Chapter 71

Clang!

Josephine’s blade shattered her opponent’s weapon and sliced across the swordsman’s chest.

A man who had been waiting for an opening from the other side brought his sword down toward Josephine’s back, but without even turning around, she spun her sword halfway and deflected the blow.

“You crazy—! Do you have eyes on the back of your head or something?!”

“Fill the gap! Keep pressing her!”

What had started as a battle of eleven against one had now become six against one.

It was a stunning display of skill from Josephine.

Yet the swordsmen clung to her with relentless, sticky persistence.

This was because, at the far end of the alley, preparations were underway to fire an illegal siege weapon.

The location of the fight was narrow, with few places to dodge, and the momentum of the steel spear launched from a ballista was not something a person could block or deflect with human strength.

Not even Josephine, despite her S-rank swordsmanship talent.

That weapon was clearly brought to kill.

But I found myself questioning something.

That massive, heavy, modular weapon…there’s no way they could carry it around like a simple sword or axe. Was it prepared here in advance?

But then, how could they have known Josephine would appear here?

No one knew she’d exit through this way after selling the Montieri Collection.

No one, except the auction house staff.

This reeks of a filthy conspiracy…

“I’ll take her on myself!”

At last, a man who appeared to be the leader of the swordsmen stepped forward.

He spun his sword around his wrist as he approached Josephine.

Seeing his footwork, Josephine seemed to recognize him as her equal and took a serious stance.

I watched the standoff between the two swordsmen with growing anxiety.

Dragging things out wouldn’t be good.

The ballista had already been loaded long ago.

It was only taking time to aim at the target.

To hit a small target like a person with such a massive crossbow, the target’s movements needed to be restricted.

That must’ve been why the man who seemed to be their leader had stepped forward.

From the start, his goal was likely to stall for time. He pointed the tip of his sword downward and took a stance focused on counterattacks.

Seeing this, Josephine didn’t wait. She raised her sword high above her head.

Targeting the man’s exposed upper body, she lunged forward in a wide stride.

When the distance between them reached the perfect striking range, the clash began.

Claang!

Two blades collided.

Josephine’s sword came down to strike his crown, but the man, having quickly shifted his stance, parried with a horizontal slash.

The point where their swords met was closer to the man’s side, and by the leverage of that angle, Josephine’s blade began to be pushed back.

“I’ll finish this!”

Keeping the momentum, the man swept his blade in an arc, aiming to cut Josephine’s head.

But Josephine leaned her head back just enough to narrowly dodge the blade, then pulled the lower part of her hilt outward, smoothly spinning her sword in a full rotation.

It was a move that let her redirect the opponent’s horizontal slash with the direction of his own force and launch a counterattack in the same breath.

From below to above, her blade traced a diagonal line toward the man’s chest.

“Not so fast!”

Clang!

The man forcibly pushed his blade downward to block Josephine’s counter.

But from that position, he could no longer continue attacking.

Josephine turned her sword again, aiming for the man’s exposed right side.

With that, the initiative rolled into Josephine’s hands.

“Kh…!”

Clang! Clang-clang-clang-clang!

The exchange of blows continued.

Blades slid against each other over and over again.

In the span of a single breath, the attack and defense switched hands multiple times.

But as the fight wore on, it began to show who had the upper hand in skill.

When Josephine’s sword broke through the man’s rhythm completely and drove in, the man who was leader of the swordsmen had no choice but to retreat, even at the cost of having his forearm slashed.

“Damn it, if only I were ten years younger…”

Creak. Creeeak.

At that moment, the sound of the ballista rotating rang out.

Sensing something suspicious, Josephine tried to turn her head to look back, but the man roared to stop her.

“You dare look away from me?!”

With his life on the line, his pressure was overwhelming, and Josephine couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Once again, sword met sword.

Creaaaak!

This time, the edges caught one another, locking the blades.

It was something rarely seen in a duel between seasoned swordsmen, but it was clearly what the man had intended.

One blade had dug into the edge of the other, hooking together like barbs, making them hard to separate.

It effectively held his opponent’s movements in check…if only for a moment.

Josephine quickly disengaged and used the rebound of her sword and the back edge of the blade to launch a counterattack aimed at the man’s head. But with astonishing focus and a stroke of luck, he narrowly dodged the deadly strike.

Splurt.

His ear was sliced off and fell to the ground.

Yet the man retreated with a smile.

Because at last, the ballista had finished aiming.

Thooong!

The bowstring, drawn under tremendous tension, released with a chilling sound.

It was a strike of indiscriminate death, with no regard for whether allies might be caught in the blast.

Now it was my turn to act.

I activated the spell I had prepared in advance.

[Casting Frost Barrier.]

Creaaaaaaak! Ping!

The sound of stone shattering, followed by a sharp metallic resonance.

The steel spear aimed at Josephine smashed through four of the six thick ice barriers I had conjured. It deflected off the fifth and soared high into the air.

It bounced up to the height of a three-story building, then came crashing down like a falling bird, stabbing into the ground.

Thud.

The fallen spear burrowed nearly a handspan deep into the earth from its sheer weight and remaining momentum.

The swordsmen burst out in outrage.

“Damn it! Nobody said the enemy could use magic!”

“What? That can’t be right!”

“We’re pulling out.”

“Wait, you can’t just—urk!”

The man who appeared to be their leader suddenly clutched his neck and collapsed.

Blood gushed out in streams.

Someone had slashed his throat.

A betrayal. It was cold and swift.

As the situation turned against them, the swordsmen killed their employer without a moment’s hesitation and began to flee.

It was a hollow end for the swordsman who had put up such a fierce fight against Josephine.

Once she confirmed that the enemies had fully scattered, Josephine approached the corpse lying on the ground.

She seemed intent on identifying the attacker.

Lifting the mask, Josephine murmured quietly,

“Sir Sambro… A vassal of Count Montieri.”

She gently closed the corpse’s eyes and offered a brief prayer.

***

The alley, now silent, was wrapped in the stillness left by a finished battle.

Josephine rose from the pool of blood, having completed her prayer.

She still held her longsword with its tip wavering as though uncertain of its next destination.

Josephine looked over the ballista abandoned by the fleeing mercenaries, the spear embedded in the ground, the shattered ice walls, and finally at me.

Sometimes, no explanation is needed to grasp a situation.

She must have realized that I, the passive observer, had chosen to help her.

[Notification]

[You have cleared the death flag.]

[Achievement points have been awarded.]

The misunderstanding was resolved.

I offered a casual remark.

“Impressive swordsmanship.”

Josephine answered with a silent bow.

It seemed she had no intention of speaking, even now.

While I had disguised my voice with dark magic, Josephine didn’t have such a luxury. Her voice could give away her identity.

Still, people are often able to communicate surprisingly much through nonverbal cues alone.

Now, here’s the question:

What did Josephine’s action just now mean?

She floated her sword briefly in the air, then reversed her grip and swung her arm.

In other words, she threw the sword at me.

A clearly hostile act.

Not a confession, not a bluff…so what was this supposed to be?

Schlaaaash!

The longsword surged past me, grazing my ear, and pierced the assassin who had been approaching from behind.

Crunch!

“Guh!”

Ah.

So that’s what she was trying to tell me. There was danger behind me.

Still, it wasn’t necessary.

I had already sensed their approach.

Without hesitation, I turned and unleashed an area spell.

[Casting Heating Gaze]

Fwoooosh.

A wave of heat forged by magic swept through the alleyway.

Air boiled rapidly in every direction my eyes could reach.

Distorted groans echoed as black figures began bursting out from the shadows.

The tails on me were likely joined by some of their summoned reinforcements.

[Warning]

[A death flag has been raised.]

Before I knew it, a grin spread across my face and I was baring my teeth.

“So you finally show yourselves. I’ve been waiting quite a while.”

***

[Casting Earth Wall.]

[Casting Flame Enchantment.]

[Casting Lesser Airburst.]

Booooooom!

A triple-layered spell combo.

Flaming shrapnel tore through the alley.

It was my fiery greeting to the ones who had ambushed me.

And greetings were swiftly returned in kind.

[Casting Telekinetic Barrier.]

Ping! Ping! Pingggg.

My projectiles collided midair and fell spinning to the ground like tops.

Even under attack, they countered. Clearly, they weren’t amateurs.

Swordsmen flickered in and out of sight, then came a rush of assassins wearing bandanas.

For tonight, this alley might just be the hottest spot in all of Low Chapel.

Their numbers kept growing.

Two, four, six, eight…

Once it passed twenty, I gave up counting.

At least double the number of the swordsmen who had targeted Josephine earlier.

A slight unease crept in.

The hallmark of Longsoniere’s men was elite precision in small numbers—

Did Sakis Lubas’s subordinates always travel in such overwhelming force?

Besides, Low Chapel was the territory of the Thieves’ Guild.

I hadn’t expected them to make such an outright show of force on someone else’s turf.

“The target is a battle mage! Engage as trained!”

Someone behind the assassins was barking orders.

I let out a scoff.

“As trained, huh? Let’s see what kind of training that was.”

Well, too bad for them.

When it comes to Candela of Judgment, veterans like me tend to grade on a tougher curve.

[Casting Earth Tremor.]

First thing I did was tear up the ground beneath them.