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151 [Unfading Fear]

 

「The soul of the Elves: the Endemic Skill [Unfading Fear]. I’ll make sure to escape alive and hand it over when the time comes for collection. On that condition, I’d like to request a sizable loan.」

「An Endemic Skill! So the Elves do have them after all!」

「Of course we do. And for the record, it’s nothing like the stingy little skills of the Werewolves’ [Garou] or the Dwarves’ [Messenger of the Mine].」

「It sounds like you don’t like the Werewolves or the Dwarves, huh, Remonde-san?」

「Not particularly? I’m just stating facts.」

Remonde averted her gaze to the window. Maybe she was just dodging the accusation, but her eyes widened—perhaps she’d spotted something outside.

「I was about to explain how the skill works, but it’ll be quicker to show you. Looks like the timing’s just right.」

「Tch, soldiers from the Narshe army.」

Just as Remonde said, a commotion began to stir around the inn. Looking out the window, we could see Narshe soldiers arguing with the green-haired men of the Vehl Family. It seemed the soldiers had been going door to door looking for Elves, only to run into the men stationed here to keep everyone else out by strict orders. The two groups had unfortunately crossed paths.

If this escalated, the knight order would come sniffing around. As I debated our next move, Remonde let out a deep sigh beside me.

「I hate using it this way. It’s messy. But if we want to drive them off without killing anyone, here’s how we do it.」

She exhaled again and again, squeezing the very air from her body—until finally…

「Endemic Skill [Unfading Fear], activate.」

In that instant, the soldiers’ legs buckled. One clutched his chest in pain. Another doubled over with nausea. A third staggered with dizziness.

They tried to keep working, but it wasn’t long before their bodies gave out, and they had no choice but to leave. When I relayed this, Remonde let out another breath, wheezing.

「Hahh… haahh… ugh, that’s rough. Koe-chan, could you grab that bottle of liquor over there?」

「Remonde-san, what was that just now? It looked like the soldiers suddenly became ill…」

「Angelina, can you figure it out?」

Angelina, who had been intently observing the soldiers, thought for a few beats before responding.

「Concentration… or rather, sensitivity? It’s a skill that enhances sensitivity, right? I had no idea such a thing existed…」

「Bulls-eye on the first guess. Not bad, tiny alchemist. That’s right—I amplified the effect of the air.」

「The… effect of the air?」

「Air isn’t some uniform substance like pure water. It’s a blend of many things, like this liquor here. You know that much, right?」

I had heard that, although air is invisible, it’s made up of various components. In a sealed room, a fire will eventually go out as it consumes something in the air, and anything living will suffocate. I’d read about such incidents and experiments in various books.

Angelina, naturally, was the real expert on such matters.

「They call it phlogiston, or life-essence, or nowadays oxygen. Different schools have different names, but it’s all the same. The stuff humans need to live.」

「[Unfading Fear] increases or decreases the effect of any substance that enters the body. Use it, and even a legendary drinker will be floored by a single sip of ale. It amplifies the component that makes people drunk.」

「Life-essence is fatal if there’s too little of it—but too much is just as bad. The symptoms of overdose? Chest pain, nausea, dizziness… exactly what we just saw.」

Angelina had likely deduced the effects from those symptoms. I had to admit, that was impressive. But even knowing it, this was a terrifying skill.

Water, salt, liquor, nearly every medicine… Most things are toxic in excess. This skill forced that excess on its targets. So long as someone was alive, they had no real defense against it.

But as powerful as it was, it wasn’t invincible. The weary-looking Remonde before us was proof.

「If I could target only others, it’d be easy. Unfortunately, I’m affected by it too.」

「Ah, so that’s why you kept exhaling—draining the life-essence from your body before activating the skill. That way, by boosting the effect afterward, you could endure it while the soldiers outside couldn’t.」

「Exactly. That’s why us Elves love poisons. If you’ve even got the tiniest trace of poison in you in front of someone who can use [Unfading Fear]… it’s over.」

Remonde gave a fearless grin. Indeed, it was a skill with unmatched synergy with poisons.

If the enemy had poison in their body and the user didn’t, all they had to do was amplify the effect and kill them on the spot.

No doubt this secret skill had been carefully kept under wraps for generations. Now that she could finally talk about it, Remonde grew more talkative, even nostalgic—as if reminiscing about the forest she once called home.

「You get now why people who wander too far into the Elven Forest don’t come back? It’s full of poisonous plants and insects. All we have to do is watch the intruders from a distance. When they walk past a toxic flower, get bitten by a venomous bug, or eat a fruit where the sweetness hides the poison… that’s when we use [Unfading Fear]. And just like that, they die from the forest’s toxins.」

「Get stung by a bee and die bleeding out the eyes, huh? That’s how the Vehl Family built its reputation too, I bet.」

「More or less.」

The green-haired men had all been given small doses of poison. If they ever turned on Remonde, it would be as though the poison multiplied a hundredfold and tore through them. Just seeing her approach would be enough to make them collapse. The townsfolk feared her.

Remonde was poison and antidote in one. That was how she could exert absolute control.

「The poison that knocked Marge out was the same trick. The stuff itself was just a weak toxin. If Altora had been the one to test it, well… he might’ve gotten a bit dizzy. Though that dizziness might’ve lasted a week.」

「Wait, Remonde-san, a weeklong hangover sounds brutal, no?」

「Maybe so. But wouldn’t the world be a better place if some drunks never sobered up?」

At any rate, no one would suspect poison if someone staggered after drinking. Even if you had a taster, it would’ve been meaningless.

「It was already a weak poison, and on top of that, Marge has resistance. On its own, it wouldn’t have done anything—not even poison, not even medicine. But when I got close, the effect amplified, and that’s what knocked him out. His resistance diluted the poison, so I just cranked up the concentration to compensate.」

Remonde explained all this with a smug expression. Angelina raised her hand gently.

「Um, Remonde-san. I get that the skill is horrifying depending on how it’s used, but, well…」

「What is it, pipsqueak?」