The Second Strongest Has Returned

Chapter 62

Side Story – Coincidence

[1. I’ll distract the enemies.]

A hastily assembled team and a reckless plan—there was no other choice now that they had come this far.

At the very least, hesitating was not an option.

-“I’m going to set this place on fire. I originally planned to burn them all to death.”

-“Then everyone will die!?”

-“So for now, I’ll just start a small fire to draw their attention.”

First, he spread the weapon maintenance oil that he had prepared in advance around the area, focusing on passages, using it as sparingly as possible.

Ssshhk

Then, he lit a match and set the oil on fire.

Whoosh

Naturally, smoke began to rise, and the heat and light made Leo visible.

“An intruder!!”

“Fire!! Put it out, quickly!!”

But this was exactly what the plan was designed to do.

‘…I just need to buy time…’

First, he threw all the daggers he had. He couldn’t be sure it would work against professional assassins, but right after the sudden fire, there was a slightly better chance.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Thunk…

He had targeted four people, but only one was hit.

At least it was a small relief that the one hit was struck in the forehead.

“Kill him!!”

Their daggers came flying toward him. In this situation, poison powders or smoke screens couldn’t be used. Besides, the other passageways were completely blocked by fire, so this should buy some time.

‘…It’s the second phase… Hurry up…’

Right now, he had no choice but to trust the girl who had stabbed him in the chest. This plan would only succeed if there was trust in this precarious relationship. And, of course, they would need a bit of luck.

Srring!

A strange sound—it wasn’t the usual clashing of metal but the sound of a blacksmith cutting through iron.

There was only one person who could make such a sound in a place like this.

* * *

[2. Meanwhile, you cut through all the iron bars. (Both guards have identical keys, and since the numbers match, this is the only place with iron bars.)]

The girl looked at the note with the plan written on it, her expression one of bewilderment. She never imagined she would meet that crazy boy again.

‘…Jehad said he was definitely out of his mind.’

In fact, most people, including Arias, said Leo was a crazy kid. And honestly, they weren’t entirely wrong.

From her perspective, the insane boy who suddenly walked through the middle of town with a severed head, who then seemed to pick a fight, tried to resolve things peacefully, but ended up rampaging and got stabbed in the chest.

Even after all that, it was hard to accept, but just before he died, the crazy boy started saying things that made no sense.

And then, just as she was about to kill him with her own hands,

‘I’ve had enough.’

* * *

The boy removed his hand and cauterized the wound with a nearby lamp. Although he could have used a potion to heal it, she couldn’t understand why he chose such a dangerous method.

That’s why Jehad simply explained that the boy was just mentally unstable. He said it was better to forget about a kid like that.

Just as that strange boy began to fade from her memory, she encountered him again in a place like this.

In reality, she had only chased after the bad person who suddenly kidnapped a child without any plan.

She was confident that if it were just a simple band of thieves, she could handle it on her own.

And when she successfully infiltrated their hideout, she was filled with despair.

“Gr…gurr…”

“Ugh…aaah…”

“Ah…ugh…”

People growled like beasts as they ate slop, while others killed them without a second thought.

At that moment, Ariasphil unconsciously recalled that strange boy. There was no connection. Somehow, she began to understand his bizarre behavior a little.

It was the first time she had seen people die so worthlessly.

‘…Ugh…aaah…!’

Ariasphil lost her mental composure. Perhaps she wanted to deny this grim reality, which was why she wanted to kill those bastards.

Tch

At that moment, someone covered her mouth and held back her sword. They whispered urgently into her ear.

(You’ll die if you go out there.)

She almost screamed. Part of it was because she was startled, but what really made her want to scream was the person who explained it.

‘Why is he here…?!’

It was that strange kid from before. The crazy boy who had cut off a person’s head and hung it from a tree, who had beaten up guards and hung them on spears, and who had done those terrible things with her.

If she hadn’t understood what he quietly conveyed, she would have definitely screamed.

As the guards left, the girl barely managed to move her lips.

(Why are you here?)

The answer was found in a scratched metal tag and a worn-out notebook he showed her.

[I’m a mercenary, and I came here to take care of this.]

That strange boy was calm. He immediately chose the quickest and safest way to explain himself and communicate.

Without asking why she was here, he analyzed the situation as best as he could and explained it to her.

Like a general straight out of military strategy textbooks, he devised the best strategies and tactics and relayed them to her.

-“What if you’re deceiving me?”

She doubted him. The methods he had explained so far had critical flaws.

-“If I deceive you, I’ll live and you’ll die. But honestly, you have more to gain from deceiving me.”

That was true. If, at the first step, the boy caused the fire, she would have been the one to move.

The timing was in her favor.

-“I know. It’s hard to trust a crazy guy like me. So don’t trust me—trust the situation.”

-“Believe in the situation that benefits you the most.”

As the paper gradually ran out, the boy looked at her, then mouthed his words silently.

(I’m going now.)

The boy ran off, and after a brief struggle, bright light and heat filled the dark underground space.

If he acted as the decoy while she escaped alone, she would definitely be able to get out safely.

But—

-“You might spend tomorrow worrying about how you’ll live…”

-“…But I… every day… I worry about how I’ll die…!”

Why did the dagger-like sting of those words, spoken a month ago, only now start to pierce her heart?

At some point, her sword was drawn. Aura flowed into the blade.

Srring!

The sharp cutting sound echoed through the iron bars. The rusty bars were cleanly sliced each time the sword touched them.

“Uh…ugh…”

But even though an escape route had been opened, the people who had become livestock didn’t even think of running away. They had already lost their dignity as human beings.

‘…Why is everything going exactly as that kid predicted…?’

As she wondered about that, the flames began to intensify. Hearing the sound of the iron bars being cut, the strange boy moved on to the third phase of the plan.

[3. I’ll set additional fires. During that time, you move the hostages out of the basement.]

He was worried about burns and suffocation from the smoke. Of course, he wasn’t worried about himself but about those crawling people.

-“It doesn’t matter.”

-“What do you mean it doesn’t matter?!”

-“Smoke rises because it’s hot. But those people are used to crawling.”

Therefore, they could minimize the risk of suffocation. And since they were in a beast-like state, they would naturally search for an exit when they saw the flames.

In the midst of that chaos, she was to move them.

Leo, in the meantime, set more fires to accelerate the blaze.

“Got you!!”

A man burst through the flames and grabbed Leo’s arm, attempting to stab him with a dagger.

Shhraaak!

At that moment, Leo threw something—it was flour.

Just ordinary flour, without any chemical or magical enhancement.

Whoosh!

“Ahhhhh!!”

But it was enough. The dust explosion from the flour was sufficient to increase the intensity of the fire.

Boom!!

The ensuing explosion likely ignited the poison gas canister the assassin had been carrying. The other assassins caught in the blast contributed to the explosion.

The strategy was possible because most poisons and smoke bombs were flammable.

Now, he covered his mouth with a wet cloth. Then, he continued to throw flour down the passageway, further accelerating the fire.

“Ughhh…!!”

Amidst this, he saw the girl, who had covered her face with the cloth he had given her. She looked like a shepherd girl herding people who crawled like animals.

“Let’s go!! This way!!”

* * *

As Leo grabbed her, he guided the girl to the escape route. The marks he had left at each intersection led the group through the best possible exit.

They were almost there. Just a little further, and the plan would succeed. They would finally escape this damned basement.

But something was wrong. No matter how dark it had gotten, there should have been at least some moonlight filtering through as they approached the exit.

So why was there no breeze at all from the direction of the exit?

The answer became clear when they reached the blocked exit.

Bang!

“Damn it…! It’s locked…!!”

For some reason, the basement door was tightly secured. A couple of kicks wouldn’t easily open it…

Crash!!

The sturdy wooden door was completely blown off. The hinges were torn apart, and the door shattered as it flew away.

“All done, right? Let’s get these people out first.”

“Huh… yeah…?”

It suddenly hit him again how much strength the girl beside him possessed.

“…Ugh…”

“Grr…”

Thanks to her guidance, they safely made it out even through the narrow path. Now, only Leo’s group needed to escape.

“You arrogant bastards…!!”

A voice rang out suddenly, triggering his instincts. The voice didn’t belong to an assassin—it had come from beyond the flames.

“Get down!!”

“…What?!”

Leo shoved her outside.

In that instant, as he turned his head, he saw a dark wizard deploying a magic circle.

‘…Magic?!’

He instinctively raised his sword to shield his face. In this environment, fire or lightning magic would be unusable, so this was the best judgment he could make.

Boom!

But that judgment was a mistake. A stone wall created by magic sealed the underground door.

“Hehehe! Now you’re…!”

“You bastard!!”

Leo threw a dagger. The dark wizard started laughing but quickly deployed a protective shield.

“Idiot.”

Attached to the dagger was a bag of burning flour. The flour exploded, turning the inside of the shield into a scorching oven.

‘…I killed him, but… what now?’

The magical stone wall was several times sturdier than the rusty iron bars. Considering its thickness, it would be even more challenging to break through.

“…Hey!! Can you break this…!!”

Clang!! Bang!! Clang!

Before he could even finish speaking, the girl slashed at the stone wall with her sword. The impact was strong enough to reverberate inside, but the magical stone wall firmly blocked the exit.

“Can you hear my voice!? If you can, answer me!!”

Leo instinctively opened his mouth to respond but quickly closed it again.

‘…Should I just stay like this…?’

He had already saved the person he intended to rescue. The girl had also safely made it outside. If he wasted time saving himself, there was a chance that any remaining enemies might show up.

He had no lingering attachment to life. He had abandoned his hometown long ago of his own accord, and the goal he had pursued to the point of exhaustion had been given up on, to the extent that he no longer cared if he died.

The one who would have stopped him from dying was already gone.

So…

The boy remained silent in the flames…

Chae-aeng!! Ka-aang!!

Just as he was about to fall silent, the sound of clashing blades echoed continuously.

“Snap out of it!! Answer me!! Don’t die like this…!”

The clash of swords and the voice reverberated loudly, loud enough to be heard even beyond the stone wall, but it sounded more like a sobbing voice on the verge of tears.

“Because of me…! It’s because of me that you’re dying…!”

In the end, the girl burst into tears. For a boy she had only seen twice, and even then under strange circumstances, she willingly shed tears.

At that moment, a thought crossed his mind.

It would be troubling if this girl cried.

Before he knew it, a sword was in his hand.

The scar on his chest throbbed from the heat, but it didn’t matter.

—The place you want to go… will disappear the moment you give up…

As the strange old woman’s words echoed in his mind, the sword swung.

It was a strange sensation.

It only lasted a moment, but he felt as if the sword had taken root in his hand. The breath of the blade harmonized with the breath in his lungs.

At that moment.

The sword was me, and I was the sword.

Crunch

The stone wall split. Through the cracks and crumbling gaps, the girl’s face became visible.

Her face was swollen from tears, her hair a mess from the heat and soot, and she was staring at him.

He suddenly felt that it was a good thing he had come out now…

Thud

“…Huh?”

At that moment, the stone wall collapsed. It fell towards him, endlessly tumbling down. The impact of the stone wall was significant.

Perhaps it was the aftereffect of the monstrous swordsmanship he had just displayed, but his body didn’t respond. Even as the pile of stones crashed down on him, he felt no pain and simply crumpled under the impact.

Unknowingly, as he fell into the flames, words slipped from his mouth.

“I… wanted to live…”

He closed his eyes. Surprisingly, his body didn’t feel hot.

Rather… it felt comfortable.

Is this what death is like?

It would be nice if his mother had passed away this peacefully too…

“Stand up. Boy.”

Someone called out to him. His eyelids trembled, and he opened his eyes.

“You’re not dead. You are a true warrior.”

The person holding him was a woman with silver hair and blue eyes, much like the girl. However, she exuded a more mature and dignified charm compared to the girl.

“…Who are you…”

“Chris Reinhardt, also known as Black Darkness.”

At the mention of the name “Black Darkness,” Leo spoke, closing his eyes once more.

“That’s really cool… Black Darkness…”

With those words, Leo lost consciousness.