Chapter 12: A Completely Different Story
Kiiing—
A spirit shot straight toward the assassin.
Pueong!
A tremor followed, as if the ground itself shook.
This ti, however, it missed.
A silhouette stood firm through the swirling dust.
So he dodged in ti.
Not so half-rate thug.
How irritating.
"...Ha."
The man smiled coldly and casually dropped the goblin hand axe.
And then—
Shwick!
He drew a hidden dagger and lunged for my arm.
Kaang—!
Thanks to the Armor, my arm wasn't severed, but the impact was enormous—enough to send a numbing shock all the way to my shoulder.
"...Looks like you've given up on the goblin act."
"Didn't seem like you were the type to go down to a hand axe. Heh, now I'm actually nervous. This is a crisis—a real crisis!"
He pulled another dagger from his waist and switched to a dual-wield stance.
Fwip!
Before I knew it, he had circled behind .
He was right in front of just a mont ago.
"You know, when was it—I once fought a Holy Knight. Said one word about the goddess and he drew his sword and ca charging at . Honestly, can't even take a joke."
I could feel him baiting with a ntion of the goddess, but I ignored it.
I wasn't devout to begin with.
"Even with a severed ankle, he got back up on sheer willpower, you know? Holy Knights are tough as nails. But that's all you are. Durable—just slow as hell."
Fwip!
Again, he shifted position.
"See? Slow."
He lowered his stance and drove in close.
Sshwaaek!
At the sa ti, the dagger lunged for the back of my knee.
Kwagak!
It was a split-second mont.
I turned and deflected it with a section of the Armor, but had I been even a fraction slower, my leg would have been severed.
"Tch."
He created distance again on the way out just as swiftly as he'd co in.
The back of the knee—a spot the Armor couldn't cover.
He knew how to attack an armored opponent.
So it wasn't a lie that he'd fought a Holy Knight before.
Kang! Kagak!
The daggers each sliced past the gauntlets on my arms and legs once.
A display of confidence—a way of saying he could cut anywhere he chose.
I hadn't been breached yet, but it was only a matter of ti.
He persistently targeted only the joints.
And faster than when he'd first approached.
"You're no different from every other Holy Knight in the end. We're just a bad match, you and I."
He sneered, pointing at the scored Armor.
"Thought you might be a little different, but in the end you're still within my predicted range. Against soone as fast as ...."
Here he cos again.
Just as that thought crossed my mind—
"You can't do a thing!"
The dagger ca flying for my throat.
At that mont—
Flash—!
A burst of light erupted from my hand and robbed him of his vision.
A spell that creates a sphere of light.
It was a basic spell I had seen a priest use at the Monastery.
"Gaah! You dirty bastard!"
He threw one arm over both eyes and flailed the other.
"And you call yourself a noble knight...!"
"Was an impure Holy Knight outside your predicted range?"
Wooong!
In the anti, the spirits had finished their preparations.
4 spirits drifting around .
The Buff-Type Magic I had cast on the spirits was 'Detection Ability Enhancent.'
Reinforcent Magic that maximizes the senses.
Originally a spell used to detect and track hidden enemies or magical energy.
But stack the effects and more than that becos possible.
For example—reading the speed of that fly-like man.
Shwishik!
As the man broke free from the flash and began moving again, the spirits' eyes tracked him.
As though connected by invisible threads, the spirits twisted their bodies in the direction he moved.
Ready to react at any mont.
While I deflected daggers with the Armor, the spirits adapted to his speed with their sharply heightened detection ability.
Here I added more Buffs.
Defense Enhancent.
Accuracy Enhancent.
Movent Speed Increase.
Kaang!
As he thrust his dagger, one spirit threw itself forward and deflected the blow.
"What the...."
Buff-Type Magic was the very identity of a Holy Knight.
The role each spirit perford changed according to the Buff effect applied.
The spirits read his movents and simultaneously beca more durable, more precise, and faster.
In other words—
From this mont on, the spirits—
Would beco moving shields.
***
The assassin gripped both daggers in a reverse hold and charged.
He closed in once more, but—
Shwik!
One of the spirits cut across his path.
On the verge of crashing into the unyielding spirit, he had no choice but to fall back.
He caught his balance with a flustered expression.
He tried narrowing the distance again, but the daggers only ca crashing down on the spirits instead of my neck.
No matter how quickly he moved, the spirits kept pace with his speed.
They had already arrived at the point of impact.
"Using the goddess's spirits as suicide bombers and then as at shields... the more I learn about you, the more faithless a Holy Knight you turn out to be. I'm curious why you haven't been defrocked, but—whatever. This is entertaining. I'll have to tell the boys about this when I get back."
"Sounds like you have plenty of friends in the afterlife too."
"Ha, so you're just going to keep blocking?"
He spoke as if relaxed, but his breathing had grown rougher than before.
Wooong—
The spirit that had moved to stop him returned to its position in front of .
"From what I can tell,"
I opened my mouth and, in contrast, he fell silent.
Or perhaps he was steadying his breath.
"Your specialty seems to be closing in fast and swinging your blades, but my spirits have already adapted to your speed. Right—just like you said."
Sruureuk—
The spirits ford a line and faced him.
"You and I are a bad match."
The mont the words ended, the corners of his eyes creased.
This ti, I was the one who advanced on him.
Naturally, the surrounding spirits followed along with .
Sruung!
I drew the sword tucked at my waist and took my stance.
A third-rate longsword I'd found lying around the house.
I do bla the tool rather than the craftsman, but it would be more than enough to sever a neck.
Let's finish this.
Shwik—!
I swung the sword, and he bent his torso backward to dodge the slash.
He evaded with an acrobatic move and reflexively launched a counter—but
Kwang!
He was blocked by a spirit once again.
He attempted a counterattack from what looked like a gymnastic pose, but failing at that only left him looking ridiculous.
Reflex counters.
That very habit beca his weakness and threw his posture into disarray.
In a close-quarters exchange, I couldn't help but win.
The spirits handled all defense while I focused purely on offense—a far more comfortable fight.
Just like this.
Chwak!
Simply wait for an opening, then cut—and it was over.
"Kugh!"
A vertical slash.
I cut through both his jaw and neck simultaneously, but too shallow.
My intent was to take his head in a single stroke, but he had barely managed to dodge even that.
Instead, the mask split by the blade's tip slid silently down.
The face concealed beneath the hood and mask began to reveal itself.
The mont I confird that face—
I stopped breathing.
A shaved head and green eyes.
And that despicable expression.
......He was the leader of the guild Lucia belonged to.
A hint had been hidden here.
The hint that could have let realize this world was a ga—it had been hidden in the Subjugation Campaign.
His na was....
Karma, if I recalled correctly.
What I had lost by not attending the Subjugation Campaign was not only my 2nd brother.
Because of a single wrong choice, I had missed the chance to see through the true nature of this world far sooner.
I had thought the Subjugation Campaign had nothing to do with the relationship events.
I had thought no choices would appear and favorability ratings wouldn't change.
But perhaps, now, many things might be different.
"Did Lucia co too?"
"No, Lucia is—wait. What are you?"
"Never mind then."
The Raword-Lucia scenario was a story that began when Raword executed Karma.
In other words—
If I killed this bastard in advance, there would be no reason for Raword and Lucia to ever be connected.
The very premise would vanish.
"Perfect."
Now that I knew the assassin's identity, there was no need to worry about him breaking before I confird who was behind him.
Teok.
I snatched one of the spirits with my hand and transferred it onto the blade.
Swuuk—
Moving my hand as if spreading oil, I infused the spirit into the sword.
The Buff applied to the spirit transferred to the blade, and the sword vibrated with a low hum as it was dyed a deep orange.
The remaining spirits moved as well.
2 spirits attached to the right and left greaves respectively.
The last one clung to the left gauntlet.
I recalled how he had carved up the ground to close the distance earlier—
Kwajik!
—and mimicked that movent to close in on him.
Hwoong!
At the sa mont, the spirit clinging to my left hand moved at blinding speed and drove the blade forward.
"What...."
He couldn't say another word.
Seogeok—
The slash carrying Sword Energy severed his neck in a single stroke.
The man, his head gone, folded to his knees and collapsed with a dull thud.
The third-rate longsword couldn't withstand the magical energy the spirit had contained and lted away piece by piece.
With a sword hastily grabbed from ho, infusing it with a spirit once had been the absolute limit.
I turned back and confird the corpse.
The hollow throat spilled blood in a gush, turning the green grass red.
"...Mm."
Rummaging through a corpse was unpleasant, but I had to claim the spoils.
If my mory served right, this had been quite a generously rewarding boss.
A mid-boss type character.
If Raword didn't have stats at or above a certain level, he couldn't bring Karma down, and his bond with Lucia would reach its limit.
On the other hand, when Karma was defeated, multiple Lucia endings unlocked and additional rewards existed.
There should be a key sowhere.
As I flipped him over and rummaged through his pockets, sothing caught at my fingertips.
This texture—paper.
It wasn't the key I'd been hoping for, but I took it out and checked it anyway.
What was written on the paper was a contract for a hired killer.
The contract stated that whoever assassinated Roman Hasgard would be paid an enormous sum of gold.
The sender—the Death God Faith.
Fanatics who followed the Necromancer.
Their mark was unmistakably inscribed.
Diatrically opposed to the Goddess Faith, they had gathered and gone into hiding under the na Death God Faith.
In my past life, by the ti I learned of their existence, the war had already begun.
Until now, I had assud the mastermind behind the Hasgard family's ruin was one of the territories bordering the Hasgard Earldom.
That soone had orchestrated things out of a desire for the Hasgard lands.
But I was wrong.
The one targeting the Hasgard family was a follower of the Villain.
We had been prey for a far greater existence.
A completely different story.
I was an Extra—but apparently not a minor one.
Because no one rembers the face, anyone can beco anyone.
Beco Passerby 1, beco Villager A, even beco a tree.
While the protagonist performs under the spotlight on stage, the Extra busily changes costus behind the curtain.
Steps back onto the stage as soone else.
This ti, it seed I might finally play a role with so real weight.
Kkwak—
The fist gripping the contract clenched with full force.
Now I know.
Having learned that the Death God Faith had been active earlier than expected, I could now trace them in reverse.
I could fight back.
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