「Gyarghh!」
Something hard-soft impacts his defined nose with impetus, and he is sent flying backwards.
A pained groan escapes the handsome man's mouth as he flies through the air with an accompanying beautiful trail of scarlet blood, looking at the faintly cloudy blue sky.
《Ah. My healthbar just moved slightly. What just happened?-》
His thought is quickly interrupted by another impact to the back of his head, then back of the rest of his body with a large thud.
「I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!」
The young woman's voice again. And the young woman runs up to him, leaning over him as he stares at the sky, her large chest sways downward and almost knocks her off balances as she does.
「I'm sorry. I only noticed you were trying to catch me at the last second, so I kneed you in the face.」
The man sits up, trying to control the bleeding from his nose with his hand.
「Sho yo're shaying I'd get a nays pantee shot ipf I onlee kepth mey eyez opin? Shid!」
Blood flows past his fingers and onto his clothes… Then off onto the ground, like water off a duck.
「Ah, you're mumbling… And you're bleeding a lot… This is not good, you might die at this rate.」
She looks nervously over her shoulder down the road, reaches into a pocket, and pulls out an embroided, sophisticated handkerchief. She unfolds it quickly with a whip of her hand.
「Here, and don't tilt your head back…」
She presses the handkerchief against his nose as she squats down near him.
《Am I actually going to die from this? That can't be possible.》
The man looks in the corner of his vision, he sees a new icon featuring a red droplet.
[Bleeding]
[Stacks: 4] [Damage Over Time] [Status effect]
Target is losing health due to bloodloss. Current loss rate: 8 HP/60s. Stack decrease rate: 1/60s
Higher stack loss rate: 10 HP/60s.
Lower stack loss rate: 6 HP/60s.
The bleeding man looks in the other corner, at his bars…
200/200 10/10 405/405
[|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||] [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||]
HEALTH MANA STAMINA
《As expected, [Regeneration] already did its work… 》
「Gyahhh… 」
《So why the shit does it still hurt?!- Ah, wait. I may be full health… But I'm still taking damage!》
The young woman looks at him with concern, her lips practically disappeared into her mouth. She keeps glancing over her shoulder quickly, towards down the road she came from.
「I hope you get better soon- Ah! Wait!」
The man simply stands up, ignoring the shocked woman waving her hands in panic.
「I'm alright, it'll stop soon.」
She stands up as well, but as soon as she's about to say something…
「There she is!」
Badadumbadadumbadadum.
Her eyes widen as she looks behind her, two armored horsemen are speeding towards them on the road.
「Oh no! I have to run-」
She tries to explain her sudden departure as she runs past the man she just kicked, but he grabs her wrist.
「Unhand me! They're going to kill me if they catch me! Or worse!」
「Wait, who are they? And why are you running?」
The man is serene as he bleeds on the ground and asks the panicking woman, who is trying to break free of his grasp.
「They're the current king's manhunters! They falsely branded me a criminal- Please, let go of me! I don't have the time to explain!」
She grows small and gives up hope of running as she sees the manhunters slow their gallop, and stop near the horse laying in a ditch at the side of the road.
「Relax, you don't have to run anymore.」
「What…? No, you don't understand, they can't be reasoned with-」
「Who said anything about reasoning?」
He lets go of her hand and turns to face the men. He extends his arm to the side, obstructing the path to the woman.
《Perfect time to test that sword-》
「Wait, you can't. If you kill them, it'll be nothing but trouble for you too-」
She says quietly as she hides behind his back. His clenches his open hand into a fist.
「Tsk. So I can't kill them without inconveniencing you, huh?」
《Guess it'll have to wait… 》
The man gives up on opening his [Portable Storage] and allows his arm to drop to his side. The horses trot in place as the men talk between themselves.
「Does this mean you intend to oppose the king's will and abet the murderer princess?!」
One of the horsemen shouts out, their hands on their swords. The woman reaches for her sword too, but doesn't draw it, her hand trembling on its grip. The reincarnated man spreads his arms with a smug smirk on his face. His nosebleed stops randomly.
「Abet? You bet!」
「...What? Despite them saying-」
「I don't care what they're saying.」
The abettor man turns his head to look at the woman, who is staring at him from behind with a mixture of terror and disbelief on her face. He lets out a singular chuckle and smirks as he pockets the bloodied handkerchief.
「I told you didn't I? You don't have to run anymore.」
「Wha-?」
Ba-dump.
Her terror turns into plain disbelief as the man looks back towards the manhunters.
《Naturally, how could I turn down a chance for a fight? Especially to protect a girl? This is the cliche made in heaven! All the hopeless, desperate virgins dream up of scenarios like this!》
Stolen novel; please report.
「You scum! We were hoping to take her alive, but having hidden sympathizers changes things!」
The second manhunter shouts at them from his high horse. The apparent gentleman puts his fists on his hips and shrugs his shoulders.
「Hidden? I wasn't exactly hiding.」
「Tsk. So that's it?! You choose death?!」
「Well, if that was the option… But unfortunately I can only beat you to a pulp.」
The horsemen glance at each other, but before they can even kick their horse to gallop…
The man in front of them suddenly appears with his foot on top of one of their horses' head.
「Wh-?!」
Before the men can fully parse or appreciate what has even occurred, one of them receives a kick in the face that sends him flying back off the horse. The sound echoes off nearby trees.
「What?! Wa- Wait!」
「Neeeeeeeigh!」
Both horses are terrified by the man's sudden appearance, and the thunderous boom he appeared with… And the kicking noise… All in all, this is all too much for the horses to take in. They both stand on their hind legs, and the second manhunter can't react fast enough to not be unhorsed.
Clunk!
He lands on his back and hits his head in the process, his armor barely softening the impact. Meanwhile, the man backflips off the horse's head and lands in front of the woman with ease. He crosses his arms and chuckles to himself with a lowered head. The horses run past them, and away.
《Ahhh… I knew this combination of skills would be completely broken. [Translocation] for total of 100 points, each level for only 25? What a steal. Being able to teleport within 20 meters and the only condition is being able to put my foot there is just incredibly broken. And I can do it again in just 3 short hours!》
「Hehehehehe… 」
《And [Double Jump]? That's just ridiculous, 25 and I can jump at full strength once an hour at any time? I could drop from orbit unharmed like this! I should try that in some town- Wait, how would I get into orbit?》
「Hyehihihihi… 」
The woman is thankful the danger is over, but she peeks over the man's shoulder with worry as he giggles.
「Are you a mage?」
「Huh?」
「That was magic just now, wasn't it?」
「No, that was…」
《Right… I just realized… This whole time I was only using my skills. How do I use magic? Is it as easy as just yelling fireball or saying some long-ass nonsensical incantation? Does she not know what skills are?》
「How does magic work here, anyway?」
The man asks the woman peeking over his shoulder. Her head recoils back slightly.
「...You don't know, but can cast it anyway?」
「Ha ha… I was just... Joking…」
「Ha… Almost got me… Ummm… Are they… Dead?」
「Ah- I guess I should check, huh?」
He focuses on the man on the floor, a half-full healthbar appears above his head. He walks up to the one he kicked, and a healthbar down to its last quarter appears as well.
「Oof. They're alive, though.」
The woman sighs with relief.
「Those men… They're not bad people, but they have been lied to…」
She looks at the knocked out men with pity, then walks towards the horse in the ditch.
《Man… They're almost dead, and I was holding back like hell, too… Humans here are no joke weak as-》
He sighs as he remembers an unpleasant event he didn't get to experience.
《Well… I guess at least that's something consistent across the worlds.》
The woman squats down and starts caressing the horse's mane. It seems it broke its neck as it tripped, and landed in the ditch.
「Poor horsie… I'm sorry… And thank you… 」
She thanks the dead horse with a sad face. The man walks up to her, hands on his hips.
「What are you getting all gloomy for? It's just an animal. Their whole point is loot and XP. I guess you can ride it, too. 」
He shares his utilitarian view, the woman looks up at him with surprise, and also slight confusion.
「...Expi?」
She stands back up, wiping the side of her eye with the side of her index finger and faces her savior.
「I can't believe a man as kind as you would be so heartless to animals. I stole this horse, and it saved my life… And it paid with its own.」
His eyes widen in a tight-lipped, obviously-guilty-trying-to-hide-it expression.
《「OORRRRRRRRAAaaaaa!!」 「Gyaaaah!」 「Eat this!」》
His mind replays him segments of his questionably ethical farming.
《How did she- Wait, does she actually know?》
「Either way, I'm very grateful. I suppose I should explain things now.」
She tilts her head as she looks at the man…
「But who do I thank? What's your name?」
The man smirks again.
「I'm-」
He immediately stops himself.
《Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. I almost blew it! The perfect chance!》
「Hm? What is it?」
He extends his index finger out to delay her, as he hunches down away from her.
「Let me think… 」
「...Think?」
She asks with furrowed brows as the man rubs his, his chin, and pinches the bridge of his nose…
《Ahhh… I could have given her my real name, but that's what all the desperate thirsty virgins would do! That is a cliche in and of itself, but I need something better! Something harder!》
She blinks puzzledly as her knight in no armor is apparently experiencing an existential crisis.
《I need a name that's edgy and cool and sounds absolutely kick ass but is also relatively normal… 》
「Hmmm…」
「Ummm… If for some reason you must hide your identity, that's not a problem-」
「No no no no, I almost got it…」
「...Pardon?」
《Ahh. There it is. Add my abysmally poor grasp of foreign languages, translate the words, and… 》
The man lets out a single chuckle to himself again, then straightens out to face the woman. His expression is dead serious, his sharp eyes locked with her emerald ones. Strong wind rustles the grass and shakes the trees around them.
「I am Straf. Katastrof. Vindict.」