I Was Abandoned Because I Was Told I Had No Talent, but Four Incredibly Strong Yet Clumsy Older Sisters Took Me In. Even the Sword Saint and the Great Sorcerer Insisted on Me Being Their Top Disciple. As a Result of Raising Me in Such an Overprotective Way, My Ultimate Talent Finally Awoke. - Chapter 10

The Shadow Can’t Escape

The next morning.

I kept staring at my right hand. No matter how many times I washed it, I still felt like the warmth from last night’s blood was there.

“Rut. Eat.”

Master Reizel held out some dried meat. I took it with a “thank you,” but I didn’t have much appetite.

“I won’t tell you not to worry about it. But don’t overthink it.”

That was all Master said before she started putting out the remains of the campfire.

Mel-neesan took down the barrier, and Riene grumbled while packing up the bags. It should have been a normal morning.

—But it wasn’t normal.

“Stop.”

Master Reizel suddenly raised one hand.

Everyone froze. The forest was unnaturally quiet. The birds had gone silent. The wind had stopped. Every living thing was holding its breath.

“…They’re here♪”

The smile disappeared from Mel-neesan’s face. Blue magical power lit up in both her hands.

Black-clad figures appeared silently from between the trees. One, two—ten of them. Way more than the pursuers last night. Every one of them held short swords and hooked claws, and the Black Eclipse Guild crest was carved on the back of their necks.

The man in front spoke in a voice without any feeling.

“So you’re the group sheltering the traitor ‘Shadow Eater.’ Our goal is to dispose of her. You lot are in the way—die.”

There was no room for negotiation.

The moment the words left his mouth, the black shadows scattered all at once.

“Riene, take Rut and get back!”

“I know! Rut, this way!”

Riene grabbed my arm and dragged me behind a thick tree.

The fight started.

Master Reizel’s sword flashed, sending the two pursuers charging from the front flying in an instant. Mel-neesan’s magic formed a blue wall, knocking down every throwing knife that came from all directions.

But the enemy was a group specialized in assassination. They didn’t clash head-on. They melted into the shadows of the forest, circled behind, and relentlessly thrust blades from blind spots.

Master Reizel’s sword was overwhelming, but she couldn’t lock onto multiple opponents who kept vanishing. Mel-neesan’s magic covered too wide an area, so if she used it carelessly she risked catching Master Reizel in it too.

“Tch… This is annoying.”

Master clicked her tongue. She had taken down three, but the remaining seven had completely erased their presence and were tightening the encirclement.

“Master!”

The moment I shouted, one pursuer dropped from a branch overhead straight toward me and Riene.

“—!”

Riene drew her thin sword and fought back. The clash of blades rang out. Riene was strong, but the opponent was an adult assassin used to killing. His hooked claw knocked her thin sword away, and the blade closed in on her defenseless neck.

—I couldn’t move.

My body froze. I might actually die. I really thought that.

Right then.

The shadow moved.

Clang! A sharp metallic sound rang out, and the pursuer closing in on Riene was blown sideways before he could even scream, slammed into the ground.

Black hood. Small frame. Red eyes.

The shadow from last night—Viola—stood in front of me and Riene.

A crude bandage still stained with blood was wrapped around her left arm. The wound hadn’t closed. She should barely have been able to stand. Yet the short swords she held in both hands didn’t waver at all.

“Shadow Eater…! You showed yourself!”

The remaining pursuers all turned their aim toward Viola at once.

Viola stayed silent and kicked off the ground.

Fast. Even faster than yesterday, no, way too fast.

But her movements clearly had strain in them. Because she was protecting her left arm, all the burden was concentrated on her right side. She accurately crushed the joints of one, then another, rendering them helpless, but her breathing was ragged and her steps swayed just a little.

One of the pursuers didn’t miss that opening.

From Viola’s blind spot, a deadly blade swung down without a sound.

“Look out!!”

I shouted and jumped out before I could think. I didn’t even have my wooden sword—just bare hands, which couldn’t possibly do anything.

I just wanted to protect her, the one who had come to help us even though she was injured.

(I have to protect her…!)

—Right at that moment.

Something hot exploded from deep inside my body.

For just a split second, the skin all over my body gave off a faint, very faint glow.

No one saw it. Not Master Reizel, not Mel-neesan, not the pursuers—nobody noticed that tiny light in the middle of the chaos.

—Except for one person. The red-eyed assassin.

“…!”

Viola sucked in a small breath and twisted her body at an impossible angle. She took advantage of the tiny opening in the pursuer whose attention had been drawn by my faint glow, and kicked upward into his jaw.

The man rolled his eyes back and collapsed.

That was the last one.

All ten pursuers lay on the ground. They weren’t dead. They just couldn’t move.

Viola flicked the blood off her short swords—and then her knees buckled.

The bandage on her left arm was stained dark red. The reckless fight had completely reopened the wound.

I ran over.

“Thank you for saving us. —Let me see the wound.”

I reached out.

Viola’s red eyes looked at me. The same doll-like face without emotion as last night.

But deep inside her eyes, something was shaking hard.

Viola’s right hand started to move. I think she was about to brush my hand away like last night.

But that hand stopped dead in mid-air.

…She couldn’t brush it away.

In that opening I touched her left arm. A deep cut. It was burning hot.

“Mel-neesan! She needs treatment!”

“Coming, coming♪ Let me see♪”

Mel-neesan hurried over and started emergency healing magic. Viola stayed silent and let her do it. She didn’t run. She didn’t move. She just stared at my face.

Master Reizel finished tying up the pursuers and stood in front of Viola.

“…You come too. You must be hungry.”

Viola didn’t answer.

But—she didn’t stand up and run away either.

＊

That night.

There was one extra shadow around the campfire.

Viola sat at the base of a tree a little away from the fire, hugging her knees. She silently tore the dried meat Mel-neesan offered into small pieces and ate it.

“What’s your name?”

Riene asked, but Viola didn’t answer.

“Hey, I’m grateful you helped us and all, but at least tell us your—”

“Riene. It’s fine.”

I stopped Riene and looked at Viola.

“If you feel like talking, you can tell us whenever. —Thank you for saving us.”

Viola’s red eyes wavered for just a moment.

Then she quickly looked away.

Late at night.

After everyone had fallen asleep.

When I woke up, something had been placed by my pillow.

A small fruit—one of the sweet wild berries you could pick in the forest.

A little ways away, on a tree branch, red eyes were shining.

Distance, about three meters.

We hadn’t exchanged a single word, but I understood it was her clumsy first “reply.”