Those Who Live Without the Law

Chapter 202

Verdant Pearl Knights (3)Eris endured the pain of being scorched by lightning, then trusted in her reflexes and decided to burst out of the cloud.

The instant she sprang out with a pop, a dark green blade came into view.

‘Faster than I thought.’

I had to move even quicker. With a cheerful ring, my fist wrapped in bubbles succeeded in striking the flat of the blade.

“Hua!”

A satisfied smile bloomed at the corner of my lips. It was only natural—I had just succeeded in a move that wagered life and death.

“Enjoying that?”

It didn’t end with a single attack.

The blades swung in succession, every one of them aiming for my throat. My eyes didn’t miss a single strike.

I dodged what I could dodge, and for those that had to be blocked, I knocked away the flat of the blade. Even in that brief span of time, the afterimages of Kairus and me repeatedly vanished and reappeared.

“Take a hit already?!”

As Kairus shouted that, he swung his sword and at the same time cast Cloud Seizing Art once more. But I had no intention of entering that lightning cloud a second time.

A bright ringing sound echoed out. Before the cloud could envelop me, I rebounded my body first and succeeded in escaping the range of the cumulonimbus.

“…Keh!?”

I had managed to get out, but at the sudden weight pressing down on the crown of my head, I let out an uncharacteristic sound and ducked sharply.

Then I turned my gaze and glared at Irena.

“What are you staring at, huh?! You wanna come at me too?!”

While dealing with all kinds of weapons rushing at her, Irena shouted in an irritated voice.

Kairus and I were continuing our own fierce battle, but for Irena, it was truly hell.

“You bastards, you sons of bitches. You think I’m that easy, huh? How can you treat a person like this? The moment I make even a little distance, you all jump me. You’re treating me like a complete idiot.”

With rapid popping sounds, Irena’s figure blurred, then appeared behind one of the knights.

Slash! With that sound, blood burst from the knight’s entire body as he was hacked apart, and in the storm that followed, it scattered like flower petals.

“I can easily play with you lot too!”

Irena, who had been completely ignored, wasn’t in a good mood. On top of that, even in the middle of this, she had to support the fight between Kairus and me.

Being ignored stung, and at the same time there was too much to handle—my head throbbed.

“Verdant Pearl Knights or whatever you’re called, just get lost.”

In an environment perfect for ruining someone’s temper, Irena’s mood had finally turned thoroughly sour.

“T… this isn’t right.”

The knights facing Irena were flustered as well. The output of the Stained Glass she used was certainly outstanding, but among the many pieces of battle gear these knights possessed, there were definitely items that boasted greater output than Stained Glass.

But even those guys had already gone down several at her hands.

Unless the difference in output was overwhelming, Irena had already reached a level where she could overcome the gap in battle gear output with her own skill.

“Ahahahahahahaha! Our Captain. No, wait—former Captain, I guess! Anyway, there was a reason Captain goes crazy the moment she steps into battle!”

Shouting like that, swinging her sword as if she were hearing something that might’ve been a god or a ghost, Irena looked utterly savage.

“Unbelievable.”

I gave a short evaluation after watching her.

“That’s because I raised her well.”

Kairus looked proud of Irena. It was the kind of emotion you’d feel watching your grown daughter buy dinner with her first paycheck.

Even in the middle of all that, seeing her diligently support him nearly brought tears to his eyes.

“Guess I should put in some effort too.”

If the one who taught ends up worse than the disciple, that’s just embarrassing. Kairus drove his output even higher and pressed harder in dealing with me.

Irena’s battle was the work of a prodigy of cruelty. She was building up the worst kind of scene a human could create.

The battle between Kairus and me was the work of geniuses. It wasn’t a scene something human could produce.

My body was knocked away after deflecting an attack, smashing through a massive rock as I flew. Kairus chased after me.

He countered while being pushed back, then pursued his opponent and continued aiming for follow-up strikes.

Within a radius of several hundred meters, the battle between the two of us created the illusion that we existed everywhere inside that space at once.

We flashed into view over there, exchanged dozens of blows.

Then we vanished, only to appear with a bang on the exact opposite side, trading attacks before disappearing again.

As we flickered here and there, both of us remained intact—but the battlefield beneath our feet couldn’t endure the situation and began collapsing.

“Seriously.”

I muttered as I looked up at the sky thick with dark clouds, after being slammed several meters underground while shattering the bedrock. Despite having exchanged this many blows, there was no sign of rain—only dark clouds overhead.

“Looks like Cloud Seizing Art is still a ways off.”

By now, rain should have been pouring down, lightning flashing in the darkness and striking in every direction.

Should I call that fortunate? I deflected Kairus’s descending slash as he came down from above. He swung his leg. I brought my elbow down in response.

Kkajeojeong!

With a thunderous crash, the rock formation beneath me sank entirely.

Long crevasses, wide enough that it wouldn’t be strange for several people to fall in at once, were split across the ground where Kairus and I stood like a child’s scribbles.

“You bitch, again…!”

But even in the middle of all that, I was being steadily interfered with. The pain now throbbing in my wrists and ankles was reaching the point of real injury.

Irena kept interfering in my fight with Kairus.

“Hi… hihit.”

Irena let out ragged breaths and still managed a strained laugh. Needless to say, no matter how outstanding her skills were, she wasn’t fighting comfortably.

She was facing hundreds of knights, and among them were dozens of Medal Knights. An entire order of knights was charging at Irena all at once.

Minor wounds were piling up across her body, and she was so exhausted her vision was tinged yellow.

‘It’s fine. It’s fine.’

Irena repeated those words to herself countless times. It’s fine. I can do this. It would be faster for her little tricks to injure me than for her to collapse.

Before she fell, Kairus would surely be able to cut my throat.

With that conviction, Irena dragged her weary body and continued fighting the knights.

“If this keeps up.”

And at that very moment, I had reached the same conclusion as Irena. If this fight continued as it was, I would eventually suffer an injury to my wrist or ankle.

An injury in such a tight standoff would tip the scales heavily. I would die.

The moment I died, the Verdant Pearl Knights who had been pressing Irena would turn to face Kairus and suffer devastating losses.

After that, the broadcasting tower atop this mountain would collapse.

Among that chain of consequences, there was only one thing I could change.

‘That won’t do.’

I came to a swift conclusion. I would escape from here.

The survival of the Captain of the Verdant Pearl Knights. The rest of the battle situation might be unchangeable, but even so, the Captain’s death could be avoided.

I would survive and flee, the Verdant Pearl Knights would suffer devastating losses, and the broadcasting tower would collapse.

Through that, one of the Empire’s key forces—the captain of an order of knights—would remain as available strength.

Minimizing damage. I rebounded backward as if I had been flicked away, then rapidly put distance between us.

“Trying to run? Aren’t you ashamed? And do you think you can actually get away?”

If Kairus began to fly, no matter how far I ran, he would eventually catch up. At his words, I answered with a cold smile.

“You want to chase me? That’s fine too.”

I judged that it was acceptable if Kairus pursued me. In that case, I would die.

But.

If Kairus chased me, the exhausted Irena, worn down from the grueling battle, would die.

And the strength of the Verdant Pearl Knights would be preserved. If I stubbornly held out and dragged out the time before dying, the broadcasting tower might even remain intact.

Whether I died, or whether I survived.

In the end, the damage suffered by the Imperial Army in this situation would be minimized.

“…”

Kairus wasn’t unaware of that either. He couldn’t chase me. That would mean abandoning Irena to her death.

If he helped Irena and annihilated the Verdant Pearl Knights, I would have fled far away by then, and he wouldn’t be able to pursue.

“See you later, Captain of the Verdant Pearl Knights.”

Kairus gave the rapidly retreating figure of Eris a brief glance, then ran toward Irena.

“Sorry. I’m sorry.”

Irena, who had been continuing the fight, realized what had just happened and apologized to Kairus.

Perhaps because she was so angry, her whole body was trembling. If she had been just a little stronger, Kairus wouldn’t have had to weigh Eris’s death against Irena’s life.

“Don’t talk bullshit. No one in this world can annihilate an order of knights with battle gear at the level of Stained Glass.”

Even for Kairus, that was impossible. He might have lasted longer, but in the end, he would have met the same fate as Irena—death.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Eris had placed Irena’s life and her own death on the betting table.

Kairus chose Irena’s life.

“Since it’s come to this, I should at least take what I can.”

Kairus took a deep breath, swept his gaze across the order of knights, and raised his sword. A terrifying jetting roar drove the output of Veil of Plumed Mist to its absolute limit.

And the result—

“K… Haaack?!”

The knights, who had been staring at Kairus with tense expressions, were all slammed to the ground by a sudden gale that drove down from above.

“You’re all going to be wiped out here.”

The captain had abandoned the order. Eris hadn’t fled without knowing this would be the result.

A gale that crushed their entire bodies so they couldn’t even twitch a finger. They couldn’t withstand the pressure and were slowly being driven into the soil.

Ordinary Imperial Army soldiers—not knights—could never endure this. Pinned beneath the wind, they were dying without any resistance.

But the knights were different. Somehow, they were slowly rising to their feet.

“How touching.”

But just because they stood up didn’t mean they could fight. Even if they burned with the will to resist, in a situation where they couldn’t even properly swing a sword, they would only be slaughtered.

“…I need battle gear.”

Irena muttered through clenched teeth. What Kairus had just done wasn’t achieved through battle gear alone, but—

If her output had been guaranteed, she too could have created a similar scene.

“Pick one you like from what they’re using.”

It wouldn’t be battle gear that satisfied Irena, but it would still be better than continuing to use Stained Glass.

About thirty minutes later, everything had been settled. Aside from Kairus and Irena, and Eris who had fled, there were no survivors.

Gazing at the mountain of corpses, Irena examined the newly acquired sword from different angles and let out a heavy sigh.

It wasn’t battle gear she particularly liked, but its output was better than Stained Glass.

“For now, this is the best I’ve got.”

“Bear with it. If the opportunity comes, you’ll get something good.”

Dallas’s Esterc had been destroyed and was unusable, and Eris had escaped.

It seemed Irena still lacked the luck to obtain new battle gear.

Regret was regret. Kairus lifted Veil of Plumed Mist and focused on bringing down the broadcasting tower.

With this, one of the Empire’s ears had been shattered. And it was a rather important ear at that.