Chapter 251
He who lives by the slap, dies by the slap.
It would be a lie to say I didn’t feel the slightest bit of satisfaction seeing Team Leader-nim Hank, who had mercilessly struck my cheek, getting a taste of his own medicine.
But more than that… I never thought I’d have this kind of thought, but I felt a little sorry for Team Leader-nim Hank as he stood there taking the hits without resisting.
He was paying the price for what his Escort Target, Young Lady Alexandra, had done.
He was getting slapped by a woman young enough to be his daughter - someone who was no match for a single punch - while listening to insulting vitriol directed at his organization, his subordinates, and himself.
And yet, with astonishing patience, he remained perfectly still, bowing politely at the waist.
Regardless of the hot-tempered side he had shown me, right now, he deserves respect.
“Aren’t you going to move? Do you want to be hit more?”
When the Team Leader-nim continued to hold his ground, Matilda Sedouforne struck his cheek again, but Team Leader-nim Hank still didn’t budge. Rather, the one doing the hitting was getting tired first.
“Forget it. It seems those bastards from the Schneider Family are all deaf! Striking a lowly thing that can’t even understand words only hurts my hand and damages my dignity. It’s far from enough to repay what I’ve suffered!”
As Matilda Sedouforne said that and turned to the side to head toward Alexandra, Team Leader-nim Hank moved in the blink of an eye, still bowing his head, and blocked her path.
“…Are you messing with me right now? How dare a lowly thing like you block my path? Get lost at once! I need to give your Master a good slapping too!”
“Excuse me, but if that is the reason, it will be difficult for me to step aside.”
The stance of a true bodyguard, showing that he wouldn’t be overcome if he was hit a hundred times, but he would absolutely prevent any harm from coming to Alexandra.
Needless to say, Matilda Sedouforne, whose anger had yet to subside, exploded even more upon hearing those wooden words.
“Ugh! Move! I said move! Alexandraaa! Aren’t you ashamed? Hiding behind your bodyguard like that? Come out! Come out! You cowardly bitch!”
These noble young ladies were making things really difficult as a pair!
Ms. Kali and I barely managed to restrain Young Lady Alexandra, who was throwing a fit and trying to charge out right that second after hearing those words.
Why was a noble young lady so strong? It felt like holding back a bull or a bear rather than a person.
Meanwhile, Matilda Sedouforne, after hitting, kicking, and cursing at Team Leader-nim Hank with all her might to no avail, huffed and stepped back.
I wondered if it was finally over, but it wasn’t.
“Fine. Do you think you’re the only one with a bodyguard? I have one too. You’d better look forward to it, Alexandra. The samurai I recently brought in is a real one, on a completely different level from your trivial, lowly things.”
She shouted with a vicious look on her face.
“Maximus, it is time for you to step up. By any means and methods, slap that bitch’s cheek and come back! Unconditionally!”
For a moment, I was puzzled.
Of course, there were bodyguards near Matilda Sedouforne who had grasped the situation and appeared, just like us.
However, even with my eyes that had been through all sorts of hardships while working at dragons Lair, I couldn’t see anyone among them who looked terrifyingly skilled enough to be called a 'samurai' or a “real one on a completely different level”.
Just who was Maximus?
After about three seconds of silence, heavy footsteps stepped up onto the Five-Colored Crystal Stage.
Chills. an ominous premonition brushed past me.
He had hair cropped so short it was nearly shaved, an angular head, and chrome joints protruding all over the surface of his scalp.
Below his angular collarbones, which looked like a sculpture chiseled to the extreme, his shoulders and arms were ironclad, looking 1.5 times larger and thicker than those of an ordinary person.
There was no mistake. It was the very man I had bumped into while running!
And recalling the embarrassing memory of my being lightly sent flying, I didn’t know who he was, but he was definitely not someone to be underestimated.
I might not have the capacity to dare to judge the skills of those working in the Dusk Security Industry, but when I collided with that man, I felt a sense of helplessness, as if I had headbutted Dragon President’s powered armor. (I know because I’ve actually headbutted it before.)
It seemed I wasn’t the only one tense at the man’s unusual entrance.
Ms. Kali stiffened her expression and spoke.
“Iron Dog Invincible Maximus? Why on earth is an A-rank Ronin…”
An A-rank Ronin!
The meaning carried by those two words was immense.
It was also a familiar title to me. Wasn’t Chainsaw Man, whose funeral we held just a while ago, an acknowledged A-rank Ronin as well?
Just because someone was an A-rank Ronin didn’t mean they possessed the peak force to rule the city and single-handedly defeat the troops of a corporation.
If they did, Chainsaw Man and I wouldn’t have had to struggle so much during the Luddite Gang’s terrorist attack, and for the Dysis Waste incident, Chainsaw Man could have just smashed the large corporation by himself without having to worry about retaliation.
This was a world that ran on the logic of reality rather than a game. There was a limit to the strength of a single person.
Even if they were a non-existent S-rank rather than an A-rank, an individual could not stand against a corporation.
However, A-ranks were those who had reached the absolute limit of a single person.
Only those who had achieved countless feats that were difficult for a person to accomplish alone were recognized as A-rank ronins.
Just as Chainsaw Man, Miguel Ibarra Rodriguez, had blown up Dysis Waste’s waste factory, dealt with two squads of corporate private soldiers, stopped the leader of the luddites, Ned Ludd, and killed the infamous Chrome Killer “The offering one”, that man named Maximus had also achieved several great feats that could only be successful with both skill and luck.
And unlike Chainsaw Man, he was even still perfectly alive.
The puzzling thing was… A-rank ronins were truly an extreme minority, not because they were that strong, but because they were that rare and special.
It goes without saying, but being a Ronin was not a promising profession.
The only ones who would seriously dream of a profession as their future that earned money by putting one’s life on the line were hot-blooded high school boys.
At first, lacking both money and skill, they would start as bottom-feeder Ronins in the Underground, Living by the Sword.
But as they gradually built up their skills and had their experience recognized, they would receive scouting offers from various security companies, or in more outstanding cases, from a Corporate Security Team.
There was no reason not to accept. Working as a group was easier than working as an individual; it paid better; and it was even safer.
Let alone if their skills were at a level praised as A-rank.
If they joined right away, a Team Leader-nim-level position in a Large Corporation Security Team was a guaranteed thing, so what idiot would refuse such a secure, guaranteed future?
A-rank ronins were those who possessed A-rank skills yet operated as Ronins (Wanderers) unaffiliated with any group.
Such people all had their own circumstances, whether it was a unique personal belief that kept them from being bound to a group or a strong grudge against corporations…
In Chainsaw Man’s case, it was the former. Which one was it for Iron Dog Invincible Maximus?
And for what reason did he abandon the Ronin’s Principle of not belonging to a group and appear as the samurai of the Sedouforne Family?
Looking at A-rank Ronin Maximus’s machine-like, rigid face and his pitch-black eyes that showed no emotion, I asked my superior, Ms. Kali.
“Ms. Kali. He’s an A-rank Ronin… can you handle him?”
An answer popped out after a moment of thought.
“I don’t know either. I’ve never fought one. I guess we can find out today. Handle the Young Lady by yourself for a moment. It seems like it might be tough for the Team Leader-nim alone!”
Then she lightly leaped and ran toward the front of the stage, where the unusual standoff was taking place.
I wondered if I should go and help too, but that thought completely vanished at the sequence of scenes that followed.
Unlike Matilda Sedouforne, Maximus didn’t shout to move aside.
He strode toward Alexandra, and when Team Leader-nim Hank blocked his path, he swung his bionic Metal Arm without the slightest hesitation.
CRUNCH -
Momentum like a bulldozer pushing away an obstacle! Despite the sudden preemptive strike, Team Leader-nim Hank blocked the steel fist with both arms without showing any sign of surprise.
Even though it was clearly a collision between people, it sounded as if a bomb had gone off.
Team Leader-nim Hank’s lower body prosthetic practically ground against the crystal floor, pushing him back a few steps before he barely managed to block the attack.
“Are you crazy? If you do this here - “
Team Leader-nim Hank gritted his teeth and tried to say something. However, Maximus’s Metal Arm, which he was holding onto with both hands, changed shape and shone brightly.
BOOOM-!
Before anyone could realize, a Shockwave was emitted from an exhaust port that popped out, sending Team Leader-nim Hank flying far away like a cannonball to crash into the wall.
The sight of him sprawled among the glittering shards after shattering a mirror was gruesome. This was ridiculous!
――――.
Through the screams and acting, something swift flew in. Bright red hair fluttered as a black mechanical torso swung limbs that had turned into lethal weapons.
It was the second bodyguard, Kali Haywood, who stepped up to fill Team Leader-nim Hank’s empty spot.
Maximus swung his steel arm to block the slashing attack that passed by at a speed hard to follow with the eyes.
He clearly didn’t seem to be moving that fast, but when observed, he was exquisitely extending both arms to the necessary positions at the exact timing.
Just as a sense of crisis hit me, making me wonder if Ms. Kali was going to be defeated too.
SWOOSH - BAM!
The bladed leg twisted mid-air in a trajectory impossible for a human, aiming downward. The eerily flashing kick struck stealthily upward into A-rank Ronin Maximus’s groin!
No matter how Iron Dog Invincible he was, he had no choice but to be wary of an attack aiming for that vital spot fatal to all men. He hastily extended both arms to block it, but in exchange, he couldn’t dodge the thin wire shot from Ms. Kali’s fingers, which grazed his ear and drew blood.
As expected of Kali Haywood, a powerhouse whose entire body was a lethal weapon, she had managed to land a hit on an A-rank Ronin!
Maximus, who had bled first, took one step back, and Ms. Kali stood proudly guarding the front of Alexandra, as if daring him to try more.
It was a Hair-trigger Moment where it felt like something was bound to explode. Just as I shuddered at the bloody intuition that this would only end when someone died -
The sound of machines was heard.
[Physical violence involving visitors is not permitted.]
At first, it was just one.
[Physical violence involving visitors is not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
Then it overlapped into two, three, four, five, six…
[Physical violence involving visitors is not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
[Physical violence involving visitors are not permitted.]
Dolls appeared from somewhere: from the stage floor, from the ceiling, opening the administrator’s door, sliding over the glass shards, swimming through the crowd like ghosts…
The identical-looking Dolls surrounded the two fighting bodyguards, staring at them with the same awkward masked expressions, their voices emotionless as they spoke.
[Physical violence involving visitors is not permitted.]
The dead mechanical eyes of the Dolls gleamed orange in unison as they gradually approached.
It was a slightly - no, a very creepy sight.