Ch.56Paerus Veil (3)

“Fuck them up!”

“Come at me! I’ll teach you the Sword of Parcival!”

With those words, I spun my sword to block attacks coming from all directions, then rode the blade like a wave, slicing through the enemies’ hands and necks.

“Grrrk…”

“My hand!! My hand!!!”

Crack! Clang! Clang!

The confined space, the sudden ambush, and my superior martial prowess—these three factors combined caused the enemies to be sliced up like boiled potatoes. I joyfully watched as their severed heads fell.

Their weapons were a mishmash, mostly blunt instruments, with only a few wielding short swords that barely caught my eye.

I couldn’t block all the dozens of strikes aimed at my body, so I had to allow most attacks to land. However, wearing double mail, I only felt dull impacts, and even those were nearly ineffective thanks to Pentin’s pain-reducing properties.

Thud! Thud! Crack!

“Damn it! Our attacks aren’t working!”

“Kuhak!”

Whenever their attacks faltered, I systematically took their lives, and they couldn’t inflict a single wound on me.

Hahaha. If you’re jealous, you should wear proper armor too.

Soon, the room that had held over thirty people was down to twenty. Then the room with twenty survivors was down to ten. Finally, the room with ten survivors was down to just two.

“Whew…”

Steadying my overheated body, I beheaded them with a single strike. Looking around, there was no one left alive in the room except me.

It took less than 30 minutes to kill all thirty-three of them.

It wasn’t that I was strong—they were just weak.

“Hmmm…”

I blew air through the gaps in my chain mail to cool my heated body, then began searching the surroundings for anything worth taking.

Usually, an organization of this size would have at least a few bottles of fine liquor.

Clink… clink…

“Oh, as expected.”

After putting several decent-looking boxes of liquor into my spatial storage box, I started searching cabinets too small for bottles.

Sure enough, silver and copper coins began pouring out, and I carefully collected them all before leaving the Familia’s hideout.

Thud.

“Huh?”

My foot had caught on the corpse of a cat-person whose wrist had been severed.

A woman whose name I didn’t know, who would probably have lived at least until today if she hadn’t met me.

I kicked her body away and watched the blood flow from the crushed cross-section.

Ah… truly weak.

Whether she was weak because she was a cat, because she was a woman, or just because of who she was—that wasn’t my concern.

She dared to mess with me, and she paid for it with her life.

That’s all there is to it.

“I should rest for today.”

It was enough money to enjoy myself for days without taking additional requests.

For thirty-three people, it might have been a tight sum, but one person’s tight sum is another person’s fortune.

Praying that Karil would forgive their foolishness and weakness, I left the place and returned to the inn where I was staying.

*

The next day. I woke up refreshed, ate breakfast, and headed back to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Come to think of it, rice seems more common than wheat in this city.

Whether it’s street food stalls, the guild cafeteria, or inn kitchens—rice is the staple, while bread is consumed only as a snack.

“They say rice has better population-supporting capacity… I guess that’s why.”

Fortunately, rice wasn’t unfamiliar to me. As a kitchen assistant, I often had to soak rice and knew how to cook it.

Among rice dishes, I like jambalaya the most because its spiciness suits my taste.

So I had no problems with the food culture here, but for people from places where bread is the staple, the rice-based diet might be a bit challenging.

Jingle~! Jingle~!

The familiar bell sound of the Adventurer’s Guild welcomed me, and I strode over to the request board to look for a suitable job.

“Hmm. This looks good.”

I muttered, accepting a request to clear out refugees who had settled in the city’s sewers.

Sewers are obviously not places for people to live, but those with nowhere else to go have no choice but to sleep even in such places.

Clearing out refugees who desperately nest in maintenance corridors and passages was one of the headaches for sewer managers. According to the request, they had finally pooled money to hire an adventurer, which reminded me of my time in Parcival.

The sewers in Parcival were connected to the sea, so some of the poor living there would fish near the sea. Of course, since the fish had ingested so much polluted water, eating their innards was out of the question, and eating them raw as sashimi would result in diarrhea all day.

Memories of fleeing from sewer managers who would chase us away with clubs came to mind, but I no longer lived in sewers, and these refugees had nothing to do with my past.

In other words, whether they lived or died made no difference to me, and after killing thirty-three people yesterday, I had no intention of showing mercy.

Once I kill a few as an example, the rest will leave the sewers out of fear for their lives.

If not, I’ll just kill them all.

*

When I arrived at the sewers, I discovered a “village” created by the refugees, and soon emaciated people began looking at me with fearful eyes.

“An adventurer…”

“Look at that armor and those weapons…”

Naturally, adventurers don’t come to such filthy places unless they’re on a job.

Unless it’s to drive away people desperate enough to make their beds in a place reeking of excrement and waste.

Shuffle… shuffle…

At that moment, an old man approached me, his legs trembling as he spoke.

“D-did the managers send you?”

“Yes.”

“To… evict us?”

“Yes.”

When I confirmed this, unrest spread among the people.

They were trespassers from the start, and regardless of how dire their circumstances, this place was someone’s workplace and one of the city’s important facilities.

If they harbored resentment and committed acts of terrorism, the city would be thrown into chaos.

“If you evacuate right now, I won’t use force.”

“Please give us a little time… we have sick people who can’t move on their own…”

“No. Leave now. The managers have entrusted me with immediate action. If you don’t get everyone out of this sewer right now, I will use force.”

With such people, one must respond with a hard, authoritative tone and give no leeway.

Parasites who live by relying on people’s sympathy and mercy.

If you’re too sick to work, you should die; if you’re too old to work, you should likewise die.

It’s unfortunate, but that’s how the world works.

“Will you follow my orders?”

“That…”

The old man looked at the people sprawled around, gritting his teeth, then looked back at me.

“We will evacuate.”

“Good choice. Pack up everything and leave by the end of today. If anyone enters this sewer without proper business again, I cannot guarantee your lives.”

I could hear teeth grinding.

These people have nowhere to go, no one to trust, no one to rely on.

That’s why they end up like this.

Those who cannot forge their own path in life are always destined for a miserable end.

That day, I watched hundreds of people leave the sewers and beheaded five who tried to use violence against me.

*

“Wow! Spending money really gets results! You cleaned out those filthy people nicely!”

The sewer manager laughed as he stamped my request completion form.

He seemed to have suffered a lot because of the poor people. I had never seen someone look so relieved.

“Just doing my job. Well, I’ll be going now.”

“Right! Take care!”

Hearing the manager waving his hand enthusiastically, I headed to the Adventurer’s Guild to collect my payment.

This Faerus Vale is vast, populous, and highly developed, but it seems it couldn’t escape society’s fundamental premise that human problems must be solved by humans.

Adventurers were undertaking countless “adventures” within this city, resulting in someone’s death and someone else’s prosperity.

Swoosh!

“Phew…”

I entered my room at the inn, thoroughly washed my body and clothes to remove the sewer stench, and soon the lingering odor was replaced by the subtle fragrance of soap.

Now, several months since I began adventuring.

The days were growing longer as the sun stayed up longer.