Erika: My Friend Is Obsessed with Me
Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Erica - When a Friend Becomes Obsessed with Me
“Have you ever killed someone before?”
Step, step.
Chaud strode forward, casually extending his longsword in a long reach.
“Scum like that aren’t any different from monsters.”
Watching him approach, Erica was reminded of her master.
That jarring rift between ruthless cruelty and gentleness.
To think there was another person who could send chills down someone’s spine while saying such things in complete earnest.
“……Do you think I’m a psychopath? I don’t kill people just because they put me in a bad mood.”
“Really? Well, I am a psychopath, so I’m going to kill every last one of them.”
Chaud declared in a low voice.
Erica tried to gauge whether this fresh-faced guy was actually serious with his softly spoken nonsense, then simply gave up.
Instead, she rolled her wrist.
She adjusted her grip on the longsword scabbard in her right hand.
The bandits surrounding them were raising their weapons, radiating a murderous aura from every direction.
“Chaud, just stay back. I’ll clean this up.”
“Think you can handle it? Let me help. There are over thirty. Counting the ones behind the trees, nearly forty.”
Think you can handle it? Chaud clearly provoked people for fun.
“Just don’t get in my way.”
Erica shot him a scoffing look, kicked off the ground, and leapt into the air.
Whoosh!
Swish—
And then, everything happened in a flash.
The area dissolved into total chaos, filled with wild shrieks and the clash of weapons.
Clang, clash!
Thwack!
“Aaaaargh!!!”
Amid the tangled brawl, dust billowed as bodies rolled across the dirt, dodged, and shoved.
At first, Erica tried to use only hand-to-hand combat to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
But after throwing a few guys over her shoulder and slamming them thud against the trees, she noticed they ended up bleeding anyway.
There would be no end to this. She really didn’t want to draw blood, though.
‘I’ll just hit them with the flat of the blade!’
Schwing.
She drew her longsword.
Swish— swift, elegant arcs cleaved through the air again and again.
Whoosh!
Wherever the sunlight gleamed off the tip of her sword, burly men collapsed with heavy thuds.
It was swordsmanship inherited from Pechenik, who had spent half his life basking in the glory of Tenearha.
No matter how freely her master lived, his deeply ingrained chivalry hadn’t gone anywhere.
The swordplay she learned from him was delicate, far too noble for that of a mere commoner mercenary.
It was elegant.
Free.
Dignified.
Thump.
Wham!
“…….”
Chaud watched that striking incongruity with his own eyes.
Amid the noisy fray, an intrigued gaze shone alone.
Erica wasn’t just good with a bow.
“Why are you so good? What are you, an invincible flying squirrel?”
Whether marveling to himself or talking so Erica could hear, he let out a stream of dry chuckles.
Meanwhile, Chaud’s swordplay was just as swift.
Slash!
He cleared away anything annoyingly obstructing his view at blinding speed.
Without even bothering to wipe off the blood, he tracked Erica’s prowess with his eyes.
Any bastard getting in the way and interrupting his view was mercilessly struck down.
Unlike Erica, who struck only with the flat of the blade, his hands held no mercy.
“N-No, spare m—ghk!”
“R-Run—”
Slash, thud!
When two S-rank mercenaries swung their swords with intent, there was no standing against them.
It didn’t take long for over forty bandits to end up sprawled across the ground.
They hunted down and dragged back even those who had tried to flee.
“This one’s the last.”
Everything was wrapped up cleanly.
It was an out-of-the-blue subjugation of the Hiders Bandits.
Subjugating the Hiders Bandits!
If it had been a request posted on the guild board, it would have been at least A-rank, and the reward would have been in gold.
On top of that, combined with escorting merchant cargo, it was a case where two overlapping commissions could have been completed at once.
After running wild to her heart’s content, Erica started thinking about getting her money’s worth.
“Tsk…….”
Two high-priced S-rank mercenaries had just done some tremendous volunteer work without a single copper.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!”
“Once we arrive in Dangtus, we will make sure to repay this kindness!”
“Thank you!”
Repaying the kindness—Erica nodded in satisfaction.
Though they hadn’t signed a formal commission contract, it seemed the merchant group would thankfully offer some compensation.
“Oh, kindness, please. Well……. You can just come find me at the Southern Mercenary Guild headquarters in Dangtus.”
No need to give them a detailed address, right? The Mercenary Guild headquarters was huge and famous.
With a clatter, she took up her soiled longsword.
Tugging the hem of her shirt, she used it as a rag to wipe down the blade of the longsword.
Wiping her weapon with her top was a habit of Erica’s.
As the hem was pulled taut, her smooth abs were revealed.
She had never cared about exposure; after years of rough-and-tumble mercenary life, it was second nature.
“Erica, what are you doing?”
Chaud snatched her hand with a serious expression and pulled it toward himself.
“Huh?”
“Your whole stomach is showing.”
“……?”
Was there a reason her stomach shouldn’t show?
Looking around to quickly gauge the situation, she still couldn’t understand.
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? The bare skin under your shirt was completely exposed just now.”
“……?”
Smack. She slapped away his hand.
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
Still perplexed, she shot back testily and turned away.
The transport caravan was roughly sorted out.
Almost dying was one thing, but they had a cargo delivery schedule to keep, so the merchants cleaned up quickly.
“We’re departing!”
She climbed back into the carriage.
Neigh—!
The sound of the carriage starting off. The rhythmic clatter of hooves echoed steadily.
Inside the third carriage compartment, Erica and Chaud sat facing each other once more.
The seating positions were the same as when they first set out, and their postures were identical too.
If there was one difference—
“Chaud.”
It was the smeared red bloodstains splattered across Chaud’s cheek.
“……You’ve got blood on your face.”
“It’s not mine.”
Well of course it isn’t.
If you went around getting your face busted up, could you even call yourself a Swordmaster?
“No, I mean wipe it off. It’s an eyesore.”
When Erica chided him, only then did Chaud lazily rub his cheek with the back of his hand.
He wiped it with utter lack of effort.
“Since I’m trying not to use Aura at all, I couldn’t control my strength properly and the blood splattered. That’s how it got on me.”
Chaud made an excuse.
Why was he giving such a bizarre explanation? She didn’t even know which part to question first.
Having blood spattered on him wasn’t actually a big deal. It was common for mercenaries to get blood on their faces when using a sword.
But why was he refusing to use his perfectly good Aura?
Her master had done that too, but he was an eccentric through and through. He rarely used Aura, claiming it was only fun if he handicapped himself to balance things out.
Was Chaud handicapping himself for balance too?
“Do you usually not use Aura?”
“Usually, I use it all the time.”
“……?”
“In fact, I almost never go without it. It just feels good to have it softly coating the blade.”
Seeing his deadpan face as he answered like some kind of Aura fanatic, self-handicapping was definitely something only Pechenik would do.
Chaud was a Swordmaster who had always wielded Aura like an extension of his own body.
“Then why?”
“Because it seemed like you disliked it.”
His following words caught her off guard.
“……What?”
“Isn’t the reason you dislike me because I use Aura?”
“…….”
Erica was struck speechless. Momentarily flustered, her lips merely parted and closed.
It had been a completely baffling conversation from the start, but apparently Chaud had done quite a lot of thinking after his regular-duo proposal got rejected.
“Am I wrong?”
Judging by how he hit the nail right on the head.
“……You’re right.”
“Wow. I wondered if that was it, but it really was. How am I supposed to take this?”
Chaud furrowed the bridge of his nose and swept a hand through his hair.
His strands fell naturally between his large, thick fingers.
“To me, that was supposed to be my selling point, but it was actually points deducted? That’s…… that’s too harsh.”
He muttered under his breath in a dismayed tone and leaned back against the seat.
His sea-green eyes calmly pleaded innocence.
The tiny beauty mark nestled beneath his eye somehow made him look wronged.
“Have you ever seen Aura other than mine?”
“…….”
“Why are you rolling your eyes? Of course you have. The moment you saw mine, you knew it was Aura without a shadow of a doubt.”
“……Of course I’ve seen it.”
“Where? It couldn’t have been easy for a southern native to see someone from Tenearha.”
“Our guild master.”
