How to Survive as a Genius Spy in the Game

Chapter 147: Denif (2)

“Well, it’s not that important right now.”

Denif drew his sword. Toun Zaha was still standing with an expressionless face. Does that mean he won’t intervene?

If so, that’s good for me.

“What are you doing? Not picking up your sword. Are you just going to let yourself be captured?”

Denif, who was grinding his teeth, now had an excited look on his face. Is it because he’s going to fight me? In the midst of all this?

A guy obsessed with fighting… Still the same as ever. I inwardly sighed.

Still, it was fortunate that Toun Zaha did not move. It was probably Denif’s stubbornness.

While chasing me, he may have said he would take me on alone.

For me, who had to subdue my opponent, there could be no better opportunity than this. If I deal with Denif first, Toun should be manageable.

Denif grinned. I glanced at my companions. Should I tell them to run away, just in case?

No. It would be meaningless.

Toun would follow, and if I’m defeated, it’s only a matter of time anyway.

My companions looked at me with grim faces. Aron’s face showed grim determination.

“Don’t intervene.”

It was a warning, just in case. Even if they intervened with good intentions, it was more likely to harm me.

Without waiting for a response, I focused on Denif. Stay calm. There was no Death Avoidance warning.

That means I won’t die here, no matter what happens.

Thinking about it, I was reminded of old times. It had been years since I last crossed swords with Denif.

He probably doesn’t have the same habits as before. With Denif’s talent, a lot must have changed.

My swordsmanship itself has changed fundamentally as well.

I should think of him as a complete stranger.

In fact, I could even set traps based on past experience, since that’s what I intended to do.

“Hah.”

Taking a short breath, I grounded myself.

There was no point in dragging this out, since Toun Zaha’s intentions could change at any moment.

Mana swirled around Denif’s body. He was reacting to my Winds. To resist them right away.

Clang!

The swords that clashed in the center shook with the force of the struggle. But Denif didn’t budge.

‘As expected. He’s grown stronger.’

Denif grinned, as if thinking the same thing. I twisted my wrist to the right.

Denif’s sword slid along my cross guard. I pushed down hard.

Denif’s sword pointed downwards, opening a gap. I thrust my sword, but Denif lightly dodged.

“Haha!”

Denif laughed joyfully. It was because our duels always started with this pattern.

An unspoken rule that had arisen at some point.

I considered whether Denif would try to exploit this. I had countermeasures in mind, but moved just like old times.

I didn’t use any tricks either. Denif had probably prepared countermeasures too. It was better to use them in the heat of battle.

From here on, anything goes. I charged in diagonally. Clang! Clang! Two exchanges followed in half-breaths.

The loud clanging of metal assaulted my ears.

‘Best to end this quickly.’

If the fight dragged on and Denif struggled, there was a good chance Toun Zaha would join in.

I had to subdue Denif in an instant. The chances were slim, but I had to try.

We exchanged a few blows. I tuned my Winds.

Then I replicated my habitual swordsmanship from the past that Denif would remember.

The counterattacks continued familiarly.

His eyes sharpened. He probably thought I was trying to set up a move by exploiting his memories of my old habits.

‘He fell for it.’

Instead, I tuned my Winds. Like I did to Rudehrn, I applied pressure to part of his body.

His right elbow. Denif’s incoming sword suddenly sped up abnormally.

Since it was an intentional move, I had already anticipated the space and charged into it. Aided by the Winds, I thrust my sword.

The sword tip was keen. Denif twisted his body.

I sealed his movements with the Winds. But Denif resisted faster than I expected. He paused for a moment, but I only grazed his arm.

‘Just cut his clothes, huh.’

Tsk. I had expected it, but he was tougher than I thought. Can’t be helped. We had sparred daily for years.

No one could handle my Winds better than Denif.

The method had changed, but Denif was the one who had experienced and resisted them the most.

I had grown, but so had Denif. His speed at resisting the Winds with mana was about the same as before.

“Your method has changed a bit?”

Denif widened the distance between us and gave me a deep smile. To be able to smile in this situation, he really was crazy.

It was a disappointing feeling. If I could have landed a hit this time, it would have been easier.

“Things change over time.”

Denif didn’t lose his smile. He looked at me with a satisfied expression.

Toun Zaha was still motionless, only watching with a serious face. I calmly steadied my breathing.

This won’t be easy.

My actions may have reduced the chances of becoming an imperial terrorist, but Denif’s talent hasn’t gone anywhere.

Even before leaving the duke’s service, Denif had a slight edge over me.

If I wasn’t at my absolute peak condition, I would be outmatched. Now that we’ve both grown, our strengths are still evenly matched.

“Today doesn’t seem to be that strange day?”

“You’re still a blabbermouth.”

“It’s a joyous day, of course.”

I took out the Ghost Blade. In my right hand was Moonlight, in my left the Ghost Blade. I didn’t bother hiding the blade.

Even if I concealed it as just a dagger, Denif would think I was hiding something anyway.

It would be better to catch him off guard by piercing through his defenses.

“What’s that? You got some newfangled thing?”

Denif looked at the Ghost Blade with amusement but also keen eyes. He was wary of it.

Without a word, I grounded myself and charged. Denif came to meet me.

Moonlight traced the moonlight. I hid the Ghost Blade behind it. Denif inserted his own sword into the moonlight.

Clang!

The clashing swords bounced off each other. Feigning a follow-up attack, I lightly thrust the Ghost Blade at Denif as a feint.

It seemed like I was just harassing him to set up my next move. Denif nonchalantly tried to block it with his sword.

But this was the real thing.

The Ghost Blade pierced through Denif’s sword. This put his sword in front of my body as well, but Moonlight was there.

“You crazy bastard!”

The Ghost Blade aimed for Denif’s shoulder. Denif twisted his body in alarm, but the Winds restrained him.

The Ghost Blade slashed across Denif’s shoulder. He couldn’t dodge an attack beyond his imagination.

It wasn’t as deep as I’d hoped. A tinge of regret remained. If I’d intended to kill, I could have.

If I’d aimed for his neck instead of his shoulder, Denif would have collapsed.

But I couldn’t kill Denif here. I have no intention of completely breaking with Haisen either.

Denif, who had retreated to check his wound, looked at me with resentful eyes. He seemed to realize I had gone easy on him.

He gritted his teeth and gripped his sword tightly.

“Going easy on me in that situation?”

“I can’t kill my own brother.”

Denif had an ambiguous expression. He looked deflated. That’s when Toun Zaha intervened.

Damn. Should I have inflicted a deeper wound?

Things were starting to go awry. Now that my move had failed and Toun Zaha was getting involved, it would be a headache…

But what Toun Zaha said was far from what I had expected.

“Denif, enough with the acting. You’ve had your fun, haven’t you?”

Acting? Suddenly what acting?

As I looked on in bewilderment, Denif suddenly burst into laughter.

“Puhahaha. Looks like I completely fooled Carlyn.”

“Fooled?”

“I didn’t come to capture you. I came to help you. I’ve heard about your situation from Father.”

What is this?

After staring blankly at the two of them for a moment, I was able to roughly grasp what was going on. It was unbelievable.

“Toun, how could you do this?”

“My apologies. Denif kept begging me.”

Toun Zaha scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.

***

After hearing the full story, it seemed the duke had changed his stance after I killed even the Empress.

He had told Denif the truth and ordered him to find me.

He had even almost met up with Toun Zaha in Veurtan. Because Toun was chasing after Pelia ahead of me.

We had narrowly missed each other. I was amazed at the duke’s intuition at the time.

‘How did he connect those dots so quickly?’

He had suddenly ordered Toun Zaha to pursue those guys. To find me.

It was no easy feat to immediately link the devil worshippers coming down from the north to me.

It was no wonder he became the Chief of Intelligence. In any case, my companions looked utterly dumbfounded by the sudden change in atmosphere.

It must be hard for them to understand the situation. I was completely bewildered as well.

“But wait, are you crazy? Why the sudden acting?”

“It was a chance to properly cross swords with you after so long.”

Denif brazenly retorted as if it was no big deal.

“Since the situation was like this, you’d go all out too. It was fun.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

“You do realize you almost died, right?”

“Well, you never intended to kill me from the start, did you?”

I suppose. Denif may be crazy, but he’s not stupid. He knew I hadn’t betrayed Haisen.

He probably thought I wouldn’t kill him. I was the only one overly worried.

“And well? If it wasn’t a betrayal, you could’ve just told me ahead of time.”

“It was a top secret mission.”

Telling Denif was not under my authority.

And if I really had been misunderstood, they would have tried to capture me even if I told the truth.

“But what about them? We thought you’d be passing through Veurtan to Haisen.”

The conversation was a little aside. Denif looked at my companions with slightly disgruntled eyes.

“The people I’ve been raising. And I never intended to return to Haisen in the first place.”

“Why?”

“Because there was something I had to do.”

“What’s that?”

“I wanted to interfere with those devil worshipper bastards. It would help Haisen too.”

Denif frowned. He didn’t seem to understand.

“Couldn’t you have done that after returning? Did you really need to go around with those kids in tow and raise them?”

“Yes.”

I had prepared an excuse for this situation. Truthfully, it wasn’t very convincing.

But not anymore. After meeting Pelia, I had a reason for not being able to return to Haisen.

“I need a freely moving blade outside. A group that can turn the situation around and can’t be linked to Haisen.”

“Couldn’t we just pull out separate personnel internally for that?”

He’s not wrong. That’s why I thought my excuse wasn’t very convincing.

“The problem is internal spies. Derek, the imperial intelligence chief, was on their side. No matter how thoroughly we purge them, we can’t be sure we got them all, with the Empire’s eyes watching too.”

“Father could just operate a small group separately then, couldn’t he?”

As expected. Denif and Toun Zaha didn’t look convinced. I revealed the trump card I had prepared.

“You’re not wrong, but the problem is that they have a means of tracking Devil’s Blood.”

“Hm?”

“The reason they were chasing me was because of that. My location will be periodically revealed. If I’m in Haisen, they’ll find out. They might even try to raid Haisen through spies in the Empire.”

The two looked at me with startled eyes. I may have exaggerated the tracker a bit, but it wasn’t a major issue.

Toun Zaha nodded his head.

“So their back-and-forth movements down south were because of that tracking device.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“I understand the risk you’re talking about. There is a need to stay away from Haisen. But do you really need to form a separate group? I’m here, and so is Denif.”

When the conversation came back to the original point, I shook my head.

“No. Even Father doesn’t have many people he can completely trust right now.”

Derek’s betrayal. An internal investigation is probably underway in Haisen too, but seeds of suspicion have been sown.

It meant that the duke himself is short on completely trustworthy people.

“With those pursuing me in tow, it will diminish Father’s power. That’s not good for Haisen. And there’s also the risk of getting caught while communicating.”

“Hmm. I see your line of thinking. It makes sense, but I am still worried, truthfully.”

Toun Zaha looked at my companions as he spoke. He was talking about my safety.

“The duke did instruct me to prioritize your life above all.”

“I’m not someone who will just get offed anywhere, you know?”

“That may be so, but… Hmm, this is quite the predicament. The duke ordered me to bring you back, but if the situation is like this…”

“I do have a lot to discuss with Father. There’s the Devil’s Blood issue too. Well, to tell you in advance, I didn’t know about that either. It suddenly manifested when I faced the leader.”

Denif, who had been listening quietly, cut in.

“For now, Toun should return to Father.”

“Me?”

“Your mission was to guard and bring back Carlyn, but now you can’t go to Haisen. You can only indirectly communicate. I’ll stay with Carlyn.”

After a moment of contemplation, Toun Zaha nodded. In the current situation, that was the only viable option.

However, my own thoughts were a bit complicated.

The worst-case scenario I had envisioned was averted, but with Denif staying by my side and moving together…

Hmm. I’m not sure if this will be okay.

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