The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 257

"Sister, let's fight later and calm down for now."

"Bodra, I know how you feel, but now is not the time to fight, so sit down."

Rwen and Tafra persuaded the two, implying that they would let them fight to their heart's content later, so they should endure it for now.

As they were growling and clashing, Midra turned his head to look at a corner of the room.

It was the place where Mio and Rwen had stopped talking and looked at simultaneously a little while ago.

"I never thought he'd be hiding so brazenly in a place like that."

"Huh? You now...?"

"What, you can see the master too?"

At Midra's small murmur, Mio and Rwen looked at him with surprised expressions.

"Ah..."

At that moment, as if hearing someone's words, Rwen's ears perked up.

At the same time, the surprise that had filled Rwen's expression disappeared, and its place was filled with self-reproach and annoyance.

"Haa... sister, I think we've been had."

"Had?"

"Yeah."

Rwen said, pointing at Midra.

"That person can't see him, he was just pretending to see him to trick us."

At Rwen's words, Mio's eyes widened as she looked at Midra, and Rwen sighed.

Both of them had lived in the back alleys where the logic of power and deception reigned, so they were skilled in this kind of mental battle.

However, they had been flustered by the fact that Midra had seen Irehgue's appearance and had made a mistake without realizing it.

"Hmph, how about that! You got one over on you!"

Bodra, who had heard their conversation, looked at Mio with triumphant eyes, as if to say 'this is my brother'.

Regardless, Tafra quietly turned her eyes and looked in the direction Midra was looking.

"I know for sure that someone is there, but I can't find them..."

"Well, he might have moved to another place by now, but even considering that, it's shocking."

Midra said that and smiled.

"Seeing their reaction, it seems they're not lying, but to think I can't see him at all with my own eyes..."

"I know, right. Judging by their reaction, it seems he's perfectly visible to them, but we can't see him. I don't know what kind of structure he has."

Normally, the ability to find something hidden is proportional to the individual's realm.

However, even though the three of them were clearly in a higher realm than Mio and Rwen, they couldn't find even a slight sense of unease in the room right now.

"I don't know either, but it doesn't seem to be a simple type of stealth. They're casually listening to his voice right now."

Midra said, pointing at the two's constantly perked-up ears.

"Phew, thankfully I wasn't scolded."

Mio muttered that and sat down next to Rwen again.

Rwen, as if she didn't like the current situation, glared at Midra, the one who had created this situation, and said.

"My master said it's fine even if he's found out... but it still feels bad, so I won't tell you anything more. If you want to know more, find him yourself."

At Rwen's words, Midra smiled lightly.

"...It's an interesting proposal, but for now, let's focus on the conversation."

Swoosh-

"I've become very curious as to what he's trying to tell us by indirectly revealing his existence like this."

If these two hadn't come, they would have never known that someone else was in this room.

And they would have continued their meeting without knowing anything.

'I thought he wouldn't just stay still, but I never thought he'd move so boldly. If I had made a mistake and suggested we throw these kids as bait and run away, I might have died right away.'

Thinking that if the flow of the conversation had gone just a little wrong, he might have been killed by the guy in the room without anyone knowing, he felt a slight chill.

Whether she knew Midra's thoughts or not, Rwen, as if listening to someone's words, quietly closed her mouth and then opened it.

"The reason we came here is nothing special. We just came to say that we'll also help in this fight, and that we'll prevent you from being attacked by monsters this time, so you can just go ahead with that magical beast ecosystem destruction work."

At Rwen's words, the three's expressions changed.

"You're saying you'll oppose the Church with us?"

"No, leaving aside opposing the Church, you're saying you'll prevent the magical beasts from attacking the village... how on earth are you planning to do that?"

"That method is... eh?"

Rwen, at that moment, made a face as if she had misheard something, looked somewhere, and then opened her mouth with hesitation, as if she didn't know if she should actually say this.

Chuckle-

'It was worth hesitating about.'

Even though quite some time had passed, Tafra still let out a chuckle first when she recalled that proposal.

'To think he'd prevent the magical beasts from coming by leaking killing intent to the point of enveloping the entire village...'

It was an absurd nonsense that even a child would ignore, a foolish remark not even worth listening to with one ear and letting it out the other.

At least, that's what Tafra had thought.

"Killing intent..."

"Is it that guy..."

But the moment they heard those words, Midra and Bodra's faces hardened, and they began to think about something seriously.

"Even if it's that guy, is it possible?"

"Umm, he says it's possible."

At Rwen's words, Midra nodded once and then asked something else.

"If so, what are you planning to do with the villagers?"

"Since they won't be able to stay sane and endure it, the best way would be to gather them in one place and forcibly put them to sleep. Whether by using medicine or something else."

At Rwen's words, Bodra said with a frown.

"You're not planning to betray us, are you? By a method where that guy disappears in the middle and you let the magical beasts attack the village?"

At Bodra's words, Rwen made an exasperated expression.

"If we wanted you to lose, we wouldn't need to do something so troublesome, we could just run away at night, you know?"

"And we can't stop in the middle either. That thing that's emitting killing intent... it seems to be a phenomenon that naturally appears because of training."

"...I don't know if I should call this good timing or bad timing."

"Haa, what on earth is that guy doing in someone else's underground prison?"

Thus, the four people quickly exchanged opinions and made a plan.

At that time, Tafra couldn't understand why Midra and Bodra were believing such absurd words, but now she seemed to know.

Swoosh-

"They all experienced this once before."

Tafra rubbed her forearm with one hand to calm her bristling skin.

Even though she was at the edge of the village, the fact that she could feel such a rough killing intent was so absurd that Tafra let out a chuckle.

The person emitting this killing intent was clearly their ally.

Even so, her body was naturally on edge, and her body was rejecting being here.

It felt like a knife was being held to the single thread connecting her body and soul.

"Hoo... alright."

Tafra wiped the sweat flowing from her forehead and focused her mind on the branches that had tangled like a thicket around her and formed a circular dome.

Swoosh-

Then, Tafra's eyes flowed along the trunk, body, and roots of the tree and escaped from that place.

Soon, Tafra's eyes caught sight of the Cranky Monkeys and the knights fighting.

Tafra looked at the scene for a moment, and then, thinking it was about time, looked at the ground.

There, a sprout with a somewhat ominous purple hue had grown at some point.

It had sprouted by sucking the blood of the monsters.

Grin-

'It's done.'

The moment she saw that, Tafra looked at the paladins who were confident as if they had guaranteed victory.

The reason they had brought so many troops was to crush them with the overwhelming difference in military power.

Because if the difference in military power exceeded ten times, the most effective tactic was a frontal breakthrough.

Therefore, the Church would have never imagined.

Boing-

To crush the enemy with a difference in military power.

That they were also thinking the same thing.

◎ ◎ ◎

The first one to notice the existence of the sprout was a knight.

He cut the neck of a Cranky Monkey with his sword and then tried to move again.

Squeeze-

"Huh?"

But the moment he tried to move his foot, something grabbed it.

When he looked down, he saw a vine with a peculiar purple color wrapped around his ankle.

'What's this? Did a vine just happen to get tangled around my ankle while I was walking?'

Thinking it was nothing, he ignored it and moved his foot again.

But he soon realized that something was different.

No matter how much he moved his foot, the vine showed no sign of breaking.

No, on the contrary, the more he tried to shake it off, the more it seemed to get tangled.

And the moment he felt it had even penetrated inside his armor.

"Tsk, annoying."

The man, feeling an inexplicable sense of anxiety, drew his sword to cut the vine as quickly as possible.

At that moment.

Chwaaaak-

The vine, which had been quietly wrapped around his ankle, as if sensing the danger, wriggled violently like a snake aiming for its prey.

"What?!"

As the knight was flustered by the unexpected, sudden movement of the vine.

Pook-

The vine penetrated through the gap in the armor, pierced the knight's flesh, and took root in his bone.

"Kraaaak!"

The knight, in a mind-numbing pain, screamed loudly and swung his sword with all his might.

Perhaps because his training had not been in vain, the knight's sword cut the vine in a single stroke.

Sssssk-

However, the purple vine, despite being cut, wriggled again as if nothing had happened and came at the knight, aiming for him.

"Chiit, die!"

At that, the knight quickly swung his sword to prevent it from approaching and cut the vine into pieces.

Then, a surprising thing happened.

Ssssss-

The cut pieces of the vine sucked the blood and body fluids of the Cranky Monkeys on the ground, took root in the ground, and came back to life.

The newly rooted ones also wriggled, aiming for the knight.

The more he cut, the more the enemies increased, and they clung to him even more tenaciously.

But since he couldn't just stand there and be attacked, the knight bit his lip in a sense of powerlessness and continued to swing his sword.

However, the knight's resistance was futile.

Stagger-

"My body has no strength...?"

Just as the pieces of the vine that had touched the ground had eaten the blood of the Cranky Monkeys and become new vines, the vine that had initially taken root in the knight's body had sucked his blood, grown, and absorbed his strength.

"Uwaaak!"

"What! What's going on!"

"The floor! Be careful of the floor!"

Naturally, the soldiers and knights fell into chaos.

Ukyakyakyak-

On top of that, as the injured Cranky Monkeys went on a rampage, the damage began to increase even more.

Noah bit his lip at the unexpected situation.

"Damn it, did a mage cast a spell in advance? But I've never heard of a magic like this..."

Grin-

"Who are you calling a mage?"

Tafra, who had heard those words through the tree, had a sneer on her lips.

"I'm an incredibly strong and smart druid."

Sssssk-

As if nodding at Tafra's words, the branches that were enveloping her shook slightly.

(End of Chapter)