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15 – Absolute Rift
“Tch… Damned kinds. Again and again…”
I’m tired and sick of it.
This me, Vicky-sama [Bloody Leopard], the head of “Crimson Cat” has to go to the trouble of dealing with kids.
It would be really bad if they managed to escape like this.
The trade with “her” is tomorrow.
They must be caught and processed by then.
This is going to take all night.
This is annoying… Aah, so annoying.
This stress won’t go away unless I destroy at least one village.
Or—
Aah, right, I just thought about something good.
I’ve heard before that there is a prince with a very good eye.
His age is about the same as that kid, and he seems to be called a prodigy.
It’s said that he will be enrolled in the Royal Academy of spiritual arts next year.
… I don’t like it.
I really don’t like geniuses.
It’s unfair how they can live comfortably without any hard work thanks to their talent.
Then let’s make him our next prey.
Let’s kidnap him, play with him, profit with his ramson and then sell him.
The aristocrats’ desperate faces come to my mind.
Just imagining that makes me want to drink a barrel.
… Oops, I have to finish this work before that.
Who the hell is that kid?
He’s not just any kid. He was obviously trained.
I didn’t think too much about it when “she” told to me to kidnap him but… It smells fishy.
Ah, no, no.
Don’t dig too deep into things you can’t understand.
That is the secret to living long.
“… Hm?”
I heard in my ears.
“That kid” shouldn’t talk so quietly.
“Aah… I see, I see. You are over there, right?”
I move according to the information.
Then I saw about 10 kids in the distance.
There they are.
“It’s time to pay your respects, kids”
If I keep pushing them, they will reach a dead end.
It seems that the kid has a spiritual technique to erase weight, but he can’t make all the other kids float.
If it was possible, he would have done so already.
Besides, I’m not one to fall for the same trick twice.
If he tries to fly away again, I will shoot him down with my “Absolute Rift”.
I lick my dry lips with my tongue as I walk down the corridor.
I found that kid in the courtyard as soon as I came out.
By his side is that girl.
… But.
“Hey, brat”
“What do you want, old hag”
“Where did the other kids go?”
There are only two here.
When I saw them earlier, all the kids that escaped were following him.
And all of them should have escaped here…
That fucking brat looked at me while grinning.
“Who knows. Maybe they teleported away or something?”
“…”
This kid… Is he planning something?
I don’t know what that brat is thinking but—
I put my hand in my pocket and take out the knife.
That brat reacted so much just by seeing it.
“Hahaha! Just as I thought! You can only use your spiritual arts on things you have touched, right? So, if I use a weapon, you can’t send me flying the moment I attack you!”
As soon as I touch him even slightly, I won’t be able to move, and instead will start floating.
That is quite troublesome. I even had to take measures against him.
After that, I only have to be careful about his short arms.
Don’t feel bad about it.
Pros don’t care if their opponent is a kid.
“… Then I will use a weapon too”
Saying that—
That brat brought a sword from behind his back.
Did he pick that up from the warehouse?
That damned brat holds the sword handle with both hands in front of him.
This is going to be fun. He’s no amateur.
That sword made for adults should be too heavy for him to carry, but it doesn’t matter with his spiritual art.
I don’t like it.
That brat that has such a promising future.
–I want to mess his life right now!
“Die…!!”
I sharply stab the knife onto empty space.
— [Absolute Rift]
I pierce that brat’s belly through the hole in the air.
As planned.
“Dissapeared…!?”
That brat suddenly disappeared.
No, that’s not it.
I barely caught him in the corner of my eye.
His figure is bouncing around me.
He’s fast.
And he’s doing sharp turns as if ignoring the laws of physics.
Even the roulette balls at the Casino move more naturally than this.
So this is another way of using his spiritual arts to erase the weight.
I see you have been studying hard!
I stop the sword swung down by the kid with my knife.
So heavy.
The sword’s weight was only restored at the moment of slashing.
At that, the brat frowned slightly and then broke away from me and started his high-speed maneuvering again.
He’s certainly a genius at using his spiritual art.
But after all, he’s a kid, and he doesn’t have enough strength.
If he was an adult, I wouldn’t have been able to stop his attack.
Basically, weight is strength.
His fighting method is something I’m very familiar with.
That’s how he’s developing.
His tactics have yet to be developed while he lacks weight and strength…!
Look closely at that brat’s trajectory—
And follow your intuition to block his slash.
It isn’t difficult.
His speed isn’t that different from that of a stray dog, just doing sharp turns won’t help him.
I’m someone that has grown in the back alleys. Fighting wild beasts is common to me.
I laugh at that brat while he’s jumping around.
“What’s wrong? Doing the same thing repeatedly… Are you waiting for something?”
That brat flew away from me.
This time he doesn’t go into his high-speed maneuver, but begins measuring the distance between us while clenching his sword.
“Haa. Are you trying to make some time? So that the other kids can escape while you distract me?”
“Maybe”
“It’s useless. You can’t do it. If you are smart, you should’ve noticed it already. I can always know where you are. Moreover, if I add [Absolute Rift], no matter how far you go, it’s useless”
“Maybe— But”
He’s smiling.
That brat has that cheeky smile on his face.
“If you can still use that [Absolute Rift] that is”
… What…?
“Try it. Try teleporting to where the other kids are. Well, I’ll stop you, but you are free to try”
… This brat, no way…
No way… No way… No way… No way…!
My… My secret…!!
“Hey… Hey!”
I shout at
I shout to my back— Where “He” is supposed to be hiding.
“Tell me! Where are the kids? … Hey, what’s wrong? Where did you go…!? Hey…! Hey!! Where did you go!! Where have you gone!! Come out! Come out now! Bennyyyyyyy!!”
◆◆◆―――――――◆◆◆―――――――◆◆◆
“You were deceived”
I said while pointing my sword at Vicky, who was frantically shouting Benny’s name.
“You teleported Benny to the rack, and then suddenly appeared in the corridor that I had just checked. From these two I was convinced that you could [teleport anywhere]”
But, I continue.
“When I calmly look back at it, it’s strange. I-did-not-see-you-teleport-in-neither-case”
In Benny’s case, when he collapsed down on the weeds.
And, when we were hiding and sent the mouse to scout.
In neither case I witnesses her appearing or disappearing with [Absolute Rift].
“You can think of it at coincidence, but you can also think about it like this [Bloody Leopards] Vicky-sama can’t teleport a whole human being]”
It’s said that the size of abilities similar to [Absolute Rift] is proportional to the user’s ability.
From this I guess Vicky can only open a rift as big as her hand.
Humans are something she can’t pass through.
“Wha… What evidence do you have…!?”
Vicky glared at me with a distorted expression that was better proof than any other.
“I can’t teleport humans? If so, what about that time I teleported Benny to the rack? Or when I appeared in the corridor!?”
“It’s a trick, a trick”
“Hah?”
“I didn’t think the head of the “Crimson Cats” would be a trickster… Well, even though it was for a moment, I did get caught up by it”
“No, J-kun is amazing!”
Phil speaks with a brightness that doesn’t suit the situation.
“After all I didn’t notice! That-Your-dominant-hand-was-different-after-teleporting…”
… Yes, that was when I came up with this theory.
Just before being teleported, Benny picked up a stone with his right hand and threw it at Vicky.
[             I looked around, for something, for anything that might help…
“No… don’t… you can’t…!”
Benny picked up stones from the ground and started throwing them at Vicky. They didn’t even faze the musclebound bandit chief, who instead raised an arm towards the boy.
“Here―― let’s see how we’ll raise your price.”]
But then, he was using his left arm to support the injured.
[“I’ll erase the weight of those who can’t move, so please help them by picking them up. Let’s move!”
Phil lent a shoulder to a one-armed girl who couldn’t keep her balance. Benny also supported a boy who had one of his legs cut.
I couldn’t carry the injured like them because I had to move fast in case of an emergency.
I led the way and looked around the door.]
Furthermore, when he escaped from Vicky, he stretched out his left hand to grab mine.
[             Between the stones that had lost their weight and were floating in the air, was my extended right hand and Benny’s extended left hand—–
Huh?
–While lying on top of each other, I pulled Benny out.
And now.
I put the weight back to the stones that were floating around.]
His dominant hand had changed since he was teleported.
Unless he was ambidextrous, this can only be explained as—
“Do you know of the term mirror twins?”
“What…?”
“Its when one twin is right handed and the other left handed, just like a mirror”
—Twins.
Very similar, but another person.
“Benny was buried in the weeds when you pushed him. At the same time, his twin lurking nearby fell into the rack. By doing so, you would make it seem as if he teleported — It’s such a simple trick”
Literally tricking kids.
However, I wasn’t a kid Vicky could deceive.
“… That’s impossible…!!”
Vicky glares at me while exposing her teeth.
“I just happened to see a shit eating genin in the west, but…! Why is a brat like you…!!”
“… Ah—”
I laughed unknowingly.
I see.
In this world, magic is an off-branch type of magic.
There are the spiritual arts after all.
I got unexpected knowledge in an unexpected place.
“Oh right, and it was Benny who was telling you our location”
“… Tch…!”
“I often heard that identical twins have telepathic abilities. Perhaps it’s a spiritual art between twins. Well, the specific works don’t matter. After I found out it was Benny leaking our location, it’s just a matter of persuading, placating or eliminating him. I think that Benny, who has been a liaison to our side has already run away, together with his brother.
Vicky grits her teeth and slashes around with her knife.
Wary of the slash that crosses space, I take a step back.
“What happens to them doesn’t matter…!! If it’s only 10 kids, I can find all of them easily without any tricks..!!”
“Sure. It takes time to escape even if we knew the way out of this mysterious fortress. If it’s an adult, you may catch up to us before we can even escape”
“If you know, then quickly—”
“If we went the usual way…”
Vicky swallowed her words.
“— That’s impossible…!!”
“If you can’t teleport yourself with the [Absolute Rift], then how could you suddenly appear in the corridor where no one was supposed to be? There is only one answer, you came through the corridor without us noticing”
I keep watching Vicky’s every move.
“When I hid in the warehouse, I felt something was wrong. It felt narrower than when I saw it on the map. Probably it’s the same with every room, It’s as if having only 90% of the room. Because it’s actually narrower than what’s on the map… No, it should be said that the room in the map is drawn larger than the actual size”
If the actual room is smaller than what the map shows.
Then, what is happening?
“There is a lot of unnatural dead space between rooms in this fort. It’s even worse with the extension. It would be strange for me to not notice something is wrong, right? – I think there are hidden passages in this fort”
Hidden passages— Secret passages.
Meaning, an artificial [Absolute Rift].
“In this complex and mysterious fort, if you use hidden shortcuts, it’s almost like teleportation to the other person… Using this, you acted as a spiritualist in front of your subordinates. The reason why you used this trick to deceive kids during “processing” was to increase the fear, right?”
A measure for a woman to put together a bandit group.
To make herself look like a spiritual art master.
For that reason, she would call herself [Bloody Leopard].
“You hid from your subordinates the fact you couldn’t teleport yourself. You hid the existence of the secret passages. If so, it’s natural to think like this. – If you go through the secret passage, no one will find us, and we can escape from here safely”
It was easy after I discovered that.
First, I asked Phil to mobilize a large number of mice to examine the corridor where we encountered Vicky.
Then, as expected, we discovered the entrance to the secret passage.
After that, we just have to leave the mapping of the passage to the mice, and as soon as it was completed, guide Vicky by using Benny’s brother, who is an insider.
If I can successfully lure them out, I would make enough time to let the children escape.
By the way, the secret passages have key points destroyed so that even if Vicky goes after them, she won’t be able to easily chase after them.
“If you told your subordinates about the secret passage, they might have been caught by now. It’s a simple trick to make yourself look stronger, [Bloody Leopard]”
“… Is that bad?”
Vicky muttered angry.
“Is it bad to make yourself look stronger!? I know very well I’m not talented nor strong!! For far too long!”
“It’s not bad, or rather, I’m not interested”
I tell her without letting even the sword’s tip shake.
“Your circumstances, your past, or the inferiority complex you have, I don’t care about them. I will never forgive someone like you who doesn’t think of other as persons. – I’ll kill you. – All”
I saw thick blood vessels surface on Vicky’s face.
Her hand holding the knife trembled,
“— Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!”
The knife’s tip was thrust as she screams.
A thrust attack crosses the space through the wormhole.
But—
It was clear that she was aiming for my heart from all the bloodlust.
I parry the knife with my sword.
And Vicky’s knife left her hand and rolled on the ground due to all the energy she had put on that attack.
“I don’t need to earn time anymore”
I couldn’t miss such a big gap from Vicky.
There is no more resistance to killing people.
Because I’ve already killed my relative.
I killed my only sister.
Because that’s an evil that creates tragedies like me.
There is no hesitation on killing and removing those evils.
“… Shit… !!”
Vicky’s expression distorts as she glares at me.
There is no weapon in her hand, and there is no way for her to dodge my sword.
I swing my sword as I put all my strength into a downwards swing— And at the same time restore the sword’s weight,
“——— Prepare yourself, fucking brat”
A strong shock came back onto the hands holding the sword.
—— Eh?
It doesn’t feel as if It was blocked.
It was repelled.
Before losing my balance, I managed to kick the ground and get away from Vicky.
I can’t see any scratches on her body.
However, there is one difference.
It’s her fist.
Her clenched fingers have silver glowing.
That is— Brass knucles…!?
Did she repel the sword with that!?
That’s impossible…!
No matter how weak a child’s strength is, she repelled a longsword with her first…!
“… No way, I had to use this against a brat…”
Vicky holds her fist with the brass knuckles in front of her chest.
“I’m so tired, I really didn’t want to use this so much… It’s humiliating! It’s really humiliating!!!”
The moment Vicky showed the preliminary motion of swinging her fist, I entered my high-speed maneuver that erases inertia.
With this, she won’t be able to catch me——————————
“————————I … !?!?”
I heard an unpleasant noise.
The source was—
My ribs.
“Kuh”
The moment I heard a voice I never heard coming from my throat, I was blown away.
I bounced on the ground and struck a wall.
And just like that— I fall onto the ground.
“Ji-kun!!!”
I saw Phil trying to run up to me, and I managed to stop her by raising my hand.
I can’t put much strength on my arm.
Even so, I have to forcefully wake up.
“Ugeeeeee…!”
A blood clot came out of my mouth onto the ground.
It hurts… Eh?
This pain…
Isn’t this in the internal organs?
Does this mean…
I’m going to die…?
“Earlier you said whatever you wanted through that mouth of yours. Eeh?”
That female bandit is looking at me with a terrifying gaze different from the one from earlier.
“Did you enjoy reality going as you expected?
Did you get a sense of superiority by making a fool out of adults?
Did you think you could win? Did you think you had won?
Did you look down on someone weaker than you?
I will teach you something as the adult I am.
That thing is something called “Pride”, did you know?”
She didn’t even move a step from the spot.
Never let go of opportunities presented to you.
That is Vicky the female thief “Bloody Leopard”.
“Stand up, brat. It is time for round two. — It’s time to show you the true horror of adults”
While standing up on my unsteady legs—
I loosen my cheeks.
… Aah. Please tell me.
Before I drown in despair.
Don’t make me mourn in helplessness again.
— Become a stepping stone for my life, “Bloody Leopard”.