Became the Imperial-Certified Mad Dog

The Fox Takes Off Its Mask and Wags Its Tail (2)

‘That was a close call…!’

Thankfully, I reflexively dodged when the wall shattered. If I hadn’t, the chain would have wrapped around my neck, and my neck would have snapped the moment Dorothy fell.

Thud. Dorothy hit the ground, and a few seconds later, I fell too. Unlike her who landed steadily, I was still bound and dragged, so I had to take the full impact.

‘Kuheck!?’

Blood rushed up from my impacted internal organs and flowed from my mouth and nose, but I had no time to feel pain, so I struggled as much as possible to free myself from the chain wrapped around my waist.

‘Oh my, what a shame. It would have been so convenient to just drag you along.’

Dorothy showed off her composure without any sign of panic or wariness, even though I had broken free from the restraints.

‘Was she always like this?’

Though I’d seen a lot of her over the past week for work, I honestly didn’t know her personality since we barely had any personal conversations.

I thought she was a mature person since she always quietly took care of her duties, but seeing her current face full of mischief, it seems that was just my one-sided misconception.

‘With that outfit and swinging chains at people, I guess my suspicions were right?’

‘Oh my, didn’t you already know when you charged at me? You came out in such a hurry, I thought you and the master already knew…’

‘Shameless woman…’

So she was even wiretapping Karma’s room?

‘Sigh, this is really disappointing. You might not believe me, but life as a servant here was quite pleasant. No smell of blood, decent people, and the work wasn’t hard.’

Dorothy let out a sigh that seemed to prove she wasn’t lying. Though I knew she was older than me, she wasn’t yet an adult, but there was something mature about her.

‘Then why didn’t you just come clean?’

‘The world isn’t that simple. In any organization, you might enter freely, but leaving isn’t so easy. Especially Yata, they’re particularly sensitive about such things.’

‘Yata?’

‘Oh my, I slipped up. I’ve said too much.’

Dorothy belatedly regretted her slip of the tongue, but judging by her expression, it seemed like an intentional leak.

‘I’ve never heard that name before… Is that the organization she belongs to?’

Either way, I’ll ask after cutting off a limb or two.

‘Heh, want to try?’

‘Of course! Do you know how much mental anguish you’ve caused me this past week?’

‘Aww, you were that worried about me? I’m flattered~’

Dorothy covered her cheeks as if embarrassed, making a cute ‘kyaa’ sound. However, thinking about how she must have been watching me worry and feel anxious for the past week, it felt like she was just mocking me.

‘You’ve got some nerve!’

Adding the grudge of making me cough blood to the week of torment she put me through, I charged straight at her.

‘Seems the knife isn’t just for show. But aren’t you being too straightforward?’

Whoosh. As she briefly swung her weapon-wielding hand, the chains rippled, and the knife at the end moved at an odd angle, flying toward my side as I approached.

‘Ugh!?’

Clang. I hurriedly gripped my knife in reverse to protect my side, and the blades collided with a small vibration. The collision threw off my direction, and instead of reaching Dorothy, my body crashed into a nearby tree.

‘You dodged again? Are you really eleven years old?’

‘…Ah shit. I’m really screwed now.’

Looks like this opponent isn’t going to be easy to handle.

‘Hey, let me ask you one thing.’

‘Sure, go ahead.’

‘Who are you targeting? Is it me, Peri, or Karma?’

‘Hmm, you’re worried about that at this point? If you’re confident in your skills, you could capture me first and interrogate me slowly. Don’t think you can capture me alive?’

‘…’

‘Damn this woman…’

‘Listen to yourself, you’re so scary. Were you always this foul-mouthed?’

‘Stop playing dumb when you’ve already heard everything through your wiretaps. It’s really getting on my nerves.’

Shing. As I got up, I slowly surveyed the surroundings. The annex building was right behind me, and there were several trees planted in the garden.

‘Just so you know, I don’t go easy on women. If you don’t want your face cut up, you’d better guard it with your arms.’

‘Looks like I need to break your spirit a bit before we talk~’

Bang. Using a tree as a foothold, I jumped, but instead of going toward Dorothy, I flew toward another tree, then used that as a foothold to attack from her blind spot.

‘You seem to learn quickly, but!’

Rattle. Dorothy, still smiling, threw the chain into the air and pulled it back, causing the chains to wrap around her arm like bandages.

With the long chains wrapped around her, Dorothy’s right arm became as thick as if wearing heavy armor, and holding the dagger at the chain’s end in her right hand, she twisted her body and swung the knife at me.

Clang. Once again our blades clashed, but unlike before, this was the impact of blades swung with our arms, causing sparks to fly.

The power struggle through our blades initially pushed Dorothy back as I charged in, but soon due to differences in posture and build, it became a situation where she was pushing down from above and I was pushing up from below.

And in this power struggle between guard and assassin, the one who gained the upper hand was…

‘Damn…!’

‘Our little knight, you should watch your language a bit more. I don’t like men with dirty mouths!’

Surprisingly, I was losing in terms of strength.

‘To think I’m losing in strength to a girl around my age…’

Though I’d never had a strength contest with a girl before, it was shocking nonetheless.

‘What… exactly are you…!’

‘Heh.’

Instead of answering, Dorothy smiled sweetly and kicked me in the stomach while I was concentrating on holding my ground in our power struggle.

‘Kuk!?’

I tried to pull away somehow, but if I lessened my force even slightly, it was clear the dagger I was barely blocking would become a guillotine for my head. So even though I knew the attack was coming, I couldn’t dodge it.

The one fortunate thing was that by using the recoil from getting hit, I managed to pull back without getting cut by the blade and create some distance. After rolling backward, I immediately got up and regained my stance.

‘What’s this, you want to continue? Didn’t you just learn? I’m stronger than you.’

Dorothy’s eyes widened as if surprised that I hadn’t given up yet.

‘Don’t get cocky just because you won one strength contest.’

Though I tried to act tough because my pride wouldn’t let me back down, the gap between us had already been proven.

Just what kind of monster is she?

Not only have I never lost to someone my age, I’ve never even had a proper strength contest with anyone.

Even accounting for talent, what kind of life must one live to become that strong at that age?

‘Hey, do we really have to fight? Let’s talk. I might be able to help you.’

‘Huh?’

‘Alright, I’ll be direct, Gul. Come with me to Yata, and I’ll give you everything you want. For example, your parents?’

‘…You!’

When she brought up my parents, blood rushed to my head and I was about to jump at her, but Dorothy continued as if she had been expecting this reaction.

‘To be honest, do you trust your master, I mean Karma, Serpe’s boss? Do you really think he’ll free you and your parents after you work like a dog for several years?’

‘…And you’re more trustworthy?’

‘At least I won’t play games with unrealistic timeframes. Join hands with me, Gul, and then, well, we can capture Karma right now, find out where your parents are, and help you leave the Empire. I’ll even find you a place to live outside.’

‘…’

‘Of course, as you know, this isn’t for free. Instead of being Karma’s guard dog, you’ll be my hunting dog. Serve me instead of that annoying girl. How about it? Pretty good deal, right? Unlike that girl, I don’t take out meaningless anger on my precious dogs.’

‘You seem to really dislike Peri, despite appearances.’

‘You’re talking as if you like her. You hate her too, don’t you? That girl who constantly picks obvious fights and makes people suffer, who doesn’t realize how lucky she is and just throws childish tantrums – who could like someone like that?’

I remained silent at Dorothy’s criticism, which showed no sign of having developed any attachment despite watching from close by for two months – even if they didn’t get along, one might have expected some fondness to develop.

‘What’s there to think about, Gul? It’s not like you owe Serpe anything anyway. If you became a dog just because they have your parents as leverage, does it matter who your master is? Don’t think too hard about it, there’s nothing to feel guilty about betraying them. Just think of it as making a wise choice, becoming an adult a little early.’

‘…Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that I decide to follow you.’

‘Yes, yes, ask anything.’

Dorothy happily granted permission to ask questions, pleased at signs I might be persuaded.

‘What happens to Karma, Peri, and the people in this mansion?’

‘Well, since both you and I have had our identities exposed for quite a while, even if they’re fake, we’ll have to kill everyone here and set fire to the place to make them think we died, right?’

‘Ah, I see.’

At this very rational choice, I let out a small sound of admiration and said,

‘Negotiation failed.’

Then threw my knife at that vicious woman.

‘What are you-!?’

Dorothy easily deflected the knife I threw, but right after she blocked it, I approached through the gap in her vision created by blocking the knife and landed a solid punch to her abdomen.

‘Ugh!?’

‘That’s for dropping me from the building earlier.’

Crack-

‘What’s wrong with it?! It was a perfectly good offer!’

‘It wasn’t bad, but in the end, I figured you wouldn’t be much different from her. Though I was quite tempted by the promise of immediately rescuing my parents.’

‘Then why!?’

‘Because you said you’d kill them, everyone in this mansion and Peri too. I might dislike Karma and Serpe, but not the people here.’

‘…You’d reject me just because of that girl?’

‘What are you talking about? And you’ve been annoying me calling me kid this, kid that, but weren’t you the one picking fights with me? If anything, thanks to me she’s been living sweetly, where do you get off complaining?’

‘Haha… I see… If you hate it that much… But you know what? Acting so willful just makes me want you more.’

‘What are you going to do, cut off all my limbs and take me to that Yata place?’

‘No, that wouldn’t be fun. I just need to make you depend on me.’

‘…?’

‘In this situation, if I slice up that annoying little miss and hang her on the wall, how do you think that daddy’s girl master would react?’

‘You fucking…!’

Realizing her intention, I rushed at her frantically, but Dorothy had already tied her chain to a tree branch and used it to swing herself to the main building first.