LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 68: Carotid artery
A dungeon appeared.
Everyone was talking about the rumor and no one could concentrate, eventually principal Sabrina held a school assembly confirming the rumor.
“Our school strictly prohibits entrance into the dungeon without a magical contract signed by a parent or guardian. If you decide to enter the dungeon the school accepts no responsibility for what happens.”
The principals tone was abnormally harsh causing the hall where everyone was gathered to grow impossibly quiet. I needed some air, I left the hall and stepped outside, I sucked in a fresh lung full of air just as two people called out to me.
“Could we have a moment of your time?”
It was the reporters that I’d seen not that long ago.
“You don’t have to be so onguard, we have information suggesting that you are the hero Nito. We just want to talk with you.”
“I’m in a hurry.”
I’m glad I got the mask, behind the woman the photographer was holding his camera like magic tool at the ready.
[The {dragon crystal ring} is reacting to something.]
The announcement went off in my head, those guys again, fortunately only I can hear his voice but what timing.
“Nito….can you hear me?”
How annoying, what do you need?
“I’m sorry to be an announcement but it’s me, Alford.”
Oh? Can I talk without actually using my voice? As expected of a telepathic device, there’s no need to actually speak.
“Can I ask you something?”
Francesca was standing in front of me and had yet to shut up.
“Do you know someone by the name of Ichijo?”
………..huh?
“I thought you probably knew this guy, what I wrong?”
Why do you know that name?
“Oh that’s easy, he’s our new member.”
“Whaaaaat!?”
I shouted without thinking.
“S, sorry, was one of my questions rude?”
“Huh? Oh, no.”
Questions? I wasn’t even listening.
“I know what you want to say. I heard what you said to Aries and thought he may be a target of your revenge. But I want you to listen to what I have to say.”
What you have to say?
“When we met Ichijo he was being chased by another summoned hero. He was attempting to leave Greyberg, searching for Hidaka Masamune.”
……….huh?
“You know what that means right?”
Why is Ichijo looking for me, I should be dead? What is this for?
“I haven’t said anything about you yet, what should we do?”
Do not tell him who I am, if you do, you’ll never see me again.
“Got it, then we’ll keep it quiet. Now onto the real reason why we called.”
There’s more?
“Do you know the country Artemias? We’re going to attack that country now.”
More troublesome talk.
“Don’t say that, the king recently ordered the genocide of his people. We aim to assassinate both him and the princess.”
……The princess…Sufilia?
“Hm? You know her? Yeah Sufilia Artemias, she is also responsible for what happened.”
Sufilia is responsible? No, there’s no way Sufilia would have tried to stop it.
“We’ll tell you the details later, if you want to participate we’ll cast the teleportation like usual.”
“Nito, can we take a picture?”
“What?”
“A picture.”
Francesca was smiling.
“If possible could you remove your dwarf mask and show us your face?”
“I don’t want my picture taken, also I’m not Nito, I’m just a student. ”
I cast 《Soul break》on the camera man.
“Ah, oh no, what happened?”
The lense cracked and smoke rose up from the camera.
“What happened Dolly?”
“The camera blew up.”
Francesca glared at me.
“Did you do this?”
“Do what?”
“All we want is to know who the S rank adventurer that stopped the empire’s attack is.”
S rank? I should have only been B rank.
“S rank? He sounds like an amazing adventurer.”
“Yes, that’s why we’re searching for him.”
“A picture of my real face would cause trouble for me.”
“What about a question?”
“I’ll answer 1.”
If I doubt answer them it’s unlikely that they’ll just leave me alone. But the ones I’m interested in are Sufilia and Ichijo, not these reporters. It’s better to answer one question and get it over with.
“Whats your job?”
“Healer.”
“Healer! …….that’s, really!? Where are you from? Where do you live?”
“Only one question, you’ll have to find another opportunity.”
“Wait!”
“Oh, and absolutely no pictures.”
“……….”
“Since you know that I’m Nito, you know who my friends are right? But no pictures, if you take a picture…..you know what’s happen right?”
Francesca gulped and I teleported away.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of Ichijo standing in the back, why is this happening? Why did Ichijo join Dragon’s heart?
I was introduced.
“I look forward to working with you.”
I was wearing the robe and the mask, he shouldn’t be able to recognize me like this.
“Please tell me why you want to kill Sufilia.”
“I’ll explain.”
Seig said that but it was hard for me to understand, he said that the Mastermind behind the killing of her people was Sufilia herself.
“Theres no objection right?”
“………right.”
But I know I can’t lie, I need to confirm it with Sufilia herself.
“Then we will attack Artemias, we’ll use the same strategy as before.”
“Charge in through the front?”
“Yeah, this country might be a technological powerhouse but it’s inferior to Greyberg in terms of military strength. Although I have to say something before we go.”
Seig said to preface what he was going to say next.
“This is Ichijo’s first time but, as I said before we can’t afford to lose. ”
“You want me to back him up?”
“Please.”
Sieg knows I can’t refuse.
“No problem, is your explanation over?”
“Yeah, that’s everything.”
“Got it, then I have one last thing. Please leave the princess to me.”
“Fine.”
Sieg agreed.
*
“What kind of magic does Nito use?”
“I’ll show you if we get a chance, but I’m incompetent so don’t expect too much.”
“Incompetent? ”
“They over estimate me, by the way, I heard that Ichijo was one of the summoned heros? That you’re not from here.”
“Yeah, I thought it would only be temporary but here I am.”
“I see. ”
“By the way Nito I wanted to ask.”
“Do you know someone named Hidaka Masamune?”
“Thats a rare name, are you friends or something? ”
“I doubt he sees it that way, we abandoned him.”
“There must have been some special circumstances, I don’t know him but if I meet him on my travels I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you. ”
The carotid artery. If I cut this blood would be unable to reach the brain and the person would bleed out. I could kill Ichijo at anytime, it doesn’t have to be right now.
The two of us were walking on the Artemias wall. He was surprised when I showed him my wings but he got over it quickly. The most annoying thing about him was that he talked to me like we knew each other.
There were guards stationed at regular intervals along the wall. We used 《God speed》to get past them without being noticed.
If I killed him now, Sieg probably wouldn’t believe me if I said “I couldn’t save him.”
“Should I go?”
There was a guard behind a pillar.
“No wait here, this country is a technological power house and it’ll only get bigger from here on out. I don’t want to kill any guards. ”
“But this countryー”
“I know but, I have to confirm something about the princess. Please wait until then.”
“I got it. ”
I told Ichijo to wait then I used 《God Speed》to approach the guard.
“Wha!”
“《Binding》”
White arms grabbed hold of the guard.
“Be quiet please I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Mmmm! Mmmmm!”
“If you resist I’ll kill you, so don’t resist.”
The guard stopped struggling when I said that.”
“We are dragons heart.”
His eyes grew wide before looking down.
“From that reaction I take it you know what the king has done?”
“…….you’ve come to kill the king then?”
The guard didn’t look scared.
“Thats correct.”
“…….I see.”
Did he know that we were coming?
“I want to ask about the kings daughter.”
“Princess Sufilia?”
“Yes. We know that the king slaughtered his people, but is it true that this slaughter was directed by the Princess?”
“Its true. ”
“You’re obedient aren’t you.”
“I don’t intend to hide anything. It seems like most of us were waiting for you.”
“What so you mean?”
“This country is finished now, no, it may have already been over a long time ago. The king was greedy,, he monopolized advanced technology and ruled the country however he wanted. Those who opposed him were killed, even those that were part of the Artemias family. The King’s gone insane!”
“Thats why you were waiting for us to kill the king?”
“Yeah.”
“The slaughter of the people, did the king order the princess to do it?”
“I don’t know the details but, that doesn’t seem to be the case. That girl is crazy too, probably worse than the king. She was raised by the king and doesn’t know the difference between good and evil. You can imagine what kind of person she is can’t you? ”
But, I didn’t get that feeling back then.
“Ichijo, lets head to the throne room.”
“Wait, what about the other guards?”
“Thank you for the information. I’ll tell you something in exchange for it. As you said we are here to kill the king and the princess. We won’t kill you but our other companions may not be as nice, if you don’t want to be killed take your friends and run.”
“I understand.”
I let the guard escape.
“Nito, you’re a lot calmer than what I was told.”
“Calmer? ”
Ichijo said something surprising.
“Sieg said that you were the one to kill Aries and the King and erase the castle. But you don’t seem like someone who would do that.”
“Greyberg was different, they committed many atrocities. Isn’t what happened to Hidaka, the person you’re searching for alone of those atrocities?”
“Atrocities?”
“Ichijo, why are you looking for Hidaka?”
Ichijo looked reluctant.
“When Hidaka was cast away, I prioritized myself I thought if I messed up I too would be cast away. And then he was gone, I abandoned him.”
“I see.”
“I want Hidaka to know that he can depend on someone.”
“Depend?”
“Yeah, he could be socially awkward.”
How can you say that without knowing the other person?
“But in the end I abandoned him, I said he could rely on me and I abandoned him.”
“I see, by the way you said he was cast away. ”
“Yeah.”
“So then he’s probably already…”
“He’s alive! Hidaka is alive!”
He sounded emotional.
“Fine, he’s alive. If you see him what so you intend to do?”
“Before he was cast away he said that he would return and kill us all.”
“Revenge?”
I remember that well.
“Yes but, I don’t want him to go down that road. Revenge only brings about more revenge. I don’t know where Hidaka is but, there’s already so much death in this world. Of course there was death in our world as well but it wasn’t as prevalent as it is in this world. ”
“Can I ask one thing?”
“What is it? ”
“What do you think he will do?”
“I don’t know what he will do. He might end up hurting someone.”
“Then you should kill him, you have to take action before he hurts anyone. ”
“He’s not evil! S, sorry…..”
“No I said too much, I’m sorry.”
“I’m searching for him so that I don’t have to kill him.”
It seems he really thinks I’m alive.
“What will you do if you find him?”
“Help him… I’ll help him. I won’t abandon him again.”
*
The corridor hasn’t changed since I was here before.
“I sense a strange magic power.”
“Nito, I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to disrupt their cognition.”
“It can’t be helped. ”
I found it.
“You’re not a citizen of this country, who are you?”
I remember this guy’s face, he was escorting Sufilia when they ran into the red dragon. His name is Heathcliff.
“We’ve come to kill the princess and the king. Any objections? ”
I asked straightforwardly, it’s easier this way. There’s only two answers to the question and you can tell what they’re going to do based off their reaction.
“Are you messing with me?”
Heathcliff drew his sword…. Well that answers that question.
“Ichijo, it seems that he’s an accomplice to the king.”
“In that case, I’ll take care of him.”
A golden sword appeared in his hand, is that Excalibur? The sword that only a hero can wield.
“Nito, this is my first time fighting someone. I’ve never killed before.”
“I understand, I’ll support you if need be.”
“Thank you. ”
Ichijo closed the distance quickly, his sword cutting right through Heathcliffs when they touched. His attack looked decent enough. Alford might have taught him a thing or two.
Confused Heathcliff put some distance between them.
“《Tempering》!”
Heathcliff held his hand over the broken sword. A magic circle appeared on his hand slowly repairing the sword.
“A nice sword, but it’s useless in your hands.”
Just as Heathcliff said, while Ichijos strike was powerful, it was sloppy. There are a lot of openings in his sword work.
“《Wind blade》!”
Ichijo fired the windblade, Heathcliff retaliated by throwing multiple Magic knives back at him but Ichijo blocked them with his sword. Without missing a beat a large white magic circle appeared around Ichijos feet.
“Nito, I can’t see any openings. I’m going to try and finish it with this.”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Ichijos magic power swelled.
“《Explosion》!”
An explosion went off at Heathcliffs feet, the force was so great that it tore down the walls, pillars and ceiling around it. Debris flew everywhere and when the dust settled you could see that the entire hallway had been turned to rubble.
That was magic is unreasonable…. It’s only saving grace is that Saeki didn’t have it.
“I’ll leave it to you.