In fact, for the Tin Knight’s party, attracting someone’s gaze or attention was almost an everyday occurrence.

Three beautiful women, each different in type but all striking and one full-body armor, always perfectly armed regardless of indoor, outdoor, or season.

Hoping not to draw people’s eyes like this would be truly unconscionable. Especially a certain witch.

But that was only in the heart of the city, and now the carriage was running through a forest.

More precisely, it was a space where a wide forest had been cleared in a straight line as if shaved with hair clippers, with a road made in the center for carriages to pass through.

Naturally, it wasn’t a place where there should be many signs of people, and all that could be seen to the left and right were just dense trees.

Feeling gazes, and multiple gazes at that, in such a place was clearly not a normal situation.

“Bandits?”

Dorothea offered a plausible guess.

It would be extremely odd for ordinary people to hide in such a forest and monitor passing carriages, but she said that if they were bandits, a type of humanoid magic beast—according to the Tin Knight—it could certainly be possible.

“Sophia, try increasing the carriage’s speed a bit.”

“Yes.”

Receiving Dorothea’s instruction, Sophia moved to the coachman’s seat.

If she had grabbed the reins here, another disaster would have occurred, but fortunately, controlling the golem horse only required a few command words.

Soon after, the carriage’s speed, which had been “about the light trot of an ordinary horse”, suddenly jumped to a level that couldn’t be caught up with by an ordinary horse.

Even though they were riding in a carriage equipped with all sorts of devices for shock absorption and weight adjustment, the rough vibrations hit their bodies and the cargo compartment shook.

While Dorothea used partially summoned undead arms to hold Adelaide and the Tin Knight’s bodies from falling off, Gale shouted, “The gazes can’t keep up and are falling away!”

“Good, then at this rate─”

Dorothea’s words couldn’t continue to the end.

A sudden wave of mana felt from the surroundings distinctly touched her skin.

Dorothea’s staff resonated. Magic characters floated around Gale’s body.

And the White Knight leaped towards the air.

Boom!

The ice chunk falling towards the carriage was shattered into several pieces and scattered by the White Knight’s single strike.

Seeing a fragment the size of a human torso brush past the side of the carriage, Dorothea’s face hardened.

This wasn’t simply an attack for the purpose of restraint.

It was a magic with enough power that if the people riding in this carriage had been ordinary, it wouldn’t have been strange if they had been pierced along with the carriage and perished.

A witch’s scale must be accurate.

Once an attack with killing intent was received, the counterattack must also contain equal killing intent.

Just as Dorothea was about to draw up mana, Gale stopped her, “Wait a moment, please.”

“Why?”

Dorothea’s attitude was indifferent.

If Gale had said something like “we shouldn’t kill people recklessly” here, she would have entered combat even if it meant ignoring their friendship so far.

But Gale’s answer was different.

“The opponents seem to be people we know. There’s no need to unnecessarily reveal our strength, so let’s observe for now.”

Even to Dorothea, this seemed like a reasonable statement, so instead of wasting time with pointless objections, she made a chin gesture as if to say, “Do whatever.”

Gale smiled brightly and climbed onto the roof, passing the coachman’s seat of the stopped carriage.

“In the name of Gale Elilaz, 4th rank mage of the Tower of Protection, mentee of Orin, the Witch of the North! Reveal your identities!”

Perhaps borrowing the power of magic characters, although it didn’t seem like she raised her voice much, it resounded loudly throughout the surrounding area.

Simultaneously, most of the mana waves that had been felt from various places around, seemingly about to continue the ice magic attack, hesitated.

The word “most” meant that there were some who didn’t.

Swoosh!

A thin, elongated object, with the distinctive sound of piercing the air.

An ice chunk, compressed to its limit and transformed into something like a spear, was shot straight towards Gale’s brow.

Of course, the White Knight wouldn’t just watch this happen.

The ice spear, forcibly twisted off course by the White Knight, not only penetrated a nearby rock but also dug deep into the ground behind it.

It was a ferocious power that could have pierced through even a fully armored knight.

However, Gale’s expression remained calm.

As if to say that her knight wouldn’t fail to handle even this level of attack.

She smirked nonchalantly, “To attack even after I’ve revealed my name… Should I take this as a declaration of war?”

The answer came from the air, “Please don’t say such frightening things.”

It was a beautiful young man with long silver-white hair.

His appearance, with white cold air overflowing around his body, was as mysterious as a fairy from a fairy tale.

“Aren’t people’s reaction speeds all different? It’s quite difficult to cancel a magic that was already being cast so quickly, you see.”

“Ah, for someone with such slow reactions, the precision of the attack was quite high. As if you aimed right after I climbed onto the carriage.”

“It must be your imagination.”

It was a brazen answer without even a hint of guilt or apology.

Of course, Gale wasn’t an ordinary character either.

“Well, alright. People can make mistakes. After always ordering subordinates around, your body might be slow when you have to act yourself. I understand it all. Still, you have the due diligence to lift your bottom from the chair, so I think it’s truly an exemplary attitude.”

The young man’s face twisted harshly, but only for a moment.

He soon spoke with a calm expression, “I’m sorry for attacking. We were trying to stop an unidentified intruder from entering a restricted area, but when the carriage suddenly accelerated, we ‘had no choice’ but to use force.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard that the area ahead is restricted. We used to move around freely before.”

“It’s fortunate that you know now. Then, will you turn back?”

“What if we need to continue?”

“Look here, Gale Elilaz. I’ll return the words you said earlier right back to you.”

Floating in the air, the young man looked down on Gale arrogantly.

“Are you saying you’d make a declaration of war against our Tower of Control?”

Swish.

Several shadows rose around the young man.

They were all emitting ominous mana, and their numbers easily exceeded several dozen.

…It seems they’re subtly hoping for a fight. Do they believe they can win if it’s just me and Sig as opponents?

It was somewhat ambiguous to evaluate it as arrogance.

This was a combat unit possessed by one of the four pillars supporting the Magic State.

Human weapons that could turn an entire large domain into a wasteland in less than a day if judging by pure destructive power alone.

Rather, the fact that a fight could be established with just the two of them against such people proved how exceptional Gale and the White Knight were.

And now, inside the carriage, forces that even surpassed these two were on standby.

Gale judged.

We’d definitely win if we fought.

The problem was that winning like that wouldn’t be the end.

Although it looked like quite a main force unit given that it included one of the royal family members, even if they annihilated these people, the Tower of Control had plenty of other forces.

Gale’s role now was that of a guide.

She couldn’t arbitrarily decide on something that might influence their future course of action, even if she was guiding the way.

“I understand. Then let’s turn back. But, can you at least tell us the reason for the restriction?”

“It’s a secret.”

After answering coldly, the young man disappeared into the forest.

The remaining mages stared at Gale as if urging her, and she shrugged her shoulders before entering the carriage.

“—We need to retreat for a bit and have a meeting, don’t we?”

***

“So, to summarize, the Tower of Control guys have surrounded that forest where the incident occurred and are prohibiting entry, is that it?”

“Yes, Jeras Rognir, who came forward as their representative, is one of their royalty. He’s in a position that would rank within the top ten, even considering the entire Tower of Control. Seeing such a figure guarding with an elite unit, it means they’re quite serious about this matter.”

“You don’t know what they’re doing here?”

“Well, as they’re the parties involved in the incident, there could be any number of reasons. There are so many possibilities that it’s difficult to speculate. What are we going to do?”

“Since we were attacked, we should strike back. The problem is how to strike back.”

Dorothea fell into thought while fiddling with her fallen hair.

“…We’ll have to change the plan. Originally, we were going to investigate the forest and then go up to the tower, but it might be better to just pass through the forest and go straight to where the Tower of Protection is. Gale. You go visit the tower. Find out if your mentor is there or not, what the atmosphere is like, things like that.”

“I could even try sneaking into the forest, you know?”

“You can’t take Sophia with you. Without the Chalice of Tuberose, a proper investigation is impossible, anyway.”

“That’s true. I’ll try to hurry, but it will still take about two days.”

“Finish within a day, if possible.”

“I’ll try my best, so please take care of Sig in the meantime. Sig, you protect the people here too. Ah, you don’t need to protect the Tin Knight though.”

The White Knight seemed displeased with Gale’s solo action, but the White Witch soothed the knight by holding his hand, then stomped her foot on the ground.

Right after, the girl’s body disappeared like a mirage.

The White Knight stared blankly at where the girl had been for a moment, then climbed onto the roof and settled there as if it were his place.

Sophia said, “A reliable temporary guard. So, what’s your plan?”

“First, we need information. The problem is, we can’t use ordinary methods.”

Whether scattering souls or small mice, Dorothea needed some additional processes to obtain the information gathered by the undead.

Like creating separate observation means by embedding jewels in mice, or raising the level of the undead enough to perform delicate reconnaissance work and possess the intelligence to explain it.

The problem was that those who had sealed off the forest now were mages, and elite ones at that, ranking among the top levels of the continent.

The more functions attached to the undead, the stronger their presence and contained mana became, and excellent mages could naturally detect this.

But if the undead were of such a low level as to not be detected, even if scattered throughout the forest, Dorothea had no way to obtain information through them.

To Dorothea’s explanation, Sophia said, “Then, why not reverse the order?”

“Reverse?”

“Scatter low-level undead that are difficult to detect to collect information first, and extract it later.”

“No, hey, necromancy isn’t that conven…”

Dorothea’s words trailed off.

As if recalling something, her blue eyes widened.

Sophia smiled and lightly tapped her chest with her fingertip.

“Even magic experts are honestly amazed by abilities other than magic, as we’ve already experienced at the Tower of Foresight.”

“…You obtaining that chalice is both the best and worst thing in many ways.”

“Thank you for the compliment. Ah, by the way, aren’t you going to wake those two?”

“Let’s leave them for now. Whether it’s mental care for Adel or power enhancement, it’s better to do it when we can.”

***

[The ‘Tin Knight’ instructs to input ↑ ← ↓ → A to make the enemy explode!]

“I don’t understand!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says there’s also ← → A B!]

“No, I mean!”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that lately, too many unnecessary buffs have been added, leading to bad habits of a DPS-focused player!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ points out that power must be used efficiently!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that just as when throwing a punch, power flows from the toes through the waist to the shoulder and fist, enhancement too can maximize power by focusing on strengthening parts according to the flow of power rather than simple full-body enhancement!]

Whack!

René’s side burst open with a single kick.

Snap!

Gerhardt’s upper and lower body completed their separation.

Fortunately, as they seemed likely to depart on the same day, that separation wouldn’t be too long.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that since the two challenges seem to have been successful, it’s time to move on to the next stage!]

Like a gamer freed from daily fatigue limits turning into a demon.

Receiving training from the Tin Ghost, who had broken free from the constraints of stamina, mana, and other limitations, the little lion gradually sharpened her fangs.

***

https://ko-fi.com/genesisforsaken