Thud. His right arm, still holding onto his morning star, fell to the ground with such a sound.

It was cut off with a single slice from the Death Scythe, but due to how sharp the attack was, blood only started to gush out of the wound on the man with dreadlocks’ right shoulder several second after his arm his the ground.

But……despite losing his right arm, the man with dreadlocks showed no signs of pain on his face.

Rather, he spoke up with a smile on his face.

「Hey, that was a pretty good attack, as expected of Crimson.」

Doesn’t that hurt? Rei was about to ask that before quickly stopping himself.

The man with dreadlocks didn’t seem to be holding back any sensation of pain at all, rather he had an expression of admiration on his face.

「I’m happy to hear your praise, but you’ve lost your weapon, your morning star. So, I’d appreciate it if you just let me calmly catch you.」

Rei said that knowing that it probably wouldn’t work.

The man with dreadlocks was clearly a hedonist who didn’t seem like the type of person to care about anything as long as he was enjoying himself.

Still, as a member of an underground organisation, he seemed to know some of the circumstances regarding Requiem’s Toll. Rei was also quite interested in how the tattoo on his face worked, so he recommended that the man surrender himself.

The tattoo on the man’s face wasn’t magic, nor was it a skill that used magic power. It was something completely different.

However, the man with dreadlocks just looked back at Rei with an expression that seemed to say ‘what are you talking about?’.

Even though blood was gushing from his right shoulder, the way he showed no concern at all towards pain gave viewers a sense of discomfort.

It was like the man was in a completely different world of his own.

「It’s starting to get fun, so let’s go from here……? Hah-!」

Saying that, he moved several steps back before kicking the ground.

Normally, this would have been an attempt to kick dirt or rocks to blind Rei. That was what Rei thought at first.

However, what the man kicked wasn’t dirt or rocks……but rather the internal organs of the Beastkin that had been with him.

Organs such as the stomach, intestines, kidneys, and liver, he kicked everything that had splattered onto the ground after Rei had split the Beastkin in two.

The moment Rei heard the raw splattering sound echo out, he jumped to the side to avoid getting showered by the organs.

Landing a few meters away, he then used his momentum to leap forward, landing right beside the man with dreadlocks.

When the man saw that, he thought for a moment if Rei was trying to run away as he swung the blade in his left hand, but……the next moment……his left arm also fell to the ground from the shoulder down.

Yes. Rei had attacked as if a foothold had appeared in mid air next to the man with dreadlocks.

If he had collected more detailed information about Rei, he would have known that Rei had the Shoes of Sleipnir, a magic item that allowed Rei to make several steps in mid air.

……However, as his judgement had been impaired by drugs, it was doubtful whether or not he would have been able to use that information in his fight against Rei, even if he had known.

「Heh, heh……eh? Huh? Both my arms are gone?」

Even though blood was now gushing out from both his shoulders, the fact that the man still didn’t seem to feel any pain was nothing short of strange.

After cutting off his left arm, Rei had used the Shoes of Sleipnir to make one more mid air jump to gain some distance before clicking his tongue.

(Tch, he really doesn’t feel any pain at all. Will it be difficult to get any information out of him if he doesn’t feel pain? I want to ask about his tattoo, but……well, what should I do now? ……Hm?)

As Rei was thinking about how to extract information from the man smiling at him while missing both arms, he suddenly felt a presence approaching.

Was it a friend of the man in front of him? That was what Rei thought, but the person who appeared was a man in his twenties wearing a the uniform of a guard.

「What are you doing here! What’s with all the noise……hm? Hey, your injuries……don’t they hurt?」

The man with dreadlocks was smiling despite the blood pouring out from both his shoulders. What’s more, the tattoos on his face made him out to be a suspicious person, so the guard couldn’t help but ask.

However……

「Hahah, hahahahaha……both my arms are gone.」

「……What’s with this guy? Hey, you over there. This guy……hey.」

His tone was completely different from when he had first called out.

The reason why his tone was lower and somewhat more alarmed was because he had seen the corpse of the Beastkin, who had been cut in half.

He had also seen Rei with his Death Scythe.

From that alone, it was clear who had created this scene.

「I thought I smelled blood……I guess it wasn’t just the man over there. Hey, do you mind if I ask you to tell me what’s going on?」

「……I’m Rei. I’m participating in the fighting tournament. I was thinking of training here, but these guys suddenly attacked me, so I had to fight back.」

The guard frowned slightly at Rei’s explanation as he looked at Rei before seeming to remember something.

「Please take off your hood, I need to see your face.」

「Sure, I don’t mind.」

Since there was nothing to hide, Rei removed his hood without any issue.

His face was certainly similar to the Crimson that the guard was familiar with.

After all, he had also been on duty guarding the stadium during the qualifying rounds, so he had see Rei’s face directly.

There was no way for him to mistake it.

「……I’ve confirmed your identity.」

A brief moment of disgust flashed across the guard’s face.

Rei felt a moment of discomfort, but in the end, he was dealing with a guard of the Bestir Empire’s Imperial Capital.

Naturally, there was no way the guard would have looked on him kindly, considering the events of the Spring War.

「So……」

As the guard was about to speak further, a thud echoed out.

Turning to the source of the sound, he saw the man with dreadlocks lying on the ground.

It was probably due to his excessive blood loss.

The guard quickly approached the man with dreadlocks and took out a potion from his waist before sprinkling it on the man.

Of course, as a potion given to an ordinary guard, it wasn’t that effective and couldn’t reconnect the arms that had been severed by the Death Scythe. In terms of healing the man’s injuries, it would only prolong the time before he died.

「Tch, it can’t be helped. Hey, I’m sorry, but could you please go to the local guard station to call my friends? I’ll use this potion here to try and buy some time so he doesn’t die.」

「Me? If it has to be explained to the guards, wouldn’t it be better for you, a fellow guard, to explain it?」

Rei said that as he stored the Death Scythe into the Misty Ring.

Rei had some potions inside the Misty Ring, but he had no intention of using them on the man with dreadlocks.

If a guard hadn’t come over, he might have used a potion in order to find out the secrets behind the tattoo. However, since a guard was already here, even if the man with dreadlocks didn’t die, Rei wouldn’t be able to interrogate him himself.

To Rei, the dying man only held that much value.

He wanted information about the organisation attacking him, but judging from what the man had previously said, he probably didn’t know too much, which wasn’t great.

Above all, his behaviour and attitude was completely strange.

「You seem to be the victim of the man’s attack. If that’s the case, I can’t leave the victim and assailant alone together.」

「……I see.」

Rei understood the reasoning as soon as he heard the man’s words.

Regardless of what the assailant had done, they were already incapable of fighting……no, that was probably why the guard couldn’t afford to leave Rei alone with the man with dreadlocks.

「Understood. I’ll go then.」

「Yes, please. I’ll try to do my best to keep him from dying.」

After a brief exchange, Rei quickly left the area.

As the guard saw Rei off, he sprinkled more of the potion on the man’s wounds each time the potion’s effect wore off. But, a few minutes after Rei had left, after making sure that there was no one around, he threw the potion over to some weeds that grew nearby.

His expression was no longer that of a guard from earlier. No, he didn’t even seem to see the man before him as a human, but rather as a rock on the roadside.

「Seriously, you guys were always like that. Were so angry about getting kicked out of Requiem’s Toll? It seemed like you were doing the work we gave you……but your sense of rivalry was just too great.」

The man with dreadlocks didn’t respond to the words of the guard……no, the member of Requiem’s Toll.

Due to the amount of blood that had flowed out from his shoulders, he was already completely unconscious.

Seeming to realise that, the man snorted at the appearance of the man with dreadlocks.

「In the first place, your opponent is Crimson, isn’t it? What did you think you could achieve by facing off against a titled adventurer who could take on a whole army? ……Well, the fact that you chose to attack when his Griffon wasn’t around……no, was it just a coincidence? Anyway, it was a mistake to attack him. ……Not that you can hear me.」

Since he had already thrown away the potion, there was no longer a way from him to keep the man with dreadlocks alive. His life slowly faded away with the blood that continued to flow from his shoulders.

When the man saw the light completely disappear from the man with dreadlocks’ eyes, he reached out to the back of his neck just to be sure.

His pulse was extremely weak, and with a final pulse, his flame of life vanished completely.

After confirming that, he let out a small sigh.

「We’re safe for now. However, it’s the Moonlight Archers, so we’re bound to get into trouble again. Well, the fact that their combat strength will drop as a result of his is a great benefit to us as well.」

Even though both parties had reached an accord, Moonlight Bow was still an organisation created by people who Requiem’s Toll couldn’t handle.

Because of how it was established, there were naturally many people who felt a rivalry towards Requiem’s Toll and it wasn’t uncommon from their targets to overlap.

As a result, it wasn’t uncommon for members of Requiem’s Toll to be injured or killed as a result.

Therefore, to Requiem’s Toll, the weakening of Moonlight Archers was a rather welcome thing.

「Well, I guess it’s a good thing he wasn’t caught by the guards and didn’t say anything weird.」

When he had arrived, the dead man in front of him was already half out of his mind.

If he had been caught by the guards in such a state……thinking about it, the man considered it lucky that he was able to dispose of him.

(I don’t know what would have happened if Crimson had stuck around, but fortunately I was able to chase him away.)

As he breathed a sigh of relief, he soon heard the footsteps of several people running over.

The moment the man heard those footsteps, his expression changed back from a member of Requiem’s Toll to that of a guard.

「Damn it!」

He deliberately cursed loudly to voice his frustrations in a way that the people coming over could hear him.

They seemed to hear his voice as the footsteps were disrupted for a moment.

As the man pounded his fist against the ground beside the man with dreadlocks, the owners of the footsteps eventually appeared.

First of all, there was Rei. There was no particular expression on his face. Probably because he already thought there was no way for him to extract any useful information from the man with dreadlocks.

However, the guard that Rei had brought with him all had distorted expressions on their faces because they knew they hadn’t made it in time.

「……We didn’t make it?」

Hearing his colleague’s words, the man looked up and gave a small nod.

「Yeah. I couldn’t keep him alive with just the potion I had. If I had a better potion, it would have been a different story.」

「I see. But the potions we’re allowed to carry……」

「Yeah, I know. But I was hoping I could get some information out of the culprit here. Especially since they were from Moonlight Archers.」

「……That’s true.」

It could be said that the Moonlight Archers, which was made up of people who enjoyed killed, were mortal enemies of the guards.

Up until now, there had been many clashes between them and each time a considerable number of guards would lose their lives.

Because of that, this had been a perfect opportunity to obtain information about the Moonlight Archers, which was why the guards who had rushed over let out a disappointed sigh.

「There’s no point staying here like this. I’ll do something about the corpse for now. Do you mind asking Rei-dono about the details of the commotion that occurred this time?」

Rei nodded without issue at the guard’s words, who shook his head slightly.

To be honest, Rei didn’t want to go through something so troublesome, but in this situation, he couldn’t really refuse.

「That said……」

Rei muttered as he glanced at the corpse that was missing both arms.

(Were those injuries that couldn’t sealed even with a potion……?)

Rei had doubts in his mind as the other guards immediately called him away from the place.

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