LFLH 41

Chapter 41

“Wait, what are you suddenly—”

Before she could finish her question, Lerazier opened the carriage door and grabbed the luggage rail attached to the top of the carriage like a handle.

He kicked off the ground, launched himself into the air, and used the momentum to deftly swing himself around and shut the carriage door with both feet.

Through the transparent window in the front wall of the carriage, Calliope saw Lerazier take the reins from the coachman and begin driving the horses even harder.

“Whoa…!”

Naturally, the shaking of the carriage became even worse. Calliope gripped the handle attached to the wall tightly, struggling to keep her body from bouncing around like a ball.

“What the hell is this all of a sudden…? Don’t tell me bandits have appeared?”

Even amid the chaos, Calliope remembered Lerazier’s warning to put a defensive spell on the carriage.

“Damn it…”

Casting a spell in a carriage that was shaking so violently that it made her stomach churn was no easy task.

“Being a mage doesn’t mean I can do everything.”

Even as she complained, however, the hand that wasn’t holding the handle moved immediately.

She could feel the mana drifting through the air.

It was the mana of nature, practically limitless.

“Shield.”

As she uttered the activation word, magic surged from her body and flowed outward, completely enveloping the carriage.

Perhaps realizing that the defensive barrier had been activated, Lerazier began slowing the carriage down.

Not long afterward, the carriage came to a stop in the middle of a somewhat wider section of road halfway up the mountain.

As soon as Calliope opened the door and stepped outside, Lerazier jumped down from the driver’s seat and frowned.

“I told you not to come out. It’s dangerous.”

“If it’s dangerous for me, then it’s dangerous for you too, you know?”

That was when it happened.

With a sharp sound that seemed to tear through the air, an arrow came flying toward them.

Lerazier instinctively twisted his body, shielding Calliope as he dodged the arrow.

The arrow passed them and flew straight into the protective magic surrounding the carriage.

“Huh…!”

The startled coachman covered his mouth with his hand, letting out a strangled gasp.

Lerazier kindly pushed the pale-faced coachman back inside the carriage himself.

“How many?”

Calliope asked as she casually flexed her hands.

Lerazier drew his sword from its sheath and assumed a stance.

“Sixteen.”

“That’s quite a lot.”

Before their conversation could even end, enemies began emerging from various points among the dense trees.

“I thought it might be, but I didn’t expect them to actually be bandits.”

Hearing Calliope mutter that, Lerazier carefully observed them.

Their appearance was exactly what one would expect from bandits.

But Lerazier was certain.

They aren’t bandits.

Professional assassins, perhaps.

Most importantly, the refined killing intent emanating from them was something that could never belong to ordinary bandits.

Lerazier sensed that several of them were highly skilled.

The sharp blades of the assassins’ swords gleamed ominously in the sunlight.

Lerazier glanced back at her and said,

“Be careful, Calliope Verdi.”

Then he faced forward and crooked a finger.

“Come.”

There was no battle cry like Kill them.

Instead, the assassins silently charged toward him, radiating razor-sharp killing intent.

Soon, the forest was filled with the sharp, spine-chilling sounds of blades colliding and scraping against one another.

Lerazier dodged the swords rushing at him from every direction before thrusting his own sword into his opponents.

His swordsmanship contained not a single unnecessary movement.

“Ugh…? Guh!”

A man whose anterior cruciate ligaments in both legs had been severed rolled across the ground.

After rendering his opponent incapable of fighting, Lerazier casually turned and engaged another assassin.

That makes three Sword Experts.

Most of the rest are Aura Users.

Lerazier’s eyes grew cold.

With this level of opposition, he was determined to make sure they would not leave this place alive.

Even after failing so many times, they’re still at it?

There had been no incidents like this recently, so he had assumed they had given up.

But apparently, they were starting again.

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

It’s pointless. Unless they send another Sword Master, they can’t possibly be a match for me. Why do they keep going to all this trouble…?

At that moment, a possibility flashed through his mind like lightning.

No way.

Could it be…

That I’m not actually the target?

Could the target be—

Calliope Verdi?

For an instant, his movements faltered.

An assassin seized the opportunity and thrust his sword straight toward Lerazier’s heart.

“Look out!”

At Calliope’s sharp cry, a massive water bomb and a defensive barrier flew simultaneously from her hands.

The assassin’s sword was blocked by the magical barrier, while the assassin who took the water bomb directly in the face was knocked unconscious.

She stared at him with a bewildered expression.

“Surprisingly, it actually works?”

Lerazier let out a small laugh.

After that, the battle ended swiftly.

The two of them joined forces and unleashed a barrage of attacks, quickly subduing the assassins.

“Ugh… ngh…”

Lerazier approached one of the men groaning on the ground.

He had been the most skilled among them.

“Ugh…!”

Grabbing the back of the man’s head, Lerazier forced his head back and interrogated him.

“Who sent you?”

“……”

But instead of answering, the assassin merely glared at him.

Lerazier noticed the assassin reaching for the handle of a dagger at his waist and immediately seized his wrist in a crushing grip.

“Guh!”

“I’ll ask again. Who hired you?”

The assassin, restrained at all four limbs, struggled for a moment before realizing there was no way to escape.

He clenched his teeth.

“For the glory of Him.”

“What…?”

Before Lerazier could react, blood began trickling from the assassin’s mouth, and his eyes rolled back.

Realizing what the assassin had just done, Lerazier shouted,

“Calliope—”

“For the glory of Him.”

“For the glory of Him.”

As though they had rehearsed it, the assassins all uttered the same words before blood spurted from their mouths and they died.

“Damn it…”

Lerazier laid the dead assassin on the ground and stood up.

Then he saw Calliope.

Her face was so pale that she looked almost completely white.

She was trembling slightly from the shock.

“Calliope.”

Lerazier approached her and turned her around, deliberately blocking her view of the corpses.

“…Lerazier Dion Arenfriet.”

Her frightened eyes looked up at him.

This is why I deliberately subdued the assassins without killing them whenever possible.

Lerazier felt bitter and conflicted.

He was certain that despite possessing such extraordinary magical destructive power, Calliope Verdi had never killed a person before.

Because it went against her values.

She probably hasn’t ever seen this many people die all at once, either.

Lerazier looked directly into her trembling purple eyes and spoke.

“Pull yourself together, Calliope Verdi. Those men were trying to hurt us. And we weren’t the ones who killed them.”

His voice was coldly firm.

But it worked.

The confusion and shock raging within Calliope’s eyes gradually faded, and her gaze slowly returned to normal.

“Haa…”

She placed a hand over her heart and slowly took several deep breaths.

Her startled emotions gradually settled, and her usual calm, rational mind returned.

Calliope turned around again and spoke.

“So they weren’t ordinary bandits.”

Lerazier nodded.

“No. They were assassins.”

Calliope slowly examined the assassins who had poisoned themselves and committed suicide.

Then she knelt down in front of the man Lerazier had interrogated earlier.

“This man.”

Calliope looked up at Lerazier.

“He has traces of contact with mana stones. There aren’t any mana stones on his body, yet the energy remains this strongly. That only happens when someone has been in contact with a large quantity of mana stones.”

“Wait. Mana stones?”

Lerazier abruptly turned his head and leapt forward as though he were launching himself through the air.

Toward the transport wagon attached to the carriage.

But it was already too late.

The door of the wagon stood wide open.