Chapter 286: You've Been Injured?!
Just as Touka and the others set out to search for Luke.
Elsewhere, at a certain Rebellion base.
"Hehehehe, I didn't expect the other side to have a causality-interference-type Blazer too."
"It really is a bit unfortunate that I failed to hold back 'Raikiri.'"
Inside the room, a tall man sat on a sofa and sighed with a bitter smile.
"This time, I suffered quite a loss. How terrible."
"I suppose that's what I should expect from the famous 'Raikiri.' Those dolls simply couldn't withstand a single blow."
"What a strong stench. Did your hand get burned?"
Hearing the tall man's words, a figure standing nearby asked in a contemptuous tone.
"Haha, this time it was roasted all the way through."
The tall man had used his left hand to control the rock giants, and Touka's strike of "Raikiri" had sent a high-voltage current through the magic threads, electrocuting his left hand.
His entire arm had been carbonized almost instantly.
That injury was far too severe. Even with this world's highly advanced medical technology, it might not be possible to fully heal it.
However, judging from the tall man's appearance, he did not seem to feel any pain at all.
There was no grief, no agony, no hatred, and no scream.
On the contrary, he even praised Touka in an admiring tone. Between his words, there was a hint of joy that was difficult to understand.
"Thanks to her, this left hand is already useless."
"Idiot. I reminded you that the mission comes first."
The figure beside him seemed somewhat dissatisfied with the tall man's attitude.
He then said,
"The 'Eve Festival' is right around the corner. We don't have many chances left to probe them."
"I'm not one of your people, so whether the plan succeeds or fails has nothing to do with me."
"But you are part of the 'Rebellion,' aren't you? Is it really appropriate to treat a mission so carelessly?"
"Hehehe, I can't refute that."
The tall man laughed and did not mind the mockery from the figure beside him.
"That said, simply probing the combat strength of the 'Another One/Uncrowned Sword King' and the 'Crimson Princess' would be far too boring."
"It isn't fun. Not interesting at all. That won't do."
"I hate uninteresting things, because I am the 'Pierrot.' I have to be smiling every moment."
"No matter what mission I carry out, the 'Pierrot' himself must enjoy it first, right?"
Faced with the tall man's frivolous answer, the figure standing beside him could not help pausing for a moment before speaking.
"…Your words are as incomprehensible as ever."
"Hehehe, that's exactly how it should be. If the 'Pierrot' could be understood so easily, then things would stop being interesting."
The tall man, in other words, the "Pierrot," lightly moved the fingers of his right hand.
Pfft—!
As if it had been cut off from the root by a sharp blade, his completely charred left hand fell off and dropped to the ground.
Although the sound of flesh being severed rang out, there was no trace of blood at the place where the Pierrot's left hand had been.
It seemed to be because Touka's "Raikiri" had burned it completely, yet somehow, something about it also felt faintly different.
Picking up the fallen arm from the ground, the Pierrot asked the figure beside him,
"Do you want this hand? It should count as well-done, right?"
"No need. Throw it to that 'cat' as feed."
"Hehehe, you should call it 'Sphinx,' or she'll cry."
"Hmph. A cat is still a cat. Even if you stick a pair of wings on it, nothing changes."
Listening to that figure's merciless reply, the Pierrot sighed helplessly in his heart.
'He is clearly so young, yet he has no imagination.'
Knowing that the other party was already getting a little impatient, the Pierrot did not continue these irrelevant topics.
"Speaking of which, the 'Crimson Princess' you've been longing for day and night didn't perform very well this time."
With a change of tone, the Pierrot pulled the topic back to this mission.
"I heard that you joined this plan specifically to meet her."
"Oh my, after seeing her performance, did you feel even the slightest bit disappointed?"
"I did indeed accompany you through this farce because of her."
The figure beside him spoke with a tone filled with indifference toward the "plan" and disdain toward the "Rebellion."
"As for the 'Crimson Princess'…"
"There is nothing to be disappointed about. If she truly is only at this level, unable to defeat even two pieces of trash dolls…"
"Then that only proves the 'Crimson Princess' was never worth my expectations from the very beginning."
The man's words echoed through the room, without the slightest wavering or hesitation.
After sensing that, the Pierrot once again deeply felt that he and this figure who looked down on him were completely incompatible.
This person truly lacked charm. He could not be toyed with at all. He was terribly boring and uninteresting.
"Oh my, how cold."
"If men these days are too passive, women won't pay attention to them."
"If you want to spout nonsense, go talk to a mirror, Pierrot."
The man also felt that he and the Pierrot were incompatible.
After leaving behind those final words, he turned around and prepared to leave the room.
The Pierrot watched his back, which seemed to melt into the darkness, and sighed again.
"How unadorable. You should learn more from that simple younger brother of yours."
The figure, who had originally intended to ignore the Pierrot, stopped the moment he heard the word younger brother.
"As one of the main targets of this probe, he did nothing during it."
"That is all he amounts to."
"Besides, I cut ties with the Kurogane Family long ago. The current me has no younger brother. The person called Kurogane Ikki holds no meaning to me."
That figure, or more precisely, the eldest son of the main Kurogane Family of Japan, was the biological older brother of Kurogane Ikki and Kurogane Shizuku.
Kurogane Ouma responded to Pierrot's words in an extremely cold tone.
The atmosphere immediately dropped to freezing point.
Ouma did not care about any of that and raised his foot, preparing to leave this temporary Rebellion base.
At that very instant, the door to the room was suddenly pushed open.
A pure white figure walked in. After casually closing the door behind her, she sat down without the slightest courtesy on the sofa on the other side.
It was Edelweiss, who had returned to the Rebellion base after parting from Luke.
Her arrival made both Kurogane Ouma and the Pierrot stop moving. The Pierrot, who had been sitting the entire time, even stood up directly.
However, just as the two of them were about to greet her, the abnormality on Edelweiss entered their eyes.
In perfect unison, Kurogane Ouma and the Pierrot shouted in shock at the same time.
"You've been injured?!?!" x2
It was more than mere shock. The two of them immediately fell into a state where their thoughts came to a halt.
What kind of joke was this?
The world's strongest swordsman, the summit of this world, the invincible "Twin-Wings," Edelweiss.
She had actually been injured???
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