Episode 72
The aura of death was condensed beneath the skeleton floating in the air. The hardened body, flowing down like a stalactite in a cave, was completed inside the iron armor.
“Soleil, he’s the most famous assassin around here. He claims to be Walter’s descendant.”
-You are one who lives in pursuit of the death of others. You are a foolish being who does not believe in your own death. The price for that is… …death.
Iredem seeped into the darkness.
The dark spirit Dimes assisted him in his secret movements.
Unlike usual, Iredem made a sound. It was not of his will.
The only noise was the slight friction of the armor as he walked.
“… … Who are you?”
As Soleil was about to leave the bookstore, he looked up at Iredem, who was nearly 50 centimeters taller than him. Iredem was holding a dagger in both hands.
One was a sacred relic taken from a descendant of the Duke of Sardia, and the other was a ceremonial sword from an ancient religion acquired on the black market.
“Iredem, you are the one who wants to erase everything related to Walter. Soleil, are you a descendant of Walter?”
Iredem’s voice was quite rough. If you heard his voice in a back alley, you would wet your pants thinking that the Demon King had descended.
But the opponent was Soleil, the most successful assassin in the back alleys. He answered with strength in his throat.
“Do you know me?”
“Are you a descendant of Walter?”
Soleil claimed to be Walter’s descendant. No one knew that it was not a sincere act. He wanted to win Walter’s respect.
But it wasn’t the kind of thing that could be saved by shedding blood.
In an instant, Soleil disappeared from my sight. She disappeared into the shadows without a trace.
‘It’s pretty good.’
Soleil didn’t seem to have received any proper training. His movements were based on natural talent and hard work. It was a martial art that he had naturally acquired after being exposed to the night air for many years.
Kang!
Soleil’s right arm was raised. He tried to surprise Iredem, but Iredem swung his twin swords and knocked Soleil’s sword away.
A single collision exposed Soleil’s vulnerability. This was not due to carelessness. It was due to the large difference in skill.
Iredem swung a pair of daggers in earnest. It seemed like he was swinging them around carelessly, but at the base of them was the ‘Vinos Throwing Sword’.
“ah!”
Soleil noticed that Iredem’s swordsmanship was special. He let out a gasp and held out his dagger.
It was something that had to be done to prevent his throat from being cut.
Kaang! Kang! Kaang! Kang!
It seemed as if someone had moved the blacksmith shop to the front of the Sumia Bookstore. However, Zyleson’s soldiers did not approach this place. They knew that this area was dangerous.
When Ambrose stayed at Zielson’s, he had been involved in back-alley affairs, but now even the knights of the Zielson Viscounty paid no attention to the Smia Bookshop.
Phew!
Iredem kicked Soleil in the stomach. Soleil, who had lost all energy from blocking a pair of daggers raining down from the giant, was blown away like a broken kite without even having time to fight back.
“Are you a descendant of Walter?”
“Who are you!”
“I am Iredem, the one who seeks to erase everything related to Walter. Are you also descendants of Walter?”
“We… … are Walter!”
It was unexpected.
Soleil thought Walter didn’t care, but his shout resonated. Those who heard his cries began to show up one by one. Not just assassins, but also gangsters, thieves, conmen, and gamblers… … Even those who didn’t know how to fight gathered one by one, their faces crumpled.
‘Was Walter really that great?’
People who seemed to be living ordinary lives gathered together. They did not hesitate to reveal their identities.
Although they had never met before in the bookstore, they now looked at each other as if they were comrades who had fought together their entire lives.
“If we roughly calculate it, it would be about 1 to 97? It doesn’t matter since Iredem won’t die anyway, but it would be a problem if there were casualties… … .”
What I wanted was to take control of the back alleys, not to subjugate them. Doing something like that would only benefit Viscount Zielson.
I ordered Iredem to ‘avoid killing anyone if possible’. He tended to follow my orders well.
The assassins were the first to strike. When his comrades joined in, Solein, who was in high spirits, attacked again, but their skills were not even as good as those of the Baron’s knights.
‘It was a needless worry.’
“Ugh!”
“My, my legs!”
“What? It won’t die even if I stab it… … Eww!”
Screams were heard and many people were injured. Unlike the first time when they gathered in Walter’s name, the back alley people who realized that they had no chance of winning even with their numbers began to disappear one by one. The number of people that had reached 97 was reduced to 23.
As expected, the solidarity of the back alleys was weak. It was nearly impossible to trick them into creating a tight information network.
‘Just do what you’ve always done. Encourage them to go about their business without realizing that they’re providing information to Hebron.’
I decided to change just one thing.
They decided to appoint a leader who could mobilize all the back alley seeds, and that leader was Iredem.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Iredem faithfully performed his assigned role. After subduing the assassins and thugs with his Vinos Throwing Sword, he beat them up with his bare hands.
After punching them evenly with the feeling that their bones were being crushed, those who were trying to eat rice with a knife groaned with broken teeth, asking for help.
“Please, please consider it… … .”
That was when.
Tinkle, tinkle.
In the back alley where darkness and silence were beginning to mix, a sudden sound of a bell rang out.
Recently, reports came in that bells were ringing in the streets of Hebron. When the soldiers were dispatched, they found strangers wrapped in robes.
‘There’s no place they don’t go.’
It was a new religious sect that worshipped the ancient god Armos. It was a religion that had been destroyed in ancient times, but it seemed to have regained its power recently by taking advantage of the recent surge in branded monsters.
In Hebron, they all kicked me out because they had no intention of increasing the sect in my territory, but in Zielson, they seemed to be free to roam.
‘There’s nothing good about those madmen hanging around Hebron. I’ll have to tell Viscount Jailson to get them kicked out.’
Armos was the god of monsters.
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Monsters that were branded by followers of the Armos cult seemed to be apostles who carried out Armos’s will. According to the information Amy brought, there were cases where followers of the Armos cult were captured or killed by monsters while trying to protect branded monsters.
“… …Armos Armode.”
As the robed woman muttered softly, those following her repeated her words.
“I am Armos Armode.”
It was a motto of the Armos sect.
Although this is not an exact interpretation, it meant that Armos would return.
According to the records, there was a monster kingdom on an island called ‘Behemoth’ across the eastern sea. It was a land where orcs and elves fled to escape discrimination from humans, and it was said that there were four kingdoms and one union. The records are from over two centuries ago, so the current situation is unknown.
Armos was the most powerful god on the island of Behemoth. He ruled over monsters and was said to grant absolute power to those with monster blood flowing through their veins.
“I am Armos Armode.”
Tinkle, tinkle.
The sound of bells and repeated chants gathered in the direction of the Sumia Bookstore. But there were more than one or two. They were approaching from various directions, crossing the alleyways that were tangled like a spider web.
‘Could it be that they were thinking the same thing as me?’
Back alley guys were useless. Not only were they untrustworthy, but most of them were braggarts who would open their mouths for a few bucks, and there were also many assassins who went to assassinate and were promised double the fee only to be protected by their targets.
The nobles left the back-alley rascals alone because they didn’t want to associate with the dirty stuff.
The only useful thing for those lowly guys was the random stories they heard from unexpected places. If they were collected and analyzed, they could sometimes yield some good information.
“I am Armos Armo!”
The robed woman screamed.
Then, the crowd of people who had gathered began to pick up speed. There were about 130 of them, which was more than enough to sweep away the assassins and gangsters who had already been defeated.
Iredem turned to look at me.
The question was what should be done.
I ran my fingers along my neck.
As soon as my order was given, Iredem resumed the battle that had been in a lull.
No, it moved more fiercely than before.
‘It’s getting better. Iredem really has talent for martial arts.’
No one has ever tried to teach swordsmanship to a spirit of death. I, too, started this by chance thanks to the skull of Dullahan, but the results were beyond imagination. This was because I felt no fatigue or pain.
Iredem, who had lived without a form for eons and then took on the body of a balanced knight, also felt interested in moving his new body.
Vinos’s sword.
It was the swordsmanship of the Vinos family that guarded the King of Antaria. Although it had a strong purpose of guarding important figures, it also had another specialized field.
‘Iredem, open the way!’
Iredem dug into the enemy lines. Those wearing robes drew their swords and blocked him, but Iredem continued forward without hesitation. The swords, hands, arms, necks, waists, and legs of those who blocked his path were torn apart.
“Ah, Armos Armode!”
The followers of the Armos sect rushed forward shouting, “Armos Armode!” as if that was all they knew how to say.
The robed, suspicious-looking humans were all human. The blood they shed soaked the rock-hewn floor, and the blood flowed in large streams to one place.
At the end of the bloodline was a robed woman. She was the one leading the believers. In her hands was a dagger and a small cage.
The cage was covered in darkness, but I could see inside it from a distance.
No, I saw the magic surging within it.
“crazy…….”
I jumped up, wearing a mask to hide my identity. But before I could get close, the woman stabbed a dagger into the geometrically patterned cage.
Paaaaak!
Light burst out from the pattern carved into the cage. It was clearly a powerful magic circle carved to seal the monster trapped inside.
Crunch!
The cage’s entrance opened. Something black leaped out and swallowed the woman holding the cage. Starting with her, it sucked the blood that had been spurting out at her feet.
The black bat’s body also grew larger. It grew by eating blood and flesh, and its bloodshot eyes scanned the surroundings.
‘Blackie!’
Blurki was a type of vampire bat known to grow by sucking the blood of its victims. It was said that because it was particularly fond of human blood, it was designated as a priority target for subjugation by mercenaries and hunters, and was thus endangered.
There was a guy who raised such a monster in a cage.
Kyaaaaah!
A white mist spewed out from Blukey’s mouth. Anything that touched it was instantly frozen, and Iron Knight Iredem was no exception. The full plate armor he wore to hide his identity was frozen.
There was no way Blukey had freezing powers. That was the power of the ‘brand’.
“Damn, nothing goes according to script these days.”
It was a simple scenario where Iredem would take over the back alleys. At the same time, they would open a black market in Hebron and try to build a wide-ranging alliance system linked to the Smia Bookstore, but an unexpected element called the Armos Church suddenly appeared.
Woohoo!
As I added aura to Serenade, the iron on the handle multiplied.
