How a Second Life Knight Lives

25. The second fiancé returned to his hometown.

But this worm wriggled too much.

The sword broke!

It wasn’t just broken, it was shattered.

An attack that could have split a chunk of flesh filled with blood and bone in an instant was blocked.

His sword was blocked by the sword of a young nobleman who still had the air of youth about him!

The young nobleman held the hilt and the back of the sword with both hands and extended it horizontally. It was a method that could only be done if one had confidence in the quality of the sword. It was not uncommon for a sword to break in a single impact.

Indeed, the young nobleman’s sword was intact.

The young nobleman’s frail arms, however, were not.

On the other hand, his own sword, which he had acquired for a hefty price, had its edge chipped. It was so badly damaged that he thought it would break with one more strike.

It was an unlucky day.

Selling defective goods? That blacksmith. I’ll definitely kill him.

“`

And that snake-like bastard.

He deceived me.

What a worthless noble scum.

Even the knight assigned as his guard could use magic.

How many have died!

Everyone except the ones left outside is dead!

The plan to make one last big score before retiring was severely disrupted.

The mercenary in black armor gripped the newly drawn warhammer.

And swung it with fury.

Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal clashing echoed menacingly.

Jorgen, the second son of Count Rasmus, parried the attacks in a half-dazed state.

It was too fast.

He couldn’t block it by sight.

He had to feel and block.

If he hadn’t learned swordsmanship from the wandering knight who didn’t even reveal his name, he would have been pierced by the spikes and died at the stage where he couldn’t block by sight.

However, he somehow managed to block the attacks that he couldn’t follow with his eyes.

And that was it.

He lost his sword.

He had learned never to let go of the sword in his hand, even in death,

But in a situation where his grip was torn and his fingers were fractured, he couldn’t put his learning into practice.

The problem was that his training period was too short.

He hadn’t even properly started, let alone completed his body for combat, so it couldn’t be helped.

The lost sword was stuck in the wall, and the spike of the warhammer was about to be lodged in his head.

Jorgen braced himself for pain or death, covering his head with both arms.

Clang!

Damn it!

The mercenary in black armor cursed inwardly and sidestepped.

The sword that flew aiming for the back of his head was quite threatening.

If he hadn’t deflected it with the studs on his leather gauntlet, the sword would have been lodged in his head before he could lodge the warhammer in the noble youth’s head.

“`

The mercenary in black armor acknowledged that his target had once again slipped from his grasp.

But so what!

Just as he had disposed of the persistently annoying bodyguard, he would also get rid of this new enemy.

The young one without a protector was nothing more than a mouthful.

Of course, he had just done something clever, but could he do it twice?

Jorgen was still within his range.

The mercenary in black armor focused his mind on the new enemy.

The new enemy finally blocked the entrance from the hallway to the reception room.

Of course, he was empty-handed.

He had already thrown the black spear he had been holding.

*

“Hey, blackie. Did you take my sword?”

I pretended to be calm as I provoked the mercenary in black armor and quickly scanned the reception room.

Having thrown the sword I had, the only weapon I had left was a single dagger.

I had no choice.

If I had left it alone because it was far away, the young one named Jorgen or Jurgen would have had a hole in his head.

Then a lot of things would have flowed through that hole.

So I had to throw the sword.

It seemed I had barely bought some time,

but the blackie in front of me didn’t look easy.

The bodyguard who had been in charge of protection seemed to be already finished, lying on one side.

I slowly moved my steps into the reception room.

After dealing with the mercenary blocking the stairs,

the scene I encountered as soon as I climbed the stairs was not very pleasant.

The blood was so thick on the carpet that it was sticky, and it had splattered on the walls of the hallway and even the ceiling.

The bodies strewn across the hallway went without saying.

But one thing was unexpected.

Most of the bodies lying in the hallway were mercenaries.

I had thought that the attack by the mercenary group would have killed not only the people of the Rasmus Count family but also the innocent guests staying in the rooms.

But except for the people who were massacred while coming down the stairs, the mercenaries seemed to have suffered more damage.

It meant that the guard Count Rasmus had assigned to his son was quite decent.

To the extent that the mercenary group, which must have been rolling around the battlefield for a long time, was annihilated in their last mission.

However, unfortunately, that guard had exhausted all its remaining strength.

Now, the only ones left were Jorgen, who was Count Rasmus’s son, and his maid.

As I entered the reception room, I gave a slight nod to the knight who had fulfilled his duty.

Now it was my turn to carry out the commission according to the contract.

After entering the reception room, I slowly approached the mercenary in black armor.

It was then.

“Graf. That’s my name.”

The mercenary in black armor, who had been glancing at Jorgen as he slowly retreated to the private room connected to the reception room, suddenly spoke.

“Yeah. Blackie. But where’s my sword?”

The answer was the pointed part of the warhammer, the spike.

The sharp spike sliced through the air, aiming for my head.

The warhammer’s attack, taking a big step and extending the arm, reached an unexpectedly long distance.

It was partly because Blackie was tall and had long arms.

I slightly retreated from Blackie’s sudden movement, looking for an opportunity to throw a dagger.

However, I had to keep retreating from the continuous onslaught of the warhammer.

In an instant, I was pushed against the wall.

Although it was a reception room attached to a special room, it was not a grand mansion of a noble family, but just a reception room of a high-class inn.

It was neither a training ground nor a ballroom.

It was not a spacious place for two people to fight for their lives.

As the warhammer’s attack brushed past, I instead moved forward and grabbed Blackie’s hand holding the warhammer.

And with the other hand, I drew the dagger strapped to my thigh.

Blackie’s eyes widened.

He couldn’t move the hand holding the warhammer.

What strength.

Blackie’s eyes, surprised by my strength, were worth seeing.

It felt like I could hear his inner thoughts.

Only then did Blackie’s previously somewhat relaxed attitude change drastically.

Blackie clung to my hand holding the dagger.

Unable to resist my strength, he was dragged around as I swung him, but he never let go of my hand and tried to stick close to me.

In the end, we started to hold each other’s hands and rub our bodies together.

It was truly disgusting.

The black man close to me smelled like rotting teeth.

It felt like my nose was rotting.

Damn it!

I stomped on the black man’s foot with all my might, filled with anger.

It felt like something was crushed.

Then, unable to bear the pain, I kneed the black man’s chin as he crouched.

It was a clean hit.

But this guy, he’s really tough.

He should have lost consciousness and collapsed by now.

Anyway, I had to finish this quickly.

So, just as I was about to rush at the black man who was staggering backward.

A knife tip emerged from the black man’s chest.

The knife tip, which pierced through the leather armor, began to drip blood.

The black man looked at his chest in disbelief, then looked back at me.

What, so what?

The black man slowly knelt down.

And then he fell forward.

Behind the mercenary in black armor was Jorgen.

He was holding his sword with his torn and broken hand.

He had taken his revenge.

Thus, I fulfilled the contract in excess.

*

The attack on Countess Kalmar’s new fiancé shocked people greatly.

And questions were raised about the former fiancé, who was said to have died dishonorably.

Could it be that Talin was not killed in a dispute over a whore’s fee, as the rumors suggested, but was actually assassinated?

It was a natural question. When fiancés die or are attacked in succession, such questions arise.

And naturally, more questions followed.

Why on earth are they trying to kill the Countess’s fiancés?

That question brought about rumors regarding Lady Linnea, the Countess of Kalmar.

They say that if she doesn’t marry soon, she will lose her right to inherit the title.

There are even stories that it’s already too late. They say that if she remains unmarried, her title can be revoked at any time.

A mix of truth and lies.

And the misunderstandings and ignorance of the general public about noble law and inheritance law also caused anxiety about Lady Linnea’s authority and legitimacy.

In such matters, a simple and clear solution is better than a long-winded explanation.

Just get married.

If she marries quickly, all problems will be solved.

But the problem was that this simple and clear solution was dragging on.

Jorgen, who was practically appointed as the new fiancé, publicly refused the engagement and returned to his father’s estate.

He argued that someone who couldn’t even protect his own safety couldn’t accept becoming the husband of the Countess who ruled an important commercial city like Kalmar.

His argument was so sound that it was impossible to refute.

The Countess’s retainers and Count Rasmus, who were coordinating interests and matching words behind the scenes, couldn’t properly persuade Jorgen and had to be anxious.

In the end, everyone had to accept that Jorgen’s will was sincere.

People who liked to gossip laughed, saying he ran away in fear after receiving an assassination threat, but I could believe his sincerity because I saw how he killed Graf with his half-shattered hand.

Jorgen left Kalmar like that, and I successfully fulfilled my contract with Martin.

In fact, I over-fulfilled it. Jorgen’s life was saved.

And it seemed that successfully fulfilling Martin’s request left a deep impression on many people.

While I was happily watching how the influencer experience group marketing was progressing, the Kalmar City Council entrusted me with a request.

It was to track down and capture the remaining members of the mercenary group that Graf belonged to and find out the client.

The Kalmar Guard was already working to solve the problem, but the City Council, which had some friction with the Guard, seemed to want to apply some pressure. And if it got resolved, even better.

So they entrusted the request to me, someone with a high reputation and already involved in this matter, rather than some random person.

I didn’t have the mental space because of my business.

Am I going to end up becoming a mercenary?

I don’t really want that.

With a rather reluctant heart, I slowly reviewed the request sent to me by the City Council.

The content was not much different from what I already knew.

What caught my interest was something else.

A familiar name at the bottom of the request.

My eyes were drawn to that name.

Gofri Norge, a member of the Kalmar City Council.

He was the one who cut my throat.