Abandoned Reincarnation
Chapter 9 – Orc attack
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On the next day, I woke up while feeling some rattling vibration.
When I got up, I noticed that I was inside the carriage, which was already moving forward… Seems like I overslept.
“Sorry for oversleeping.” I said.
“Don’t worry about it. Here, it’s simple, but it’s breakfast.” Ronil, who was sitting right next to me as he steered the horses, offered me some dried meat.
Oh, meat!
Until now I’ve been eating a very unbalanced diet that consisted of mostly nuts and fruits, but it seems like the time for me to eat meat has finally come.
Coming to think of it, I haven’t eaten the horn rabbit that I hunted…
Time doesn’t progress while it is stored, so it won’t spoil, but still, I want to eat it.
I bit into the dried meat and gradually let its wonderful taste fill my mouth… This is truly wonderful. I really love meat, after all.
I was engrossed into eating, and enjoyed the meal to its fullest, but it was also gone in no time.
I wanted to eat more of it, but I don’t think I should ask for more, so I refrained.
In any case, the weather today was fine, making it perfect for a horse-drawn carriage trip. Assuming we have no problems along the way, we should arrive at the next town tomorrow.
Once we get there, I’ll go to the Adventurer’s Guild and register.
And well, I’d also like to do something about my clothes, if possible… Though well, it’s not like they have actually troubled me until now, so maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about it.
While I thought about this kind of thing, Ronil kept on talking to me about all sorts of topics.
He seemed to still be thinking that I was a survivor of a bandit attack, so he carefully tried to ask me all sort of questions about when and where I was attacked.
I felt uncomfortable by deceiving him like that though, so I decided to tell him the truth. That I was abandoned in the forest, lost my way, fell into a locus of magical power, then somehow ended up arriving at the highway.
Both Ronil and Ryuk were quite surprised by that though, as it’s apparently very rare for someone to stay inside a locus of magical power for a long time. Even rarer than being attacked by bandits.
On most cases, people become unable to move due to severe headaches and poor health condition, so those who fall on loci of magical power tend to starve to death.
And well, honestly speaking, the nuts and fruits there weren’t exactly edible, and there’s no way I would have been able to escape that place if I was by myself.
So, the only reason I’m here now, is because of all the help that Aria gave me. From the bottom of my heart, I truly thanked Aria for all that she did… Even if I couldn’t say it out loud right now.
Still, I glanced over my shoulder, and I could feel the invisible Aria smile.
I thought that, now that I had clarified the misunderstanding, I might be thrown out of the carriage, but that was not what happened.
Ronil became even more sympathetic than before to my situation, and Ryuk even started crying a bit.
I’m grateful that the first people I met after more than a year in that locus were truly kind people.
After that, the carriage trip continued without incident for the most part, but…
When sun began to set, they suddenly came.
In front of us was a group of people with huge bodies, about two meters tall each.
They might be humanoids, but their heads are those of pigs.
And in their hands, each of them held either a club or an axe… We were surrounded by orcs.
There were… Five of them here.
Orcs can live everywhere, just like goblins, but differently from the latter, those monsters are powerful and dangerous opponents. Especially when you face a group of them.
Ryuk, who quickly noticed the approaching monsters, unsheathed his sword and boldly slashed at the nearest orc.
Since the enemies are slow, he tried attacking them quickly, making use of his speed to avoid getting hit.
However, there were too many of them, and each of their blows were extremely powerful. A single direct hit would be all that it would take to put Ryuk out… As such, he was gradually being cornered.
“Boss! We have no choice! Let’s run!” Ryuk exclaimed as he realized the situation.
“Tsk. We’ll have to give up on the cargo, but it can’t be helped.” Ronil nodded.
With a bitter expression, Ronil immediately held my hand, jumped off the carriage, then started running.
Orcs tried to stand in our way, but Ryuk rushed in and somehow opened a path ahead for us.
We made use of that opportunity to pass through, but I caught sight of another orc raising its club, aiming it towards Ryuk, who was busy protecting us.
I have no choice. I have to do this.
I instantly held out my hand and imagined a magic circle. A blade of water flew out of it and swiftly decapitated the attacking orc.
“Eh…?” Ryuk muttered.
Then, I started firing more water blades at the other orcs near Ryuk, decapitating them in the same way as the last one. I accurately aimed for their necks, and was able to defeat the orcs with a single blow on each.
When I was about to try getting rid of the last one, before I could do anything, a hole had been opened up in its head, and it fell on the ground. Seems like Aria helped out too.
“Thank you, Aria.” I muttered in a voice small enough, so as to not let Ryuk and Ronil hear it.
I then looked around, and saw that the orcs had all fallen. It was a gruesome sight, but I was relieved that we were able to safely defeat them, so I stroke my chest in relief.
I’m glad it went well.
Perhaps because I was more nervous than I had realized, I sat down on the spot… It’s not as if I had run out of magical power, but since this was my first battle, I might have unconsciously put too much power into it.
“A-are you okay?” Ronil asked me.
“Eh? Ah, yes. I’m alright.” I replied, then with Ronil’s help, I stood up.
It seemed like Ronil wasn’t hurt then… And Ryuk, who quickly rushed our way, seemed to have no serious injuries either… That was a relief.
“That was amazing, Haku! To wipe out that many orcs!” Ronil exclaimed.
“I don’t think I’d ever be able to handle this many by myself.” Ryuk added.
Just as I started to calm down, both Ronil and Ryuk started excitedly talking to me.
This time things worked out well probably because this was a good match-up for me.
Orcs fight with large weapons and bare-handed strikes, so they aren’t good against enemies who fight from a distance.
Sure, this time they were already fairly close to us, but thanks to memorizing the magic circles, I am able to shoot spells at a much faster pace than a normal magician, so I was able to compensate for my close-combat weakness as soon as a small distance was created between us.
“I’m just a bit good at magic, so…” I muttered.
“Thanks to you, I was saved. Really, thank you.” Ronil told me.
“Me too. Thank you, missie.” Ryuk said.
After talking a bit more, we decided that now was a good time to make camp, as it was already getting dark, but… Since this place now smelled of blood, there was a possibility of other monsters coming here, so we decided to camp a bit further away.
For the time being though, I used Storage to collect the orc corpses, as orc meat is well-known to be edible, and also because we could bring it to the Adventurer’s Guild and exchange the bodies for money.
Me being able to use Storage also surprised Ronil and Ryuk a lot though… Well, it is a rare skill alright.
Once we moved a bit further and made camp, I lit up the fire, and we started cooking the orc meat… After all, we already went through the trouble of killing them, so we might as well.
I’ve never eaten orc meat before, even when I was in the village, so I was pretty excited about it as it was being cooked.
We cut it into thin pieces and let it cook, while Ronil sprinkled some salt on it to improve the taste.
And then we ate it. It tasted like pork, which made sense when considering the orcs have pig-like faces.
Even in my previous life, I rarely ate pork, so this luxurious taste that I hadn’t tasted in a long time made my cheeks involuntarily relax.
“Though that’s really impressive, Haku. You’re like, 7 or 8 years old, right? How can you use magic this well?” Ronil asked me.
“I’m 11 years old, actually.” I replied.
“Eh?” Ronil seemed to be surprised.
I seem to be fairly small when compared to the average 11 years old girl.
I think I’m around 135cm tall? Perhaps because my nutrition has always been poor since I was young.
But to think I was seen as this much younger… Do I look this childish?
“I-is that so… Sorry about that.” Ronil told me.
“It’s alright… In any case, I became capable of using magic only after spending some time in the locus of magical power.” I told him.
“Coming to think of it, you did say you fell in one… I didn’t expect one would become good at magic after a short time inside a locus though.” Ryuk commented.
“I couldn’t use it right away, though? I stayed a year there.” I replied.
“O-one year!?” Ryuk and Ronil exclaimed in unison.
Anyone with the right aptitudes and a good amount of magical power should be able to do magic, after all.
In my case, I struggled mainly because I didn’t have enough mana, but after spending enough time in the locus of magical power, this problem was solved, so I became able to use magic fairly quickly.
Even the children of the village go to town once they become 10 years old, so as to use their magical talents to become adventurers, after all. So I don’t think it’s that hard to use magic if you meet the necessary requirements. Or rather, it would be weird to take long to learn it.
That said, while I am pretty comfortable with using magic by now, it would surely have taken me longer if it wasn’t for Aria’s help though… I really wish to thank Aria for all her help.
“I’m surprised you spent a whole year in a locus of magical power, but to think you were able to use this much magic this quickly is…” Ronil started muttering.
Normally speaking, one shouldn’t be able to stay in a locus of magical power for long, due to the intense headaches and poor physical condition, so I guess his surprise is understandable. I would have definitely starved to death if it wasn’t for Aria bringing me nuts and fruits regularly… I was really lucky to have met her.
And I definitely have to repay this debt one day.
In any case, Ronil and Ryuk were excited to hear about my story for a while, but we were all pretty tired after this whole ordeal with the orcs…
So, Ronil, who was particularly stressed after almost seeing the end of his peddler days after many years in the profession, decided to go sleep early.
As for me, I thought I wouldn’t be able to fall asleep due to the excitement of having cleared my first battle, but… After a few minutes of being wrapped in a warm blanket, I quickly calmed down and peacefully fell asleep.