Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141: Not Like Us (4)
The moment Ibi pulled out the stiletto, black blood began to gush from the open wound.
And before long, Kain's body collapsed onto the black blood that had instantly covered the white sand.
Ibi, who was looking down at Kain, had a mixed expression on her face.
What was certain was that she didn't look entirely relieved.
However, contrary to Ibi's thoughts, Kain was not yet dead.
As I've said before, bosses who play an important role in the story often stay alive even after their HP is reduced to 0.
Kain was no exception.
After all, he was the key figure in Ibi's companion quest.
It meant that there was still a ‘cutscene’ to come.
“Where do you think you’re going, trying to die on your own.”
So I grabbed him by the hair and pulled his upper body up.
“Lily, 「Revive」 this person.”
“……Pardon?!”
At my request, Lily, who had tilted her head for a moment, showing a look of pure incomprehension, was belatedly startled.
“Hey, what the hell are you…”
Ibi also turned to me as if to question what I was talking about, and asked back.
“Revive him? This guy?”
Her eyes were very suspicious, as if asking if I were serious.
“…Don't tell me, you're saying not to kill him because he's my father?”
“Of course not.”
I was not the kind of saint who could be like that.
Thinking about what this guy was trying to do, and thinking about what he had done to Ibi, I wanted to wring his neck myself right away.
I really, truly did.
However.
“If we're going to get out of here alive── and more importantly, if we're going to get everyone who's trapped in the basement out safely, this guy has to be alive for now.”
“…!”
Only then could we use him as a bargaining chip.
Because there were still soldiers lined up beyond the 「Fire Wall」.
Of course, we could somehow break through them and get out of here, but.
“We can't just leave those people behind, can we?”
The people trapped in the basement couldn't.
Even if we could prevent them from becoming sacrifices for the ritual by killing Kain here, they would become slaves instead.
As was the original pretext for bringing them here.
“Don't worry. It won't be dangerous.”
「Revive」 was a skill that just brought back a target who had entered the threshold of death.
In other words, since their HP would only go from 0 to 1, if they didn't receive 「Healing」 right away, they wouldn't be much of a threat to us even if they woke up.
“…Will they agree to negotiate willingly?”
“We have to make them.”
Lily, who had nodded at my words, then recited a prayer and cast 「Revive」, and at that moment.
“──!”
Kain's breath, which had been gradually fading, returned.
“Stop your foolishness, and kill me…”
Then, after a big cough, Kain spat out the rest of the blood that had pooled in his mouth and muttered.
“I'd rather die with honor, than be used by brats…!”
“What damn honor do you have to talk about when you've already sold it off?”
After sneering at Kain once, I gently handed his hair, which I was holding, to Ibi.
At that, Ibi clicked her tongue, tsk, and then finally snatched Kain's hair from me as if taking it away.
“Go on then.”
“Kill me…!”
『Don't open your mouth without my permission now.』
“……!”
Then, after casting 「Word Command」 on Kain.
“Rine.”
When I looked at Rine, she quietly nodded and raised her staff.
The moment she dispelled the blazing 「Fire Wall」.
“──! The fire…”
We made eye contact with the soldiers who had been at a loss in front of the hot flames.
“……?!”
They all flinched, and their bodies trembled.
Not only did they see us standing there perfectly fine, but.
“B-Baron, sir…!?”
More importantly, Kain's hair was held in Ibi's hand, and he was on the verge of death.
“No, way……”
Therefore, even though the physical ‘wall’ had disappeared, they were still frozen in place, not even daring to rush in.
Instead, they just stared blankly, as if they couldn't believe the fact that Kain had been defeated.
And at the same time, the gazes directed at Ibi, who was holding Kain's hair as if she had brought back the head of an enemy general, gradually began to change.
Not with bewilderment, nor with anger──
“Th-That woman… really, even the Baron…!”
With eyes full of clear fear.
Krom was a society of strict meritocracy.
Just as Kain had tried to shut them up by putting Ibi in this position.
The reason why they had shown such overwhelming support, following without a word even when he had done something as ‘eccentric’ as suddenly bringing in a half-breed illegitimate child and trying to place them in the honorable position of vanguard, was simply because he was a powerhouse who would not lose to any of them.
But that powerhouse was now being held by the hair, in a pathetic state.
And by a ‘half-breed’ whom they had always looked down on.
It was a scene where the ‘worldview’ they had so thoroughly believed in, was shattered in an instant.
My world collapsed today, as they say.
In short, it meant that they had lost their will to fight in an instant──
“──Look!”
In technical terms, it meant that their ‘morale was broken’.
“At what your master, the master of Krom whom you have served, looks like!”
In other words, it was the perfect time to shake them up with ‘conversation’.
“His cowardly appearance, crawling on the ground like a dog!”
To persuade them to surrender.
“Is this your master!”
Through overwhelming ‘Charisma (CHA)’.
“Aah!? A man who begged me to spare his life, saying he would offer anything!”
At my shout, as expected, the soldiers began to stir.
Their eyes were filled with confusion, as if they couldn't imagine Kain begging like that in their minds.
Of course they couldn't.
Because it never happened.
He's not the type to do that in the first place.
So for Kain, there were probably many aspects that were very unfair.
He had never asked us to spare his life, and in fact, he had even asked us to kill him instead of dishonoring him.
But history is written by the victors.
And unfortunately, the soldiers had not seen at all what was really happening inside the 「Fire Wall」.
“This coward who begged for his life, saying he would give up Krom and his family!”
“……!”
He must be very angry and humiliated by the current situation where he couldn't even refute, or even make a squeak, at my blatant fabrication.
“Th-There's no way the Baron would do that…”
“B-But… he really is alive…”
“Why, isn't he denying it…?!”
Because he can't.
He was faithfully following my 「Word Command」 and keeping his mouth shut.
He, who had just barely escaped the threshold of death, no longer had the ‘resistance’ to go against my 「Word Command」.
So as you can see from his expression, which was barely visible through his disheveled hair, he was just trembling, wanting to say something, anything.
But he would not be given the right to speak in this place any longer.
Because I was planning to use him thoroughly as a ‘tool’.
“Are you really going to sacrifice your lives for such a cowardly man, you guys!”
Just as he had done to his own child, Ibi.
“……W-What do you.”
As expected, one of the soldiers who had been stirring, finally responded.
“Want, from us…?”
“A negotiation.”
I said, raising one corner of my mouth in a grin towards that soldier.
“A life for a life. In exchange for us sparing you all, we will take the prisoners who are trapped here.”
“You're… going to spare us? You guys?”
“Why? You want us to kill you all?”
The soldiers, who were agitated by my arrogant remark, stirred again.
“You don't think we can do it?”
“No matter how you've captured the Baron… that man, you're saying just six of you are going to take on all of Krom…? That's ridiculous──”
“Just six?”
I sneered at the soldier's words, as if to show him.
“Who says so? That it's just six of us.”
Pfft, and.
“Do you really think that we, who have even defeated Kain, would have just crawled into the middle of enemy territory without any thought?”
“……!”
At that remark, not only the soldier who had stepped forward, but also those who had been listening quietly in the back, all showed a look of horror.
“Do you think we're that stupid? ──Of course there are, you idiots. Reinforcements.”
Even my companions who were listening to the story next to me.
For them too, it must have been a story they were hearing for the first time.
It couldn't be helped.
I had never talked about it.
After all, what can you do when they don't exist?
In other words, it was just a bluff.
Instead, I had the ‘eloquence’ to make such a ‘mere bluff’──
“Now, look.”
Sound very plausible── a face that was overflowing with ‘plausibility’ no matter what I said.
“We have the Kapers.”
And Toric's axe.
To be precise, the axe with the Kapers' insignia on the end of the handle.
“Yes. A secret society of heroes among heroes, who have saved this world from the brink of destruction several times.”
A society whose heroic tales have spread far and wide, even to a remote mountain village—even though it's supposed to be a ‘secret’—so how could the warriors of a city that values honor not have heard of their heroic tales?
“They will be docking on this island soon.”
And even, a society that had directly stopped them in the past.
“Thanks to you guys bringing us here, the ‘path’ has been opened.”
So even if it wasn't fear like before, it was a name that was enough to make them murmur.
“…S-So what?”
Nevertheless, the soldier who had stepped forward for the ‘negotiation’ tried to show a reaction as if nothing had changed, but.
“Just because a few Kapers, have been added…”
“And there.”
I, who had shown a confident smile once more, then raised a hand high.
“Are the armies of the city of water, ‘Stout’, and the city of wind, ‘Daian’.”
“Wh-What did you say……!?”
With the 「Insignia of Alliance」 that I had received from the two cities, between my fingers.
“Yes. Along with the Kapers, the elite knights of the Stout Knighthood and the soldiers of Daian, armed with state-of-the-art weapons, are coming here to Krom to support us.”
Of course, it was a lie.
Watching Ibi's agape mouth grow wider and wider in proportion to the scale of my growing bluff, I gave her a wink.
It was a story that no one would believe.
But as I said before, I had an overwhelming ‘Charisma’.
And I also had ‘evidence’ to add to its persuasiveness── the proof of the alliance of the Kapers, Stout, and Daian.
“Now, how about it?”
As a bonus, Ibi's hand still held the hair of Kain, who couldn't even deny anything.
“Do you still think we can't do it?”
Therefore, towards the soldiers who were at a loss for words and couldn't even murmur among themselves any longer, I wiped away the confident smile I had been showing all along and said with a serious face.
“──So do it while I'm giving you a chance.”
--
[Intimidation]
Difficulty 30
--
“Negotiate.”