I, Kurumi Tokisaki, Am a Wanderer

Lady Shinku froze, her face the epitome of a blank stare, utterly flabbergasted.

It didn't take her long to figure out what was going through that little girl's mind.

At that moment, Lady Shinku wanted nothing more than to grab Nina by the scruff, shake her around, and see if her head was filled with tentacles or—worse—blood.

The area was sealed off, secluded, and completely private. But for heaven's sake, did Nina really think she was... doing that? Here, under broad daylight?

"Get back here!" Lady Shinku barked, her voice sharp. If Nina managed to escape, how would she, the head of this household, ever face anyone again?

"Se... Senpai..." Nina stammered, her face bright red. "I'm sorry... I can't... uh... satisfy you."

"What?" Lady Shinku blinked, baffled.

"I mean... I... I'm actually..." Nina's voice began to crack as her face grew hotter and her words started climbing in pitch. I'm actually a boy! was teetering at the edge of her tongue.

"Nina!" Lady Shinku snapped, her voice laced with exasperation.

"Eep!" Nina jumped in fright—and promptly bit her tongue.

A surge of spirit energy burst forth as Lady Shinku instantly appeared at Nina's side, pinching her delicate, elongated ear.

"You idiot! Normally you act all pure and innocent, like the smallest tease is going to kill you. And now, suddenly, your head's full of tentacles?!"

Dressed only in a thin, water-soaked gauzy robe, Lady Shinku's figure loomed over Nina. Even after countless encounters, Nina couldn't resist being captivated by her beloved senpai.

Her eyes grew hazy, her mind painting a vivid picture of every inch of Lady Shinku's flawless form, even with her eyes shut tight.

Realizing where her thoughts had wandered, Nina felt her face burn as if aflame.

Before her stood a figure, draped in shimmering mist, her presence like a vision of perfection brought to life. Nina lowered her head, unable to meet the gaze of such breathtaking beauty.

Cool fingers pinched her sensitive ear tip—and to her utter dismay, the sensation only added to the overwhelming stimulation.

The petite girl let out a sharp, high-pitched yelp, her voice clear and piercing. Wait... could she possibly be... into this? As the thought crossed her mind, Nina tried desperately to suppress her growing shame.

But as she glanced downward, hiding her reddened face, her eyes caught sight of strange black lettering near Lady Shinku's thighs.

What does that say... 'Untouchable'?

Nina's resolve finally crumbled. She bent over, her face nearly glowing with embarrassment.

Lady Shinku froze, utterly bewildered. What was going on? She had only pinched Nina's ear—why was the girl suddenly acting like she was in so much pain? That adorably distressed expression made no sense.

Does pulling an ear really hurt that much?

Feeling guilty, Lady Shinku leaned in close and gently blew on Nina's burning red ear.

"There, there. It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?" she cooed.

Nina whimpered even louder, bending further over.

The graceful black-cloaked phantom strode boldly out of Melvoille, passing through the lines of Elf soldiers.

The elder commander at the front furrowed his brows as he noticed the resplendent, golden clock-like eye gazing back at him before its bearer disappeared into the distance.

Who could pass through the impenetrable network of protective wards so effortlessly? Only a messenger carrying the highest-level token of authority—or someone who simply didn't exist at all.

What is the Flower Crown Lady thinking?

The old man sighed heavily. I'm too old for this.

The Elves relied far too much on their elaborate wards and enchantments. Smiling lightly, Kurumi strolled away from Melvoille with ease, untouched by the vast array of detection spells.

Unlike the Dwarves, the Elves' magic was seamlessly tied to the essence of the world itself, their power rooted deeply in the natural laws of the realm.

And yet, here she was, defying it all effortlessly. Though, to be fair, Kurumi was a special case.

Still, she mused, that warning from the true Flower Crown Lady keeps ringing in my ears. Something about how the Elves were a vengeful race, and the Nirbaren family was the vengeful crème de la crème.

No doubt about it, her foe was none other than Lady Shinku Nirbaren, the unparalleled Eightfold Magician.

But so what? Plenty of people had threatened her before. Let them come—see if they can slap 'Untouchable' on me.

Humming a cheerful tune, Kurumi made her way toward the edge of the White Forest. Schwi was waiting for her. Hopefully, she hadn't gone over time.

Then, Kurumi's smile faltered.

Something was wrong.

Schwi's presence was gone—nowhere within her line of sight. But Kurumi had already reached the forest's edge.

High above, a figure had been watching over the land for some time. Now, unable to suppress her excitement, she finally decided to act.

Despite Rafil's orders to simply monitor the situation...

That isolated Ex-Machina unit had finally separated from its companion.

From the earlier surveillance, this parsing unit had long since severed its link to the networked Collective. No other Ex-Machina were within a hundred-mile radius.

This was the perfect opportunity to claim its head.

Ever since the Ex-Machina had successfully slain the so-called strongest Dragonia—Aranleif, the Ultimate—twelve years ago, attacking them had become taboo.

Their severed heads were now ranked alongside the Dragonkind as "Five-Star Rarities."

Though she was only a standard weaponized individual, hunting down a lone parsing unit was well within her capabilities.

The slender, radiant wings of light at the girl's waist shimmered as she descended swiftly toward the ground.

She was a Flügel, a member of the Sixth Race among the Fifteen Intellectual Races, her very existence embodying the pinnacle of magical completion. Possessing innate, unmatched strength and a lifespan verging on eternity.

"Hey, you… scrap metal." Perched lazily on a branch, Schwi froze as a voice suddenly came from above.

"My, my... you're quite adorable."

In an instant, Schwi leapt backward into a defensive stance, activating her combat systems. Her mechanical body moved with precise efficiency, deploying her armaments with a cold, mechanical hum.

'[Loading]-Code 1673B743E1F255 Script-E.'

'Booting—'

Whoever had arrived was not friendly.

Before her stood a pale-skinned girl cradling her face with both hands, her smile manic and unsettling.

Her shimmering, reflective hair, radiant wings of light at her back, and the intricate halos circling her head left no doubt as to her identity.

She was a Flügel, the god-slaying weapon.

"Don't get the wrong idea," the Flügel girl sneered. "When I said 'adorable,' I meant your severed head is going to look delightful mounted as a trophy."

An enemy of the most fearsome kind, and she was only a parsing unit—not even one-third the combat strength of a battle unit.

Worse yet, having severed her link to the Collective, Schwi could only access forty-seven of the 27,451 weapons stored in the Collective's arsenal.

But Kurumi's voice echoed faintly in her mind, stirring something within her.

Heart... Ignoring the endless warnings and error messages flashing across her internal display, Schwi hesitated. Is this... heart?

Clutching her chest, she felt no fear, no confusion.

She raised her colossal cannon, aiming it directly at the Flügel girl.

"[Warning]—Final Notice."

"My, my... how feisty for a piece of scrap metal. But how do you plan to use adaptive mimicry as a lone individual?" The Flügel's grin twisted wider. "I can't wait to take your head back to Avant Heim."

"Warning ignored." Schwi's voice was cold and mechanical.

'Velocity Breach.'

In an instant, Schwi vanished.

Using the explosive force of spirit energy, she broke through the limits of physics, moving at near-teleportation speed to escape.

The Flügel girl was left dumbfounded.

"Wha—?! Hey! Get back here!"

Raising that huge cannon with such ferocity, only to turn tail and flee?

Since when did the Ex-Machina become so cunning?

The mechanical sword-wings on Schwi's back trembled as she soared eastward toward the ocean.

Super-compressed spirit energy converted into particle form and annihilated, fueling an ultra-high-speed state that defied the limits of physics.

The White Forest was no place for a battle. It was riddled with Elf enchantments, layer upon layer of defenses.

Moreover, her opponent was a Flügel—one of the strongest races—crafted by the War God as weapons of god-slaying. A confrontation would likely lead to devastating, irreparable consequences.

[Sister doesn't want anyone to die.]

Gripping the hem of the light pink dress Kurumi had given her, Schwi regretted wearing it for this outing.

Emerald-green spirit remnants scattered like ashes behind her, spilling from the blazing trail of her mechanical wings. These remnants acted as a bread crumb trail for Kurumi, much like the pebbles dropped by the brothers in the old tale.

"Hey, scrap metal." The mocking voice called out from near the coastline. "Did you really think you could lose me like that?"

The Flügel girl intercepted Schwi with ease, her powerful "Spatial Shift"—a teleportation-like magic far superior to the Elves' Blink—allowing her to cross mountain ranges and distort distances in an instant.

She conjured a blade of light from pure energy, assigning it physical properties. The radiant, searing blade cleaved downward in a heavy arc, attempting to block Schwi's flight path.

The strike was powerful enough to shake mountains and break through cliffs, but this was not yet an optimal battlefield.

Schwi continuously calculated probabilities, her crystalline eyes shimmering with starlight.

Blocking her path was a Flügel, a living embodiment of intent and conceptual magic—a completed form of magical existence. Though her adversary was an ordinary individual of her race, she was no easy foe.

The odds of Schwi overcoming this challenge with her current capabilities seemed abysmally low.

'Deploy.'

A moss-green magical script unfolded behind Schwi.

The intricate, floral lettering belonged to a Elf spell:

"Apocrypha: Polar Reversal."

In an instant, Schwi vanished from the Flügel girl's sight, propelled skyward.

She had used a gravity-reversing mechanism on herself, propelling her body toward the high heavens.

But... the sky was the Flügel's domain.

Instead of using Spatial Shift, the Flügel girl flapped her luminous wings and ascended rapidly. The ribbons and pendants attached to her battle attire fluttered in the wind, trailing behind her like butterfly wings.

Using Velocity Breach to widen the gap between herself and the Flügel girl, Schwi now stood still in the sky. The oppressive black-red clouds loomed just overhead, and the acrid scent of rust filled her sensory nodes.

A brilliant light blade surged upward toward her in an unavoidable arc. In response, Schwi gripped the massive cannon in her hands, aiming it at the incoming Flügel.

The cannon's muzzle began to glow as it accumulated energy, a sphere of blue spirit particles taking form. One by one, additional components and armaments locked into place around the cannon, resembling a blossoming flower.

"Omnidirectional Crossfire."

In the blink of an eye, the world fell silent.

The spirit energy annihilated itself, transforming into spirit remnants. The blue particle sphere expanded outward, rapidly growing to resemble a small satellite in the sky.

The ensuing shockwave was powerful enough to obliterate a small settlement.

But Schwi's main objective wasn't to destroy the Flügel girl. She didn't have that level of confidence.

Flügel were god-slaying weapons imbued with the God of War's blessing. Their self-sustaining defensive enchantments were perpetually active. Expecting to break through those defenses with Omnidirectional Crossfire alone was nothing short of delusional.

However, the remnants left by spirit annihilation posed a unique threat. For Flügel, who relied on magic to maintain their existence, the spirit remnants became a severe hindrance, disrupting their ability to sustain their materialized forms.

Amid the scattered spirit remnants, Schwi transformed into a streak of light, retreating toward the distant ocean.

Emerging from the cloud of pollution-covered remnants, the Flügel girl's face twisted in disgust. Even a higher-ranked race like the Flügel felt a visceral aversion to the toxic spirit remnants.

Ex-Machinas and Dwarves alike were notorious for the pollution they created in their reckless creations.

"This is... unforgivable." Her radiant blade of light slashed through the rust-scented remnants, scattering them. She dove into another Spatial Shift, resuming her pursuit of Schwi.

An isolated parsing unit of the Ex-Machina, resorting to so many tricks... Why not just surrender and let me cut off your head? After all, you're nothing more than a machine.

Smirking, the Flügel girl materialized above the ocean and mocked, "What's wrong, scrap metal? Out of breath already? Can't run anymore?"

"Denied."

The voice that responded carried the tone of judgment. Schwi stood motionless, waiting.

"Probability of neutralizing the target... 74.1%..." she declared coldly, her gaze piercing as she addressed the Flügel girl.

"What?" The Flügel sneered, laughing maniacally. "You're nothing but a piece of junk. And you dare speak so arrogantly?"

The Flügel girl's smirk widened into a vicious grin.

"Come on, hurry up and die. Once I finish this fight, I'm going home to get married," she said, her tone laced with dark humor. "If I offer your head as a bridal gift, Lord Raphael will surely be pleased."

Then she froze.

Above her, the sky filled with countless weapons, densely packed and blocking out the dim red light.

As a disconnected individual, Schwi only had access to forty-seven of her original 27,451 weapons, the rest locked in stasis.

Of these forty-seven, only four could potentially bypass the Flügel's godly defenses, each with severe limitations. The most convenient of these options lacked sufficient firepower. The other... had complications of its own.

Thus, Schwi opted for an alternative.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

The M-137 Gatling guns whirred to life, their barrels spinning as blue flames erupted, unleashing a relentless torrent of bullets toward the Flügel girl.

"Ahhh! That hurts! That hurts so much!" She cried out in a whiny voice, emerging from the storm of bullets completely unharmed but utterly frazzled.

Gone was her previous menacing demeanor. Now she seemed more like a hapless victim, her complaints echoing like a child sulking over a scraped knee.

"Give me your head already!" she screamed, slashing her blade wildly, sending arcs of light hurtling toward Schwi's slender neck.

But as she broke free from the barrage, she found herself staring at Schwi... standing firm and steady.

In Schwi's hands was a gleaming, violet spear.

"Apocrypha: Heaven's Strike."

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