The noble lady had vanished.
Though the culprit was unknown, anyone bold enough to kidnap a noblewoman in the heart of the Empire couldn’t have been an ordinary madman.
Judging by how all the guards had collapsed without so much as a scream, it had to be the work of someone skilled enough to take them down in an instant. Or there had been a traitor on the inside.
Whatever the case, it clearly looked ill for her safety, so I decided to track down the kidnappers’ traces as quickly as possible.
First, I rushed to the women’s restroom, the last place the noble lady had been seen, in search of clues.
Since the festival was in full swing, many women were using the restroom.
No matter how skilled the kidnappers were, it would have been impossible to take her without being seen by so many eyes.
Which meant they must have used some sort of trick to drive people away or rendered themselves invisible.
I enhanced my senses by forcing the aura into my eyes. I then scanned the area, and as expected, there were still faint traces of mana on the restroom building.
Judging by the faint gray color, it was a concealment-type spell. They had likely intended to erase the restroom from people’s perception during the kidnapping.
And there, I sensed another lingering trace.
Something about it felt familiar. It was similar to the sensation I’d experienced before when I was caught in a spatial movement spell.
“Kyaa! What the hell!?”
“A pervert!”
Ignoring the surrounding screams, I burst into the restroom, where a fading trace of power quivered weakly near the sinks, as if ready to vanish at any moment.
Even for someone like me, whose body had been reborn with transcendent physical abilities thanks to aura, it was barely visible. So there was no way it could be seen by ordinary eyes.
It was a precarious force, on the verge of flickering out completely. But now that I had caught its tail, it had no chance of escape.
I approached the trace, seized it, and forcibly infused my aura into it.
Since the connection hadn’t been completely severed, pouring my aura into it would surely cause it to seep out at the exit point of the spatial teleportation spell. All I had to do then was follow my aura.
……Ping—!
Southwest, 20 meters underground. Roughly 10 kilometers away.
As soon as I sensed my aura from a place not too far off, I didn’t even look back and darted out of the restroom, heading straight for the exit.
The roadside was too crowded, so I leaped and dashed across rooftops, practically flying as I moved.
There was no time to wait in line for inspection at the city gate, so I forcibly tore through the barrier installed along the outer wall of the academy city and vaulted over the wall, sprinting nonstop toward my destination.
With aura-enhanced legs, every step I took propelled me several meters forward. My speed surpassed that of a bullet.
Leaving the ever-changing scenery behind me, I ran without pause in search of the noble lady.
After about five minutes, I reached a quiet rural village nestled between mountain ranges. This was the place where I sensed my aura.
On the surface, it looked like an ordinary village with nothing out of the ordinary.
But without a doubt, my aura was emanating from beneath that village.
There was one house larger than the rest. Two burly men were loitering around it, clearly trying to look inconspicuous but only raising more suspicion.
The place appeared to be the village chief’s home, and since I could sense my aura from within, it likely had a secret passage leading underground.
After all, why would a village chief’s home in a backwater town need guards unless something valuable was hidden there?
Without hesitation, I leaped down from the tree I had been watching from.
“Wh-What the—?! Someone just dropped from the tree—!”
“Never seen this guy before. Who the hell are you?!”
The men were startled by my sudden appearance and immediately went on alert, but I ignored them and strode directly toward the building I presumed to be the chief’s house.
“Hey, you bastard! Didn’t you hear us asking who you are?!”
One of them suddenly grabbed my shoulder.
I was slightly surprised by the strength of his grip which was clearly different from that of an ordinary human. But that was all.
I quickly seized his hand and, in one motion, slammed him to the ground.
“Guhhak!!”
“H-How did he do that with one hand?! Hey! Everyone, get over here! We’ve got an intruder!”
Only then did the enemies come pouring in. At a glance, they looked like ordinary humans, but the energy I felt beneath their clothes was anything but normal.
If they had been typical villagers, they would have run away or shown fear in the face of someone like me, but the ones gathering before me now had eyes burning with the desire to kill.
There was no way they could be mistaken for ordinary people.
With a sigh, I reached toward my waist…only to grab nothing but the cool mountain air.
Ah. I didn’t bring a weapon.
Well, who would bring a sword to a date coaching session anyway?
Left with no choice, I picked up a nearby tree branch.
“This should be enough for dealing with vermin.”
Then, as the enemies charged at me, I unleashed the aura I had been holding back without hesitation.
***
Tap tap tap—!
After taking care of the fighters disguised as villagers, I entered the house.
One of them had pretended to be dead and slipped inside, so after quickly finishing off the remaining ones and following him in, I found a hidden passage to the underground that was left wide open behind a bookshelf. Apparently, he hadn’t had time to close it.
When I went down the stairs, I was greeted by a completely different scene.
In the long corridor, there were numerous stone chambers on either side and from each one came eerie wails and the unpleasant sound of something scratching against stone.
“Kieeeeeek!!”
The guy who had just fled to avoid me ran to the door at the end of the hallway and hurriedly slipped inside.
Sensing movement from that room as well, I figured the culprit must be in there. I sprinted at full speed and kicked the door open without hesitation.
Boooom!
With a squelching sound, the iron door slammed into the wall.
It seemed the guy who had just escaped had been crushed to death by the door flying at him.
“Found you.”
In the chilling basement, I finally discovered our kidnapped young lady.
It hadn’t even been that long since she was taken, but her condition was far worse than I expected.
One of her legs was completely broken and twisted in a direction it shouldn’t bend. She was clutching her stomach, and judging by the vomit caked around her mouth, she must have taken a strong blow to the abdomen.
Tears streamed from her fear-stricken eyes, and snot dripped from her nose. It was heartbreaking, yet I was also surprised at how her beauty remained unchanged despite it all.
“Who are you?”
“Me?”
The question came from a middle-aged man standing confidently as if he were the mastermind behind everything. For a moment, I hesitated to answer.
A hero? The next Aura Lord? Or just an ordinary academy student?
Then, seeing the noble lady look at me with those wide, startled, rabbit-like eyes, I couldn’t help but smile.
“The young lady’s love consultant.”
Yeah. I was her love consultant.
I had fallen into this world as an extra, and to live a peaceful life, I worked as a love consultant helping our esteemed noble lady with her romantic endeavors.
Nothing more, nothing less.
So why was I going this far to save her?
Well, if anything happened to my client, my whole business would go down the drain. Of course I had to save her, didn’t I?
“What an utterly ridiculous thing to say.”
The man in front of me looked at me with a mix of disbelief and disdain at my answer.
“Judging by the fact that you managed to make it this far, you must be quite skilled… but don’t let it go to your head. You won’t be leaving this place alive.”
“Hey, old man. You’re gonna get beaten like a dog in a bit anyway, so before your teeth get knocked out and you can’t talk, let me just ask. Why did you kidnap her?”
“Insolent brat…”
My question had been nothing more than a sincere inquiry, without a hint of provocation or deceit. But it seemed the man took it as a childish taunt. His brow twitched ever so slightly, and a vein bulged on his forehead.
“Well, fine. I suppose making it this far earns you that much. The reason we kidnapped the noble lady… was to create the most perfect being with my own hands.”
“The most… perfect being?”
“I’ve always wondered. Why is there no perfect being in this world? Humans are intelligent but weak. Aura and magic are reserved for the chosen, and even those must be acquired through effort. On the other hand, monsters are born with immense power. But they lack intelligence.”
He let out a heavy sigh, as though truly lamenting the situation.
“Isn’t it tragic? That no creature exists who is perfect in every way. Why would God create a world so fundamentally unfair?”
“So that’s why you decided to create a fair being yourself?”
“Exactly. The intelligence of humans and the strength of monsters. My goal is to become a god who creates a being born with perfection itself. Originally, it was impossible for a chimera to possess intelligence, but recently, I confirmed that a chimera using those who have awakened to mana as a base could inherit human intelligence. And the higher their magical talent, the more effective it is.”
“……”
“I’ve already heard about the noble lady. They said she survived the trap meant to both feed Behemoth and throw the Academy into chaos thanks to her potential. I was already aware that she had been considered promising due to her innate talent, but this incident has made me determined to use her as the base.”
“Ah.”
I had deliberately given her the credit for defeating the chimera last time, worried that my involvement might be exposed. But this lunatic actually decided to kidnap her because of that.
Haah… damn it.
I hadn’t meant for it to happen, but given how things turned out, I couldn’t help but feel even more responsible now.
“Well. From where I stand, the perfect being you’re talking about already exists.”
“What are you saying?”
Though taken aback, he stared at me with eyes filled with curiosity. He was perhaps wondering if I might have the answer he’d been seeking in his research all along.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”
“?”
“From the way you’re acting, your body might still be human, but your mind has already turned into a perfect monster. If that’s not the evolution you’ve been talking about, then what is?”
“…You insolent brat…”
Realizing the sarcasm in my words, the man’s expression darkened rapidly.
“You’re hastening your own death. I was considering using you as a test subject since you seem gifted even at your age, but now… it’s probably better to just kill you.”
“Seriously, why do you keep acting like I’m going to lose?”
Snap!
As the man snapped his fingers, a metallic door creaked open somewhere, followed by a familiar growling sound from behind.
– Grrrrrrrrr…
“One of the numbered upper-tier chimeras I put my heart and soul into creating. This one is Jackal, ranked Third. With speed that surpasses the speed of sound and fangs that can tear through steel, he’ll shred your flesh to pieces. Kuku!”
– Kwaaaargh!!
Tap, tap!
Slash!
“You’ll die before you even have time to feel pain… huh?”
“What the hell is this bastard?”
What the hell was he thinking letting something like this loose? What if it spreads rabies or something?
“Wh-What? How did Jackal go down with a single strike…?”
“Hey.”
“Mus–Keuhaak!!!”
“I don’t care about your old man sob story.”
Tap, tap.
“You acted like a piece of shit, so I’m gonna act like a piece of shit too. Fair, right?”
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