Are You Sure Our Empire's Knight Order Captain is a Yandere? - Chapter 20

“Hoo~~”
I inhaled the cold, damp morning air, letting it sting my lungs.
I’m off to see my father.
Technically, yes, he’s family by bl00d…
But we don’t feel like family—certainly not like a ‘normal’ one.
Back when I was with the organization, I ran into 375 death traps.
…373 of them were set by him.
It kept me sweating bullets, day and night. I never relaxed.
I even had to check under the toilet lid before opening it.
…And that’s why I bailed, haha.
I pressed my hands together, and the soft click-clack of mechanical gears whirred inside my gloves.
When I pulled my hands apart, five razor-thin steel wires slid out of the white fingertips.
Haven’t used these in ages. I actually kind of miss it.
I spread my arms like a showman, and the wires snapped out, latching onto the top of a streetlamp not far away.
Alright, one… two… three…
…Launch!
I pushed off the ground hard, simultaneously tensing my arms to reel in the wire, using the momentum to slingshot myself onto the lamp’s top.
Good visibility from up here.
Three Knights are doing their rounds down the street at six o’clock.
Even though Shen Gong Yue dragged me back and gave me a ‘tune-up’ yesterday, dropping all three of them shouldn’t be a sweat.
Bring all the weaklings you want; they’re still just weaklings.
The only real headache… is definitely those Imperial Guards at the city gate!
Imperial Guards aren’t the same as Knights.
Well, duh, they have different titles—of course they’re not the same.
I mean the difference in power.
The entire Holy Vashir Empire’s Knight Order has just over five hundred members.
The Imperial Guard Corps?
…Fifty.
Only fifty of them, but every single one is an elite fighter, skilled enough to take on an army. They’re masters of martial arts, sorcery, you name it.
They’re the Empire’s best, painstakingly trained and nurtured.
Seriously scary. They hit you with fists and fireballs.
To put it in perspective, maybe fifteen of those Guards could take down Shen Gong Ye—and that’s when she’s even deploying her Contract Weapon (Shen Gong Yue).
They are that tough.
Looks like charging head-on is the only play, then?
If I try a stealth approach, they’ll sense my presence instantly, and I’ll be swamped by a torrent of spells and arrows. So…
Let’s do this!
Face to face!
I kept flicking the steel wires, bouncing between streetlamps, rooftops, and the canopy of trees, hoping the pre-dawn gloom would at least spoil the Guards’ aim a little.
“Who is that? Get down here now!”
Three feathered arrows scraped past my face—that was way too close. And seriously…
…Are you guys idiots?
You think I’m just going to listen because you told me to?
“Loose!”
I’m so sick of this. I just want to sleep.
I let out a soft sigh and gave the steel wires a sharp tug.
“Zing~~ Zing~~~~”
The wires sprang up and down, deflecting the incoming arrows as I smoothly vaulted to the next big tree.
The gate is five hundred meters away.
I cautiously poked my head out. Ha ha, surrounded.
Eight Imperial Guards were below, some nocking an arrows, others drawing out magic formations.
I’ll be instantly killed if I step out there.
But there are absolutely zero anchor points for my wires in that last five hundred meters, which means…
I have to move on the ground.
To move on the ground, I have to get down from the tree first.
Reaching the gate = certain death.
Yep, the logic holds up.
But even if I have zero interest in having breakfast with my father, I still have to save Freesia!
What if my old man’s weird tendencies kick in, and he… he…
…violates Freesia!
No, no, no, no, no…
Freesia’s first time can’t be with my father!
She has to find a much better man than that!
Honestly, I’m quite fond of Freesia. She is my only little sister, after all!
But affection is unhealthy baggage for someone being groomed as an assassin.
I was fond of the Hui Huo Clan, but after I started hanging out with them normally, they were wiped out.
‘Liking’ is an emotion I, as an assassin, must bury deep.
When you truly love something, you have to play it cool and pretend not to care just to protect it.
…That’s the ironclad rule of survival for those who live in the shadows.
“Loose!”
I jumped down from the tree.
My fingers worked constantly, twitching the wires to deflect the volley of arrows. The moment I hit the ground,
I felt a wave of scalding heat on my back, so I immediately rolled away. A fireball slammed right into my left shoulder.
Sparks burst everywhere.
Agh, that hurts!
And it’s so incredibly hot!!!!
In my pain, I didn’t have time to crush a healing crystal. Using the cloud of black smoke from the impact, I bolted, tumbling past the city gate without taking another hit.
Looks like these guys are rookies.
Fire-type sorcery, despite its quick casting and high power,
has one critical flaw: it erupts in a thick black cloud that completely blocks your vision after hitting the target.
Usually, though, if an Imperial Guard’s fire spell tags you, you’re pretty much toast anyway.
So the problem of the smoke blocking sight and letting the prey escape generally doesn’t exist.
Finally managed to get out of the city gate. Next stop…
I looked at the sun, gradually climbing the horizon.
“Time to go home.”