When the dust settled somewhat, the shattered wall behind the man could be seen.

“Waaa…!”

“I want to go home!”

There were about thirty children, and several adults trying to pacify them. The adults were wearing the same uniform worn by the man who was standing in front of me right now. Seeing that, realization flashed through my mind.

Ahh, was this the stage for the orphanage disappearance in the novel?

If that’s the case, then what a lucky coincidence.

Oh, wait, Hestia isn’t here, is she?

I didn’t feel any movement from the thread I attached to her.

“Lord Crawford! That…!”

Who knows why but the eyes of people in uniform widened when they saw me and they all drew their weapons. Seeing that, the children hiccupped and cried even more.

But for some reason, their priority had now turned to me and Siren, instead of the kidnapped children.

“W-What is it?”

I could sense Siren bewilderment as she shrunk herself behind me.

“A heretic, huh.”

Kalian’s silver grey eyes sharpened coldly as he spoke. Rather than me, their eyes were focused on Siren behind me.

“Rombell, starting now, you’re to take my place and lead the victims out of here as fast as possible.”

Kalian told one of the people behind him then he took a step forward.

“The heretic shall be eliminated immediately.”

Slash!

A sharp attack flew at me before I even understood what that meant. I quickly pulled Siren and avoided it.

Crash!

“Kyaa!”

Siren’s piercing scream rang out behind me. But more attacks poured in without giving her time to recover.

Clang!

I reinforced my sharpened web and struck his sword which was flying at my neck. If it was a normal weapon, it would have immediately shattered to pieces. However, his mysterious sword merely veered slightly off course; it didn’t even crack.

“Are you a heretic too?”

He seemed surprised by the fact that I blocked his attack then when he saw the thread coming out of me, his gaze turned threatening.

‘What is this sudden nonsense?’

I was annoyed in more ways than one.

This is crazy, what the hell is this?

Hey male lead, are you trying to kill me and my partner right now?

On top of that, heretics? Don’t tell me he’s referring to test-subjects?

From the nuance in his tone, that was probably the case. Especially since he said that after seeing Siren’s wings.

I was covered with a dark cloak and my outward appearance didn’t show that I had absorbed the power of the ruins, so he apparently didn’t know until I had shot out a thread.

No, even if that’s true, who starts swinging swords at people when you see them?

“Now I know you’re a heretic, I won’t go easy on you this time.”

He leapt from where he stood and shot himself at me. The sight was terrifying enough to give anyone goosebumps. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had dreamt up his polite appearance so far.And I realized something new today.

Just because they were described as a good person in the novel didn’t mean they would be a good person to me. And now that I thought about it, Kalian Crawford was very cold-hearted to people in the underworld, wasn’t he?

Fwip!

I increased the strength of my spiderwebs, made a net and threw it on Kalian.

Clang!

However he mowed it down and moved to ram his knife into my chest. I subconsciously tried to avoid it then I remembered Siren behind me.

Troublesome as expected.

While thinking something that would make Siren upset if she knew, I sent her as far away as I could. She screamed like before, but I acted like I didn’t hear. She was bound to my thread anyways, so I could pull her back if I wanted.

Then I dodged Kalian’s attack but as expected, because I got Siren out of the way first, I couldn’t avoid it completely and got a shallow cut on my arm. But as I tilted a bit, the hood of the black cloak that covered my face also went up.

I quickly stuck a thread to it and brought the hood down. Fortunately, Kalian didn’t seem to have seen my face.

Boom!

Right then, the wall next to me was destroyed and something shot at me like an arrow.

“Roar…!”

Wait, Leo?

It was Leo for sure. In a massive body and obviously not in his right mind. But it wasn’t just Leo who appeared from the destroyed wall.

The strange sight had me a little bewildered.

Someone was casually sitting on Leo’s head as if they were controlling him and once the wall was down, they moved swiftly.

Thwack!

The person was in front of me in the blink of an eye and lunged at violent kick at Kalian. It was so brutal and aggressive that it made wonder if they had some animosity with Kalian Crawford.

“Kh…!”

Kalian let down his guard for a moment, so he was hit and sent back. But like the male lead he was, he soon found his balance and launched a counterattack.

Boom, boom, boom!

Black dust rose from where Kalian’s attacks hit.

“…And I was wondering how great the so-called hero of the east was.”

A rough, low male voice rang out in the smoky air. Instantly, I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes. Finally, a man wearing a white mask with a cracked mouth appeared in the cloud of dust.

“Quite the paper tiger, are you?”[1]

He spoke provokingly and stood, unharmed by Kalian’s attack in the slightest.

It wasn’t hard for me to guess who he was. The man who appeared out of the blue and attacked Kalian was definitely Lakis. His voice was familiar to my ears and his clothes to my eyes. And most of all…

The mask he was wearing right now was my own mask which I had stuffed in my bag.

“Are you a heretic as well? Or a slave trader, perhaps?”

“Eastern dog. I have no obligation to answer you, and you have no right to question me.”

I couldn’t see his face because of the mask he was wearing but I knew Lakis was ridiculing Kalian.

“I see.”

Kalian merely furrowed his brows slightly, but his expression didn’t change more than that.

“Then you shall be dealt with in turn.”

The next moment, the sword in his hand glowed sharply. At the same time, red blood began to seep from Lakis’ hand. However, the one Kalian attacked right after was Siren not Lakis.

“Ahhh!”

I yanked my thread and pulled Siren in front of me. Siren who was now wrapped around in thread like a cocoon gave a deathly cry as the next attack flew at both me and Siren.“I didn’t say you could look away, did I?”

But Lakis intervened first and blocked Kalian. An unknown red afterimage moved chaotically before my eyes. Even seeing it from afar made for a dizzying sensation and it gave off an eerie feeling.

Maybe Kalian was sensing the same thing because his face stiffened as he swung his sword.

But surprisingly enough, the moment the black sword touched the red line, it shattered into pieces. For the first time, puzzlement entered Kalian’s eyes.

“These bastards! Do you think this is your playground?!”

“Lord Crawford!”

People suddenly flooded into where we were. One group was Kalian’s uniform-wearing comrades, and the other group was slave traders.

“C-Crawford?!”

Then the slave traders went pale upon hearing the name of the rulers of the East.

“*Howl*!”

“Leo!”

I ran to Leo who was on the brink of losing it in excitement.

“Kng!”

Thankfully, when I called his name, his ears pricked up and he turned my way. I climbed up on Leo like Lakis did earlier and grabbed his fur.

“Leo. Run.”

“Kng!”

Once he heard my words, Leo took off in a dash.

“Uwaa!”

People fled out of the way in fright when they saw Leo approaching recklessly. Maybe it was just my imagination, but Lakis’ gaze behind the mask seemed to fall on me for a moment.

Leo leapt to the roof and into night sky. Then a voice with a strange echo to it rang out behind me.

“I order all who hear my voice.”

It was Lakis’ voice but there was something different and unusually about it.

“Forget everything concerning ‘mutants’ or ‘heretics’ that appeared here today.”

And hearing his following words, I looked back in surprise.

Lakis was facing the other side and all I could see was the image of his back.

“Forget ever meeting me here too.”

His golden hair fluttering in the moonlight filled my sight. After that, Lakis disappeared into the darkness.

“Leo, turn back small.”

I instinctively sensed something and asked Leo.

“Krreung!”

Leo turned back to his small appearance like I asked. I caught Leo with my thread as he fell from the sky.

“Eh? What happened just now?”

“What am I doing here?”

Only

I could see people looking around like they were confused.

“Gasp, why’s the roof like this?!”

They were shocked to see the gaping hole in the roof.

Translator’s Corner:

[1]He doesn’t say paper tiger. I don’t know how else to translate “You’re not even a main dish” to a word with a question mark.

*All this sfx…I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. There’s a reason I don’t translate manga lol.