CH 344

Connecting The Thin Thread of Fate

Astray again. The attempts are getting laughable.

After the first shot, the rest of the arrows went well over the wolfmaster’s head. Their aim was so bad that it was laughable. Even worse was the decision to use fire, because the flaming points showed where they were going. This major flaw meant that even if they had reached their goal, he would have had little trouble taking them out. A concentrated volley to set the field on fire might have worked, but these pitiful attempts to hit the target while lighting the trails with fire were just plain stupid.

If not stupidity, then maybe extreme care? So that the princess doesn’t get hit by accident, the arrows are made to stand out…

They might have stopped the average thief from chasing after the person. For the wolfmaster, who had cut the Empire’s Finest’s arrows out of the air, they were just useless distractions.

But… Even though they don’t hurt me, they are still a bother. What is their purpose? With such bad aim, what if a shot goes in the wrong direction and hits the princess? She is definitely not a warrior. Even though these shots are clear, how do they know she won’t get hit?

He was good at blocking arrows, but it seemed hard for the girls ahead of him to do the same.

… A waste of time for someone whose head I’m about to take. Then, the last rites. Consider yourself prayed for.

He told his horse to go faster. He caught up to Mia quickly. He raised his sword and slashed it across her neck.

Rather, he was about to do it when he heard, “On my cue!”

The archer ahead spoke up. Her words gave him a little bit of doubt.

Cue? What for? Was she talking to the girl who had the reins in front of her? If so, what was she supposed to do when she was told? Did the message then have to do with the princess? What should she have done? The little bit of doubt he had turned into a cloud of doubt. Something didn’t make sense.

After a split second, another fire arrow lit up in the distance.

It flew in a shallow curve towards him.

Maybe it was because they were closer, but this time the arrow hit where it was supposed to, making him swing his sword at the arrow instead of the princess.

Then, in the middle of his swing, he heard a dissonance.

Two sharp, clear whistles. Two fletchings cut through the air.

He dove forward and flattened himself against his horse in an instant. He got hit in the shoulder by an arrowhead that went in the opposite direction of the other.

His cloud of doubt finally lifted, and the answer became clear.

Gah… That’s good shot. So there was another archer…

“Tsk… No bullseye.”

Liora Lulu clicked her tongue in anger as her small form stood out against the dark grassland background.

“This time,” she said as she shot a second arrow, “I won’t miss.”

When they were still on the island, Tiona had told her to go find help. You might ask, “Why was she here then?” Well, there were a few reasons, but they all boiled down to “she was worried about Tiona.”

Anne’s agitation gave Liora a good idea of how serious the situation was, so she did just enough to technically follow Tiona’s instructions. Only the bare minimum before going after Anne.

When she got to the dock, a boat was just pulling in. It was the merchant’s boat, of course, that had taken Mia across the lake.

He went back to make more quick money after his first job went well.

“I don’t have to carry anything, there aren’t many checks at the door, and I’m paid in gold. All because one student needed a ride off the island. This is great. I should turn this into a business.”

His buoyant mood did not last long. The scythe of karma came quickly to bring him the bad results of his actions. Soon after he landed, he was caught by people in the town who had seen Anne in trouble. As soon as they put two and two together, they gave him the worst beating of his life, which Liora was there to see.

When she had enough information, it was much easier for her to figure out how to get across the lake.

She finally caught up with Anne and Tiona as they were running like crazy across the grassland.

Suspecting a battle was coming up from the merchant’s confession, she made some makeshift fire arrows and blunted the points so that if one hit Mia by accident, it wouldn’t kill her. They would still hurt, though. By a lot.

But Liora went by the rule that “if there isn’t a hole in you that I can see through, you’re probably fine.”

She likes to get down and dirty. It adds to her appeal.

On top of that, she had also given Tiona a part to play. Tiona was given a new torch and the improvised fire arrows. Her job was to keep the enemy busy and keep them from focusing on her. In the process, she had to do something that might have been more important: light up the area so Liora could aim better.

When it came to her bow arm, Tiona was no pushover.

But with so much at stake, even a small mistake could make the princess full of holes. So Liora had her mistress do the cover fire while she would be the one who would have to shoot to kill.

Liora didn’t have divine providence on her side, but she did have a lot of luck. It was still possible that she would hit Mia by accident. It was only slightly less than Tiona’s.

“Your Highness, I’m really sorry if I hit you.”

…Was Mia really going to get through this alive?

“Eeeeeeek!”

Mia screamed in horror as a series of missiles that were on fire flew towards her.

“Gah! That was almost perfect! Eeep! Even that one! Kuolan, watch out! Dodge the— Eeeek! I think that one hit me! Bel, don’t look up, do you hear?”

Objectively, the arrows didn’t come close to her, but they whistled as they went by, which was more than enough to get her inner chicken to start squawking.

Bel, on the other hand, just sat there the whole time with her head down. Unlike Mia, this wasn’t her first time being shot with arrows. She wasn’t bothered by all the noise around her.

What made her worry, “Rina,…”

Was the friend that they had left behind.

She worried about her so much that neither the flaming arrows in the sky nor the dangerous person following them could get her attention. And even when she was so close to her grandmother, she barely heard her squealing.

“Eeeeeeek! We’re going to die! Here we are! We’re going to die for sure!”

Not even not that squal.

So, Bel’s idea of her grandmother as a strong and respectable person would live on. Rejoice, Mia!

Now, after a while, even Mia, who was a coward, started to realise that the fire arrows weren’t even coming close to hitting her. This helped her calm down enough to look back.

Her eyes grew wide as soon as she saw that her attacker’s horse had fallen a long way behind them.

“Oh, my goodness—Oh, I know! He must have slowed down because of the fire arrows.”

Needless to say, she didn’t even notice how well Liora could shoot.

“Oho ho, what a wimp to be scared by these shots. There’s no way they’d ever hit us!” she said, bragging in a way that didn’t match her behaviour just a few minutes before.

But her brain just worked that way. It put convenience over truth. Thoughts that were inconvenient, even if they were true, were quickly thrown out.

I think I might be able to get away if things keep going like this.

Just as she was starting to feel better, something heavy hit them from the side and knocked them and her back down to the ground.

“Ah—”

“Gaaaaaaaaah!”

You should be able to figure out for yourselves who said what.

Mia and Bel were thrown off their horses and rolled to the ground. Mia caught a glimpse of the huge shadow that had surrounded Kuolan as the world turned on its axis over and over again.

A shadow that was now coming at her in a scary way.

O-Oh no… I had forgotten all about the wolves.

Mia had also been distracted by the fire arrows and slowed down, just like the wolfmaster. So, the wolves caught up with her, and one of them knocked her off her horse.

That was the end. Just a little bit of a lapse in attention. It had cost her a lot, too.

“Offer up your prayers.”

The wolfmaster walked up from behind the wolves. He was already off his horse.

Oh, why did I get my hopes up? This is the end.

As she looked up at the sword in his hand, she thought…

This is where it ends. I-well, I guess it’s okay. At least I found out who the bad guys are. I’ll be able to do better the next time. If…this happens again…

He went up to her.

She looked at them and counted how many steps were between them. Five more… Four more…

She tightly closed her eyes. She said a silent prayer with all the strength she could muster. You might ask, “What did she pray for?”

Please! Don’t let it hurt too much, please, please, please!

What do you think she was praying for?

But the pain never came…

Instead, there was a sharp ringing sound of metal on metal.

“Sorry, but those prayers won’t be needed today. She’s important to everyone, especially to me. I’m not going to let you even touch her.”

Hence, Liora’s bare minimum had arrived.

When she got back to school, the first person she ran into was…

“A-Abel!”

Abel Remno felt embarrassed when Mia let out a loud gasp.