Chapter 369 - 369 - Just a Casual Touch

"What's wrong?"

Noticing the change in her, Leon breathed out a puff of white mist and lightly pushed up the brim of his hat with his index finger as he asked.

"It's nothing. Revelation just triggered a moment ago. I felt like someone was watching us... but in this snowstorm, in the dead of night, and with the sense placing the source up in the sky..."

She gave a light shake of her head.

Leon, on the other hand, looked as though something had just occurred to him.

He followed the direction of Jeanne's gaze, and, as expected, saw nothing.

But Rose, standing beside him, keenly noticed that familiar smile, with its hint of mischief, gradually spreading across Leon's face.

The corner of his mouth twisted, the grin growing more and more brazen.

Then he raised his right arm, pointing it diagonally at the sky, the glow of magic swirling in his eyes as a small ice-blue magic circle slowly spun into shape at the tip of his index finger.

"...Ice Lance!"

Hummm!

A ring-shaped shockwave of "nitrogen" suddenly bloomed around the magic circle as the Ice Lance shot forth.

Bang!

In almost the same instant, that ice spike, nearly a meter long and as thick as a thigh, ripped through the freezing wind and tore toward some point in the night sky with a piercing shriek of split air.

Rose: "?"

Jeanne: "?"

High in the sky, Asfi, still in her invisible state, watched the ice spike rapidly swelling in her field of view, and her face went rigid in an instant.

"...That bastard!"

Fwish!

As everyone knows, frost magic isn't known for its speed, but that only holds true when the opponent's strength is greater than Leon's.

And quite obviously, Asfi, whose level was lower than Leon's, who wasn't built for speed, and who was no combat specialist, did not fall into that category.

Faced with this lethal threat suddenly looming before her, Asfi had no time to think. In the instant the spike grazed her face, she gritted her teeth and twisted her body to the side with all her might.

"Riiip!"

Her white hooded cloak tore open at that sound, and the leather armor hidden beneath it didn't escape either, a gash slashed clean open along her side. At the same time, a horrifying wound surfaced on her slender waist, blood spraying out into the night wind.

"Th-this monster...!"

Asfi's small face scrunched up in pain as she clamped a hand down hard over the wound at her waist. Pale-faced, she shot one last hurried glance at the three figures down on the snowy street, then, without looking back, channeled Talaria with everything she had and fled like a gale toward the Traveler's Lodging.

"What was that for?"

Jeanne and Rose looked baffled. Leon's sudden move of unleashing magic at the sky left the two of them utterly lost, like a pair of Louis XVIs with no clue what was going on.

Leon narrowed his eyes, sensing that frost ripple gradually receding, and only then slowly drew his mind's energy back in.

He was about to explain it to the two of them when he caught sight of something flickering with a cross-star of golden light up in the night sky, falling straight down from the spot where Asfi had been.

"Hm?"

With his astonishing Lv.4 eyesight, Leon recognized at a glance exactly what it was.

"Holy shit!"

"...A Drop Treasure Chest?"

His eyes shot wide open, and without a word he flipped his "Falna switch," leaping onto the roof of a storefront along the street with a whoosh and racing straight toward the point where it would land.

"...Eh?"

Hearing the words "Drop Treasure Chest," the already bewildered Jeanne and Rose were even more stunned where they stood.

"So someone really was spying on us just now?"

"Looks like it wasn't your imagination after all, Jeanne."

Their eyes met, and they nodded at the same time, then sprang up onto the buildings too and quickly gave chase in Leon's direction.

A distance of a mere few thousand meters, with the three of them backed by their absurd Basic Abilities, took only a few minutes... and they lightly touched down in a forest park beside the alley.

"It really is a Drop Treasure Chest?"

Jeanne and Rose exchanged glances, completely mystified.

Only Leon, gazing at the large chest glinting with golden light before him, had a flash of brightness in his eyes.

As expected of Perseus. One casual touch and she hands me a gift this big.

Looks like by the cheat's judgment, that Ice Lance of mine really did land on her... as for it counting as a 'kill,' maybe it's because she just ran off?

The thought flickered past, and Leon strode forward two paces, bent down, and pressed his palm to the surface of the chest.

No fuss about it, he opened it right there.

Ding, ding, ding...

Three pleasant little chimes rang out, and the familiar transparent bubble wrapping the item within quietly surfaced above the chest.

Leon reached out and scooped it up, drawing the bubble into his arms, then turned and said:

"Let's go. Whatever it is, we'll talk about it once we're home."

"Mm."

...

...

Never mind Leon, who set off home humming a little tune in high spirits.

On the other side, Asfi, who had retreated to the Traveler's Lodging in such a sorry state, was in a mood and a predicament that weren't nearly so pleasant.

"Cough... ugh..."

The moment she stumbled down onto the snow of her own courtyard, the girl staggered a few steps forward, then doubled over and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Asfi?"

A chienthrope girl was on watch duty, and her keen beast senses had her cautiously on guard the instant she heard the commotion.

When she saw the figure kneeling in the snow, the horrifying wound at her waist coated in a layer of frost that radiated cold air, the body convulsing from the searing pain, and that beautiful face nearly contorted from blood loss and agony, every trace of color drained from her own face in an instant.

"Somebody, help!"

"A-Asfi's not going to make it!!!"

There was a clatter of movement.

"Huh?"

"What?"

"What's going on?"

"Enemy attack?!"

"Grab your weapons! Hurry!"

"Everyone on alert!"

"Protect Lord Hermes!!!!!!"

"..."

The entire Traveler's Lodging blazed to life with that cry, the lights flaring on as chaotic footsteps and shouts shattered the silence of the night in an instant.

Lulune Louie, a rookie who had yet to earn a title and was still only Lv.1 at this point, rushed to her side with a frantic look, carefully propping her up and helping her toward the house while asking with concern:

"Asfi, Asfi... are you okay? Hang on!"

Asfi lifted her head and forced out a weak, miserable smile. Her pallid face, lit by the glow of the snow, looked especially fragile.

"I'm really not okay."

"Huh?"

"Medicine..."

"What?"

"Cough, cough... E-Elixir..."

"Huh?"

"I... I'm fine..."

"Hurry... give me an Elixir..."

"An Elixir? O-okay! I'll go get it right now!"

It was Lulune's first time dealing with something like this, so she couldn't help getting a little flustered.

The result was that she let go and spun around to dash into the house, completely forgetting she'd been holding someone up.

There was a soft plop.

And so Asfi was promptly "set" right back down into the thick snow.

Scalding blood spread out across the deep white snow, and she lay there sprawled in the cold drift, expressionless, feeling the chill of her own body, unconsciously licking the flecks of snow that had stuck to her lips.

"Lu. Lu. Lune!!!"

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