Experiencing an overnight escape while living in Japan was probably rare.

At the very least, if someone lived a normal life, they almost never had to skip town in the middle of the night.

As for me, this was my first time running away overnight.

We quickly packed our things, got into the car Rubelt owned, and headed for DEU (Germany).

If we were talking about countries near Marseille, then ITR (Italy) came to mind first, but apparently the contact who could leak the information Lyz had was in the direction of DEU.

Another reason was that FR and DEU were on bad terms. If we ran to ITR, there was a good chance FR’s dogs would conduct their investigation pretty openly. I see. I do not get it.

“I honestly thought we would ditch the car deep in the mountains or something, but we are just using normal roads with proper infrastructure, huh?”

“You watch too many movies and dramas. When you run overnight, making sure they cannot grab your trail is important, but speed matters more. Instead of wandering around in their backyard, it is better to get out of the country first and erase our tracks afterward. Especially in a case like this.”

“So that is how it works. This is my first time running overnight, so I have no idea how this crap is supposed to go.”

“That part is all about experience. Luckily, our information has not leaked yet. If we get away before they put up checkpoints, we win. Well, even if they do set up checkpoints, there are plenty of ways to slip through them.”

Judging from Rubelt’s composure and how smoothly he handled everything, he had probably gone through this kind of thing several times before.

I did not know about Lyz, but from my perspective as someone with no experience, he could not have been more reassuring.

Because, you know, I had been an ordinary Japanese student. Forget being chased by a whole nation; I had never even been stopped by the police.

“Also, we do not know when the internal conflict inside the Alice Organization will end. Now that I am gone, the Leftist faction is guaranteed to win. If things go badly, it may already be over, and they may already be tracking me.”

“Hey, hey, I would rather not deal with that. Those bastards have connections to lawmakers, right? Having the cops moved against us would be a pain in the ass.”

“They can move more than the police. They can move the military too. If they do it on a large scale, it will obviously become a problem, but if it is small scale, it will not matter.”

“Either way, I want no damn part of it.”

While the conversation continued in a way that was anything but peaceful, I killed time by looking up all kinds of information about this world.

It was a blessing that this world had electronic devices like smartphones. I could kill time, and more importantly, I could easily get the information I wanted. National secrets were obviously impossible, but most things could be handled with this one little device.

“Ugh, Russia is a complete mess.”

“What happened?”

“I was comparing it to the borders from the 1800s, and it looks seriously messed up. Back when I was an orphan, that was the only map I knew, so I did not think it was this bad.”

“Ah, the borders from before the First Dungeon War. I have seen them too, and the old borders were definitely cleaner. The area around SUN (the Soviet Union) is especially awful, right?”

“That country had way too much territory... So it failed to fully respond to the First Dungeon War, weakened, and the countries inside it gained independence, something like that?”

“I think that is mostly right. The problem is that it happened almost five hundred years ago, so no one knows what is true anymore. Actually, do you only know maps that old? Even if you were an orphan, it should have been easy to get a map of the current world.”

Oops. I had used the orphan excuse, but I had seriously let something slip.

Rubelt and Lyz had been kind enough not to pry into my past, but there were plenty of people out there with no sense of delicacy. I needed to properly flesh out that part of my backstory too.

There was no telling when I might make a fatal slip.

“Our sister was a primitivist. She kept saying the world of the past was the proper form of things, so she only showed us old maps. The priest was an ability deificationist, so none of us kids could tell which one of them was actually right.”

“Primitivism” referred to people who believed that the world of the 1800s was the way Earth should have been, rejected the current world overrun by dungeons, and sought to restore the original world.

After dungeons and abilities appeared, the many religions that already existed split even further, and now there were too many religions to count. Among them, there was also a primitivist religion, which operated in this world as the Primordial (Protogonos) Church.

Incidentally, I had only just looked it up, so I did not know much about the details.

“That is one strange orphanage. Religious groups often run orphanages to gain popularity with the public, but it is rare to find people with different ideologies working together. If I remember right, they do not get along with the ability deificationists, do they?”

“Of course they do not. But they agreed on one thing: children are humanity’s treasure. So outside of sermons, they actually got along. Besides, both of them quit the church themselves because they could not stand its corruption. I guess they just clicked. Hell if I know.”

“Ability deificationism” was the belief that abilities were powers granted by God and that humanity should use those abilities to advance the world. This also existed as a religion and apparently operated as the Ability God (Badoznamia) Church.

Was there some rule saying they had to mangle Greek words or something?

Ability deificationism did not have the best relationship with primitivism, which sought to recreate the old scientific world, and that apparently caused plenty of people to fight.

From my perspective, it was all crap I could not care less about, but religion was basically like that.

“Huh. So there are decent clergy too. Even if their ideologies clash, their principle of doing it for the children is the same.”

“Yeah. And thanks to them, a brat like me was born. God? He can eat shit.”

“That is the one sin committed by that sister and priest. Instead of preaching God’s existence, they should have given you lessons in morality.”

“Don’t be stupid. I am a serious, good kid. The kind even God would clap both hands for and praise.”

“Serious, good kids do not say that. They also do not go around saying fuck and ass. Go look up ‘good kid’ in a dictionary.”

Rubelt spat that out with a half-exasperated look, then pressed the accelerator down just a little harder.

Apparently, my sloppy excuse had worked. I felt relieved inside and started putting together more details to make that lie feel more realistic.

***

The overnight drive went smoothly.

The sun had already set, and moonlight, along with the power of civilization, illuminated the world.

It was my third day since arriving in this world. Even though I had gotten dragged into ridiculous trouble, my life in this world had been going smoothly.

No, wait. It was not going smoothly at all.

“My magic circuits still have not stabilized.”

“Are you okay?”

Lyz stared at her right hand, repeatedly opening and closing it, then let out a deep sigh with a slightly tired expression on her face.

Because her face was too damn pretty, every little movement she made looked picture-perfect. She had no chest, but her figure was good, and it would not have been strange for desire-starved men to flock to her.

Lyz looked at me with clear red eyes, then gave a small smile and shook her head.

“I am fine. My body already moves, so all that is left is my magic circuits. The poison seems stronger than expected, but I think it is only a matter of time.”

“Then good. But if it gets rough, tell me, all right? I will put you on a handcart again like yesterday.”

“Hehe, that was actually kind of fun. I want to do it again.”

“...I would rather not have another ogre aiming for my ass. I do not have that kind of taste.”

I never wanted to go through that life-or-death game of tag again. I had acted cool and said I would get revenge, but honestly, I did not want revenge at all.

A second attempt did not seem like it would work anyway.

That meant I would have to prepare a different method, but I still had not accurately figured out what I could and could not manifest.

Even flour counted as a “toy” for this ability. I could understand water, maybe, but the fact that I could manifest things like flour and potato starch meant the judgment on this ability was loose as hell.

For the record, I could not manifest a car. I had memories of playing inside cars, but apparently cars were judged as vehicles rather than toys.

I did not understand the standard. I could manifest a bicycle, which was also a vehicle, but I could not manifest a car. What the hell was the difference?

As I continued sorting what I could and could not manifest, Lyz leaned in and peered at my hand with interest.

“Still, your ability is unusual, Gray-chan. Multiple kinds of manifestation and low magic consumption. I saw it when you fought that ogre too, but it is not a common type.”

“Really? I think it is just an ordinary manifestation-type ability. What do you think, veteran Hunter?”

“Manifestation abilities that cover multiple types are rarely seen. A famous example would be ‘Thousand Blades,’ but even that, despite being called multiple types, never leaves the framework of ‘swords.’ I think being able to create completely different things like you do is rare.”

Based on everything we had discussed so far, even Rubelt, who should have traveled around the world, considered this ability rare.

In terms of rarity, it was probably something impressive, but rarity alone did not solve anything. After all, it had zero attack power.

To be blunt, using a gun was stronger than manifesting a metal bat and swinging it at someone.

Guns were stronger than metal bats. That was just how it was.

“Huh. What kind of ability do you have, Rubelt?”

“Mine feels like a mix between enhancement and manipulation. It is useless for running away.”

“What about Lyz?”

“I think mine is manifestation-type. It is very strong against living things, but my magic circuits have not healed yet, so I cannot activate it properly right now.”

Judging from how they spoke, both of their abilities were probably quite powerful. At the very least, they were stronger than mine.

In a way, an ability like this suited someone like me, who had never specialized in one single thing, but I still wished it had been a little stronger.

As we talked and continued along the road lit by the car’s headlights for a while, Rubelt started rummaging around.

“What is it? Cigarettes?”

“No. Looks like we have guests. The bike behind us. It has been following us for a while now. I circled the same roads three times, and it is still behind us, so there is no doubt they are after us. Are they acquaintances of yours, Lyzvelt-kun?”

“They are wearing helmets like polite little bastards, but they are definitely acquaintances. Those shitty brothers are here.”

“Well, that is great. I do not know how they identified us, but it looks like they are pretty damn skilled.”

Rubelt said that, then pulled a handgun and ammunition from the glove box.

It was a revolver. Judging by the shape, it was probably a handgun called an S&W M686, and the model was four inches.

Part of me wondered what kind of lunatic kept something that dangerous in a glove box, but when I thought about it carefully, I was armed with a gun too, so I was in no position to talk.

Rubelt tossed them to Lyz, pointed his thumb behind us, and raised his middle finger.

“Fuck them up. No one is going to complain if you blow their heads off.”

“No, the guy who has to dispose of the bodies is definitely going to complain. Something like, ‘Damn it, you brought me more trouble.’”

“That is true enough. Gray, you have your own, right? Use that and kill them however you like. If you are not confident in your aim, go cry to Lyzvelt.”

“Come on, Gray-chan.”

Lyz spread both arms with a bright smile, but of course, I refused to cry to her.

“No, I am not going to cry to you. I am still a rookie who only went through his first life-or-death mess yesterday, but I adapt fast.”

“Glad to hear it. Listen, Gray. Do not show mercy. That mercy will come back down on us someday.”

“You say that after running your mouth before about the value of life and all that crap?”

“That is a matter of mindset. Do not bring something that impure into killing.”

What an outrageous thing to say. Maybe Rubelt was the one who deserved to fall into hell.

I opened the car window and readied my handgun.

This was my first time killing a person, but strangely, I felt no anxiety. Maybe because I had slaughtered so many goblins, my senses had already gone numb.

I steadied my breathing and aimed at the helmet of the person riding the bike.

Bang!! Boom, boom!!

Three dry shots rang out.

One was mine, and two were Lyz’s.

The magic bullet I fired was sucked straight into the helmet and hit dead-on.

The motorcycle rider lost balance, fell, rolled across the ground, and crashed into the wall of a house.

“Nice. As expected of you, Gray-chan.”

“I got lucky.”

“Luck alone does not land a shot, though. Well, whatever. Rubelt, floor it.”

“Huh? That did not kill them?”

“They are not weak enough to die from that much. It starts here.”

Hearing Lyz’s tone turn deadly serious, both Rubelt and I held our breath.

Chapter 10: Run to the Border