Ch.98Chimera (5)

Pietro Campbell, the leader of the “Brotherhood of the Forest,” a grandiose name for what was essentially a band of thieves doubling as mercenaries, was truly textbook garbage.

Though in this world mercenaries and thieves were treated as synonyms with interchangeable signboards, his level of vile despicability and repulsiveness was nonetheless exceptionally outstanding.

Originally a freelance knight in the Frankish Kingdom who hired himself out for territorial wars, he was caught secretly looting and stripped of his title. Not satisfied with just that, he continued to lead his self-proclaimed mercenary band on looting sprees until he became a wanted man.

But once a man falls this far into the abyss, recovery is rarely easy.

Already addicted to the various pleasures crime offered, he made his living taking on what people commonly call “underground work.” Then by chance, he met a wealthy individual who resembled an attractive noblewoman and was tasked with a major job.

The “job” was to kidnap the only son of Baron Alzar, the rising great lord of eastern Frankish Kingdom, and extort a ransom.

If successful, he could extract an enormous ransom that would truly free him from financial worries for life, but naturally, the difficulty of this job was extremely high.

For one, the baron’s son himself was known to possess exceptional combat prowess, having become a knight at the mere age of 13—a rare prodigy. Additionally, he could receive protection at the domain level, so realistically, anyone who attempted this would be considered a fool.

However… the situation had taken an unusual turn.

Normally, the difficulty of secretly kidnapping a mid-tier who would be under the strict surveillance and protection of the lord’s castle would be not much different from essentially conquering the barony.

But now, the son was away from the domain alone as part of his successor training.

“This opportunity is truly now or never,” his employer “Bell” had said, and Pietro himself couldn’t help but agree with the assessment.

Thus, having accepted the request, Pietro soon received massive support from his employer.

Two sets of “Golem Armor,” relics of ancient civilization said to cost as much as a castle each. Three imperial military rifled cannons diverted to the black market. Conical shells to use with them, vast amounts of gunpowder, plus numerous outdated muskets and cheap bullets.

Honestly, even this alone would clearly surpass what might be considered ordinary “support,” but the pinnacle of support that Pietro and his “Brotherhood of the Forest” received was not this.

Surprisingly, his employer provided three of the extremely rare “tamed chimera beasts” along with a clown-dressed trainer to control them.

While taming chimeras—creatures originally developed and used for military purposes—is not impossible, truly domesticating them like regular animals is something only theoretically possible.

Of course, underground entities who cast magic through means like black magic occasionally manage to tame them, so it’s not entirely impossible.

Seeing the level of “support” provided, he realized this “job” wasn’t simply about extorting ransom, but being already deeply entangled with the employer named “Bell,” carelessly breaking the contract wouldn’t end well.

In the legitimate world, breaking a contract means preparing for penalties or credit rating drops, but in the underground, breaking a contract is practically a declaration of war against the other party.

With an employer powerful enough to provide three supposedly unmanageable chimera beasts, complete with means to control them effectively, breaking the contract would be something only someone with a death wish would attempt.

Anyway, the “plan” given to the “Brotherhood of the Forest” who somehow ended up taking this request was much more sensible than expected.

According to information obtained through an “inside informant,” the target actively responds when incidents occur, so they would use this to subtly reveal the chimeras’ presence to lure him into the forest.

Once the target, “Camille de Alzar,” was lured into the forest, they would subdue him using the three chimeras placed there and explosive weapons, while Pietro himself would lead the elite members of the “Brotherhood of the Forest” to deal with the remaining rabble in the pioneer village.

Since Pietro had no particular reason to object to this plan, he attacked the village expecting an exciting plunder according to the finalized plan, but…

What Pietro actually encountered was the villagers’ fierce resistance, which he hadn’t predicted at all, and…

“Guh… AAAAARGH!!!”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

—CLANG!

Another mid-tier in the village he hadn’t even slightly considered might exist—the werewolf Hannah.

In truth, even when Pietro initially confirmed that the cat-like beastkin woman (Hannah) was a mid-tier, he didn’t pay much attention to it.

No matter how skilled a fighter she might be unarmed, she wasn’t properly equipped with gauntlets or other gear, so Pietro saw her as just someone relying on her innate physical abilities as a beastkin and her awakened aura.

Having encountered such types before, Pietro confidently engaged in battle, thinking this wouldn’t be any different, but…

‘W-why is a pureblooded werewolf here?!!’

Contrary to Pietro’s expectations, Hannah wasn’t just some common riffraff but a pureblooded (mid-tier) werewolf.

And not just the type who recklessly relied on innate strength, but a battle-maniac werewolf who clearly understood her power’s limits and had honed them.

‘I-I can’t win…!!!’

Honestly, Pietro had no confidence in defeating this werewolf.

He had merely awakened his aura, but rather than training himself through battles with strong opponents, he had just been indulging his desires and wasting his potential.

Even among mid-tiers, his combat ability would rank in the lower tier. Having an aura was all there was to him; he never did anything to match this power, just rampaging around with what he was given.

Of course, this was enough to be considered a reasonably superior force in the relatively low-level underground world, but it didn’t amount to even a hair’s breadth against a real warrior.

What meaning did his axe-wielding, practically useless now though effective when he was low-tier, have against her acrobatic fighting style that showcased rapid transformations and used all four limbs as weapons?

‘This b… bitch…!!’

Sensing his lack of advantage despite inwardly cursing, Pietro instinctively knew he had no chance of winning and sought another method instead of his uncharacteristic head-on confrontation.

“Come forth! Tin cans! Block that woman for me!”

One of the various forces provided by the client “Bell” that possessed magical control over its occupants through a control device.

—THUD! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Though he hadn’t deployed them earlier, hoping to salvage parts to sell in the black market, at this point when there was no need to be selective, it would have been strange not to deploy the two “Golem Armors” and their wearers.

As the name suggests, these armors were products of magical engineering created with the advanced magical technology of the ancient empire, with the spirit component that handled the artificial intelligence of golems removed to allow for user operation.

They were in a realm that couldn’t possibly be reproduced with this era’s technology, not just in magical techniques but also in pure engineering.

But as time passed and this era’s magical and engineering technologies continued to develop, they reached a point where they could somewhat restore the technology of these golem armors and create something, however…

In fact, the golem armors they were using now were, in Pietro’s mind, close to spaghetti code in programming terms.

Unlike the ancient empire’s relics that functioned almost like small ■■■ except for being powered by magic, these were cobbled together from parts salvaged from the “Desert of Death,” with gaps filled in with crude rock golems.

…At least, that was Pietro’s understanding.

They couldn’t even find a way to make the human body’s movements compatible with the golem’s body, so they just stuffed limbless humans inside the central part.

“Hehehehehe…!”

With a vile laugh, Pietro threw these crude patchwork golem armors—the epitome of lost humanity—into battle and promptly began to withdraw from the battlefield—

“GRAAAAAAAH!!”

And Hannah… was simply happy that instead of a weak enemy, two stronger ones had appeared.

The scent of flesh emanating from within the rock and machinery delighted her.

She sent her faith that her younger brother would take care of that trash… that weak mid-tier from earlier.