Chapter 24: High Physical Ability = Musclehead, or So It Should Be…
The guys who had been sniffing around me had shifted their target to Ivern and Mr. Bennett instead.
Honestly, I thought Ivern should handle it himself, but Mr. Bennett was a different story.
He was the landlord of the apartment where Ivern lived and a mid-aged midwife.
A woman with no combat ability whatsoever.
To take such a person hostage…
It left a very unpleasant feeling in my gut, but I decided to listen in on their conversation.
In this situation, there was no way there could be any misunderstanding, but still.
I activated my sound amplification magic while keeping my presence concealed.
“Are you sure this is the right path?”
“Yeah. No doubt about it. But if I guide you properly, you’ll let Mr. Bennett go, right?”
“That depends on your performance.”
“…”
Ah, this is definitely shady.
Even if Ivern keeps his promise, the other side has no intention of keeping theirs.
The way they spoke suggests that if Ivern doesn’t perform well, both he and Mr. Bennett will be eliminated.
In conclusion.
Those guys are scum.
Then, there’s no need for hesitation.
“Ivern! Forget about me! Just escape on your own! You can manage on your own, right!?”
“Shut up, old hag! You wanna die!?”
“…Huh?”
Mr. Bennett turned her head toward the strange words spoken by her captor…
“Ah! Hyaaa!!”
She screamed in shock at the sight of the upper half of his face missing.
“Oh, my bad. Didn’t mean to show you something so gruesome.”
I quickly rushed to Mr. Bennett, rescued her, and got us out of there.
“Eh? Eh? Kenta!?”
“Hey there.”
“Hey there? Wait, did you do that, Kenta!?”
Mr. Bennett said while glancing at the gruesome corpse from earlier.
“Yep. Well, when it comes to blowing someone’s head off with magic, you don’t need much power, so I can aim precisely.”
“I-I see…”
As we were having that conversation, the soldiers finally began to realize they had been ambushed.
“Wha!? Enemy attack!?”
“Hey, Ivern!! The hostage is gone! Get out of there now!!”
“!! Got it!!”
Ivern shouted, snatching the sword from the man who had been pointing it at him and swiftly cutting him down.
In the chaos of the situation, the soldiers, who were still trying to grasp what was happening, were easily dispatched, and Ivern made his way to my side.
“Sorry, Kenta! I never thought they’d target Mr. Bennett instead of us!”
“I feel the same way. I’m really sorry, Mr. Bennett. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Ah, it’s fine. Once I decided to get involved with you, I was prepared for this kind of thing.”
“Still, I’m sorry.”
Even if she was prepared, it didn’t mean it was okay to drag her into this.
As I was apologizing to Mr. Bennett, one of the clueless soldiers shouted loudly.
“Y-You bastards! Do you think you can get away with this!?”
“This? I just rescued a hostage from a despicable scumbag. Is there a problem with that?”
As I succinctly explained the situation, Mr. Bennett and Ivern burst into laughter, while the soldier, looking like a typical soldier, turned beet red.
“Y-You! Are you mocking us, soldiers of the esteemed Admos army!?”
“Oh, so you’re from Admos?”
These guys really are all muscle and no brains.
They just revealed their affiliation themselves.
By the way, Admos shares borders with both Weimar and Lindor.
“That’s right! We are regular soldiers of the Admos army! To oppose us means you’re opposing Admos! Do you understand!?”
“Sure do.”
“…Huh?”
He asked, sounding like he was trying to intimidate me by bringing up the country, so I gave him a proper response, but for some reason, the Admos soldier just stood there, mouth agape.
“What are you staring at? We’ve never had friendly relations with Admos, so it doesn’t matter if we’re enemies or not.”
The premise itself was wrong.
When I pointed that out, the Admos soldiers began to tremble.
“Y-You!!”
As expected from cowardly soldiers.
They all charged at me, leaving only one behind.
Five of them came at me, showcasing their high physical abilities in close combat, but…
“Here you go.”
“Nnngh!!”
With a slightly stronger wind magic, I pushed them back, and since they weren’t used to fighting against magic, they were easily blown away.
“Ivern, I’m borrowing your sword for a bit.”
“Huh? Well, it’s not mine, but…”
I borrowed the sword Ivern was holding and charged at the blown-away Admos soldier.
A person whose balance has been disrupted by magic is nothing more than a target.
Using the sword techniques I had thoroughly trained in after being summoned, combined with body enhancement magic, I swiftly cut down two of them in one stroke, then took down another two with a follow-up slash.
The last remaining soldier, witnessing his comrades being cut down with each flash of my blade, seemed to lose all will to fight and sat down, wetting himself as I pointed my sword at him.
“P-Please… help…”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be spared.”
“!? “
As I told the soldier begging for his life that I would let him live, his face lit up with joy.
What a fool.
He had no idea why he was being spared.
“I’m taking you to the Weimar Royal Capital.”
“!? “
Ahaha, he looked so happy just a moment ago, and now his face was filled with despair.
“I’ll report that you killed Weimar soldiers. If I leave you alone, I might get blamed for it.”
“Th-That would cause an international incident…”
“You already caused that big problem. Why don’t you get that?”
“…”
He averted his gaze.
As I thought, he intended to pin the blame on me.
Well, I knew that, so I was taking him with me.
“So, I’m heading to the Royal Capital with this guy, the surrounding corpses, and the dead guards. Ivern, take Mr. Bennett home.”
“Ah, okay.”
Now then, let’s contact Meileen through telepathy and head back to the Weimar Royal Capital.
With that, I bound the Admos soldier, the corpses of the Weimar guards, and the only surviving Admos soldier with rope and teleported to the Weimar Royal Capital.