Ch 213: What? Why did I say that?
If you want to support, you can at: https://www.patreon.com/finlegost
There, you can find 18 chapters in advance. Thanks to my patrons and to those who comment on the chapters. It means a lot to me and motivates me to continue this hobby of mine.
And, of course, thanks to everyone who reads this novel.
*************************************
"When I didn't see you when I woke up, I thought you had slipped out of your promise once again..." says Alessia, cutting with excessive violence one of the sausages we have for breakfast.
"Hahaha, no, why would I do that?" I say, with some nervousness, seeing this new side of Alessia.
We're at our house in Dominir village, having breakfast before going to the war zone to carry out my reconnaissance and elimination 'missions' as a member of Commander Cael's group.
"That's right... Why would you do that? Before the full-scale war, you promised me that would be the last time you would leave me out. Yesterday, just in case, I made a point of reminding you in bed. However, this morning you were not in bed; where did you go, master?" Alessia says so with a dangerous tone.
The night with Alessia was incredible.
She had never been so creative and proactive before.
Although it's a shame that she used sex as blackmail to remind me that I had promised that tomorrow I would have to take her with me to the war zone.
I could go on and on about the things I did with Alessia last night, but I think that would be very ungentlemanly of me.....
Besides, I'm in a bad mood as I started the day off on the wrong foot, having to skip the daily morning blowjob that every man needs to start the day off right.
"Yes, yes, I promised, and today you will come with me. That's why... I went to... let my boss know you'd be joining me today," I say, watching as Alessia cuts another sausage into thin slices while looking me straight in the eye.
This is obviously a blatant lie.
I had to get up very early today to take Delia to the war zone.
I planned to be back before Alessia noticed my absence, but the plan only half worked, as I had to wake Delia up, and that took longer than I had imagined.
'I have to think of a way to get my two women to meet and accept our relationship. This secrecy is going to kill me.'
"Haa... Very good." says Alessia, suddenly smiling and returning to her usual mood. "That means I'm going to meet him today, right?"
"Who?" I ask, distractedly.
"The person you're working for!!!" she says, and her smile tightens.
"Ahh... Yes... Maybe," I say evasively, thinking about how bad Cael and Alessia's meeting could turn out, "but today we're mainly going to hunt down enemy soldiers and mark their locations on the maps I have."
"Good! I can't wait to make all the time I spend suffe... ejem... training with my mother-in-law finally count for something!"
...
"There are three groups at the front and two on the right. The one at the front has 8 members, and the ones on the right have 5 and 6 members," I say as I point with my hand in the directions where the enemies are.
Thanks to the map on my interface, I can clearly see the movements of the enemy soldiers.
We are in the forest, where I usually hunt enemy soldiers.
Today, since I'm with Alessia, I won't be able to use stealth, and I'll have to face the enemies in a much more direct way.
But even so, two people are still better than one.
"You know that from your instinct, don't you?" asks Alessia, with a raised eyebrow and looking at me sarcastically.
"Yeah, hahaha," I say, with a nervous laugh.
Alessia: !!!
'-Is he really going to continue with this 'instinct' stupidity? I have to find some way to get him to tell me the truth once and for all.'
'Alessia doesn't seem very convinced by my excuse. But as long as she doesn't ask me directly, I won't say anything'
"Hmm, is something bothering you, master? Is there something wrong with those groups?" asks Alessia, tilting her head slightly and looking at me with a frown.
"No... But... It's weird. I thought that after the full-scale war, the groups would have more members, but I see I was wrong."
'-Hmm... How is it that you know how many members each group has from such a distance?'
"You're the one with the most experience in this sort of thing, so, as always, your will is mine," says Alessia, touching the hilt of her sword to demonstrate her conviction.
"Yes, you're right. Let's go for the front group. It has the most members, but the other two are too close to each other, and if we start a fight with either of them, we'll most likely have to take on both groups at once."
"Ok," says Alessia with some anxiety in her voice.
'I think she's still not comfortable with the idea of fighting and killing people...'
"Are you sure you want to go with me on this?"
"Yes! This is what I've been training for for so long. Thanks for your concern, but I just have to get used to it."
'- I have to prove to him that I can be his companion in this!'
"Well... Let's go," I say, walking in the direction of the group of eight people while I have my bow ready in my hand and my old sword hanging from my belt.
For close-range fighting, I prefer the great sword I got as loot in the full-scale war for the extra damage and range at virtually no cost, but my old sword is still useful to use in combination with my bow.
As soon as I have the first person in the group in sight, I signal Alessia to get ready, and, in a split second, I shoot a freezing arrow that destroys the enemy soldier's head before his comrades notice.
We agreed that, as a strategy, I would focus on taking out as many of the enemies as I could with my bow, and Alessia would focus on defending me.
I quickly draw a confusion arrow and shoot at the next target, but the enemy soldier blocks my projectile with his shield.
The group quickly gets into formation, and the other soldiers raise their shields in my direction.
5, 8, 15 shields are pointed in our direction.
'Why are there so many enemies?'
Puzzled, I look at the map on my interface, but it now only marks seven enemies on it.
'What the hell is going on here?'
Yet in front of us there are at least 30 people equipped with light armor, shields, spears, and swords.
And, what's worse, behind the shields, I see at least five people reciting a combined spell.
Most of the people in front of us have the assassin class above their heads and are at levels between 10 and 15.
'Probably the fact that they have that class is the reason why they don't appear on my map. This is an interesting discovery, but...'
"I see your instinct can also fail you sometimes, master. What do we do?" says Alessia, tensing up next to me.
'Shit! If I were alone, I could escape quickly with my Agility Profile, but that's impossible with Alessia...'
"Change of plans. We have to get rid of those mages before they finish their casting. Follow me closely and be very careful," I say, putting my bow and sword in my inventory as I pull out my great sword.
'Shit! Activate Agility Profile. Sword breathing style'
I feel like I'm cursing a lot today, but the situation warrants it.
Suddenly, I have to move at full speed to catch an arrow aimed directly at Alessia's head in mid-air.
'Agh... that's annoying.'
At the same time, one of the soldiers shouts.
"It's him! It's the Golden Archer! The rumors were true. Arrows are useless against him! Quickly! We have to call the rest."
'-That name... where did I hear it before?'
'Were they looking for me specifically? What did I do to deserve so much attention? Yeah... that's probably a stupid question... Shit. Surely it's all the fault of that damned Admiral General'
As soon as the enemy soldier says those words, a magic flare shoots into the air, and the two groups on the right start coming in this direction.
"Shit! We have to hurry. We're going to have a lot of company soon," I say, and I start running against the shield's wall.
"Ok, I'll follow you," says Alessia with deadly seriousness in her eyes.
From behind the shields, there are several people with bows firing in our direction, but once we start running, it's easy to avoid the projectiles.
'Activate Strength Profile'
As soon as I get to a distance where I can reach them with my great sword, I attack them with a side slash that hits all the shields at once, knocking their owners to the ground and destroying the shields in the process.
"W-Why is he using a sword? Nobody told us about this!" says one of the panicked archers, just before he is decapitated by Alessia, who falls upon the enemies like a deadly shadow, moving at lightning speed.
But the archers are not the problem.
'Activate Agility Profile'
I quickly re-equip myself with my bow and fire at blinding speed three incineration arrows at the mages, who begin to burst into flames and interrupt their companions' chanting.
"We need to get out of here as soon as possible," I say, re-equipping my great sword to take out the few enemies that Alessia has not yet eliminated.
I'm surprised that Alessia had time to take out eight enemies on her own while I took care of the mages, but now is not the time to be amazed by my girl's abilities.
As soon as we are done with the enemies, we run in the opposite direction to the one from which the other enemy groups are approaching.
To my surprise, five more groups are heading towards us from the sides, threatening to cut off our line of escape if we delay any longer.
Running like hell, Alessia and I speed towards the place where I could use space travel to get out of here, while behind us, explosions start to sound in the near distance.
'Are they dropping bombs on us?!!!! Shit!! I can't use the Agility Profile to outrun the enemies, as it would leave Alessia behind too.... So... I can only rely on Luck. Activate Luck Profile!'
Suddenly, a nearby explosion knocks us to the ground, and I see that the groups of enemies are getting closer and closer to us.
'Shit...'
There are at least 60 people running towards us at a dangerous distance.
And I say 'at least' because it seems I can no longer rely 100% on my interface map to identify the number of enemies.
What's worse, I see seven more groups approaching in the distance.
"Get up, quickly! Alessia, if we die here, I think it's only fair you know this. I have another woman," I say, approaching Alessia to help her up as she looks dazed from the explosion.
"WHAT!?!?!" asks Alessia, scrambling to her feet and suddenly looking at me with complete lucidity.
'What? Why did I say that?'
"Yes, you deserved to know. Sorry I didn't tell you sooner," I say, starting to run again at full speed and dragging Alessia along as I tug on her hand to keep up with me.
Alessia: !!!
'What the hell is wrong with my mouth?!!! In fact, I've been having these kinds of intrusive thoughts for days now, which are very unusual for me.... Ever since...'
"First let's concentrate on getting out of here alive. You're not allowed to die here, yet... But once we get out of here, you better tell me about that thing you said in detail, stupid master. No excuses, no lies!!" Alessia says, her face red with anger, jerking out of my hand and struggling to run much faster to leave me behind.
'What did I do? Well... At least it looks like we'll be able to outrun our pursuers now.'