Abandoned by my Childhood Friend, I Became a War Hero

65 – Underground Arena

Revisited a week later, the underworld still had a disturbing and dangerous atmosphere.

If there is a difference from last time, today’s dark street felt a bit lively.

Before, there were many people who looked tough at first glance, such as ex-soldiers, illegal mercenaries, and adventurers from the underworld.

But today, civilians, merchants, and even aristocrats and other seemingly ordinary customers appeared on the streets much more.

Welcoming such people, the dark street was much more lively.

“Aphrodisiac potion that makes customers and partners feel hot with just one drop! No need to look anywhere else! It’s the cheapest here!”

“We are selling magic scrolls that cannot be obtained even in the Mage Tower! If you’re interested in forbidden magic, take a look!”

“… ….”

Of course, I didn’t want to know what kind of deals they were dealing with, so I didn’t pay any more attention to the appearance of the street and headed straight to my destination, Changgwan.

The man with the tattoo, probably already remembering my face, guided Sylvia straight away, so I was able to enter the window without much difficulty this time.

She met Sylvia after a long time, but for some reason she had her freckled girl figure again.

“How long will you be wearing that disguise?”

“Why? Doesn’t it look bad? It’s a pretty face though.”

It’s not that bad looking. It just feels quite awkward because of the expression that doesn’t match the face.

With the innocent-looking face of a country girl, her alluring smile and her figure sitting cross-legged mixed with the atmosphere of this place, giving it a fairly dangerous feel.

Sylvia smiled and rested her chin.

“Originally, I was a kid who worked as a chore at Changgwan. She borrowed her face from me.”

“You borrowed it?”

“You know, my true self is wanted, right? If you come in as someone new, you’ll get suspicious, but if you’re disguised as someone you’ve already been, you’re less likely to be noticed. It’s better to avoid trouble in advance, so I usually do chores like a real maid at the window. Everyone was fooled.”

Sylvia’s disguise skill doesn’t just change her face. It is a level that can perfectly copy her height and voice by transforming her skeleton and vocal muscles.

Whether it is Imperial Intelligence or a member of another criminal organization, finding the determined and hidden Sylvia is no easy feat. Besides, this area is also her territory.

By the way, if I borrowed her face, it means that there are two people with the same face in this Changgwan.

“What happened to the original owner of that face?”

“Oops, curious?”

Then Sylvia smiled dangerously and she said.

“Looks like she was sold because of her debts, but I sent her back to her hometown with a generous compensation on her. She has taken the necessary measures to ensure that she will not be sold to her parents again.”

“… ….”

Why do you do good things with such an evil expression?

Anyway, it’s the right thing to do. I didn’t know it, but I had a strong intuition that it would never be a peaceful method. Because she had always hated people who sold women to brothels.

Anyway, the introduction ends here.

It was time to get to the point.

“Is the information ready?”

“Of course not. Who am i Even if I resigned from active duty, where would my skills go?”

Sylvia put her hand to her breastbone and pulled out a piece of paper from her. And she casually handed the paper to me.

“Now, here.”

“… ….”

“Don’t take it? My hand hurts.”

I was handed the paper with a firm expression, not hiding my shyness. On the paper, I could feel the strange scent of a woman, whether it was perfume or flesh.

I closed my eyes for a moment and put my thoughts away from the scent, immediately unfolding the paper and checking the contents.

The contents written on the paper were not very long. But the more I read that short text, the more my expression hardened.

In conclusion.

All of my guesses about Ella were true.

This document concisely contains detailed information that supports my speculation.

As a result of comparing Ella’s personal information with the information guild records of the empire, the mercenary group that visited our village 20 years ago was actually the Ionian Royal Knights in disguise.

They accompanied her girl Ella, who matched her personal details, and took her to her Ionian kingdom.

However, it was written that he could not find his whereabouts after that.

The following contents contained information related to Ella’s identity.

The last king of the Ionian kingdom, Vitore III, once spent his life studying abroad at Fillion Academy.

From noble mtl dot com

And while studying abroad in the empire, he spent a short night with a lady-in-waiting. That the lady-in-waiting gave birth to a child with the same blonde hair as Vittore III.

Also, it was written that the lady-in-waiting continued her life in her capital city and eventually returned to her home village with her own father.

It was easy to guess that the lady-in-waiting mentioned here was the mother of Ella, who ran an inn in the village.

This document meant only one thing.

“Ha….”

Ella was not living happily on the island.

I hoped otherwise, but in the end it was the truth.

After checking everything, I tore up her paper and threw it into the fireplace.

The paper was soon engulfed in fire and burned, leaving only ashes in the end.

I stared at the blazing fire and black ash for a long time in silence.

Sylvia, who was watching him, asked cautiously.

“The principle is to read information and burn it on the spot, but… A little emotional, unlike you?”

I let out a long sigh and opened my mouth.

“Is this all you found out?”

In this document, it was written that Ella was the illegitimate daughter of the Ionian king and that her last act was the Ionian king, but what happened to her after that was unknown at all.

Sylvia replied with a nod of her head.

“That’s all you can figure out in a week. You know that too That the Ionian kingdom was destroyed almost overnight.”

I know. Caria, the capital of the Ionian kingdom, collapsed from the inside because of the mysterious ritual performed by the immortal king.

The undead horde appeared from inside the city, not from outside the city wall, and instantly turned the city into hell.

Sylvia crossed her legs in reverse with a slightly tired expression.

“The underworld that was there, the Information Guild, disappeared that day. So it will take some time to find out more details. I’ll have to find the survivors of the kingdom and ask them. In fact, it is impossible to send an informant to a land that is no different from the Demon Continent.”

Sylvia looked at me with a meaningful expression.

“There was one person who might have information about the royal family, but he died a few days ago.”

“… ….”

“You know that, right? The last princess of a ruined kingdom who fled to the Empire. Because of its importance, the Ministry of Intelligence was also keeping a close eye on it, but I would never have thought it would have done such a cunning thing when surveillance had been loosened due to inactivity over the past dozen years. He must have had a fairly deep grudge against the elves.”

Green eyes that had lost their light flashed through her mind for a moment, then disappeared.

Well, it wouldn’t mean much if Daisy was alive anyway.

I got this information from her, and she couldn’t have known more about it because she was just a kid at the time, Daisy.

A mysterious ritual performed by the Immortal King. Sacrificial Ionian lineage.

However, this information alone was not enough to be sure of Ella’s end. Maybe she can’t completely rule out the possibility that Ella escaped alive.

Or maybe that’s just what I want.

To be honest, I’m not sure what I want to do after finding out this information.

If I were alive, would I want to meet you, or would I just want to relieve my guilt?

But once you start, it’s only right to see the end.

“Sylvia.”

“Huh?”

“She said she had a favor for me.”

For the first time at those words, a girlish smile appeared on Sylvia’s face.

***

“Okay now— I introduce you! An undefeated hero! An indomitable warrior! A player who will become the new god of the underground arena!”

“… Under.”

I entered the arena wearing a black mask that completely covered my face.

At the center of the arena, a gorgeous looking beauty was introducing the players through a magic loudspeaker, wearing flimsy clothes. The beauty’s true identity was Silvia in disguise.

“Gentlemen, please greet us with applause! I am ‘Tekken Ian’ player!”

I closed my eyes at the horrible name.

By the way, the pseudonym Sylvia first suggested to me was much more terrible. Chaos Devil, Black Heart, Silent Lancer… All of them were just nicknames that were hard to hear sanely.

I desperately rejected the nickname Sylvia suggested, and decided on a pseudonym with a slight twist on my real name.

Still, I couldn’t help it because ‘Tekken Ian’ was better than ‘Chaos Devil’.

Despite Sylvia’s active progress, the audience’s response was not very great. Most of them applauded politely, but not enthusiastically, and that was understandable. To the audience, I was a rookie who didn’t see much.

But the crowd’s reaction to my opponent was completely different from mine.

“Then let me introduce the next player! Now, this player who is on stage is well known to all of you! The legend of the underground arena! A fearsome man who ruthlessly tore 99 challengers! I am the ‘Blood Wind Sword Guryun’ player!!”

“Oohhhhh!!”

“Blood Wind Sword!! Blood Wind Sword!!”

“You were the only one waiting, Jeenjang!”

The one who appeared in the arena amid the enthusiastic response of the crowd was a swordsman who at first glance seemed to be from the East.

He was standing across from him and staring at me with his long hair tied back like a ronin and his energy like a sharp sword.

Bloodwind Sword Gu-ryun spoke to me in a heavy voice.

“You are not a prosecutor.”

“Yes.”

“But you might as well pick up a sword. It looks like you can’t even use magic, but if you collide with my sword with your bare body, you’ll die.”

“Hmm.”

Bloodwind Sword’s words were only half right.

It’s not that I can’t use my mana, it’s just that I’m suppressing it.

If I use rigid body technique, my black magic will be revealed, and then rumors of demons appearing will spread and cause uproar around me.

I answered indifferently with my arms crossed.

“I think it would be enough without it.”

Even without weapons and magic, I didn’t feel a sense of crisis at all in this situation.

I was just telling the truth, but the blood wind sword twitched its lips as if it thought it was provocation.

“Khehehe… I tried to open a way to live out of sympathy, but he chose death himself. This result is what you brought upon yourself.”

“The guy who tore ninety-nine to death speaks well.”

“Ha! And now you will be the hundredth!”

Shouted Sylvia, raising her hands outside the arena.

“The game begins!”

At the same time as the declaration of start, red magic power shimmered like flames from the sword of the Blood Wind Sword and from the whole body.

The fact that the mana is shimmering like flames means that the rigid body technique has reached the highest level, and unlike the general blue magic, the red magic means that the proof of the non-pure magic, in other words, that the magic has been learned.

The Blood Wind Sword, perhaps under the influence of magic, rushed at me with eyes glistening with blood and a cruel smile.

“Hahahahaha! It’s been a while since I’ve seen blood!”

I didn’t pay attention to the bloody wind sword that was running towards me, but instead I looked at Sylvia outside the arena.

As if she believed in my victory, she winked at her leisurely one eye.

I told you to defeat it as overwhelmingly as possible….

“Where are you looking, kid! Die-!!”

In that brief moment, the tip of the Blood Wind Sword pierced me. At the same time, my thinking speed accelerated dramatically.

It felt like the point of a knife that was about to pierce her chest slowed down, and the excitement of the crowd around her faded away.

In the slow reality, only I moved at the original speed and grabbed the sword of the Blood Wind Sword with my bare hands.

Kwajik!

The sight of the sword covered in sword energy being smashed by bare hands was astonishing in the blood wind sword’s eyes.

I punched him in the face.

“Keah heh heh!!”

The speed of the surroundings increased again, and the blood wind sword flew to the end of the arena and crashed into the wall.

I couldn’t feel any more consciousness at the sight of him drooling with his mouth wide open as if his jawbone had been broken.

What the spectators saw was just a blink of an eye as the bloodwind sword flew away holding the broken sword.

At this incomprehensible sight, the crowd opened their mouths in a daze.

The arena is soaked in silence.