---

Chapter 38: The Confused Mr. Fierce Wolf (Extra Update)

Under the patient persuasion of Mr. Nickles, Miss Vilyric finally took the right path this time.

To be honest, even without a guide, this level of labyrinth wouldn’t pose much of a challenge for Priestess or her pet. The rock walls, though smooth and hard to climb, were only about ten meters high.

With a little flying, they could easily bypass it.

If that didn’t work, they could always just smash through these stone walls with magic and create a new path.

But doing so would leave Nickles and his men without cover, so since they had already made a deal, there was no need to go too far.

The maze created by the Wish Sprite wasn’t large; it likely covered only about one-tenth of the entire Oaken Gorge. After turning the last corner, the view before them opened up dramatically.

This was probably the narrowest area in the Oaken Gorge, easy to defend yet hard to attack, with only a faint light shining down from above. It was peaceful and serene, a so-called “one-line sky.”

The not-so-wide path could only accommodate five or six people walking side by side. If it were wartime, this would surely be an excellent defensive position contested by soldiers. No wonder the Wish Sprite placed the entrance and exit of the maze here.

“Miss Vilyric, there may be scouts from Norton Fortress watching here. They recognize me, so…”

Saying this, Nickles pointed at his long sword at his waist and made a gesture to slit his throat, meaning it was quite clear.

For confirmed hostile entities like this, Mr. Fierce Wolf wouldn’t hesitate at all.

“There’s no need for that, and…”

While Vilyric didn’t bear any burden about killing, she also wouldn’t commit unnecessary slaughter. She had already thought of a solution to this small matter when she decided to take Nickles out.

Liliya was still a princess, and she might even be the future king, while in the United Kingdom, laws were mere playthings for the powerful and the strong.

Of course, for a pardon to be granted, Nickles needed to showcase his worth.

There were indeed some unsightly things lurking in the shadows here, but they were not hunters tracking down Mr. Fierce Wolf.

The faint, stale smell of rotting flesh already indicated the identity of the other party.

“Well, well, it’s the rats of the Throne of Immortality.”

Actually, Vilyric didn’t hold any particular hostility toward Liliya’s competitors—the princes. She didn’t plan to interfere forcefully in the competition for the throne; that was a battlefield exclusive to the princess.

After all, such matters held no concepts of good or evil; good guys and bad guys were merely chasing a crown. The victor would naturally be deemed just.

Perhaps some people resorted to underhanded, vicious tactics, but it had nothing to do with Vilyric as long as they didn’t bring their nonsense before her. She was too lazy to care.

But the Throne of Immortality? She truly hated them.

From the previous Seventh Throne, a rat named Plakaka, who had sided with Vilyric out of fear for his life and was now doing an excellent job for Liliya in the royal capital, she learned some of this organization’s motives.

They were collecting, researching, and seeking special items related to the strong, especially anything involving “God,” whether Pseudo-God, True God, the Throne of Immortality would stop at nothing to seize it.

It seemed their leader, the Eternal Mage, insisted on a certain connection between “God” and “Immortality” and was conducting related experiments.

To achieve this goal, murder and treasure hunting were the most merciful methods.

Just what Plakaka knew included deception, brainwashing, physical modification, live dissection, even city slaughtering, using living beings’ souls to create vengeful spirits for observation, and such acts that would even seem outrageous to Vilyric’s current sensibility.

Completely bottomless.

Vilyric could ignore certain morally questionable acts committed for profit since such things could never be eradicated. At most, she could keep an eye on her part.

However, she couldn’t accept pure cruelty stemming from malice. Whether in the past or now, she could not tolerate it.

Having a baseline as a human is very important.

Perhaps the cost of becoming undead and gaining “immortality” also caused them to lose their fundamental conscience and values. Someone like Plakaka, who was solely obsessed with survival, might just be a typical bully; at most, he could be peculiarly kind.

Of course, Vilyric couldn’t fully trust that sly rat’s words, although they had been verified using a lie detection tool.

What it said was all truth.

So for the Throne of Immortality, Vilyric would kill one whenever she saw one.

“Nickles, here’s your first task. Twenty meters southwest from here, there’s a hollow in the stone wall. Take care of what’s inside; its weak point is in the head. A single strike will do, right?”

“…Sure.”

The Gale Flow was a swift sword style that listened to nature, being as immovable as a mountain yet as fast as a rabbit. The most essential part was to cultivate perception, excelling at attacks; mastered to the extreme, it could even mimic the laws of “wind.”

This sword art had similarities with the air magic learned by Liliya in “Illusory World,” which might benefit her in some way.

This was also one reason Vilyric decided to spare the man’s life.

Mr. Fierce Wolf gripped the sword hilt, closed his eyes, and as the breeze brushed past him, everything suddenly fell silent.

It felt like a moment, yet it seemed to stretch on. The wind rustled through the gorge.

Riding the wind and resting along with it.

With the wind rising, the sword was drawn.

“I style – Wind Slash!”

The long sword sliced through the air, and the howling wind transformed into invisible sword energy, racing past the targeted location marked by Vilyric.

With a *thud*, a head dropped from nowhere, landing alongside the headless corpse that had just revealed itself, rolling a few times before coming to a stop.

Instant kill.

“My humble apologies.”

Mr. Fierce Wolf sheathed his sword in a rather flamboyant manner; though he feigned humility, he felt a sneaky sense of pride inside.

To showcase his worth, he purposely executed the most advanced sword technique he had mastered to date, using invisible wind to take off a person’s head from a distance.

Perhaps having been oppressed too greatly before, now rebounding, Nickles felt genuinely in excellent form with this sword strike—it was a peak moment of his years, with a hint of touching that ultimate realm.

How’s that! Even if pure strength was crushed underfoot, in terms of technique, a Gale Flow swordsman wouldn’t lose…

As Nickles turned back, he was greeted by the sight of the Priestess shielding the hem of her robe with one hand to prevent it from being blown about by the wind, while the other hand clutched a crimson staff.

Five golden long spears were planted at various angles and distances into the mountainside or hollows behind her.

Each spear precisely pierced the head of a body dressed similarly to the one Nickles had just slain. The furthest one even hung several hundred meters up on the mountainside, swaying gently.

In an instant, five spears were launched in succession, accurately targeting enemies at different positions, and not even Nickles had noticed when this Miss Vilyric made her move.

“Hmm? Ah, that was okay… barely passable. Just next time don’t make such a big ruckus when you attack and blow all that weird wind around; are you a fan or something?”

Well, I guess a novice swordsmanship coach should suffice.

The black-haired girl evaluated it this way.

Though her guard didn’t say a word, the weird gaze directed at Nickles made him feel like the proud figure he was projecting earlier was nothing more than a clown.

orz

Sure enough, these two women were monsters through and through apart from their appearances; was she even a priestess…?

Nickles could no longer nurture any inclination for a one-sided comparison.

“Okay, let’s hurry up. We need to reach Norton Fortress before dark.”

“Hmm? Aren’t you going to investigate the intentions and lair of these strange people?”

Nickles realized that Vilyric clearly had a grudge against that strange group; otherwise, she wouldn’t have jumped right into killing. Given the disparity in their strengths, it could just be that this lady was simply annoyed by them.

Given that they had encountered enemy scouts, indicating that they might be scheming something, didn’t it seem odd to just casually take care of it and move on?

He didn’t understand.

Also, if we were to talk about anything coveted within this Oaken Gorge, Nickles could only think of the “Wish Spirit Treasure.”

Was this lady not worried that if the other party obtained that treasure, it would pose a threat to her?

“Hmm? Why would I need to particularly do that? It’s bothersome, you know? There’s no need to specifically go after a bunch of annoying pests.”

Anyway, there’s an 80% chance they’ll clash again when we reach the royal capital.

“Uh…?”

Mr. Fierce Wolf was taken aback. What kind of brain circuit did this lady have? She seemed clever at times and then outright silly at others. Wouldn’t it be incredibly troublesome in the future to not stop the enemy’s plans?

But… forget it, after all, he had no grounds to question Miss Vilyric’s decisions. That strong blonde girl clearly followed her lead, so best not to say anything more.

What a mysterious girl. Are all strong people this strange?