Vol 1 Chapter 32 – I’ll Be the One to Kill

“Fuu—”

Al let out a long breath.

Scattered everywhere were the assassins’ gruesome remains.

I’m a Holy Sword, so I can stomach it, but any normal human would look away. Actually, even I’m kinda grossed out. How many people does this idiot plan to massacre with me as the murder weapon?

“Are you all right?”

“Mhm, you really saved meee.”

Al asked with concern; Spica answered with a sunny smile. How can she smile in the middle of this carnage? She’s nuts too.

“…I seriously hate saying thank-you, but it’s true you helped us. The one who really owed you, though, is probably off in dreamland blowing snot bubbles right now. Ugh, that ticks me off.”

Muttering a dark cloud of complaints, Ruru grumbled to herself. Whoever the guilty party is, unforgivable—totally agree. I’m this sleepy and Al still yanked me out of bed. F***ing hell.

“Still, they were real professionals from the underworld. Why attack us, I wonder?”

“If assassins set their sights on you, you must be doing something wrong.”

“Says the internationally wanted criminal.”

Ruru leveled a dead-eyed glare at Al. Fair point.

They really were highly trained underworld types—I’ve hardly met their equal in my long, long Holy Sword life. True pros, honestly. Too bad they were powerless before Al’s overwhelming brute force.

“And looks like their goal wasn’t to kill us but to nab Hannah.”

“What villainy… Kidnapping is evil. We cannot let it stand.”

Pretty sure the biggest villain here is you, Al, but I’ll keep that to myself.

“Unless we cut the problem off at its root, this’ll just keep happening. We should wake Hannah this instant and interrogate her for leads.”

“Your word choice is awful, and I hate that you’ll probably do exactly that.”

Right now Hannah is snoozing away—”Suyasuya” “Supisupi”—but she’s about to get smacked with some fairly justified violence! Then again, if the assassins were after her, it’s only fair she wakes up; Al risked his life in the middle of the night to protect her. Besides, I’m up miserably sleepy while she’s still out—what gives? Get up alreadyyy!

“I hope she has a clue, but they did name the assassin guild Uzu. Naturally they wouldn’t mention their client, though.”

“Uzu?”

“A gigantic assassin guild that dominates the underworld. The guy we fought was a branch chief, not the true top. It’s so big it runs several branches. He probably headed one of them, nya.”

Humans love words like “shadow” and “underworld,” don’t they? Forever bathed in light as I am, I just don’t get it.

“What a mess… Looks like my trash-cleanup is only half done…”

Let’s quit calling people trash, okay?

“You can’t wipe out Uzu completely. They’re scattered all over the globe and entrenched in every criminal scene.”

“Sure, Uzu matters, but like Ruru said, they’re too big to tackle right now. First we hunt down whoever hired Rudo’s squad, right?”

Convinced by Ruru and Spica, Al nodded gravely.

“Fair enough. We’ll just have to kill them all.”

Yep, words only an absolute villain would say. Annihilating a worldwide criminal megacartel—bombastic and delusional, yet with Al it’s frighteningly plausible. If he sets his mind to it, he’ll do it with zero remorse.

“So, any suspects?”

He means the next victim.

“It’s tricky, yeah. Someone must have a reason to target Hannah, but…”

“She’s a wanted felon. She must have enemies everywhere.”

She used criminals for human experiments, so of course criminals hate her. Pretends to be sensible, yet she’s a mad scientist—absurd. She really should get arrested already.

“Also, only someone with serious status and cash can hire Uzu, let alone drag out a branch boss. Their threshold is sky-high.”

“What even is a ‘an elite, high-threshold assassin guild’…?”

“Think… nobles.”

Figures. Nobles were scum in the old days and still are. Give a human power—political power—and they rot instantly. Not that a beautiful Holy Sword like me has anything to do with that.

“…Come to think of it, Hannah said the local lord here is a real piece of work.”

“No way… A lord hiring an assassin guild…?”

Ruru sounded unconvinced, but please—every human power-holder is trash. I know. I just don’t get why he’d target Hannah… Oh—her boobs? Those ridiculously huge boobs? Makes sense. Totally self-inflicted. Maybe we shouldn’t even help her? …No, murdering people over boobs is deranged, even for a noble. Creepy…

“Seems plenty of dirty nobles hire them, though. Without solid proof we can’t move openly, though.”

“That’s because you’re a knight. I understand. But if evil stands before me, I can’t sit quietly.”

Al’s justice switch had flipped. With a sharp expression, he nodded once.

“Then I’ll just kill him myself.”

“No, first ask if he’s involved! Are you listening!? Listen already!!”

Ruru exploded at the grand murder declaration. I’m not doing it. So tired…

◆

“Huff, huff…”

While Taris and every crook tied to him were having their deaths foretold, Rudo was running for his life, drenched in blood. He wasn’t dead.

When the Lament of the Dead tried to drag him in, he’d sliced off the arm the ghostly hands had grabbed. Losing an arm is steep payment, but better than losing his life.

“But that means retirement. I can’t work the front lines now.”

Rudo gave a wry smile. He could still fight, but a one-armed handicap is huge. Uzu jobs allow zero mistakes; they wouldn’t put a variable like him on a mission. With his record managing a branch, though, they’d keep him in back-office work instead of kicking him out. Knowing that, Rudo actually felt relaxed.

“Still, I’m in real trouble till I get patched up. Hope that noble’s got something useful…”

He needed treatment fast, but no Uzu healer was nearby. The closest supplies would be at Taris’s place, so he headed back. Once patched up, he’d enjoy a carefree retirement. With that in mind, he arrived at Taris’s mansion.

“…No gate guards? Shift change?”

The sentries who usually protected the gate were gone. Slacking off? They worked for a noble—getting caught would be brutal. Bold fellows. Exhausted and badly wounded, he failed to see how strange it was.

He walked into the mansion, toward the private room where Taris always waited and—

“…Huh?”

Taris was there.

Run through on a spike.