Free Web NovelChapter 29: Frank
[The host can absorb the corpse’s soul energy to advance the state of the host’s physical constitution and increase the host’s physical attributes.]
[Does the host wish to absorb it?]
The white system window, laced with red veins and dark shadows, appeared before Ravian.
’So you’re saying I can devour beings after killing them to strengthen my body—even if they don’t meet the requirements for Records?’
[Yes, host.]
’Wonderful!’ Ravian nearly said it aloud.
’But how am I supposed to absorb it in the middle of a battlefield like this? Won’t there be visible signs on both me and the corpse when I devour it?’ he asked inwardly.
[Yes, host. You will be struck by something similar to what you felt when you activated Sovereign Pulse before, and the orc’s body will weaken considerably. It will not be the same as what happens when Records are absorbed, but the effect will be visible to the naked eye.]
’And how exactly am I meant to manage that mid-battle? Cast an invisibility spell over both of us or something?’ Ravian asked, clearly irritated at the prospect of losing such loot.
[I do not believe you have mastered anything of that level yet, host.]
The system’s answer hit him like a speeding train.
’Wasn’t it obvious I was joking? Why do you take everything so seriously and then say something that cutting?’ Ravian shot back internally.
[I apologize, host. I did not understand. I only stated the truth.]
"Ouch. Fine, fine—that’s enough." Ravian said it out loud this time, and resolved once again never to joke with that damned system.
"What’s wrong? Were you hurt somewhere?" A beautiful voice suddenly came from behind him.
Ravian nearly jumped out of his skin.
He spun around and found Lysandra standing there, dragging an orc by the head—one roughly the same size as the orc he had killed alongside the knight. There wasn’t a trace of blood or a single visible scratch on her armor or face.
"Do you enjoy appearing behind me to scare me or something?" Ravian asked, pressing a hand over his rapidly beating heart.
"What is it? Why are you so startled?" Lysandra asked with a serious look—though the faint upward curve at one corner of her lips nearly gave her away. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"You crept up until you were one meter behind me, in the middle of a battlefield, and only then decided to announce yourself like that—and you’re asking what the matter is?!" Ravian said, nearly losing his temper as he registered that the crimson-haired girl was clearly doing it on purpose.
"That’s your own fault for spacing out in the middle of a battle without watching every angle around you," Lysandra said—then plucked the short sword from Ravian’s belt and hurled it with terrifying speed, so close that it passed a hair’s breadth from his face.
The blade whipped past his cheek, and Ravian almost felt its cold edge against his skin.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Ravian shouted this time, then spun around to find the short sword before it was lost among the crowd.
Instead, he found something else.
"Argh—!" A medium-sized orc stood five meters behind him, a short sword buried in the center of its forehead. The orc continued its unconscious charge until it finally collapsed dead at Ravian’s feet.
Thud.
Its body struck the ground with a muffled sound.
Cold sweat slid down Ravian’s back from the shock.
Two shocks, each worse than the last, in under a minute.
"This is a battlefield, Ravian. You need to be more careful than this, or we won’t even know how you died." Lysandra said, still dragging her orc, then bending to pull Ravian’s short sword from the dead orc’s forehead.
"Here." She handed it back to him.
Ravian looked at her, then at the short sword, before slowly taking it from her hand.
"You can keep that corpse too, if you want—sell it, or do whatever you like with it later," Lysandra added, then stayed beside him and watched the orc army slowly retreating, little by little. freewebnøvel.coɱ
Through all of it, Ravian kept his eyes on her, not looking away for a moment.
Then he smiled.
"You’ve been watching me this entire time since we came down here, haven’t you?" Ravian asked, tilting his head with curiosity.
Lysandra paused mid-scan of the battlefield and looked at him again.
"And how did you figure that out?" she asked.
Ravian shook his head as if telling her to forget it, then looked at her once more.
"...Thank you," he finally said.
Lysandra’s eyes widened at the words. Anyone could read Ravian’s nature just from his expressions and the way he dealt with others—and because of that, she knew how rare it was for him to say something like this.
"For what, exactly?" Lysandra said.
"Everything I did was under Sir Karius’s orders, nothing more. There’s no need to thank me."
"I didn’t say you did it on your own. I only said what I wanted to say. Now—where should we go? Those orcs have already started running off." Ravian said, breaking eye contact, his gaze now fixed on the remnants of the orc army retreating toward the distant forest.
Lysandra noticed he was trying to change the subject, so she smiled and followed his gaze toward the orc army.
"Our role here is over. This was a wave, not a full-scale invasion by the orc race."
"It seems the Twilight Empire struck some kind of agreement with them to carry out attacks like this and wear us down right before the main battle," Lysandra explained, while also scanning the area for the rest of the squad.
"Are you looking for someone?" Ravian asked, noticing her concern.
"Evelyne. We agreed we’d meet back here once the orc army started crawling backward, but I don’t know where she went." Lysandra answered.
"Oh? Look what I found over here." A voice suddenly came from their left, and Ravian turned to look at the newcomer.
It was his third shock of the day.
The same man with green hair and a massive build—the same man whose two long blades were now soaked in blood, held loosely in his hands—the same man who, moments ago, had been fighting in the middle of the orc ranks, slaughtering them left and right like some kind of war machine.
But Ravian noticed that Lysandra frowned the instant he arrived.
"My dear Lysandra—I’ve truly missed you," the man said, approaching with a calm smile.
"Dear?" Ravian repeated, glancing at Lysandra with curiosity.
"What brings you here, Frank? Shouldn’t you be submitting your report to Sir Karius now that the battle’s over?" Lysandra shot a quick glance at Ravian before addressing the green-haired man, who looked to be in his early thirties.
"Huh? You expect me to see you and not come over to check on you? What kind of person do you take me for, by the Creator?" Frank said, his frown full of playful indignation.
Ravian looked between the two of them, still not understanding the nature of their relationship—though at the moment, he didn’t particularly care.
"Mm—then excuse me, Miss Lysandra. I’ll head off first." Ravian said, returning the short sword to its sheath and walking toward the Ninth-Rank orc’s corpse, intending to figure out some way to carry it.
"Wait, Ravian. Let’s head back together. Frank has things he should be doing anyway." Lysandra said, moving to follow him.
"Hmm... and just who exactly is this ’Ravian’?" Frank asked, looking at him with curiosity—and something that seemed like... overprotectiveness?
"Mm. Can you move out of my way? I’m in a hurry here." Ravian said, fixing Frank with a cold look, already beginning to grow irritated by the direction of the conversation and the delay in absorbing the orc’s corpse.
"No, no. I need to know who you are first, Ravian—for my dear Lysandra to prefer leaving with you over staying to talk with me, young man." Frank said, refusing to budge from Ravian’s path.
"Frank—what the hell are you doing?!" Lysandra said, her voice tight with suppressed anger as she glared at him.
"What? I only want to know who he is." Frank said—and strangely took a step back under Lysandra’s glare, despite clearly being far stronger than her.
"Hey. Can you get the hell out of my face?" Ravian said suddenly, and his eyes began to glow crimson and widen with that familiar madness once more.
Both Frank and Lysandra took a step back for reasons neither could quite explain the instant Ravian’s gaze changed.
"What in the Creator’s name is that?" Frank said, suddenly raising both swords into a ready stance.
"Stop, Frank!" Lysandra shouted, throwing aside the orc she had been dragging and drawing her sword as she rushed toward him.
