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Chapter 72

Vestaha Kingdom.

It’s the country where Cordelia and I were born and raised.
We are currently in its capital city, and that’s because the headquarters of the Nuralis Trading Company is located here.

The capital is what you’d call a fortress city, surrounded by oval-shaped walls that encircle the entire city.

「Brings back memories.」

The village where I was born is located on the outskirts of this country.
I vaguely remember going to the capital once with my mom and dad to have a meal at a restaurant.

However, generally speaking, the common folk don’t have much sense of allegiance to the nation.
At least, I only remember my dad being troubled every year by heavy taxes on agricultural products.

—So, if it doesn’t cause trouble for the majority of people living in this country, I wouldn’t mind if the governing organization of Vestaha Kingdom, our birthplace, were to collapse in the worst-case scenario of this situation.

Now, I have made up my mind to that extent and am walking through the main street of the capital of Vestaha Kingdom.
After walking the main street for a while, I arrived at a circular square.

Now… I took a small breath.
If I advance about one kilometer north from here, I’ll reach the king’s castle.

And in this square, various facilities such as the trading company and adventurer’s guild are lined up.
Among them, a particularly splendid building, with an impressive gate, serves as the headquarters of the Nuralis Trading Company.

As I walked towards it, two men, gatekeepers, in armor with spears in hand, blocked our way.

「…」

Without a word, I tried to open the door, and one of the gatekeepers greeted me with a smile.

「Customers? Do you have an appointment?」

「No.」

「…In that case, I will handle the reception for you. What is your business?」

「I don’t need to answer your question.」

Without hesitation, I reached for the doorknob.

「Hey, guest! This company has many enemies, you know? There are occasional fools who attempt to raid us. We won’t treat you as a customer beyond this point, alright?」

The tip of the spear was pointed towards me.
Sighing, I took the handle of the spear in my right hand.

「That’s why I came for a raid, you know?」

With a swing, I grabbed the spear as if lifting a heavy object.
With the perfect centrifugal force, the soldier was sent flying.

Bang!

In the fountain at the center of the circular square, the soldier made a spectacular entrance.
There, I discarded the spear on the spot.

Then, another man approached me.

「H-hey… what are you doing to yourself? Do you understand what you’re doing? B-rank adventurers are on standby inside the building for emergency situations, and the guild over there currently has A-rank—」

In the middle of his sentence, the man took out a knife from his pocket, aiming to attack my neck unexpectedly.

「Pbera!」

A swift backfist.
I crushed his nose bone.

Clapping my hands together, I grabbed the collar of the man, who seemed about to collapse, with blood streaming down his nose.

「I told you, I came for a raid, didn’t I? What about you?」

「Hyaa… Hyaa… Hyai…!」

「If you resist any further, I won’t treat you as a human. I’ll sever your neck at a speed where you won’t even realize you’ve been killed. Well, I don’t have a hobby for torture, and in that case, you’ll die easily… so, you can rest easy about that.」

「Ah… Ah…」

Releasing my grip, the man collapsed to the ground.
Since he was trembling on the ground in a crouching position, I judged that he had no intention of fighting.

I then violently kicked the door.

With a cracking sound, the wooden door was shattered, and wood debris scattered around.

「Now…」

Looking around, the room was filled with numerous luxurious furnishings.
They were probably acquired with money earned through less than decent means, and just looking at them made me nauseous.

The lobby was about the size of twenty tatami mats.
For now, it seemed like this was the reception area.

The floor was meticulously covered with marble.
Right in front, there was a reception desk, and on the wall behind the receptionist, the golden emblem of the trading company was displayed.

「Lilith, let loose.」

With my words, Lilith nodded slightly, raising her staff in front of her.

「Flare.」

After the words, a fireball hit the emblem, causing a loud explosion.

「Kyaa… Kyaa… Kyaaaaa!」

The receptionist immediately retreated deeper into the room.
Seeing Lilith make a faint movement to launch another attack, I quickly restrained her.

「Quit it. Don’t forget the initial policy we decided on. We won’t engage in a massacre. Most of these small fries probably don’t understand anything, and, to begin with, do you think many of these guys even know that they picked a fight with me?」

「Understood.」

「A confirmation once again. What we’re going to do now is retaliation, not slaughter. Those underlings probably don’t know anything, and in the first place, most of them don’t even know who I am, right?」

As I said that, armed men with swords and spears emerged.
Seemingly specialists in rough work, judging by their killing intent, they were eager to fight.

「You bastards, you understand that this is the headquarters of the Nuralis Trading Company…」

「Noisy.」

Simultaneously with my words, I moved behind the leading man.

—Teleportation.

Well, it’s just high-speed movement, but for these guys, it probably looks like some kind of supernatural technique.
I swung my right hand, delivering a punch to the back of the head of the man wielding a sword.

「Pubera!」

A clean hit.

The man was sent flying and plastered onto the wall in a sprawled position.
After that, he slid down to the floor as if dragged, gradually losing his balance.

The man who fell to the floor was twitching, and the one with a spear in front of me introduced himself with a grand speech.

「I’m a B-rank adventurer! The exclusive bodyguard of this company… Kshatria, the Gale! Abuya!」

This time, I threw a back fist with my left hand.

Inevitably, the man danced like a rag.
With his nasal bone crushed and his nose bleeding profusely, the man screamed.

「Hey, hey… Next to this place, there’s the Adventurer Guild, you know? The company and the guild have a security contract… If there’s any trouble, adventurers will be dispatched from the guild immediately, you know!?」

「Oh, is that so? And?」

「Now, in this town, there’s a party of four A-rank adventurers and one S-rank adventurer…」

「Well, that’s unusual. Those guys doesn’t stay at the capital’s guild too often, right?」

At that point, while still bleeding from his nose, the man stood up.
He truly is a B-rank adventurer, seems quite tough.

However, being moderately strong makes it difficult to control one’s strength.

「That’s right! It’s over for you! Earlier, I saw those guys packing at the guild! They should be rushing here in no time!」

And then, at that moment, the door of the company’s entrance opened.
The timing is too perfect, I couldn’t help but wryly smile.

「…Lilith. Step back.」

The incoming group consisted of a mage, a warrior, and also a martial artist and a swordsman, one each.
In total, four people, with three of them being A-rank adventurers… it seems like they are lower A-rank.

The remaining one is undoubtedly an S-rank adventurer.
Well, it’s quite unusual to have such firepower in a rural area.

Did some unique creatures appear?

Come to think of it, I beat up a vampire reincarnate a while ago.
Could it be related?

Anyway, I can’t let the S-rank swordsman and Lilith confront them directly.
Thus, borrowing the tiger’s authority like a fox, the man covered in nosebleed proudly said:

「Hey, you there, the hoodlum… You really had bad luck, huh? You probably didn’t think there would be such a famous party in this town, right?」

「Even if you boast with a nosebleed, it’s not impressive, you know?」

Then, the person who seemed to be the S-rank adventurer, a swordsman, spoke to me.

「Considering that the B-rank Gale, Kshatria, was defeated, you are probably an A-rank, right? However――you really had bad luck. If you want to curse, you can curse your own bad luck for having the world’s strongest class adventurer party staying in this town… That’s my advice for your unlucky fate.」

Now, my opponent is confirmed to be S-rank.
If I hold back too much, there’s a risk of getting burned.

――Activate all body reinforcement techniques.

However, naturally, I won’t use forbidden or hermit techniques.
It might be considered a shortcut, but this is my full strength without resorting to foul play.

In a way, this form of expression vaguely pays respects to this swordsman, who is generally recognized as a master of martial arts.

「An S-rank swordsman, huh. Well, I guess you’re right, and your luck is indeed bad.」

I leaped and swung my sword down from a high position at the swordsman.

「What!?」

Truly an S-rank.
The man received my slash.

「What is this speed!? Just defending against it is all I can manage!?」

With clear panic, the man’s eyes rolled up and down.
Well, he still has a lot to learn.

What’s the point of letting me know you’re panicking during a fight?
Even if you think it’s really dangerous, you have to maintain a poker face.

Well, considering that something impossible is actually happening, there is a bit of room for sympathy for that reaction.
Without taking a breath, I swiftly moved on to the next action.

I stepped and circled around to his back, but this guy still couldn’t keep up with my speed at all.
At this rate, it seems he mostly relied on his intuition built up over many years of swordsmanship to take my attack just now.

Then, a little after the sound of the wind being cut, the sound of the swordsman’s right hand falling to the ground while still holding the sword followed.

「Huh? My arm… fell off…?」

The swordsman made a surprised expression, as if a pigeon had been hit by a pellet.
I quickly picked up the fallen right hand and tossed it to the party’s magician.

「It seems like you specialize in recovery magic? If you treat it right away, the arm should easily reattach.」

The four stared at me, utterly dumbfounded.

「I won’t tolerate any more of your misfortune. I’ll spare you if you disappear quietly, and I’ll let it slide with just that arm. If you understand, vanish quietly.」

In response to these words, the four were just standing there, looking stunned.
The S-rank adventurer swordsman seemed to be so astonished that he didn’t even feel the pain.

Well, if you have time to stand there like a stick, hurry up and stop the bleeding…
So, I clapped my hands loudly.

At the same time, all four shivered.

「Give me an answer!」

Thus, their expressions all turned pale.
It seemed like they finally understood the situation.

「Yes… Y-yes!」

And so, they quickly left through the entrance.

「Hey, you there? Um, the B-rank one…?」

「K-K-Kshatria… I am…」

Facing the tearful Kshatria, I tilted my chin upward.

「Guide us inside. I want to talk to your owner… the president of the company.」