Chapter 16 - Time to Rob the Safe

SLICE!

Laward cut diagonally through a Houndry member’s shoulder. A strike without hesitation. Blood spurted like a fountain, drenching his face, but he never even thought to wipe away that crimson baptism.

The sword in his hand was a cheap longsword issued by the academy. His department and name were engraved on the hilt, so he had wrapped it tightly in bandages to hide them.

A crude, shabby sword. Even so, it cut through flesh and severed bone well enough.

HUM...

Light soon gathered on Laward’s sword. A fierce red glow lined the edges of the blade.

The edges. Only its cutting edges.

‘Can he still not draw out enough divine power to fill the entire blade?’

Watching from a rooftop, Daywin brought a hand to his chin.

‘Still, applying a thin coating to just the edges is clever.’

He understood his own limits clearly and made the best choice available.

‘I’m starting to like him.’

WHOOSH!

Laward adjusted his grip and charged at another guild member. He smoothly deflected the spearhead flying toward him and accelerated, instantly identifying the spear’s blind spot and slipping through the opening.

He ducked low and closed in. Now.

SWISH!

He slashed upward, taking off the man’s head. It flew through the air in an arc.

‘... But his opponents are quick to react, too.’

While he dealt with the enemy at the front, the other guild members surrounded him. Just as Laward noticed the enemy behind him, one of them swung a sword.

CRACKLE...

Light appeared in Laward’s palm. From the moment it began to shine, Daywin knew what spell he was preparing.

A low-level spell that knocked back nearby enemies. A fundamental piece of a paladin’s holy magic, it was ranked F. Daywin himself had taught it to Laward before he enrolled at the academy.

Its ability to affect things without physical contact made it a basic technique, but an F-rank spell had clear limitations.

In a word, it was weak.

‘Even against an ordinary person, all it can do is knock them unconscious.’

SWISH!

It would already have been too late to aim at the enemy behind him, yet Laward aimed into empty space to his right and cast the stun spell. His stance was poor, too. Firing while off balance would send him flying from the recoil.

Or—

‘He intended to use the recoil all along.’

THOOM!

He flew left, away from the direction he had fired, and rolled into his landing. Realizing he could not block the sword coming from behind, he had turned the spell’s heavy recoil to his advantage.

He had used it as a booster.

“Hah.”

Daywin had never taught him that. That was pure instinct.

While the enemy was still recovering from his broad swing, Laward closed the distance in an instant and drove his sword into him.

“Urgh!”

Meanwhile, the remaining enemies moved up on either side of Laward.

THOOM!

He cast the stun spell again. Firing opposite his direction of movement forced him into a sharp spin.

That had been his intention from the start.

He slashed, adding the momentum of the turn.

SLICE!

Tracing a semicircle, he cut through both men’s waists at once. A single slash, bolstered by his spin. The blade, glowing as though heated in a fire, split his enemies in half.

Regaining his balance, Laward turned toward the last man. The instant both his feet struck the ground—

THOOM! THOOM!

He cast successive stun spells, darting left, then right. Zigzagging past the enemy’s swinging sword, he slashed across the man’s waist. Dark red blood ran down the blade, soaking the hilt.

Flicker, flicker.

Laward’s halo flashed again. Still faint and unstable, its light brought to mind a dying bulb. Laward himself seemed unaware of the ring above his head, focused solely on the enemies before him.

They died helplessly under Laward’s acts of purification. It was getting hard to tell who the evil ones were.

“A... a demon...”

“S-somebody do something about him!”

Not only Houndry’s members, but even the marquis’s soldiers were aghast at Laward’s movements. Marquis Fred could only gape, unable to utter a sound.

‘Daywin Hasgard...’

Only moments earlier, Marquis Fred had dismissed Laward as a mere child. His opinion changed in an instant.

‘He has someone like that at his beck and call...?’

016

The screams Laward orchestrated continued. Meanwhile, I slipped into Houndry’s hideout.

As expected, the corridor was deserted. Carelessly, every last member had gone outside to deal with Laward. The screams and clash of metal outside only emphasized the silence within.

It had been quite some time since I played the game, but once inside the hideout, I vaguely recalled the layout.

The innermost room on the second floor. Karma’s room.

CREAK...

It hardly suited someone called the master of the pleasure district. The room was more than modest—it was crude.

An old desk with peeling paint. A faded gray carpet. Not a single decoration adorned the walls, only a few lonely candleholders.

Had he shoved every last coin he earned into his safe?

“Fine by me.”

I was about to rob it, after all.

I approached the bare, featureless wall behind the desk. I knew there was a mechanism hidden in it, but honestly, I couldn’t remember where to press.

For situations like this, nothing beat...

FLASH!

I summoned a spirit. The first buff I applied enhanced its detection ability—the same spell I had used when fighting Karma.

HUM...

Once the spell took effect, the spirit circled insistently before one particular brick, like a bee hovering over a flower.

Here it was.

When I pressed it, the bricks rearranged themselves with a clunk.

“Just as I thought.”

A large safe appeared within the hidden compartment.

CLICK...

I inserted the key I had brought in my pocket and turned it. With a heavy sound, the safe door swung smoothly open.

Its interior was the exact opposite of the barren room. It glittered almost blindingly. Gold bars Karma had amassed while ruling the Sixth District’s nights were stacked in neat piles.

That took care of funding my pursuit of the Death God’s cult.

Beside the gold was a large collection of neatly filed documents. Ledgers and lists. A roster of clients who had commissioned Houndry’s dirty work, and compromising information I could use as a leash once I took over the organization.

I also glimpsed scraps of paper that looked roughly handled, in stark contrast to the orderly documents, but I could investigate those later.

I wasn’t finished here yet.

“I’m sure... this safe had a second mechanism.”

My stats had been too low to unlock it in the game, but I should be able to manage now. There was only one condition: the player—in other words, Laward—needed an [Intelligence] stat above a certain threshold.

With high [Intelligence], he could detect the faint mana circuit running inside the safe and find the hidden button.

A high-Intelligence Laward. An extra reward available only if you took Laward down the mage route.

The problem was, I was a paladin who relied entirely on [Divinity], with precious little to do with [Intelligence] myself.

“Still, there is a way.”

I reached out and called the spirit over. The light spirit circled around me.

I added a new spell to it. An [Intelligence] stat boost. Four stacks.

Stat-boosting buffs had limited durations, so they weren’t my mainstays, but they came in handy at times like this.

CLICK!

The floor of the safe rose with a crisp click where the spirit touched it.

“At last, I get to loot this.”

I opened the velvet box hidden beneath the safe. Inside was a ring set with a square-cut black gemstone, along with an envelope just as black as the gem.

I opened the black envelope first and immediately recognized the Death God’s cult as the sender.

A commission the cult had sent to Karma. In my previous life, I hadn’t even known they were active at this point, but now I had a lead.

Next, I picked up the ring.

Ring of Disguise

The moment I picked it up, a message window appeared before my eyes.

A ring that transforms the user’s appearance by distorting their mana wavelength. The unique item of Karma, leader of Houndry. Unlike illusion magic, it can fool even detection magic.

An item that enabled disguises. It certainly felt like something the boss of a criminal guild would use.

With this, I could be an academy sponsor by day and Karma by night, keeping the two identities completely separate.

... Time to head out into the alley.

I would have liked to examine everything in the safe at leisure, but the time I had agreed upon with Laward was approaching. For now, I took only the ring, the letter, and the ledgers, then closed the safe. I couldn’t move the gold bars right away, and I would be coming back to this room anyway.

Next time, I wouldn’t need to sneak in.

Lucia held her younger sisters’ hands tightly, one in each hand.

“Just hold on a little longer.”

“Lucia, I’m scared...”

“Don’t look back. Just look ahead and run.”

The Sixth District was utter chaos. Houndry members fled screaming, the marquis’s soldiers chasing after them. Acrid smoke and the stench of blood filled the streets.

‘Once we get out of the pleasure district—’

Gasping for breath, Lucia rounded a corner.

That was when it happened.

“Huh...?”

A familiar silhouette came into view, and she stopped. Though his hood was up, the glimpse of red eyes she caught might as well have had Daywin Hasgard’s name written across them.

‘Why is he here...?’

Then Lucia’s gaze shifted to the alley where Laward was running rampant.

“Aaagh!”

“S-spare me!”

With bandages wrapped around his sword’s hilt, Laward was butchering Houndry’s members.

‘Laward, was it?’

She didn’t know why the younger swordsmanship student who had enrolled at the top of his class had become a bloodthirsty killer. Nor did she know why he was on the marquis’s side, cutting down her comrades, or who was in the right.

Only one thing was certain.

‘This is dangerous.’

Daywin, standing on Houndry’s side, could get caught up in it. That killer was approaching him.

‘I have to stop him.’

Daywin looked defenseless. Laward, meanwhile, radiated a menace surpassing even the former Karma’s.

“Lucia?”

Her sister’s trembling voice and tug on her clothes made Lucia bite her lip.

Daywin was strong. He would find a way to survive. Right now, getting her sisters somewhere safe came first.

‘Think calmly.’

[“Is Lucia here, too?”]

That voice suddenly echoed in her mind. The Subjugation Festival. She remembered watching Karma’s duel with Daywin.

‘What was I doing back then?’

She had merely hidden and watched him. Ungratefully, she had done nothing but hesitate. Even while Daywin fought Karma to free her from her leash, she had done nothing.

“I’m sorry.”

Lucia pushed her sisters behind a nearby barrel.

“I need to go somewhere for a moment. I’ll... be right back.”

“Lucia? Where are you going?”

“Stay here. Don’t come out, no matter what.”

The moment her sisters reluctantly nodded, Lucia turned.

TAP-TAP!

Into the alley. Across the blood-soaked street, she sprinted at full speed to put herself in front of Daywin.

Before Laward’s sword could reach the master to whom she had sworn loyalty.

To protect him.

Laward recognized me and gave a small nod. It was the signal to proceed as rehearsed.

I pushed through Houndry’s men and faced him. Laward flicked the blood from his sword and adjusted his stance, too.

Then—

CRASH!

Someone leaped in and attacked Laward. It happened in an instant, but the strike was aimed precisely at his neck.

A small, nimble shadow.

The person standing in front of me held an academy-issued sword, just like Laward’s. A person who had snapped that sword in half to use it as a shortsword.

“... Lucia?”

It was Lucia.

A spectator had rushed the stage.

CLANG!

Having reflexively parried Lucia’s sword, Laward looked back and forth between us in bewilderment. His face said he had no idea what was real and what was staged.

You could look at me like that all you wanted...

I had no idea either...?

GRIND... GRIND...

Lucia pressed her blade against his, keeping them locked in a contest of strength.

“... Lucia?”

“I don’t think I’ve been nearly diligent enough at school to deserve such respect from our top incoming student.”

“What are you talking about? You were the top student when you enrolled, too... weren’t you!”

CLANG!

Laward pushed Lucia back and caught his breath.

“Why did you come from Houndry’s side?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Were you working for Karma?”

“I said it’s none of your business.”

“... Was Houndry the reason your grades plummeted after you enrolled?”

“...”

Ah. I had a bad feeling about this.

“Were they threatening you? Please, answer me! If that’s what happened, I can...!”

The scenario where Laward learned Lucia’s identity and helped her.

At this rate, it would be no different from the harem route—

“You can what?”

Lucia gave a derisive snort.

“Who do you think you are?”

—!

[Ending (6) Locked]

[The Dog Bound to the Shadows]

『Lucia, a third-year swordsmanship student who spent every day nodding off with a listless expression, had been a prodigy who entered the academy at the top of her class.

Having “chosen” to gather information on why Lucia had changed, Laward soon discovered the truth.

It was in the pleasure district of the marquisate’s Sixth District.

“Hey, teach. You’re an adult. What kind of teacher calls a student to a place like this, no matter how drunk they are?”

“Hey, you little punk! I’m the one who recommended you to the academy! I got you out of the slums, and this is the thanks I get...”

“Thanks? Don’t know that word. My [Intelligence] is low.”

“Yeah... I know that...”

The teacher shook their head in resignation.

“Oh, right, Laward. Say hello. This is Lucia, a third-year. You recognize her, don’t you? Well, of course you do... If I were a man, a face like Lucia’s would catch my eye right away.”

Where the teacher pointed, there was Lucia’s face. A face that seemed to want to hide in shame at meeting Laward in a place like this.

“Teach... you knew?”

“Hm? Well, of course I knew. I’m a regular. Whenever I come at this hour, Lucia’s waiting desperately for me...”

“Lucia has never waited for you.”

Laward abandoned the drunken teacher and approached Lucia. He had to know why she was here.

When he pressed her, Lucia reluctantly explained her circumstances. Had she begun to hope for something from him without realizing it? Had she shamefully come to rely on a junior, someone younger than herself?

“I’ll help you.”

Laward spoke as soon as he heard about Lucia’s past.

“Don’t. It’s too dangerous.”

“I don’t care. We won’t know until we fight him. Lucia, I’ll get you out of here.”

At those words, Lucia buried her face in her hands and bit her lip. She hated herself for being moved so easily by a few words.

Lucia hated how weak and easily swayed she had become, but would Laward stay by her even through that ugliness?

“You’re... the first person who’s ever said that to me.”』

“Those words.”

Lucia spoke firmly, glaring at Laward as though she found him loathsome.

“Who said I wanted to hear them?”

Then she turned her head slightly to look at me.

“I don’t need your help, Laward.”

『“... Save me, Laward.”』

“Lucia has already been saved.”