“Wretches…”
“You have no right to say that to someone from an assassination organization!”
Rosa’s contemptuous voice was met with spit from the swordsman.
Even Rosa, unlike before, couldn’t move faster than the swordsman because her blade was touching Yeny. Even if she moved faster than the swordsman and managed to kill him, the recoil would undoubtedly wound Yeny.
Jared intended to kill, but Rosa, who hadn’t intended to harm Yeny, couldn’t act to protect her words.
Jared also couldn’t simply resist for Yeny’s safety.
Rosa found it an unbearable humiliation to be dominated by mere adventurers, who were far inferior to her in skill.
“Let go.”
In a situation where neither Jared nor Rosa could intervene, a calm and dignified voice echoed.
“Huh?”
“I said, let go. Do not touch my body so casually.”
The voice belonged to Yeny.
She spoke to the swordsman with an expressionless face, completely unlike when she was held by Rosa, as if she were a different person.
“Do you know your situation and speak so insolently?”
“I do. However, I cannot stand being touched by someone like you. Let go of my body.”
“Stop it, Yeny.”
“Be quiet, Jared Murphy.”
As he tried to call out to Yeny, who had suddenly begun to resist, his body was stomped on by the magician.
Since the situation where a blade might tear Yeny’s throat if he acted rashly hadn’t changed in the slightest, Jared pleaded.
“Please, I beg you, don’t do anything.”
“Older Brother. I would gladly die rather than become your burden. I cannot bear for you to be harmed by such a petty human.”
“You!”
The swordsman roared in anger, and instead of slitting her throat with his sword, he shoved Yeny. Then, he struck the girl’s cheek—with his fist—even though she had hit her hip on the floor.
“Shut up, you brat!”
Seeing the man yelling at the fallen Yeny without hiding his irritation, something snapped within Jared.
The man reached towards the groaning Yeny. He might still intend to hit her again. She might even be subjected to something worse. Jared couldn’t allow that.
He couldn’t simply endure it when his dear younger sister, whom he had cared for since childhood, was being hit right before his eyes.
In Jared’s mind, a voice whispered, “Release me.”
Nodding to the voice, Jared slowly touched the magician’s foot that was pressing him down.
“Hey, I told you not to move… Wh-what?”
The magician exclaimed as he noticed the abnormality of his body.
The swordsman and Rosa turned their attention to the magician’s voice.
“Hey, what are you doing!”
The swordsman roared, but Jared didn’t care. He wore a look of joy as the swordsman turned his sword towards Jared, leaving Yeny.
“Wait, what are you doing? Why, why is my magic power… No, stop…”
Despite merely being touched, the magician fell to his knees and cried out for help.
Panting, the magician looked at his own hands and screamed.
Magic power drained from the magician’s body. Not only that, but his body visibly weakened, as if his life force were being drawn out.
The magician, who should have been around thirty, withered away like an old man before their eyes.
His skin dried out, and his hair, now devoid of color, fell out one by one. His eyeballs turned white, and his vision went dark.
The hand he had extended for help turned to sand from the fingertips.
“Ah, ahhh, ahhhhh… No… Why…”
Without understanding what was happening to him, the magician crumbled into sand with a rustling sound.
All that remained were his clothes, his staff, and a pile of sand.
“…What did you… What did you do!?”
The swordsman, unable to comprehend what had just happened before his eyes, roared with a sliver of bravado. However, Jared’s expression was devoid of any emotion.
Maintaining a blank face, he stood up and approached without flinching, even as the sword was pointed at him.
“D-don’t come any closer!”
As the man fumbled with his sword with trembling arms, Jared slowly extended his right hand.
“Stop it!”
The swordsman, consumed by fear, thrust his sword at Jared.
To the swordsman’s own surprise, the sword easily pierced Jared’s abdomen, who showed no sign of defending himself.
“Older Brother!”
Yeny screamed as she witnessed Jared being stabbed. However, Jared continued to approach the swordsman without stopping, as if nothing had happened.
“You did something unforgivable.”
He grasped the swordsman’s hands, which were holding the sword, and whispered softly to the man.
“Therefore, die.”
“Stop, please, don’t. I’ll back down. I apologize for hitting the kid. I’ll pay you money. I’ll give you anything you want. What do you want? Women? Treasure? Just give me some time, and I’ll prepare anything, so please, spare my life…”
“What I want is… your life.”
He slowly moved the despairing swordsman’s arm and pulled the sword from his abdomen. The blade wasn’t stained with blood at all, making it questionable whether it had actually been lodged in Jared.
The sword slipped from the swordsman’s hands, unable to hold it any longer due to fear, and clattered to the floor.
Unable to ask for help, the swordsman, with his mouth agape, withered away like the magician before him.
And then—he too became sand, leaving only his clothes behind.
“What did you… What did you do, Jared Murphy!”
Rosa, who had been staring blankly at what Jared had done, regained her senses at the second death and let out a bewildered cry.
There was nothing in the information Rosa had gathered about Jared that indicated he could do such a thing.
Like Pfeil, Rosa also possessed talent as a magician. Even so, she couldn’t comprehend in the slightest what Jared had done.
No, she couldn’t even tell if what Jared had done could be called magic.
“Prepare yourself, Rosa Roen. How dare you involve me, and Yeny, in such a ridiculous charade?”
The moment Jared’s voice rang out, nearby furniture turned to sand.
“Earth Magic? No, that’s not it. What is this? This cannot be called magic…”
Not content with just the furniture, the building itself began to turn to sand.
Rosa didn’t know what was happening, but Jared, in her eyes, was not sane. He was conscious and angry, but his gaze was unfocused, and his steps were unsteady.
Originally, she had intended to extract information from Jared, but considering the danger of the incomprehensible power he displayed, she decided to kill him as planned.
Kicking off the ground, which was half-turned to sand, she swung her sword to decapitate him. However—
“I won’t let you!”
Yeny, who had picked up the sword dropped by the swordsman turned to sand, easily intercepted Rosa’s attack.
