I Pulled Out the Excalibur

Secluded, dark, damp, with limited visibility and narrow paths where moving freely is difficult. Back alleys or slums, as they are called.

Present in every city, these areas grow larger as the city expands. Naturally, in the City of Opportunities, Cambria, there were slums. Places where fallen adventurers and mercenaries ended up, and criminals hid, creating a labyrinthine maze.

To any sane person.
To those leading a decent life.

Just stepping into these slums would cause chills, making them tense and stiffen up. They would instinctively feel the need to leave immediately.

After all, that’s what slums are.

However, the boy who stepped into this place was different.

Najin felt as if he had returned home.
His mind, tired from seeing unfamiliar things over the past ten days, relaxed as if saying, ‘This is my home.’ His tension eased, and his body moved fluidly.

Similar to the Underground City, Artman.

Swallowing the murky air, Najin lightly shook his body. After taking a few deep breaths, he narrowed his eyes. In the darkness, his sunset-colored eyes glimmered.

‘Found it.’
-…What?

Najin murmured to himself and took a few steps forward. Moving slowly towards the inner part of the alley, he suddenly quickened his pace when he sensed a presence in the distance.

Thud.

His powerful step. Immediately afterward, a flow of energy surged through his body. Now adept at using mana to enhance his physique, Najin dashed forward with a burst of speed. Realizing the change too late, the hiding man tried to flee, but Najin was already upon him.

“Kuhk!”

Najin grasped the man’s neck and lifted him off the ground. The man, who appeared quite robust, was helplessly suspended in the air. Realizing his feet weren’t touching the ground, the man looked down.

Then, he met Najin’s gaze.

In the dark, where light barely penetrated, Najin’s eyes shone like those of a predator in the wild. The man’s legs trembled as if his marrow had turned cold.

“Why were you watching me?”

Najin asked.

The man didn’t immediately respond, so Najin grabbed his fingers with his free hand. Knowing how to make someone talk, Najin applied pressure.

Crunch.

A scream echoed. After repeating the process a few times, reducing the number of unbroken fingers to less than two, the man spilled everything he knew. Having gathered the necessary information, Najin knocked the man out with a punch to the jaw.

After tossing the limp body aside, Najin murmured to himself.

‘Hired a few lookouts, hiding in the alleys, keeping distance from bounty hunters who enter…’

The man had given simple information.
But from that, Najin deduced how the fugitives had been evading capture. Merlin, incredulous, commented on Najin’s swift deduction.

-You figured that out from just a few clues?
‘After catching and punishing quite a few, you realize their tricks are all similar.’

Najin moved on.
He knew exactly ‘how’ to catch those who employed such tactics. There were safe and slow methods, and fast but risky ones… Najin chose the latter.

‘How did I do that?’

Najin steadied his breath.
Conscious of the speed of his steps and the area of his shoe soles touching the ground, he moved.

‘It was something like this.’

Remembering how the shadows of the Underground City had moved and silenced their presence while observing from a distance, Najin advanced.

One step, then another.

At first, there was a faint sound, but by the third step, there was no sound at all. When he grew accustomed to the movement, he started running silently.

-…What?

Merlin blinked, watching. Najin’s movements, once heavy, were now stealthy enough to befit an assassin.

Silently, Najin ran along the walls, passing right over the heads of the lookouts without them noticing. After bypassing several, he reached the heart of the tangled alleyways.

There, chatting idly, was a man. He was playing cards with what seemed like hired bodyguards. On the table were cards and coins scattered around.

The fugitive, Lopes.

The man matched the description in the wanted poster Dieta had given him. Having confirmed his target, Najin silently leaped over Lopes.

Then, thump.

Landing, he seized Lopes’ head and slammed it onto the table. The table shattered, and cards and coins flew into the air.

“……!”

The guards, startled by the sudden intrusion of Najin, reached for their waists. In the Underground City, such a reaction would be considered slow.

But speed is always relative.

To Najin, everything seemed to move in slow motion. He stepped on the hand of a man trying to pick up an axe from the ground, breaking his hand with a loud crack. Najin then spun around on the spot.

He stomped on the back of another man’s hand as he tried to draw a sword from his waist, and quickly twisted and broke the wrist of a third man who attempted to stab him with a dagger.

The movements of those trying to draw their weapons were delayed by a moment each time, and that was enough for Najin. He subdued them one by one. There was no need to use his sword. A swing at the chin, a punch to the face – that was all it took.

“Ugh…”

Lopes, who had been smashed into the table, slowly lifted his head. By the time he came to his senses, the three bodyguards beside him were already lying on the ground, their eyes rolled back.

“……”

At the moment Lopes’ eyes met Najin’s, his pupils trembled. Just as he hastily tried to turn and flee:

Thud.

A throwing knife lodged itself into Lopes’ calf.
It was a knife Najin had snatched from the assassins of the Starblood Sect and had been using ever since.

“Argh!”

Lopes fell to the ground.
Clenching his teeth, he turned his head to look at the mysterious boy and yelled at him.

“You’ve messed with the wrong person.”

Sweating profusely, he pulled something out from his clothes and squeezed it tightly.

Beep!

A loud noise rang out. It was a signal to gather his colleagues and hired guards scattered in the alleyways.

“This is mine and Brother Brom’s territory. You’re a bounty hunter, huh? You’re screwed now, kid.”

Lopes laughed confidently.
Najin responded with a smile. As Lopes looked at him, he felt an uneasy sense of foreboding.

“You’re making my job easier.”

Najin muttered.

After all, Brom was also one of Najin’s targets.

Listening to the footsteps approaching from all sides, Najin drew his sword. With a swish, he unsheathed his sword and narrowed his eyes.

It took a few minutes for Lopes, the wanted criminal, to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.

Najin, who had eluded and even hunted the professional pursuers of the Starblood Faction, found these street thugs simple prey. In the alleys where they roamed, they were no match for him.

Five minutes.

That’s how long it took for Najin to subdue all the thugs and throw Brom, the wanted criminal who had been directing them from afar, next to Lopes.

“That makes two.”

Wanted criminal Brom. Wanted criminal Lopes.
Najin murmured as he tied them up.

“If I knew it would be this easy, I should have taken all six wanted posters.”

“Madam, a young adventurer has arrived.”

Early in the morning, Dieta blinked at her secretary’s words. Already? She had just arrived at the trading company and was sipping her morning coffee.

“Who is it?”
“A young man with gray hair. He received a task from you yesterday…”

The gray-haired young man.
It was the boy she had treated to a meal yesterday. She had given him the location of her office, but to come this early? Was he here to ask for more information about the wanted criminals?

She had given him all the information already.
If he wanted more, it would be somewhat disappointing.

With that thought, Dieta gestured for the secretary to let him in. Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs, and after a short while, the office door opened.

The boy from yesterday entered the room.

But the moment Dieta saw him, she realized he wasn’t here to ask for more information. The boy had brought in three wanted criminals.

Dieta’s eyes widened in shock.
Not just her, but even her bodyguard Pasion was taken aback.

“Are these three the right ones?”

Regardless of their reactions, Najin pointed behind him. There stood three wanted criminals, limping and bound. Their arms were tied, but they didn’t resist or attempt to escape.

As Najin turned around, they bowed their heads as if avoiding his gaze.

“Right… they are.”

Dieta murmured blankly.

Brom, Lopes, Miles.

These wanted criminals from the back alleys, notorious for slipping away like eels, were now standing meekly in place.

As if they were terrified of the young man standing before them.