Montblanc's Trial (3)

The moment they mentioned a communal cemetery, my instincts locked on like a hook. I still had other places to check, though, so I dragged the kids with me over the back hills and the side hills, covering every last one.

"Bye-bye, mister~"

"Yeah. It's getting late — you kids should head home too."

"Yeees! Men! Follow me!"

"Wooooah! Follow him!!!"

"Heh heh heh."

I'd handed over every last snack I'd bought at the general store, and the kids who'd been so wary of me at first were now trailing after me like I was their best friend. When it comes to winning over children, nothing on earth beats food.

The cemetery's still the one that pulls at me the hardest.

The village of Tipun buried its dead, which meant a communal cemetery sat not far from the houses. They'd placed it on high ground — a gesture meaning the departed should go forth into a wider world — so from up there you could look down over the entire village in a single glance. And unless something out of the ordinary was going on, nobody bothered visiting the graves. As hideouts went, it was almost too convenient.

Late that night, I slipped toward the cemetery under cover of darkness. He might have been watching, so I circled wide and came at it from the side.

I really shouldn't do this... but I don't have a choice.

I dumped all twenty-one Potential points straight into Agility. Under normal circumstances you'd invest five a day so the boosted stats actually settled in properly, but this time I burned through everything just to push my senses as far as they would go.

Ugh.

A wave of dizziness slammed into me and I clutched my head. Agility lightens the body and lets you move faster — and it sharpens every sense you've got. Cranking it up by twenty-one points in a single shot meant information I had never been able to perceive came flooding into my skull all at once.

My newly sensitive skin picked up the cemetery's distinctive chill. My ears caught even the faintest sounds. My eyes sharpened enough to pick objects out of the dark with unsettling clarity. The sheer volume of sensory data had ballooned, and the overload made my head throb. My stomach churned. I was dizzy on top of it.

Fuck, this feels disgusting.

Even with the stat boost, I felt like shit. But I didn't have a choice. My target, Jeffrey Isaac, was spoiling for a fight, and this was his home ground. On top of that, the man specialized in traps and worked primarily with poison — he was a Thief. Palos's Bird estimated his level at eighty to eighty-three. Even taking the low end, he was still ten levels above me.

I had to fight someone stronger than me on his own turf. Jeffrey Isaac was the kind of opponent I'd need every weapon I had just to put down.

Let's go.

I sat on the ground for a moment and caught my breath. Once the headache faded enough to think, I got back on my feet and entered the cemetery — slowly, carefully. The one silver lining was that there was almost no grass among the graves, so my footsteps made no sound at all.

The graves were rounded mounds of packed earth, each one marked by a wooden placard bearing the name of the dead so the living could tell them apart. I slipped from mound to mound, constantly scanning my surroundings as I worked my way inward.

...Huh?

That's when something off caught my hyper-sharpened eyes.

The dirt...

There were signs the earth on the mounds had been dug into. And between the graves, thin white lines gleamed in the moonlight, strung low across the gaps.

Wire?

Information flashed through my mind in a single beat. One of the Dark Room target's primary weapons was wire — and a few days ago, he had bought wire at the general store.

A chill raced down my spine. My Agility, boosted by a full twenty-one points, was screaming that something was flying at me right now. I threw my arm up to shield my face and spun, putting my back against a burial mound.

A thin, razor-sharp line whipped through the air with a metallic shriek and coiled around my neck and arm. Wire.

"Kh!"

"Nngh...!"

I tried to snap it with raw strength, but whatever he'd done to the stuff, it wouldn't break.

"You're pretty quick."

An unfamiliar male voice drifted out of the dark ahead of me. I couldn't make out his face properly, but one thing was unmistakable: his left ear was shorter than his right. That severed left earlobe was Jeffrey Isaac's most distinctive feature.

"But that's as far as you go. The 'Bird' is underestimating me. Sending a brat like this — and alone, no less."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

This son of a bitch?

All he'd done was wrap some wire around me. But he was carrying himself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠like he'd already landed the fish, and the look of it was seriously pissing me off. I didn't let it show.

"W-why are you doing this to me?! P-please, spare me!"

I played panicked to put him off his guard. It was the same act that had completely fooled Canisia. No way this guy would see through it.

"Cut the crap and spit out everything you know. Do you have comrades nearby?"

"W-what on earth are you talking about? I just came to visit my parents' graves..."

"So you won't listen the nice way."

Jeffrey yanked the wire. It cinched around my throat like a noose.

"Ghhhk!"

"If you're going to put on a half-assed act, don't bother. What kind of person visits their parents' graves in the middle of the night, sneaking around like a damn rat?"

Fuck. He was watching the whole time.

I bit my lip, mortified. You piece of shit! If you were watching, you should've said so!

Something small came flying at me out of the dark. A little bottle filled with some unidentified liquid.

"Drink it. If you don't, I'll kill you right here."

"....."

This bastard thinks he's got the upper hand right now, doesn't he?

I hesitated for a beat, then drank what he'd given me. A notification bloomed in front of my eyes, informing me I'd been poisoned with some bizarrely named toxin.

The poison's effect was... wait.

What the hell is this? A poison that makes your mana go berserk if you walk a hundred paces? There's a poison like this?

This wasn't some wuxia novel. I'd never even heard of a toxin with an effect like that — it had never shown up in Fairy Masters once.

"This is the antidote for what you just drank. Answer my questions truthfully and I'll give it to you."

"...You were going to kill me anyway, weren't you?"

"No. Tell me the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠truth and I'll give you the antidote and let you live. What's it going to be?"

"...What do you want to know?"

"How many of you came to catch me? And where are your comrades hiding right now?"

I pretended to think it over, then opened my mouth.

"A hundred of us came to catch you, including me, and my comrades have the cemetery surrounded as we speak. You've got nowhere to run, Jeffrey Isaac."

"Hah..."

Obviously a lie, and Jeffrey — who knew exactly what kind of organization Palos's Bird was — didn't buy it for a second.

"So you really want to die."

"Then kill me, you fucking moron!"

I shouted it and at the same time grabbed the wire with my unbound left hand, then yanked with everything I had. Jeffrey's class was Thief — his Strength wouldn't be that high. And I had a sweet bonus running, putting my Strength at a full seventy-four. Sixty-six plus eight. He was going to get dragged right over to me.

A high whirring sound cut through the dark.

"....."

My counterattack went up in smoke. In his hand was something like a fishing reel. The moment I pulled, the reel spun and the taut line went slack.

"Idiot. You're asking to die."

Naturally, he didn't get pulled toward me at all. The man who had humiliated me twice now — his name was Jeffrey Isaac.

I'm killing you no matter what it takes.

The price for embarrassing me was his life and nothing less. War. Total, absolute war.

"If you want to die that badly, then die!"

"You're the one who's dying!"

I snapped my waist and used the rebound to surge to my feet, charging straight at him.

"Huh?"

But I'd forgotten something. Before entering the cemetery, I had dumped twenty-one points into Agility. My speed was incomparably faster than before — so fast I could barely control it myself.

I overshot Jeffrey completely. My feet tangled and I went rolling across the ground, and I didn't stop until I slammed into a burial mound.

"Gah!"

"...Haa. There's a real idiot for you."

Jeffrey sighed at the sight of me. Then, apparently actually intending to end my life, he started winding the reel with his left hand while drawing a dagger in his right. The slack wire went taut again. He came at me, but the line stayed tight the whole way — his skill with that reel was no joke.

"Kh!"

Fine. Come on, then. I was done playing around. The clumsy performance I'd put on so far was all an act to make him drop his guard. I am absolutely not making excuses because I was embarrassed. Really.

The moment I got up, Jeffrey — still charging — threw a dagger at me. It buried itself in my thigh.

"Ghhhhk!"

He'd coated the blade too. Sensation in my thigh started going numb. I didn't need the window to know what it was. Paralysis toxin.

Crazy bastard. Still won't come closer?

Jeffrey had been moving like he was about to close in for melee, but he never did. He kept his distance the way you'd hunt an animal, throwing dagger after dagger, and every kind of poison in his kit started stacking up inside me.

"Hah... hahh... cough!"

Slumped against a burial mound, I coughed up a handful of blood. The cocktail of toxins made it impossible to think straight, and I couldn't put any strength into my limbs.

"...You brought this on yourself, brat. If you'd just cooperated, I really would have let you live."

Only then, apparently feeling safe, did he approach me slowly with his dagger drawn.

"You... son of a... bitch..."

I forced the curse out at the man standing over me. Jeffrey had no more interest in talking. He drove the dagger straight at my throat.

Use it.

The moment I activated Molt, every last poison that had been wrecking my body vanished at once. Condition... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠peak.

I threw up my left hand and caught Jeffrey's dagger. It punched through my palm, but that was enough to grab him.

"...What?"

I flashed a thick grin, and I could see the shock hit him. By his logic, a man drowning in poison shouldn't have been able to move at all.

I headbutted him. His nose crumpled and blood sprayed from both nostrils.

"Kh!"

"Because of you I just burned a thousand fucking gems!"

I hadn't planned to fight like this. Was I insane? A thousand gems? But getting ambushed had forced my hand.

Wind Arrow!

I fired it at Jeffrey as he staggered backward. Target: his hand.

"Gyaaaaah!"

The hand holding the reel burst apart. His Durability stat wasn't high. The reel connected to the wire dropped, and I tore the line off my neck and right hand as fast as I could. Fuck! I felt so alive.

"Kh... so you had a trick up your sleeve..."

"Just one? I've got two, three — hell, I've even got a sex move, you son of a bitch!"

I charged Jeffrey and launched a soccer kick. The instant my leg connected with his head, he threw something at me.

"Gah!"

What he'd thrown was a smoke bomb. Just like something out of a comic, black smoke swallowed everything around me.

Wind Arrow!

I fired it in every direction. I wasn't trying to hit Jeffrey. Wind Arrow was a single-target skill, but it was made of wind — and wind can blow smoke away.

"...What the fuck? Where'd this bastard go?"

The smoke peeled back under the Wind Arrows and I could see again. But he was nowhere. Had he actually run?

Blood.

Luckily, there were drops of it on the ground where he'd dripped. The trail led to a nearby burial mound. Hiding behind it?

...Danger.

The moment I looked at the mound, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I trusted my gut and threw myself sideways. A dagger with wire wrapped around its hilt flew through the spot where I'd been standing. I followed the line and spotted Jeffrey, only his upper body visible, perched on top of a burial mound.

"Tsk!"

His sure-kill strike having failed, he clicked his tongue and dropped back down out of sight. I let out a hollow laugh.

"What, you wanna play Whac-A-Mole, you fucker?"