Volume 6 Chapter 85 Meanwhile, in Victor
While Gardner's port town buzzed with cheers over their victory against the empire, far away in Victor Territory, the capital city...
The sky was dull and cloudy, but Victor, having just pushed back the [Pilgrim of Truth] early in the war, was enjoying a peaceful afternoon like any other.
Adventurers walked the streets.
Merchants scrambled to grab new business chances.
Travelers took in the simple beauty of the castle town.
The scene was so calm, it was hard to believe it was near such a fierce battlefield.
Seeing it this peaceful made sense why the Victor Knight Brigade sent so many troops out to Hartfield...
"Leaving the main fortress alone like this... it's basically inviting an attack."
...To an enemy, it looked like they'd completely let their guard down.
Slipping through Victor's peaceful streets, an old man struggled to hold back a wicked smile.
This old man was the one who got beaten up by Luke in Gardner──a body double──then reversed the flow of the Great Rail River's water through a teleport gate, flooding that stronghold's mansion.
Among the Four Saints of [Pilgrim of Truth] stood Horace, the [Ruler of the Void].
Hood pulled deep, hiding his pale, unhealthy face, the old man walked proudly through the peaceful castle town.
Even though there were many tourists and merchants, his suspicious look didn't make anyone bat an eye.
That's because of Horace's ability.
True to his name, [Ruler of the Void], Horace could hide himself between dimensions.
Meaning no one could see Horace at all.
Even the guards passing by right now for patrol didn't notice.
No one saw him, no one touched him.
Horace strolled calmly toward the Victor mansion.
In this war, both Leonius and Ragnar recognized this spot as the singular weak point. Horace's mission was to strike it directly.
That was the greatest task given to Horace.
That's why, I purposely kept the infiltration of Victor to the bare minimum, and helped them send their main forces somewhere else.
The small disturbance caused by the Pilgrim of Truth could be seen, in a sense, as a diversion.
And into the gap created by that, Horace managed to slip in.
Passing through the calm town and climbing up the hill, Horace's eyes were getting closer to Victor's mansion.
There were knights around the mansion, seemingly on guard, but... they only looked around as if something felt off and didn't notice Horace at all.
"Now... who should I target?"
Horace, deep in thought in front of the mansion.
After thinking for a while, the main door of the mansion slowly opened.
A little child, peeking out the door and looking around... it was Cecil, Randy's younger brother.
"Hmm... a kid, huh?"
As Horace watched Cecil, his face twisted into something vile.
"Perfect."
The naive child, unaware of the tight security.
Likely following his parents' orders to stay inside the mansion, but unable to resist sneaking out.
Cecil, tiptoeing sneakily, noticed the knights near the entrance and quickly turned around.
Returning to the front door, Cecil peeked around again, then began walking along the mansion.
Peeking through the windows... checking something, then hurriedly passing by.
Horace, following after him, peeked through the window... and sure enough, it looked like a servant's break room, and inside were several maids.
"Hehehe... what a foolish kid."
Slowly following, Horace was considering where to strike Cecil.
If there was a commotion, it could draw the knights' attention.
"A few knights... won't be much of a problem."
Muttering to himself, Horace saw Cecil finally round the back of the mansion.
While he couldn't see what was going on back there, it was probably easier to attack than from the front, so he hurried around to the back...
"Welcome, to Victor's place."
And there, as he turned the corner, was Harrison, grinning from ear to ear.
"Huh? What? You can see..."
Without a thought, Harrison slashed at Horace, who had let out a sound.
The sound of shattering glass echoed as Horace peeked out from the cracked space... Harrison grabbed his neck and yanked him out from between the dimensions.
"C-can't speak...!"
"Incredible! There really are some strange people out there."
Cecil's eyes widened in shock as Harrison showed him a smiling face and said, "Hey, big guy, thanks for that."
"Y-you plotted against me!"
"Plotted, you say? I just got caught up in it myself."
Harrison, with a dumbfounded look, showed a face that seemed to say, "Too obvious a trap, right?"
"W-where did you..."
"That kind of thing is a given since Victor showed up."
With a smile, Harrison tossed Horace aside and thrust the blade forward.
"Wait... not yet──"
"Take Cecil big guy inside the mansion."
Another knight nodded at Harrison's words and disappeared into the mansion through a back entrance with Cecil, saying, "Shall we go inside?"
"Do you know who I am?"
"Eh? Don't know, but since you came here, death is a sure thing."
"Arrogant brat──!"
Harrison chopped off the shouting Horace's head.
Faster than a shadowy hand emerging from behind Horace...
Without showing off his shadowy hand, Horace's body collapsed, and his head rolled away pitifully.
Harrison, who picked up both parts, dragged the corpse away and vanished towards the Randy-only, Beast Forest entrance.
Harrison returned from the Beast Forest after a while, empty-handed.
He had dumped the body in the Beast Forest.
If left alone, it would turn into an undead, but if thrown into the Beast Forest, the beasts would take care of it.
They'd dispose of it so cleanly, not even bones would remain.
So dealing with the body was no problem at all...
"I was hoping for someone with a bit more backbone to show up..."
Like Harrison said with a sigh, for these two days we've been watching out for the enemy's second and third moves. Harrison and the Knights kept a tight watch, making sure most of the villagers and servants didn't catch on.
We heard rumors someone from the Four Saints──the big bosses of the Pilgrim of Truth──might show up...
"Maybe that old guy was just a pawn to make us lower guard... if that's true, it's a pain."
Harrison sighed again and headed back to the manor without looking back at Beast Forest.
Harrison didn't know.
He didn't know the man he killed without hesitation with a single slash was exactly one of the Four Saints they'd been waiting for.
Or that no one else would ever attack again.
And just like that, one of the Pilgrim of Truth's Four Saints, Horace──the Ruler of the Void──vanished from the world without anyone knowing.
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