ch25

Seeing Adroll’s abnormally bent legs as I approached, none of the guys who were swallowing nervously and rushing at me with clumsy postures dared to attack.

“Are you going to stay like that all day?”

“You bastards! What are you so scared of a little girl for! Charge! Kill her! Kill her!”

As Adroll went berserk, one of the guys who had been watching cautiously mustered up the courage to shout and swing his club vertically.

Just by dodging slightly, the club, swung with all his might, only hit the ground, and he trembled as if his grip hurt from the recoil.

Feeling sorry for him, I lightly struck his chin, and his neck twisted into a straight line, and he slumped as if dead.

“Huh… Huk!”

“I… Is he dead?”

“He’s not dead, just fainted. Anyway, are you not coming? Then I’ll come to you.”

“…! He disappeared!”

“You all have bad eyes, too, it seems. I’m here.”

I said, looking up at the frontman, Gide.

“I heard your impressive evaluation of me a little while ago. Just so you know, the mouth has always been the root of all evil, so you need to be careful when you use it to tease.”

“You bitch!”

I stomped on Gide’s mouth, who was writhing on the ground after doing two mid-air rotations and crashing, and said.

“You must have lacked opportunities for learning. How unfortunate. I hope you’ll learn a lesson today by using that mouth as my footstool.”

“Ugh! Ugh!”

He tried to grab my ankle with an angry expression, but I removed the foot that was crushing his mouth and struck his chin.

Perhaps because they saw Gide faint just like the other trash, the surrounding guys fell into a panic and charged at me, screaming with a sound that was neither a shout nor a scream.

“What a mess.”

In the already narrow alleyway, a large number of people, in a state of panic, started swinging whatever makeshift weapons they could find, turning one side of the alleyway into a scene of chaos.

Seeing the rabble of idiots, who didn’t even look at their surroundings and swung their weapons, hitting or cutting their own comrades and getting tangled up, I sighed.

It was too ridiculous to take them seriously, so I just knocked out anyone who charged at me, and then I heard Adroll’s shout from behind.

“Damn it! Catch that moron who came with that bitch first!”

The group that had been gaping and frozen on the opposite side, upon hearing those words, snapped out of it and looked at Kyle, who was flinching and hiding behind Rudolph as their gazes focused on him.

The nameless beauty who seemed to make their comrades fall with every attack without doing anything seemed less intimidating than the man trembling behind the deer like a coward, so they started charging at Kyle, even though the deer with the bad temper was in the way.

“Uh…? Don’t come!”

Suddenly finding himself the target, Kyle panicked and leaned against the wall, trying to pull out the self-defense knife he used for various purposes during his peddling, but the others were faster.

Tsk, tsk. He should have prepared his weapon earlier.

I picked up the crude dagger that the trash who had just been struck in the chin and was falling with unfocused eyes had been holding, grabbing it by the blade.

Applying force to the center of the blade, the dagger began to crack.

And I flicked my finger at the cracked blade.

The shards of light, flying in a dozen graceful curves, pierced the hands of the guys charging at Kyle, or grazed their necks or cheeks.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

Rudolph let out a fierce cry and rammed one of the guys with his horns, lifting him up.

The guy who had been rammed and lifted flew more than 3 Elte (3m) into the air and then collided with his comrade on the ground.

“Agh!”

“My hand!”

The guys dropped the weapons they were holding and retreated, clutching their hands with the metal shards embedded in them before they could even blink.

And they began to panic at the shallow pain felt from the scratches on their necks and cheeks, and the additional bloodstains that appeared when they wiped them.

“Witch…!”

“It’s a witch…!”

“It seems I hear the word ‘witch’ more often from humans than ‘Elf’.”

I sighed after knocking out the last guy, except for the gambler who was sitting down in one direction, covering his face with both arms and trembling.

“Even though I conduct myself with propriety as a gentleman, there are only petty people in the world, and I fear that the image of the Elves will be tarnished because of the nonsense of these trash.”

I slowly walked towards Adroll.

Adroll, unable to move his legs, was pushing himself away with his arms, trying to create distance.

The group on the opposite side also seemed to have lost their will to fight, and they hesitated and retreated, covering their wounds.

“Not a single one of them is blocking me, even though their leader is in danger. In the end, these are just the kind of trash who run wild in the back alleys and suck the blood of the people.”

“Who… Who are you?”

“Trash has no right to ask me.”

I looked around, as if things had been roughly cleaned up.

One side was full of guys sprawled out with their heads buried in the ground, and the other side was a group that had lost their will to fight, covering the wounds where the metal shards were embedded, turning their heads away whenever our eyes met.

“…The level is too low, I don’t even feel like doing anything. Hey, big trash.”

“…What?”

“I’m not human, so I can’t commit slaughter against trash who don’t even match my level here, and I don’t want to deal with the aftermath, so I won’t take your lives.”

I gestured with my chin towards the gambler who was watching cautiously on one side and said.

“You, follow me.”

He tensed up when he was suddenly singled out, but when he heard the words “follow me,” he made a face as if the world had collapsed.

“Oh, and while you’re coming, pick up all the daggers around here. Leave none behind.”

Whether he did or not, I sent the gambler on an errand and started walking back down the alleyway I had come from.

The guys who had flinched when I approached watched me and then split to the left and right, opening a path.

Rudolph didn’t forget to threaten the guys who had split to the left and right as he passed by.

“Kyle? What are you doing? Hurry up and clean up and come.”

“Uh…? Okay.”

“Yes… Yes!”

There were more unconscious guys than conscious ones in the alleyway, and none of the guys were unscathed due to their injuries, so it seemed like it would take a long time to clean up.

“Looking at the medicine here and the state of that leg, you’ll be a cripple for the rest of your life at best. Given the nature of trash like you, things won’t be easy afterward. The karma you’ve built up until now will be tested.”

I looked at Adroll, who was making a desperate expression, left one last word, and left the back alley.

◈ ◈ ◈

“…What are you doing?”

Kyle, who had been subdued after the commotion in the alleyway a little while ago, asked cautiously.

I was receiving the daggers that the gambler had picked up and untying the strings wrapped around the tangs one by one.

All of the trash’s small swords used a method of wrapping strings around the tang instead of attaching a handle.

“Oh, I’m going to make some throwing weapons. It’s already low-quality scrap iron, so it’s not good to have strings mixed in.”

After removing all the strings from the tangs, I gathered the small swords together and started kneading them with Internal energy.

Kyle and the gambler, who were watching the scene out of the corner of their eyes, stared at the scene with their jaws dropped.

Soon, the lump of iron became four throwing knives with a suitable shape.

I made the remaining iron into iron beads of a suitable size.

I kept these for myself, and handed two of the throwing knives I had made to the gambler.

“…Yes?”

He was surprised by the sight of me kneading the throwing knives, and then he was startled and accepted the throwing knives that I had kneaded and handed to him.

“Are you ambidextrous?”

“Ah… Yes, I can use both hands.”

“Good. Show me your hands.”

“Yes?”

“Show me your hands. That’s right, like that. You hold it like this.”

I directly demonstrated and taught him how to hold the throwing knives.

“Think about the transfer of power from the shoulder, and then put a spin on it at the end with your wrist and fingers.”

The gambler did as he was told without knowing why, but he followed along well, perhaps because he had talent.

After repeating it a few times, the throwing knives that left the gambler’s hand lacked power and speed, but they flew with graceful curves, or flew straight as if defying gravity and then suddenly dropped, performing tricks.

“Hmm. You definitely have talent. What’s your name?”

“Yes…? Ah, it’s Duber.”

“That’s a rather unique name.”

“I hear that often.”

“Do you have parents to serve or a family to support?”

“Ah, my parents passed away.”

“It’s good that there are no complications in that regard. Now, you’ll liquidate your previous life and learn under me.”

“Yes? What?”

“martial arts.”

At those words, Kyle looked enviously at Duber’s hand, which I was holding and checking the grip, and then looked back at me in surprise.

Kyle knew that the source of my power was based on martial arts, and he had just seen that power in action, so he seemed surprised that I was going to teach it to him.

I decided to take in a talent that would otherwise rot away, living a life of scamming people and paying tribute to back alley thugs without anyone picking him up.

Is he my first human disciple?

“Uh… Can’t you teach me too?”

“You honestly don’t have much talent. To be honest, I don’t think it would be fun to teach you.”

When he made a very hurt expression at those words, I hurriedly added an explanation.

“And you have a decent job as a merchant, don’t you? Unlike you, this guy is like a loafer without a proper job, isn’t he?”

“……”

“…I’ll teach you some self-defense later, so don’t look at me like that.”

“…Um, is my opinion not reflected in this choice?”

Duber timidly protested from behind, but I naturally ignored him.

“It’s better than living a life of ripping people off with that kind of talent, paying tribute to back alley thugs, and living like trash.”

“I don’t think that strange way of throwing looks that useful…”

“Hey! How can you have that attitude when I’m personally teaching you martial arts? And you’ve already learned martial arts from me!”

“Uh… Is this martial arts?”

“It’s the introduction to throwing weapon techniques.”

“To be honest, I don’t really need it… Can’t I just not do it?”

“martial arts are all secrets, so even if you enter as you please, you can’t leave.”

“I don’t think my opinion was included in the entry either…”

“Originally, in the laws of the martial world, the limbs and meridians of a disciple who is expelled are cut off, and the dantian is destroyed.”

“I don’t know what the martial world and dantian mean, but the choice of words is brutal… Isn’t the price too forced for just learning that?”

“If you babble any more, I’ll start with your mouth instead of your limbs and meridians… um.”

I stopped talking to Duber and looked at an area of shadows nearby.

“Kyle, take Duber and Rudolph and go to the accommodation first.”

“Uh…? What’s going on again?”

“That’s what I’m saying. It’s only been a day since I arrived in this city, but it seems like I’m getting involved in a lot of things.”

I looked at the shadows in the distance, slowly released the energy in my body towards the Yongcheon acupoint on the soles of my feet, and pointed at Duber, saying.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t run away and follow along quietly.”

And then, I burst the true energy gathered in the Yongcheon acupoint and kicked off the ground.