The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 164
I faced off against my opponent, holding the weapons Gaspar had handed me.
A single spear would have been enough to deal with this woman, but I decided to use all the dual weapons anyway.
If rumors about this spread, my vassals might be able to track my whereabouts through them.
“Dual wielding…?”
Lucretia’s face scrunched up. It must have been a martial arts system she had never seen or heard of before. That’s understandable. Even on the continent where I came from, Chester-style users were extremely rare.
“What are you standing there blankly for? Come at me.”
“Hmph, I’ll confirm with my own hands where this confidence of yours comes from!”
She charged at me, kicking off the ground. Even that movement was clumsy.
So her level of spear technique wasn’t any different.
Swish swish swish swish! The spearhead cut through the air.
I easily avoided her attacks and struck the tip of her spear with my sword just as she was trying to pull it back towards herself.
Ting! As the spear shook, her body balance crumbled along with it. I took advantage of that opening to extend my spear and thrust it at her neck.
“That’s one life.”
“…!?”
“If you’re not convinced, feel free to keep coming at me.”
“Kuk!”
She took two steps back to regain her posture, then charged at me again.
It was the same no matter how many times she tried.
There might not be much difference in physical abilities.
But the depth of martial arts was different.
This woman called Lucretia was, how should I put it. She was big in size, but empty inside.
I thought I knew the reason for that too.
‘It’s probably because the reason for learning martial arts is different.’
The biggest reason people in this world learn martial arts is to defeat monsters. So their martial arts systems are inevitably tailored to dealing with monsters.
On the other hand, the martial arts of our continent developed purely to deal with humans.
As such, the depth of martial arts in human-to-human combat was bound to be different.
To me, this woman’s spear technique was too predictable, and her movements seemed unnecessarily large. There were too many openings.
To the extent that I could handle her without using aura.
I dodged her incoming spear, dove in, and planted my fist into her solar plexus.
The impact must have been great, as she fell to her knees and started throwing up what was inside.
“Kek, kuhak…!?”
“That’s the fifth life.”
I kicked up the spear she had dropped with my toe and grabbed it in my hand.
“Now that I’ve taken your weapon too, why don’t we stop here?”
The crowd in the square stirred.
“Who, who is that guy? To subdue so easily the woman who defeated Frieden…”
“It’s like he’s playing with a child.”
Perhaps feeling extremely humiliated by this situation, she straightened up on trembling legs.
“It’s not over yet…!”
“Saying that doesn’t really… You don’t even have a weapon, you know?”
“That doesn’t matter!”
I wondered what she could possibly do, but it seemed the weapon really didn’t matter much.
Energy of some kind began to swirl in her hand, starting to take the shape of a spear. A transparent-colored spear.
‘Is it glass? No, this is… Ice?’
It was a spear that looked like it had been crafted from a thick icicle.
‘So this is magic….’
It seems she had only used auxiliary magic like body enhancement until now, but it looked like she was going to use magic in earnest now.
Intrigued, I couldn’t help but ask.
“Doesn’t that make your hand cold?”
“Shut up!”
“Come on, don’t be like that. I’ll give you back your spear.”
“Ah…!?”
When I threw the spear back to her, she had an awkward expression.
“Well, that’s…”
No matter what, a metal spear would inevitably have much higher strength than an ice spear.
“A-ahem!”
She cleared her throat, put down the ice spear, and picked up the spear I had thrown to her.
At this, the crowd burst into laughter. Lucretia gritted her teeth, enduring the humiliation, and took her stance again.
“I’ve understood well enough that you’re strong. But I haven’t been going all out either!”
“That mindset itself is the problem…”
Well, I often get told by my master not to let my guard down, so I wasn’t in a position to say much.
“From now on, I won’t hold back. Haaat!”
It seems her claim of not having gone all out wasn’t just bluster.
Her method of fighting was completely different.
Swhish! Several hundred icicles were created around her and then shot towards me.
As the power seemed much stronger than arrows, I had no choice but to retreat and dodge.
At the same time, she dove in.
As my balance was disrupted from dodging the icicles, I had to cross my weapons to block her spear.
At that moment, crackle! My weapons that were blocking the spear started to freeze.
‘They froze!?’
As the weapons froze in a crossed state, both the spear and sword became immobilized. In contrast, her spear, which had been frozen together, smoothly slipped out of the ice.
Having my weapons frozen was something I had never experienced before, so I couldn’t help but be flustered.
‘Is this the fighting method of this world….’
Just as I had the upper hand in pure martial arts combat, she had her own know-how.
‘Can’t be helped.’
I raised my aura to the extreme.
The tangible energy climbed up my weapons, turning the ice created by the opponent into magic and making it disappear.
“Weapon spell…!”
The opponent’s eyes widened.
Sensing an unusual aura from me, she hastily retreated while shooting icicles.
I swung my aura-infused spear to instantly dissolve them.
This was a main function of aura. I only learned about it recently, but using aura can erase the opponent’s magic power.
The people here call it weapon spell and value it very highly.
“To think he has such a level of weapon spell!”
“Un-unbelievable!”
As there were many adventurers among the spectators, exclamations rang out.
I relentlessly pressed the attack. First, I crossed my spear and sword to grab and snatch away the opponent’s weapon, then dove into her body, twisted her right arm that was trying to create an ice spear, and moved behind her.
Then, wham! I subdued her back, making her face plant into the ground.
“This is the end. I won’t engage any further.”
“Kugh!”
The match was decided.
I declared my name to the spectators so that rumors would spread.
Everyone seemed impressed by my skills, so it looked like good rumors would circulate.
Only Gaspar had an exasperated expression, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
“Ars, what was that just now? If Ilya Anfei had seen this, you would have gotten a severe scolding.”
“Haha, I guess you’re right.”
It couldn’t be called a good fight by any means.
“If it were me, I would have killed her in five moves.”
“That’s why I’m telling you not to try to kill people recklessly. This is a place without war.”
“Tch, that’s why it’s annoying. Anyway, let’s go. I have a mountain of things I want to talk about.”
Gaspar took the lead. I was about to follow him, but a voice stopped me.
“Wait a moment!”
It was Lucretia.
Blood was streaming down her face, probably from a cut on her forehead when it hit the ground.
She was looking at me with eyes full of frustration, humiliation, and for some reason, admiration.
“Please, I request a rematch. That martial art you use. I know you haven’t shown it all yet.”
“And?”
“I really want to see it in full.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for that. If there’s a chance later, I’ll consider it.”
“Is… Chat so. Can’t be helped then.”
She was muttering, “Ars Elaine… Ars Elaine…” memorizing my name.
I shrugged and turned away.
* * *
Leaving her behind, I moved to a different location with Gaspar and we shared the information we had.
First, we agreed on our views about this world.
“Yes, that magic continent is probably our continent.”
“About that… What exactly is the nature of that barrier spread around our continent?”
“Well, hmm.” Gaspar thought for a long time before carefully saying, “Ars, do you know why magic disappeared from our continent?”
“I’ve read about it in books. It says magic was lost due to a conflict between gods.”
“Right. At the time, I thought it was just nonsense passed down as mythology… But now it looks a bit different.”
“You mean that barrier was created by a god? To eliminate magic?”
“It’s just a guess, but it seems like this god intentionally isolated our continent from other worlds. Maybe they were trying to create a paradise through that.”
Our continent has no magic except for some divine magic, no monsters, and almost no natural disasters.
The land is also quite fertile, to the extent that food problems wouldn’t occur if the population didn’t explode.
“Hmm, we still lack clues about that. Let’s move on for now.”
“Right. It’s not a problem we can do anything about anyway.”
Next was about the missing people.
I asked Gaspar if he had found anyone.
“No. I gathered information using the thieves’ guild, but there was no useful information. Well, finding you alone is already a big achievement.”
“About that, stop the thieving now. What would Yumir think?”
“That’s something to think about after we find her.”
“Whatever it is, handle things in ways other than stealing. You might get wiped out if you keep doing that.”
“Tch. Alright.”
I told him about meeting Gunther. Gaspar tilted his head trying to remember who Gunther was, then nodded as if he finally recalled.
“You mean that tall guy who looks like he could use some strength?”
“Yes. He agreed to search the southern continent for us.”
“He doesn’t seem very reliable, but we’re in a situation where even that is welcome… So? What did you decide to do after that?”
“I decided to set up a base in a city called Baian on the western continent and wait for people. I think it’s more efficient if I don’t move around.”
“Certainly… Everyone will be moving to find you. If you move, there’s a high chance of missing each other. It’s not a bad choice. But I’m skeptical about whether it’s okay to be so passive.”
“What do you mean by passive…?”
“This world is more dangerous than you think. Maybe because the land is so vast, there are quite a lot of bandits including highway robbers.”
In our world, there were hardly any thieves. Due to the high population and military power, the state’s territorial control was strong.
There was a thief king called Klaus Forkner, but even he couldn’t operate for a long time. When he was about to be subjugated by Tunkai, he responded to negotiations and entered as a guest.
In contrast, there are too many areas here that the state’s control doesn’t reach. Most of the state’s manpower is used to defend against monster invasions or to reclaim territories controlled by monsters.
“It might be fine for people like Ilya Anfei or Eonia Mirabel, but others might not be able to overcome such dangers. So I think we need to find them as quickly as possible.”
“I think so too, but… Is there any other way?”
A large-scale search would require enormous amounts of money.
“There’s one more way. You become famous yourself.”
“I’ve thought about that too, but it’s not as easy as you might think. The information network in this world isn’t finely established. It would be difficult to become famous across the entire continent without doing something really extraordinary.”
What happened today might become a rumor in this area, but it won’t spread widely. Even if it does spread widely, it’s hard to expect the story to be transmitted accurately. Rumors tend to become distorted as they spread.
The only method that came to mind was to subjugate a vicious dungeon with a bounty on it.
“Are you suggesting we subjugate a dungeon?”
“Of course not. Well, we might try that later, but not now. We still lack information and our forces aren’t ready yet.”
“Then there’s no other way, right?”
“No, there’s one more. Why can’t you think of it?” Gaspar said with a grin. “We use your book.”
“…?”
What was he talking about?
“You know that novel you wrote for the deal with Olaf? We release it in this world. If the book becomes popular, copies will naturally circulate even if you don’t do anything. The book will spread to various parts of the continent on its own without spending money.”
“…!”
“And you can write clues about Baien, the base location, in that book! When they see that, everyone will figure it out and come to Baien.”
“Are you… A genius?”
It was an ingenious strategy.
Since the contents of the book were still intact in my head, it wouldn’t be difficult to recreate volumes 1 and 2.
It was uncertain whether the book would be popular here too, but it was better than doing nothing.
Since we were in a situation where we needed to do something, anything, I decided to follow Gaspar’s suggestion.
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