CHAPTER 47: TWO CHAINS

’Hoho, how lucky I am.’

Tkiee, a bandit with blue eyes and brown hair, stared at the carriage with intense greed.

They were just passing by and didn’t expect to see a carriage, but now they wouldn’t waste this chance.

The carriages were often filled with supplies, which were supposed to feed the passengers until they reached their destination. And every bandit knew that so well. They were basically walking treasures.

’We’ll have to find a way to tame these wolves. Maybe we should capture the driver.’ Tkiee decided as he gripped his axe firmly.

Smiling widely, Tkiee shouted: "You are surrounded. If you leave your carriage and belongings, we might let you live with all your limbs!"

Just then, Tkiee noticed someone looking at them from the carriage. He was a blindfolded boy.

Tkiee and the bandits burst into laughter instantly. In their mind, their job had just become easier. A blind boy was more likely to surrender, right?

But as the boy left the carriage with a longsword, Tkiee started to hesitate.

’Why is he wearing those fancy clothes? Is he a noble?’

He had the courage to attack this carriage only because it was coming from the edge of the kingdom, where only the people who were barely able to have 3 meals daily lived.

’Something is wrong. Have we made a mistake?’

Tkiee had only one trait, and it gave him only better instincts than normal humans. And now, his instincts were telling him that the blind boy wasn’t that weak.

At that moment, the blindfolded boy, Dante, covered his sword in black flames before shouting: "Can you just let us pass and pretend that we’ve never met... please?"

’Are these shadow flames?!’ Tkiee’s eyes widened in shock.

Staring at the black flames, he was about to accept, but just then...

Bam!

Using a mana barrier, Dante blocked a water attack.

’Stupid bastard!’ Tkiee cursed inwardly. That attack came from one of the bandits, and he had no choice but to attack.

Wielding a mace, that bandit leaped toward Dante: "You should have just surrendered!"

Desperately, Tkiee opened his mouth to chant a spell. But all of a sudden, Dante disappeared.

’Wait, what?!’

Dante stood a few steps away from where he had been standing. All the bandits stared in terror and awe at his inhuman speed, until the sound of something falling to the snow snapped them out of their daze.

Looking at the bandit that had just attacked Dante, they only saw a headless corpse.

The head had a wide grin across its features, as if the man hadn’t realized until the end that he had been killed.

’We made a damn mistake!’ Tkiee’s body trembled unconsciously, looking at Dante with immense fear.

Dante sighed: "I really didn’t want to do this, but it’s alright—I might test a few things as well."

All of a sudden, the sword Dante was holding disappeared. Then, an inky-black sword materialized almost in an instant to replace it.

He neither chanted loudly nor drew runes, and his casting was almost instant.

"S-Stone Spear!"

The closest bandit launched a spear of stone, but Dante swung his shadow sword swiftly and shattered the spear with ease.

The bandit took a step back, but before she could go away, Dante used a fire burst to reach the bandit instantly and swung his sword.

Crack!

The sword shattered the bandit’s ribcage and sent her crashing into a nearby tree, killing her in an instant. But Dante frowned and thought: ’It’s not sharp. Feels more like using a wooden sword.’

The sword trembled as its structure began to change under Dante’s manipulation. Then, Dante stared at the two remaining bandits.

’Crap!’

Instantly, Tkiee fell to his knees, lowered his head, and closed his eyes as he begged: "Please forgive me. I didn’t know the carriage had such a glorious warrior!"

The other bandit, who had the name Crimson, kneeled as well and said the same thing.

Dante scratched his head as he approached Crimson: "If the afterlife exists, then blame the man who attacked me. He should be there."

"Wait!" Crimson lowered his head until it hit the snow: "I’ll do anything to redeem my sin. I beg you to consider that."

"Man, don’t make it harder for me." Dante sighed as an obsidian-black coin materialized on his hand.

’Tsk, I want to make the decision myself, but this one is a bit hard.’ Dante thought as he tossed the coin.

Ting!

With their heads down, all Crimson and Tkiee heard was the sound of a metallic object ringing throughout the place a few times.

Then suddenly—

"AHHHH!!"

Crimson’s eyes widened as Dante attacked him with his sword.

The sword cut into Crimson’s neck, but stopped right at the middle of his throat. It wasn’t sharp enough to cut through it easily, unlike Dante’s other swords.

Immediately, Dante kicked the blade, forcing it to sever Crimson’s neck and send his head away.

Tkiee just listened to all these horrifying sounds in pure terror, hearing his friend’s last scream and the flesh cutting.

Then, he started hearing soft footsteps. Every step was louder than the one before it, and his heartbeats became heavier with them.

’I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.’

Just then, the footsteps stopped...

Ting!

...And the familiar metallic sound returned.

"I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die." Tkiee muttered his thoughts as he began to cry under the stress.

Ting!

Despite this, the metallic sound never stopped.

Ting!

Ting!

Ting!

But when it finally stopped, Tkiee stopped breathing unconsciously.

’I’m dead, right?’

’That’s the end for a miserable bandit like me. Maybe if I didn’t escape the slave market, I’d have lived for more years...’

’Still, I don’t regret it. I—!’

"Hey, stop acting dead." Dante’s sound snapped Tkiee out of his daze as he raised his head.

Dante was looking at him with crossed arms, waiting patiently for him to say something.

"I’m... alive?" The bandit asked as he touched his neck.

Dante raised an eyebrow: "You want to die?"

"No, no, no!" Tkiee shook his head immediately: "Thank you for sparing my life. I’ll live as a righteous person from now on!"

Dante nodded in satisfaction: "Good, but this can wait for later. You’re coming with me now."

"Yeah, I promise to—wait, what?" Tkiee finally noticed what Dante said.

"W-with you?"

"Yes, with me."

"In your carriage?"

"Obviously."

Tkiee blinked, glanced at the corpses of his friends, then blinked again.

’Why would he want to take me with him? And why me instead of Crimson?’

"Cough..." Dante cleared his throat, taking Tkiee’s attention, and smiled: "Why don’t you make yourself useful and gather the cores of these dead people? Oh, and don’t forget to collect anything valuable you see. I’ll wait for you in the carriage."

Tkiee’s eyes widened in disbelief: "Gather their cores? I-I can’t do such—"

"You want to die?"

"I’ll gather them in a minute!"

As Tkiee ran to the first corpse, he didn’t notice a pearl chain emerging from his wheel and reaching into Dante’s luck.

Simultaneously, an obsidian-black chain emerged from Dante’s luck and forced itself into the core of Tkiee’s wheel.

Instantly, the golden fortune in the core of Tkiee’s wheel became barely visible.

’Damn, is it that bad?’ Dante wondered as he turned around, suppressing a wide smirk.

He looked at the driver, seeing his mouth taking the shape of a wide ’O’.

"What?"

"As expected of the Shadow Dancer. The stories didn’t overestimate your might!" The driver praised excitedly, looking at Dante with sparkling eyes.

Dante scratched his head awkwardly as he continued moving to the carriage.

But just then, he turned back and looked at Tkiee.

"Hey! Ah... Bandit!"

Tkiee turned around immediately and looked back at Dante, then Dante continued: "Don’t dare to enter the carriage before changing your pants!"

Bam!

As Dante entered the carriage and slammed the door behind him, Tkiee looked down.

"...Oh"