be Ruti-sama but it is impossible for a human to capture Ruti-sama. In other words, it could be Red-san or Lit-san but even if they are underestimated, they wouldn’t be captured unless they bring in around 10 of those Veronia warships ... that leaves me with ... I can only think of the stray cat living in the mansion.)
Ugeuge-san on Tise’s shoulder tilted its head together with her as they pondered.
“You seem to be surprised. But my divine protection has a detection skill called ‘Strong Enemy Insight’ which is capable of telling me if my opponent’s divine protection level is greater or lower than my own. Your divine protection is stronger than my own divine protection of Lv39. Only a handful of people are stronger than I am even in Veronia but I am surprised a hero like you can be found in such a remote region.”
Lv39, Tise felt that it was quite high. A person at that level in the Assassin Guild would be quite elite or a captain rank in the Knight Orders. His claim to be one of the best warriors of the Kingdom of Veronia was not a bluff.
Although Tise’s divine protection level was beyond 60.
“That’s why I understood. Your female companion wearing the armor. That girl is terribly weak.”
“?”
“There’s no use playing dumb. Her level is lower than mine. And my companion beside me has the divine protection of 『Slave Hunter』. He possesses skills advantageous toward opponents weaker than him. His divine protection level is the same as mine. Your companion has no chance of winning at all.”
“???”
“Still trying to feign ignorance? But I can tell like the back of my hand that behind your expressionless face lies a vortex of anxiety.”
(My expressionless face comes from my training and the only emotion swirling behind it are just questions.)
Tise was getting more and more confused.
Ruti’s level was even higher than Tise’s level. She probably had the highest divine protection level within humanity at the moment?
Why was it that Ruti’s level was found to be low when investigated with the ‘Strong Enemy Insight’ of the 『Gladiator』?
(Did it perhaps detect the level of 『Shin』?)
Tise and Lit, and naturally Red as well, did not possess any skill to perceive the divine protection of others. Red could infer the divine protection of his opponents purely through knowledge.
However, they had no way of knowing what kind of information would come up if divine protection perception skills were used on Ruti.
(So 『Shin』 takes precedence over the higher-leveled 『Hero』. Although we don’t expect divine protections such as 『Sage』 or 『Saint』 who possess ‘Appraisal’ to come to Zoltan, there are other divine protections such as 『Inquisitor』 or 『Witch Hunter』 who possess skills that can detect certain skills and level. It would be troublesome if that kind of people meet Ruti-sama and sense an anomaly in the existence of 『Shin』.)
Ugeuge-san was jumping in a serious manner as well. They had to let Ruti-sama know.
“Oi, why are you in a daze? Are you actually higher level than I am?”
Tise’s was infuriated with his impoliteness but because it did not show on her face, the High-Elf looked down on Tise even more.
“Forget it. My partner will soon drag your companion over. Just sit still until he comes over.”
“Oh, right.”
Tise finally realized that it was going to be terrible for the other party. It did feel like she was minding other’s business but she felt that it was better if she stopped the person who was about to kill himself.
“I suggest you tell your partner to come back right now.”
“Is that a threat? But my partner will still perform his task even if you defeat me. He will capture your companion and submit her to severe torture unless you obey. Veronia navy torture is horrible, you know? No matter how brawny the man is, he will end up crying like a child and begging them to end his life as quickly as possible.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“In addition, my divine protection is the 『Gladiator』. I am able to demonstrate greater power in a 1-vs-1 situation like this where we face each other. From the way you carry yourself, you likely have thief-class divine protection. I wonder just how long you can continue to uphold that unperturbed expression.
The High-Elf grinned but Tise was pondering and mumbling to herself “Ruti has settled down so I believe she won’t decide to kill him without asking any questions ...”
The High-Elf was gradually getting more frustrated as it seemed that Tise was reacting dully to his words.
“What’s wrong with you, do you have a divine protection that can only converse with people who have divine protections such as 『Evil Spirit』 or 『Dual Mind』?
It would be troublesome if that was the case. The High-Elf clicked his tongue and lowered his stance.
He didn’t want to fight but if she had a divine protection that couldn’t be conversed with, there was a possibility of her attacking without any warning and having a hostage would not work either.
He couldn’t find an opportunity to do so but the High-Elf looked for a chance to toss his net as he talked to himself.
His fighting style was to first seal his opponent’s movements with his net and then attack the immobile opponent with his ultimate strike which would normally be easy to avoid, a powerful martial art that can down a person with one hit: ‘Sweeping Destruction Strike’. If the opponent avoided his net, with the martial art: ‘Net-casting Spider’, he would move his net to entwine around his opponent’s feet to cause them to fall and then attack with the martial art: ‘Sweeping Destruction Strike’.
It was a restrictive battle technique which would not work on large monsters but as a person who fought on a pirate ship, the opponents he had to kill were all human. He held full confidence in his fighting style.
The High-Elf gathered strength in his arm holding the net and moved toward Tise who still did not show any intent to fight,
“Fugeee!?!?”
At that moment, something from the air smashed into the High-Elf holding the trident with intense force.
“Eh?”
As expected, Tise was taken aback as well and stopped her thoughts.
The two High-Elves in front of her were in postures that should not be possible. The two of them possess high divine protection levels but they would normally be dead in that state.
“No way.”
Tise looked back fearfully.
Tise and Ruti’s mansion was still a couple of hundred meters away.
(She threw him!? From there!?!?)
Tise’s reason and instinct was trying to deny that, not to mention a human, even titans would not be capable of doing that but ...
(Now that I think about it, she had punched mountain giants into the air before.)
Tise recalled that when countless mountain giants attacked them, Ruti felt that it was troublesome so she sheathed her sword and flung them down the cliff one after the other.
After that, the fleeing mountain giants were subjected to a game of life-and-death tag with Ruti and that scene was deeply burned into the mind of Tise who had just recently joined the party.
She was able to overcome the power and weight of mountain giants so, to her, it might be a simple task to toss a human a couple of hundred meters.
(And she even hit her target.)
Looking at the convulsing High-Elves, even Tise’s expressionless face crumpled into a dry laugh.
(She’s truly an outrageous person.)
☆☆
The next day.
“So what happened to those two?”
I asked Tise after I heard her story as I served them salad pasta for breakfast.
“After Ruti-sama treated them, she tied them up and tossed them into an unused room in the mansion.”
“The oden was cold.”
Ruti was angry for a strange reason. From the slight movement of her eyebrows and the clenched fist in front of her chest, Ruti’s action told me that they were extremely bad guys.
Her way of categorizing them as bad purely because they caused the oden to go cold was as Tise put it “Ruti-sama lives in a world apart from regular people.”
Well, that also counted as individuality. In fact, it was rather cute!
“Eheh~”
Perhaps she inferred something from my expression, Tise’s lips extended sideways into a subtle smile.