NOVEL NEXT Chapter 24: Betting on Life
２４． Betting on Life
BGM
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The soldiers came all at once with a fierce look on their faces.
Their killing intent soared. None of them underestimated me or planned to go easy on me. The soldier in the middle kicked the ground with his bare feet, sending a spray of sand in order to obstruct my vision.
Such reliable soldiers.
If possible, I wanted to fight side-by-side with them.
I rolled to the side to avoid the sands that were sent flying by the soldier.
I'll be outnumbered if I fight them from the front. Some of them would seize my limbs and finally take my knife.
Thus, I couldn't stop moving in order to prevent them from ganging up on me. I had to disturb their cooperation.But, the soldiers weren't stupid either, they followed me, moving to the side.
They turned perfectly by using the first and end of line formation as their fulcrum. They persistently made me fight them from the front in order to crush me with their superior number.
Tough. Their defence was really tough――
『――How about using a taboo to prevent their cooperation?』
Ante suddenly cut my train of thought.
I see that this must be the best solution for this situation. And it wouldn't affect me either. It would be enough to create a momentary opening in their formation.
But, I would never use taboo magic. There were way too many eyewitnesses. I didn't want to reveal my trump card this early.
Moreover―― Like hell, I'm gonna use that uncouth method in this sacred fight. Given a choice, I would use the transpose curse instead.
『It'll stay as your trump card as long as you kill all the eyewitnesses.』
Let's leave them for when I truly did that.
I kept moving to the side in order to find an opening in their formation and yet, the soldiers kept following me closely to prevent that.
「GET IT DONE ALREADY!」
「YOU'RE A MAN RIGHT!」
「THIS AIN'T A MARRIAGE INTERVIEW!」
The spectators were jeering at us. Dammit, it felt like they were watching the match in a gambling house for a dog fight.
――But, they're right. I had to break this stalemate.
I observed those soldiers more carefully.
At the right end of the formation, the old soldier. That man might be the strongest amongst them.
Though it wasn't that much different from the others―― The second man from the left. His movement was slower than the others. Did he hurt his feet?
If I wanted to destroy their cooperation, I had to start from their weak point. That was the golden rule…
「Fuuh.」
I took a breath and changed the grip of my obsidian knife from my right hand to my left hand.
Then, without any sleight of hesitation, I slit the artery on my right wrist.
†††
In the middle of an intense glaring between the two sides, the look on the demon race's prince suddenly became sterner than before.
The soldiers who raised their vigilance, waiting for the prince to charge at them―― Ended up seeing the most unexpected spectacle.
The prince suddenly cut his right wrist with his own knife.
「What the…?!」
The soldiers were bewildered upon seeing such an unexpected situation, but the old soldiers felt something ominous was about to happen.
The moment the demon race did something illogical―― It would be followed by some sort of magic!
「PREPARE FOR DEFENSE!!!――【May We Be Protected From The Curse of Evil Being】!」
He pushed his arms forward in place of a shield and recited the aria for the anti-curse. And even though the younger soldiers were bewildered by his action, they quickly took a defensive formation that had already been driven to their bone during training.
Now then, what'll come this time!?
「――This is a return gift from me.」
The prince went forward as he swung his right arm. Spraying blue-coloured blood that gathered in his palm.
―― Is it to cover our eyesight?
At that moment, the prince's intimidating presence became even stronger. The magic is coming!!
――Is it a curse that uses blood as its catalyst!?
Suddenly, the old soldier heard the sound of a breeze.
「――Gah.」
The left soldier raised a groan.
The obsidian knife―― was lodged in his throat.
It pierced his throat without resistance.
Creating an opening by slitting his own wrist, and then diverting their attention by spraying his blood and the sudden increase of his magical power, turned out to be nothing more than a preparation to throw his knife――
The old soldier who understood the situation instantly shuddered in fear.
――Is this guy really a brat as they say!?
He was too experienced to the point of being scary. That realization further increased the intimidation and the prince's sense of oppression.
No, wait a minute, he let go of his knife!
The soldier whose throat was pierced by the knife pulled out the knife himself and handed it over to the other soldier beside him. As if to say "I'll leave the rest to you".
And now, there were four of them, and one was armed with a knife. The prince on the other hand couldn't use his right hand due to his previous strategy.
「THIS SHI*TTY BRAT!」
The soldier who received the knife was charging in rage after seeing the death of his comrade.
「WAIT!」
Don't let your guard down―― The other party is a demon race, he must have one trick or two up his sleeve――
But, the young soldier was too angry to hear the old soldier's warning.
「That's my knife.」
The prince was looking at the young soldier who was charging at him with an enraged look on his face with a look of pity on his face.
「Give it back to me.」
Suddenly, it was as if both sides were linked by a thread.
「Wait――」
The young soldier was outside the protection range of the magic shield. The moment the old soldier noticed that it was already too late.
「【Metaphysics(Transpose)】」
At that moment, the world's logic was twisted.
「Uhn!? GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」
The young soldier suddenly dropped the obsidian knife. Fresh blood was spurting out from his right hand.
The old soldier had no choice but to run forward. His action would cause the collapse in their formation but he had no other choice. He prayed in his heart so that he could arrive in time.
Please, let me arrive in ti――!
But, his hope was dashed.
A small, blue shadow crushed that simple wish.
That shadow was nothing more than a young demon race.
He swept the feet of the young soldier and picked up the dropped obsidian knife in one smooth motion, and drove its blade into the latter's heart.
Thus, the young soldier died in silence. Before a pool of blood could form beneath his feet, the prince swung the knife in his right hand to the side to get rid of the blood clot sticking on its blade with an oddly calm look on his face.
Upon a closer look, the old soldier realized that the wound on the prince’s right wrist was gone――
「The human race is way too fragile. It left a bad taste in my mouth.」
The prince muttered so with an emotionless look on his face.
His red eyes reflected nothing as if he had no emotion from the very beginning.
「DON'T… SCREW WITH ME!」
The old soldier whose heart faltered due to the unreasonable situation before him shouted at the prince.
「YOU FU*CKING DEMON RACE! ALL OF YOU FU*CKERS ALWAYS USING STRANGE MAGIC!」
And yet, the prince's red eyes only looked coldly at the old soldier.
「… I agree.」
And unexpectedly replying to the old soldier with a bitter smile on his face. That moment came like a bolt in the blue for the old soldier because the prince's expression was――
But, that expression vanished in the next moment before the old soldier understood what was happening.
The prince held his knife with a backhand grip.
The old soldier was prepared for the worst. He had already abandoned the slimmest chance of returning alive.
This prince. This Demon Race. I have to kill him even if it costs my own life.
Who knows how many humans would fall victim to him if he grew up and entered the battlefield!!
「DIEEEEEEEEEE!!」
Now come. Plunge that knife into my eye but, I'll kill you with everything I got even if I have to bite your windpipe.
But, the prince didn't seem to be agitated. Rather, he accelerated. The old soldier was wondering if the prince had no fear at all.
Thus, the knife in the prince's hand flashed a cold light――!
The moment the old soldier thought so, the figure of the prince suddenly vanished from his field of view. The next moment, he felt the world was overturned. Turned out, the prince distracted the old soldier's attention with his knife while in fact aiming to sweep the latter's leg.
"Dammit, I underestimate him!" was what the old soldier thought before he heard the sound of a knife slicing the air. The old soldier reacted quickly and twisted his upper body, which was followed by scorching hot pain running through his face. It seems he barely dodged the stab that was aiming for his throat.
Dammit, I must stop that prince. Is he aiming for the young soldiers?!
「Dammit――」
The old soldier's field of vision was blocked by the blood that came down from the wound on his forehead. So he relied soley on the sound of footsteps to chase the prince while wiping the blood that covered his field of view. Finally, his field of vision returned.
The first thing he saw was the back of the prince of the demon race.
「ALL OF U――!」
He was rendered speechless before he managed to finish his words.
Because of the three remaining soldiers-including him- two had already been laid in their own pool of blood.
One was slit on his throat, while the other was stabbed in his heart.
It was a quick and painless death. Yet showed the height of skill of their opponent at the same time.
And then, he felt a cold and sharp metal penetrate his heart.
The obsidian….. knife.
The prince who held that knife had a fierce look on his face as if he cursed the entire world.
「Your death won't be a meaningless death.」
Those words sound like he was enduring something. Is it rage? Or sorrow? I have no idea which one it is but――
Frustration, regret, literally everything seemed to be oozing out from the prince along with the formation of the puddle of blood beneath his feet.
The old soldier's consciousness dimmed.
The prince who closed in at once and stabbed his knife into the old soldier's heart brought his lips closer to the latter's ear.
――Death to Darkfolk.
The old soldier's eyes opened wide upon hearing those words.
He wanted to ask the prince, "Why did you say that?".
But, his time was running out.
And then, his consciousness ceased to exist.
Leaving a corpse that fell down with a shocked face――
†††
The training ground shook with the cheers from the audience.
The young prince defeated 5 trained human soldiers with nothing but a single obsidian knife and his lineage magic.
Even if the captured human soldiers were nothing more than frail 『Game』 for them, no one spared their praise for the young prince.
And the prince who received such praise raised his bloodstained obsidian knife into the air.
The look on his face was indescribable.
But, a single tear was trickling down his cheek.