Debt (2)
The dagger had the sharp edge unique to blades… yet something about it felt off.
Even if it struck me, it didn’t seem particularly threatening.
My sixth sense remaining silent only confirmed it.
Just then, the door behind the man opened and another figure stepped into view.
A middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed beard that left a strong impression. He wore a longsword at his waist rather than a dagger, and he surveyed the surroundings.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, Captain. Things got annoying. Over here.”
The man still holding the dagger to my face jerked his chin toward Elia.
“She barged in out of nowhere demanding we find her sister. And this one’s a righteous young man who looks like he’s done some training.”
The sneering man continued.
“Sounds like she’s talking about that girl who borrowed money from us, but she never actually came looking for us, did she?”
The bearded middle-aged man ignored his subordinate’s words. More precisely, he stared straight through me.
“Tell me the method and I’ll let you go.”
“Method…?”
“How did she earn that much money?”
“…Captain?”
The man listening beside him looked at his captain in confusion, as if this was a topic they hadn’t agreed on.
It took me a moment to grasp what the man called captain was asking.
Then I realized it was a question about how Arnen had managed to scrape together enough money to pay off the entire debt.
So the claim that Arnen had never come here was a lie after all. An obvious one, but still.
I let out a short sigh and asked,
“Where is Arnen?”
“I said I’d tell you once you answer my question.”
“So in the end, you locked her up because you were curious where the money came from. You people are garbage.”
At my words the bearded man shrugged and sneered.
“Didn’t you know? You were the ones who borrowed the money knowing full well.”
He glanced at Elia before turning his gaze back to me.
“Ah, you might not have known.”
I felt no need to continue the conversation any longer. My expression hardened as I asked bluntly,
“Is Arnen alive? Just tell me that.”
“Don’t you know there’s nothing more pathetic than dressing up ignorance as courage? Looks like you’ve never even learned the sword, so why the bravado?”
“Do I need to learn the sword?”
The man still holding the dagger to my face snorted. He dropped even the pretense of formality.
“Even the quality of your questions is trash. Haven’t you even heard the captain’s moniker—the Black Reaper?”
“Black Reaper…”
“Enough.”
The bearded man reined in his subordinate, who was getting cocky on his behalf, and drew the sword from his waist.
In that instant, a murky aura began to gather along the blade.
Is that mana?
The energy felt quite unfamiliar. It was definitely different from the way I called forth Intent.
Still, the form of the aura wrapping the sword looked hazy and incomplete. It didn’t seem like a fully perfected technique. Or perhaps he simply hadn’t reached the level of properly imbuing a blade with mana yet.
I tried to raise my guard against the unfamiliar skill, but my sixth sense gave no reaction at all.
Still, I shouldn’t let my guard down.
My sixth sense was an absolute ability I could never doubt, yet relying on it alone wasn’t right.
I felt we had reached the point where a fight could no longer be avoided. At the same time, curiosity welled up.
Just how strong were the people living outside the Forbidden Zone? According to what Elia had told me, a sword wrapped in mana could cut through anything.
When I raised my fists as if preparing for battle, the man pointing the dagger at me shoved it even closer.
“Don’t move.”
Of course I had no intention of listening, so the man thrust the dagger straight into my shoulder without the slightest hesitation.
Yet the motion was slow—far too slow.
I was the one who ended up flustered. Did he actually mean to attack? Or was he deliberately playing around?
What I was truly wary of was the longsword wreathed in that black aura, not the dagger. One look was enough to know it posed no threat even if it hit me.
So I simply took the dagger.
Even with my combat senses fully raised, waiting for that dagger to pierce my shoulder felt like an eternity. After a long stretch of patience, the moment the blade punched through my shabby clothes and stabbed into my shoulder—
Snap.
The dagger broke cleanly in half.
“…Huh?”
The man whose wrist had bent along with the snapping dagger let out a dazed sound. A beat later the pain seemed to hit him; he clutched his wrist.
“Gah!”
It was exactly what I’d expected. No matter how carefully I tried to hold back, the man in front of me simply looked too weak.
After breaking through the Fourth Wall I had skin that even a needle couldn’t pierce. A crudely made dagger had zero chance of punching through my body—unless it was a sword wrapped in mana, maybe.
“Wh-what the fuck… how…!”
“…Did you put something underneath your clothes?”
The man gripping the sword muttered as he looked me over. But what showed through the torn fabric was bare shoulder—perfectly unharmed even after being stabbed by a dagger.
Without any warning I swung my fist at the temple of the man still screaming and clutching his wrist.
Pop.
The instant it connected, his head exploded.
Blood and brain matter sprayed in every direction.
“….”
Blood splattered across the face of the man watching with sword in hand. Yet he showed no reaction at all.
He simply stared at me blankly.
Was he scared? Even though he could inject mana into a sword?
That wasn’t the mindset of a warrior.
I suddenly felt a hollow sense of anticlimax.
When I took a step forward, the man with the sword stumbled back.
“W-wait…”
I paid him no mind and took another step.
“Weren’t you unable to use mana? Wait… stop, I said! No—I’ll tell you where the woman is. Go inside and take the stairs down. She’s still alive, so if you just spare me I’ll bring her right away…”
With every step I closed the distance, his attitude shifted. His words grew longer and desperation soaked into his voice.
Even so, when I didn’t stop, the man simply swung the sword he was holding at me.
I hadn’t expected anything special, but his movement was still far too slow.
Barely any different from the guy with the dagger.
…So even after learning mana it was the same? Did martial skill and mana have nothing to do with each other? Was it really just like magic—simply wrapping mana around a sword?
For a moment I considered taking the blow, just to see whether a mana-wrapped blade could cut my skin.
But now that I already knew Arnen’s whereabouts, I didn’t want to waste any more time. Long before the sword could reach me I drove my fist into the man’s face.
Pop.
Just like before, his head burst and brain matter and blood poured out behind him. The headless body convulsed and staggered before collapsing to the ground with a dull thud.
I turned my gaze to Elia. She was staring at the two corpses sprawled on the floor.
Uh… maybe this was too graphic for a child. Growing up only in the mountains, she might not be used to a sight like this. The culture could be different from our kingdom, where people grew familiar with fighting from a young age.
When I approached Elia, knelt, and met her eyes, they sparkled.
“That was so cool! Bell just stood there and people’s heads went pop-pop! You were so fast I couldn’t even see it, right?”
“….”
Well, of course.
Thinking she wouldn’t be used to blood and combat just because she was young might have been nothing more than leftover baggage from my previous life.
This was a world packed with humans who could shatter the ground with a single stomp and fell trees with the shockwave from a punch alone.
Even after living here for years, I still hadn’t fully adjusted.
I let out a shallow breath, rose again, and opened the door with Elia.
Inside, as expected, the scene of a tavern unfolded.
Not many people sat scattered about, nursing their drinks. They seemed completely uninterested in what had just happened outside.
Well, considering the fight had ended with two punches and not even a death cry left behind, it was only natural they hadn’t noticed.
If there had been a truly strong warrior present it might have been different.
But no one of that caliber seemed to be here.
Only when unfamiliar faces walked in did they finally take interest.
A few lifted their gazes and glanced at me and Elia. I ignored their stares and looked around the interior. Soon I spotted the staircase set into one wall and headed toward it.
The remaining thugs inside wore incredulous expressions as I casually walked toward the stairs and blocked my path.
“What kind of crazy bastard is this? You think anyone can just waltz in here? Where the hell did Jek go?”
“Step aside and I’ll spare you. I came to find the person you’re holding captive. Get in my way and you’ll end up like the comrades you’re looking for.”
“This guy’s completely insane…”
Before he could finish I threw a punch.
After turning everyone blocking the stairs into the same state as the corpses by the door, I headed straight down to the basement.
Below, an atmosphere completely at odds with the first floor greeted me.
A space of cold stone floors and a musty stench. A heavy iron door blocking my way.
Without the slightest hesitation I reached out.
Creeeak. Bang!
With a light application of force the entire iron door tore free and clattered across the floor.
Inside, rows of iron bars lined the space.
Arnen was bound and locked in the cell closest to the door. I snapped the bars with equal ease, stepped inside, and woke Arnen, who lay as if unconscious.
When I shook her by the shoulders she slowly opened her eyes. She must have simply fallen asleep from exhaustion.
“Bell…?”
“You didn’t come back even after time passed, so I came looking.”
Arnen stared at me with hazy eyes for a moment before slowly seeming to grasp the situation.
“…Did you take care of everyone outside?”
It was Elia, who had followed behind me, who answered.
“Yep! Bell went whoosh and people just went pop-pop everywhere!”
“…I-I see.”
I helped Arnen to her feet and looked over the other cells.
“Looks like there are quite a few people locked up besides you.”
“They run a slave business as well.”
“Slaves…”
The kingdom I lived in had no slavery system.
Only after coming outside the Forbidden Zone did it truly sink in that I had arrived in an era similar to the Middle Ages.
The building structure, the way of life—everything.
The place where I first opened my eyes had been closer to a land crawling with barbarians.
I snapped the manacles binding Arnen in a single motion and asked,
“Looks like the debt’s been settled somehow… are you going to leave now to find your father?”
Arnen rubbed her wrists and nodded.
“I have to. His last known trail was the Cave of Specters, one of the Seven Evil Caves… though I won’t be able to head there right away.”