Only I Am A Reader

'Someone's really here…'

As soon as he heard the rustle coming from the bushes, Leo was slightly surprised, but his mental state remained as calm as usual. He wasn't simply guessing when he called out.

While he lacked the unreasonable senses of a protagonist like Ray, Leo unexpectedly discovered another benefit of his sword training for the last two months!

Having made his way through the town's streets, everything was calm and serene. However, he had strangely noticed a certain pattern of movement for no reason, or so he initially thought.

After replaying what he saw in his head for a few minutes, Leo slowly came to an assumption of what he had encountered, these movements appeared to be normal, but they definitely weren't!

The nameless sword technique that Rain created simply put too much emphasis on movement control. In order to practice without Rain's aid, Leo had been forced to pour most of his attention into every little alteration in movement during all of his practice sessions. Today, Leo was surprised to find out that his movement observation was elevated as a side effect.

Under this side effect, the normal movements of the town residents that he was used to didn't feel out of the ordinary, but the strange pattern of movements that seemed to be purposely trying to hide itself was the one thing that appeared as bright as the sun to Leo!

At first, Leo might have disregarded it as a hallucination caused by overtraining, but as the same pattern retained its stealthy trait, Leo confirmed his first assumption, someone was deliberately following his sneakily!

"We will get the rest later anyway."

Even as he was exchanged with Annie, the calmness in Leo's eyes didn't falter, he only watched Annie silently run in shock before he coldly glared back at the masked man.

"Regrettably, I won't get to kill you, but I will look forward to what 'they' will 'do' to you."

His ability as a Swordsman was currently locked with no sword in hand, not to mention that even his hands were caught in the masked man's grip, but Leo's eyes only glinted as the dagger drew closer to his neck.

Just as Leo sensed the dagger's blade on his skin-

Bang!

"Gahh."

A suppressed shriek came out from under the white mask as the man painfully held his sides!

"You! What is your leg made of?!"

Since he already noticed the abnormality of the situation, Leo naturally didn't go back unprepared after his discovery, he already came up with some preparations as he thought the situation through on his way to the Blackbird.

While he was wary of whoever was following him, Leo wasn't concerned about his opponent's strength. He might not be able to check it out himself as his target was well concealed, but Leo had spotted more than one of Rays' 'Shadows' all over the town; they let themselves be purposefully noticed, acting as Ray's 'response' in regard to the past incident.

Under the observation of these 'Shadows' who were both Swordsmen and stealth masters, any suspicious Swordsman would be immediately weeded out. In this case, the one who stalked him had to be a 'normal' person. They were either a 'Breathless' assassin sent specifically to bypass the Shadows' attention or just a skilled bandit who lusted for the gold coin he recently used.

"This…"

The assassin's features were hidden beneath his mask, but as he laid his eyes upon Leo's legs, the shock could almost be seen through the mask…

After throwing a side kick, the lower part of Leo's pants was torn to reveal a leather leg guard. It appeared to be roughly made, nonetheless, the masked man was terrified of its appearance, the leg guard half-sided metal beads arranged all over it!

'To think that it would work in this way…'

The reason he had made these leg guards wasn't that he expected his current situation. He had originally wanted to hide his identity as a Swordsman since his opponent was a normal human. After all, he couldn't tell if someone else would be watching or if he had to let his opponent live.

The problem was that his current body was still incapable of fighting barehanded just by relying on his prologue 'Close Quarter Combat'. As such, he asked Crane to help him with a makeshift weapon. Making use of the wideness of his training pants, he chose a beaded leg guard to use in the case of need.

However, even though he avoided going back to the Orphanage to avoid collateral damage, the encounter still evolved into a hostage situation. Thankfully, Leo's preparation had unexpectedly served him well.

Considering the nature of his opponent, Leo wouldn't have hesitated to use his sword, but without it, he could only rely on his versatile backup plan.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Following up with triple side kicks to temporarily stop the masked man's movement, he didn't stand to watch him cough up blood as he rolled back to the spot he dropped the sword at, picking it up before taking two wide steps to stand before the man in question!

As an assassin, the masked man was undeniably swift, even under the intense pain of organ damage, he still managed to draw a sword from his back to block Leo's attack after dropping his dagger. As a silvery sheen spread through Leo's sword, however…

Tick.

A chip had already appeared on the masked man's sword.

Having no plans of underestimating his opponent whatever the situation was, Leo used his recently acquired technique to the full to strike the sword's body at various spots!

Ssprak!

Before Leo managed to display the 6th form of his technique, the sword was already reduced to pieces. This was the most terrifying aspect when it came to dealing with Swordsmen, unless one similarly covered his sword with Sword Breath, all swords were no better than wooden sticks before their attacks!

'A Swordsman!'

The masked man was shocked beyond belief, but he couldn't spare any thought to display his surprise. After Leo had successfully destroyed his weapon, crippling both his ability to defend and attack, he tried to reach to his lower back to draw his backup dagger, but Leo's sword hadn't stopped moving.

Swish!

Under Leo's direct transition to the 12th form, the masked man's arm had already flown to the air before he managed to touch his dagger's hilt!

Spshsh!

Freezing in front of Leo as his blood rushed out of his cleanly cut arm, the masked man's eyes widened. Leo's figure was smaller than his, but at this specific moment, he couldn't help but feel that it was infinitely bigger…

"I don't suppose you have any plan of telling me who sent you here?"

Not showing any direct change of emotion as he gained the upper hand, Leo stared at his adversary with a raised eyebrow.

"Just kill me. 'They' will surely come for you sooner than you would expect."

"...'As you wish'."

Splikht.

As the masked man's skin grew paler, the cold glint reappeared in Leo's eyes, using his leg to tackle the assassin to the ground. After throwing a glance at him from above, Leo stabbed his sword down, fixating him to the ground through his heart.

Kneeling down before the man's body, Leo removed the mask to see a face that was completely foreign to him. Feeling the lack of pulse up his neck, Leo confirmed that the man had drawn his last breath.

'I should hurry.'

Not knowing who would come and see the scene, Leo dragged the man's body from his legs despite feeling somewhat dizzy. Bringing him before the hole he used to experiment trap in, he removed the cover-up grass before dumping him in and putting it back.

'Why… so dizzy?'

Rising up after finishing the disposal, Leo felt the world around him spinning uncontrollably. He tried to stabilize himself, but…

"Big Brother!"

The last thing that flashed before his eyes were the figures of the safe Annie and Crane before he passed out…