by CHIROLU
He had kicked him a bit hard, but he was considerate enough to aim for the man’s rear, so as not to rupture any internal organs. It simply wouldn’t do to have someone end up dead from a ‘game’ like this. Latina would end up crying, after all.
That didn’t mean his opponent came out of the exchange unharmed, though. In fact, Dale had made the decision that anything went as long as he didn’t deal a fatal blow. They were the ones running the thing, after all. And he had enough faith in them to just assume they had personnel who could use healing magic waiting in the wings.
Next up, he tripped several folks at once, sending them tumbling. At the same time, the first man he had kicked went flying into the front group, unable to stop his momentum. That didn’t cause as much chaos as expected, though. Instead, they soon caught sight of Dale and got back in position. That wasn’t a bad decision. They really were well-coordinated, considering the group was of mixed backgrounds.
The corners of Dale’s mouth turned up ever so slightly.
Kreuz’s youngsters aren’t half bad. That’s good to see, Dale thought to himself, and then gave a strained smile when he realized he had started thinking similarly to those old timers at some point.
He grabbed the arm of a nearby youth and swept his legs, knocking him over. Then, feeling mischievous, he went ahead and easily lifted up a large man with his hands. It actually went surprisingly smoothly, as the man panicked when he was lifted and froze in a position that made him easier to handle.
While, I guess that’s no surprise, since you don’t usually ever find yourself in that position, Dale casually thought, then he went and chucked his poor victim. This was his first time using a human being as a projectile, too.
He found the somewhat inhumane act rather enjoyable, so he got carried away and ended up throwing a couple more people.
The staves swinging his way from all sides were being wielded with some rather skilled teamwork, but he dodged them by getting down low and closing the distance between them, even though he could have just knocked them away with his gauntlet. While listening to the sound of wood clashing overhead, he struck out with the palm of his hand. Then he turned around with a kick, snapping his opponent’s weapon and sending yet another man flying.
In that way, the literally inhuman deplorable hero demonstrated to all present just why he was considered a legend. It was like something out of a nightmare, as if they were being torn to shreds one after another. Ah, there went another giant of a man flying through the air.
Even with all the masked assailants strewn groaning across the grounds, Dale wasn’t even winded. Considering the number of opponents he was up against, he had mown them down so thoroughly you could call it a near instantaneous defeat.
After looking around to confirm that none of them were up for continuing, Dale placed his hand on the door to the manor. It didn’t appear to be locked. At first he suspected some sort of trap, but then he considered it from the perspective of his opponents. Dale didn’t possess any lockpicking skills, so his only option for dealing with a locked door was to destroy it, which he would do without mercy.
Surely, the homeowner would want to avoid that. This was a rather splendid manor, after all. The repair cost for such an elaborate door was sure to be massive, and there was no way the owner would be happy having their home left wide open until it had been repaired.
Even if it was a trap, Dale had no choice at this point but to open the door.
His decisive confidence was exemplary of the epic hero he was, but at any rate, he went ahead and stepped into the manor.
The door opened with a thud that was somehow unfittingly gentle for the situation, only for sighs of relief to erupt from all around. And the source of one of those sighs sprawled out on the ground, removing his mask. His natural red hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, so he roughly brushed it out of the way.
“We didn’t even so much as scratch him...” one of the other men muttered, removing his mask.
“Owww... Are you alright?” the redheaded youth asked back listlessly, forcing himself to sit up. He hurt all over, not just where he was hit in the back.
“Somehow, after having come this far, it kinda just makes me want to laugh.”
“Yeah... That guy was seriously a monster...”
Apparently they weren’t the only ones feeling that way, as a number of the others gave similarly listless smiles.
Despite the fact they had used a net and other such relentless weapons, and had an overwhelming advantage in terms of numbers, their opponent had walked away unharmed. To really rub in his advantage, he wasn’t even using a weapon.
“I wanted to at least slug him once, that’s all...”
“That sort of display really makes you feel like giving up, doesn’t it?”
His shoulders slumped all on their own. Still, somehow his own voice hadn’t sounded quite as pathetic as he had expected.
There were quite a few amongst the members of Fairy Princess Protection Committee who were Latina’s age who had held romantic feelings towards Latina.
It was no exaggeration to call her a drop-dead beauty, and as the proud adorable waitress of the Ocelot, she always greeted the customers with a kind, brilliant smile. And the fact that she would occasionally start joyfully humming out of tune or acting a bit airheaded showed that she wasn’t the sort to put on airs.
It was like having a sort of extraordinary idol who they were all familiar with.
There was no way folks wouldn’t end up falling for and admiring her.
Those youths then ended up getting fired up for this whole big stupid mess by the old timers who ran the Bodyguards.
In turn, that resulted in a “Who can slug Dale one?” challenge.
With that said, the regulars of the Ocelot had more or less planned all that out.
That deplorable hero would get all lovey-dovey with Latina whenever he saw the opportunity, regardless of where they may be or who may be watching. It was a truly insensitive way to behave, with no thought given to the heartbroken men left shedding manly tears in the background.
There were more than a few folks out there who wanted to land at least one solid hit on him, so the result was really no surprise.
There was also clearly a hidden fount of admiration within the hearts of the youths participating, with them clearly wanting the chance to take on a hero whose legend would be told well into the future. The old timers who got them fired up didn’t bother pointing that out, though.
In fact, those old fogeys may have even tried to get them ever more worked up instead, telling them to go ahead and hit him because it was going to be a big dumb mess anyway.
This all resulted in a blatant demonstration of the difference in their strengths, but since they were aware of the underhanded means they’d used, the attackers couldn’t even be mad about it. And at the same time, they also couldn’t help feeling a bit relieved that their admiration for Dale was far from misplaced.
“Haah...” the redheaded youth sighed once again, then looked around.
The next time he saw her he’d have to congratulate her, no matter what he may really be feeling.
“So he’s an opponent I can never overcome my whole life long... Well, maybe that won’t be so bad.”
There wasn’t even a hint of gloom on the young man’s face as he realized the man whose back he had been desperately chasing since he was young was still somewhere far off in the distance.
With that, he and his comrades who had all wanted to land a blow on Dale picked their wounded bodies up and set about withdrawing from the place.
Meanwhile, Dale advanced into the manor and found that it was every bit as exquisite on the inside as you would expect from the outside. Even the atrium in the entry hall alone gave a rather high-class impression.
The cream-colored striped wallpaper, reddish brown wooden furniture, and nonchalantly placed works of art all seemed first rate even to someone like Dale, who had a refined sense of aestheti
cs and was welcome at the manor of the duke, foremost of the Labandese nobles. The decor even lacked the gaudy ornamentation one would expect from an upstart’s estate.
It was hard to imagine this manor belonged to someone related to those old timers who guzzled down cheap booze at that bar.
Of course Dale himself lived in the attic of that very bar despite his impressive standing and fortune, but as always he was blind to such personal matters.
At the front of the entrance hall there stood stairs leading to the next floor. There were elaborately engraved doors off to the left and right, colored so as to match the other furnishings.
Dale stopped in place, wondering which way to go, only for the left door to swing open as if it had been waiting for that very moment.
“Hehehe...” an unnatural chuckle sounded out, and when Dale was wondering who it was coming from, he was completely caught off guard. Or to be more accurate, he looked flat out astounded.
“What are you doing in a place like this...?”
“Hehehe...”
“Woof woof woof...”
Theodore, heir to the Dancing Ocelot where Dale lived, was there riding atop Vint and wielding a stick. The daring smile on his face was honestly kind of annoying, but the self-satisfied look on the face of the pup he was riding was even worse.
“You’re never gonna stop me, even swinging around something like—” Dale started to say, only for Theo to point overhead with his stick.
“Emma’s in danger!”
“Woof!”
“...Huh?”
As Dale stood there flabbergasted, Theo took off, riding on Vint’s back. Unsurprisingly considering Vint’s mobility, in the moment it took for Dale to come back to his senses, Theo had disappeared through the door that had apparently been reopened at some point.
“What the heck are they thinking...?” Dale muttered, looking back in the direction Theo had pointed. The hall that the staircase looked out on had an atrium, so Dale could see all the way to the ceiling. Even the molding on the steps and railings had a simple elegance to it. The skylight was brilliantly designed with the crossbeams radiating outwards, and there were two slender legs dangling in front of that backdrop.
It was then that Dale remembered the name that Theo had mentioned.
“...”
Now that he had remembered, he couldn’t just ignore the matter. And so, he dashed up the stairs, spun around, and took off running towards where he had seen the legs dangling.
“That little punk...!” Dale cursed, since just as expected, those legs indeed belonged to Theo’s little sister, Emma. The young girl had been sitting on the other side of the railing, and was now looking up at Dale like she didn’t quite understand what was going on.
Apparently Theo had at least taken some thought as to what may happen to his sister, as there were several strands wrapped around Emma’s body, securing her to the railing. However, that was ultimately just childish naivete, as from an adult’s point of view she was still in a great deal of danger.
“Emma, does anything hurt?”
“Hmm... Butt?”
“Ah... Yeah, the floor sure is hard. And it’s cold, too, so you’re probably chilly.”
Putting aside the matter of Theo, young Emma had done nothing wrong. And so, Dale called out to her in a gentle tone as he reached for the knife at his hip.
“I’ll cut you loose, so just hold still for a bit...”
Dale decided that he needed to cut her free as he couldn’t just leave her there, but then he noticed just what those “strands” really were.
“That punk...” Dale cursed again, as he realized that the “strands” tying Emma in place were really Latina’s beloved ribbons.
Even if he did cut them, Latina probably wouldn’t be angry if he explained the circumstances. But if any of her favorites happened to be mixed in, she would be seriously disappointed.
Dale was, naturally, the sort of guy who couldn’t accept seeing Latina make a face like that.
“Uuuuuugh...!”
As a result, Dale found himself struggling with the messy knots that Theo had made. It was a complex tangle combining both basic and granny knots, and Dale was extremely tempted to just tear them apart with brute force.
He also had to pay an increasing amount of attention to keeping Emma from falling as he removed the ribbons.
“Gotta wee-wee.”
“Whoa, that’s getting way too relaxed there...! Just hold on a little longer!”
Dale lifted Emma up and realized that he had fallen for yet another of Theo’s plots. The crux of the plan was the fact that he had retreated atop Vint.
“Damn...”
If Theo was still around, Dale could have pushed Emma off onto him. But right now, Dale was the only one around.
It would be far too dangerous to leave little Emma on her own in an unfamiliar place. And since he could easily be attacked again like before at any moment, he wanted to avoid bringing her along with him.
Above all else, though, Emma was currently struggling with an emergency situation that was getting worse by the moment.
“Theo... I’m going to scold you till you cry later...!”
“Later?” Emma innocently mimicked as Dale held her tight.
The solution Dale settled on was a full-on sprint to take Emma back to the Dancing Ocelot.
Theo had done a splendid job of using the means available to him to successfully delay the most fiendish of all heroes.
Not wanting to waste time running down the stairs, Dale simply hopped over the handrail, leaping down without hesitation. He made sure to obstruct Emma’s view on the way down, as he didn’t want her to get scared and let anything leak out. Emma was innocently giggling away like she thought they were just playing or something, but there was also a hint of valor about her, somehow. Well, she was the daughter of Rita and Kenneth. She may have been a girl, but there was no guarantee that she would come out all gentle and ladylike. Her parents were hoping that she would learn from Latina’s personality and work ethic, but it was far from certain that things would turn out that way.
Dale flew outside and noticed that, while he’d been struggling with those knots, the men he’d beaten down earlier had all cleared themselves out. Rather than stopping to make sure, though, he just kept on running. He did need to make sure to pick a route with few people around, though, since it was hard to say if even a large carriage would come out on top if it got in his way.
When Dale plunged headfirst into the Ocelot, he actually didn’t head straight for Kenneth or Rita. That was because preserving Emma’s dignity took priority.
Emma soon had a thoroughly relieved look on her face, but in the meantime, Dale gave Kenneth a simple explanation of what had happened. The man was quite doting on his daughter, so the deep furrowing of his brows at the moment came as no great surprise.
“So when Theo gets back, make sure you apprehend him.”
“You mind if I give him a scolding while you’re gone?”
“Sure, why not?”
In that instant, it was determined that Theo would be facing a lecture not only from Dale upon his return home, but also from his father.
He may have carried out the task that had been assigned to him, but he was paying a great price in exchange.
The pup was just a pup, though, so chewing him out wouldn’t do much good.
Dale handed Emma over to Kenneth, then took off running back towards the eastern district. As he left, Emma called out, “Bye-bye!” from her father’s arms.
The people Dale passed by on the street looked at him like they were seeing something not of this world. For a while afterwards, there was an urban legend throughout Kreuz of some strange apparition that passed you by on the streets.
When he made it back to the front of the manor, he couldn’t sense the presence of another round of assailants. That was perfect, as Dale was a bit peeved at the moment and wasn’t sure he could hold back like he had before. The decision to
retreat certainly seemed to have been the correct one, as otherwise they may well have found themselves the outlets for Dale’s merciless fury.
He flung the door open rather forcefully.
He stomped forwards into the manor, then threw open the door to the left that Theo had come out of before.
“You sure seem annoyed,” Sylvester called out.
“Alright, time to beat this damn prank into submission...” Dale replied with a grin on his face.
Dale snapped his fingers and smiled like his anger had quelled at finally locating the ringleader behind this big dumb mess.
“Should I land a blow or two on you as thanks?”
“You know you’re supposed to respect your elders, right?”
“That only applies to old folks worth respecting, though.”
Despite Dale’s violent statement, Sylvester wasn’t able to hold back a smirk. It really went to show the guts the man had.
Before Dale could take so much as a step forward, Sylvester stated, “Anyway, we already fulfilled our win conditions.”
“What are you...?” Dale started to ask, but a door further in had opened alongside Sylvester’s words, and... Dale fell flat on his face with shock.
Sylvester grinned even further.
“U-Um, Dale...? It may sound odd to say it considering the circumstances, but welcome home.”
“...”
“Are you alright?”
“...”
“Dale?” Latina questioned in a panic, looking at his collapsed figure.
Latina had heard of Dale’s trip to Tislow, which was why she was now telling him “welcome home.” Still, she really did feel like her usual aloof self when she went ahead and said that in a situation like this.
At any rate, Dale currently wasn’t able to respond. A perfect surprise attack had been launched on him in a way he had never expected. And the amount of damage it had caused was immeasurable.
