Chapter 87: Swallowing Sorrow

“The streets have a different atmosphere at night, huh?”

As the Grandmaster said, Volten’s night was more vibrant than they had expected.

There were more people around than during the day, some even seemed to be outsiders like themselves.

However, none of those outsiders seemed to harbor good intentions.

At best, they were here to gamble or enjoy the alcohol, but who knows what they were up to in the deep alleys.

“The crowd makes it easy to hide, but where should we even go after this?”

The Grandmaster muttered, glaring at a man who bumped her shoulder as he passed.

“Usually in these situations, we’d go to a pub and—“

As they were about to enter a crowded pub, either to gauge the atmosphere or give the owner some coins to ask about the mercenary group.

Smack!

“You son of a bitch—!”

A commotion erupted from a part of the street. People’s gasps, whistles, and laughter echoed.

It seemed that a fight had broken out, but something peculiar here was that Volten seemed to welcome such a thing.

“How boisterous.”

“Uncivilized, more like.”

People gathered to watch the fight. A man with bloodshot eyes, probably drunk, was swinging a bottle around.

Meanwhile, the man who had just been hit by the bottle was holding his head, getting into a stance.

“Sloppy. He won’t hit anything with that kind of swing.”

“What? Are you here to teach or something?”

“Force of habit.”

The drunk swung the bottle wildly, but…

With that kind of swing, there was just no chance that he’d hit anything.

Frustrated, he threw the bottle to the ground and shouted.

“Damn it, you bastards of Volten!! What are you looking at?! Get lost already!!”

“Haha! That dumbass is losing it!”

“Sleep it off if you’re drunk, loser!”

“Oh my! What a scene!”

“How ugly! Tsk tsk tsk!”

It felt like they were watching a play.

The people mocked the drunk who insulted them, tearing him down with their words.

Seeing how everyone was so united in insulting him, the drunk, unable to contain himself any longer, shouted even more vigorously.

“Do you even know who I am, you lowlives?! I am Baron Geliarts’ son! How dare you lowborn scum—!”

“A noble?”

“Probably a youngest son. Well, even if he’s a noble, being the youngest son of a mere baron won’t get him anywhere, pfft.”

From his clothes, he didn’t look particularly distinguished, and since everyone noticed this, their mockery only grew even harsher.

At this, the fuming drunk raised his middle finger at the crowd and shouted.

“Fuck! This is what you get for being ruled over by a commoner-born bastard! His citizens are a bunch of dimwitted insects! Just wait! I swear, that lowborn baron of—”

Unfortunately, his words were cut short.

Because a stone flew from somewhere and struck his head.

Smack!

“Ugh—huk?!”

As the drunk staggered, someone else rushed in and knocked him down.

Then, in an instant, the whole crowd began to assault him.

“How dare you speak the baron’s name, you bastard?!”

“He’s our! Our hero! You fucking bastard!”

“Our baron is nothing like a dimwit like you!”

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Who hit where.

Who broke what.

And who killed whom—no one knew. Not in this maddened crowd, drown in violence.

The sudden change in their atmosphere could only be described as ‘fanatical’.

Soon enough, the drunk’s screams were buried under the sounds of violence, and soon after, the crowd dispersed silently, assimilating themselves to the city again.

“Tsk.”

Isaac clicked his tongue.

The corpse is pretty much half-pulverized now.

“How barbaric.”

The Grandmaster muttered calmly.

Isaac too, had heard of Volten’s infamy, but he never expected that such an act to be carried out so openly.

Even the young ones joined in.

Everyone, from the young children to the elderly, participated in that madness.

All because their baron was insulted.

“Is he really so benevolent that they are willing to do something like this?”

“…”

“This degree of loyalty is just way too much. It’s almost like a cult…”

“Seriously…”

Seeing how a violent murder being committed openly, one couldn’t call this city a ‘good’ place.

Regardless, the loyalty of the people towards their ruler was astonishingly high.

Considering how trigger happy the people were, one could never think that the baron’s grip on power was something to be taken lightly.

“What an intriguing city.”

To think Milly lived in a place like this.

I wonder if this place was different back when she still lived here?

The revolution occurred when she was still working at Helmont, no? The place might have had a different atmosphere before that.

At that moment, men in black clothes appeared and stood before the corpse. From their attire, it looked like they were about to hold a funeral, but they just roughly stuffed the body into a sack and started cleaning the blood from the ground, as if cleaning up filth.

“What are they doing?”

Seeing how people around ignored them as if they were shadows, this must be a familiar sight in Volten.

“How surprising. This land kept on intriguing me with every little thing. There’s no time to be bored here.”

She’s angry.

Judging by the Grandmaster’s slightly raised voice, it was clear that she was angry.

No, actually, she had been angry since the first time the drunk started shouting.

She was only holding herself back because Isaac was there, and because they were on duty right now.

Suddenly, she marched forward. Her movements were so quick that Isaac was too late to stop her.

Before he realized it, she had already approached and grabbed the wrist of the man carrying the body sack on his shoulder.

“Where are you rushing off to? Shouldn’t a child at least see their parents before departing?”

“…?”

“He identified himself as Baron Geliarts’ son, he’s not some unknown person. Though his remains isn’t in the best state, he should at least meet his parents—”

The man tried to shake off the Grandmaster’s hand but he couldn’t overcome her grip and groaned in pain.

“Urgh?!”

The Grandmaster let out a sigh.

Still holding the man, she turned her head slightly to look at Isaac and asked.

“It would be better not to interfere further, right? We’re out in secret, after all.”

“Well, I thought so too, but…”

The Grandmaster’s expression wasn’t good.

There was a gloomy look on her face, as if she had seen something she didn’t want to see. It was hard for him, her former disciple, to ignore.

He had prepared several things for this outing.

Engaging in a mind game with Baron Volten and snuck out of the inn through acting were two of them. He even had the next target set, but…

“Want to just…destroy everything here?”

He asked with a smile.

Seeing the Grandmaster’s slight nod, he immediately discarded all the plans he had prepared.

“If we’re going to do it, might as well do it thoroughly.”

“I can live with that. I’d rather cut through all my enemies without much thinking.”

“I’ll tell the princess that it was foolish of me to think I could do covert operations with you.”

“To be fair, I did my best. Even now, those who were assigned to watch us probably think that I’m being handled roughly by you.”

Bang!

The Grandmaster twisted the man’s wrist and knocked him down.

Though she had only swung her hand once, his body spun dramatically in the air before falling to the ground, knocking him out instantly.

Once again, people’s attention was focused on them.

The fuss earlier taught me a valuable lesson.

Isaac let out a self-deprecating smile as he used the magic words he learned from the drunk to gather people’s attention.

“I am Baron Logan! Here to arrest those involved in the recent murder! Moreover, I am going to hold Baron Volten accountable for maintaining such disgraceful public order in the city!”

“Ho.”

The corners of the Grandmaster’s mouth curved upward.

Once again, the eyes of the people around them were filled with madness in an instant.

While grinding their teeth, exhaling deep, hot breaths, they slowly approached the two.

“What has the kingdom ever done for us—!”

“Baron? A baron you said?! You’re saying you’re on the same level as our baron?!”

“You kingdom bastards! Fucking opportunists! The worst kind of scums! Abandoning us—!”

“The day of revolution! Do you know what we went through that day?! How dare you try to take away the peace we created!”

It was all too obvious that the pouring insults would soon turn into violence.

But Isaac, who had provoked them, looked utterly calm, which only served to make him more hateful in the crowd’s eyes.

Although, the depth of the line they had crossed in such a short time was different.

The anger of the crowd was like a wave, but the water was shallow.

“We can’t kill them.”

“What? Are you concerned about these guys?”

“Milly’s family might be among them.”

“Huh… Right…”

It wasn’t that he was worried about the citizens. He was just concerned about harming Milly’s family by accident.

The attack began in an instant.

Amidst the crowd, those who seemed to be outsiders backed away in confusion.

On the contrary, the people of Volten uniformly gritted their teeth and charged towards the pair.

Good. I don’t need to guess which one is which.

Isaac punched a man who was charging at him while panting.

Thud!

Since the man took a direct hit to the jaw, he collapsed, losing his consciousness. Others came charging in after him, but Isaac managed to subdue them calmly, one by one.

What a cheap sense of satisfaction.

Going through this, he felt that he had truly changed.

In his past life, he couldn’t even beat an ordinary adult male; he would’ve been unilaterally beaten in this kind of situation.

But now…

He could read their movements, dodged them, and struck back without losing his composure.

Until now, I’ve always been the one challenging others…

Now that he was in the position of being challenged, he felt like he gained a whole new perspective and experience.

As he was subduing the charging crowd.

“Just…how…”

He heard the Grandmaster’s faint sob.

“How can they be so…ugly…”

Usually, such words accompanied an expression of disgust, but he could feel the sadness in her tone.

“Enough…already…”

Gently tripping a child running at her with a stone, the Grandmaster let out a bitter sigh.

“This just makes their words seem right…”

As if wanting to deny all the scenes unfolding before her.

The Grandmaster forcefully held her tears.