Chapter 124: Thief Group (4)

Blood and soft skin, two incompatible elements, blended before my eyes.

A woman’s face, caked with dried nosebleed, was swollen. She was spilling onto the bed, unable to contain all the passion I’d poured into her last night.

‘But why does her face look like this?’

I remembered raping her, but I’d been so drunk on the idea of soon conquering the fortress that my memories were hazy.

Had the stupid wench tried to resist, claiming to be a noble? Or had I just beaten her for fun? Either way, it was trivial.

I turned away from her, searching for what had disturbed my sleep.

The source of the noise was outside. Surely it wasn’t a knight order attack. Perhaps some drunks were causing a ruckus?

I could have ignored it, but curiosity got the better of me. I dragged my stiff body down the stairs.

As I descended, memories of first crossing the barrier into the kingdom’s lands flooded back.

After what felt both too long and too short, I’d finally made it here.

For now, we’d only captured a few small villages, but soon the fortress would be ours.

Then we’d pillage the villages under its influence, grow stronger, and expand by invading other fortresses.

With Koraea running wild, they couldn’t spare attention for this backwater. It couldn’t have been a better situation for us.

‘When I first heard Koraea had destroyed the barrier, I thought it was another tribe’s deception…’

I sent our fastest tribesman to check, and sure enough, the barrier had fallen.

Seeing this as our chance, I immediately mobilized all our tribesmen to cross the barrier.

Being the first to cross, we absorbed every bandit group we encountered to increase our numbers. We even absorbed tribes that crossed after us. Now we had over 20 elite warriors.

There was some bloodshed in absorbing other tribes, but it was worth it. We eliminated future competitors while gaining many skilled warriors.

‘We’d completely given up on crossing the barrier in our lifetime…’

Ten years ago, after the united army of several tribes fell asleep at the barrier’s foot, no other tribe dared even imagine crossing it.

Who would have thought this unimaginable feat would be achieved with help from someone we thought existed only in legends? How ironic.

‘But what’s all this commotion about?’

As I went downstairs, the voices from outside became clearer.

I didn’t know everyone’s voice in this village, but even accounting for that, these were unfamiliar. And one of them was female.

The only women in this village were those we’d kidnapped during raids.

Listening closely, the woman’s voice was hushed but forceful – definitely not the voice of a rape victim.

‘Could it really be…’

As I wondered if someone had come to assassinate me, my subordinates came rushing in with torches from the distance.

Of course, they’d notice with all this shouting, unless they were idiots or deaf.

Seeing my men arrive, I walked towards the door with deliberately loud footsteps.

I flung the door open and stepped outside. There stood a girl in black full-plate armor and, in contrast, a pretty boy in a white uniform.

The girl seemed tense, as if understanding their situation, but the boy looked oddly calm.

Momentarily stunned by this unexpected sight, I soon returned to my senses as one of my men caught my eye.

“…Who the hell are you?”

“Assassins, obviously.”

Conspicuous armor, a bright white outfit, and the idiocy of making a ruckus in front of their target’s house.

No matter how charitably I looked at it, they were far from assassins. Yet he claimed they were.

I wanted to ask if this was some kind of joke, but the seriousness in his eyes made the words stick in my throat.

“…So you’re a knight or something?”

“What? I said we’re assassins. I even shouted my name earlier. Why do you keep asking?”

“You announced your name…?”

What the hell was this bastard talking about?

I vaguely remembered hearing something like a name earlier, but isn’t that the last thing an assassin should reveal?

Wondering if I’d misunderstood something, being from beyond the barrier, I looked at the local bandits. But they too wore expressions of bewilderment.

“Why… are you announcing your name?”

“Why, you ask… Don’t you eat hot food slowly to avoid burning your mouth?”

“…I do.”

“It’s the same thing. In the kingdom, it’s common sense to announce your identity and shout your target’s name before an assassination.”

“…”

Even though I came from beyond the barrier, I knew that couldn’t be common sense.

“Just a bunch of lunatics. Kill the man and bring the woman to me alive.”

I’d been a bit unnerved, but they were just deranged fools.

They probably weren’t skilled either, so I left the cleanup to my men and turned my back. Instantly, I regretted my earlier words.

Instead of just keeping the woman alive to violate her, I should have kept the man alive too. It would have been more fun to make him watch the woman being raped.

“Hey, that man too…”

I hadn’t walked far, so I thought I could still change the order. I turned my head, and hell unfolded before me.

It reminded me of when I saw a mutant magic beast go berserk as a child.

Blood and flesh flew like rain in a storm, and the stench of blood made me wrinkle my nose involuntarily.

‘Did he use some kind of magic?’

The scene before me was so horrific, I wondered if he’d used magic to slow down time or create an illusion.

The mangled corpses, mixed together into a sticky mess, resembled a swamp of bodies.

I couldn’t believe this thorough slaughter had happened in just 10 to 20 seconds. My body instinctively recoiled.

“Oh? You’re back? I was about to come up.”

Saying this, he picked up a subordinate’s head at his feet and tossed it towards me.

The head spun through the air a few times before hitting the ground limply, rolling a bit before stopping at my feet.

“Baz…”

The empty eyes of my former subordinate, his face contorted with fear, seemed to say, “You’re next.”

Trapped in this nightmarish scene, I stood frozen. But when the perpetrator of this slaughter took a step forward and spoke, I snapped back to reality.

“Now, shall we add you to this pile of corpses?”

—Raei  Translations—

The man who seemed to be the barbarian chieftain dashed upstairs in a comical manner, as if accompanied by a “whoosh” sound effect in a cartoon.

I watched quietly as he ascended, then slowly entered the house after confirming he’d gone up.

Jessica followed me in and asked, looking somewhat disgruntled:

“Why didn’t you just go and cut him down? Why wait for him to go upstairs?”

“Because he’s not planning to escape.”

More precisely, he understood he couldn’t escape. If he knew he couldn’t escape but still went upstairs, he must have some preparation in mind.

“That’s why we should give him plenty of time. Rushing might lead to some strange mistake.”

“Haa… Do you enjoy fighting that much? You’re needlessly complicating things that could be easily resolved…”

“Of course I enjoy it. And earlier was a bit disappointing…”

Perhaps because the bandit groups were forcibly merged, their coordination was terrible. And there weren’t any particularly strong individuals either.

Even the barbarians I’d been looking forward to were only about as strong as regular knights, falling short of my expectations.

“He should be done preparing by now. Shall we go up?”

“I don’t think the situation you’re hoping for will happen…”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Well, even if he prepared for this, those preparations wouldn’t be in the bedroom. More importantly, there are women they kidnapped upstairs, right?”

“…Right?”

“So he’s probably just going to use them as hostages to try and escape, right? It might not work, but it’s worth a try for him.”

“…Oh.”

I’d been so caught up in the thrill of cutting people down with Baldo that I’d forgotten about the women upstairs.

We hurried up to the second floor, with Jessica following behind, sighing.

Sure enough, as Jessica had predicted, he was waiting for us, holding a blonde woman by the neck.

“See? What did I tell you…”

“I had my doubts when I heard you, but I didn’t think they’d be this simple-minded.”

Seemingly not hearing my grumble, the sweating chieftain pointed his water whip at the woman’s neck and said:

“Don’t move!! Do you know who this woman is?!”

“Who is she? The daughter of a Baldo dojo master? That might be worth considering.”

“What nonsense!! Can’t you see this blonde hair?! This woman is the young lady of the von Grund family!! So back off now!!”

Well… This was an unexpectedly timely bluff, even if unintentional.

Suppressing a laugh, I turned to ask Jessica behind me:

“Jessica, do you have any older or younger sisters?”

“…No, I’m an only child.”

“I see.”

Though simple-minded, the chieftain seemed to have some wits about him. Without any explanation, he understood the situation and let go of the woman’s neck, as if giving up everything.

“Ugh…!!”

No, just as he seemed to release her, he suddenly gripped her tightly again and threw her towards us.

She didn’t seem to be a noble or anything special, so I could have cut her down along with the chieftain. But meaningless slaughter would be an insult to Baldo.

I caught her with one hand and passed her to Jessica. As I lunged forward to cut down the chieftain, it was already too late.

“F-fuuuuuck…!!”

The next moment, when his body came into view, he was already throwing himself towards the wide-open window, like the eagle that was his tribe’s symbol.