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Once I successfully dealt with Lichtenberg, I headed leisurely towards the capital. Since he left the city so carelessly, I still had quite a bit of time on my hands.

In that case, there should be no problem to say hi to Cortina and Finia before I reverted.

As I was thinking that, I felt strong killing intent directed my way from the forest depths.

“—!? Who is it!”

Killing intent… No, this was better to call pure hatred. I immediately took out my threads and became alert. Then, part of the forest’s dark part crumbled as if melting down, reforming into a human silhouette.

“A… Person?”

The one appearing before me was a boy looking to be 15-16 years of age. He had a sword and leather armor, but it wasn’t a weird getup for an Adventurer.

That said, there was not a fragment of childish innocence in the aura he gave off.

“Good grief, I came to check the state of preparations, it turned out that he was easily killed off. And the killer turns out to be someone I know.”
“…But I don’t recognize you.”

I didn’t recognize the boy’s face. Thus, I responded honestly, but his expression warped before my eyes.

“I’m Kufar. But… Ah yes, of course, you’re always like that. You never care about the people you have killed!”
“Now that’s a false accusation. I believe I remember the faces of people I’ve killed to an extent.”
“And you don’t seem to have changed, huh? No, it seems like you’re disguised using some magic item or something?”
“What?”

Hearing that, it finally hit me. Same as how I was using Polymorph to transform myself, this guy might be doing the same too with a similar spell.

If he was using a different appearance, it was natural that I wouldn’t recognize him.

“I see, so you’re also transformed into—”
“Shut up!”

As I was saying that, his tempter suddenly erupted. Right after his face twitched strangely, he kicked the ground and rushed at me. He seemed to have lost himself in rage, he forgot to even use the sword on his waist.

“…Coming at me empty-handed huh. Looks like I’m being underestimated here!”

I shook off his hand aiming for my head with my left hand. But then, I felt a burning heat on my arm.

“Ouch, you b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲, you’re using acid again!?”
“I’ll kill you… Reidddd!”
“You’re no longer sane, huh?”

I thought he was coming at me empty-handed… But looks like he was hiding acid… or may even some poison there.

In that case, I felt it would be too dangerous to carelessly touch him with my hands. Thus, I kicked his chest and used the recoil to open some distance between us.

He didn’t take significant damage due to his tough leather armor, but it was good enough that I managed to take distance.

“Like I’d let you run!”
“Who’s running!”

I only gained about a meter distance. But this was the range of a sword. I often faced enemies that used swords, so this was the distance that made me most alert. However, I had my katana with me now. And against an empty-handed opponent, it was more advantageous for me.

Leaving my extracted threads as is, I put my hand on the katana and prepared to make a drawing slash. The slash that utilized my enhanced abilities moved swiftly like a flash and mowed down his neck.

The timing made it impossible to dodge it. And it should have taken his head off without a doubt. However, his head remained in place, and the blade passed through it, feeling as if it was cutting through the water.

“What?”
“Ahahaha! That won’t work on me!”
“S̲h̲i̲t̲…!”

I immediately let my thread fly and tried to tie the arm that he extended towards me. But even that passed through it, leaving that sliding sensation again.

It was possible that he was casting an illusion on some non-human familiar or something.

“I see, so you’re not human—”
“I said shut up!”

I wasn’t as proficient in magic as Maxwell or Maria. Within the sword interval, his attack would be faster than my spells.

To maintain the distance, I kicked up the ground to blind him. But Kufar didn’t pay it any heed and rushed at me.

“Taake thiisss!”

He didn’t care even if the dirt hit his face. But since he was charging, he wouldn’t be able to stop right away.

I decided to move forward instead of retreating behind. Considering he was using acid, he probably didn’t consider that I would enter into such extreme close-quarters combat with him.

He looked surprised for a moment, but then aimed for my face as if trying to mow me down. Still, he couldn’t keep up with my speed. His swing failed to land on me and simply hit the empty space. Then I slipped past his arm and passed behind him. Without stopping, dived into a roll and took more distance. Then as I got up, I constructed a magic circle and started chanting.

“Crimson Four, Gold One, Jade Five—!”

I poured a lot of magic into it and was about to use the Dispell spell, but then I remembered about the incident where Maxwell was sabotaged in the north. About the enemy who managed to disguise himself inside the Adventurer’s Guild that was supposed to block any use of magic.

If this man was the same person, Dispel would have no effect. In which case, it was more likely that his disguise was a skill or an ability similar to a Gift. As for the spell that could nullify that…

“—Jamming!”

I immediately revised my magic circle and used another spell. Both Dispell and Jamming were similar in that they both caused a disturbance, so their magic circles resembled each other too, fortunately.

The jamming spell was ranked high among the middle-grade spells, and it obstructed the maintenance of various effects. Moreover, the magic power I put into it was about four times more than normal, so it was a little excessive. Unless it was truly something extraordinary, there should be nothing this spell couldn’t cancel.

To note, if it was used against me now, it would naturally return me to Nicole’s form.

“G-GHAAAAAAAAHHH!”

Kufar raised a scream for some reason and stopped moving the moment the spell was cast on him. It only canceled things affecting the target, so it didn’t deal any pain.

But he was writhing in agony and desperately twisting his body, trying to resist the spell with all his might.

Still, he had no hope of that considering I put four times the magic power into it. And in the first place, the moment I made the move, I already had the advantage.

Thus, his figure blurred and faded—replaced by a jade green humanoid something.