Chapter 5

Chapter 5. The Porter of Yensi (4)

I remembered a scene. A scene where Airi broke down sobbing in front of a black tree. She put on all kinds of tough fronts, but before a black tree, she had a trauma she couldn't overcome.

I suspected this was where that trauma was born. And in the novel, during the scene where that trauma erupted, there was this line:

- I don't want to lose everyone again!

Then did Airi lose everyone here? There was a problem. Because that 'everyone' included me.

The spider extended its leg toward me again. Dodging wasn't an issue. My wrist was dangling a bit and the torn nerves kept sending waves of pain, but I could endure this much.

"Butler, sir—lend me that monocle."

I said that and snatched the man's monocle. When it came to speed, no one here could keep up with me right now.

I stitched my gaping wrist shut with the monocle's chain and tied the knot with the lens. I clenched and opened my fist—only one side of my finger joints would close. But this much was enough.

I threw another question at the bewildered butler.

"Butler, sir—who here has the best eyesight?"

"Normally me, but since you stole my monocle, it'd be the lady."

What—the guards here were weaker than Airi? Then why did they even bring them? That was odd. But now wasn't the time to question it.

"Lady Airi!"

"......What?"

I went straight to Airi and grabbed the back of her neck with my good arm, lifted her, and set her down in the spot with the clearest line of sight. Dead center.

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

Airi went completely pale, and the butler along with the guards did the same. It's fine—I'll draw the aggro.

When I lifted her like baggage, everyone stared at me in horror. Sorry, I'll just borrow you for a moment. I wasn't even from this world anyway. Wait—this was a class-based society, so was this treason?

I relayed my instructions to Airi as fast as I could.

"From now on, I'm going to write characters on the walls. Read them out loud. Everyone, focus! Only the lady reads them! If voices overlap in a situation like this, it'll confuse me. I'm still not used to the Trafvichan language."

The moment those words left my mouth—

SHHHHHK—!

I reacted by hearing before seeing. Hearing before seeing was good. The body reacting faster than the ear was even better. But my body still wasn't in perfect condition.

Because of that, a monster leg grazed past Airi's ear.

"You—you horrible wretch!"

Still haven't learned many curses, I see. Her nickname was the Cursing Machine Gun, though.

Still, as expected, the spider seemed to have decided I was its number-one target to eliminate. The thought of aggro shifting to someone else was terrifying. I'd have to block that too.

I dodged the beast's attacks while writing characters on the wall with my mangled hand. Whenever it got too close, I'd deflect it once with the dagger.

I used to have pretty decent handwriting—my autograph always came out nice—but with my wrist dangling, the writing was an illegible mess. The handwriting of a student with zero focus being forced to write lines as punishment.

"What the hell is that guy doing?"

Fair reaction. I'd placed the precious ducal lady in the center and was now scrawling strange graffiti on the walls.

I glanced behind me. Spider legs were still being fired at my back, and the spider perched on the black tree was extending its legs outward one by one.

"KYAAAAAH!"

Airi suddenly screamed. The spider was now attacking me with all its legs. Eight legs fanned out from its mouth simultaneously. For a noble lady like Airi, it was a revolting sight.

"Be quiet! If you do that, the targeting will switch!"

At my shout, Airi clamped her mouth shut. Good. Stay like that.

I kept writing characters so messy even though I thought it was excessive. Couldn't help it with half a wrist gone. The more Airi and I suffered, the more strange characters covered the walls.

"What's he doing right now?"

"Looks like he's writing words?"

"I can't make out a single one."

You need to make out at least one. That's the whole point. What I was doing right now was copying down everything from my skill window onto the walls. Airi, as if resigned, stared at the walls I'd been writing on.

"Your handwriting is absolutely atrocious! I can't even tell what you're trying to do!"

"Take a look at my wrist, then!"

"Ah!"

Airi saw my dangling wrist, scrunched her face, and looked away. I got hurt trying to save someone, and that's the face she makes?

"Just tell me the ones you can read!"

"Why should I?!"

"Because if you don't, everyone here dies! Can't you see how fast that spider is?!"

Airi dug her heels in. Stubbornness in a situation like this—truly a natural-born villainess lady.

"......The blood-smeared one over there means 'corpse dismantlement'!"

"Where?! Oh—okay!"

【Skill: Corpse Dismantlement Lv. MAX Unlocked】

【Skill: Corpse Dismantlement Lv. MAX In Use】

With this skill, I could cut far more smoothly. Earlier, slicing through flesh had been grueling. Everything I'd done during the earlier butchering was purely from experience alone.

"Keep going, keep going! Anything!"

Airi looked behind her and screamed. The spider's tentacle-like legs were forming into sharp spear shapes and lunging in.

"I can barely see past the legs! Reading one in this insane situation should be plenty for you to be grateful!"

"I'll give you one chance to read!"

"What?!"

I planted my feet on the ceiling above her and paused for a moment. Spider legs came flying in from all directions.

"Read!"

Draw them in as long as possible. All eight legs that had been obscuring her view converged on me.

She couldn't even object to me dropping formalities—her eyes were racing across the walls at full speed.

This much should still be okay—actually, it's getting rough now. No, at this rate it's really rough. This isn't going to work. I'm going to die at this rate.

"Phantom—Phantom Swordsmanship!"

Finally, an offensive skill left her lips.

I dropped to the ground, pulled Airi into my arms, and dove out. I'd pulled out late—the spider's legs scraped deep gashes across my entire body. By the time I hit the ground, I was drenched in blood.

【?? Skill: Phantom Swordsmanship Lv. 7 Unlocked】

【?? Skill: Phantom Swordsmanship Lv. 7 In Use】

That'll do. That's all I need. I naturally drew the sword from Airi's waist and set her back down by the guards.

The moment I let go, Airi sank to the floor as if overcome by dizziness.

I gave the silver sword a single one-armed swing. Light, with a well-balanced center of gravity. Definitely worthy of being called a fine blade.

The spider's legs poured down toward me. But was the swordsmanship I'd been using really called Phantom Swordsmanship? I'd just been fighting however felt natural. It wasn't as though I'd named my own style 'Phantom Swordsmanship.'

The spider's legs were severed in an instant. The spider, which had only made leg-scraping sounds until now, finally let out a scream.

"SHAAAAAAA—!"

Its legs rained down. One apparently landed in front of a guard, who let out a shriek impressively high-pitched for a man. Looking again—yep, that was Ponytail. Be a moderate eyesore, if you please—moderate.

"This one skill is enough."

It was the swordsmanship I'd always used. Everyone else could only stare at me blankly. I had no room to worry about their gazes. My body still wasn't normal, and I was covered in wounds. From here, I'd only get duller.

I'd paid a heavy price. Now it was time to seize a quick victory.

"Come at me, you bastard!"

A line from a movie I'd been impressed by rang out. It was just my habit during raids. Things like that made raids a bit more fun, I figured. The spider didn't even come to me—I went to it.

SLASH—.

But well, it wasn't that exciting. After doing this for decades, how could it be? The spider was split in half from mouth to fat body, and the butler let out a gasp.

"If you cut it like that, it'll—!"

Already done. What good was saying it after the fact?

"Damn it, everyone, defensive positions! Porter, you too!"

Purple mist billowed from the spider's split body. The mist wasn't gas—it spread like fine threads, clinging to the walls and swelling.

Soon the walls covered in all my scrawled characters were consumed by purple boils, which kept growing. If those burst, what then? I tentatively reached out a hand, but a searing pain made me jerk it back.

"If that stuff consumes you, you die!"

If only Airi had read out a single defensive skill, I wouldn't be dying to mist like this. Have you ever seen such a useless bitch. I covered my face with my sleeve like it was a fire and ducked my head.

But the boils on the walls kept swelling. Blue veins appeared on their surface—they were about to burst.

CRASH—!

I thought a boil had popped and sprayed mist. But it wasn't that.

"It's the 2nd Prince, Gatos! Everyone, evacuate!"

Over there, a handsome man with golden hair and green eyes was shouting while covering his face with his sleeve. Behind him was a cluster of knights in heavy armor.

The guards, Airi, and the butler fled quickly, and I brought up the rear. Once I was out, Gatos slammed the door shut.

Then came the sound of bubbles popping and something gushing inside the room. Purple liquid seeped under the door, and the door smoked and corroded.

"Move, now! Hurry!"

Gatos shouted. What had just happened? I knew Gatos. Wasn't he this novel's secondary male lead, Prince Gatos? The first person I saw upon arriving here was the villainess lady, and the second was the secondary male lead. It felt like spotting celebrities.

We ran from the 15th floor straight down. Gatos cleared the respawned monsters up front, while the butler reported the mist's speed from the rear.

The mist finally stopped around the 3rd floor. It wasn't infinite energy, after all—it couldn't keep coming forever. We slowed down and breathed the outside air.

"Puhaaah! Phweeehh!"

The people of the ducal estate, who'd been holding their breath on top of the sudden sprint, scraped their lungs empty and gasped.

"Anyone hurt?"

"I'm fine, Your Highness."

Airi addressed him with the exact opposite of the attitude she'd shown me—full decorum. Trafvichan etiquette: pulling the left side of her garment and placing her right arm across her stomach while bowing. The manners of a noble.

"Here—there's an injured person here!"

Someone called out urgently. Who was hurt? I looked around. The one calling was the butler, and the person he was pointing at was me.

Right. I was hurt. The spot I'd forcibly stitched with the butler's monocle had already reopened, and blood was streaming through the gap. Still, I could bear it. I'd taken plenty of hits in my Hunter days.

After all, I'd ended up getting eaten alive by Leviathan and dying. That death had been truly, horrifically painful. After being bitten in half by Leviathan's teeth, only my upper body survived in the thing's stomach acid for five minutes. Absolute hell. That was the first time I'd ever resented an S-rank Hunter's vitality.

"Dear me, you might lose the use of your hand......"

Prince Gatos rushed over to me, examined the wound closely, and let out a troubled hum.

As the secondary male lead, Prince Gatos possessed the attribute of gentleness. From the female lead's perspective, he was something of a healing character. Apparently, that kindness extended even to a porter like me.

"Just wait a moment. I'll give you emergency treatment with my heal for now. Does the ducal estate have a physician?"

"Ah, the physician is away with the Duke on the subjugation......"

So that's why the first-string knights hadn't come. I had a rough idea of what had happened. But it didn't worry me much. Because the female lead of this story practically deserved to be called a divine physician.

"Then I'll do emergency treatment here, and the real treatment will have to wait until we reach the Imperial Capital."

Everyone looked startled at that. Their eyes said 'You'd go that far for a Yensi porter?' I had a general sense of Trafviche's customs. There was discrimination between Trafviche and Yensi, since the two were of different races.

If Trafviche was the West, then Yensi was the East. I hadn't seen a mirror yet, but given all the 'Yensi, Yensi' talk, I must have been reborn as an Eastern person. Or it could still be a dream.

"Have a carriage on standby. Lady Airi, would the imperial house be permitted to investigate the black shockwave in your domain?"

"Of course, Your Highness. We regret that such an incident occurred within our duchy."

"It wasn't as if you caused it, my lady. We felt the black energy from the capital and departed immediately. There were no casualties, so that much is fortunate."

Villainess trait: a perfect lady in front of a prince. In any case, so in the original story, Airi had been saved by Prince Gatos and survived. The puzzle pieces fell into place.

As I was about to reluctantly accept the ceremonious treatment and board the prince's carriage, the butler unexpectedly raised his hand.

"This person was injured under our ducal house's watch. May I accompany him as the responsible party?"

"Butler......?"

Even Airi stared at the butler as if wondering what he was doing. But the butler, in a discourtesy toward Airi, didn't even look at her.

Prince Gatos nodded slowly. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but it was a 'I'll hear you out' sort of gesture.

And so, the uncomfortable journey began—the knights, the Lapitess butler, Prince Gatos, and me.