Golden-toothed Jesant.
Also known as the extraordinary Jesant, this pirate looks like a radical martial artist on the outside, and that’s spot on.
But his extraordinary abilities were different.
Using a unique weapon called a pistol, which most people don’t know about, his extraordinary abilities were literally a weapon that caught you off guard.
However, the girl who lived within the Chokugen Faction, trained solely to kill people, already knew about the existence of the pistol.
Bang!
The bullet that flew towards Sen didn’t fulfill its role and embedded itself in the wall, scattering into mana.
‘Isn’t that a bullet?’
One of only seven masters among dwarves.
One of the masterpieces created by Gareth, known as a unique genius or mad weapons enthusiast.
A devil’s pistol, Balester, which consumes its owner’s mana to create bullets.
Jesant, with his spark-black body, keeps pulling the trigger, chuckling to himself.
“No way, even the Chokugen Faction has a kid who knows about pistols? What the hell are those bastards raising?”
“That’s not the Chokugen Faction.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s what you think.”
Those words have been irking Sen’s mood since earlier.
She found a suspicious person in the city at the request of Daniel McLean, and hit the target.
But instead of a sense of satisfaction from completing the mission, a lingering aftertaste clung to her feet like thick sludge.
‘Running away is the right move.’
She must run.
She was dealing with a pirate lord’s officer. Just a few months ago, Zavalanco had been dismissed from his position as a pirate officer after receiving a complete defeat.
But this time, Jesant was an active officer. One who was quite famous for his strength.
For now, he was wrapped up in the thrill of the pistol, only pulling the trigger, but the moment he drew the cutlass from his waist, it would be impossible for Sen to contend.
‘But I don’t want to run away.’
Strangely, Sen didn’t want to run away.
Emotions were something she had lived without knowing during her Chokugen Faction days, and such cheap provocations had no effect on her.
But now, knowing emotions, she couldn’t just let it go. At the very least, she felt like she needed to hit back once to feel better.
With a slight smile, realizing there were side effects to emotions, Sen drew two daggers from her waist with reverse grips.
“Kid, what are you doing over there? Hurry up and come out so we can go home!”
Typically, pistols are said to be loud weapons, but the Balester was completely opposite. Using mana rather than gunpowder, it was perfectly quiet, making it suitable for an assassin.
‘Then for now.’
Sen tossed the dagger to the other side.
The chunk of mana shot after it hit the dagger accurately and bounced off, falling to the floor.
However, at the same time, Sen was already moving towards Jesant quickly.
‘Watch the muzzle carefully. Using mana bullets, they’re much slower than regular bullets.’
As she predicted, while looking at the direction of the muzzle and twisting her body, the bullet whizzed past.
If someone had seen it, they would have laughed at Jesant’s poor skills, but both of the people here knew that Sen was dodging well.
“Isn’t this a circus, not the Chokugen Faction? You’re dodging well, kid!”
“……”
She charged in, still holding the reverse-gripped dagger. Jesant, still clinging to the pistol, either still reluctant or stubborn, continued to pull the trigger.
But Sen had already approached him.
Bang!
The last chance, a mana bullet, pierced through Sen’s flowing hair. The only damage Jesant and the Balester inflicted on her was to mess up her hair a bit.
Sen’s dagger flew accurately towards Jesant’s heart.
As an assassin, she believed she had delivered a perfect blow, but Jesant’s smile remained plastered on his face.
“Kid, are you serious about being so slow as an assassin?!”
Clang!
The dagger flew.
In an instant, Jesant drew the cutlass perfectly and deflected Sen’s dagger into the air.
‘No power behind it?’
It was clearly a dagger filled with killing intent ready to take her life. But once it was deflected, it lacked any force at all.
Thunk!
A blade pierced into Jesant’s abdomen mercilessly.
To an outside observer, it might look like Sen’s toes were merely pushing against Jesant’s belly, but once she retracted her leg, a small blade sprang forth from the tip of her boot.
“What do you think is most important for an assassin?”
Not stopping there, Sen immediately twisted her body and delivered a spinning kick to Jesant’s face. The blade on her boot left a long cut across his nose.
“Ugh!”
“I thought it was obviously memorization. From daggers to crossbows, bladed weapons, throwing stars, needles. I learned to handle numerous weapons in the Chokugen Faction, but they all say I was wrong.”
Sen felt the voice of Daniel McLean, who said she completely mislearned, echo in her ears.
“It’s about killing intent.”
For an assassin, combat is the situation to avoid first and foremost. Facing an enemy head-on means assassination has already failed.
Yet, such situations are bound to arise, and the most useful weapon at that time is killing intent.
“Because I infused that dagger with the killing intent to definitely kill you, it drew your attention.”
But that was the fake.
Knowing the dagger would fail, Sen had been hiding her real sword.
In the end, the small assassin scored a proper hit on a guy nearly 2 meters tall.
“Yeah, it’s different from you stiff-ass assassin machines, right?”
Jesant wiped the blood trickling down his nose and gritted his teeth, holding onto the cutlass to charge, but Sen was already leaping far away.
Having just knocked the pistol from Jesant’s hand with her previous kick, Sen would judge he had no means of ranged attack left and ran without looking back.
‘Though I landed a surprise hit, if the fight continues, I’ll lose.’
The difference in size was too great.
Typically, a kick like that would knock a full-grown man unconscious, but Jesant recovered without a care and charged.
“Kaaahhhh!”
As the white assassin disappeared into the darkness, Jesant could only roar in frustration, having no way to vent his anger.
*
“Hmm?”
Slowly opening my eyes to the weight on my stomach in the dark surroundings, I noticed the window was open, letting in the chilly night air.
Ares, sleeping in the bed next to me, pulled the blanket up slightly, looking a bit cold.
But I couldn’t close the window.
Because there was a girl with white hair sitting on my stomach. On top of that, she had my mouth covered with her hand before I could react in surprise.
“Be quiet.”
Sen slowly removed her finger from my lips, and just as I opened my mouth to say something, she covered it again.
“I told you to be quiet. What if you wake Ares up?”
“……”
She wasn’t wrong.
I nodded my head to show I understood, and Sen removed her hand again.
“So why are you here?”
“To deliver information.”
“You went out at dawn? I told you not to do that.”
I had requested this, but said it wasn’t necessary to move at night since Lavenders would be active.
Sen crossed her arms, making a pouty face.
“Aren’t you going to listen?”
“……Sorry, go ahead.”
But does she have to say this while sitting on me?
Before I could even think of that question, Sen already started explaining, so I went along with the flow and listened quietly.
About a deal between Hendrick from Pales Academy and Pirate Officer Jesant, and how she had struck him and escaped.
After hearing the report, I felt a bit taken aback.
I heard that Jesant was a higher-ranking opponent than Zavalanco, who had completely defeated Sen in the past. But she had managed to gain perfect advantage, even if just briefly, and then escape.
The information Sen brought was impressive, but her growth astonished me.
‘I never expected you to grow this much.’
I had taught her several times during dawn exercises, but I never thought she’d use that practically like this.
Feeling proud, I smiled, and Sen spoke calmly.
“When you succeed in a request in the Chokugen Faction, you get a reward.”
Right, I knew that.
Even though they did the work, they took it all as a brokerage fee. Since I was using what I learned from the Chokugen Faction, it felt almost like volunteering.
“Don’t friends deserve a reward for succeeding in their missions too?”
“Yeah, I know. Actually, that’s why I…”
I was about to say I had put in a request for a pretty accessory as a gift for Hayun when Sen’s face brightened, then suddenly shook her head and went back to being expressionless.
“Give me something else.”
“……What do you want?”
It was the first time Sen had wanted something, so it felt uneasy, but since I wanted to accommodate her, I asked back, and she leaned forward.
I wanted to decline, fully aware of what she meant, but had I not risked my life to fight due to the request I made?
“This isn’t a rational thing; it’s a simple request reward, get it?”
“Big brother, hurry.”
She only calls me big brother at times like this.
I removed the hand that had been pressed on Sen’s thigh and gently ruffled her hair. She slumped like a limp cat on top of me.
At first, I planned to tell her to get up, but something felt off.
She seemed to be unusually anxious, conveyed through her slightly trembling skin.
“I’ll just stay like this for a moment, big brother.”
“……”
“Just a moment. Give me your warmth. Let me feel for sure that you’re here.”
I didn’t know what Jesant had said to Sen, but it was clear he had made her anxious.
With Sen resting her ear against my chest, she slowly closed her eyes. It felt like if I let go, she would break.
So gently, like petting a cat, I stroked Sen.
