Sword-Handler Fire Cloud

An invisible sword was there. However, what Solomon was immediately concerned about was not the fact that the sword was invisible itself. Though that alone was shocking enough.

The fact that a beggar on the street had charged in and swung a sword at a speed that even Solomon had barely managed to handle. Furthermore, the fact that the beggar’s hair was, of all things, considerably receding, and above all…….

His behavior, words, and appearance all made him look like someone who, no matter who saw him, should have been locked up in a psychiatric ward.

“Among the martial arts under heaven, there is no strength that cannot be broken…….”

All martial arts under heaven, no hardness is unbreakable.

“Only speed cannot be broken.”

Only speed cannot be broken─.

Saying that, the beggar adjusted his grip on the invisible sword and smiled with satisfaction.

“Buddy, your speed is no ordinary thing.”
“……Well, thanks for that.”

Without continuing into a contest of strength while their blades were crossed, the beggar silently widened the distance and smiled. Seeing that, Solomon answered calmly.

“Sword-Handler Fire Cloud.”

A director of Hotel Snark and one of the Seven Rogue Masters. After all this, there was no way he wouldn’t know.

“Oh, you recognize me!”

The man called Fire Cloud had a shining crown where most of his hair had fallen out. Frankly speaking, he was bald. At least there was hair barely clinging and fluttering at the corners on both sides like ‘the last leaf,’ but even that was greasy as if it hadn’t been washed in months.

On top of that, he wore a running shirt and sweatpants so grimy and yellowed it was hard to tell what color they had originally been. Below them, he wore cheap rubber slippers that exposed toes blackened with dirt.¹

No matter how or where one looked at him, he seemed far removed from grand and imposing positions like a director of Hotel Snark or one of the Seven Rogue Masters.

Even so, could people really not be judged by appearance?

“What business does a Rogue Master of Hotel Snark, a proud director, have with me?”

When Solomon asked back sarcastically, Fire Cloud did not answer right away. A short silence. But Solomon was not someone who would leisurely keep him company in silence.

Cheolkeok!

At some point, he drew the Nightfall automatic crossbow from his waist and used a level 1 spell slot to fully load it with shadow bolts. Dual-wielding the Ghost Whale Bone Blade and the Nightfall automatic crossbow. Seeing that, Fire Cloud laughed heartily.

“What? Are you going to shoot?”
“Is there any reason I can’t?”
“No, go ahead and shoot.”

Fire Cloud openly provoked Solomon and crooked his finger. So Solomon placed his finger on the trigger of the Nightfall automatic crossbow without hesitation.

They weren’t ordinary bolts. They were bolts made of shadow, without any physical substance. A masterpiece of the dwarf masters that could create a 「Shadow Mark」 on the target on hit and allow a forced ambush.

Just as Solomon was about to pull the trigger in that state.

“No, no.”

It was right then.

“Closer. Aim like this. That’s right!”
“!”

By the time he realized it, the distance had closed. At some point, Fire Cloud had come right in front of Solomon’s Nightfall automatic crossbow and was pushing his own head toward it. Without even giving him time to realize that the distance had closed.

Fast? This was not at the level of fast. At the sight, cold sweat ran down Solomon’s back.

“Now, hurry up and shoot! What are you dawdling for?”

With the automatic crossbow aimed at his own head, he continued as if provoking Solomon. No matter how strong the opponent was, he was pointing the muzzle at his own head from this distance and even provoking him? Bewildering was not enough to describe it.

So he pulled it. Without the slightest delay.

“─.”

Was he planning to see the motion of pulling the trigger and dodge? Solomon wasn’t an idiot either. To begin with, the action of an assassin at his level ‘pulling the trigger’ would never be that easy to read. Above all, when the opponent had gone out of his way to present his head, there was no reason to pull it fair and square. So Solomon made a pulling motion as a fake, induced his opponent’s reaction, and pulled the trigger again off-beat.

There was no sound. To begin with, it was a trajectory of shadow without physical substance.

Point-blank distance. An absolute range where it could neither be dodged nor blocked. The shadow bolt shot out with enough force to pierce Fire Cloud’s head.

No, it should have shot out.

“!”

Even so, the sight before Solomon’s eyes, though the phrase was truly nothing but a cliché, left him with nothing else to say.

Even after seeing it, he couldn’t believe it.

Fire Cloud’s two hands, or more precisely, his index and middle fingers, two fingers, had accurately snatched it.

It wasn’t even snatching a bolt after it had been fired. The distance to its destination right after firing was one thing, and to begin with, it was not even a bolt whose physical substance could be grabbed.

Immediately after firing, at the very instant the shadow bolt was launched along the frame, he had snatched it.

Chiiiiik…….

Even so, between Fire Cloud’s two fingers, the shadow bolt hissed like a captured snake and gradually lost its power.

As soon as he saw it, he realized. That was one of the Seven Rogue Masters who stood at the top of the hotel. Sword-Handler Fire Cloud.

Solomon was not even a match.

Before that dizzying gap, Solomon could only let out a hollow laugh. No matter how much stronger he had become in this world, no matter what kinds of power he had obtained, and no matter how much he had been pampered with words like human assassin and the like, this was the reality.

“Interesting.”

Fire Cloud continued calmly while holding that very bolt.

“It looks pretty good for kids to play with…… but its speed and killing power are really lacking, aren’t they? It’s too slow.”
“……I suppose so.”

Pretty good for kids to play with. That was the impression the man before him gave while facing a masterpiece of the dwarf masters of Deadlock Workshop.

“So, what do you want to say?”

Solomon asked back calmly. His voice was close to resignation. He had no intention of really kneeling and submitting, but at the very least, the opponent before him was not someone Solomon could do anything about right now, no matter what he tried. Because he knew that fact, Solomon continued.

“At least you don’t seem to have come here intending to kill me.”
“Hooh, why do you think so?”
“Because I’m still alive.”

That was exactly right. If the opponent before him had truly attacked Solomon with the intent to kill, Solomon would have no chance of surviving.

‘No, now that I think about it, I still have the City Council’s protective geas left……’

Quite a bit of time had already passed, but it hadn’t disappeared yet. Was it because of that? Even Chairman Vlad Țepeș had brought it up and had not gone out of his way to devour Solomon.

“Kill you? Why would I kill you?”

Even so, Fire Cloud’s following words were unexpected.

“Buddy, did you already forget what I said earlier?”
“What?”
“Your bones are different, buddy. Above all, the energy pouring from the crown of your head is no ordinary thing! And your hair is abundant too!”
“…….”
“You must surely have the bone structure for martial studies that appears once in a century, if even that!”
“…….”

Saying that, Fire Cloud had somehow begun fumbling around, picking up the books he had spread out and unfolding them in front of him again.

“That is why I prepared them for you! Look! Every one of them is a rare manual of the age that can’t be obtained easily!”

Secret manuals. These were books that not some mere snake oil salesman, but one of the Seven Rogue Masters himself called ‘rare manuals of the age.’ Only then did Solomon finally begin to take interest in his words.

Although <Secret Manual for Conquering Athlete’s Foot> was one thing, the others were different.

<Buddha’s Palm> (copy)
(special bargain sale)

‘Don’t tell me, are they really secret manuals?’

Rather, perhaps in this situation, the correct answer was to do as he said and obediently buy them. Just as Solomon silently fell into thought, thinking that.

The wind blew.

The blowing wind passed the nape of Solomon’s neck, swept across the floor, and before he knew it, it embraced the cover of the secret manual Fire Cloud had spoken of and turned the pages. And the contents spread out beyond those pages were…….

Blank.

‘…….’

Solomon asked back, dumbfounded.

“No, they’re blank.”
“…….”

A short silence.

“I see…… You cannot see it with your eyes.”

After the silence, Fire Cloud said this with a somewhat gloomy expression. You cannot see it. There was no small amount of bitterness in his expression as he said that. As if pitying a disciple who could not recognize the treasure before his eyes. Like a master looking at scenery beyond what a low-level fighter could not see.

“In the end, you too were one who could not see this content.”

Over the dead-fish eyes that had been wandering until just now, an unmistakable strange light shone.

Toward Solomon, who called blank paper blank, as if he truly found it regrettable. He had merely glanced at a single open page and said it, but even that seemed to make Fire Cloud quite disappointed. Could it really be a secret manual that only experts could recognize, just as he said?

‘Is there something there?’

That was why Solomon couldn’t help being confused. Although he had used force, before that, the Rogue Master before him had given Solomon a fairly favorable evaluation, saying something about martial studies and the like. There was no way someone like that would sell such books to just anyone like a snake oil salesman.

‘Don’t tell me, I failed to recognize its meaning…….’

Just as Solomon hesitated while thinking that.

“No, you saw it correctly.”

“─.”

A voice was heard.

“Those scraps of paper are just blank, and that lunatic is only spouting nonsense to scam you.”

A sharp tongue and cold voice he could not possibly fail to recognize.

“Don’t tell me you were tempted by that snake oil pitch.”
“…….”
“Bad words are about to come out.”

She wore a neatly tied necktie and a business suit. At her waist, a sword belt mechanically secured no less than three sword hilts.

Her distinct features were the pink streaks highlighting a few strands in her long black hair, and her sunglasses.

“Violet…….”

“Ooh, looking at you, sister, your bones are different. The energy pouring from the crown of your head is no ordinary thing! And your hair is abundant too!”
“…….”
“You must surely have the bone structure for martial studies that appears once in a century, if even that!”

As soon as Fire Cloud saw Violet, he began selling snake oil with lines not a single word different from earlier.

With the crumpled <Buddha’s Palm (copy)>, <Dugu Nine Swords (special bargain sale)>, and <Secret Manual for Athlet…… (the rest omitted)>.

“I heard a top-grade nutcase escaped from Hill House Psychiatric Ward…….”

Violet continued in a merciless voice.

“To think it would be you, Master.”
“!”
“Yes, you still…… cannot see it either.”

Master. Before Solomon even had time to blink at that word, Fire Cloud answered with feigned bitterness. As if he were truly disappointed. Violet asked back without batting an eye.

“Are you taking your medication on time?”
“Medication? Why would I take that?”

Fire Cloud snapped back as if it were absurd. With those same wandering dead-fish eyes.

“The psychiatric meds they give me have microchips implanted in them, and it’s a government conspiracy to control my brainwaves with them! You think I wouldn’t know that?! Eyy!”
“Judging by that, it seems taking them on time is out of the question.”
“……It seems so.”

Fire Cloud’s claim was not entirely unconvincing in Guild City, but at the very least, the appearance of the one making the claim definitely lacked persuasiveness.

“Well then, since this is a rare occasion, why don’t we test my disciple’s skills and have a little conversation of swords?”

Even then, as he adjusted his grip on the invisible sword and looked this way, his spirit was not something that could ever be dismissed lightly. To the point that it made the wandering dead-fish eyes from just moments ago seem meaningless.

“Including that human assassin buddy over there, of course.”
“……!”
“Not half-heartedly like earlier. For real this time.”

There wasn’t even time to answer. Sword-Handler Fire Cloud kicked off the ground. Holding an invisible sword, for a conversation of swords.