Ch.103[Chapter 103] Lord Dominic VS ???

After obtaining his license, Sir Dominic lived an ordinary life.

A suspiciously ordinary life.

He would wake up at dawn to train, then eat breakfast.

At lunchtime, his apprentice Alice would visit to receive training.

Of course, Alice ate lunch at home, but due to her contract with Sir Dominic, she would secretly eat cotton candy without her parents knowing.

When dinner time came, he would send Alice home.

A routine that anyone would consider ordinary.

This dawn was no different.

As usual, Sir Dominic was striking a scarecrow while wearing a white t-shirt that read “This is not a t-shirt,” holding a sword and shield.

“My shoulder feels off today for some reason.”

For a knight, knowing one’s body is a duty.

Pain is unavoidable.

But not knowing when you’re in pain is shameful.

Sir Dominic, who had been taught this way, rotated his shoulder a few times to check its condition again.

The shield was unexpectedly large and could hide his entire body when he bent down, so that wasn’t an issue, but the sword was the problem.

To perform swordsmanship with this one-handed saber, joint movement was crucial.

Wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

Going further, the waist and pelvis would also be involved, but when covering the body with a shield, those three joints were most important.

And right now, his shoulder was sending warning signals.

Raising his arm while bent was fine, but whenever he raised it while extended, a dull pain shot through.

This is muscle pain.

Sir Dominic made his self-diagnosis instantly.

Though he had no medical training, through experience and training, he knew that different movements used different muscles.

And when a specific muscle hurt like this, it was almost certainly muscle pain from overexertion.

It seemed that vigorously moving the control stick while getting his driver’s license had strained his muscles.

“I’ll end today’s training here and apply some heat… hm?”

Just as Sir Dominic decided not to push himself further and turned around, something in the distance glinted in the sunlight.

Surprisingly, it came from Sir Dominic’s blind side, where he wore his eye patch.

Had Sir Dominic not turned at that moment, it would surely have hit him.

But Sir Dominic estimated the approximate distance from the glint and swung his sword.

Because his arm couldn’t rise properly, the object grazed Sir Dominic’s cheek and deflected away.

A thin red line appeared on Sir Dominic’s cheek, and a drop of blood rolled down.

“Is this… a throwing weapon?”

Sir Dominic turned to look at something embedded in the pillar of his house.

A throwing weapon shaped like a sharp awl.

Sir Dominic remembered seeing this weapon before.

“Kunoichi Hime.”

“Correct, Sir Dominic.”

A voice came from behind Sir Dominic.

He hurriedly turned around and raised his shield.

It was an instinctive action prompted by hearing the voice and a faint sound of wind.

Through this instinctive movement, Sir Dominic successfully blocked three flying kunai with his shield.

“Pleased to meet you, Sir Dominic. I am Kunoichi Hime.”

Sir Dominic lowered his shield slightly to look ahead.

“Don’t worry about the surprise attack. It’s because of my trait.”

Hime was standing there, but she looked somewhat different from usual.

She wore a black military uniform that looked loose but subtly clung to her body, and an officer’s hat with a wide brim that could adequately hide her expression.

At her waist hung a ninja’s seven tools, and a chain sickle was partially hidden behind her back.

Above all, the most noticeable difference was that she proudly displayed fox ears and a tail.

Sir Dominic was confused by the situation but remained vigilant.

Why had Hime broken into Sir Dominic’s house to ambush him, and what was with that outfit?

Hime was watching Sir Dominic with cold eyes.

Sir Dominic met her gaze, but couldn’t discern her thoughts.

As they stood facing each other in this standoff.

The situation, where they seemed to be just staring at each other as if the first to move would lose, was resolved by neither Sir Dominic nor Hime, but by a third party.

“Bravo. Bravo. As expected of Sir Dominic.”

Beyond Sir Dominic’s fence, someone clapped slowly while speaking.

Sir Dominic and Hime simultaneously looked at the stranger.

She wore a black military uniform and officer’s hat similar to Hime’s.

Spiky hair, sharp eyes, and pointed teeth.

And she had white rabbit ears and wore black leather gloves over white cotton gloves.

“As expected of the recently famous Sir Dominic. Who would have thought you’d detect Miss Hime’s surprise attack.”

“Perhaps you’re more sensitive because you’re a tank?” The woman leaned against the fence, grinning provocatively at Sir Dominic.

“Indeed, you’re a man worthy of being targeted by our secret society Y.O.Y.A.N.G.W.O.N.”

“Yoyangwon? Target?”

What kind of secret society name is Yoyangwon?

And why had they targeted Sir Dominic?

What did “target” mean?

True to being a secret society, everything was shrouded in mystery…

“Secret Society John the Shepherd Expedition! A venerable secret society that has existed since 1723! Its purpose is to keep the Demon Lord in check instead of the Hero!”

The rabbit-eared woman had an extremely loose tongue.

With information flowing so freely from her mouth, Sir Dominic doubted whether this was truly a secret society, but the pure-hearted Sir Dominic remained vigilant, wondering if this might all be part of their scheme.

“—So if you join now, you’ll get an exclusive uniform, badge, and homemade chocolate cookies with banana milk! Today is St. John’s Day, so you get an extra chocolate cookie!”

“You didn’t have to tell him everything… Wait. I only got one!”

“That’s because yesterday wasn’t a feast day. If you had held out just one more day, you would have gotten two cookies.”

Hime was suddenly standing next to the rabbit-eared woman.

Her movement had been astonishingly fast and quiet.

And after such an impressive action, she was now complaining about receiving only one cookie.

Those cookies must be incredibly delicious.

Sir Dominic thought as he watched Hime and the mysterious female officer suddenly arguing about cookies.

“Anyway, I’m Brigadier General Joseph, in charge of headhunting for Secret Society Y.O.Y.A.N.G.W.O.N.”

A higher position than expected!

“Actually, everyone’s rank in the secret society is arbitrary. Out of twenty members, seventeen are sergeants. Frog… what was it? That’s the generation they grew up watching.”

Brigadier General Joseph grinned, showing her shark-like teeth.

“By the way, why have you targeted me?”

Sir Dominic glanced at Hime.

Her expression remained as cold as a blizzard sweeping over eternal snow, making it difficult to discern her thoughts.

“It’s simple.”

Brigadier General Joseph pointed a finger at Sir Dominic.

“Demon Lord Teu Le Vante. You won’t deny knowing her, will you?”

“Checkmate,” she declared, her mouth splitting into a grin that reached her cheekbones.

Sir Dominic nodded.

And suddenly a hypothesis occurred to him.

Secret Society Y.O.Y.A.N.G.W.O.N keeps Demon Lords in check.

The Demon Lord and Sir Dominic know each other.

Therefore, Secret Society Y.O.Y.A.N.G.W.O.N also keeps Sir Dominic in check.

Sir Dominic found this absurd conclusion ridiculous, but just to be sure, he asked Brigadier General Joseph.

“Are you doing this because I know the Demon Lord?”

“So you do know?”

This is maddening. Sir Dominic had a feeling things were about to get tiresome.

“And that’s why you launch a surprise attack?”

“Oh, that’s separate from our secret society. It’s Miss Hime’s personal grudge.”

Brigadier General Joseph taunted, “The cookies are quite sweet, aren’t they?”

Until Hime poked her side with the tip of a kunai from an angle invisible to others.

“Anyway! From now on, we are, what’s the word. Rivals! Yes! Adversaries, that’s what I’m—”

“Ex-cu-se-me…”

Just as Brigadier General Joseph was about to make her declaration to Sir Dominic with a dramatic pose, a thunderous voice suddenly came from the sky.

“Master! I’m here!”

“It’s-dan-ger-ous… Don’t-move-yet…”

Darkness fell over Sir Dominic’s house.

Though the morning sunlight had been strong just moments ago, illuminating every corner of the yard, darkness suddenly descended as if an eclipse had occurred, and then a large ice island with five pillars descended to the ground.

“You’re already here. Welcome, Alice.”

Sir Dominic greeted Alice, who was hanging from one of the pillars on the island.

But to whom was the previous greeting directed?

Indeed.

This island is not actually an island.

It’s the hand of Alice’s mother.

Alice’s mother, a frost giant, stands hundreds of meters tall—truly a being from mythology.

The moment Sir Dominic first met Alice’s mother, he immediately understood the reason for Alice’s rapid growth.

“She-was-in-si-sting-on-go-ing-ear-ly-to-day… Please-take-good-care-of-her…”

With a thunderous voice, a woman made of ice and frost bowed her head.

Though described as a bow, the actual sound was more like a rumbling.

Like the illusion of thunder and lightning.

Alice jumped down from her mother’s palm.

As always, she wore chain mail and a tunic, with the inside of the tunic adorned with badges made from bottle caps.

Brigadier General Joseph stood dumbfounded with her mouth open at this enormous situation.

That’s when it happened.

Sparks flew in Hime’s eyes, which had shown no change in expression until now.

She quickly drew kunai from her waist and threw three of them at Alice.

“Huh? What? Wait, Miss Hime! This isn’t in the script—”

In this unexpectedly developing situation, the most surprised was Brigadier General Joseph.