The commander of the First Royal Guard, Jerome Saintred, was a young knight in his twenties who took office following the massacre of the previous commander at the hands of the Blood Knight.
«If we hadn't known about this old shelter in advance, it could have ruined our plan.». Jerome brushed the short silver hair out of his face and walked down the dark stairs.
The reason why this man was in the basement of Noark Castle and not in the eastern district, which at the time was a battlefield, was simple. The offer that the palace made to the lord of the castle to remain silent about this city if he helped them exterminate Orcules was nothing more than an excuse to bring Rafdonia's troops here. The objective of the palace had been different from the beginning: the Stone Fragment of Records, an object that, according to information provided by a close confidant of the lord of Noark, he always wore in the form of a necklace. Of course, Jerome was not well informed about what this object was, but since he had been given his orders, he had to return to the palace with it somehow.
Grifo.
Jerónimo, who was going down the steps, stopped dead. He had discovered a body lying on the stairs. The cause of death was a blow to the occipital region, which he believed was caused by a blunt object. They had even taken away his equipment and the man was practically naked.
Jerome bent down and touched the wound.
And the hour of death... thirty minutes ago at most.
His face hardened. Someone had infiltrated this place first, and there was a good chance that their target was the lord of the castle hiding below. Was the intruder still down there?
Run.
Jerome quickly ran down the stairs. It didn't take him long to reach a wide-open stone door and a large passage, but the only thing waiting for him there was the corpse of a swollen middle-aged man. Once again, the body showed signs of having been hit by a blunt object.
I don't know who it was, but I'm a moment late.
Jerome bit his lip in frustration, but quickly inspected the scene of the incident. Most importantly, the Records Stone Fragment was not there. Judging by the cuts on the man's neck, it looked like it had been forcibly torn off.
And to think that there was someone else after her.
Momentarily stunned by this unexpected turn of events, Jerome quickly returned the way he had come. It was still early to give up.
They couldn't have gone very far in thirty minutes.
I had to find them.
***
Auril Gavis had said: «A timeline once observed cannot change». Certainly, as he said, it might be impossible to change the future completely. But what if the observation itself was wrong? For example, what if he could make young Amelia believe that her older sister had died? What if he could make Laura hide her identity for twenty years? Wouldn't it be possible to save her then? The idea gave me chills, but I soon ran into a big obstacle.
«That day, my sister died in my arms».
Amelia saw her sister's death firsthand. Just like she had done with Dwalkie in Larcaz's Labyrinth, Amelia saw the light leave Laura's eyes. How the hell could he fake that? I had no idea. It wouldn't be easy to convince Amelia, someone who had already killed countless people despite her young age, that her sister was dead.
Well, I'm sure it would work somehow.
I felt like I was back to square one, but the thought didn't seem as daunting as before. That was because the castle lord himself said that once all our work here was done, the Records Stone Fragment would activate on its own. In other words, I still had work to do here. So what was the role he had to play? That was obvious.
¡Kwa claim!
I ran to the alchemist's house and crossed the door with my shoulder. It was possible that the door was already open, but so what? Probability was just a number. So I decided to give it my all at every moment.
«¡A-Agh!»
«But what...?» When I walked through the door, I found a scared old man in the corner of the workshop. But it was not Marfa Ipaello, the owner of this room. «Who are you?»
«I am...» The old man frantically looked away in a very transparently suspicious manner.
¿Eh?
When I inspected the old man's outfit, an unusual brooch on the front of his robe caught my attention. «Are you an alchemist?». The old man shuddered at my question, which was answer enough.
Just in case there were any guards hiding nearby, I remained on guard as I took a step forward. In turn, the old man took a step back and let out an excuse. «Ah, this is a misunderstanding! It's a misunderstanding! I never wanted to steal anything...»
«I see.» No wonder he was startled as someone who has been caught red-handed doing something he shouldn't have. This man had taken advantage of the chaos to come steal something.
«If you keep this matter a secret, surely...»
There was no reason to prolong this conversation. It seemed like he had even given his own guards the slip to carry out this heist.
Hit!
Since he was not a combatant, the alchemist had no chance to defend himself, so I pounced on him and hit him on the head with the hammer.
«Wow, you even have a subspace». I didn't have much time, so I just stole the alchemist's ring before hastily searching the workshop, and soon found the item I was looking for: the prototype of Lethe's Blessing. By consuming it, it makes you forget all your memories.
Well, that's the first item on my list.
Now it was time to go find Amelia. This was a world without phones, but even though we hadn't established a meeting place or time, that wasn't a problem. Since it had been six hours since I had fallen asleep, I was probably busy being chased right now. I had to hurry.
«I found you». I turned quickly upon hearing a voice at the door and saw a silver-haired gentleman. «Give me the Stone Fragment of Records».
What was this son of a bitch talking about?
***
The Traitor, Ricardo Lüchenprague, was once called the Master of the Sword. Everyone who had seen him brandish a sword or deal with him in person said the same thing: that his swordsmanship was different from that of an ordinary knight.
¡Whooom!
An aura fluttered at the tip of his sword. That in itself wasn't special. The aura spread to reduce energy consumption and gave off a certain edge, but that was it. The aura did not display a mountainous vigor like that of the Knight of Light nor did it change shape like that of the Moon Knight. But despite that, this man's sword was superior to his, not because of the aura but because of his technique.
King!
«Agh! A-Help me!»
Not a single one of the hundreds of adventurers blocking the eastern district could withstand a single blow from their sword.
«We have to flee! Agh!»
Anyone who stood in his way was shot down. If they dodged, the sword seemed to reach their escape route before them. Anyone could see that it was a rudimentary technique. The elaborate techniques used by most knights were not visible. But Amelia still couldn't take her eyes off the sword.
«S-Miss Emily. N-We need to run...»
There was something about his swordsmanship that didn't seem natural. It was a sword that had been tirelessly optimized for one thing: killing.
«What are you doing?! Come here!» When the one-sided massacre began, clan leader Felic Barker began preparing to flee with his clan members. Amelia couldn't stand by. The reason he had been with these people for the past few months was this very moment.
«Felic Barker.»
«Hey?» The moment Felic turned his head when he heard her name, Amelia stuck a fine needle in his neck. «...Eh?» His body became as rigid as a stone statue, his head still turned. Amelia put it on his shoulder. «What does this mean...?!»
The clan members realized what was happening late and pointed their weapons at Amelia, but that wasn't a big problem.
«How dare you betray us?!»
It wasn't a betrayal, because she never thought of them as her comrades in the first place.
¡Rebel!
Amelia decapitated the closest clan member. Then, as expected, the enraged adventurers slowly retreated and seemed to weigh their chances before finally fleeing, leaving behind their captured clan leader.
«Ugh, what difference does it make!»
«It doesn't matter, let's go!»
She expected them to react like that. The Traitor was carrying out a massacre and getting closer. Those men would have no reason to risk their lives for the clan leader, unlike these two here.
«...Please release that man.» The moment the young woman who used to be her past held out her hand, she heard the sound of something cutting through the air behind her.
¡Un togo!
Amelia turned her body to the side to move away, and took advantage of the rotation momentum to kick her attacker's wrist away.
¡Clang!
The sword fell to the ground and he saw a girl clutching her wrist numb with pain. It was his older sister, Laura Rainwales.
«Amelia, let's run!» As soon as she considered the situation too dangerous, Laura grabbed her little sister and ran, and Amelia just watched.
He felt his chest tighten. She knew why these girls were trying to save Felic even though the other clan members had fled. It wasn't out of loyalty, but because of the shackles Felic had put on Laura. The unhealthy contract involved all kinds of unfair conditions, but there was criticism. The moment Felic Barker received a wound that put him on the brink of death, he would receive all of Laura's life force. That was the reason why those two had been left behind.
But when even that failed, the reason Laura ran without looking back was Amelia. In that brief moment, her sister accepted her death if it meant Amelia could escape.
Squeeze.
His jaw tensed unconsciously. It was only a three-year age difference. When she was little, her older sister seemed even bigger than an adult, but now she knew it. Even then, his sister was only seventeen years old. It was impossible for Laura not to feel overwhelmed by her fate in life, and there would undoubtedly have been times when she would have wanted to leave everything and run away.
Run.
Amelia ran forward with Felic stiff as a log on her back.
Cut!
He headed towards the place where a particular man stood like a beast among a crowd of herbivores. He chased the hundreds of people fleeing in terror, brandishing his sword methodically. For the first time, however, an emotion appeared on his expressionless face. It was curiosity. True, it must have been strange to see someone walking towards him while everyone else was fleeing, and also with a strong man hanging on his shoulder.
¡Whooom!
Amelia's dagger aura turned black. It was an effect of a conversion ability called Abyss Power that he had obtained from the rank four monster Grabanich. When this ability was activated, all of his abilities, including Spiritual Power and Dragon Power, became Soul Power, the use of which was twice as effective. The same thing happened with auras, which used mana. This ability had been very good for Amelia, who had been born with few mana reserves.
Swish.
As soon as he approached a certain distance, his blackened aura regained its original color thanks to the special ability that Traitor had absorbed from one of the Soil Lords. This ability disabled all active and passive abilities within a given radius.
Yeah, so to put it simply... Now it's over.
Even the Unhealthy Contract was inactive here.
Grifo.
When Amelia threw Felic from her shoulder, Lüchenprague cut him in half with a single breath.
Slash!
The body split in two with the rapid screech of spilled blood. She was a little worried, but the Insane Contract did not activate and healed her wound.
I guess I overcame an obstacle...
Since Amelia had escaped with her sister before seeing Felic die then, it was a relief to see for herself that her sister's life was no longer in her hands. But there was no time to think about things like that.
Having achieved her goal, Amelia quickly retreated. When she did, the traitor who had not uttered a single word while massacring dozens immediately chased after her and said: «I don't know what that was, but I do know that you have used me».
It seemed that he had understood the essence of what had happened. For some reason, a word the barbarian had once spoken to him came to mind without intending to. It wasn't a particularly pleasant-sounding word, but unfortunately, there was no concise way to express the same feeling in Rafdonia.
That place has a really amazing vocabulary.
Amelia said the word without realizing it. «K-Kimochi...»
Apparently, it was a way to express gratitude towards an enemy who had helped you.