The One Who Cuts
In one of the many back alleys scattered across the Imperial Capital, Gilbert and Boros stood gazing down at the charred corpses of the burned Imperial Capital Defense Unit members.
“Hey, Gilbert. No matter how you look at it……”
“……”
Even without Boros uttering a word, Gilbert’s mind had already drifted back three years to that very moment.
The memories remained painfully vivid. Amid the black smoke rising from every corner and countless charred bodies, that man stood there.
The incident had been the catalyst for Gilbert meeting his wife.
His wife had been nothing more than the daughter of a modest, small grocery store. Without warning, without foreshadowing, without reason, she had been forced to watch helplessly as her loving family and the home that had been her entire life were reduced to ashes in an instant.
The acrid stench. The smoke billowing into the sky. Her screams—more like wails—echoed as she stood frozen, unable to move.
“……Bert. Gilbert! Calm down!”
Gilbert turned his head at the strong shaking of his body and met Boros’s gaze.
Following Boros’s eyes, his own hand gripping the hilt of the sword at his waist so tightly that blood welled up came into view.
Yeah, this can’t be happening. Gilbert thought. That guy had definitely killed him. With this very sword. Severing his throat cleanly and completely.
Recalling that moment brought a measure of calm to his mind. He addressed Boros, who was still staring at him with unease.
“Sorry. I’m okay now.”
“Really?”
His colleague’s skeptical eyes made Gilbert nearly laugh at the inappropriate moment.
Among the Hounds—including himself—none could claim to possess particularly good personalities. Yet among the current members, Gilbert, who had remained the longest, could make one absolute declaration.
These kinds of members never existed before.
Having lived as a Hound, Gilbert had witnessed countless betrayals and backstabs during critical moments, all while his colleagues professed loyalty.
But the present members were different. Plainly put, they all carried some degree of madness, with problems in both speech and action.
Even Boros, who was now worrying about Gilbert, was no exception. Before joining the Hounds, he had been a notorious swindler and gigolo, and the work he performed afterward had changed little.
The swindler Boros. The gigolo Boros. Nicknamed by various cruel titles, he was also a man who genuinely cared for his comrades.
Not only him. The Hounds now were all like that—including himself.
“I’m telling you, I’m fine. More importantly, contact the Imperial Capital Defense Unit. Reach out to the captain who went to the scene and tell them to all converge…….”
Before taking action, Gilbert judged that the possibility of a copycat was high and decided he needed to inform the captain about the man for the investigation.
-[----------!]
A deafening explosion that shook the entire Imperial Capital slammed into the two men’s ears.
“What…?”
While Boros covered his ears, Gilbert unconsciously turned his gaze in one direction. Even as he pivoted his head, he prayed silently, please, please.
Yet his short prayer was meaningless. The direction where smoke from the blast rose was.
“No!”
“Gil—Gilbert!”
Boros called out as Gilbert raised his aura and began to sprint. He realized where Gilbert had run to.
The direction of Gilbert’s residence.
Where his wife and young daughter lived.
“Damn it!”
Boros started running as well.
--
“Damus! Garel!”
Derigan shouted with blood in his throat toward the colossal flames roaring into the sky.
Yet there was no reply. The three Hounds who had been guarding Gilbert’s house upon discovering the intruder moved almost simultaneously.
Luckily, they extracted Gilbert’s wife and child without being too late. Though shaken, they had no injuries, so for now they were fine.
However, no aura from Damus or Garel was felt from the intruder. Derigan endured the urge to leap into the fire and stared straight ahead.
From within the flames, the man walked out casually.
“What? Really, no one? Hey. Where is that guy who cut my neck?”
“Ignis……”
Ignis. The mad fire mage. The perpetrator of the indiscriminate arson terror that had turned the Imperial Capital into hell three years ago.
“Quickly take him. Quickly. The cut neck itches. If I kill that guy, I’ll be released from this itch.”
He was the one Gilbert had clearly beheaded and killed.
“You bastard, how are you alive! You must have definitely died!”
While questioning, Derigan had never expected Ignis to answer honestly.
The man who had been dead had revived. He had never heard of any means or magic to resurrect the dead, but the person who had told him the way to be released from this itch must be the one responsible for the revival.
Whether it was necromancy or something else, a person with that ability would not have rashly revealed his identity.
Therefore, what Derigan wanted was not the man’s answer but someone who could handle this situation after witnessing the explosion. Ideally, their captain.
“Huh? Ah, I don’t know. He didn’t show his face, and his voice was distorted somehow. But that’s not important. My neck itches. It itches, I said?”
Even three years ago it had been abnormal, but now it was even more so than before. Leaving aside the lack of vitality, the sight of him scratching away flesh until the bone showed was enough to make one feel the loss of reason.
“Hmm. If I kill that woman and the kid, it’ll be good.”
Muttering curses to himself, Derigan leaped up with Gilbert’s family in his arms. At the same moment, another explosion erupted where he had been standing.
Derigan, who had climbed onto the roof of the neighboring building without a sound, shouted at the Imperial Capital Defense Unit rushing over.
“Evacuate the people! All within 20 blocks!”
Ignis was indeed a mad magician, but his magical skill was immense.
Added to the destructive power that would be insurmountable even against Derigan’s aura if faced head-on, the attack range of his fire magic was insanely wide.
Above all, it seemed as if he were proving that the rumor of him going mad from magic research was true, his mana reserves far exceeded common sense.
In other words, if he began rampaging properly, it would mean an overwhelming number of casualties.
“All, prioritize the safety of the Imperial citizens!”
It was Derigan’s order wearing the hunting dog mask, but the judgment of the Imperial Capital Defense Unit was swift. They quickly acknowledged that they could not handle the magician themselves and decided to do what they could.
Noticing the Imperial Capital Defense Unit evacuating people, Derigan quickly thought. Even though it was difficult, as an assassin at heart, Derigan could not win against that crazy magician.
Even at full power, no chance of victory, and with these two I can do nothing.
It would have been far better to leave it to the Imperial Capital Defense Unit and buy time at the cost of his life, but Ignis’s target was not Derigan but Gilbert’s wife and daughter.
If he left these two to the Imperial Capital Defense Unit, at that moment Ignis would shoot flames at them. Then not only Gilbert’s family but also the Imperial Capital Defense Unit and the Imperial citizens evacuating would all be wiped out.
“What are you doing in such a place? Get down.”
Feeling Ignis’s magic power surge again, Derigan leaped up once more. It would be like abandoning it to the sky, but there was no choice but to escape.
“Like a rat scurrying……”
At the moment when Ignis, voice dripping with annoyance, was scattering even larger flames all around.
“Rat!”
“It’s you!”
From behind him, two figures appeared, breaking through the wall of fire. A large man with a fierce appearance wielding a massive hammer and a man gathering aura on his half-melted sword to forge a blade.
Damus and Garel, who emerged from the flames, swung their weapons toward Ignis’s back.
“Yeah. I knew it.”
Without turning, flames from Ignis’s back formed into large spikes that intercepted them.
“Kuk!”
“Ah, again?!”
Damus, who judged instantly and stopped the attack, used the hammer as a shield and was flung backward. Garel tried to continue charging by sliding along the side of the spike with his sword, but suddenly the flames moved fluidly and knocked him away.
“Garel!”
“I’m fine! But damn! My sword is broken!”
“Isn’t this important right now, you crazy sword fetish kid!”
Even setting aside Garel’s abnormal obsession, it was truly important. Without a sword, you could not fight.
Watching the scene from the roof, Derigan used his special wire—his weapon—to catch a sword that had bounced out from a nearby weapons shop and threw it to Garel.
“Catch it, Garel!”
“Oh, thanks…… But was this the best?”
“Shut up and fight, you crazy bastard!”
Before Derigan could shout, Garel was already moving. In response, Damus kicked the ground and leaped.
Although they were fierce attacks boasting outstanding combat prowess not only within the Hounds but objectively.
“Tired.”
Ignis, receiving it, still had a bored expression and raised the flames. More and more larger and fiercer flames than before, as if it was not sincere.
Seeing the thing rushing toward them, Damus and Garel felt the same impression.
This is.
Unbelievable.
The flames of Ignis, which could not overcome the intense heat of the powerful magic power piercing through their auras, rushed over like swallowing a whole section.
-Boom!
“……Huh?”
“……Eh?”
The two Hounds looked up at the sky blankly. At the moment they thought they were dead, suddenly the flames that had been rushing to swallow them split in two.
Not only that. At the same timing, a huge aura fluctuation was felt, and Ignis’s flames were blown into the sky and scattered.
It was a scene he remembered from three years ago.
“You’re alive.”
Damus and Garel turned their heads toward the direction where the voice was coming from and confirmed that their expectations had been correct.
“Gilbert!”
“Alive……”
After giving a light smile to the two who were relieved, Gilbert stepped forward and said.
“Step back and protect my family with Derigan. Please.”
If it were up to him, he wanted to fight together, but since both Damus and Garel knew that they would only get in the way with their abilities, they nodded and turned their bodies.
“Be careful!”
“Can’t make it!”
There was no reply from Gilbert. Of course. To him preparing for battle, other words would not come out.
After they left, Gilbert walked forward. Ignis did the same.
A swordsman and a magician facing each other after three years.
The magician spoke first.
“That ridiculous mask is still there, but it’s not hard to recognize. Good. If I burn you, I’ll finally be released from the itch.”
“If you don’t like the itch, I’ll help you too. If I cut you into pieces and scatter you as pig feed, you won’t feel the itch anymore.”
After a light greeting from the swordsman, auras and mana exploded from the magician and collided.
Gilbert, who cuts the flames for his colleagues.
Ignis, the mad fire mage, whom those he burned curse.
--------!
The explosion of the swung sword and flames announced the start of the rematch.