Chapter 8

The corpse’s knees buckled, and before the dead man could slump to the ground, Dakai’s naked heel dug into the agent’s shoulder. Dakai flew into the air. Landing on the rather narrow top of the canal palisade and grabbing on with his toes, Dakai looked toward the opposite end of the canal where the sniper shots were coming from. “Four.” He counted the gunshots that echoed across the canal. Four barrels were visible from outside the residential windows. The dramatic bloodbath was over in an instant, before the snipers even had a chance to reload. Still perched atop the palisade, Dakai threw a weapon—not his enchanted sword but the spear from the freshly killed soldier. Hurled with incredible, Herculean strength, the spear pierced straight through the face of the faster-reloading sniper, killing him. Dakai the Magpie jumped. A rupturing concussion resounded as the canal palisade was crushed under the recoil from Dakai’s legs kicking up into the air. Crossing over the length of the canal, wide enough for two warships to pass by each other, his speed had him trace a nearly parallel line across the water’s surface. Even his shadow reflected on the canal’s waters for only a mere instant. Grabbing the first-floor window frame with his free hand, Dakai used his finger strength to launch himself up and into a third-floor window. Inside, he sliced the gun-wielding soldier to pieces, turning their body into a scattered spray of blood. Dakai the Magpie was a minia. Definitely neither ogre nor gigant, despite how preposterous and abnormal his physical abilities were. “All right. That leaves…one, two…and those three. Five, then.” As he counted the remaining adversaries on his fingers, he sliced up the spy on the communications device deeper with his enchanted sword without even looking. The agent’s head had been severed with such extreme speed that it crashed into the clay wall, the force causing it to burst open like rotten fruit. “Four left.” He returned to the window he had just flown through, suddenly realizing something. Dropping from the third window like it was a slight dip along the road, he split the head of the person right below him clean in two. Spies tried to escape from the first-floor entrance, having been alerted to Dakai’s infiltration. In his hands, Dakai twirled his enchanted sword around. Covered in his victims’ blood, he gave another friendly smile. “Okay, so you and you… That’s two. Just one left, then.” He could see everything with precision—like he was passing thread through the eye of a needle—both the retreat of his enemies and where he would land after his fall. Two of the soldiers trying to flee were blocked off from the exit. It was now abundantly clear to all bearing witness: An Aureatia spy group, capable of infiltrating the New Principality and avoiding the eyes of the wyvern troops patrolling the region, had been completely wiped out from what had clearly been an advantageous position. At the hands of a single young man. “I can kill you guys, too, but what’ll it be?” “…We surrender. Eeko, throw away your weapon, too.” “But, sir, if we’re captured by the New Principality, who knows how they’ll treat us?” “You’re no match for this swordsman! This guy’s—” Before the senior soldier could finish speaking, his severed head sailed into the air. “Ah, sorry. I had it all wrong.” “E-eep…” “Begging for your lives was to buy time for the one left over inside to get away, right? I know all about that stuff.” Dakai took out a bundle of parchment from his coat pocket and showed it to the remaining spy. “Also, to be honest, there’s no reason to throw your life away just to let that guy escape. All the records are written down right here, aren’t they?” Due to this world’s low literacy rate, trained spies left ciphered records behind in their own unique code. The papers in Dakai’s hand had been pinched from the soldiers he had dispatched. This young man possessed the skill to perform impressive sleights of hand while simultaneously eliminating his enemies at blinding speed. “I—I give up! Please, swordsman, have mercy! D-don’t kill m—” “Save your breath.” The young soldier’s body split into five pieces as Dakai walked past him. “See…I’m not a swordsman. I’m a bandit.” For these sorts of spy cells, no matter how many of them died, their home country would never acknowledge their existence. Thus, Dakai’s slaughter, too, was nothing more than another chance for them to observe how their enemies responded to such situations. “Let’s see, then. Now what’ll you do, Aureatia?” Factoring in his brutality and carnage, he could never follow the warriors’ path. His magicked blade and appetite for violence were little more than the tools of his trade, means to an end. In the world of the Beyond, their intolerable anomalies were transported to this world. Dakai the Magpie was a Visitor. He saw the world through aberrant eyes, capable of watching a bullet move in slow motion. He boasted an insightful resourcefulness, capable of exposing schemes and conquering impenetrable labyrinths on his own. He possessed swift and precise fingertips, dexterous enough to plunder at speeds impossible for anyone to combat. An extravagant and lawless pilferer above all, surpassing the boundary between worlds. He was a bandit. And a minia. Dakai the Magpie.