Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Exclusive Knight-3
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"...Magic...?!"
A bullet of wind condensed beyond his hand and fired off. The wind bullet blasted the man's chest clean off his body from the side.
"I... I...! Won't ta...!"
"Yeah, your gums were pretty memorable."
Thwack!
Leo’s fist twisted up the man’s oral structure, making his gummy smile even more prominent. The impact rattled his brain enough to make him foam at the mouth, but it didn’t cover up the charm of those gums.
"We were just talk...!"
"Oh, right. So the client told you to talk."
Rock surged up, forming a blunt spear. It might be better described as a long club than a spear.
Crunch!
"Gaaahk...!!"
"But your buckteeth are a turn-off."
With those words, Leo pierced his solar plexus. It had no edge, so it wouldn’t kill him, but it was enough to shut his mouth and shatter his solar plexus.
Without the buckteeth showing, his face looked pretty good.
"You bastard...!!"
This time, another one shouted. At the same moment, several daggers rained down on Leo.
"Dagger arts... Judging by the style, it’s the ‘Blood Shadow’ technique."
A light assessment. He deflected them just by spinning his spear—such flimsy dagger work.
It was amateurish enough that even charging in past the spear tip was permitted.
"Kaaaaah!"
The scream drowned out the sound of flesh being pierced. Blunt or not, a spear was a spear; with enough force, it could pierce flesh. And shatter the bone inside it too.
"Th-that...! That bastard! That’s the bastard!!"
"Who...!?"
"The one from the papers! Joke Assass...!!"
Splat!!
Unfortunately, his words ended at ‘Joke Assass...’. The spear that flew with force crushed the philtrum above the lips of the loudmouth chattering away.
No one would know who he’d been trying to name now.
He had to remain unknown.
"...Kill...! I’ll kill you!! Joke...!"
To Leo, jokes were murder.
Just hearing the word "joke" had him seizing up like a madman, after all.
"Hey, who am I?"
"...The Joke Assass... Sir...!"
Crack
Wrong answer.
The last remaining assassin, their boss, realized the fact as one of his underling’s necks snapped slightly.
"Who am I?"
The boss
"...Leo...! Sir Leonardo!"
"Not bad on the uptake."
Stab
As a reward for the correct answer, the dagger plunged down, stabbing through his palm into the floor.
"...Gaaaaah!!"
"Calm down. I’ve still got a lot to ask."
The assassin’s collar was grabbed by Leo.
This caused the dagger in his wrist to tear the wound wider.
But he couldn’t scream.
The terror that boy harbored silenced even his screams.
No, was he even a boy to begin with?
Cognitive dissonance... It felt even more absurd than that.
His thoughts shattered, his senses reeled.
If left like this, the torture would begin.
To that existence, such acts would be as simple as yawning.
He hurriedly shoved his tongue between his teeth to dislodge the pill.
A suicide poison used among assassins.
Prepared for information leaks, but now it was his only way to escape that torture.
"Ah, right."
Grab
Leo’s hand forced the boss’s mouth open. And then
"Kaaaaah!!"
With his other hand, he yanked out the tooth hiding the pill. Blood streamed to the floor as the molar, with bits of gum attached, ended up in Leo’s hand.
"...Where you going in such a hurry? Let’s talk nice and slow."
Leo tossed the pill and molar to the ground, preparing for "conversation."
"Name."
No poison, no strength.
All that was left was bluffing.
"You...! You’ll regret...!"
Thwack!
A fist flew. His nasal bone shattered.
"Name."
"You think that bluff from earlier was...!"
A knee struck. His jawbone cracked.
"What? About sending pursuers after Arias earlier?"
"...Y-yeah! If you don’t follow...!"
Flesh was torn. The flesh of his earlobe ripped off under fingernails.
"Doesn’t matter. Even if your whole organization went after her, they wouldn’t catch Arias."
The pursuers were just mid-to-upper-tier assassins from this group at best. And only two or three of them, at that.
At that level, it was less a worry for Arias and more for the pursuers’ well-being.
"...Then...! Then... why...?!"
Pain surged. His right field of vision went dark. His thumb had long since crushed his pupil.
"I’m the one asking questions here? Last chance, answer well."
Leo picked up the dagger. Even boundless patience had its limits.
"Name."
"Kahn..."
The dagger aimed at Kahn’s last remaining eye.
"...sir...!"
Leo set the dagger down and continued the Q&A.
"Affiliation."
"Blood Shadow... sir...!"
That much was expected.
The important part came next.
"Client’s request."
"...That’s..."
A delayed answer. Patience didn’t last long.
"Kaaaaah..!!"
Leo’s fingernail ripped out Kahn’s thumbnail at the root. Unsatisfied with the scream, Leo posed a problem to stimulate his imagination.
"Want a hint? There are ten nails, and thus ten fingers. That’s twenty tortures for the hands alone. Add in the feet, how many then?"
A simple math problem. Ten nails pulled, get used to the pain, then ten more fingers chopped off.
"He told us to kidnap... Sir Leonardo...!!"
The problem’s effect was tremendous.
Information he hadn’t been sure of was now confirmed.
Something had felt off from the start.
Taking a knight hostage as a negotiation term, and specifically binding him "gently" instead of cutting tendons.
"Who ordered it?"
"...Th-that...!"
"Ah, don’t wanna say? Fine, don’t. I’ve got a rough idea anyway. Killing you would be easier for me."
Leo gripped the dagger reverse-hand, preparing to plunge it down.
Fear of death?
Or primal human defiance?
"Jehard...!!"
He spoke.
"Jehard Dynons...! He commissioned it...!"
An unexpected name.
Good thing he’d bluffed about having a hunch.
"Jehard?"
Vaguely familiar, but definitely memorable.
His pettiness and spite were top-tier among petty types.
"Yes! He said he’d pay handsomely, just bring you alive...!"
"So, Jehard, the Reinhardt Escort Knight who got beat and fired?"
"Yes! So...!"
"Yeah. Think I got everything I need."
"Then...!"
Of course, a promise was a promise.
Bam!
Leo slammed his head into the floor, keeping his word.
No time to scream; the boss convulsed like a worm without legs and collapsed.
In truth, contrary to his announcement of killing them, Leo hadn’t killed anyone. The assassins were all knocked out or crippled to that extent, but none dead.
He just hadn’t killed them yet.
Assaulting the lady of House Reinhardt was an unforgivable capital crime.
The truth was, sending Arias away hadn’t been out of worry for her safety. She was too much of a freak genius for that.
It was just that showing her this filthy scene would be too much for Ariasfil the girl. Mentally, she was still at an age where accepting "this sort of thing" would be tough.
Jehard’s disgrace must have stuck with him; even the ancient Sage remembered the name.
The Sage was busy with contempt, but Leo stared at the near-corpses of the assassins with an unsettled expression.
Leo, the regressor—his involvement must have created clear divergences between his past and present lives.
This attack was one such change.
But the unnaturalness of the situation itself remained.
Even consumed by revenge, the Hero Family was something no sane person touched.
Even without direct retaliation, media and social annihilation followed, and sometimes zealous followers avenged them by proxy.
When the assassin squad first attacked, Leo had defensively drawn his sword. Blood Shadow assassins excelled at dagger throws, after all.
He’d had every reason to be cautious.
Doing so would taint the pretext of revenge. Why give such gentle treatment to someone you wanted revenge on?
‘I’ll take revenge myself’ required honor that Jehard’s petty history didn’t support.
This wasn’t a fight that would end neatly.
This was just the beginning.
That conviction settled in just as
"Leo!!"
Arias came running.
And at the same time
Clank
The harsh sound of handcuffs rang out.
And so Leo was arrested...?
"..."
"..."
A familiar situation, a familiar room, familiar silence continued.
"...Ah... ha..."
At the end of the silence, Leo let out a deep sigh from the bottom of his lungs.
That shitty tone brought his sense of reality back bit by bit.
Here’s what happened.
Arias easily shook off the pursuers, contacted nearby guards and the family.
After that, she returned to the alley with the guards to back Leo up,
But that’s when the guards arrested Leo.
It was bizarre, but the reason for arrest was simple.
A mere mercenary who wasn’t a mage using magic—that alone justified suspicion and arrest based on circumstances.
He hadn’t seen it himself, but the circumstances were suspicious enough. Especially with the ground scorched by Fireball providing solid evidence.
This guy only showed loathsome traits no matter how you looked at him. Truly worthy of respect.
If he’d simply taken down the assassins with swordsmanship or aura, they wouldn’t have overreacted like this.
No need to explain; the Sage was a 300+ year old bachelor boomer. He was bound to have outdated common sense for the current era.
In 300 years, everything had changed.
Rivers and mountains, villages, cities, and
Even the laws.
Clunk
The locked door opened, and two robed figures entered.
Thick robes and wide-brim hats hinted at their identity beyond guesswork.
Strictly speaking,
The Sage’s distant, immeasurably junior successors.