Chapter 90
"What do you mean by that?"
"Your hands. There are symmetrical calluses formed on both of your hands. Symmetrical calluses don't form easily. Unless you wield dual swords."
"……."
"Furthermore, the calluses on the pinky side of your hand are thicker than those between your thumb and index finger. It means you are accustomed to holding your sword in a reverse grip."
What does that mean?
Naturally, it means short swords rather than a longsword.
It means the dual swords he primarily uses are daggers.
Dual-wielding with daggers.
Those who use such swords are rare.
It is a weapon primarily used by assassins rather than knights.
"You have a keen eye. But to claim I am an assassin just based on that... your speculation is too severe."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"You're right, it is a speculation."
"I was just playing a little joke, but you're taking it too seriously."
Unlike Callius, who laughed heartily, Bedro's face grew increasingly pale.
"Bedro."
"Yes."
"I do not like the Order."
"Pardon? But you are an Inquisitor..."
Not liking the Order.
"I mean exactly that. Carpe is where I was born and raised, but I never liked the Order much. But funnily enough, while I hate the Order, I like the sword."
"What do you mean by that..."
Bedro was puzzled about what he was trying to say.
"Bedro."
"Yes."
"The current Carpe is rotting. The country is failing to function. Thus, there are starving people everywhere, and far too many face meaningless deaths in Carpe. I want to use my sword meaningfully."
"……."
"I will change Carpe, and I will change the Order. But I am still weak. There is a limit to what I can do with my individual martial prowess. But with forces, it's different."
"Are you going to build a faction?"
"I am doing so little by little. Not just Flora, but I will sponsor many children in the future. They will grow up and become knights under my command. They will all work for the sake of Carpe."
"And by doing that, what..."
"You're stating the obvious."
Sighing, Callius then glared at Bedro and spoke.
"I will destroy the Empire."
Gulp.
Bedro swallowed involuntarily.
"The Empire is..."
"I can do it. To do that, I must first cut out the rotting roots."
"Why are you telling this to a mere soldier like me?"
"Don't you know?"
Grinning, Callius wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up.
"Think about it carefully. If you don't understand, come find me."
* * *
'He already knew everything.'
Bedro walked along the roadside with a dark heart.
Even the commute he had taken for years felt strangely new.
Were there flowers here originally?
New shops had appeared, and new faces could be seen.
But they had nothing to do with him.
Completely unrelated, and unrelated again.
His colorless eyes wandered the streets.
"Dad!"
Color returned.
It was Flora.
"Dad? What are you doing here? Let's go home!"
"...Alright."
Her mouth chattering like a lark spoke of friends, swords, and knights.
Bedro quietly listened to his daughter's story.
Arriving home, they prepared a meal together, ate, and washed up.
As the night deepened, the child fell asleep.
"Good night, Dad~ yawn."
"Sleep well."
He stroked the head of his daughter, who had collapsed into sleep on the bed, and pulled the covers up over her.
Closing the door and stepping out, the smile he had forced onto his lips dropped.
His eyes lost their color once more.
Clank.
Bedro pulled out a box hidden in a groove behind the living room picture frame.
Click.
Opening the box, two curved daggers lay inside.
The handles were quite worn down.
His worn eyes found their light again.
Not as a father's eyes, but as an assassin's.
Creak.
Tap tap.
Stepping out into the backyard, assassins in black masks and outfits greeted him as if they had been waiting.
They had already arranged this.
If he turned back, he could head back to the house where the child was.
However, Bedro kept his mouth shut and did not look back.
He clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw muscles bulged.
The daggers held in a reverse grip trembled slightly for some reason.
"Are we going?"
The trembling stopped.
No words were needed.
They set into motion with just a nod.
Tap.
His field of vision shifted in an instant.
Past the passing buildings and forests.
A villa situated in the mountains.
The iron-barred gate was firmly locked, but it wasn't a problem.
Tap tap.
Leaping over it, he infiltrated the mansion in one bound.
There was no sound.
He had already secured the location.
He entered the room where the target was.
Flinch.
The target was sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning his sword against his shoulder.
"I quite liked this villa. So I'd appreciate it if you went outside."
The target spoke with his eyes closed.
At the sight of Callius, two assassins drew their swords and swung them without hesitation.
Two swords thrusting in from both sides.
"Haa."
However, with just a short sigh.
And a single draw of his sword from its sheath, he neutralized the two assassins.
Clang-!
"Ugh!"
"Keuk!"
He had merely deflected their swords, yet the assassins trembled as if their entire bodies had been beaten and collapsed.
It was as if their bodies were paralyzed.
"Let's go outside."
Swish.
Seeing Callius leap out the window and move, the assassins chased after him.
How far did they run?
Callius, having stopped at a clearing halfway up an unknown mountain, was exhaling white breaths under the full moonlight.
"The moon is nice. It's quiet."
He pushed the sheathed sword into thin air and drew a new sword.
It was a sword without a sheath.
A well-balanced broadsword, a sturdy-looking sword.
The group of assassins and Callius.
There were no further words between them.
As soon as he fully drew his sword, three assassins rushed in.
But the result was the same this time.
The rushing assassins had their limbs torn off one by one in a single exchange.
And in the next exchange, all their heads were severed.
Slash.
Callius shook the blood off his sword and looked on with cold eyes.
Eyes that felt devoid of any emotion.
Eyes that seemed to merely be calmly doing what had to be done.
'He resembles us.'
Eyes that resembled those of themselves, who made a living out of killing people.
While thinking such thoughts, before he knew it, he was the only assassin left.
As if there were a barrier, the assassins all died without even grazing Callius's collar.
Without moving a single step from his initial position, he slaughtered the assassins.
It was a bloodbath.
Rumble.
Thunder woke the sky.
Clouds covered the moon.
With the last remaining light gone, nothing could be seen even an inch ahead.
That was the signal.
Whoooosh-
Fog surged from the assassin's dual swords.
The pure white fog that instantly occupied the vicinity enveloped the target and himself.
Tap tap tap!
Kiing! Kkikik! Kaang-!
In the thick fog, only the sparks of clashing blades flashed, confirming each other's presence.
Thrust, block, and slash again.
A fierce exchange ensued.
Swirl.
Throwing one dagger into the air, attacking with the remaining sword, then doing a midair somersault and kicking the swirling dagger in the air.
Swirl, clang!
Callius blocked even that, but the assassin caught the stray dagger instantly and continued the sequence as smoothly as flowing water.
Slashing down with two daggers held in a reverse grip from midair.
Thud-Boom!!
The fog rippled.
He was on a different level from the previous assassins.
Callius, taking a step back, frowned.
"Impudent..."
Gwooo-!
Instantly, the fog settled, and the assassin's movement came to an abrupt halt.
A pressure settled over the area.
His legs trembled, and his body felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
Yet, despite that, the assassin moved.
Pulling the dagger stuck in the ground, he clashed again.
Clang! Crack! Snap!!
Slash.
"Ugh."
It was manageable before he drew out the power of his sword, but after that, there was no hope.
The strange pressure spread across the area restricted the assassin's movements, and with every new scratch that appeared, his body grew increasingly heavier, like waterlogged cotton.
Even as he fell screaming, he would get up and charge again.
But every time he did, it felt like he was walking through water. The fog created by the dual swords had long since cleared.
Kiing, clang!
Crash!
"Keugh!!"
Falling for the second, the third time, he got up again.
But the more he got up, the heavier his body became, like a thousand pounds.
Nevertheless, the assassin kept standing up.
Rumble, boom!!
Drip, drop.
Swoosh.
As soon as the dark clouds covered the moon, they unhesitatingly poured down thunder and lightning.
The pouring rain, as if from a punctured hole, made his heavy body even heavier.
"Bedro. Do you want to live?"
"I have no intention of begging for my life."
The assassin forcibly gripped his daggers on the wet ground and barely stood up.
His legs trembled, and the arm holding the swords up shook violently.
Even so, he clenched his teeth and rushed at Callius.
Clang, thud!
Thud-!
Kicked away, the assassin lay fallen, taking the rainfall.
Thinking he wouldn't get up, Callius frowned at the assassin who rose once again.
"Give up."
"For me, giving up is death. If you want to stop me, kill me!!"
"What do you plan to do about Flora?"
Flinch.
He saw a father's eyes in the assassin's eyes, but it was only for a fleeting moment.
"I have lived as an assassin my entire life. If ordered to kill, I killed the target anytime. I must live like that for the rest of my life. That is my respect and atonement to them."
Callius, who had been listening quietly, clicked his tongue.
"If they order you to kill Flora, will you kill Flora with your own hands?"
"……."
"Calling yourself an assassin when you can't even kill your own child."
"I beg you. Kill me. Or I'll die trying."
Rumble!
The assassin's face appeared and disappeared in the pouring rain and thunder.
"If you die, I won't be able to save Flora. I will kill her with my own hands."
"……."
"If I kill you with my own hands, someday, that child's sword will be aimed at me. There are no perfect secrets in the world. Eventually, the girl's sword will become sharper than anything and be aimed at me. So I have no choice but to kill her before that happens."
A sword that cannot be controlled in any way is better off broken.
"I'll ask one more time. Do you want to live?"
"……."
Thump!!
"Keugh!"
Kicked, the assassin rolled on the ground.
Irritation slowly began to creep onto Callius's face.
He had thought it wouldn't be simple, but he didn't expect it to be this difficult.
"Say you want to live! For your daughter! Bow your head to me and say you want to live for your daughter's future!! If you do, I will let you live!"
The assassin's gaze wavered.
But it soon stopped.
He looked up at Callius with an even firmer gaze.
"There is no guarantee that my sword won't be aimed at the Count again. A sword that has been aimed once. It wouldn't be hard to aim it a second time."
"……."
"Please kill me. She is a smart child. She was a child meant to be my cover. If I die like this, it just means her fate ended there."
"At least, in the way you proudly spoke of your daughter to me. There was no falsehood."
"It was a lie. To an assassin, family is merely a tool."
Callius drew a new sword.
A sword with a sleek blade, even in this dark and damp sky.
The Judgment Sword—Mida.
"Is that true?"
"It is true."
However, contrary to the assassin's words, the color of the blade had changed.
Seeing the blade stained black, Bedro screamed as if in despair.
"Kill me!!"
"Shut up."
"Kill me! I said kill me!!"
"Is it because Flora will die if you don't?"
The assassin's body flinched.
"I know it's because of your superiors. That's how assassins are. Originally, an assassin is someone whose everything is held hostage."
"……."
"Stay here."
"I cannot do that."
"Do you think I'm trying to persuade you? No, this is an order."
"But..."
The assassin hung his head.
If he could simply sever everything, he wouldn't have done this in the first place.
The assassin's shoulders were plastered with past mistakes.
And if he did so, not only he, but everything around him would be in danger.
He couldn't allow that.
"I only feel satisfied when I have what I decide to take. If some other bastard tries to touch what's mine, I'll cut off their hand first."
"Why are you going this far?"
The assassin lifted his poorly moving body and looked up at Callius.
"I tried to kill you."
"So what. Half of Carpe will probably try to kill me. The Empire bastards will be even more, not less. I probably have more enemies than you. Having one more like you doesn't change anything."
Smack!!
"Ugh, why are you hitting..."
"Is a father treating his daughter's life so lightly? Flora is pitiful. It'd be better to just make her my adopted daughter."
"……."
"Will you live?"
"Is it... really okay?"
"Don't ask someone else for permission to live your life. If you want to live, you live. It's your will."
Moreover, you...
"You have a clear reason to live."
Because a child needs a father.