Chapter 167 : Just as I Was Hired
Bianca pouted and twirled a lock of her hair.
“Isn’t your greeting a little too cold?”
“Why should I treat you warmly? As you can see, I don’t have the luxury of welcoming uninvited guests.”
In the first place, I hadn’t even given her a signal to meet. She had come to find me of her own will. And at this time of all times. I had a bad feeling about it.
“Go away.”
Sage must have had a similar thought. She had already finished preparing for battle. Bianca shrugged her shoulders in front of the staff that was swirling with white lightning. Then, as if to show that she had no intention of fighting, she crossed her legs and sat on a chair made of shadows.
“You don’t have to be so wary. I didn’t come to ruin your business.”
“Then what business do you have to come and see me at this time?”
“I told you I was waiting for you to come. I’ve been waiting for a really long time.”
She mixed sighs in between her words and glared at me resentfully.
“But there was no signal, so what could I do? I came to find you myself. You said you were just looking for one person, but you were running wild in Lumiere? You had time to do that, but you didn’t have time to come and see me?”
“Haven’t you ever thought that I didn’t go to see you on purpose?”
“That’s so mean. I do like this kind of prickliness, though. I guess this is why they say that the one who is desperate digs the well.”
I quickly erased the disgusting words from my memory and asked.
“Didn’t you also have a purpose? What about checking on your colleague’s life and death?”
“I finished that early on. She was where she was supposed to be. Our young lady has a gloomy personality, but she likes flashy places.”
A flashy place. It was too comprehensive to be a clue. But if I had to pick the most flashy place in Brahms, it would be one.
“She was at the royal palace.”
“That’s right.”
Bianca, who had grinned and played along, looked at my unchanged expression and asked.
“……Did you know?”
“I was sure after seeing your purpose and the mess the city was in.”
“Hmm, that’s a problem.”
It wasn’t just her words, but her voice was actually filled with bewilderment.
“It was a gift I had prepared. I told you I would pay you back for the trouble you went through on the airship.”
“If you really came to repay a favor, how about helping me with my work?”
Although Bianca was on the weaker side, that was a relative evaluation based on the Mad House. Her skills were more than enough to assist me in a battle against the head of the Frederic family.
“If things go well, you’ll have a chance to raid the treasury of a family, so it’ll be a good deal for you personally.”
If she took advantage of the chaos that would occur after the death of the head of the Frederic family, she could even pull out the family’s roots.
“I’m sorry, but if it’s something I have to go in there for, I can’t.”
“What’s the reason?”
“I told you one of our people is at the royal palace.”
“You said you just had to check on her life and death, but it seems you’ve decided to help her.”
“Don’t be silly, that’s a topic we already finished discussing on the airship. If I wasn’t waiting for you, I would have left the moment I finished my business. I do care for our young lady, but I strictly separate my public and private life.”
Even if it wasn’t the strange favor she showed me, her words were probably sincere. The Mad House is an individualistic group. Bianca’s principle of action was based on greed and kleptomania.
Even if she were to receive gold and silver as a reward for helping the royal family, that was a natural reward she should receive. It did not satisfy her desire to steal and take at all.
She would not get involved in this board. The ‘young lady’ who was leading the work would not want Bianca’s active help either. She would be thinking that things were going well now, so why would she bother to bring in a colleague who might betray her at any moment?
“Well, if you got involved in this board even after knowing that we were the ones who caused it, I guess I have nothing to say.”
Bianca swallowed her disappointment, licked her lips, and stood up from her seat.
“Since you’re doing it anyway, finish it quickly and get out. That’s all I have to say.”
Bianca disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared. Sage, who had been quietly watching the puddle of shadow that had gathered and then scattered, poked it with her staff and said.
“She just said a bunch of useless things and left.”
“I know.”
Surprisingly, her intentions were good, but the words she left behind were worse than if she had said nothing.
“Solving the royal family’s conspiracy is outside the scope of the request I received.”
My goal is to bring the head of the Frederic family’s neck. Responding to the royal family’s reaction after that was not my job. By then, I would be on an airship returning to Gellerg City.
KWAAAAANG!
The vibration that shook the ground struck the square with a roar. It was the beginning of the plan.
***
The meeting of the seven family heads began in a friendly atmosphere. A convention hall prepared in a hotel. The family heads, who had gathered in one place after a long time, shook hands and talked without any hesitation.
For now, it was a meeting to discuss the end of the war. Even the head of the Frederic family shared pleasantries with a gentle smile. But after the meeting began in earnest, the atmosphere reversed 180 degrees.
“Frederic opposes Lumiere’s opinion.”
It was a firm expression of his will. He listened to the persuasion of the head of the Lumiere family, Jerome, with one ear and let it out the other, maintaining an unwavering attitude.
The meeting is decided by a majority vote. Since the majority had gathered their will to prevent the foolish actions of a minority, there was no need to worry about the opposition of one family. That’s how it should have been.
The problem was that the one who had raised the banner of opposition was Frederic. Frederic had brought down Morheim with a cowardly and underhanded move, so even a written agreement could not be trusted.
Since he had even openly opposed, the possibility of stopping the war here had disappeared.
“If you don’t like the fact that outsiders are jumping in and running wild, even though it’s just a turmoil within the city, you can just ban the entry of outsiders. Stop the operation of the airship and expel all the outsiders currently in Brahms.”
“Do you think that’s possible? To shamelessly insist on…”
“The royal family will cooperate. Aren’t we the rulers of this city? What would be difficult if we all agreed?”
He mentioned the royal family. There were some family heads who were calm, but on the contrary, there were some whose faces hardened. Frederic asserted the cooperation of the royal family as if it were a matter of course.
It was the moment when it was clearly revealed that the will of the royal family, which had only been suspected, was with them.
“If the royal family had opposed this war, they would have mediated long ago. But the royal family is silent now. It means it’s a legitimate war, so is there any need to stop, swayed by the troublemaking of a single loach?”
“……”
“If you’re talking about face, I’d like to argue that it’s a disgrace for the head of the Lumiere family to have summoned us here just because his family was trampled by a mere contractor. In the end, aren’t you kneeling and asking us for help because you can’t handle one contractor?”
A torrent of insults without any restraint. The family heads, who had sensed the ominous atmosphere, reached for their waists and then flinched. There was nothing to grab.
The reason the seven family heads had gathered in the spacious convention hall with their guards outside. It was because all their weapons had been collected.
The head of a family. Even without a sword, the fact that they were superhumans did not change, but the same was true for their opponents. And the head of the Lumiere family was a skilled person who was half a step ahead of any other family head.
No matter how much of a Frederic family head he was, he would not dare to kill the head of the Lumiere family in this place. Everyone thought so and suppressed their anxiety.
“And does such a Lumiere really have the qualifications of a lord?”
The suspicion was killed too early.
“I don’t think so.”
The head of the Frederic family kicked the ground. Everyone was so shocked that they couldn’t even lift a finger. Even the two families that had agreed with Frederic to cause trouble at this meeting were the same.
The head of the Frederic family sneered at them inwardly. Because they were only that much, they were always one step behind and could only follow Frederic.
An attack after the meeting was over, what a predictable move. Since he had decided not to care about the means and methods, he would be bold.
He would kill the head of the Lumiere family in this place and start.
Kiiing!
The moment the head of the Frederic family’s hand grabbed his waist, the sound of scraping metal echoed in the hall. It was the sound of the scabbard and the blade rubbing against each other. The reason he had insisted on a surprise attack even though he had obediently handed over his weapon to the hotel staff.
While he had hidden his weapon with his own means, they were defenseless without such means.
Swordsmanship. The specialty of the head of the Frederic family, which ignited mana as he drew his sword and explosively increased his speed. The difference between having a weapon and not was stark.
Furthermore, it was a surprise attack aimed at their carelessness. It seemed that even the head of the Lumiere family would not be able to block it.
Just before the blade touched his neck.
Ttaang!
“Heuk!”
The head of the Frederic family’s body slid diagonally. The numb vibration that had started from the blade traveled up his arm. The head of the Lumiere family, who had escaped the threat to his life, touched his neck.
The blade had not touched him directly. And yet, a single line had formed on his skin, and a drop of blood had formed on it. If it had been just a little more, he could have killed him.
But it was an unavoidable choice. Even if the same moment came again, the head of the Frederic family would not have been able to kill the head of the Lumiere family.
“You really cherish your own life.”
Ttalgeurang!
The bullet, which had been crushed by the sword, fell to the floor and rolled.
“Who are you!”
There was a single bullet that had been fired, aiming precisely at his heart. Even in a city where knights were rampant, guns were not an unfamiliar weapon. Of course, the head of the family was aware that an ordinary firearm could not harm him.
But this gunshot was not at a level to be ignored just because it was a single bullet. The fact that the head of the Frederic family had changed the trajectory of his sword to block the bullet was not a rational judgment, but an instinctive movement.
His instinct had warned him that it would have been fatal if he had allowed it without being defenseless, even if he wouldn’t have died.
“A knight wouldn’t die from a single bullet, but you must not want to take even a single bit of damage.”
The person who had fired the shot would not be unaware of this. Therefore, the previous statement was a mockery. Everyone in the hall, including the head of the Frederic family, took in the opponent’s face.
“Who…?”
That was the reaction of most of the family heads. A beautiful face that could not be forgotten once seen. And yet, he was a man with a cold atmosphere that made it difficult to approach him easily.
Even after searching their memories, they could not identify him.
“A contractor.”
On the other hand, the head of the Frederic family knew his opponent. The stumbling block that had interfered with his plans twice, and the main character of the turmoil that had made Lumiere arrange this meeting.
Allen indifferently received the angry gaze of the head of the family.
“You recognized me at a glance without even having met me, so you must have had a tail on me.”
“You may not know, but many of the things I had planned have been messed up because of you. I have engraved it in my memory.”
“That’s a shame.”
“I had overlooked it with great magnanimity because you were an outsider. But this has crossed the line.”
He had slipped right in front of the stairs to achieve his great ambition. Outsider or not, he could no longer be overlooked.
“It’s not enough that you caused a commotion in Lumiere, but you even showed up at a meeting of the seven families. What are you aiming for?”
“Let me tell you one thing. It’s meaningless to ask a contractor what he’s aiming for.”
He walked forward slowly. The six family heads, excluding Frederic, slowly stepped back and made way. At some point, only the head of the Frederic family and Allen were facing each other in the center of the hall.
Allen grinned and said.
“I’m just acting as I was hired to do.”
(End of Chapter)