Chapter 174. Joining (4)
The source of the gunshot was far away.
As he passed the square and walked along the main street, the crowd passing by in the opposite direction grew larger.
Enoch was inwardly surprised when he checked their faces.
The faces of the outsourcing district citizens passing by were all contorted. Should he describe them as faces filled with terror, as if they had seen something they shouldn't have, or as if they had seen a strange phenomenon?
“G-get out of the way!”
“Get lost! Don't get in the way!”
The terrified crowd was pushing each other and flowing in the opposite direction of Enoch and April.
As if going against a strong current, Enoch and April walked through the crowd, and Enoch tilted his head slightly forward.
His premonition was not so good.
This was an outsourcing district. Even if there was a bright atmosphere of a festival or whatnot, the essence of this city did not change. It was a gathering place for those abandoned by the Empire, a place where the alienated, no different from a garbage dump, gathered.
But, what on earth had made the citizens, for whom a reality like a sewer was their daily life, so terrified?
Just then, April exclaimed urgently from the side.
“Ah, those people!”
When he looked where she was pointing, he could see a few familiar faces.
A large freelancer carrying a mechanically designed axe on his shoulder. He stood tall in the crowd, watching the situation.
Enoch also recognized who it was in an instant.
It was the freelancer who had threatened and tested him out of the blue when Enoch went to April to accept the investigation request for the 19th outsourcing district last time.
As expected, April exclaimed in surprise.
“Those are the freelancers from our office who came here on a request! Did they flock here after hearing the gunshot?”
As she said, it seemed that he, along with other freelancers who looked like his colleagues, was heading to the place where the gunshot was heard.
“It seems so.”
Then, from the side, April muttered in a voice that seemed to be shuddering.
“Ugh, so many of them have gathered around. I already have a really bad feeling about this.”
Enoch, a little puzzled by April’s ominous words, asked back.
“A bad feeling, why?”
“Hmm… they’re skilled veterans, but I guess you could say their personalities have worn away that much? To be honest, I’m not really a fan of that.”
April tilted her head as if it was a bit awkward to answer, and then, as if the topic of conversation was uncomfortable, she glanced at me and smiled with a slightly troubled expression.
“Ahaha, shall we talk about this boring stuff later? More importantly, what happened in front of us…!”
As April said that and turned the corner of the street, she suddenly saw something and stopped walking, then froze in her tracks.
“……!”
Following April, who had lost her words after seeing something in front of her, Enoch also looked ahead.
On the road in front of the large building, numerous people had gathered, clutching their magic gear.
Above the heads of the countless crowd, a large amount of dark red blood was splattered all over the wall of the tall building. It was a bizarre scene, as if a giant had forcefully sprinkled a blood-soaked brush.
And above the heads of the crowd lined up around, the one that was revealing its huge form was─
“What, what on earth is that……?”
April muttered in a low voice.
An indescribable strange creature was facing the crowd, with its body lowered and confronting them.
Its size was about 10 meters.
The peculiar thing was that it was a strange creature where only the mouth, among the human body parts, seemed to have grown disproportionately large.
Enoch, who was observing it, narrowed his eyes.
The glistening human-like teeth and red gums protruded like a monster’s, and had transformed into a shape like a dog’s snout.
Veins bulged from its jet-black skin, and its two arms were long and dangling like a beast’s front legs. At first glance, it looked somewhat similar to a bizarre-looking wild dog, but the place where its eyes should have been was smoothly covered with flesh, and it had no eyes.
However, it seemed that the crowd was surrounding not only that monster. Whispering voices from the surroundings pierced his ears.
- W-what should we do about those people?
- Are they the non-mages from the Underground? They’re so unlucky.
- It seems they got into trouble while coming to help with the festival preparations.
He exchanged glances with April and nodded.
Immediately, from the side, April repeated a brief apology, and he squeezed through the crowd with her.
When he entered and looked around once, it seemed that the ones remaining at the scene of the incident were the freelancers who were passing by nearby. They were all in a combat stance.
Just then, April, who looked at the front of the beast that they were surrounding and confronting, exclaimed in surprise.
“Ah, those children…!!”
Small children had collapsed in front of the beast.
They were the non-mages who had come up from the Underground to help with the event. It seemed that they were all less than ten years old.
Perhaps it was the beast’s doing, but they were huddled together, tightly holding a child with a severely injured leg, and trembling.
Among them, a girl reached out her hand to the freelancers who were surrounding them and confronting them, and shouted.
“H-help us…!! Please, mister…!”
The arm was pathetically directed at a man who was holding an assault rifle-shaped magic gear a little distance away.
Seeing the white smoke rising from the muzzle, it seemed that the previous gunshot and the blood that the beast had splattered all over the wall were all his doing.
“Hah, this. I shot wrong.”
But the freelancer, who was looking down at the children with an indifferent gaze, put down his gun and said.
“If they’re non-mages, I won’t even get the price of a bullet, I was just scared for nothing.”
“……!”
In an instant, the children’s eyes were filled with despair.
To add to the freelancer’s reaction of rejecting the rescue request head-on, a colleague next to the man who had put down his gun hit his shoulder and started to scold him.
“See? I told you not to shoot out of fear. Let’s just confront them for a bit, and then hand them over to the police here. If we don’t want to get involved in unnecessary trouble.”
Seeing that reaction, Enoch clenched his fist without realizing it. A strange feeling was stirring in his chest.
A sense of justice?
No, he didn’t know. An answer did not come easily.
But perhaps it was because he was once again aware that what was happening in front of his eyes was the stark reality of the Magic Empire. To be honest, he did not feel very pleasant.
When he glanced around, the surrounding freelancers were still looking at the monsters in front of them and casually throwing a word or two to each other.
“…I heard that some freelancers got into a fight. It seems they were mutated into a monster like that.”
“Did he get hit by a black mage who manifested a Unique Magic?”
“He couldn’t even tell the difference in skill.”
“Haha. What a moron. The non-mages are going to die again. It’s not even a strange thing.”
Everyone was only interested in the monster, and no one seemed to be interested in the injured non-mage children who had collapsed in front of them.
Enoch slowly narrowed his eyes.
─Bzzzz.
Just then, suddenly, from the sky above his head, a familiar buzzing sound was heard faintly from afar.
Wondering what the sound was, Enoch glanced in that direction for a moment.
Just as a large shadow was cast from the side, a familiar voice rang in Enoch’s ear.
“Step back.”
When he looked to the side, a large man was standing there. A freelancer with protruding brow bones and a mechanically designed axe on his shoulder.
He was a man from the same office as April. He shrugged and approached me, saying.
“Just confront that monster. It’s not worth risking our lives to fight it anyway.”
“……”
The man who was approaching me suddenly turned his gaze and spotted April, who was startled next to Enoch, and then he let out a low laugh.
“Khahaha. April. I heard you received a request from the young master of Elsyde, isn't this a funny picture? For such a noble person to grace such a shabby place.”
“That’s none of your business!”
April’s eyes shone clearly under the shade of her ball cap, and she glared straight at him.
Then, she pointed her finger at the children.
“That, is no one going to help?!”
The man replied nonchalantly with a ruthless gaze.
“They say they are the ones who came up from the Underground, the gathering of non-mages, to help with the festival preparations. You can ignore them.”
“What did you say?”
“They’re people who can’t afford to pay even if we save them. Let them die or whatever they want.”
The man looked down at April and declared.
“We’re not a charity, April.”
In an instant, April ground her teeth slightly, lifted her head with a swish, and glared at the man.
“Ah really! I! That’s why I really hate freelancers with no humanity like you!”
But the freelancer with the axe looked down at her calmly, without any agitation.
April clicked her tongue, saying, “Che,” and then dropped her weapon case to the ground next to her, opening it in an instant with the impact.
Then, she kicked the sniper rifle that was revealed inside the case into the air.
The long sniper rifle flew into the air and spun.
April, who had extended one arm to the side and snatched the long handguard, looked straight ahead with upright eyes and bit her lip hard.
“Ah really! A sniper has to do this kind of thing too!”
But there was no longer any hesitation. April held the gun askew and ran straight ahead, shouting.
“Get away from the kids!!”
Running quickly toward the monster, April grabbed the charging lever and pulled it back with all her might.
Ping─!
The long chamber of the sniper rifle opened.
As April ran, she pulled a bullet from the holster attached to her sleek thigh.
She threw the ammunition into the chamber and ran.
The bolt-action charging lever, which was pulled back, fed a brass-colored 308-caliber sniper bullet inserted into the chamber and moved forward with a sharp sound.
As April ran, she aimed at the strange creature that had bared its teeth at the collapsed children.
Then, she put her eye to the scope and put her finger on the trigger.
“Get out of the way─!”
The next moment, the muzzle of the sniper rifle, which had instantly heated up with a pink light, spewed out a dazzling muzzle flash in all directions.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!
A bullet dyed in a clear pink light like a tracer bullet pierced the air and rushed straight ahead.
The moment it hit the monster’s body at the same time as the gunshot, the bullet emitted a dazzling light and then ignited rapidly with a small flame.
[Incendiary]
A 15th Rank incendiary-type fire magic.
Whoosh!!
In an instant, a bright red flame erupted from the point of impact at super high speed, and then spread like crazy, riding on the surface of its skin.
As the flames spread to its body, the beast immediately contorted its body in the pain of the explosion. Then, it started to stomp the ground with its four legs and roar up at the sky.
Taking that opportunity, April approached the children, knelt down, and urgently helped the injured child up.
“There’s no time, can you stand?”
After helping the injured child up and entrusting them to the other children, April urgently gestured to the side.
“Kids! Big sister will buy some time, so hurry and run─”
Kiririririririk!!
But the next moment, April’s words were buried by the roar of the beast that had approached from behind.
“……!”
By the time April hurriedly turned her upper body to check behind her, half of her upper body was already inside the mouth of the beast that resembled human teeth.
There was no time to even react.
The huge rows of teeth were already falling down on her head.
In a fleeting moment, April sensed her end and her eyes widened.
The moment the shadow of the huge mouth, which was coming down like a guillotine, cast a shadow of despair on April’s pink eyes─
“Ugh!”
Thwack, and at the same time as the feeling of her body being snatched.
April, in the swirling feeling of floating, closed her eyes tightly without realizing it.
Following that, the sensation of rolling on the ground several times swept through her body. However, it didn’t hurt at all, as if someone who had snatched her had protected her head with their arm.
Finally, the feeling of being flipped upside down stopped, and her back finally touched the ground.
Was it because she had rolled too fast? April opened her eyes in a slightly dazed state. In her blurry vision, a black silhouette was looking down at her.
“……Huh?”
For some reason, a freelancer came to mind for a moment, and when April blinked her eyes once, the person in front of her became clear.
The next moment, April was startled and her eyes widened as she exclaimed.
“Ah! Direct lineage, nim!”
Enoch’s dark blue eyes were looking down at her.
He had one arm on the ground above April’s shoulder, who was lying on the ground, and the other arm was wrapped around the back of her head.
Only then did April realize that Enoch, who had run after her, had hugged her and thrown himself to the side to save her, and her eyes were filled with shock.
“Th-that! Well!!”
“You haven’t even completed the request yet.”
Enoch, at a distance where their breaths could touch, looked down at her and whispered in a calm voice.
“It would be troublesome if you died.”
“Ugh, so close…!”
April’s eyes widened for a moment, and then she suddenly flushed her white cheeks bright red and turned her head to the side. Then, she glanced at me and nodded her head slightly and repeatedly.
“Yes, yeeess…”
For some reason, just as April had replied in a very frail voice, the roar of the beast tore through his ears from the side again.
Enoch turned his head in that direction.
April, who saw it as well, exclaimed with her eyes wide open while pinned under Enoch.
“D-direct lineage-nim! Behind you!”
The beast, as if angry that it had missed its prey, glared at me, and then, as if it didn't care about the children, it rushed toward Enoch, shaking the ground.
He briefly shifted his gaze to the cloth bag on his back, but then Enoch shook his head slightly.
Then, instead of taking any other action, he lifted April by her slender waist with one hand.
As she stumbled to her feet, he felt the distinct sensation of her soft breasts touching his arm. April, held in his arms, met his gaze and exclaimed desperately.
“Direct lineage-nim! Hurry, you should at least escape by yourself─!!”
“No, it’s fine.”
“Whaat?!”
April made a face as if she couldn’t understand.
But without paying any attention to her surprised face looking up at him, Enoch quietly lifted his head.
“Because.”
Before he knew it, the buzzing sound from before was getting closer and closer and ringing. Enoch lifted his head slightly to the sky where the sound was coming from and added.
“I have a Follower Family.”
“……?”
Ignoring April, who had her eyes wide open as if she didn't know what he was talking about, Enoch stared at the magical beast that had already come right in front of him.
Then, he quietly opened his mouth and whispered.
“Sirocco.”
The next moment, a straight red trajectory that spewed out a bright red light fell on the head of the magical beast that was running in front of him.
Ruuuuuumble!!
The beast’s head was driven vertically into the ground, and a huge vibration was emitted in all directions.
As the ground cracked like a spiderweb, and fragments of paving stones and dust filled his vision and scattered, Enoch saw it clearly.
Sirocco, who had fallen straight from the sky, standing tall on top of the magical beast with her bare feet.
Immediately, Sirocco’s clear voice, which seemed to blow away all the surrounding noise, rang in his ears.
“Hey, you know!”
Sirocco, with her two ears perked up on her head, was holding Nano’s drone in her two hands.
She smiled brightly and held out the drone she was holding in her two arms to Enoch like a trophy, and then she exclaimed proudly.
“How about it, you see this? I caught it!”
Enoch smiled faintly and replied.
“Yeah, you did well, Siro-co.”
Sirocco, as if pleased with the praise, had a triumphant expression on her face and spun her tail behind her.
After Sirocco had declared that she would catch Nano’s drone, it seemed that she had actually caught it and flown here.
Of course, this was a deduction that was possible because he was sure from the middle that the mysterious buzzing sound that Enoch had heard before was the sound made by Nano’s drone.
For a moment, Enoch imagined Sirocco flying here, dangling from the drone, and he almost let out a laugh without realizing it.
A flying Sirocco.
“…Wow, wow. That’s amazing.”
When he glanced to the side, April was being supported in Enoch’s arms and was staring at Sirocco with dazed eyes.
…It seemed to have made quite an impact.