Chapter 51
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: An Unplanned Event (5)
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By the time dawn had fully broken.
Roin approached the unconscious assassin squad member.
Because he'd taken a solid hit from Roin, the man still hadn't come to his senses.
"Hey. Wake up."
Slap! Smack!
Roin slapped the assassin's cheeks hard two or three times.
This guy had tried to kill Roin, Remina, and Luem anyway.
There was no need to wake him carefully for fear of hurting him.
This was all just karma coming back to bite him.
The assassin slowly opened his eyes, his face twisted in pain.
Now that he'd finally regained his senses, the man took in the situation at once and glared at Roin, pretending to stay calm.
He didn't ask how this had happened.
Or where his comrades had gone.
It was as if he already knew this would happen the moment he lost consciousness.
"Who sent you?"
"......"
The man stayed silent at Roin's question.
It was the expected reaction.
"Someone connected to Remina, right?"
"......"
The man kept his silence this time too.
Their target was clearly Remina.
So it was obvious that someone linked to Remina had ordered the hit, without needing to overthink it.
The problem was figuring out who exactly had done it.
Roin shrugged lightly.
"Well, I figured you wouldn't answer anyway."
Roin pressed down on the man's left knee with his foot.
The moment he applied a bit of pressure,
Crack!
"Aaagh!!"
The sound of bone breaking rang out, and a scream burst from the man's mouth.
The screams echoing through Scream Valley had long since faded.
Now the man's cries freshly filled the valley.
Roin spoke in a voice devoid of emotion, not even twitching an eyebrow.
"I'll ask once more. Who sent you?"
"......"
The man clamped his mouth shut again.
"Still got some fight in you?"
Roin grinned.
A bright, innocent smile that might make one's heart flutter, but to the man, it was more terrifying than anything.
This time, Roin placed his fist against the man's solar plexus.
"Guess I'll have to make you unable to hold out."
He threw a light punch.
The man's back arched inward like a shrimp.
The agony of bones crunching and organs rupturing stabbed straight into his brain.
He was in too much pain to even scream properly, reduced to gagging sounds.
The man thrashed about.
Roin calmly pinned the man's left hand down with his heel.
To keep him from moving.
"Yeah, it's fine if you don't talk yet. You can take it, right? Of course you can. Since you won't spill......"
Roin smiled again.
"I'll just have to do what I gotta do."
Not that Roin planned to kill the man.
He intended to beat him right up to the brink of death.
That's when he'd crack.
The moment he heard that, terror filled the man's eyes, and he shouted desperately.
"I-I'll talk! I'll tell you! Just please stop!"
The man finally submitted to Roin's threats.
Two rounds of holding out wasn't bad.
Roin crouched down and looked at the man crawling on the ground.
"Good job. If you'd kept your mouth shut like before, I was gonna start chopping off limbs next. Way better to go to prison with all four intact, right? Don't you think?"
It was as if the devil himself had spoken.
Even Remina and Luem, listening in, shuddered at the chilling words.
But Roin paid little heed to their stares.
Finding the mastermind was more important right now.
Not so much out of devotion to helping Remina, but because he needed justification to crush Nut.
That's why he was stepping up so aggressively.
Nut was the one who'd scarred Roin's face.
To get proper revenge, he needed the right pretext.
That's why he was so desperate for evidence and testimony.
Roin was absolutely convinced these assassins were connected to Nut too.
This assassin's confession would give him the justification he needed.
"Spill it. Who ordered it?"
"It was......"
The man hesitated for a moment.
Then, as if he'd made up his mind and opened his mouth to speak
Suddenly, strange symptoms appeared on his body.
His neck began to swell.
Roin instinctively flung open his coat to shield his face.
Boom!
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere.
The man's head exploded.
Startled, Luem fell on his butt and stammered.
"J-Just now, th-that guy's h-head......!"
"Shut up for a sec."
Roin told Luem to quiet down, then began examining the corpse.
This scene.
It feels like I've seen this recently.
The mercenary band he'd captured while on a mission with Jerka Tayla.
He'd asked them who was behind the order to steal the Demon God's fragment.
One mercenary had started to answer
Then, just like this, his neck and body swelled up like a balloon.
And boomexploded.
Exactly the same as back then.
It was a perfect reenactment of that scene.
Which meant......
That damn prohibition mage is involved in this too?
The prohibition mage Roin had been desperately hunting for.
No way.
Drwek's group did have one mage.
But something felt off.
That woman only seemed to know summoning magic.
Roin soon shook his head.
No, don't limit her abilities based on my assumptions.
Better to keep all possibilities open.
The Demon God's fragment, a mage who could cast prohibitions, Nut, and assassins targeting Remina.
All of this is connected.
A strong sense of foreboding hit him.
There was something Roin didn't know.
Uncovering it piece by piece might just be his job.
Roin turned to Remina standing behind him.
She'd heard the story from him about the mercenary attack on the ship.
"They ended up like this back then too, right?"
"Yeah."
What a shame, though.
"I was trying to find out why they wanted you dead and who was behind it. Didn't expect these guys to have prohibition magic too."
"Think that mage with them cast it?"
"Nah. Low chance."
Drwek had called out the mage's name once amid the group.
Though whether it was her real name was doubtful.
Probably wasn't.
Assassins wouldn't go around shouting real names in front of people.
The investigation looped back to square one.
......Or so he thought.
"It's fine. I know who the culprit is."
"The culprit? You know who ordered the hit on you?"
"There's only one person who sees me as a thorn in their side."
Roin and Luem's attention snapped to Remina at her words.
"Who is it?"
Remina let out a deep sigh.
The identity of the mastermind from her lips was quite unexpected.
"Bartler Whisli. My own brother."
Drwek finally escaped Scream Valley via teleportation.
The moment he returned, he went straight to find Nut.
A massive factory lined with countless mechanical parts.
He pushed through the Meister workers, faces masked, engrossed in crafting tactical golems, heading for the third-floor office space.
As he climbed the stairs.
A man's voice stopped Drwek in his tracks.
"Was the mission a success?"
Drwek's brow furrowed the instant he spotted Aker.
"All the info you gave me was wrong."
Roin, Remina, even Luem.
Their strength was at least double what Aker's specs suggested.
"We lost two subordinates because of it."
Drwek's voice dripped with killing intent.
Yet Aker didn't flinch.
"The world's best assassin squad, huh? Can't even handle a few kids?"
Drwek nearly drew his sword right then.
The man who hadn't risen to Roin's provocations almost lost his cool at Aker's words.
"No need to hear that from you. Anyway, as of now, I'm pulling out of that assassination gig you set up. Got it?"
"Running away?"
Aker tried provoking him again, but
"Think what you want."
Drwek didn't bite this time.
The losses were already too great.
Continuing the mission would just hurt Drwek's side more.
No point clinging to a failed job.
Pride? Competitive spirit?
Those didn't put food on the table.
Time to prioritize gains.
Drwek left the tactical golem factory with quick strides.
A moment later.
Aker pulled out a portable crystal orb.
He nodded heavily at the voice coming from it.
"Understood. I'll do that."
Aker pocketed the crystal orb again.
He let out a smirk.
"What a coward."
Roin and Remina reported the assassin attack to the instructors.
Luem looked exhausted from hauling two assassin corpses here to base camp alone.
Still, he seemed somewhat pleased, having gotten to exercise during the 1-night, 2-day trip.
Bartons face darkened as he heard the report.
Normally, he'd send an investigation team to verify before blindly believing the two.
But with the two assassin corpses right there, no room for doubt.
These assassins had been sent by...
And Nut had been ordered to make the tactical golems go berserk on purpose by...
It turned out they were all under orders from Remina's brother, Bartler Whisli.
"Evidence? Remina, tangible proof would make it easier to prove your brother did it."
Remina answered Barton's question like this.
"No one else is gunning for me with assassins but my brother."
Barton had seen plenty of siblings on bad terms.
But never a brother going this big-scale to kill his little sister.
Assume Bartler was the culprit.
That didn't end the problem.
They needed to clean it up.
But how?
Remina even proposed the solution.
"I'll go home myself and talk to Father. If you permit me a short trip home, Instructor, I'll bring back proof that my brother got Nut to bribe the headmaster too."
It was a deal of sorts.
Barton already disliked Oval's corrupt ways.
If Remina secured the evidence herself, great.
"But it's dangerous to go alone."
Plenty of people after Remina's life.
Barton wished a reliable bodyguard would go with her.
That's when Roin stepped up.
"I'll go with her."
"You?"
Roin, who avoided hassles, volunteering? Surprising.
Roin had his own reasons.
"There's something I want to ask Remina's brother too."
The identity of the prohibition mage.
He was determined to track down the one possibly tied to his past life.