Perfect Crime (3)
Chapter 30
Knife had no other options.
Ray undoubtedly seemed to have awakened his Mana.
Knife felt a dark shadow looming over him just as the sword was about to pierce into his collarbone.
Ray had definitely leaped higher than his own height and ambushed Knife.
No matter how great physical abilities one might be born with, such a feat without Mana would be impossible.
Breathing heavily, Knife raised both of his hands.
“Ah, I’ll guide you, so calm down.”
“I’m very calm, no need to worry. We’ll be very happy as long as you don’t make unnecessary moves. Come on, you can even put your hand on my shoulder. Don’t fall behind; just stick close.”
“Ugh, guh!”
“Take a deep breath. I’m not enjoying this situation either.”
“Gasp, damn…”
After regulating his breathing, Knife stepped out of the alley while holding Ray under his arm.
Blood seeped from the torn wound on his clothes, but since fights often broke out among gang members during drinking sessions, no one paid much attention to Knife’s injury.
The interest of the street thugs who knew Knife mostly focused on Ray.
“Bro Knife, has your taste in women changed? She’s… quite small.”
“Is she young or just short?”
“Tsk… I doubt my thing will fit her body. It seems impossible.”
“Huh? Is this little guy implying that Bro Knife’s thing is small?”
“What the hell are you saying? Brother, it’s a misunderstanding! Hahahaha!!”
With the clueless thugs’ idle chatter, Knife turned blue in the face and trembled with fear.
Ray lightly tapped his waist and whispered.
“Sorry, Knife. I unintentionally tarnished your social reputation.”
Without replying, Knife simply raised his middle finger.
Upon confirming Knife’s reaction, the thugs snickered again and started talking amongst themselves.
Knife continued walking with his head deeply bowed.
“…This way.”
Entering a less crowded area, a building stood alone, its light shining amidst the dark streets.
At the entrance of the building stood a bulky man leaning on one leg, smoking a cigarette.
The doorman glanced at Knife upon sensing his presence and frowned openly.
“Knife? Is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s up?”
“I’ve come to report an issue.”
“You brought a girl too?”
“Uh, she looks ready to run away any moment.”
“It won’t be fun if the higher-ups find out. I’ll take care of her while you go report.”
“Alright.”
Ray ended up standing next to the doorman for a moment.
While Knife knocked on the door and announced himself to the family inside, the doorman subtly scanned Ray up and down.
“You… are quite small, aren’t you?”
“That’s true. I hope I grow taller soon.”
“What? How old are you now?”
“I just turned 9.”
“Wha—!”
The doorman gasped and turned his head towards Knife.
Knife was anxiously waiting for someone inside to open the door.
Stunned, the doorman blinked before furiously narrowing his eyes.
“Nine years old? Goodness, Knife! I didn’t know your tastes were so vile! You even have a daughter!”
Ray interjected.
“It’s fine. I’m a boy.”
“Damn! You’re worse than I thought!!”
Grabbing the back of his neck, the doorman spat on the ground.
“Cough, ptoo!! I drank with a guy like you last night! Knife, I didn’t know you were gay! Did you grope me when I was drunk?”
Clatter!
The door opened.
As the dagger pierced the doorman’s throat, Knife threw himself into the building.
“Kuhk…!”
Kicking the doorman in the knee to knock him down, Ray grabbed the front of his shirt and dragged him inside.
One of the Georgia Family’s officers holding a wine glass burst into laughter upon seeing Ray’s appearance.
“Haha! What a cute guest!”
A kid who barely reaches the waist walking out of the darkness holding a corpse.
Even for the hardened gangsters who frequently witnessed all sorts of grim sights, this was an unusual scene.
Perhaps drunk, they clapped their hands as if they’d found excellent bar snacks and welcomed Ray warmly.
Pushing the unconscious doorman into a corner, Ray locked the door again.
His confident demeanor made everyone burst into laughter.
Knife, sprawled on the floor, shouted.
“He’s Jimy’s subordinate! The orphan collector! He has awakened Mana!”
“What? Seriously, did you really get chased by just this guy?”
“Even alone, he knows how to use Mana! We should kill him here…!”
“Hey, hey, Knife!”
A burly officer with impressive muscles clicked his tongue and scolded Knife.
“You crawled in here trembling because of a kid like this, and why are you shouting so loudly? Hmm?”
“S-sorry. I’ll pay the price, but please deal with this devilish guy.”
“Tsk tsk, just kneel quietly over there for now.”
Click!
The muscular officer drew a scythe from his waist and walked out alone.
Knife exclaimed in shock.
“We should attack together!”
“Idiot. Do you think we’re as stupid as you?”
Keeping his eyes on Knife, the muscular officer quickly stepped forward and hurled the scythe.
Standing still, Ray bent his waist at the last second to dodge the scythe aimed at his forehead.
Crash!!
The scythe that narrowly missed Ray pierced through the wooden main door.
Sighs echoed around the room.
“Oh~ what a waste. Lucky kid, huh?”
Ray asked calmly.
“Um… Is Officer Brack here? Or Mr. Georgia? Are you around?”
For a moment stunned, the muscular officer tilted his head back and burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!! Ah, damn, a real troublemaker has arrived.”
“Mr. Brack? Is he really not here? Knife said he was here.”
“Haha, kid. Brack is downstairs.”
Still unable to suppress his laughter, the muscular officer pointed at a table in the corner.
“Just clear away that table and go downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
It didn’t seem like he was lying.
He had found his target.
‘What should I do now?’
Before facing Brack, he needed to clean up the surroundings neatly.
There couldn’t be any witnesses left, so he needed to accurately confirm the number of people inside the building.
He couldn’t spread his senses widely due to insufficient Mana.
Ray enhanced his five senses to the maximum extent possible.
There were several sounds coming from underground.
There were no sounds around the building.
Fortunately, it seemed like dealing with only the thugs inside the building would suffice.
Ray muttered something he didn’t mean.
“I have business with Brack. Can you move aside?”
Did he bite onto some wordplay? The muscular officer charged forward with a thud, swinging the scythe at Ray’s neck.
No matter how weak the opponent might be, physical combat with a 9-year-old body was inefficient.
Stretching his leg diagonally, Ray naturally assumed the stance of a foot sword.
Chak!
The cleanly drawn sword severed the arm gripping the scythe.
The muscular officer lost his balance and rolled on the floor.
He was about to scream, but before he could, Ray’s dagger plunged into his neck.
“Guu!!”
“Attack!!”
Being the officers of a gang that dominated the area, they judged the situation and moved swiftly.
An astonishing five of them could somewhat mimic handling Mana.
They possessed certain skills on how to use Mana to disable opponents with knives.
Ray spun his sword once to shake off the blood.
He needed to conserve strength as much as possible, but unfortunately, the bodies of these men had to bear the marks of Sword Aura.
Focusing his spirit, Ray manifested the Sword Aura.
The clusters of light flowing like clouds gathered on the blade and concentrated at the tip.
The Sword Aura emitted from the tip extended momentarily.
The glowing blue Sword Aura flicked like a whip.
Swishh!!
Temporarily stretched thin, the length of the Sword Aura reached 3 meters.
Adding the length of Ray’s arm and the sword itself, a space spanning 4 meters was swept by the blue trajectory.
Since the density was reduced, it wouldn’t cut through steel, but none of the Georgia Family members wore metallic armor.
“Eek…?”
“Kuhk?”
“Kruk?!”
The chunks of flesh caught in the trajectory were cleanly bisected.
In an instant, the scenery before him turned completely red.
Plop plop plop!
The severed chunks of flesh fell to the floor.
Knife remained seated on the ground in front of the horrifying sight, which saved his life.
“Kaa…!!”
Human life is tenacious.
One of the officers whose lower body had been completely severed managed to avoid shock death and attempted to scream.
Ray immediately stomped on the officer’s mouth and charged forward.
Among the survivors, there were also women accompanying the officers.
All of them regretted that the scythe thrown by the muscular officer failed to crush Ray’s head.
If Ray had been a powerless child, his head would have exploded, becoming their laughingstock.
Thus, they were all evildoers.
No, no.
That was self-justification.
Delving into their sins to devise reasons to kill them was merely the manifestation of a defense mechanism.
Before entering Dinor, Ray had resolved to accept even the blood of innocents.
Of course, even so,
“You cannot deny the undeniable truth that you have committed countless crimes and accumulated sins by turning a blind eye.”
Ray willingly accepted his self-justification.
“Now, hold on…!!”
“Aaa…!!”
“Kyaaaack…!!”
There was no hesitation in the swinging sword.
He methodically eliminated those attempting to scream.
To Knife, all of this felt like a dream.
“Huff! Huff!”
Knife didn’t scream.
Because he was more cautious of Ray than anyone else, he managed to keep his mouth shut even as the massacre unfolded.
Thanks to that, he survived a little longer.
Drip drip
Blood flowed like water.
Knife wished the screams would continue ringing out longer.
However, it wasn’t long before a chilling silence descended upon the surroundings.
Knife hurriedly spoke, sensing it was his turn.
“Wait! Wait a minute, wait a minute.”
“Knife? Brack is really downstairs, right?”
“Yeah! Definitely! Brack’s downstairs! I guided you correctly, right? So please let me live. Please, please give me one chance to live. I won’t tell anyone about today’s events.”
“How can I trust you after getting hit on the back of the head once?”
“I’ll cut out my tongue if you want. Cut it out! Just spare my life, please. I have a family! I have kids! My family needs me!”
My child is still young,” Ray groaned.
“He’s only 11. I need to take care of him!”
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Knife immediately knelt down and continued pleading for mercy.
A warm smile appeared on Ray’s lips as he raised his sword.
“Young, that’s good. Don’t worry.”
“Huh? So, does that mean you’ll spare me…?”
“If you die and your wife runs off with another man, our orphanage will take good care of your precious child.”
“What, what did you say?”
“Think positively. Growing up under trash like you who sells children, what else would your child become but a thug? Think of it as sacrificing yourself for your child’s future.”
“Son of a b—!!”
Chak!!
Knife’s severed head rolled across the floor.
Spreading blood began covering the floor.
Avoiding the spreading blood, Ray walked calmly and muttered.
“Knife, you knew, didn’t you? I’m not a saint.”
No matter how many children he rescues.
No matter how sincerely he teaches the children.
No one would ever call Ray a young saint.
Ray reminded himself of his identity.
“I am from Phillip’s County…”
The rising Sword Aura resonated through the air once more.
Ray swung his sword toward the wooden counter.
The head of the woman hiding beneath the counter split in two along with it.
“Orphan collector, Ray.”
Collecting orphans and protecting and guiding them.
He had no intention of clinging to trivial sacrifices and losing his cool.
Ray’s cold gaze returned to the entrance of the basement.
It was time to meet Brack.
