I knew who that clown waving at me was.
I also knew he wasn’t someone who could be classified as good or evil.
In a certain sense, he was neutral. But he was someone with clear standards.
…Why?
Just once. An official cheat code in the game that could erase a mid-boss in the form of a request when game progression was blocked.
The King of Assassins.
Safe Clown.
The alias “Safe Clown” was given to the so-called King of Assassins.
That unique nickname existed because no one who had seen his appearance outside of the clown form had survived.
And that meant, conversely, that this appearance and this current form was the only one deemed safe.
Yes, that was the public persona put forth by the King of Assassins.
A madman’s declaration that he had no intention of causing harm.
But still…
Why me? What did I even do?
Why did he reveal himself to me?
Did he think we were friends or something? I had never met him before.
It was the same kind of bewilderment as if the CEO of the top conglomerate suddenly threw an arm around your shoulder while walking down the street.
What the hell did I do?
When someone you’d normally have no dealings with suddenly acts like they know you…. how many people could really chalk that up to mere friendliness?
Even if I knew the public mask of that madman, the fact that he was a madman was frightening enough on its own.
The clown moved as though expressing a smile with his whole body.
Then, waving his hand, the clown gradually blended into the crowd and vanished.
Was it a dream?
The surreal sensation made me wonder if I’d just seen a hallucination born from accumulated stress.
“…Huh?”
But it didn’t take long for me to realize that it hadn’t been a hallucination.
The moment the clown disappeared.
After a few seconds of blinking my eyes.
“No way…”
All the gazes that had been watching me began to disappear, one by one.
From the rooftops, between the alleys, even atop the outdoor tables of some café—
Thud.
People began collapsing.
Puddles of blood formed beneath them.
A mass of people started dying the moment that someone vanished.
That clear cause-and-effect was impossible to ignore.
Safe Clown.
That madman had gotten rid of the watchers who had been keeping an eye on me.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
“H-Here! Someone’s dead!”
Screams erupted.
Panic mixed with fear surged through the already chaotic crowd, amplifying the madness.
Squelch!
And in the midst of that chaos—
Something fell right in front of me, where I stood in a daze.
A wet, heavy sound hit the ground.
When I looked down, I saw letters carved into something stained red.
[Present for you!]
When I confirmed who had done this.
My vision swam.
With every disaster now unfolding around me, the weight was enough to make me want to throw up.
Was this what it felt like to be a top star standing center stage? No… probably not.
“Tch…!”
By the time I came to my senses, my legs were already moving at full speed.
Even if I knew the clown who sent me this “gift” didn’t mean me any harm, how could I stay still when a lunatic who chopped off a person’s arm just to use it as writing material was involved?
I was scared shitless.
No, I knew. I was basically in a state of panic. But the fact that I could still self-reflect like this… did that mean I had a plan?
Shit, what do I do now?
Yeah, truthfully… I had no plan at all.
Thrown into a situation this hopeless…what kind of plan could I possibly have?
I had to come up with one now.
Thud!
But it didn’t take long for me to realize I didn’t have much time left.
Someone collapsed nearby.
Judging by the distance, they were barely ten steps away from me.
Was Safe Clown indiscriminately attacking civilians?
No, that clown might be crazy, but he draws a clear line between good and evil.
He may be an assassin, but he was not the type to kill people for money.
Yeah, in a way, Safe Clown was closer to a dark hero.
But someone just died right near me.
That meant…
“Ah…”
It meant that those who had been watching me from afar were now so startled by Safe Clown’s rampage that they’d decided to switch tactics…. either to capture or kill me.
Could Safe Clown block every threat coming my way?
Up to this point, it seemed like he could.
And with people dying so suddenly and without explanation, those who had been planning to capture me would probably act more cautiously. So I had a bit of time.
What mattered now was why they were trying to come after me.
Yeah, was killing me really worth deploying this many people?
Worst-case scenario, they might decide I’m too valuable to leave behind and send even more after me just to get my head.
On the other hand, a cold-blooded leader might decide to pull back the troops at this point.
But then…
“Whoa…”
Another head dropped; this time just five steps from me.
When it hit the ground, something clinked and rolled across the floor.
A blue cross.
The symbol of the fanatics. Eden.
The kind of people who wouldn’t hesitate to throw away their lives for their cause.
“Fuck.”
Almost on instinct, I picked up the sword the guy had been holding.
From now on, I had to be ready.
“Damn it, this mess just keeps getting worse.”
At this point, the only way I was going to survive was to run with everything I had all the way to the Cradle.
Safe Clown was strong, sure.
But even he wasn’t capable of taking on an entire group at Eden’s level all by himself.
If it were just some second-rate group, maybe it’d be different. But Eden? They were on a whole other level, potential final boss material. Their ceiling was in a league of its own.
In the end, there was no way Safe Clown could stop them alone.
No, actually…. I didn’t even know if I could trust Safe Clown to begin with.
I had no clue what kind of standards that crazy clown used, and without knowing that, how could I just blindly entrust my life to him?
If it hadn’t been for that clown in the first place, I wouldn’t even be in this situation.
“Tch…”
The one who triggered all of this—
That was clearly Safe Clown, but what came to my mind was something else.
The face of the bastard who stabbed me with a blade.
That bastard. No—Dietrich.
What the hell had he been spouting about me for things to turn out like this?
Why was Eden even after me in the first place?
No wonder I hadn’t liked that son of a bitch from the moment I first met him!
“Kyahhh!”
A scream like that of a girl being attacked. It came from me.
Because someone had died right in front of me. Just about three steps away.
Honestly, you could say they were killed while reaching out toward me.
The number of Eden fanatics closing in on me kept growing.
And the body count around me was rising just as fast. Maybe even faster.
It felt like I was the eye of the storm.
I hadn’t done anything! But people kept dying around me!
For now, I picked up another sword someone had dropped.
You could never be too prepared.
“Kh?!”
And finally, someone drew his sword and charged straight at me.
Though his head was lopped off before his blade even reached me, it was clear things were getting seriously dangerous.
“Yeah… I can’t trust my life entirely to someone else.”
With grim resolve, I gripped the sword tighter.
Sure, maybe I seemed like some weak nobody.
To be honest, I kind of was.
But I was still a student of the Cradle. I had even started out in Class B.
That made me one of the elites.
It didn’t matter who it was. Anyone who looked down on me and came at me would come face-to-face with my merciless blade.
“Johan Damus, you’re coming with me.”
“So, you’re here. It’s you, huh?”
Bang!
I stepped forward with all my strength and swung the sword I was holding with force.
Clang!
It was blocked.
This bastard was better than I thought. Was he a high-ranking member of Eden or something? Well, that would explain how he got past Safe Clown’s insane attacks to reach me.
“Hmph… Yeah, I guess you thought I was just some weakling because I’m only a lackey of Eden.”
“……”
“But I too am a devoted servant of Eden! One who follows the guidance of God!”
His lines sound like something a background character would say. They were strangely familiar, almost nostalgic.
If we’d met under different circumstances, I might’ve ended up friends with this guy.
But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s an enemy I have to defeat.
With renewed resolve, I adjusted my grip on my sword.
“I’m one of the elites destined to rise to the core of Eden!”
Clang!
Despite the bluff in his tone, his skill was real. I ended up rolling across the ground in dramatic fashion after his strike.
“Guh!”
Damn it, was this really the gap between us?
Was the difference in strength really this big?
He was not even an executive; just a regular follower. And yet I was struggling this much?
Worse, I lost!
“Hmph!”
A blue aura surged around his sword as he pressed the attack.
And me? What did I have?
My aura was like a candle on the verge of going out. It was flickering and unstable.
It didn’t even cover the whole blade. It could vanish any moment now.
This won’t work.
The sword I was holding already had cracks all over it. One more clash and it would shatter.
“Hoo…”
I let go of the sword.
Then I grabbed the “dagger” I had picked up earlier.
Good thing I prepared a backup. Preparation always pays off.
“Selection and concentration, huh? But even that seems unstable.”
And he was right. I couldn’t even coat this small dagger with proper aura.
The limits of my talent were plain to see.
Still, the weak have their own ways of fighting.
“Stop acting like you’re something special. Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Hmph, I’m a future executive of Eden…”
“Bullshit.”
I charged at the braggart with my dagger in hand.
With one hand gripping the hilt and the other placed over it for support.
“You don’t even know how to hold a dagger properly…”
Yeah, that’s how it must’ve looked.
And maybe that’s how my skill level looked too.
But this was my way.
“Guh?!”
Don’t even know how to hold a dagger?
Of course not. Because what I was holding wasn’t a dagger to begin with.
Illusion magic: [Camouflage]
“What the…?”
My opponent coughed up blood and his eyes grew wide with confusion.
What I’d been holding all along wasn’t a dagger, but a longsword. I had simply cast a spell on it to disguise its shape.
That’s why I couldn’t grip it like a dagger even if I tried.
It was all just a ploy. A calculated deception to fix the idea of “dagger range” in his mind.
Because I was weak. Because I was not skilled.
He didn’t even think to question why I couldn’t hold it properly.
That’s what it means to fight like the weak.
And the result?
I drove my sword into his heart without a single interruption.
“I asked you, didn’t I? Who the hell do you think you are?”
Even final bosses go down when they let their guard down. What’s a mere lackey so confident about?
If you’ve got no strength, you’d better start using your head.
“What a stupid…”
Only then did he realize what I was really holding a longsword, not a dagger.
And that dagger? It didn’t even have a trace of aura.
Since I was using magic in the first place, I couldn’t coat the blade with aura.
And really, if I couldn’t use aura properly, wasn’t it better not to use it at all?
Besides…
“People die even if they’re stabbed with a sword that doesn’t have aura.”
A sword was a weapon on its own.
If you can’t block it, even an ordinary steel blade can kill.
“Haa…”
My wrist ached.
Cold sweat soaked my entire body.
A hard-earned victory against a mere foot soldier of Eden. That’s where I was at right now.
And the only one praising this pathetic little victory…
Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!
…was that crazy clown clapping from where he could clearly see me, like he’d been watching the whole thing unfold.
Might as well acknowledge the audience.
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
He gave me a big thumbs-up.
Better reaction than I expected.
“Uh, right…”
But seriously, why are you acting like we’re friends?
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