CHAPTER 21: A QUESTION TO HESITATE ABOUT.

’Fuck.’

Rolling his eyes up, Dorian could see the razor-sharp teeth of the spider only inches away from snapping around his neck.

Maria was still far away, so there was no way she was going to get to him in time, not when the monster could practically lick the hair on his head.

Which left Dorian with one option.

Gah!

He threw the lady to the ground, and then, with the little time he had left, tapped the ground with his foot, opening a large hole underneath both himself and the spider beast.

Since his elementary magic was still at tier 1, the most he could do was make a hole about 3 ft deep, but that was more than enough to escape with his life intact.

As he fell into the hole, the monster snapped its teeth in the air, missing Dorian’s head by one inch before it also fell as well.

"Lord Dorian!"

Maria screamed, her heart racing so much she could hear every pound.

Just from looking at her, anyone could tell her worries came from something more than just doing her duty as his knight.

When she witnessed the spider close to Dorian, it felt as though a bit of her being had shattered like glass at the thought of Dorian dying right there.

For the first time since she had agreed to work with Dorian, this was by far the first time she was ever making such a scared expression. Normally, she always made sure to compose herself when she was right next to him.

However, this instance was different.

"Are you alright? Say something!"

Maria sprinted forward, paying no mind to the lady who was passed out on the ground.

Not that she cared anyway; her entire concern was taking Dorian away from that bloody spider beast.

Her speed in particular was insane. In a matter of seconds, she had already closed the distance between herself and the hole in the ground. Her skin glittered with lightning as she moved.

Getting to her destination, she gripped her blade tight, getting ready to fall into the pit and battle the monster the moment she spotted it.

Chances were Lord Dorian was still trying to run from the spider beast.

Or so she thought.

Her body hung in the air when Dorian kept propelling out of the hole, his arms gesturing in an X shape as blood leaked down from his elbow.

Just as quickly, the spider beast crawled out of the hole, charging straight for Maria.

While falling, Dorian yelled,

"Idiot! Run away!"

Though Maria ventured against his order.

She held a firm stance, and then—

Whoosh!

A single strike was all she needed for her to cut the monster’s mouth in two.

It shrieked before halting its advance. It then began squirming around like a wild animal that had lost all form of reasoning.

Her attack clearly caused some damage. This caused her to charge forward again, to land yet another powerful blow. Finishing the job.

Shr!

Dorian landed on the ground, using wind magic to balance himself.

He hastily looked to the left, where he could see the last spider hiding in the forest, seemingly waiting for Maria to pass it so it could attack.

"Sorry about this, Maria!" Dorian warned beforehand.

"Wh—"

Before Maria could fully turn around, Dorian sent a push of wind speeding towards her location.

He managed to boost her forward, moving so fast that when the spider launched out to attack, it was several moments late. By the time it snapped its jaw, Maria had mounted herself on the head of the other spider.

Wasting no time, Maria raised her sword and then, with a single slash, sliced off the head of the spider in one go.

"Now then, for the se—"

Maria looked in front of her and saw Dorian running away from the scene with the unknown woman in his arms, while yelling—

"Enough, let’s go!"

"Of course."

Somehow, she already knew him from head to toe. Or maybe it’s more that nothing he does can truly surprise her anymore.

With grace, she leaped down from the spider’s corpse and sprinted after him, outrunning the last spider chasing her.

....

After a while of running, they all managed to arrive outside the forest.

While Dorian was resting his back on a tree with the woman in his arms, Maria stood at the very front, looking into the forest with squinty eyes.

"Looks like it stopped chasing us," she informed.

"Good," Dorian replied. "If we hadn’t run back there, we would have been surrounded by more spiders before we knew it."

Maria looked at him.

Though he may not look it, she knew what she saw him do back there.

Not only did he react fast enough to dodge a spider beast known to be a mid-level monster, but he also managed to survive a one-on-one encounter with it while trapped in a hole.

For Maria, who was a master-rank warrior, fighting a mid-level monster was no big deal; any higher, like high-level or mega-level, and she might be in trouble.

But for someone who was a novice mage, it was more than shocking to see him performing the way he did.

"Lord Dorian, I have a question," she said.

"Are you angry that I left you all alone to battle the spider beast?"

"N-no, that’s not it."

"Good, because I have no excuse; you are a master rank, so I figured you could handle it." Dorian smiled angelically. "What did you want to ask then?"

Giving him a small disgusted look, Maria sighed before she proceeded.

"While it’s true that people can raise their class ranks with training, it’s not something that can be done at the drop of a hat." She paused, gauging her next words. "Up until a month ago, you could barely cast magic, and now you are able to do not only wind but earth magic as well."

Tension rose as she fully faced him. She had been studying him for a while, and the fight only strengthened her suspicion.

"I mean no offense, but are you really Lord Dorian?" she asked, her eyes glaring with absolute sternness.

Dorian returned the glare, his grip closing around the woman’s body.

For a sec, he thought to himself.

’She found out. Maybe I should just tell her the truth.’

Then his thoughts flowed from there.

’Is my acting that terrible? How many people probably have the same questions she does?’

In truth, considering how much he had done in such a small amount of time, it would be a surprise if at least one person didn’t get suspicious.

Maybe that terrible Dorian died, and he got replaced by a clone after one of the gangs he borrowed money from decided to kill him.

That would make so much sense.

Still, if people found out he was someone from another world taking over the body of Dorian Aurelian.

How would a reasonable person want this to play out?

Dorian sighed.

His lips parted as he got ready to give his response.

...

{A/N}

Lowkey, I have been wondering when and how i should reveal Maria’s full backstory without drawing the story back. Maybe after the arc with the viscount has ended. That should work. And her character art is also out.