Pale Symphoria left the bar with her hood on and walked through the main street. This was her fourth day gathering information, but she still came out empty. She started gathering information as soon as she parted with the rookie adventurer, Shurei, and the believer of the goddess of healing (Zenobia).
But regardless who it was, when it came to the Elks Clan, all mouths were closed, even the talkative drunks. Pale was again made aware of just how big the enemy was, and that fact made her grit her teeth alone.
Which was why the moment her sharpened senses picked something up, she immediately left the main street and entered into the back alleys.
If she couldn’t find a trail, she would just have to lure the enemy to make a trail for her.
So she used herself as bait.
There were several people chasing after her as she passed through the back alleys. Those people kept following her even after she reached the slums.
Pale knew her way around these parts. Adventurers often had scuffles with thugs like the yakuza, so they had to have a thorough understanding of the area they worked in.
Pale had intentionally led her pursuers to a place they could easily attack her.
When Pale reached a dead-end in the slums, at a place that used to be a plaza, she stopped.
She hid the dagger in her hands as she eyed her surroundings.
“What ‘cha doing out here all alone, miss?” One man stepped out and spoke frivolously.
“Yeah, yeah… Especially at a time like this. Don’t ya know there’s a lot of bad guys out there?”
The sound of two more came from behind, and there was another hiding under the shadow of the abandoned building to the right, stifling his breath.
The earlier man from before didn’t seem to like Pale keeping her silence, as he suddenly raised his voice and struck the ground with a rod-like object.
“Tch… It’s the boss’ orders, so it can’t be helped. Just hurry up and die.”
Pale calculated the distance between her and her assailants as she confirmed the sound of footsteps coming from both in front and behind.
Judging from the sound of their footsteps, the people approaching her didn’t seem well-versed in martial arts. In that case, the real enemy was probably the one hidden under the shadow of the abandoned building to the right. As Pale arrived to that conclusion, she revealed the dagger she had been hiding all this time.
“Ooh! Pulling something like that!” One of the men said as he played with his rod.
“Take this—!?”
The moment the man swung down with his rod, Pale’s body shifted a little, and his rod landed on the ground, giving rise to a cloud of dust.
“KU—You lit-!?
The man ignored his numbed arms and pursued Pale’s shadow, but her dagger had already been thrust at his neck.
“Tell me who sent you and I’ll let you off,” Pale’s voice was without a hint of warmth as she allowed her dagger to lightly cut the man’s skin.
“Eek!?”
The man faltered as he screamed, and Pale followed him to ensure her dagger remained on his throat. But the moment she neared the man, the footsteps coming from behind got her attention.
“Take this!”
“Die!”
Two pairs of footsteps approached from behind. As Pale felt even the sound of the weapons swinging, she slightly moved her dagger and turned her body, and in the next moment, the man Pale was threatening screamed.
He ended up receiving his allies’ attacks in her place.
As the enemy behind clicked his tongue, Pale took a step and sent her dagger toward his arms.
She may have been blind, but with her exceptional hearing, she could reproduce an image of her surroundings within her mind.
When the sound of an arrow flying from behind resounded, Pale bent down.
“KA!?”
As the other man behind her cried out in pain, Pale ran toward the direction the arrow came from.
As Pale caught the sound of someone hastily standing up, she threw her dagger toward the enemy.
A muffled noise resounded as the dagger buried itself into the fleeing man’s back. After hearing the man fall, Pale went back to the man whose arm had been cut.
She asked him the same question. “Now tell me who sent you.”
Seeing Pale brandish her dagger once more, the man shook in fear and confessed.
“…The Dagger of Webrus.”
As Pale quietly repeated those words to herself, the flames of vengeance burned within her.
◆◇◆
The blade the black-haired swordsman swung was a giant sword as big as he was tall. In the desert, it was a weapon known as scimitar. It was a special kind of sword known for its curved blade, but the scimitar the black-haired man wielded was far bigger than common sense would expect.
The swordsman wielded his scimitar, whose curved blade ran deeper than that of a curved sword, as he took a light step and watched the lightly-armored swordsman.
The lightly-armored swordsman, whose skin was exposed, utilized a twin-sword style. He was an expert who pursued sharpness and lightness, and was one of the members of a famous clan from the labyrinth city-state, Tortoki.
It was in a small village located between Elrain Kingdom and Labyrinth City-State Tortoki that the Red King Clan and another were staking their existence.
And these two warriors were none other than the warriors sent out by their respective leaders to represent their clans.
“–Shi!”
As the twin-sword user took a light step and started a rhythm, his body blurred and vanished. Or at the very least, that’s how it appeared to the people watching.
Immediately after, the black-haired swordsman swung his sword at the empty air.
The sound of iron and steel clashing erupted, and the twin-sword user was sent sliding across the ground, spitting expletives.
Despite that, however, his stance remained unbroken, but this much was expected of a warrior who carried his clan’s existence on his shoulders.
The twin-swords user allowed the force to pass through his legs and begun preparing for a counterattack.
“GU!?”
But a greater threat appeared as the black-haired swordsman swung his scimitar.
That was a power resulting from a man blessed with superhuman strength that went beyond the first-rate skill of the twin-swords user.
But even if that was the case, the twin-swords user had his pride. If he were to lose here, his family – his clan – would literally be crushed by these men.
He had accompanied his clan for many years now. At the very least, he needed to fight until the end, so he took on that descending scimitar with his twin swords and allowed its power to take him along.
As a result, it looked like he was running away, but that couldn’t be helped. As the twin-swords user jumped back with the impact of the scimitar, something happened that shocked him once more.
He had clearly jumped back, but for some reason, his body was suddenly forcefully brought back to the front. It was as if the world itself was offering him to the black-haired swordsman.
As the might of the scimitar directly fell onto his twin swords that pursued sharpness and lightness, it cruelly smashed them into pieces.
The twin-swords user braced himself for death as the black-haired swordsman pointed his scimitar at him.
“…We lost.” The clan leader of the twin-swords user bit his lips in frustration.
The Red King, Brandika, heartily laughed. “Shunrai! Good job!”
The black haired swordsman glanced at the kneeling twin-swords user as he wielded his scimitar again.
“It was a good match. Let’s do it again one day.”
Then without waiting for a reply, the black-haired swordsman known as Shunrai walked back to his clan leader.
As he did, he noted that Brandika was holding the opposing clan leader’s shoulders as they talked about something. Odds were he was promising him their clan’s continued existence under the condition they came under the Red King Clan’s banner.
Tying his hair into a knot behind him and letting the sides fall just up till the shoulders, the black-haired swordsman hid his mouth with a muffler despite being in the desert. He narrowed his eyes as he watched his clan leader happily talk of his ambition (dreams).
“Good work.”
As he was walking back to the clan leader, it was the scholarly youth, Carrion, who called out to him.
“I didn’t even sweat, though.”
Hearing such a large contrast with his remark now compared to when he was talking with the enemy champion, Carrion couldn’t help but make an impish smile.
“Well, we don’t currently have any plans to fight with someone big.”
“In that case, I’ll be hoping we have a change of plans, Genius Adviser.”
Shunrai turned his back right after saying that.
“Ah, man… Oh, right!” Carrion was left scratching his head for a moment, but immediately after, a smile appeared on his face, and he looked coldly at Shunrai.
“According to the Dagger of Werbus, it seems we may have found a survivor of the Elks Clan.”
“Oh? That’s interesting…”
The small opening through the black-haired swordsman’s muffler revealed a fierce smile like that of a beast eyeing its prey.
