Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Incognito Knight's Conquest Chronicle
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Butler Dominic charged toward the castle gate before Jane could stop him.
The guards, who had never imagined an old man drawing his sword and storming the checkpoint, spotted him belatedly.
As they rushed into the guard post, men in suits who looked straight out of the mafia emerged from where the guards had gone.
"It's an attack! Which family are you from?!"
"The Paolo Family, right!?"
It was only natural they'd think that upon seeing an old man charging with sword drawn out of nowhere.
If someone saw that sight and thought he was an invader there to enlighten the citizens from the neighboring territory, they'd seriously suspect the observer was delusional or a prophet.
The old man didn't bother correcting their misunderstanding.
The suited men pulled out their muskets without even offering surrender.
"Fire!"
The sight of mafia goons firing muskets instead of machine guns caused a slight cognitive dissonance for Dominic, but since it wasn't entirely unfamiliar, he didn't show any bewilderment.
Amid the scene of countless muzzles aimed at him, he brought up two options in his mind.
One was to deflect them.
It was a way to clearly demonstrate the butler's combat prowess.
But showing it off right at the start of the story would diminish the dramatic twists later on.
"Then..."
He chose the second method.
Bang!
About twenty muzzles spat white smoke.
In the midst of the prolonged gunfire, the butler halted his charge and swiftly threw himself sideways.
Lead balls whizzed past his position, pattering against the ground.
Up to this point, it was a feat most superhumans could manage.
If the guns were firing from a reasonable distance and all aimed at you, it wasn't even worth calling it a feat for superhumans.
The butler resumed his charge.
Among the soldiers (grunts), the capo (squad leader) changed his orders.
"Create a wide barrage! Reload! Fire!"
The grunts aimed for a range too broad to dodge, as per the capo's command.
But Dominic took cover behind a tree to evade the attacks.
It was possible because the wider spread reduced the power in narrow areas.
One volley fired, and Dominic continued his charge.
The capo was about to order a third volley when—
Whoosh!
A handaxe slicing through the air smashed his skull, and his body toppled backward.
The musketeers' heads instinctively turned.
Their gazes lingered on the red puddle staining the ground.
That shocking sight made them forget their dire situation, if only for a moment.
Even so, as low-level members of a crime syndicate somewhat accustomed to blood and death, they snapped back to reality quickly.
"You make others bleed while shrinking from your own blood."
By then, the devil was already upon them.
- "Draw swords!"
If the capo had been alive, that's what he would have ordered.
They discarded their muskets and reached for their swords.
But before they could draw, Dominic's blade passed through their wrists.
As wrists flew into the air, the butler didn't stop, murmuring.
"Don't call it cowardly. This is the only way an old man survives."
Of course, none of them would live to hear it, but it was a courteous character explanation for the vigilante woman watching from behind.
Dominic spun once, drawing a silver circle, then slowly slashed downward.
He immediately left the spot, and only then did the mafia around him erupt in fountains of blood.
Having turned the checkpoint into a sea of blood in an instant, the butler returned to the group with a kindly smile.
"Perhaps because I'm old, but having to resort to such tricks is truly lamentable."
At those words, Vigilante Jane swallowed hard while taking in the sight of corpses split from torso to groin.
'What the hell have I been fighting?'
He wasn't stronger than the tax officer.
Given the tax officer's prowess she'd seen at the mansion, he would have whipped up a storm of blades at the checkpoint and dispatched them silently.
But this butler's strength was of a different kind.
'I could recreate that too.'
But thinking of it and executing it in real combat were entirely different matters.
Jane called it experience.
The hierarchy emanating from the old man's body was rank 3.
But that experience was beyond any measurable realm.
The tax officer's strength was straightforward, allowing for strategies, but the butler's unpredictability made him even more ominous.
Once her thoughts reached that point, even the old man's kindly smile looked different.
Not the smile of one detached from the world, but confidence that he could handle anything with those two swords.
'Damn. I underestimated him because he's an old superhuman.'
Among superhumans who delayed aging, being overtaken by it meant hitting the limit of one's talent.
That's why she'd underestimated the butler.
But...
'Maybe not.'
He might just be an eccentric who accepted aging.
She revised her assessment of the old man.
'Come to think of it, he's the bodyguard dispatched by the regime that ousted Count Karognar.'
Originally, she'd only planned to assassinate the mafia alliance executives.
With such a small group, dreaming of wiping out families and liberating the city was impossible.
But having witnessed the duo's prowess, she had no choice but to reconsider.
'Maybe, with these two...'
She could afford the luxury of pursuing justice a little.
In the grim reality where she'd resigned herself, the woman's heart began to beat again.
"Eek—!"
The monkey beastkin (a bit furry) let out a death cry and collapsed to the floor.
He was an executive of the Mafia Alliance and the boss of the [Skim Familgia], which ruled the city.
Crimson-haired elf Jane panted as she wiped the blood from her sword.
"One down."
In the room where the boss had fallen, she replayed the fierce battle.
His skill was nearly equal to hers.
If the two who came with her hadn't blocked the other executives, she might have lost.
Thus, she'd taken down one of the nine executives.
But even after vengeance, she didn't feel good.
'This guy... at the end...'
Their skills were even.
Yet she'd won without a scratch, merely winded, because the boss hadn't focused on the fight, worrying about his men.
She bit her lip lightly and gazed at the fallen boss's corpse.
Even as he died, his rage was for another reason.
- "My children!!!"
He truly saw his subordinates as family.
Otherwise, it didn't explain holding back his ultimate move until death, fearing it'd involve them.
With a dark expression, she turned her gaze outside the room.
The corridor beyond was littered with mafia corpses.
Atop that pile of bodies, the squinting tax officer and enigmatic butler conversed casually.
- "This'll take quite a while to clean up."
- "I fought too messily. I'll be careful next time."
- "No, Butler. I can handle this much with my magic."
The sight of them treating human corpses like trash was eerie at first glance.
But what made her more uncomfortable was knowing they'd deliberately brought the boss's men close to seal his ultimate move.
Especially the butler, who, whenever the boss seemed about to unleash a big technique, timed it perfectly to decapitate a mafia executive at eye level, disrupting his focus.
"Tch."
Unpleasant.
'This makes me look like the villain.'
She thought that for a moment but shook her head to dismiss it.
'Who am I to play the hero of justice?'
She dismissed her earlier thought as hypocrisy and redefined her discomfort.
'Right. It's displeasure at breaking the promise.'
Definitely not the stirrings of lingering justice in her heart.
Sneering at herself for clinging to pretense, she approached the two.
The butler greeted her with a kindly smile and offered a handkerchief.
"Are you finished?"
"Don't interfere next time."
"I don't know what you mean."
"I'm not an idiot."
"...My apologies. It was presumptuous meddling."
"I'll accept the apology."
She wiped the blood from her face with the handkerchief.
She returned it to the butler and headed for the exit without even glancing at the tax officer handling the corpses with magic.
"Hoo..."
Suppressing her fatigue and feigning strength as she walked to the exit.
Her steps even felt a bit hurried.
Right after killing the boss, she'd gained enlightenment. She wanted to consolidate it alone in the room.
But knowing she was on the verge of a hierarchy breakthrough, she feared the butler stabbing her in the back.
Dominic called out to her.
"Miss."
"I'm not your miss."
She was aware her attitude was ugly but didn't correct it.
Yet Dominic, without a hint of displeasure, called her gently.
"Shall I call you Lady, then?"
"Creepy."
"Then I'll stick with Miss. Miss, did you just gain enlightenment?"
Her head, which had been turned away, swiveled toward the butler.
That was answer enough.
Her heart began pounding fiercely.
Unaware or not of her feelings, the butler admonished her gently.
"You mustn't turn killing intent into enlightenment."
Grind.
Already displeased, Jane grew even more irritated.
"Who are you to lecture? My master now?"
"No. But as an old human who's achieved nothing, I can't just watch the young rush toward a cliff."
"Mind your own business."
"Hmm."
Dominic quickly analyzed her.
Like with Ari, authority and words wouldn't persuade her.
But letting the story's protagonist fall so soon didn't sit well with him.
Otherwise, he couldn't properly play the final boss role in this tale.
"Then..."
Having organized his thoughts, Dominic let out a deep sigh.
Immediately after, thick killing intent rose from the old man's body.
'!!!'
Exposed directly to the killing intent, Jane's body stiffened.
'What old man...'
Beyond the blood-scented aura, she even hallucinated the wails of the dead.
As if proclaiming how many corpses he'd piled up.
On Dominic's face, once bearing a kindly smile, only shadowed features and crimson eyes glowed.
The monster, now questionable if even called old, spoke.
"I... don't want to cut down another beast drunk on blood."
Was it illusion that deep regret colored the monster's threatening words?
Instinctively, she nodded.
Pledging never again to make killing intent her enlightenment.
Only then did the old man release his killing intent, returning to normal as he straightened his attire.
"Miss, there's enough foolish old men to walk that blood-soaked path."
The butler smiled contentedly and returned to his master, the tax officer.
Jane couldn't tear her eyes from his receding back.