In the end, PoH managed to run away.
Although Saichou and Hanachou shouldn’t have lost PoH because they were as fast if not faster than PoH, in a place like Forest of Wandering where almost every corner was essentially a hiding place.
If PoH used Hiding Skill, even though Saichou and Hanachou’s Detection Skill was really high, there was a high probability that he would be able to escape anyway.
Rozen has roughly seen this coming. However, he didn’t really worry about it.
“If you escape, then so be it.”
Although PoH was an extremely dangerous individual who might influence more Players out there to be a murderer like him if left unchecked, most Orange Guild would be neutralized after this operation.
If the rest of Laughing Coffin’s members were trying to scout new members from the Orange Guilds, they should be arrested by the Clearers hunting the Orange Guilds’ members, especially since their two out of three strongest members have been arrested.
In other words, after this operation, the most notorious Red Guild, Laughing Coffin, that everyone feared will disband since most of its members will be sent to jail.
If PoH was the only one remain, he wouldn’t be as much of a threat as he used to.
Of course, letting PoH roam free was not okay at all, and Rozen, by no means, won’t underestimate him just because he was alone. He would ask all Clearers to search for him in order to restrict his movement.
Thus, the operation to neutralize Orange and Red Guilds under Rozen’s leadership succeeded.
Even though it seemed like Rozen focused on PoH, XaXa, and Johnny Black and left the rest to the Clearers Guild, that was not the only thing that Rozen did.
Rozen knew these Red Players who constantly assaulted and killed Players just to satisfy their urge to kill quite well.
“If they’re cornered, they will do whatever it takes to survive.”
Therefore, in order to prevent the Clearers from falling victims to the lunatic members of Laughing Coffin, Roze has prepared a few tricks beforehand and successfully avoided casualties from the Clearers’ side.
His zero casualty record this whole time wasn’t just for show.
The target this time was a vicious guild full of murderers, after all. Rozen could safely say that they had no intention to spare any of their victims, so Rozen had to come up with a few countermeasures against them.
Everything went according to Rozen’s plan, and there was no casualty on Clearers’ side. However, the same couldn’t be said to their opponent.
After all, not everyone could effectively restrain the target like Rozen. If they held back and the target fought back with the intention to kill, they would be the one paying the price for their own carelessness.
So they had no choice but to kill some of the criminals because they fought back and refused to be sent to jail.
Because of that, the Clearers were depressed for several days. Even though they were the Clearers, the strongest Players in SAO, they were just normal people in real life.
It was not like Rozen couldn’t comprehend how much guilt and pressure they felt when they had to kill someone else with their own hands.
That being said…
“This is the right thing, so it should be fine.”
That was what Rozen thought.
Due to everything he went through, Rozen came to hate Mages because of their egotistical notion that ignored human ethics in order to achieve their goal.
However, that didn’t make Rozen a naive person either. If it was either kill or be killed, Rozen wouldn’t show any mercy toward his opponent.
That’s how things went in battle, after all.
Otherwise, Rozen wouldn’t make a resolve to kill Jeanne Alter, although in the end, Gilles de Rais covered her.
Therefore, not everything could be clearly defined by right or wrong, especially in battles and wars, but as long as you did what you believe is right, you would do yourself and others justice.
Just do what you believe was right.
That was how Rozen did things this whole time.
But……
“In this world where death is real, killing itself is just a game.”
In this world, there’s no such thing as bleeding even if a Player was injured, and even if a Player’s hp became zero, their avatar just turned into polygon fragments and disappeared instead of leaving a corpse. In any case, Rozen had a hard time believing it was the same as the real death.
The real death was much crueler than that.
The real despair was far more horrible than that.
Because of that, Rozen actually still considered SAO as a game world instead of another reality.
However……
“The human heart is undoubtedly real.”
Later that day, after a bunch of Orange and Red Players were arrested and the operation was concluded, Rozen visited a certain person.
“Don’t you think so, Chairman Zahad?”
Rozen said indifferently.
On the other hand, Zahad, Divine Dragon Alliance’s current leader, looked pale and was sweating hearing Rozen’s words.
They were in an inn located on the 55th Floor, Granzam.
Instead of participating in the operation today, Zahad cooped up inside his room for the whole day even though he was one of the Clearers’ Guild leader.
The reason was simple.
“Then again, it’d be hard to attack your own collaborators, right?”
Rozen said as if talking to himself while tapping the table rhythmically in front of Zahad.
This time, Zahad’s face became even paler.
“Wh… what are you talking about? Collaborators? I… I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Zahad tried his best to maintain his composure, but his trembling voice told Rozen everything, so he just ignored Zahad’s response and kept going.
“I’ve made a bunch of preparations in order to lure PoH out. I had to leak the Clearers’ plan and where I plan to go today to him little by little without him finding out it was my intention all along.”
Well, that was a given. Otherwise, PoH wouldn’t be able to figure out that Rozen was acting alone, completely separated from the Clearers.
“However, I didn’t expect that all my preparations were wasted because someone else has already leaked his plan to PoH, including the fact that I was trying to lure PoH out by acting alone.”
Rozen said casually.
“No one else aside from the Clearers is capable of this, am I wrong?”
This was the first time Rozen finally looked Zahad in the eye after everything he has said.
“I…!”
Zahad stood up out of surprise.
“Bang!”
The room’s door was suddenly busted open, and Players immediately swarmed in.
They were the Clearers.
Among them, there were Kirito with the rest of Red Wings’ members, along with Klein with Fuurinkazan’s members. In short, almost all Clearers were coming.
They surrounded Zahad with a disgusted look on their face.
Seeing this, Zahad realized that it was over for him.
“From today onwards, Divine Dragon Alliance is no more.”
Rozen walked out of the hotel after saying such words, leaving Zahad, who was kneeling behind him.
