"Hey, Clock!! What the hell are you doing?! Are you nuts?!"
"Shut up!! That’s a knight from the Hero party!! You can tell just by looking!!"
You shouldn’t be able to tell just by looking.
Clock wanted to shout "Just figure it out!" and Boyit distorted his face at the emergency.
No way. That couldn’t be.
They had come here as fast as possible. Sure, yesterday’s day was a little extra, but they still had plenty of time to catch up. Why did they already stop here?
He hadn’t been able to board the ship in the meantime. Regretting it wouldn’t help.
If they had passed through this town and headed toward the federal territory, the result would have been different.
But that judgment could only be made after realizing the opponent had already gotten ahead.
Therefore, this encounter was unavoidable.
No, he could have slipped into some ship regardless of position.
He had been getting careless. He shouldn’t have been out in the open during bright hours.
This was his own negligence that invited the opponent.
"Oi!! Over there!! The carriage!!"
Clock startled and looked back at Boyit’s shout.
Boyit had spotted the passenger carriage on the main street.
Horses were much faster. Boyit ran to the carriage and Clock followed.
"Excuse me, are you in a hurry?"
"Move it!!"
"Waa?! "
Boyit grabbed the chest of the driver who had come running and dragged him out of the carriage.
The driver crashed into the ground, groaning in pain.
Clock, who had caught up from behind, felt sorry for the driver, but now wasn’t the time to care about others, so he pretended not to see.
"Clock, get on quickly!!"
"You idiot!! Don’t call my name!!"
When Clock jumped on the back of the carriage, Boyit immediately started it.
The horse obeyed obediently despite the unfamiliar passenger.
Boyit, who had spent a long time earning money by foot, apparently had enough driving skill to handle someone else’s horse.
"Whoa, what’s this?! "
"What?! What happened?!"
Clock dropped the scroll he was holding because it felt as hot as fire.
The Siren summoning scroll was spitting fire like droplets.
"What?! Hey Boyit!! The scroll I received from you suddenly started burning!! You gave me a defective item?! "
"No!! There’s no way a scroll has a defect!! If it’s burning, that means the illusion beast was defeated!!"
"...What?"
While saying it, Boyit realized the meaning of his own words, and Clock, who heard it, also made a blank face without realizing.
Sirens were famous enough that anyone could understand them.
And it was on fire in the scroll in less than a minute. In plain terms, it suggested that the opponent was at a level he couldn’t handle even if he stood on his head.
"————!! "
With an explosion sound, the wooden door of the warehouse was pulverized into splinters.
Clock looked back from the cargo bed of the carriage at full speed at the strange scream he heard for a moment.
What he saw flashing in his vision was a huge monster bird disappearing as particles of light.
Even before he thought "no way," something shot through the smoke and sand and flew straight toward them, making a metallic sound.
"They’re here!! They’re coming!! They’re coming!! They’re coming!!?!"
"For real?! It’s too fast!! There’s no time to stop them?!"
While stunned, Clock drove the carriage.
The pursuer was a petite girl. She ran with iron boots Kankankankann, her hair swaying in high speed, and her expressionless face was boldly exposed. The girl knight who showed no interest was chasing Clock and the others at a speed that looked like she was doing nothing but light work of condemning evil.
"Hide, Clock!! I’m going to break through the gate!!"
As soon as Boyit shouted, the carriage wheels bounced over the step of the gate.
Clock barely grabbed the handle and endured it.
The two gate guards stationed at the east gate didn’t react to Clock and the others leaving, so they were simply sent off.
The two exchanged a glance.
What the hell was that?
Then humans in super speed passed right in front of them.
The two who were stunned usually would have laughed, but now was not the time for that.
Clock had entered Shinitt through the north gate.
From the east gate, the Shinitt street connected to the capital continued to the north, and there was a road suitable for a horse-drawn carriage built by human hands.
But if they went straight north along the street, they would naturally hit a checkpoint, so there were no other choices for escape than the eastern plain.
"Hey Boyit!! Can’t you go faster?!"
"This is my limit!! The horse is getting tired!!"
"Figure something out!! They’re catching up!!"
Clock shouted, but there was nothing Boyit could do because the horse’s strength and stamina were limited.
They broke through the street east and entered the Arbilgo plain.
Since there was almost no slope despite not being maintained by humans, the carriage was relatively easy to drive.
They had to keep the distance here or it would be over. No matter how he struggled, they would be caught.
"Hey Boyit! Give me another illusion beast scroll!"
"Ah?! There’s no way!! Only the one I gave you!!"
"Why?! Then give me a magical beast one!!"
"There’s no way I’m carrying something that bad!!"
The most reasonable reply came back.
As a merchant, Boyit had no use for summoning scrolls.
They were only for sale.
Magical beasts were dangerous to carry because there was a risk of being caught just by possessing them. He had no reason to carry them.
Clock looked back at the girl chasing them.
A petite flower wrapped in iron was running. Despite her small appearance, she sent sharp killing intent.
He definitely remembered this girl. It was her.
The one who turned Zoll and Heisel into objects on the wall of the inn in the capital.
Damn it.
If they fought, there was no chance of winning.
Even a bratty kid like this had that much strength.
One punch and he was dead.
There was no possibility it was a coincidence or a mistake that he had killed the illusion beast in an instant.
He shouldn’t even consider the possibility of winning the fight.
He needed to take the next move to shake off the pursuit.
"Hey Boyit, what kind of illusion beast is Ketsarukoa-toru?"
"Ah?! It’s Quetzalcoatl! I think it was a huge snake! Probably!"
Quetzalcoatl was quite a big body and apparently stronger than a siren.
Normally it was an existence that even Clock, a petty thief like him, shouldn’t be able to summon.
But the summoning spell and the mana inside would activate according to the theory.
The charm of a scroll was that anyone could use it.
Clock took out the scroll from his bosom.
The knight girl’s atmosphere changed.
Even though she was about thirty meters away, she seemed to understand what was happening.
"Clock! There’s a place with trees in front!! Pass through it and use it the moment you can!!"
When he looked forward as instructed, there were indeed places where trees were growing. The soul of passing through at the moment of being shot by the huge snake. A trivial trick to make the pursuit time longer.
Clock opened the scroll.
"Now!!"
"Come on, trample!! Quetzalcoatl!!"
The spell on the scroll glowed, and the mana inside activated the magic circle.
A black hole opened in the void and a huge something flew out with enormous mana.
"Whoa?! Damn!!"
A huge rod with black and turquoise patterns that instinctively aroused terror stretched out and wriggled.
The four-meter trees that should have been around were all cut down.
Everything that was scattered in all directions was crushed by that huge body.
The ground shook with a Don sound and waves of earth poured down around.
How long was the full length? A terrifying monster that looked like it was over twenty meters long suddenly appeared on the peaceful Arbilgo plain.
Clock’s mouth opened at the size and couldn’t close.
For someone like Clock, summoning an illusion beast was a bit too big in scale.
"...Ha, haha...!! This is too much. I guess I have no choice but to retreat. Let’s run away while we can."
"Y-yeah... It’s way too big..."
Boyit quickly changed to a positive tone, as if the scale difference was the problem.
Clock made a grim face even though he had summoned it himself.
Clock didn’t know what kind of existence Quetzalcoatl was.
He had heard that illusion beasts were artificial creatures or that there was an original one, but he only knew those stories. For Clock, who had lived in a small world, the huge snake that appeared looked like a legendary terrifying monster.
"That little girl isn’t going to die, right?"
"Ah... Maybe we killed the Hero party. Well, if we die here, we won’t be suspected. No evidence, so no one will care."
That was the problem, but he didn’t say it out loud.
Boyit was only thinking about himself, but in the current situation it was only natural.
Clock stole people’s things without hesitation.
He had a bad sense of women, and rough sex was normal.
He had no intention of living properly, so he was exactly the kind of villain the word "scum" fit.
But even Clock had something he couldn’t accept.
That was murder.
Clock was a thief, but he couldn’t kill people.
Since it had come to this, there was nothing he could do.
He took a deep breath and tried to regain his calm.
At least it was over. They hadn’t been defeated yet, but the pursuit would be harder now.
He suppressed the feeling of pity that wouldn’t stop.
Clock, who had sacrificed a life that might still be young, stood up from the spot—
And a slash grazed his body.
"It hurrrts?! "
"What?! What happened?!"
What Clock saw was the blood splash in the air.
His shoulder had been cut. It was definitely cut. From where? Who? How?
Countless thoughts raced through his brain. He desperately thought of all possibilities, but the scenery in front of him overwrote it.
The huge snake split in two.
It was an unbelievable sight.
A clean one-cut. The aftermath of that slash grazed Clock.
When he looked closely, there were slash marks on the cargo bed of the carriage too.
"No way..."
His brain refused to accept it and his thoughts wouldn’t connect.
This couldn’t happen. That was clearly an existence that humans couldn’t handle. There was no way such an existence existed.
If it did, it was a monster wearing human skin.
A Don impact sound rang out.
Responding to it, with an explosive sound something started moving toward the carriage.