Chapter 9

At this rate, word’s gonna spread that there’s a gangster beating people up with a pipe. Clicking my tongue, I swung the pipe around in front of me. Well, it’s better than a sword. If I held back my strength, it wouldn’t kill the man.

“L-let me go! What do you want, money?! I’ll give you anything, so let me go!”

“You nobles... Hic! You think that everything can be solved with money. Hic! Too bad that won’t work this time. Hahaha!”

The man laughed maniacally and started reaching for the noblewoman’s neck. Trembling with fear, she couldn’t even fight back.

Bam!

I slammed the pipe, now covered in my haunting black aura, into the ground at the pair’s feet.

“Eek!” Startled, the man stumbled back. Just a moment ago he was brazenly putting his hands on the woman, but now he had turned into a frightened, squealing rat.

Disgusting... I believed anyone who found trash lying around was obligated to clean it up. I walked toward them, ready to do just that.

“Wh-who are you?!” the man shouted in shock.

I ignored him and approached the woman, who had also been startled.

“Are you all right?” My voice, which had been altered by my magic ring, echoed through the alley.

The woman flinched, then nodded.

“Your dress is soiled,” I said. Trying to calm the woman, I reached out and gently dusted the dirt off of her dress. It was an attempt to relax her, but she seemed even more frightened and froze instead.

I’m no good at this. Since I was a child, I had spent my days slaying beasts, so human interaction wasn’t my strong suit. Giving up on calming the woman, I yanked the iron pipe out of the ground.

“Who— Hic! Sorry, who are you? Hic! What do you want?” The man’s tone had become more respectful and his eyes were wavering. I could tell he was the type to throw his weight around to torment the weak but cower before the strong.

“Are you serious, asshole?” Speaking in a low voice, I slowly advanced toward him.

The man trembled as he stepped back, but he was up against the alley’s dead end. He became white as a sheet.

“Aren’t you a commoner too? J-judging by those clothes...” Backed into a corner, he started to shout. “If you’re a commoner, you must know how these nobles treat us! Hic! Like pigs and dogs, that’s how! This lady— Hic! She called me ‘filthy’ as she passed by me!” He pointed at the woman, who was still trembling in fear.

I couldn’t disagree with him. The empire’s class system was pretty bad. Commoners had nothing, while the nobility had everything. Commoners couldn’t even speak to nobles without permission, and in turn, nobles treated them like slaves. It was an unfair world.

I slowly looked at the woman. When our eyes met, she paled and shook her head. “I-it’s not true! I did say he was dirty, but... He bumped into my shoulder, and he was staggering around drunk!”

“So it’s fine to call someone dirty just because they bumped into you?” I asked.

She clammed up and her eye began to twitch. She lifted her chin. “If I say it is... are you going to hurt me?” Her eyes were full of fear, but her tone was haughty.

She’s afraid I might switch sides, and yet... She couldn’t let go of her ego. She was a model noblewoman, all right.

“See? Hic! She won’t even apologize!” the man spat, his breath reeking of booze. When I glanced back at him, he began to ramble excitedly. “Nobles... They’re all a bunch of bastards! Hic! They think we’re dogs born and bred to lick their boots! You’ve spent your life as a commoner, you should know!”

The anger in his tone bordered on madness. It was easy to imagine how he must’ve been treated. As I stood there with my arms crossed, listening intently, he began to say things that might be better left unsaid.

“That’s why we’ve got the right to break a few necks! Hic! They deserve to be knocked around! They’re begging for it!”

Bam!

My pipe penetrated the wall right beside his face. Startled, he fell to the ground. He didn’t even have the wherewithal to let out a scream.

“What a bunch of nonsense,” I said as I stood in front of him.

He wouldn’t stop trembling. “Wh-what?!” he squeaked.

“I don’t know, nor do I want to know, the kind of life you’ve lived or how you were mistreated,” I said, effortlessly pulling the pipe out of the wall.

I lifted the man’s chin with the end of the pipe. His eyes were full of fear. He seemed scared stiff by the murderous intent radiating from me.

I continued. “But what do I know...”

I, too, was used to the nobility’s tyranny. At times, I’d had to backtrack on expeditions because a noble ordered me to turn around and do a different errand for them. More than once, noblemen who claimed to admire me had tried to force me into their beds.

On the whole, I had to say that I disliked nobles. They weren’t all bad, but since the ones I had met never showed much humanity toward me, I had no fondness for them.

“Just because you’ve been harmed doesn’t mean you can harm someone else.” Nothing could justify hurting another. A crime was just that—a crime. “Those who harm others should be punished, you know.”

My black aura writhed like a snake. It slithered around me and ferociously jolted into the man’s body.

“Aaaah!” the man cried out as he swallowed the mysterious force. To avoid hearing piercing screams, I sealed his mouth and tied him up with more of my aura.

Aura was nature itself, and when wielded with murderous intent, it became the ultimate killing weapon. But as long as it was under the control of a Sword Master, it wasn’t deadly. It just gives them a taste of hell. An aura entering a body that hadn’t been strengthened by training and hard work caused the worst kind of pain. It was too powerful a force to handle.

I was just going to rough him up a little with my pipe, but he really got on my nerves. I hadn’t even wanted to lay a finger on him.

I stashed the pipe in my sack and turned around to make eye contact with the woman, who had been watching blankly. Startled, she opened her eyes wider.

“I’ll take care of this. You, get going.” It was a fairly cocky tone to use with a noble, but since I had helped her out, I figured it’d be fine.

She stared at me for a moment, then stuttered, “Wh-what is your name?”

Why isn’t she leaving?

As I narrowed my brows with a questioning look, she added hastily, “A reward! I have to reward you for saving me!” Her offer seemed a bit impulsive.

I shook my head. “It’s fine. I didn’t do it to be rewarded.”

The woman nervously bit her lip at my firm refusal. She rushed up to me and seized my hand, still shaking in fear.

“W-would you have dinner with me? I’m just so grateful.”

“Unfortunately, I have other plans.” Aria’s waiting for me. At the moment, the only thing I could think about was getting back to her as soon as possible.

But wait... I glanced at the hand that had grabbed mine. It was trembling a little too strongly. Her face is pale and her pupils are dilated... These were the warning signs of an oncoming fainting spell.

This was all probably too much for a noblewoman to handle. She was barely holding on to consciousness, but it wouldn’t last long.

“Th-then... C-can I...” She was obviously struggling.

I wasn’t coldhearted enough to leave an unconscious person on the ground. I was willing to escort her to the city guard forces, at least. I opened my arms to catch the woman, who seemed ready to drop at any moment.

“M-my name is Llewellyn Decardo.”

I froze when I heard her name.

“If you decide you want a reward... you can go to the Decardo...” Without even finishing her sentence, the woman collapsed.

I finally took in her appearance. She had red hair that curled like rose petals and piercing cat-like eyes as vividly green as the leaves of a rosebush. Her lips were so luscious that anyone would be tempted to kiss them. It was the typical appearance of a fantasy story’s villainess.

The ruler of high society, Llewellyn Decardo... She was none other than the main antagonist of Fairy Night. Then the presence I felt all along...

I felt goosebumps all over my body. An eerie feeling took over me, one I hadn’t felt since becoming a Sword Master.

From the moment I had set foot in this alley, I knew that someone with powerful energy was watching. I had ignored their presence because they were weaker than me. Plus, they only started watching me after I had donned my mask, so as long as my bare face wasn’t seen I didn’t care who saw me. But if the woman I saved was Llewellyn, and the person watching us was him... It changed everything.

Llewellyn Decardo was the youngest daughter of Marquess Decardo, the pinnacle of our society’s wealthy class. Llewellyn was commonly referred to as the “money-hungry flower,” and she was the empress of high society until Aria came into the picture. She was also in love with Reiner Einhard, one of the novel’s male protagonists.

She became malicious when she found out that Reiner, the object of her desire, only had eyes for Aria. In short, she was a typical villainess.

I looked down at the woman with wavering eyes. According to the story, she’s going to torment Aria in the future. But that doesn’t matter. I know I can stop it. I had already decided to live my life for Aria, so I wasn’t worried about Llewellyn’s future antics. But now that I’m the one who saved her...

Cold sweat ran down my spine as the presence I had sensed came nearer.

The novel contained a scene detailing how Llewellyn had fallen for Reiner, perhaps as a way to convey his leading-man heroics. She falls in love with him when he saves her from trouble... But that was supposed to happen at this moment in the story.

Someone suddenly jumped off the top of the alley wall and landed behind me.

“You impressed me.”

I clenched my jaw. Crap!

Even as I heard footsteps heading toward me, I couldn’t turn around. I wanted to disappear.

Reiner Cardelle Le Noah Einhard—He was a swordsman on the cusp of being a Sword Master, as well as the future Marquess of Einhard, the Commander of the Second Imperial Guard. And...

“You’re a Sword Master, aren’t you?”

He was crazy about swords.