374 The One Pulling the String?
However, that sword was without a blade from the hilt up, Linda's neck remained unharmed.
Of course the sword would have cut her artery if it weren't for that.
But I won't let that happen.
"...Sheesh. I figured you'd pull this crap. Why do I always get dragged into these templates? Ah, it's so embarrassing."
Getting the role to do this 'classic' development feels so embarrassing. And now I'm part of the template. What a joke.
I had entered Acceleration the moment Irdis drew his sword.
The answer was simple. I just cut off the sword's blade with a knife on his waist.
The law of Acceleration is a complete mystery even now. It doesn't matter how hard an object is. I cut it like a butter.
"Wha!?" Irdis let out a surprised yelp, while Linda followed with "Eh?"
"Oh right, we never put a 'condition' on the underling. So he was 'free' to do what he wanted outside the order. Like calling his cohort after accomplishing the order? It's my fault for overlooking that."
I forgot to put a restriction on the underling's actions. That had to be done to prevent stuff like this.
This is the end result. The underling called reinforcement.
Irdis is a cohort of the kidnappers, or perhaps he goes beyond that.
That's abundantly clear after his attempt on Linda's life.
"Wh-! Wh-! Why Irdis! Have you gone mad!?"
Linda who finally realized she almost got killed yelled at Irdis.
"Tch! Why'd this damn sword broke now of all time?! Missed my chance to kill her! Well fine. A dagger suffices to kill one feeble woman."
I went back to my original position after breaking Irdis's sword.
So he was under a false impression that his sword broke by itself. But the underling who had been watching us behind a tree all this time seemed to infer that I did something, reminiscence of the time his comrades died. His face went deadly pale.
"It's cause Kanedor-sama requested it. Once you're dead, Lolengus old man's gonna regret taking the chairman position, that's the idea. Get it done and I'll be showered with enough money to last a lifetime of indulgence, how'd anyone refuse? I'm fed up with this no-future escort knight job and having to constantly please some woman. I only took this job cause the terms said I don't have to do much, but no, you just gotta make me accompany you all over the place every single damned day."
Seemingly feeling refreshed after spitting all that out, Irdis revealed a sleazy grin on his face.
He's speaking like Linda is as good as dead already.
"What, so you're telling me this Kanedor guy is the one pulling the strings behind the scene? These kidnappers and revolutionary army thing must be all funded by this same guy too. This Kanedor guy is the source of rottenness."
With all the information I have now, there's no doubt about it.
However, there's no point accusing the guy if we have no evidence.
I'm sure my reasoning is correct. Though it's only a guess at this point. Without physical evidence, trying to expose his evil deeds is like a pie in the sky.
This Kanedor won't ever admit his crimes until he's cornered to the very end with no escape path.
He'd just flat out reject Irdis's testimony too, 'I don't remember saying that'. Keeping this guy alive as a witness is almost definitely meaningless.
But Linda has now grasped the reason why she was kidnapped.
She looks shell-shocked just from hearing my shoddy conjecture.
"Welp, time to die. The remaining two women will follow after you. Heck, even that brat's coming too, you ain't gonna feel lonely, no worry yeah?"
Irdis flaunted the dagger in his hand at Linda while slowly walking up to her, careful not to let her escape.
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