Chapter 37

After eating the wild boar meat cooked by Ted, Ariel immediately fell asleep.

And when she opened her eyes again, she found herself in an unfamiliar place.

This had happened a few times before.

The last time it happened, she was lying on the floor of a prison, but this time, she was on a bed.

As Ariel got up, she suddenly noticed someone lying next to her.

It was Rakia.

“Umm, mommy…”

Rakia was sound asleep.

Ariel carefully got out of bed so as not to wake Rakia, and just then, she heard a commotion outside.

“Whoa!”

“Capture the wolf!”

At the mention of a wolf, Ariel’s eyes widened.

She looked out the window.

She saw Ghost, and some men surrounding her.

They were burly men with rough appearances.

One of them, with a scar on his cheek, swung an axe at Ghost.

Ghost dodged by crouching down and then swung her front paw, but the man jumped back to avoid it.

The man swung his axe again, and this time, the other men joined in, attacking Ghost all at once.

Thud.

Without a second thought, Ariel leaped out the window.

She immediately ran to Ghost’s side and deployed a shield.

Bang!!

The weapons swung by the men struck Ariel’s shield.

Depending on the level of the mage, usually, blocking so many attacks at once would damage the shield.

The mage’s mana would evaporate, and the shield would shatter.

But Ariel’s shield remained unchanged.

It didn’t crack or fade, maintaining its vivid blue color as when it was first deployed.

“Ma, magic?!”

As their attacks were blocked, the men were startled and stepped back.

All barbarians were excellent warriors, and in such moments, their bodies reacted instinctively.

“What, it’s an elf!”

“A young elf?”

The men murmured.

They looked to their chieftain, the man with the scar on his cheek.

They didn’t know what to do.

“……”

Of course, the chieftain was also quite flustered.

He had swung his axe aiming for the wolf’s head, and suddenly, magic activated, and an elf appeared.

“Kuhahat!”

It was a confusing situation, but not a bad one.

The chieftain had always wanted an elf as his bride.

Because there was no race as beautiful as the elves on the surface. Barbarian women just didn’t appeal to him.

But there was no way an elf would look at a rough and fearsome barbarian.

Apart from that, meeting an elf in the first place wasn’t easy.

In the Imperial City, they said elves were sold as slaves, but even that required money.

Barbarians didn’t have money.

Barbarians were free spirits who hunted beasts in the fields and slept anywhere.

So now, this chieftain was pillaging villages in the western frontier of the Empire with a dozen of his subordinates.

To gather funds to buy an elf slave.

Of course, his subordinates had no idea.

They thought they were invading the Empire.

This village was the first step, or so he had vaguely explained.

If he told them, “Follow me because I want to buy an elf slave,” his subordinates might immediately swing their axes at him.

Of course, the chieftain, with barbarian blood in him, also wanted to invade the Empire.

But there had to be a chance of winning. They had been utterly defeated in the past, and if they fought again, they would surely lose.

The barbarians had many great warriors, but the Empire had even more.

Like Shane from the North, there were countless terrifying individuals in the Empire.

Barbarian men often accepted dying in battle as a given, but this chieftain was different.

He wanted to live happily with a beautiful elf bride and die peacefully.

He wanted to have many children who resembled him and his elf bride.

So, he was diligently pillaging villages to gather money.

To welcome a beautiful elf bride.

And in such a situation, an elf had appeared on her own.

The chieftain grinned broadly as he looked Ariel over.

She was still young, but not bad. Cute. She would surely grow into a beauty.

Ariel’s shimmering silver hair and blood-red eyes had a strangely captivating quality.

Her expressionless face, as if bored with the world, seemed charming to the chieftain.

“Capture that elf!”

The chieftain raised his axe and shouted to his subordinates.

“But don’t hurt her! Anyone who hurts her will have their head cut off!”

He couldn’t let his cute bride get hurt.

“But, the wolf can be killed!”

“But chieftain, that elf used magic…”

One of the subordinates said.

“Fighting a mage without getting hurt…”

“Shut up! Just attack together! Show the pride of the barbarians!”

The pride of the barbarians.

It was like a magic phrase.

Just saying that would make the subordinates cheer and bravely face any enemy.

“Whoa!”

Like now.

*

The barbarian men rushed at Ariel and Ghost all at once.

Even the bravest warrior would be quite nervous in such a situation.

Several burly men charging simultaneously would make anyone shrink back.

Ariel was no different. She looked around with a stiff expression.

The men charging at her with cheers.

It was noisy. It was overwhelming.

The men swung their weapons, relentlessly striking Ariel’s shield.

Bang! Bang!

Of course, the shield didn’t get a single scratch.

Ariel’s mana was being consumed, but it was barely noticeable.

The amount of mana being consumed was like a drop of water evaporating from the ocean.

“Whoa, it’s tough!”

“This is incredible!”

The shield didn’t budge, but the barbarian men didn’t give up.

Their faces turned red, and they were sweating profusely as they desperately struck Ariel’s shield.

It was as if they believed they could break the shield if they kept at it.

Ariel reached out to cast Magic Missile.

The sound of the shield being struck was noisy, and more importantly, they had attacked Ghost.

She couldn’t let that slide.

But at that moment.

Zap zap zap!!

A blue current flew in and swept through the area.

The men striking the shield were electrocuted, trembling, and then collapsed.

Smoke rose from their bodies.

“How dare…”

A chilling voice was heard.

“Who dares to lay a hand on my body. Inferior creatures.”

Rakia was approaching with wide eyes.

*

“What, what’s going on…?”

The chieftain looked around in shock.

Half of his dozen subordinates had died in an instant.

They had been striking the shield to capture the elf when a blue current flew in from somewhere, killing them instantly.

“Ch, chieftain…!”

Only five subordinates remained.

They rushed to the chieftain with faces as if they were about to wet themselves.

“……”

The chieftain looked up at the elf.

No, more precisely, at the blonde girl approaching the elf.

The blonde girl looked furious.

With a murderous expression, she stepped on the corpses of the subordinates as she approached the elf.

“Lady Ariel, are you okay?”

But when she spoke to the elf, her voice was infinitely gentle and soft.

“I’m sorry. I dozed off. I’ll take care of these bugs.”

Whoosh!

A pillar of fire rose from the corpses of the subordinates.

It seemed she was cremating the bodies.

‘Did I let my guard down…’

The chieftain thought so.

The mage wasn’t the elf but that blonde girl.

If he had known that earlier, he would have been more cautious.

The blonde girl seemed quite skilled in magic.

But that didn’t mean she was unbeatable.

Mages, while capable of powerful magic, also had clear weaknesses.

Namely, without mana, they could do nothing.

Using powerful magic would immediately drain their strength and leave them powerless.

He had witnessed this many times during the war with the Empire.

That girl was probably the same now.

She had killed half his subordinates with lightning magic and even summoned a pillar of fire, so she must have used a lot of mana.

‘Huhu, how foolish. Must be because she’s young.’

She seemed to have recklessly used magic in a fit of anger, which was good for the chieftain.

He could capture her and make her his second bride.

That girl’s beauty also matched the chieftain’s taste.

“…Don’t be afraid.”

The chieftain spoke calmly to his subordinates.

“That blonde girl seems to be the mage, and she must have used a lot of mana just now. So, if we attack now, we can win.”

“B, but chieftain. I, I don’t want to die…”

“Me too… What if she can use magic again? We’ll be roasted…”

The subordinates were too scared to move.

The chieftain frowned and shouted.

“Go now!”

In the end, he had to say it again.

“Go and show the pride of the barbarians!!”

“……”