My Students Regret It After I Retired

52 – Severing the Arm of the Arrogant Noble.

As Devigail stepped to the center, nearly two thousand knights began to encircle them in a wide ring.

Watching the scene unfold, Duke Diascota observed from afar with an intrigued gaze.

“This should be entertaining.”

He had already reached a relatively safe zone, so there was no need to rush. Duke Diascota, who believed there was no greater entertainment than watching humans fight for their lives, began to watch the current situation like a bullfight.

The knights also watched with keen interest. But they all expected Devigail’s victory. They were well aware of the clear difference in level between the former captain, who had fought countless battles, and someone who had simply had a lot of street fights.

Devigail also naturally anticipated his victory. His only concern was how to dominate his opponent.

Watching from behind, Bendict stretched his body once and then spoke.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve fought one on one.”

Since his duel with Leos, Bendict had rarely fought individually, and even the battle just before had been a multiple-on-multiple engagement. Fighting one-on-one. Even though his life was on the line, he felt a sense of anticipation, alongside fear, as he thought he could clearly see how much stronger he had become.

The battle began with Bendict’s charge.

Bendict rushed forward. With no weapons or equipment, he just charged with his bare hands. Devigail chuckled at the sight.

No matter how skilled one is in unarmed combat, there is an overwhelming advantage to having a weapon. It’s a given that wielding a weapon provides a tremendous edge.

Devigail thought it might end much more easily than he expected as he swung his sword. It was a light swing, meant to gauge the distance. But Bendict lunged towards the sword with incredible speed.

“…!”

Despite Dvigail’s expectation that if she swung her sword, even if it wasn’t a valid strike, Bendict would be intimidated and retreat, Bendict instead started to advance recklessly as if he didn’t care if his body was cut.

‘What kind of maniac is this…!’

No matter how confident one was in close-quarters combat, charging forward without even defending against a longsword was tantamount to suicide. Dvigail immediately swung her sword towards Bendict’s head. But.

– *Whisk!*

Bendict twisted his body strangely to the side, and then, as if boxing, deflected the sword diagonally.

– *Clang!*

With a great noise, the side of the sword hit accurately, falling from Dvigail’s hand. Dvigail stared at her sword, lying on the ground, with disbelieving eyes.

The sword swing had been a fleeting moment. Yet, to grasp that brief moment of the swing and strike the side of the blade precisely was a feat close to magic.

If the timing had been too early, his fist would have been cut clean off; if it had been too late, he wouldn’t have been able to defend, and his body would have been sliced through.

A perfect counter with no margin for error of even 0.1 second.

Seeing Bendict’s counterattack, Dvigail walked forward with a bitter smile.

“Though my sword is gone, I am confident in close combat too. From the beginning, you were without a sword as well, so now we fight on equal terms.”

“Haha! After being so shameless as to start by swinging a sword, I wish you wouldn’t talk as if you’ve now thrown away the sword out of consideration for me! Do knights have no pride? To be defeated out of carelessness, and not being able to admit to being careless and instead talk in circles like this.”

As Bendict spoke mockingly, Dvigail’s face instantly contorted. Losing her composure, Dvigail charged straight in, and the two of them instantly began close combat.

After a few exchanges of punches, the victor was quickly decided.

– *Thud*

Dvigail, hit in the jaw by Bendict, collapsed on the spot. A complete victory for Bendict. Dvigail, lying on the ground, stared blankly at her legs.

The nearby ground. Her own collapsed form. The metallic taste of blood in her mouth.

A bitter taste of defeat, unlike anything she had ever experienced. It began to dig deeply into the man’s heart. Rage surged, and that rage was immediately expressed.

“Kill! Kill him, I say!”

The knights who were watching gasped, a stark moment. Almost two thousand knights began surging in from all sides at once.

Trapped in a space isolated by the artifact, with no allies in sight, Bendict muttered to himself, watching the enemies swarm.

“Not like this, I didn’t want to die like this. I wonder if my brother will even give me a funeral.”

Even in that moment, Bendict thought of Leos. What would Leos think, seeing his corpse? He considered several possibilities, his mind a whirl.

*Still, it’d be nice if he grieved, even a little.*

Bendict slowly raised his hand. Even if he was going to die, he had to take out at least one more of these b*stards. That single-minded determination.

But then.

– *CRACK…*

– *CRUNCH…*

– *SHATTER!*

A deafening roar echoed, and the artifact-created sound and vision-blocking shield shattered to pieces. Bendict, startled, looked towards the source and saw Herisia.

“Lord Leos! The disruption is neutralized! We can enter now!”

Bendict just laughed, a hollow sound.

“I’m alive…”

Even with over two thousand knights surrounding them, and their own forces barely a tenth of that, Bendict was certain. Now that Leos had come, it was the enemy who would die.

Leos slowly walked towards him, asking,

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m not.”

“I told you to just scout, why did you go off so far, doing unnecessary things?”

“Hahaha… I’m sorry, brother.”

Leos and Bendict were talking at a distance, when one of the knights bellowed.

“You mutts! Dare to ignore us?”

A knight rushed forward, sword drawn. Leos, in turn, unsheathed the blood-forged sword he’d previously seized from Artan of the Heavenly Assembly.

– *Shhhring*

A clear sound, like jade rolling, echoed throughout the area, and then a knight’s body was cleanly cleaved in two.

With a *shatter*, the corpse instantly lost its vitality, the energy flowing into the blood-forged sword. Leos, watching the scene, spoke.

“If you trespass on another’s territory, you pay the price.”

Duke Diascota, realizing something was amiss, retreated a distance and questioned Leos.

“You’re the one called Leos, then?”

“That’s right.”

“Heh… quite the impertinent tone you have.”

Diascota sized up Leos for a moment, then tossed a 10kg gold bar from his carriage, saying,

“This is an advance payment. If you betray your comrades and choose to follow me, I’ll give you ten times that weight in gold. And if you help me with the Redgate seal, I’ll give you rewards befitting that. If you want food, I’ll give you food. If you want position, I’ll give you position.”

Leos slowly walked towards the gold bar that had fallen to the ground. He picked it up, examining it closely. It was stained with the stench of countless people’s blood.

Probably plundered, too.

Leos silently stared at the gold for a while before asking Duke Diascota,

“As I understand it, you’re a Duke of the Peren Empire with considerable authority. With so much power, strength, money, and influence, why do you go around plundering the helpless?”

He truly couldn’t comprehend it.

Duke Diascota, who had massacred countless people on his way to safety. If he only wanted a safe haven, he shouldn’t have murdered the innocent people already living there.

“Why plunder? Because they were in the way, so I killed them. And since I was killing them, I took their spoils. What’s wrong with that?”

“Then let me rephrase the question. Why did you run all the way here instead of trying to fix something when the people are suffering? Red Gates are appearing all over the Empire right now. Your power and troops, especially those of you in high positions, are desperately needed by the people.”

“So what if a bunch of useless b*stards die? If only the great bloodlines like mine survive, we can always replenish those ignorant commoners. There’s no need for me to risk my precious troops for them.”

Leos nodded expressionlessly. He understood. They didn’t consider their plundering a crime or something to be ashamed of, but a natural right they enjoyed as the upper class. They also believed the people were simply a means to an end, tools.

Leos picked up a gold ingot and slowly walked toward Duke Diascota.

The knights tried to stop him, but Diascota waved them back, signaling them to stand aside.

Leos approached Diascota, now right in front of him.

“What do you think, Leos? Changed your mind? I know, friendship is all well and good, but nobody can resist gold, power, and supplies. I’ll keep my promise, no matter what. Since you’ve decided to side with me, let me give you your first order. Kill that bug, Bendict, and your companions behind you. All of them, with your own hands.”

Hearing those words, Leos threw the gold ingot at Diascota. And at the same time.

– *Shwick!*

Along with the gold ingot, he sliced clean through Diascota’s shoulder. The severed gold and his arm fell to the ground.

And the horrifying scream of Diascota echoed.

Leos looked down at the fallen Diascota and whispered,

“You don’t seem to grasp the situation…”

“Making offers, giving orders, making decisions – *I* will be doing those things, not you.”