The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 33: Damsel In Distress

"THE INVENTORY!"

Just as he got back, Ignotus looked up, roaring loudly.

Beside him, Felix, who was diligently trying to keep the fire alive by fanning it with a large leaf, jumped so high he nearly landed in the embers.

"Y-Young Lord?!"

He squeaked, clutching his chest.

"Are we under attack? Is it the monkeys? Did the assassins come back?"

"Better."

Ignotus immediately flicked his hand, pulling the system open.

"Much better."

—

{Inventory}

[Ordination 12/10]

—

It wasn’t gray anymore.

He could finally use it now!

"Ohhh Hell yeah."

Ignotus grinned and picked up his sword, raising it up.

Focusing on the sword, he imagined it vanishing, and sure enough...

"Huh."

It disappeared, making his heart skip.

Felix, watching this, dropped his leaf fan.

"W-What... where did it go?"

He stammered, looking around frantically.

"Did you throw it? I didn’t see you throw it!"

In the Inventory tab, a new line appeared.

—

{Inventory}

[Cheap Sword]

—

"Niceeee~."

Ignotus called it back, and in the blink of an eye, the sword reappeared, solid in his grip.

"NICEEEEE~!"

He swung it once, knowing just how much trouble this would save him.

Eris hummed inside his mind, Her voice curious.

’Oh, so you can use Space so easily?’

Ignotus chuckled.

’I know, right? I bet there’s a limit, but this is incredible, arguably better than anything those Gods gave me.’

’That’s good...’

Her tone softened, pleased to see him so happy.

’Now, why don’t you prepare for the journey ahead? Food and drinking water will be scarce, I’m sure.’

’Yes, ma’am!’

He quickly passed a stunned Felix.

"Spoon! Up and at ’em! We have work to do!"

"Y-Yes, Young Lord!"

Felix scrambled to attention.

"But what work?"

"Cooking."

Ignotus announced, tossing one of the assassins’ daggers to Felix.

"We’re processing everything."

For the next hour, the camp was a flurry of activity. Felix, despite his confusion, was a surprisingly decent cook when he wasn’t terrified for his life. He sliced the remaining monkey meat into thin strips and cooked them over the fire.

Every time a batch was done, Ignotus would touch it, and...

Zip. Zip. Zip.

It would vanish.

"Young Lord..."

Felix finally asked, watching a pile of jerky disappear into thin air.

"Where... where is it going? Is there a hole in reality? Are we feeding a hungry ghost?"

"Something like that."

Ignotus mumbled without saying anything more.

Before doing all of this, he’d tossed a tiny sample into his inventory, wanting to know more about this storage space. And yes, ’storage space’—after all, this was simply him sending his items from one space, i.e., his hands, into another, the inventory.

Ignotus didn’t know if this other ’space’ could store food without it rotting, so after about five minutes, he pulled the meat back out and inspected it.

Unsurprisingly, it looked exactly the same.

Yes, exactly, not the least bit dried or any change in smell.

It was perfectly preserved, eventually making him reach a conclusion.

’...is this ’space’ out of time?’

Eris answered like she’d been waiting for him to ask:

’It seems ’They’ bestowed on you something out of this realm.’

That gave him pause as he rubbed his chin and stared into the fire.

’No wonder I had to increase my ordination before it allowed me to use it.’

Shrugging his shoulders a little, he began cramming his meat into the inventory.

He did the same with every little thing he owned, as well as water, and the assassins’ armor, or at least the dead ones’ armor and weapons, until—

Ding!

—

[Limit Reached!]

—

"Ah. Expected that much."

Because this was tied to his Soul, it couldn’t be infinite.

He stared mournfully at his hammock.

"You were a good friend. I’ll miss you."

Eris’s chuckle echoed in his mind.

’Stop with the comedy act and go.’

Ignotus laughed back.

’Yes ma’am~.’

He turned to Felix, who was staring at the now-empty camp with wide eyes.

"Alright, Spoon. We’re moving out."

...

The road stretched before them, and Ignotus, standing in the middle of it, kept turning around. His eyes scanned every direction, as if picking up on pieces of familiarity.

After a few seconds of doing that, he pointed in the river’s direction.

’Hm...’

Moving his hand a little more to the right, he now pointed eastward, where no paths stood. Only unclaimed lands and green grass for as long as his eyes could see, which was a lot, as he could see very damned far.

"The Academy should be there... somewhere."

Without pause, he stepped off the path and confidently walked forward.

His sword disappeared into his inventory and reappeared every other second.

It seemed that even this he was practicing, making sure his body knew the process by heart.

Felix followed behind, carrying nothing but his own exhaustion, constantly muttering about "Demonic spells" and "invisible pockets."

Time passed without much change, as they ate strips of monkey meat on the move, rested under trees when it dipped too low, and walked again when it rose.

Day had bled into night, and night into day, until on the second afternoon...

They came across it:

’Calamity.’

Before them were long plains of tall grass rolling out in waves, and tucked in between the blades—

’Ah.’

Was a still bleeding corpse.

Ignotus crouched, prodding it with the tip of his boot.

"Damnation."

"Is... is that a dead body?"

Felix squeaked, hiding behind Ignotus.

"No, Spoon, he’s just taking a very committed nap. Yes, it’s a damned corpse."

Ignotus knew exactly what this meant.

A land war!

Whenever a Rune from a higher strata dropped on neutral territory, Houses, both Main and Lower, fought tooth and nail for it, throwing their disposable men at each other until one side decided that it had lost enough.

But this body...

’Even Lower Houses gave their fodder uniforms.’

It wasn’t dressed like a House goon.

What he thought previously was fact, so this made no sense, unless...

’Bandits?’

Eris agreed:

’Likely bandits. I doubt even Debtors of Oath would be treated this way.’

Hm, Ignotus saw that as the only possibility.

Though Debtors of Oath were basically this realm’s legal slaves, the Houses held enough ’standard’ not to abuse them. But of course, it was only because that’d ruin their image in the noble public; they didn’t care for those beneath them.

They wanted to act the part of honor, even though most didn’t even have a lick of it.

Because yes, these Debtors of Oath were worse than slaves, with no chance of freedom.

Sure, their body parts wouldn’t be used to make clothes and accessories, and they wouldn’t be abused to Hell and back. But just because they swore a Rune Oath and failed to meet the requirements, they would be kept alive for hundreds of years, doing as their owners liked, only to then be killed and have their Runes extracted from them.

Those Runes would then be given to their own children, who now bore responsibility over that Oath Debt, all until they deemed the requirements met, which was usually never.

The Houses usually touted themselves as merciful for keeping them alive even though they failed a Rune Oath, but that wasn’t life; a million deaths would’ve been more preferable.

Such a truth would have infuriated many, but Ignotus was unfazed.

...He’d seen and dealt with worse.

Anyhow, bandits meant less trouble. Most were crude, greedy, and usually weaker than the average House goon, their ’soldiers.’

Yes, they had no sort of trained rhythm he could predict like those two-headed dogs and monkeys, but Ignotus wasn’t worried.

People were predictable in their own ways.

’Besides, I can just avoid them.’

Yes, he’d only attack if confrontation was necessary.

Or so he thought.

"Stay close, Spoon."

Because a little further ahead, on a charred patch of grass, he spotted something else:

A group of wolf-folk guards; one of them was gravely injured, and most were bloodied and exhausted.

They stood in a circle, and at their center was another wolf-folk, though younger.

Wolfish features were most apparent on him: long, fluffy gray fur for hair, pointy ears, clear blue eyes, a twitching tail, and sharp nails, dressed in finery that screamed "Young Lord."

Many, many dead bodies littered the plain around them, making it obvious what Ignotus had just stepped into.

’Ah... we’re wrong. This is a hit.’

Eris hummed in agreement.

’It seems so. Will you interfere?’

Ignotus smiled, slow and amused.

Would he save the damsel in distress?

Though this ’damsel’ was a Young Lord, he found himself inclined to.

’Maybe if he’s willing to fork up.’

If there was coin involved, he was in!

"There’s no running now!"

The bandits tightened their circle, their weapons raised, ready to rush forth.

But Ignotus wasn’t about to allow that to happen to his piggy bank.

"WAAAAIT!"

He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled at the top of his lungs:

"DON’T ATTACK!"

Felix, realizing what his insane master was doing, nearly screamed.

"Young Lord! What are you doing?!"

He grabbed the back of Ignotus’s shirt.

"They have axes! Big axes!"

Ignoring him, Ignotus casually strolled out of the tall grass and into the open.

Every head snapped his way, and he...

"Wait for me!"

He slipped one hand behind his back, willing his sword from inventory without them seeing.

"How about we talk first?"

Felix, peeking out from behind a clump of tall grass, covered his eyes.

"We’re dead. We’re so dead."