The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 35.1

“It you who started this, senior?”

In other words, from now on, it’s self-defense.

Ignoring the face full of questions, I clasped my hands together and raised them high.

With all my strength, I struck down the opponent’s arm.

The elbow bent instantly.

Quickly releasing my hands, I grabbed the back of the opponent’s forearm and pulled.

Then, I pressed down on their upper body in a diagonal line.

I squeezed their arm with my body and hands, applying pressure.

A simple wrist-lock technique.

“Wrist Lock.”

As soon as the technique was applied, a desperate scream erupted.

“Aaagh! Aaaaaah!”

“You bastard!”

The other senior, who had been hesitating in confusion, charged at me.

I quickly moved my hand.

I grabbed the collar of senior, whose arm was restrained, and tilted him.

With my other hand still holding the arm, the center of gravity was close to me, making it easy to move.

I kicked their ankle with all my might, sweeping them off balance.

That senior fell, entangling with the charging the other senior.

“Uh, uhh—!”

The two seniors let out a single scream and fell down.

I looked down at them after putting some distance between us.

“There are people who can’t accept reality until they’re hit.”

“You…!”

“Are you going to continue?”

Honestly, I don’t have the confidence to take on both of them.

Both are bigger than me.

This situation was only possible because it was a surprise attack.

But the more it is, the more brazenly I must act.

Even though it was a surprise attack, they were subdued very easily.

I can act confidently.

As expected, the two didn’t rashly attack.

They got up slowly and glared at me warily.

Just as we were tensely confronting each other,

“You there, what are you doing?”

A voice of an adult came from somewhere.

The three of us turned our heads simultaneously.

Someone approached us lazily with a swagger.

With a beard that seemed to have been shaved quite some time ago and slippers worn haphazardly.

He looked like an unemployed man from the neighborhood.

“Sir Shylock.”

The two seniors bowed their heads in greeting.

The unemployed-looking man was a knight of this dormitory.

He was probably in charge of section 1.

“Leo and Cooper? What are you doing? And you over there….”

Shylock looked down at me and grinned.

“The most famous one in our training center, Sir Judas?”

A sly respectful tone.

Feeling uneasy, I deliberately answered more stiffly.

“Judas, 13th batch.”

“Of course, I know. If I didn’t, I’d be an idiot. As expected, your personality is as quirky as they say. But your skills back it up.”

Shylock intervened as I and the two were confronting each other.

But he spoke as if he had seen everything from the beginning.

When I raised an eyebrow in suspicion, he just smiled slyly.

As if to say my suspicion was correct.

‘Did he deliberately not intervene even though he knew?’

A blatantly suspicious man.

Shylock. Come to think of it, that name sounds familiar….

“Those seniors blocked my way first.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Please understand. Those two are originally like that.”

The two seniors, Leo and Cooper, looked at me and Shylock alternately with complex expressions, as if they had a lot to say.

However, the two only mumbled.

In the end, they said nothing.

“So, what brings you here?”

“I’m looking for a trainee named Vinyl.”

“Aha. It’s because of that rumor, isn’t it?”

“…I didn’t mention any rumor, but how did you know?”

“Well, you see, I’m the knight in charge of this Section. I can’t not know. Sorry to disappoint you, but I can’t manage every single rumor circulating among the trainees.”

Shylock laughed, placing his hands on the shoulders of the dumbfounded Leo and Cooper.

“Why are you guys doing such foolish things? You should apologize.”

“…Sorry.”

The two reluctantly apologized.

I just waved it off.

“It’s fine. Can I go look for Vinyl now?”

“Of course. Who would stop you? Go ahead, esteemed guest.”

Shylock’s arm made a large sweeping motion from above to below.

The exaggerated gesture was a noble’s etiquette.

It was a playful attitude.

Shylock, with his arms still on Leo and Cooper’s shoulders, walked away.

I frowned as I watched him leave, then started walking.

‘Who is he…?’

An annoying smirk.

A sly, playful attitude.

Shylock. Shylock….

“…Ah.”

I remembered.

‘That con artist?’

In the game’s future timeline.

He’s the one who scams people in the back alleys with crude lies for profit.

He even runs rigged gambling schemes.

Despite his dangerous appearance, he’s not that impressive.

Just a bothersome petty criminal.

‘Come to think of it, he used to be a knight from the Bevel family…. That guy.’

Knights are highly regarded in this world.

It’s only natural.

Because of the demons that threaten humanity, the stronger ones are guaranteed a certain level of respect.

But Shylock, despite being a former knight, roamed the back alleys.

He didn’t live well.

He barely scraped by with his scams for a few days at a time.

It wasn’t like he was living poorly on purpose.

‘What was the reason again…? It was something related to his family….’

He’s an annoying man.

But it’s hard to just cut him off or interrogate him immediately.

Above all, he was a con artist then, but there’s no guarantee he’s a bad con artist at this point.

‘I’ll have to keep him in mind.’

The urgent matter now is Vinyl.

The rumor about me.

In fact, there’s something more important than that.

‘Judeca.’

Vinyl is said to be from Judeca, just like me.

There’s so much I don’t know about this person named Judas.

In case anything happens, I need to know as much as I can.

***

Cooper and Leo were still dazed as they were dragged away by Shylock.

It might have looked friendly with his arms around their shoulders, but they were essentially being dragged.

They weren’t scared.

Shylock was known for getting along well with the trainees without any distance.

However, it was shocking to see Shylock, who was the first to spread the unsettling rumors about Judas, acting like this.

“You guys,”

Shylock said with a smile.

“Why are you doing such unnecessary things?”

“Didn’t you say you’d teach that guy a lesson first? You said that if a rogue started acting up, the whole group would suffer…”

“I heard it too. And we don’t just want to spread rumors. We need to confirm it directly and give him a good scolding….”

“Hey, hey. Still, you shouldn’t just block a kid like that out of nowhere.”

Shylock watched Judas’s retreating figure at the end of the corridor.

His half-closed eyes smiled like a snake.

“You have to suffocate them slowly, so they don’t even realize it.”

Despite his evil smile, there was no personal malice in his heart.

He was simply doing as he was told.

***

I confidently approached Room 5 and asked.

“I’m here to see the cadet named Vinyl.”

The looks directed at me were anything but kind.

So what?

I raised my chin and looked down at them.

‘Wait, isn’t this something Eliza does often?’

As soon as I realized that, I lowered my chin and raised my eyes to glare at them instead.

It felt uncomfortable, as if I was imitating Eliza.

Unlike Leo and Cooper, they didn’t try to directly assess my abilities.

They just looked at me with uncomfortable gazes.

A boy sitting in a corner of the room walked out.

He seemed to be about my age.

About the same height, too.

“…That’s me.”

“Let’s have a talk.”

“Why should I?”

“You know better than anyone.”

“I don’t know anything…”

“We both know everything, so let’s not make this difficult. Come on, buddy.”

“…”

Vinyl immediately closed his mouth.

His eyes darted around nervously.

What a strange guy.

He tries to appear tough and prickly, but he’s already scared of me.

Shrunken shoulders, clasped hands.

Restless eyes.

I spoke to him as if coaxing a frightened animal.

“If you keep acting like this, I can’t be nice. I just have a few questions, so follow me quietly, okay?”

“…Alright.”

Vinyl reluctantly agreed.

The members of Room 5 looked at me disapprovingly but didn’t physically stop me.

One of them.

A guy who seemed to be the leader, had a particularly persistent gaze.

‘…Who is he to stare like that?’

I stopped and turned to face him squarely.

“Do you have something to say?”

When I asked outright, he just shrugged and smiled faintly.

What an annoying face.

“Not really.”

Some of the people in the room glared at me.

“I don’t care if you talk behind my back, but could you keep your voices down?”

A few of them flinched as if they were about to explode.

However, they stayed still, watching the leader for cues.

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be leaving now. And let’s try not to cross paths. Unless you want to end up like those Leo or Cooper guys. If you have any complaints, follow me or come find me later.”

The leader just smiled, and the others didn’t protest.

What a bunch of suspicious guys.

When I turned around, Vinyl was trembling, looking at me as if I were crazy.

“Let’s go.”

I led him out of the dormitory.

Vinyl followed me silently.

Honestly, I don’t care about rumors.

Let them talk behind my back if they want.

It’s annoying, but I can’t catch them all.

They don’t have the guts to say anything to my face.

Rather, I was more interested in Judeca, so I sought out information about it.

The problem is, it’s awkward for me to ask directly about my origins.

I need to find a way to gather information indirectly.

‘I’m already uncomfortable… I’m not good at this kind of scheming.’

I’m not a smart person.

I don’t know how to subtly extract the answers I want.

Eliza would be good at this.

Eliza would know what to do in this situation… Wait, why am I even thinking this?

I shook my head and spoke whatever came to mind.

Just my way.

“I heard you were talking about me behind my back.”

“……”

“Do you know me?”