Chapter 123 : Chapter 123

Chapter 123: Bounty Hunting (6)

The grades of magical beasts are largely divided into grades 1 to 4.

However, there are specially classified magical beasts called Named, and <Paragon's Nuisance> was a magical beast belonging to this Named category.

The monstrous ogre, Kadon.

Among land-dwelling magical beasts, Kadon was a Named magical beast known as a symbol of terror in the eastern part of the empire, even among the grade 1 magical beasts, ogres, who are all adorned with the titles of the strongest and the worst.

In fact, Kadon was not a very strong ogre.

An old ogre who was defeated in a territorial dispute and driven out by a young ogre.

Therefore, in terms of physical stats alone, he could be said to be weaker than a typical ogre evaluated as grade 1.

But the terrifying thing about Kadon was not the monstrous strength that came from a young body and hot blood.

It was the experience and intuition built up from countless hunts.

Kadon was a prudent and cunning hunter.

As they say, to have survived is to be strong.

In that sense, Kadon was strong and no matter how old, an ogre was an ogre.

He had a huge body, but possessed tremendous speed that did not match it and although it was said to be inferior to that of a young ogre, he possessed a different dimension of monstrous strength, sufficient to crush the weak bones of humans like straw.

From the humans' perspective, the cunning and suspicious Kadon was much more terrifying and difficult to deal with than a young ogre who only relied on his strength, and so the old ogre in the eastern part of the empire came to be called Kadon, which means 'cruel'.

And the time when Kadon was just beginning to run rampant was right now.

He had his own set of rules for choosing his prey, and to list a few.

Traveling alone, injured, old, a child or a woman.

And most importantly.

‘No mana should be felt.’

Through numerous experiences, Kadon had come to know well that humans were both infinitely weak and dangerous and as he became more cautious, he would boldly give up and run away if it wasn't a sure prey.

‘That’s why I had a pretty hard time dealing with him in the game.’

Thinking about it now, it's all a memory.

Anyway, looking at these aspects, Paragon was a pretty excellent hunting ground for Kadon.

There were no competitors around, it was adjacent to the main mountain range, so there were many places to hide nearby and the floating population was large, so various prey were passing through his front yard on their own.

That was the background and setting of Kadon who committed the crimes.

Now it was time to solve the problem at hand.

I spoke to the man in armor who was staring at us silently.

“Egor is gone. It seems he was attacked by a magical beast, so he’s probably dead.”

“……”

“What are you going to do now? Are you going to chase him?”

“And you?”

Looking at the man in armor who asked in a low voice, I shrugged.

“I asked first.”

Anyway, we had the Chinese cleaver, the weapon Egor used.

It would be most certain to cut off Egor's head and take it, but the Chinese cleaver was also sufficient as a token of death.

Meaning, there was no need to take risks and fight an unnecessary battle.

However──,

If the man in armor were to find Egor's head and return to Icata, that would be a different story.

The bounty would go to the man in armor, not us who brought the Chinese cleaver and we would be left high and dry.

“I know you have his weapon.”

And as expected, the man in armor chose to find Egor's head.

Watching him move along Kadon's footprints, I clicked my tongue inwardly.

At this rate, the Chinese cleaver would be nothing more than useless scrap metal.

‘It can't be helped.’

I called out to him and stopped him.

“Wait a minute. Can you beat an ogre?”

The man in armor turns to look at me.

“An ogre? Are you saying the one who killed the assassin and took the butcher was an ogre?”

“Yes.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“That’s my trade secret, so I can't tell you. So, can you win or not? Why do you keep answering a question with a question?”

The man in armor was silent for a moment.

I don't know what his expression is like inside the helmet, but judging by his actions of looking around the footprints and the destroyed scene, he seems quite bewildered.

‘It's understandable for an ogre.’

No matter how monstrous the man in armor's physical abilities were, that was only by human standards; an ogre was a real monster.

It's the established theory that you can't even injure them without an Aura Sword and you need to be at least an intermediate Aura Expert to be a match for them.

And even then, it's just a 'match'.

A complete 'repulse' was difficult without being a high-level Expert knight, so if an ogre appeared in a private house, it was a world where it was considered a natural disaster.

It was true that even I would be reluctant to face one without using my thief powers.

If Yuria was there, we could aim for a repulse, but the problem was that the opponent was Kadon.

‘The intelligent Kadon would aim for Yuria first.’

If Yuria, who was fighting a large magical beast for the first time, were to make a mistake, that brief moment would lead to death.

That's why large magical beasts are dangerous, and in the first place, if it had been any other ogre than Kadon, I wouldn't have even stopped the man in armor.

It was then.

“……What if I can't win?”

Having finished his deliberation, the man in armor looked at me and asked back.

At that, I grinned and said.

“Let's make a deal.”

***

A man walks through a pitch-black forest that doesn't even allow moonlight.

Is it because of the dew of the dawn fog?

The ground is damp.

As he, clad in heavy armor, walks, his footprints are stamped on the ground like a seal.

And next to it, a huge footprint the size of an adult man's torso.

Clank! Clank!

The man's identity was the man in armor.

He was tracking the monstrous ogre, Kadon, who had taken Egor.

Suddenly, he stops his forward steps.

And he stares intently at the front, which seems to be covered by a black curtain.

Kadon's tracks still led that way.

But to the man in armor's eyes, it looked somewhat unnatural.

A subtle difference and an awkward change, different from the path he had taken so far.

The footprints in front, unlike the ones behind, were not of a consistent depth, and the destroyed terrain also showed clear signs of being tampered with.

And the fact that such a change suddenly occurred while he was tailing meant one thing.

That he had realized he was being tailed.

In other words, he had noticed the existence of the tracker.

“……”

Just as the man in armor, who had been carefully examining one particularly deep footprint, was about to move forward again.

From within the bushes behind him, two pale eyeballs flashed open, and a thick palm shot out, snatching the man in armor's body in an instant.

Pabak!

It was the monstrous ogre, Kadon, who had been hiding.

Kadon lifted the man in armor straight up.

And he grabbed both arms and pulled them forcefully to the side.

Pppudeudeudeuk──

The sound of tearing muscles pleased the ears of the monster that lived by eating humans.

Kadon enjoyed this method of hunting.

Humans, goblins, orcs, etc.

He would ambush two-legged prey from behind and tear them apart.

Then, without fail, they would struggle in pain before being ripped in half horizontally, spilling blood, entrails, and filth below.

It was a kind of habit that whetted his appetite.

It was a pity that he didn't scream, but he had no doubt that this human would soon be the same and Kadon, who was looking at the man in armor with excitement and anticipation, soon tilted his head.

Kuo?

The man in armor did not tear.

No matter how much force he applied.

It was strange.

The smell of refined mana that only humans possessed was definitely not there.

And, he could also vaguely smell blood, so this prey must have been injured as well.

But what was this?

“……Is this all you’ve got?”

The moment he heard those words, Kadon, who sensed a crisis, immediately threw the man in armor away and fled without hesitation.

Thump! Kuung!

In the meantime, the man in armor, who had flown like a puppet with its strings cut, broke one tree and then another behind it before stopping his glide, but as if he had received no shock at all, he quickly got up, pulled out the longsword he was carrying on his shoulder, and threw it at Kadon.

The longsword spun like a boomerang as it flew and accurately struck the back of Kadon's thigh.

But it was not enough to pierce the thick leather and just bounced off futilely.

“……Hmm.”

The man in armor, who let out a small groan as if he was not pleased, immediately took out another sword from his subspace and ran straight at Kadon.

Thump! Thump!

It was then.

Kadon, who was fleeing at a tremendous speed, suddenly lost his balance and crashed to the ground.

The speed was such that the impact itself was great, to the point where the earth shook.

One of the ogre's legs was frozen solid from the knee down and Yuria, the one who had done that to Kadon, continued to fire ice slashes.

"Crrrackle!"

Kadon picked up a broken tree in front of him and blocked the ice slashes.

And he immediately began to swing the tree trunk like a club, devastating Yuria and her surroundings.

Kwang! Kwaang! Kwang!

But Yuria had already moved away with the power of the Bracer of the Red Dragon, [Glide].

Kadon was furious, but behind his anger, there was also a faint mixture of fear.

A human with immense strength and stamina.

And a human who uses ice and flies in the sky.

It was impossible for a predator to feel fear toward its prey, but Kadon knew that humans who could overturn the food chain sometimes appeared, and he realized that these people were such humans.

Kadon threw everything he could grab, such as rocks and trees, at the man in armor and Yuria, and then shattered the ice crystals that had frozen his leg with his fist.

No.

It was when he raised his fist to shatter it.

Puk!

Along with the sound of tearing flesh that accurately pierced his ear, he felt a cold sensation on the top of his head and Kadon let out a pained roar.

Kyaoooo──!

As a last resort, Kadon shook his head like crazy, but the human behind him didn't fall off, as if he had glue on his feet.

On the contrary.

“Is it because you’re a Named? You’re tough.”

The human, who spoke indifferently, grabbed the sword that had pierced the top of his head and began to stir it around wildly, and immediately after, Kadon stopped as if struck by lightning, his body trembled, and then he collapsed.

Kuung──!

***

Chirp chirp!

I wake up to the chirping of birds.

“Ughhh!”

I stretch and look out the window.

The sky is a deep pastel blue, and the time is still early dawn, just before the sun rises.

I change into my activity clothes and, as always, leave the dormitory and start my run.

Tak! Tadak!

As I run lightly, I recall yesterday.

That is, the early morning of Sunday when the battle with Kadon took place.

Thinking about it again, the battle with the monstrous ogre Kadon was unexpected.

To think I would meet Kadon there.

No, wait.

From the encounter with the man in armor to the surprise attack by the Darkness Council, and so on.

This outing was full of surprises.

‘Well, I handled it well, so.’

I didn't suffer any losses and I even caught Kadon, who belongs to the field boss category, without any damage.

I also received the bounty, which was the original purpose.

After I finished Kadon by stabbing him in the crown of his head.

We were able to find Egor buried in the ground not far away and recover his body.

The damage was severe, and his lower jaw was missing…… but it was not insufficient to confirm his identity, and after putting his head in a cloth and placing it in the subspace, we submitted the head to the Capital Defense Headquarters as soon as we returned to Icata.

We received the bounty that way, but the one thing I couldn't understand was the man in armor's behavior.

He disappeared without a trace right after the battle with Kadon.

We had agreed beforehand to kill Kadon together and then split Egor's bounty, but he broke that promise himself.

Well, it's good for us, but…… it just feels a bit unsettling.

Even if I wanted to split it as promised, I had to know who he was to give it to him.

Now, even if I wanted to find him, I couldn't.

“I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't know it would be this much. To think we'd even fight with other bounty hunters.”

On the way to the classroom after finishing my morning routine.

Yuria talks about her impressions of bounty hunting.

“That’s right. But I didn’t expect that either.”

As I said, the man in armor, the cult's intervention, Kadon.

Everything was unexpected.

“Who do you think he is?”

“The man in armor?”

“Yes.”

I want to know too.

As a matter of fact, since returning to the dormitory, I've been going over my memories since yesterday.

I went over every single conversation between the characters, hoping to find a hint in a missed scene or line.

But I still couldn't identify him.

“Well……”

A bounty hunter shrouded in a veil of mystery.

For now, that's all I know.

“Actually, I'm so disappointed that he just disappeared like that. I really wanted to share the bounty with him.”

“What. Did you grow fond of him in that short time?”

When I chuckled, Yuria lowered her head in embarrassment and trailed off her words.

“It was just for a moment. But still, he was a comrade who fought the ogre with us……”

Well, from Yuria's perspective, the ogre was an enemy that would be difficult to defeat even if we all put our strength together, so it was natural for a strong bond to form even if the time they fought together was short.

“……Also, it would feel bad if we were the only ones to benefit.”

Well, I can't deny that either.

Without his powerful tanking ability and aggro, we wouldn't have been able to catch Kadon.

In fact, I also felt a bit uneasy about this part.

“Let's give it to him next time we meet. If fate allows, we'll meet again.”

“Do you think so?”

“Of course. Weren't we going to continue bounty hunting?”

“Oh? That’s right!”

Yuria, who quickly brightened up and smiled bashfully, was so cute that I ruffled her hair.

“Then, listen well in class, and I'll see you later.”

“Yes. You too, senior, listen well in class!”

I parted with Yuria and headed to Eden Hall where my class was.

<Situations and Tactical Judgment> was the only 3rd-year course in my schedule.

As I entered the classroom, exchanged brief greetings with my classmates, and sat down, I could not have imagined that the fate I had just mentioned to Yuria would come to find me so quickly.

Thump thump.

The professor entered the classroom and went up to the podium with an aloof face.

His merciless gaze swept over the audience.

And in that state, when my eyes and his intertwined in the air, I felt a short thrill.

“……Today I am self-studying.”

His gaze was immediately withdrawn.

However, I did not miss the momentary glint in his empty eyes that were staring at me.

At the same time, I was certain.

That he was the man in armor.

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