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Gideon collapsed before my eyes.

Blood kept endlessly gushing from underneath him, and he showed no signs of movements. His chest was still, too, so he was not breathing at all.

“That said, given who he is I can’t be careless.”

It was possible that he was holding his breath and pretending to be dead so that I would approach. If he was still alive by chance, it wouldn’t be strange for him to devise something like that now that the situation had turned on him. I thrust a spear in him from afar to see the reaction, but again, he remained still.

“So he’s really dead, huh. Making me so vigilant… You really were something.”

I felt strangely sentimental towards this formidable enemy, but I had no time to get lost in that. Klein had jumped from the window and was planning to escape. Naturally, Maxwell could sense his movements so him actually escaping was close to impossible.

Besides, we were quite loud earlier during the fight. It was quite possible that the remains of their group would come rushing here. There should still have been five more people here.

“Now then, let’s find this taxation document…”

Anyway, I decided to leave Klein’s matter to Maxwell. Our goals were the document and his life. I currently couldn’t afford to do both. In that case, I had to at least accomplish what was possible for me.

I promptly dragged my sore body and began searching the house. People like him had a habit of storing important things where they could be easily retrieved from.

That was so they could escape at a moment’s notice. Villains tended to prefer living in higher places, but this guy chose his room on the first floor. This too was probably so he could jump from the window to escape immediately.

Even back when I broke into Count Tarkashire’s mansion, he was positioned right next to the escape path and immediately fled when I appeared. He was careful enough to constantly plan his escape path. Perhaps this careful nature of his was the origin of his son, Donovan’s excellence.

He failed to escape with his important certificate this time because I wounded his right hand in advance.

As I rummaged through the drawers of the office desk, as expected, I found a scroll resembling a tax certificate in the easily reachable topmost drawer.

The wax seal on it had the crest representing the royalty of Raum. It was similar to the one Maxwell used from time to time.

“So this is it…”
“Good grief, letting the main target get away… You sure have become blunt, Reid… Reid!?”

Just then, Maxwell peeked his face from the window. I couldn’t accurately tell since he was outside, but he seemed to be carrying a man in his hands. He probably secured Klein during his flight.

After seeing me in a bloody state, his carefree voice was replaced by that of fright.

“Ah, sorry, I ended up bumping heads with quite a troublesome man.”
“I do not mind that, but those injuries…”

He usually observed my state through his familiar, but doing that meant you wouldn’t be able to observe things with your own eyes. Since he was hurrying to my side, he probably cut away the shared senses with the familiar. Given how surprised he was, that assumption was probably correct.

“Yeah, he gave me quite an embarrassing defeat. No, I suppose I should say that he was well worth the injuries I have suffered.”
“Good heavens, for you to praise someone so much.”
“He wasn’t Mateus’ master for show.”

His expression got warped when he saw my appearance, but I couldn’t blame him. Gideon was someone I couldn’t beat even with the muscle strengthening on top of the thread strengthening from the outside, and instead had to take him down by a surprise attack.

Given his strength, he wasn’t quite on the level of the past me or Lyell, but still close to that.

“Thanks to that my body is completely wrecked now. I’d be grateful if you start healing me fast.”
“You ask that, however, I am not as good at it as Maria.”
“I should be in a better state compared to Priscilla, so hurry up, will you?”

Even as I was talking with Maxwell, my knees were starting to give in, making it impossible for me to keep standing. As I plopped down on the floor, Maxwell hurriedly cast healing magic on me.

It was not as effective as Maria’s, but my wounds started to slowly heal. The hole in my shoulder, as well as the one in my side, proceeded to close up.

As I was observing the changes in my wounds, I suddenly noticed the way I was sitting. I was in a girly sitting position, with my butt down and heels on either side of it. It seems I had grown used to even sitting like this.

“My magic would not be able to bring back the blood you have lost. For that we need Regeneration.”
“Can’t you cast that?”
“It would take time to cast it. You might lose consciousness before I manage that.”

As he said, my eyes weren’t even able to focus properly as I sat down. We had to deal with Klein and then leave the mansion, so if I lost my consciousness now I would end up being dead weight.

I managed to hold on by a hair’s breadth because he quickly understood my condition and cast healing magic.

“Sorry, I ended up dragging your feet…”
“You fought against a man considered to be master of Mateus, so it was natural. I shall handle the rest so you just stay still.”
“I can’t be any more pathetic…”

If I still had my old body, it wouldn’t have ended up being such a difficult fight. Gideon was indeed faster than Mateus, but still not quite as fast as the old me. With Reid’s body, I would have easily overwhelmed him in terms of speed, while also not making any blunders that would result in a heavy injury.

“How do you plan to deal with things after this?”
“If I leave this mansion be, Cortina would eventually sniff it out, would she not? Thus, I am considering blowing him up along with the mansion. Fortunately, we are outside of the residential area.”
“In that case, where was the need to sneak inside…”
“If you had not done that, we could not have recovered the taxation document. Not to mention, we were not sure whether Klein was inside or not.”
“I suppose you have a point.”

For Maxwell’s purposes, Klein had to be considered missing, not dead. As such, it wasn’t a bad plan to blow him up with this entire mansion so there would be nothing of his corpse left.

“S-Sorry… Thanks…”

Once he finished with the healing, I tried to stand up but my limbs trembled and I couldn’t put power into my legs. Thus, I once again plopped down. It seemed I was missing too much blood, after all.

“Do not push yourself. You need to rest for some time. Even Priscilla could not move properly for days.”

With those words, Maxwell picked me up and soared up with Flight. I could hear loud noises from the door, but Maxwell cast a Magic on it too. The spell locked the door very firmly, so it didn’t even budge.

His dual use of spells as he fluttered into the air was quite impressive, to say the least.

“What’s that?”
“It is a spell called Hard Lock. It makes the entire door harder than iron, so one cannot tear it down.”
“Oh… Then, what about that side wall?”
“Hmm?”

Right as I pointed it out, someone thrust a sword through that wall. Unlike the marbled floor, the walls weren’t so hard it seems.

“This is not good!”

Exclaiming, Maxwell dropped off the tied-up and fainted Klein, and flew from the window while carrying me.

◇◆◇◆◇

That night, a meteorite fell on the outskirts of Geeze Union’s capital. Fortunately, it did not hit the capital itself, however, it blasted away one mansion situated on a small peninsula.

As that mansion belonged to a slave merchant that got in the way of the local public order, the citizens were apparently relieved about it.