This Time, To The Believed Path
Crazy Steps

As they watched Osca, who was repairing himself, Dean walked towards him alone.

“All of you, retreat.” Osca

“Dean!”

Eson who shouted towards the chairman instantly froze when he saw Dean's sharp gaze. He hesitantly walked back and motioned the others to retreat.

The other members also retreated and disappeared behind the shadow of the trees.

Veil who was still speechless looked at Dean with the Marquis on his shoulder as if waiting for something. But when Dean returned to his back, he moved back and left the place.

Now there's only Dean and Osca.

Osca glanced around and sensed the thin existence of someone hiding behind a shadow. Their figures were silent doing nothing. Just looking at his every move.

It seemed like his enemy comrades did not fully retreat and conspired to take him down.

Osca looked at the annoyed Dean who stood alone looking back expressionlessly.

‘Does he want to fight me alone? You arrogant boy.’

Although the enemy before him looked calm, Osca could feel that the enemy was an amateur.

This can be proven as Osca can feel the anger behind his calm eyes.

“You guys... shadow, not..”.

Dean was silent not opening his mouth. Osca who saw the reaction confirmed his guess.

“Why?...Your silence was... reminds me.. with someone who not too long ago..

Dean was still unmoved as if to be a stone. Osca became increasingly upset.

“What?...You're right... same.. with him...?”

Dean still didn't answer. It does not fall in the Osca fishing rod at all.

“Haaa... sucks..”.

Osca slowly confirmed his position and seconds later, a dagger had slid towards Dean. He calmly stopped it quickly. Osca looks amazed.

“Really..interesting..kekeke”.

Between his words, a clumsy laugh came out of his mouth. Osca showed the same big smile as when he saw Leana's ability.

“Really... I don't know.. you guys... where....” Osca bowed his head as if to hide his laughter.

“I'd love to... play... with you..”.

Dean quietly raised his vigilance at Osca's strange behavior. His fingers slowly took out a dagger from between his arms.

“But... I was in a hurry.. by because.... it... I—”.

Osca moved so fast that by the time Dean regained consciousness, his face was in his presence. Their eyes met but Dean was completely unaffected and remained silent calmly.

“I HAVE NO TIME TO PLAY WITH YOU GUYS!”

Osca swung her right hand which was holding a long dagger up and swung it quickly towards Dean.

Dean fended off the attack until both of them bounced off simultaneously.

Both still look calm and put their respective positions. Dean was still staring at him flatly while Osca tried to observe his enemy.

When the two looked at each other, Osca immediately returned to using his flagship technique, eye of confusion. Dean quickly closed his eyes and disappeared from the face of Osca like the wind.

Osca quickly turned his head back as soon as he heard something move and found Dean was already there unsheathing his weapon.

Osca fended off the attack and immediately pulled his body back. When Osca returned to distance himself, he opened his mouth again.

“Are you guys part of Grand Duke?” ask Osca who immediately spoke fluently.

Dean was still silent with complete calmness but he then clenched his hand tightly in a swift motion.

He thought that being too calm would make Osca realize the origin of their identity, so he planned to fake his reaction. Making misunderstandings for his enemy.

When Osca noticed Dean clenching his hand, he smiled as if he had found the right answer. He deepened his smile.

“Amateur basis.”

Osca again moved quickly towards Dean but this time he deployed his attacks many times without stopping. Although the resulting power was not as heavy as before, the barrage was enough to overwhelm him.

Dean tries to find a gap to escape and that's when another weapon comes towards Osca who is forced to stop him from attacking.

Seeing the gap, Dean pulled his body back and threw two weapons at once, followed by another weapon coming from behind the trees.

Osca managed to fend off all of the weapons very quickly and bounce some of the weapons back to where they came from. He could hear the sound of two weapons he was reflecting heard.

Osca looked at Dean as if to mock.

“Why is it like this? Isn't that cheating?”

Dean looked at him sharply.

“Do not joke. Who's stupid enough to fight you alone?”

Dean came back and Osca was ready to counter the attack but suddenly he was unable to move his left leg.

His stalled legs were shackled by something and that made it difficult to move freely.

Osca looked back at his feet and now realized a thread was smooth enough that it could not be seen being wrapped around his ankle. As he tried to break it, the thread could not be cut.

Ilya noiselessly emerged from the air and attacked Osca from behind but Osca easily paralysed Ilya's attack using a dagger on his elbow.

Osca planted a long dagger in his hand so that he could counterattack Ilya and make him retreat, again disappearing in the shadows.

By adding more energy, Osca was finally able to break away from the thread but as he turned his head, Eson had pointed his fist at him.

Fist hit the air and Osca had gracefully moved and kept her distance from her enemy.

Osca was still with a condescending gaze looking at Dean and Eson who were standing before him.

“Hey, have we met before? Because I've never seen your faces.”.

Dean and Eson began to re-attach positions to attack. Osca clicked his annoyance.

“I don't understand why you guys are so mad at me.”

Eson who became increasingly upset also moved first towards Osca. Dean was a little dizzy with Eson's rash actions but he immediately closed the void and aided his attack..

As Eson's fist was again pounced on by Osca, Liam's thread stopped his fist before being able to touch the ground and pull Osca firmly until he disappeared behind the trees in a rough voice.

Dean again attacked Osca who also managed to repel it. As the two bounced back the second time, a dagger darted beside his face and made a scratch on Osca's cheek.

‘tck, I could have been detained by a group of amateurs.’.

If Osca does not immediately pursue his target, then his employer's plan will fail. The reason why he did not immediately pursue his target

earlier was to finish off the enemy he was facing right now quickly.

But he did not think that his enemy could hold him all this time. Osca decided to end this useless game.

Osca immediately wiped the blood flowing from the wound and looked at the amateur enemy who seemed eager to attack him.

When he wanted to use his eye of confusion, suddenly his head became dizzy and his body became limp. He thought back to the wound on his face.

Because the eye of confusion can only last a few seconds, the weak Osca is unable to use his technique to the fullest.

‘Did he throw a dagger with poison?’

Even so, there was something strange that he felt in a different place. Not on his cheeks but elsewhere on his body.

As Osca tried to regain consciousness using pain, he realized that his right hand was hard to move.

With all his might he lifted up and watched his hand closely. From his elbow there was a strange spot that he did not know.

Feeling himself in danger, Osca tries to leave but his body is hard to move. With his eyes that he could not focus on, he caught something behind his enemy.

Behind Dean was a pair of glowing green lights.

By the time he realized what the light was, it was too late. Osca has fallen into the technique and begins to experience hallucinations.

“Aaargh... AAAAAARRRHGGGHH!!”

Osca immediately shouted in pain. Slowly the foam came out of his mouth and his eyes began to craze.

Unable to control his body, Osca fell to the ground.

Xero who used eye of confusion closed his eyes and stopped the technique. Then Ilya, followed by Liam and Eson, came out from behind the shadow.

The fifth looked at Osca who was in pain from a cold hallucination. They looked at each other and nodded.

Dean walked up to the grimacing Osca nonstop. He pulled out a dagger with beautiful carvings in blue like winter colors.

Liam pitched his thread to Osca just in case and as the five stepped around Osca keeping their distance, Dean stared at Osca from above for the last time. He could see the pupils of Osca's eyes moving slightly toward him.

“You don't need to know why we're mad at you.”

Dean raised the dagger high.

“Because that way, there will be no regrets. Both for you and for others.”

Quickly, the dagger stuck itself in Osca's body and despite the pain, he was unable to make a sound from his throat. What came out of his mouth was just a red liquid that was very familiar to him.

The piercing dagger instantly turned red as if it was absorbing blood from within Osca. Not long after that the dagger changed color to gray and disintegrated united with the ground.

When he confirmed that Osca was dead, Dean got up and walked away from the place.

“You know what to do. You are free to do anything with it as long as it leaves no trace.” Dean said without looking back. He kept walking away from the place.

“Understanding.” Answer the four and start taking care of Osca's body.

“Veil, how about our target?” dean asked who touched his communication device.

“Target has arrived at Alphiella. No other peculiarities during the trip.”

“Good. We'll be there soon.”

“Understood.”

When the connection was cut off, Dean who had returned to the border of the capital raised his head towards the sky and stared at the moon.

He closed his eyes as if something that was holding him now had disappeared. He felt a little free.

In the silence, only Dean's voice was heard.

“With this, the mission of stage two is declared complete.”