In My Second Life, I Rule from the Shadows

Chapter 32: Lahan (3)

Srrk.

With a gush of crimson blood, one of his ears was sliced off and floated through the air.

Before the severed flesh even hit the ground, Shin-Jen immediately turned and swung his sword fiercely.

But the cold blade only cut through Carl’s figure, which scattered like a phantom.

Thunk.

Carl appeared not far away, flicking the blood off his sword as he smirked at Shin-Jen.

“Your head looked unnecessarily heavy, so I lightened it a bit. Still seems too much, though.”

Ssshh─!

Shin-Jen didn’t open his mouth.

He launched his body forward, refusing to be swayed by Carl’s wordplay any longer, and swung his sword with ferocious momentum.

In an instant, three slashes cut through the air simultaneously, converging on Carl.

But again, Carl’s figure crumbled and reappeared elsewhere.

“……”

Shin-Jen’s eyes moved incessantly, tracking Carl’s every move.

The time for exchanging jokes to gauge the opponent’s level was long past.

‘This guy is the real deal.’

By the time they’d reached this point, he no longer thought of Carl as just another noble brat or a greenhorn.

That’s why he’d never let his guard down.

And yet, the man before him was an utterly surreal existence.

Even though Carl must be at least half his age, he was managing to hold the upper hand.

‘That’s just too unreasonable.’

Even if he was talented, the depth of experience was worlds apart.

He had planned to use that gap as leverage to overwhelm Carl, but now the tables had turned.

At this point, he was completely being toyed with.

“…I admit it. You’re strong.”

Suppressing his surging anger and boiling pride, Shin-Jen raised his head with a calm expression.

Now wasn’t the time to conserve energy.

Now that blood had been spilled, he too had to get serious.

Shhhhaaak!

Sharp qi surged from his core and radiated outward.

He was finally unleashing his reserved strength to face Carl head-on.

As his qi sense maximized, every movement within the fifth floor was caught in his perception.

Even those strange movements wouldn’t fool his senses anymore.

Srrrk.

The moment Carl’s body disappeared again, Shin-Jen swung his sword.

As Carl tried to emerge from the air, his body was split in half—only to vanish once more like a mirage.

With fierce eyes, Shin-Jen turned his head.

“You bastard! That trick won’t work anymore!”

“I’m not deaf, you don’t have to shout like that.”

Carl, who had landed a short distance away, shrugged his shoulders and raised his sword.

“I was trying to do it the old way, but it’s not quite the same. I suppose I’ve grown used to this body now.”

Having learned the Primordial Unity Divine Art instead of the Silent Shadow Kill Technique, his constitution had changed significantly.

Because of that, harmony had replaced stealth, and the method of twisting the flow and slipping through the air—the way of the dark currents—had become quite unfamiliar.

Still, Carl had deliberately used the Silent Shadow Kill Technique to demonstrate his fighting style to Queen.

Queen had inherited and trained in that technique on Carl’s behalf.

‘That should have helped quite a bit.’

Throughout the fight, Queen’s gaze had never left him.

It must have been of no small help in taking the next step.

Having fulfilled that goal, Carl felt it was about time to end this situation.

“Come on. I’ll face you properly now.”

“Just what I wanted.”

At Carl’s words, Shin-Jen caressed the tip of his sword and sharpened his aura.

He still believed that in a head-on fight, he would win.

Carl abandoning his bizarre movements to engage him directly was sheer arrogance.

Shin-Jen was more than willing to accept that invitation.

‘I took their money, now it’s time to earn it.’

He still had work to do—he couldn’t be stopped here.

That’s why he raised his clean, untouched blade with resolve.

As the tension between them soared to its peak—

Sssak!

A single sword strike that held everything.

Shin-Jen poured his years of experience into that strike, aiming to take his opponent’s head in one blow.

“……”

In the blink of an eye, the two figures passed by each other.

At least, that’s how Dirsen, watching the fight from behind, perceived it.

And Shin-Jen’s sword finally reached Carl.

A lock of red hair floating in the air was proof of that.

Srrk.

Carl brushed his fingers through the tips of his hair, where a few strands had been cut, and spoke briefly toward Shin-Jen.

“That sword just now… was a little entertaining.”

"…Is that so."

Shin-Jen let out a bitter smile.

Then he lowered his sword and lifted his head to look up at the sky.

"At least I didn’t live in vain."

At the same time, a red line began to trace across his entire body before he was split into pieces and collapsed to the ground.

It was the end of a middle-aged swordsman who once dominated the underworld of the Western Third Commercial District.

"……."

Dirsen, who had stood behind and witnessed the entire scene, stared blankly with his mouth agape.

The relaxed demeanor he had shown earlier was nowhere to be found.

Even when Shin-Jen’s ear had been cut off, he had never imagined that he would actually lose to such a young brat.

Who was Shin-Jen?

He was one of the top swordsmen even within the Western Third Commercial District.

Despite being middle-aged, he still held power comparable to an active warrior, and a hefty price had been paid to hire him.

He was, quite literally, the hidden card meant to be embedded into the heart of Turga.

"……."

But he died without even defeating one brat from the Leipzig Family, the supposed head of NOX.

Snapping back to his senses, Dirsen hurriedly turned his head to look elsewhere.

After all, besides Shin-Jen, he had also hired other mercenaries under his command.

Splat.

The spearman who had been fighting Second had his face and chest crushed.

Clearly dead on the spot, his body tumbled across the floor, limbs twitching briefly before falling still.

Meanwhile, the man in white who had been fighting Queen was now a bloody mess, barely holding on as he gasped raggedly for air.

Soon after, just like Carl, a sword suddenly emerged from thin air and pierced his heart, killing him instantly without any resistance.

"……Uh."

Dirsen’s mind went blank from the completely unexpected outcome.

He was being overwhelmed by what he thought were just sword-wielding thugs?

By people who’d merely come up from the backwater provinces?

‘The, the barrier…’

But it wasn’t over yet.

His subordinates were still waiting outside the barrier.

He had to quickly undo the barrier and relay the situation—

Thud.

But before that could happen, Carl stepped in and grabbed Dirsen’s head with a flat, emotionless gaze.

"…Khak!!"

Dirsen struggled to escape, but it felt like invisible hands were binding his entire body in place—he couldn’t move an inch.

Carl looked down at him with sharp eyes and spoke.

"Don’t worry. I won’t kill you. You still have plenty of things to do."

Killing Dirsen here and causing chaos in Lahan would be the move of an amateur.

If one of the powerful competitors died, Lahan would only unite more tightly around the runner-up, Turga.

Dirsen had a critical role—to become Carl’s pawn and shake Lahan from within.

‘Or perhaps, making this guy the boss of Lahan outright might not be a bad idea either.’

Now that he had the boss in hand, taking control of Lahan wouldn’t be so difficult.

Of course, some reliable insurance would be necessary.

Chzzzz.

Demonic energy rose from Carl’s hand and burrowed into Dirsen’s head.

Soon, Dirsen’s eyes rolled back until only the whites were visible.

Soul-Seizing Demon Mirror—one of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art techniques that subdued the opponent’s soul and allowed for brainwashing.

It could be used to turn someone into a pawn or to remove or implant certain memories.

‘Tampering with the whole thing is generally too risky, so I rarely do it.’

But as a martial art under the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, its effectiveness was assured.

It had played a huge part in establishing NOX.

Even minimal adjustments to the soul were reliably effective.

‘Reducing the risk of betrayal is about planting mutual trust.’

It was about instilling the idea that they’d been comrades for a long time.

Doing that drastically reduced the likelihood of being stabbed in the back.

"…Kuaaaagh!"

As soon as the Soul-Seizing Demon Mirror’s technique was completed, Dirsen screamed and collapsed.

Carl hadn’t moved a single finger, and yet Dirsen seemed to have passed out just like that.

"Did it work?"

Queen, now wearing red instead of white, walked over while wiping blood from her sword and clothes and asked.

"We’ll see when he wakes up. More importantly, Queen—that."

"You’re going to use that too?"

"Better to be sure. I’m planning to make this guy the boss of Lahan."

"Sounds good. That’ll make managing the organization much easier."

Smiling faintly, Queen took out a small wooden box from her coat.

When she opened the lid, a pair of insects nestled in dried hay could be seen.

Gu Poison.

A pair of venomous bugs, male and female—if the male was fed to the target, the female could be used to control the target’s actions at will.

This was an additional layer of insurance following the Soul-Seizing Demon Mirror.

If the soul was already brainwashed and Gu Poison had taken root, then Dirsen was no different from a puppet controlled by Carl.

“This is the first test subject. Consider it an honor.”

Carl took out the male Gu and forced it into the unconscious Dirsen’s mouth.

He moved Dirsen’s jaw to make him swallow it, then chanted an incantation to ensure the Gu settled properly.

“…It’s done.”

Once Carl confirmed that the Gu had safely settled, he smiled in satisfaction.

Gu Poison was the fruit of Carl’s painstaking efforts.

There were similar creatures in Artenia, but they were heavily tied to dark magic.

However, learning dark magic or bringing in someone who had learned it was too risky, so he had avoided it.

But as the organization grew and became more active, he gradually felt the need for Gu Poison and, after several years of preparation, finally created a single pair.

Now that it had been successfully deployed in its first real use, there was no reason not to begin mass production.

Tap tap.

Brushing off his hands, Carl looked down at Dirsen, who lay collapsed on the floor.

A truly foolish man.

To act like this without even knowing whom he had invited in.

“Take care of the rest.”

“Understood.”

“Yes.”

At Carl’s command, Second and Queen nodded their heads.

The barrier was released.

Dirsen’s subordinates, who had been waiting outside, immediately headed up to the fifth floor of the restaurant.

“Then I’ll take it that everything has been agreed upon.”

“Looking forward to working with you.”

What they saw was their boss and the head of NOX shaking hands in a seemingly good atmosphere.

With Shin-Jen and the other two nowhere to be seen, it looked like the plan had gone forward to use NOX as sword-for-hire.

“Boss.”

“Ah, Rayner. The leader of NOX is quite an impressive individual. We’ve agreed to establish close cooperation moving forward.”

“Congratulations.”

The man called Rayner smiled and nodded his head.

If it was NOX, the rising new force in the Western Third Commercial District, it would be a huge help.

Dirsen patted his shoulder and praised him for his work, then turned his head toward Carl.

“Then I’d like to properly treat you to a drink. Do you have time?”

“…I don’t enjoy alcohol. More importantly, I’d like to begin preparing measures against Turga, so I’ll take my leave.”

A voice altered by a mask flowed out.

At the refusal, Rayner glanced at his boss.

Dirsen despised having his invitations turned down.

After all, he had ruled as a king in this commercial district.

“I see. Then it can’t be helped. I wish you success in your preparations.”

“…….”

But contrary to expectations, Dirsen nodded so easily that it came as a slight surprise.

‘Does he hold NOX’s power in that high regard?’

With wide eyes, Rayner watched NOX’s group depart.

It seemed he would need to slightly revise his assessment of that organization.