CH 92

Episode 92

Illusion and Truth

“I have a bad feeling, a bad smell.”

Irimo muttered. At that moment, the presence of a powerful demon caught my attention. Looking at the map, it seemed to be about 30 minutes away from our current location. It seemed to have appeared near the Lady Considine’s army. Moreover, there seemed to be a herd of deer in the area.

“For the time being, let’s check it out.”

“Huh?”

“Are we going to see their faces again?”

The two girls look really uncomfortable.

“No, I don’t care about the adventurers, but I am concerned about the demons that have appeared. It seems that Irimo is also concerned about it, and we should check it out. We can’t let it go unchecked and cause any damage to the Principality of Niza or the Empire.”

“This is… Master, we must hurry.”

Irimo was getting more and more impatient. I quickly turned on my heel and headed for the place where the reaction came from.

…What was there was a unicorn. A jet-black body with a large horse about two meters long. And it had a golden horn growing out from between its eyebrows. What we saw was a scene in which Lady Considine was pierced in the left thigh by the unicorn’s horn.

“Gyaaaaa!”

The unicorn raised its head with the princess’s scream. She is lifted up on the unicorn’s head with her thighs stabbed. She was shaking her head. Princess Considine’s body flew through the air and slammed into the ground. She doesn’t move a muscle. Blood was pouring out of her legs like a fountain. She was in a very bad state.

When I looked in the direction where the princess was thrown, I saw a large number of deer. They didn’t do anything but stare at the scene.

If you look closely, you can see the bodies of the adventurers and their horses lying around the unicorn. Some of them had huge holes in their bodies, and others were lying around with their faces blown off. Perhaps they were all wiped out.

The unicorn slowly turned its body in our direction. It made a small neighing sound and suddenly began to charge. It was fast. It could close the distance between us in an instant. I quickly set up a barrier around it.

“Gah…!”

Just as I expected the unicorn stopped moving for a moment, then the barrier shattered. I was then blown backward by the impact.

“Agh!”

I immediately cast Extra Heal and my body quickly recovered. Irimo, Ferris, and Luara seem to be safe, and they got up immediately.

“Watch out, everyone! It’s gonna be tough!”

“Yes.!”

“Understood”

Ferris floated in the air with Laura and landed on a tree. Seeing this, the unicorn began to charge, this time towards Irimo. Irimo, too, rammed into the unicorn without losing.

“Gaiiiiiiiinnn!”

A tremendous shockwave generated. As expected, Irimo, who was inferior in size, lost her balance first. At that moment, the unicorn thrusted its golden horn into Irimo’s side.

“Heeeeen!”

Screaming, Irimo fell to her knees. The blood that spurted from her side stained the soil of the forest.

“Windcutter!”

“Ice shot!”

Without pause, Ferris and Laura started releasing their magic from the treetops.

“Squeak.”

The magic disappeared in front of the unicorn. The unicorn sank down with a ragged breath and raised its front legs towards the two of them. At that moment, a breath of ice was released from the unicorn’s mouth.

“Aaah!”

“Whoa!”

They fell from the treetops with half of their bodies frozen in place. The moment I went to help the girls, I was pierced in the chest by the unicorn.

“Agh!”

Blood began flowing from my chest and mouth. The unicorn lifted its head in place. My body is not strong enough.

“This is… this is…”

“Oh my, you’ve ruined the Hero. It would have been cool if he had been a little more active.”

A woman in a hood comes up to me. This is the woman who was by Lady Considine’s side.

“Oh… you… are… Why are you… here?

“I’m the assassin sent here to kill the princess.”

“That… that… Dr. Lecornai”

“Ahahaha, you fool. That Lecornai is the one who sent me.”

“What the…?”

“You’re a fool, aren’t you? If you had gone back to the Empire, you would have survived, but you came all the way back here to be killed?”

“Who are you… people?”

“Ufufu. Well, watch me from heaven.”

“Rinos, this side is wiped out. You can’t cast recovery spell.”

“It’s hard because they’ve all been hit in the face, head, and heart.”

“Okay. All right. I’ve got it. We should be happy that Lady Considine survived.”

There was me, trying to put the injured Lady Considine on top of Irimo, and Ferris and Laura trying to get close to her.

“What… what? What the…?”

“I had you guys play a little bit because Lady Considine was in bad shape. I knew I wouldn’t make it in time if I tried to do it right, so I let you guys have a little fun. But you Porcehai really are a bunch of jerks, aren’t you?”

“How did you know that?”

“Your name is Utnica, you’re 28 years old. I thought Porcehai were good at illusion, but I see you are good at recovery magic. I think it isn’t much of a surprise that your level is high considering you have been healing the clan’s injuries since you were a child.”

I’ve been invoking my appraisal skills on this woman for quite some time now. I’ve been able to figure out quite a bit about the woman.

“Who the hell are you?”

“You’ve been under Lecornai for ten years now. You’ve done a lot of terrible things. You’ve been helping him experiment on humans and other beasts that aren’t Porcehai? You’ve been transferring unicorns, so your MP is depleted. I’m afraid you’re going to die here.”

“A-ha-ha! I’m going to die? How? Who will kill me?”

“You guys need a lot of MP to escape by transferring, right? And you also need considerable MP to blow yourself up when the time comes. But you can’t do either with your current MP, can you?”

“How did you know that? Don’t tell me you’re the Barrier Master Minute mentioned.”

“You miscalculated. You should have taken precautions as soon as you found out that I am the Royal Barrier Master.”

“Kill him! What are you doing? Kill him! Kill him!”

Utnica was shouting at the unicorn. However, the unicorn only shakes its body in a wandering manner and does not move.

“It’s no use. I’ve already locked him up in my barrier. It’s because he lusted after Irimo. I’ll have to punish it properly afterward.”

“It broke through the barriers just now! Why can’t it breakthrough that barrier now?”

“Oh, the scene where my barriers broke were illusions. I casted a barrier when I saw the princess being attacked by a unicorn. But unicorns sure are amazing. They use such assault power and water magic. And although it’s a bit of a joke, they can also put up barriers. No wonder adventurers can’t compete with them. Could it be a very advanced species? It’s okay though. This one seems to have killed a lot of people. Let’s punish it.”

I shrink the barriers I’ve placed on the unicorn.

“My Lord! The unicorn’s horn is a medicine for all ills! It must not be lost!”

“Oh, yeah.”

I pulled out my Holy Sword and approached the unicorn.

“Gosh!”

With a sound like a machine breaking, the longhorn of the unicorn slowly fell away.

“Buhihihihieeen!!”

“It hurts, doesn’t it?”

I further shrank the barrier.

“Buhi! Buhi! Buhi! Buhi! Pigya !!!”

With a loud scream, the unicorn turned into a lump of flesh.

“Well, Utnica. Now it’s your turn.”

I reinforce the barriers and take away the woman’s freedom. Then I reached out and take off the woman’s hood. From inside, the face of a black rabbit woman appeared. I place my hand on the woman’s head.

“Huh, you’re even drier than I thought. Did you have a lot of trouble?”

“Fuck! Aaahh! No! Why?”

“I’ve taken all your powers, just in case. You’ll never be able to use the transfer again, okay?”

“Oh, shit! Nuh-uh!”

The woman’s screams were so loud that I forcibly took away all of her MP within the barrier. The woman, lulled into strong drowsiness, went limp as if she was fighting a sleeping demon.

“Now, what do we do with her?”

“How about we just take her hostage while she is sleeping?

“First we have to get Lecornai and his men away from the palace.”

“Huh…Rinos! That!”

When I turned in the direction of Ferris’s voice, I saw the glowing bodies of hundreds of deer. Then a small fawn appeared in front of the herd.

One by one, all the deer disappeared. Each time they disappeared, the amount of light increased, and finally, a blinding light covered the area so brightly that I couldn’t even open my eyes.

What emerged from the light was a huge deer.

His body was large, but he also had horns as big as his body. It may have originally been a white deer, but it had reddish-black spots all over its body, as well as wounds and bleeding on many parts of its body. The deer dizzyingly moved forwards, but with a dull thud, it fell on its knees and sat down.

We approached the deer with trepidation.

“This is… a magnificent deer.”

“You look like you’re hurt pretty bad.”

“Human… thank you for saving Considine’s life.”

I heard a man’s voice in my head. It seemed that this deer was talking to using telekinesis.

“What the hell are you…?”

“I am the Deer God, and as you can see, I could not help Considine even if I wanted to. I thank you for your help.”

“You call yourself the Deer God? Why have you been devouring Niza’s crops? And those scars…”

“Hmm. If it is you, I will speak with you. The reason I ate the crops was to protect the people. It is…”

“Deer God! What… What do you mean?”

I, Gon, Ferris, and Laura all cried when we heard the Deer God’s story.