As I headed toward the sound, I found a group of thugs resembling the ones I had seen in the grand mansion, along with armed strangers.
They were standing in a circular formation, as if guarding something.
‘What is that?’
At the center of the circle lay a suspicious box, from which black magic was seeping out.
Judging by the aura, it wasn’t the same dreadful energy I had felt before.
While magic and demonic energy are fundamentally different in nature, this one felt similar to magic.
“You’ve let things escalate this far just because you couldn’t manage a single woman properly.”
“…I told you to shut up. Didn’t I say I’d give you anything?”
The man who appeared to be in charge was standing next to someone about my age.
‘That must be Delar Hyde.’
Although I didn’t know his exact appearance or build, the eagle emblem engraved on the scabbard at his waist was identical to the one I had seen in the mansion, making it easy to identify him.
Looking around, I was relieved to spot Madame Bichen lying unconscious on the ground near Hyde.
Her faintly rising chest indicated that she was still alive.
‘But where’s Gray…?’
I had checked all the nearby corpses.
While some were too mangled to identify, none of them matched Gray’s physique.
‘He must be somewhere…’
The most likely place was one of the boxes they were guarding.
In addition to the one leaking black magic, there were two or three others.
‘If they’re not attacking despite being unbound, does that mean there’s a beast tamer controlling them?’
Although the beasts seemed to attack indiscriminately, they appeared capable of distinguishing between friend and foe.
“Boss, why’s this guy just standing around like an idiot?”
“Leave it. Don’t mess with him carelessly…”
The fact that the beasts didn’t react even when approached supported that theory.
‘I’d like to at least rescue Madame Bichen, but… that might be impossible.’
These guys were tougher than I had expected.
The thugs didn’t seem too difficult to handle, but the armed strangers looked quite formidable.
There were about ten of them, and at least half were clearly stronger than me.
‘Should I go find reinforcements?’
The realization that this situation was beyond my control started to sink in, and a wave of anxiety began to flood me.
‘Should I leave the black market and bring back trustworthy people? But who could I possibly call…?’
The black market staff were preoccupied with protecting their own interests, and there wasn’t enough time to alert the imperial guards.
As I agonized over what to do—
Boom!
The ceiling above the auction house shattered dramatically, and two figures in rather ridiculous outfits jumped down.
“Evil-doers disturbing the empire!”
“In the name of justice… w-we won’t forgive you!”
“Ugh, could you do it properly? We’ll get caught at this rate.”
“…Why do I have to do this?”
“Shh, everyone’s looking at us. Watch your mouth.”
Dressed in bunny masks, bunny ears, and fluffy fur suits, they appeared abruptly.
Pointing their fingers at the slave traders, they yelled:
“What’s with those bunny freaks?”
“Pfft, are they here to put on a show?”
The slave traders laughed mockingly at them.
‘What on earth…’
I, too, was baffled by the situation.
Watching the sudden appearance of these “bunnies” with a dumbfounded expression,
I briefly wondered if the genre of this story had somehow changed without my noticing.
“Whatever. Let’s just deal with them.”
“…Understood.”
Thus began the bunnies’ merciless assault on the slave traders.
* * *
“Block them! Block them, you bastards!”
“It’s just two of them! Bring out the monsters and finish them off!”
Despite their ridiculous outfits, the combat power of the Rabbits was formidable.
The sword-wielding Rabbit skillfully deflected every incoming attack while countering, moving with the precision of an elite knight.
Meanwhile, the mage Rabbit provided support fire from the rear, suppressing distant foes with swift spellcasting.
‘…I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can’t miss this chance.’
I had no idea who they were.
Their faces and physiques were completely obscured.
But while they were focused on the Rabbits, I needed to rescue Gray and Lady Bichen.
“Where did those things come from…?”
“Master! Are you sure we can get out of here? If we get caught, it’s all over for us!”
They seemed just as flustered, scrambling to catch the Rabbits.
“Shut up. It’s your brat’s fault we’re in this mess.”
“What? My brat? I let you handle everything because you were good at your job, and now you’re a commoner getting cocky—”
Thwack!
“Enough. You’re getting on my nerves.”
“Dare you…!”
Amid the tense situation, internal discord seemed to be breaking out as well.
‘I need to suppress my presence as much as I can.’
Quietly, I crept behind them, trying to determine what was inside the central boxes.
If Gray wasn’t there, I would prioritize rescuing Lady Bichen first.
In addition to the ominous black-magic-filled box, there were several others of similar appearance.
I just needed to confirm if Gray was in one of them.
‘Just a little closer…’
I was only a few steps away from confirming, when—
“So that’s why the back of my head was tingling.”
A chilling voice echoed from behind me.
‘Damn it.’
I shifted my weight to the side to respond immediately, but—
Boom!
“Urgh…!”
I was too late, sent flying and crashing into a wall.
‘…When did they get this close?’
The person who attacked me was the one Delar Hyde had called “Master.”
With a grotesque face and bizarre skull ornaments dangling everywhere, they exuded malice.
“Luck’s not on my side today. I’d better run for it.”
Despite their subordinates being mercilessly slaughtered by the Rabbits, they remained composed.
Did they have something up their sleeve?
‘No, don’t overthink it.’
Now that I’d been discovered, there was no running away.
There was no other choice—
I had to fight.
To make matters worse, the makeshift glass shard sword I’d been using broke while I tried to block earlier.
‘But I can’t back down.’
The so-called Master before me was undoubtedly a formidable opponent, but compared to Bakal, whom I’d faced before, they seemed manageable.
“You’re just as nasty as you look, starting with a sucker punch.”
“If you’re going to die anyway, what’s the point of being polite?”
Spitting out the blood pooling in my mouth, I dusted myself off and took my stance.
They slowly approached.
‘This guy is at least one or two levels above me. If I face him recklessly, I’ll get crushed.’
My strength was inferior, and I didn’t even have a weapon.
Yet, strangely, I didn’t feel like I would lose.
‘Before his subordinates come to help, I need to finish this.’
He pulled a dagger from inside his jacket.
“It’s a nice piece. I could sell it for a good price.”
Flashing a sinister grin, he lunged at me.
“Don’t resist too much. If you get hurt, the price drops.”
.
.
.
.
A series of clashes followed.
He no longer attacked recklessly as before.
“Should I have finished it earlier?”
He briefly calmed his labored breathing while gently rubbing his aching wrist, sore from parrying the dagger.
“I’m really not used to this.”
Up until now, he had mainly wielded a sword and fought with it.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t learned close combat at all.
Even so, the gap in skill was inevitable.
Though he had learned some techniques from Isabel, he hadn’t used them in actual combat before, making it tricky to apply them.
“Since it’s barehanded combat, even crossing the line a little feels like it could lead to death.”
The thought that a single misstep could lead to death made his hands hesitant.
Because of that, he had kept hesitating about whether to use this technique or not.
“But no, I can’t keep holding back.”
If he kept trying to find the right moment, he might never get to use it and instead board the express train to the afterlife. He decided to give it a try.
“Isabel said… to rotate the mana and wrap it around the body.”
For those using weapons, there were limits to how they could utilize mana.
It wasn’t a matter of firepower but rather versatility.
In the end, weapons were nothing more than extensions of the hand.
While masters at their peak could move their weapons like extensions of their limbs, that was only a story for those who had reached the pinnacle.
True freedom in shaping and tuning mana was reserved for the body alone.
This logic led to those at the peak of martial prowess—like Isabel’s teacher, the “Battle God.”
“I’ll just mimic what Isabel did back then.”
It didn’t need to be as precise as when covering a sword in mana.
It had to be rougher, more violent.
Focused solely on amplifying destructive power.
Layering mana to build mass, forcing it into a spin like a top, and anchoring it to his body was all that was required.
“…I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but do you think I’ll just stand by?”
Noticing something unusual, his opponent urgently tried to attack.
Swish!
The dagger he threw flashed as it tore through the air.
I twisted my body to the side and narrowly dodged it.
“Now.”
Seizing a brief opening, I stepped forward powerfully with my left foot and aimed a mana-infused punch at his side.
“Ugh…”
A low, heavy thud echoed as he flinched and let out a short groan.
At that moment, I twisted the wrist holding the dagger, forcing him to drop it, and quickly swung an uppercut at his chin.
“Why are you suddenly… changing like this… gah!”
He seemed to instinctively tilt his head back to evade the punch.
“But what you see isn’t all there is.”
The crude mana wrapped around my body caused an aftershock, delayed by half a beat, which he couldn’t avoid.
“…Phew. At least this one’s done.”
Thanks to his carelessness until the end, I barely managed to win.
But it wasn’t time to relax yet.
Fighting off the fatigue from pushing my mana to its limits, I approached Lady Bichen, slinging her over my shoulder.
I had to find Grey and leave quickly.
However.
“Heh… He was right. Even the sect leader can’t be trusted… If it’s come to this, let’s all die together.”
Delar Hyde, who had been knocked down earlier.
That pig-like young viscount, bloated with fat, opened a box from which black mana oozed ominously.
He pulled out a viscous lump of foul-smelling liquid that made me sick just by looking at it.
And then—
Gulp, gulp.
— He swallowed it whole.