Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 135.2

The slash wound itself was not deep. But if I continued to bleed, my strength would run out first.

What was that? Was that a gimmick in his arm? Grave did not even bother to follow up, reaching for me as I glared at him like an animal in alarm.

“You’re funny after all. You would understand my beliefs and be both shield and blade to protect this country. I say again, Aria, accept my offer.”

Grave saw me as a “Mad Dog”, his own kind. He wanted me, and if he had enough faith in me to survive, he would have taken me in.

“I refuse.”

But my answer was clear. You were my enemy. We may be similar in some ways, but I had no “sympathy” for him.

Hearing my words, Grave narrowed his eyes for a moment and pointed the sword in his hand at me.

“If that is your will, then prove it, Aria, and if you can stop me with your belief, then stop me.”

“…I don’t have to be told by you.”

I inhaled a large breath of light magic element with my breath, and dyed the magic enhanced by the Iron Rose with the Magic Stone in my heart to stop the blood from flowing out.

“Let me see it. Let’s see how serious you are. I noticed that your technique has a time limit. Can you avoid my strings?”

Thread…? Just as I thought that, the armoring on his prosthetic hand opened again, and something invisible… was released.

“What?”

I jumped and avoided it with only my intuition with a bad feeling, and still something that I couldn’t avoid slashed my shoulder and arm. But the blood showed me what it was for a moment.

“…A sharp thread?”

“Exactly. I looked up the weapon you use, and I also gained the [Thread Manipulation] skill. This was something called steel blade thread, and it was not something I could handle with my bare hands, but with this prosthetic hand, I could use it.”

“…”

Steel Blade Thread Technique…I’ve heard from my master that it was a weapon used by a family of assassins from the Evil Race, I recall. It was said that only a special technique could handle it, but Grave, who obtained it from the Evil Race, was able to use it by putting it in his prosthetic hand. This was a weapon specialized for assassination and not so much of a threat if I put on armor, however, I understand that this was Grave’s secret move against me, who did not wear armor.

How do I see it through? While I was thinking about the strategy in my head as we glared at each other, I suddenly heard a noise in the distance, and Grave raised an eyebrow.

“Are we interrupted?”

“Grave!”

At that moment, four Evil Races, the hems of their clothes scorched, jumped in through the door at the back. The man at the front of the group, who had lost one of his arms, had another of Grave’s swords in his hand, which led him to conclude that these men were Grave’s men.

“…What’s the matter, Gostola, what’s going on?”

“We’ve been attacked…we need your help…”

“Well… it looks like someone as powerful as you have suffered a terrible blow.”

Grave, who muttered something that didn’t sound amused, turned his attention back to me for a moment.

It was Carla who did it, wasn’t it? Cutting corners was not really what Carla would do. Grave, who understood the identity of the assailants from the momentary expression I had on my face, suddenly turned his friendly attitude towards the Vampires of the Evil Race.

“Then that’s convenient. This girl here is the greatest obstacle in the way of your plans that we talked about before… I was telling you about it before. It would make things a lot easier if the same kind of skill that attacked you were also in the area.”

“That is…”

This Evil Race had a fighting strength of about 2,000. The Evil Race called Gostola looked into my eyes as if he had seen my combat power, and nodded his head as if he had made up his mind.

“…I can trust you to hold that girl back, can’t I?”

“Fine. I promise you that I will hold the person who attacked you here as my responsibility as well.”

“I’ll leave it to you.”

I had a bad feeling about what the Evil Race was planning. That I was the obstacle? As I moved to stop the Evil Race, the steel-bladed threads were released from Grave again.

“Wha?”

“Your opponent is me!”

Gostola, who had been looking at me with disgust as I was stopped in my tracks by Grave, uttered a final statement before leaving this place.

“Grave, now you and I have what we want. As promised, we will definitely take the princess to our country.”

“What…?”

Princess? When I looked back at Grave when I heard he was taking Elena to the land of the Evil Race, the guy starts talking like he’s not interested.

“It’s a long-winded plan by those who have lived for hundreds of years. They’ll get rid of a competent princess and appoint a poorly performing Crown Prince to the throne. In a few decades, the power of this Cleydale nation, which was an obstacle to the Evil Race, will decline, but that won’t be a problem. When that happens, we can kill the King and put someone else on the throne who is more competent.”

Certainly, in the Crown Prince’s current situation, that would likely be the case. Grave believed that even if that would cause the country to fall into disarray, it would be less disruptive than competing with Elena for the throne.

“Grave…what are you going to do with Elena?”

“I’m going to let her live. We’ll keep her alive because we may need her blood when we replace the king. Now what are you going to do Aria, without you by the princess’s side, there is no one to stop the Evil Race in the slackened academy, is there?”

“…”

Perhaps the odds of success were slim, and Evil Race thought so, too, so they had prepared a handful of pawns they could use by adding more dependents. But after being hurt so badly that they had to flee from Carla, the Evil Race was cornered and resorted to the hard-line strategy of attacking the princess.

“Come on, show me what you’re really made of. If you want to protect the princess, you’ll have to kill me and go after them.”

There were guards at the academy, and even Royal Guards to protect the royal family. It would be difficult for the different looking Evil Race to even reach the school. But if they did get into the academy, no ordinary warrior could stop them.

Even if I go after them, I had to defeat the Grave that would hold me back as quickly as possible, and I had yet to even see the steel-blade threads that slowed me down.

…He asked me to show him how serious I was, Grave, and I was already prepared to do so. I was fighting to settle this with him… But if that’s what he wanted, then I was done “fighting” Grave.

“Grave, I will show you how serious I am just to “kill” you.”