Chapter 44: Too Beautiful to Call Hell

Ricardo pushed forward in a straight line at a speed as if riding the wind.

On the other hand, the leader of the bandits readied the battle ax he was carrying on his back and attacked. It was a weapon with a handle as long as a spear, with an axe attached to the end of it. The other side is far superior in reach and weight. It is a tough opponent to fight with a sword.

His minions scattered to the left and right. Do they intend to surround the chieftain and stab Ricardo in the back while he is holding off his attack?

“I’ll teach you the difference between courage and recklessness,hero!”

The chieftain shouts, as if in an attempt to provoke.

……He just called me a hero. That’s strange.

The title ‘hero’ is only accepted within Count Zander’s domain. In other words, it is a name given by the Count for fun. His name is not well-known throughout the country, nor is he famous enough to be recognised just by looking at his face.

That the Count’s carriage passes this way, that the Count has a famous sword, and that he is escorted by a man known as the Hero. He seems to have researched the matter in considerable detail.

It is hard to believe that all those things were done by a single bandit. It seems that someone was behind the attack, tipping them off and having them attacked.

…… I wonder what kind of trouble the Count has gotten himself into, if at all.

Instead of fear, Ricardo’s mouth was filled with a smile. They don’t even know about Camellia. If they knew, they wouldn’t want to fight.

“Wake up, Camellia!”

He shouted and drew his beloved sword. The surroundings dimmed slightly and a sweet smell wafted through the air.

The chieftain was alarmed by what was happening, but he was still unaware. The only right thing to do was to throw out their weapons and flee before he could take control.

One of the underlings suddenly began cutting off his own head with a sword.

“Ki, it feels good…”

He moved it back and forth repeatedly, as if he were using a saw, as it was not sharp enough. Every time he moved it, fresh blood spurted out and his expression was distorted with pleasure.

“Ah, ah, ah”

He was panting and his protruding tongue was trembling and quivering. His whole body had turned into a sex organ and the fresh blood that was spurting out felt like sex juice. The endless overflow of pleasure seemed to numb his brain.

Eventually his strength ran out and he collapsed on the spot like a puppet with broken strings. He wanted to have more and more pleasure, that was his only regret.

The man died with an erection.

Another met a similar end. He smashed the club over and over again on his head with a look of amusement.

The man died with an erection.

One slit his stomachs, put his hands into the wounds and stirred them.

The man died with erections.

A fourth henchman also killed himself in an eerie way.

The man died with an erection.

This is a hell of pleasure, a bloody paradise created by the demon sword. A false exit created by the devil on the road to heaven.

The last remaining, the chieftain, did not commit suicide but sat back.

Rather than being ruled by pleasure, he was unable to move due to fear of his subordinate’s extremely gruesome death.

I can feel the presence of a woman behind me. I could smell her sweet scent, and every time she stroked my cheek from behind, I felt an electric current run through my whole body.

I was scared, I felt too good, and I didn’t know what to do with myself anymore.

“Oh, you’re still alive.”

Ricardo casually approached with a drawn sword.

Ricardo smiled cruelly at the chieftain. He was not dead, but neither could he resist pleasure.

Pointing the tip of the knife at the chief, he said.

“It must be hard, it must be painful. To be left with nothing but heightened sexual arousal.”

The chieftain’s face was flushed and he was breathing heavily. Ricardo read the chieftain’s condition accurately. In other words, he is being abused.

“If you can beg well, I’ll cut you. With this sword, directly. It would be an out-of-this-world pleasure, wouldn’t it?”

“Please cut me! Please, please!”

The leader desperately folded his fingers as if praying.

……In this man’s eyes, I seem to be the god of salvation.

Ricardo found pleasure in dominating others with pleasure. He seems to be leaning towards a villain to the core.

I was a little scared that I would change if I continued to use this sword, but now my curiosity about what would happen if I cut a man who cried out in front of the bait of pleasure prevailed.

The moment he raised his sword, Ricardo felt a tense atmosphere behind him. His crisis-sensing skills as an adventurer pulled Ricardo out of his sadistic thought cage.

Quickly, he jumped to the side. Almost simultaneously, a short arrow pierced the chieftain’s throat.

“No… it’s not…”

The leader died with a look of curse and regret on his face.

The arrow would have destroyed Ricardo’s spine if he had not dodged. He turned quickly, and saw a man with a crossbow ten metres away. The enemy was still hiding its forces.

Crossbows are powerful and expensive weapons. There was a time when the use of crossbows was forbidden, as it was considered indecent for a common soldier to be able to kill a knight so easily. It is not something that bandits could easily afford.

Someone gave information. That’s all I could think of.

Ten metres is out of range of Camellia’s curse. It’s a distance where you’d have to run and close the gap to see if a second shot could be loaded while you’re still in the air.

Ricardo made up his mind. I can do it now.

He looked firmly at the man with the arrow and pointed the tip of camellia at him.

“You will die!”

There was a response. I’m not sure what the response to the curse was, but I felt like I could have done it.

The man slowly drew the arrow.

The next moment when I thought it was no good, the man opened his mouth wide and pointed the crossbow at himself. With a bang, there was a huge impact. The back of the man’s head popped off and he was sewn directly into the tree behind him. He stood there, smiling in ecstasy and continuing to bleed.

The man died with an erection.

“Did you do it, ……?”

Ricardo stood cowering, his whole body in a cold sweat.

Fear and guilt that it was me who created this hell like blasphemy against life. On the other hand, he felt an exhilaration that he had obtained a new power.

He pulled the scabbard from his waist, stored the blade and then hugged it tightly.

“Camellia, no matter how horrible you are, I can’t stay away from you anymore. I don’t care if we end up in heaven or hell. That’s what it means to be on the same side.”

They vowed to be partners on the battlefield ruins, where the smell of blood and guts was in the air. Whether to call it love or delusion, Ricardo himself was not sure.

He picked up a crossbow as a piece of evidence and on his way to the carriage, he came eye to eye with the chieftain’s corpse.

Among the six thieves, he was the only one with an anguished expression on his face. That’s the only thing I think I did wrong.

“Is it salvation or blasphemy to kill by giving pleasure..”

I don’t know. I am sure it is my role to keep thinking about it.

Putting his beloved sword back on his waist, Ricardo puffed out his chest and started walking.

Returning to the point where the carriage was located, the driver and servants were clearing the logs.

The logs are not so thick. A few that three people could carry would be enough, and it wouldn’t take long to get them through the road.

Seeing Ricardo, Gerhard raised his hand and called out to him. He seemed as if he wasn’t worried.

“What, you’re still alive after all.”

“It comes with a partner you can rely on. I should say thanks to you.”

“You can call me your father-in-law from today.”

“I refuse. It’s not a joke to be relatives of Master Gerhard.”

“You’re not a cute boy, at all…”

Gerhard’s gaze stopped at Ricardo’s right hand. He grabbed his crossbow casually.

“What is it, do you want to go to war?”

“No, that’s…”

Gerhard and Jocel looked horrified when I told them that a man with a crossbow was hiding. Theycould no longer say that it was just a coincidence that they were attacked by wild thieves.

“Oh dear, I guess we should have kept at least one of them alive to make them talk.”

Ricardo, who hadn’t had many opportunities to interrogate others in his life, was frustrated.

“It’s a waste”

And Maximilian got out of the carriage and joined the conversation.

“Is it useless to have asked them?”

Ricardo asked curiously.

“No one who would inform or request information from bandits would be honest enough to say that he belongs to a certain family. He would either say nothing or use an alias.”

“If you believe that alias or impersonation and antagonise them, it’s going to complicate things even more.”

Gerhard added.

One of the servants rushed over and reported. He said that they had cleared all the logs that were blocking the road.

“Get in the carriage and let’s go.”

The Count and his men split again, with the Count, Gerhard and Jocel going to the middle carriage and Ricardo to the lead vehicle.

He did not get on well with his fellow servants and had nothing to do but think.

I understand the Count’s argument that it is futile to look for the culprit, but it seemed to me that he was trying to end the conversation too hastily.

Is it strange to try to know your enemy? Is it possible to give up so easily and say that it doesn’t matter? Ricardo felt somewhat uneasy.

They knew him as Ricardo the Hero.

They knew that the Count had a great sword.

They knew the routes and times that the carriage would take.

They are unaware of the effects of the ‘Camellia’ yokatana.

Who fits these criteria.

…… Retainers?

If the coachman or the servants, or

Camellia’s effect is known only to a very small number of people because when he reported defeating giant orcs and werewolves, the retainers were driven away.

If they approached the bandits alone, the crossbow would now be unexplainable, so we should assume that they passed the information on to a nobleman or a large merchant who was able to provide such a thing.

The Count may not have given up on knowing his enemy. He will investigate in earnest when he returns to the castle, and that’s why he’s keeping them at bay for now?

……It’s difficult, political affairs.

They mustn’t know that I am suspicious. Ricardo turned his face out of the window and remained silent for a long time.

With Camellia, I am the strongest swordsman. However, there are too many problems that cannot be solved simply by being strong. The expedition was a reminder of this.

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