How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 67: Moving Forward (2)

Alensia Hare looked at the flushed-cheeked white woman with a complicated expression.

‘She’s an assistant that the boss sent, but she’s unidentified and I don’t know what she can do.’

The fact was that he didn’t trust her as an enforcer, so he sent a companion but she didn’t have any complaints.

However if she had to pinpoint a complaint, it would be the attitude of this white woman.

Does she trust me to protect her, or does she have confidence in her abilities?

If she had to guess, she’d say it was the latter.

That strange, unidentifiable feeling she’d gotten from the first time she’d laid eyes on her hadn’t stopped tingling her senses.

Like Alensia, the criminals recognized the white woman’s extraordinary appearance.

One in particular, a middle-aged man, felt an unexplainable chill at the sight of the white woman and a sense of urgency to flee the scene.

‘Alensia Hare is dangerous, but that white woman is even more dangerous.’

The good news is that the white woman is not looking at them, the criminals, right now.

Her ecstatic eyes were fixed as if nailed to the scene beyond, where a fight had just broken out.

“Alas, I never thought I’d see you again, but I’m so glad I came here just in case.”

The white woman looked as if she might jump for joy at any moment, but then she shook her head as she regained her composure.

“I’d love to see him, but it would only be an embarrassment to him if I came in such an immature state.”

After muttering those last words, the white woman’s gaze finally settled on the two criminals.

-Pfft!

A black poisonous mist burst into the air.

The black magic unleashed by the grim-looking man was a rank 3 black magic, Breath of Corruption.

The mid-30s mechanic, who saw the black fog swirling around him, leapt into action.

The blades of the mechanical arm on his back spread out and turned into a propeller.

Boom!

The blades spun rapidly, creating a gust of wind. Black poisonous mist rushed toward the white woman and Alensia Hair in waves.

“Dodge!”

Alensia Hare warned and stepped back, but the white woman remained where she was.

Alensia looked at her, wondering what she was doing.

“I suppose I’ll just have to get rid of the bugs around here with my own hands.”

Muttering softly, the white woman reached out toward the poisonous mist.

A pure white energy emanated from her hand and shot toward the poison fog.

It was so small and delicate-looking, but the poison mist was too frightened to touch it, and it turned into a white light and dissipated into powder.

The two criminals, trying to escape, stared in amazement at the sight.

The white energy coiled like a snake out of thin air and split into two, each aiming for one of the criminals.

“You think you’ll get away with it!”

They leapt to their defenses, as if to prove that they hadn’t been imprisoned in the Uluaz Prison for nothing.

Purple armor covered the warlock’s body as he summoned black magic.

It was Poison Armor, one of the most difficult of the black magic schools.

The mechanical armored man was no different as another mechanical arm protruded from a pack on his back.

Sharp blades protruded from the tips of the arms, stabbing into the pure white aura but the two criminals collapsed with their eyes rolling back.

Alensia Hare rushed over to them, assessing their condition.

‘Dead?’

For a moment, she didn’t understand what had happened.

The two criminals had used their skills to resist the white woman and then the white aura touched their bodies, ignoring their resistance like a phantom.

‘And they’re dead? Unharmed like this?’

The criminals collapsed, unable to resist.

The white woman, the one who had actually done the deed, paid them no attention, as if she had just cleared away a stone.

“Was it necessary to kill……?”

Alensia asked, looking at the white woman.

If she had the ability to kill him instantly, it shouldn’t have been a problem to subdue him.

However, the fact that she killed them as if it was a bother made her doubt the white woman’s humanity.

“Huh?”

The white woman reacted in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected Alensia to say such a thing to her.

“What’s wrong with you? You were supposed to kill them anyway, you said they were criminals.”

“Even if they are criminals, the first step is to capture them. If they’re in a prison they can’t escape, it means they’ve made a deal with someone.”

Capturing them and interrogating them was the best option, if only to find out what was going on behind the scenes.

At that, the white woman looked at Alensia with golden eyes of interest.

“I see. You’re right.”

“But why…….”

“Because I know who it is without having to interrogate them. It’s the military that meddled in this, isn’t it?”

“Even the military is a broad brush, and not all of them are accomplices.”

“Well, if you poke at the military, they’ll figure out who to punish internally, and we don’t care who exactly did what.”

“If the military was involved, they wouldn’t have gotten away with it anyway, because the military would have planted a bomb in their bodies.”

“I’ll trust any criminal to do their job, but not those two, they’ve already disarmed the bombs.”

Alensia’s eyes widened.

“Is that true?”

“I think it was that mechanic over there, and it’s far better to kill them as soon as we find them than to let them run amok like this, though my reasons are more personal.”

As she spoke, the white woman’s cheeks flushed once more, and she stared off into space.

It was then that Alensia realized who the white woman was looking at.

‘Osian, the fixer.’

The white woman continued to stare at Ossian in rapture.

Alensia didn’t understand why someone who was so hostile to her would be so favorable to Ossian.

‘He hasn’t been like this since the first time we met, but I wonder if he has something to hide.’

Alensia decided to put the question to rest for now.

First things first, she had to capture the escaped convicts.

*

Osian didn’t react much to the distant gaze.

The emotion in the gaze itself was more subtle.

‘I don’t know who they are, but they don’t seem to have anything against me, so it’s probably best to ignore them.’

If anything, it was a potential ally given the way they took care of the other miscreants who’d tried to target him.

Osian decided to tune them out.

New enemies could come at any moment, and for now, it was best to get Orlea out of here.

“Thank you.”

Croix, the eldest sister, thanked Osian.

“If it weren’t for you, we would have been killed by that damned Bola.”

“I wasn’t really trying to help you.”

“I know, but you still helped, and I’ll make sure to repay this debt later.”

“You were captured, weren’t you?”

Ossian asked, and Croix nodded, showing him something in her hand.

It was a small bomb, covered in blood.

“A bomb planted in our bodies. Not just us, but all of them.”

“So they’re insuring themselves against the danger of letting you go.”

“True, but not me and Attila. We can take out anything, even something like this.”

Attila turned her head away, as if ashamed.

The way the tips of her tentacles twitched beneath the hem of her flouncy skirt, Osian couldn’t bring himself to ask how she’d gotten them out.

“Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you again.”

“……Thank you.”

Attila bowed her head shyly to Osian.

“Someday, we’ll meet again.”

With those words, Croix and Attila lifted the lid of a nearby sewer and disappeared down the drain.

Orlea watched them go, muttering to herself in disgust.

“How dare they think of going to such a filthy place?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Huh?”

“We’re going too.”

Orlea’s face turned pale.

“Now, wait a minute. Are you serious?”

“Meaning what?”

“You’re really going to go to the stinking, filthy sewers, and you’re taking me, a princess, with you?”

“I drew too much attention to us with that fight earlier. If we’re going to buy time, we need to at least get away from being surrounded on top of a building.”

So they decided to go underground.

The maze of underground tunnels would at least allow them to narrow the scope of their assault if they encountered enemies.

“Shouldn’t we just hold out until reinforcements arrive?”

“There’s no guarantee that what’s coming will be friendly reinforcements.”

Osian remembered the distant gaze.

There were signs of favor toward this side, but they were watching not approaching.

That meant they were more of an observer than a full ally.

“What if you think they’re allies, and you let your guard down, only to be ambushed?”

“That’s…….”

‘You’ll have to protect me again.’

Orlea couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

Not because she didn’t care, but because she realized she had relaxed too much, as Osian had pointed out.

“You have to live. Nothing is more important than that. No matter how dirty and smelly you are, you have to live, don’t forget that.”

“……Understood. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Now Orlea has no one she can trust.

The military has turned against her, and so have some of her own men, not to mention the kingdom’s envoys that came with her.

Of course Orlea had her doubts.

Where and how far their grasp stretches?

‘This fight is only as good as this side holds out, anyway.’

And the only person Orlea could trust here was the dark-haired man in front of her, Ossian.

“I’ll go in, even if I hate it to death.”

“Probably not that much.”

Osian lightly kicked the manhole cover where the sisters had disappeared with his foot.

Normally, a manhole cover like that would weigh more than 100 kilograms to open.

The fact that he was able to open it with a simple kick of his foot showed how ridiculous his strength was.

Orlea, who had no such simple knowledge, swallowed hard at the sight of the blackness beneath the opening.

Even if she felt her life was in danger, she had only ever eaten good food and worn fine clothes in gorgeous, beautifully decorated places.

She had never imagined a stinking alleyway like this, much less the filthy underground.

Still.

She must go.

Orlea held out a small hand toward Osian, confidently.

Osian raised an eyebrow at the sight. He took her hand and hugged her like a princess.

“Here we go.”

“…….”

Orlea nodded wordlessly while Osian quickly picked her up and lightly jumped down the hole.

Arriving at the underground aqueduct with a slight sense of floatiness, Osian realized that the stench wasn’t as bad as he had expected.

‘As for Croix and Attila, they must have gotten away first.’

They’re being hunted, too, so it won’t do them any good to stay in this place for long.

“Are you all right?”

“Ugh. It’s better than I thought.”

Orlea still didn’t look like she was used to being in this environment.

In fact, she looked at Osian, who seemed to be fine, and wondered.

‘Such an insensitive reaction from someone who seems so noble. Is he used to this?’

Perhaps Osian was not what he seemed and had weathered many storms, Orlea realized, and she needed to be more compassionate.

At the very least, she would no longer be an obstacle to Osian.

The two walked through the underground channel.

After struggling at first, Orlea gradually got used to the foul odor, and was now looking at the tunnels with curiosity.

“Interesting. I’ve always heard that Tirna is a city of advanced technology, but I never knew they could build an underground aqueduct so large and extensive.”

The underground aqueducts weren’t just channels with water running through them.

There were large pipes running everywhere, and in some places, it turned into a cliff-like area or a three-dimensional maze.

A place where you could get lost if you made a wrong turn.

At this point, it was more like an underground maze than an underground waterway.

It was then that a sound echoed from somewhere.

It sounded like the ringing of metal, or the howling of something.

For some reason, Orlea felt goosebumps all over her body.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hmm. There must be something.”

Maybe there’s a big crocodile living underground.

Just as Osian was thinking that, a third party interrupted him.

“It’s just a common creature that lives nearby, don’t be alarmed.”

At that, Orlea shuddered in surprise.

Osian, who had been feeling it in the first place, looked back at the voice’s owner with a blank stare.

A man in a dark brown coat, with a plague doctor’s gas mask over his face, stood there.