ch9

A body so massive I had to crane my neck almost at a right angle to see it.

Both giants, who seemed to be brothers, were about 2 Elte in height compared to Rudolph, but these two seemed to be four times that size.

Despite the thick layers of fat and protruding bellies, the outlines of their muscles were still visible.

Considering their size and mass, it seemed like it would be difficult for them to even support themselves, but even though they seemed a bit clumsy, they moved without much difficulty.

That alone was enough to declare them beings that defied the rules of ordinary life.

Their faces were like pounded rice cakes, with blunt noses, plump lips, and strangely protruding brow ridges.

They wore crude clothes made by stitching together several large animal hides, and their hair was sparse, so frankly, they weren’t the most pleasant-looking fellows.

The giant on the left, who seemed to be the older brother, scratched his head.

“What is it? I feel like there’s something big here.”

“Brother, are we eating deer today? Deer?”

“Wait.”

The giant squatted down roughly, leaned in, and said,

“Hey, human. Are you the only one here?”

‘That breath…’

Having sensitive senses is a great advantage, but it’s definitely a pain when it’s too much.

The lukewarm wind carried a foul odor that made me feel nauseous.

Rudolph hadn’t made a proper move since the giants appeared, and his body was trembling.

‘He’s completely terrified.’

His breathing was almost silent and ragged.

Too much tension can be harmful to life itself.

He looked so precarious that a human would have been in a state of hyperventilation.

He was here because I insisted on bringing him, so I wondered if I had made a mistake. I sent him some energy, and his breathing gradually became more even, as if he was stabilizing.

“Aura?”

“Deer! Deer!”

A strange light flickered in the giant’s eyes.

I could feel a strong life force, but not really any aura. Was he just particularly sensitive?

I blocked my sense of smell and took off my bamboo hat.

“I am an Elf passing by. What business do you have blocking the road?”

I could guess the reason, but weren’t these incredibly fascinating creatures that I was meeting for the first time?

Even if we ended up throwing punches later, I wanted to start with a conversation, as these were the first intelligent beings I had encountered.

However, as soon as I took off my bamboo hat and opened my mouth, both of their expressions became strange, and their eyes glazed over.

“Um? Are you two alright?”

“”……””

They seemed to be out of it.

I gathered my energy and compressed the air in front of me to a high density.

I also spread a thin barrier of energy between the compressed air and Rudolph.

I wasn’t rushing, but the giants didn’t make a single move while I was preparing.

This was serious.

With that much mass, they should be fine even with this much impact.

Araya’s Skill Compendium (阿梨耶 雜技總攬)

Creation Break (創破)

Paaaaaang!

“Guh!”

“Gegegegegek!”

The two giants, who had been squatting and spacing out, fell backward from the small explosion and deafening sound.

Even though the impact was enough to shake the surrounding trees for a moment, they both got up again without any problems.

“Looks like they’ve come to their senses.”

“What! Human! Are you a sorcerer?”

“It exploded!”

Sorcerer? Are they talking about a magician?

“No, I’m a martial artist. I don’t particularly like magic.”

“Martial artist?”

“Someone who trains their martial prowess.”

“What’s martial prowess?”

“That’s quite a philosophical question, but it’s not something to discuss on the road. Just think of it as honing your strength.”

The giant contorted his ugly face even more.

Or was he smiling?

“What a load of nonsense. How is what you did just now strength?”

“It’s just one of the tricks I have. It’s not my specialty.”

The giant laughed heartily.

“Even so, what difference does it make if something that’s less than half of half of half of our size trains!”

With that, he went to one of the large boulders scattered on the nearby rocky mountain, grabbed it, and exerted his strength.

“Hmph…!”

He lifted a rock that seemed to weigh tens, or even hundreds, of Halgerd (hundreds of tons) in one go and threw it outside the rocky hill.

Kuwaang!

The fallen rock made a loud noise and split in half.

“No matter how much you tiny humans increase your strength, you can’t beat the Titans born from our father, Terato!”

Without being asked, the giant, who had suddenly started showing off his strength by throwing a rock outside, flexed all his muscles and proudly displayed them.

I was a bit taken aback by the sudden outburst, but even though I could destroy something into powder, I couldn’t lift and throw a rock of that weight as it was, so I thought I had seen a good show.

“I have one correction and two questions.”

“What is it?”

“First of all, I am not the race you call ‘human.’ I am an Elf.”

“Elf?”

“A race conceived from the mother goddess, the World Tree, El-Prigion.”

“World Tree?”

“Brother! Brother!”

I pointed in the direction I had come from.

It was a distance that would take weeks to travel even at the pace of a forest deer, so even though my mother’s body was enormous, she couldn’t be seen from here.

“It’s a large tree that encompasses everything over there.”

“Treeeeeee?”

“Brother! Brother!”

The giant laughed mockingly.

“Our father, Terato, is a giant who lifts mountains, and you’re saying your mother is a tree! I can see what kind of beings Elves are, being so short and having a tree for a mother!”

…Should I kill him?

A murderous intent surged for a moment, but I needed to know what I needed to know first.

“I will tolerate your rudeness for now, as you seem ignorant.”

“Hmph. What would you do if you didn’t tolerate it?”

Ignoring the arrogant attitude of the jeering giant, I continued.

“Earlier, you mistook me for a ‘human.’ Have you ever seen a being similar to me?”

“Of course. They’re small fries about your size. Maybe a little bigger? Their ears are short… hmph… and they’re uglier.”

“Hoo…”

Not that the giant was one to talk.

“We periodically move around the areas where humans are likely to pass by and hunt them. Humans are weak, but they’re skilled and make quite delicious things. Above all… humans themselves are delicious.”

“You eat humans?”

“Of course! They’re more tender than the gamey meat of beasts! The only downside is that they don’t have much volume. If we eat them all, they’ll hide completely, so we just pick a few from the group.”

The giant looked down menacingly and said,

“You’re all alone, so I’ve never eaten an Elf before, but it looks like I’ll get to try one today!”

“No!!!”

The giant was awkwardly knocked over by the other giant who suddenly pounced on him from the side.

“What are you doing! You bastard!”

“You can’t eat him!”

Thwack!

The giant who had pounced on him punched the jaw of the giant he had tackled.

“What the hell! Are you going to raise him instead of eating him!?”

“Ueee…”

The younger giant, who had been dizzy for a while after being hit in the jaw, suddenly twisted his body and blurted out something shocking when he came to his senses.

“Hehe… I want to marry him.”

“”……””

The older giant’s jaw dropped, and I couldn’t quite process what I was hearing.

“I… I’ve never seen anyone so pretty. He’s much prettier than the chief’s daughter I saw in the village.”

“You’re saying…”

The older giant pointed at me and said in disbelief.

“You’re going to marry a Titan to that little runt? Do you think that makes sense?!!!!”

“We can live well together! I’m ugly, but if I marry him, our children will definitely be pretty!”

The older giant kept looking at his younger brother’s nonsense with his jaw about to fall off, and I just closed my eyes and looked up at the sky.

“…Make children with that thing…?”

“Yes!”

“Do you even know how children are made?”

“Hehe… Mom said that if people who love each other kiss and sleep together, a big dragon will bring them a child.”

“…You’re saying… Ha.”

The older giant listened to his younger brother’s nonsense and then pointed at me.

“In the first place, that’s not even a woman.”

“Uuu… What are you talking about!”

“Look closely.”

The older giant tried to calmly persuade his foolish and dim-witted younger brother.

“His face is pretty, so he looks like a woman, but look at his chest.”

“Uuung…”

He sighed and continued.

“Whether it’s giants or humans, their breasts swell to feed their children, even if their sizes are different.”

“But that thing’s chest isn’t swollen at all. He’s not a woman, he’s a man.”

“And you probably don’t know this, but children… Ha… Mom is real.”

“If you like him, let’s just eat deer and not eat him. We’ll feed him well and teach him to use the toilet…”

「Enough」

I couldn’t listen anymore.

I got off Rudolph’s back.

He glanced at me warily and slowly backed away before running off.

“I was going to be a little lenient, even though I knew their intentions were obvious, because there was knowledge I needed to gain from meeting intelligent beings for the first time.”

Depending on my will, the energy in my body quickly spread throughout my body and circulated once.

“I had the patience to tolerate moderate, or even quite strong, rudeness. After all, this is a barbaric age not long after the beginning of time. It’s not a time when the light of civilization and the human virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom have been established.”

The energy that reached the depths amplified and resonated.

The energies that I had been extremely reluctant to release rushed through every part of my body as if they had found their world and tried to extend outward.

“But they insulted my mother, reminded me of the humiliations of the forgotten past, insulted my personality, and tried to treat my life like that of a domesticated animal.”

As the resonated energy attracted the surrounding energy with its gravitational pull, the gathered energies wavered around me like a heat haze.

Eventually, the heat haze surrounded my body and was woven into a transparent armor, and in response, the wide sleeves of my martial robe fluttered endlessly.

“I, El-Prigion’s seventh daughter, El-Araya, as a Regulator who upholds a single mission and right, swear in the name of the mother goddess El-Prigion, who protects me in the place where life is born, to judge with the clear attitude of a Regulator those who insult the mother goddess and mock all things on earth like beasts with their innate Divine Power.”

At the same time, all consciousness turned to the Yongcheon (湧泉) point.

I became a streak of light and headed towards the giant’s massive body.