Knock, knock.
I knocked on the door, which was so old that it was half-rotten. There was no answer.
‘There’s no way he’d go out at this hour.’
While I waited, I tore down the flyers plastered all over the door.
Chinese restaurant delivery ads, loan advertisements, even talismans of unknown origin.
No matter when I visited, the front of this door was practically a gathering place for the alley’s trash.
Before long, heavy footsteps sounded from inside. They stopped in front of the door, followed by a brief silence and then a metallic voice.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, old man. Hurry up and open the door. I’m freezing to death out here.”
“Tsk. You again? I’m sick and tired of you coming here.”
─CREAK—.
The door opened, revealing a hulking old man. He frowned beneath eyebrows that drooped past his eyes and looked me up and down.
“Well, look at you. You’re half-dead. Did someone finally stick a knife in your gut?”
[The ability ‘Analysis’ has activated.]
[Analyzing the true intent of the target ‘Winters.’]
─This stupid bastard got hurt again. Always making me worry.
He spewed curses from his mouth, but he was truly warmhearted inside. Honestly, would it kill the old man to relax his face when he spoke?
“Well, something like that happened. Could I come inside first? I’m in such bad shape that I feel like I’m about to collapse.”
“Tsk. Get in here.”
A familiar sight greeted me when I stepped inside. The place was as disgustingly filthy as ever.
Armor, weapons, and bizarre antiques of unknown origin were piled haphazardly like junk.
I passed between precarious towers that looked ready to collapse if I reached out the wrong way and took a seat at the counter.
Once I was settled, the old man approached, handed me a cup, and perched across from me.
“Here. Drink it down. It’ll work better than most painkillers.”
“How generous of you. This liquor is fucking strong.”
I downed the cup the old man handed me.
Perhaps he had not been wrong, because the pain seemed to ease slightly after that one drink.
Once I had enough leeway to catch my breath, we naturally began to talk.
“Right. I’ve already heard about those loan-sharking bastards. Are you all right?”
“News sure travels fast to you. Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks to that, every last bit of my debt disappeared too.”
The man had connections everywhere, so it seemed he had already heard what happened to my creditors.
“Things will probably be noisy for a while.”
“……Come on, even so.”
“You may not know this, but do you realize those bastards are connected to quite a few organizations, you fool? Hmph. Fine. I suppose it’ll be all right as long as you aren’t caught.”
“Exactly. Anyway, take a look at this for me.”
Rather than discussing something that made my head hurt, I wanted to get to the reason I had come here.
“So, what did you bring me this time? I’m warning you in advance, I’ve been short on money lately, so I can’t offer you much.”
“Come on. Have you ever had money? That’s not why I’m here, so just look at this.”
─Thud.
I placed the sword hanging from my waist on the table.
A wooden sheath sealed with a purple cord. The old man’s gaze changed in an instant when he saw it.
“Kid.”
His voice dropped by an octave. I tensed without meaning to.
“Where did you get this?”
“Well, an opportunity came up.”
“No. Tell me properly. Did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Did you mess with someone, you brat? There’s no way you simply found something like this.”
His gaze was piercing. I tried to laugh it off, but his eyes were so serious that I had no choice but to confess.
The old man knew how to keep his mouth shut anyway. I had known him for years.
“I wasn’t the one who attacked first. We ended up fighting, I won, and I took it. I wanted it.”
“Tsk. So you did beat someone to death in the end. Fine…… You want to know what this is?”
“Do you know, old man?”
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? I’ve watched everything that happened in this city.”
A city native. A living fossil. True to those nicknames, he seemed to have seen through even the sword’s origins.
“The Plum Blossom Guild. There used to be a guild by that name.”
“Plum Blossom? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Of course not. It’s already been several decades since that guild fell.”
If it was notable enough for the old man to remember, it could not have been an ordinary faction. It must have been a mid-sized power at the very least.
“It used to be one of the Three Great Guilds that ruled this city.”
“Then why did it fall?”
“It did too many things that earned grudges. The other guilds bombarded it into oblivion. See this? The plum blossom pattern at the base of the sword.”
There truly were red plum blossom petals engraved where he pointed. They were so small that I had mistaken them for a rose, but experience was not something to be underestimated.
“Then was the bastard carrying this sword one of their disciples?”
“Who knows? He may have bought it from a fence like me, or inherited the remnants of the fallen guild. Anyone who had been properly trained wouldn’t have been taken down by you.”
The old man and I chuckled together, but my gaze remained fixed on the sword.
So this was a remnant of an old guild…… The moment I carefully raised the blade—
─BZZT!
“Ugh……!”
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, I just got a sudden headache…….”
Sparks erupted before my eyes once more. It was a familiar omen.
A signal that all the necessary information had been gathered.
[Analysis resumed.]
Memories poured into my mind.
「Swordsmanship, you see, is what you call the efficient art of cutting off a person’s head.」
The memories unfurled like a panorama. The brutal history of the Plum Blossom Guild, which hunted people rather than monsters in an age of savagery.
They honed their own unique swordsmanship and devoured countless sources of profit. Destruction awaited them at the end.
The memory of a man who refused to release his sword to the bitter end amid a blazing conflict. His stance and sword strikes were engraved deep into my body.
[You have acquired the skill ‘Demon Flash (A).’]
“……A-rank?”
I opened my eyes.
A skill of the same rank as Shadow Step.
The moment I saw it, another thrill ran down my spine.
[Demon Flash (A)]
─Quick-draw sword technique. Deflects the opponent’s attack at a demon’s speed and cuts through their neck. Power greatly increases when activated as a counter.
The performance was insane. It deflected an opponent’s attack and took their head at the same time.
Suppressing my admiration, I took the blue orb from my pocket.
“Do you happen to know what this is too? I couldn’t figure it out at all.”
The old man took the orb and examined it from every angle before finally speaking after a long while.
“Sss. I feel like I’ve seen something like it before…… but I don’t know. It isn’t a jewel. Either way, it looks expensive, so keep it somewhere safe.”
“I will.”
Even the old man did not know. What in the world was this thing?
In any case, now that the appraisal was finished, I put the question aside and was about to rise from my seat when—
─Jingle!
The bell at the entrance rang.
White suits and sunglasses. Two men stood there wearing a combination I had seen somewhere before.
“I’m not open right now. Don’t you know the rules?”
“Sorry about that, old man. We’re looking for something.”
[Analyzing the target’s true intent.]
─The bastard who killed Liam will definitely come to fence the stolen goods.
Liam. The name of the Hunter I had killed.
I was certain. These bastards were his associates.
“Has anyone come by trying to sell a sword or an orb?”
“A sword? An orb?”
The old man’s gaze darted toward me for the briefest instant. Less than a tenth of a second.
But he immediately shook his head with a blank expression.
“No one has come by to sell anything like that lately. No idiot would carry something that fancy around a back alley like this. Heh heh. They’d be robbed immediately.”
“Why don’t you think it over carefully, old man? Are you sure there wasn’t anyone?”
“What would I gain by hiding something like that? The world is full of bastards who get themselves killed doing so.”
“Hmm…….”
He had covered for me.
But the men in suits did not seem ready to let go of their suspicions.
Their persistence made me tense without realizing it.
I should at least prepare…….
[Attempting Analysis.]
[A Difference in Level has been detected.]
[Reattempting Analysis.]
It was the same as before. They were on a higher level than I was.
Was it impossible until I weakened them, as I had done with Liam? But using Enfeeblement here would be playing straight into their hands.
Moreover, facing two of them at once would be impossible…… What should I do?
As I thought, their gazes naturally shifted toward me in the corner.
At that moment—
─THWACK—!
“Ack! You crazy old man!”
“You brat! What kind of look is that to give our customers? Ah, I’m sorry. He’s my grandson. He never goes out and only knows how to glare at people.”
The old man suddenly smacked me across the back with a thick book.
The two stared at us in momentary disbelief before snickering.
“……No, it’s fine. Ha. We came up empty. Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Fortunately, the act worked.
The old man sighed once the door closed and the men in suits disappeared.
“You bastard…… What the hell did you do to get mixed up with dangerous men like that?”
“Who the hell are they?”
I wanted to ask the same question.
All I had done was mess with a loan shark in the back alleys. I had no idea why bastards like them kept getting dragged into it one after another.
“They’ve been making a name for themselves in the back alleys lately…… Forget it. Just stay hidden for a while. Don’t let them catch and cripple you.”
Somewhere to hide…….
Until recently, I had been living beneath a mountain of debt. There was no way I had enough money to move somewhere else on a whim.
But if I returned to the dormitory, there was a good chance those bastards would pay a visit…… I also needed somewhere to hide the orb and sword.
In that case…….
“Is that my only option……?”
“Do you have a hideout somewhere?”
“Yes. There’s a place other people can’t find…… No, a place they can’t reach.”
I had the perfect place.
A space of my own that no one else could reach.
“Ha. Fine, then. If you have one, that’s enough. Don’t starve yourself, and come by again once things calm down.”
“Come on. I eat better than you do, old man. Stop worrying about me and look after yourself. You’re already old enough for dementia to set in.”
“Good grief. What use is there in worrying about a sucker like you? I’m only telling you to bring something valuable next time. Understood?”
Heh.
I smiled silently at his words and stepped outside.
Of course, I carefully checked whether those bastards were still around as I left.
Fortunately, they appeared to have dismissed their suspicions completely and were already gone.
I spread Analysis in every direction, but their trail merely led far away toward downtown.
‘Just what the hell are they?’
They had far too much at their disposal to dismiss them as nothing more than a few prominent thugs.
More importantly, their attitude was far too businesslike for men avenging a comrade.
It did not add up at all.
‘It has to be this.’
This orb. My instincts told me that it was far beyond anything I had imagined.
I also had the feeling their organization was much larger than I had thought.
But even setting all that aside—
“This pisses me off…….”
I had only just won my freedom, yet the very fact that another bunch of fucking pests was already getting tangled up with me was infuriating.
So infuriating I could not bear it.
The old me probably would have simply hidden in silence.
I would have waited for them to pass while repeatedly poking my head out to check.
But…….
‘Things are different now.’
I had a way to gain power.
I had not intended to sit quietly in that place anyway, but now I even had a reason to find a way to grow stronger faster than ever.
***
“Hmm. This should be good enough.”
I smiled as I looked around the room I had finished cleaning.
The Sage’s Workshop on the fifth floor of the Tower, undiscovered by anyone for over a hundred years.
At first, it had been nothing more than a cave unfit for human habitation, but after some cleaning, it had become a space fit enough to live in.
……Or perhaps I should say it was at least somewhere I could stay for a few days?
Moreover, since the door could not even be opened without the relic, this was the perfect hideout that no organization could reach.
There was nowhere more perfect for me right now.
“All right. Should I start practicing right away?”
I leaned the sword against the wall and sat on the floor.
The hopeless difference in speed I had felt while fighting Liam.
But now I had gained another new skill.
Demon Flash.
A top-tier A-rank skill capable of reversing the situation with a single draw.
Analysis was not merely an ability that read information. It was an ability that allowed me to see what others could not and make it entirely my own power.
“I’ll get stronger, no matter what it takes, and fuck them all up.”
The quiet declaration echoed through the silent workshop.