novelraw Chapter 16 : Keep Your Promise
Chapter 16 : Keep Your Promise
Chapter 16: Keep Your Promise
Vishak’s hand moved wildly.
It was the dagger technique that had allowed him to survive in the shadows, starting from the very bottom.
Even if it wasn’t true swordsmanship, Vishak had always been confident in his dagger skills, yet every technique he had honed throughout his life was being dismantled by the man before him.
Kkigigigik.
He aimed for the man’s blind spot, thinking the eyepatch over his left eye would create an opening, but the man caught the dagger between his thumb and index finger.
A sound like metal scraping against a chalkboard lit a fire under Vishak’s growing impatience.
“Looks like you’ve handled a dagger before, but at best you’re just a street thug. Let’s end this.”
Calimacos hurled his fist at Vishak.
Vishak squeezed his eyes shut.
Ttaeng!
Just when he thought it was over, the man’s fist was stopped by the Black Sword.
Timmy clucked his tongue beside Vishak.
“You cut down every guy above you, and now you’ve gotten rusty, Vishak.”
Timmy’s Black Sword skimmed across Calimacos’s fist as if tearing it apart.
Calimacos moved his fist along the path of the Black Sword, and when Timmy’s arm stopped, he withdrew.
“The old man’s much better. Gramps, you on the same side too?”
“For now, let’s say yes.”
“Bad luck then. Why’d you have to run into me. I’ll warn you now, don’t bother thinking about running.”
“Running? Klikliklik… You’re awfully cocky for a green little brat! I once ruled the back alleys of this city—why would I ever run!”
The thrusting Black Sword split into two.
He’s fast enough to leave afterimages?
Calimacos knocked both blades aside with his hands.
Vishak immediately went for Calimacos’s neck with his dagger, not missing the opening.
Two against one, huh. Typical thugs.
The current boss and the former boss of Red Dagger ganged up on a single guard captain.
“There’s only five of them! Hit them all at once!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
Just as the thugs had said, only five guards entered through the church’s front gate.
Even so, they weren’t pushed back by the thugs’ charge.
Even with dozens of subordinates pressing forward, the guards did not retreat, and the morale of Red Dagger gradually plummeted.
“Now!”
When Pool shouted, the five guards charged as one.
Targeting the gap where reinforcements had grown lax, they struck hard, leaving the thugs helplessly overwhelmed.
“Don’t push!”
“Get lost! We’re all gonna die like this!”
Red Dagger members tangled with each other, becoming their own obstacles, and once their formation collapsed, they scattered in panic.
The two bosses were struggling against one man, and the rest were floundering against five.
Robin seized the chance and carried Jeremy on his back, hiding between the church pews.
“Ro… bin……”
“Jeremy. Hold on a little longer. Things are turning in the guards’ favor. Just stay hidden here until it’s over.”
Robin carefully lowered Jeremy.
Jeremy’s complexion was pale.
Blood was clearly smeared at the corner of his mouth.
When Robin tried to take his hand, something cold and sharp pressed against his palm.
“Wh-what is this…….”
Jeremy’s hands were pulled behind his waist. Nails were driven through both of them.
“H-how did this happen… Why are there nails in your hands…….”
“I’m… fine…….”
“Who did this. This is too much…….”
“Vi… shak……”
Robin’s face twisted in an instant.
“Don’t tell me he used these nails to undo my hands too……?”
Jeremy only gave a faint smile, not answering.
His ragged breathing grew weaker.
“To the boss…….”
“You want to go to Boss Burt? Okay. I’ll take you. Save your strength.”
Robin’s voice and hands both trembled.
At the front gate, the guards and Red Dagger members were still clashing.
At the side door, the children had been thrown aside, but no one stood guard to stop them from leaving.
Carrying Jeremy over both shoulders, Robin headed for the side door, only to spot several gang members standing outside.
Every second counts—what are they doing here.
A little over a dozen men were whispering among themselves.
One man launched into a long speech.
As the speech dragged on, the others pointed toward the church, shook their heads, and fled one by one.
The man tried to stop them, but none returned.
Marcus?
The last man remaining was Marcus.
Marcus drew a dagger from his coat and approached the church.
Robin forced down his panic and hid again between the pews.
Step, step, step.
Footsteps passed Robin, and just as the man bent to pick Jeremy up, a rough hand grabbed Robin by the scruff.
A coarse hand flung Robin against the wall.
“Ghk…….”
“Didn’t expect to meet you here. Guess our ties run deeper than I thought.”
A silver-coin-shaped mark stood out on Marcus’s forehead, as if burned into it.
He cracked his knuckles and spat on the floor in front of Robin.
“Uugh…….”
Jeremy groaned, face pressed to the ground.
Robin’s eyes quivered.
“I owe that brat a debt.”
“Don’t!”
Marcus reached toward Jeremy with his dagger, but Robin shot forward like an arrow and rammed into him.
He had dismissed Robin as a kid who barely came up to his waist, yet the impact was considerable.
“You little runt!”
Marcus swung his dagger at Robin, but it didn’t connect.
A fist followed, but instead of dodging, Robin deflected it.
He couldn’t counterattack.
His right hand was swollen, likely broken, and every movement sent pain shooting up his arm.
All he could do was dodge, deflect, and gradually drag Marcus away from Jeremy.
“I knew I wasn’t mistaken back then. You really became a completely different person!”
Vwoom—vwooom.
The dagger grew faster.
Marcus’s twisted expression displayed raw fury.
Think, Robin. What can I do right now.
If he had even a sword, he wouldn’t be pushed around like this.
There was no fallen weapon nearby.
He had to fight barehanded—and his right hand was useless.
“You dodge like a bug! Time to die already!”
The dagger thrust toward Robin’s eyes.
Alright. Let’s try it.
At the razor-edge moment where his life could vanish, Robin closed his eyes.
In the pitch-black darkness where nothing could be seen, he pictured his enemy.
Starting from the head, then the neck, shoulders, arms, torso, legs, all the way to the toes.
He imagined how the enemy moved.
The imaginary foe was tense.
His upper body stretched too far, while his stance was too narrow.
His balance is unstable.
When Robin opened his eyes, the world had slowed.
He slipped past the dagger that came within a finger’s width of his face.
At the same time, he struck downward with his left hand at the dagger’s spine.
A quarter of the dagger slipped out of Marcus’s grip.
“Ghh!”
As expected, Marcus’s fist shot forward.
Your pattern is too simple.
Before Marcus’s elbow fully extended, Robin redirected the punch’s path toward the hand gripping the dagger.
Marcus ended up punching his own hand, dropping the weapon.
Before it hit the ground, Robin snatched the dagger and gasped for breath.
“Heok. Heok.”
His head throbbed.
It felt like an invisible ring was tightening around his brain.
Once the dagger was taken, Marcus lost momentum and faltered.
Robin kept up the chain of attacks so he wouldn’t lose the flow.
Chwaak!
A red line was drawn across Marcus’s wrist.
Too shallow.
He hadn’t cut deep enough to reach the artery, so the bleeding was minimal.
Saaak.
This time, he aimed for the neck, but Marcus blocked with his arm.
“Ggeuuuuuk!”
It didn’t reach the neck, but it sank in quite deep.
Blood streamed down Marcus’s long gash on his right arm.
Robin bent his knees and drove the dagger into Marcus’s thigh.
Puuuk.
It only went in about three centimeters, but Marcus clutched his leg and fell to his knees.
“Kraaaagh! Robin, you damned brat!”
“Huuuk. Huuuk.”
Got him.
Seeing Marcus immobilized, Robin ran to Jeremy.
“Jeremy!”
“…….”
“What’s wrong! Say something!”
“I’m not dead…….”
“R-right. I told you to save your breath. Let’s go home now.”
His head felt like it was splitting, and his arms and legs trembled like shaking leaves, but Robin lifted Jeremy into his arms.
When he stepped out the side door with leaden steps, rain was falling.
He had expected many kidnapped children to be around, but there was no one.
“S-stay calm. Where is this? Which way…….”
He had never seen this place before.
Robin prided himself on knowing the city’s layout and even the outer terrain to some degree, but he couldn’t find his bearings.
The night, swallowed by heavy clouds that even devoured the moonlight, was merciless.
“That way…….”
“Where? Here?”
Robin turned in place, checking directions.
Jeremy pointed toward where the church’s front gate was.
Past the gate and further ahead, a distant light appeared.
“I can see the city! That’s amazing, Jeremy!”
Jeremy only made a faint deflating sound in reply. The flame of his life was fading.
Robin was anxious, but he forced himself to keep speaking brightly.
He himself was on the verge of collapsing.
He kept talking to hold on to Jeremy’s and his own consciousness.
“I’m gonna ask Boss Burt to buy us meat. After everything we went through, he’d feel bad if he didn’t, right?”
“Doesn’t the sword Mr. Karmin was making look really good? I want to save up and buy one someday. If I aim to be a knight, I’ll need a proper sword, won’t I?”
“I think I’m stronger than I thought. I didn’t lose to Marcus. At this rate, I might really become the best swordsman on the continent, haha.”
Tok tok.
Jeremy tapped Robin’s shoulder with his chin.
“Oh, should we rest for a bit.”
Robin set Jeremy down on the ground.
He himself was exhausted to the limit, so the timing was perfect.
“My inside pocket…….”
“You want me to take something out of your inside pocket? Okay.”
Robin searched Jeremy’s coat but found nothing special.
“Back…….”
Feeling around his back, Robin found a small bulge.
But there was no pocket.
“Tear it…….”
Buuuk.
He tore the bulging part open, uncovering a pocket watch inside.
It had a silver chain, and countless interlocking gears pointed to eleven o’clock.
“You’ve been carrying something this expensive? Jeremy, you’re rich!”
“Take it.”
“You’re giving it to me? Why something this expensive?”
Jeremy didn’t answer anymore.
Fear struck Robin.
“O-okay. I’ll take it. Thank you, Jeremy. Let’s go. We’re really close now.”
Pushing through the grass, they reached the city’s north gate.
It wasn’t far from Karmin’s forge.
“What the—didn’t expect to see this brat here.”
Jorge, Mickey, Scott, and Aidan—who usually hung around Marcus—were gathered by the brush.
Robin swallowed hard.
“Ugh, what bad luck. That kid’s practically dead already, huh?”
“…Can we pass?”
Jorge’s brow furrowed.
The injuries were too severe for a child. When he saw the nails driven through Jeremy’s hands, he grimaced.
“Go. Go on. He looks like he’ll die even if we leave him alone.”
Jorge’s group didn’t stop Robin.
They only gave him a sidelong glare and continued their conversation.
When Robin had walked about ten steps, he heard rustling.
“Marcus? You’re bleeding…….”
Before Jorge finished speaking, Marcus’s eyes widened.
Robin quickly turned back, but Marcus’s dagger was already swinging down.
Ttick. Ttick.
The second hand of the pocket watch stopped, and time slowed.
He had to escape, but he couldn’t move.
With Jeremy on his back, his feet wouldn’t lift.
Panicking, unable to decide what to do, Robin suddenly felt his body lighten.
Within the frozen time, Jeremy moved.
Very slowly, he climbed down from Robin’s back.
How can Jeremy move?
The question didn’t last.
Jeremy reached out to knock the dagger aside—but stopped abruptly like a broken gear.
What… why won’t it move?
The dagger was getting closer.
Even time itself began moving faster again.
Am I going to die.
Puuuk.
The sound of flesh splitting snapped Robin’s senses awake.
He stared blankly ahead, not understanding what was happening.
Jeremy stood in front of him, blood spreading outward.
“Damn, too late.”
A man with an eyepatch on his left eye—Calimacos—clicked his tongue.
Pwoooosh!
“Kaaaaagh!”
Marcus’s hand, still gripping the dagger, was severed.
Jeremy collapsed slowly.
Only then did Robin understand what had happened.
Marcus had stabbed Jeremy, and Calimacos had cut off Marcus’s hand.
“Jeremy……?”
“Robin… keep your promise…….”
“Jeremy? Jeremy!”
Robin dropped to his knees and held Jeremy in his arms.
Jeremy’s body was growing colder.
“I-it’s okay. This kind of wound is nothing.”
“Kid.”
“M-mister. Please help. Take Jeremy to Boss Burt. I’m sure there’s a way.”
“…It’s already too late.”
Calimacos avoided Robin’s desperate gaze.
A wave of terror tore into Robin’s heart.
“Too late? I’m begging you to help!”
“…….”
“Fine. I’ll take him myself.”
Robin tried to lift Jeremy, but the limp body was heavier than before.
He forced all the strength he had left to pick him up, but soon collapsed.
Even as his legs gave out, he held Jeremy tightly to keep him from getting hurt.
“Hang on. Boss Burt will have potions.”
Robin lay flat on the ground and placed Jeremy on his back.
The way he crawled, inch by inch, was utterly desperate.
A long trail of blood stretched across the ground where Robin passed.