“Murderer? What are you talking about?” Theodore played dumb.

“Simon Sen”, Amelia told him the name of a person.

The knight’s face then became serious and I could feel hostility, It seems that Amelia was right.

“You know that name. After all, it was the name of your brother who disappeared 7 years ago”, she continued.

I read that case back in the record center and gave it to Amelia since it involved the 2 dead executives. A member of the Familiaran disappeared one day and his lover reported it to the knights. She claimed that the Familiaran was behind the disappearance and the knights investigated. However, the lack of evidence and clues led the case to become cold. The girl claimed that Simon Sen failed the task that the 4 executives gave him and they executed him. But there wasn't any evidence backing her so the knights only asked the executives’ alibis and let them free.

“You were plotting revenge against the entire Familiaran and the 4 executives. That’s why you wanted them to go to war against the Kageyama Clan. You killed the first 2 executives and you were going to kill this man tonight”, she said.

“What are you saying? It’s true that Simon Sen was my brother but that’s not enough for you to say I’m the murderer. And besides, I only came here by chance. I didn’t even know that guy is an executive”, Theodore said.

“You planted a tracker on the executives’ shoes and had them transmit their locations to a device that you have. We already checked and there was a small device stuck on the sole. It’s really small and cloaked with magic so there was a small chance that it would be detected..”

The uneasy feeling returned and the executive collapsed to the ground. Theodore immediately charged towards me and swung his sword but I managed to block it in time.

If I was a second late, my head would be rolling on the ground already. That sheer realization pumped adrenaline to my brain and I backed away from the murderer.

“Don’t worry about the executive! He’s just unconscious!” Amelia shouted.

“When did you start suspecting me?” he asked.

Theodore looked at Amelia. He had a scowl and his eyes radiated danger. I’ve seen those eyes before. They looked like a delinquent who was cornered and knew that if he lost, he would lose everything.

There was a thing called “Fight-or-Flight” response. If Theodore would choose “Flight”, the Familiaran and the Knight Order would hunt him down. I might be new in this world but I knew that the Familiaran wasn’t exactly nice to its enemies. That was why Theodore had no choice but to “Fight” and silence us.

“Your strange comment after I mentioned how much the murderer hated the victim was odd”, she answered.

I see. To stab the body two more times after he died, it must be deep hatred, that was what he said.

“I wondered how you knew that the victim was dead before he got stabbed two more times. Then I looked for cases that involved the executives. And luckily, Mikage found the case involving Simon Sen, a person who had the same last name as you.”

Theodore shrugged and then let out a laugh.

“Seriously? From a slight slip of my tongue, you already suspected me? This is insane... You really are an amazing detective. But not amazing enough. You should have just traced the signals coming out from my tracker to find me instead of baiting me out like this”, he said as he pointed his sword at me.

“To trace that signal, the device would have to be removed from the shoes. There’s a chance that the device would send out an alarm if it was removed so I wouldn’t bet on it. After all, I’ve seen those types of devices in my line of work.”

“Tch. I hate cautious people like you. Then there’s no helping it. I have to kill all of you”, Theodore charged at me.

Our swords clashed. If it weren’t for my daily training with Temma, I would’ve been overpowered. However, I was barely managing to block him. His killing intent was purely directed at me as he swung his sword. I couldn’t even attack. All I could do was block his attacks.

“You’re barely holding on! You haven’t killed someone before, have you?!” he shouted as he continued his barrage of slashes.

Theodore’s attacks were getting faster and stronger. I could feel my heart beating loudly but I still managed to keep up. I wasn’t even thinking anymore. My hands reacted to his strikes and I was barely surviving thanks to my instinct.

If I fail, we will die. That thought pushed me to my senses to the limit as I tried to block Theodore’s attacks. From the direction of his eyes and the location of his arms, I managed to have an idea where his next strikes would be going.

His sword struck the ground and sent dirt flying to my eyes. I was blinded by the sudden sand attack. This was bad!

I heard a gunshot and then a grunt. After wiping my eyes, I saw that Amelia fired a gun and Theodore’s left arm was grazed. Taking this opportunity, I swung my sword at him but he easily blocked it.

“An attack without killing intent is useless against me!” he shouted.

That’s right. I couldn’t bring myself to become a murderer. Even if this man was a killer, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him... Or could I? Wasn’t it justifiable if I killed him right here?

While I was distracted with that thought, his strike broke my sword into two pieces. Ah crap! I was now weaponless and I could get killed!

“This is the end”, he said.

“For you that is!” a voice shouted.

Temma ran at an incredible speed and slashed at Theodore. The murderer blocked his strike but was blown away.

“Temma!” I couldn’t describe how relieved I was.

“Mikage. Stand back. I’m gonna finish this”, he said.

His face was scary. Temma was a sunny guy and every time we sparred, he always had a smile on his face and a gentle look on his eyes.

But this time, there wasn’t a hint of gentleness on his face. His eyes were burning with the resolve to cut down his opponent.

“The Dark Knight, Temma. You’re an opponent I can’t defeat in my current state”, Theodore said.

“If you know it already, then why don’t you surrender?” he asked.

“If I surrender, I’ll end up getting killed by the Familiaran. I can’t run away since you already know my face and the Familiaran will hunt me down to the ends of the world. My only option is to kill all of you here!”, he took a black pill from his pocket.

That pill was dangerous. I could feel an eerie aura coming out of it. Theodore swallowed the pill and the uneasy feeling returned. The sclera of his eyes turned black and his iris became red.

He was very fast since he closed the distance between him and Temma in just a second. I could barely follow their swords as they clashed. The sound of metal clashing with each other was very loud which meant that the force behind their strikes was very strong.

Temma was still stronger than him despite the eerie power-up. I could feel a strange and dangerous energy deep inside Theodore. Temma cut off Theodore’s hand and stabbed him. Theodore fell to the ground.

“You okay?” Temma turned towards us.

“Yeah”, I answered.

“It got a bit dangerous when Mikage’s sword broke but it’s all okay now”, Amelia added.

“That’s great”, Temma’s smile returned.

I must not stop. Not until Simon is avenged. Must kill!

A voice echoed in my head. My stomach twisted and an eerie feeling washed over me.

“Look out! It’s not over yet!” I shouted.

Theodore’s body was covered in a black aura and he stood up. He charged at Temma and pinned him to the ground. He raised his fist and was about to smash Temma’s head in.

If Temma dies, we all die. And Temma was my first friend in this world. He helped me in my studies and he even spent time training me. If anything would happen to him, I would be saddened.

I reached out my hand as Theodore’s hand was going down. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. I couldn’t reach him in time at this rate.

Then, an eerie feeling washed over me again and I noticed my shadow literally coming out of the ground. A dark substance extended from the ground and reached Theodore. It hit his neck and severed his head from his body.

I didn’t know what just happened. For some reason, my shadow emerged from the ground and cut off the murderer’s head.

But one thing’s for sure: I just killed a man.