I dodged the sword that was coming down on me with a roll, but it puts me into a bad position. Sensei notices it of course and follows up with a diagonal swing. It's difficult, but I manage to jump back and contort my body to avoid it. While I'm in the air, I take out a dagger and throw it at Sensei. He uses his inhuman speed to dodge it, but I'm finally able to go on the offensive.
I run towards him, keeping low to the ground, and start attacking him with one dagger in each of my hands. He's fast enough to match my attacks even though he only has a single sword. Really, that speed is unfair.
Even if we're matching blows, he far surpasses me in strength with his sword. I step back again and decide to try something else. Instead of trying to engage him directly, I take 4 daggers out of the strap on my thigh and hold them between each of my fingers. Let's see you dodge this!
Sensei notices what I'm doing, but he's too late. All four of my daggers are already loose in the air. There's no way he can avoid this attack. He blocks the dagger aimed at his head and the rest bury themselves in his body. He rips them out of his fur and laughs.
"Haha, excellent! I'd never think you would be able to land a hit on me!"
"Nnnrgh! Even my finishing move didn't have any effect though..."
"That's not true. If this were real combat, there would've been poison on those daggers, right? So, you can hold your head up high and say you've beaten old man Skariv here!"
Skariv-sensei says he's old, but really he's only 45, which is actually quite young for beast-man. He's been teaching me how to fight the last few months. As a beast-kin, the only advantage I have over him is my dexterity. Beast-men were originally a race of magical beasts that took human form, so they still have some incompatibilities with a bipedal form. For example, their thumbs aren't fully developed, they're covered in fur, and sometimes have claws, so they can't handle weapons precisely. Their knees also bend the other way, which is perfect for power, but not so for delicate control. That's why I use daggers against Skariv-sensei, so I can make use of my good aim and control.
Sensei is a beast-man that resembles a panther. He's a wandering mercenary from the south, so he has no problems with humans or even beast-kin like me. Actually, he's a really good guy. I'm glad this world isn't full of weirdos like Nyros.
Nyros is my partner for most missions, but luckily he never has a telepathic stone. Telepathic stones can only link to one other person at a time, so it's better to link one of us to the base rather than link the two of us together.
While Sensei has been teaching me the blade, Jii-san has been teaching me how to speak elven. Normally it would take more than just 6 months to learn a language, but hearing him speak with the proper translation at the same time via a telepathic stone made it really easy. I still have some troubles with pronunciation though.
Every morning, I spar with Sensei, and every night Nyros and I steal food, money, and sometimes slaves from the nearby city, Irilyn. Later tonight though, we have a slightly different mission. There are some rumors that the Alterrian central army is coming just like last time, so we're being sent to confirm the validity of those rumors. The plan is to break into the mayor's office in the town hall, and examine the letters and documents there. Hopefully nothing turns up.
Nyros and I are climbing up the side of the town hall. Earlier, I was bragging about how amazing my dexterity and finesse were and things like that, but Nyros is still keeping up with me. As always, this guy is strangely capable.
I look at the office through the window, and confirm nobody is there. Good. It doesn't take more than a few seconds for me to get the lock on the window open. The locks in this world are slightly different, but once you get used to them, they're actually really easy to pick. The manufacturing in this world, or at least Alterria is at a very low level, so the locks are all low quality. I think magic is used to lock extremely important buildings, but I've never encountered anything like that.
Nyros and I silently enter the room. I place my ear to the door to listen for intruders while Nyros sifts through the documents. I still can't read very well, so I need to leave the searching to Nyros.
(Sayane-chan, how is it going on your end?)
I look towards Nyros and he only nods his head from side to side.
(Still no luck. Nyros is only about half-way through though.)
(I see. Well, it'll be good if there's no army coming.)
(Yeah.)
I hear some footsteps approaching. They're not walking, they're running. They'll probably reach here in less than a minute.
"Nyros, it can't be helped. Leave everything as it is, we're getting out of here."
Nyros is already leaving through the window. It's unfortunate, but they'll know we've been here. I follow after Nyros and we leave. When we reach the ground, Nyros stares at me intensely.
"What, you found something?"
He gives a small nod as affirmation.
"You've confirmed the central army is coming?"
Another nod.
(Jii-san! Nyros says he's confirmed the army is moving! I'm passing the necklace to him.)
(Damn, I really hate talking to that guy...)
When Nyros and I get back, Jii-san starts briefing everyone.
"Listen up! As you know, there were rumors that central Alterrian army is coming. According to our two best Slayers, this rumor is true and they'll be here in less than a week. This time, we're not going to stand around and let ourselves get wiped out. However, we do not have the strength to fight them either. I have decided that we will retreat to the Grand Wilds to wait out the army. Are there any objections?"
As expected, everyone trusts Jii-san's judgement. His leadership ability is really high, and he's able to effectively lead the 200 people here. We had to build temporary homes out of wood and cloth to accommodate the large influx of people. Of course, it's all thanks to my efforts that we were able to gain this many people.
By the way, 'Slayers' are just what they call the elite soldiers here, because it's Slave Liberation Army Y E R. I think it's lame, but it's Jii-san that's coming up with the names, so everyone loves it. There's only about 10 Slayers anyways, so it doesn't even come up that often.
Wait, did he say we're going to the Grand Wilds?! Yes! Finally, I might be able to meet up with Hise again. To be honest, my company has really only been Jii-san, Sensei, and Nyros. Sensei and Jii-san are nice enough, but they both treat me like a child, so I haven't really had anyone to mess around with since I came to this world.
Jii-san's evacuation plan is to travel as lightly as possible and just hunt for our food and water so that we can leave as quickly as possible. The Alterrian army will probably pull out all the stops and start using a bunch of magic to pursue us once they confirm our location. That's why we need to gain as much distance as possible, so that they get discouraged and hopefully give up.
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As a favor to me, Jii-san is taking us towards the village where the hero was rumored to be summoned. We need to reach a village anyways, since the army will probably stick around for a few weeks.
The area we'll be going through has a lot of Griffins in it. I've prepared some paralytic poison which should knock them out of the sky if it goes well. In my free time, I've been messing around with the plants from the edge of the Great Wilds. My sense of smell is really good now, so after a lot of trial and error on some prisoners and local wildlife, I've become more or less able to determine the effects of plants and poisons by smell alone. Of course, I don't know much about Griffin physiology, but Jii-san told me they're not magic beasts, so if I make the poison strong enough it should do the job.
It's the first day of the journey, and a few Griffins have already come to attack. It's hard to see at this distance, but they look like winged black tigers covered in short feathers. I was expecting something else when I heard 'Griffin' but that was just a telepathic translation of 'Kyrtil' anyways, so I shouldn't be surprised.
I don't have the strength to effectively launch daggers while they're still so far away, instead I need to wait until they engage someone. Most of the soldiers are using spears because they're simple and effective, especially against monsters, where you can't afford to get hit.
The trees here are really large, probably larger than the redwoods of my old world, but they're spaced far enough apart that it doesn't feel suffocating and sunlight can easily pass through. Unfortunately, so can the Griffins.
One of the Griffins swoops down and picks up one of the soldiers, but I land a dagger on it while it's still ascending. It seems unaffected by it for about 20 seconds, before dropping out of the sky. Both the Griffin and soldier most likely died from the fall. Oops.
The next Griffin hovers above the soldiers and tries to claw them from that position. This time, I throw 3 daggers instead of 1, and the effect is instant. The remaining Griffins retreat once they see the second one being stabbed from all directions. Some people carry the bodies for dinner later, but otherwise, everyone resumes walking immediately like the attack never happened. Their discipline is shockingly high for a ragtag group of former slaves. I'm sure it's due to Jii-san's leadership ability.
We travel until the sun sets, and everybody is exhausted from fighting and carrying their stuff. Jii-san made the right choice when he decided we should travel light. I'm also no exception and I flop into my sleeping roll as soon as we finish setting up all the tents.
I can only rest for a bit though since I'm the only person here with any real experience cooking. It's to be expected since these guys were all slaves for most if not all of their lives. I need Sensei's help to cut the meat since the Griffin hide is really tough. It's quite the sight seeing him prepare the meat with his sword.
The pot is beginning to smell really good, but as soon as I take a bite to test the flavor, I fall to the ground. Ah, there was still the poison huh...
That day, we had nuts and berries for dinner.
It's now the second day of the journey. The paralysis really hurt since I had minor muscle spasms all throughout the night, but I'm fine now, unless you count the sleep deprivation. Again, Griffins have come to attack, but unlike yesterday there are only two. The morning light provides more visibility than yesterday too. It doesn't matter to me or Sensei but it should help out the SLA soldiers.
I can't use poison again, so instead I'll try to cut the tendon connecting their wings to their bodies. To do that, I need for them to be facing me head on, so right now I'm running behind the soldiers engaged in combat and trying to throw daggers over their shoulders. This is considerably harder to do than last time, but I succeed in disabling it's wings, and a large dust cloud can be seen rising from where it impacted the ground. When the dust clears, the Griffin's body is no longer recognizable. As for the other Griffin, it was bisected with a single swing of Sensei's sword.
This time, the soldiers had experience in dodging the Griffins' attacks, so no one died.
I can properly cook the Griffin meat tonight now that it isn't poisoned. Some soldiers carry one of the bodies while Sensei carries the other. The walk today isn't too bad, but there are tons of bugs. I see caterpillars the length of my arm and mosquitoes the size of my head. Honestly, it's really disgusting. By the time we stopped for camp, my appetite was gone, but I still had to cook for everyone.
In the other world, I was alright as far as cooking went, but with my enhanced taste, I've improved significantly. I can proudly say that I'm now an excellent chef! At least, the former slaves think so. I don't know if they're qualified critics, but Sensei also likes my food, so it should be pretty good.
Obviously, I can't cook for 200 people, so there are indeed other chefs, and they also like my food. Well, in any case, my food is something others enjoy, and that's good enough for me.
"Ooooh! Saya-chan's cooking!"
"""Hooray!"""
"Shut up you bastards! Also, which one of you called me 'Saya-chan'?"
Would anyone notice if I slit someone's throat in the middle of the night? Probably. Maybe I can drag his sleeping bag out into the woods and hope the Griffins get him.
"That's right! My cute little Sayane-chan is too good for you lot!"
Jii-san comes to my defense, but somehow, it doesn't make me feel any better.
Day 8 of the journey. We're finally here at the village Jii-san heard about. The village seems to be undergoing some construction. The parts not undergoing reconstruction are extremely primitive, with wood walls and thatch roofs, but the parts that have already been finished have advanced architecture comparable to the ones in Irilyn. That's saying something too, because the elven geomancers are capable of making some impressive stuff.
The village is still far away, but with my eyes I can easily see distinct faces from the people near the front gate. Most of the people there are just working on the construction though. If I know that guy, he wouldn't be helping out the community like that, he would be with a bunch of girls.
I scan the people around the buildings that are being worked on, searching for any young girls. Sure enough, there's a group of them surrounding something. I said it half as a joke, he wouldn't really be in there would he...?
A hand shoots out of the center of girls and starts waving at me.
"Ah, Saya!"
This guy is the same as always. Still, I can't help but feel overjoyed. It's been more than half a year after all.
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The next 4 chapters are from Hise’s PoV, but I want to emphasize that Saya is the MC. The main reason is that it’s really hard to write a smart character, because you have to be, you know, smart. At most he’ll get a few special chapters here and there, so don’t expect too much after this upcoming part.