The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 70 - Defense Against The Dark Arts Of Flirtation... And Other Pulling Forces

Chapter 70: Chapter 70 - Defense Against The Dark Arts Of Flirtation... And Other Pulling Forces

In the middle of a forest, on the way towards the Ironclad Order’s remote training camp, Qatrand er Yecine’s steps crunched down on leaves that had fallen on the path. Her senses were alert for any signs of danger that she had already been warned about before she left for the job. But it was hard to focus.

Beside her, a liaison from the Coiled Serpent Guild chatted incessantly away. The woman’s voice carried easily in the quiet woods. It brought a little turmoil into the heart of the swordswoman - but she had been told specifically to be accommodating... and had already brought up being quieter three times.

"You know, I’ve always admired your Guild’s dedication to physical cultivation and martial pursuits. It... shows."

A hand brushed the raven haired Yecine’s arm and lingered too long. Qat stiffened as a memory flashed through her mind of Elua’s teasing touches and... the bite.

’Is she... no, surely not. Some people are just tactile when they speak.’

Her pigeon blue eyes hardened further and she increased her focus towards the surroundings. They were getting closer to the section the Guild had warned her about.

"It’s nothing like our own members. We get the dregs who think that our spirit is worth more of our pursuit. But I guess even leftovers have their own standouts. Like a recent trainee. She was causing quite a stir back at our Guild."

"Oh? How so?"

Qat’s steady gait belied her agitation. She was walking too close. It would make it harder to draw her blade. The liaison held a line of frustration in her voice that... wasn’t cute.

"You’d think after years of dedicated service, I’d be the one turning more heads. But no, this slip of a girl shows up and suddenly everyone’s falling over themselves."

The blonde woman sighed dramatically.

"She’s brilliant with sigils, I’ll give her that. But the way she talks about her fiance - you’d think she was marrying a legendary hero or something."

"This trainee sounds... exceptional."

A thought and possibility had begun to worm its way in her heart. Even though she knew she should focus elsewhere.

"The worst part? My old mentor - I’ve been vying for his attention for years - he just up and offers to teach her personally."

Her voice took on a bitter edge.

’Ah, so that’s the real issue.’

"Said she has ’unprecedented potential’. Can you believe it?"

The Yecine’s brow furrowed. It might be reasonable that El didn’t know everyone, but it sounded like something she would have talked about. Which meant the woman really was talking about...

"Perhaps she does."

The Coiled Serpent member scoffed at ’his’ response, then sidled so close that her hip bumped and stuck against the tall and severe ’swordsman’.

"Between you and me, I think this perfect fiance of hers is just a fantasy and she was probably only trying to ward off attention from men. She’s not even that cute."

The swordswoman’s jaw clenched. An unexpected amount of indignation rose in her chest! Misunderstanding the potential of a cultivator that was trying to hide it was reasonable. But to directly declare that El wasn’t cute at all (she didn’t)?

She was about to respond more diplomatically than she felt like doing, when a rustle in the nearby bushes caught her attention. Qat’s hand whipped to her sword while the other pushed out to hold back the liaison.

"Wait."

After her softly spoken order, three men emerged from the foliage. Each of them held crude implements that could barely be called weapons. Their clothes also seemed to have been unwashed for a long while.

"Well, well - looks like we’ve got ourselves some lost travelers."

The tall teenager stepped forward after the sneering from the leader of the three. She positioned herself between the liaison and the apparent bandits. Three fugitives fitting this description had been suspected of stalking the road recently, based on a report from a scouting Guild.

"We’re not lost. You’d do well to drop your weapons willingly."

The bandits all laughed at ’his’ words. They advanced slowly and the liaison clutched at Qatrand’s clothing. She wasn’t supposed to be involved in any fighting! Sure, she was a Second Echelon Enchanter... but so what?!

’I’d probably trip if I even tried to throw a punch...’

"O-oh, what are we going to do?"

Qatrand drew her blade while shrugging off the woman’s hand. Her movements were more fluid and precise than before she joined the Order due to her consistent training. Then again, much more than since she started using the illusory training tool from her future wife.

Each strike was altered by subtle Gravity manipulation, allowing her to use the large blade like it was a lighter one until the moment of impact. The bandits were unprepared for such speed and quickly found themselves disarmed and on the ground. After all, they were only mortals... the report said.

As the ’swordsman’ sheathed her sword, the liaisons eyes shone with unnecessary admiration. She clapped her hands together.

"That was incredible! You know, it’s refreshing to meet a real man who knows his worth. Not like that Elua girl’s imaginary perfect partner."

Something in Qatrand snapped at hearing the name out of the woman’s mouth. She turned her face with cold eyes and a voice calm but *firmer* than it had been in her last responses.

"I think there’s been a misunderstanding on your part. Elua er Goltbred is my fiancee."

The blonde woman’s jaw dropped.

"But... you’re... she said..."

"I am Qatrand er Yecine. I can assure you, I am very real - and that she is quite cute."

The look of shock and embarrassment on her face was almost comical. Qatrand’s chilly gaze softened at the sight and she gestured towards the path ahead.

"I believe you have a meeting to attend at the camp. I will accompany you there after tying these men up for a patrol to retrieve them."

Reaching into the satchel she carried for the length of rope she had been given, just in case she stumbled upon the fugitives, Qat started to lift and bind them all to the sturdiest nearby tree. Before she finished, her thoughts drifted to the heiress.

’I wonder what you’d say if you saw this, El. Your very real partner, defending your honor from jealous colleagues. I suppose I lived up to your stories after all?’

In fact, the brunette would likely only reply that the only ’honor’ was being seen as so cute by her husband-wife. She didn’t care at all about what some other woman said. The flirting and touching however...

---

Her mission changed from leading the woman to a meeting to leading her and two others to a reported anomaly. The mist clung to the aged trees of their target location. It seemed to distort sound and local essence alike.

Qatrand’s hand rested nervously on the pommel of her sword as she took the vanguard position of the small investigation team. Behind her, a senior from the Order spoke in a gruff voice that cut through the eerie atmosphere.

"This feels... all wrong. Never seen anything like it in forty years with the Order."

A different member fresh off their training bounced on her heels. The youngest of them’s eyes had been wide with excitement the entire trip.

"Maybe it’s a new type of beast? Or an ancient cultivation ground?"

"Quiet, girl. This isn’t some training exercise. Stay sharp."

The tall swordswoman’s brow furrowed as she took another step. The man had been right. Something felt... off. She glanced down, realizing her foot had sunk slightly into the ground. But it wasn’t muck. It was as if her body weighed far more than it should.

It didn’t take her long to realize what that meant and what the feeling around her had been.

"Be careful. The essence is... Gravity here is unstable."

The liaison from the Coiled Serpent Guild raised an eyebrow. The blonde was honestly impressed even more by the dark haired swordsman.

"Impressive... I didn’t realize the Ironclad Order trained its members in such subtle essence observations."

Before the Yecine responded the mist shifted to reveal a clearing that defied reality. Globules of water hovered in the air and caught what little sunlight filtered through the canopy. The rays cast prismatic reflections across the glade.

The light showed trees growing at impossible angles, their trunks twisting in spirals that seemed to loop back on themselves due to the changing pull of gravity over the years. The youngest of them gasped in delight.

"It’s beautiful!"

"It’s dangerous."

Their senior corrected the girl. His weathered face creased with concern. They were supposed to assess the situation with the sigilist, but *this* seemed like it needed more than a single of them to deal with. The key person approached one of the less twisted trees and her fingers traced sigils etched into the bark.

"These are... unusual. I see some similarities to some advanced techniques, but there’s something... off about them."

Qatrand’s heart skipped a beat as her gaze caught a few of them. She wasn’t well versed, but recognized elements of the sigils. They were eerily reminiscent of designs illusory tool Elua had once ’sketched absent-mindedly in the air’ while they talked about her sword.

She kept her face impassive, unwilling to reveal her fiancee’s potential connection to this mystery in front of everyone. While she wasn’t confident that El had done something at this location, she couldn’t put it past the reincarnator to do a field test!

"We should document everything we can and report back. This looks like more work than a single member can handle."

Before she had spoken, the recent trainee had already darted forward towards another tree. Her hand stretched towards a particularly intricate set of sigils.

"Look at this one! It’s so complex, I wonder what it-"

"No, don’t-!"

As fingers brushed the central sigil, it flared to life after sucking in a touch of essence from the girl. The warning Qat shouted was too late. A swirling vortex of *something* erupted from the tree and suddenly traditional gravity lost all meaning.

The swordswoman felt her feet leaving the ground while being pulled towards the maelstrom. Instinct took over. She reached for her Element, willing the essence field around her to make herself heavier - more anchored to the earth below.

Tendrils of her spirit pierced downward and pulled her field with it. Her drift towards the vortex slowed and she saw the liaison beginning to fly past. Without thinking, Qatrand grabbed the flailing wrist as her other hand grasped at a nearby tree for more support.

"Hold on!"

Muscles strained against the pull of the gravity alongside her essence reserves. The other two members of The Ironclad Order weren’t so lucky. They were drawn further into the chaos. Their sight of their forms distorted as they neared the center of the anomaly.

Qatrand grit her teeth. All her focus turned toward trying to increase her weight further. She became an anchor point, immovable against the force. For a drawn out moment, nothing new happened - then with a sound like reality tearing, the vortex collapsed in on itself having run out of essence to sustain its reaction.

Everyone dropped unceremoniously to the forest floor, Qat in particular slamming hard. The senior was the first to his feet, his face a storm of anger and concern as he checked on the shaken trainee.

"Of all the foolish, reckless-"

"It was my fault. I should have been more vigilant of everyone’s positioning"

The Yecine interrupted, standing slowly. While the man was their senior, as the one originally accompanying the liaison, she was ostensibly in charge of the mission and wasn’t going to shirk responsibility. The blonde woman brushed a few leaves from her robes.

"That was... impressive. I’ve never seen someone resist something like that without extensive training."

Qatrand shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise and look of respect. Her gaze moved back to the dormant sigils on the trees. One in particular caught her eye - a swirling pattern Elua had once idly mentioned was key to ’bending space just a little’. The implications made her head spin.

’If that was a little, what is a lot? I think that I kind of don’t want to know.’

The senior approached dragging the whimpering trainee.

"We need to report this immediately. These sigils are far too dangerous to leave unattended. Something needs to be done about them before the Descent begins."

As the team prepared to leave, the liaison sidled up close to Qatrand again. The distance and posture was like she was seeking an answer to a secret.

"So, have you had much experience with such advanced sigil work? It felt like you recognized some of the patterns."

Qatrand kept her face impassive.

"No more than in any basic training. We should focus on getting back safely."

The blonde nodded, but with a great and unresolved curiosity burning in her eyes. The swordswoman sighed inwardly. She had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last she’d hear about the incident from the woman...

So she resolved to tell El about every detail of this trip.

They made their way out of the forest without trouble... but the tall teenager was nothing but still troubled. What was Elua’s connection to these sigils? She hadn’t really gone about and tested things like this everywhere, had she?

Or more scarily... if not, then who did? The unbelievable girl she knew was a cuter pill to swallow than any other.