Ch.20Pretending to Patrol Something #8

There are no foreshadowings in life. I believed that more than anyone else.

Perhaps everything could be called inevitable, but I think it’s been that way since I died absurdly from a quack’s misuse of medicine.

So I thought it could be possible that the ship we boarded happened to be a den of unsavory characters, and in fact, a place that dealt in human trafficking. From what I heard, they occasionally engaged in hostage trading as well, though such targets seemed to be in the minority.

And judging by their ability to threaten such people, they appeared to have considerable power. The wooden crate warehouse where I was now confined also seemed somewhat suspicious.

“It’s quiet now. You can open your eyes.”

“Whew! I just can’t get used to men groping my body. What about Helena?”

“Yeah. They immediately confiscated her sword since it was the most noticeable thing… but they didn’t touch her beyond that.”

It was strange—if they had been even lower quality men, they might have pounced on Helena immediately. Perhaps because they were accustomed to organized crime, they had developed rules, and violating Helena as they pleased would go against those rules. Or maybe they wanted to avoid the chaos that would ensue if a hostage woke up during the act.

But when I thought about what might have happened if they had ill intentions… I couldn’t bring myself to look up. It might have been my fault if she had to endure such humiliation because I insisted on doing things my way.

Though in such a situation, Helena would likely have killed them all, regardless of our stowaway status.

“I’m really… sorry.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. If they had decided to attack me, I wouldn’t have tolerated it. This much I could endure.”

Instead, Helena smiled faintly and patted my shoulder lightly. We had already broken the ropes that bound our bodies with sheer strength. For someone who cultivated mana, breaking ropes was as easy as eating cold porridge.

“If you’re still sorry… you could touch me that much in return. Right?”

I couldn’t bring myself to respond to Helena’s joke that wasn’t really a joke. I understood that promises between nobles were essentially marriage vows, and once promised, there was nothing to hold back.

Still, I never imagined that Helena would make such casual jokes.

“Then… would it be okay if I squeeze hard?”

Momentarily shaken by the unexpected counterattack, I threw back an equally suggestive joke. Then,

“…Yes.”

Helena answered in a small voice, her face flushed red. While thinking it might be too relaxed for people held hostage in a warehouse, I found myself wanting to look at that face for a long time. I showed no signs of getting tired of it.

However, we couldn’t afford to remain leisurely forever. Realizing this, I quickly checked my body to see if anything was missing. They would certainly have searched us while moving us.

As expected, the search confirmed that several flat dirks I had hidden inside my tailcoat were gone.

“The throwing dirks are gone. I was hoping, but as expected…”

“But that shouldn’t be a problem, right? The training at Altram focuses on hand-to-hand combat.”

“That’s true, but having dirks would make things much easier. Still…”

I trailed off with a slight smile, then stood up quietly and began to remove my pants. I pulled out the tucked-in shirttail and loosened my belt, preparing to undress.

Helena might have reflexively covered her face, but instead, her eyes sparkled as she urged me to undress immediately. The change in her attitude before and after my confession was astonishingly dramatic.

However, I wasn’t removing my pants for any other reason than to retrieve the dirk tied behind my upper calf. I took them off completely because I was afraid of tearing the hem if I tried to roll them up.

They seemed to have searched all pockets, but apparently hadn’t felt the need to grope my seemingly flat legs.

“Take this.”

I pulled out the dirk I had hidden with fishing line and handed it to Helena, then drew the other one for myself before putting my pants back on. After all, I couldn’t walk around naked.

“Oh right. You tied them before we were captured…”

Helena nodded in understanding after receiving the dagger. The shock of me suddenly dropping my pants seemed to have made her forget. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for her to be surprised.

“Anyway, this should be enough. We’ve confirmed there’s no one immediately dangerous, so let’s take over this ship first.”

Helena’s eyes gleamed sharply as she held the dirk. The sword she usually used was much longer than this, but for a master, the difference in length wasn’t particularly important. As long as it had a blade, even a small one could be a sufficient threat.

“Yes. I’ll support you, so please cut through them cleanly.”

“Okay.”

Normally in situations like this, the man would take the lead, but we were far from normal. Helena was much stronger than me and even taught me combat techniques.

So Helena used her aura blade to stab a corner of the wooden door. At first glance, it might have seemed like she was trying to force the door open, but there was more to her action.

She was extending her aura blade through the dirk to pierce the throat of a man standing with his back to the door on the other side.

“Guh, gurgle…!”

Helena’s sense had accurately gauged the presence and distance of her target, resulting in the face of a man spewing boiling blood. I only confirmed this after cutting off the door handle and going outside, but the dead face told me enough about the situation.

It was my first time seeing someone die or killing someone. I might have felt nauseous, but my heart only beat a little faster. I wasn’t frightened or trembling with fear. Rather, I judged it more rational to kill the opponent to silence them completely and move quietly, rather than subduing them without killing. After all, we were dealing with criminals who had committed the clear felony of kidnapping nobles, even if they didn’t know it.

I left the warehouse and checked the structure of the cabin. It had a straight corridor like any ship, with rooms lined up on both sides. Only the warehouse was built to block the front.

“There are six rooms… three people in the leftmost room at the corner, near the exit. About five people in the middle room on the right.”

Helena carefully scanned the doors while muffling her footsteps. Thanks to this, we could tell exactly how many presences were inside. It was a skill I found utterly impossible to replicate. I was amazed.

“It would be better to subdue them simultaneously… but I don’t want to put you in danger, Jion. What should we do…”

Even in this situation, she was worried about me more than herself. Without a true expert, subduing one room would take just a moment, but it could likely cause a major disturbance. So it was only natural to want to subdue both rooms simultaneously.

But since she was hesitating out of concern for my safety, I felt the need to give her a push.

“Don’t worry. I’ll do as you planned. I haven’t been idle either…”

I strode toward the leftmost room in the front row. I didn’t make noise like a fool, but my stride was so large that my gait ended up looking somewhat comical.

However, I had no time to be conscious of that… I gripped the doorknob, ready to fling it open at any moment.

“…Alright. I guess we have no choice.”

Only after I had gone this far did Helena nod as if she had no other option. Her face had grown cold, just like when she killed the man earlier, and she coated her dirk with aura.

I nodded in response and opened the door first.

“Huh…? Who are you?”

As I opened the door, I saw three men sitting on the floor playing poker. They turned their gaze toward me because of the unexpected visitor. It was a perfectly natural reaction to a door suddenly opening.

Thinking this was perfect, I coated the tip of my dirk with aura and lightly threw it. It was a desperate measure to conserve mana, as I clearly had less than Helena despite training with my family’s mana cultivation method.

However, this technique I devised turned out to be unexpectedly efficient. Throwing was a technique meant to pierce the opponent, so concentrating aura only at the tip of the blade was a good match.

As a result, the blade of the dirk, flying through the air in a diagonal path, deeply penetrated the Adam’s apple of the leftmost man.

“Guh, gurgle…!”

A person whose throat is pierced cannot scream. That’s a fact I had confirmed earlier.

So it was natural that his breath was cut off without even being able to scream, but the other two were still intact.

“You bastard…!”

This was an emergency situation where one person had died. So it was only natural for the bronze-skinned men to show hostility and rise to their feet. If they hadn’t, I would have had to suspect some kind of scheme.

However, I closed the distance toward them much faster than they could stand up. Thanks to rushing forward immediately after throwing the dirk, I was able to close the distance in one breath.

“Be quiet.”

I activated my mana to strengthen my body, then concentrated mana at my fingertips instead of a blade. It was my right thumb and index finger.

This was possible partly because I had mainly learned fighting techniques that used the body instead of a sword, but also because Altram’s techniques themselves valued bare-handed combat above all. Of course, there were some shortcomings when facing true masters.

However, it was more than enough to handle men who were only slightly rougher than ordinary people.

“Guh, gaaah…!”

*Crack!*

When I pinched and tore out the Adam’s apple of the man on the right with my fingers, blood spurted out along with a deflating sound. The reason for targeting the throat, as I mentioned earlier, was to minimize the commotion that would arise from shouting.

After sending two of them off with surprise attacks, one remained… but to extract information, I covered his mouth and kicked his ankle with all my might. It was a motion commonly called a soccer kick.

“Ugh, uuugh—!!!”

*Crack! Crunch!*

Intense pain seemed to pierce the man’s crown. The contorted face visible beyond my hand covering his mouth was evidence. If that face was acting, this man should be sent to a theater troupe immediately rather than committing crimes.

A creepy sound of breaking bones was heard as I kicked his ankle, and consequently, the man collapsed, unable to support his body. It was natural since he couldn’t put weight on either ankle.

“Listen carefully.”

I deadened the light in my eyes as much as possible and narrowed my gaze sharply. I also lowered my voice as much as possible, infusing it with killing intent as if I would kill him immediately. It was very awkward doing this for the first time, but fortunately, it seemed to be effective. The man who had been writhing in pain looked at me with teary eyes.

“I’m going to remove this hand now, but if you make even the slightest sound… I’ll tear out your throat like those two. Nod if you understand.”

“Mmph! Mmmmph!”

The man furrowed his brow in pain but desperately nodded. Fear was also evident in his eyes, so he didn’t seem likely to shout with malice. With two bloody corpses nearby as a bonus, it was understandable that he was afraid.

“Haa, haa…!”

As soon as I removed my hand, the man repeatedly inhaled and exhaled deeply as if fighting for his life. He seemed to have adapted to the pain somewhat and appeared to have enough composure to answer if spoken to.

Thinking this was good, I crouched down to meet the man’s eyes and slowly opened my mouth.

“Now then… first, explain your organizational structure.”