Eris

Ten minutes later, the battle drew to a close.

Hilde stood in the middle of the corpses, covered in blood and gasping for breath. Clear wounds marked her arms and thighs, and white bone could even be faintly seen beneath them.

The enemy had been far stronger than expected.

Though there had only been four of them in total, every one had possessed at least intermediate-level skill in a sword style. Combined with their almost flawless teamwork, Hilde had suffered a major setback right from the start.

If Rudeus had not reacted in time and supported her with magic...

The outcome of this fight would probably have been completely different.

Still, in the end, they had won.

Trading injury for injury was not a long-term strategy, but credit where it was due—it really was effective.

Hilde's physical strength was extremely high, even greater than most advanced swordsmen of the various styles, and her toughness was second to none.

As long as she ignored the pain, she could use her own body as a shield.

After all, with Hilde's strength, she could swing a sword even with one hand.

"Hilde!"

Rudeus staggered toward Hilde.

One of his feet was sprained, and he limped as he walked.

"I'm fine. Take care of yourself first," Hilde said irritably. "These are just some flesh wounds."

"Even if you call them flesh wounds, your bones are..."

"As long as my organs and vitals are fine, isn't that enough?"

As Hilde spoke, she used her sword to support herself.

Then she cast healing magic on her wounds.

It might sound a bit exaggerated, but healing magic in this world was truly absurdly powerful. Intermediate healing magic alone was enough to heal most flesh wounds, and once it reached the advanced level, even broken bones could be set as long as the bones could be found and brought back.

Moreover, its use was not limited to clergy.

For example, Hilde and Rudeus's mother, Zenith, could use intermediate healing magic. Back when she had been an adventurer, she had served as a healer.

About half a minute later.

Under the effects of the healing magic, the wounds on Hilde's body had basically closed, leaving only very faint marks behind.

Hilde leaned lightly against the wall and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Counting it up, this was already her third fight tonight.

She had spent the entire day sweating in the dojo, which had already consumed quite a bit of her stamina. After leaving the dojo, she had then gone through three consecutive battles with real blades, two of which had been against multiple opponents, forcing her to use the method of trading injury for injury.

After all that.

Even with Hilde's stamina, it was starting to be a bit much.

Fortunately, her physical training during this period had not gone to waste.

Hilde still had strength left.

On the other side, Rudeus had also healed his injury with magic.

Compared to Hilde, he had not consumed much stamina, and his mana was practically inexhaustible, so he actually seemed far more composed.

"We need to move faster, Rudeus."

Hilde searched the corpses for a while and successfully found a key.

Her gaze fell on the door at the end of the corridor.

If nothing unexpected happened, it should be there.

"This is going more smoothly than I thought," Rudeus said in a low voice.

"Idiot. Don't say something that raises a flag before everything is over."

"R-right..."

"Step back. I'll open the door."

There might still be other enemies hiding behind the door. To avoid stumbling at the final hurdle, Hilde was the one who would handle opening it.

After all, Hilde's reaction speed was far faster than Rudeus's, and even if she was struck by a sword, she might not necessarily die.

The key slid into the lock and turned gently.

"Click—"

Along with the faint, intricate sound of the mechanism moving.

The door opened in response.

Hilde stepped into the room and carefully swept her gaze around.

Dim light illuminated every corner of the room. A red-haired girl was chained to a stone platform, unconscious. Shelves in the corner by the wall held all kinds of strange, oddly shaped tools. The air was filled with a faintly unpleasant rusty stench of iron and blood.

But there was no sign of any enemy.

That set his mind slightly at ease.

His gaze immediately fell on the red-haired girl in the center of the room, her limbs chained to a stone platform.

"Eris!"

Rudeus could not help crying out, and he rushed forward.

After checking her over carefully, he realized Eris was only still unconscious and had not woken up yet. Her clothes were intact as well. It looked as though nothing bad had been done to her... or rather, they simply had not had time yet.

Rudeus glanced around the rest of the room.

On the shelves set into the walls sat all sorts of strangely shaped tools.

Leather whips, half-burned candles, daggers stained with a little blood, vicious, terrifying spiked rod-like objects...

And other wonderful little tools that could not even pass review if written out plainly.

Every one of them was filled with a cruel implication.

Just looking at them was enough to make his hair stand on end.

Rudeus swallowed unconsciously. If he had not insisted on coming to rescue Eris, and had instead abandoned her here, then even if the Boreas family managed to find Eris later, it would not change the fact that she had suffered cruel treatment.

No matter how he looked at it, this was fortune amid misfortune.

If Eris had met some tragic fate because of his suggestion, Rudeus would truly have wanted to die.

"Hey, Rudeus, come look at this."

Hilde's voice came from behind him.

He turned his head and saw Hilde take an iron rod down from the shelf, fiddling with it in wide-eyed amazement.

The iron rod was roughly the thickness and length of a baby's arm. Uneven round beads were embedded across its surface, and the top had a mushroom-like crown shape. It looked extremely vicious and horrifying.

Rudeus's face instantly darkened.

"Wow, this size is really something."

Hilde clicked her tongue in wonder.

She even placed it against her own stomach with great interest and measured it a couple of times.

"Seriously? If something this size went in, it'd kill someone. Do the nobles of the Asura Kingdom all play this wild?"

"..."

For a moment, Rudeus had no idea what expression he should make.

He withdrew his gaze and looked again at Eris lying on the stone platform. He gently placed his palm on her forehead and used detoxification magic.

"..."

Time ticked by, second by second.

Rudeus's nerves were stretched taut.

Suddenly, Eris's eyelids trembled.

Under Rudeus's gaze, she slowly opened her eyes.

"Thank goodness..."

Rudeus finally let out a breath of relief.

However, before he could explain the current situation, Eris suddenly shoved Rudeus away from where he was right in front of her, then sat up on the stone platform, the chains clattering loudly.

At first, her eyes were blank. Then they filled with anger and terror.

"Who are you?! Let me go! I'll kill you!!"

She screamed, desperately yanking at the shackles on her wrists, the chains scraping across the stone platform with an ear-piercing sound.

Rudeus hurriedly stepped forward and tried to explain.

"Miss Eris, calm down! We're here to save you! Do you remember me? I'm Rudeus..."

"Let me go! Let me go right now! Hurry up, or I'll kill all of you!"

Eris did not listen at all. Shouting, she lifted her foot and kicked at Rudeus.

Rudeus hastily backed away and was nearly kicked in the stomach.

She was like a trapped young beast, struggling madly.

As she roared and screamed, she glared fixedly at Rudeus, as if she wanted nothing more than to tear him in half.

"I'll have Ghislaine kill every last one of you!"

"Ugh, what a pain..."

Rudeus sighed. Brats really were hard to take care of.

At this point, he was actually a little grateful that he had not removed Eris's chains before waking her up. Otherwise, who knew how much trouble she would have caused?

"Hey, Rudeus, can't you handle this?"

Seeing this from the side, Hilde tilted her head.

"If you can't handle her, let me do it. I'm pretty good at dealing with brats like this."

"What are you going to do?"

"First, we get her to calm down."

As Hilde spoke, she walked up to Eris.

The latter immediately bared her teeth at Hilde, like a wild dog guarding its food.

Hilde simply clenched her fist.

Thud—

With a dull impact, Hilde's fist slammed hard into Eris's lower abdomen.