Chapter 70

The auction ended quickly.

Because I made it that way.

By calling out overwhelmingly high prices for every item, I left almost no room for competition.

There was just one moment when a shill from the auction house tried to interfere, but after I dealt with it firmly, they didn’t try anything like that again.

Perhaps as an apology, the auction house even offered me a cold drink for free, but I didn’t drink it, wary that it might be another trick.

Right after the auction ended, I was guided to a separate room for the winning bidder and went through a brief procedure.

“First, we’ll need to verify the condition of the items you won, as well as the certificates of authenticity—”

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Th-Then how would you like to make the payment? As a rule, we require at least half of the total winning bid in physical assets on the spot, but since your total exceeds 800,000 blancs…”

“I’ll pay the full amount right here and now.”

“Haha, how impressive! Then, where would you like us to deliver the items?”

I had only wanted to end the auction quickly; I didn’t actually need any of the items.

So I casually gave them the address of the Miller Orphanage.

Since the so-called Montieri Collection had a lot of curious items, the children could use them as toys.

For a moment, I felt glad I had decided to support the Miller Orphanage.

It’s been useful in so many ways whenever troublesome situations come up.

The appraisal of the jewels I handed over as payment didn’t take long.

The auction house had already stationed several appraisers in advance.

Like they say, those who’ve eaten meat know how to eat it better. The Thieves’ Guild was at least efficient when it came to getting things done.

“If everything’s finished, I’ll be on my way.”

“Just a moment, please. Would you be interested in taking a look at our auction house’s special collection before you leave? There are many rare items that haven’t gone up for bidding yet. We don’t show them to just anyone.”

Special collection, my foot.

It was just a trick to unload inventory. Items that had failed to sell due to lack of interest or were too expensive for anyone to buy.

Trying to squeeze every last coin out of a sucker, huh?

“Just show me the way out.”

I never had any business with the auction house to begin with.

What I was interested in from the start was the tailing.

Originally, I’d planned to grab the guy at the entrance to the auction house.

But I got distracted when Josephine suddenly appeared, and lost track of him.

Still, I could just pick up the chase again once I left the auction house, so it wasn’t a big deal.

I had thrown money around like a madman to force the auction to end early,

But for Winter Winslet, that kind of money was pocket change anyway.

“Then let me escort you outside.”

The auction house had only one entrance but dozens of exits.

Only bidders and sellers could use these alternative exits.

It was a precaution by the auction house to protect them from crimes targeting money or disputes with other guests.

I passed through a maze of tangled corridors and exited through a locked door.

Outside the door was a back alley in Low Chapel, far from the auction house itself.

From the outside, it was completely disguised. No one would suspect it was connected to the auction house.

Now, here’s the problem.

There were dozens of exits, and two of them were assigned at random.

What were the odds that those two would end up being right next to each other?

Even with a rough estimate, it was about one in five thousand.

That’s 0.02 percent.

Well, that just means the odds were possible.

Like right now.

“……”

“We meet again.”

I was once again face-to-face with the masked swordswoman.

In other words, the seller of the Montieri Collection.

Captain of the Candela Knights.

Or, my fiancée.

At this point, it felt less like fate and more like a bad joke.

Clink-clink!

As Josephine turned around, the sound of coins sliding against each other echoed from the bundle slung over her shoulder.

The proceeds from the Montieri Collection…. in other words, money earned from robbing someone else’s house.

With that much money, even a bag of loot makes music.

I remembered what happened the last time I went on a date with Josephine.

She’d said she was busy this weekend and couldn’t come over to my house. Was today the day the Candela Knights were making a move on the underworld?

Since we had been walking toward each other from opposite ends of the alley, we naturally stopped face-to-face.

We were both wearing masks, and I was the only one who knew the other’s identity.

I wondered what Josephine must be thinking right now as she stared at the masked stranger who had just bought all the stolen goods she put up for auction for 800,000 blancs worth in one go.

It didn’t take long to find out.

Shrring.

The metallic sound was unmistakable. A sword had been drawn from its sheath.

Josephine pointed her blade at me with one hand.

[Warning]

[A death flag has been raised.]

“……”

Why now?

This was ridiculous.

But what happened next was even more ridiculous.

The moment Josephine drew her sword, a voice came from the trash heap next to me.

“Damn, were we spotted?”

“Everyone, move out!”

At that shout, armed men began emerging one by one.

From over the walls, from the trees, from under the eaves, from the pile of garbage…. all were brandishing blades.

They ignored me completely, signaling to one another.

Their target seemed to be Josephine.

But… why were they doing all this with me right in the middle?

Josephine looked straight at me and jerked her chin.

Bring it on.

That’s what it meant.

I hadn’t done a thing, but somehow I’d ended up lumped in with the bad guys.

Unbelievable.

***

Josephine, whom I ran into in the underworld.

The tip of her blade pointed straight at me.

And the swordsmen aiming for her.

In the midst of this complete mess, I made up my mind to be an active bystander.

Meaning, I chose to do absolutely nothing.

“Attack!”

The swordsmen charged at Josephine.

As they ran past me, I started counting them one by one.

The last swordsman to leap forward was the eleventh. And just as I realized that, Josephine was already swinging her sword with both hands.

Slice.

A cleanly severed arm flew off at a diagonal angle.

Thud.

A heavy pouch of gold coins hit the ground a beat later, marking the start of the battle.

“Form up and hit her all at once!”

The swordsmen launched a coordinated attack to overwhelm Josephine.

Their movements were fairly well-trained, but they’d picked the wrong opponent.

From the very first clash, Josephine moved with the speed and precision of someone who had already mapped out every move.

Clang! Clang-clang-clang!

In the darkness of the night, Josephine’s sword sparked four times.

The man facing her at the front let out a stunned exclamation, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen with his own eyes.

“What the fuck… How did you even do that?”

She hadn’t swung wildly or forcefully. Instead, she deflected each attack in sequence, twisting the line of their blades as she went.

Her swordsmanship was impressive, but it was her footwork that truly stood out.

Josephine’s light, springy steps gave the illusion that she was moving at twice the speed of everyone else.

Even after defending against their attacks, she still had the stamina to go on the offensive. It was an extraordinary sight that unfolded in the alleyway: one person pushing back a group.

It was the kind of rare sight that would’ve given any by-the-book tactician a stress-induced breakdown.

“Surround her! Surround her, damn it!”

“Why are we struggling against one person?!”

Josephine kept contact to a minimum. She avoided entanglements between swords.

It was a tactic to deny her opponents the chance to strike in turn.

She was well aware of the disadvantage of being outnumbered and was careful not to get surrounded.

Instead, she conserved energy with precise, controlled movements, slowly chipping away at her enemies’ stamina while waiting for an opening.

“Huup.”

In that instant, her arms and legs seemed to stretch unnaturally, creating an illusion. And the swordsman at the front suddenly clutched his wrist and dropped his weapon.

“Argh!”

Josephine’s blade flowed seamlessly into a diagonal upward slash.

The man’s jaw was split open, and he was killed instantly.

A chilling tension began to spread among the remaining swordsmen.

“What are you doing?! It’s still ten against one!”

“Tch…”

The swordsmen, shaken by their comrade’s death, began to move more cautiously. But in doing so, they gave Josephine room to run wild.

Josephine shifted into a more aggressive offensive. She kept toying with her enemies and freely adjusting the distance between them.

She struck three times in a single breath, thrusting as she retreated, then delivered a wide slash in a crescent arc.

Her movements were too fast to follow with the eye, and in the darkness of night, they looked like the work of a ghost.

“Another one’s down!”

“Damn it, don’t back off! Hold your ground! You got paid upfront…do your job!”

“Shit, easy for you to say.”

The swordsmen gasped for breath unlike Josephine, whose breathing hadn’t faltered in the slightest.

As the difference in skill became painfully clear, anxiety began to show on their faces.

Their only consolation was that Josephine, still wary of being surrounded, wasn’t recklessly chasing after those who fell back.

“What the hell is this? I thought we just had to overwhelm her with numbers!”

“Shut up! If the ambush had gone as planned, there wouldn’t be a problem. How the hell did she spot us? Our disguise should’ve been flawless!”

I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that their cover had been blown over a small misunderstanding.

The swordsmen screamed curses as they tried to regain their momentum.

“We still have that, so stop whining and push forward!”

The swordsmen shouted and tried to rally themselves.

“We still have that, so quit whining and push forward!”

But Josephine, at least by the early chapters of Candela of Judgment, was considered the strongest fighter around.

What followed was less a battle and more a one-sided execution.

Once Josephine truly began to unleash herself, no one could stop her momentum.

In the faint darkness, her long sword which was blackened with soot didn’t even reflect the moonlight, making it look as though she were wielding an invisible blade.

But the steel, laced with killing intent, was clearly there like an extension of her arm. She ended the lives of three men in fluid, yet controlled arcs.

Whoosh. Slice. Clang!

The last one must’ve been wearing chainmail under his clothes.

Now only seven swordsmen remained.

And one of them was missing an arm. So calling it six and a half would be fair.

But even after their ambush had failed and their numbers had dwindled, the swordsmen didn’t retreat easily.

Did they have something up their sleeve?

That’s what I was thinking when it happened.

Creaaak, creak.

A strange noise filtered through the faint darkness.

The sound of wood and fiber twisting.

I looked past Josephine’s back and was left speechless.

These lunatics.

Did they seriously bring a siege weapon into the middle of the city?

The sound I’d just heard was the winding of a ballista’s string.

A steel bolt had just been loaded onto the newly assembled giant crossbow.