Chapter 144: 144

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The carriage fell over. Lapis and I bounced around like baggage.

The coachman that was driving the carriage let out a cry; however, he must have been unable to endure the shock as his voice flew off into the distance.

– Screeek!

The carriage scraped against the road as it slid on its side. Our bodies flipped over as we collided against the wall of the carriage. It must have been thanks to Lapis, but the impact was not that intense for me. However, this meant that Lapis’ slender back took the entire shock. She let out a short cry.

“Lapis!”

Damn it! I hastily lifted myself up and pulled Lapis into my arms. She wasn’t severely injured, was she?

“Sir, Dantalian.”

Lapis’ face was contorted in pain. Her eyes, however, were extremely clear. ‘Do not worry about me. There is something more important you should be worried about’, this was what they were saying. Her gaze was surprisingly cold. I could feel my heart quickly calm down.

I helped her up. We had to get out of the carriage as soon as possible. I didn’t know who was attacking us, but they were aiming for our carriage. I kicked open the carriage door. Lapis muttered weakly while leaning against me.

“Sir Dantalian, go first…….”

“Shut up.”

What do you mean by go first!? She was probably telling me to escape first. There was a limit to nonsense. Lapis kept saying something while I was supporting her, but I couldn’t hear her. It was irrelevant. I’d rather focus on something else than listen to absolute nonsense.

I shouted in my mind as we made our way out of the carriage.

‘Do what you’re being paid for, you big idiots!’

I was talking to my death knights. They would normally reside in my shadow in an ethereal state. A dark phlegmatic substance started to move inside of my shadow once I shouted at them. They soon surged out of my shadow. 10 death knights immediately took their corporeal forms. 

– It seems you are in trouble, temporary master.

One of the death knights commented. His tone was mocking. The death knights stopped growling like animals ever since my job went up from Rank E to Rank D. They would occasionally speak to me. Although they would always do so with an annoying tone.

“We are being attacked. Protect me and Lapis.”

We were currently in an urgent situation. There was no time to point out their way of speech.

A snicker came from behind the black helmet being worn by the death knight.

– Her Lordship Barbatos ordered us to only protect our temporary master. We do not wish to protect some lowly succubus. Do not treat us like mercenaries.

“Listen well, you hogs. If your rotten heads have ear holes, then you should be able to understand this. If Lapis dies, then I will immediately kill myself. Do you understand? Don’t argue with me. Protect me and Lapis.”

The death knight let out a snort; however, he didn’t say anything more. How many seconds have passed? Fireballs came flying at us from a distance. They were definitely fired by our attackers. The knights lifted their swords and cut the fireballs down.

“Death knights!”

“Spread out! Do not let them approach you!”

I could hear the sound of commands being given.

Our carriage happened to be going through an unpopulated area. They were probably aiming for this. The attackers were all wearing black robes and they were shouting towards us endlessly from about a hundred meters away. There were at least thirty of them.

A death knight spoke in an unamused tone.

– A dark elf, huh? A race of magic. They are an annoying foe to fight.

Death knights are strong against physical attacks, but their resistance does not work against magic attacks. Damn it. Did they plan this far ahead?

I carefully laid Lapis down. She must have broken a bone as Lapis kept letting out pained groans. I felt my anger towards the attackers swell up further as I saw her in pain. Those bastards!

I took out a potion. It was a potion meant for demons. I opened the lid―it refused to open easily so I got frustrated―and I slowly poured the wine-colored potion into Lapis’ mouth. Lapis opened her eyes and looked up at me.

“…….”

Do not worry. That was what her eyes were saying.

My anger became more intense. What piece of shit did this to Lapis? My partner who has been with me through life and death.

I didn’t care how much damage my death knights took. I was going to wipe out every last bastard that attacked us. I’ll tear their intestines out and tie them into knots.

“Knights, do you think you can get through them?”

– How foolish. Getting through them is not the answer. We do not know if they have reinforcements or not. Instead of attacking, it would be best to focus on defending as we escape from this place as fast as possible.

Escape. In other words, we would be running away. Running away when the bastards who hurt Lapis were right in front of me? Do I really have no other choice……?

It was at the moment I was about to open my mouth and order a retreat. A group of people approached from the road our carriage had come from. There were about forty people! The speed they were running at was incredibly fast.

Were they enemy reinforcements? My heart pounded.

A death knight spoke from beside me.

– We are not their target.

“What?”

– It seems the Goddess of Fortune is watching over you, temporary master. Unfortunately, we will be under your command for a while longer.

It was just as the death knight said. The newly arrived group went past our carriage and immediately rushed towards our attackers. The death knights joined them even though I didn’t order them to. I wanted to scold them, but I stopped myself. I could tell just by a glance that our side was overwhelming the enemy.

But reinforcements? Where did they come from? I quietly watched the battle unfold as a feeling of suspicion and anxiety loomed over me…….

The disturbance quickly came to an end. The sudden arrival of forty men and the addition of my ten death knights made it so that the dark elves couldn’t put up much of a resistance.

– They were rather well-trained assassins.

A death knight grumbled as he returned. He was holding an elf’s head in his right hand. A completely decapitated head. Once I saw its face filled with shock and pain, rather than my anger abating, I felt more enraged.

Shock and pain weren’t enough. These bastards should’ve experienced an unimaginable amount of suffering before they died.

– I caught him as a prisoner, but he killed himself. He committed suicide with a chantless spell. I cut open his chest and saw that his heart was shattered to pieces. This means there was a spell cast on his heart, hmph. There are not a lot of assassin groups that use methods as vile as this.

“Do you have a hunch on who they are affiliated with?”

An intensely cold tone seeped out of my mouth.

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The death knight shrugged.

– I can take a guess on what assassin group they are from; however, there is no way to know who hired them. What you want to know is the identity of the person who hired them, correct? Well, be it an assassin group or their clientele, they are too much for you to handle, temporary master. You have no power to get revenge.

“It doesn’t matter.”

I knelt down and placed my left hand against the ground. I felt around my side for my dagger and unsheathed it. I could hear a voice of surprise come from the death knight.

– Temporary master? What are you―?

I stabbed my left hand with the dagger. To be exact, my index finger.

A pained cry escaped from my throat. I grit my teeth as a terrible pain spread throughout the nerves of my body. I ignored the pain as I brought the dagger down once more. This time, the bone of my middle finger was severed. Another scream.

“Hoo, hbb……! Hooo…….”

Tears were coming out of my eyes. It felt like lava was erupting from the corner of my eyes. I barely managed to maintain my breathing while undergoing the intense pain. My breathing was forcefully trying to suppress the pain.

I raised my head and roughly wiped my tears away with the sleeve of my shirt.

– …….

The excitement of battle had already faded away a long time ago. The death knights and the reinforcement that came from an unknown source were staring at me blankly.

I gnashed my teeth.

“You arrogant bastards. Teleport to Barbatos immediately and give her the news. Tell her that Dantalian was attacked by assassins and that he was severely injured. He even lost 2 fingers.”

– D-Don’t tell me……you intentionally injured yourself for this sake.

“Shut up. I am not done talking.”

The death knight became silent. I endured the pain coming from my left hand as I spoke.

“Tell her that we were unable to figure out who hired them, but we think that it was one of the archdukes of hell. Barbatos will give a portion of her troops to you while ordering you to send the assassins hell, literally. Bring those troops straight back to me. As fast as possible. Do you understand?”

I put my right hand in my pocket. My hand was trembling, so I struggled a bit to grab the item I wanted. I managed to grab the item I wanted, a teleportation scroll. I tossed it to the death knight.

I then picked up the fingers that were still on the ground with my shaking right hand and tossed them to him.

“Make sure to show these to Barbatos.

– …….

The death knight leaned down and received the scroll and my fingers. He still seemed bewildered as he looked at me. I glared at him.

“You fucker, do I have to make another hole in your skull for you to understand me?”

– ……As you command.

The death knight bowed. He unrolled the scroll and uttered the activation chant. A black magic circle appeared and covered the death knight. He soon disappeared.

Now for the next matter. I looked at the reinforcement and spoke to them.

“Who are you?”

“This is our first meeting, Your Highness.”

A person from the group walked forward. It was a female voice. She was wearing a gray robe, so I couldn’t see her face. She got down on one knee and showed me extreme courtesy.

“We are a part of an assassins guild that resides in Niflheim. We were ordered by our client and have been secretly protecting Your Highness for the past seven months.”

“Seven months?”

Damn it, what the hell is this supposed to mean?

I was still with the rest of the Crescent Alliance seven months ago. Who could’ve ordered them to protect me since then? I felt dizzy.

Fortunately, thanks to the innate vitality of Demon Lords, the bleeding quickly stopped. I wasn’t going to die of blood loss just by talking here a little.

“Who hired your group? Was it Barbatos?”

“Normally, we are forbidden from giving the name of our client, but this is a special case. The client herself requested that we reveal her name to Your Highness if a situation like this were to occur.”

The woman removed her hood. Her light blue hair flowed down freely. She had a beautiful face, but half of it was burned severely. It was terribly unsightly, but as someone who was being assaulted by the pain from his left hand, I didn’t care whether the other party had burn marks or was fried with oil.

I silently waited for her to continue.

The woman’s eyes widened slightly.

“You are not surprised by this one’s face, I see.”

“I do not care. Hurry up and tell me who hired you.”

“……It was not Her Highness Barbatos. If anything, someone whom you could consider to be on bad terms with her had commissioned our guild.”

The female assassin bowed her head as she spoke.

Someone on bad terms with Barbatos? This made things even more confusing.

“Was it Sitri?”

“It was not Her Highness Sitri either. Your Highness, we were hired by none other than Her Highness Paimon.”

“Paimon!”

I was shocked.

Paimon, why was that woman’s name being brought up here!?

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. Isn’t it nice seeing Dantalian being so protective over Lapis? I wonder if he’ll somehow reattach his fingers later. On another note, I ended up just resubbing to FFXIV since they added that new Nier raid recently. This’ll keep me distracted for a while, probably.

I’ll see you guys on the next chapter.

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