"Now follow him!"
Izuma shouted, pointing toward Rinji.
"Rinji, get them out of here. Is there a safe house or somewhere secure?"
The boy's voice still trembled from the adrenaline of his speech, but now—his tone was clipped, decisive.
Rinji blinked, slightly thrown off.
"Uh... yeah. There's an old bunker near the northern guild block. Reinforced. Used for emergencies."
Izuma exhaled and nodded.
"Good, Take them there. Keep them safe."
Rinji narrowed his eyes.
"And where the hell are you going?"
Izuma turned, dust flaring beneath his heels. "To help them. I only told them to hold the line. I didn't give permission to wipe them out."
Rinji grabbed his arm.
"Wait—wait. What kind of half-ass plan is that?! Are you saying you purposely told them to stall? Not attack?! You could've ended the threat by now, and instead you want to play—what—savior?!"
"No i–"
Izuma tried to answer, but Rinji cut him off again.
"You're not thinking clearly! You're just throwing yourself into this like some dumb martyr! We had a chance to end this, not play defense. What the hell were you even thinking?!"
But Izuma didn't argue.
He just looked him dead in the eyes.
Rinji's rant faltered.
Then it clicked. Not all at once—but like the slow turn of a gear grinding into place.
"…Wait. No way..."
Izuma gave a short nod.
"The Kingdom's response teams were moving. I tracked their patterns earlier. Three hours ago. Factored the time it'd take them to reach the outskirts. I just needed to delay the enemy until they showed."
Rinji's eyes widened.
He remembered now.
Three hours before returning to the inn.
He thought Izuma was just scouting rooftops for visibility, maybe a better line of retreat.
But no—he had been mapping timings. Calculating how long Lira could hold solo. Estimating Adia's effective fire suppression. Watching civilian flow patterns and choosing where they'd naturally gather.
Every step of this? Already planned.
And worse—based on only one conversation.
Adia had only once mentioned her affinity for fire control and how much oxygen she needed to maintain a containment barrier. Lira only once described her speed bursts and how she excelled at narrow terrain duels.
That single info dump? Izuma had memorized and built the entire city's defense around it.
Rinji muttered under his breath, "Or maybe Im overestimating him…"
He shook his head.
"…No. More like I've underestimated the kind of bastard he really is."
Rinji shoved Izuma's shoulder.
"Go. Take the west alley, then hit two lefts and a right, That'll take you to the safe house. I'll handle the fight."
Izuma blinked. "Wait, you're not—"
"I'm faster. Stronger. Better at fighting. You're better at thinking. Let me handle the fire—you handle the people."
He turned before Izuma could argue again, sprinting full-speed across the street. Dust scattered in his wake.
"Dumbass," Rinji muttered whilst grinning...
"You're too smart for your own damn good."
---
He hit the tunnel first. The flames were gone. The air still smoked, but the sigil of the Kingdom's seal glowed faintly along the broken stone. A few knights were pacing out, guiding workers back to safety.
Adia stood nearby, arms crossed, panting—but smiling. She was talking casually to one of the mages, like she hadn't just held off a blazing assault underground.
Rinji blinked.
Tunnel: secured.
He didn't stop running.
Next was the outer west wall. As he approached, the sounds of battle were already fading. Swords clanged once—twice—and then silence.
He vaulted the last set of broken crates and stopped.
Lira stood in the clearing, a dozen demon bodies behind her, sword planted in the earth. A medic knelt at her side, wrapping her forearm. "You're lucky you didn't crack the bone," the healer muttered.
Lira just grinned.
"I told you I'm good. Hell, I got a sword, don't I?"
Knights moved in rows behind her, sealing the breaches in the wall. The final scout twitched and fell with a thud. Another knight stabbed a sigil-stake into the earth. The entire barrier began humming faintly.
Rinji just stared.
He did it.
All without lifting a blade himself.
He remembered how many times Izuma tried to explain the plan back at the inn.
And every time?
He'd cut him off.
"Goddammit."
He exhaled hard, dragging a hand down his helmet.
He didn't stall because he was scared. He stalled because it was the only path that didn't get anyone killed.
Containment, delay, timed collapse—*every single piece* had been orchestrated around when reinforcements would arrive. And Izuma had guessed it all to the final minute.
He never wanted to wipe them out. He only needed to buy time.
And now?
Both fronts were secured. Medics were active. Civilians were safe. No major casualties.
From one conversation each.
Adia's mana exhaustion rates. Lira's sprint burst range. Izuma must've calculated fatigue curves, potential fallback positions, estimated the enemy's aggression patterns, and triangulated them all into a perfect delay formation. All in silence. All while pretending to be just a nervous kid.
Rinji almost laughed.
"He's not just playing the game,"
He muttered.
"He's writing the damn rulebook."
He looked toward the western spires.
"If he keeps this up… they're going to notice."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"The council might even want him."
He paused, then shook his head, like trying to dismiss the weight of that thought.
"But he's still a dumbass."
Still...
Rinji let his shoulders relax for the first time since the night began.
Izuma Nasiki.
He smiled.
"You even had me at checkmate..."
"Perceptionist."