The Sword and The Shadow

What a cruel woman! Leguna thought, his anger building. He had no choice but to blink in front of Sasha and prepared to deflect the knife with his sword.

Lighteater did, in fact, knock on the knife, but instead of falling down, the knife exploded. It wasn't enough to harm a person, but the smoke from the explosion made a thick smokescreen. Leguna was taken off guard and blinded.

"Agh!" he cried in pain.

"Our agency had the magic academy make these knives, you see. Even if they don't hurt anyone, they can still seal off your vision."

One was hurt, but her voice didn't sound perturbed. She moved about without a sound.

"I wonder what you'll do next, Mister Dark Requiem…"

"Naturally, given your abilities, I don't think I'm capable of holding you here," One said as she tended her wounds, "So, I'm quite curious how Sir Saron managed to catch you in the first place."

"I just didn't feel like leaving back then," he replied.

"And now, it's the same. You're well aware this girl will suffer once you leave, right?"

"That's right."

"Is it worth it? You're the head of Hocke's bureau and the top assassin of the continent. Would you really stay for the sake of a little girl? Is she that important to you?" One asked with great interest.

She had wanted to launch a surprise attack on him, but two other assassins of the agency went for it first. They grasped the perfect opportunity and angle, but were still slain by Leguna nevertheless as if his sight wasn't impeded in the slightest.

"I have never considered which lives are worth more than others."

He shook the blood off Lighteater. Gahrona already absorbed their souls. Pointing his sword at the corpses, he calmly said, "Just look at these two. I see them as two lives, not so different from mine, yours, or Sasha's."

"But you killed them just like that," she said, shooting straight for the point.

"That's right. That's because I want to survive," he said with an honest nod, "If I don't kill them, they'll kill me. I want to survive, so I kill. It has nothing to do with how much lives are worth."

"So, are you saving this girl because you want her to survive?"

"No." He shook his head unexpectedly. "I'm saving her for my own sake."

"For your own sake?"

This time around, everyone else, One, and Sasha herself were stunned.

"That's right--" He nodded and raised his bloodied left hand. "--I've killed too many, so I'm afraid I'll become an emotionless killing machine. I don't want to turn into that because I want to be more human than blade. Blades are made for nothing but endless killing, but humans are not. I want to save her because I want to sustain what keeps me human."

"Huh, hearing that from the famous Dark Requiem isn't really convincing," One commented.

If Leguna were paying attention, he'd notice the complicated look in her eyes.

"It's up to you whether to believe it or not," he said with a relaxed smile. "I don't care."

After that, he hugged the shivering Sasha and put her on his back.

"Hold tight, or you'll never get to see your mom again!" he whispered.

Sasha snapped out of it and hugged him the best she could to the point that he had slight trouble breathing.

But that was exactly what he wanted. He held onto Sasha with his injured left arm and began to go into a frenzy.

His sudden movements stunned everyone. Wasn't he blinded? How could he tell his surroundings? Did he really have extrasensory perception?

But One wasn't the slightest bit surprised. The fact that he could deal with the two assailants meant that he could fight blind. A visual impediment wasn't a big deal for him.

Leguna thanked the fact that he had to fight Balor back then. If not for his Darkness Vision, Leguna wouldn't have bothered mastering fighting blind and honing his senses. They were a great help to him in this situation.

Gahrona herself also knew how urgent the situation was. Even though she was now just a sword spirit, she could still perceive the world around her and would offer reminders from time to time.

Leguna suddenly burst with speed and cut through the cloud like a blade going through tofu. But he soon felt danger coming for him from behind. He swung his sword and One didn't dare to take the Spatial Cut head on.

She hurriedly stopped in her tracks and waited for the swing to finish.

Leguna didn't hesitate and flung Sasha into the air before manifesting a shadow sword in his left hand to go in for a fight.

In a short second, the two clashed and Leguna used his impetus thrust to force One back.

At that point, Sasha reached the highest point, shrieking and flailing her arms in mid-air. Fortunately, the Stokians knew that she wasn't a threat and used all their weapons on Leguna instead.

When he beat One back, Leguna used Shadow Blink to reappear in mid-air and got Sasha firm on his back in an odd pose.

"Hold tight!" he yelled.

In the next instant, he summoned more than 20 shadow knives and used his impetus to propel all of them, causing them to shoot through the ceiling like bullets.

Bam!

Even though the stone used to build the mansion was rather good, they weren't able to withstand his explosive attack. He opened a hole in the ceiling about the size of a washbasin.

With a loud groan, he tossed Sasha up again, managing to get the perfect angle and arc and sending her through the hole like a meat sack.

Oh no, my blink's cooldown isn't over yet! he thought in a panic as he braced himself for the fall.

[That woman's about to target your vitals!] Gahrona warned.

Surprised, he finally sensed that One was readying herself for a jump and the angle of her dagger seemed to be coming for his crotch.

He yelped in terror. No way! I haven't even become a man yet! I can't lose it right now!

Whether out of will or some other unexplained force, the cooldown ran out a little quicker than usual. The moment before One landed her attack, he blinked to Sasha's side.

"Hold tight again!" he said, as he adjusted his posture and landed stably on the ground.

Taking Sasha on his back, he vanished into the night's shadows.

"Darn it! He really got away!" Sartre said, puffing mad.

"He's the Dark Requiem, after all. I wasn't confident I could capture him either," One plainly replied, as if she wasn't disappointed by her failure.

"No, I don't believe it!" Sartre cried from the corner in which he hid, "If the agency can't do it, there's still the capital's garrison! I will get him!"

One shrugged without a care. She understood why Sartre was mad. The weapons were lost after all. She had heard that Sartre promised to pay the empire 100 thousand gold coins if the weapons were lost. Even for his merchant guild, losing that sum for no apparent reason was no doubt painful and infuriating.

"Huff… puff…"

Leguna didn't go far. In fact, he was in Sartre's yard. He was quite familiar with the place after working there for days and he hid in an inconspicuous room that stored firewood.

"Don't cry or make a sound or I'll kill you, understood?" he threatened with a fierce look with his hand on her mouth.

Sasha was tearing up, but there wasn't a sign of fear in her eyes. She nodded and blinked with all she had.

He relaxed his hand and leaned weakly to the side.

"Big Brother Jae-- Leguna… You're hurt…"

She wasn't crying out of fear, but his injuries.

"Ah, I know."

He had used his left hand due to the urgency and caused the arrow in it to make a bloody mess. The trivial injury got quite serious.

"I can't go on like this."

He looked at his hand and took out Ebony.

"Help me dress the wound," he said as he handed Sasha the dagger.

"Me?" she said, surprised.

"Who else?" he said with a weak smile, "It's too hard for me to do it myself, so you do it. Cut off the messed up flesh and pull the arrowhead out. I can deal with the rest."

He handed the dagger to her without waiting for her reply.

Sasha held the dagger and looked at him. At that moment, the voice spoke in her mind, [Just pretend to help him and pierce him in the heart with the dagger! This is your chance for revenge!]