I’ll Steal Everything and Escape - Chapter 11

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

11.
“Just how far do we have to go?”
“Elodie Pontaine. Is this really the right direction?”
Louise and Tristan pouted and grumbled in unison. Honestly, they had no patience whatsoever. Elodie felt a fatigue she hadn’t tasted in ages, and her eyelids twitched.
“My memory’s accurate. You know that.”
Louise nodded, crunching on a sweet potato.
“Sure. You even found the sweet potato vine buried in the dirt. Guess the fall didn’t break you.”
“Hmm. With how pathetic she looks, it’d be a real problem if she broke any further.”
Tristan flexed his muscles and bellowed at Robert.
“So we’re finally going to meet the prince!”
“Hey. I’m hungry.”
The black ponytail whipped around and smacked Elodie’s cheek. Ow, that stung. It’s been a while since I felt that one.
“Louise, you just ate two sweet potatoes.”
“You’ve got some left, right?”
“…”
A slender arm obediently rummaged through a bag.
‘Ah, I miss Red.’ Red’s egg, sleeping quietly back in the cave. A dark red circle flickered before her violet eyes. Elodie coaxed and soothed the troublemakers in front of her, who were far harder to handle than a baby dragon, and kept moving forward.
And so, one hour passed.
“Ah! What is this? Hey, Elodie!”
Soggy mud swallowed the three of their boots. Wherever they stepped, their legs kept sliding.
‘That came sooner than I expected.’
The corner of her mouth crept up. So this is where it begins. Elodie, who had reinvented herself as a splendid swindler, flailed her arms.
“Ugh. It’s because it’s a swamp. Louise, be careful.”
“A swamp? Is this entire stretch of it?”
“There should be a few solid spots here and there…”
Ahem! Tristan crossed his thick, muscular arms.
“You’re saying the prince passed through here?”
“There was definitely a fight here!”
Elodie Pontaine insisted passionately without even wetting her lips.
‘It’s not a lie, though.’
He must have passed through here about two weeks ago, after all.
Tristan lifted his foot with a dubious expression.
“Hmph. Of all the uncomfortable places to end up in.”
“…Hey.”
Louise, frowning, tapped Tristan on the shoulder.
“What’s that?”
“Uh… I don’t know.”
Air bubbles were bubbling up from the ground. It was about time to fall back.
“Toads. The demonic beasts around here are a bit strange.”
Elodie put on a calm face and widened the distance between herself and them.
Plip, plop.
Thick air bubbles burst over the sticky, filthy clumps of mud. In Elodie’s mind, her demonic beast encyclopedia flipped open with a rustle.
“Gurgle.”
Reotodeu. A Class 3 demonic beast by Empire standards. Its lumpy skin is tough. It isn’t difficult to dispatch, but…
‘If you don’t cut off its breath quickly, it’s a nasty one that regenerates on its own.’
Elodie pressed her lips together and gave a small shrug. Go, my shields.
The black ponytail leapt first.
“Ugh, gross!”
The one thing Elodie would name as Louise Charmant’s sole virtue: a fierce talent for magic, matching her fierce temper.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
The cleanup didn’t take long.
Just ten minutes. The swamp, swept by lightning, was left with a mountain of Class 3 demonic beast corpses, Reotodeu among them.
“Tch. Not even a proper warm-up for these things.”
Her rose-colored eyes curled arrogantly. Elodie was a little impressed.
‘Are they really going to fry these?’
She didn’t seem to care one bit how much longer the swamp would stretch on.
‘If it were me…’
If she had been alone, she would have chosen to sneak through. Elodie Pontaine had never frozen a crowd of enemies, nor did she have any confidence she could. But Louise, though.
“How many times do I have to use Clean Magic?”
All that came back was an irritable tone, without a trace of unease. Elodie looked up at the slender duchess with envy. Robust stamina and overflowing magic. Dazzling talent.
“Hey. If you so much as take a wrong turn…”
…And that foul temper of yours.
The first day went fairly smoothly.
Crackle.
“You filthy wretches!”
A black lance drops like a thunderbolt onto the toad with its mouth gaping open.
“Spit it all out at once! Is there more?”
“Ahem. Take it easy and pace yourself. It’s trouble if you wander too far off.”
Tristan, frowning, readjusted his grip on the shield.
“Gruuk!”
The Mithril Shield severs in one stroke the long tongue that had lashed up from below.
“…Louise, fall back. Without Silvia, you two need to be careful.”
“Shut up!”
Tristan’s brow furrowed, and his lips twisted into a sneer.
“Ha, fine. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
His thick bare hand vanishes into the swamp.
Splat.
“Gruuk?”
With one hand, Tristan hauls up a toad as big as his own torso.
“Gyurrk!”
The black tongue coils around his brawny forearm, but it’s the demonic beast that bursts. Tristan stomps forward and begins hammering the toad down.
And so, two hours passed.
“Aaargh! This is so annoying! Are we even in the right place?!”
“Hm. Somehow, it seems the numbers keep growing.”
Well, no wonder. The place they’re heading toward is the toads’ nest…
“Oh.”
Elodie flinched and stepped back.
“Gruuk.”
Sometimes, like now, a demonic beast that one of the two had failed to stop would come up from behind. And at times like these.
“Eeeek!”
Just scream your lungs out. Elodie crumpled to the ground with a woeful expression.
“Aaah! If I die, how will I ever find the prince?”
Tristan’s eyes flashed.
Thudthudthudthud!
The giant knight’s shield came hurtling toward them. The gleaming Mithril Shield splits the demonic beast clean in half. Then Tristan came charging over like a madman, unleashing a torrent of scolding.
“Elodie Pontaine! Don’t wander off for no reason, stay right next to me! And you!”
His deep blue eyes glared at Louise.
“Stop charging ahead all the time, and guard Elodie Pontaine instead!”
“You want me to babysit that thing now?”
“That’s the only one who can find the way. We nearly died just now, didn’t we?!”
“So what? Just stick close to her yourself, isn’t that enough?”
“Obviously, a mage should—”
“I’m a Magic Lancer, you muscle-headed idiot!”
So this is how it goes. Elodie watched the two of them thrashing about with a calm heart. Ice Freezing Magic? No need to show that off.
‘Let them suffer a little.’
The Reotodeu’s habitat was the infamous large-scale swamp in the west. And their destination was the place where the leader of those creatures resided.
* * *
Three days later.
“Haah, haah.”
“Just looking at a toad now makes me want to puke… Ugh.”
Mud dripped in heavy clumps from Louise’s once-pristine cheeks. She seemed to have no energy left for throwing tantrums, and her talkativeness had dwindled considerably.
“Louise, here’s your food.”
“Ahh, get that away from me!”
…Grilled toad skewers are a precious source of protein out here, you know. Elodie promptly stuck a skewer in her mouth. Louise’s face twisted into something demonic.
“How much farther do we have to go?! We’ve been searching for three days, and if there’s nothing, did they move somewhere else?”
“Hm. The prince would not stay in a filthy place like this for long. He must have left the swamp, without a doubt.”
How ridiculous. Before the Regression, Robert’s party came to the swamp for one reason only: to fill their empty stomachs. Back then, they had to eat even toads just to survive.
Elodie let her shoulders droop and blinked.
“There was definitely a fight here, though. So should we move downward starting this afternoon?”
The two of them brightened visibly. They must have been thoroughly sick of the swamp.
“Let’s climb up to that hill and take a look around before we head back down.”
“Hmm. High ground is always important. I should check whether Robert left any markers.”
Elodie followed the two of them as their pace quickened, saying nothing. While she yanked her boots free of the mud with every step, she made sure to quietly spread a layer of cold beneath their feet. It took real effort not to start humming.
‘Having Louise here makes controlling my mana so much easier.’
The bloodline magic of the Charmant Ducal House is Ether Charmant, a blessing of mana. Louise possessed the rare ability to pour her gushing, waterfall-like mana into others.
‘…Though to think she picked up a spear just because studying magic bored her.’
Well, who could ever talk her out of that temperament? Elodie kneaded her stiff calves as she climbed the sloping hill.
“Huh, it really is nothing special after all.”
Louise placed her hands on her hips with obvious satisfaction.
“…Where on earth has the prince gone?”
Elodie glanced up at Tristan, whose shoulders had slumped, and gave a small shrug.
“We’ll find him soon.”
At the same moment, the swamp at the foot of the hill split open.
Kwaang!

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————