Chapter 112 : Chapter 112
Chapter 112: Homecoming (5)
『Answer that it's jewelry.』
The moment my eyes met the guard's, I whispered this.
The ‘charmed’ guard immediately answered as I had commanded, and I whispered another 「Word Command」.
『Bring all the boxes inside the mansion.』
When his gaze turned to me again, I gave him a wink.
And slowly, the lid of the box closed.
“What’s that?”
“Ah, Don Paulo's jewels.”
“Go in.”
As long as the box lid wasn't locked, it could be pushed open from the inside.
But, there was no need for that.
As soon as the guard brought the cart with our boxes into the warehouse, he flung open my box as if he couldn't take it anymore.
Seeing my face again, the man immediately began to breathe heavily.
I gave him a wide smile and extended a hand.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the box.
『Kneel.』
And at my whisper, he immediately dropped to both knees.
Only then did he look up at me with eyes that seemed to realize something was wrong.
In the meantime, the other companions had already started opening their boxes one by one and coming out.
To be precise, Rine and Miki did, while Lily and Toric, who had trouble getting out on their own, eventually received Miki's help.
“Why, why am I…”
The guard, who was watching the scene on his knees, belatedly muttered as if he couldn't understand his own actions.
“What, on earth, did you do to me…!”
I approached the man, grabbed him by the hair, and whispered into his ear.
『You have no chance of getting involved with a beauty like me in this life, so just try your luck in the next one.』
“Ugh……!?”
The guard, who heard the 「Vicious Mockery」, let out a final scream and, as soon as I let go of his hair, collapsed forward.
With almost no noise, we had succeeded in infiltrating Don Paulo's mansion.
With Toric being the last one out of the box, only four empty boxes, one empty barrel, and one still-full barrel remained on the cart.
Naturally, it was a 「Gunpowder Barrel」.
One of the three I had brought from Daian.
“Rine.”
At my call, Rine nodded and immediately raised her staff.
Then, right beneath the 「Gunpowder Barrel」, a single magic circle appeared.
Upon becoming a ‘Time Mage’, Rine had learned new skills.
The 「Delayed Casting」 she was doing now was one of them.
It was a skill that, by setting up a magic circle like this, would automatically cast the magic when the time came.
You could say it was like setting a timer.
And that magic circle was for a 1st Circle 「Fireball」.
Meaning, when the time came, the 「Fireball」 would automatically launch and detonate the 「Gunpowder Barrel」 above it.
In short, it was a bomb.
Having finished setting up the 'bomb', we immediately kicked open the warehouse door and went out.
“──?”
And we came face to face with the two guards standing watch in front of the warehouse.
“!? Wha-, what the──”
“──Your voice.”
I first raised a finger and silenced their shouts.
『Don't raise your voice like that.』
“……!?”
And while they were flustered because their voices wouldn't come out, Miki and Toric moved.
The two swiftly moved in front of the two guards and struck them in the solar plexus.
Slump, the guards, whose bodies went limp, collapsed to their knees.
After roughly hiding the two unconscious men nearby, we headed for the main building of the mansion.
The security at the gate and walls leading into the mansion was extremely tight, but the inside of the mansion itself wasn't quite as severe.
『You should check for a group discount on funerals!』
“──Ugh!?”
Therefore, the two or three guards we encountered while striding down the hallway were easily taken care of with my 「Multiple Vicious Mockeries」.
But the moment the 'bomb' we set up in the annex went off──
──KABOOM!
From this moment on, the guards would all flock to the mansion.
First, they would head to the annex where the explosion occurred.
Therefore, our goal was to secure Don Paulo before that.
***
Ibi pulled the dagger back out from the guard's neck.
When she turned around, Paulo looked at her and, contrary to expectations, raised the corners of his mouth as if satisfied.
“That's more like you.”
He said, taking out the stiletto he had put away.
“Just the two of us.”
Seeing this, Ibi also twisted her lips and began to stride forward.
“Let's try it like the old days.”
“Do your joints even move like they used to, old man?”
Flick!
Ibi spun the dagger in her hand and held it in a reverse grip.
Paulo raised his stiletto and took a stance.
For a while, a standoff continued.
It was Ibi who broke the situation first.
Fwoosh!
Using 「Shadow Step」, she quickly disappeared from Paulo's sight and, from behind him, brought down the reverse-gripped dagger.
But Paulo, as if he had already expected it, immediately twisted his body, knocked her arm away, and thrust the stiletto in his other hand.
Swish!
The sharp blade grazed past Ibi's cheek.
This time, Ibi grabbed that arm and aimed the tip of her dagger at his open chest.
Paulo quickly snatched her wrist.
Even so, as Ibi put more force into it and pushed the blade closer, he lifted his foot and kicked her in the abdomen.
Pushed back, Ibi continued her attack without stopping.
Whoosh!
Just as the blade of the reverse-gripped dagger grazed past the nose of Paulo, who had leaned back, the tip of the stiletto flashed and lightly cut Ibi's side.
In the meantime, Ibi spun the dagger again to readjust her grip and swung the blade down, drawing a diagonal line.
“Keuk…!”
Paulo let out a groan as he barely twisted his head, but his cheek was cut.
Clang!
At the same time, the blades swung by the two clashed, and a clear sound echoed.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ibi and Paulo both withdrew their clashing blades and once again thrust their points.
Both daggers missed their targets, but Ibi momentarily caught Paulo's wrist, which held the stiletto that had brushed past her, between her armpit, immobilizing it, and then brought her dagger down on his shoulder.
“…!”
For a moment, a groan of pain escaped from Paulo's trembling lips.
But, he soon grinned.
“Still, do you have some lingering affection for me?”
As he said this, he grabbed Ibi's wrist, which held the embedded dagger, and applied force, and the blood-stained blade was slowly pulled from his shoulder.
“You already know where to aim to kill for sure!”
When the dagger was completely pulled out of his shoulder.
Thwack!
Paulo suddenly headbutted Ibi in the face.
“Ugh…!”
As Ibi staggered from the blow, Paulo let go of her wrist and kicked her hard in the chest.
Instead of continuing his attack on Ibi, who had fallen to the floor, Paulo looked down at her from where he stood and shouted.
“Who taught you!”
Thump, he beat his own chest with his fist.
“It was me! I taught you everything!”
In response, instead of answering, Ibi swung her outstretched leg in a circle.
“Ugh!?”
She swept Paulo's legs out from under him, and as he fell, she quickly climbed on top of him and brought the dagger down.
If Paulo hadn't hastily raised both arms to block, the tip of the dagger would have been embedded right in the center of his chest.
“Affection, my ass…!”
Ibi placed one hand on the dagger's handle and pushed down with even more force.
The tip of the dagger gradually moved downwards, matching Paulo's trembling arms.
“There are just things I need to ask before I slit your throat…!”
As if that was the only reason she had aimed for his shoulder instead of his neck just moments before.
“Things to ask…?”
Paulo sneered at her.
“Are you planning to torture me…?”
As if she had thrown away a clear chance to take his life for something so trivial.
“Acting all high and mighty, saying that the slave trade was beneath your dignity…!”
Ibi also jeered back at Paulo.
“Yeah, how does it feel to become trash, no different from those lowly things you looked down on…!?”
At these words, Paulo's expression, which had seemed somewhat relaxed until a moment ago, suddenly hardened.
“And how does it feel to have all the money you earned doing that trashy business wiped out overnight…? I can't kill you until I hear it from your own mouth…!”
“…So that robber was you, after all.”
“Well, who else would rob you if not me?”
Looking down at Paulo, Ibi twisted the corner of her mouth.
“I know now that you're involved with those Krom bastards.”
At that moment, a look of shock appeared on Paulo's hardened face.
And then, before long.
“Just what are you plotting──”
Paulo suddenly pulled away one of the arms that was blocking Ibi's arm.
“──!”
At that, Ibi's dagger naturally stabbed into Paulo's chest.
At the same time as the stiletto held in the withdrawn arm was plunged into Ibi's side.
Letting out a silent scream, Ibi finally lost her balance and staggered off Paulo, and Paulo pushed her away as if throwing her.
A moment later, the two, who had been writhing on the floor in pain, staggered back to their feet.
Paulo grimaced for a moment and pulled out the dagger embedded in his chest.
By turning his body sideways the moment he pulled his arm away, he had managed to avoid a fatal wound.
“Ah, fuck, that hurts like hell…!”
Watching this, Ibi also groaned in pain as she pulled the stiletto out of her side.
“Getting all serious all of a sudden… looks like I really hit a nerve, huh?”
She then taunted the now-silent Paulo.
“So, where should I stab you next?”
And so, the two, having swapped daggers, once again took their stances.
“Speak up, old geezer.”
Claang!
The two clashing dagger blades trembled.
***
When we finally arrived at Don Paulo's room, there was no sound coming from beyond the closed door.
I first put on the mask I had taken off, then immediately threw the door wide open.
“Ibi!”
The inside of the room was covered in blood.
The blood shed by the guard sprawled in front of the door, and the blood shed by Allen, who was collapsed on his knees on one side.
And.
“…Hey.”
Don Paulo, lying face down in a pool of blood just like the others.
Next to him, Ibi was squatting down, nearly half of her face stained with red blood.
“…Did you kill him?”
At my question, Ibi let out a hollow laugh and weakly shook her head.
“Not yet.”
She lightly lifted Paulo's limp arm, but it fell back down powerlessly.
So, from the outside, he looked dead no matter how you saw it.
“E-Evie……”
If only he hadn't been straining to squeeze out his voice like that.
“You are now… doing something, you can't handle…”
“This bastard is still bluffing while on the verge of death.”
“Don't, stir up… the hornet's nest…!”
“The only thing I stirred up was you.”
“You… must not, meet… them…!”
Ibi, who seemed to regard his warning as nothing more than the bluff of a dying old man, ignored his words and roughly grabbed his clothes to pull him up.
“Let's hurry up and get out of this goddamn place.”
And so, she urged on, supporting the nearly dead Don Paulo.
“I've always hated this place.”
She said, claiming to know a ‘Back Door’ where they wouldn't be caught by the guards who would be gathered at the annex.