Episode 29. To Academy (3)
“Owner! Add roasted whole pig here!”
“Our table ran out of alcohol! “Please bring it to me quickly!”
In a noisy atmosphere, drunk men are having a rough drinking party.
It wasn’t a very suitable place for an eleven-year-old boy, but it didn’t matter.
This country is not so strict that minors cannot drink alcohol.
I didn’t care, just found an empty seat and sat down.
Dozens of eyes turn towards me as if promised.
I also glanced at them sitting at the table.
Simple swords and armor with nothing special about them.
Most of them were common mercenaries who made a living through commissions.
“Isn’t this a place where a young master would come?”
An adult woman dressed in red silk approached to take our order.
Are you in your late twenties?
The deep cleavage caught my eye, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
“I don’t think I came here to drink, would you like to order?”
It was a hard tone that felt somewhat annoying.
“of course. “I’ll just choose the one I’m most confident in here.”
Without showing it, I took a gold coin out of my pocket and handed it to her.
“hmm?”
The eyes of the woman who received the coin flashed for a moment.
“Well, with this, I think you could buy not just one food, but all the food here… … ?”
“Then give me a drink to go with it, and tip the rest.”
Her face instantly brightened at the word tip.
“You’re a master who knows how to spend some money! please wait for a moment. Customer~!”
Even her tone suddenly changed and she quickly ran out to the kitchen.
The eyes of the people around me who watched this turned to me again.
Some of them were licking their lips as if they smelled money on me.
“Did the son of a wealthy family come to tour the city?”
Finally, a man across from me came up to my table and started talking.
He was a mercenary whose size was so bulky that it could not be captured at a glance.
To put it mildly, when he sat down in front of me, the table was shaking and shaking.
“I never asked you to sit down?”
But the smell of sweat is worse than it looks.
Did you wash up today?
“You’re so hard! I want to put a few bruises on your pretty face! Kuhaha!”
Did you just call that a gag?
As I was looking at my face smiling at myself, I felt like I was going to make bruises.
“I guess you’re still young and don’t know much about the world. Money is only valuable if you use it for something useful! “I’m not here to give a tip to a girl who shakes her tits like that!”
I don’t know what to do.
“Besides, in today’s times, if you go around alone without a bodyguard, you could die without even a rat or a bird knowing! What is it like? “I don’t know where the destination is, but why don’t you hire me so you don’t have to risk anything along the way?”
Without even realizing it, I burst out laughing.
It’s not enough to have knights being drafted in, so is there any use for these low-quality mercenaries?
He was a guy who wasn’t even worth thinking about.
“Since you are also a young Confucius, my special price…” … .”
“go away.”
The surroundings began to buzz again.
“What did you say just now?”
“f*ck off. “I don’t want to eat while looking at your face, do I?”
The mercenary’s face suddenly turned red.
“Are you a bit of a tongue-in-cheek young master? But you have to do it while looking at the other person. “If I do something wrong, that pretty face could get crushed?”
The guy was giving me a feeling of intimidation by showing off his unreasonable lethality.
I just came here to grab a bite to eat, but this strange guy is annoying me.
I’ve thought about whether to stab out both eyes, dig them out alive, and throw them into my mouth, or wring out my fingers and stuff them all into a hole inside my body… … .
In the end, no matter what I do, my hands will only get dirty.
Since I didn’t want to eat with those hands, I stared into the mercenary’s eyes without saying a word.
Wild animals, by nature, do not blindly rush when they encounter a similar beast.
They exchange glances with each other and compare the predators’ survival skills, but the one that senses its limit first lowers its tail and retreats.
Is that any different for humans?
It’s enough to hit such a large creature that doesn’t even look like a wild beast.
-sssss
My hair was flowing in the slowly rising red air current.
Soon, even the air became heavy as the deadly force took over the surroundings.
“… … !?”
The guy who was overwhelmed started to hesitate.
His trembling pupils and a ray of sweat running down his cheek revealed his nervousness.
I felt an unspoken pressure to get out of my presence right now if I didn’t want to have my healthy limbs torn apart.
“I’m sorry for interrupting your meal… … .”
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The mercenary stood up immediately with a humble apology.
I thought he was going back to his seat, but eventually he ran out of the bar as if running away.
He was a more penny-pinching guy than I thought.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
The woman who took the order sat close to me with her food.
“Are you sending that bastard back now?”
“I heard you just left on your own?”
I continued to remain ignorant.
“That guy is famous around here! “They approach wealthy people from outside, stay with them for a day, and then demand a lot of money for escorting them!”
Well, it’s none of my business.
The purpose of my coming here is to solve this problem.
I prepared the meal in silence.
The food she served was a fragrant stew with several large pieces of meat inside, and fresh fruit juice.
“I specifically asked the kitchen girl to put in a lot of meat! “It’s called a specialty of Sapern that you can’t taste anywhere else, so you’ll definitely be satisfied!”
Well, you’ll have to try it to find out.
I scooped up a generous spoonful and put it into my mouth.
The combination of the fragrant butter and the chewy, plump flesh of the meat created quite a harmonious taste.
I silently put the meat into my mouth without much emotion.
“But are you really traveling alone? “In today’s times, it’s rare for a noble to walk around without a bodyguard, isn’t it?”
“I didn’t really feel the need… … .”
If you really need it, you need at least a coachman.
“Still, wouldn’t it be a good idea to take one or two people with you? It’s not just anything else, it’s said that there are scary assassins roaming around the country right now… … .”
I paused for a moment when I heard the word assassin.
“assassin?”
Are you saying that these guys have appeared with the purpose of killing, not making goods?
“Do you know the name of that assassin organization?”
“Your name? mi… … “What do you think I said?”
Just then, Brian, whom I had ordered to run an errand, came into the bar.
“Well, you’re here, master!”
He was sweating profusely as if he had been looking for me for a long time.
“Just get me a drink of something drinkable.”
“Yes, of course! please wait for a moment!”
The woman who took the order stood up.
“What are you doing? sit down?”
“Go, thank you!”
Brian, who was looking at me awkwardly, soon sat down. “What did you want me to know?”
After arriving at the inn and unpacking, I gave him a mission(?) as he stood awkwardly.
I want you to find out why the empire is so looking for guards right now.
The guy opened his mouth with quite confident eyes.
“Well, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out. Even children on the streets are aware of this, as it is happening not only in Saffern but also throughout the empire.”
Even the kids on the street knew about it?
Thinking that I didn’t know about such a famous story, I felt something uneasy.
“From what I heard, some assassins appeared, is that correct?”
“Yes, a spray group called the Mist… … .”
– fondant
The spoon I was holding fell into the stew.
The numb eyes opened in an instant, and Brian didn’t know what to do at my unexpected reaction.
“W-what problem?”
“Do you know what mist is?”
I asked back with a refined gaze.
“Well, isn’t it a very famous organization? After the ‘Shinto Massacre’ decades ago, some believers who inherited the wrath of the Mist God organized a murder group and assassinated nobles on the continent… … .”
right.
However, this is a known fact on the surface.
Of course, there was some distortion there, but that wasn’t what was important right now.
“On what basis did they appear?”
“Yes, people say that the bodies they killed were always cut into dozens of pieces, and a black fog hung around them. Moreover, the dead people were mostly officials or nobles who committed corruption, and it is said that their actions were similar to those who disappeared in the past… … ”
At that moment, the clerk who was serving drinks also came to help.
“yes that’s right! That’s why there are so many escorts around the city these days! Did you know that rich people and nobles would go to any lengths to hire people to protect themselves? “Even the lord here.”
I put down my spoon for a moment, leaned back in my chair, and thought about it.
How should I react in this unexpected and unexpected situation?
Normally, I would have passed by without even looking back, but as it happened, this wasn’t a problem so light that I could just ignore it.
Well then, the solution is simple.
All you have to do is see it with your own eyes.
-Sigh
I pushed the chair and stood up.
“Uh, where are you going?”
“Drink.”
Before leaving, I handed the half-left bowl of stew to Brian.
“What about this?”
“It looks delicious, but I can’t taste it.”
I leisurely walked out of the bar, leaving the confused Brian and the female clerk behind.
The sun had already set and a gloomy chill was spreading through the streets as night fell.
* * *
“Who came? Duke Berthe’s son?”
The bald-headed man who was rolling his drink asked with half-open eyes.
“yes! “They said they stopped by on their way to the Royal Academy.”
“Ah, I guess you’re talking about the incompetent son of the Duke of Berthe. “Well, I heard he’s grown to the point where he’s been in and out of the front lines in the past year, but it’s none of my business.”
The man snorted as if it was no big deal.
“What happened to you asking me to look into something new?”
“We are searching through mercenaries from other countries with all our passion and sincerity, but… … . My lord, wouldn’t this be enough? If you forcefully increase the number of guards, it will also affect the operation of the territory… … .”
“why? Do you just want me to chase after them?”
“No, that’s not it… … .”
-puck
“Smash!”
The attendant fell backwards after being hit on the head by a drinking glass thrown by a man.
“Do you think I’m hiring a bodyguard just to protect my neck? What are you going to do if you just tremble in fear of lowly assassins? “You have to catch them yourself and show them what they’ve done so they won’t even come near you!”
“My lord, I am sorry for not knowing your profound meaning!”
The attendant bowed his head and prayed without even having time to feel pain.
“If you understand, don’t complain and keep the number of people I called by tomorrow! “Make sure those around you keep a tight lid on what they say!”
“yes! “I understand, my lord!”
The attendant quickly left the room, clutching his bleeding wound.
The lord, who was left alone, violently poured alcohol on the table and swore profusely.
“You idiots. What has been keeping them full so far? “If I die, do you think you will take over?”
Youngju barely managed to control his shaking body and stood up.
“I am Farqualon, Lord of Saffern! Follower of the Black Mist? If you’re going to come somewhere, come see me! I will tear up your bodies, pour them into a cauldron, and serve them as snacks for my drink! Kuhaha!”
The drunken lord was walking around the room shouting all sorts of things.
“… … Damn.”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice was heard from somewhere in the room.
Feeling creepy, Youngju stopped yelling and looked around.
“W-what is it?”
Even though I looked around the hill, there was nothing to see.
However, unfamiliar black smoke rose from the corner of the room, and suddenly it was wrapping around the lord.
“Hey!”
The lord immediately stood up and ran towards the door.
– Bang bang bang
“what? “Why isn’t it open!”
The door was locked, and even though I shouted, it was dark outside and there was no news.
“hey! no one is here? Come quickly! They showed up! The followers of the Black Mist… … !”
With a short audible sound, the lord’s body fell limp like a corpse.
After a while, his body was dragged by something and soon disappeared into the darkness.
There were only empty liquor bottles lying around in the empty room.
(Continued in the next part)
