Reborn as the Hero's Daughter

Chapter 324: Michelle Gets Angry

I shook off the pursuit of Cortina’s familiar and jumped into the river that flowed towards the city. At a little distance, I heard the cheers towards the death of the Goblin Lord, as well as war cries as they cleaned up the rest of the Goblins.

If you added the reinforcements to the defenders, their numbers would make the remaining enemy clean up a child’s play.

I would normally prefer to join up with Kayle’s group and help with the subjugation, but I was using a disguised appearance now. And I was even seen by Cortina when I used my threads.

If I mistimed my timing to disappear, it could get busted that I was in a disguise and eventually get traced to my identity.

It was best to make use of the confusion and slip out to hide.

Fortunately, the river flowed towards the city. I dived in and let the currents take me along, only poking my head at times to take a breath, and arrived inside the city in half the time it would have taken on foot.

The main reason was that I went straight inside the city through the water currents. It was a little hard without the Breathing spell, but I still managed to swim to the end by relying on the current.

Due to my long journey underwater, my bloody clothes had also been cleaned up quite nicely. There were slight stains still, but it was hard to distinguish them from mud stains.

“Pwaah!”

I took a deep breath and climbed out of the river. And I also removed my illusion at the same time. It was risky to keep using that appearance any longer.

My hair and clothes were dripping water and sticking to me everywhere. They were transparent and a lot of things were showing, but that damn pervert (Cloud) wasn’t around to see it.

“This is what you’d call a fine man dripping with charm—or woman, I guess. Hmm?”

Due to having finished the job safely, I felt like cracking a joke. But then, something suddenly rushed towards me while leaving a cloud of dust behind.

The city was almost entirely paved, but the riversides were the exception. Looking at it, something bigger than a horse was racing noisily towards me. On top of it were the familiar face of Michelle and the face of White God that I didn’t want to get familiar with.

“Heey!”

The White God shouted casually at me. Michelle’s expression on the other hand was unbelievably stiff.

And that was to be expected, as what they were riding now was a small black Dragon. That dragon had the silhouette of the miniaturized Demonic Dragon Fafnir that I met five years ago at the Elven settlement. Perhaps that Dragon was using Polymorph as well.

“Nicole!”

The Dragon stopped as it approached me, and Michelle jumped down from above it. Naturally, after using her strengthening bangle, she should be experiencing intense muscular pain.

She failed to kill her momentum and tumbled down, but quickly stood up.

Back when she obtained it five years ago, we were only young kids. We couldn’t endure the effect of that bangle that loaned you physical strength in advance, so it was natural that we would end up unable to move.

But it’s been five years since then, and our bodies have matured significantly, already nearing adulthood. Michelle in particular had grown quite a lot, to the point that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her an adult already.

By now, using the bangle only put her under a lot of muscle pain and made it harder to move. It didn’t lead to complete paralysis like before.

“Oh, Michelle. What brings you here?”

I switched my thoughts into girl mode from that of a man that suited the previous fierce battle. I tried to use as innocent a tone as I could befitting of a child.

“What am I doing here? Where have you been!”

“Eh, umm… I just fell into the river.”

Fortunately, I was drenched now, so having fallen into a river and gotten delayed on returning would serve as a good excuse.

But Michelle didn’t lend an ear to any of it, rushed at my side, and raised her hand high.

“You idiot! Do you know how worried everyone was!?”

Her palm was swung down. This was the manifestation of her heartfelt worry, so I decided to accept it. But then, her palm suddenly got clad in a pale light.

That slap blew me away with a tailspin.

“Pfffooo!?”

Looking back, Whitey was holding back her laughter behind the scenes. That light earlier was probably an Enchant that she cast on it. You b?a?s?t?a?r?d?, I’ll get you for this later!

Michelle didn’t pay any notice to my pathetic state and sank down on the spot.

“Me! And Finia too! We were awfully worried!”

“Umm… I… Sorry.”

Well, I did feel that Finia and others would worry if I slipped out quietly like that. Even so, I couldn’t just sit still when Cortina was doing her best there.

I was ready to receive their anger, but I didn’t regret my actions. I felt bad for them, but in the same situation, I would act the same way.

That said, I knew just how worried they were. This obedient and friendly girl was angry to the point of raising her hand against me.

“Sorry, Michelle. I’m at fault for not contacting you.”

“As long as…hic…you understand. Look at how soaked you are!”

“Well, I fell in the river.”

“I heard that already.”

I lent a shoulder to Michelle who was sinking down and acting angry while crying at the same time. Then I glared towards the Whitey who was rolling on the ground in laughter.

“You b?a?s?t?a?r?d?, which part of the earlier scene was so fun, huh?”

“Oh man, that was one magnificent blastoff. Big sister here just couldn’t hold back.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure about the ‘big’ sister part given that appearance.”

I tried to take a jab at her body as sarcastically as I could. However, she seemed to have been used to such attacks and ignored them completely.

I couldn’t deny her contribution to this battle. Pressing her too much here would leave a bad aftertaste.

Thus, with a reluctant sigh, I decided to head towards the Magic Academy.