Apostle of the Gods

Chapter 4 – An Incident in the Forest

The clashing sound of the sword is violent.

I hang the birds I caught on my hips and run towards the sound.

I hope it is nothing serious, but I want to help if someone is actually in trouble.

I suppress my magic to hide my presence before approaching closer.

At a distance of about thirty meters away from the source of the sound, I come to a halt.

One is a girl wearing a black triangle hat with a wide collar robe and black clothes, an old-fashioned witch costume it seems.

And there is a middle-aged man who is covering the girl.

In opposition of the two, there are three masked man.

There are also nine men collapsed in the vicinity.

「I will not be defeated so easily」

「……..」

The middle-aged man is pointing the tip of his sword at the masked men, even though he is covered in wounds.

The masked men don’t speak. They carefully await an opening.

Apparently the middle-aged man is quite capable, there are no openings.

Guess he really can’t be taken down that easily.

However, judging from the clothes, the nine collapsed men appear to be allies of the middle-aged man.

What seems to have started as 10 vs 3 has now come down to 1 vs 3.

It is only a matter of time before the middle-aged man is also defeated.

「Please leave this to me and escape from here」

The middle-aged man shouts. He seems to be trying to get the girl behind him to escape.

The girl donning the robe readies her cane while trembling and stare down at the masked ones.

「If I don’t heal everyone with healing magic, they will die!」

「That is their aim! That’s why they didn’t deal the killing blow」

Apparently, the nine men are not dead.

It is likely they were not dealt the killing blow to prevent the middle-aged man and the girl from escaping.

「Even if it is so, if I don’t cast healing magic, they’re still going to die」

I can very much understand the girl’s feelings.

Even if it is what the enemy wants, she can’t save her companions without casting healing magic.

That is exactly why they cannot escape.

However, the middle-aged man yells in a demanding tone.

「The Royal Capital is right there! Escape and call for help!」

「I can’t afford to escape alone」

「That’s the best chance of survival for everyone! Please escape if you wish to help me」

Strongly said as such, the girl reluctantly starts running. However, one of the masked men turns towards her.

「You’ll have to get past me」

The middle-aged man moves in a way to cover the girl, but that seems to have been the aim of the masked ones.

Another masked man slashes the middle-aged man from his back.

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「Tch!」

The middle-aged man swings the sword sharply behind, but the masked men dodge back a few steps.

「Ooh…」

The girl’s legs seem to have been dealt shallow cuts in a series of battles. It is not fatal but it will be difficult to run.

I understood the basic strategy of the masked men.

The middle-aged man will be able to fight on equal terms if he abandons his allies and concentrates on defeating the masked men.

That’s how high the abilities of the middle-aged man are.

The nine men were left alive to burden the middle-aged man into protecting them.

The middle-aged man is forced to respond with a simple feint aimed towards his fallen companions.

And the masked men cleverly jump at this opportunity and attack.

Though the wound is shallow, the middle-aged man is slowly weakening.

If the middle-aged man tries to kill one enemy at a time, the one who is targeted puts a large distance between them and the middle-aged man cannot chase them.

If he leaves that place, the fallen men and the girl will be susceptible to attacks.

In this state, the middle-aged man will soon be defeated.

Then, the girl and the nine men will die.

「I see. It’s like a pack of skilled wolf hunting a bear」

Therefore, I approach slowly while revealing my presence.

「……」

The masked men without uttering a word look towards me vigilantly.

I ignore them and talk to the middle-aged man with a smile. I smile as not to alert him.

「I don’t know the circumstances, but I’ll assist you」

「And you are?」

The middle-aged man looks at me suspiciously.

「Just an eight-year old child passing through」

And I call out to the girl.

「You’re a healer aren’t you? Concentrate on the treatment」

「But…」

The girl looks at me with a perplexed expression. I understand her puzzled feeling.

If she tried to use healing magic, the masked men would interfere.

「Don’t worry, I won’t let them interf—」

In the middle of the conversation, one of the masked men attacks me with his right hand dagger from behind.

It is quite a sharp attack and he is also quite good at erasing his presence; probably a skilled assassin.

「But it is still slow」

Without turning back, I grabbed the masked man’s right hand behind me with my left hand.

「–!」

The masked man displays his surprise without a sound.

「If you get surprised during battle, then you’re still second rate」

I swung the arm of the masked men with full force and throw him towards another masked man.

At the same time, I close the distance to the third masked-man.

「I’ll start with you」

I hit the masked man’s face with my knee.

By enhancing my leg strength with magic, I hit him with the high momentum from rapid acceleration.

Even though the body weight of an eight-year-old is light, it is still powerful enough.

–CRACK!!

The breaking sound of bones of the face hidden behind the mask echoed. Though he is not dead, he is no longer conscious.

When I turned around to finish off another masked man,

「…pretty quick」

The middle-aged man had already defeated the two masked man and dealt the finishing blow.

「I found an opening because you blew them away, Thank you」

I certainly did create an opening, but to notice it so quickly and defeat the enemies is not an easy feat.

After all, the middle-aged man does seem to have some remarkable abilities.

「Glad to be of help. I’ll leave the rest to you」

「I understand」

The middle-aged man moved to capture the masked man whose face I broke.

I turn to the girl.

The girl ignored her own injuries and is casting healing spell on the fallen man with the most serious wounds.

Though the girl is young, she is quite a good healer.

But it isn’t so effective.

「You are still bleeding. Shouldn’t you heal yourself first?」

「Mine are simply flesh wounds, but these are…」

Certainly the severity is higher for the men. However, it is difficult to maintain concentration while injured.

The power and success rate of healing magic will fall.

「The safety of the healer is top priority. Otherwise, you can’t save even the ones you could have saved.」

「But…」

「I understand your feelings, so I will cure your injuries」

The middle-aged man widened his eyes in response to my words.

「Boy, are you not a martial artist?」

「I am a martial artist and a healer」

While training with the gods, I had them teach me healing magic.

「Let’s start」

「W-wait! The interference…」

When another person casts healing magic on a healer who is casting healing magic, a phenomenon called interference occurs.

When interference occurs, healing magic fails.

If the consequence is just a small misfire then that’s nothing to worry about but the effects may reverse or cause a small explosion.

Therefore, it is considered to be a very dangerous act.

「Don’t worry, I will not do that」

Interference occurs because the flow of both magic force, obstruct and repel each other.

I simply have to fully grasp the flow of magic and not disturb it.

Just by doing so, interference does not occur.

I carefully cast healing magic on the girl.

「This is fine」

The girl’s injuries were cured in an instant.

「Eh? Just how did you?」

「You only need to read the flow of magic. Next, I’ll treat the others as well.」

I read the flow of magic in the fallen nine men.

It is to examine the type of injuries sustained by each of them.

Most healers do not practice this, but it is an important step to exercise healing magic properly.

It is one of the lessons taught by the Water God.

「Hmm–, they are poisoned」

「Eh? Poison? You have to find out what poison…」

「Wait a moment. I am examining now」

The middle-aged man began to investigate the weapons of the masked man. He must have determined that the weapons were doused in poison.

「I have to leave. Find out the type of poison later」

It is almost time for the sun to set in the west. It is time for me, a good boy of eight years old, to return home.

「But, I can’t create an antidote if I don’t know the type of poison」

If you read the flow of magic properly, you can understand the effect, regardless of the type of poison.

If you know the effect, you can know which detoxification spell to cast.

I would like to explain that, but I am running out of time.

And I want to get rid of the pain of the nine people quickly.

I cast healing magic and detoxification magic on the fallen nine people simultaneously.

The wounds starts closing up and the blood stops flowing. The effect of detoxification also improves the complexion of the face.

「Recovery and detoxification at the same time? And all nine people simultaneously? Beyond that, to use healing magic without making physical contact at all…」

「If you practice, you can do it too」

「… I can’t do something akin to the beloved child of the Water God」

The beloved child of the Water God is one of my disciples in my previous life. How nostalgic.

The girl is likely to be talented. I wish to teach her various things.

However, I don’t have such time as an eight year old child. I can only offer advice.

「It all depends on practice. That guy wasn’t able to do so from the very beginning either」

「That guy?」

「No, nothing」

I slipped my words. I probably shouldn’t reveal that I was Edelfuss in my previous life.

「Boy, you saved all of us. We are indebted to you」

「Don’t worry. I just happened to be passing by」

「Please, let us thank you」

「There’s no need for that. Then, take care on your way back」

When I was about to start running back, the girl flusteredly says.

「Wait! At least tell me your name—」

「I am not important enough a person to name myself. See you!」

Then, ignoring the restrained voice, I started dashing towards the royal capital.