episode_0009

I silently put a cigarette in my mouth and watched my subordinates run wild.

The corrupt imperial officials there were being slaughtered one after another.

Even the strong individuals who were supposed to protect them were no exception.

Suddenly, I realized that we were undeniably evil.

“That’s enough.”

As the tip of the cigarette I was holding burned down and curled, I finally opened my mouth.

At the same time as my words, the rampaging Black Serpents ceased their movements.

“Yes, Captain!”

“Tsk, these guys here aren’t even good enough for a warm-up!”

“I agree. A lot of young people these days are substandard.”

“Oh my, you sound like the Jinjo hag again, always singing the same tune!”

“Now that you mention it, we haven’t sorted out our hierarchy much lately, have we?”

“Haa, I miss Aria Noona’s traffic control—.”

As their movements ceased, they began to chatter and joke among themselves. As if this level of work was truly nothing, like they were amiably chatting after finishing a trivial task.

The dead have no words.

That’s why it’s always necessary to leave survivors who can spread the word. A name no one speaks of is not infamy, but merely anonymity.

The number shouldn’t be too many, nor too few.

In any case, the survivors will never forget what happened here today.

That is the name of the Black Serpents that the world will come to know through the mouths of the survivors.

Nothing would change. So I thought.

─Should I end it here?

No more, no less, just like this.

Our name wasn’t particularly tarnished. Rather, today’s events would elevate it higher than ever.

If I were to turn a blind eye and let it go, everyone could move on peacefully. There’s no need for any more unnecessary bloodshed.

Even the ‘patriots’ of the empire who died here would wish for that. Besides, considering how they were played unilaterally, didn’t they pay their own price?

A hollow laugh escaped me after thinking.

The thoughts of others didn’t matter one bit. There was only one thing that truly mattered.

So I decided to ask again.

─What is it that I truly desire?

*

“Hey Elf Noona, how old are you?”

“1, 180 years old……”

“Wow, you’re younger than you look. So, first time in the Empire?”

“Ah, well, that─.”

“……”

The auction house vicinity was like a scene from hell. Yet, a man was hitting on an elf, completely oblivious to the surroundings. This, by the way, was the high elf who had been successfully bid on by the fox-masked lady.

I was dumbfounded, so I called his name.

“Silan.”

“Huh, Captain? Was this Noona your type too?”

“……Stop spouting nonsense and let her go.”

“Alright.”

Only then did the high elf hastily escape from the villain’s grasp, and I looked at the red-haired man standing there.

Silan, the organization’s fourth-ranked member and the ‘Snake Eye’.

True to his alias, ‘Snake Eye,’ his long, slanted reptilian eyes turned towards me. As you can see, he was what’s called a ‘slit-eyed character’.

“Do you know anything about the Empire’s rats?”

“Rats? Ah, you mean Brettona’s secret intelligence service. Hmm, why them all of a sudden?”

Silan tilted his head and asked, his voice frivolous and light, as if speaking to a casual friend.

I didn’t answer immediately, remaining silent for a moment.

However, the silence didn’t last long.

As the Captain of the Black Serpents, what I desired and what I had to do were already decided.

“Because they’re behind this.”

“The Imperial Intelligence? No, why would they── Ah.”

Silan stopped mid-sentence and closed his mouth.

“Wow, well, look at that. They’re cleverer than they look, those guys.”

He finally understood the situation and shrugged his shoulders, as if truly regretful.

“But they couldn’t deceive the Captain’s eyes, could they? Haha, you’re truly the Captain!”

I didn’t answer.

“So, what are you going to do? Are you going to summon the rest of our comrades just like this?”

“……I have no intention of moving immediately.”

I shook my head at Silan’s question. After shaking my head, I called out another name.

“Sandalphon.”

“Ohh, is it a new order?! I’m too restless to wait!”

At those words, a giant in a suit approached, as if he had been waiting. His towering height of over 2 meters and a physique that looked like it would burst truly made him fit the description of a ‘beast-man’.

And he truly was. The face revealed above his suit was not human, but the head of a real wolf.

Sandalphon, the organization’s eleventh-ranked member, a Werewolf, and the ‘Lone Wolf’.

“Silan, Sandalphon. The two of you will remain in the Empire; there’s a task I need you to do.”

I calmly called their names and issued the command. The command I, as the Captain of the Black Serpents, was bound to give.

“Silan, you are to dig up information on them. For when we make our move later.”

“Leave it to me. I’m the Snake Eye.”

True to his name, ‘Snake Eye,’ and his slit-eyed character, he was responsible for information gathering and reconnaissance within the organization.

“And Sandalphon, you are to deliver my message to them.”

“……The Captain’s message?”

“Yes.”

The Lone Wolf wore a dejected wolf-like expression at the words, which sounded more unexciting than he expected. I paid no mind and spoke.

“─That we remember.”

A grin spread.

Realizing the meaning of those words, a lively expression returned to the wolf’s face.

“Don’t you worry, Captain!”

The Black Serpents will not forget this incident; they will remember it.

What happened here, who was behind it, and what they desired.

And who dared to use the ‘Serpent’s’ name to achieve their own goals.

“Because I’ll convey it very clearly. ─So they will never forget.”

The task they’ll perform by remaining in the Empire isn’t merely limited to investigations.

For now, that was enough. Besides that, there were mountains of other tasks to be done.

“The rest of you, stand by until further orders.”

With those words, I turned my head.

To dismiss the assembled Black Serpents and return to my own duties.

It was then.

“Captain, may I ask a favor?”

A subordinate, whose hood was pulled deep down, spoke. Her voice felt somewhat formal and stiff.

“I want to take this child to the Great Forest.”

She said, looking at the terrified high elf there.

As she spoke, she carefully removed her pitch-black hood, revealing the pointed ears symbolic of elves.

.

Her skin was not the fair and beautiful milky white of the high elf before her. Instead, it was pale and dark like a corpse.

A symbol of curse and exile, rejected by elf society─.

“Dark Elf!”

The emotions the high elf displayed upon seeing her were no different. Unconcealed contempt and disgust. But it didn’t last long.

This was not the fairy forest where she belonged. This was an unfamiliar imperial land she knew nothing about, and she likely didn’t even want to remember the hellish days she must have endured while being sold here.

Moreover, there was no guarantee she could return properly by herself.

In such a situation, in front of the only kin reaching out a hand, it was not the time to stand on pride merely because of skin color.

I answered as if it were none of my business.

“Do as you wish.”

“I express my gratitude, Captain.”

Selena of the Dark Moon bowed respectfully.

As if to live up to her reputation as a Dark Elf assassin, a terrifying clanking sound of metal echoed from within her fluttering coat tails as she bowed, where all sorts of concealed weapons were stored, clashing together.

By the way, that elf, she’ll be able to return safely, right?

“Yawn, I’m sleepy. I’m going back to my territory to get some sleep. I wish I could sleep soundly for about a century like this.”

“……Me too. Geppetto Old Man must be worried by now.”

The man and woman, each called by the aliases ‘Jinjo’ and ‘Wooden Carving,’ also withdrew one by one.

Finally─.

“Aww, everyone gathered after so long, but they left so soon!”

A girl in a gothic dress approached my side nonchalantly. Her expression was full of regret and disappointment, as if my side was exactly where she belonged.

“Let’s go back, Alice.”

“Yes, Captain!”

At those words, the blonde girl replied with an innocent smile. It was a very pleasant smile.

*

Aria of the Black Sword silently looked down at her with emotionless eyes.

The holy maiden, sleeping defenselessly on the bed.

Aria’s emotionless, dark black eyes, however, were obscured by pitch-black bandages and couldn’t be seen. They should have been.

Nevertheless, all sorts of things that ordinary people could not possibly imagine were reflected in her eyes.

It was the same even now.

So she silently focused her consciousness on the hilt of the Black Sword she was holding. She adjusted her grip on the hilt, and on the blade that scattered dark, menacing glints.

It was at that very moment.

“Aria.”

A voice was heard. So suddenly that even she couldn’t sense its approach.

But there was no need to be flustered. Rather, that voice was an incomparable salvation to her.

So Aria smiled. Very quietly, faintly, to the point where it wouldn’t be seen by him, who was behind her.

Afterward, she calmly turned her head with her usual cold expression.

“Did you call, Captain-nim?”

She, the second-ranked member of the organization, who served closest to the Captain, and held the name ‘Black Sword’.