Chapter 169: Creating an Opportunity - 10
Chapter 169: Creating an Opportunity - 10
Lungtao stared at Jiha with a heavy gaze.
"That's a deep wound."
"Wait, Lungtao! What are you doing? I told you to kill him!"
Narsha screamed, and Lungtao turned back to her, shaking his head.
"Narsha, moving the escort guards without a word to me to pull something like this... I'm deeply disappointed."
"Disappointed? Did you just say disappointed? Just where do you get the—"
In response, Lungtao slowly raised his hand.
Smack!
"......"
Struck on the cheek, Narsha blinked, her face a mask of disbelief.
After a long pause, she slowly looked up at Lungtao.
"...Did you... did you just hit me?"
Narsha's face went pale, like a fallen queen watching a wall that had stood for centuries finally crumble.
"...I'll kill you both. I'll kill you both!"
Staggering backward, Narsha clutched her whip and summoned a surge of Mana.
Lungtao looked at her, his face devoid of expression.
Jiha stepped forward to stand against her, but Lungtao raised an arm, blocking him.
"Let me handle this."
"......"
"This is my burden to bear."
Lungtao's voice was heavy with finality, and Jiha stopped in his tracks.
Narsha glared at Lungtao with pure resentment, but she didn't lash out with the whip right away.
Before, she'd used it without a second thought. Now, she hesitated.
As Narsha and Lungtao faced off, Leticia and Yura finished dealing with the remaining escort guards and came to stand behind Jiha.
They looked over Jiha's injuries, then took in the scene before them, their faces clouding with confusion.
Into the silence, Jiha spoke.
"Narsha, if you fight now, you will die. Guaranteed."
"......"
If Leticia, Yura, and Jiha all went for Narsha at once, she wouldn't survive.
But if Jiha attacked Narsha, Lungtao would step in to stop him.
And there was no way Lungtao had come alone. More escort guards were likely on standby nearby. If Lungtao joined the fight, they would all swarm in.
That would lead to an unintended all-out battle.
Reading the state of the board, Jiha made his decision.
"Turn around and leave now, and I'll let you live."
Grind.
Narsha pressed her hand against the arm Jiha had slashed. She looked from Jiha to Lungtao, her eyes filled with accusation, then slowly turned away.
Lungtao watched her disappear. He didn't turn around until her figure was completely out of sight.
Seeing Jiha's wounds, he bowed his head deeply.
"I am truly sorry. You have my apology."
"Forget it. Bleeding is just another day for me."
"Our duel will be postponed until those wounds are fully healed. I will make it firmly clear to Narsha that she is never to do this again."
"Do as you like."
Lungtao bowed his head once more, then turned to the remaining escort guards.
Some were dead, others merely wounded.
"I will handle this situation. If you need a healer..."
"No, I've got it covered. I'll take care of my own."
Jiha and Lungtao exchanged a brief look.
"Until next time, then."
"Yeah."
Jiha and Lungtao turned and walked away from each other with unyielding strides.
Leticia rushed forward to help, but Jiha raised a hand to stop her.
He didn't want to show any weakness, not until the very end.
At the Blue Seal Barracks.
Yura and Leticia were restless with worry, but Jiha calmly made his own way to the infirmary.
Sirel, who was on duty, turned at the sound of him entering without a knock. Her face went blank.
"Oh my god..."
Sirel had seen all sorts of gruesome injuries and corpses, but even she looked horrified. Jiha's state was beyond words.
He looked like a piece of paper shredded to ribbons. The skin was torn, burst open, and bruised everywhere. There wasn't an inch of unblemished flesh below his neck.
"It looks worse than it is. Nothing critical."
Jiha's own voice was detached.
His internal organs weren't damaged, and the bleeding or wounds weren't deep.
'Narsha underestimated me. If she had actually wanted to kill me, she would have aimed for the throat or an eye from the start.'
Her first instinct had been to disable him, to take him alive.
The fact that he was only this beaten up was because he had reinforced his body with Mana. An ordinary person would have been beaten to death.
"......"
A startled Sirel moved to sit him down, but she stopped herself.
"No. The cloth is stuck to the blood."
His clothes and flesh were torn, and the drying blood had glued everything together. Sitting down would only make things worse.
Sirel quickly grabbed a pair of scissors and cut his clothes off.
Seeing Jiha bare, she was even more appalled.
His body looked like the corpse of a cat that a cruel child had hacked at with a knife.
The only difference was that this one was still alive and breathing.
"What kind of insane bastard..."
Sirel hissed a curse, the kind she never usually uttered, and immediately channeled her healing art.
Jiha let out a bitter laugh.
"That's kind of hot, you cursing."
"Is this a joke to you? What bitch did this? Which one?"
Grinding her teeth, Sirel scrubbed the blood away with a wet cloth and healed the torn flesh.
But Jiha's condition was such a patchwork of injuries that even an exceptional healer like Sirel couldn't fix it all in one go.
As Sirel sweated more heavily than ever during a treatment, Jiha spoke quietly.
"I think the first round of treatment is done. Get some rest. I'll head out and—"
"I'm really angry right now, so shut up."
"......"
She was clearly furious.
Sirel would heal until her Mana ran dry, then scrub the blood with a wet cloth and meticulously apply ointment. Once her Mana recovered a bit, she would heal again, repeating the cycle over and over.
The effort was so earnest, so thorough, Jiha didn't offer a single complaint.
Knock, knock.
At the sound, Lijin poked her head through a gap in the door.
Sirel shot her a furious glare.
"I'm in the middle of treatment. No one comes in."
"Well... everyone is asking to come in."
Lijin carefully asked for permission. Jiha spoke to Sirel.
"Let them in."
"......"
Sirel nodded, a look of resignation on her face, and Lijin opened the door.
As if they had been waiting right outside, people poured in.
The Uniques: Enril, Yura, Leticia, and Asira.
Enril and Asira, who had come running the moment they heard the news, saw Jiha's back and recoiled in shock.
Lijin leaned in and whispered to Jiha.
"Some of the other Commons wanted to come too, but Mr. Uben is holding them back for now. Should I let them in?"
"No, tell them I'll come out shortly. For now, have them all wait. And tell the Purple Commons to gather here as well."
Lijin nodded and went back outside.
Enril's face was aghast as she started toward Jiha, but she froze in her tracks.
Sirel was glaring at her with a razor-sharp look.
"I'm just a healer, but I'll say this once. Look at the state he's in. What exactly were you people doing? Do you see these wounds? Someone did this for the sole purpose of tearing him apart. This wasn't a fight; it was pure torment."
Sirel tore a curtain from around the bed and draped it over Jiha's naked body.
Uncharacteristically for her, she snapped at the Uniques without a shred of deference.
"I'm a nobody, a healer. I don't know how things work in the barracks or what's going on with people in high places. But does it seem normal to you for him to come back beaten to a pulp like this?"
"......"
"If you have an excuse, make it. Go on!"
She sounded like an overprotective guardian or mother who had completely lost it after seeing her child come home thrashed.
What was truly remarkable was that the four Uniques had no response, all just glancing at each other awkwardly while she fumed.
As they all fell silent, Sirel growled at them.
"I don't know what's going on, but handle it. Make a total example of them so this never happens again. Get thorough revenge. Understood?"
Leticia hesitated, then spoke up.
"Uh, well, I'm a Purple Unique, you see..."
"And?"
"...No, nothing. I'll take care of it."
Cowed, Leticia couldn't manage another word.
Sirel's voice was ice cold.
"Then get out now, all of you. Go do it. I'll be here treating him."
"I could help, too..."
Asira began carefully, but Sirel cut her off with an annoyed tone.
"The damage to his shoulder and back muscles requires delicate treatment. Just go out and do your jobs."
"How bad is it?"
When Enril asked, her voice laced with worry, Sirel frowned and glared at her.
"I will do my best. So leave. All of you being here is just a nuisance."
"......"
"Are you leaving, or not?"
In a hospital, the doctor is king.
Ultimately, the four Uniques had to leave, their faces still etched with worry.
"Hooooh..."
After her furious outburst, Sirel pulled the cloth off Jiha's body again and resumed her treatment.
Jiha, who had been silently observing the situation, finally spoke.
"You might get fired for that."
"...I was just too angry to help it."
Sirel sighed heavily, a hint of regret in her voice.
Still, she seemed to have calmed down a bit, as her next words were spoken in her usual intimate manner.
"Well, my Jiha will take care of me if that happens, right?"
"Guess I'd have to put you on a diet, then."
"Ugh, even beaten to a pulp, you still run your mouth."
Sirel let out a wry laugh but never stopped healing him.
By the time Sirel was completely drained, Jiha's second round of treatment was finished.
She had intended to start the third round immediately, but Jiha insisted she get some sleep and finish it after she woke up. Then, he headed for the mess hall.
The Commons were gathered there.
Half the faces were unfamiliar.
They were the ones who had chosen to follow Jiha, but whom he'd rarely seen because they were from a different faction: the Purple Commons.
As if mixing still felt awkward, they sat in separate groups by faction.
'Makes sense.'
Before the Summoning War's armistice, they'd been at each other's throats, trying to kill one another.
There were probably some in the room still grinding their teeth at the one who had killed a friend.
"We're starting a new operation from now on."
"What do we need to do?"
"What you all do best. And what you can do even better."
Jiha got straight to the point.
"You all know Dirga Narsha Russellarms is currently inside Waris, right? And that thousands of her escort guards are running wild?"
"We know."
"Just because they're carrying good weapons, some of them try to pick fights. I can't tell you how many times I've had to hold back from taking the bait."
The escort guards' reputation was as bad as it could be.
They were a violent collective that worshipped strength, and plenty of them were eager to show off their skills to catch Narsha's eye.
An escort guard never backed down from a fight. In fact, they were often the ones starting them.
"We're going to smash them."
"...With just us?"
All the Commons gathered here didn't even add up to sixty people.
Weren't they up against a massive group of over two thousand?
"If you move according to my orders, it'll be enough."
Jiha already had the next phase planned out.
A glimmer of anticipation lit up the Commons' faces.
"From this moment, you'll form teams of five. I'd like to let you form your own teams, but this isn't a school field trip. Uben and I will assign the teams based on your individual abilities and the overall balance. The resulting twelve squads will rotate in to methodically shatter the escort guards."
"But we're Commons. Will that really be okay?"
Zrambul, the alligator beastman Jiha had first fought after gaining his vampiric Mana, voiced his concern.
He was worried about political fallout. As he fretted over the future consequences, Jiha stated flatly,
"I'll take full responsibility for any problems like that. All you have to do is go out there and beat down the ones I tell you to. Don't kill them if you can help it. But don't get yourselves killed trying not to kill them. I'd rather you just kill them and come back."
"......"
Excitement flared on the Commons' faces.
They had all sworn to follow Jiha with their lives on the line, so they took his word as absolute and unquestionable.
"I'll take responsibility. I'm giving you permission."
Into the heated silence, Jiha tossed another log on the fire.
"Wreck them."
Two thousand three hundred with excellent weapons?
Sixty slaves will beat them to a pulp.