abcnovels
Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Chapter 48: What is this, a famous quote?
“That’s him over there, Branch Head.”
The fierce, bulldog-like man’s gaze slowly turned towards me.
“Tsk.”
In an instant, Derek was sent sprawling across the ground by the man’s lightning-fast slap. It was clear at a glance that this man possessed tremendous strength.
“Useless fool.”
The man sat on the rock, scanning me from head to toe. I, too, took a moment to observe him. The large tachi strapped to his back was particularly striking.
“Are you the one who killed my men without permission?”
It wasn’t exactly without permission, but I decided to show some respect to the enemy leader and answered in the affirmative.
“Yes.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Aren’t you Branch Head Bulrai?”
“And yet you have that attitude? You’re a fearless little brat. I clearly told you to come see me.”
“I had a prior engagement, so I was a bit late.”
Branch Head Bulrai raised his chin and shouted towards the back, where I had come from.
“Hey, Officer! What’s going on? Are you handling things without informing me now?”
As if on cue, the old officer replied,
“Haha, how could that be? I merely called him in to confirm something. I didn’t hear that the Branch Head was looking for him.”
At Bravo Khan’s sly response, Bulrai snorted once and then looked back at me.
“Do you know why I called you here?”
“If it’s to tell me to join you, that’s a bit difficult.”
Bulrai snorted again and let out a strange laugh.
“Now I see, you came crawling here wanting to live. Fine. Beg for your life.”
“Please spare my life.”
Suddenly, Bulrai looked around at his gathered subordinates with a smug expression, then stared intently at me again.
“You killed two of my men and now you’re begging for your life? That’s not going to happen. Absolutely not.”
I didn’t understand what he meant by ‘not going to happen’, so I responded in my own way.
“No way. There’s nothing that can’t happen in this world. No matter how you look at it, it’s not my fault. A bulldog-like bastard like you can’t even judge the situation properly, unbefitting of a leader. You should be the one begging for your life, you bastard. Why did you call me here? Huh?”
Bulrai grinned and said,
“Hehe, now I see you’re a crazy one. I called you here to kill you personally. I’ll cut off all your limbs and display them on the streets of Kaotun for a month. Understand?”
Bulrai looked at his subordinates with a dignified expression…
As if on cue, the subordinates responded by waving their weapons up and down and shouting “Waaaah!”
“……”
Now I understood why this guy called me here. This bulldog-like bastard was a typical attention-seeking narcissist full of bravado.
Upon hearing that his subordinate was defeated by a young guy, he wanted to personally and brutally execute him to boost his own prestige.
But I couldn’t lose either, so I looked around and shouted at the top of my lungs,
“So many people are suffering because of this idiotic, attention-seeking narcissist. Listen carefully, all you subordinates. You guys are screwed now. The branch head doesn’t even know what’s going on in Kaotun and only thinks about himself. This is why leadership is important, you bastards. Huh? What do you think, Officer? Am I wrong?”
When I turned my head, Bravo Khan just blinked his eyes with a bewildered expression.
Suddenly, with a ferocious roar like that of a beast, Bulrai jumped off the rock. He drew his tachi, sheath and all, and pointed it at me. His subordinates formed a circle around us, keeping a bit of distance.
Now, only Bulrai and I stood facing each other in the center of the courtyard.
“You’re completely insane. Today, I’ll put down a mad dog.”
“I agree. A mad dog needs a beating.”
The mad bulldog charged at me, barking, and I ran towards him, bare-handed, ready to take down this mutt.
After all, the best way to deal with a mad dog is with your bare hands.
* * *
The bulldog swung his sword sheath with great force, and I countered by wrapping my palm in wind.
Fwoosh—
My hand stung. If it still hurt even with ‘Wind’ wrapped around it, it meant the opponent’s strength was beyond that of a third-rate fighter.
Sometimes, there are people born with extraordinary strength.
They’re several times stronger than others without any special effort, and with a little training, they can easily become the neighborhood bully.
Carrot, who almost broke through my barrier a while ago, had the physique of a strongman, and this bulldog was also born with such natural strength.
Once again, the sword sheath and my bare hand clashed, and Bulrai and I stepped back a few paces, staring at each other.
“What the…?”
The one who was more surprised was the bulldog.
Born with such strength, he had never experienced anything like this before. He was staring at my hand with a deeply confused expression.
Hearing the murmurs of his subordinates, the bulldog’s ugly face contorted in anger.
“This little brat dares to use tricks!”
Shing— The bulldog drew his tachi from its sheath. In response, I wrapped both my arms in a 2-circle ‘Wind Barrier’.
As the bulldog swung his tachi, aiming to cut my shoulder, I sharpened my elbow and struck the blade’s path. A cruel smile appeared on Bulrai’s face at that moment.
Clang—
“Wh-what!”
“He blocked the sword? With his bare hands?”
The smile turned to shock in an instant. A nervous twitch appeared around Bulrai’s eyes, and the watching subordinates’ eyes were filled with simultaneous horror.
With Bulrai stunned, I drew a semicircle with my elbow again and struck the blade hard. Cracks appeared on the blade with a crack— and it snapped in two.
I instantly closed the distance to the recoiling bulldog and punched his jaw again.
Crack—
“Cough!”
Even someone born with the strength of a bull has limits.
“……”
The bulldog, pushed back a considerable distance, shook his head a few times and looked at me with slightly dilated pupils. He should have been knocked out from a direct hit to the jaw, but perhaps because of his natural strength, his resilience was also considerable.
But he wasn’t completely fearless.
“….You bastard, who the hell are you?”
I shook my head.
“You’re asking the wrong question. First, beg for your life.”
“……”
“Why? Can’t you do it? Your pride won’t save your life.”
“You damn son of a…”
“Hey, Bulldog. What do you think life is?”
Just as I was about to start a lecture on the unpredictable nature of life, the attention-seeking bulldog couldn’t hold back any longer and charged at me with the remaining half of his tachi.
“Die, you bastard!”
“Yes. That too is life.”
‘Fire Spear.’
The bulldog, hit squarely in the face by the spear of flames, let out a roar and took a step forward. I was startled and immediately cast another spell.
‘Water Spear.’
Damn, that surprised me.
He charged like a bull on fire, so I shot out a stream of water. With a sizzling sound, the bulldog was finally pushed back. But even then, he somehow managed to plant his hind legs on the ground and maintain his balance.
He truly was a bull-like man.
“You baaaastard!”
“Shut up!”
I graciously showcased my fire-and-water magic combo, rivaling the sweet and salty flavors, leading the bull into a heavenly realm of disorientation.
Fwoosh—
“Cough!”
It took a total of five consecutive spells before the bull finally crashed into the wall, his entire body ablaze, and collapsed limply. Only then did the other gangsters come to their senses and mutter,
“Ma, magic…”
“He was a mage.”
I walked over to the wall and looked down at the bulldog. He wasn’t moving; it seemed he had finally breathed his last.
This is why life is unpredictable. This guy chose his pride over his life. But I don’t really understand what the point of that was.
I turned back from the wall. The gangsters had completely surrounded me.
Carrot was on the left, glaring at me from the front line.
On the right, One-Eye stood at the forefront.
Carrot glared at me and said,
“You killed the Branch Head, so you’ll have to pay the price.”
“You were just watching from the sidelines, what are you talking about now?”
“It was a one-on-one duel, so subordinates couldn’t interfere. There were no orders to do so either. But it’s a different story now that you’ve killed the Branch Head.”
One-Eye chimed in.
“Don’t think you can handle all of us, even if you’re a mage. You might be a Bayern spy, so we can’t let you go like this.”
Looking around at the gangsters slowly closing in, I asked,
“What do you guys think life is all about?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Did that bulldog bastard know he was going to die here today? Did you guys know? Raise your hand if you thought that bastard was going to die here today.”
No one raised their hand.
“You’re all the same, you idiots. You’ve all become idiots under that blockhead. There’s no rule saying you won’t end up like that bulldog. So, it seems you were planning to overwhelm me with numbers. Guys…”
I looked around and said,
“Life is, no matter how grand your plans are…”
“……”
At that moment, my twin brother, who had appeared from somewhere, continued my sentence as if possessed.
“….You could get stabbed to death by a random robber? What is this, a famous quote? Why do I know this?”
“Excellent. A stabbing is better than getting hit by a rock.”
As I gave my twin brother a thumbs up and caressed ?Magnus’ Illusion?,
Suddenly, a collective gasp was heard, and One-Eye, with his one remaining eye wide open, shouted,
“He’s from Bayern! Kill him!”
Almost simultaneously, the old man’s shout erupted from behind.
“Stop! He’s not from Bayern. Stop, I said!”
* * *
Bravo Khan bit his nails, staring at the madman standing at the edge of the wall.
‘He used magic?’
When did someone of this caliber appear in Samael? And to think that Branch Head Bulrai was defeated so easily.
‘Where did this guy come from? And of all times…’
The timing couldn’t be worse.
But even so, he couldn’t let him go. He had to capture him and find out his identity, no matter what. If the headquarters questioned him, his own neck could be on the line as the next in line after the Branch Head.
Fortunately, there were no casualties other than Branch Head Bulrai.
The executives were still fine, so they should be able to capture him with the help of the subordinates. If they all rushed him at once, even a mage wouldn’t stand a chance.
That’s when it happened.
“Life is, no matter how grand your plans are…”
Bravo Khan felt a strange sense of unease at the madman’s sudden words.
He had definitely heard those words somewhere before. But he couldn’t remember where.
While he was trying to figure out the source of this ominous feeling, he heard Garlic muttering beside him.
“….You could get stabbed to death by a random robber?”
“Excellent. A stabbing is better than getting hit by a rock.”
Suddenly, Bravo Khan felt a jolt in his head, and something came to mind.
‘Could it be?’
The Red Sunset Tavern.
‘The bastard who pretended to be from the Shefiro Guild Leader’s secret group. The Bayern guy who talked about brothers or something!’
Weren’t those the exact same words that guy said about life?
As Bravo Khan looked at the madman in shock, another unbelievable thing happened.
The man’s face rippled and slowly changed shape.
“Cough!”
Memories of a recent event flooded back, and Bravo Khan coughed up blood involuntarily.
Getting hit by a rock…
A stabbing is better than getting hit by a rock…?
‘He’s not from Bayern. He wasn’t from Bayern!’
Bravo Khan trembled, staring at Snake Guild Leader, no, the madman, as if he were looking at a ghost. He had never encountered such a terrifying opponent in his entire life.
‘We can’t handle him. We’re not even close to his level. We’ll all die!’
Bravo Khan barely managed to hold on to his sanity and shouted, spitting blood,
“Stop! Please stop! He’s not Snake. Stop, I said!”
Bravo Khan looked around at his subordinates and yelled.
“He’s not someone you can handle. Drop your weapons and back off!”
“……”
“Hurry!”
The subordinates, with confused looks on their faces, dropped their weapons one by one and retreated. Only then did Bravo Khan let out a long sigh and look at the madman. His throat felt tight, so he forced himself to swallow and spoke respectfully,
“….Thank you for your understanding. I’ll take care of this, so please wait a moment.”
The madman grinned and looked at Bravo Khan.
“Wow, you finally recognized me on the third try.”
———