The "Master swordsman” who was reincarnated, wants to live freely - Chapter 65

Translator: Darling | Editor: Nebosuke

The moment I arrived, the battle was already over.

Though it was tough, neither Iris nor Mersche suffered from any major wounds. They were fine.

The “Assassins” also showed up with Mersche and Iris, but they seemed to have fled before we arrived- 

Well, that might actually have been part of their plan.

Eina and I would actually have been able to give chase to them, but right now it seems that the enemy is actually quite skilled.

(That is to say, the ones Eina and I met and the ones that Iris and Mersche met were quite skillful – So that makes four of them, I guess?)

From what I heard from Eina, Mershe’s also quite skilled. 

After all, Eina seems to fight with Mersche one-on-one too, so she should know.

The assassins we caught might actually amount to something, or they are nothing but a severed tail from a lizard.

We might not be able to actually get any valuable information at all.

(They were barely able to draw us near, but that might have been to check on our power levels. Well, not that they really got far in that process though.)

There is also the possibility that they will use more people next time. For us, this means that we have to increase our cautiousness.

(But the real issue here is…)

The moment we met up with the other two, Iris was looking far away with a baffled expression on her face.

She had scars here and there, so her wounds were treated, just like Mersche’s.

“Iris, are you alright?”

“Oh, Mr. Schweiss… I’m sorry. I… I let the enemy get away.”

“No, that’s quite alright. The same happened to us. But the fact that you two are fine is already quite a relief. We did capture some of the assailants though…”

“But the ones that we fought were actually the ones that we should be after, huh.”

“… Yes, I think so too.”

Iris answered rather despitefully to my remark.

That being said, I already had more than enough information to know what happened to Iris. 

– Even the assassins I fought on my end had movements that resembled those of Alia.

“Iris…, did you fight with Alia?”

“!?… Wha… That is…!”

Iris was taken aback by what I had asked her.

She looked away, and after a few seconds of silence she added, “…I actually wanted to tell you, but I really didn’t know how to explain this to you..”

“Is that so?”

How to explain – That is to say, she didn’t want to call Alia an “enemy”.

But in reality, Iris did fight with her.

Sadly, my expectation was correct.

The timing with which Alia disappeared, and then the fact that the Empire’s Marchal’s daughter arrived here too… 

Judging by this situation, you could already guess that Alia was affiliated with the organization that was after Eina. Or perhaps, she had always been affiliated with this very organization.

(…That seems rather unlikely though. Still, if this is all part of their strategy—-!)

While thinking about this, I met eyes with Iris. 

Her eyes seemed filled with hopelessness, something which I had never seen before.

“Mr. Schweiss… What am I—“

“You don’t need to do anything.”

“!”

The one that interrupted Iris’s mid-sentence was Eina who brought Mershe along as well.

She stood before Iris with her ever so stern look.

“It is clear that the ones they’re after are us. Therefore, we will finish this.”

“F-Finish it you say… What do you mean by that?”

“It’s quite obvious. They’re after us, right? … So we will end them. That’s really all there is to it.”

“That’s…”

Iris was stuck in her own words.

To search and destroy the ones who were after her – Eina might actually be right in saying so. But since one of those enemies was Alia, Iris really didn’t know how to respond to Eina’s statement. 

That implied I had to answer in her stead.

“We understand your way of thinking, Lady Eina. But it should really be us, the Kingdom’s “Knights”, who are to deal with these enemies.”

“! I meant to ask you back then. No, there was really no means to ask you at all… But you’re the kingdom’s youngest knight, aren’t you?”

“I meant to properly introduce myself afterwards.”

“No, that’s fine. Normally it would be quite an idiotic choice to bring a child on an escort mission – But we already heard the story. It’s quite a feat to defeat the Swordsman Gang all by yourself.”

Somehow this information had even reached the Empire.

… Well, the King’s very own son and potential heir had hired assassins to kill Iris. That should be more than enough to reach anywhere.

But did they actually look further into this?

“And with that introduction, I will once more tell you that you can leave the escort of Lady Eina to me.”

“And if I tell you not to? What if I don’t agree with this at all?”

“Of course, that would be unwise. I will merely consider it.”

“What did you say?”

“It is quite likely that the assassins are after you, Lady Eina.”

“… Quite likely? That’s the only option there is.”

“I think so too. However, you stopped paying attention to the one assassin you captured, and then immediately went after the other assassin who was on the loose, right?”

“Isn’t that because you already knew the other person?”

“!”

Eina seemed rather surprised by what I had said. 

If you think about it, then it would have been easy for her to slit the throat of the caught assassin without even batting an eye.

But Eina’s a soldier – It seemed rather strange to me that she was able to completely ignore the caught assassin and fully focus on the ones that ran away.

“Hmph, you’re quite interesting. You’re both strong and are able to assess the situation without losing your cool.”

“Thank you for your praise.”

“Certainly, we can assume that they were after me, but I myself plan to go after them too,” Eina answered. Her choice to lower the amount of escort knights was perhaps to clearly show that there was little defense arranged for her.

“Lady Eina, you know of the enemy?”

“Aah, I too am actually hunting them down. … They’re – The ‘Shadow Apostles’, and enemies of the Empire,’ Eina said with utmost clarity.

We now knew the name of the assassins’ association and the fact that Alia was part of them too.