Chapter 100 : The Mercenary Bureau’s First Request (14)
Chapter 100: The Mercenary Bureau’s First Request (14)
The Noble Assassins were frozen inside the pit. The only weapons they had left were the daggers hanging at their waists.
Shatien looked down at the dwarf assassins with a cold gaze and spoke.
“Stay still if you don’t want your hands cut off.”
It was a chilling threat.
The faces of the dwarf assassins turned pale as their hidden intentions were exposed. The thought of resisting with their daggers vanished instantly from their minds.
The Noble Assassins exchanged glances and whispered in the dwarf language.
“Damn it.”
“What should we do? This is a total mess.”
“He is a mercenary, so should we bribe him with money?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? He would just kill us and take the money anyway.”
Shatien let out a smirk.
He found it amusing that they were trying to use their wits even in this situation.
“If you say one more word, I will slit your throats. And I am not someone who can be bribed with a pittance like that.”
“Gasp! How can a human speak the dwarf language….”
“T-Then, how about listening to our proposal first….”
“Shut up and throw away your weapons first. All of them, including the daggers.”
“Understood.”
“Now that you are done, come out of the pit.”
“Yes. Yes.”
The Noble Assassins followed Shatien’s orders submissively. They knew that negotiation was only possible if their heads were still attached. Meanwhile, the mercenaries who had come on horseback stopped nearby. Hans dismounted as if jumping off his horse and ran toward Shatien.
“Shatien!!”
“Centurion, are you alright?”
“I am perfectly fine. Calm down, Miles.”
“Uwahuhuk. I thought you were just going to die.”
Miles felt relieved only after confirming with his own eyes that Shatien was unharmed. However, an uncontrollable anger took hold of him in the next moment.
‘Are these the bastards? The ones who kept firing those bolts?’
They had dared to attempt an assassination on Shatien. Even having two lives would not be enough for them. He felt that the only thing to show these guys was hellish pain.
“You dwarf midgets. I will kill you quite painfully.”
Miles growled and tried to strike down the dwarves with his axe. The terrified Noble Assassins covered their faces with their arms.
“W-Wait a minute!”
“There is surely a misunderstanding!!”
However, Shatien grabbed Miles’ arm just before the axe could strike the neck of a Noble Assassin.
“Wait! Miles, wait a moment.”
“Why?”
“Do I not have the right to decide their life or death?”
“Ahem. That is true. But are you going to leave these bastards alive?”
“Yes. Who knows if they might be useful?”
“Ha…! Damn it. Consider yourselves lucky, you midget bastards.”
Miles stepped back with lingering regret. He could not kill them since Shatien himself intended to let them live. The dwarf assassins, who had prepared themselves for death, let out a sigh of relief. It was the moment they confirmed that Shatien intended to spare them.
Shatien looked at a Noble Assassin and asked.
“Speak. Was it Waldheim who instigated you to carry out the assassination?”
“H-How did you?”
“Just answer. I am the one asking.”
“Ah, yes, yes. That is correct. Waldheim hired us, and Baron Rollo paid the fee.”
The Noble Assassins, whose lives were at the tip of a blade, explained everything in detail, including information that was not asked.
‘Waldheim, you cowardly bastard.’
He had expected it, but finding out it was true made his anger rise. He felt that it would be safe only if he removed Waldheim before it was too late.
“By any chance, can you lure Waldheim to this place?”
“Waldheim… out here?”
One of the dwarf assassins was flustered by Shatien’s proposal.
“The payment has already been settled, so there is no reason to meet him….”
Another Noble Assassin shouted at his partner’s nonsense and explained.
“You idiot! No, Sir. There is a way. Since we have secured the knight’s body, we can just send a letter telling him to come and verify it himself.”
The other Noble Assassin spoke as he took out a letter and ink from his tunic.
“A letter? Who is going to send it? I hope you are not talking nonsense about going there yourselves.”
“O-Of course not! There is a merchant group that travels to Holsten, and we can entrust it to them! Sir, I actually have an acquaintance in a nearby village.”
Shatien nodded.
“That sounds plausible. Good. Write that he should come out here quietly while avoiding the eyes of others.”
“Not alone?”
“Remove all words that might cause unnecessary suspicion.”
“I-I understand. You are truly wise.”
Instigating an assassination was a very dishonorable act for both nobles and commoners. Therefore, people made deals with assassins in secret places.
Waldheim would likely come here with only a minimum number of guards.
“It is finished. Here it is.”
Shatien nodded after looking at the letter handed to him by the Noble Assassin.
‘Good. Now I’ll get to see that Waldheim bastard.’
With this, the trap for the hunt was complete.
* * *
Waldheim opened the letter he received from the Noble Assassin. The letter, written in a poor cursive script, contained content that made his eyes widen. It stated that they had caught a man who had accidentally come out to scout.
‘Shatien. They dealt with him already?’
He might have been suspicious, but he had already heard through his sources that Shatien had headed toward Holsten with a group of mercenaries from Ragnarsson’s camp.
‘Those Noble Assassins… they really live up to their name.’
Waldheim fastened a longsword that symbolized his family to his waist.
It was a sword that gave off a brilliant blue light.
It was a sword that symbolized the now fallen House Balud.
Arming himself with only this was enough, but he took three loyal cavalrymen as guards just in case.
The cavalrymen acting as guards asked with worried looks.
“Lord Waldheim. Ragnarsson’s army is not far away. Are you not taking too few guards?”
“It is fine. It is not a good thing to have many eyes watching.”
There were no bandits nearby, and he was merely going to verify a corpse, so this much armament was sufficient.
He prepared a packhorse to carry Shatien’s body and even torch tools, and with that, all preparations were finished. Waldheim rode out of the castle gate and kicked his horse’s side. He wanted to verify Shatien’s dead body quickly.
-Neighhh.
The three horses galloped along the straight road. Then, they stopped at the promised spot around the time the sky turned dark.
‘I think it is near here. Was it around here?’
Waldheim, who was looking around, discovered the Noble Assassins waving their hands from inside the pit in the distance.
“Over here, employer!”
“Come quickly.”
“Right. Where is the body?”
“It is in the pit where the horses are hidden, together.”
Waldheim nodded.
“Bring the packhorse. Let us finish this quickly before it gets darker.”
“Yes!”
Waldheim drove his horse toward the pit.
After he opened the pit where the horses were tied, several corpses, including Shatien’s, were lying there. Their faces still had a sense of life as if they had died recently.
The Noble Assassins explained.
“These are the guys who came with Shatien. Ahem.”
“I see. But how long do you intend to stay in that pit?”
“...”
The Noble Assassins could not answer. Their expressions looked unnatural.
“...”
Waldheim noticed a strange sign and drew his sword. The cavalrymen who came as guards also drew their swords all at once.
Waldheim shouted at the Noble Assassins like a bolt of lightning.
“You rascals! What are you doing. Come out of there this instant!”
“A-About that.”
“I am sorry, employer. We did not intend for this to happen either.. Ughh!”
A sword protruded through the chests of the Noble Assassins making excuses. At the same time, the mercenaries who had been hiding at the bottom of the pit revealed themselves. A surprised Waldheim shouted.
“It is a trap!”
And at that moment.
-Tap!
Shatien, who he thought was dead, sprang out from the pit where he had been with the horses.
-Shing.
“So you are… Sir Waldheim? It is nice to meet you.”
Shatien asked that as he drew his sword.
* * *
Shatien was a little surprised after seeing Waldheim’s face. He had naturally assumed he was of serf origin, but anyone could see that his face was of elf noble origin. A Northern noble.
“Yes. I am Waldheim. Though I am no longer a ‘Sir’.”
Waldheim spoke confidently.
“An Elf saying he is not a noble himself. That is quite interesting huh?”
“Hmph. How can a family that has lost its fief be considered noble!”
“True enough.”
Shatien understood instantly.
That man was also a descendant of a fallen family just like himself.
But what did that matter? There were many such beings on the continent.
“It does not matter whether you are a noble or not, or a knight or not. You will die by my hand today.”
It was a chilling threat.
Shatien growled as he radiated bloodlust toward Waldheim.
Nevertheless, Waldheim burst into a boisterous laugh instead. He laughed like the crazed elf knights of the North.
“Uwahahaha. Good! Knight Killer? Let me see your skills for myself!”
Shatien could not quite judge whether it was a bluff or not. However, he was at a level where he should not let his guard down.
‘He is impressive.’
Waldheim’s composure was no joke even though he must have been flustered by the unexpected ambush. Rather, the noble aura emanating from him was definitely different from an average person.
On the other hand, Waldheim felt the hair on his entire body stand on end as he looked at Shatien.
‘This man is… Shatien?’
He could tell even without clashing swords. Shatien was definitely stronger than him.
However, he had no desire to beg for his life because of that. Since there was no way to escape anyway, he had to risk his life if he wanted to live.
“...”
“...”
The two men stood silently with only their swords pointed, moving slowly. Then, it was Shatien who broke the tense flow.
“Kill them all!”
-Waaaaah!
The mercenaries rushed toward the knights Waldheim had brought.
At the same time, Shatien closed the distance as if springing toward Waldheim.
“Hup!”
-Swoosh!
Shatien’s sword cut toward Waldheim’s neck. Or rather, he intended to cut it. At the moment the sword was about to pierce the neck,
-Clack!
Waldheim’s crossguard barely managed to catch Shatien’s sword.
However, Shatien was more experienced.
-Clang!
He turned his blade very naturally and brushed off the locked blade as if flicking it.
“Ugh.”
Because of that, Waldheim had to retreat while feeling the pain of his palm tearing. It was the moment he felt that attempting to bind the swords poorly would only result in a loss. If so, there was only one answer.
He would simply show all the secret techniques of the swordsmanship passed down through Waldheim’s generations.
“Ho?”
Shatien’s eyes sparkled with interest as if he sensed that determination.
It felt like that young elf noble was about to show him something.
And that prediction was exactly correct.
“Chahyaaat-!”
He split his breathing at some point.
“Try blocking this!”
-Clang! Claaang!
Waldheim’s sword embroidered the air as if it were fragmented.
In that short time, he split his breath several times and unleashed several sword strikes toward Shatien.
If it were an ordinary knight, or a knight without resistance to fast swords, he would have been defeated helplessly. But Shatien was different. Had he not already acquired a swordsmanship style inspired by surging waves when it came to fast swords?
Shatien himself was in a state where he was an expert in fast swords.
“It is over.”
“...?!”
And Shatien’s pommel, which had squeezed through the gap in that breathing, struck Waldheim’s abdomen.
“Kughhhh!!”