The sunlight pouring down felt very differently from the summer sun, with hardly any heat.

The clouds in the sky looked like they had been swept by a broom.

On such a sunny autumn day, not as hot as in summer, Rei was walking through the Imperial Capital to the place where he and Rhodes had previously been attacked by assassins during their training.

Probably because the main tournament had started, but there were clearly fewer people in the city streets than before.

Moreover, since Rei was going to a place where few people went to begin with, the number of people was even less.

(However, it would be troublesome if that wasn’t the case.)

Rei thought to himself as he continued along his way, making sure the hood of his Dragon Robe covered his face.

There were still some people around, but the didn’t seem to notice that it was Rei walking past them, or maybe they didn’t care as they went about their daily lives.

The reason why Rei, who was being targeted by organisations like Moonlight Archers, was on his own away from Rhodes and the others was simple. He wanted to be attacked.

Right here.

That said, Rei didn’t know it was actually Moonlight Archers that were targeting him, he still thought it was Requiem’s Toll.

Still, seeing Vaycul’s life threatened in the match the previous day let him know that they weren’t messing around.

It it was already abnormal enough to target someone’s life during the fighting tournament, not to mention targeting someone else such as Vaycul instead of Rei directly.

Considering all that, there was no doubt that a careless attack inside the city would likely cause great damage to the surroundings.

……Because of that, Rei needed to come to such a location as bait in order to attract the assassins.

Of course, not all those reasons were true. But, most of them were.

Honestly speaking, Rei just wanted to fight against stronger opponents to gain combat experience.

Rei’s own combat experience was varied and rich enough that he didn’t care much for other adventurers.

Fighting ordinary opponents wasn’t an issue. But……

(My opponent is Noiz. One of only three S rank adventurers in the world.)

Recalling Noiz’s first match from the day before, he was becoming acutely aware of the person he needed to fight.

He was still not at the point were he was strong enough to fight Noiz, the Immovable. That was his instinct after meeting Noiz.

Although Noiz had fought one match, he barely showed anything as his opponent had made a lot of mistakes before eventually losing. Still, it was a good thing for Rei that he was able to confirm at least some of Noiz’s strength.

Because of that, Rei was looking forward to fighting stronger opponents to gain more strength.

As stated before, the main reason why he had come to such a deserted area was to avoid dragging others into his own fights.

There were various other reasons, but in the end, Rei just wanted to lure the assassins into a deserted area in order to challenge them to a fight.

(Now then, what kind of fish will I be able to catch? If possible, I’d like to catch a big fish rather than a small one. At the very least, I can’t expect much from an opponent who can’t hide themselves well.)

Rei muttered to himself as he sensed the number of presences following after him.

He felt strangely sympathetic for the person in charge of Requiem’s Toll.

Whether because he was slow to realise or because of a series of bad timings, Rei had still yet to realise it wasn’t Requiem’s Toll that was currently targeting him.

Before long, the already small number of people nearby began to dwindle even further. One by one, they disappeared from view.

As Rei kept going down the road, even though there were no longer any people around, there were still no signs of anyone attacking him.

(……What’s going on?)

Rei thought to himself, but he didn’t realise that the people currently tailing him were only their to observe his actions.

Naturally, they included people sent from the Bestir Empire’s nobility and royal family.

As someone with such a high level of combat strength, Rei was someone they couldn’t afford to not pay attention to.

That said, Rei had no idea about that and he was a little confused as he looked in the direction of where his tails were hiding, despite the lack of any other people in the area.

He had thought that assassins would show up without any reservations as soon as he was alone.

However, the fact that no one showed up threw his plans completely out of whack.

Eventually, he reached the location he had been heading for……that is to say, the place he had previously been attacked while training with Rhodes.

Rei thought that there might have been some guards around after the smoke that had appeared last time, but luckily, there didn’t seem to be anyone around.

「Well, this is convenient for me, so it’s fine.」

He muttered to himself as he took the Death Scythe out of the Misty Ring.

He stood in a position, as if waiting for an opponent in a duel. However, the presences Rei could sense were still far away and they seemed to have no intention of coming any closer.

He waited for another five minutes, but, in the end, no one showed up……eventually, Rei shouted into the surroundings with frustration.

「Aren’t you trying to kill me! I’ll fight you right here! Show yourselves!」

His voice echoed out, but no one appeared.

After all, his enemies were assassins……in other words, they acted like assassins.

They specialised in methods such as ambushes and poison, so it was impossible for them to want to fight a fair fight.

……At the very least, it shouldn’t have happened.

「Wow, you must be confident to come to a place like this, knowing you’re being targeted.」

「Don’t say that. It makes it easier for us to do our work after all.」

「Indeed. Besides, it’s so much fun to undermine the pride of someone so confident in their abilities.」

「Really? If anything, I prefer the sound of women and children crying.」

Two people appeared while speaking like that.

They were probably assassins. That was Rei thought from their words and actions, however, their appearances were really too strange.

Normally, assassins would try to keep as low of a profile as possible.

Since they were carrying out assassinations, it would be meaningless if they were too conspicuous.

However, one of the two had dreadlocks and a crest like tattoo on his face while the other had a mohawk.

In particular, the one with the mohawk had dog or wolf like ears on his head, indicating that he was a Beastkin.

In addition, the man with dreadlocks was holding a morning star in his hands while the Beastkin had a huge machete with a 1m long blade.

「……Well, some very unexpected people have showed up. Is Requiem’s Toll made up of such obscene people?」

Hearing Rei’s words, the cheeks of the man with dreadlocks and tattooed face twitched.

「Are you saying we’re from Requiem’s Toll? We don’t hang out with such well mannered people.」

The expression on his face displayed disgust from the bottom of his heart.

He didn’t like the fact that they emphasised discipline despite doing the same underhanded work as them.

Of course, their rules were extremely lax and minimal compared to the rules knights had to follow.

Otherwise people like Mulla wouldn’t have been able to brainwash people into disposable pawns.

However……these men from Moonlight Archers didn’t follow even the bare minimum level of discipline……or rather, they were unable to..

They didn’t like what they said, their attitude was cocky, they didn’t like their eyes, they didn’t like his face, they weren’t in a good mood. The people from Moonlight Archers had killed their own clients for reasons as petty as that.

「……You’re not? I heard that the organisation targeting me was Requiem’s Toll.」

As he replied, Rei readied the Death Scythe in his hands.

Seeing Rei so eager to fight from the beginning, the two assassins spoke with happy smiles on their faces.

「About that, if you survive, I’ll tell you. ……I’ll let you choose, who do you want to fight?」

Upon hearing the Wolfkin’s words, Rei thought for a moment……before speaking with a ferocious smile.

「It’s too troublesome to deal with you one at a time, so why don’t the two of you come at once.」

「Baha, are you seriously saying that!?」

The man with the dreadlocks burst out laughing at those words.

He almost dropped the morning star in his hands as he spoke.

「If you’re just trying to get even with us for targeting you, well, I can understand that.」

「Yeah, I see. Is that what he means? Maybe he really thinks he can beat the both of us together……」

The Wolfkin said that with a smile on his face, but his body was oozing with murderous intent.

It must have hurt his pride that someone had jokingly lumped the two of them together as a single opponent.

However……

「Isn’t that what I said? There’s no way the two of you can handle me on your own with your level of strength. The two of you will make perfect training partners.」

Rei’s expression was very serious, despite his unexpected words.

Hearing what Rei had to say, veins appeared on the forehead of the man with dreadlocks.

「You……don’t kid around, brat!」

Mid sentence, he dashed forward and raised his morning star as he closed the distance to Rei.

His weapon was an iron ball the size of a person head and filled with spikes, so its power was definitely there.

In fact, the man with dreadlocks had killed many of his targets with it before.

That was why he had no doubts that this time would be any different.

Of course, they were aware of Rei’s reputation, but they still thought it wouldn’t matter.

……Normally, this wasn’t a decision anyone would reach. But, there was no way common sense would apply to the man with dreadlocks, who was often drugged up, slowing down his thoughts as a result.

「A morning star, huh? This is my first time fighting against such a weapon!」

The iron ball that swung down to crush his head was parried by the Death Scythe.

It was an action he decided to take after testing it during the first round of the main tournament. The iron ball slid down the huge blade of the Death Scythe, moving towards the tip, before eventually being sent in a different direction.

(Alright, it looked difficult to parry a weapon like this, but it’s not too bad.)

Utilising the movement that parried the morning star, he tried to crush the man with dreadlocks’ ribs using the butt of the Death Scythe.

「I won’t let you do that!」

In an instant, the tattoos on the man’s face glowed blue and his movements quickened as he jumped backwards.

「What!?」

Rei exclaimed in surprise when he saw that skill or magic for the first time.

Not missing that opportunity, the Wolfkin took advantage of his speed to raise his machete in his hand as he closed the distance to Rei.

Rei immediately came back to his senses as he thrust the tip of the Death Scythe’s blade towards the Wolfkin coming at him from the left.

「WAAAAAOOOH-!」

The Wolfkin let out a howl as he dropped his stance to dodge the Death Scythe before delivering a horizontal sweep with his machete to cut off Rei’s legs……

「I won’t let you do that!」

「GAH-!」

Just before the Wolfkin could swing his machete, Rei spun the Death Scythe once in his hands and used the tip of the shaft to smash the Wolfkin’s jaw from below.

The blow from Rei’s own strength as well as the Death Scythe’s weight broke the Wolfkin’s jaw and sent his body flying into the air.

Slice-!

The Death Scythe’s blade split the Wolfkin’s body horizontally in half.

As soon as his body split in two, it fell to the ground, spilling blood, organs, and the strong smell of rust into the surroundings.

「……Hey, killing without hesitation? I heard about it before, but it seems you’ve really the taken the plunge with regards to that.」

Even though the Wolfkin with him had been killed, the man with Dreadlocks didn’t seem particularly concerned. No, on the contrary, his words seemed to be complimenting Rei.

The sight of the man’s tattoo glowing also gave off a strange feeling.

Rei held the Death Scythe against the man with dreadlocks.

Seeing that, the man with dreadlocks grinned and his tattoo started glowing a dark blue as he dashed towards Rei with the morning star in hand.

「ORYAAAAAAAAH-!」

He closed the distance to Rei at the same speed at which he had avoided Rei’s attack before……no, even faster than before, as he raised the morning star.

However……the morning star’s construction meant that the iron ball and handle were connected by a chain, so it was easy to see through it’s path.

In fact, Rei had also thought about evading the iron ball as it swung down. ……However, seeing the man with dreadlocks still go for it, as his left hand also went for the handle, he felt a momentary suspicion.

As the man with dreadlocks came closer, making the motion of swinging down the morning star……his left hand moved.

Yes. Pulling out the bottom of the morning star’s handle, a blade was revealed.

However, Rei, who had already been suspicious about the man’s attack, swung the Death Scythe without any hesitation……the man’s right hand, which had been holding the morning star, was severed from his body at the shoulder as it flew high into the sky.

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