Chapter 242 Kill and Take -9
Chapter 242 Kill and Take -9
Darone, the inn where Barjet was staying.
Its owner was also a member of the merchant association that followed Jiha, and all other guests had already been sent out.
The moment he stepped inside, not a single rat was in sight.
Boom! Boom!
But the tremors from above were unmistakable.
Quority and Heinrich were locked in combat.
"Right, Heinrich. You must have thought this was a golden opportunity."
Still smiling, Jiha climbed the stairs to the second floor.
Heinrich and Quority evenly matched? A stalemate? He'd been a little surprised by that report, but after clashing with them himself, it was clearly false.
Quority was nothing more than an overinflated balloon. Prick it with a needle and it pops.
Even with the same Mana and comparable ability, the man lacked a true warrior's resolve. Someone that mentally weak can't fight properly, which is why armies stress morale so heavily.
There was no reason for Heinrich to be pushed back by Quority.
"He was intentionally giving ground......."
Right in front of Barjet's eyes. Deliberately.
As Jiha ascended, he saw two men and one woman facing off in the second-floor corridor.
The men were, of course, Quority and Heinrich. The woman was Barjet.
With the two men locked in confrontation, Barjet stood behind Heinrich, gripping her staff with both hands and fidgeting anxiously.
The three still hadn't noticed Jiha's arrival, and Barjet had her back turned directly to him.
'Hmm.......'
Jiha silenced his footsteps and approached.
Unlike before, Barjet wore a plain black robe with her hood pulled low. Unaware of Jiha closing in from behind, she simply watched Heinrich and Quority's standoff.
"Huff, huff."
Quority's breath came in ragged gasps, his eyes devoid of reason.
Getting carved up by Jiha and then chased out by his own kind had made his mental state dangerously unstable.
Heinrich's face, by contrast, was calm.
The numbers were even, but one glance at their faces made it obvious who held the advantage. Quority was just holding on thanks to his exceptional regeneration.
"Lady Barjet, this will end shortly. Please, be at ease."
"Yes......."
Heinrich's voice was weary, and Barjet's tone held a measure of relief.
Quority's face twisted with even greater fury at their exchange. Then his eyes flew wide open.
He had spotted Jiha slipping up right behind Barjet.
"Wh-what......."
As Quority stared in shock, Heinrich flinched, unsure if it was a trick.
Barjet reflexively tried to turn, but Jiha had already closed the distance entirely.
"Nice."
A man's powerful arm coiled around the witch's neck.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
Seized from behind without warning, Barjet thrashed in surprise, but Jiha tightened his arm and held her fast.
"Normally in this situation, you'd at least bother with a knife, but that's just so cliché, isn't it?"
Barjet panicked when she saw the Mana flowing along Jiha's arm.
Even just an arm, once wrapped in Mana, was no different from a lump of iron. Someone who let an opponent get this close couldn't guarantee their life, even a Unique. Whoever raised their Mana first held the initiative—the other still needed a moment to respond.
Heinrich spun around at Barjet's scream from behind, and his face filled with horror.
"Jiha...... sir."
"Still tacking on 'sir,' are you? Since when were we so close?"
Arm locked around Barjet's throat, Jiha offered a cold smile.
"The only ones who get to call me that are my subordinates. And you're not one of them."
"......."
Heinrich swallowed hard, his mind racing to grasp the situation.
Jiha sneered.
"Hey, I can hear those gears grinding in your head. I can hear them. So what's your plan?"
"......Take your hands off Lady Barjet. Right now."
"He says that. What do you think?"
Jiha whispered to Barjet.
Terrified, she forced her voice louder.
"Just what is the meaning of this insolence? Do you believe you can walk away from this unscathed? Purple Liberation will hold you accountable before the Investigative Committee for this rudeness. I am a Unique of the witches, and this insult demeans not just me, but all witches—!"
"What is this, the college entrance exam? Did you just cram from textbooks and study guides without any tutoring?"
"......."
Barjet's words stuck in her throat at Jiha's calm mockery.
"Who fed you the model answer for this kind of situation? Who was it? That bastard over there?"
"That......."
Hit directly on the mark, Barjet could only tremble, her lips quivering.
She was terrible at handling the unexpected.
Having shut Barjet down with ease, Jiha looked at Quority and Heinrich.
"What are you doing? Keep fighting."
Quority was completely frozen at the sight of Jiha.
He'd thought he'd managed to escape somehow. He clearly hadn't expected to come face to face with him again like this.
Heinrich, on the other hand, was calculating how to navigate the sudden reversal of a situation that had been tilting in his favor.
Jiha decided to simplify things for them.
"Quority Rosen. If you can kill that bastard and get away, I'll let you go."
"Is... is that true?"
"Why would I come all this way just to lie?"
Quority's face brightened instantly.
To him, Jiha was a terrifying monster he could never oppose, but Heinrich was someone he could actually handle.
Faced with this new development, Heinrich's expression hardened as he gripped his sword tighter.
Holding Barjet's neck from behind with one arm, Jiha used his other hand to stroke her stomach.
"Wh-what are you doing!"
"Checking your belly fat."
"S-stop it! You... you pervert!"
"If I were a pervert, would words like that make me stop?"
Jiha playfully pinched Barjet's stomach.
She jolted in shock, shaking her body, but trapped in his arms, it was a meaningless struggle.
"Let me slowly spell out the truth for you."
"Wh-what......."
"That there's not an ounce of flab on your belly, which honestly surprises me. I figured once I got that robe off, you'd have more to grab, considering your chest... but it's a miracle."
At Jiha's taunt, Barjet's face flushed scarlet with shame.
She desperately tried to look at the staff in her hand, and Jiha laughed.
"We're just getting started and you're already like this? What happens if you figure out Heinrich has been stalling on purpose? You gonna faint?"
"What?"
Boom!!
Just then, Quority charged at Heinrich.
He'd been lost, nowhere to go, then he'd met Barjet and picked a fight out of desperation, reminded of the previous day's events—only for the terrifying Jiha to reappear.
Now, Quority had nothing on his mind but to take down Heinrich and flee.
With a stony face, Heinrich met Quority's assault. He kicked him away, drove him back with elbow strikes, and kept the match even.
Watching from behind, Jiha smiled coldly.
"Look at that. He's deliberately sticking to strikes. See? He's still not even swinging that sword."
"H-he can't just hurt people. That's obvious!"
As Barjet hurried to defend Heinrich, Jiha scoffed.
There wasn't a single drop of blood in the corridor, which meant there had been no situation at all that required Quority to use his regeneration.
"Then why the hell did he draw his sword in the first place?"
"F-for unexpected situations that might arise......."
"For self-defense? You buying that lie?"
Jiha slowly rubbed Barjet's chin with his fingers.
She knew she was being utterly mocked, but she was helpless.
She couldn't figure out what to do in this hostage situation.
"Weapons exist to kill people. Heinrich has his sword drawn right now and isn't swinging it because he's deceiving you."
"D-deceiving me? What are you trying to——."
This conversation would clearly reach Heinrich's ears, even as he fought facing forward.
Yet he showed no wavering in the striking match against Quority. He really was a man skilled at hiding his true intentions.
Even that was within Jiha's grasp.
"It's about selling the image that he's a gentleman. Yes, he'll fight, but the first goal is showing you he's a harmless man. You're not used to violence, are you? Watching someone's guts spill out is so horrifying you can't even look properly."
"......."
Barjet reflexively started to nod before freezing up.
She'd realized she was a hostage, and it wasn't the time to be answering so honestly.
Jiha paid it no mind and murmured softly into her ear.
"So Heinrich is minimizing the bloodshed on purpose, to avoid shattering this image of 'the knight fighting for you who is also a harmless man.' Has Heinrich ever killed anyone in front of you?"
"No...... he hasn't."
Struck at her very core, Barjet looked utterly incredulous.
She had never imagined that Jiha, whom she'd dismissed as a rude, insolent man, would pinpoint the answer so precisely.
'Even when clashing with the escort guards, Heinrich didn't kill a single one of them.'
Jiha had already grasped Heinrich's game by that point.
Watching Quority and Heinrich's chaotic exchange of blows, Barjet spoke in a trembling voice.
"Wh-what does any of that matter! Even if what you say is true, what's so wrong about it! Maybe he was hiding his true skill, and what's so bad about doing his best not to kill his opponent!"
"You've been completely brainwashed."
Jiha laughed.
Heinrich's silver-tongued way with words was breathtaking. Even Leticia, with her weak mentality, would have been shaken if Jiha hadn't been there.
Barjet, having spent more time at Heinrich's side, had fallen for it completely.
Heinrich silently kept his fight with Quority going, likely confident in his indoctrination.
Whatever Jiha said, he figured Barjet wouldn't believe him. So he only looked ahead, thinking he'd just deal with Quority first and then handle the rest.
"Then how about this?"
Jiha deliberately withdrew the Mana from the arm wrapped around her neck.
"Ah......."
Even knowing this, Barjet couldn't move quickly.
She couldn't act because she had no idea what Jiha was scheming.
"Here. Look. Go on, look."
Jiha raised his arm to show Barjet there was nothing there.
A difference in brute strength? If Barjet raised her Mana, she could repel Jiha easily enough.
But why would he deliberately give up such an advantageous position? That question crossed Barjet's mind as well, and she couldn't bring herself to act.
"If you use your Mana right now, you can break free on your own. But......."
"Don't! Lady Barjet!"
Blocking Quority's fists, Heinrich landed a heavy kick to his gut that forced him back and shouted.
Startled by Heinrich's first loud outburst, Barjet's eyes widened.
"......Wh-why are you acting like that? Raising your voice so suddenly."
"He doesn't want you using your Mana, you see."
Jiha whispered low into Barjet's ear.
Looking even more lost, Barjet stared at Jiha whispering into her ear.
Only now did she realize some hidden circumstance was at play, one she didn't know about.
"Because......."
The moment Jiha spoke, Heinrich unleashed his sword toward the front.
Abandoning the purely hand-to-hand approach, he swung a lethal blow. Quority, who had been charging in on reflex, toppled backward with a scream.
"Grrrk... Gurgle......."
His throat deeply slashed, Quority collapsed, frothing blood.
At the sight of Heinrich killing someone, Barjet's light-purple eyes went wide.
Instinctively, she realized that the man she thought she'd known so well was someone she barely understood at all.
His blade wet with blood, Heinrich turned toward Barjet.
Smiling, just as he always did.
"You mustn't believe the words of that ruffian, Lady Barjet."
"Because if you channel your Mana, the aphrodisiac he fed you will put you in heat."
Jiha, whispering the truth to Barjet, also smiled.
The two men's smiles crossed paths.
Like a blade.