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 9

The Third Master Has No Presence

Three days after leaving the eastern town.

We were walking along the northern highway. Mel-neesan had said, “I heard there’s a rare spellbook in the northern town♪” and Master Reizel gave in with “…Do whatever you want.” Riene was still following us from a little distance like always.

While we walked, I kept feeling something off.

There was something on my back.

It wasn’t a clear gaze or anything. It was thinner, colder, like it was dissolving into the air. When I turned around, nothing was there. Just the trees swaying in the wind.

But something was there. It had been walking behind us the whole time.

“…Master.”

“I know.”

Master Reizel answered in a low voice.

Her hand wasn’t on her sword hilt, but her steps had gotten just a little shorter. She was ready to draw at any moment.

“It’s been two days. …One person. No killing intent. Just tailing us.”

“Do you know who it is?”

“No. But—their skill is real. I only noticed two days ago, but they might have been following us even longer.”

Stealth good enough that Master Reizel couldn’t detect it. That alone showed how abnormal the tail was.

“Mel-neesan, you noticed too?”

“Yes♪ There’s almost no magical power reaction. Looks like they’re using dark-type stealth arts.”

Mel-neesan was also speaking in a low voice while keeping her smile.

“What are you guys whispering about?”

Riene came closer, looking suspicious.

“Shh. Just keep walking quietly for now.”

Master Reizel stopped Riene, and we kept walking like nothing was wrong.

＊

Night.

We set up camp in a clearing a little off the highway in the forest. We finished eating around the campfire, and Mel-neesan put up a barrier. Master Reizel said, “Sleep first. I’ll keep watch in shifts.”

I wrapped myself in my blanket, but I couldn’t sleep.

The presence on my back was still there. Something was just sitting quietly—outside Mel-neesan’s barrier.

After about an hour, I quietly slipped out of my blanket.

My water flask was empty. I could hear a stream nearby. I was just going to get water. I’d be right back.

I stepped through the barrier and left the light of the campfire. Only moonlight was left to rely on.

The sound of the stream got closer.

—Right then.

I heard a sound.

Metal clashing. Short, sharp, twice.

Then a dull thud of something hitting the ground.

I stopped walking.

On the other side of the stream, in the shadows of the trees, several figures were moving.

One was a small figure in a deep black hood.

At their feet, three men dressed all in black lay groaning on the ground. They hadn’t been given fatal wounds. Their tendons and joints had been precisely crushed, leaving them completely unable to move.

“—Viola… you traitor… Lord Zex will definitely…”

One of the fallen men spat out a curse.

The figure in the black hood—the person called Viola—silently flicked the blood off her short sword. Her movements had no waste at all, precise like a machine.

I hid behind a tree and held my breath.

I was seeing something I shouldn’t see.

She swayed slightly.

She was clutching her left arm. Even in the darkness, I could tell black liquid—blood—was dripping between her fingers. It was a deep wound. She must have taken a painful counterattack while neutralizing the men.

She looked like she was in pain.

I thought she must be strong. But standing there alone while bleeding, she looked really lonely.

Before I could think, I had already jumped out from behind the tree.

“Are you okay! Let me see your arm!”

I ran over and reached out. I tried to touch her left arm.

“…!”

Under the moonlight.

For just a moment, I saw the face peeking out from under the hood. Short black hair. Pale skin. Red eyes.

An emotionless, doll-like face—that face, when it saw me, widened violently for the first time, like it was deeply shaken.

The next instant, my body was flying through the air.

Thud!

I was shoved away.

I tumbled onto my back on the ground, and the breath was knocked out of me. It hurt. But I wasn’t injured. With the same hands that had crushed those men’s bones, she had held back unbelievably gently when she pushed me.

By the time I looked up, she was already gone.

She had completely melted into the darkness and disappeared.

I stayed sitting on the ground and looked at my right hand.

There was blood on it. Not mine. It was Viola’s blood. In that one instant when she shoved me, it had gotten all over my hand.

It was warm. Still really warm.

“…Rut!”

Master Reizel’s voice called out. Footsteps running over.

Mel-neesan and Riene came rushing too.

“What happened. Blood… is it yours?”

“It’s not. It’s not mine.”

I told them about the three fallen men and the shadow that vanished into the darkness. Master Reizel’s expression grew sharp.

“Pursuers from the Black Eclipse Guild♪ There’s a crest carved on the back of their necks.”

Mel-neesan checked the fallen men and said.

“That person was hurt. A lot of blood was coming from her left arm—”

“Should we chase her?”

Master Reizel asked me.

“…………”

I stared at the blood on my palm.

Those red eyes. That emotionless face. But—the desperate way she held back when she shoved me.

“Please don’t chase her. …I think she just wanted to get away.”

Master Reizel didn’t say anything, just gave a quiet nod.

＊

Even after I went back to my blanket, I couldn’t sleep.

No matter how many times I washed my right hand, the warmth of the blood didn’t seem to fade.

That moment. Right before she shoved me, I thought Viola’s red eyes twisted badly for just a split second. Like something deep inside that emotionless face was about to break—.

“…I think that person was crying.”

I murmured softly.

It was a whisper that shouldn’t have reached anyone.

—In the darkness of the forest.

From high in a tree, red eyes stared down quietly at the boy near the tent.

The crude bandage wrapped around her right hand slowly seeped red.

Distance, about three meters.