Chapter 39: Sowing Seeds - 2
Chapter 39: Sowing Seeds - 2
Bam!
The door burst open and three men rushed in.
Whirl!
Jiha, already lying in wait, hurled a bottle.
Crash!
The first man through the door took it square on the head and crumpled.
The other two froze by the doorway, thrown into confusion.
They'd come to ambush him and walked right into one themselves. That didn't make for quick thinking.
Jiha smiled coldly.
"We meet again."
All of the men who'd stormed in were elves, and the one standing second was Pamin.
Pamin's face went rigid at the sight of his unconscious comrade and Jiha's relaxed composure.
Some instinct told him this was going wrong.
But by then there was no turning back. Pamin adjusted his grip on his sword, but Jiha was already throwing himself backward.
Behind him was the window.
The attackers, never imagining he'd leap straight out from the third floor, failed to react.
Crash!
Glass shattered as Jiha dropped.
He reinforced his body with Mana to land vertically without a scratch, though a three-story fall still carried some impact.
But as he fell, Jiha spread his wings.
Like a hang glider, he glided briefly to line up his target, then dove straight down.
The male elf on the ground, who'd assumed Jiha would plummet and had let his guard drop, stared with his mouth hanging open.
"What the—"
Jiha was on him in an instant, driving his sword home before the man could belatedly try to dodge.
Shunk.
The male elf let out a single groan as the blade punched through his chest, then collapsed.
"They really are amateurs..."
Pamin's crew had stationed one man behind the building just in case Jiha tried to flee out the window.
The positioning showed some thought, but their actual ability to respond was sorely lacking.
"Four left. One's unconscious... and given the setup, there's probably one more at the entrance."
Jiha withdrew his sword just as elves leaned out the window above.
"Dakar!"
"You insane bastard! You stabbed a Rare Grade!"
"Don't you move!"
Pamin and his companion shouted at the top of their lungs, then spun around.
They were assuming Jiha was fleeing and meant to chase him down.
But Jiha was walking briskly toward the front entrance of the tavern, Madrum.
Contrary to what they thought, he hadn't burst out to run away.
"A blind spot..."
Nobody expects the man who smashed through a window to come right back in.
"They'll be fumbling around at the emergency exit."
A place like this tavern always has a back passage or two.
Jiha was heading straight for the front door.
"The commotion will have sent a signal by now... I'll finish this before the last key piece arrives."
Jiha muffled his footsteps as he climbed the stairs and spotted the back of the elf guarding Madrum's front entrance.
The man stood with his back stubbornly turned, oblivious to the ruckus inside.
His job was probably to stop Jiha if he tried to bolt out the front.
Jiha quietly manipulated Shadow Hand.
A shadow stretched silently up the stairs and crept across the floor to the man's feet.
Snatch!
"What—"
The man whipped around in shock as something suddenly yanked his ankle.
Jiha swung his sword without hesitation as the elf came flailing through the air like a ball.
The man's throat opened, spraying blood as he sprawled across the floor.
"Three left now. One of them's still unconscious, I expect..."
When the enemy has numbers, you defeat them in detail.
Worried about Jiha escaping, they'd split their forces, and Jiha had cleaned up two of them with hardly any effort.
When Jiha entered through the front, the hallway was empty.
"Pamin cleared everyone out to make the job clean, no witnesses..."
Jiha walked with light steps toward the room where they'd been drinking.
The goblin and kobold who came scurrying out recognized him and stopped dead.
"C-Chief..."
"Uh... uh."
Finding Jiha blocking the corridor perfectly intact when they'd thought he'd fled, Bunorak and Deubang couldn't get the words out.
Jiha looked at Deubang and asked,
"You said you'd pledge your life and swear loyalty to me, right? Your chance has come."
"Sir?"
"Who's volunteering?"
Deubang shouted reflexively.
"I-I'll live, Chief!"
"You son of a..."
Bunorak's hand darted toward his chest, but Jiha had already swung his sword without pause.
Goblins are physically frailer than humans. They rely on tools and tricky tactics, but Jiha never gave him the chance.
Bunorak dropped with a single choked cry.
Jiha jerked his chin toward Deubang.
"Back to the room we were in."
"Y-yes..."
Deubang, understanding perfectly well that failure to obey meant ending up like Bunorak, could only nod frantically.
With Deubang in front, Jiha returned to the original room and felt a flicker of surprise.
The other women had already fled. Only Lijin remained.
Lijin looked startled to see Jiha back, and even more startled at the bloodied sword in his hand.
"This is awkward."
"...Are you going to kill me too?"
"Why did you stay?"
Lijin gave a surprising answer.
"I'll cooperate."
"To save your skin?"
"The other two women already ran. Dealing with them as well would make this too big. But if I give testimony that favors you, the matter can be settled more smoothly."
"And what makes you think cooperating with me will make it smooth?"
"Because you knew the attack was coming. That means you've also prepared for the aftermath."
So saying, Lijin pointed to the liquor bottle and Jiha's soaked trousers.
She was indicating them as proof that Jiha had anticipated the ambush.
Sharp woman.
Jiha wasn't a mindless killer.
He used what could be used, and killed when there was sufficient reason.
Even now, with blood spilled, he'd already lined up the cleanup.
Lijin's proposal would let him resolve things more easily.
"What reason do I have to trust you?"
"Because if I play the fool and stick to pure honesty, things will blow up spectacularly, and I don't want that."
Lijin's eyes were still on the male elf lying unconscious on the floor.
Pamin and his companion had rushed off to chase Jiha and hadn't had time to deal with him.
"Given how this turned out, this tavern will have to close, and my uncle will end up on the street. But if it ends at just that, we'll be lucky."
Lijin had volunteered to cooperate out of concern for the tavern's other patrons—the two women who'd been at the table earlier.
Jiha nodded, then held out his sword to Deubang.
"Finish it."
He meant to kill the unconscious elf.
"Ch-Chief..."
"Or would you rather take this and come at me?"
At Jiha's quiet question, Deubang took the sword with trembling hands.
After a moment's hesitation, Deubang squeezed his eyes shut and drove the blade into the unconscious elf's chest.
Deubang was a Summoning War participant too. He'd fought for his life before; taking a life wasn't what made him shudder now.
The problem was that the victim was a Rare Grade.
If this ever came out, Deubang would die horribly.
Deubang looked at Jiha with terror on his face.
He couldn't fathom what Jiha was thinking, slaughtering Rare Grade elves without discrimination.
"Wondering how I'm going to clean this up?"
"...We're all dead."
"Call it self-defense."
"Who's going to believe that?! Even if they did, we'd still be in trouble!"
Deubang cried out desperately.
"A Rare Grade getting beaten by a Common would be a disgrace. But killing them is a different story!"
The reason Pamin hadn't made a public issue of getting thrashed by Jiha was that it would destroy his honor.
But killing couldn't be buried.
"Even if self-defense were accepted as a mitigating factor, you and I are dead men! Blue Seal will just offer up both our heads to reach a settlement with Purple!"
"If your head works that well, why did you betray me?"
Jiha's voice was icy.
Deubang, mid-outburst, faltered.
He tried to speak, but Jiha waved a hand.
"You don't have to say it. I know. You resented me. Thought I was just lazing around while bleeding you dry. Ignored the theory that I was the reason the Summoning War entered a ceasefire—ignored the fact that you weren't dying anymore."
"..."
"You two just didn't like me. So when someone offered you money to betray me, you jumped at it without thinking twice."
Deubang shook his head with a pained expression.
"How are we supposed to trust you? You might have Mana, but how exactly are you going to overturn this whole world?"
Deubang glared at Jiha with eyes full of envy and fury.
"Just kill me now. I think that'd be better."
"No, you need to live."
Jiha smiled and shook his head.
"Tonight, a quarrel broke out at the drinking table over a girl. You and Bunorak fought back desperately against the elves who attacked you. But sadly, Bunorak fell, and only you survived."
"..."
Deubang let out a hollow, incredulous laugh.
"Why would I, after betraying you, give false testimony for your sake? I'm dead anyway! And even if I did, do you think anyone would buy it?"
A goblin and a kobold barely 1.2 meters tall had killed Mana-using Rare Grade elves?
No one with a brain would believe it.
Deubang brandished the sword he was holding—Jiha's sword.
"Is that why you made me hold this sword and finish off that elf? Even if the security officer buys it, Purple isn't stupid! They'll figure out it was you in a heartbeat!"
"I don't think so."
Jiha snorted, and Deubang's expression stiffened.
Lijin spoke up.
"You have a final plan."
"That's right. I'm waiting for the person who'll handle the cleanup."
Jiha answered leisurely.
Two sets of footsteps came pounding down the corridor. Jiha frowned and held out his hand to Deubang.
"Give me the sword."
Jiha gave the order calmly.
"The plan's gone a little off track. Those two are coming back. If you don't hand it over, you die anyway. Or do you want to come at me with that and get yourself killed?"
It was a maddening situation for Deubang, but Jiha, the man setting him up as the fake culprit, was the only one who could protect him right now.
There was no guarantee that a rage-blinded Pamin would spare Deubang.
Deubang gave up, flipped the sword around, and offered the hilt.
Bam!
The door flew open and Pamin and his comrade charged in.
The two men's faces were on the verge of exploding with rage at having been completely played.
"You—you bastard!"
Jiha spoke coldly.
"Couldn't find me, so you went to call the one guarding the front door and found him dead. You got back a little quicker than I expected, but this works too."
"Insane... insane..."
Pamin stared in horror, shaking his head.
He'd never imagined three of his comrades could be killed by a Common. Let alone picked off one by one without a fight.
The other man's face was also twisted with fury, but soon turned smug.
"We don't even have to deal with this crazy Common ourselves. Pamin! Let's get out of here before people start showing up!"
"What?"
The male elf shouted loudly.
"He killed Rare Grades. He's a dead man walking anyway!"
"..."
There was no telling what else Jiha had prepared.
The two men couldn't muster the nerve to attack blindly.
The string of deaths among comrades of comparable skill only made them hesitate more.
"Pamin!"
Even with his comrade urging him, Pamin couldn't make himself move right away.
He wanted to kill Jiha with his own hands.
The man who had insulted the fiancée he adored, and then beaten him one-sidedly in front of her—he wanted to tear him apart personally.
"Are you coming at me or not?"
At Jiha's taunt, strength surged into Pamin's grip.
Just as he was about to take a big step forward, Jiha chuckled.
"Time's up."
"What?"
Everyone in the room looked puzzled, but then quick footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Bang!
The door slammed open and two people entered.
The red-haired succubus, Yura.
The other was a blonde elf.
"What is this..."
The last key Jiha had been waiting for.
Purple's Unique, Leticia.