Do You Think You Can Run After Reincarnating, Nii-san?

The Golden Boy: The Awakening of Talent

Chapter 14

Escape from the Abandoned Fortress

They ran through the maze-like abandoned fortress without hesitation.

“Hah… Hah…”

As Benny panted heavily, I used the [Wings of Departure] to negate the weight and carried him with one hand.

“Ah… thanks…”

“No problem. I do this kind of thing every day.”

When I first became Raquel’s apprentice, I would quickly become exhausted when using techniques while running. But now, I don’t even get out of breath. Phil also underwent the same physical training regimen as I did, so she didn’t show any signs of exhaustion either.

Experiencing combat unexpectedly like this made me appreciate Raquel’s training all the more. Meeting Raquel might have been a greater fortune than being born a Roost.

“Hey, aren’t we going down?” Phil asked, tilting her head as we passed by the stairs leading underground.

“We don’t have the keys to the cells. We can’t free the children from the doors. We’ll pull them up through the windows.”

“Windows…? But the windows have iron bars…”

Benny muttered, and I responded with a grin.

“Just watch.”

We reached a small courtyard. Near the ground on the wall, there was a window with iron bars, like a ventilation window in a gym.

I let Benny stand on his own, squatted in front of the window, and grabbed the iron bars with my right hand. Simultaneously, I touched the stone wall above the window with my left hand.

“Here we go.”

“Wha…?!”

Benny let out a gasp of surprise. The iron bars, along with the surrounding stones, popped out as if in a game of Jenga.

“How… why…?!”

“Stone walls are solid because the stones are heavy,” I said, waving the iron bars attached to the stone.

“Therefore, they are weak against impacts that negate their weight, like earthquakes. Especially since my spirit art can negate weight, this wall is no different from straw.”

By negating the weight of the stones above the window, I eliminated the pressure on the stones securing the iron bars, then pulled them out. It might seem like the wall would collapse entirely, but since I didn’t negate the mass that keeps the structure in place, that didn’t happen.

“Amazing…”

“Isn’t it?” Phil puffed out her chest beside Benny for some reason.

Well, fine.

“Hey! We’re here to rescue you!” I called out, and the children looked up at me with surprised faces. Good, they’re all here.

“We’ll pull you up one by one! Extend your arms! Help those who can’t move!” We pulled out about ten children from the cell. In times like this, the spirit art that negates weight is very useful.

“We’re escaping from here now,” I declared clearly to the children gathered in the small courtyard.

“Stay calm and follow my instructions. Listen to my voice no matter what. Got it?” The children nodded in unison. Good, they’re obedient.

“Those who can’t move, I’ll negate their weight, so those who can move, carry them. Let’s go.” Phil supported a girl who couldn’t balance with one arm, and Benny supported a boy who had lost a leg with his left arm. I couldn’t help carry the injured because I needed to be ready to move if necessary. It was painful, but I left it to them, who had endured the days in the cell together.

I led the way, peeking out of the door to check the surroundings. The safest route would probably be across the roof, but it’s too risky to take ten children. We had no choice but to move through the fortress.

After confirming no one was there, I beckoned the group. We stepped out into the fortress corridor.

“From here on, no talking,” I told them, and we ran. Telling the children to hide their presence was impossible. We had to escape as quickly as possible. Breaking through the wall and taking the shortest route was an option, but it would leave too many traces and be too risky.

“(Phil. Send an animal ahead. We want to minimize the time lost in scouting.)”

“(Got it.)” A mouse, following Phil’s command, ran ahead. It soon turned a corner and disappeared, then we heard it squeak.

“(It’s clear.)” Trusting that, I turned the corner without slowing down. As reported, there was no sign of the enemy.

At this pace, we moved quickly through the fortress. We rarely encountered the bandits. The fortress was large compared to the number of bandits, and it seemed they had fallen for our diversions. I hoped we could escape without incident…

“(It’s clear.)” Hearing Phil’s voice, I turned the corner at full speed again, and there stood the female bandit, Vicky.

“Found you.”

I hastily stopped, signaling the children to do the same.

“Why… how…?” Phil looked at Vicky in bewilderment. The mouse was behind her. Damn…! Right after the mouse finished scouting, Vicky must have teleported here! What terrible timing…!

“You naughty kids. Didn’t your parents teach you not to wander off?” Vicky sneered, clenching her fists.

“But I’m not good enough to lecture others. I’ll go easy on you…!”

Her clenched fist swung. It was the same attack that had blown Benny and me away through the cell bars—I’ve already figured out your trick!

The moment I felt her fist on my abdomen, I activated the [Wings of Departure]. This attack must be teleporting only her fist. She creates a wormhole at her hand and another at the target location, then punches through the wormhole. Although it looks like her fist doesn’t reach, it’s indeed touching me now.

“What…?! What’s this?!” Vicky’s feet floated off the floor. When her fist touched my abdomen, I negated her mass. Naturally, I wasn’t blown away. When an object with zero mass hits you, there’s no impact.

While Vicky flailed as if in zero gravity, I closed the distance and delivered a powerful kick to her abdomen. As I did, I restored her mass. Vicky, now with mass, was sent flying and slammed into the corridor wall. Landing, I winced.

“Damn… what abs…!” Vicky’s abs were as hard as steel. No matter how many times I hit, it wouldn’t matter with a child’s strength.

“Retreat!” While Vicky still floated with zero weight, I returned to Phil and the others and retraced our steps. Running, I mentally mapped out the fortress.

“Alright. Let’s head to that room!” After confirming the room was clear, I brought all the children inside. This place should be large enough to hide everyone…

“It’s smaller than I thought…” It felt cramped and cluttered, like a storage room. Was it because of all the junk?

“We’ll hide here for now. Don’t show your faces until I say so. Don’t make a sound. Got it?” The children nodded. I found hiding spots for them. Phil and I hid in a decayed wooden crate. In the darkness, we could hear each other’s breaths and heartbeats.

“(Hehe.)”

“(What’s so funny?)”

“(It’s like last night.)”

“(I’m not kissing you.)”

“(I know~♪)” Phil nestled closer to my neck. She’s really a precocious kid… Just like me, though.

Ignoring my fast heartbeat, I listened to the sounds outside. Footsteps. They seemed to come from outside this room.

“Humming…?” I frowned. This brought back bad memories. As the footsteps got closer, the humming became clearer.

“–one, two, three, four…” Wait, what?

“♪ We are the bandits, stealing from crying children ♪

♪ We have our pick, which one shall it be? ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la la la la la ♪

♪ La la la la la la… ♪”

Impossible. No way. This song. This song, it can’t be… No, it can’t be true, it’s impossible…

“(Hey, Ja-kun? What’s wrong?)”

Phil’s voice brought me back to reality. The humming was getting clearer. But it wasn’t the melody of “Ten Thousand Miles Up the Alps.” I sighed deeply. My racing heart calmed down, and I noticed Phil looking at me worriedly.

“(Are you okay…? You had a really scary face…)”

“(Yeah… sorry about that.)” I patted Phil’s back. I can’t afford to let my trauma get to me now. That person is dead. I killed them. They’re gone.

The footsteps and humming passed by and faded away. Now that I listened carefully, the voice was a man’s. Where’s Vicky?

After waiting a while, we came out of the crate. I had the children come out too. In the cramped, dark room, we huddled together.

“Ja-kun, what now?” Phil asked directly, and I pondered.

“Vicky finding us is a big problem. If she teleports, we can’t outrun her.”

“Do we just keep hiding?”

“That’s true, but how did she pinpoint our location? She couldn’t appear right on top of us without knowing exactly where we were.”

“Yeah, how did she do it?” No surveillance cameras or tracking devices exist here. Unless one of the bandits had a spirit art like clairvoyance… Damn. No point in thinking about it. We have to figure out how she’s tracking us.

“…Do we have to take her out? That leader lady.”

“That’s unrealistic. We don’t have enough firepower.”

“Maybe we could distract her?”

“But if she realizes it’s a decoy, she’ll teleport away.”

“Hmm… Hey, Ja-kun.”

“Yes?”

“How does she decide the destination for that instantaneous transport?”

That’s a sharp question.

I thought about it for a moment.

“…The book I read didn’t cover that much. My master doesn’t seem to have the [Absolute Void] either… This is just a guess, but maybe if you imagine the destination accurately?”

“Aren’t you scared? Like, what if you accidentally end up inside a wall?”

“No, that shouldn’t happen. The [Absolute Void] precisely creates a ‘hole’ that connects two distant places. So, the size of what can be moved is determined by the size of the hole that can be opened.”

The size of the hole seems to depend on the skill of the user. For an absolute novice, it seems barely possible to pass a fingertip through. Vicky, who can open a hole large enough to pass herself and Benny through, must be quite skilled.

“Hmm… I see. I was thinking that depending on how the destination is decided, we might be able to avoid it”

“Well, for instance, if it’s a physically narrow space where she can’t fit, that woman wouldn’t be able to teleport.”

It would have been nice if there were narrow passages only children could pass through. But there are no ventilation shafts in this abandoned fortress.

Even discussing it, we can’t come up with a concrete plan. Do we really have to find out how they tracked our location somehow…?

Just when I thought that.

Knock, knock.

“Anybody home? — There you are, brats!”

Vicky!? They found us!

How did she know we were here…?

She’s definitely tracking our location somehow!

“Damn it!”

While Vicky struggled with the lock, I moved the wooden crates and junk in the room to barricade the door.

“Open up!! You brats!!”

SFX: Bang, bang, bang!!

The door rattled repeatedly. With those ridiculous muscles, this barricade won’t hold for long!

“To the back!”

Saying this, I ran to the back wall. Naturally, there was no exit. Just a stone wall standing in the way.

But.

I pushed the stone wall with both hands. Just that caused the wall to crumble apart.

To me, a stone wall was no different from something made of straw.

“Come! Quickly!!”

Starting with the injured, I led the children out. The barricade on the door began to collapse. It was only a matter of time before Vicky got in!

Three left, two left—

SFX: Bang, bang, bang!

The sound of the collapse came when there was only one left.

The female thief stood at the doorway, smiling.

“You’re not getting away!!”

Gritting my teeth at the approaching Vicky, I reached out to the last one — Benny.

“Reach out your hand!”

“Okay…!”

Weaved through the floating stones, my extended right hand and Benny’s extended left hand—

Huh?

—Connected, and I pulled Benny to my side. Immediately, I restored the weight to the floating stones.

“Tch…!!”

Vicky clicked her tongue in frustration. The stones, regaining their weight, rained down on the female thief.

The imminent threat was buried in the rubble.

…But I doubt she’d stay down just from this.

“Ja-kun!”

“Yeah!”

I started running again with the children. At the same time, I glanced at Benny’s face.

—That was.

—Come to think of it, that time too…

A faint sense of incongruity became a foothold to trace back into the past. Connecting the dots.

Using that, I reinterpreted my memories.

—Could it be.

Could it really be…?

Vicky, who tracks our location accurately. The spirit art [Absolute Void]. The female thief The Bloody She-Leopard. The intricate abandoned fortress. The torture chamber.

“(—Phil.)”

“(Hmm?)”

I secretly — making sure no one else could hear — told Phil.

“(Use the rats to investigate this abandoned fortress — thoroughly, every nook and cranny.)”