Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 3.3

Rudeus

I WALLOPED Dust’s gang first. I closed in on them the moment the mist cleared. They were too surprised to react in time. Using my Eye of Foresight, I read the positions of their shields and where they’d move while firing off one, two, three shots.

I think they tried to defend themselves, but all my shots blasted straight through.

I held back, obviously. I only knocked them out. They were alive. Probably.

Without waiting for them to hit the ground, I went into gatling mode. I spun around to my right, my arms spinning around with me. There was a buzzing like angry bees as a line of stone cannons strafed out. The knights’ legs snapped like twigs, armored leg guards and all. They were still attached, though, and I hadn’t hit any vital spots, so hey, probably not dead. If they got up I’d be in trouble, so I shot each one in the head with a stone cannon to knock them out. Two to go.

I turned, using the footwork Orsted taught me that allowed me to close in on would-be attackers from behind while maintaining the ability to dodge. It didn’t seem like anyone was attacking me just then, but better safe than sorry. I stopped in front of Therese. She stared at me in blank shock. Another knight tried to draw his sword to defend her. Too slow, buddy. Way too slow. Eris could have cut him to pieces ten times over in that time.

In the Version One, I could deal with that. My fist whammed into him before he’d drawn the blade out of the scabbard. This last dude didn’t have time to speak before I sent him flying. He crashed into the wall of the church and passed out.

Therese stood there looking dazed throughout all of it. I couldn’t see her face through the helmet, but I recognized that body language. People panic and freeze up like that when they can’t process what’s happening anymore.

“Wha…what the…?” she gaped.

I knocked her out. As a gesture of respect for everything she’d done for me, I did it with a Stone Cannon rather than my fist.

It was over.

The Magic Armor Version One was a serious force to be reckoned with. All my attacks had cut straight through their defenses, and I’d barely taken a single hit. Fighting like this almost felt kind of unsporting. The other Temple Knights lay collapsed around Therese and me. None of them were dead. Great, I didn’t like killing people when I could avoid it, unless they were disciples of the Man-God. That was my rule. Besides, these guys were never much of a threat.

“Whew…that feels better.”

Amazing how good it felt to vent some of the frustration I’d built up lately.

Maybe it was good for me to get into a real fight every now and then. I wondered if I should take a leaf out of Eris’s book and… Never mind. That’d be too much violence.

Now what do I do? I wondered. After this, the Temple Knights and I were definitely enemies.

Who’d ratted me out in the first place? The list of people who knew about the kidnapping idea included me, Geese, and Aisha…and then Cliff and the pope. Maybe the girl at Cliff’s place as well? I ruled Aisha out right away. If she wanted to betray me, she could have hit me closer to home.

“Big Brother, piggyback!” she’d say, all cute, then while I was distracted by her breasts pressed up against my back, she’d slit my throat. Simpler still, she could poison my drink. “Big Brother, I made this especially for you,” would be all she’d have to say, and I’d be toast. I was pretty sure Geese and Cliff were safe too. I categorized them together. Neither of them needed a big complicated plan to get the better of me. 

That left the pope. But why would the pope pick this moment to get rid of me? What was in it for him? No, I was looking at this the wrong way. Maybe he just wanted to pit me against the Temple Knights. Looking at it from his perspective, I’d said I’d support him, but I hadn’t actually followed through. Maybe he plotted this because he was sick of me popping in all the time. Then, while her guards were out here occupied with me, the pope’s people snuck in and kidnapped the Blessed Child themselves…

Wait, wait. Hadn’t Therese said her information came from a trustworthy source? The pope was her enemy—definitely not a trustworthy source. The kidnapping line might have been a coincidence, a lie someone had made up then tried to pin on me. 

No, wait. Not a coincidence—this could be the Man-God’s plot. His disciples could be lurking somewhere in the shadows right now. Yeah, that was a more straightforward explanation than betrayal, and it was more likely. Hell if I knew what his angle was, and anyway, it’d be based on whatever he saw in the future. The bastard had his tentacles in every nasty thing that ever happened. 

I couldn’t pin down the culprit with only the information I had. I was just wasting my time overthinking it. I had a more immediate problem—as of right now, I was accumulating enemies. I didn’t know if anything had happened to the Blessed Child, but I’d really done a number on her guards. The cardinalist faction wasn’t gonna like it. First, they’d arrest me for the attempted kidnapping of the Blessed Child. Then they’d follow the trail of breadcrumbs to get Cliff, the one who’d brought me to Millishion, and then they’d go for the pope. 

Hold on. Didn’t that mean the pope hadn’t orchestrated this? Was it the cardinal?

Come on, we’ve been over this. Quit worrying about who’s behind this and plan your next move. 

But against what? Who? Part of me wanted to pack everyone up and get the hell out of the city. But I had Zenith to consider. No way was I leaving her behind. I could go to the Latria estate right now and bust her out…but what if she wasn’t there? What if, while I was busy working with Therese, Claire had moved Zenith to a new location?

Was I going to end up burning the whole of Millis to the ground fighting these knights? Oh, the Man-God would love that.

But what the hell. Maybe I should do it anyway. First order of business: get Aisha, Geese and Cliff out of harm’s way. Then I’d go to the Latria estate and retrieve Zenith. If she wasn’t there, I’d head for the castle, grab a member of the royal family, and demand an exchange of hostages. There, cool, done. I was so tired of thinking about this.

“Oh,” came a voice. I looked over, past the mess Quagmire had made of the garden, to the door to the inner sanctum. In front of the door, holding the special key that operated its lock, stood a girl. She was alone.

I realized she was looking into my eyes. I immediately tried to avert my gaze, but it was too late. A look of perfect understanding washed over her face, and she smiled. Then she held her arms out to me, as though welcoming me. When I saw it, it clicked. Maybe it was just an instinct, but I acted on it.

I kidnapped the Blessed Child.