Chapter 43: The Price of Comradeship

Izawa pleaded repeatedly.

“Kassim! You’re Kassim, aren’t you?!” he cried, his voice laced with desperation. “Have you forgotten the time we spent together? Do you remember sharing drinks around the bonfire?”

“Don’t kill me! Others forced me into this! I had no choice!”

However, Eileen was deaf to his pleas.

She raised Durandal.

She severed Izawa’s arm.

She gazed at Izawa, who lay on the ground, writhing in agony.

Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to finish him.

She simply couldn’t kill a former comrade.

It wasn’t Izawa’s words that swayed Eileen; in fact, she found his pleas laughable.

‘If I kill him, perhaps I truly can’t go back,’ she thought.

Still, Eileen couldn’t possibly let this demon go. While she couldn’t personally deliver the killing blow, his fate after being brought back to the Golden Dragon Territory would no longer be her concern.

The Ice Apostle Eileen had created lifted Izawa.

“Let’s go. With your ‘help,’ I estimate we’ll resolve this quite quickly.” Eileen led Izawa to the next room. “Who is in here?”

“Yor! For the past five years, he’s been the one scouting targets for the hunt! And! It was his false intelligence that led you into danger back then!”

Eileen ordered Izawa to open the door.

Unexpectedly, Yor lay on the bed, having died peacefully at some unknown point.

Seeing this scene, Eileen was somewhat taken aback.

Izawa, on the other hand, was utterly terrified. “Please! Don’t kill me! I’ll do anything!”

Eileen stepped forward and examined the body. The man had died without any resistance.

“…”

This individual, a shield guard in Izawa’s Dragon Slaying Squad, possessed the most powerful reconnaissance abilities in their team. Before every mission, he was dispatched to gather intelligence.

Yet, such a crucial member had been killed without his knowledge.

The next room…

“She’s Liana! She was the one who implanted the magic within your body!” Izawa declared.

Strangely, the room was empty. However, Eileen, exceptionally sensitive to temperature, still detected a faint anomaly.

The room’s temperature was noticeably higher than the previous ones.

Just then, a gust of wind swept through, stirring up a cloud of dust.

“Cough, cough, cough! How long has this bastard gone without cleaning?” Izawa grumbled, but quickly remembered his predicament as a captive. “My apologies! I spoke too loudly.”

Eileen furrowed her brows. Liana was always meticulous about hygiene, unable to tolerate even a speck of dust. The high temperature in the room, combined with the dust…

Eileen sensed something was amiss and immediately moved to the next room.

The vanguard, who possessed the strongest defensive capabilities in the squad, lay in a pool of blood, his shield shattered.

Upon seeing this, Eileen finally understood who had left the squad.

And the person she was about to face was now unequivocally clear.

“Gaji!”

Eileen pushed open the door.

“You’re a little late, aren’t you?” Falute sat on the window sill, bathed in moonlight.

“You truly are the fifth member of Izawa’s squad…”

*Thump!*

Blood suddenly dripped onto the floor. Eileen looked up, seeing a priest pinned to the ceiling by a crucifix.

Now, all five members were accounted for, but Falute remained.

“Are you…” Eileen still couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

She knew what to say and what not to say. Unless she was one hundred percent certain, she wouldn’t speak. If her assumption proved wrong, the situation would become incredibly troublesome.

“Falute, an S-rank Dragon Slayer. Liana did me a favor, so I accepted her commission. Besides, I already disliked these people.”

“Why are you still keeping that person alive?” Falute wiped the blood-stained dagger in her hand. “If you can’t do it, I’ll gladly take care of it.”

She leaped down from the window.

“Don’t kill me! Kassim! If you spare me, this entire castle is yours!” Izawa quickly offered.

“Kassim? Aren’t you dead?” The other person seemed to recognize Kassim as well.

“It’s merely a hallucination born from overwhelming fear.”

Eileen looked at the other person and posed a question. “Why can you so easily take the lives of your comrades?”

“Comrades, you say…” The other person paused, then chuckled. “You truly are somewhat… naively adorable, even a little… foolish.”

“Do you think there’s a problem with me killing these people?” Falute countered.

Eileen shook her head.

“You understand perfectly well, don’t you? Their hands are stained with sin. If they aren’t dealt with, only more innocent lives will perish at their hands, won’t they?” Falute stated.

Eileen found herself unable to deny it.

“You can’t bring yourself to do it because you don’t want to be stained with sin?”

“No, you should know very well that as Dragon Slayers, our hands are already stained with sin.”

“Those were all dragons!” Eileen retorted.

“Open your eyes and look! Do you truly believe these scoundrels, whose hands bear the blood of countless comrades, are more sinful than the dragons who were suddenly attacked and killed by Dragon Slayers in their own homes?!”

Having lived among dragons for five years, Eileen could no longer answer this question.

In those five years, Eileen had witnessed too many innocent dragons die this way.

She had also learned that dragons had no spare time to concern themselves with humans; their focus was currently on internal strife within their own kind.

“Kassim!”

“My name is Eileen. I am a maid.”

The silver gleam of Durandal flashed in the room.

‘Yes, what more is there to hesitate about?’

‘The truth is already laid bare before me, the Empire’s First Prince…’

Izawa’s head fell to the floor.

Eileen had, in the end, taken this step.

A barely perceptible smile touched Falute’s lips.

“The matter is resolved.”

Eileen shook her head. This was hardly a resolution.

An S-rank Dragon Slaying Squad had been inexplicably annihilated, with no one detecting a thing.

If they simply left, others would only assume the dragons were responsible.

Now, they had to create a small disturbance to frame someone else.

“Alright, just leave the rest to me. Your way won’t work.” Falute took the Golden Holy Sword from Izawa’s hand and plunged it into the floor. She then crushed a magical orb. “For something like this, we just need to frame a necromancer. That way, no one will suspect anything. And coincidentally, a necromancer arrived in this town today.”

Falute intended to pin the blame on Setia!