Chapter 44: Chapter 44

That was the one thing I was sure of.

Hariba was being controlled by someone.

The fact that he was calling out my name...

Rather than it coming from his contempt for me, I imagined it was something of a side effect of a command being forced into his mind.

The person in front of me probably didn’t even have a conscious anymore.

The problem now was that I had no idea where the person controlling Hariba was hiding.

Are they further away than I thought?

It was possible, but I rejected the idea. If that were the case, the mechanism for domination would be closer to black magic.

They would be possessing his mind, and in that case, there wouldn’t be any need for Hariba to abruptly stop every time an obstacle got in his way.

It’s not assimilation but shared senses. Not domination, control.

Once I was sure of this difference, I got back to working through the problem at hand.

The one controlling Hariba should be close by, and I had to assume their stealth technique was good enough to evade my senses.

This is tricky...

The controller was probably the mastermind. The one who had made the assassins infiltrate House Bednicker and who had tried to kill me.

Although it wouldn’t be difficult for me to defeat Hariba here, what would the mastermind watching all this do afterward?

Would they reveal themself to deal with me?

No way.

From how events had been playing out all this time, the mastermind was very thorough. They would prefer to continue hiding and wait for the perfect moment.

Personally, this was the most annoying enemy to face.

If that’s the case...

While I was quickly going through my options in my head...

“...!”

Sellen suddenly appeared behind Hariba.

Emphasis on “suddenly.”

It was like when someone broke through the surface of the water. It was like she’d been behind a veil that had suddenly been lifted.

Her blessing!

At that moment, Sellen’s heel struck down on Hariba’s head.

Since his neck seemed to be the weak point, was she planning to completely crush his spine?

That thought was wrong.

The moment Hariba’s head snapped to the side, Sellen raised two of her fingers.

Her fingernails grew at an alarming rate.  Shining in the moonlight, they flashed like the claws of a beast.

I knew about this blessing.

The blessing that gave Sellen the nickname “Silver Moon”... this was the Blessing of the Silver Moon.

Slash!

I heard the sound of meat being chopped.

Sellen’s nails, her claws... whatever they were, there was blood on their edges.

The attack seems to have worked.

I briefly thought that, but then I noticed Hariba’s eyes start to spin toward her.

“Dodge!” I immediately shouted at her.

But it was no use.

Hariba bent down a little before kicking his feet back.

His movement was reminiscent of when a horse kicked backward.

Sellen immediately brought up her arms in a cross in front of herself to block the attack.

It was an excellent defense, but it could only reduce the damage, not negate it.

Although I was a bit worried about her, I couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

I clenched my fist and charged directly at Hariba, who had his guard down.

Hariba’s body was already more than double my size. Looking up, I could only see masses of flesh and his face.

I had a particularly good technique for times like this.

The skill created by referencing House Bednicker’s ancestral sword art, seventh technique, sky piercer.

White Sun Form, Third Technique.

Rising Flame.

Crack!

Unlike the first attack, this punch landed squarely on his face, just as I’d intended.

With a cracking sound, I also heard the muscles in Hariba’s body start to rip.

It would’ve been difficult to get this result with just my punch. Sellen’s claws must have cut away about half of his neck.

Hariba’s neck flopped about like it might tear away at any moment.

It was a disgusting scene to watch, but the more shocking part was that he could still move in this state.

“Uh... ugh...?”

Hariba let out a dumb groan as he grabbed his own head.

He was tougher than I’d thought.

Considering that he was only being controlled, it wouldn’t be weird to think that decapitating him could still kill him.

I ran toward Sellen.

I suddenly became dizzy and nearly fell over while running. It felt like Master hadn’t fully regenerated my body.

When I finally arrived next to Sellen, I saw that she was stuck in a half-broken tree.

Her condition wasn’t good.

“Are you okay?”

As long as she had no broken bones, that would be enough.

“My bones are broken.”

“Where?”

As long as it’s not both her arms...

“Both my arms.”

Curses.

She didn’t have a weapon, and since both her arms were broken, she was practically done for at this point.

She could try and distract it and grab its attention, but the target we were facing was immune to that.

Sellen seemed to know this as well as she gnawed on her lips. Her face had turned a bright red, and I could tell that she was embarrassed by her situation.

I hadn’t spent that much time with her, but I could tell that she hated being a burden to others even more than death.

“Uwahgh...”

As I turned after hearing Hariba make a sound, I saw something incredible.

“Hey, he’s...”

“I know.”

The muscles of his torn neck had started to stitch themselves together.

Had he been given troll blood?

I felt like I’d had a bad relationship with trolls since the Gem Mountains.

We’ve wasted a lot of time as well.

It wouldn’t be odd if the main house noticed something was off at this point.

If this battle continued and we were found out by someone from the main house...

Honestly, I was confident I would survive. The Lord of Blood and Iron was still at the main house.

But what about Sellen?

As one of those annoying Goodsprings, she’d stepped foot upon the forbidden land of House Bednicker.

This would be the perfect opportunity for House Bednicker.

She might even be killed.

Even if she wasn’t, there was a high chance that this would be used against the Goodsprings for a while.

With how prideful she was, how would she feel if her house suffered because of her mistake?

But even if I told her to run away, she wasn’t the kind of person who would flee in this situation.

“...”

I took a moment to think about Sellen’s many qualities.

She was very confident and quick-witted. Although her way of talking wasn’t refined, she was kind. And for some reason, she caused a lot of misunderstandings...

“Sellen.”

“What.”

“Do you remember the way we came?”

“You’re asking that right now... Do you think I’m stupid?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“That’s a relief.”

I got up from my squat first.

“You go first.”

Sellen flinched as she heard that.

“What?”

“Was I too blunt? I’ll deal with him, so you go first.”

“Are you sane right now?”

Of course I was sane.

Sellen wordlessly opened and closed her mouth for a second before a deep frown appeared on her face.

“My legs are fine. And if I’m leaving, we should both leave. Why are you telling me to go first? That bastard over there is so slow that he won’t even be able to catch us.”

Maybe.

The reason Hariba hadn’t been coming after us at full speed was probably because we had been running away from the main house.

There was no need to be quick when hunting rats that were cornering themselves.

And I have yet to find the person hiding around here.

I couldn’t predict when that person would appear.

There was no guarantee that Hariba was the only tool they had at their disposal.

The only thing I knew was that I was their target.

That was why, even if Sellen ran away, they wouldn’t chase her.

Of course, there was no time or reason to explain all this.

As I stood there in silence, Sellen spoke first.

“...You, did you hurt your leg?”

What was this misunderstanding now?

Ah. Now that I thought about it, I had nearly tripped on my way to her because of my dizziness.

She’d probably misunderstood that.

I was a little shocked when I heard that, but I decided to harden my expression a little as I looked at her.

“...As I thought. Damn it,” Sellen cursed. “That’s all the more reason for us to run away together.”

“Be real. With your arms like that, you can’t even support me.”

“Then are you saying it’s more realistic for you to face him in your condition?”

“Unlike you, my arms are fine. My legs aren’t completely broken either. And I told you, I saw the future.”

“...Future.” Sellen became quiet before she slowly said, “...But what if this wasn’t your original future?”

“What?”

“If this all went wrong because I interfered for no reason, and if you weren’t supposed to die here originally—doesn’t that mean I killed you?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Stay focused.” I waved my palm in front of Sellen’s face, but her loosened eyes didn’t focus easily.

It couldn’t be helped. I slapped her cheek once.

Slap.

“...Fuck, what are you doing?”

Was she really a noble?

Sellen looked at me like she would kill me before Hariba did.

I just glanced at her as I replied, “ Just go. I’ll be right behind you. Really.”

Sellen pursed her lips before lowering her head.

She then looked back up at me.

“Just wait a little bit. I’ll bring other people here.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said? We need to keep the fact we came here secret. This is for your sake as well.”

It would be annoying if everyone found out about this incident.

I wanted to keep the fact that we’d entered a forbidden area as secret as possible.

But naturally, Sellen didn’t seem to follow.

“Are you being serious? If that’s the case, I’ll just fight with you.”

“...I’ll tell you who you can call.”

“Who are they?”

“Kayan and Arzan.”

“And who are those people?”

“They’re my subordinates. They’re trustworthy.”

“What about your mother?”

“Don’t tell her. She worries too much.”

“...”

Sellen bit down on her lips before speaking with a hurt voice.

“...Why are you doing so much for me?”

“Well... I don’t know either.”

As I said that, Sellen looked as if she’d been slapped.

It was quite memorable how dazed she looked.

“...You idiot.”

“Crazy,” “insane,” she always spoke harshly, but this last insult of hers didn’t have any heat behind it.

“Luan Bednicker.”

“Yeah?”

“If we meet again...” Sellen said with a serious expression, “I’ll tell you one of my secrets.”

“What?”

There isn’t really a need for that...

As I tried to say that, Sellen’s body disappeared.

Just like when she’d launched that sneak attack against Hariba, I saw her appear some distance away.

It was as if she was using multiple short-distance teleports.

That was probably the power of her blessing.

It seems like she can’t bring other people with her when she’s using it.

That was a relief.

If that were possible, I would have had no choice but to escape with Sellen.

Naturally, I had no intention of running away.

I still had business with Hariba.

And I think she misunderstood something again.

I could resolve that misunderstanding later. I decided to first focus on Hariba in front of me.

“Uah... ugh...”

Hariba finished regenerating his wounds and finally walked toward me.

“All right. Then...”

Since we won’t have any interruptions now...

Let’s start round 2.