108 – Strike-9

It wasn’t a fantasy. Burning houses, dying people, and even mercenaries laughing triumphantly.

William drew his sword.

“A lot…”

The Aldgild family, whose family power had declined, could not deploy enough soldiers in such a frontier territory.

Because there were few soldiers, deploying too many soldiers on the frontier could create a sense of crisis.

The Aldgild family, who did not want to create a cause for conflict, could not deploy soldiers in a village that was not strategically important.

Now that the conflict had already begun in earnest, it had become meaningless.

“The size of the enemy has not been clearly identified. I will request support from the main unit!”

“done.”

William was starving. Like when a person who had forgotten that he hadn’t eaten for too long suddenly realized it.

“I kill.”

The old priest said to wait here. However, my expectations were not high.

The poisonous scorpion mercenary group that attacked this place is a new mercenary group. The information that could be obtained from Aldguild’s territory was limited, but that much was known.

I didn’t think that the mercenary from 20 years ago would be here.

“Hey, it’s Yeongji!”

“Already? How long has it been since we raided this place…”

“There don’t seem to be many! First, report to the captain, and we have to attack right now!”

Those tribes did not change. Messy people steal from others to fill their stomachs.

At that time, neither their father, who seemed huge above all else, nor the men in the neighborhood who used to work hard could scare them. William, with his small stature, was no different.

But now it’s different. Not William, they are afraid.

“Lord, this is…”

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of it.”

William drew his sword, and a red light seeped into it.

I just forgot about it for a while, like it was always there.

“Oh, come!”

“Kill it! I’ll report it for now…”

The fight didn’t last long. The blood on the sword gave off a clear red light.

The corpses of the mercenaries who had plundered and killed them were placed side by side next to the corpses of the dead farmers.

/////

“It’s too late.”

A man with a wolf skin on his shoulder greeted me with a deep sigh. The scattered drinking glasses explained why his face was red.

A group of over a hundred mercenaries gathered outside the inn. An ominous atmosphere informed that something unusual was happening.

“The Swan Mercenary Corps said they would wait, but since the Venomous Scorpion Mercenary Corps departed in the first place, we can’t turn things around.”

The plan was started under the premise that the soldiers of the Aldgild family could not stop the poisonous scorpion mercenary’s attack.

The swan mercenaries and wolf mercenaries are just a role to subdue them and wait for Weather’s main force to come.

“Can you stop me if I leave right now?”

He shook his head slowly.

“I’m sorry. If I had known earlier, I would have told you more.”

“No. You’ve had enough.”

To me, who is just a wealthy merchant, it doesn’t make sense to tell me the details of the Weather family’s plans.

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Just by letting him know that a mercenary was being deployed, he did everything he had to do.

“Why did you tell me?”

Rather, it has helped me so much that money cannot explain it. To divulge his promise to Weather just blinded by a few gold coins was a big risk for him.

“Because I also wanted to stop fighting.”

Wolf drank all the remaining alcohol from the glass next to him.

“It’s a shame. Our mercenaries’ main business was looting. We killed people under the permission of the nobles and made money.”

It was gnashing of teeth, but I couldn’t see them being special. Except for a special case like the Swan Mercenary Corps, the main business of the Mercenary Corps could not be elsewhere.

It’s such a world in the first place. such a society Even within an empire where security is stable in its own way, fighting continues.

Maybe, to the point of regretting the days of the demon lord’s invasion when he couldn’t afford to fight like that.

“But, doing it made me sick of it. It built up and piled up, and once, I was involved in a really dangerous battle.”

Veins were visible on Wolf’s hand as he gripped the glass handle.

“Almost all died. Members higher in rank than me were all killed, and only me and the youngsters remained. I managed to get the money somehow, but I felt skeptical.”

They seem familiar with death, but in reality, not many people are really close to it.

It’s not me, it’s not that person, and I try to look away from death. If a dead person appears next to you, you rationalize that there must have been a reason. Then, at some point, you will face death in front of your eyes.

“I didn’t know at the time, but later I found out that the reason for the fight was absurd. A certain noble lady kicked another noble’s horse. After hearing that… I felt empty.”

“Then, the current forces…”

“These are all people who were created because of the demon lord’s invasion. They helped the broken villages, restored them… and killed monsters, not people, so there were people who looked at our mercenaries in a good way. I was happy.”

Reflexively bringing the empty glass to his lips, he lowered his head when he realized that there was no alcohol.

“So, I tried to keep that feeling somehow… well, it doesn’t seem to work.”

It seems he didn’t want to kill anyone either. At least, for now.

“Everyone should be gathered now. Let’s go.”

It was like fixing a barn after losing a cow, but I had no choice but to do it. If we neglect the looting of the poison scorpion mercenaries now, there will be victims in its own way.

/////

An unpleasant smell could be felt from afar. The disgusting smell of burning meat stings your nostrils.

The blazing fire dazzles the eyes. The red light seems to scatter.

“…so it ended up like this.”

Leone let out a deep lament.

“I’m sorry. I almost succeeded…”

“We’re sorry we couldn’t wait. We tried our best to hold out as long as the nobles were involved, but in the end it seemed like Weather had no choice but to act.”

Nevertheless, there are still things that can be done.

Moving an army requires food. And, as they may not know it, I have already stolen their food reserves.

Their plan is for mercenaries to temporarily stabilize the region, and then Weather’s soldiers take over without bloodshed.

If we can stop the poisonous scorpion mercenary’s plunder immediately and somehow delay the fight, we can postpone the fight.

However, it didn’t seem to be meaningful. It seemed like I was going to fight again as soon as I got out.

I was in vain.

Upon entering, the bodies of guards and civilians were strewn about.

When I vomited, Leone grabbed me.

“You don’t have to see such a dangerous situation. We have to take care of it, Enerel-nim and that noble person can wait in the back.”

“No. It’s just a little dizzy, but this is tolerable. Rather, it’s much better than I thought. The corpse is in good condition.”

“yes?”

There are many types of monsters, but there are few monsters that only really kill people.

Orcs, demon dogs, and other beast-type monsters mainly ate the losers. It must have had its legs torn off and eaten alive, and there was a corpse that collapsed while crawling away. There was a corpse whose torso had been violently torn off and discarded.

After seeing the corpses that made me realize how humane slaughter is, it was tolerable to see corpses torn to pieces and burned to death.

No, it wasn’t bearable. It should not be tolerated easily. Whether the purpose is money or food, it should not be taken for granted that a person dies.

“Well?”

The body did not appear to belong to a peasant. It’s hard to believe that it was cut with a sword. It’s a terribly mangled body.

“Are you a mercenary?”

His face was crushed, and his clothes and armament were poor, so he couldn’t tell if he was a person staying in this village or a member of the Poison Scorpion Mercenary.

But as we continued walking, we saw more such bodies. Judging by the group of people lying in one place, the grime on their clothes and the strange wounds, they weren’t peasants.

“These people… are the mercenaries who moved first.”

someone moved first. When the town was quiet, I wondered if he had noticed it first and ran away, but fortunately, it seemed that the worst was averted.

It’s a cowardly thought, but it’s a bit sad, but it’s not bad for the situation to end like this.

The mission given to the Swan Mercenary Corps and the Wolf Mercenary Corps is to deal with the Poison Scorpion Mercenary Corps, not to fight Aldguild’s guards.

If Aldguild’s soldiers were dispatched faster than we thought and wiped out the poison scorpion mercenaries, the Weather family would have no reason to step in after all.

The grudge remains, and a fight may break out later, but at least not today.

“What are you here for?”

A knight in bloodstained armor called me from across the alley.

“that is…”

It was William. As if to prove that he was the one who had cut down countless mercenaries so far, he continued to advance without wiping the blood on his sword.

No other subordinates were seen. However, the energy he exudes made it impossible to see him as just a ‘one knight from an adventurer’.

“Enerel. Why did you come back here again?”

see. No, obviously, it was inside his body, so it might have been my mistake to think I could see it.

But the fact that there was a flash of red light inside him came through my eyes so clearly.

William was burning red.