CH 114

Chapter 114

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : Flames Of War In The Central Plains, Part 2 — The Boy, The Knight, And

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

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While Dance Slave was going to help the boy, Rhine was walking in the opposite direction from her. But he has no particular goal in mind, and his steps are heavy. He had lost the desire to go gambling or to the brothel. A large part of it was simply because he was stubborn, and he guessed it was because he was a bit of a grouch.

Rhine originally had a very strong sense of justice. His sense of justice led him to get involved in troublesome matters, and in the end, he lost sight of what was most important to him. There is nothing to regret about that now, even if he did. So he decided to stop getting into trouble out of a sense of justice, and this time he left the military and skipped the country to see what was really important.

But having left the country, he has lost sight of what he was supposed to do in the opposite direction. There’s no such thing as finding what is truly important in the world, and he has spent the past few years running away and doing nothing.

「What am I even doing…」

Even though he quit his knighthood and left the country, he still wields the same sword, and even now, he is still backsliding because of Dance Slave’s words. If it were true, he could have abandoned the sword, but he doesn’t even realize that he isn’t ready to abandon his chivalry. He doesn’t even realize that his true nature is to wield a sword and help the weak.

But Rhine was beginning to realize that he just didn’t want to admit that nothing had changed after all. And the event that caused him to be hunted flickers through his mind.

——You are a good man. ——You’re just too good to me.

He thought that leaving the country would help him forget, but his regrets only intensified. He still thought about the woman he lost, and he can’t tell himself how many times he have woken up from nightmares and spent sleepless nights.

「……Fuck! Just this one time!?」

Without making excuses to anyone, he shouted out, and Rhine spun around and started running in the opposite direction.

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Meanwhile, the boy being chased…

He was probably a little older than 10 years old. Judging from his height, he must be about that age. At least, that’s what it looks like. He must have been running for quite a long distance, his chin is up, he is out of breath, and his legs are tangled. He wouldn’t be able to run much longer. Sure enough, as he was about to turn down an alley, he got his foot caught in a wooden box that had been placed there and fell down with a loud thud.

However, he quickly got up and tried to run, but he twisted his leg and cowered in place. Behind him, the men who had been chasing him came at him, drawing their small swords.

The boy managed to use his hands to back away, but it was clear that he could no longer escape. At that moment, one black mass falls from overhead in front of the boy’s eyes. The mass was heel-dropped onto the head of the pursuer as soon as it fell, and then it broke between the boy and the pursuer.

「I’m not impressed, adults picking on children in groups.」

Standing in front of the boy was a dark-haired, dancer-like woman. She was, of course, Dance Slave. Neither the boy nor his pursuers understood for a moment what had happened, but when they saw that Dance Slave was bare-handed, they attacked her silently.

「Hmph.」

But Dance Slave did not hesitate to fight back. There were five men. It’s inherently difficult to take on a bare-knuckled woman, but the alley was narrow, and at most she only had to deal with two of them. Besides, Dance Slave has not lived many years. She have mastered the art of fighting so that she can fight to some extent even in her human state.

Still, the opponents are a group of trained prey owners. Dance Slave, who is not a master, cannot be defeated unilaterally, and their pursuer’s sword is closing in on Dance Slave. The sword was aimed at her head, but Dance Slave didn’t hesitate and swiped it away with her arm. Normally, this would have been a very deep wound.

Clink!

With a metallic sound, the pursuer’s sword was flicked away without inflicting a single scratch on the Dance Slave. She hits a surprised man with a palm strike to the jaw, knocking him into a stupor, and then kicks the other man in the stomach. Dance Slave, which is originally a sword, cannot be scratched by any half-assed metal.

The men, seeing that Dance Slave wasn’t normal, took a cautious pause and didn’t appear to be setting up. Dance Slave wonders about the situation.

「（How strange… Even though this is a back alley, if they stay long enough, people will come. I think it would be a good move to forcefully set us up, don’t they? Well, I don’t mind, but I don’t know what to do…）」

As Dance Slave was pondering, she heard multiple footsteps from the other side of the alley.

「Oh crap! There were others?」

Five men are approaching from the other side. That is how important this boy is, but now it’s more important to get through this scene somehow. But Dance Slave could think of no good move. Dance Slave clicked her tongue and was about to run up to the boy, when a voice shouted from behind him.

「Get down, Dancer!」

Dance Slave crouches down on the spot faster than she can think. At the same time, the men she was dealing with are knocked down in an instant, and Rhine leaps over Dance Slave.

He continues to slash at the five on the other side, cutting down four of them without exchanging a single blow. The last one put his foot on the ground as they passed each other and lost his balance, and a blow to the back of his head knocked him into a coma. It was truly a momentous event.

「（I knew you were strong, but you’re still brilliant.）」

Dance Slave has seen Rhine swing his sword several times in his travels, and he is truly lean and finishes off his opponents with minimal movement. His swordsmanship was of a first-class beauty, even among the swordsmen Dance Slave had seen over the years.

「（It’s not a self-styled sword, but an official knight’s sword. He is a very skilled swordsman, but he has not neglected his studies on the battlefield. Not flashy, but solid. Unlike his sloppy nature.）」

Dance Slave’s assessment would have been sarcastic but accurate. In fact, the pursuers were quite a capable. The ability of the line to make you feel this is a great area of expertise.

And just then, one of the men whom Rhine had knocked down in the first place ran away. But Rhine didn’t follow them. It’s not about killing everyone.

But the moment the man turned his eyes from Rhine to the street to get out of the alley, a sword was thrust deep into his chest. At the same time, the man’s mouth is seized and he is unable to even scream out his last breath.

When Rhine came to his senses, the alley was already blocked on both sides. There are a total of 20 people in front and behind. This time, they were not wearing hoods and their faces were exposed, but they were wearing swords at their waists, and although they were not wearing armor, they had fearless faces that clearly indicated that they were knights.

Seeing some of them enter the alley, Rhine retracts his sword and raises his hands to indicate that he has no intention of resisting. One of the men is the first to call the boy to make sure he is safe, and several others confirm that his pursuer is alive or dead. And those who still had breath were mercilessly put to death.

Rhine and Dance Slave were left alone for now, perhaps as an afterthought. But the man taking care of the boy nodded, and three other men who had entered the alley pointed their swords at Rhine. The boy seems to be trying to stop him from doing so, but the man does not listen.

「Whoever you are, I’m sorry, but you’re going to die here.」

「Hey, hey, I’m the one who saved that kid. How can you be so sure that’s not true?」

「That’s a fair point, but I don’t want to be blabbering on about what I’ve seen here in that area. You are just mercenaries by the looks of it. Mercenaries are people who will do anything for money. I don’t trust them.」

「That’s right. But you knights will do anything for your masters. Not only are you no better than mercenaries, you are even worse than mercenaries, who justify their killings on the strength of their cause.」

「Do you taunt us the knights?」

「I don’t deserve to be mocked just because I’m a mercenary!」

Rhine is also aglow with color. The men surrounding Rhine gradually close the distance, but Rhine is unaffected. Then, after a moment of silence, one person moves and they all set up.

But Rhine’s response was calm. He grabs the hilt of the first knight’s sword that moves, grabs it by the hand and yanks it, and then he swats him off balance with a foot swipe, slams him into one of the others, dives into the pocket of one of the extras, and puts his fist in his dove tail, causing him to writhe in agony. Then, as he blasted them all together, he punched the man above in the face just as he was about to get up, and then he thrust his sword directly at his throat. The other is trapped under the beaten man and cannot move as much as he would like.

「You still want to do this?」

Rhine’s instantaneous quick action elicits groans from those blocking the alley. But when the man who had been watching the boy gets up, he gives some kind of signal and calls for someone to protect the boy instead. The boy seemed to be trying to stop the man, but again, the man didn’t seem to listen.

「I’m dealing with you.」

「That’s very rude.」

Rhine swears, but this time he isn’t to be taken off guard, so he draws his sword. They continue to move in circles with each other, gradually closing the distance.

Suddenly, Rhine grinned, and closed the distance between them carelessly. The man is taken aback for a moment, but then regains his composure and cuts at him with his spirit. Rhine saw this.

「Not at all. You’re too classy to fight.」

He spits out, and kicks the dirt at his feet toward the man’s face. The man winced, and when he turned to face forward, the sword of Rhine was already at his throat.

「Drop your swords.」

「That’s cowardly!」

「There’s no such thing as cowardice in warfare. That’s why that kid over there is in danger.」

「Wha—」

The man dropped his sword and exclaimed, as if he had hit a sore spot. Rhine also won, but now they wondered what to do with the victory. Even if you escape this place with a man as a hostage, the possibility of being tracked down is quite high. Also, if the men they just defeated were assassins of some sort, it’s not surprising that they were watching from somewhere to see what was going on. The point is that they may be tracked twice.

So while Rhine thinks that it doesn’t want to be a hassle, it can’t help but think that it was a good idea to stick its neck out. Time passed without a definitive idea coming to mind, until suddenly a boy approached them, standing with unsteady steps. He brushes off the hands of anyone who tries to stop him.

「Would you please put your sword away?」

The words from the boy’s mouth had power. They were not big, but they sounded powerful. He had looked frightened earlier, but now there wasn’t the slightest hint of fear. Moreover, the polite manner in which he spoke led Rhine to imagine that the boy was probably an aristocrat.

「I’m not buying that. What guarantee is there that they won’t come at me and bust me up the moment I put it away?」

「Don’t worry. I will issue the order in my name.」

「Then give me your name. I don’t think a kid from who-knows-where has that kind of power.」

「All right. I am…」

「No, sir!」

「Shut it!」

Rhine twists further up the man’s chest as he tries to stop the boy from saying his name. The man frowned in pain, but his eyes remained fixed on the boy. Nodding lightly to the man, the boy came forward.

「My name is Rayfan. Rayfan Krummus Lancaster. First in line for the second throne of the Duchy of Krummus.」