Episode 20: Variables are needed. (5)
Boom!
Gillian threw his huge shield straight ahead. Those who were running towards him fell down, unable to withstand the shock of being hit by the shield.
The remaining assassins also hesitated and stepped back, seemingly tired.
“Ugh! Isn’t that different from the information?”
The middle-aged man leading the assassins shouted loudly.
If I had known there were such capable people, I would have brought more people.
I’ve heard that the entire party is only slightly better than the average knight, but at this rate, they’re all going to get beat up by one person.
“Damn it! Bring them all!”
At the middle-aged man’s shout, everyone drew their swords and rushed towards Gillian.
I realized that I had to get past him to hit Giselle.
“You guys are so sloppy… … .”
Gillian muttered briefly and pulled out a one-handed axe that was attached to the side of the carriage.
Then, without hesitation, he rushed towards the enemies.
Kwajik!
“Eww!”
With each swing of the axe, a man’s head was split open.
When I raised my sword, the head split along with the sword. When I tried to dodge, the axe also changed direction and followed me.
Gillian was like a lion among the sheep.
“Hey, you! Die!”
One of the assassins, who had been waiting for his chance, took advantage of his comrade’s death and stabbed Gillian with his sword.
but…….
chin!
“Huh, gasp!”
Gillian simply grabbed the sword with his bare hand.
His hands were intact, without a single scratch.
“Uh, how… … .”
The assassin looked at Gillian, dumbfounded and unable to respond.
They estimated Giselle’s party to be mid-level knights, and brought only those who could use mana to deal with them with certainty.
But, he just grabbed the blade wrapped in mana with his hand. I couldn’t even guess how great the monster before my eyes was.
But no time was given to think any further.
Kwajik!
As Gillian tightened his grip, the assassin’s sword shattered into pieces.
The axe fell directly on the head of the absentminded assassin. The assassin fell to the ground at Gillian’s feet, a cold corpse.
The other assassins who saw that sight hesitated and stepped back again.
The middle-aged man leading the assassins also couldn’t run any further.
This operation was a failure. It was impossible to kill Giselle while that monstrous being was still holding out.
“Whew, we’re retreating!”
As soon as the middle-aged man shouted, the assassins began to scatter in all directions as if they had been waiting.
“Whoever wants it!”
Gillian, who had caught hold of the horse, was chasing them.
The daggers Gillian had on his belt flew at the assassins faster than their master.
Soon, all the assassins were defeated, leaving only one behind.
The distance to the remaining one was already quite far. It was a situation where I might miss it if I was not careful.
Gillian threw the axe he was holding at the last remaining man.
Phew! Phew!
The moment the axe plunged into the assassin’s head, a dagger pierced his heart.
Gillian looked back.
Belinda met his eyes and raised her chin with a triumphant expression.
The dagger protruded from her robe, with a thin thread attached to its tip.
At Belinda’s gesture, the dagger that had pierced the assassin’s heart was sucked back into his robes.
“If it weren’t for me, I would have missed it.”
Gillian answered with a blank expression.
“My axe comes first.”
“My dagger comes first?”
Belinda snapped.
Gillian said nothing in response, but walked over to the fallen assassin and pulled the axe from his neck.
Then he approached Giselle and bowed his head slightly.
“I’ve taken care of everything.”
“great job.”
Jiselle said, holding back her laughter.
Behind her, Belinda was glaring at Gillian with menacing eyes.
It was fun to see Belinda, who always walked around the castle with a prickly and haughty expression, get all worked up and jumping around in front of Gillian.
‘Belinda has found the right man.’
The knights who had been standing there blankly looked embarrassed. They had come with me to escort Giselle, but now they had nothing to do and were a little embarrassed.
‘At that level, there’s almost no one in Ferdium who can match him.’
They were strong compared to the knights of other realms, but Gillian was truly on a different level.
The knights whispered among themselves and glanced at Gillian.
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“You clearly said you were the leader of the Ratatosk mercenary group, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of it too.”
“Somehow, he wasn’t an ordinary person.”
“How on earth did Confucius know and come looking for me?”
Although Ratatosk was a mercenary group operating in a foreign country, they were famous enough that everyone had heard their name at least once.
It was surprising that Gillian was the leader of such a mercenary group, but I nodded in agreement that it would make sense for him to have such a background, considering his skills.
Jiselle smiled inwardly with satisfaction.
He had already seen his skills when he first started out, but this was the first time he had seen Gillian engage in full-scale combat.
‘It’s much better than rumored.’
Gillian was someone Giselle had only heard of through rumors when she was a mercenary in a foreign land in her previous life.
His colleagues and seniors would often talk about Gillian, saying that she was from the same kingdom as Giselle, or a neighboring territory.
I really wanted to recruit him if I had the chance in this life, and fortunately, the timing was good and I was lucky.
At the time, I thought the rumors were exaggerated, but when I saw it in person, I saw that his skills were beyond the rumors.
‘It was good that you moved quickly.’
Thanks to that, I got a very solid pack.
This trip abroad was truly successful, as I was able to extort money from Amelia and gain loyal subordinates.
Giselle patted Gillian on the shoulder a couple of times and then spoke to the group.
“I guess Amelia hired an assassin. She’s quite persistent.”
Even in her previous life, Amelia had persistently interfered with Giselle. She had been a nuisance throughout the war, as she had escaped every time she tried to catch and kill her.
Of course, I had no intention of just leaving Amelia alone in this life. After all, we were in a relationship where we would continue to clash anyway.
Belinda rummaged through the bodies of the assassins one by one. It seemed as if she was checking their affiliations.
“Can you tell where the assassins came from?”
Belinda nodded and answered after checking several bodies.
“I see a tattoo of three teeth, so it’s the ‘Wildcat Smugglers’. It’s a fairly powerful guild in Leipold.”
“The Wildcat Smugglers? What a strange name.”
“It’s a guild made up of smugglers and thieves. It’s full of cheap and rough guys. In addition to assassinations, they also smuggle and sell drugs. In short, they’re just dirty, bad guys.”
“How does Belinda know such things when she only lives in the castle?”
When Giselle asked, Belinda mumbled.
“Well, I found out about them by chance before I entered the castle. Anyway, they are persistent guys, so I won’t be able to feel safe even after returning to the territory.”
“I see. Amelia must have used some poisonous ones. I’ll take care of that too when I get the chance.”
The name of the ‘Wildcat Smugglers’ was added to Jiselle’s list of kills.
Amelia will most likely be using the criminal guilds in Leipold as her puppets.
Not only the Wildcat Smugglers, but other criminal guilds also had to be destroyed at some point.
‘By the way, how does Belinda know such things?’
Belinda said she found out by chance, but Giselle didn’t believe her.
Jiselle didn’t know which guild was in which territory, since she had been living in a foreign country since then and had never been involved with any criminal organizations.
Even he, who had been working as a mercenary, knew that, so it was strange that Belinda, who had only lived in the castle, knew the guild’s name, personality, and even the scope of its influence.
‘Come to think of it, I don’t know much about Belinda either.’
Her own tutor, head maid, and being strong enough to deal with some knights.
That was all.
‘Well, now we have a lot of time to look around. Let’s take our time and find out.’
Giselle pushed the questions about Belinda to the back of her mind and decided to deal with urgent matters first.
The job was to collect all valuable items and weapons from the corpses of the attackers.
There are many places to spend money in an already poor territory, so shouldn’t you take whatever you can?
* * *
After fighting off the assassins in the forest and moving for another two days, the party finally arrived near the Ferdium lord’s castle.
From a distance, I saw the familiar sight of the Ferdium Castle. For some reason, I felt a sense of joy.
‘It’s nice to have a place to return to.’
When he returned in his previous life, his family had already been destroyed.
You don’t know the despair that comes from having nowhere to return until you experience it.
After that, Giselle was unable to settle down and spent her entire life wandering around with no place to put her mind.
Life was always hard, and even when I rested, it didn’t seem like I was resting. I was always anxious and sad.
It was a deep feeling to see Ferdium alive and well, unlike before.
Deep within Giselle’s heart, a firm resolve once again blossomed.
‘I will definitely protect you.’
The Ferdium Estate will not allow his family to perish a second time.
* * *
Chaenggrang!
“How! How can I not kill even one!”
The teacup that Amelia had thrown shattered into pieces and fell to the floor.
Meow!
Bastet followed Amelia’s lead and made a sharp noise.
Bernap could only watch the two of them without saying anything.
“There wouldn’t have been a warning. It would have been funnier if it had been seen.”
Meow!
Amelia’s eyes were red with burst blood vessels.
It was an unimaginable sight for her, who was always elegant and cool-headed no matter what happened.
Bernap was quite shocked.
‘She’s still pretty!’
She looked pretty no matter what she did, but this was the first time I saw her get this angry. It was really scary.
If you tell Amelia to calm down now, the teacup will fly onto her head instead of the floor.
He kept his mouth shut. Then Bastet shouted at him as if to scold him.
Meow!
‘That damn cat. He thinks he’s above me. Oh my… … That little kitty is going to catch me and get rid of me for sure.’
Amelia was nice, but I didn’t like Bastet, who looked down on me and acted just like me.
“Even if you throw my honor to the ground, it’s still a waste of time. You’re just rolling me around in the mud. How on earth do you manage it? You didn’t kill even one of the thirty people you sent? Jiselle, how much fun must that punk be making at me.”
Meow!
“Be quiet, Bastet!”
When Amelia glared at her, Bastet immediately lowered her head and hid behind Bernap.
‘It’s a waste.’
Bernap felt a little better after the annoying cat got scolded.
He took advantage of the gap where the arrow slightly turned and bowed his head slightly to answer.
“I’m sorry. It seems the skills of the knights were better than I thought.”
They had no idea that Gillian had joined Giselle’s group.
The one who had been attached to the tail was caught, and the assassins who had been sent to attack were all annihilated, so there was no one to send word to them.
Amelia glared at Bernap with bloodshot eyes.
“You should have gone to the Ferdium estate and killed Giselle. Well, what would those trash people do if they couldn’t even kill that worthless guy?”
Bernap couldn’t answer right away.
Attacking Giselle as she leaves Leipold’s territory and attacking Giselle inside Ferdium’s territory are two entirely different issues.
No matter how shabby the territory is, Jisel is the Archduke of Ferdium. It is not easy to kill the key figures of the territory at their base.
If we are not careful and the mastermind is revealed, a real war could break out.
It was a fact that Amelia also knew well. Now, it was just words spoken in anger.
“For now, keep the cubs on standby. Be ready to move at any moment. I’ll find a way. Then tell them to do it right.”
Amelia clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“You can look forward to what will happen if you make fun of me any longer. And you, Bernap. Do you know what I mean?”
Bernap, who had always been favored by her cool words, suddenly became depressed.
“… … Okay. I will prepare you properly.”
She took a moment to catch her breath, then hugged Bastet and said.
“Bastet, you’d be better off fighting than those pathetic guys. Should I have just risked my life and killed Giselle? There aren’t any useful guys left.”
Meow.
Bastet acted cute, rubbing her face against Amelia’s chest, as if she didn’t even remember wagging her tail at the loud noise.
Bernap, who had been looking at the sight with interest, suddenly met Bastet’s eyes. She seemed to be laughing at him for some reason, and he couldn’t help but curse.
‘… … That kid is smart. That’s for sure.’
Bernap, who had been beaten to death and even abused by a cat, left the place with a bitter expression.
‘Why bother with a guy like that when he’s going to break off the engagement?’
Wouldn’t it be better to just consider the 20,000 gold as a gift for breaking off the engagement and let it go?
But Amelia, whose pride had already been badly wounded, seemed unable to bear it.
‘You stupid punk, why did you have to touch that girl?’
Even though all the assassins returned as corpses, Bernap had no doubt that Giselle would eventually die.
Amelia’s wishes eventually come true. That was an absolute truth to Bernap.
