After the security system rang on the first basement floor, I couldn’t move quietly.

No matter what, I was being chased.

There was no time to use invisibility.

The manpower of the Empire coming from everywhere tormented me.

I went down the stairs, avoiding the flying magic.

I was going down to the second basement floor.

The second basement floor of the Empire was a little different from the first floor.

There were fewer but more skilled elite forces guarding it.

“Huh? Who are you?”

“How did you get in here?”

Unlike the apprentices, they couldn’t be driven away by ordinary means.

In front of me, the general knights of the knighthood, and behind me, the apprentice knights who chased me from the first floor, surrounded me.

It seemed impossible to avoid combat any further.

I took out a dagger on the spot and gripped it in my hand.

“…”

Is this how it ends up after all?

I made my own efforts too.

The effort to not kill them and head to the lowest floor, that is.

But it didn’t go as I wanted.

Even if there were some casualties, it was unavoidable.

***

It wasn’t the first time I faced multiple enemies.

I recalled when I was surrounded by shadows during the external training.

What did I do then?

I think I wrapped my body in wind, accelerated my body, and dealt with them one by one.

My current mana is about 200, far from enough to deal with skilled knights.

It goes without saying, but knights are stronger than shadows.

There may be so many that they don’t stand out, but each is an elite trained in the academy.

So, I crushed a high-grade magic stone in my hand.

I absorbed the mana that burst out from the magic stone into my body.

And then.

“Wind.”

I leaped.

A blue-green wind follows my movement.

Fighting while sealing my magical energy and hallucination abilities is like fighting with my arms and legs tied for me.

But I still win.

The gap between them and me is not small.

Monsters have better physical abilities than humans.

No matter how skilled the knights are, it’s not easy to overcome that difference.

They can’t keep up with my speed.

They can’t catch me at their speed.

A faint afterimage remains between the movements of my quick leaps.

I jumped forward and stabbed the knight’s body with a dagger.

“Ugh?!”

With a thud, red blood spurted into the air.

Then, I immediately grabbed his collar and stood him in front of me.

Once I’m close to the knight, they can’t use attack magic on me.

I pointed the sword in my hand at the knight’s neck.

Pseudo hostage.

Also known as a meat shield.

“Taking a hostage, how cowardly!”

“…”

Isn’t it more cowardly for many to attack at once?

If I don’t use magical energy, there’s no way to deal with multiple enemies at once.

So I had to subdue them one by one.

Shadows have no intelligence, so I could sweep them away at once, but knights aren’t like that.

They were smooth in linking thrusting swords at me and deploying attack magic.

I may be able to handle them one by one, but it’s difficult for me to destroy a well-coordinated formation alone.

So.

“They’re running away! Catch them!”

I chose to leave.

I left the hostage behind and ran to find a way deeper underground.

I cut through the knights blocking my way with a dagger and avoided the flying spells.

But there was no end in sight.

It wasn’t easy to find my way through the maze-like interior of the building, and too many people blocked my way, making it chaotic.

‘Should I break the floor one more time?’

If I couldn’t see a way, I had to make one.

I put the thought that came to my mind into action.

-Boom!!

I drove my fist wrapped in blue-green wind into the ground.

I jumped into the large hole in the floor.

The second-floor knights chasing me didn’t bother following me as I jumped.

That’s how I fell to the third basement floor.

And,

Several knights waited and aimed their weapons at me as I fell.

Diving in without observing the surroundings might not have been a very good idea.

It was a stronger force than the knights above.

Because I punched and broke the floor, all their attention was focused on me.

I wonder if it would have been a little easier if I could use magical energy.

But I couldn’t do that.

Right now, I am a human hiding my identity.

If I showed magical energy here, I didn’t know what would happen afterward.

“…The reception is flashy.”

Sharper hostility and sophisticated magic formulas aimed at me.

The brightly shining formulas in the dark place were dazzling enough to make my eyes hurt.

I threw the blunt dagger on the ground.

And I took out a new dagger from my chest.

Is it another prolonged battle this time?

It wasn’t something I was very confident in.

I was starting to get dizzy from not being able to eat.

So I wanted to finish it quickly.

Before I lose control and kill someone again.

***

I cut down the charging knight.

After avoiding the trajectory of the swinging sword, I approached and swung my dagger.

I cut them down, subdue them, and immediately aim for the next target.

Like before, I watch the sword’s trajectory with my eyes, avoid it, and cut the human down.

I deflected the occasional flying attack magic by wrapping myself in the wind.

Getting hit a few times was okay, but it was quite troublesome in this battle of attrition.

So this time, I decided to target the mages.

I’ll make them realize with their bodies that they’re not safe just because they’re far away from me.

-Whoosh!!

My speed, accelerated by wrapping myself in wind, far surpassed what they believed possible.

That’s why you shouldn’t let your guard down just because the battle is far.

After all, it only takes a moment to die.

Literally, I could approach faster than the time it takes for them to blink once.

“Wh-what-.”

The faces of the mages were filled with horror.

But there was no continuation of their words.

Before their words could continue, I slit their throats with a dagger.

Blood splattered.

One more corpse was added.

“Phew…”

After cutting down one mage and landing on the ground, I took a deep breath.

I changed my stance.

Speed was the element where I could gain the upper hand over them.

What if I add another layer to it?

This time, a technique to subdue not one person but multiple people at once.

-Clang!!!

I kicked the ground harder than ever.

I swung the sword.

In multiple directions.

The sword strike carved in the air splits in the middle.

A blue-green sword strike draws a thick trajectory.

“Aaaagh!!”

“Ugh?!!”

Imperial Knight Style Sixth Form

Originally, it was a footwork technique that accelerates by drawing a sword from its sheath, but since there was no sheath, I changed it to fit my needs.

The splitting sword strikes cut down the knights along with the wind.

After one leap, blood and flesh fell to the floor.

The aftermath of blood filled the underground building.

It’s a sweet scent to me, but it’s probably fishy and disgusting to humans.

I brought the blood-stained dagger to my mouth, licked it once, and put it away.

I was quite physically exhausted from fighting elite knights continuously.

I brushed back my sweat-soaked hair.

After the battle ended, I stood between human blood and flesh, which didn’t feel very good.

Two people lost their lives, three were lightly injured, and the rest were all severely injured.

I tried to control it to some extent, but it wasn’t as easy as I thought.

I felt sorry for those who died, but I also had a reason to go beyond this place.

I walked through the quiet underground corridor like that.

It was the moment I was about to move on to the next floor.

“Who are you?”

“…”

Someone was blocking my way as I stepped on the fallen ones and proceeded.

It was a knight with fluttering red hair.

The nameplate on her uniform represented her identity.

The level was different from those I had just faced.

Are chief knights coming out now?

She was the manager in charge of this floor.

Coincidentally, we were already acquainted.

‘Eve.’

She was one of the professors at the academy.

I didn’t expect to see her again in a place like this.

“That swordsmanship is the Imperial Knight Style. Moreover, it resembles that of my senior chief knight Leon. I’ll ask again. Who are you?”

I didn’t answer.

I just took one step forward from that spot.

Leon, huh.

Come to think of it, there was a name like that.

Leon and Eve were the ones who patrolled the back alleys as a pair.

Among them, Leon died, and Eve is still alive.

Today, that might be broken.

In my heart, I hoped she wouldn’t block my way.

She was a professor I was acquainted with, wasn’t she?

I wanted her to step aside and let me pass.

Before we cross swords, before someone’s blood flows again.

“… You’re not going to answer.”

But Eve didn’t step aside.

She raised her sword and took a stance.

It was the same stance I used when subduing the knights.

It’s not an imitation like mine, but the original Imperial Knight Style.

As she drew her sword from its sheath, I also drew my sword.

It was a shame I couldn’t pass by quietly.