Re; A Hero’s New Life in a New World!

Chapter 4 — “Sword Saint”

The young blonde-haired girl, who called herself “Felt,” was running. She was running away from the Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert, who was currently fighting everyone in the Loot House. She had managed to escape the house with the help of Subaru, Justice, Vanessa, and the silver-haired girl.

She couldn’t even bear the thought of them dying, while she of all people, lives. The guilt of that thought was slowing eating her.

She thought of Rom. Even if he was strong, the wound inflicted on him could take his life. She also thought of the two men, who she aggressively yelled at. Watching them protect her, and letting her live, made her feel even more guilty for screaming at them.

“Someone!” She screamed, running through the slums. “Please help!”

“Anyone! Is anyone here?!”

Her screams reached the ears of the people living there. Unfortunately, none of them would try to help her. Instead, they would close the windows or doors of their houses, to prevent communication with her. Felt’s heart would continue to break, as she saw these things unfold.

“Damn it… Damn it! Please, someone…”

Felt was on the verge of crying. She closed her eyes and continued to run, screaming for help, while everyone ignored her.

“Someone help!”

She bumped into something and fell down. She wasn’t able to get up. Physically, she was fine. However, she was at her limit, emotionally. As she opened her eyes, tears streamed down from her eyes to her cheeks.

“Very well. I’ll help.”

Felt looked up, and saw a handsome man, with flaming red hair, and blue eyes. He extended his hand to her, offering to help her stand up.

“Take me to where you need my help.”

The four continued to fight the Bowel Hunter. They were all low on Mana but still wouldn’t back down. Everyone preserved their stamina only to attack, since their defense was being covered by Vanessa.

Subaru was extremely low on energy and had several bruises on his face. Justice was panting and was covered in dirt. Vanessa was struggling to stand still, what with all the Mana she used. The half-elf was covered in dirt and had a few cuts on her face.

Like the others, Elsa was also low on energy, and was dirty. Though, unlike the others, she was smiling. She was still looking to take everyone’s life. The battle was going on for several minutes, but the ones battling would state that it felt like many hours.

“This dance is beginning to get a bit stale, but oh well.”

Subaru dashed towards Elsa swinging the large nail-embedded club which was in his hands. She would either dodge his slow swings or use her curved Kukri Blade to deflect the attack.

“You black widow!”

“Isn’t your friend the one that set up all the threads in this room?”

Just as she would try to counterattack Subaru, either the Half-Elf would shoot an ice crystal, to deflect her attack, or Vanessa would move Subaru out of the way, with her threads. Justice would try to distance her from Subaru, by using his Fire Magic to basically, ‘scare her away.’

Subaru would continue to swing his club, while the others defend for him.

“Your strategy is starting to become a little exasperating for me. [Blood Magic]: Speeden Blood!”

Elsa emitted a red light, for a few seconds. She ran towards Subaru, and let loose a barrage of slashes. She was able to slightly slash parts of his arms and legs while cutting all of the threads that Vanessa had placed on him.

“Subaru!”

“I’m not done yet! Take this—!”

He lifted his club high into the air, prepared to swing it downwards. He dropped the club and tried kicking her; he tried to do a new thing, to catch her off-guard. However, his plan didn’t go as perfect as he would’ve wanted it to go.

“Fufufu.”

Elsa managed to avoid his kick. But, on top of that, she had caught his leg. No one would be able to save Subaru, this time. Vanessa’s threads on him and Elsa were all cut off. Justice couldn’t use his Fire Magic to scare away Elsa this time, and he wouldn’t make it in time if he tried to run towards them and attack.

The Half-Elf girl was the only one that could remotely help him. But, even then, she really couldn’t. She could try firing one ice crystal, but Elsa could easily deflect it. The time it would take her to summon more ice crystals would be enough time for the Bowel Hunter to kill Subaru.

“Caught you~!”

“Damn it…!”

He tried to move his legs, to free himself from Elsa, but she was way stronger than she appeared to be. She wasn’t letting go of her grip on Subaru’s leg. Elsa raised her Kukri Blade up, fully prepared to slice off his feet.

Vanessa could only watch in despair. She did not have enough Mana to summon more thread and try to pull Subaru out of there. And, the remaining amount of thread she did have, would not be enough to save the boy.

The silver-haired girl was creating more ice crystals, to fire at the Bowel Hunter. However, like Vanessa, she did not have much Mana in her system remaining, so she could only create them, at a very slow pace.

Justice pulled out his sword and began to run towards the two. Though, even he knew that there wouldn’t be enough time to save Subaru. Felt had managed to escape, and Rom was most likely dead. Subaru could see the words ‘Bad End 4’ popping up, in front of his eyes.

“Guess I’ll have to restart again…”

His life began to flash before his eyes.

“—That’s enough.”

A voice interjected their fight. Suddenly, the entire roof of the Loot House collapsed, causing a huge cloud of dust to appear everywhere, and blind everyone from their opponents. Subaru noticed that Elsa’s grip on his leg softened. He pulled out his leg, and ran away, into the dust cloud.

“I’m glad I was able to make it in time.”

Moments later, the cloud of dust dissipated, revealing a young man with flaming red hair, and blue eyes that shone like sapphires, standing in the middle of the Loot House, with a faint smile on his face.

“You’re…”

“Shall we put an end to this performance?”

“Reinhard?”

“That’s right, Subaru. I see that we meet again.”

He glanced at the dirt-covered Justice, exhausted Vanessa, motionless Rom, and the completely tired Half-Elf. “Oh, Justice, Vanessa, you two are here too, it seems. I’m glad I made it on time, though,” he said as he turned his head to Elsa. “Black clothes, Black hair, and a blade unique to the northern provinces—”

“—There is no mistaking those characteristics. You are the Bowel Hunter.”

“Seriously, that’s a violent nickname.”

“It was derived from her unique killing style. Her name is known, even in the capital, as that of a dangerous individual.”

“Reinhard van Astrea… yes, a knight among knights. Born to a lineage of Sword Saints, correct? How remarkable, having all of my dance partners be so much fun.”

“Subaru, stand back a bit. If you could stand next to them, I’d appreciate it,” Reinhard said, as he pointed at Justice and Vanessa, standing next to the Half-Elf girl, crouching next to Rom.

“Right, that woman is a monster, so don’t let down your guard.”

“As luck would have it, hunting monsters happen to be my specialty. And, if she’s able to handle Vanessa and Justice, then I can’t underestimate her either.”

“What do you mean, Reinhard? You haven’t really seen me fight.”

“I know, but with my Divine Protection of Psychometry, I could tell that you’re not a force to be reckoned with.”

The Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert, charged at Reinhard.

“I would prefer to not use violence on a woman, but… you’ll have to excuse me.”

As Reinhard planted a foot down, a massive shockwave around him was created. Elsa was not able to pass the intense pressure, causing her to be rewarded with a kick to her side. The impact sent her flying. When she landed, you could see the look of shock on her face.

“…Aren’t you going to use the sword on your hips? I would love to experience its legendary sharpness.”

“This sword can only be drawn when needed. The fact that it’s still in its sheath means this is not one of those times.”

“Haven’t you stated that you won’t underestimate me?”

“Well, it’s an upsetting judgment for me as well. Therefore, I shall use this instead.”

He picks up a sword that was laying on the ground.

“Do you object?”

“No, it’s wonderful. Do entertain me, please. If I lose my fangs, I’ll fight with my nails. If I lose my nails, I’ll fight with my bones. If I lose my bones, I’ll fight with my life. That is how I, the Bowel Hunter, do things.”

She began to run and bounce around the room while saying that. Just as she would attack him, Reinhard would use the current sword in his hands, to block her attacks. The others could only watch as Reinhard defended Elsa’s supersonic speed attacks.

“Miss, could I ask you a question? How come you’re healing Rom-ji? He was helping Felt—the person who stole your insignia,” Justice asked the silver-haired girl.

“I need him to recover, so he’ll repay me, by giving me information. He wouldn’t lie to the one who saved his life. This is as much for my own sake.”

Subaru, not paying attention to their conversation, was watching Reinhard duel Elsa. “Um…” he stammered. “It can’t be possible that even Reinhard lacks the ability to settle this, can it…?”

The Half-Elf girl bit her lip.

“It’s because I’m using my Spiritual Arts to heal this man. If Reinhard were truly intent on fighting, all the Mana in the atmosphere would turn away from me. I’m almost done healing him when I give the signal, let him know.”

The wound on Rom’s neck soon disappeared. The girl let out a sigh of relief, and told the three of them to give Reinhard a signal. Reinhard took a fighting stance, and the sword in his hand began to emit a very bright light.

“What will you show me?”

“The swordplay of the van Astrea family.”

Elsa did the same as him.

“The Bowel Hunter, Elsa Granhiert.”

“The current Sword Saint, Reinhard van Astrea.”

The sword absorbed some of the light which was in the house. Once it had absorbed enough light, the sword emitted a brilliant bluish light, which completely destroyed the already-ruined Loot House. Everyone was shocked at Reinhard’s tremendous power.

Subaru kept yelling, trying to get through the pain and the wind, as finally, the storm lost its strength and the various items tumbling to the ground signaled its end, along with the chorus of dull creaking sounds from the building.

“Hunting monsters is your specialty, my ass! You’re a monster yourself!”

“Even I’m a bit hurt by a comment like that, Subaru.”

“I’m just glad everyone’s oka—”

“Subaru!”

Reinhard interrupted Justice. Then, Subaru noticed what was going on. The Blood Hunter, Elsa Granhiert, had survived. She was running towards the Half-Elf. Justice and Reinhard charged at them, hoping that they could save the two in time. Subaru took the opportunity and grabbed the club on the floor, and pushed the silver-haired girl away.

“She’ll aim for the gut!”

He blocked the attack with the club, by using the club as a shield to block his abdomen. However, the impact of the attack still sent him flying. Elsa, with covering her face, was a little irritated and angry at Subaru.

“Tch. He blocked the attack.”

“Elsa, give up.”

The two knights and Justice surrounded her. Reinhard put up a fighting stance, meanwhile, Justice pulled out his sword from its sheath, and Vanessa summoned more thread from her grimoire.

She threw throwing knives at all three of them. Justice and Vanessa had to dodge them, unlike Reinhard, who merely stood in his spot, causing the knife to avoid him and fly towards a different direction. Everyone then noticed that she was standing on a part that was still connected to the barely-existent roof.

“Soon enough, I’ll disembowel everyone here. So, until then, take good care of your bowels—”

An enormous blaze of fire was falling from the sky, and was targetting everyone in the Loot House.

“—Everyone! Try to escape!”

Author’s Comment

Another Chapter finished. Like the last Chapter, I initially planned for this Chapter to be longer than this. However, I have been extremely busy this week, so I was not able to get much done. About 70–80% of all this writing was done in one day—which happens to be today [November 30th].

Also like the previous Chapter, an unexpected person appears and continues the fight that was going on. But once again, due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to make them appear this time. Though, you can definitely expect them to show up in the next Chapter. This is obvious because of the giant fireball, lol.

Oh, and you can expect the next Chapter to be longer, because of the scene that ended up being temporarily cut. Additionally, the next Chapter will be the final Chapter of Arc 1, then, I can finally start writing Arc 2. So, be sure to expect Return by Death in action then!

Until next time, see ya!

— Mugen