A Miscellaneous Journey Beginning in DanMachi: Chapter 46

If she weren't an adventurer who regularly experienced explosions in the Dungeon, Ais might not have been able to identify the sound.

One thing was certain: the explosions weren't very powerful, but she could feel commotion beginning to stir at the edge of the plaza.

"Riveria?"

It wasn't just Ais. The members beside her also instinctively turned their eyes toward Riveria.

At the center of so many gazes, Riveria calmly surveyed the plaza, then made her judgment.

"They're not the main attack. This is meant to cause a disturbance. They may be trying to lure us over there. The Astraea Familia can handle that."

She looked toward the street in the opposite direction. "We'll head this way and keep watch!"

As the members ran toward their destination, Riveria looked at Ais and pursed her lips thoughtfully.

"Ais, I have a task for you. There may be people hiding among the civilians, waiting for a chance to act. We're all too conspicuous. We need your help."

Riveria knew that even if she told Ais to leave, the little one would probably have a hard time staying out of trouble.

In that case, she might as well give her a task and send her off to protect the civilians.

With three ability scores that had broken past their limits, ordinary Level 2 adventurers probably weren't much stronger than Goblins to Ais.

And that was without even considering her magic...

"Okay! Leave it to me!"

Sure enough, the bewildered Ais, who had been at a loss in the wind, immediately brightened.

Before leading the others away, Riveria thought for a moment, then looked back at Ais.

"Ais, if you encounter a powerful enemy, shout, 'Awaken.'"

Awaken—

Watching Riveria and the others leave, Ais slowly murmured the chant that gave her a strange feeling.

Unable to figure it out, she gave up thinking about it and turned to walk into the crowd.

The Guild had set up numerous towers in the plaza while preparing the stalls. Now, they were all occupied by adventurers Finn had arranged to be there.

Although they couldn't directly protect the civilians, they were like stones in a flood, slowing the current. Just being able to look up and see the city's famous, powerful adventurers gave the civilians a strong sense of security and helped ease the spreading panic.

The hardest part of protecting the residents wasn't resisting the Dark Faction's attacks. It was getting the civilians to follow instructions.

After all, casualties caused by panicked crowds trampling one another could sometimes be worse than those caused by the Dark Faction's attacks.

But as explosions struck more and more frequently from every direction, unease spread like wildfire, threatening to burst through the riverbank.

With a sword nearly as tall as she was strapped upright on her back, Ais moved lightly through the crowd, but she couldn't quite find her target.

Bad guys... Where were the bad guys? Which one was bad?

Feeling the terror and unease radiating from the crowd, and hearing children sobbing, Ais grew restless.

The endless cries and roars buried deep in her memories seemed to ring in her ears, and black flames began to surge.

Why?

Why did people kill one another?

Why, when there were already so many monsters in this world that caused pain and sorrow, did people still turn their swords against their own kind?

I hate you all!

I hate everything that causes pain!

So when a figure in a white robe appeared in her sight, Ais abruptly drew her sword!

"Ahahahaha! I, Oliwas, have returned!"

In front of a stall somewhere, a crowd that looked like a mixture of vendors and customers suddenly all donned white robes!

Finn, Finn, you'd had the city's members stationed in the plaza since early this morning. But what if we'd sneaked in in the middle of the night and hidden under the counters?

...Though that didn't sound like something worth being proud of.

Thinking about how he'd spent the night sleeping on a cold floor, Oliwas's smile faltered.

"Forget it! Let's have a good, satisfying slaughter!"

Although their actions above ground were meant to cover for Valetta in the Dungeon, if you really thought about it, the other executives had put him, Oliwas, in charge of drawing the enemy's fire!

In a way, he was the main attacker!

Heh heh. He'd better slaughter a good number of people and make a name for himself—

Just as Oliwas thought this, a flash of gold suddenly appeared in his vision.

Gale?

As he recalled the name of his enemy from their many clashes, silver light swept past, and the slash stung everyone's eyes.

After her beautiful golden hair fluttered by, a warrior who hadn't even managed to resist fell onto the rubble.

Only then did Oliwas get a clear look at the golden figure.

Golden hair and golden eyes, with delicate features that were youthful yet as perfectly composed as a doll's.

In that instant, Ais swung the silver sword that was entirely out of proportion to her petite body and cleaved through an Amazon's body.

When a beastman beside her swung a huge axe at her, Ais cut through both the enemy and the weapon with a single strike.

By the time Ais had taken down her fifth member of the Dark Faction, even the civilians, who should have been surging forward in fear, had stopped in their tracks to watch.

"Is that... the Sword Princess?"

"The Doll Princess?"

"Someone from the Loki Familia?"

Her rapier formed a dense barrier of blades, enveloping all the white-robed figures before adorning it with a shower of blood.

"They've... all just been incapacitated?"

The Evilus squad leader, the only one left standing, stared with bulging eyes.

Though she had raised a storm of blood with her sword, Ais hadn't killed a single person. She had severed all their limbs, and not a single drop of blood had stained her.

To accomplish something far more difficult than simply killing them proved that the gap between them was unimaginably vast.

Realizing there was no chance to fight back or escape, he glared furiously and reached into his robes.

"My Lord!! I offer you my life—"

But when a golden shadow flashed past him, his voice abruptly stopped, and his entire body froze.

"I won't give you the chance."

Hearing the emotionless voice behind him, he realized he hadn't even seen how he'd been cut.

After cutting down her enemies, Ais looked at the only person left standing in front of her: Oliwas.

"Oh-ho! Looks like I've found something for myself today besides that silver-haired brat! If I kill you too, the Loki Familia should be despairing for a while, right?"

Silver-haired...

Noah!

Their target was Noah!

Ais didn't know what the Dark Faction's plan was, but she had picked up on the key point.

In an instant, black flames surged and seethed behind her.

"...I'll defeat you!"

71 The Wind of Mother

"Hahaha! If I kill the Sword Princess too, I, Oliwas, will become famous as—whoa!"

Oliwas was already throwing his head back and laughing, envisioning himself as one of the Dark Faction's top executives. The next instant, a sharp silver flash came at him, and he hurriedly rolled backward.

Rising to his feet, covered in dust, Oliwas touched his cheek. It stung fiercely, and he realized his face had been cut.

"Damn it! You little brat!!"

Overcome by a fierce sense of humiliation, he drew his longsword and slashed at Ais as she charged him again.

But the instant their blades met, the impact from his weapon numbed his arm. The anger on Oliwas's face vanished, replaced by shock.

In terms of strength, he naturally had the advantage. But her speed and swordsmanship were entirely beyond him!

She was only a Level 1 brat!

Faster than Oliwas could think, Ais's sword moved!

Her quick, sharp attacks were precise enough to thread a needle, stabbing toward Oliwas's eyes and leaving him no chance to adjust his stance. He could only parry in a hurry.

But the moment he left an opening while blocking, three more slashes came at him.

Sword light invisible to the naked eye turned into a storm of slashes that swept at him from the front, weaving countless blood blossoms across Oliwas's body and forcing him to stumble backward again and again.

It was hard to imagine such overwhelming slashes had come from Ais's slender arms.

Oliwas was forced to do nothing but defend. He had no chance to counterattack, and even the attacks seemed to be closing in around his heart.

Feeling his courage tremble, Oliwas suddenly twisted his face in rage.

"I'm Level 3! How can I be driven to this by a brat?!"

In a fit of fury, Oliwas gave up defending and swung his sword with both hands, striking from the front!

The unexpected blow forced Ais to stop attacking and raise her sword to defend.

The instant their blades clashed, the tremendous force sent Ais flying. She flipped backward four or five meters through the air before landing steadily.

Even so, the force of the impact was so great that her feet carved grooves in the ground.

When her body finally came to a stop, Ais looked down at her sword.

The blade was already full of chips, and her slender arms trembled with numbness, making the sword wobble too.

She couldn't win.

Even with her extraordinary ability scores and exquisite swordsmanship, the two-level gap was still too much for Ais to overcome at this point.

Then she'd change strategies and hold him off! She'd wait for Riveria and the others to arrive!

Just as Ais decided to change her strategy, a sinister, snake-like smile appeared on Oliwas's bloodstained face.

He looked at Ais, then at the other adventurers rushing toward them from afar, and took out several objects that looked like bright red rubies.

"Little girl, make your choice!"

Oliwas tossed the objects toward the civilians around him, then turned and sprinted away without looking back.

In midair, the objects suddenly gave off an ominous red glow, like iron heated until it was red-hot, revealing the tremendous energy within them.

In that instant, Ais understood what Oliwas meant by "choice."

If she attacked Oliwas's completely unguarded back, she could hold him up—and might even take advantage of the chance to defeat him.

But the civilians around her would inevitably suffer heavy casualties in the explosions.

Would she kill the enemy, or protect them?

A choice with no room for compromise lay before the girl.

But what appeared in her mind wasn't a vision of herself defeating Oliwas, nor the scene of countless people crying out in agony around her.

It was the clear, cold blue of a morning sky.

Time seemed to stop. The girl's consciousness left the blood-filled scene, and amid an endless rush of light, she saw another sight.

'Ais, if one day you had to sacrifice us to achieve your revenge, would you do it?'

'...People like us will eventually face a choice like this at some point in our lives: whether to move forward for our ideals, or stop for the people beside us...'

The objects began to melt, spraying forth a deadly light, while the air around them surged like a tsunami.