Ch.414Tails Intertwined

The pursuit wasn’t particularly difficult.

People generally don’t look above their heads as long as you don’t make any noise.

I shook off my blood-soaked robe and carefully tracked the man by moving across the rooftops.

I was ready to subdue him immediately if he rang a bell or sent any special signal.

But he just kept moving forward, constantly checking his surroundings.

Perhaps they hadn’t established a proper signaling system yet. That’s good. If I follow him, he’ll lead me to the next target.

After about three minutes of pursuit,

he finally stopped running and entered an old building.

I wondered if there were class distinctions even among the poor.

Unlike the other buildings that were nearly in ruins, this one looked somewhat intact.

Which is to say, at least it wasn’t collapsing.

A rectangular two-story building.

The brick exterior walls were dirty with peeling paint, and moss and vines filled the cracks.

In one corner outside the building, debris from broken wooden barrels was piled like a mountain.

Before becoming a slum, had this place served as a tavern?

On the right wall was a small shed-like annex, and between the floors, a balcony-like structure made of wooden planks allowed people to look outside.

On the balcony, a man with sharp eyes leaned against the railing, smoking a cigarette while looking down at the street.

Trying to look cool, huh? Can you even see anything from there? It must be pitch black.

Still, just to be safe, I approached the building by circling around to avoid his line of sight.

From behind the curtained windows, I could detect the presence of several people and faint light seeping through.

They had drawn curtains to hide the light, but the curtains were so worn and full of holes that they hardly served their purpose.

I wasn’t sure if this should be considered careless or natural camouflage.

I clung to the outer wall of the building and peered inside through the window.

I hoped to find someone involved in drug distribution in there.

—-

The scene inside the building wasn’t much different from what I’d expected.

Behind a counter opposite the main entrance stood a cabinet that seemed to hold liquor, and the center of the building was filled with round tables and chairs.

So it was a tavern after all. Though it looked as if a drunken giant had gone on a rampage and smashed everything.

Only two tables remained intact, and broken furniture and shattered bottles were scattered everywhere.

Around one of those intact tables, three people sat drinking by candlelight.

Behind them stood five more people at attention, apparently serving as guards.

Every one of them had the face of a professional serial killer.

With such hideous faces, they must have been born thirsting for blood, tearing through their mothers’ wombs.

One in particular had the face of both a murderer and a rapist.

Sunken, bloodshot eyes, protruding cheekbones, and thick lips. A split, shovel-like chin with patchy beard.

He had the kind of face that would get him arrested for no reason if he walked down the street.

Lucky me. Looks like I’ve caught the right trail.

‘Don’t things seem to be going well?’

[I don’t recall things ever going well when you say that.]

What slander.

Is there any problem I haven’t solved when I’ve stepped in?

Ignoring Hersella’s nonsense, I continued observing the tavern’s interior.

I focused my consciousness on the sounds to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Just then, the lookout I’d been tracking was about to run up to them to report about me.

The lookout was a short man wearing rags, but despite his wretched status, he had a hairstyle similar to the Empire’s emperor.

No, perhaps even more radiant than the emperor’s.

His bald head glistened with sweat like a light bulb in the candlelight.

“Boss! Another one showed up! Definitely a knight!”

He reported frantically about what he had witnessed.

Boss? Has he no conscience? He has the most valuable-looking head among them.

It’s as if he’s aged ten times faster than everyone else.

“Stop making such a fuss. It’s not the first time those types have come around. So, was it a knight? Or a paladin?”

“A knight. And a monstrous one at that. Cut a man in half with one stroke!”

The bald man emphasized my dangerousness, spitting as he spoke, but the men sitting in chairs just snickered and drank from their cups.

“Look at this little shit trembling. What’s so difficult about that? That might impress someone like you, but any knight can do that much.”

“A female knight, huh… Looks like another confident, righteous knight has graced us with her presence. We could make good money if we drug her and sell her.”

Hmm. Just from their conversation, it’s clear these are men who should be sent straight to hell.

So they hide when a paladin appears, but capture and sell anyone who isn’t affiliated with the Church.

“It wasn’t a sword, it was her hand! Her hand! She just went like this with her hand, and people were cut to pieces!”

The bald man pounded his chest in frustration and sliced through the air with the edge of his hand.

“…What?”

Only then did the men put down their drinks as they understood the situation.

A knight cutting people with a sword wasn’t, as they said, particularly difficult.

All it took was slightly stronger physical abilities than average and a sharp sword.

But creating such a scene with bare hands was a different matter entirely.

Human hands aren’t naturally designed for cutting things.

“Are you sure you didn’t see wrong? Maybe she was holding a dagger or something.”

“She was wearing some strange-looking gauntlets, but other than that…”

As the bald man shook his head, one of the men frowned and took out a Mana Herb.

“Shit. This time it seems like someone really skilled has come… Should we evacuate the others?”

“…I’m not sure they’d retreat so easily. Perhaps we should go look ourselves or report to the master… Wait a minute.”

Among the three men sitting in chairs, the most slender one suddenly jerked his head up.

Like a child who had stubbed their little toe on a wall corner.

The next moment, a surge of mana swept through the area.

Through the building’s interior, ceiling, outer walls, and finally to my body. My Mana Resistance flared up like flames, resisting the flow of mana.

Ah, damn it. A mage?

Before I could hide myself, the man who discovered me looked in my direction.

“There’s a rat…!”

As our eyes met, he extended his right arm. The mana concentrated in his arm spread out as a whirlwind of cutting wind.

Ha… I’ve been discovered.

It was just when important information was about to come out, and of all things, this lowlife organization had a mage.

I sighed inwardly as I lunged into the building to avoid the cutting wind.

Kicking through the second-floor outer wall that blocked my path.

– CRASH!

Fragments of the outer wall scattered everywhere.

The thunderous noise echoed through the night sky. So much for infiltration.

“What the hell, is it that knight?! Were we followed?!”

“That stupid bastard, he was tailed!”

My vision draws closer. My body, having broken through the second-floor wall, falls downward.

Toward the center of those murderous men who were looking up at me with surprised eyes.

– THUD!

A heavy collision sound.

Dust rose like fog.

—-

“Who the hell are you! Who sent you?”

“You fearless bitch, do you know where you are?!”

The murderous men drew their weapons and shouted threats as they faced me.

Three who seemed to be the leaders, five who looked like guards. Plus the bald lookout and the man who was smoking on the balcony.

Ten men in total. I just need to watch out for the mage.

“I’ll cut off your limbs, pickle you, and turn you into a toilet!”

Perhaps confident in their ten-to-one advantage, they were taking combat stances rather than fleeing, though they remained cautious.

Well, I understand. From what I could see, they had enough strength to defeat a knight or two.

It was excessive firepower for drug den thugs.

They must have some backing.

[Going well, you said…? I knew it from the moment you started boasting. Another failure.]

Hersella burst into laughter, mocking me.

Failure… Well, that’s not wrong.

The noise I made, and the noise that mage made, has already echoed throughout the back alleys. Anyone who needed to hide would have hidden by now.

Of course, that doesn’t mean everything is completely ruined.

‘…You might not know this, but there’s an old saying: failure is the mother of success.’

[That sounds like something losers who gambled away their fortune would say. So?]

Hersella seemed unfamiliar with this proverb.

Perhaps because she’s never experienced failure in her life.

But typically, such people fall hard after just one failure. That’s probably what happened to her too.

In other words…

‘Success without failure is success without a mother. It’s half-baked success. Get it?’

[What nonsense are you spouting… Have you been taking drugs behind my back?]

That’s a bit harsh.

I gave you valuable advice.

‘Of course not. What I’m saying is, now that I’ve found the ‘mother of success’… I just need to find the father of success. This is all part of the process toward true success.’

When mother and father meet, a child is born.

The child called true success.

Of course, Hersella, being the barbarian she is, couldn’t understand this truth and just snorted.

[Your nonsense flows like a mountain stream. So tell me, what exactly is this ‘father of success’ you speak of?]

‘What else could it be?’

I stood up from my half-kneeling position and placed my hand on the hilt of my sword.

‘…Power.’

My drawn longsword gleamed palely.