The Regressed Mercenary’s Machinations Chapter 781

Episode 781: I Want to Talk (1)

Giselle’s eyes sparkled as she chased the masked woman.
“The ancestor of the Shadow Knights.”
It was the exact same face she’d seen in her dreams. Even hidden by the mask, she could tell by the look in her eyes.
She had a strong premonition that the masked woman was the warrior’s comrade and the ancestor of the Shadow Knights.
No, it wasn’t even a premonition.
The technique she’d just demonstrated was remarkably similar to Belinda’s.
“Wait. So, is that my mother’s distant ancestor?”
Perhaps, perhaps not. A thousand years was long enough for a bloodline to die and another to be chosen as successor.
But what did that matter? The important thing was that she had met the person she was meant to meet. ”
Kaaaang!”
Giselle lightly deflected the dagger the masked woman had thrown.
He quickly approached her, smiling leisurely.
“I think you should behave first. I want to talk.”
The masked woman remained calm. She quietly let go of the comrade she was dragging.
At this rate, both fighting and fleeing would be a failure.
Jiselle left the other intruders to her colleagues. She focused solely on the masked woman.
‘We need to beat her delicately.’
She wasn’t capable of easily killing her. But it wouldn’t be easy to force her to open up through intense torture. She
didn’t want to harbor resentment toward her future comrade.
But judging by her actions, it seemed she wouldn’t be easy to become close with her. So she decided to give her a little help.
‘Move first… …’
Jiselle quickly swung her staff downwards, intending to break one leg first.
Swirl.
The masked woman’s body swayed like smoke, then vanished, dodging the attack.
Jiselle immediately twisted and threw her staff to the side.
Whew!
“Ah!”
Jiselle’s staff pierced the masked woman’s abdomen, piercing her.
She screamed in pain and fell to the ground.
But she soon vanished into the darkness, shifting her position. Her willpower to endure the pain was remarkable.
Jiselle reached out and unleashed a stream of magical energy. Soon, the pole flew towards her, slicing through the air like a living being.
“Kaang!”
This time, the masked woman drew two daggers and blocked the pole. Her eyes trembled violently.
“What, what? What is this bastard?”
She’d heard that he was a wizard with superhuman powers. But no matter how she looked at him, his fighting style didn’t seem like that of a wizard.
“What should I do?”
She quickly stepped back and looked around.
The subordinates she’d brought with her had already been subdued.
The Yulien mercenary group surrounded the area and just watched. It was an unbelievable sight.
“They’re stronger than everyone says…?”
Even if he was a superhuman, he was still a wizard. Wizards were inherently vulnerable to presence detection and close combat.
Therefore, even if he was caught, she assumed she could easily escape. She didn’t pay any attention to the other mercenaries. She
had heard that the mercenaries were quite strong, but whether they could catch the assassins was another story. She had confidence
in herself as an assassin, so she tried to work secretly, but it was a mistake.
“Damn it, I should have watched a little longer.”
She hadn’t imagined they’d be driven out of the village for such a dirty deed. That’s why she was so impatient.
But judging by the way the other person reacted, she’d already sensed it. She couldn’t figure out where it had landed.
It was a clear mistake. The possibility of escape was based on the assumption that the other person didn’t know anything.
Now that that assumption had been broken, the situation was close to the worst.
Before she knew it,
the other person had picked up the staff again and was swinging it.
Kaang! Kaang! Kaang!
She tried to flee several times, but it wasn’t easy. For a wizard
, she was also quite skilled in close combat. Ultimately, she decided to fight a little more aggressively, waiting for an opportunity.
Flutter.
Dozens of daggers shot out from the masked woman’s robes again.
The daggers were connected to her body by very fine threads.
Soon, they slithered like snakes, flying towards Giselle from all directions.
Giselle dodged the daggers and smiled.
“Wow, it’s nice to see you like this again.”
It felt like fighting Belinda.
However, compared to hers, the masked woman’s techniques were far less refined.
While a bit more experimental and daring, her movements were rough and her control was unstable.
Rather than meticulously pushing the opponent, her style of attack was more like a quick, let-go attack.
That’s how Giselle understood.
“This technique isn’t yet perfected.”
At first, she thought it was because the masked woman’s skill was low. However, the more they fought, the more Giselle felt that the technique itself was incomplete.
Giselle glanced around.
“Hmm, is this an original technique? It doesn’t seem like the technique of her organization.”
No one else used the same technique as the masked woman. At best, there was a faint hint of similarity in the way they moved their bodies.
Giselle didn’t subdue the masked woman outright, but continued to observe her. His mind was a jumble of thoughts.
“Huh, what should I do? I won’t be able to persuade her with normal methods.”
“If I just ask her to come with me, she won’t be able to do anything…”
“Should I really keep beating her and force her along?”
Erenes and Lionel joined
them on their own, each with their own reasons and desires. However, the masked woman was a little different. She was more likely to try to run away.
That would be problematic. The warrior’s companions needed to be captured and(?) trained vigorously.
The more Giselle pondered how to seduce and take the masked woman, the more anxious she became. The more she fought, the more bewildered she became.
‘Crazy! What kind of wizard is this good at fighting?’
It’s common knowledge that wizards are weak in close combat. Even wizards with superhuman abilities are vulnerable to attacks from skilled knights.
That’s why wizards always had guards around them.
But this one didn’t have any.
No, they simply didn’t care. In fact, some of them sat eating and watching the fight.
That was enough to show how much trust she had.
‘Damn it, damn it! That pervert!’
The masked woman ran through thoughts that would have infuriated Giselle if she heard them.
But no matter how much she cursed Giselle, it was useless to escape the predicament.
‘What should I do? If this keeps up, I could really die.’
She wasn’t saying she would die at the hands of her opponent. She already knew that her opponent was watching over them.
The fact that none of her subdued subordinates died was proof of this.
She was worried about others. She had her own complicated circumstances. Since
her mission had failed, she needed to run far away from them, but the enemy didn’t seem to be letting her go so easily.
Kaang! Kaang! Kaang!
The more she pondered, the more unsteady the masked woman’s movements became.
Seeing this, a curious thought occurred to Jiselle.
‘If I used the same technique, would you be shocked?’
Probably. If the technique hadn’t been perfected in this era, simply seeing it in its entirety would be a shock.
Even if it had, it didn’t matter. Even seeing someone outside her own side use it would be shocking.
Kang!
Jiselle said, putting some distance between herself and the masked woman.
“Your technique is quite clumsy.”
“…”
“Who taught you it? Or did you train on your own?”
“…”
“Tsk, tsk, you’re a reserved friend. Anyway, that technique isn’t how you use it. You don’t seem to know much about it.”
The masked woman’s eyes blazed fiercely at those words. She seemed quite hurt.
Jiselle smiled leisurely at this.
“Should I show you something fun?”
Grasp!
In an instant, Giselle’s body dissipated into darkness. The masked woman’s eyes widened at the sight.
Giselle, appearing behind the masked woman, swung her staff.
“Caaang! ”
The masked woman barely managed to block it. Meanwhile, Giselle’s body dissipated into darkness again, disappearing.
She couldn’t believe it.
“Huh? How can a wizard move like that?”
That movement, slithering into the darkness, wasn’t something anyone could have seen.
It was a technique only highly skilled assassins and thieves could wield.
But that wasn’t what surprised the masked woman.
“Why, why is this similar to the technique I use?”
In fact, even calling it similar was rude. The framework of the technique was similar, but the precision and perfection were on a whole other level.
Grasp! Grasp! Paaaak!
Giselle transformed into darkness several times and appeared around the masked woman.
She tried to escape, but Giselle blocked her every move.
The masked woman gritted her teeth, flustered.
“This bastard… … is toying with me.”
Now, she wasn’t even attacking properly, just hiding and reappearing.
Her pride was bruised, and she fired her daggers in the direction Giselle appeared.
“Paaaaaaak!
” Dozens of daggers flew towards Giselle.
Jiselle retreated, putting distance between them, but the daggers doggedly pursued him.
Then Jiselle smirked and said,
“I’ll show you something even more interesting than before.”
A subspace formed in the air. And from there, dozens of daggers suddenly shot out.
Kagagagagagagang
!
The daggers Jiselle summoned accurately struck all the daggers the masked woman had launched.
The masked woman froze at the sight.
‘… … This is impossible.’
The daggers were floating in the air. They weren’t attached to her body like her own daggers.
This was the realm she’d always dreamed of.
A realm where each dagger moved on its own and emitted aura blades.
If that were possible, she could face dozens of powerful opponents alone, and against a single strong opponent, it would be a collaborative attack.
It was the ultimate fighting style.
But the realm she’d longed for… … was being demonstrated far too easily by the wizard before her.
The masked woman bit her lip.
“It’s magic. She used magic to mimic my technique.”
Magic would do. After all, it wasn’t real, it was fake.
But to keep imitating her technique, to show off even more advanced moves as if to humiliate her… … was unbearable.
“Profit!”
As the masked woman drew on her mana, the daggers’ movements became sharper and more violent.
“Kagagagagang!
” Giselle matched the movements appropriately.
It was her purpose to show that her technique was far superior.
“Kagagagagang!”
In an instant, Giselle’s daggers blasted away the masked woman’s daggers.
She even severed the strings connecting them.
Clink, clank.
The severed daggers fell to the ground one by one.
Soon, Giselle’s daggers surrounded the masked woman on all sides.
Trapped in this space, even a superhuman would have difficulty escaping.
Belinda had a history of using this technique to crush superhumans of the Church of Salvation, including Melkir.
Surrounded by dozens of daggers, the masked woman’s eyes widened in fear.
‘How on earth…?’ The realm
she had longed for her entire life.
A master of space, weaving through the shadows.
That perfect form was unfolding before her eyes.
She was frantically curious how and why this man knew this technique and could wield it so freely.
But there was no time to satisfy her curiosity. She had to get away, no matter what.
Get a grip!
Her body turned dark again, trying to escape. But Giselle’s daggers moved faster than her.
Paaaaaaaaaah!
Dozens of daggers swiftly slashed past the masked woman’s body. It was a melody of death no one could escape.
‘Eek, slowly…?’
Giselle delicately manipulated the daggers.
Her goal was to demonstrate her skills to her opponent and arouse their curiosity and desire for this technique.
So she couldn’t inflict serious injury.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The masked woman, who had been desperately covering her face, soon sensed something strange.
The daggers were glancing past her too lightly. Her clothes were torn and cut, but not seriously.
The daggers continued to attack her, as if to keep her in check.
Some even simply stabbed her. It was as if they were joking.
The masked woman, who had been looking puzzled, soon collapsed with tears in her eyes. She was clutching her now torn robes tightly.
“You pervert… Stop teasing me and just kill me.”
“…”
Thump, thump.
Jiselle’s daggers stopped moving and all fell to the floor.
The current situation was incredibly awkward.
She tried to excuse it, but the daggers still grazed her body. It was only natural that her clothes would be torn and tattered.
The woman, tears welling up in her eyes, clutching her torn clothes. It was a scene that could easily be misinterpreted by anyone.
The problem was that the villagers were watching again.
“Oh my… there he goes again.”
“You said your name was Astion, right? He seems like the biggest problem.”
“You’re right. You were the first to threaten me yesterday.”
The villagers whispered quietly, but the superhuman Giselle couldn’t help but hear them.
Giselle felt a revolutionary sense of injustice.
“…”
The more she thought about it, the more she realized there was something about this village that didn’t quite mesh with her.
Contemplating, Giselle scratched her head.
“Ha, this isn’t easy.”
Unlike the future, there were too many things to worry about. Honestly, it wasn’t easy to move while considering all of that.
Others still thought I was being reckless, but Jiselle was being considerate in her own way.
‘Still… … Is this enough?’
She’d shown me enough. Now, it was time to pressure her opponent in various ways.
Jiing!
Jiselle pulled out Gramdir from the subspace.
“This sword’s name is ‘Gram Dialogue…’ No, it’s ‘Dialogue.’ It’s the sword I draw when I want to have a serious conversation with someone.”
“…”
“You know I was being considerate. I used the same technique as you because I have something I want to tell you.”
“What do you want to tell me?”
“Yes, but that’s not the priority right now. I need to tell you what I want to know first.”
“…”
“You have to answer carefully from now on. If you don’t…”
Jiselle held Gramdir up to the masked woman’s neck and continued.
“I’m going to kill your friends one by one. Oh, you won’t die gracefully either.”
It was the kind of line a villain would utter. But Giselle was a man who could do just that if necessary.
Giselle’s aura changed in an instant. A chilling aura began to take over the surroundings.
The masked woman couldn’t breathe properly. The murderous intent Giselle displayed was extraordinary.
And the villagers who saw it…
“…She’s finally revealed her true colors.”
“Let’s get away. Those eyes are no ordinary thing.”
“Astion…a truly terrifying pervert.”
They whispered quietly and started to run away.
As such, Astion’s notoriety continued to pile up.
“…”
Giselle was now feeling resigned.
Astion was
already being called bad names everywhere, for various reasons. It seemed better to just change her name later.
Giselle figured threats wouldn’t be easy. So, as she took a deep breath, pondering her next move,
the masked woman surprisingly spoke obediently.
“We…we were sent by the Pope.”
“…What?”
Jiselle narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.
The name was so unexpected.