Masked Knight

Chapter 272: Guileless Manipulator (1)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The battle was fierce. The two well-known dwarven warriors continued to fight. Their blades flew and clashed endlessly.

Both of them were at the level of a higher ranked knight from the Roland Continent. Nobunaga was slightly stronger, but he was only at the rank of a Great Knight at most. Rody was not interested in a battle of that level. However, he looked at the two fighting warriors with a complicated gaze.

After clashing for the fourteenth time, their real levels were revealed.

Nobunaga’s blade started to faintly emit a cold blue air. Shinyu’s katana seemed to whistle like the wind. It carried a wild white air. The people nearby felt the pain when the strong wind blew at their faces.

“Die!” Shinyu suddenly roared loudly. He grabbed his katana and suddenly slashed horizontally. Nobunaga dodged to the side.

To Rody, Nobunaga’s dodge was subtle. If he had dodged and struck back, he would have been able to injure his opponent. Nobunaga was stronger than Shinyu but they had fought for so long and neither of them seemed to have the advantage.

It was as if…

It was as if Nobunaga was just accompanying his opponent! As the battle progressed, Shinyu’s fighting energy gradually rose to its peak.

The change was here!

Nobunaga suddenly stepped sideways to avoid Shinyu’s blade but did not take the opportunity to counterattack. Instead, he pretended to be unable to withstand the attack and staggered backwards. Shinyu then showed a swift and fierce killing intent.

The killing intent flashed in his eyes, and was noticed by Rody’s sharp eyes. Besides that, the killing intent was not directed at Nobunaga. Instead, it was directed at the Shogun.

Irritate a village, kill a tiger!

A phrase stated in Dandong’s notes crossed Rody’s mind.

He saw Shinyu reach in front of the Shogun. While the Shogun was still surprised, Shinyu had already slashed downwards with his wild fighting energy.

Nobody cried out in alarm. It had happened so suddenly that nobody even had the time to cry out in alarm.

Shinyu also felt as though his attack would not be fruitless. He could already imagine the Shogun’s head rolling on the floor and spraying out blood.

At this moment, Rody moved.

The entire space in the room distorted as if everything stopped for a moment.

That one moment was enough.

While everything stopped moving, Rody did not stop. His body flashed and immediately appeared by Shinyu’s side. Like a ghost, his Dragon Spell Scimitar was swung without any aura.

Clang!

A clear sound resounded. It was not a loud sound, but it caused a sharp and piercing pain in the ears of those that heard it.

Shinyu roared loudly as his body flew away sideways and fell to the ground. Blood sprayed out from his mouth and nose. The katana in his hand had broken into fragments.

Rody’s sword was drawn as he coldly looked at Nobunaga.

The Shogun had finally become aware and shouted loudly, “Bastard! Seize him!”

Koichi’s expression had instantly changed. His originally gloomy expression crumbled and looked inconceivably at Rody. It was as though he could not believe the reality in front of him.

This had all been properly planned by Koichi.

With the cooperation of Nobunaga, they would both fake a duel.

Shinyu was the sacrifice. Koichi had promised to take care of Shinyu’s family and convinced Shinyu to pledge allegiance and act as an assassin.

Koichi himself would stand at the door. Once Shinyu succeeded, Koichi would personally kill him and justifiably take over the position as Shogun.

However, things had suddenly changed instantly.

Shinyu’s foolproof attack was actually knocked down by a strange guy.

In a panic-stricken state, Koichi instinctively looked at Nobunaga. His own ally also seemed astonished. However, Nobunaga’s bearings immediately recovered. He immediately stepped forward and shouted, “Kikukawa Koichi is conspiring with his subordinates to assassinate the Shogun! Arrest them all!”

Koichi’s heart sank to the bottom the moment he heard Nobunaga’s roar.

Nobunaga pointed at Koichi and shouted, “What are you guys dumbfounded for? Arrest him!”

Before the Shogun spoke, Koichi’s heart was a mess. If he had calmed down and pushed all the responsibility to Shinyu, he might have had the chance to stand back up. However, the situation had changed. His ally suddenly betrayed him. He had already stopped thinking. He could not help but roar loudly as he suddenly pulled out his katana. He pushed the guy at his side away and ran out.

The moment he started running was the moment it ended.

The Shogun finally reacted and shouted, “Grab him!”

Rody had already grabbed Shinyu and threw him to Yukinari’s feet. He then coldly told Nedis, “Watch this guy carefully. Be careful of people silencing him.” As if by accident, Rody then looked at Nobunaga.

Rody no longer spoke after that and ran out to chase Koichi.

Although there were bodyguards surrounding him outside, how could they stop Rody? He easily rushed out and chased Koichi.

After all, Koichi was the Shogun’s son and a warrior.

Although the room was in chaos, the news had not yet spread outside. Although there were many guards, they did not dare to stop the Young Master that looked as though he was in a hurry. They only heard the racket in the meeting room and ran towards it.

Just like this, Koichi had taken the opportunity to run far away. He would already be very far away by the time the other warriors received the order from the Shogun to chase him.

Koichi was someone with some skill. Although he panicked, he knew to first get his horse the moment he left the shogunate. He understood that he would not be able to escape on foot. The most important thing right now was to leave the capital while the news had not spread.

The only way to live was to run south.

Rody had already caught up with him earlier but he was not in a hurry to get to work. He simply stayed at the back of Koichi and followed him out of the capital.

Koichi rushed out of the city in a frightened state. He slowly calmed down when he did not hear any pursuing troops. He held the reins as he thought about the current situation when he suddenly heard a cold voice that shouted, “Dismount the horse!”

Koichi broke out in a cold sweat. He turned around to see the youth that knocked away Shinyu behind him. His eyes turned blood red. He suddenly roared loudly and slashed at Rody.

Rody’s body seemed to flash and left behind a blur. As Koichi’s blade was swung down, the blur split into two.

He then suddenly heard the horse neigh. A huge force had struck the horse’s legs. The horse suddenly fell to its knees, causing Koichi to fall off and roll on the ground.

His face was covered in dust and looked inconsolably frightened. He spat out the dust mixed with his saliva. Just as he was about to stand, he saw the two legs of the person standing in front of him.

He looked up to see a young man coldly standing in front of him, looking at him condescendingly.

“I told you to dismount. Did you not hear me?” Rody coldly said, “Remember, you better listen to my words. Do not let me repeat myself.”

Koichi got up from the ground, but his weapon had dropped to the side. He trembled and asked, “Who are you? Are you one of Yukinari’s men?”

Rody shook his head and grabbed Koichi’s collar as he moved. Koichi felt as though he was flying backwards with trees passing him on both sides. As he was being manhandled, he had no choice but to speak.

After some time, Rody stopped and threw Koichi heavily onto the ground. “Get up! I have things to ask you!”

After this immediate experience, Koichi understood that he had no way of resisting. He obediently got up feeling pain all over his body. He then asked in a hoarse voice, “Who are you?”

Rody looked at the young man in front of him and felt an indiscernible sense of disgust. He then asked in an even more indifferent tone, “I am the one asking questions right now. You are going to answer all my questions.”

He paused for a moment and then lightly asked, “Just now in the meeting hall. Was that planned by you and Nobunaga?’

Koichi grunted and angrily replied, “You know about it already? Then why are you asking me? If you want to drag me back, go ahead!”

Rody laughed coldly and replied, “If I wanted to drag you back, I would not have waited until now.”

Koichi heard this and immediately felt a glimmer of hope. He could not help but ask, “Who are you? Are you Yukinari’s henchmen? How much did he give you? I will give you ten times more!”

Rody shook his head and replied, “I am not your little brother’s subordinate. In fact, your plan today has got nothing to do with me.”

“Hahaha…” Koichi laughed bitterly. He pointed to Rody and shouted, “But you have personally destroyed my plan!”

He suddenly stopped laughing and looked at Rody vigilantly. He asked, “Why did you come and chase me then? You want to use me and threaten Nobunaga? Hm…I know. You want to help my brother become the successor!”

Rody looked at the crazy fellow in pity and lightly said, “If I really want your brother to become the successor, I wouldn’t be wasting time here. With my ability, killing all of you is not much effort.”

“Then why did you intervene?” Koichi was going mad.

Rody coldly looked at the person in front of him with an indescribable disgust. “To even kill the father for personal gain. You dwarfs really are animals!”

He suddenly heard a looming voice. “Well said!”

The voice sounded light but could not conceal its hoarseness. The voice seemed to come from thin air. Rody was not able to find out where the voice came from.

Rody’s expression changed as he held the Dragon Spell Scimitar at his waist and shouted, “Who?”

For Rody, it was unthinkable to have someone undetected near his side.

The voice seemed to sigh and replied, “I also thought it was strange. Why did you intervene in dwarven matters? I followed you out of the city to see how miraculous a person with strong domain power is.”

The voice seemed to come from all directions at the same time.

Rody had an imposing expression and closed his eyes to listen.

When the voice stopped, Rody calmed down and slowly said, “Whoever it is, I am sure this matter must have something to do with you!”

There was a sigh and then a white light flashed. A sharp blade of wind flew towards the dim-witted Koichi. Rody’s eyes flashed a stern countenance and swung his sword. His golden fighting energy caused the wind blade flying towards Koichi to disperse. He coldly asked, “Why? Are you trying to silence the witness?”

“Eh?” The voice seemed confused and replied, “Didn’t you call the dwarfs animals? In that case, why did you save him? Do you want to use him to threaten Nobunaga?”

Rody laughed coldly and slowly said, “I do not need him to deal with Nobunaga. But I felt that something is suspicious. With his current position, he did not need to execute such a plan. If he were to do things conventionally, the weak Yukinari would not have surpassed him. He would naturally become the Shogun in the future. Why would he need to do such things? In that case, it means that someone is instructing or forcing him to do such actions from behind the scenes!”