Chapter 26

Once Vince was just three steps away from his enemy, he prepared his stance. Ever since he came to this world, he still had never felt the need to do so. But the opponent in front of him was worth his carefulness.

"You seem pretty tense, brat. Are you already regretting it?"

"…"

"Giving me the cold treatment, huh? Well, do what you want. Not like it's going to alter the outcome. You said you were coming at me; what are you waiti…"

The most beautiful slash he had ever seen. There was no other way the leader could describe this slash. But he didn't falter. Thanks to his inhuman reaction times and speed, he managed to block the slash.

"Mmh… you actually survived one of my slashes. I underestimated you quite a bit, I'd say… Well, let's up the game a little then. Let's see how you fare against a barrage of them."

"A… barrage?"

Immediately after, he found himself in the middle of a blade storm. Even though he could tell that the boy was moving his sword slower than he could, his movements had no excess, there was no wasted action, and all of his attacks were almost unpredictable.

It wasn't long until cuts started showing up everywhere on him—each cut aimed at critical spots such as tendons and arteries.

After just over twenty moves, he had lost the ability to move his limbs. Thus he fell to the floor and could only stare at his opponent.

"What are you? A monster? How is it possible for a kid to be that skilled?"

"A monster, huh. I've been called as such many times in the past. But I don't think that's a fitting title. I know quite a few other monsters that have more 'monstrous' characteristics. Also, what you just saw is considered child's play. Even though your cultivation was higher, your fighting standards were nothing in my eyes. Well, I've lost enough time chatting with someone who's about to die, but you see, I'm a very bored person. Seeing their reactions is the only enjoyable part of taking on easy opponents."

Seeing that he had no more to say, Vince decided to finish his opponent. Afterwards, he moved his sight towards the remaining assassins, who only had fear left in them. Some were so scared they couldn't even move. Others were smart enough to try and run for their lives.

But unfortunately for them, their opponent was not going to let them succeed. In just a few more minutes, there wasn't any assassin left. The alleyway had become a puddle full of blood and corpses, with limbs and heads everywhere. It looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

And amid this slaughter, a single five-year-old boy leisurely strolled, making his way in the direction his young lady had run off to.

'I even ended up dirtying my shoes. Oh well, it happens. It's going to be bothersome cleaning them, though. Human blood is sticky as hell…"

After a good twenty minutes of walk, he finally found Estelle, together with an old man. Seeing Vince, the old man seemed pretty surprised, but Estelle was most definitely the most surprised.

"Vince!! You are alive and well! What happened? I thought you were…"

Before Vince could even start answering, he found himself hugged by a slightly taller girl, who already had started crying. Thus he lightly put his hand on her head and waited for her to calm down a little before starting to talk.

'Now I also have to wash my top because of her snot…'

"Milady, it's alright. As you can see, I'm alive and well. As I was stalling for time at the best of my abilities, a powerful cultivator arrived and slaughtered them. I didn't even get injured… Look, I'm fine!"

The continuous cry slowly turned into a few sobs, only to finally end minutes later.

"Are you calm now? Good, we can go back to the main street and look for your Uncle, okay?"

Estelle merely nodded in response as she had nothing to say.

"Follow me; we'll take a parallel street to avoid dirtying your clothes due to the corpses. Thanks for taking care of my young lady, esteemed elder. May fate allow us to meet again in the future."

The old man, who had been caressing his beard, merely nodded in acknowledgement and went on his way.

'That old man was strong. Very strong. I should try to avoid provoking the wrong people. The mana pouring out of him was on another level to anyone I met so far. Even my father was nothing compared to him.'

After giving the old man's back one last look, Vince started walking, and Estelle followed behind.

Thus the two of them silently walked back to the main street on a parallel alleyway compared to the one they had come from. For the whole time, Estelle dejectedly looked at the ground.

As they were about to reach the main street, Vince finally said something.

"Milady, you don't have to feel guilty for abandoning me. It was my duty to stall them as your attendant and you running away is not something to be ashamed of. Being scared is only natural. Instead of feeling guilt from that, you should instead take it as a learning experience. In the first place, you had to run away before you weren't powerful enough to protect yourself, let alone others. You should use this experience only as a motivation to improve further. The only way to not have regrets in life is to have the ability to come out of any predicament unscathed."

Estelle gave no response, but Vince could tell how her guilt was turning into frustration.

'That's good. Frustration is one of the key factors that allow humans to learn and better themselves. Without frustration, there's no incentive to become better as a human or stronger as a warrior in this particular case. I'm sure experiencing something so traumatic at such an age will be a great motivator for her cultivation. I can hardly wait to see how strong you'll become, Estelle.'

Once they started walking on the main street, many guards were patrolling it. It looked like things were in order once again, as passersby could be seen once more.

Vince and Estelle started walking in the direction their carriage had been. As they walked, Vince suddenly had a thought.

'Wait, if Estelle was a target… considering that people had already run away when we came out of the shop… then probably their main target was…!!'

Before he could finish his thought, his worry became through. Both him and Estelle recognised a corpse surrounded by the guards. It was one of the von Sideria guards that had come to protect them.

His body was in a terrible state inside of a small crater. His body had sunk so deeply into the ground it was hard discerning where the guard's body ended, and the ground started.

As they walked further, they started to see more and more of the von Sideria guards dead everywhere. Some were on the grounds; others were nailed to the walls with all sorts of weapons 'nailing' them.

Finally, they reached a point where the majority of the guards was, together with many bodies of masked people, and in the centre of them all, there was Henrick's body.

A giant sword was piercing his chest. His fear was still ultimately reflected on his face. As they tried to take a closer look, the city guards made a gesture to go away.

But before they could walk away, from amidst the guards, Albert ran towards them.

"You two! You are safe! Good heavens, I almost had a heart attack since I couldn't find you two. Luckily you weren't targete…"

He couldn't even finish his sentence as Estelle had jumped and grabbed him by his waist while trembling. And once again, she was crying.

"You are wrong my lord; we were targeted as well. But their numbers were way less than what I see here. She must have been a side objective, not the main one."

Albert didn't even bother to respond and merely lifted Estelle and hugged her tightly. With Vince following, he went inside the crowd of guards and reached a bench, where he sat with the crying lady on his lap.

Vince thus silently stayed on the side of the bench with his eyes closed until Albert asked him a few questions.

"So you were targeted as well by a group of assassins looking like the ones dead over here, right?"

"That's the case indeed."

"And how did you manage to survive an assassination coming from cultivators?"

"As soon as they attacked, I made way for Estelle to run away. After she left, I stalled for time. The assassins seemed to be taking their sweet time, probably because of how much they underestimated us. Even the fact that I managed to make way was merely a miscalculation on their part. They probably didn't expect any resistance. I talked to their leader for a while to earn some time. And eventually, a powerful cultivator came to the rescue and slaughtered them all. I had never seen someone slaughter their opponents so quickly. After killing them all, he asked if I was alright, and since he received a positive answer, he merely left and went on his way."

"Mmh… I understand. So you are alive because of a stroke of luck pretty much."

"I would rather get complimented for trying to earn as much time as possible… but yes, that's the case beyond any doubt."

"What a humble child… I'll make sure to reward you properly once we are back… but you are going to get scolded for running off as soon as you arrived as well. Before I could even arrange an escort for you and Estelle, you had run who knows where."

"My apologies. I didn't think something like this could happen in the middle of the capital at all."

"That's also true… Well, I'll try my best to protect you from the aftermath of this incident. A child from a duke house dying like this is a pretty big event, so I can't guarantee anything."

"I understand. I'll leave milady in your care. Where is the carriage? I'll wait for you there. I need some time alone to calm down after all that happened…"

"Just reach the start of the main street. You should recognise some of the attendants. Few unarmed attendants were killed, so you should have an easy time."

"Thank you for your understanding. I'll take my leave then."

Thus Vince left as Estelle was still sobbing in her Uncle's arms.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, the elderly man that was with Estelle when Vince found her was in the place where Vince had slaughtered all of the assassins.

The guards showed the utmost respect towards him and let him do whatever he was doing without saying much.

"The way those guys were killed… they couldn't put up a fight at all. All of the blood splattered around here is theirs. Only an expert can finish all those opponents in one blow. Even the strongest doesn't seem to have withstood more than ten moves. The kid probably didn't lie then… too bad the fight happened outside of my perception range. Had it happened slightly sooner, I could have seen it with my own eyes… oh well. That kid must be heaven's favourite to come out alive… though he seemed pretty in shock when I saw him, he managed to keep it hidden pretty well. He seems worth training. As for the identities of the assassins… I already have my conjectures, but it's too early to be sure. I'll leave this job to someone else. My job here is done, so I'll go back to do what I was doing…"

As his mumbling came to a halt, he removed the sound barrier around him that prevented the guards from hearing him and leisurely left.