Chapter 414

The chase wasn’t too difficult.

As long as I didn’t make any noise, people usually didn’t pay attention to what was above their heads.

After shaking off my blood-soaked robe, I carefully tracked the guy by moving across the building’s ceiling.

If he rang a bell or sent some kind of signal, I was ready to take him down immediately.

But he just kept looking around and moving straight toward some destination.

Did he not set up a proper signal system? Good for me. If I just follow him, the next target should reveal itself.

After chasing him for about three minutes, he finally stopped running and went inside an old building.

I guess even among the poor, there are levels.

Unlike the other buildings that were close to ruins, this one at least looked somewhat intact.

Well, at least it wasn’t collapsing.

A two-story rectangular building.

The brick walls looked messy with peeling paint, and moss and vines filled the cracks.

Outside, in one corner, there was a pile of broken wooden barrels.

Maybe this place used to be a tavern before it became a den for the poor?

On the right wall, there was a small annex that looked like a storage room, and between the floors, there was a balcony-like structure made of wooden planks for people to look outside.

On the balcony, a sharp-eyed man was leaning on the railing, smoking a cigarette and looking down at the street.

What a show-off. What could he possibly see? It’s all darkness.

Still, just in case, I circled around to avoid his line of sight and approached the building.

From behind the curtained windows, I could hear faint voices and see a dim light leaking through.

They tried to cover the light with curtains, but the old curtains were full of holes, so it didn’t help much.

I couldn’t tell if this was sloppy or just natural camouflage.

I clung to the building’s outer wall and peeked inside through the window.

I hope there’s someone inside involved in drug distribution.

—

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

On the wall opposite the entrance, there was a counter with a decorative shelf for alcohol, and in the center of the building, there were round tables and chairs.

So, it was a tavern. Though it looked like a giant drunkard had gone on a rampage.

Only two tables were intact, and the rest were filled with broken furniture and shattered bottles.

And at one of the intact tables, three people were sitting around, drinking by candlelight.

Behind them, five more people stood at attention, as if they were guards.

They all looked like professional serial killers.

With faces like that, they must have been born craving murder, tearing through their mother’s womb to get out.

Especially one of them, who looked like a mix of a murderer and a rapist.

Squinty eyes, protruding cheekbones, thick lips, a cleft chin, and patchy facial hair.

He looked like someone who’d get arrested for no reason just walking down the street.

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

“Seems like things are going well, huh?”

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

What a baseless accusation.

There’s never been a problem I couldn’t solve.

Ignoring Hersela’s nonsense, I continued observing the inside of the tavern.

Focusing my senses on the sounds, I tried to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Just then, the watcher I had been chasing ran up to them to deliver my message.

The watcher was a short man in rags, but his hairstyle was oddly similar to the Emperor of the Empire.

No, it was even more radiant than the Emperor’s.

His bald head, glistening with sweat, shone like a lightbulb in the candlelight.

“Boss! Another one showed up! It’s definitely a knight!”

The guy excitedly reported what he had seen.

Calling him “Boss”? No shame. He looked like he had aged ten times faster than the others.

“Stop overreacting. It’s not the first time someone like that has come. So, was it a knight? Or a paladin?”

“A knight. And a monster of a knight at that. She cut a man in half with one swing!”

The bald guy emphasized my danger, spitting as he spoke, but the men sitting at the table just chuckled and sipped their drinks.

“Quit exaggerating. That’s nothing special. For a knight, that’s just standard.”

“A female knight, huh… Another self-righteous knight with too much confidence. We could make some money selling her off.”

Hmm. Just from the conversation, it’s clear these guys need to be sent to hell immediately.

They hide when a paladin shows up, but when someone not affiliated with the Church Order comes, they capture and sell them.

“It wasn’t a sword! It was her hand! She just swiped her hand, and the man was cut into pieces!”

The bald guy, frustrated, thumped his chest and demonstrated by swiping his hand through the air.

“…What?”

Finally understanding the situation, the men put down their drinks.

A knight cutting someone down with a sword wasn’t that impressive to them.

With just a bit of enhanced physical ability and a sharp sword, anyone could do that.

But cutting someone down with a bare hand? That was on a whole different level.

Human hands aren’t made for cutting things.

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

“She was wearing some weird gauntlet, but other than that…”

As the bald guy shook his head, one of the men frowned and pulled out a cigarette.

“Damn. This time, it seems like someone really skilled has come… Should we pull the kids back?”

“…I doubt they’ll just leave if we do that. Maybe we should go out ourselves or inform ‘him’… Wait, hold on.”

One of the three men sitting at the table, the skinniest one, suddenly raised his head.

Like a kid who just stubbed their little toe on a wall.

In the next moment, a surge of magical energy swept through the area.

It scanned the building’s interior, ceiling, outer walls, and even me. My anti-magic flared up in resistance to the magical flow.

Ah, damn. A magician?

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

“There’s a rat here…!”

The moment our eyes met, he thrust out his right arm. The magical energy concentrated in his arm formed a whirlwind of blades that shot toward me.

Sigh… I got caught.

Just when it seemed like some important information was about to come out, of all things, this thug organization had a magician.

I sighed inwardly and dodged the blade whirlwind, leaping into the building.

Kicking through the second-floor outer wall as I went.

– Kwaaaang!

The outer wall shattered into pieces, scattering everywhere.

The loud noise echoed through the night sky. So much for stealth.

“What the hell, is that the knight?! Did she get spotted?!”

“That idiot, he was tailed!”

The approaching voices. My body, having broken through the second-floor wall, fell downward.

Toward the center of the murderers, who were looking at me in shock.

– Thud!

A heavy impact.

Dust rose like fog.

—

“Who the hell are you?! Where did you come from?!”

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

The murderers facing me shouted threats and drew their weapons.

Three who seemed like the leaders, five who looked like guards, the bald watcher, and the guy smoking on the balcony.

Ten in total. Just need to watch out for the magician.

“We’ll cut off your limbs and turn you into a toilet!”

Confident in their ten-to-one advantage, they didn’t even think of running, instead preparing for battle.

Well, I get it. From a quick glance, they had enough strength to take down a knight or two.

For a drug den, their firepower was excessive.

They must have some backing.

[Things going well…? When you say that, it’s always a disaster. I knew it. Another failure.]

Hersela laughed mockingly.

Failure… Well, she’s not wrong.

The noise I made, and the noise that magician made, must have already echoed through the entire back alley. Anyone who could hide would have hidden by now.

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

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

[Sounds like something a loser who gambled away all their money would say. So?]

Hersela didn’t seem to know this saying.

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

But, people like that tend to fall apart after just one failure. She probably did too.

In other words…

‘Success without failure is like a motherless success. A half-baked success. Got it?’

[What nonsense are you spouting…? Did you take drugs behind my back?]

That’s a bit harsh.

I was just giving some valuable advice.

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

When the mother and father meet, a child is born.

True success, that is.

Of course, Hersela, being the barbarian she is, didn’t understand this truth and just scoffed.

[You’re full of nonsense. So, what is this ‘father of success’ you’re talking about?]

‘What else could it be?’

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

‘…Strength.’

The longsword flashed pale as it was drawn.