112 – Strike-13

It was a situation no one expected. William was no exception.

I had already given up half way. Unless you’re an idiot, there’s no way you wouldn’t have run away during this long, huge fight.

That’s why Enerel resented him, but he still believed in Erinis. I believed there would have been more opportunities given to him.

Even if he couldn’t overcome Enerel here and now, he thought that his vengeful spirit would not die.

You just need to know that the target of revenge is alive. If I only remembered this anger now, I thought I could chase it to the end of the world and kill it.

However, he did not anticipate the situation approaching him to die himself.

“Why are you still here!”

Embarrassed Enerel shouted. Wolf trudged away, ignoring his words.

“If you hold a grudge against me… kill me. Instead, I’ll be content with that.”

“I didn’t expect you to give up your head so easily.”

“Yes. Instead, don’t touch the others. I’ve asked my mercenaries not to think of revenge, so I won’t bother you.”

William’s hands trembled with excitement.

too easy. He thought he would wield his sword mercilessly against the mercenary, who was desperately resisting and did not even know what he had done wrong.

“I was going to kill you more brutally.”

He did not know why he was dying and tried to avenge the grudge of his parents who had collapsed. Just like this looter who died cursing his own weakness, he tried to kill brutally and mercilessly.

“Why did you do that?”

William wanted to cut his throat right now, but he couldn’t help but ask this question.

Naturally, William thought his vengeance was justified. However, I did not expect others to acknowledge it.

“Why are you admitting it, why!”

The plundering of mercenaries was common and natural.

It’s a civilized empire at least, and it happened during a civil war, not a war between nations, so this can be condemned.

If the Southern Principality outside the Empire were to incur resentment over something like this, there would be more people who could win Erinis’s favor than that mercenary group.

“Isn’t it something you’ve done dozens or hundreds of times. Do you feel sympathy now?”

Of course, even if a battle does occur, looting may not occur if the mercenaries are well paid and extremely well controlled.

However, considering how merciful the mercenaries would be who went through all kinds of hardships to occupy a village or castle, it was practically impossible.

William knew too. That no one would ever admit this to be a sin. The judge, the other nobles, and even the fair emperor.

“Don’t pretend to empathize. Don’t pretend to understand!”

And after becoming an adventurer and then becoming a lord, he did not live independently of mercenaries.

Even though he had never personally participated in a murder, he had often brought poisonous herbs or high-quality weapons ordered by mercenaries.

What he immediately suggested to Enerel was to hire mercenaries. He didn’t know that those mercenaries were all murderers. He didn’t know that he was a human being who killed people for money, just like the people who killed his parents.

“What do you guys know!”

Enerel’s reaction was quite generous.

If you’re a really cold person, you’ll snort at his sadness and say, ‘Is there one or two dead parents here?’ Or, ‘Are you the only one who lost a family member?’

It was personal anger that no one could understand. I believed that no one would sympathize with me.

so i got the strength For that reason, I prayed to Erinis. I thought that she would listen to any personal grudge, any personal revenge.

By the way, why?

“Are you trying to understand me!”

Filled with rage, William’s sword moved toward Wolf. Enerel hurriedly blocked it, but Wolf moved forward unwaveringly.

“…I’m sorry.”

As if it didn’t matter if he was stabbed, Wolf moved forward.

William wasn’t afraid. It wasn’t because of the power he had borrowed from Erinis that he was bowing down.

“why…”

“This young man… did you say Enerel?

My legs tremble, and sweat forms on my forehead. Apart from that mercenary experience, Wolf is just an ordinary human being. There’s no way I can hold on to living like this.

“You said it was a chain of hatred. I asked why you had to break it first, and why you had to forgive it. You’re right.”

Wolf’s grip on the sword relaxed. A sword landed on the ground stained with blood and corpses.

“Don’t forgive me. Kill me. And, in the future… make sure no one dies like you.”

Wolf stood without armor, arms outstretched. Step by step William approached him.

“Before I finish, I have a question for you.”

“Speak.”

There was something I was always curious about. William wanted to solve an unsolved mystery.

“Did you see?”

Enerel and the other party members watched their confrontation with vigilance.

It was something only the two of them could understand. Words that only perpetrators and victims with memories of that day can say.

“Little eyes. I saw.”

William bit his lip. It was a memory I had forgotten for a long time.

Even if your parents die, the world doesn’t end. Looting, arson, and murder continue endlessly.

The mercenary who killed his parents had no reason to stop. He looked around and stopped for a moment when he saw where little William was hiding.

I thought I was dead. I thought I would meet my end with the people of this village.

However, as if the mercenary did not notice William, he moved to another place casually.

“Why… didn’t you kill him?”

“Because there was no reason to kill. There was nothing to gain, and believe it or not, at least for that moment…”

Wolf thought that all of this was a meaningless fight.

Killing people because of an unfunny power struggle between nobles was not pleasant, at least at that moment.

According to the logic of a mercenary, as long as you can get money, that’s enough. There was no reason to question the cause if you could get the right to plunder and swallow sweet gold coins.

Still, when I saw those eyes mixed with fear, anger, resignation and prayer, I couldn’t bear to enjoy the murder.

“I want at least one person to live.”

William gritted his teeth.

For mercenaries, looting is natural. However, there were people who didn’t take it for granted.

When he was hiding in that narrow space and looking at Wolf with vengeful eyes, he was also looking at William.

“under…”

William’s revenge was not a refreshing and exhilarating revenge by beating the wicked. It was just plain pointless revenge, where people just kill people.

“Nevertheless, I will do this.”

William’s sword slowly moved toward Wolf. There was no strength in the hand holding it.

“Okay, I’ll finish it.”

The middle-aged mercenary nodded slowly. At this point, it wasn’t even a particularly bad death than he thought.

He could have been trampled to death by someone who was more evil and stronger than himself.

He could have been betrayed by a nobleman and imprisoned in a dark, musty prison before being executed, or he could have been struck by a blind arrow or magic and vanished without leaving a trace.

Like so many people he killed, he could have been buried without resistance.

At least compared to those deaths, this was an acceptable death. It was the death he chose.

For the warriors who ran rampant to save people who had nothing to do with them, and for the remaining mercenaries and ordinary people.

The one who sinned is killed, and the one who deserves revenge is killed. Having seen the deaths of countless people, he could not help but regard them as extravagant deaths next to natural deaths.

The sword that stabbed Wolf in the chest slowly dug into it.

“…”

Enerel couldn’t bear to stop it. It was Wolf who chose death. It was the decision of that middle-aged mercenary to take responsibility for the murder without increasing needless sacrifices.

“I did it…”

William shuddered with a sense of relief.

Revenge is over. There is no longer any need to cry out over the resentment of the missing parents, and the past that was blocking him is gone.

A personal grudge was resolved in a personal way. Blood will flow here, but I didn’t think that I could avoid a fight from the beginning when I assumed the title of lord.

He just had to remain the role that Aldguild expected, the role that others expected of William. as an ordinary person.

For William, the victim, to kill the perpetrator is as natural as for a mercenary to pillage a village and kill innocent people.

nevertheless.

“I’m sorry…”

William’s sword did not pierce Wolf’s body all the way. With some blood on the tip of his sword, he drew it from Wolfe’s body and turned around.

He didn’t want to be inferior to this mercenary even in the slightest.