Highlands—
The next day, the sky was clear, the wind waned, and the sound of birds covered the surroundings.
Rotell rolled her shoulder and checked the condition of her broken arm.
After applying one of the strange and unorthodox medicines she had purchased from Petra's place, the injury healed at an astonishing speed. Although it was not a medicinal pill, it carried a similar effect, which greatly surprised her.
One had to know that most medicines came in the form of pills and were produced by Alchemists, but what Petra sold was closer to the creations of a doctor rather than an Alchemist.
She shook her head, drew her sword, and swung it a few times to make sure that it was fine. After confirming that her arm had properly healed, she stepped to the side, dropped her bag, and approached one of the few remaining trees that dotted the long path leading to the hills.
Rotell took a stance.
She had practiced swordsmanship since she was young, and although her literary abilities could be considered average and her understanding of the noble arts was something to be scoffed at, her talent with a blade was unprecedented. Not only a blade, but most weapons, like axes, longswords, rapiers, daggers, and two-handed broadswords, had all been trained to a ridiculous level.
It was a precaution she had taken not only because she could, but she also didn't want to be caught unprepared or without a weapon.
She shook her head, sending away her stray thoughts.
A cool breeze blew, fluttering her hair.
One breath, two breaths, three—
Swoosh!
—Her body blurred as her swinging figure shot towards the tree!
She swept ahead alongside the light, producing a sword-light that carved a huge vertical gash through the tree trunk. Her foot hit the ground, and her figure once again blurred, twisting around the tree and executing a series of spiralling slashes that ran up the bark. Her hand extended, grasping the tree, before she spun around and threw herself upward. She followed up with a series of swift slashes that severed a cluster of branches, all of which quickly fell to the ground. The tree shook a moment later, appearing to have just caught up to the attack.
Leaves and branches clattered down to the dirt as Rotell returned to the ground, her boots landing with a soft thud, before she sheathed her sword with a satisfied expression.
Her arm had returned to the exact state it was in before her injury, which honestly shocked her.
If she couldn't tell before, the medicine she had purchased was of an extremely high quality!
Returning to her previous seat, she picked up her bag and looked through the other things Petra had sold her. There was an assortment of items, some with labels and some without. She pursed her lips, regretting not having asked for details at the time. After taking a swig of water from a crude leather waterskin, she let out a satisfied sigh and returned her attention to her current surroundings.
Ahead lay a hilly landscape, and beyond that were the Highlands, filled with large plateaus and a sparse forest. It wore autumn colours in an almost stony environment, but because many people had passed through recently, a few paths were already worn down, making it much easier to maneuver.
She stood back up, stretched, and then began walking into the hills with a focused expression.
Goal one: finding the others!
-
Rotell began her long journey into the hills.
During this period, she passed wandering adventurers who asked her for help, fought wild beasts that occasionally appeared, and consciously searched for treasures and opportunities.
As she continued forward, she noticed that the number of people from the Blue Sea Guild had sharply decreased, and although it was a bit odd, she didn't question it too much. This gave her some time to rest, breaking away from the unending stream of minions that seemed to want nothing more than to exhaust her to death.
The hills were a series of rising and falling lumps of earth that made one feel as if they were endless.
She would stop to rest from time to time, but as the day passed, she eventually realized that she had run out of food. After taking a quick break to hunt, she butchered a small beast, attracting the attention of some passersby who looked at her with a strange expression.
As a princess, her talent in dismantling spirit beasts was already abnormal. What made it even stranger was the peculiar way she did it, treating it a little like training exercises. She would throw it into the air before swinging her sword. It was clear that she was self-taught, which was not surprising; as a princess, especially the First Princess, learning those kinds of messy skills was entirely out of the question. As for who she had actually learned from in the end, it was anyone's guess, but she was undoubtedly skilled.
After restocking her supplies, she returned to the road.
The hills had only been a few meters high before, but as she delved deeper into the Highlands, they became as large as twenty to thirty meters. This made each ascent even more difficult, and each descent all the more perilous.
Like this, time passed…
It wasn't until quite a long while later that Rotell eventually found signs of her four missing companions.
While walking, she overheard a passerby talking about a red-armoured figure who was being pursued by a large group of people. Rotell was almost positive she knew who they were talking about.
With a new pep in her step, she picked up the pace and jogged forward, hoping to meet up with them.
-
When Rotell finally reached a stretch of particularly treacherous hills, she finally heard some noise.
Approaching from a small cliff, Rotell looked down to see a crimson-coloured figure fighting a small army. In one hand, the figure held the neck of a huge beast nearly twice her size, and in the other, she swung around an old woman by her foot, treating her like some kind of flail. Around her lay countless corpses, some from the local beasts, while others were the people from the Blue Sea Guild. Sprinkled around the battlefield were bounty hunters and mercenaries, some standing and some not, while hidden amongst them was even a small handful of assassins.
As Cirsen roared, she swung the old woman, knocking back three people.
She crushed the neck of the beast in her hand before headbutting hard, then blasting it away.
As she continued to fight, her long red hair, the back of which peeked out from her helm, fluttered in the wind like a wild beast caught in a storm.
She stomped forward, crushing the skull of a large snake before plastering its brains everywhere.
Taking another step, her hand shot forward, grabbing a wolf-like pig by its tail as it turned to run, only to rip it back a moment later, tearing its tail straight off. The beast screeched and bulldozed away, treating this crimson reaper as the most terrifying monster in the world!
Rotell watched as Cirsen continued her bloody slaughter, pushing forward and piling up body after body.
While scanning the surroundings, Rotell discovered a crimson spear embedded in the skull of a large, spider-like creature in the distance, which had clearly killed it. From the flow of the battle, she suspected that Cirsen had thrown her weapon and was now fighting her way back to retrieve it.
Rotell paused her steps, wondering if she should go down.
She watched from the cliff like a spectator watching a play, personally shocked by the sheer brutality this woman could unleash!
Rotell failed to notice that the more Cirsen fought, the more power she seemed to amass, and her momentum was becoming more and more terrifying. If Rotell had actually gone down there, especially if she were in her previous state without Petra's medicine, it was highly possible that Cirsen would unconsciously attack her and cause massive damage, potentially crippling her, if not nearly killing her.
Mm, fortunately, Petra had been there...
The battle continued for over two more hours. By the time everything finally slowed down, blood filled the field between the hills, and bodies lay everywhere.
Cirsen didn't even seem exhausted; she was like a war machine with no limits!
The crimson spear she had long retrieved glinted with a piercing light, filling the surroundings with killing intent even after the battle was over. Following a heavy huff, Cirsen stabbed her spear into the ground, reached up, and removed her helmet, cradling it in the crook of her arm while she rested.
Steam spilled from her body as the heat radiating from her figure began to disperse.
She was like a small furnace, now needing to cool off.
She looked around. Her face changed, and as if realizing something, she suddenly looked very distressed, her expression switching to something between sadness and anger.
Rotell, still yet to be discovered, felt that Cirsen looked a little like a child who didn't want to waste food.
With a chuckle, Rotell called out, "Hey! Big guy! Don't tell me you're troubling yourself over what to do with all the leftovers, right? Hahahha!"
Hearing Rotell's clear voice, Cirsen's eyes widened as she looked up.
Seeing the lively and free-spirited First Princess, Cirsen's face turned slightly red. While wiping away a smear of blood, she shrank her neck into her huge shoulders, looking truly embarrassed.
"How long were you watching?"
Rotell rolled her eyes before tossing down a waterskin. "Long enough! I barely encountered any enemies! No wonder! You must have attracted them all!"
Cirsen caught the waterskin, rolled her eyes in return, and yanked her spear from the ground. "What do you think I should do with all these?" she asked, looking around.
There must have been over three hundred bodies, most of which were mangled and destroyed. Only about a hundred of them were humans; the rest were spirit beasts that Cirsen had crushed. Looking down, Rotell wondered how many of these materials could actually be salvaged. She shook her head helplessly. She wasn't a professional in that field, after all, so she didn't know!
"Come up, take a seat, and wash off," Rotell said. "We can look through them for some loot before we leave. For now, tell me what you know and what happened after we separated!"
Cirsen nodded.
After figuring her way up the cliff, she stood a short distance away from Rotell and took out a small stone engraved with a runic formation. This was a special tool for people like Rotell and Cirsen who weren't good at using magic.
They could both control spiritual energy and cast magic, but they just weren't very good at it.
After Cirsen was baptized by a small waterfall, she shook her head, whipping her crimson-coloured hair and scattering water everywhere. This caused Rotell, who was still a bit too close, to shiver from the surprise spritz.
She glared over, causing Cirsen to look away guiltily.
-
Time passed, and soon, both girls took a seat to talk.
Rotell listened to Cirsen talk about her experiences since they separated, how she was occasionally chased, and how she had engaged in one wild fight after another.
After listening, Rotell couldn't help but feel as if Cirsen was truly enjoying herself. She didn't even seem to consider her own life; she was just that kind of battle maniac.
Cirsen asked Rotell about her arm, and Rotell told her about Petra. Cirsen thought back and seemed to remember passing Petra not too long ago, so she reached into her bag and took out a small bottle that those three small green-haired girls had sold her. The Ant Avatars couldn't speak the human language, and even if Petra was controlling them, they could only speak through mental energy, so Cirsen had no idea what they were saying.
In the end, she was basically forced to take this strange medicine, not even knowing what it was.
The strangest part was that they didn't even ask her to pay—or well, perhaps they did, but she hadn't understood them. Regardless, after she left, she was magically a few coins short, so she suspected that it was the price for the medicine. As for how the money had disappeared, who knew!
Rotell looked at the small flask with a cork stopper and a thick pink liquid sloshing around inside. She popped it open and took a sniff.
"Hm?"
"Hm!"
"Mm!!!"
Rotell's eyes jumped in horror as she tossed it away. She rubbed her nose repeatedly, as her body twisted, appearing to have just been struck by lightning. "Ah-ah-ah!" Her mind turned white, and she was suddenly overwhelmed by the crystal-clear feeling of just having inhaled a whole ball of wasabi.
"Ugh—! Ah! Damn it! Fuck!"
Rotell felt her eyes water as she practically rolled on the ground, clutching her face. Cirsen looked at her in shock. "Are you okay?!" She had also smelled that potion, but her reaction was far from Rotell's.
After a few minutes to recover, Rotell sat back up and washed her face with icy water.
"Damn it!" She glared at Cirsen.
"You really don't know what that is?!"
Cirsen shook her head, completely confused. She looked at Rotell, and seeing that her face had turned red and her breathing was hurried, she couldn't even begin to imagine the sharp sting that had just shot through her nose.
"Unbelievable!" Rotell gritted her teeth. She reached over, slammed one of her two bags on the ground, and rummaged through the items she had bought before finding the exact same cursed pink potion!
Cirsen watched as Rotell tossed it as far as she could, sending it flying into the distance.
Cirsen asked, "Is everything okay?"
Rotell looked back at her with a face full of distress. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry! This woman was too pure! She didn't even recognize an aphrodisiac when she saw it. Also, why did it sting so much? What the hell was that little girl selling to people!
"Ahh!" Rotell roared.
She had nowhere to vent!
She wanted nothing more than to run back and beat up a certain lazy little lolita!
Just fucking label the bottles!
Actually, Petra was really wronged here!
This was indeed an aphrodisiac, sure-sure, but it wasn't meant for self-use! And yes, ok-ok, it was also one of the unlabeled bottles, but come on! A thick pink potion, who tries sniffing that for no reason? There was a limited amount of things it could be! It was meant for throwing at enemies, that was why it was so potent! Please be more reasonable!
If Petra were here, she would definitely beat up this lunatic for daring to sniff one of her poisons!
Rotell fell backwards, facing the sky.
Her mind turned, wanting to move on so badly!
She made a mental note that before trying any of Petra's potions, it was better to test them first...
* * *