Chapter 124 – The observer in the back (1)

The clear laughter pierced through the quiet forest.

Brendel and Ekman raised their heads to the source of the voice, and discovered a short girl sitting on top of a branch. She looked like she was fourteen or fifteen years old, and had twin ponytails that were slightly curled. She supported her round face with both hands and looked at Brendel with interest.

The girl’s clear green eyes was also filled with mirth. She wore traditional leather armor and shook her boots subconsciously.

“Mister Brendel, do you need any help?” The girl asked with a big smile.

“Who are you?” Brendel asked after a moment and narrowed his eyes. The little girl was somehow familiar to him.

“Rauze.” The girl said.

“Rauze?”

Ekman’s bellow interrupted the both of them. It was clearly displeased with this newcomer, but there seemed to be something dangerous about her and was reluctant to move rashly. It looked at her cautiously while lowering its body and entered into a wary stance.

This action clearly grabbed Brendel’s attention.

“How annoying, interrupting me when I’m speaking—” The little girl snapped her teeth lightly and jumped down, with a huge greatsword suddenly appearing in her hands. She did not waste any more lines and swung it. Ekman roared loudly and jumped back a little, placing both its hardened arms in front of him. There was a sharp snapping sound like twigs being snapped, as the sword’s blade shattered the layers of the rock shield like it was made of glass before destroying the outer layer of the forefront limbs.

Copper-green blood immediately spurted out from the cracks, but the blade continued to travel its path without stopping, slicing off its limbs and biting into its chest. A loud explosion rang out as the sword knocked Ekman away, causing it to scream repeatedly from pain.

Bredel froze there on the spot.

The attack was done in the blink of an eye. She only took a split second to beat that scary monster Ekman into a pulp. He even asked himself if it was an illusion. How did she make it was even weaker than the low leveled grey wolves outside of Bucce?

“You are……” Before Brendel could finish his words, his mouth opened widely because the girl threw away the gigantic sword like it was a toothpick into Ekman’s direction. A loud crash could be heard as the sword struck it and the forest was silent once again.

“……” Brendel did not know what to say.

“Such a naughty little puppy. It needs to be taught a lesson before it’s quiet.” The little girl clapped her hands as if to get rid of the dust on them before she turned around. Because Brendel was much taller than her, she had to look up at him.

“What were you asking just now, mister Brendel?” She asked while raising her eyebrow in a mischievous manner.

“Erm…… I have no questions. I have things to do, so I’m going to leave now.” It looked like the girl was someone violent, and he knew how many crazy NPCs there were in the game. Even though they had amazing hidden side quests, it would be better to leave them alone if he could not handle it.

There was no way he could revive in this world so he had to flee now before trouble got a hold on him.

Sadly, that trouble was looking specifically for him—

“Wait,” The little girl saw that Brendel really wanted to leave and pulled his sleeves, but she had hurriedly grabbed his leather armor with both hands and tore the seams off with a loud ripping sound. She stuck out her tongue: “Sorry, I think I used too much strength…..”

Brendel said nothing as he took off his leather armor and threw it onto the ground because it was not usable anymore. He sighed and turned around: “Do I know you, miss Rauze?”

“Of course you do, you even accepted such a precious gift from me.”

“Wait— I don’t understand what you mean. What precious gift did I accept from you?”

She pointed at his bag.

“You mean to say…..”

The little girl nodded.

Brendel’s face darkened. The Golden Apple naturally would not find its way into his bag without rhyme or reason. He had suspected that someone did it on purpose, but he always lacked a target to point his finger at. He even thought that it was Romaine’s aunt that he had not met yet, especially after he met Tulman. However, he did not think it was….. a little girl?

He looked at her. Her features were pretty like a doll and she was staring at him in a mischievous manner. He still felt it was a little difficult to believe her.

“So, you know what that is?”

“The Fairy’s Apple. Is it rare?”

[She really is that person.]

“That means you were at that place from the start?”

“Haaah~~~ I feel really hurt that you are so~~~ suspicious of me, mister Brendel! Of course I know what that place is. The Valley of the Holy Saints, that is the name you humans call it right?”

[You humans—?]

Brendel caught that two words. He tested her in order to confirm his suspicions and there was no mistaking it. At the very least, she was somehow related to the Golden Apple. Even he did not realize he was carrying it for a while, after the visit to the Valley of the Holy Saints.

“Why did you give this to me?” Brendel thought for a while before he retrieved the shining golden apple and asked the question he had that was on his mind ever since the day he found it. The Golden Apple was famous amongst folklore as the Golden Tree was grown from the River of Destiny, and had the ability to change the fate of a person. “I don’t believe I know you personally, miss Rauze?”

The short girl giggled again, her eyes turning into crescents. “Of course there’s a reason. Just treat it as a thank you gift.”

“A thank you gift?”

She nodded.

“Somehow I feel that it sounds like it’s big trouble.” Brendel could feel black manga lines creeping over his forehead and his face darkened slightly.

[A Golden Apple as a thank you gift. I can just imagine how much trouble it is.]

“That’s why I’m thanking you ahead with that gift, mister Brendel.”

“You saved me this time to thank me too?” Brendel was beginning to find what sort of trouble he got himself into but did not think he did anything crazy enough to attract her attention. He thought for a long time but was not able to figure it out. Rauze did not look like she was lying, and more to the point, did not need to give him a Golden Apple to make fun of him.

“Well, no actually.” Rauze shook her head, and her pair of golden twintails shook in a playful manner.

Brendel looked at her in silence.

“I wanted to ask you a question but I’m not sure if I want to ask you . If I ask you the question, then I can get the satisfaction of getting the answer, but if I don’t ask you I can get the satisfaction of guessing the answer. It’s so annoying and so conflicting. But if that naughty puppy killed you, wouldn’t I lose that satisfaction? No, no, no!”

[My god. Ekman died in such a horrible manner. Why does it sound like, ‘Well shit, I’m in a bad mood today, I’m doing whatever I want, so fuck you—‘? No matter how I look at it, this girl sounds like the unwelcomed and unreasonable dragon race in the continent.]

“And?” Brendel said.

“I changed my mind. I thought about it enough, and I decided that I want to ask you this question—“

“So you’re going to lose your fun of guessing?”

“Didn’t I say I changed my mind.”

“Very well, what do you want to ask me?”

Rauze pointed at the Golden Apple.

“It has something to do with this?” Brendel looked at her incredulously.

“Mister Brendel, you should very well know the value of the Fairy’s apple, have you not thought about eating it?”

He shook his head. He had already planned his path ahead of him. However, the girl’s attitude had raised his suspicions. He looked at the apple in his hand and wondered if it was fake or if there was some other problem to it.

He never believed that something good would just happen out of nowhere.

“Are you worried that I’m lying to you? Don’t worry, there’s no poison to it this time, but I did add something interesting to it—” The girl answered.

Brendel felt his back grow cold with sweat. It was lucky that he was careful.

“What interesting thing?” He asked, but it seemed like Rauze did not wish to answer.

Instead, she parted the bushes and ran to Ekman’s corpse, then dragged the gigantic monster over like she was dragging a small animal. She knocked it around a few times, then suddenly discovered a longbow before throwing it to the sides.

“Strange, the mana around it is dissipating so quickly. And why is it carrying a longbow?”

[Shit, stop messing the body with your unlucky hands!]

Players discovered in the game that monsters’ drops were affected by the rate of mana disappearing. A bound Magic Weapon could even be damaged from the disappearing mana, and it was dependent on luck as to how many items could be gotten.

Brendel was the called the King of Luckless Hands because the monsters’ mana usually disappeared quickly when he messed around with their bodies. The only person who had even worse luck was his female senior, and her level was at the instant evaporation of mana, leaving almost no items behind. He had the sensibility to leave the looting of corpses to other people, but she was really into looting as though she wanted to defeat the fate of being luckless.

In the end, she failed in her challenge.

But this time Brendel witnessed another person who was as luckless as she was.

A level 65 Boss in a berserk state that was killed perfectly when he was at level 25, yet the first item was a longbow at a Brass-rating (Magic) rarity as a reward.

– Shale Longbow, Brass-rating (magic).

[Please stop, please……! What happened to my promised pauldrons at the Gold-rating (Fantasy) rarity?!] Brendel’s heart was bleeding with tears.

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