The Lazy Swordmaster Chapter 165

“Um?”

Riley was going past a few dozen trees with each step. He felt a presence above him, so he casually tilted his head up to see what was there and stopped das.h.i.+ng.

“What is it?”

Riley dragged his two feet on the ground and stopped the momentum. Watching a maid falling from the sky slowly like a feather, Riley crumpled his face.

“I said, what is it?”

“…”

Her Young Master was looking at her as if he was asking what she was doing. The maid pressed down her skirt and landed on the ground.

“Hey. Why are you coming down from the sky?”

“That is…”

“Right. Explain it.”

Nainiae pursed her lips and carefully explained why she just fell from the sky.

“I used a magic spell.”

“What kind of magic?”

“Fly. It is a flight magic.”

Having heard the explanation, Riley smiled refres.h.i.+ngly and asked,

“Wasn’t that supposed to be not possible here?”

“It slipped my mind.”

Riley was smiling, and… Nainiae wondered if she should smile too or if she should maintain her apologetic face. Nainiae pondered about this. Soon, she decided to go with the apology and lowered her head.

“I am sorry. I just remembered, so I was about to tell you, but the four people suddenly showed up, so… Also, you went ahead without me, so… I had no choice but to use the magic so I could catch up with you. Although it is late, I can cas uu u uuuuuuu…”

Her face was grabbed by two hands. Her cheeks were grabbed and stretched out like marshmallow.

“…. I’m sorry.”

With stretched out p.r.o.nunciation, Nainiae apologized again. Riley was letting out his frustration by holding her cheeks. Looking really p.i.s.sed at Nainiae, Riley mumbled,

“You should have thought of it sooner. Sooner.”

Gritting his teeth hard, Riley was pulling out Nainiae’s cheeks. Having had enough, he unhanded her cheeks and growled at her.

“Grrrrrr.”

“… Yes.”

She raised her left hand to hold her reddened cheek. She raised her right hand to use magic. Nainiae felt around the empty s.p.a.ce with her hand and made Riley’s body float up first.

“You used it?”

“Yes.”

Floating like cloud, his feet lifted off from the ground. Riley looked intrigued. He tried moving his feet in the air.

One step, two step…

Unlike swimming, he realized that moving his legs didn’t make his body move forward or backward. He looked at Nainiae who floated up after him.

“I can’t move as I want?”

“The magic isn’t giving us wings or the ability to direct the flight, so…. That will be hard.”

“Is that so?”

Having heard Nainiae’s explanation, Riley grabbed the sword from his waist. For no apparent reason, he tried swinging it in front of him.

Paaaaang.

His sword spread blue mana to the air and caused a shockwave sound. Riley’s body, which was floating in the air, suddenly moved as if he was pulled to the back.

“Oh?”

“…”

Watching Riley move in the air by swinging the sword, watching his ability to repurpose skills for the situation, it seemed Nainiae was at lost for words. She just vacantly opened her mouth.

“With a method like that… I guess it is possible.”

“This is pretty fun.”

Riley swung the sword several times and moved around in the air. Nainiae was already far from him. Looking at Nainiae, Riley tilted his head to the side.

“Where are you going?”

“That is… Young Master, you are the one who is moving.”

Nainiae vacantly muttered. She asked if she could be excused for a moment. She used telekinesis to pull Riley to where she was.

“As I thought, magic is mysterious.”

With just hand gestures, magic could be used to make a person float up in the air or pull a person from the distance. Riley said muttered as if found magic very attractive. Nainiae shrugged her shoulders and said,

“I find the way you swing your sword to be more of a mystery.”

Nainiae watched Riley’s sword going back to the sheath at his waist. She used the float magic again.

“Well then, we will go straight to the teacher’s cave.”

“All right. Let’s go see his face soon. We came this far for a good reason, yet he won’t even come out to see us. Gosh.”

Nainiae swung her hand to increase the floating speed and moved toward Andal’s cave which could be seen at the top of the mountain.

“Um?”

They flew for about a minute. Nainiae’s and Riley’s bodies, which were floating in the air, started to fall by the gravity.

“What is this?”

It seemed the distance to the cave was shortened substantially because Riley had been climbing by das.h.i.+ng huge distances. Realizing the ground was coming closer, Riley asked Nainiae,

“Are we there already?”

“Yes.”

Thanks to her flight magic, Riley was able to climb the remaining distance with relative ease. He looked at the huge cliff in front of him and tilted his head to the side.

“This place is not the top?”

“It is the top, but it is not the top.”

“Don’t talk like a summon spirit. Speak like a human being.”

“It’s as I said. I think you should be able to tell, Young Master. Can you tell?”

Having heard Nainiae, Riley widened his senses and realized the scenery in front of him felt strange. He had a look on his face as if he understood.

“This is also magic?”

“Yes. It’s an isolation barrier.”

To disengage the isolation barrier, Nainiae was looking around the place. She started to feel the ground and boulders around the cliff.

“As I thought, the isolation barrier had been strengthened substantially since the last time.”

She was fiddling with a boulder, and flame suddenly surged from it. Surprised, she took a few steps back. She looked like she was not sure about what to do. She started to look around the place again.

“To disengage this, I think it will take …”

Riley glanced at Nainiae who was looking around the isolation barrier. As if he didn’t want to bother with waiting, he brought his hand toward the sword on his waist.

“We are going in.”

His sword was swung without any sound. His sword went past the isolation barrier as it drew long blue line. The isolation barrier started to crumple in zigzag shape.

“… some time.”

Nainiae watched Andal’s isolation barrier being cut open by Riley’s sword swing. Nainiae vacantly muttered,

“What are you doing? Let’s go?”

“Ah, yes.”

Watching Riley going in to the gap created by the cut, Nainiae, who was standing there vacantly, tumbled and followed suit. She thought,

‘That’s our Young Master all right.’

Other than Riley, there probably never was any human being who could break the isolation barrier cast by a dragon with a sword swing, and there probably never will be anyone in the future who would be capable of doing this.

“Andal?”

Stepping inside the isolation barrier through the cut, Riley called for Andal. He looked around the scenery inside which was slowly changing.

“Andal!”

It seemed like they were at the right place. It looked like the place that he had visited before through the pub. Riley called for Andal’s name again and let out his frustration.

“By any chance, it is not like he is currently absent from this place when we came all the way here to visit him, right?”

Riley called twice, yet no response could be heard, so he was thinking about the worse possible scenario. It was at that moment. He could hear the sound of flame burning up.

<… Who are you?>

It was a familiar voice.

“Ah, you showed up at last.”

“Ms. Heliona!”

Riley turned his head with leisurely face. Nainiae turned her head with joyful face to look at the direction of the voice.

Burning flame in midair, Heliona was summoned starting from the tip of her feet. She found the two people inside the cave and started to rub her eyes.

Nainiae missed Heliona. She opened her arms big. Heliona, who was just floating there in the air with blank look on her face, flew to Nainiae and was embraced. It seemed Heliona missed Nainiae too.

“Phew… I’m so glad. I didn’t know what I would do if you didn’t recognize me too like other guardians.”

“This would be your second time to see her like this. If you don’t recognize her… then you should go see a doctor who specializes in summon spirit or something. Holy Power does not work on a summon spirit, right?”

<…>

Hearing Riley going off the tangent, Heliona flinched her shoulders.

“A… Anyway! How did this happen? I thought you were at the spirit world, but to think you were actually here in the cave and guarding it… What’s this isolation barrier for? Why are all guardians all on the edge? Where’s the teacher?”

Having heard Nainiae asking about what happened to Andal, her teacher, Heliona put up concerned look on face. Not sure about how she could handle this, she just avoided the gaze.

“About that…”

It seemed it was a question that was hard to respond to. Heliona was blurring the end of the sentence. Riley shrugged his shoulders and asked,

“What is it? Is he molting his scales or something because he is a lizard?”

“Stripping… No. I’m asking if he is shedding his skin.”

Glancing at Nainiae to check on her mood, Riley changed how he worded the sentence and asked. Heliona shook her head and that was not it.