Ugh...

Édouard forced down the groan rising in his throat.

He locked eyes with the Korean man who was supposed to be with the young lady.

Everything went black, as if he'd been struck by lightning.

This was no first-timer at fighting.

The man's eyes were so cold and piercing they made your own eyes ache.

Édouard, who'd killed dozens on the battlefield, found himself giving ground.

Not one of the Assassin corpses lying around the man was in one piece.

Everywhere lay heads his axe had smashed and hacked apart, and chunks of bodies.

Brutal work.

Even a professional butcher wouldn't slaughter animals like this.

Except for two bastards still alive and groaning, they'd been wiped out.

Fear stirred in him.

Taking down this many Assassins would cost a platoon's worth of lives, at least.

Yet the man had handled them all by himself.

And cleanly, without taking a single hit.

"Bit late, aren't you?"

The man smirked.

His name was Daniel Jang, they'd said.

Guns were trained on him, but this wasn't a man who feared guns.

Oddly, the man's casual tone didn't rankle.

He's dangerous!

Édouard kept his finger on the trigger.

The cattle the Assassins had corrupted had hurt a lot of his men.

He swept his eyes around fast.

No more Assassins in sight.

"If you're not going to shoot, put it away. You've got trash to clean up."

The bastard tossed off the advice as if it were nothing and walked toward the young lady.

Édouard was thrown.

"S-stop!"

"Why? You want credit for coming to the rescue?"

"..." Édouard and the bodyguards were speechless.

Anyone could see that without this bastard, they couldn't have saved the young lady's life.

What's more, they couldn't have counted on their own lives either.

He shut his mouth.

He'd already received word of the bastard's relationship with the young lady, so it was awkward to question him.

"Vivi~. Keep your eyes closed and just turn around."

The young lady did exactly as the bastard said.

She moved like a doll.

Nothing like the tomboy she usually was.