Chapter 781

The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations

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UChapter 781

I want to have a conversation. (1)

Ghislain’s eyes sparkled as he chased after the masked woman.

‘Founder of the Shadow Knights.’

It was the same face he had seen in the dream. Even with her face hidden behind a mask, her eyes gave it away.

He had a strong hunch that this masked woman was the Hero’s companion and the founder of the Shadow Knights.

No, he didn’t even need to call it a hunch.

The technique she had just used was strikingly similar to the one that Belinda used.

‘Wait a second. Then is she a distant ancestor from my mother’s side?’

It was possible—or not. A thousand years was more than enough time for a bloodline to break or for another person to be chosen as successor.

But that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had finally met someone he needed to meet.

Kaang!

Ghislain lightly deflected the dagger thrown by the masked woman.

He quickly closed the distance between them and flashed a relaxed smile.

“I think you need to calm down for a bit. I want to have a conversation.”

The masked woman remained composed. She quietly let go of her companion whom she had been dragging.

At this rate, any attempt to fight or flee would end in failure.

Ghislain had left the other intruders to his comrades. He focused solely on the masked woman.

‘I need to beat her carefully.’

She wasn’t someone who would die easily. Still, it would be difficult to make her talk through immediate and harsh torture.

He didn’t want to leave resentment in someone who would become a companion of the Hero.

But judging by her actions, it didn’t seem like getting close would be easy. So he planned to rough her up just a bit.

‘I’ll start by disabling her movement…’

Ghislain swiftly swung his staff downward. His idea was to break just one of her legs—for now.

Srrk.

The masked woman’s body wavered like smoke and disappeared, evading the attack.

Ghislain immediately twisted his body and threw his staff to the side.

Kwaaaang!

“Aaagh!”

The staff struck the exposed abdomen of the masked woman with precision.

She screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.

But she soon melted into the darkness again, relocating her position. Her willpower to endure the pain was remarkable.

Ghislain stretched out his hand and unleashed threads of mana. Soon, the staff flew through the air like a living creature, hurtling toward her.

Kaang!

This time, the masked woman pulled out two daggers and blocked the staff. Her eyes were trembling violently.

‘Wh-What? Who the hell is this bastard?’

She had heard that he was a mage who had reached the level of a Transcendent. But no matter how she looked at it, his combat style didn’t resemble that of a mage.

‘What do I do?’

She quickly retreated and scanned her surroundings.

The subordinates she had brought were already completely subdued.

The Julien Mercenary Corps had surrounded the area and were simply watching. It was a sight too incredible to believe.

‘They’re all… stronger than the intel suggested?’

Even if he was a Transcendent, he was still a mage. Mages were inherently weak at detecting presence and engaging in close combat.

That’s why she had assumed she could escape easily even if caught. She hadn’t paid any attention to the other mercenaries.

She had heard that the mercenaries were fairly strong, but capturing assassins was another matter entirely.

She had confidence in her abilities as an assassin, which was why she had attempted the job in secret. That had been a mistake.

‘Damn it, I should’ve watched a bit longer.’

She never imagined those bastards would get kicked out of town for such vulgar behavior. That had made her rush things.

But judging from their response, it seemed they had been aware for quite some time. She had no idea where she had slipped up.

It was a clear mistake. Her escape plan had been based on the assumption that the enemy knew nothing.

Now that the premise had crumbled, the situation was close to the worst-case scenario.

At some point, her opponent had picked up his staff again and was closing in, swinging it.

Kaang! Kaang! Kaang!

She had tried several times to escape, but it wasn’t easy.

Despite being a mage, he was far too skilled in close combat.

In the end, she decided to fight more aggressively and wait for an opportunity.

Fflutter.

Dozens of daggers once again shot out from the masked woman’s robe.

Each dagger was connected to her body by an extremely thin thread.

Soon they writhed like snakes and flew at Ghislain from all directions.

Ghislain dodged the daggers with a smile.

‘Wow, this brings back memories.’

It felt almost like he was fighting Belinda.

However, compared to her, the masked woman’s technique lacked completeness.

It was a bit more experimental and bold, but her movements were rough, and her control was unstable.

Rather than skillfully pressuring the opponent, it was more of a scatter-and-pray attack style.

That’s why Ghislain could tell.

‘This technique isn’t complete yet.’

At first, he had assumed it was due to the masked woman’s lower level. But the more they fought, the more he realized the technique itself was unfinished.

Ghislain subtly looked around.

‘Hmm, is this an original technique? Doesn’t seem like one from a formal group.’

There was no one else who used techniques like hers. At most, there were only faint similarities in the way she moved.

Ghislain chose not to subdue the masked woman right away and continued to observe her. His mind was now filled with a swirl of thoughts.

‘Ha, what should I do? A normal approach won’t convince her.’

‘Just asking her to come with me won’t work at all…’

‘Do I really have to keep beating her up and drag her away by force?’

Ereneth and Lionel had joined him of their own accord. Each had their own reasons and desires.

But the masked woman’s situation was a bit different from theirs. There was a high chance she would try to escape no matter what.

That would be a problem. The Hero’s companions had to be restrained(?) and trained rigorously.

The more Ghislain worried about how to persuade and take the masked woman with him, the more anxious she became. The longer the fight went on, the more bewildered she grew.

‘Damn it! What kind of mage fights this well?’

It was common knowledge that mages were weak in close combat. Even a Transcendent mage would be in danger if attacked by skilled knights.

That was why mages were always surrounded by bodyguards.

But this guy had no one guarding him.

No—he didn’t even care. There were even people sitting down, eating something while watching the fight.

That alone showed how much faith they had in him.

‘Damn it, damn it! Freaking pervert!’

The masked woman began unleashing all sorts of thoughts that would’ve deeply wronged Ghislain had he heard them.

But no matter how much she cursed him internally, it wouldn’t help her escape from this predicament.

‘What do I do? At this rate, I might really die.’

She didn’t mean death at Ghislain’s hands. She had already realized he was going easy on them.

The fact that none of her subdued subordinates were dead was proof enough.

What she feared were others. She had her own complicated circumstances.

Now that the mission had failed, she had to flee far away and avoid them but her opponent clearly had no intention of letting her go so easily.

Kaang! Kaang! Kaang!

The deeper her worry grew, the more her movements started to falter.

Seeing that, Ghislain had a fun idea.

‘She’d be shocked if I used the same technique, wouldn’t she?’

Probably. If that technique hadn’t yet been completed in this era, just witnessing its perfected form would be a huge shock.

Even if it was already complete, it didn’t matter. The fact that someone not on her side could use it would be astonishing.

Kang!

Ghislain widened the distance and spoke.

“Your technique’s pretty clumsy.”

“……”

“Who taught you? Or did you train yourself?”

“……”

“Tsk, tsk. Quiet type, huh? Anyway, that’s not how you use that technique. Looks like you don’t know it well.”

At those words, the masked woman’s eyes flared sharply. It seemed her pride had been wounded.

Seeing that, Ghislain smiled leisurely and said,

“Wanna see something fun?”

Snap!

In an instant, Ghislain’s body scattered into darkness. The masked woman’s eyes widened in shock as she saw it.

Before she knew it, Ghislain had reappeared behind her and swung his staff.

Kaang!

She barely managed to block it. In the meantime, Ghislain’s body once again scattered into the darkness and vanished.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

‘H-How? How can a mage move like that?’

That movement—slipping into the shadows—was not something just anyone could pull off.

It was a technique that only highly skilled assassins or thieves could wield.

But that wasn’t why the masked woman was shocked.

‘Why—why does it resemble my own technique?’

In truth, even saying it was “similar” was a stretch. While the framework of the technique was alike, its precision and completeness were on an entirely different level.

Snap! Snap! Snaaap!

Ghislain repeatedly transformed into darkness and appeared around the masked woman.

She tried to flee, but Ghislain blocked her every time.

Even as panic rose, she clenched her teeth in frustration.

‘This bastard… he’s toying with me.’

He wasn’t even properly attacking anymore. He just kept vanishing and reappearing.

Her pride wounded, she hurled daggers in the direction Ghislain appeared.

Paaaah!

Dozens of daggers shot toward him.

Ghislain backed off, widening the distance, but the daggers tenaciously pursued him.

Then he grinned and said,

“Let me show you something even more interesting than before.”

Ziiiiing—

A subspace formed in midair. And from it, dozens of daggers suddenly burst forth.

Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-gang!

The daggers summoned by Ghislain intercepted and precisely knocked away all the daggers the masked woman had thrown.

Seeing that, the masked woman froze.

‘…No way.’

The daggers were floating in midair. Unlike hers, they weren’t attached to threads connected to his body.

This was the realm she had only dreamed of.

A realm where every dagger moved autonomously and emitted Aura Blades.

If she could reach that state, she would be able to face dozens of strong foes alone and it would simulate a coordinated assault even against a single powerful enemy.

It was truly the ultimate combat technique.

And now, the mage before her was casually displaying the very level she had yearned for.

The masked woman bit her lip.

‘It’s magic. He’s mimicking my technique with magic.’

That was plausible. After all, it wasn’t real—it was a fake.

But the fact that he kept copying her technique and even displayed movements that surpassed her own, as if to mock her… she couldn’t bear it.

“Eek!”

As the masked woman drew up her mana, the movement of her daggers grew sharper and more ferocious.

Ka-ga-ga-ga-gang!

Ghislain matched the rhythm just enough.

His aim was to show her that his technique was far superior.

Ka-ga-ga-gang!

Before long, Ghislain’s daggers knocked the masked woman’s daggers away.

They even sliced through the threads connecting her to the daggers.

Clink, clatter.

The severed daggers fell to the ground one by one.

Soon, Ghislain’s daggers surrounded the masked woman on all sides.

Once trapped in this space, even a Transcendent would struggle to escape.

Belinda had once used this technique to shred Melchior and the Transcendents of the Salvation Church.

Surrounded by dozens of daggers, the masked woman’s eyes filled with fear.

‘How… how is this possible…’

The realm she had longed for her entire life.

The dominator of space who moves through the shadows.

That perfect form was now unfolding right before her eyes.

She was desperately curious—how that man knew this technique, and how he could wield it so freely.

But now wasn’t the time for curiosity. She had to escape somehow.

Snap!

Her body once again dissolved into the darkness, trying to flee. But Ghislain’s daggers moved even faster.

Paaaah!

Dozens of daggers swept past her body in an instant. It was a deadly symphony that no one could evade.

‘Ack, slowly…’

Ghislain guided the daggers with delicate control.

His goal was to show off his strength and to spark her curiosity and desire for the technique.

So he couldn’t afford to injure her too badly.

Sssk! Sssk! Sssk!

As she hastily tried to shield her face, the masked woman sensed something was off.

The daggers were grazing her too lightly. Her clothes were torn, and she was wounded but not severely.

The daggers continued attacking her in a way that seemed more like they were keeping her in check.

Some daggers even poked at her lightly, almost playfully.

Perplexed, the masked woman soon teared up and collapsed to the ground. She clutched her torn robe tightly.

“You perverted bastard… Stop teasing me and just kill me already.”

“……”

Thud, thud, thud.

Ghislain’s daggers ceased moving and dropped to the ground.

The situation had taken a very strange turn.

He had intended to go easy on her, but the daggers had brushed against her body. With her clothes torn and in tatters, it was inevitable.

A woman on the verge of tears, clutching her ripped clothes. Anyone who saw the scene would easily misunderstand.

The problem was—the villagers were watching again.

“Oh dear… there he goes again.”

“They said his name was Astion, right? He seems like the biggest problem.”

“Yeah, yeah. He was the first to start threatening people yesterday too.”

The villagers whispered quietly among themselves, but there was no way those words wouldn’t reach the ears of the Transcendent Ghislain.

Ghislain felt monumentally wronged.

“……”

The more he thought about it, the more he felt this village just wasn’t a good match for him.

As he scratched his head, Ghislain sighed internally.

‘Ha, this really isn’t easy.’

Unlike the future, there were too many things to worry about now. Trying to move while taking all that into account wasn’t exactly simple.

Others still saw him as reckless, but Ghislain actually thought he had been quite considerate in his own way.

‘Still… maybe this is enough?’

He had shown her enough. Now it was time to pressure her through different means.

Ziiiing—

Ghislain drew Gramdyr from the subspace.

“This sword is called ‘Gramversation…’ no, ‘Conversation.’ I take it out when I want to have a serious talk with someone.”

“……”

“You know I went easy on you. The reason I used the same technique as you is because there’s something I wanted to show you.”

“Something you wanted to show me?”

“Yeah. But that’s not the priority right now. First, you need to answer what I want to know.”

“……”

“From now on, you’d better answer carefully. If not…”

Ghislain brought Gramdyr to the masked woman’s neck and continued.

“I’ll start killing your friends one by one. Oh, and you won’t get a peaceful death either.”

It was the kind of line only a villain would say. But Ghislain was the type of man who would really do it if necessary.

His demeanor changed in an instant. A cold killing intent began to dominate the area.

The masked woman could barely breathe. That’s how overwhelming Ghislain’s bloodlust was.

And the villagers who saw that…

“…He’s finally shown his true colors.”

“Let’s get out of here. Look at those eyes—he’s not normal.”

“Astion… a terrifying pervert, really.”

They began murmuring and fleeing quietly.

Thus, Astion’s infamy continued to pile up yet again today.

“……”

Ghislain now felt completely resigned.

Astion was already being talked about badly in all sorts of places, for all kinds of reasons.

He figured it might be best to just change his name later.

Ghislain knew that even threatening her wouldn’t be easy. So he was taking a breath, preparing his next move—

But unexpectedly, the masked woman spoke up meekly.

“We… were sent by the Pope.”

“…What did you just say?”

Ghislain narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.

It was a name he hadn’t expected at all.