Not a barbarian warrior.

Eugene, standing silently beside Dietrich, thought. There must have been some deep connection between him and Sir Berunte.

That’s why he could understand why Dietrich was so angry. If he were in the same situation, it would have been hard to bear.

However, Dietrich should have endured.

Right in front of enemy lines, he shouldn’t have shouted that the guy in plate armor was actually an impostor pretending to be Sir Berunte.

The price for letting his mouth run was truly harsh.

Immediately, over a dozen bandits drew their weapons and rushed towards Dietrich and Eugene.

‘Ah… Damn it… I should have stopped him…!’

Now it was Eugene’s job to clean up this mess.

As the guys rushed in with raised weapons, Eugene drew the sword at his waist and let out a battle cry filled with killing intent.

“Come on-!”

While the rushing guys flinched and briefly halted their steps, Eugene grabbed Dietrich by the scruff of his neck and said:

“Run away! Hurry!”

Dietrich, who had been flustered, came to his senses at Eugene’s words and immediately turned around to run across the bridge.

While he fled towards the opposite side where the escorts were, Eugene had to buy time.

He stood alone blocking the bridge entrance. Fortunately, the bridge was only wide enough for a single carriage to barely pass through.

The number of opponents Eugene had to face at once from the front was at most two. There was no worry of being surrounded, and the other side didn’t have ranged weapons like crossbows or bows.

The guys who had hesitated after facing Eugene’s murderous battle cry rushed at him again.

Sword blades flew at Eugene, who had raised his sword in front of his body, simultaneously from the left and right.

Eugene lightly stepped back to avoid them, then quickly extended his sword towards the neck of the guy on the left.

Swish-!

With the sound of cutting through the air, the tip of Eugene’s sword tore through the iron chain mail and cut off the guy’s windpipe.

“Gurk…”

As he retrieved his sword that had been thrust straight, red blood followed on its tip. The guy with a hole in his neck clutched his throat with his hands and collapsed to the ground.

Stepping on the fallen guy’s corpse, a new opponent appeared from behind. Eugene once again blocked, evaded, and sometimes counterattacked the onslaught of attacks from both sides.

Clang-! Clang-!

Amid the successive sounds of metal clashing, Eugene moved his hands and feet busily, steadily taking down opponents.

Cutting arms, stabbing armpits, slitting throats… He took down three like that.

“Phew…”

Nevertheless, many opponents still remained. Eugene calmly regulated his breathing.

The footsteps from behind were so faint as to be almost inaudible. It meant Dietrich had fled far enough away.

Eugene also needed to start preparing to escape. Just as he was thinking of pushing down the next guy who rushed in and running away, it happened.

Clank-

With the sound of iron plates clashing, the knight impersonator rushed in wielding a sword. Eugene parried the sword swung down at him. Sparks flew and a metallic sound rang out.

“…!”

Eugene opened his eyes wide and immediately distanced himself from the guy. However, the opponent quickly stepped forward to catch up with Eugene. He didn’t seem to intend to attack together with his other comrades.

Whoosh-!

The impersonator’s sword made a sound cutting through the air as he swung. The guy’s attacks were quite fast and fierce. Eugene busily blocked his attacks by swinging his wrist repeatedly.

Sparks flashed in the air like embroidery. Eugene backed away again to create distance. Then a low voice flowed from inside the helmet worn by the impersonator:

“Don’t run away.”

“Phew… Damn it…!”

The guy’s skills were on a completely different level from the others. Though he couldn’t use Aura, his swordsmanship was excellent. He must have formally learned swordsmanship from someone.

Eugene thought it would be very difficult to subdue him. Their swordsmanship skills were evenly matched, and with the plate armor, it wasn’t easy to attack.

‘There are weak points, but he doesn’t give any openings to strike…’

There was also the method of getting in close and turning it into a grappling match. But that was impossible in the current situation. While they were entangled, there was a high possibility that another guy would rush in and stab Eugene.

‘Then…’

If he couldn’t use the sword, and couldn’t use his body, there was only one way left.

Eugene quietly muttered something in a low voice. It was a spell he had newly learned from Lorena.

The blue mana circling around his heart received his command and changed its movement.

The ring that seemed like it would circulate forever broke, and the mana that had been spinning in place quickly moved in one direction, lining up.

An enormous energy flowed out through the blood vessels connected to the heart. It rushed over his shoulder, through his arm, and into Eugene’s hand holding the sword.

At that moment, Eugene stopped his retreating steps and instead leapt forward. At the same time, he struck the opponent’s sword upward and dove into his bosom.

“…?”

The impersonator had no idea what Eugene intended. He simply thought Eugene had made a foolish decision.

‘Is he trying to grapple…? He’ll die if I just hold out a little…’

Eugene had no intention of grappling with the guy at all. He struck the guy’s armor with his fist condensed with mana.

“What…?”

The moment Eugene’s fist touched the breastplate made of plate armor. His fist emitted a blue light and burst out an enormous shockwave.

Boom-!

At that moment. With a thunderous sound, the breastplate the guy was wearing caved in and crumpled. It was that powerful a strike.

Unable to withstand the shock, the guy flew backwards.

“Cough…!”

As his comrades behind barely caught his body, he spewed blood through the breathing hole of his helmet.

Eugene stood still watching the scene with his fist extended. As it was his first time using it in actual combat, even he didn’t know it would have this much power.

Eugene stared blankly at his right hand. The gauntlet covering his hand was completely shattered. Moreover, all his mana had evaporated.

“Can’t use that twice…”

It seemed some improvement was needed, whether adjusting the power or modifying the spell.

Anyway, now that he had created enough distance, it was time to escape. Just then, hearing footsteps from behind, it seemed reinforcements were coming.

Eugene briefly turned his head to check behind him.

Lorena was approaching, panting, in front of the escorts running with weapons.

She shouted towards Eugene as their eyes met:

“Eugene…! Get down…!”

“…!”

She was so urgent that she even dropped the polite speech.

No wonder, as her staff was emitting a light so blue it was almost navy.

As soon as Eugene saw the energy gathered in that staff, he immediately lay down flat on the ground.

Lorena instantly extended her hand holding the staff forward.

Then, with a thunderous boom incomparable to the magic Eugene had just unleashed, a blue light flashed.

Eugene belatedly tried to close his eyes and cover his ears, but it was already too late.

His vision turned pure white, and simultaneously he heard a ringing in his ears.

He felt an enormous torrent of power passing over his head.

Shortly after, Lorena supported Eugene, whose senses were temporarily malfunctioning.

Eugene got up with her help, his face deeply scrunched.

“Are you okay…?”

“What…? I can’t hear well…”

“Ah, it’s nothing… It’ll come back soon…”

“I said I can’t hear well…”

“I-It’ll be fine, I said…!”

“…?”

As she said, Eugene’s senses returned to normal not long after.

The scene after her magic had swept through was truly a disaster.

There was no need for the merchant group’s escorts to do anything more.

The stone bridge was deeply gouged, and the bandits who had been lined up on it were blown away to the opposite side. They were all unconscious, having coughed up mouthfuls of blood.

Eugene muttered while looking at this scene with his mouth open:

“This is closer to a natural disaster than magic…”

Seeing Lorena’s magic, Eugene felt like all his efforts in learning swordsmanship had been pointless.

He thought that even if he someday awakened Aura and became a knight, even if he gained the power to cut steel with a single stroke, it would be useless before such magic.

After the situation ended, Dietrich approached Eugene with a gloomy face and said:

“Good heavens… I’ve belatedly realized how foolish I was… I’m sorry.”

Eugene nodded and answered calmly:

“I was also foolish for standing quietly beside you without stopping you.”

“Ah, no… That’s not what I meant…”

“We can reflect later. Don’t we have something more urgent to do right now?”

“…You’re right.”

The escorts tied up all the unconscious guys. Of course, among them was the one who had impersonated Berunte.

Dietrich removed the helmet the guy was wearing. Seeing the impersonator’s revealed face, he opened his eyes wide.

“Is it a familiar face?”

At Eugene’s question, Dietrich nodded.

“I remember he was Sir Berunte’s follower…”

“No wonder… His skills were quite excellent.”

“I have something to ask him. But his condition doesn’t look good at all…”

Eugene immediately struck the impersonator’s face. After hitting him left and right alternately, the guy let out a low groan.

“Urgh…”

His breathing sounded abnormal. Probably a broken rib had pierced his lung. There wasn’t much time. They needed to quickly get answers from him. Dietrich immediately opened his mouth:

“I know you were Sir Berunte’s follower. Where is Sir now?”

“…Master has passed away…”

“No way…”

“It wasn’t me… It was due to a chronic illness…”

“I see…”

Dietrich had many things he wanted to ask him.

Where Sir Berunte was buried, if he really died from a chronic illness, why he impersonated his master, why he committed such dishonorable acts when he must have known about the promise between his master and Dietrich, whether this armor belonged to Sir Berunte, and so on…

However, among these questions, the most urgent was something else.

“Did my eldest brother, Lauren, make any proposals to you?”

“A letter… Cough…! I received news recently… That you would pass through here carrying vast wealth…”

“No way…!”

“Be careful… Others… Must have received it too… Cough!”

“…!”

From this brief conversation alone, Dietrich realized what Lauren had done.

Lauren had long given up on Dietrich’s property.

However, with the mindset that if he couldn’t have it, he would destroy it, he had spread information about Dietrich to the predators near the destination.

It was impossible to know how many looters were lying in wait over the remaining three or four days of travel.

“Kuhup…! Cough…!”

After saying that, Berunte’s former follower coughed up a lot of blood again.

The time he had left was much less than they had thought. Now he could only answer one more question.

As Dietrich hesitated on what to ask, the guy opened his mouth:

“You… What’s your name…”

He was looking at Eugene, not Dietrich.

Seeing his eyes losing their light and becoming cloudy, Eugene quietly answered:

“Eugene.”

“Eugene… I see… That’s enough…”

After hearing those words, the guy immediately dropped his head lifelessly. He no longer breathed.