“Tch, just when things were about to get interesting, they’re already here?”
Duke frowned at the thought that his enjoyment was being interrupted, but then he remembered something and his expression brightened again.
“Wait, Count Bled is a Sword Master too, isn’t he? Then fighting him should be interesting as well. But it would be a waste to give up the fight with that masked bastard……”
Duke pondered as though he were deciding which of two dishes to eat first.
Lloyd could not help frowning at Duke’s behavior, but with Duke distracted by other thoughts, this was the perfect chance to escape.
Lloyd bound Duke’s body with Telekinesis once more.
Duke spoke in a disappointed voice.
“This method again? You should know by now that this doesn’t work on me.”
“……Of course I know.”
Lloyd knew that his current Telekinesis could only stop Duke’s movements for a very short time.
But that was enough time for him to escape from here.
While Duke could not move, Lloyd used the [Blink] skill, the set effect of Ludella’s Mask and Robe, to move straight to the window.
At that sight, Duke’s eyes widened, and he shouted at Lloyd.
“You bastard…… Don’t tell me you intend to run away like this!?”
“I’ve already accomplished my goal, so there’s no need to waste any more strength. Well, if we meet again next time, I’ll fight you properly then.”
“Wait!”
Duke wanted to at least tell Lloyd to reveal his name before leaving, but Lloyd had already escaped through the window.
As Duke stared at the place where Lloyd had vanished with a hollow expression, his face suddenly twisted.
“Masked bastard…… I’ll find you without fail and see this fight through to the end!!”
He shouted loudly in frustration, but Lloyd did not pay him any attention.
***
Meanwhile, Count Bled and Duke Roderick arrived in front of the Jackal Assassin Guild building.
The two men led their knights into the building.
“This place is surrounded! Not one of you will take even a single step from here……”
Count Bled had shouted boldly, but he could not finish his sentence.
Dozens of assassins’ corpses lay scattered across the floor.
Their causes of death varied.
Some assassins had died with broken necks. Others had died with their entire bodies blackened as though they had been struck by deadly poison. Some had even died with their bodies ruptured as though they had fallen from a great height.
Count Bled frowned as he looked at the assassins’ corpses.
‘They were all killed brutally.’
That did not make him feel sympathy.
Assassins were the kind of people who earned money by killing others.
‘But this is strange. Who killed them? Were the Hertina Guild Master and us not the only ones who knew the Jackal Guild’s location?’
Duke Roderick appeared to be thinking the same thing. He asked in a puzzled voice, “I understood that no one else knew this location…… Count, do you have anyone in mind?”
At his question, Lloyd—who had served as the link between Count Bled and the Hertina Guild Master—briefly came to Count Bled’s mind before disappearing again.
He did not know why Lloyd had come to mind, but it could not have been him.
Lloyd had still been in his room when they left the castle.
No matter how much he hurried, it would have been impossible for him to arrive before them when they had departed first.
No, Lloyd could not possibly have done something like this in the first place.
‘Even with Sir Martin and Sir Vector helping him, it would be impossible.’
It was probably the work of an expert who had happened to learn about this place.
Thinking that, Count Bled shook his head and answered, “No. No one comes to mind. I brought all the skilled people here with me.”
“Hmm, then who could have done something like this……”
“Please wait a moment.”
Before Duke Roderick could finish speaking, Count Bled interrupted him. Pointing his sword at an empty spot, he shouted, “Who is there! Reveal yourself!”
Then, a man slowly appeared in the empty space.
He was Duke, who had fought Lloyd a short while ago.
“It is impressive that you noticed my stealth. Are you Count Bled, the Sword Master?”
“I am. Who the hell are you!”
At Count Bled’s question, Duke frowned and muttered, “That masked bastard noticed me right away.”
It was a very quiet voice, but Count Bled had reached the Master realm, and his physical abilities and five senses had improved to an extreme degree. There was no way he could have failed to hear it.
“The masked bastard? Who is that?”
“A fun guy who suddenly broke in alone and killed all my comrades here in an instant.”
At his words, Count Bled, Duke Roderick, and the knights widened their eyes in surprise and turned their gazes toward the assassins’ corpses.
‘He took down this many assassins alone!’
Count Bled could not hide his shock either.
Could he have done this in such a short time?
No matter that he was a Sword Master, it would not have been easy if so many assassins had decided to attack him all at once.
‘And that man…… He is no ordinary person.’
He had used a stealth technique and referred to the assassins as his comrades, so that man’s identity was likely……
“Are you the leader of the Assassin Guild? And your strength is at the Master level as well.”
“Have you only realized it now?”
At Duke’s words, the knights began to murmur.
The leader of the Jackal Assassin Guild was a Master.
Did that not mean there was no point in them stepping forward?
Only a Master could face another Master.
Frustrated that he could not avenge his daughter with his own hands, Duke Roderick spoke.
“It seems I will be unable to act here. Count Bled, please avenge my daughter for me.”
“Olivia was my wife as well. I will avenge her with my own hands, so leave it to me.”
As he answered, Count Bled stepped forward.
No, he was about to step forward.
But something no one expected happened.
“Die, Mother’s killer!”
Hailed, who had been watching for an opportunity from behind, charged at Duke.
Everything happened so suddenly that Count Bled and Duke Roderick, who had been focused only on Duke, could not stop Hailed.
“No, Hailed!”
“Hailed!!”
But it was already too late to stop Hailed.
Hailed swung his sword at Duke.
Duke did not even think of blocking. He merely threw a single dagger with an indifferent expression.
WHOOSH-.
Though it seemed he had thrown it lightly, the dagger made an unnatural sound as it flew at a terrifying speed.
At this rate, the dagger would not only pierce Hailed’s head, but pass straight through it.
Count Bled was about to swing his sword, intending to blow Hailed away with wind pressure.
Hailed would suffer a considerable injury, but that would be better than being stabbed to death.
At that very moment, Hailed and the dagger Duke had thrown both suddenly stopped in midair.
Lloyd had been hiding near the knights and watching the situation so that Duke would not notice him.
‘You idiot. At least choose your opponent before charging in.’
Only Duke remained, so Lloyd had considered leaving. But he had stayed just in case……
If he had simply left, things could have gone terribly wrong.
Frowning, Lloyd threw Hailed toward the knights.
‘Seriously, he needs so much care in so many ways. Tch.’
While clicking his tongue inwardly, Lloyd felt someone’s gaze.
It was Duke and Count Bled.
The two were looking directly at him.
It seemed the recognition-impairment effect of Ludella’s items was not especially useful against Masters.
‘The masked figure…… Could he be the expert who killed all those assassins!?’
Count Bled could not help being surprised.
Some of the corpses had died with their necks broken, so he had naturally assumed the culprit was a well-built man.
‘To think he would be so slight.’
He could not be certain because of the robe, but the masked figure seemed to be at most around fifteen years old.
No matter how he looked at him, the masked figure appeared to be no more than a boy.
‘How could someone with such a small body kill all those assassins…… No, before that, what was that ability just now?’
It did not seem to be magic, yet he had stopped a flying blade from afar without even touching it and thrown Hailed away.
Even Count Bled, a Sword Master, could not do something like that.
While Count Bled was overwhelmed with shock, Duke looked extremely pleased, as though he had reunited with an old friend.
“You were still here!”
Duke shouted excitedly and tried to head toward Lloyd, but Count Bled blocked his path.
“Where do you think you are going! I am your opponent!”
“I am sorry, but I think fighting that masked bastard would be more fun than fighting you.”
“F-Fun!?”
While Count Bled was flustered, Duke swiftly passed him like an assassin and headed to where Lloyd had been.
Coming to his senses too late, Count Bled hurriedly ordered the knights.
“Only the team assigned to burn the building will remain. Everyone else, chase that bastard!!”
“We will pursue him as well! If you find him, do not engage. Only report his location!”
Following the orders of Count Bled and Duke Roderick, every knight except the unconscious Hailed and a few knights who would burn the building began chasing Duke.
***
‘This is troublesome.’
Lloyd had been forced to reveal himself to save Hailed.
After rescuing Hailed, Lloyd had fled as quickly as possible, but Duke was persistently following him.
“Hey, Mask! Stop running away and come out to fight!!”
Duke was not the only problem.
Knights pursuing Duke, who was pursuing Lloyd, were following as well.
If this continued, it would be difficult to return to the castle.
‘Then…….’
Lloyd stopped running and came to a halt.
He turned around and asked Duke, “Do you want to fight me that badly?”
“What an obvious question. If I did not want to fight, I would not have followed you from the start.”
“Fine. I will fight you. But the knights will get in the way, so how about we move somewhere else?”
At Lloyd’s words, Duke grinned.
That was exactly what he wanted.
“I absolutely agree!”
At Duke’s eager answer, Lloyd took a Dungeon Key out of his Inventory.
Since things had come to this, Lloyd intended to bring Duke into a dungeon.
The knights would discover the Dungeon Gate, but that did not matter as long as they did not discover Lloyd’s identity.
Once Lloyd and Duke left, the Dungeon Gate would disappear naturally anyway.
When Lloyd activated the Dungeon Key, a Dungeon Gate rippling with red light appeared on the spot.
At the astonishingly mysterious sight, Duke’s eyes lit up again as he asked, “What is this now? I can feel tremendous magical power from it.”
“If you want to fight me, shut up and follow me.”
With that, Lloyd entered the gate first.
“Hahahaha! As I thought, following you instead of fighting Count Bled was the right choice.”
If Duke had chosen to fight Count Bled instead of pursuing Lloyd, he would never have seen such an interesting sight.
With an amused smile, Duke followed Lloyd into the dungeon.
Not long after Lloyd and Duke entered the dungeon, the knights arrived.
“I definitely saw them heading this way……”
“Hey, what is that?”
A knight searching the area for Duke discovered the Dungeon Gate, causing the knights to gather around it.
“This looks dangerous somehow……”
“Could he have run in here?”
One knight tried putting his hand into the Dungeon Gate, but it was immediately bounced back out.
The holder of an Instance Dungeon Key could refuse entry to anyone they did not permit.
Naturally, Lloyd, the holder of the key, had no intention of allowing the knights inside.
But Duke Roderick and the knights had no way of knowing that.
“Apparently, this is not the place. One person, report this situation to Count Bled. The rest of you, continue searching for the Guild Master!”
The knights assumed that Duke, like them, had been unable to enter the Dungeon Gate, and they left the area.