Chapter 493: The Third Woman, Emi Rune 1

The Third Woman, Emi Rune 1

* * *

The grassland, gradually dyed orange by the sunlight approaching the horizon.

Emi, in the middle of her aimless journey, found a mysterious, white cocoon writhing in the middle of the grassland… and started drooling.

There are three reasons for this.

First, the only thing Emi had eaten that day were about twenty small rabbits, and she was still hungry.

Second, the shape of the white cocoon reminded her of marshmallows from her previous life (she had eaten one once in her previous life, after snatching it from an ant).

And lastly, the white cocoon is actually a seal created by Saint Ad’s barrier magic, and contains a high concentration of mana.

This girl, Emi, has a preference for things with a high mana content.

Her soul’s greed knows no bounds.

She always craves mana.

Therefore, instinctively, she tries to consume things with a lot of mana.

That’s why the white cocoon, created by pouring in a large amount of mana, was nothing but a feast to Emi.

It’s writhing… but Emi doesn’t find that creepy.

Emi ran over to the cocoon, opened her mouth wide, and bit into it!

“…………!?”

But the cocoon… is incredibly elastic!

Emi, trying to tear it off, bit into it and pulled, backing away, but the cocoon wouldn’t tear, only stretching like rubber!

After pulling it for about three meters, Emi accidentally let go of the cocoon, falling on her bottom.

The elongated cocoon snapped back—like a rubber band—making a ‘Bechin’ sound.

“…………”

Now, after that whole thing.

An ordinary person would probably give up on eating the cocoon, and look for another prey, but since Emi is not an ordinary person (or rather, an ordinary person probably wouldn’t even think of eating an unidentified cocoon in the first place), she decided to try something else.

Emi, silently, bit into the cocoon again, sinking her teeth in, and then… stopped moving.

What she’s trying to do is not to physically destroy and eat the cocoon… but to suck out and absorb only the mana from the cocoon.

Mana absorption.

It’s not a widely used technique.

Because it’s dangerous.

This technique has the advantage of being able to quickly recover mana that’s been lost from overuse of magic or special abilities, for example.

But what if you absorb too much mana?

What happens to a person when they absorb more mana than their soul’s capacity?

To put it simply, their soul ruptures and they die.

Mana poisoning.

That’s why this technique is never widespread.

However, Emi’s soul, as mentioned before, is greedy and always hungry, and has a tendency to endlessly absorb mana, and for some reason, its capacity is limitless.

Therefore, she can use mana absorption, a normally dangerous method, without any risk.

…Z… Zuz… Zuz… Zuz… Zuz…

And then, a few minutes after Emi bit into the cocoon… a sucking sound gradually began to echo around her.

Due to Emi’s persistent and forceful sucking, the mana threads that made up Saint Ad’s 【Barrier】 finally started to unravel, and the seal began to weaken!

From this point on, it’s a one-sided affair.

ZUZUZU, ZUZUZUZUZU!!

Emi increased her suction power even further, and started physically pulling on the cocoon’s surface again!

And then, unlike before, the seal, weakened by having its mana sucked out, was torn apart with a ripping sound!

The ends of the torn threads of the seal, faintly glowing, turned into mere mana, and dissipated into the air…

What a waste!

ZUZUZUZUZU, ZURUZURU, ZURUZURUーーー!!

Emi slurped up the mana of the seal, unraveling and disappearing into the air, like it was noodles!

The white cocoon was quickly sucked into Emi’s mouth, and then…!

And when the white cocoon-shaped seal was completely removed, what was lying there was…!

A beautiful woman with reddish-brown hair, brown skin, and a muscular physique… in other words, Shimegamamo!

“…………”

Emi, seeing Shimegamamo… as usual, didn’t show any emotion on her face… but she was incredibly disappointed.

She thought there was a pupa of a large moth monster, or something, inside the cocoon.

And yet, it was a human.

Disappointing.

Emi tries not to eat humans.

No matter how delicious they look, for now, she has no intention of breaking that rule.

So she’s disappointed.

Disappointed that something she can’t eat came out.

And the fact that this woman, who came out of the cocoon, has an unusually high mana content, and looks incredibly delicious, just made her even more disappointed.

Emi chewed on the seal noodles, swallowed, and sighed deeply.

“…………”

Shimegamamo, on the other hand, blinked her red, bloodshot eyes—perhaps from crying—staring at Emi.

She was in a state of confusion.

This girl with an ominous aura, who easily broke through Saint Ad’s seal, which she couldn’t escape from no matter how much she struggled inside… who is she?

And why did she save her?

But the moment their eyes met—with the girl’s jet-black, terrifying, darkness-like eyes!

Shimegamamo realized the relationship between this girl and herself!

A relationship between predator… and prey!

This girl didn’t save her!

She was just having a meal!

Shimegamamo saw through that fact, with her wild instincts, honed as a creature of the grassland!

The proof is in the girl’s cold, emotionless eyes!

Those eyes are looking at Shimegamamo!

As nothing more than meat…!

“U-Uooooohーーー!!”

Shimegamamo, driven by the instinctual fear, jumped back, and then quickly stomped on the ground—DA, DA, DON!

And then, the plants around Emi rustled, and started to grow rapidly, quickly wrapping around Emi’s body!

But…!

“…………”

Emi, without panicking, glanced at her surroundings.

And with just that.

Something invisible… ‘Something incredibly sharp’… ran around Emi, mowing down the plants!

“…………”

And then, Emi, silently, tilted her head, and looked at Shimegamamo.

“Hih… Guh…!”

Shimegamamo gritted her teeth to hold back a scream, raised her foot, and was about to stomp on the ground again.

But the next moment!

BYUN!!

Faster than the sound of wind being split!

Two jet-black tentacles, extending from Emi’s shoulders, wrapped around Shimegamamo, lifting her body into the air!

One tentacle wrapped around Shimegamamo’s slender waist.

And the other tentacle wrapped around Shimegamamo’s neck.

Holding up her body, which should be quite heavy, sideways!

“Guh… A-Gah…!”

Emi walked towards Shimegamamo, who was desperately struggling in mid-air.

And then, for the first time today, she spoke.

“Do you want to die? It’s fine with me, either way.”

Those were cold words, with no warmth.

If Shimegamamo were to say ‘I want to die’ here, the girl would probably break her neck without hesitation, and kill her without a second thought.

She could tell, just from hearing her voice.

“Ag-A-Gaaah…!”

Shimegamamo desperately shook her head.

And then, her body was gently lowered to the ground.

The tentacles wrapped around her waist and neck slithered back to the girl’s shoulders.

“Gah… Cough, cough!”

Shimegamamo, with tears in her eyes, coughed, on all fours.

And then, she looked up.

And what she saw was Emi.

The girl, with the setting sun at her back, further darkening her already jet-black body.

“Guh… Haa, haa, haa… Fuu…”

Shimegamamo, feeling the immense power hidden within the petite girl’s body, felt nauseous, but she desperately suppressed it and took a deep breath.

And then she calmed her heart.

She’s a warrior.

The last warrior of her clan.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

She can’t show any more weakness, she’d be letting down her dead parents, brother, and husband.

“O strong one!!”

Shimegamamo, still on her hands and knees, suppressing her fear, looked into Emi’s eyes, and shouted.

“I apologize for my rudeness! Please forgive me!”

And with that, she slammed her forehead on the ground.

“…………”

Emi, seeing that, tilted her head.

Shimegamamo’s posture, like a dogeza, is clearly a gesture of submission to a superior being.

This woman fears and respects her.

That’s obvious.

Emi has never been treated that way before.

So she was taken aback.

But—

Although she was confused—

…It didn’t feel particularly bad.

So Emi became genuinely interested in this woman.

Emi walked over to Shimegamamo, who was still prostrating herself, knelt before her, and patted her reddish-brown head.

“Your head, lift it for me?”

She said.

“…………”

Shimegamamo, prompted, did as she was told.

Emi stared into her eyes.

There was still fear in the depths of those eyes.

But there was no longer any weakness.

They were the eyes of a warrior who had made up her mind.

Emi took a liking to Shimegamamo.