Ch 23

I asked, looking at my grinning uncle Hermes, "This isn’t the best scenario that my sister has created, is it?"

Considering the Hestia noona that I knew, the current situation wasn’t likely what she had planned, and it likely wasn’t her ideal scenario. Hestia noona would have set me up in a trap using poison or a curse to weaken me before starting the battle.

My uncle nodded, "That's right. She would have wanted to deal with all the insurance you prepared, weaken you with various curses and poison, and then capture you."

‘I knew it.’

"I assume the curses and poison would have been prepared by Elder Mirpa?"

"Of course. Who else would be able to weaken the Anti-Magic Specialist, a great madosa, if not her?”

"That’s a lot worse than sending an assassin." I said, dumbfounded.

Uncle Hermes chuckled. "We prepared it for now, but Hestia said you'd have already guessed it and that there was likely no possibility of using it, so I had given up on it."

"Oh wow, thank you ve~ry much." I said sarcastically.

Uncle Hermes did a light warm up and swung his hammer. "Well, actually, we're not quite ready either, so I wanted to put off bumping into you at least until this afternoon. Of all things, you found out about the sea blockade agreement here."

I also drew my Holy Sword with my right hand and said, "I’m not ready either, so it’s the same."

My uncle and I smiled at each other then swung our weapons.

Baaang-!

The sword and hammer collided, creating a gust of wind. The rubble of the collapsed building flew away, and cracks formed on everything that remained.

- Tristan! Get the items that are supposed to be delivered, then move according to the second situation of operation forty-one!

- Operation forty-one is the appearance of an elder class figure, and the second situation is if they haven't entered the city yet, right? Okay!

Under my orders, Tristan ran off without looking back.

"I think your subordinate is running away!"

As Uncle Hermes swung his hammer, grinning, I dodged it and answered, "Seems so! I must have taught him poorly!"

When the hammer head, the size of a human body, fell downwards, the ground rippled like a wave.

Boooooom-!

As if an earthquake had occurred, the ground shook, and the walls of the surrounding buildings cracked.

I shouted, flying up into the sky with magic, "Aren’t you going to control your strength!?"

"Are you someone I can catch if I control my strength?! And it's okay! I already told them there's going to be a little commotion!"

This was a little more than just ‘a little commotion’. It would have been fortunate if people did not die in the aftermath, but it seemed Uncle Hermes had prepared for this, as I didn’t feel any signs of people dying around us.

"If need be, we can just consider it compensation for what that guy did!" Uncle Hermes swung his hammer in the air. "Enlightenment! Kicking the Air!"

The hammer, which had been flying through the air, stopped as if it had been blocked by something invisible. The air where the hammer had stopped looked distorted. Feeling an ominous hunch, I pulled back, and a sonic boom erupted from where I had just been standing.

Boooom-!

"Ahhhhh!"

The air, which contained mana, blasted out a shockwave that rose high in the sky. It didn’t hit me, but the sonic boom made me lose my balance, knocking me over.

"I didn't expect you to use Kicking the Air like this."

Uncle Hermes had used a technique normally used for maneuvering through the air as an attack. It seemed to be the result of studying long-distance attacks with a hammer, which was difficult to shoot sword auras with.

"It's not really my style to run around all over the place!"

My uncle shouted and sent a flurry of hammer swings in my direction. I flew northeast of the city, dodging another clump of air producing a sonic boom.

"Are you planning on going all the way out to the sea?" Uncle Hermes shouted as he chased after me, weaving between buildings.

"Wouldn't a place with no risk of casualties be better?"

"That's true!"

The reason I went towards the sea wasn't just to avoid casualties. I hoped that Tristan and Lan were moving properly.

* * *

Tristan put the delivery items that arrived at Representative Zubian’s place into the pocket space. Den's purchases were full of expensive magic reagents and materials, gold, which was good for money, dry food and various items needed for the trip, as well as stationery items. Tristan didn't understand why Den was buying so much on a trip.

"Why did you buy so much, Master? You’re really taking all you can from this pushover."

Not only had Den saved Cain’s life, but he had also taken follow-up measures so that they couldn’t mess with Cain any longer. For all that, what Representative Zubian was paying was very cheap. Tristan packed all the goods and immediately ran over to the night market, where the rest of the party should have been. Tristan jumped between the buildings, and when he arrived at a street leading to the night market, he took out a small flute and blew into it.

“ -!”

The flute, which emitted certain mana waves imperceptible to human ears, was an emergency signal flute used during the Holy Kingdom. Tristan continued to play the flute and headed in the direction of Caesar, who was guarding Cain.

* * *

Arrieta was on the outskirts of the night market and sharing street food when she sensed a mana wave coming from a distance. She put down the food she was eating and took out a huge sword the size of her body from her pocket space.

"Arietta?"

Hillis looked worriedly at Arietta, but Arietta ignored her, closing her eyes and heightening her senses.

"Emergency, pursuers, two people, together, moving, current position, southwest, one-thousand-and-three-hundred meters."

Arrieta decrypted the mana wave like Morse code and sensed an intense martial aura, enough to shake her whole body, coming from afar.

Arietta opened her eyes and looked at Hillis and Arwen, "This is Sir Tristan's message. The Crow tribes' pursuers have come to catch Sir Denburg, so he wants us to go one-thousand-three-hundred meters straight southeast from here."

"What?! Pursuers?"

"Yes, considering their martial aura is strong enough for me to still feel it from afar, they’re probably outside the city, and they seem to be elites from the Crow tribe."

"Shouldn't we help?" Hillis asked earnestly.

Arwen nodded in agreement, but Arietta smiled and patted both of them on the shoulder.

"No, not moving according to the commander's instructions on the battlefield is an act that puts not only oneself, but also allies in danger. There must be something there if we go to the ordered location."

"That's true, too. Den wouldn't leave such useful people like us alone, so I’m sure there must be further instructions coming.”

The Denburg they knew would definitely not have silly thoughts like protecting Arietta, who inherited everything from the Holy tribe, and Hillis, who trained as a saintess, but rather would make use of them.

"Let's move for now."

The three moved as instructed.

* * *

As Uncle Hermes chased me, perhaps he thought it was too slow to shoot masses of air with his hammer. He put the hammer on his back, took out a hand ax from his pocket space magic tool, and threw it towards me.

"Hahahaha! You won’t be able to catch me with just that!" I laughed as I dodged the flying ax.

My uncle laughed back as he caught the hand ax, which returned like a boomerang.

"Hahahaha! Let's see if you can keep saying that!"

Uncle Hermes took out hand ax after hand ax from his pocket space magic tool and threw them. First, he threw two, then four. Finally, eight hand axes flew at me, each wrapped in strong aura.

"W-wait! How many hand axes do you have?!"

There were over a thousand hand axes thrown in an instant, cutting through the air. The violently rotating hand axes, each trying to mutilate my body with their blades, did not fall to the ground after I dodged them. They each curved through the air like boomerangs and flew back towards me again.

"This many with flying swordsmanship?"

My uncle wasn’t controlling every individual hand ax. He only manipulated them to bend so that they would fly back towards me when they missed. If it was about five or six, I could copy the attack, but if it exceeded a thousand as it did now, I wouldn’t even dare to imitate it. Uncle Hermes recovered the hand axes from time to time, and when he did, he reinfused them with strong aura and threw them again.

"It won’t be fun if you surrender from just this! Let's play some more, nephew!"

Fewer than ten people in the village, including Elder Weger, could perform this kind of feat. Of course, rather than saying they lacked the power, it would be more accurate to say they wouldn’t have been able to calculate the trajectory and timing of more than a hundred axes at a time such that they wouldn’t collide with each other mid-air. Uncle Hermes likely wasn’t calculating everything in his head either. His success was probably thanks to a combination of our family's unique instincts and his head that he didn’t usually use because it was annoying.

"Really! What a monster! Thunder Arrow!"

I swung my magic wand and fired thousands of thunder arrows to shoot down the hand axes, but the axes, shrouded in strong aura, tore through them and continued flying.

"Just how much mana did you pour into these?!”

Still, the axes’ aura had been shaved off a bit, and their momentum was dampened. I was too lazy to avoid them, so I tried to block using dozens of layers of barriers, but they were whittled down by the hand axes, which still had strong power. When the barriers were broken, I rebuilt them and struck away the axes with my Holy Sword, and shot magic bullets to deflect the axes’ trajectories. Just as quickly however, the axes flew back to Uncle Hermes's hand to be quickly infused with strong aura before flying toward me once more. Being in the middle of more than a thousand whirling axes, it felt like I was in a shredder. As things were, it was not possible to use a method of constructing a large-scale magic circle using the chirps. The moment they gathered to form a magic circle, they would literally become powder.

"If I knew this would happen, I should have come without giving away the Witch of Pride’s Bracelet.” I exclaimed.

The Witch of Pride’s Bracelet was like a life-saving incubator. Therefore, I had returned it to Wayne, the Witch of Pride, who had an artificial heart, for her stability. It was a shame, because if I had it, I would have shot out some great magic, regardless of the city or the citizens.

"Don't jump around over there and come up!" I yelled.

I attacked Uncle Hermes by shooting magic bullets, simultaneously avoiding the orbit of the flying hand axes. My uncle tried to deflect my magic bullets with his hammer, but was surprised by the power contained in them just as I was by his axes, and ended up avoiding them or blocking them with a strong protective aura. Due to my magic bullets, the street below was littered with shells as if it had been bombarded.

"Hmph? For your benefit!? If I go up, you’re going to just start launching great magic! How can I win if you use your full strength!"

"Aren't you being too proud?"

Uncle Hermes was holding the people of the Republic hostage. Even though such a powerful battle was taking place there were no casualties. It was because neither I nor my uncle were using our full strength. We were being careful, because if either side started to use their full power without leaving the city center yet, fatal damage would occur.

"Well, that's the end of this messing around," said Uncle Hermes.

We slowly left the city center and reached a deserted beach. People would have already evacuated, because we had come from Cheldeg's mansion in Peritzbay to the beach in Milion, all while fighting openly.

"Lightning that races across the sky!"

As the sea breeze blew across my face, giving off its distinct salty smell, I swung my magic wand without hesitation and fired all around me.

Boom! Boom! Boo-boo-boo-boom-!

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The annoying hand axes that were bugging me like flies disappeared. In the aftermath, dozens of ships and ports were destroyed, but that wasn’t my business. On the contrary, I felt relieved as my vision opened up.

"Now, the probing is over, right?" I asked.

The elders who had followed me appeared at the ruined port, pressuring me with their martial aura.

"Then let's get started for real." I suggested.

The elders' martial auras collided with each other, causing sparks to fly from all sides, creating a water tornado.