The Backstab
The instant I saw that bastard staring at me with that smug, taunting look, I knew exactly what was going on.
God, this is irritating...
I wasn’t sure whether it was some kind of species-level hatred or just plain bad chemistry, but the moment I saw his face, my temper shot straight through the roof.
I never imagined I’d end up falling for something this stupidly simple.
He knew about Yuliena.
You could even say he’d exploited Yuliena’s ability to move on her own whenever I was in danger.
One of his lackeys might have died, but compared to what was about to happen next, that was probably a profitable trade. Or maybe “lackey” wasn’t even the right word to begin with.
I had no way of knowing whether this had all been planned from the start or whether he’d improvised the whole thing the moment he met me, but one thing was certain: I had walked into a trap.
Still, it wasn’t over yet.
As ridiculous as this was, Kasugano Yuno was standing right beside me, and she could testify that this had been an accident that happened without warning.
Explaining Yuliena’s function to the investigators would help too.
I guess I’ll have to spill the details about Yuliena.
From my point of view, it was a little annoying, but if I could slap this bastard in the back of the head with it, then it wasn’t exactly a bad deal.
Still, there was no way this was the end of it.
If he’d already built connections with the higher-ups in Holy Empire Benigore, then there was room for a nasty legal fight later on.
If this went to trial, the odds were heavily against us.
No matter how I dressed it up, the fact remained that I had killed one of his men.
If he was really as much like me as I suspected, then he’d already finished every last piece of preparation.
And even if he hadn’t laid out the whole scenario in advance, he’d be building the larger plan right now.
If I were him, I’d do the same.
The only thing outside his calculations might be that our lovely shrine maiden, Kasugano Yuno, would side with me. But even that, he’d probably already prepared a response for.
While I was sorting out the situation in my head, his voice came from directly in front of me.
“What do you plan to do about this? One of my prized subordinates is dead. Right here in the royal palace of Holy Empire Benigore.”
“Cut the nonsense, Mr. Ito. The one who bared his killing intent first and threatened my guest was your subordinate. This will be handled as self-defense.”
“That’s rather unexpected, shrine maiden. I didn’t think our relationship was so bad.”
“That’s only your opinion. The fact that your subordinate threatened my guest is undeniable.”
“I’d appreciate it if you could explain exactly how he threatened him. No, even if he did threaten him, you still hurled your sword at him without warning over a simple threat. From anyone’s point of view, the victim was clearly on our side. I won’t ask you to bend the law for me, but at the very least you should be able to tell victim from aggressor properly. That would be the wise thing to do, shrine maiden. Of course, it would also be wise for Yozora, the guild under your care.”
“You...”
Kasugano Yuno was a reliable ally.
No matter how much that bastard tried to lure her over, he couldn’t possibly tempt someone who was already on our side. She and her guild, Yozora, would absolutely defend me with everything they had.
But I still couldn’t figure out how to clean up this mess.
I glanced at Yuliena, and she looked as though she understood she’d done something wrong, hovering around me in a miserable little orbit.
After taking the sword back to my waist, as if she were a weapon with its tail between its legs, I spoke again.
“First, I’d like to apologize.”
“This isn’t something that can be solved with a simple apology, Kiyoung.”
“The artifact I possess, Yuliena, the sword of curses, is an ego sword that reacts when its master is threatened.”
“Ah, I see. So that kind of weapon exists.”
“I assumed you already knew.”
“Of course I heard the rumors that an adventurer from Lindel had obtained a legendary-grade artifact, but who could have guessed that this was the weapon in question?”
He definitely knew.
I had no idea whether he’d heard it through rumors or confirmed it himself, but one thing was all but certain: this infuriating bastard was almost certainly the mastermind behind the Lindel terror incident.
If he wasn’t, he’d have no reason to come after me like this.
“Yes. I don’t know why one of your guild members threatened me, but...”
“None of our guild members threatened you.”
“No, he definitely did. Even if this went to court, I would testify that your guild member threatened my guest. Naturally, the guild members here will testify to the same thing.”
Master, Yuno’s got your back!
“I don’t care whether shrine maiden Yuno testifies that way or not, but... from what I can see, that’s a little strange. It certainly looks as though he was controlling his sword just now. And besides, even if your version of events is true and we did threaten him first, there’s still no reason my loyal subordinate had to die. I don’t know why he suddenly showed killing intent, but perhaps your guest, Kiyoung-nim, looked a little too much like a murderer who killed his own comrades, and that made him lose his temper without realizing it.”
“......”
“To think he’d be run through the throat over something so small... Where else would you find such a pathetic case? Failing to properly secure your weapon is a crime too. The more I think about it, the more my heart breaks.”
This bastard...
The way he kept fixating on the fact that he was the victim made it obvious he’d made up his mind.
He was determined to pin the aggressor label on me no matter what.
Should I just take the fall?
I could manage self-harm if I really had to.
If I took the dead guy’s knife and stabbed myself in the stomach once, it would absolutely qualify as self-defense.
The problem was that the bastard in front of me wasn’t going to let me do it so easily.
With his 99 agility, he probably wouldn’t allow me to plunge a dagger into my own gut even if I wanted to.
My options were limited. I didn’t want to become a parrot squawking about false accusations, but trying to bait him wasn’t a bad idea either.
“Weren’t you the one who stopped me while I was just trying to go about my own business, Mr. Souta? The incident happened suddenly, but I can’t help wondering whether you sacrificed one of your own guild members for some other purpose.”
“Not at all. Your imagination is quite vivid.”
“I’m not imagining anything. I’m telling you exactly what happened.”
“You can explain your wild conspiracy theories to the imperial investigators. For now, someone has died inside the royal palace, so procedure must be followed. Ah, there they are now.”
He sounded calm enough, but of course he was probably twisting inside.
Armed guards from inside the royal palace were running toward us. Being treated as a suspect was infuriating, and so was the fact that I’d stumbled into a trap he’d prepared.
“What happened here?”
The shrine maiden answered the guard first. The bastard answered second, and then I spoke after that.
“A guild member from the Yamato Guild threatened Lee Kiyoung-nim, and when he was killed by a sword to the throat in self-defense, that was the end of it.”
“To be precise, there was no threat. It seems we had a brief misunderstanding, and then he suddenly swung his sword at us.”
“My sword is an artifact that activates in response to threats. As for why this happened, I can show you the item information. It is an undeniable fact that I was threatened by a member of the Yamato Guild, and Kasugano Yuno of the Yozora Guild, along with her guild members, will testify to that.”
Of course, the two sides were telling different stories.
After a quick whispering exchange, they ran off somewhere, apparently to fetch someone higher up.
Sure enough, not long after, a man in more extravagant clothes came hurrying over.
Even that man seemed to lack the authority to handle it himself, because he too immediately rushed off in a panic.
It was obvious the matter was spiraling out of control.
And that was exactly the kind of situation Ito Souta wanted. Everything was getting tangled up, and just thinking about how this was going to play out gave me a headache.
They’ll probably start an investigation.
And the suspect was me.
No matter why it happened, no matter who started the fight, someone had died inside the royal palace of Holy Empire Benigore.
We might technically be free citizens, but we were still subject to imperial law.
When you considered that the Empire didn’t allow guilds to engage in excessive conflicts with one another, I was going to be treated as a suspect first and foremost.
Souta was right. That was simply the procedure.
As if on cue, a man in fancy clothes was drifting toward me at the edge of my vision.
An imperial citizen.
“I’m Kaliton of the Imperial Holy Knights. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to ask you to come with us for a moment.”
As expected.
I was annoyed, but not enough to lose my head yet. With the three testimonies all contradicting one another, Ito Souta could still end up being treated as the aggressor himself.
For now I’d clearly be questioned as the victim, but with our shrine maiden’s testimony, the public would be able to suppress any talk of me being a murderer to some degree.
Besides.
Judging by Kaliton’s attitude, they still hadn’t completely locked me in as the culprit.
They’re actually being respectful.
Of course, that didn’t change the fact that I’d basically be interrogated while being held captive, but it was still something I could turn around.
“Yes. Understood.”
I was about to move when I heard Kasugano Yuno’s voice, her head bowed quietly.
The voice sounded a little different from usual, and just hearing it made the hairs on my neck stand up.
“Do not move.”
“Hm?”
“If you take even one step while escorting my guest, you will become a body that can neither die nor live, crawling across the ground. I clearly said those men threatened my guest.”
The ground began to tremble.
The strange magic circle I’d spotted earlier started spreading outward in all directions.
When I opened my eyes again, something like a black hole stared back at me.
The thing was packed with so much mana that, even from where I stood, it looked capable of reducing the entire surrounding area to powder.
I had no choice but to swallow hard.
“Shrine maiden...”
Even that obnoxious bastard swallowed too, his hand drifting toward the hilt of his sword.
He understood that the situation was on the verge of exploding.
“Remove your filthy hands from the guest I am protecting.”
“......”
“I said, remove them.”
This is bad...
Defending me was fine, but stirring up a scene was not.
Even the Holy Knight named Kaliton looked utterly flustered.
He was grimacing as hard as he could while staring at me, already drawing his sword.
“I-I’m only trying to follow procedure. And magic of this kind is prohibited inside the royal palace. No matter who you are...”
“I do not repeat myself.”
At this point, it was my job to step in and smooth things over.
“It will be fine, Yuno-nim. I think it would be best if I simply go through the basic procedure of the investigation.”
“......”
As the mana began to settle, the shaking around us, which had felt like an earthquake, also died away.
“But... Kiyoung-nim...”
“It’s nothing. Just tell the truth as you saw it.”
In the end, the truth would come out.
The world doesn’t always run on truth, though. Right?
Souta’s smile as he looked at me seemed to say exactly that.
Win or lose, he gave off the impression that he intended to make me the culprit.
I started walking again and asked a question, only to get an answer right away.
“Will the investigation take place under confinement?”
“No. This is merely an investigation as part of the procedure. Naturally, we’ll do our best to make things as convenient for you as possible. Please understand that your movements may be restricted, though.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Everyone from the Yamato Guild, as well as everyone who was present there, will also be investigated.”
“I suppose my situation is a little different?”
“I’m sorry, but yes. Since this is a murder case...”
“I see. Is it possible to testify through a proxy?”
“Yes, that’s certainly possible.”
“Understood. Then let’s go.”
***
ACHOO.
“Did you catch a cold?”
“No, big sister. Sorry. I just sneezed out of nowhere.”
“You’ve seemed a little overworked lately... Working hard is fine, but you come first. We brought you along so you could rest for a change, so make sure you actually do that while we’re here. More importantly, what do you think of the capital?”
“It seems like a nice place to live. For a first visit, it isn’t bad at all, and the people here have a kind of spark in their eyes. I never imagined the civilization level of Holy Empire Benigore would be this high, so I was honestly surprised by how organized everything is.”
“I knew you’d say that.”
“And, big sister, your makeup today is really—wow. It suits you.”
“Honestly...”
“No, I mean, did your skin get better too? Big sister, are you seeing a man these days?”
“When would I have time for that? I’m busy to death... No, if anything, it sounds like you’re the one in a relationship... Isn’t it about time you told me? I already know, of course, but it would still be nice if you introduced him properly...”
“I’ll tell you once things get a little more serious. Oppa’s dealing with some circumstances right now.”
“I suppose so. Ah, we’ve arrived.”
“......”
“......”
“On behalf of everyone in the Black Swan Guild, welcome to Holy Empire Benigore. Park Yeonju, it’s been a while.”
“Yes. It has.”
“Hoho. I see there’s a new face with you today as well. If it’s not too rude, may I ask your name?”
“Of course. Jihye?”
“Yes, big sister. Hello, everyone. I’m Lee Jihye, from the Black Swan Guild, which I joined during the last tutorial. It’s an honor to meet the citizens of the noble and glorious Holy Empire like this. I hope we’ll all get along well from here on.”