The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 22: Got Away?

Chapter 22: Got Away?

"{Firebolt}."

BOOM!

Without time to react, the Predicament was immediately struck with a powerful bolt made of flames, which quickly caught onto its fur—burning it!

Nadia watched in astonishment as the Predicament was quietly wrapped in flames, stumbling around as it tried to put itself out. She then narrowed her eyes with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

She couldn’t let this opportunity pass!

While charging up her sword for another attack, Nadia quickly entered into a low, sword-drawing-like stance.

The glow of her sword gathered around her blade like an extension, increasing its length and sharpness.

Then, once her blade glowed intensely enough, she stepped forward.

"Hmph!"

And...

"{SWORD OF RESOLUTION}!"

Delivered a devastating horizontal slash.

SWISH!

Nadia’s blade sliced into the monster’s burning hide, cutting deep into its muscles and bones before exiting out onto the other side.

She had sliced the Predicament in half.

The Heroine then kicked the monster’s burning upper body and watched as it slid off its lower half in a gruesome manner.

Nadia let out a loud sigh as she soon gave in to temptation and collapsed onto the ground, falling on her rear: tired and hurt.

As she listened to the flames on the corpse crackle, her ears twitched at the sounds of incoming footsteps.

In response to this, the Heroine muttered in a complaining manner:

"Here I was beginning to believe you weren’t ever going to show up..."

"Haha, my sincere apologies, meine Dame~" Hilda stood over the Heroine, who remained on the ground. Then, smiled innocently, "I was so enthralled in your battle with that Predicament, that I couldn’t help but watch!"

Nadia blinked at what she heard before giving Hilda a thousand-yard stare.

"You were watching me the entire time and didn’t step in!?"

Hilda tilted her head as a glimmer of amusement flickered in her eyes.

"Would you have preferred if I did all the work from the start, while you stood behind me?"

The Heroine’s eyes widened at the German’s response.

When she fully processed Hilda’s words, she subconsciously clenched her hands into fists. ’That’s right... even if Hilda didn’t intervene sooner, I shouldn’t have held out hope for her to come rescue me...’

How was she ever going to grow stronger if she kept on relying on other people to do the job for her?

While she was reflecting on herself, Hilda had been checking her out from top to bottom—scrutinising her figure.

But not for reasons some might think.

"Oh, my... you’ve made quite a mess over my jacket, miss Crane."

"Huh?"

Nadia quickly looked down at the coat, her face paling a little.

The parts of the coat’s sleeves were torn with claw marks and stained a little with her blood. But that wasn’t all, for there were also smudges of dirt and dust all over the coat—even on the collar!

Unfortunately, or fortunately, the red armband with the black heart symbol remained intact.

With a darkened expression, she looked back at Hilda, who had crouched down to be eye-level with her.

"I... I didn’t mean for it to damage when I came out..."

"Is that right~?" Hilda continued to scan the Heroine’s figure. She then smirked and asked in a playful manner:

"Sooo~ why did you come out, then? Surely, it wasn’t to come looking for me, right~?"

Nadia stiffened, her face hardening when Hilda guessed it spot on.

Naturally, Hilda noticed this subtle reaction.

Her smirk turned into a smug grin as a teasing look appeared in her eyes.

"Ohoh~ you really did come out for me~... So, what? Didn’t want to sleep close to me, but still want me around—"

"Bug off! That’s not it at all!" Nadia interrupted with a shout, flailing her hand at the woman. Her face was red with embarrassment, and her voice shook because of it.

"As if I would come out here for you... hmph, I just thought about coming out here and killing some Predicaments myself!"

Hilda watched as Nadia turned her face away from her.

Her cheeks were also puffed out a little...

Was she pouting?

Hilda’s eyes became half-lidded as she chuckled inside. Ever since the fight between them, Nadia had become rather endearing in her eyes.

’So cute.’

"Haha, hunt Predicaments, huh? What a splendid idea. But I think you’ll only be able to take on Predicaments in the day with the level that you’re at."

She then got up to her feet before pushing out her hand for Nadia to take.

"Come on, let’s go back to camp."

Nadia stared at Hilda’s hand warily for a brief moment before complying with a sigh.

After the two were now on their feet, Nadia began to unbutton her jacket with a regretful expression.

"I guess I should give your jacket back—"

"Keep it." Hilda interrupted.

"... Huh?"

Pausing her unbuttoning, Nadia looked up at Hilda and found the woman... smiling. Not how she usually did, but for some reason, this smile felt more genuine than those she had shown previously.

"It looks good on you, meine Dame... It fits you very well." Hilda then chuckled, "And plus, you’re going to need it more than me in this temperature."

Nadia stared at the woman blankly, not having expected this.

"I... I see..."

She then quickly turned away and rebuttoned the coat.

"No take-backs, alright? This is mine now, so don’t try and ask for it back when you get cold."

"It would be an honour for you to wear my coat~" Hilda cooed, causing Nadia’s ears to flush red.

"Tch..."

Clicking her tongue, Nadia decided to avoid making eye contact with the woman for now. But when she eventually turned back to face her, she discovered something that caused her face to pale.

The corpse of the Predicament they had just killed...

It was missing.

"Hey... where did that Scoundrel go?" Nadia asked, pointing behind Hilda.

The German looked back and stared at the spot where the Predicament was last seen. The spot it was lying on had a massive dark burn mark with a noticeable shape in the middle for the Scoundrel, which... was really nowhere to be seen.

’Did it actually play dead to get our attention off of it?’ Nadia theorised with shock in her eyes.

She then glanced at Hilda and froze a little.

Hilda no longer had her signature warm smile; instead, she had a serious, cold expression on her face. One would think she was furious that the Predicament had escaped them.

But what she did next immediately contradicts that thought.

The German turned back to face the Heroine. Then, she dropped her cold expression and gave an unbothered smile.

"Oops. We let it get away."