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–––Diaria’s viewpoint

Those men, smiling creepily, noticed I was approaching them with steady steps. The adventurers who were writhing on the ground also turned their eyes, opening them wide when they saw me, and one exclaimed loudly.

“Diaria?!”

I did not remember seeing him before, we had probably crossed paths in the training school before, and I was known as a friend of Lapis’. I was a member of the Hero’s Party, archer and spirit magic user, and the hero of Zelvis. There were two reactions to my name, the adventurers smiled through their pain, and the other men grinned eerily.

“Diaria? That name sounds familiar.”
“She’s one of them. You know, the girls who are around Lapis. She’s saving us the effort of looking for her.”

Even after learning who I was, they kept their snarky attitude. Filled with confidence in their own strength, the one in black armor showed no reaction. I stopped walking then, and glared at them.

“Did you come here to turn yourself in? Wait no, maybe you’re so stupid you don’t even know you’re a wanted person.”
“Of course I know. It doesn’t take long to see that the idiot prince did something stupid and now the entire country is overrun by idiots like you.”
“What did you say?!”

Hearing me, the men’s faces changed color. They had lived their entire lives assuming their status measured their worth, so they were not used to being insulted by others. Or rather, this probably was the first time someone insulted them. Seeing how riled up they got just from one line, I felt like this could get fun. Though I noticed the man in black armor still showed no reaction.

“Listen up, woman! You’re under arrest, if you don’t resist we’ll forgive your rudeness with just a bit of pain, but if you try anything we can’t guarantee the safety of your fingers!”
“That’s quite a threat. You realize I’m still Zelvis’ hero, right? You’re about to sour the relationship between Bordaule and Zelvis, do you understand that?”
“Who cares about that! We’re building a brand new Bordaule, and we can overpower any other country! A small place like Zelvis won’t be an issue at all!”

I felt my anger growing bigger. I was never much of a patriot, but hearing the place where I was born and raised belittled like that made my blood boil.

“Hahh…”

I sighed to push my anger away. I had to calm down. I trained for this, if I let my emotions take the best of me, nothing will have changed.

“You actually believe average guys like you can capture us? I guess the rumors were right, Stied is an idiot. And his underlings are so incompetent they can’t tell when someone is stronger than them. I guess that’s how Bordaule will fall.”
“Now you’re asking for it..!”

One of them suddenly swung his sword at me. Obviously enough, no amount of training would make me invulnerable to such attacks, if I took it head on, I would either get badly hurt, or actually die. The man was clearly not intelligent enough to realize that, his anger and bloodlust driving his attacks. But…

(Too slow.)

After fighting Selene for so long in Dragon’s Nest, the man’s movements appeared so slow to me that I could imagine a fly landing on the sword. Though that was just how much my perception had improved. I did not get desperate, calmly dodging the instant the blade would hit me, and I punched the man in the face.

“Ghah?!”

Unable to defend himself, he takes the punch and is sent flying a few meters back, not getting up again. His partner was left dumbfounded and lost for words, he had never imagined his friend would be sent flying by a scrawny elf like me.

“H-how..! I thought you were supposed to be a spirit magic user! Useless without your bow or magic..!”
“How old is that information? Sure, close-quarters combat might not be my forte, but I’m still far stronger than someone like you.”
“Ugh..!”

Feeling the most shame ever in his life, his face turned red as he slowly stepped back. It seems he had finally realized who was the strongest one here. Meanwhile the fallen adventurers looked at me with admiration.

“What’s wrong? You won’t fight back? Weren’t you just talking about some difference in birth that could never be changed before? There’s no real social ranking in my country, so essentially everyone is a commoner like me. You should be able to win against me, right?”

I take a step forward, and he steps back again. He was terrified. He never had a chance.

“Alright, you step back. I’ll take care of her now.”

The man in black armor finally made a move. He stepped between me and the retreating man, quickly unsheathing his sword.

“It seems you’re stronger than we were told. But I guess that makes sense if you were named hero.”
“You think you can hold me back? That’s some confidence right there, though from what I’ve seen, you’re still weaker than me.”

He looked more skilled than the other two men. But I was still stronger. It could have been tricky if they surrounded me all at once, but it was trivial dealing with them one on one. The man in black armor should realize that as well, but his confidence remained intact. What was giving him that..?

“Heheh…yes, you’re strong, I admit that. If we fought on equal footing I would be out of luck. Though…that’s only under that condition.”
“..?”

I lifted my eyebrow, confused and trying to understand what he meant, but he just grinned. A moment later I felt an eerie aura coming from him, so I instinctively grabbed the fallen adventurers and threw them to a safe distance, before jumping back myself.

“Wha-!”
“Ow!”

The adventurers groaned from the sudden impact. But there was something more important happening. What was this uncanny feeling?

“Oh…that’s good. I’m not even using all my power but you already noticed it.”

The man sounded impressed. But I could also feel my own face getting more serious. I could feel something from him…something I felt before, from someone that terrified me and I would never forget.

“No way…a demon?”
“Demon? Are you stupid? There’s no way I could be a demon.”

Even though he denied it, I felt the same miasma coming from him as from the demons I faced before. I would not believe him no matter how much he claimed not to be a demon. He held his sword ready and calmly took a step forward, then dashed the remaining distance between us in an instant.

“Huff..!’
“You dodged that? Interesting!”

I tried increasing the distance between us, but he followed me. All of his attacks seem completely different than those of the other two. Their speed and accuracy were on a league of their own. This could be hard barehanded! He swung at my head, as if trying to chop it off, and so I evaded by throwing myself onto the ground, where I grabbed a handful of dirt and sand, which I threw straight at his face.

“Hmph?!”

I thought I would blind him if I did it correctly, but he used one hand to cover his face, stopping all the dirt from reaching. But that still gave me enough time to jump back, regaining my ground.

“What happened? Where’s all your courage from earlier?”

He pointed his sword at me as he sneered. But I remained silent, focusing my mind. He assumed that meant I was giving up, so sure of his victory, he grinned.

“Heh! You take pretentious names like a hero but this is all you are! Just scum that can’t hold a candle to us, Stied’s elite guards! This is the end of the line for you, woman! You’ll serve as perfect bait for the rest of your little group!”

Saying that, he started walking towards me. In response, I dash towards him as well. He had not expected me to retaliate in this situation, so he opened his eyes wide in surprise, but only for a moment, as he held his sword pointed at me. This time I…just held my arm forward.

“What an idiot! Do you think your hand alone can stop my blade?”

He was right. I was nowhere as strong as Lapis, who could break blades barehanded. But I also had a power she did not. I could rely on the help of spirits.

“What?!”

The moment his blade touched my hand, it was deflected with a high pitched sound. Before he could recover from the shock, I swung my fist at his face. Without time to react, he took the blow and was knocked down, collapsing on the ground.

“Guh…how…what was that..?”

He coughed blood as he looked up at me in pain. I just stared down at him coldly.

“I have no reason to answer that, but I’ll tell you anyway. Spirit magic.”
“Magic..? When did you chant? There was no time for that…”
“No magician in the Hero’s Party needs to chant to use magic. But more importantly, I have some questions for you. How did you obtain that weird power? I want to hear every detail.”

Being able to cast magic without chanting, only a handful of high ranking adventurers could do that, but it was second nature for me. Faced with that truth, he let his head drop in resignation.