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141. Engagement – Crow

“Ugh! This, this punk…! Do you think you can get away with this…?”

“Of course. You will get away with it.”

The knight of Count Brina stared in disbelief at the sword lodged in his abdomen. His youth had led him to underestimate his opponent.

Typically, knights grew stronger with age. The longer they’d trained in swordsmanship and the more mana accumulated in their bodies over time.

So middle-aged knights were in their prime.

They didn’t suffer muscle degradation due to aging, and depending on talent, they could reach mastery in swordsmanship.

Leo Dexter, who had just turned of age, closed in on the middle-aged knight. Grabbing the scruff of the wheezing man’s neck, he whispered and pulled the sword from his abdomen, shoving it into his throat.

[ Achievement: Defeated ‘1’ knight – You become stronger when fighting knights. min(1) ]

[ Quest: Duelist 973/1000 – {Swordsmanship} skill increases by one level. ]

“M-Marlong!”

Everyone looked at Leo in shock. At first, they thought he had approached to assist Lena or intervene in the situation.

However, Leo said nothing. He bent to apologize, then abruptly drew his sword.

It was sword drawing technique.

Originally, it was difficult to perform this with a two-handed sword. The length of the weapon meant he had to stretch all the way to his shoulder to draw it, and even if he managed to swing it, his stance would be compromised, making it a comically poor form of swordplay.

Marlong was not going to fall to such a weightless attack. He also quickly drew his sword to counter, but… the real problem came afterward.

As soon as Leo Dexter’s sword met with a clang, he flung the hilt away.

Having used his right hand to draw, his waist naturally twisted, and his left hand followed. He caught the flying hilt and drove it straight into the knight.

That was it.

Despite years of training, Marlong completely fell to the needless thrust, and Leo felt everyone’s astonished gaze as he cleaned his sword.

Black blood scattered and painted the snowy ground.

‘That’s definitely good swordsmanship…’

Minseo, who had no talent in swordsmanship, held his breath, while Leo Dexter’s talent was coming alive. He was not just mimicking {Swordsmanship.3v: Bartliu}, but skillfully adapting it to the situation.

Leo suddenly became curious.

What was my original skill level? Before Minseo took on my persona and acquired what he calls the ‘system’, how strong was I?

‘…I guess I was similar to Lena. Based on the reactions so far… no wait, hold on.’

Leo pondered deeply. Reflecting on the past, he felt a hitch.

His father, Noel Dexter, never found it strange that my swordsmanship improved overnight. It had been the case this time and the last.

In fact, he had looked at his son with curiosity only in the early days when my swordsmanship was lacking, but when Minseo gained {Swordsmanship.3v: Bartliu} and we dueled for the first time, he exclaimed:

– “Hahaha! Son! You’ve figured something out!”

It was undoubtedly strange.

The skills I displayed back then weren’t on par with Lena’s current level. Even though I hadn’t utilized the features of Bartliu, I had been on par with a decent knight, having pressured my father for a moment.

My father, who had sparred with me daily and knew my skills better than anyone, shouting like that meant… it indicated I had been hitting some kind of wall in the past, and he had suspected it to some extent.

However, this didn’t explain Lena’s consistent reactions. She always treated me as if she almost caught up to my skill.

This implies…

‘Did I hide my skills from Lena before the scenario began?’

I arrived at a bizarre conclusion. Without memories of my past, this was an unfathomable question.

Leo turned to look at Lena with a confused expression. But,

“Leo! What are you doing! How can you kill someone like that! Are you crazy?!”

Her shout snapped him back to reality. Leo looked around to the merchants and defended himself.

“It couldn’t be helped. If we had let him live, we would have been dead, right?”

The merchants who had faced death nodded in agreement. Their expressions weren’t very bright, probably worried about future repercussions.

“B-but you should have restrained him first and talked…”

“Wait! That guy is escaping!”

Ran pointed.

When Leo turned his head, he noticed the squire creeping backward, following the knight.

“Eek!”

Now turning completely to run towards the horse, Leo pounded the ground.

“P-please spare me. I was just following orders…”

“I’m also trying to survive!”

And to fill the tragic pitfall set by this damned game.

Leo’s sword slit through the waist of the desperate squire climbing onto the horse.

Hot blood flowed down the horse’s back, melting the snow along with the gently falling sunlight.

Winter was almost at its end.

*

Bubbling.

Lena soaked in the steamy hot spring, blowing bubbles through her nose. The warm water alleviated her fatigue, but she wrapped her knees with a sulky expression.

“Hiya!”

– Splash!

Water sprayed everywhere. Ran Abiker had jumped into the hot spring.

“Wow! This is great. Ah!”

As if she had just remembered, she quickly straightened up her buoyant body and tossed her hair tie outside.

Long brown hair flowed down and covered her curvy back.

Anne Abiker picked up the feathered hair tie that her sister had thrown to the ground and kept it with her own before dipping her feet into the hot spring.

They were at a village they had stopped by.

After a ruckus with the merchant group, everything resumed as if nothing had happened, and Ran, Anne, Lena, and Leo were headed to the capital alongside them.

“How about it? Isn’t it nice to come here? The warmth really melts all the fatigue away, right?”

“…It’s nice.”

Lena responded in a reluctant voice. Ran then swam over to Lena and plopped down beside her.

“Still sulking? You really are such a child.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Of course, you are a child. You grew up all pampered… You’ve never seen someone die before, have you?”

“That’s not the point. I just… feel like it went a bit too far. Maybe I could have persuaded him…”

“Oh come on, stubborn. You know he wouldn’t have listened. And honestly, I think Leo did the right thing. Strength begets strength. Strong people shouldn’t have to worry.”

At Ran’s firm words, Lena lowered her head and, bubbling, began to stir the water again.

After Leo killed the knight and squire, he explained the situation to the merchants. The merchant who introduced himself as “Vernon,” selling accessories, shared stories from Count Brina’s domain.

He had received a request from “Count Diego Brina” in Barnau to do a job in exchange for sponsorship at the southernmost tip of the Austin Kingdom.

And the son of the Count he met in Count Brina’s territory, “Diuro Brina,” had made a request…

+ + +

“He asked us to smuggle goods.”

“Smuggle?”

“Yes. Through the border. The Count’s territory borders the Jerome Holy Kingdom and the Belita Kingdom. Diuro said there would be a war soon, and it was a golden opportunity. He emphasized that he had already finished discussions with Count Oscar from the Holy Kingdom and Lord Zauer from Belita Kingdom.”

In the wagon, all sitting together, Vernon sighed as he continued.

“I refused. It might have yielded a lot of money. But I couldn’t engage in something that would surely be abandoned someday.”

“Good decision. It seems you’ve made the right judgment.”

Leo nodded with his arms crossed. Then he fell into thought. Lord Zauer was a family he recognized.

He had encountered them in the scenario with the beggar siblings. The head of the Zauer family, “Lord Brian Zauer,” dressed extravagantly and using exaggerated manners.

With sinister gray eyes and oddly numerous fine wrinkles, he owned every brothel in Oberg.

‘Could that man have something to do with this? Why would he connect here?’

Leo’s fingers twitched nervously.

Everything seemed unstable.

It might be just paranoia and coincidence, but even the similarity of Lord Brian’s name to Count Brina’s name, “Brina,” added to his suspicion.

And I know that Marquis Benard Tatian is behind Lord Brian Zauer.

At that time, the Marquis had introduced nobles he was close with, as he sought to adopt Prince Leo.

However, during that conversation, Lord Zauer made a slip of tongue by mentioning the ‘border area,’ hastily shutting his mouth under the Marquis’s sidelong glance.

The border…

‘Could the Marquis be scheming something through Lord Zauer?’

I don’t know. Leo’s head throbbed as he recalled distant memories, and the merchant politely bowed.

“I’m sorry for not expressing my gratitude earlier. I don’t know how to repay this favor. But… phew. You are a knight, right? Thank you for your help, but you should probably hurry and leave. Now that you’ve killed the pursuing knight, the Count won’t let this go.”

Leo shook his head lightly.

With a smile, he replied to the concerned merchant.

“Don’t worry about that. I didn’t kill him without any plans in mind. Ran. Anne.”

“Why? What do you need us for?”

“Sorry, but I think I need to stake your share.”

“Our share?”

Leo gestured to the cart they had drawn. Lena, sitting sullenly at the end of the carriage, noticed the bones of the spirit reindeer.

+ + +

“I think the same as you do, Lena. Don’t be so rigid. I don’t know what you thought sword training was about, but martial arts are like that, right? And in the end, it worked out well. Although we left all the spirit reindeer bones behind…”

While listening to Anne, Lena repeatedly swished hot spring water in her mouth before spitting it out.

Her sisters were right.

To be honest, persuading that arrogant knight would have been tough.

Killing him was the only way to resolve the issue, and Leo proposed the next solution: to leave the bones of the spirit reindeer behind.

Upon hearing his plan, the merchants beamed and grabbed two horses. They killed the horses pulling the cart, smeared their flesh all over the spirit reindeer bones, and splattered blood everywhere.

The knight and squire’s corpses were hacked apart with Ran and Anne’s axes. They dismembered the bones of the spirit reindeer and scattered them around; this would make it seem like beasts had torn them apart. In reality, the situation would mirror that.

Perhaps someone might catch on to this ruse.

But believing that a knight as precious as the ones in the whole kingdom had been offed tracing a simple merchant group held more credibility than being killed by a monster unexpectedly.

“Oh dear. I wish we had brought back a horn… The kids would have loved it.”

“Wait, did you have kids?”

Lena, calming down a bit, asked. Ran smiled widely in response.

“Of course. At my age, how could I not have kids? I have a son.”

“Wow… I didn’t know. You look so young… What about you, Anne?”

“Yeah. I have two. A daughter and a son. Both are incredibly beautiful. When we arrive at the capital, come over to our place. You can stay for a few days.”

“Ah! You want to tell the kids the story of defeating a monster, right? How sneaky.”

“Well, what can I do? I have no spoils. If I return empty-handed, I won’t be able to face my kids and husband.”

“Huh? So did you leave your kids and husband at home while traveling? How old are they?”

“Hahahaha. Lena, you’ve just come of age, right? Adding a little exaggeration, they are almost your age. We got married really early. Was it at twelve? Right?”

“Right. I got married at twelve.”

Married at twelve? Lena’s eyes widened in shock.

“Good heavens… Why? Why did you marry so young?”

“Hmm. It’s a bit of a long story. Should I go out and tell it? I can’t stay here any longer. Oh my, Anne, look at Lena’s tight body. Being young is great, huh?”

Ran poked Lena’s butt.

“Ah! Don’t touch me!”

“Hahaha. From your reaction, it looks like you haven’t gotten it on with a boyfriend yet.”

Ran and Anne laughed at Lena, who turned bright red, covering herself with her arms. ‘That’s mean.’ ─ she thought as she quickly got dressed.

While doing so, she didn’t notice the large tattoos adorning Ran and Anne’s backs, which only appeared connected when the sisters stood side by side.

A red crow and a black crow.

One perched on a sword, the other on a shield, proudly tilting their heads upward.