Chapter 51: The Egypt Dio-Beating Squad Becomes the Royal Capital Sword Saint-Beating Squad (Patreon)

Daniel's Reflection blocked the blood, but he still gave his hand an instinctive shake. "I hate it when people threaten me, so you'd better just die."

"My liege, this..." Reinhard closed his eyes, pained.

"Are you going to raise a hand against me, Reinhard?"

Daniel asked, watching the Sword Saint seem to wrestle with himself, while readying himself to strike.

Reinhard's hand trembled where it gripped the Dragon Sword, but in the end he opened his eyes and looked at Daniel apologetically. "I'm sorry."

"In the name of the Kingdom's Sword Saint, I declare you guilty of murdering the Margrave."

"Please surrender yourself, Lord Daniel."

Daniel laughed. "I knew you'd do this, you android, Reinhard."

"Honestly, it would've been so much easier if you'd just done as I said. Sparing that clown's life was bad enough, but you had to go and drag him to the Council of Wise Men too. Look where that's gotten us."

Reinhard fell silent for a moment. "That's my fault. But since it's come to this, I have no choice. Please don't force my hand."

"Tch." Daniel clicked his tongue, feeling like Reinhard was acting out some kind of horror-story rule — as if he'd just triggered a guaranteed-death condition.

Not that it mattered. Fine, they'd fight — worst case, he'd just sink the whole Kingdom of Lugunica.

Just as Daniel was about to make his move, a curtain of black instantly swallowed Reinhard and made him vanish.

Betty teleported in front of Daniel and thumped him, scolding him with a note of belated fear in her voice. "Are you insane? That's the Sword Saint!"

"He's got a whole pile of Divine Protections that even Betty can't make sense of! What would Betty do if you died!"

"Betty's banished him to another dimension, but there's no telling when he'll come back — let's go, now, while we can!"

With that, Betty grabbed Daniel's hand, meaning to use her spatial power to whisk them away.

But Daniel's Reflection was still active, and Betty couldn't teleport him along with her.

"Honestly, could you turn that ability of yours off? Betty can't move you like this."

Seeing how anxious Betty looked, warmth welled up in Daniel unexpectedly. Fine, he'd humor her for now.

Worst case, he'd just pay the palace a visit later and kill every last elder on the Council of Wise Men.

"It's fine. I'm the strongest there is. But for your sake, Betty, I'll fall back for now."

"There, I've turned it off. Go ahead, Betty. Oh, and don't forget to bring my people along too."

"Betty knows. Betty will right now—"

Clang!

A flash of blade light streaked past behind Daniel, and his body split cleanly in two at the waist, blood spraying across Betty's pale, pretty face.

Betty's hand was still holding Daniel's. Her expression froze, and it took a moment before she understood what had just happened.

Reinhard, having broken free of the pocket dimension at some point without anyone noticing, was already back at the scene, sheathing the Dragon Sword with an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, Lord Daniel. This was the Council of Wise Men's order."

"Are you kidding me, you bastard! Betty finally found the one she'd been waiting for, and you dare — how dare you kill him!"

"I'll kill you!! I will absolutely kill you! El Minya!!"

Betty's beautiful face twisted with fury as pale-violet crystal-and-flame spears condensed in front of her and shot forward instantly.

Reinhard didn't so much as move, and the spears simply veered off course on their own.

[Divine Protection of Arrow Evasion: Ranged attacks cannot hit you]

"Ul Shamak!"

"El Fura!"

Neither the simulated black-hole space nor the wind magic could touch Reinhard, but unlike the single-target strikes, the area spells at least forced him to move his feet.

Still, the spells packed real destructive force — even with Reinhard dodging, the shockwaves shattered the street outside.

"Aaugh!"

"What was that?!"

"My leg — my leg! Help me!"

Screams rose from outside, and Reinhard's expression darkened. Nobles lived all around the manor — if he didn't stop the fighting, plenty of them would get caught in the crossfire.

"Please, Great Spirit, calm yourself, or I'll have no choice but to strike you down!"

"Then go ahead and strike, you bastard! If you've got the guts, kill Betty too!"

Tears streamed from Betty's eyes as she screamed at Reinhard in fury.

Everyone else at the manor was staring, dumbstruck, unable to understand why Betty was suddenly fighting the Sword Saint, or where Daniel had gone — and why nobody was stepping in to stop it.

Unlike the naive Emilia, who'd also come out to watch, Elsa could tell this was a genuine fight to the death.

And with her own special sense of smell, she caught Daniel's scent on the Sword Saint's blade — the scent of his blood.

Elsa's face went cold in an instant. She drew the curved blade at her hip, vaulted over the balcony, and the moment she hit the ground she charged, slashing straight for the Sword Saint's neck.

Reinhard's body dodged the strike again, and in the same motion he swung a knife-hand blow — a streak of blue-white sword aura sent Elsa flying.

Had Reinhard not held back his strength out of concern for bystanders, Elsa would already have been cut in half.

Elsa bounced twice off the ground before slamming into the manor's wall, leaving a human-shaped imprint as she slid down, coughing up blood.

"Ow, that hurt. No wonder they call you the Sword Saint. Well, this works out — I've always wondered whether a Sword Saint's guts look any different from an ordinary person's."

Elsa's wounds healed visibly before their eyes, and she charged in again — this time Betty realized Elsa was there to help her, and immediately fell into supporting her.

Every time the Sword Saint's attack came close, Betty would teleport Elsa somewhere else.

Once Elsa realized she no longer had to worry about defense, she cut loose entirely, flickering into the Sword Saint's blind spots again and again, her curved blade slashing relentlessly.

Clang, clang, clang!!

Steel met steel in a ringing clash, over and over, like a smith's hammer on an anvil.

Under Emilia and the others' watching eyes, the combatants had become little more than blurred afterimages, too fast for the eye to follow.

"Puck, what on earth is going on?" Emilia, watching from above in helpless anxiety, unable to make sense of any of it, hurriedly summoned Puck.

Puck appeared, surveyed the scene, and his expression turned serious.

"For Betty to be this furious, Daniel's probably dead."

"Eh?! How could that be?"

Emilia's mouth fell open in shock — why would the Sword Saint, who'd sworn fealty to Daniel, turn around and kill him?

"What did you say? That rotten bastard got taken out by the red-haired knight? You're kidding me!"

Felt stopped watching from the sidelines at once and leapt down into the fray, teeth gritted.

But her Divine Protection of Wind barely accomplished anything, and if anything, she ended up getting in Betty's way.

Seeing this, Emilia took a deep breath and made up her own mind. "Puck, help me!"

"Oh, there's just no arguing with you, Lia. But since you're my daughter, all right — let's go!"

A blizzard swept across Reinhard's armor in an instant, coating it in frost, but his speed didn't slow the way they'd hoped.

Puck poured out more mana, and ice crystals surged up from beneath Reinhard's feet, encasing his entire body in ice.

Having finished settling Rem, Ram looked out to see everyone in the manor's courtyard locked in furious combat.

She was a little baffled — she had no idea why everyone was ganging up on the Sword Saint — but seeing everyone else fighting, she figured she couldn't just stand out by not joining in.

"El Fura!"

A massive gale slammed into the frozen Reinhard, sending him flying.

"Ul Shamak!" Betty seized the chance to conjure a spatial black hole right at the Sword Saint's head, meaning to sever it off into another dimension entirely — vengeance for Daniel.

Splurch!

Reinhard's headless body dropped to the ground.

The whole scene went utterly silent.

"The Sword Saint — dead?!"

Ram blurted out in reflexive shock. Wait — everyone actually meant it?

"Of course he's not dead. Probably out of guilt — the guy died on purpose. He'll be back in a moment."

The voice came from a crater behind everyone, and under their collective stare, Daniel climbed out of it completely unharmed.

Daniel grinned at the stunned Betty and the others. "Though I didn't expect all of you to care about me this much. I'm honestly touched."

Betty was the first to snap out of it. Sensing the confirming response through the pact bound to her, she flung herself at him, bawling. "Waaah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's all Betty's fault."

"If Betty hadn't made you undo your ability, none of this would've happened to you!"

Daniel crouched down and pulled Betty into a hug, stroking her head and murmuring comfort. "I'm fine. I told you, I'm the strongest there is. Even if the world ended, I wouldn't die."

"Don't worry. I'll stay by your side, always."

[Phoenix Body · Lv.Max: revives you after death, ignoring all effects]

Even Daniel hadn't expected this ability to come in handy so soon. This other world really was dangerous.

He understood Natsuki Subaru a little better now.

But now, it was payback time — and he had no intention of turning back the clock.