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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator:Bobt
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Even in the midst of dizzying pain, he moved without stopping. He couldn’t stop, and he shouldn’t stop either. He couldn’t leave the treasure in such a filthy place. He had sworn to protect the treasure.
He didn’t believe the words of those who claimed to follow the old Masters from the beginning. He wasn’t naive enough to believe those words despite seeing the greed filling their eyes. He was too old for that.
Age. An old warrior. That was the problem. Because he didn’t have much lifespan left, and that wilderness was too dangerous to leave the treasure alone, he pretended to be deceived by them. He intended to escape at an appropriate time or try to find a true descendant of the old Masters.
However, as decades passed, the world had changed too much. Although those who used the unholy bullets were already common, he didn’t expect the flying cars, the endlessly rising skyscrapers, and the appearance of the city that was complex to the point of being painful to the eyes. While he and the treasure were holding their breath in the wilderness, the world had become a different place.
And an Auror Master. Dear heavens, an Auror Master who robs. What has the world come to?
He, who had been trembling while recalling that shining sword, suddenly stopped. And while constantly flicking his forked tongue, he looked around. He felt his scales standing on end. That Auror Master Was nearby.
He hurriedly adjusted the treasure he was holding and threw himself into the underground stream flowing beside him. And he began to swim upstream. It lacked dignity, but it was much faster than walking or running.
While going against the sewage-filled stream like that, he thought. The world had changed too much. Did the old Masters anticipate such a world? Did they leave him and the treasure in anticipation of it?
Waves hit the sewage surface due to his fierce movement.
* * *
“Noticed, huh?”
Locke gave a bitter smile as he felt the smell of the acidic liquid mixed with the stench getting fainter. Even with his head throbbing from the stench of sewage, he had eagerly pursued, but it seemed the opponent had also sensed his presence.
“Not an ordinary fellow.”
If he moved with determination, even decent electronic devices couldn’t detect his movement. Sensing that presence and starting to flee, perhaps that was also one of those so-called dragon spells or whatnot.
Anyway, as the guy’s movement had gotten faster, Locke also increased his speed. He had come into the smelly sewer and even ruined his clothes, so he couldn’t lose him like this. A silent pursuit across the dark underground passage began.
After running for a while, Locke heard the shaa-sound of water pouring. Soon, he encountered a pipe where wastewater was pouring. Since there was only one stream leading up to here, the lizardman had eventually swam upstream through that waterfall.
“He’s crazy.”
Locke, who let out a short sigh, looked around. He couldn’t bring himself to push his body into that pipe. The lizardman also needed to breathe, so he wouldn’t be trying to hide in that pipe.
With his thoughts sorted out, Locke saw a ladder. He climbed up, opened the manhole, and went out to the scenery of an old factory.
Taking a deep breath of the cool outside air, Locke immediately began tracking again. Since he had swam upstream through the factory’s wastewater, the lizardman would also be somewhere in this factory.
No people were seen inside the old factory. Only old automated machines were clattering, continuing the motions they had been doing for decades. Locke ran between those machines and awakened his sensitive senses to find traces of the lizardman.
And at some point, his body stopped abruptly. He saw sewage staining the floor and scales mixed in it. They were the lizardman’s scales. That trail led deeper into the factory. Locke stepped forward, following the trail.
The place he arrived at after passing through a slightly long corridor seemed to be a warehouse for repairing broken automated machines. Dust-covered machinery was bathed in sunlight coming through the high windows.
The lizardman was there.
The reptilian warrior, who had one arm severed and gunshot wounds all over his body, was on one knee, panting. Even so, he was still preciously holding the rectangular box.
Locke took out the handle of the Auror Blade he had put in the scabbard, seeing him glaring straight at Locke.
At that moment, the lizardman opened his mouth.
“Human, Auror Master. Why do you, target me?”
Locke raised one eyebrow and tilted his head.
“I didn’t know you could talk.”
“Of course, I too, have intelligence.”
“Then why were you just roaring earlier?”
The lizardman coughed and vomited something thick. His condition seemed to have worsened due to swimming in the wastewater with his unwell body.
“In a warrior’s fight, khek, words are unnecessary! Only, the conversation of blades!”
Locke nodded. It was an outdated remark befitting an ancient race. But he didn’t particularly want to mock or ridicule. Locke himself was an Auror Master Made up of that old tradition.
“I need that item in your possession.”
At those words, the lizardman’s eyes widened.
“You! Orer, Master! What, do you know, to say that?”
“No. Only that it’s some kind of dragon relic. But that’s enough for a mercenary.”
The lizardman’s body trembled.
“You, are no mercenary. An Auror Master, a seeker, of the way of the sword. A warrior, who struggles.”
“My name is Locke. Seeker or whatever, I’m just doing my job.”
The trembling lizardman faltered and stepped back. His scales shook as if he couldn’t believe Locke’s Words.
At that moment, a husky female voice echoed through the warehouse.
“My name is Kaylee. I’m a real mercenary.”
Locke and the lizardman’s gazes turned to where the voice came from. There was a woman approaching through the old machines, aiming a heavy pistol. Silver-gray hair and pitch-black goggle sunglasses. It was the mercenary who had tried to hijack the trailer.
The lizardman made a hissing sound upon seeing her. The mercenary’s gun was aimed at him. Seeing that, Locke said with a small laugh,
“Quite confident.”
“Why? Because I came alone to face that ‘ronin’?”
Her black-and-white cyber arm hand pulled down the zipper of the racing jacket that had been raised to her chin. Then, as the tank top that had been tightly suppressed inside the jacket was released, the black lumps surrounding her waist were also revealed. She showed a small button switch and said,
“So instead, I prepared these bombs. If you move, you and I will both blow up and die, fuck.”
Locke looked at those bombs with a dismal gaze. With wires attached here and there, it didn’t seem like a fake just made to look plausible.
The mercenary who revealed her name as Kaylee again aimed her gun at the lizardman and said,
“Hand that over. Then I’ll let you live. Don’t go all the way to the end and save your own life.”
“Kh, khek… Don’t, make me laugh. This, isn’t something, to just hand over…!”
“Fucking hell…”
Kaylee muttered in a low voice and touched the side of her goggle sunglasses. Then the pitch-black sunglasses became transparent. Frowning sky-blue eyes glared at the lizardman.
“Hey, I’m also working for money. My team members all died thanks to you. Anyway, since I shot your people first, let’s wrap it up here.”
The lizardman only hissed without answering. She sighed and finally pulled the hammer of the gun.
At that moment, Locke looked up at the warehouse ceiling and said,
“Hey. Did you really come alone?”
“…What the fuck. The team I assembled this time all died on the road earlier. After that, I immediately wore this bomb and followed the relic’s signal.”
“Relic’s signal, huh. Anyway, you didn’t have time to call another team.”
He lowered his eyes that had been looking at the ceiling and met her gaze.
“Then those guys are neither on your side nor mine.”
As soon as those words ended, the warehouse windows shattered and heavily armed combatants in pitch-black gear stormed in. The mercenary and the lizardman’s bodies froze in shock.
And that was enough of an opening for Locke’s Aurora Blade, which moved like a ghost, to swiftly cut off Kaylee’s cyber arm at the wrist. Locke lightly caught the falling switch and disappeared into the old machinery.
“Fuck, shit…!”
Kaylee spat out a curse but hurriedly threw herself into the gaps between the machinery. Because the muzzles of those who had stormed in spewed fire.
A baptism of steel and gunpowder poured into the old warehouse where the late afternoon sunlight had been seeping in. The bodies of the machines that had been waiting for repairs for a long time spewed red sparks. Bullets flew in from all directions.
Kaylee, who had been lying flat on the floor, saw the lizardman taking that barrage of bullets with his body. He chose to protect the relic held in his arms rather than dodge.
“Crazy…”
After a wave passed like that, the warehouse became quiet.
Those who had poured out the bullets approached the lizardman, who had become half a rag and was smoking, after confirming that there was no more movement inside the warehouse. They still aimed their muzzles and flipped over the lizardman’s body.
At that moment, the lizardman, who had been lying like a corpse until now, roared and raised his body, swinging his arm. One combatant’s body was cleanly cut off by his claws.
“Kie-e-!”
However, when the combatants behind fired tut-tut bullets, the lizardman’s body fell with a thud, his momentum futile. The last futility flowed from his yellow eyes.
Those who had finished off the lizardman checked the rectangular relic he had been holding. After confirming its sleek surface, the one who seemed to be the leader raised his wrist and said,
[Relic secured.]
After finishing the report, the moment his hand reached for the relic, Locke dropped down, penetrating the senses of the combatants who had been guarding the surroundings. A brief silence lingered among them at his appearance.
And a gray Auror Blade rose from Locke’s Hand.
[All units, atta-]
Even if it wasn’t an order from the leader-like figure, the combatants who had been guarding the surroundings were already turning their bodies to aim their guns at Locke. They had very fast and concise movements, as if they were well-trained.
Of course, they couldn’t keep up with Locke’s Movement.
The combat suits they wore were excellent not only in bulletproofing but also in blade resistance. They were expensive products that could block a couple of anti-tank bullets and would require quite a hacking even with an ultrasonic blade to be wounded.
However, even that was sliced through like paper in front of the Auror Blade.
Many of them had special implants. Implants that could move very fast for a moment or exert about five or six times the usual strength. There were also implants with hidden blades or small missiles in the arms.
But all those implants couldn’t function properly. No matter how expensive the implant, it was meaningless if the person died.
The combatants, who numbered around twenty, were all turned into dismembered corpses and scattered on the warehouse floor. There was no time for a proper scream.
After drawing the last trajectory, Locke stood still for a moment. The muscles and senses that had been extremely heated up for a very short time quickly regained their temperature. It was different from slicing up club gangsters or street gunmen. They were real combatants, and Locke had to exert that much effort.
As Locke was slowly catching his breath while holding the Auror Blade like that, there was someone hiding behind a machinery far away. While trembling, he saw Locke catching his breath and raised his muzzle.
A bang rang out, and the combatant with a hole in the back of his head fell forward. When Locke turned his gaze, Kaylee was twirling her pistol.
She raised both arms at Locke’s Gaze. Her cyber arm with the wrist blown off stood out.
“I surrender. You can have that damn relic.”
After looking at her for a moment, Locke retracted the Auror Blade, and she lowered her hands. She trembled while looking at the corpses dismembered like toys.
“…Damn it, I don’t know where these bastards rolled in from either. You said they weren’t on your side?”
Locke approached the lizardman’s corpse without answering. His eyes, from which life had departed, looked empty. Locke closed those eyes for him.
“Did you know each other?”
“No.”
Locke, who answered Kaylee’s question briefly, turned his gaze to the dragon relic next to it. Seeing that he wasn’t hostile, Kaylee approached and said,
“Damn it. What the hell is causing this mess?”
“I said I’ll let you live since you surrendered. So just go. Don’t linger unnecessarily.”
Kaylee snickered and began to untie the explosives on her waist.
“We don’t know each other well enough to hold a grudge, right? We haven’t even directly shot at each other. Instead of that, just show me what that relic is. That way, I can also go to my employer and make some excuses.”
She skillfully untied the explosives with one hand and threw them far away. When Locke turned around, she stepped back to one side and raised her hands, well, one hand and an empty wrist, as if she was really just going to watch, and gestured with her eyes towards the relic.
Locke, who turned his eyes back to the relic, examined that relic again. A rectangular box about 1.4 meters in length, it was questionable whether the term ‘box’ was even appropriate. In fact, it looked more like a small coffin than a box.
After pondering for a moment, Locke eventually reached out to the relic. Combining the words of William and the employer at the time, those involved with this item were the megacorp that hired Locke, the megacorp that hired Kaylee, and the so-called dragon worshippers who originally transported this relic.
In other words, the ones who had stormed into this warehouse and started shooting were the original transporters of the relic. But they didn’t try to save the lizardman. Rather, it felt like they had taken this opportunity to finish him off. In the end, the lizardman’s affiliation didn’t belong anywhere.
Locke, who had been scanning the coffin-like relic, soon found a space with a button-like object attached to it with a click sound. Locke firmly pressed that button.
“Oh…”
Like Kaylee’s admiration, Locke was also a little surprised. When he pressed the button, yellow lines of light began to glow on the relic. Then, a heavy sound was heard, and with a clunk, the top of the relic lifted. A hazy smoke flowed out from the opened gap.
The lifted part, as if the lock had been released, smoothly slid to the side. Locke and Kaylee stretched their necks and checked inside.
“…Huh? Relic, a dragon relic?”
As Kaylee questioned, Locke was also a little perplexed. What was inside the relic was a girl wearing something like a medieval dress. A fluttering yellow dress and black hair were scattered here and there in the narrow space.
The girl’s eyes fluttered open. Locke’s Face was reflected in those black eyes.
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