The Case of the Washed-Up F-Rank Adventurer Who Maxed Out His Agility by Relying on His Worthless ‘Flee’ Skill and Accidentally Became the Strongest in the World. He Can’t, However, Escape from the Yandere Beauties. - Chapter 22
Chapter 22: The Old Man Gets Attacked by the Knight Order
Of course she is.
She just found out some guy she doesn’t even know has been spreading rumors about marrying her mother…
And Alicia-san said she just confirmed it with Emma-san…
That means Emma-san herself knows the truth now.
But still, why… why… why now of all times?
I was going to be out of both Emma-san’s and Mira-san’s lives by tomorrow anyway…
I wanted to at least leave with a clean break.
No… but this must be the result of my own life… of the path I’ve walked.
I’ve been running away my whole life, both in my past one and after being reincarnated here.
No one forced me to do it.
Whatever issues I had with my skills, in the end, this is the path I chose.
So I have no choice but to accept the ruin that comes as a result.
“…I’m sorry. I… I lied to you and the Moon Maidens back then. The reality is, as you can see, this pathetic mess. I’m still a lonely, insignificant F-rank adventurer…”
I bowed my head to Alicia-san and apologized gracefully, but…
Alicia-san didn’t react for a while.
She must be utterly disgusted.
Or maybe she’s just pitying the pathetic state of the man she once looked up to as Sensei.
Either way, I didn’t want to see that kind of look on her face.
But the silence went on for so long that I fearfully raised my head and peeked at Alicia-san’s profile.
In that instant… I froze on the spot.
Alicia-san was smiling.
But it was an expression I had never seen before, and never would again.
Alicia-san’s cheeks were unnaturally slack, fitting the description of a leering grin perfectly.
Her beautiful eyes were shining with a strange intensity, and she even looked somewhat aroused.
The beautiful, almost divine Saint, Alicia-san.
Her smile was once said to befit a Saint who granted love and charity to all.
But the Alicia-san before me now was like…
I felt a shiver of dread at how far removed Alicia-san’s current state was from that of a Saint.
What… what am I looking at…?
I couldn’t help but ask myself that question.
“…Fufu… Ahaha!! …So it was true after all… Oh, God! As I knew, my destiny is with Mikami-sensei…”
Alicia-san suddenly raised her voice in a strained cry, her eyes fixed on the empty space before her.
“Um… Alicia-san… a-are you all—”
When I couldn’t bear it and called out to her, Alicia-san said,
“Ah… Fufu… Mikami-sensei. Forgive me. I, Alicia, have told you a lie. Fufu… Emma-san didn’t tell me a thing…”
“Huh…? Then why—”
“But… I realized it myself. Her lie… It’s true… isn’t it, Mira-san?”
And just like that, Mira-san was standing behind me.
No, more importantly, it’s getting noisy near the entrance…
Hm… is that…
“…It’s not a lie. It’s going to become the truth soon enough.”
“It will not. I won’t let you take Sensei from me. Not again… And Sensei will be with me…”
“That’s my line. Mikami-san is staying right here at this Guild. And he’s going to live with us. As if I’d let a woman like you… snatch him away now…”
“Fufu… Such incredible killing intent. It seems you’re no longer hiding it. If that’s the case, then I have my own ideas…”
“!! …Some Saint you are… So this is your true nature… Just as I thought, you’re dangerous. I won’t let you near Mikami-san…”
“The same could be said for you. Pretending to be a sweet, devoted receptionist… I knew it right away. That you and I are the same kind of person…”
The two of them seemed to be talking about something, but I barely heard any of it.
That was because the area in front of the Guild entrance was becoming unusually tense.
Through the window, I could see the platoon from the Knight Order I saw this morning forming up in ranks.
And a man who looked like the captain was giving an order.
“Charge! Rescue the Saint!”
The moment I heard the loud battle cry, the knights all came flooding into the Guild at once.
And for some reason, the gaze of the man who seemed to be their captain was fixed on me…
“Oi! You! Get away from the Saint and that receptionist right now!”
He roared with enough force that it felt like he might cut me down at any moment.
In fact, the man’s hand was already on the hilt of his sheathed sword.
It was clear that depending on my answer, a fight would break out immediately.
I’m sure I’m not a man fit to be standing next to the Saint… Alicia-san.
But still, isn’t this response a little over the top?
As I stood there in bewilderment, the knight glared at me and said,
“We just received a report from some female adventurers to the city guard. They said they were assaulted near the Guild.”
I see… so those noises from before weren’t just my imagination.
But why would the Knight Order, and not the city guard, respond to a simple bandit attack…?
And what in the world does that incident have to do with me…?
