Chapter 116: Assassination Order (6)

“Demon worshippers are here!”

Bear Trap and Hound were pros. Pros don’t try to understand the situation. They were humans who chose the best course of action based on instinct. As soon as the first shout rang out, the two made eye contact. Hound started stuffing torture tools and mission-critical items haphazardly into a sack, while Bear Trap drew a poison dart, keeping an eye on the entrance.

“Fuck, did Mirage fail?”

“Looks like they even gave away the hideout’s location. Told you there’s no one to trust; Mirage must be losing it.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here! Anyone coming? It’ll take too long to pack everything.”

Bear Trap said with a relaxed smile.

“We’ve got time. We laid plenty of traps at the entrance, didn’t we? Unless it’s a heavily armored knight, they won’t get past those traps.”

Seeing Bear Trap’s confident smile, Hound felt a bit reassured.

“Ah, um, but I’ve never fought demon worshippers before. What if, um, what if they put a curse on us? Like, causing birth defects for generations……”

“Holy Protect.”

Lumia completely ignored the whining Guard Captain. Every time she chanted a spell, a white light accumulated on the Guard Captain’s body. Initially trembling with anxiety, the Guard Captain started feeling power surge through him, his expression gradually shifting to one of confidence.

“Ah, I’ll take care of those demons for you. Don’t worry too much.”

They were now in front of the cave. A soldier following the Guard Captain whispered.

“By the way, who shouted that there were demon worshippers? It didn’t sound like one of our guys.”

“Not one of ours? He probably just misheard.”

The Guard Captain stomped his foot with a defiant look. His imposing presence, like a bull facing a matador, made the soldiers forget their conversation and stare in admiration. Lumia said.

“Now, don’t worry about the traps, just charge straight ahead. The power of God will protect you.”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

Hearing the Guard Captain’s roar, Bear Trap scoffed. Young fools trying to catch assassins recklessly always ended up falling into traps and meeting futile deaths. His scoff contained a hint of mourning for the dead youths.

“What the hell, who’s trying to kill themselves……”

“KABOOM!”

“……Huh?”

But Bear Trap’s mourning couldn’t properly conclude. Before his mourning could even finish, the reckless youth had broken through the traps by immolating himself.

“KABOOM!”

“KABOOM!”

“W-wha?”

Bear Trap knew the traps he had set like the back of his hand. Traps that unleashed poison darts upon activation, killing instantly. Traps with heavy iron balls that smashed bones, traps with stakes in small pits that mangled feet. Traps with crossbows firing bolts straight into the temple.

“KABOOM!”

“KABOOM!”

“KABOOM!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

But it was all meaningless. A man in shining armor, scattering trap debris in all directions, had finally reached the hideout. The wooden barricade blocking the entrance collapsed like dry twigs, just like the traps that had tried to stop the intruder.

Both Hound, who was packing, and Bear Trap, holding a poison dart, froze at the brute’s entrance.

The sunlight filtering through the cave entrance and the radiance emanating from his body mingled exquisitely, creating the illusion that a legendary hero had appeared. Hound stared blankly at the Guard Captain, while Bear Trap backed away, letting out a roar.

“Wh-what! What the fuck! Die! Die, monster!”

But the poison dart he threw was blocked by the sturdy protective magic Lumia had cast, failing to even scratch him. Watching the dart, aimed precisely at his eyes and brow, shatter uselessly, Bear Trap finally lost his fighting spirit and knelt.

“Damn it……. Fuck……!”

“Filthy demon worshippers. Did you really think laying such traps could stop the execution of justice?”

And then, bathed in bright light, a noble woman with golden hair strode forward with an upright posture. She wore priestess vestments and was enveloped in the same radiance as the Guard Captain. Bear Trap instinctively reached for more poison darts, but seeing the radiance, he settled back down obediently.

“Priestess-nim! L-look at that! It’s a demon corpse! You filthy demon worshipper bastards! Did you fail to summon a demon? Or were you trying to resurrect a demon corpse?”

The Guard Captain shouted, jumping up and down. He was slightly emotionally unstable due to the side effects of excessive holy magic infusion. Lumia, looking slightly flustered, glanced at the Guard Captain, then followed his pointing finger.

A pitch-black demon corpse lay inside a leather sack. Now, both Hound and Bear Trap could finally understand the situation. Someone had set a trap. Whether it was Mirage or Evan, they couldn’t tell, but it was clear someone was framing them as demon worshippers to achieve their goals effortlessly.

Hound contorted his face.

“To the demon worshippers! There is no mercy! Receive my sword!”

Like someone drugged, the Guard Captain drew his sword and snorted. His trembling appearance was like that of a murderer, causing Bear Trap to flinch involuntarily. Hound shouted before the Guard Captain’s sword could strike Bear Trap.

“W-wait a moment! Th-this is a frame-up! This is a trap! We’re not demon worshippers! Look!”

Hound emptied the sack in front of Lumia and the Guard Captain. Cruel torture instruments and assassination plans spilled out of the sack. Hound forced a sweaty smile, while Lumia narrowed her eyes, examining the blades that had fallen at her feet.

“Torture instruments, I see. They must use these to torture people into becoming demons.”

Hound shook his head. He pulled up his own shirt and then removed Bear Trap’s shirt as well, saying.

“No! We’re not demon worshippers! Look! These torture tools bear no unholy symbols! And our bodies! Our bodies don’t have any such symbols, do they!”

Lumia nodded calmly and said.

“So they didn’t even carve unholy symbols onto their bodies to pretend they aren’t demon worshippers. Truly wicked people.”

Hound felt like he was going mad with injustice. If he had to die, he wanted to die more spectacularly than this. He didn’t want to die caught up in crimes he didn’t commit. Hound shouted again.

“No! Why won’t you believe me! We are not demon worshippers! We are assassins! Look at this! The assassination plan! And this is the torture plan I made to torture and kill targets! Look at it!”

Lumia and the Guard Captain silently began reading the pages he presented. Lumia’s expression twisted. The Guard Captain frowned as he looked at the report for a long time, his face turning bright red. Veins bulged on his arms and face, and his eyes rolled back white.

“Ughhh…! Ugh…! Y-you devilish bastards! To think of inflicting such cruel torture on humans!”

Hound looked at Bear Trap. Bear Trap met Hound’s gaze with a pitiful look. Hound said with a smile.

“Sorry, buddy. Come to think of it, torture and murder were illegal too.”

The Guard Captain’s sword rose high into the sky. Hound met the incoming sword aimed at his face head-on. There was something he always wondered while torturing people. How much does it really hurt when bare flesh is cut? It was a question none of his torture victims had ever answered.

“You are definitely a demon worshipper! You don’t even deserve a trial! Die here!”

Hound spread his arms. The Guard Captain’s frenzied blade split Hound’s head in half. His sword didn’t stop there; it pressed down further, cleaving Hound’s body, dangling precariously, in half as well. The two cleanly severed halves, looking like something from an anatomy chart, faced Bear Trap.

Bear Trap looked back and forth between Hound’s gruesome corpse and the Guard Captain.

“Die. Demon worshipper and murderer.”

He raised his sword high. Bear Trap bowed his head low and shouted.

“It was all his idea! I don’t know anything! Please spare me!”

The Guard Captain’s sword stopped. Bear Trap looked at the Guard Captain with hopeful eyes. However, the Guard Captain’s gaze held no belief in his excuses. Instead, he looked at Bear Trap with an even more furious expression.

“Seeing you grovel like that, you must be the ringleader! You despicable scum! I can tell just by looking at you! The suffering of the victims you’ve killed! I’ll make you feel it in your own body!”

Bear Trap contorted his face. He shouted urgently.

“W-wait! Just wait! Aaaaaaaah!”

A horrific scream echoed through the cave.

The demon corpse and the horrific remains of the two worshippers were loaded onto a guard wagon. The Guard Captain, temporarily hyped up by the elixir of excessive holy magic, was stunned, facing the carnage he had wrought, while the guards had long since lost the ability to speak at their captain’s horrific murders.

Only Lumia, calm and composed, directed the soldiers to load the dismembered bodies of the murderers. She hummed a tune while wiping a drop of blood from her face.

Very quietly, so no one else could hear.

At that same time, Evan was enjoying the sunshine and drinking wine with his family.

Leaning back against the chair, he raised his wine glass and proposed a toast.

“To love and justice.”

“To love!”

Sophia echoed the last word, clinking her glass.