Vince was now facing twenty opponents on his own. But he knew he couldn’t back off, or else he’d die for sure. He didn’t feel like betting on who was faster at running away between him and the opponents.

It was a narrow alleyway, with many tables filled with objects for sale everywhere. Being the blacksmiths’ area, most of those items were metal objects. However, not many shops in the alleyways sold weapons. Most things here were for ordinary people. As such, at most, you could find some kitchen knives.

‘Those guys are trouble, but I can’t fight right now. I have to stall for time as much as I can. But I also cannot spend too much stamina doing so. What a difficult situation.’

Even when faced against someone four Small Realms above and with a Core one colour better, he was confident in winning. But having to meet so many opponents while stopping anyone from giving pursuit was way more complicated.

“Brat, you sure are courageous to be standing here confronting us. I’ll let you live if you go away now. We only want your lady, not you.”

‘I have to lose as much time as possible for a variety of reasons… so let’s have a little chat with their leader, I guess.’

“You praise me too much and seeing how a strong warrior such as yourself recognises me as is the joy of a lifetime. Still, I won’t run away. I can’t.”

“Why can’t you? Don’t you despise those nobles as well, ordering everyone around as if the world was theirs? Why should you lose your life for someone like that?”

“I understand very well, but I still cannot do it.”

“Answer me, why can’t you? You are a very promising kid considering you are already cultivating. I can also tell how refined your fighting is. The academy did a great job at teaching you. As long as you run away now, you are bound to make great achievements. Why give up on life here?”

‘Good, flattering him a little seems to have worked. I don’t have to gain much more time to do what I want. Sure this guy is quite cautious. He must think that I’m also from a big family, and he doesn’t want to make enemies without reason. Even though he knows I’m now a commoner, that doesn’t mean my original family wouldn’t seek revenge. Well, no use thinking now. It’s almost time to jump into action.’

“The reason is simple and way less noble than you’d think. I have been imposed a soul contract with milady and if she dies, so do I. May as well only die myself, no? She wasn’t that bad with me. And I’d rather die as a hero than a coward.”

“A soul contract? It seems you are quite the unlucky fellow. Well, no use now. Boys get him quickly. We have some running to do to catch up.”

‘Hah. As soon as he heard soul contract, he assumed I am from some minor family, if not a commoner at birth. Not like he is that wrong, though. Any major house wouldn’t have accepted the disgrace of having one of their children sign one of those contracts. So he must think my background isn’t a threat.’

As soon as their leader said those words, all members of the assassination squad started charging. Most of them were equipped with swords. All men had masks on them to make themselves not recognisable as well.

Their leader stood still and watched with a sad expression as the first one to charge was about to slash his sword.

‘Maybe he did value my talent slightly. Now that unwanted attention is gone, I can finally run amok. Let’s have some fun.’

As his opponent was raising his sword above his head in preparation for a vertical slash, Vince charged and stabbed his sword at a forty-five-degree angle upwards. He was that much smaller compared to his opponent.

The sword cleanly went through the opponents’ neck. Vince stood still and stared at his opponents. None of them was charging anymore. They could only stare at the boy whose sword was now dyed red.

As everyone stared at Vince intensely, he merely retracted the sword and swung it slightly to rid it of part of the blood.

“Good heavens, it was a new sword. It’s already ruined. Oh well, whatever. Anyway, you made a big misjudgement, Mr Leader. What you had to be wary of was not my background but my skills.”

Even after he spoke, none of the assassins could move a muscle. They had seen how Vince moved. They now knew how dangerous he was.

“So, are you charging or not?”

‘Let’s see if taunting them so blatantly will destabilise them. It works most of the time.’

The one who was immediately behind the dead assassin decided to move. He used the mana he had in his body to enhance his movement as well as he could. He couldn’t care less about saving stamina now.

Vince, noticing the threat, quickly thought of a new plan.

“If they are taking me so seriously, I probably won’t have enough stamina. It’s time to switch to plan B, I guess. Let’s wear them out.”

Vince thus started running in the same direction as Estelle.

“Weren’t you so confident? Why are you running now, Brat?”

Vince didn’t even answer. But, as soon as he saw a table that had all sorts of items on it, he dashed to it and grabbed the first item he found. It was a pan or something of that sort. But he couldn’t care less. He threw it in the face of his pursuer.

The man reacted by lifting his arm to stop the incoming pan. He wasn’t the least concerned about getting hurt with it.

Once he hit the pan, his field of vision was finally clear, but he couldn’t see anybody. But, as he brought his sight down, he could see a kid whose swords pierced his heart. He soon fell to the ground.

“And that’s two. Eighteen more.”

His pursuers stopped charging. They now walked towards Vince with a more careful approach. They couldn’t afford to make dumb mistakes after witnessing what underestimating this kid led to.

“You are more careful now, huh.”

Two of them were soon in front of Vince, who was still beside the desk full of items. The alleyway was so narrow at most three people could walk side by side. But fighting with three people side by side in such a narrow alley would probably lead to them getting in the way of one another. Therefore two people were the most that could take on Vince simultaneously.

“Maybe I was lucky in getting ambushed here. You cannot surround me here.”

After making this comment, Vince grabbed once again another pan. He threw it towards one of them. And then took another immediately after and threw this one as well.

But the two had no intention of falling for the same trick their comrade died to. Therefore they had the mutual understanding of having one guy focus on hitting the objects while the other defended.

Vince thus grabbed the last pan on the table but didn’t throw it. He instead charged. He moved to the side of the alley where the guy parrying was. The guy was still focused on hitting some objects in the air. Thus the other guy moved in to stop Vince’s charge.

Alas, everything was to no avail. Vince started running on the wall, landed on the other guy’s side, and stabbed him. Another one was charging from behind the fallen victim, but Vince paid him no mind. He threw the pan towards this new contender and charged the remaining old contender.

The assassin getting charged tried doing a horizontal slash, but it couldn’t cut Vince in half. Why? Even the sender didn’t know. As soon as the slash was over, he found himself with a sword piercing his neck as well.

‘What a poor management of combat range this guy had. He had no clue that I could just take a step backwards, and his sword wouldn’t reach. All of these guys look new to using swords. Their regular job is probably different. Well, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that they are terrible at swordplay.’

‘The two guys behind are now scared. I exploit that easily.’

Thus Vince dashed towards the guy he had just thrown a pan to and started fighting. After the first move, another one joined in trying to help his teammate, and thus it turned into a one versus two.

As the two kept on swinging, they noticed that their opponent was easily avoiding all their attacks, and the few he deflected always ended up turning into attacks on their teammate.

It didn’t even take ten moves for them to be headless corpses on the ground. In just under two minutes, almost one-third of the assassination team was dead. Their leader probably couldn’t accept any more losses. Thus he stepped in himself.

“Kid, you are skilled with that sword. I won’t let any more of my men die. I’ll take you on myself.”

“Good, that’s what I was waiting for. I’ve been saving up stamina so that I could fight with you after all. I wonder how many realms above I can fight. You are a good starting point.”

“Don’t be full of yourself. Even fighting a small realm above is hard. If you fight two small realms above, you are considered a genius; if you fight three, you could become a hero.”

“What about four?”

“Only once in a century geniuses can fight four small realms above. Don’t even hope of doing it.”

‘Don’t even hope, huh. Considering the difference in Core colour, this is more like six small realms of difference, though.’

“Then I’ll happily be one. Come at me!”

“Brat, I won’t fall for your taunts.”

“Fine, I’ll come myself.”

And thus, Vince started walking towards his opponent, with his red-dyed sword in hand, looking like the grim reaper himself.