Chapter 300: Chapter 264: Picking a Fight (1)

Although Victoria told Dowd to shut up for only a moment, she actually only managed to calm down long after that.

“…I’ll pretend I didn’t hear all that.”

After barely regaining her composure, she said those words while pressing on her temple.

Though, even after that, there was still a trace of embarrassment in her voice.

“In any case, me? Reconciling with that woman? I’d rather die.”

Assuming that she conceded his…goal…that made her doubt her ears…

The premise that she had to be in such a relationship with Seras itself was already absurd enough for her. At least, until all the problems between them ‘in the past’ had been resolved, she had no intention of getting along with that woman at all.

However, the tone he used when he replied to her sounded so firm—there was no hint of him trying to persuade or argue with her.

“Is that so?”

The way he just shrugged off his shoulders without saying anything, as if he didn’t care what she was saying, infuriated her.

It was as if he was confident that whatever it was that she was saying right now, in the end, she’d end up doing what he said.

This man is so annoying…!

Seriously, he pisses me off!

“Alright, let’s talk about this again later.”

“…Why are you suddenly acting as if you have something else to do right now?”

“Because I do actually have something else to do right now.”

Hearing his words, Victoria narrowed her eyes.

Come to think of it, before he brought up this ridiculous topic, he did say something along the lines of, ‘Let’s talk since we still have time’ or something…

Is there something else to do around this time, in here…?

She looked around her surroundings.

But she couldn’t find anything.

There were only Dowd and her here.

“…Let me be clear, if you’re thinking of doing something weird to me—”

“I won’t. At least, I won’t if you don’t want me to.”

“…”

Does that mean he will do something to me if I want him to?!

Victoria secretly glanced down at her body.

Compared to other women around him, she…wasn’t as ‘curvy’…

And yet, even though he knows I have this kind of body, he…

“…”

As expected, this man is a pervert!

I should just—

“I could tell you are having strange thoughts.”

Suddenly he said as such across from her.

“But, could you lower your head for a moment?”

When Victoria lowered her head…

Dowd already made his move.

He wasn’t moving at a speed that made it impossible to react to.

Someone with her level of ‘skill’ could still avoid him.

However, that speed was enough for him to dodge the ‘hidden weapon’ flying from behind her.

“…!”

—What?!

Victoria widened her eyes.

I’m the best assassin on the continent, but someone came all the way here and I failed to notice their presence—?!

They even managed to throw a ‘blow’ at me—!

As her mind was occupied with surprise, Dowd, who had blocked that attack, already made his next move.

Meanwhile, the unidentified assailant was left dumbstruck because his move had been ‘read’, making him susceptible to Dowd’s Joint Lock Technique, and he was lifted into the air.

Thanks to Riru and Kasa, Dowd was quite proficient in Fighting Arts. There weren’t many people who could beat him in battles at a close range, so he was able to handle the man with ease.

After the man was thrown onto the ground and fainted without making any noises…

“As expected.”

Dowd eyes glinted with a cunning light.

“There’s no way ‘a reason for me to pick a fight’ won’t come.”

His face made it seem like…

He was extremely ‘relieved’ that this thing happened to them.

●

“…I told you already, no need to be so depressed.”

Seeing Victoria being all depressed, I said those words in a pleading voice.

By this point, I already tied up the bastard who made a sneak attack on us tightly, and took off his ‘stealth outfit’.

The outfit was a full body suit that perfectly fit the guy’s whole body. It had a ‘cloaking device’, something you’d see in sci-fis, not in this kind of world.

Said device was able to erase the guy’s appearance and presence completely. It was even able to fool someone on Victoria’s level’s senses. Not only that, it seemed to be able to completely erase anything related to ‘aura’ as well.

There was only one group on the entire continent who was able to procure something like this.

“The source of the skill is completely different than what you used to, it’s only natural that it bypasses your eyes. Even people at Saints level would find it difficult to notice.”

In the first place, this thing was Magic Tower’s doing. Following the principle of one wouldn’t be able to notice something they weren’t aware of, if someone wearing this thing was trying their best to hide, they could ambush even people of her level.

Although, whether they would succeed in killing those people or not was a different story.

“…But you knew.”

My words of comfort were met with such a depressed response.

Victoria, who had been down since earlier mumbled as such…

“I’m a disgrace of an assassin… How could I let someone bearing a hostile intention come up so close to me…?”

“…”

Uh…that was…

[ Found a life-threatening Target. ]

[ ‘Skill: Desperation’ raised to A-Grade. ]

Because you didn’t have this excessively high-performance ‘radar’ to look for such things, I guess?

In my case, I’ve been noticing this guy prowling around the whole time I was hanging out with Victoria because of this window popping up.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for this thing, I would probably have to tank a hit at least once.

[…That’s just so you, crazy fucker. You knew someone was following you and yet you still brought him all the way here. You even took a shower without a care in the world.]

Well, that’s because he didn’t have any intention to attack us at first.

[What?]

He’s probably a snooper or something, he knows that the chance of such a surprise attack to succeed is low considering the things I’ve accomplished.

At first, Desperation’s grade had been hovering between C and D because this fucker was nearby.

The grade suggested that he wasn’t out to hurt us, he would only use violence ‘in an emergency’.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Well, that was the case after a certain something happened…

[Then how did you know this bastard was going to make a surprise attack?]

When I said I killed Count Nicholas, he just got mad somehow, so I used that to provoke him further.

[…]

Indeed, me mentioning that I had ‘killed’ Count Nicholas was the trigger to his change of attitude.

This guy was probably his best friend or something like that at the very least.

Because from that point on, he began to think of seriously harming me.

Since the Desperation’s grade was increased drastically.

[So you’re using a dead person as a bait?”]

Said dead person is that bastard, so it’s okay.

[…]

Besides, the guy lost his temper the moment he heard about Count Nicholas. I reckon he’s just as fucked up as the bastard is.

Caliban made a ‘Hmm’ sound as he was lost in thoughts. I could imagine him stroking his chin as he did so.

[…I guess that makes sense.]

See?

Dowd-Caliban Season 1: United.

In any case, an attack from their side, no matter what it is, is the perfect excuse for us.

I said so while sweeping the corner of my mouth.

Seriously, I had been waiting for them to jump on me like this for God knows how long.

I gambled with the possibility of them ambushing me if I were to walk around the street with Victoria. Turned out they even went out of their way to provide the ‘cause’ without making any fuss.

[So, you invited her to a date with that kind of aim?]

To some extent, yes?

[…I feel sorry for that woman… Because a bastard like you has the hots for her, now she’s fated to live like this from now on…]

I just ignored what he said and looked at the System Window instead.

Regarding what Caliban just said, there was ‘something I had to reflect on’.

[ ‘Skill: Fatal Charm’ is activated! ]

[ The favorability level of target ‘Victoria Evatrice’ has been upgraded to ‘Trust Level 5’! ]

It was this, the fact that I hadn’t completely seduced Victoria yet. My goal for today was to at least have it upgraded to ‘Love’.

[…Dude, what?]

Look, I boasted that I could seduce her in a single day, this result just falls off shorts, no?

[…]

As Caliban went silent, as if he had nothing to say to that, the other person in the room just kept on mumbling to herself in a gloomy manner.

“I’m not qualified to be an assassin… How could I be so absent-minded…?”

Holding her head, Victoria had completely fallen into the swamp of self-deprecation. I tried to comfort her again with a sigh.

“It’s okay, sometimes, things like this happen to anyone.”

“But that should never happen to me! That’s the reason why I—!”

“Well, you can blame me for that instead. Weren’t you completely distracted by me back then?”

I actually didn’t think much when I said those words.

Since she seemed to be in a very bad mood, I just said that as a joke to cheer her up, thinking that she’d snap at me, calling my words bullshit as usual.

However…

“…”

Instead of the expected reaction, she just stopped moving.

She let out an ‘Oh’ sound.

As if she was caught off-guard by my words.

Then…

A blush so red that it actually impressed me appeared on her face before she jumped from her seat and pointed her finger at me.

With eyes trembling from anxiety, she snapped at me.

“T-T-There’s n-no,  there’s no! W-W-Wa—!”

“…”

Did she just crash…?

Why is she acting like this all of a sudden…?

I thought so while staring at her blankly as she continued to point her finger at me with a face so red that I feared that it could explode at any moment.

Then, suddenly, as if she finally realized that she was acting quite weird, she stayed still.

“Ah, euh, euuuuuuh—!”

And she let out such strange noises before going off somewhere.

“…What the fuck?”

[…Agreed. What the fuck?]

Caliban and I couldn’t help but exchange such words, sounding completely dumbfounded.

As Victoria left the room in such a…chaotic state…a window popped up before my eyes.

[ The favorability level of target ‘Victoria Evatrice’ has been upgraded to ‘Love Level 1’! ]

“…”

Sorry? What?

Why the fuck?

[…Calling her reaction weird is an understatement. Can I guess that there’s a background story behind that?]

“Probably you can, yes…”

I should probably ask Seras about it later…

In any case, the outcome was good enough. With her favorability upgraded by that much, that meant I had achieved my goal of taking her out.

Which meant, I’d need to do the next important thing…

“…To use this opportunity well.”

I muttered as such…

As I looked down at my ‘right to pick a fight’ that was sprawled before my eyes, all tied up nicely.

Not gonna lie, I couldn’t stop my smile from showing up on my face.

●

“What a carefree punk.”

In his bedroom, Count Ravel said so while letting out a deep sigh.

He had just been briefed by the Chief Aide on what Dowd Campbell was up to after they sent a ‘personnel’ to him.

I can’t believe that he went out to have fun with a woman the moment he entered the middle of his enemies’ base. What a lunatic.

Count Ravel, whose judgment of Dowd’s character became significantly more accurate than before, then continued while letting out a deep sigh.

“Let him continue walking around casually like that. Don’t slack off in managing the informants we’ve put around him.”

“I’ll follow your order.”

Normally, that would be the end of their conversation…

If a roar that sounded as if the sky was about to collapse didn’t resonate in Count Ravel’s mansion.

“W-What is that?”

“It came from the mansion’s main gate!”

Count Ravel and his Chief Aide hurriedly looked outside the window.

They could see dust was flying around, followed by the sound of walls sporadically collapsing.

In that mess where screams and shouts were echoing everywhere, the count turned his gaze around, trying hard to find its cause.

And then…

When he finally found the cause, all rationality and logic in his mind was immediately blown away.

…What…?

I’m not just seeing things, right…?

Count Ravel said in a dumbfounded tone.

Because the sight he saw was so absurd that he ended up reacting that way before he could even feel any sort of emotions.

“That’s Dowd Campbell, right…?”

“…It seems to be the case, Count.”

“That bastard came in by crushing the main gate of my mansion…”

“…”

“Even though this place is in the middle of his enemy’s base…”

“…”

“All by himself… With only his bare body…?”

“…”

The Chief Aide couldn’t do anything but to remain silent in affirmation.