Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – One Quick Strike

‘So far, it doesn’t seem like that knight bastard will step up right away, so......’

With that thought in my head, I casually led the mood.

“Harun!”

“H-Huh?”

“I want you to trust me and take just one of these guys on— something like a trial run. What you’ve learned should be enough for these minions.”

The knight clicked his tongue at my words.

“Stupid bastards. It’s clear they’ll never make it up the ladder, believing in crap like that.”

I wonder if that muttering was the cause.

“Becker!”

Ben-Hur, the scowling minion leader, called out.

“Yes, Boss.”

Looking at his face, it turned out to be the bandit who had pushed me here in the beginning.

“You take care of that kid.”

“What? M-Me?”

“Don’t make me say it twice. Part of me wants to slit your throat for causing this situation.”

“Y-Yes, sir! Then, am I allowed to kill him?”

“.......”

A moment of silence descends.

“......No. Don’t kill him.”

“Yes, sir.”

Of course not.

In the first place, he called that knight because he didn’t have the confidence to subdue us without killing us.

Like I said, we’re commodities.

Commodities that a big client is impatiently waiting for, at that.

And more than anything, by the looks of it, they haven’t even figured out who we are yet.

Clank!

Soon enough, the bandit pulled out a giant mace and swung it in the air.

“Even if you end up crippled, don’t blame me. You brought this on yourselves.”

Flinch.

Harun’s expression froze under the murderous stare.

In his hand, he held a sword which was one of the minions’ treasures.

-No need to be so nervous. Just do as I say from now on.

“......!”

Harun’s eyes widened at the sound of my voice in his head, and he looked around.

-Don’t look at me, and just focus on your opponent from now on.

Harun finally hid his surprise, and nodded slowly.

-You can’t use mana right now anyway. So there’s no point in trying.

His opponent wasn’t even worthy of using mana against in the first place.

“I’ll at least chop off one of your legs!”

Whirrr!

At that moment, the bandit made the first move.

-The mace is coming from the front. Keep your eyes open and step to the right!

Bam!

The mace struck the ground.

The bandit’s eyes widened, as if he hadn’t expected Harun to dodge.

“Eek!”

The bandit immediately tried to retrieve the mace.

But weighing as much as it did, it was too slow.

-Left foot forward, go on the offense! And his chest— pierce it!

“Haaah!”

Harun cried out, and followed my instructions to the letter.

“Ugh!”

The panicked bandit hastily swung his mace.

Still too slow.

In fact, he didn’t even think of counterattacking and squeezed his eyes shut.

That’s right.

This is what the skills of a bandit in the countryside amount to.

Wooosh! Stab!

In the end, the bandit practically allowed Harun, who had only been learning the sword for a week, to stab him.

“......Cough!”

Tremble.

However, Harun’s sword missed its intended target.

The bandit staggered backwards, his left ribs were pierced instead of his heart, and he crumpled to the ground in a heap.

“Well, not bad for a first shot.”

“Wh-What in the world?”

I heard exclamations of surprises from all directions.

“I-I won?”

Thud!

Harun sank to the ground.

It was his first fight. His first time hurting another human being.

There’s an instinctive repulsion to the raw sensation of metal piercing flesh.

Unless you’re a natural born killer, you’ll probably feel all the energy in your body disappear.

However, it’s a necessary experience to improve at the sword.

“Th-That stupid bastard. That child’s clearly never held a sword before in his life, and yet he lost to the kid?”

Knight Thomas, who was watching, clicked his tongue.

“That’s it. Rather than having to watch something like that, I’ll do it myself.”

“Hey. Your opponent is me.”

“......?”

Right now, think of nothing else.

“......There’s a reason scum like you are allowed to run rampant on this continent. That’s right, in the first place, there’s something wrong with this world.”

“What?”

During the moment he asked mockingly in disbelief.

Swoosh!

By that time, the lunatic stood right in front of me, and I let the dagger in my right hand fly right towards his face.

“Hmph.”

Clang!

Obviously thinking that the whole situation was ridiculous, the lunatic deflected the dagger with his sword.

He had his guard down.

“Petty tricks......!”

Judging from how he was screaming like this in the middle of a battle.

For a brief moment, even my breathing parted.

I didn’t miss my chance.

The destination of my sword had been set from the start.

Moment by moment, each an infinitesimal fraction of a second.

Flash!

The moment I threw the dagger, my other hand had already snatched the sword from Harun’s grasp.

I brought it straight down.

Out of nothing, a straight, white, solid line was drawn mid-air.

A single path entered my vision.

A dot and a dot.

I saw it clearer than anyone else.

Connect the lines.

Stab!

“......!”

“......!”

“......!”

The sword pierced Thomas’s skull without missing a beat.

“......You do it like this.”

Shhhhk!

As I pulled the sword out and gave it a shake, dots of blood splatter onto the floor.

Thud!

At the same time, the soulless body wobbled and collapsed to the ground.

Shiver.

At this unbelievable sight, the minion leader Ben-Hur’s entire body trembled.

“Th-that thing on the sword at the end...... was definitely mana, right?”

“A-A child like that has mana?”

“No way! How could a mere teenage child defeat a knight......?”

The completely disoriented minions began to chatter.

“B-Boss. A-Are we going to be okay? Wasn’t Sir Thomas more than capable of wiping out the likes of us single-handedly?”

One of the minions quickly clung to Ben-Hur and whispered.

There was even a hint of desperation in his voice.

If I were their leader, I would have decapitated that whispering minion in an instant.

Fear is a terrible plague.

Military discipline is like an abstraction.

For every coward like him on the battlefield, you became exponentially less likely to win the war.

So, Captain Ben-Hur.

What choice do you make here?

“Will you continue?”

Thud!

He didn’t deliberate long.

“S-Spare us!”

“......!”

At the loud noise, the startled minions turned to look at their leader.

Ben-Hur was bowing his head to me.

“What do you think you’re doing, you sons of bitches? Get on your knees! Is this how you want to die?”

At that, the other minions started to join in, slamming their heads against the earth with a “Thump! Thump!”

“S-Spare us!”

“W-We failed to recognize someone of your stature. If you spare us this once, we will live a good life in penance from now on!”

I let my gaze sweep across the minions.

The standard here is to divide them into those who can be rehabilitated and those who cannot.

Because the other key to power is none other than ‘people.’

“Poor bastards. Just what kind of lives did they have to resort to this kind of life?”

“......!”

Did they hear hope in my words?

Their voices rise in pitch.

“We will make sure to repay you for saving our lives! Please have mercy on us!”

I stared at them, pretending to be troubled.

Chapter 3 of Ancelot’s Code.

People don’t change; don’t try to fix them.

Chapter 4. Don’t leave behind any seeds that will be the source of trouble in the future.

Chapter 5. If you make a rule, enforce it.

When I put it all together, my answer was already set in stone.

“Well, since I do need information.......”

A crooked smile spread across my face.

“I’ll let one of you live.”

“......!”

“Start killing each other.”