175

There were two reactions from those who caught sight of the sudden intruder—

Agitation and intimidation.

Having lost their chance to run due to the newcomer’s appearance, the two could no longer process the situation and simply trembled.

With no particular caution, as I walked straight toward it as if out for a stroll, the Red Ogre let out an intimidating roar at me.

(It’s a little smaller than the one I saw before?)

The closer I got, the more accurate the information I took in visually became.

About twenty meters away—given our sizes, it was a distance where a fight could start at any moment.

I had left my belongings up in a tree while running, so from the outside it probably looked like two monsters squaring off, but in reality I was the only one applying pressure.

A creature that kept closing the distance without any wariness at all would be unbelievable to a Red Ogre, which sat at the very top among humanoid monsters.

Even among the broader classification of terrestrial creatures, it ranked extremely high.

But I had already beaten one solo—almost one-sidedly at that.

And compared to back then, I had undeniably grown stronger, so there was even less reason to fear it.

In response to me stomping closer and closer, the Red Ogre’s chosen action was—throwing.

And it was startling because it threw the captured female mage at me.

Its movement deviated so far from my expectations that my reaction slowed, if only slightly.

Even so, I killed the momentum and neatly caught the thrown female mage with my left hand—Number Four.

I loosened my hand and dropped her, and without even checking whether she was okay, I closed in; the Red Ogre raised a roar and charged straight at me.

It was a rush with a build on par with mine.

Normally, colliding head-on with that kind of momentum would be a foolish act, but unfortunately, I had no intention of losing in power.

I took the Red Ogre’s body check head-on and poured strength into the foot that slid back a fraction.

Now it couldn’t move me even a millimeter.

I lowered my clasped hands onto the Red Ogre as it slammed into me and tried to push through.

The sensation of its spine cracking transmitted clearly, and the Red Ogre collapsed.

With the threat eliminated, I approached the girls, who had been frozen by fear and unable to move.

And when the distance had closed enough, I became certain.

(Yeah. This is different.)

Her height and hairstyle were almost the same, sure.

Her facial features were somewhat similar too, but her hair color and eye color were different.

More than anything—I didn’t feel even a shred of will to stand and fight, or strength.

She didn’t seem like a woman from my family line.

The moment I felt that, she looked like nothing more than an ordinary girl her age trying to flee.

I let out a deep sigh at myself for having overlaid my sister’s image onto this girl.

Why had I mistaken her?

That question itself was already wrong.

(What am I running from? What am I anxious about?)

When I questioned myself again, I understood immediately.

It was a mistake born from my weakness—wanting something, anything, to cling to.

I had stuck my neck into something I didn’t need to be involved in.

I exhaled once while looking at the girl.

Just as I was about to leave, abandoning the trembling girls behind— the Red Ogre I thought I’d killed revived, and its fist precisely caught my head.

A blunder caused by my attention drifting too far into thought.

I staggered one step, then two, as if stumbling, but that was all.

There was slight pain, but an attack fresh off revival was as good as no damage at all.

I’d thought I broke its spine, and yet the healing ability that let it move again in this short time was indeed a threat—by human standards.

It wasn’t for nothing that they said an army was required to subjugate it.

With respect, I drove my fist into its heart, and the Red Ogre spat a massive amount of blood and died.

I held back so it wouldn’t burst, but with how well it went, I ended up feeling a little smug.

In any case, this meant Seizeria would find out that I was on the eastern side.

(Helping them and then silencing them is a bit much…)

I knew it was soft, but it was also true that I felt resistance to killing girls of an age you could fairly call children.

As an Imperial soldier, I didn’t consider it right to lay hands on an unarmed minor—especially someone with no will to fight.

Maybe a slightly sentimental mood was affecting me too, but for today, I’d take that as my main excuse and withdraw.

The girls simply watched me go as I strolled away.

Without incident, I made it back to my belongings, slung my pack on, and resumed my search.

I could only pray that the encounter wouldn’t connect to something bad.

How much time had passed?

“…Finally, finally I found it!”

Even so, what I found wasn’t the facility, but a crashed airship.

But if I’d gotten this far, it was basically the same as finding it… I thought.

My memory was getting a little shaky by now, but if I searched starting from here, I should definitely find it.

(Wait—how did I even find this in the first place?)

I looked around, and I found the natural high ground I’d discovered by jumping up.

If my memory was right, I should have spotted this airship from a high place.

That brought me one step closer to the facility where I had awakened.

I headed for the high ground at once and climbed up in a rock-climbing manner.

“Ohh, I remember this view.”

After reaching the top, I didn’t voice it at the forest spread below, but at the unnaturally towering, long, pointed object.

As far as I could see it was green, green, green, and I had no idea where the facility was.

First, I used my long-distance vision and searched carefully for anything familiar.

It would have been easy if I could find something manmade, but in the end I couldn’t, and I had to come down and search on foot.

So I walked through the forest again.

It was plain, but I was steadily getting closer to my destination.

Believing that, I pressed on—and found a tree whose surface had been unnaturally scraped.

Could this be the damage I made while sprinting like mad after finding the “Contaminated Zone” sign?

I stayed there for a while to verify, and sure enough, there were similar-looking marks here and there on nearby trees too.

(Back then I still wasn’t used to this body, and even running was tough.)

I gave a wry smile at how the marks let me vaguely imagine my unreliable movements from the time I’d awakened from cold sleep and thought, “If I’m a monster now, I’ll need training to move this body properly.”

Following those traces, I spotted a wall like wire fencing with plants tangled around it.

“Found it.”

The sign I’d seen that day—worn so badly I couldn’t read it—saying “Entry Prohibited Due to Severe Contamination Zone.”

Once I got this far, the rest was quick.

The facility ruins where I’d come out appeared immediately as manmade structures.

I remembered checking the aboveground portion fairly thoroughly, so I headed underground at once.

I pried open the half-open elevator door and looked down to see nothing but darkness spreading out.

I used the wall’s irregularities to descend carefully and slowly.

I planted my feet on the cage’s ceiling section and created a small sphere of light with magic to secure a light source.

Thank goodness I learned light magic.

The lower door was open, but because the fallen elevator cage had bounced hard and deformed, the footing was a bit unreliable.

Mindful of how my weight shifted, I passed through the lower door, and I returned to this place where I could see the gate.

“The problem is whether the path ahead is buried… that’s it.”

The check itself was more than a little terrifying.

But before that, I searched around the front of the gate for anything I might have missed.

Even if I hadn’t noticed it last time, there was a good chance I could notice it now.

More than anything, I had a light source now, so it was possible equipment meant for me could be found on this side.

And what I found was this—shoes that were clearly not human-sized.

“Why shoes?”

The size was a perfect fit, so there was no doubt they were meant for me.

But why shoes?

They looked like ordinary leather shoes that were just big, but the material was clearly not leather.

It recreated a needlessly leather-like gloss and texture, but the hardness was different.

It was hard enough to make me think it might even serve as armor.

But then the question stood in the way: who would want to wear two-hundred-year-old shoes?

I decided I hadn’t seen them.

Next, something that looked like a jacket turned up.

This one had surrendered to the flow of time and was in tatters.

I could roughly infer its original shape, so let me say this.

“What were you thinking when you made this?”

If it were just a jacket, that would have been fine, but it looked like nothing but a fancy design.

I couldn’t understand my homeland’s thinking.

It wasn’t the first time, but weren’t you researchers of the Empire a little too free?

I kept searching for a while longer, but found nothing.

I’d expected there to be a weapon for me or something… but it seemed that because the concept was different from Inos’s, it didn’t work out.

It might sound like an excuse, but I wasn’t avoiding it.

I only sought a slim possibility—if I could find something effective against what I was about to do, an act tantamount to suicide.

I stood before the gate.

The side tunnel I’d dug during my escape had collapsed, and earth and sand had flowed up to the vicinity of the gate.

I had no specialized knowledge.

Of course, I had no related techniques either.

There was no easy way to open the gate; all I could do was try brute force at the end.

The difference from last time was that my strength had increased, at least a little.

I took a deep breath.

“…Haaaaaaaah!”

I shouted and slammed a full-power blow into the gate.

A thunderous roar echoed, and the transmitted impact became pain that ran through my arm.

A blow with such force that it felt like my fist’s outer hide shattered and even the bone broke.

I drew back my numbed right arm—what was there was a clearly stamped imprint of my fist.

I understood its sturdiness and thickness.

It was enough to conclude, “Destruction isn’t realistic.”

I dug the side tunnel again.

So it came to this in the end, I muttered as if I’d known it all along.

Now then—let’s pray I don’t get buried alive.