Chapter 6: Sacred Flames of Darkness
The muffled roar of a fierce wind could be heard. A heat that made boiling water feel lukewarm surrounded him.
Was he soaking in a pool of magma in hell?
“...!”
He tried to yell, but no voice came out.
“...!”
It was hot. It felt like both the inside and outside of his body were burning at the same time.
What on earth was happening?
He didn’t know. But he wanted to escape from this hell.
Which was why Takahisa...
◇ ◇ ◇
Underneath the brothel was a secret high-powered incinerator that ran on enchanted gems as fuel. The chimney for the incinerator’s smoke was connected to the chimney of the kitchen stove on the first floor, cleverly hiding the existence of the underground room while allowing the smoke to be carried outside the building.
That secret incinerator was currently powered on, flames roaring loudly inside. The body of the boy Norman had just killed had been thrown inside. But in contrast to the climbing temperature of the flames within...
“Mr. Norman was terrifying...”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen him so mad before.”
The thugs waiting beside the incinerator shuddered, goose bumps spreading across their bodies. They had caught a glimpse of bottomless insanity in the way Norman had punished Takahisa and Julia.
“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep well for a while.”
“Was it really the hero that we killed?”
“What if we get cursed for it?”
A cold chill ran down the thugs’ backs as they spoke. Just then, a dull bang came from the incinerator.
“Huh?!”
The thugs startled and turned to look at the incinerator.
“Wh-What was that just now...?”
“I heard it too. A sound.”
“Don’t tell me... Are we seriously gonna get cursed?”
“Stop it! It’s all because you brought it up!”
The thugs were all frightened after assisting in the murder of a hero.
At that very moment, someone appeared in the doorway of the incinerator room. It was Nick, the mercenary Norman had hired.
“Hey, you guys.” Nick greeted the scared thugs with a casual wave.
“Oh, Nick!”
The thugs let out a sigh of relief at the entrance of a familiar face. The thugs in the room had all joined the organization in their early childhood and been raised within the group. To them, a mercenary from outside the capital was an outsider.
However, Nick’s abilities, work ethic, and good-humored personality, along with the fact he had been directly scouted by the higher-ups of the organization, made him a trusted member among them.
“What an unlucky day, huh?” Nick said to the thugs with a shrug.
“Did you hear that sound just now, Nick?!”
“Isn’t this bad?!”
“Yeah, what if the hero curses us...”
The thugs had their guards lowered as they spoke to Nick excitedly.
“Sorry,” Nick said, drawing his sword and walking inside. He swung it swiftly three times.
“Huh...?”
The thugs that had been seated while chatting with each other fell from their chairs with no idea what had just happened.
“I’m quitting the organization as of today,” Nick said plainly, looking down at their faces. After returning his sword to its sheath, he scraped out the enchanted gems being used as fuel in the incinerator and began the extinguishing process. Normally, one would wait for the fire to naturally die down, but...
“Procreo Aqua. Aura Flatus.”
He used magic that created water and wind to accelerate the process.
“Goodness...”
Nick retrieved the contents of the incinerator with an annoyed look: it was Takahisa’s body, which had been cremated to destroy evidence. Although he had only been in the incinerator for a short while, most of his flesh had already been burned to ash. However...
“Ah...”
Against all expectations, Takahisa let out a groan. Upon closer inspection, his burned body was already healing rapidly.
“Is he seriously still alive? Damn.” Nick’s face twitched in disbelief, having watched Takahisa get stabbed through the heart so many times with his own eyes. That being said, he couldn’t just stand around; Nick retrieved a red essence crystal from his pocket and picked up Takahisa’s body in his arms.
“Transilio.”
He used the disposable teleport crystal and disappeared.
◇ ◇ ◇
Immediately afterwards, Nick stood in the room of a commoner inn in the Galarc Capital with Takahisa in his arms.
“Good work, Nick,” a voice praised.
The voice belonged to the ambassador of the Proxia Empire, Reiss, who was seated in a chair.
“As planned, I rescued him after the incineration began. I set the teleport coordinates for sneaking into that underground room perfectly.”
“Wonderful. You have done a truly good job today. It was worth making you infiltrate the Galarc underground for this. Now, lay him down on this bed.” Reiss personally lifted the blanket and gestured for Takahisa to be laid down.
“I know you said this would happen, but what the hell is up with his body?” Nick asked, looking down at Takahisa in disgust after laying him down.
“It’s exactly as I explained. Heroes possess an astounding healing ability. There is a limit to it, but he won’t die from just this.”
“This barely can be considered healing anymore... It’s practically resurrection.”
“Indeed,” Reiss agreed cheerfully.
“So, what happens after this?”
“Of course, we’ll make him indebted to us. But the specifics will depend on his wishes after he wakes up.”
“I was there when he was stabbed to death by Norman. Won’t he be hostile to me if he sees me?”
“That shouldn’t pose much of a problem. You should return to the organization in the red-light district for now. Before you go, though...”
The cremation advanced the assimilation a decent amount, but this is his first death. It should take some time for him to recover completely.
Reiss observed the state of the unconscious Takahisa on the bed.
“It’ll take some time for him to wake up. Let’s share the information we have first. Please report in as much detail as possible what happened at the scene and how he appeared to you.”
He smirked as he looked down at Takahisa.
◇ ◇ ◇
When was it?
Sendo Takahisa questioned himself in his hazy consciousness.
Oh, that was right. It was when he attended the Galarc Kingdom’s banquet. He had finally reunited with Miharu, Aki, and Masato in this world.
“I want you all to come with me. I want us to all be together from now on. I will protect all of you. I’ll protect you all no matter what.”
Takahisa had passionately declared he would protect the three of them. And Aki had accepted his feelings, but...
Miharu and Masato had rejected him easily. For a man they didn’t even know, whom they hadn’t grown up with.
Takahisa had felt envious of him. He had come out of nowhere, possessed the power to protect the two of them, and actually had a history of protecting them. That had made Takahisa extremely jealous.
Even though the man was a murderer.
“Have you ever killed someone before?”
When Takahisa asked that, he had replied without any shame.
“I have.”
The answer was immediate.
“So you’re a murderer...” Takahisa had muttered.
“Indeed I am,” he had acknowledged readily.
He was completely open about it. He didn’t feel any guilt or shame about being a murderer. He was the scummiest bastard.
That’s why Takahisa had looked down on him and scorned him. He utterly despised him. He knew that they would never get along with each other, which was why...
“Miharu won’t be happy being with you. It’d be better for her sake to be with me, the hero. I would be able to protect Miharu.”
Takahisa had challenged him to a duel. As a result, he lost. He lost swiftly. No, he lost pathetically. It was an overwhelming defeat. One that had made him feel so bitter and frustrated... He felt like everyone was saying he was the one in the wrong because he had lost, which made him feel like he was going crazy.
That was why he stubbornly refused to accept it.
“You know, though, Lily. About the heroic power hidden within me. That my power can protect the people closest to me.”
He had tried to win Lilianna over to his side by convincing her he had the power to protect Miharu and the others.
“You just lost to Sir Amakawa moments ago. The special ability hidden in your Divine Arms is indeed powerful, but if someone as experienced as him faces you, then even a hero would lose. Please understand that. There are evil deeds in this world that cannot simply be dealt with through power too.”
But Takahisa hadn’t understood the words of warning Lilianna had given him at the time in the slightest.
“Even so, my answer is that I will protect them. We won’t reach an agreement like this, Lily,” he had said with the face of an ignorant idiot.
His current self was painfully—and regretfully—aware of what she meant now.
“P-Please, I beg of you... Please forgive Takahisa. I’ll do anything. You can make me a slave for the rest of my life. I’ll earn lots of money for you. So please, please...”
The sight of Julia rubbing her forehead on the stone floor was burned into Takahisa’s memory.
“You heard that stupid woman say she’d earn us lots of money, right? But we were intending on working her to her death anyway, so that wasn’t even a bargaining point to begin with. Yet she believed she could negotiate by offering to work for money... Pfft. Ha ha ha ha ha!”
The image of Norman grinning like the devil as he trampled on Julia’s feelings was similarly burned into his mind. He couldn’t forgive him. He could never, ever forgive him.
But the one he couldn’t forgive the most of all was himself, for blindly believing he could easily protect the people important to him. For behind the foolish and pathetic person who had failed to protect Julia.
He was pathetic. He was truly, truly pathetic.
I... I couldn’t protect Julia!
That was what frustrated him the most. Above anything else.
He was so bitter and so frustrated.
◇ ◇ ◇
Takahisa stirred on a bed he had no recollection of lying in. It was already close to sunrise.
“Guh... Ugh... Uhhh...”
He was aware he was crying out of frustration. Liquid poured from every orifice on his face. There wasn’t a single thought in his head about where he was, why he was there, or whether he was safe.
He could only think about saving her.
“Uuh... Wuuuh...”
He had to go and save Julia. That was the sole thought in his mind as he sat up without even looking at his surroundings. He attempted to stagger out of the room like that, but...
“Please wait. Where are you going?” Reiss, who had been reading in a chair, called out to Takahisa.
“Ugh...?” It was at that point that Takahisa finally realized someone else was in the room. He wiped his tears and looked at Reiss.
“Never did I think you would leave as soon as you woke up.” Reiss chuckled, closing his book with a snap.
“Who’re you...? Huh?”
His words came out slurred. Come to think of it, Norman had snapped off several of his teeth when he kicked him. Takahisa touched his mouth as he recalled that, but to his surprise, all his teeth were present and aligned. The slurring had been because of how intensely he had been crying.
“I’m the one who saved you, pretty much,” Reiss said with a smile.
“I see... Julia... Julia...”
Unable to think of anything besides Julia, Takahisa continued walking out of the room like a zombie.
“I said to wait. I won’t force you to stay here, but how are you going to reach your destination when you don’t even know where you are? You mumbled something about a brothel in your sleep, but we’re not even in the red-light district right now,” Reiss said, questioning Takahisa’s awareness of the situation.
“There’s a girl I want to save. I have to save her. I have to go...”
At this moment in time, Takahisa didn’t care about anything unrelated to Julia’s rescue. It was possible he didn’t even know why he wanted to rescue Julia. He had no clear plan; he just wanted to act as quickly as possible and save her. That was clear from his actions and speech right now.
He just returned from the brink of death, so he’s still in a vacant state. In that case... Reiss discerned Takahisa’s mental state.
“Very well. Then allow me to show you the way,” he said, presenting the very option Takahisa desired.
“Huh...?”
“You wish to return to that underground room, yes? I’m offering to send you there. I can sneak you in instantly if I want to.”
“Who are you...?”
After a long pause spent on getting his sluggish thoughts back up to speed, that was the vague question that came out. Then...
“How are you connected to them...?” Takahisa expressed wariness towards Reiss.
Even without his thoughts working properly, he could tell the offer was too good to be true. Furthermore...
“Why am I...?”
Alive, was the question Takahisa finally arrived at.
“Wh-What about Julia?! Where’s Julia?!”
A tint of sanity finally returned to Takahisa’s eyes. He remembered everything that had happened until he lost consciousness—and worried for Julia first and foremost. Then, he seemed to have a flashback to the injustice his mortal enemy Norman had committed against him and Julia.
“U-Ugh!” With the face of an angered ogre, flames of resentment burned in Takahisa’s eyes. He would kill him. He wanted to kill him. He was prepared to do anything in order to kill him.
“You can lead me to Julia, right?! Please! Take me there right away!”
Even though he didn’t know who the man in front of him was, he asked for his guidance.
“I shouldn’t be the one to say this, but shouldn’t you be trying to learn more about who I am first? I could be one of Norman’s allies, or this could be some kind of trap for you. I may even ask for something in return for taking you there,” Reiss pointed out.
“I don’t care,” Takahisa said instantly.
“Oh?”
“As long as I can save Julia, I don’t care about anything else. If you want me to do something in return, just say the word. I’ll give you anything I can offer,” Takahisa declared with a steady look.
“So you’re prepared to risk everything for a single goal. Rash, but I respect that kind of resolution in a man.”
Reiss’s expression relaxed in awe.
“Very well. I will bring you to the underground room of that brothel.”
He offered a welcoming hand to Takahisa.
◇ ◇ ◇
There was a large underground space in the high-class brothel that Norman operated. It was connected to the other buildings in the vicinity, making it far larger than the area of the building aboveground. There were countless rooms that existed in this area besides the room Takahisa had been held in and the incinerator room. For example, there were rooms where brothel workers that couldn’t be placed upstairs due to special circumstances were confined, and rooms where illegal business was conducted with tight-lipped VIP customers.
Presently, that underground facility was in an uproar. The reason was because of the multiple-murder case that had occurred in the incinerator room—and the disappearance of Takahisa’s corpse, which should have been burned to destroy evidence.
In Norman’s underground office, the room’s owner and his subordinate thugs had gathered together.
“God damn it! Is there still no news?!” Norman yelled angrily.
“S-Sorry sir. We’ve searched the entire underground space, but...”
But they had failed to find Takahisa’s corpse anywhere, the thugs reported while exchanging nervous looks.
The thugs in the incinerator room were all dead. No one had witnessed anything. The corpse of Takahisa, who had been thrown into the incinerator, had vanished. There were no clues on who the culprit was, or where Takahisa’s body had gone.
“He better not have been taken outside!” Norman was in an absolutely foul mood.
“That should be impossible...”
“There are guards at every exit.”
“There were no customers that had any luggage on them today, and none of the organization members carried anything large out either.”
There were multiple exits connecting the underground to the surface, and all of them had been guarded. If someone had carried Takahisa’s corpse out, they would have noticed right away.
“Tch. What’s the meaning of this...?” Norman clicked his tongue in annoyance and pondered. If Takahisa’s corpse had been carried up to the surface, things would get problematic if the brothel he managed was suspected. He had finally been feeling better after killing Takahisa, but this turn of events had completely ruined his mood.
However, no matter how vast the underground facility was, there was something strange about how a corpse could have vanished from a closed space. Norman pondered what the possibilities were for something to completely vanish without a trace.
Was it a customer? No, whoever it was targeted that brat’s corpse and left. The culprit has to be someone within the group—someone who knows he died here. But why would they take the corpse? To hand him over to the castle?
If that was true, then the one who would benefit the most would be the rival brothels in the red-light district. That, or a subordinate out to kick Norman down from his position.
If it was someone within the group, would they be able to take the corpse outside alone? Could the guards at one of the exits be in on the whole thing?
Once he had that thought, he suddenly found himself unable to trust the men in the room with him.
I wanted to have my fun with her a little longer, but it might be safer to dispose of Julia sooner rather than later.
Julia was still under the impression that Takahisa was alive, so she could pose a potential risk depending on how this case of the missing corpse played out. And so...
“Continue searching the underground. I’m going to the room Julia’s confined in. You two over there, follow me. And... Nick, you come too.”
◇ ◇ ◇
The underground room Julia was confined in was roughly five square meters in size. The empty room had nothing but a single bed inside.
What’s going on out there?
Julia worriedly watched the organization’s men rushing up and down the corridor through the iron bars of her door.
Takahisa is safe, right...?
The image of Takahisa being tortured by Norman flashed through her head. Julia hadn’t been able to see him since she was removed from the room.
She hoped he was alive. She believed there was no way he was dead, but she couldn’t help the uneasiness that surged within her.
I want to know what happened...
Of course, she had tried asking her guard already, but he had just yelled for her to be quiet. Since her attitude was tied to Takahisa’s treatment, she had no choice but to be obedient for now.
But just then...
“Hey, Julia.” Norman arrived with Nick and two thugs in tow.
“U-Umm. What happened to Takahisa?”
“Do you want to know?” Norman asked back with a cold grin.
“Yes!”
“Then follow me. I’ll take you to the room he was in.”
The bars were unlocked, and Julia left the room. Their destination was the room where Norman had killed Takahisa. It was a room used for interrogation and punishment, located a mere ten-second walk from the room Julia was being confined in. They swiftly finished moving rooms and entered the empty room.
“Umm... Where was Takahisa moved to?” Julia asked, looking around.
The room was roughly twenty-five square meters in area, making it more spacious than the room Julia had been confined in. The door was made thick for soundproofing, and no sound from the corridor could be heard once it was shut.
“He died here,” Norman said casually, pointing at the spot where he stabbed Takahisa.
“Huh...?”
“I stabbed him through the heart and killed him here.”
Julia was so shocked, she could only blink in stunned silence.
“When I told him how you would die after you left the room so happily, he spent his last moments wailing incoherently without any teeth, sounding utterly pathetic.”
“Ah... Aaah...” Julia fell down in despair.
“What kind of man bawls his eyes out like that? It was pathetic to watch. I wish I could have shown you the moment he died.” Norman crouched down and sneered into Julia’s ear.
“Liar!” Julia yelled, tears streaming down her face as she grabbed at Norman.
“Shut up!” Norman punched Julia in the face.
“...!” Julia rolled across the floor with great force.
“The situation’s changed. Now that I’ve decided to get rid of you, I won’t be holding back this time. There’ll be no more healing magic. I’ll punch your face till it changes shape, then kill you. Or should I save your face for last and punch your stomach first?” Norman turned Julia onto her back and straddled her waist.
“Mm... Ah...” Tears of frustration spilled from Julia’s eyes. She sobbed while blood dripped from her nose. But she was undaunted despite that, struggling to land a punch on Norman.
“Annoying bitch!” Norman’s fist flew into Julia’s stomach.
“Gurgh!”
“Both you and that shitty brat are pests that need to die!” Norman continued hitting Julia’s stomach over and over again.
“M-Mr. Norman!” A thug suddenly ran into the room in a panic.
“Huh?” Norman paused midswing and looked back at him.
“We’re under attack!”
◇ ◇ ◇
A few mere minutes prior, in an empty room under the brothel...
In a room devoid of objects and people, space distorted, and two people appeared: Takahisa and Reiss.
“We’ve arrived. This should be a room in the underground space beneath the brothel,” Reiss said, looking around the room.
“Thank you. Now...” Takahisa materialized his Divine Arms and marched towards the door without hesitation, Reiss following behind him. He threw open the door and stepped out into the corridor, and immediately came across thugs walking down it.
“Huh?” They were first startled by Takahisa suddenly coming out of an abandoned room, but when they noticed the sword in his hand...
“Who the hell are you?!”
“Hey, there’s an intruder!”
They drew their daggers and pounced on Takahisa with open hostility.
A dark shadow fell over Takahisa’s eyes as he glared at the attacking men. He clutched the hilt of his sword as though he were trying to crush it in his fist.
“Haaah!”
Takahisa swung his sword, releasing hellfire from the blade. The flames shot forward several meters, filling the corridor and burning the bodies of the thugs.
“Aaah!”
Several of them writhed as they were burned by the flames, quickly spreading panic to those who hadn’t been burned.
“We are underground, so it might be best to refrain from excessive use of fire. Save it for the most critical moment.”
“Right... I wasn’t holding back my power as well as I thought I was. Sorry.”
The fire seemed to have been more powerful than Takahisa had intended, as he apologized earnestly.
“No, no...” Reiss shook his head and pointed a finger at the unharmed thugs. A bullet of light appeared at his fingertip before shooting out towards the skulls of the thugs.
“Ugh!”
“Gwah?!”
The light bullets measured several centimeters in diameter and moved at a speed of several hundred kilometers per hour. They shot through their heads, shattering their skulls. The thugs hit directly fell straight to the ground.
“I will support you to the best of my ability, so go wild.”
“Thank you...” Takahisa’s eyes widened at Reiss’s abilities as he thanked him.
“O-Okay...” There was still one man who was unharmed, and he had fallen on his backside. That was only understandable—all his comrades had either been burned in fire or had their skulls shattered in a matter of moments. They’d either been instantly killed or left on the verge of death.
“Aaah!”
“Waaah!”
“It’s hot! Too hot!”
These brawny men, who made a living out of violence, were screaming pathetically as they rolled across the ground. But even as he watched them...
People like this deserve to die...
With a completely worn-out expression, Takahisa looked at them with contempt, not feeling any guilt at all.
Oh? This is quite the different personality from what I had heard.
Reiss smiled faintly at the thought of how the incident this time must have taken quite the toll on Takahisa.
“Hey, what’s going on?!”
“Wha...?!”
The new reinforcements that came running spotted their burning comrades and were rendered speechless. Reiss immediately shot his light bullets through their skulls too, silencing them.
“E-Eek...”
The man on his backside desperately tried to back away from Takahisa and Reiss, unable to stand up. Takahisa went up to him and grabbed him roughly by the collar.
“Hey, where is Julia?”
“Guh... Ugh...”
The man was sweating profusely and groaning in pain.
“Answer me! Where is Julia?!”
“Ugh! S-Stop, please!”
“Answer the question!”
Takahisa easily lifted the man who weighed over ninety kilograms by the collar and slammed him into the wall. As someone who had never used any violence in his life before, Takahisa showed no moderation in the strength he was using now.
“Aha ha... N-Norman! Mr. Norman took her away! Over there, on the right!” The man pointed down the corridor.
“Norman?!” Takahisa channeled even more hatred into his hands.
“S-Stop, don’t kill me!”
“Stop? Don’t kill you?”
What was this scum saying after all the harm he had done to others? After locking up a girl in a place like this?
“Shut your mouth...!” Takahisa yelled, strongly pushing the man’s body into the wall while still holding him by the collar. That seemed to apply a considerable amount of pressure, as the sensation of the wall and the man’s flesh and bones being crushed together could be felt.
“Uh...” The man’s body, which had been tensed up in fear, lost its strength.
“It seems Miss Julia is over there.” Reiss pointed in the direction they were headed next.
“Let’s go.”
Without a glance at the corpses littering the floor, Takahisa headed to Julia’s rescue. He frowned at the girls locked behind iron-bar doors that he passed on the way, but he headed straight for his destination, prioritizing Julia’s rescue.
Reiss’s bullets of light took out all the thugs they encountered before they could attack them. There was one man who ran to the room Norman was beating Julia in.
“M-Mr. Norman! We’re under attack! Gah!”
As soon as he gave his report, Reiss’s light bullet struck him in the back of the head.
“Looks like that’s the room.”
“Julia!” Takahisa ran, charging into the room.
“Y-You... How are you alive?” Norman’s eyes were wide in shock. Takahisa, whom he was sure he had killed by stabbing him through the heart multiple times, had rushed in looking the picture of health. He had never expected him to come back to life just because his corpse had gone missing. There was no way he wouldn’t be astonished.
“Ah... Taka...hisa...”
Straddled by Norman, Julia’s nose was bleeding and tears were streaming down her swollen face.
“NORMAAAN!”
Takahisa roared with hatred as soon as he saw the state that Julia was in.
“G-Get away! Don’t you care about what happens to her?!” Frightened, Norman quickly grabbed Julia as a hostage.
“Let go of Julia!”
“L-Like I’d do that! You guys, get him!” Norman adjusted his position and lifted Julia up, then ordered his subordinates to attack.
“Guh!”
The thugs drew their daggers, but Takahisa approached the thugs first, swinging his Divine Arms.
“Haaah!” The sword, swung with enhanced physical strength, easily separated the first man’s body into two.
“Ack!” The other thug cowered in fear, but Takahisa immediately cut him down too. With this, the only guard Norman had left was Nick.
“F-Freeze! Don’t move! Or I really will kill this woman! What are you doing, Nick?! Hurry and get...!” Norman yelled at Nick as he pulled Julia close to him.
“Sorry, Mr. Norman.” Nick attacked Norman with his bare hands from behind, pulling him away from Julia.
Norman fell on his backside and yelled, “H-Hey! What are you—?!”
“He’s one of our comrades. Don’t attack him,” Reiss said to Takahisa, stopping him from attacking Nick.
“H-Hah? Nick, you traitor!”
It was at this moment that Norman finally realized Nick was the traitor; he was astounded. Seeing as he had already assumed there was an internal traitor, he had naturally considered the possibility of said traitor being Nick; however, he hadn’t been sure. He couldn’t have expected to be betrayed with this timing, and his expression showed how he was plunged into despair.
“My contract with you ends today. Cura.”
Nick picked up Julia and walked over to the side of the room with Takahisa and Reiss. He then used healing magic on her face. It didn’t close her wounds instantly, but healing light covered her face. That was enough for Takahisa to trust Nick for the moment.
“There’s no one left to protect you,” he said, strengthening his grip on his sword as he approached Norman.
“D-Don’t come near me!” Norman stood up and drew his dagger in a panic, pointing the tip at Takahisa. He slowly backed away until his back touched the wall.
“I will never forgive you. I won’t let you die easily.” Flames rose along Takahisa’s blade. They burned a dark black color, as though they were linked to his heart.
“F-Fuck off! You started all of this when you killed Sammy! That stupid woman over there is legally our slave! Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you’re a hero?!” Norman shouted what he could at Takahisa.
“Those should be my words. You scum...!” With the face of a demon, Takahisa braced his sword without any hesitation.
“Screw you!” Norman charged at Takahisa, roaring as he tried to slash him.
“Aaah!” Takahisa yelled angrily as he charged at Norman with his sword thrust forward. The tip of his blade was aimed directly at Norman’s heart. He proceeded to move with absurd physical strength and speed, stabbing the sword into the wall through the body.
“Gahhh...” The impact shattered his entire body, making Norman groan like his organs had flipped. The dagger in his hand clattered to the floor noisily.
“Phew... Phew...” Takahisa glared at Norman’s dying face without blinking. Norman narrowed his eyes and glared back even as the light in them faded. The black flames burning Takahisa’s sword transferred to Norman’s body.
“I’ll be waiting for you...in hell...” In the final moment before his face was swallowed by the flames, Norman smiled thinly. Takahisa withdrew his sword and Norman’s burning corpse fell to the floor. He continued glaring at Norman’s burning body.
“Ta...kahisa...”
“Huh?!” The sound of Julia’s voice behind him snapped him back to his senses.
“It’s difficult to treat her like this. Could you carry her instead?” Nick said, approaching Takahisa to hand Julia over to him.
“Yeah...” Takahisa erased his Divine Arms and accepted Julia’s body with trembling arms.
“Ehe heh... Thank you... My hero... I’m glad you’re alive,” Julia said, thanking Takahisa with a happy smile before passing out from exhaustion.
“There is no risk to her life, and her beautiful face will return to normal. I will heal her too,” Reiss said, casting healing spirit arts on Julia.
“Thank you very much...” Takahisa’s face crumpled from being on the verge of tears as he bowed his head deeply.
“Please lift your head. As I said before we came here, I’m not helping you out of a pure sense of justice,” Reiss replied cheerfully.
“I know. I’ll become the Proxia Empire’s hero, as promised. But there’s one last thing I’d like to do.”
“What would that be?”
“I want to free all the girls locked both above- and belowground and destroy this brothel. A place like this needs to disappear from this world. I won’t allow them to commit such atrocities ever again,” Takahisa declared with contempt.
◇ ◇ ◇
About ten minutes later...
Dawn had just arrived, and there was still a dim gloominess to the sky. In the red-light district of the capital, a gigantic pillar of fire rose up. The flames engulfed only the high-class brothel Julia had worked at, swirling high enough to reach the sky. The fire was being controlled by Takahisa’s sword.
“My, my...”
Standing beside Takahisa, Reiss looked up at the flames with wide eyes.
His awakening as a hero is progressing well after all, he thought to himself, impressed.
“Whoa...”
In the nearby alley were the people Takahisa had evacuated from the brothel, as well as a large number of onlookers. They were all captivated by the fantastical sight of the burning flames.
Takahisa was currently standing on the roof of another building, pointing his sword at the brothel in order to control the flames. Julia’s treatment was already done, and Nick was carrying her at the moment. Eventually, the building completely collapsed.
“Let’s go.”
Satisfied, Takahisa made the pillar of fire vanish. He then did the same to his Divine Arms, freeing up his arms to take Julia’s unconscious body from Nick.
“I will ask you one last time. Are you really sure about leaving this nation?” Reiss asked.
Takahisa stared at the castle with a distant look. “Yes. I have no place in that castle,” he spat bitterly.
“Very well. Then please head to the Proxia Empire with Nick first. I have one last matter to attend to before I join you,” Reiss directed, staring at the castle as well.
“Understood.”
“Lead the way, Nick.”
“Of course, My Lord.”
Nick and Takahisa distanced themselves from Reiss.
“Transilio.”
They used a disposable teleport crystal. Takahisa, Julia, and Nick disappeared, leaving Reiss alone.
Now, I should go and dispose of the remaining hindrance.
He flew up into the brightening azure sky.
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