Eternally Regressing in Another World

The two men sent flying had fled into the back alley.

"Big brother, aren’t we fighting? It’s just some woman."

"Idiot! Why don’t you know that woman!?"

The fat man, question marks practically floating above his head, kept forcing his way down the narrow path.

"That woman’s stupidly strong, remember that!"

Just as he said that, the slim man rounded a corner.

"Quite the way to talk. Calling a lady ’that woman,’ how rude."

As if descending straight from the sky, Elizabeth landed right in front of them, blocking their path.

"The Fulm brothers, correct? I’ve heard your names spoken of poorly."

The slim man dropped low, readying his knife. But his hand trembled.

"So what!? Being a woman doesn’t get you special treatment! Damn you!!!"

He made use of the tight alley’s terrain to his advantage. Kicking off the walls left and right to throw off his positioning, he chanted an incantation. Instantly, blue veins bulged across his body, and his movement sped up dramatically.

"Body enhancement magic. If used properly, that spell could become genuinely dangerous..."

Enhanced and leaping over ten meters into the air, the man began spinning vertically like a circular saw. Without losing any momentum, he plummeted straight toward Elizabeth.

"TURN INTO MINCEMEAT!!!!!!!"

"Truly, no creativity at all."

There was no sound of impact. The man’s body simply stopped, suspended in midair. Elizabeth had merely thrust something forward. Her small fan.

"Try coming up with an attack that actually works, at least."

His knife was wedged deep into the fan, firmly caught.

"Guh... it won’t move!? No way!?"

Elizabeth flung the man, fan and all, into the air. Then, spinning gracefully like a figure skater, delivered a roundhouse kick!

"Guuh!!"

The slim man let out a pathetic groan and slumped down against the wall.

"That was disappointingly quick. ...Oh?"

The fat man had already readied a weapon by this point. The weapon gripped in his hand pulsed with red light, flickering on and off repeatedly.

"It’s building! The power! The powerrrr!!!"

He simply swung the weapon down. Just that, but in a tight alley like this, more than effective enough. ...If the opponent weren’t Elizabeth.

"Power alone isn’t everything, you know."

Elizabeth thrust her fist upward, aiming right where the blade met the handle of the forcefully swung cleaver. Unable to withstand the impact, the blade snapped clean off, flying through the air.

"N-no way... my weapon, no way!"

Elizabeth walked slowly toward the fat man.

"Allow me to offer you three pieces of advice."

"Stop! Don’t come closer!"

The man swung the broken cleaver handle wildly.

"First. Weapon enhancement magic should activate only in the instant of the attack. That would let you fight far more efficiently."

"S-shut up! I said don’t come closer!"

The fat man’s shout echoed through the alley. But Elizabeth continued regardless.

"Second. You should pay more attention to your footwork. Offense over nothing, defense over offense, evasion over defense."

"Don’t come! Don’t come closerrrrr!!!"

Elizabeth casually dodged every swing of the wildly flailing stick by the slimmest of margins.

"Third, ...listen properly when someone’s talking to you!"

Elizabeth kicked off the ground hard and drove her knee into the giant man’s chin. Using his shoulder as a foothold, she leapt even higher. A heel drop, spinning once overhead to build centrifugal force, struck down directly on the off-balance man’s skull. Landing beautifully, back straight, the man crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

"...And that’s that! Ohhohohohohohoho!"

Elizabeth picked up her fan, grabbed a nearby iron pipe, and transformed it into a parasol. Pulling the knife out from the fan, she walked toward the alley’s exit.

"What... did you just say?"

Nest tilted her head slightly, smiling.

"There’s something I want to negotiate with you."

I tore several pages from my notebook, folded them together, and tossed them at Nest’s feet.

"Read it, you’ll understand."

Nest picked it up quickly, careful not to lower her guard, and read through the contents. Then she suddenly burst out laughing.

"Ufufu, ahahahahahaha. What great news, truly wonderful."

Still laughing, she tucked the paper away into her cleavage, sheathed her weapon, and turned her back.

"500,000, correct?"

"Yeah, please."

Confirming just that, she vanished in an instant. I caught a brief glimpse of her running across a rooftop in the distance, then she was gone.

"This is a gamble. Devil or snake, who knows which shows up. Honestly, I’d rather deal with neither."

Saying that, I spent one of the rarest cigarettes this world had to offer.

"You let her go... what were you thinking!?"

Elizabeth’s voice rang in my ears.

"Sorry, I did put up a decent fight, though."

If she found out I’d let Nest go deliberately, I might genuinely get beaten to a pulp.

"Do you have any idea what letting that woman go actually means... honestly!"

While I bowed my head to a thoroughly irritated Elizabeth, Tender arrived with a new carriage at just the right moment.

"Brought the carriage... huh?"

Tender noticed something was off about Elizabeth’s mood and trailed off.

"Listen to this, Tender. This man let Nest go!? Father is definitely going to be furious about this..."

Creating a situation like this right before the foreign summit really could put Elizabeth in an awkward position, considering everything. Thinking about that, a genuine wave of guilt welled up from somewhere deep inside me.

"...It’s fine, Elizabeth doesn’t need to take responsibility for this. I’ll take responsibility myself!"

"Responsibility, ...specifically how?"

"For starters, let me talk to your father. I’ll smooth things over somehow."

After some hesitation, Elizabeth gave a light nod.

"Understood. But this is a critical time right now. If you make any missteps, you’ll face consequences accordingly. Are you fine with that?"

I had no hesitation.

"Yeah. I’ll absolutely talk my way through it."

The kingdom’s strongest knight. If I could win him over, I might just end up accompanying the foreign summit myself. Even after resolving Shiran’s situation, a brutal path still lay ahead regardless. If possible, better to start moving now while I still could.

"For now, should we notify the Knight Order about Nest and set up top priority surveillance?"

"Yes, I’ll leave that to Tender and Selva."

The carriage carrying everyone headed back toward the mansion. Creaking through the sound of wood, it rolled onward down the main street.