The Villain's Retirement-Chapter 44: Ambush (1)

At this moment, just like most of the guests, Elara and Ard were safely outside, seated in the carriage as it rumbled along the streets. The male servant guiding the horses kept a careful eye on them, his glances measured. He too after all worked for the Duke and had been informed of Elara’s true identity and even told to keep his guard up.

Elara had noticed this. No, she too had been informed beforehand. She was also already aware of the layout of the area they were currently located at. And then as planned, eventually, people disguised as ordinary citizens started to discreetly tail their carriage soon as it left the Ducal Palace.

Ard naturally had also noticed the few entities lurking between buildings. He didn’t even need to do anything special. With just a mere glance at the passing window, his eyes which had been able to look through the darkness since he was born, revealed them.

’What is this now...?’ he thought, frowning and letting out an inward sigh.

Just then, as they finished at a curve as they headed into the residence Ard was currently residing. The suspicious people appeared from different directions and started to draw blades with bloody intent going after the carriage. The driver froze for a moment but twisted his body just in time, narrowly avoiding the strike. However, the whole scene caused him to yank the reins forcing the vehicle to swerve and shake, affecting the passengers inside, and causing the wheels whispering against the cobblestones while the attacker was pushed away from the impact.

But when the carriage had came to a halt, another man in a cloak appeared with a sword and aimed his weapon onto the thin wooden door of the carriage. But before the blade could strike, a shadow unknowingly slithered like paint from the ground stemming from inside the carriage, and it halted the sword attack midair, suspended as if caught by invisible hands.

Creak.

Suddenly, the door opened itself.

A young tall man with slightly long black hair and crimson eyes went out of the door as if nothing happened. Before he had even went outside, Ard had already cut off his own shadow causing it to disappear leaving only his ordinary shadow.

Then suddenly, the feeling in the attacker’s limbs came back. With this, the attacker’s body reacted before his mind could think as he swung his sword in silence.

Yet the weapon suddenly slipped from his grasp.

Ard didn’t even glance at him.

With a single, effortless sidestep, he dodged the attack, moved his hands, twisted and crushed the man’s wrists with a precise grab. Before the attacker could recover, Ard had taken his sword from him and its ordinary blade flashed in the lanterns of the city, slicing across his upper body, causing blood to be sprayed into the air.

The man screamed, then collapsed immediately, his strength spent, his body betraying him completely.

"Your killing intent is too strong for ordinary citizens." He then said. Ard closed his eyes. He blocked his other senses and with his hearing, while he heard the ordinary noises of the night in a city, he could hear the sound of battle in other places.

When he opened his eyes , the cheerful voice of the servant cut through.

"Thank you!" the servant said, hopping down with an exuberant grin for some reason.Then after making sure he was standing side by side with Ard, he gripped his dagger better and stood there with Ard as if they were best friends in a battlefield. From his face, it looked like he was more than happy to be involved in the scenario.

At this, Ard couldn’t help but gaze at the servant who looked funny with a battle stance.

"At your service, milord," the servant declared proudly. "It’s an honor to fight alongside a hero like yourself."

"A hero?" Ard repeated flatly.

"Yes, milord!"

For a fleeting moment, Ard genuinely considered killing him. The image came unbidden—how easily his blade could slide across the man’s throat. It would be so easy.

However, he still does not understand why these citizens who were clearly not citizens were attacking them right after. Was there a treasure in the carriage he didn’t know?

"What is happening here?" Ard asked the idiot-looking servant. "Explain."

However, the servant was gone the very next second, having paid no heed to a single word Ard had spoken. He lunged recklessly at one of the ambushers, overextending himself.

The response was immediate and precise. The attacker slipped past the strike with a flawless dodge and, in one fluid motion, severed the servant’s head before he even understood what had happened.

Blood burst into the air.

Ard let out a quiet sigh and almost grinned as the man’s smiling head rolled across the cobblestones, coming to a stop at his feet.

’Tch.’

The attackers had surrounded him.

Yet the longer they looked, the more they noticed their victim’s beautiful crimson eyes, which were not even fixed on them, but on the starry sky above. Then, all of a sudden, unnatural chill started to seep into their bones making their hands tremble and their breaths hitch. Then for the weaker others, sudden fear suddenly emerged and overwhelmed them so completely that, for a moment, all they could think was eliminate the problem, causing them to glare at Ard with killing intent.

While surprised at his companions’ aggressive intimidation, the leader of the attackers stepped forward, and had no problems meeting Ard’s gaze.

"Wait," he said in a stable commanding voice, stopping the others by raising his palm, "Lord, we just came here to talk!"

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

It was too late as some of the weaker ambushers had mindlessly charged towards Ard as if he was a monster that had to get taken care off immediately.

Just that in the next instant, Ard broke into a sword stance and the blade of the sword glinted ordinarily under the moonlight in slow-motion before he darted in sharp, zigzagging angles, slicing through three attackers with lethal precision.

A few seconds later, screams tore through the night air, echoing against the narrow streets.

Seeing through the windows that had been sprayed with crimson blood, Elara inside sat there frozen. But while bloodshed happened outside, Elara soon started to snap into reality, and decided to escape through the other door.

Meanwhile, Ard had stopped, slashing the blade on the air to get the blood off. Before him, six men laid on the ground while the others who were a bit farther away, including the man who had spoken earlier, had escaped.

""Fuck—fuck, that guy’s a monster!" the man cursed while clutching his severed right arm. He stumbled back before turning and fleeing, activating a movement technique that placed lots of mana energy in each step, making him as fast as rabbits.

Then finally, when Elara succeeded in opening the door, she immediately stepped out but she felt the killing intent above her. She didn’t need to turn around. A young man with slightly long and black hair was standing while wielding a bloody sword on the roof of the carriage while he was covered in blood.

The young man exhaled, a thin plume of cold mist escaping his lips. Above him, the stars stretched endlessly across the night sky—indifferent witnesses to the scene etched below.

Without a sound, he stepped off the roof soon as he noticed movement and dropped down, landing lightly on the cobblestones. Then he turned around, blocking Elara’s path.

’When did it go wrong?’

He asked himself, taking in the bloody crime scene around them. He sighed inwardly.

"—"

Standing just after the door, Elara froze and couldn’t begin to find or utter the words out of her mouth.

The sight of his crimson eyes paired with a calm, indifferent expression that had not changed even as he cut down living men, while blood still streaking his face sent a bit of fear flooding through Elara.

As he started to move, Ard looked at her face with the same indifference while the sword was still dripping with fresh blood. She could feel it.

’He’s going to kill me.’ She said to herself. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Meanwhile, the Duke, Margrave, and the knights had all dispersed and was now at different locations in the Capital.

The Duke was now wielding a heavy looking sword with the size of an adult hung on his back. He was trying to find where Ard’s carriage had went to. But there were also other carriages and reaidential buildings containing nobles, and even simple and innocent houses attacked for no reason.

Reynard swung his large sword, cleaving a man into two. So far, the men he had fought were almost all just ordinary assassins. Where are the knights? He thought grimly.