Gangs of Romania (3)
The knight was pushed back but endured the explosion. The technique was effective with its lightning-fast speed and high-heat flames, but the actual explosive force wasn’t all that impressive.
‘Of course, I already knew that from the moment I started practicing the technique.’
I dashed forward while manipulating additional mana.
─Shrrrrr!
The flames spun and clung to the knight’s shield. It looked almost like a mother bird warming her eggs, but the heat was far from gentle.
The flames that had been released from my body were seized once more and made to rotate, clinging tightly to the enemy’s shield.
“What?!”
“You manipulated mana you’d already detached from your body?!”
The knight’s shock and the archer’s scream overlapped. The knight froze at the heat clinging to her shield, and though the arrow the archer fired was fast and stealthy, it wasn’t impossible to dodge.
─Fwoosh!
I evaded the three-shot burst and closed in on the archer. It would be annoying if they kept sniping me from afar while I fought. And judging by appearances, the archer’s defense looked low—maybe subduing her would open room for conversation.
“Tch!”
The knight’s decision was swift. She tore off the shield that the blue flames had stuck to. She must not have wanted to be steamed alive inside her armor while holding a shield covered in fire. I had intended to make her discard it, but I hadn’t expected her to react so quickly.
Still, she couldn’t keep up with my speed. Her skills weren’t so poor that she’d be hindered by the weight of her armor, but her base movement speed was simply slower than mine.
‘Alright. What will she pull out?’
A throwing spear? Another magic item? As I deflected arrows, I tried to predict how the knight would intercept me while I targeted the archer.
And the choice she made completely caught me off guard.
She tucked her lance against her side and lowered her stance.
─Tzzat!
The knight accelerated to several times her original speed with almost no sound. It was a straight-line charge, but that single dash was dramatically faster than mine. She seemed to be using some unique martial art.
‘…This could be dangerous.’
A lance is also called a cavalry lance. The power created by combining that weight and sturdy spear with a horse’s speed was not to be underestimated even in this other world.
I silently dodged the lance knight charging at me faster than a horse.
‘Fucking CP9. She’s using Soru.’
If she were an enemy I could kill, I might have collided with her head-on like two trucks smashing together, but doing so would have left either me or her with serious injuries.
─Thwack!
The lance grazed the fur cloak of my Jesus-mode outfit. It had hit, but it couldn’t pierce through. This was giant leather armor, after all. Still, a direct hit might have been dangerous.
‘Fuck. Why do I keep running into such strong bastards lately?’
The black mafia wizard bastard was the same. This wasn’t even a game, yet it felt like every time I got stronger, the enemies leveled up too.
Tsk. Complaining wouldn’t change anything.
I rationally countered my own grumbling. Even in the rural backwater of Sargadis, there were plenty of strong people. Just among those I’d met, there were the three guild branch leaders, plus the adventurer team that had bought time against a unicorn dark mage—I couldn’t count them on one hand.
If this had been during my weak days, I would have had to squeeze out every last drop of my soul fighting the mafia I’d just subdued, and against these two I’d probably have had to run my mouth or something to survive.
Looked at that way, I had simply grown stronger; the ratio of powerful people in the world hadn’t changed much. A city several times larger than Sargadis would naturally have several times more skilled fighters.
“Still, you’re not at the level of a true master.”
I deliberately spoke the words out loud to provoke her. While dodging her attack, I kicked the now-shieldless shoulder.
When she had her full equipment, both sides had been heavily guarded, but now that she’d thrown away her shield, that was no longer the case.
─Crash! Bang!
The knight, struck by my kick, lost her balance in the middle of her acceleration and tumbled across the floor. Yet she sprang right back up and chased after me. What incredible toughness.
By the way, “chased after me” meant she used that ultra-acceleration again. Her mental state—fearless even after rolling across the floor like a motorcycle accident—was worthy of a first-rate warrior.
Unfortunately for her, it was a bad move against me.
─Flash.
Odin’s Eye saw through the flow of mana.
The first true master-class warrior I had ever met was Nefertiti. While teaching me the tricks of technique, she had said:
A true master polishes their own unique technique and masters it through repeated practice.
"Create a systematic attack, like a magic formula."
"You simply need to carve the path your mana moves most comfortably and familiarly into your body."
⟨ That is what makes a technique strongest and fastest. ⟩
This knight must have done the same. That ultra-acceleration dash that allowed her to perform a mounted charge without a horse was undoubtedly her own technique, forged through repeated training until it became as systematic as a magic formula.
However, because of that very systematic structure, it was visible to Odin’s Eye.
The mana that rotated and compressed like a spring, granting elasticity to her legs, was clear as day. It was a technique that absorbed impact from ankle to knee to waist, converting every bit of force used to kick off the ground into pure speed without waste.
I clutched my throbbing head and stepped in a zigzag pattern.
Bang—!
The knight dashed. She had only used her right foot for the initial acceleration. She had probably planned to accelerate once more midway to disorient me, but now that I had seen through it, it was meaningless.
Blood Hand Demonic Art — Calamity Wall
I spread the mana coating from Beast Regression like a wall.
“Damn it!”
The charging knight saw the flames erupting upward like an inverted waterfall, but she couldn’t stop.
Beneath the visor of her helmet—whose hood had been thrown back—eyes filled with self-reproach were visible.
─Kwaaang!
The colliding knight was launched toward the ceiling like a car hitting a speed bump. She looked incredibly sturdy, so she probably wouldn’t die from that much.
─Thud!
Distracted by my thoughts, I got hit by an arrow. It didn’t pierce the leather armor, but it still hurt. The archer, who had secured the high ground, clenched her jaw at the lack of arrow power but continued firing rapidly as if determined to empty her quiver.
Thanks to the magic item, the arrows curved like eels swimming underwater. Holy shit, she was using changing trajectories in archery. If I hadn’t read martial arts novels where the protagonist was an archer, I would have been in big trouble.
‘…Germanium one-night special at a super low price!’
I forgot to turn off Odin’s Eye.
Blood Hand Demonic Art — Phoenix Wing
─Flap!!
I put into practice the realization I had gained while communicating with birds. I wildly swung the flames spread across my arms like a matador’s cape, sweeping the arrows away.
At the same time, I tried imitating the technique I had just seen.
‘Like this?’
I compressed mana in my feet like a spring, then stepped firmly to unleash the repulsive force as speed.
─Fwoong!
Because it was a clumsy first attempt, the speed wasn’t satisfying. Still, I had jumped all the way to the warehouse window without using Mungge Mungge—Stealth Step, so let’s say it did its job.
…Screeech!
Surprisingly, the archer didn’t run away and instead aimed at me. She must have thought I couldn’t dodge while in mid-air. Since I wasn’t wearing a helmet, she probably figured hitting my head would be enough.
‘Well, there’s mana coating inside my head too.’
Since it had come to this, I decided to break her will. I ignited Blood Hand Demonic Art flames around my head. My head transformed into a burning skull, blazing like a fierce demon.
“…Hik?!”
The archer’s hands trembled in fear, and the arrow went wide. The arrow that grazed the flaming skull turned into a fire arrow and embedded itself in the ceiling.
I delivered a carefully controlled kick to her stomach. It was basically just a light tap with the tip of my foot.
But—cardiopulmonary arrest technique, ON.
Blood Hand Demonic Art — Ghost Rider Kick
─Thump!
“──Kuhek, cough!”
The cardiopulmonary arrest technique with adjusted output was also effective for subduing. To remain calm after taking a hit to the internal organs, one needed either monstrous grit or defensive measures inside the body like I had.
It was probably similar to the pain men feel when hit in their external organs—the balls. Using a metaphor for hitting a woman might be inappropriate, but the pain would be comparable.
I caught the falling archer like a piece of luggage and landed.
“…My lady!”
The knight who had been stuck in the ceiling fell at the same time. She stood up almost instantly, as if she were made of iron, and glared at me while grinding her teeth.
But… “My lady”? This person?
I looked at the archer and was slightly surprised. I hadn’t paid attention during the fight, but this person was missing the ring finger on her left hand. It wasn’t just absent—it had been cut off. Obviously not a wound from this fight; she had already lost the finger before coming here.
When I stared blankly at the archer, the knight realized her slip of the tongue and shut her mouth before angrily shouting.
“Release her! If you don’t──”
“Understood.”
─Plop!
When I let go, the person called “my lady” who had been clutching her stomach in pain face-planted straight into the floor.
…Was this person also wearing a mask? If her face got completely smashed and she asked me to take responsibility, that would be troublesome.
When her lady fell over like a pancake that had jumped out of a frying pan, the knight jumped in shock.
“W-what are you doing!!”
“…You told me to let go, so I did?”
When I rephrased “you told me to do it” back to her, the knight was rendered speechless. She seemed dumbfounded, but I was just as dumbfounded.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding. I had no intention of harming you. You were formidable opponents, so it was difficult to hold back appropriately.”
“…You didn’t intend to fight us?”
“That’s right. Please understand. If I kneel and then start speaking, no matter what I say it will only sound like the excuses of the defeated, won’t it?”
Apparently thinking the same, the knight fell silent again.
─Stagger.
The archer called “my lady” stood up, watching me warily as she moved to the knight’s side. So I slightly raised both hands and waited. I must have looked like a new recruit coming out for night duty to relieve his senior.
The archer confirmed the location of her dropped bow and spoke.
“If what you said is true, then we are the ones who should apologize. However, we did not attack first based solely on suspicion.”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
“Without knowing the face beneath the mask, that would be a meaningless assumption. However, necromancers who converse with souls are not exactly common.”
Fuck, they saw that?
I became slightly anxious. Come to think of it, seeing or talking to souls wasn’t my exclusive patent. Thinking back to how the first arrow had burst the soul of the mafia I was interrogating, it made sense.
‘So she can see souls too.’
Was it a medium constitution? I was a bit flustered but calmly recited the excuse I had prepared.
“Do not misunderstand. I am not someone who has learned the same kind of sorcery as the necromancy your westerners speak of.”
“Please explain. If you do not, we cannot let go of our suspicions.”
I understood. After all, I had beaten up the mafia bastards here based on nothing but circumstantial evidence, so if we started talking about this, it would be like comparing acorns—it was the same for both sides.
“This is what is commonly called a shaman’s ritual in the Central Plains. As a martial artist from the Central Plains who has learned Taoist arts, I have mastered the technique of conversing with the monstrous and wicked beings recorded in the Hwandan Gogi.”
“C-Central Plains? Hwandan… shaman?”
“Correct.”
I calmly spouted nonsense.
“It is a type of what your nation calls a shaman. Originally, there is a process of inviting souls through a ritual based on the ‘National Rites and Five Ceremonies,’ but the one I was conversing with was a villain in life and had died here, so I omitted some of the steps.”
“…You’re saying it’s not black magic?”
“If you are a medium, you should know. You did not feel any sinister qi from me. That is why both you and your guard avoided using lethal moves, is it not? I did not notice until we crossed blades.”
I wasn’t the only one who had held back. Even if they had tried to kill me, the odds would have been fifty-fifty, yet even with the arrows, they had avoided my vital points until the very end. That meant they hadn’t intended to kill me from the start either.
“…I have never heard of a nation called the Central Plains.”
“It is what you call Kitai and Mongolia. We call it that as well. An eastern nation that has exchanges with the elves of Tatarnia. I crossed the wilderness and desert to come all the way to this distant foreign land.”
“Could you… remove your mask? No, that would be difficult, I suppose.”
The woman called “my lady” asked in a voice that sounded younger than mine no matter how I thought about it.
“May I ask why you came to Romania?”
“…We do not know your culture. The reverse is also true. If you had known about shamans and rituals, this situation would not have occurred.”
“…So you came for cultural exchange?”
The archer asked while being supported by the knight, who had been keeping her mouth shut like a loyal retainer. The question carried a clear “what the hell are you talking about” tone. Fuck, was this answer no good?
I tried not to show my panic and reversed my words.
“Not exactly. That is not something one person can achieve through personal effort. However, if our fight right now escalates into a conflict between nations, could it end as simply as this?”
“…What do you mean?”
What do I mean? I’m buying time to think up more excuses, obviously.
I squeezed out more nonsense and rambled on.
“There must be compatriots from our Central Plains in this city. Corrupt merchants of the evil faction who harm Romania—which you call the Great Qin Kingdom—and cause Mongolia, whose name you do not even know, to be treated as heretics at the national level.”
There is a saying that in an argument, the one with the louder voice wins. Because once you seize the momentum, it becomes hard to refute. But since I didn’t know who else might be listening, I couldn’t raise my voice recklessly.
“…What belongs to the Central Plains should be handled by the Central Plains.”
So instead of volume, I intensified the killing intent in my eyes.
─Whoosh.
─Shudder!
When the flame-like, scorching killing intent swept through the warehouse like a tangible wave, the two women trembled as if they were boys who had been kicked out into a harsh winter wearing only their underwear, despite the heat.
“I came here to set right the ways of the martial world with my own martial prowess. The atrocities of these scoundrels who have forgotten honor and chivalry cannot be allowed to make the Central Plains be seen as a land of evil.”
“…Then, the Anulus Family…?”
The archer asked again, her voice sounding as if her throat had been squeezed.
I nodded with solemn dignity.
“I have no intention of punishing all of them. I am not a great person who acts like the proxy of the Jade Emperor. However, if the filthy currents of the five desires and seven emotions polluting this city originated from the Central Plains… then cutting them off is my heavenly mandate.”
Could I really get away with spouting any random bullshit like this? The other party clearly seemed to be of noble status, so I was a little worried about future repercussions.
‘No. It’s not like I’ll keep meeting these people anyway.’
Even if we got entangled, if they were those Kitai mafia bastards, they would probably have knowledge about the bosses or forces of the Corvo or Corbona Families. It wasn’t a losing deal. They hadn’t seen my face, and my voice was different, so whatever.
“I fully understand that you cannot believe me with words alone. Therefore, I shall swear.”
Having thought that far, I thumped my chest to display the demeanor of a great hero.
“I swear on the honor of the elf who was my master that everything I have said is true.”
Thank you, Yerna. Looks like the day has come when you help me even after dying.