“I-is that… right?” said Kanata. “Alright. I’ll make sure to tell everyone else, too. Anyone who interferes with you is – barrier.”

Kanata quickly pulled the trigger of the crossbow that he had been keeping hidden inside the floor with Gungnir. No matter how Vandalieu answered, Kanata had been planning to find an opening and shoot him to death anyway.

The bolt fired from the crossbow passed straight through the barrier that Vandalieu had put up instinctively, grazed his ear and bounced loudly off the wall behind him.

The bolt hadn’t missed. Vandalieu had dodged it.

“I see,” he said. “Your cheat-like ability is penetration… Not only through physical objects, but it can even penetrate my barrier.”
Kanata had been certain that his surprise attack would go well, but now his face stiffened at how easily Vandalieu had avoided it. But Vandalieu’s Danger Sense: Death had been reacting long before Kanata had even bowed before him.

That was why Vandalieu had been staring intently at Kanata. Kanata had only thought that there was an opening because he had been unable to read Vandalieu’s expressionless face.

And Vandalieu had actually heard from the spirits that Kanata’s cheat-like ability was a penetration ability, so he’d already had a good idea of what was coming.

At the very least, he had known that Kanata wasn’t an enemy that he could let down his guard against just because there were obstacles and barriers between them.