Sestain looked at his junior Alensia with a dismissive gaze before withdrawing his presence.
When he extended his sword, the scabbard that was far away flew over and sheathed the sword by itself.
It was a scabbard retrieval using magnetic force.
"Tsk. Just when I thought I was about to have some fun, this kills all the excitement."
"...Senior. How can you call this fun, no matter what."
Sestain looked around.
The people inside the building were stunned, wondering what was happening as their building was split in half.
"Don't worry everyone! The city will provide sufficient compensation!"
After saying whatever he pleased, Sestain moved his feet.
"Are you leaving?"Osian asked, speaking to his back.
"Yes."
"You're giving up more easily than expected."
"If someone doesn't want to go, we can't forcibly arrest them. Such laws don't exist in Tirna. Besides, I've already achieved my goal."
With those final words, Sestain disappeared with a whoosh.
Alensia, not knowing what to do about her senior's behavior, gave a slight bow to Osian in greeting.
Then she lifted the cleaners she had knocked unconscious with both hands and followed after Sestain.
As felt from her leg strength, her physical abilities were extraordinary as expected of a beastkin.
"Hmm. It's a bit disappointing."
Osian clicked his tongue. Just when things were starting to heat up, the fight fizzled out due to Alensia’s interference.
But he couldn't blame Alensia. If things had gotten more heated, there would certainly have been more damage to the surroundings.
Rather, she had acted boldly after determining it would be dangerous if they didn't stop here.
"Is it all over? Phew, I almost got taken away."
Loraine, who had been watching the situation, came with Lucent. She clicked her tongue looking at the mess around them.
Would people believe that this scene was created not by any magic or firepower, but by the exchange of swords?
"More than that, they gave up easier than expected? When I heard an executor showed up, I really thought this was the end."
Lucent also nodded his head vigorously, seeming to agree with Loraine's words.
When he heard that an executor, one of the city's top forces, had come to capture him, he felt like he was facing death itself.
He had resigned himself that it was over, but the result was unexpected.
"They must still be in the process of assessing the situation."
"Even so, didn't they leave too easily?"
"Probably. Whatever the case, it's beneficial for us so we should just let it be."
"That's true. With the commotion just now, those who were chasing us from behind have also disappeared. Should we consider this fortunate? So what are we going to do now?"
"I already called someone in advance."
Just then, a sophisticated steam automobile approached along the destroyed street.
The obviously luxurious vehicle smoothly drove over the bumpy road and stopped in front of Osian.
An orc wearing a suit stepped out from the driver's seat.
"I came as called, but what in the world happened here?"
Sebastian, the butler of the Goldiron family, muttered in bewilderment as he looked at the half-destroyed mansion and the devastated surrounding streets.
*
Alensia, after handing over the criminals to the guards, immediately approached Sestain who was maintaining his sword.
"Senior."
"What? Do you have business?"
"Well..."
Alensia couldn't figure out what to say.
While she was more cold and resolute than anyone else toward criminals, she couldn't be that way with Sestain, her respected senior.
Sestain smirked.
"What? Curious about why this ruffian of a senior gave up the fight so easily, even though you don't want to think that?"
"Th-that's not possible."
"What do you mean not possible. Even you must think it's strange. Although you stepped in quite forcefully to stop it, given my personality, you probably expected I wouldn't stop there."
"..."
When Alensia didn't answer, Sestain smiled slyly.
"Hehe. Now you're not even denying it?"
"That's not it!"
"Alright, alright. What's the point of arguing about something that's already passed?"
Sestain said while examining his scabbard.
Alensia’s sharp eye quickly noticed the issue with his scabbard.
"Senior. The scabbard..."
"To think this thing, made sturdy enough to match the sword, would get damaged to this extent. I'll need to get it repaired."
Clicking his tongue while checking the scabbard's condition, Sestain asked as he fastened the weapon to his waist.
"You want to know why I stopped fighting?"
"Well, I didn't actually ask that..."
"Same difference. It's simple logic. I stopped because I would have lost if we continued fighting there."
"What?"
Alensia’s eyes grew round. Seeing her like that, it was clear why she was a rabbit beastkin.
"Senior, what do you mean by that?"
"Did your excellent hearing suddenly fail? Or do you want to hear me declare my defeat again? Hey now, I didn't think you were like this, but you're quite vicious."
"Ah, no, that's not what I..."
Sestain smiled at the rare sight of Alensia flustering.
But his expression soon grew heavy as he recalled facing Osian.
"If you hadn't stopped us there, I would have lost. There's no room for debate about this."
When Osian wrapped his sword in pure white light, Sestain felt a chill run down his spine.
Though he prided himself on having faced and fought countless strong opponents as an executor in this city, he had never seen anything like that before.
"Of course, who knows what would happen if I went all out, but what's the point of considering hypotheticals when neither of us showed all our cards. Looking at just that moment, I definitely lost."
While we might not know what would happen if this side opened the Ark Parts, but wouldn't Osian have hidden cards too?
What they were trying to compete in was pure swordsmanship and crossing swords made him realize that Osian's swordsmanship was several moves ahead of his own.
He thought that perhaps even saying "several moves" might be an arrogant judgment.
"Just how did someone who looks so young gain swordsmanship deeper than mine, I wonder. The world is so unfair, so unfair. Don't you think so?"
"Ah, well..."
Alensia couldn't answer directly.
If nothing else, Sestain shouldn't have said those words.
For someone his age to talk about unfairness while maintaining an active executor position?
Of course, it's not that he hadn't worked hard to maintain that position. But even the guards below them put in effort, don't they?
"Anyway."
Sestain saw right through what Alensia was thinking.
That's why he could only sigh as if frustrated.
"At times like this, you should agree even if you don't think so. How are you going to get along with others if you're so inflexible?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Never mind that, just keep watching this situation closely. The Saint Tree folks seem to be properly rattled."
When the name Saint Tree came up, Alensia’s expression changed.
If before she was an awkward junior fumbling with her senior's teasing, now she showed the proper dignity of an executor.
"Are we just watching for now?"
"They're quite anxious about Lucent Philburg right now. Though they try to hide it, that's probably why they sent the cleaners."
"Thinking about it again, shouldn't we be protecting Lucent Philburg’s safety..."
"Forget it. That's all finished business. And with that young man Osian by his side, he won't budge from any ordinary danger."
Alensia said while relaxing her shoulders.
"So it was intentional."
"Ho. You figured it out?"
Sestain chuckled as if he had no intention of hiding it.
"It seems that fixer Osian has quite some connections with big shots. Even if we protected Lucent Philburg, this situation wouldn't be resolved, but it's different with that fixer."
"You mean the big shots?"
"Saint Tree is lobbying with huge amounts of money. That's why even we executors can't openly arrest them now. The corrupt officials who took their money are interfering by bringing up bureaucratic arguments."
What should you do when public authority doesn't work against those who play with money and protect themselves with that power?
You respond with the exact same means.
"...So that's why. I thought it was strange that you gave up so easily."
"Well, something like that."
"Wait a minute. If you knew it would turn out like this, doesn't that mean you picked the fight purely for self-satisfaction?"
"Eek."
"Senior!"
Alensia glared with fierce eyes. She immediately launched into a rehearsed lecture about proper mindset and conduct as an executor, and how they should be role models for everyone.
Usually she was an easy junior to tease, but at times like this, even being her senior was no help.
"Ugh. I can't hear anything, can't hear."
Sestain covered his ears with both hands as if he didn't want to listen.
But on his lips was a smile, as if looking forward to seeing how this situation would unfold.
*
"What in the world is going on?"
William Burket grew anxious as there was still no contact from the cleaners who went to capture Lucent.
Given their skills, they should have finished the job and reported back by now.
But there has been no news since then. Since they would definitely make contact if they had completed the job, no news meant they had failed.
Just then the communicator rang, and William answered it without a moment's hesitation.
"What about Lucent? Did you handle it? What's the situation?"
[I apologize. We failed to secure Lucent.]
"Failed? Did you just say failed!"
Though he had expected this result, actually hearing it made his blood boil.
"If you couldn't secure him, you should have at least killed him! You took all that money and this is how you handle the job?!"
[The fixer that Lucent joined hands with was someone well-known in the industry. Though we moved thoroughly, most of the cleaners were taken down.]
"What about the others? We sent more than just you!"
[They were all taken down as well.]
"Why! You can't even kill one researcher!"
[An executor showed up.]
At the word executor, deep wrinkles formed between William's brows.
"Did the executor catch on to our trail?"
[I'm not sure about that. It seemed they came because of the commotion that broke out while fighting with the fixer.]
It wasn't strange for an executor to show up given the chaos they caused in broad daylight.
However, the question of why now remains.
William's mind raced.
'The executor stepped in? The timing is too perfect to be coincidence. Then that means they're also tracking this incident.'
He wondered if Lucent had joined forces with them, but according to reports, the executors only took away the cleaners who caused trouble.
Then was it really a coincidence?
'No. Nothing changes even if an executor showed up. We've already fed huge amounts of money to the officials in that area. No matter how strong these executor bastards are, as city officials their movements are bound to be limited.'
William quickly finished his judgment.
"Where did Lucent go?"
[We're tracking him. He's moving in some vehicle with the fixers he hired.]
"Moving in a vehicle? Is he planning to flee far away?"
If he's running away to escape death, why did he hire fixers?
And Lucent's behavior until now bothered him. He had leaked Saint Tree's corruption documents to the press.
To the ordinary level press outlets they hadn't bribed.
He intentionally exposed Saint Tree's corruption, and they countered by claiming through their bribed media that it was instigation and the work of rival companies.
The ever-rising stock price stopped, and fell considerably while maintaining this front, but it didn't matter.
They had already made enough money.
But it wasn't over yet. They couldn't end it here to achieve a more perfect result.
That's why Lucent's existence was a headache for William and the board of directors.
He's not a big wall blocking the way. Just a stumbling stone that trips you.
But for those who need to do their best in everything, that stumbling stone was as dangerous as a meteor falling from the sky.
[A report just came in. They're heading to District 29.]
"District 29?"
An even more incomprehensible action.
Isn't District 29 the area where wealthy people's villas are mainly gathered?
Did they set up a safe house there?
'If not that, then it means they at least have connections there.'
Wait. Connections?
William felt like he'd been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.
'Why did I think they had connections from the past? That's something they could make right now too.'
The documents Lucent leaked to the press were only surface-level things, too insufficient to be called Saint Tree's corruption.
But that doesn't mean Lucent's existence couldn't harm them.
Wasn't the reason they overlooked his mischief in the first place because of the value of the knowledge he possessed?
What if he passes that to someone?
William felt a chill down his spine.
"Stop them!"
[Pardon?]
"Stop those bastards right now!"
*
"Th-this is."
Getting out of the car, Lucent faced a magnificent villa.
The overwhelming presence seemed to take his breath away just by looking at it.
Lucent unconsciously stepped backward.
"What are you doing?"
"Y-yes?"
"We need to meet someone to persuade. Hurry up and go in."
Osian pushed his back. Lucent had no choice but to head toward the Goldiron family mansion with the golden seal on its main gate.