Chapter 106

Dussell Duke was an agent of the Original Ladder Church.

His official title was ‘Acting Priest with the Duty of Agency for the Marion Parish of the Universal and Distinguished Original Ladder Church,’ but he was never called that and had no desire to be.

An agent was a being who must not be revealed.

It was only natural, as he undertook tasks that must not be revealed.

No matter how elegantly they called him, he was a holy assassin, and to put it bluntly, the church's exclusive executioner.

Dussell had not even told his lover, Yeni, that he was an agent.

When she asked why an ordinary priest was so skilled with a sword, he replied that he had been a holy knight cadet.

He was grateful that she believed him without suspicion, but he also felt a little concerned about his lover's innocence.

He did not live as an agent by choice.

He had been abandoned in front of a church as a child, his exceptional physical abilities were noticed during his priestly training, and after living one way or another, he had become an agent.

It suited his aptitude, too.

He often figured out things on his own that others couldn't grasp even after learning them.

Things like how to erase his presence, how to throw a group into confusion, and how to inflict fatal wounds, though he didn't particularly welcome it.

Agents were bound to be monsters, but Dussell Duke was one who stood out among them.

Had it not been for Bishop Hille's nomination, he would have become a direct agent under the Archbishop of Maesh.

He did not like the life of an agent.

It was a job he continued because he couldn't quit. It was of a weight that he could give up at any time for his lover.

Therefore, Dussell Duke confessed his own excellence.

I might be a genius.

No, I could probably say so with a calm heart, without any desire to boast.

Because, without passion, joy, or even malice, by silently enduring various hardships, he had reached a level that others looked up to.

‘…So this is what fear was.’

That was why fear felt unfamiliar.

He had lived his entire life on the side that instilled fear in others, never on the side that felt it.

Pressure, fear, anxiety……. As the jade color flashed, he was like a frog before a snake.

The emotions bestowed by that jade-eyed man were all utterly unfamiliar.

‘Even with such sharpness…….’

It was as piercing as a stab, as sharp as a slash, as fierce as having a mountain-sized blade pressed against his throat.

Just a steady gaze from those jade eyes exuded an indescribable pressure.

He couldn't even tell from where the man was looking down.

It was just high.

He only knew that the jade-eyed man was infinitely high up.

‘…To think it’s only felt by me.’

Glancing at his arms, his eyes met Yeni’s.

The girl looked anxious and Dussell forced a smile.

That was a relief, at least.

If this kind of pressure had been directed at Yeni, it might have caused a psychological shock that would never disappear.

‘This man, just what…….’

He didn't even get goosebumps.

To focus this mountain-like pressure on a single person was something that couldn't be fully expressed by simply saying it wasn't easy.

An endlessly trained sharpness.

If his glaring presence was like this, what would it be like if he drew his sword?

Even imagining it was terrifying.

“Yeni…….”

Dussell Duke slowly raised his hand.

On his back was a longsword of tremendous length.

“…knows nothing. She only knows me as an ordinary priest.”

“Even so, I have a duty to capture you both.”

“Is there no room for mercy?”

“You are alive. That is because I am showing you mercy.”

Amethus continued.

“Do not resist and follow me. Then I will not harm you. This is the limit of my mercy.”

“…….”

Dussell clamped his mouth shut.

He slowly set down the lover he was still holding in his arms.

“…Go back to Miss Susanna, Yeni.”

“What about you, Dussell…?”

“I said go back!”

Yeni flinched at her lover's shout.

It was the first time she had seen Dussell get angry.

Yeni’s eyes wavered, but soon settled.

No matter how innocent she was, she wasn't a fool who didn't know what kind of resolve her lover had made.

“…You must keep your promise to go to Schmeizen.”

She nodded with a determined look and quickly ran up the mountain path.

The best thing she could do for her lover, who had resolved to die, was her own survival.

“…….”

Amethus's jade eyes were even deeper.

Why was that?

Was it because he was reminded of the curly-haired adjutant who had followed him?

Or was it because he recalled the tragic event that had happened on the rocky island next to Arete seven years ago?

“…Do you think I will let her escape?”

“I will make it so.”

***

Dussell Duke gripped his sword.

He did not draw it.

He only gripped the leather handle firmly.

It was a sword so long that he worried if he could even draw it.

If Amethus's double-edged sword was of the most typical and common form, Dussell Duke's seemed to be exactly twice its length.

It was his cherished sword.

Just holding the handle was enough to ease his mind.

But today was different.

That jade-colored glint pressed down on him with an unparalleled weight.

Dussell Duke, while gripping the sword's handle, slowly took a step.

He did not forget to glare at Amethus.

He stood, blocking the way between the fleeing Yeni and Amethus.

Amethus still did not move.

He simply watched the fleeing Yeni and the highly-strung Dussell.

He didn't even place a hand on his double-edged sword.

Yet, it did not feel like arrogance.

“…….”

The killing intent vanished from Dussell Duke's eyes.

His will softened, and his body relaxed.

As his strength drained, his spirit entered.

A sword strike.

Without even a sound.

Dussell Duke's pride.

A swift sword that does not show its blade.

The wind blew.

A blade of grass, split in two, rustled to the ground.

It started with a single leaf and soon became a pile.

The cut blades of grass formed a wide circle as if surrounding Dussell.

The sword was already back in its sheath, looking as if the grass hadn't even realized it had been cut.

There was no sign of a slash, only the trace of what was cut.

An ordinary person would not even be able to see the sword being drawn.

Dussell Duke gripped the sword's handle even tighter.

“…….”

Amethus did not move.

The cut blades of grass flew on the wind.

Dussell, who had swung the sword, opened his mouth after a long silence.

“…I have been greatly indebted to Bishop Hille. This sword is also a gift from him.”

He slowly drew the sword.

It was not to swing it.

He could no longer swing it.

“…Though heavy, it is sturdy, and has never once chipped a tooth until now……”

The blade was severed.

The blade attached to the handle was barely two spans long.

The rest of the blade was cut so sharply it looked as if it had never existed in the first place.

“…Like, straw.”

When he tilted the scabbard, the fragmented pieces of the blade rolled onto the ground.

“…Just where did a swordsman like you pop out from.”

It was a swift sword that an ordinary person couldn't even see being drawn.

The blade was out in the open for only a moment, but in that instant, Amethus had cut Dussell's sword into seven pieces.

So clean was his skill that Dussell's sword, unaware it had been cut, only broke into pieces after returning to its scabbard.

Dussell Duke gripped his sword.

He brandished the sword, now reduced to a mere two spans, and glared at the jade-eyed man.

Only then did Amethus open his mouth.

“What do you intend to do with a sword like that?”

“I have to do something.”

Dussell did not dare to charge.

The difference in skill was obvious.

It wasn't a matter of a few levels; the man was seeing a completely different world.

Even so, he could not let go of his sword.

‘If it’s for Yeni.’

It was a life lived without passion or conviction, a life where he even wondered if he was a machine, yet never gave it a second thought.

But how could this thing called love make him risk his own life so lightly?

It was a foolish choice, yet how could it give him such a joyful heart?

I will risk my life for my lover.

It was a somewhat childish, but therefore firm, resolve.

Amethus once again reached for his double-edged sword.

The jade-eyed man had a conventional side to him and could sometimes be sentimental in the face of a desperate resolve.

‘-Kya-.’

From a distance, a scream.

‘-Kyaaaak-!’

A girl's voice.

“…Yeni?”

***

It was a voice Dussell Duke could not mistake.

He wanted to run out immediately, but the enemy before him weighed on his mind.

An opponent he doubted he could even leave a single scratch on even if he fought with all his might… no, there was no time to think.

‘I’ll give up an arm and go to Yeni…!’

His body moved faster than his decision.

Dussell Duke turned his back on Amethus without hesitation.

As he did, he prayed inwardly. Praying that the monstrous jade eyes would, please, not touch his legs.

That he would not be prevented from running to Yeni.

‘God, please…….’

He had lived his entire life as a priest, but never had he sought God as desperately as he did today.

He ran, praying like that.

He was prepared to be cut, but the blade did not follow.

Was it an answer to his prayer?

He didn't know, and it wasn't important.

All that mattered was that he could go to his screaming lover.

“…Yeni!!”

He could feel Amethus following him.

He wondered why he wasn't being attacked, but he just ran.

Clutching the two-span remnant of his sword, he ran like a madman.

Screaming as if he were coughing up his heart.

“Ye-ni---!!!”

His lover was not far.

Because the forest was too rough for a girl to run through.

The pitifully trembling girl.

Her face, pale, and her black hair, soaked with sweat.

Dussell Duke roughly pulled the girl.

Only then did Yeni's trembling subside.

“Du, Du, Dussell……!”

“It’s okay, Yeni, it’s okay…….”

It was not okay at all, but he said it was.

Dussell Duke had to say it.

There was something in front of them. Something of a tremendous size, that thing had made the girl scream.

The agent's eyes burned with a blue killing intent.

What was that thing?

It was covered in brown fur.

It was as huge as three carriages stacked on top of each other.

The air trembled with each of its breaths, it sported two magnificent tusks, and its two eyes were ferociously red.

“…A wild boar?”

The wild boar cried out.

It looked at Dussell Duke, sniffed, and then let out a hair-raising shriek. The boar's two eyes were intensely red.

Like a mother who had lost her young.

‘The one from daytime, was it a piglet…….’

Dussell Duke understood everything.

That wild boar was the true master of the mountain and it had followed the scent of its young's blood all the way here.

To tear Dussell Duke, who had captured and killed its young, to pieces with those tusks.

‘It’s already entered the realm of a magical beast. It would have been difficult even if my sword were whole…….’

A light shimmered above the wild boar's head.

It was proof of a magical beast with magic-infused breath.

The hand gripping the two-span-long sword trembled slightly.

‘…God, never mind me, but what sin did Yeni commit…….’

In front of him, a mother magical beast who had lost her young.

Behind him, a monstrous jade-eyed swordsman.

And in his hand, only a broken sword, and in his arms, a lover he must protect.

It was the end of a life where not even a hollow laugh could escape.

“Dussell Duke.”

The jade-eyed man had approached without him even noticing.

Standing close, he spoke as if tossing out the words.

“You spoke of mercy earlier.”

Dussell Duke did not answer and just rolled his bulging eyes.

“If I protect you from that wild boar, will you follow me obediently?”

“…Do you promise not to harm us?”

“That is not for me to decide. My job is to take you back to Merion. However……”

Amethus glared at the wild boar.

“I promise you will come to no harm until we reach Merion.”

“…Alright.”

“A wise choice.”

The double-edged sword flashed.

The wild boar was cut into pieces.

Whether it had reached the realm of a magical beast, or whether it was utterly enraged from losing its young, what did it matter?

Amethus raised his sword.

Thus, the wild boar could only be cut into pieces.

Hmph.

Amethus flicked his wrist, shaking off the boar's blood.

Even if it was a monster, taking a life was not a pleasant task.

But he was not a man who lived for pleasure.

Amethus spoke to the two lovers who had yet to grasp the situation.

“Now, we return to Merion.”

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