After the door opened, the first one to step inside was Rem.
"Which..."
He was about to say something as he entered, but he didn't even have a chance to open his mouth. Something fell from above Rem’s head. Rem swung his axe vertically, as if he had predicted it.
A flash of light cutting above his head split the dark room. As soon as he swung the axe, Rem immediately threw his body to the side. All of it was as fluid as a rehearsed move.
Thump.
Afterward, only the fallen corpse told of what had happened here.
"What the."
Krais poked his head in, surprised. It was a bastard who had been hiding on the ceiling. With short knives in both hands, he had been split from chest to crotch by Rem's axe, spilling his guts and blood on the floor.
The smell of blood and death assailed the nose.
"I thought it was just a criminal gang."
Krais muttered.
"These bastards."
Rem showed a twisted smile.
"Acting all cute."
Saying so, he strode inside. The inside was quite spacious. Beside a wall made of well-laid square bricks, mud, and straw, a passage turning to the right was visible.
Rem strode forward.
"Was it you?"
He spoke abruptly and swung his axe. The merciless axe swing created a second corpse. It was a bastard hiding beside the passage.
He held something like a skewer and made a thrusting motion, but it was useless. Rem’s axe was faster. The opponent is a criminal gang.
They're the kind of guys who pickpocket or extort protection money. On the other hand, this side is a group of soldiers whose profession is combat. What's more, Enkrid himself was a high-rank soldier, and the rest were even better fighters than him.
‘Of course, I thought we had the advantage.’
Seeing it with my own eyes, it felt different. The criminal gang hid stealthily and thrust knives from the darkness, and even though their skill was not ordinary. Rem shattered all those surprise attacks.
He couldn't be said to be rampaging madly, but a glimpse of quiet madness could be seen. A madness that said he would split open anyone who dared to attack. Moving like that, Rem didn't rest his mouth either.
"Or was it you?"
He spoke every time he killed.
"It was you?"
Crack!
"Was it you?"
He split the fifth ambusher's head open before asking.
"A dead man can't talk."
When Enkrid spoke from behind, Rem lifted his blood-dripping axe and scratched his head with the handle.
"I know that, but the living ones don't answer either, no answer."
Someone else must have the answer. Past the passage that turned to the right, a room was visible on the left, another on the right, and a space used as a drawing room in the front. It wasn't a complex structure.
A drawing room, two rooms, a place that could be used as a pantry, and a kitchen. That was all. And five dead ambushers.
Everyone was silent.
"For a criminal organization, their preparations are excessive. It really seems like these are the guys who were after the Squad Leader."
Krais said while examining the dead body. After looking at the dead man's face for a while, Krais looked up.
"It's an unfamiliar face."
Enkrid nodded.
It was a sign that he agreed with the statement that the face was unfamiliar, and also meant he agreed that these seemed to be the ones who had targeted him.
‘Is this good luck, or bad?’
To be honest, it was half an excuse to avoid the snow. I know a criminal gang is suitable for forging IDs and guiding an assassin, but.
‘Against a professional soldier of the Border Guard?’
It's something you wouldn't easily attempt if you wanted to live in this city. And yet, they did it. They must have their reasons.
Of course, Enkrid couldn't care less about those reasons. I came here on a half-guess. It was like a randomly shot arrow hitting a boar between the eyes.
"Eh? Is this it?"
Rem, who was searching inside, said. There was no one to answer, only five guys who attacked with knives. It was a matter that ended with just one Rem running wild.
"No way. If they're this prepared and what Jacksen found out is correct."
Krais stepped forward. Perhaps because it was dark, he took out a flint from his pocket, wove together some straw lying around, and lit it. With the click-clack sound of the flint striking, the straw caught fire.
A light appeared inside the house filled with chilly air. With a temporary torch made from a bundle of straw, Krais searched the surroundings thoroughly. Then, he soon stomped on one side of the drawing room floor with his heel.
Thud-oom.
It was an echo. Meaning it was empty inside.
"I will do it."
Audin stepped forward. A cheap fur was spread on the floor with a chair on top of it, but he grabbed the end of the fur and flung it to the side. The chair, wrapped in the fur, made a heavy thudding sound.
After that, Audin gave another hearty knock.
Bam.
A hole appeared in the wooden door from the fist he plunged vertically from a sitting position. Putting his hand through the hole, Audin reached his arm inside and undid the latch, which was the locking device.
"Where would this lead?"
"Their headquarters."
Jacksen answered Krais's question. His casual attitude was as if he had expected this to happen. Rem looked at Enkrid.
Thanks to the crackling straw torch, Rem's eyes, which would have originally been gray, looked red.
"We keep going."
Enkrid spoke before Rem could even ask anything. Since we've started, we might as well see it to the end, shouldn't we? This isn't just cleaning up a criminal gang, but an opponent large enough to be called a guild.
It wasn't a gang of riffraff that just called themselves a guild. In that case, the probability that they were the ones who targeted me is high, so what needs to be sorted out must be sorted out. No idiot would quietly leave alone someone who is after their life.
Fortunately, Enkrid was no idiot.
"Of course!"
Once again, Rem went first. The tunnel was not long. In less than half an hour, a passage leading upward appeared.
It was damn cold, but Rem had already thrown away his blanket when he met the beggar. Looking at Rem's trembling back, for some reason, I could feel anger from it.
"Someone is above."
Jacksen, who was walking right behind Rem, said. It meant there were guards.
"So they're expecting us."
Krais said from the very back.
"We can't let thieves run rampant in the city like this."
It was Audin again. He seemed to have a knack for breaking doors. Perhaps this was his original hobby.
He climbed the crudely made earthen stairs two at a time, then twisted his body from below to strike the door with the line between his shoulder and back. It was a novel technique. Seeing that, Enkrid’s eyes sparkled.
KABOOM!
It sounded like a cannonball exploding. Or perhaps some fire magic had gone off. At the same time, the door shot upwards and flew away.
"Ugh!"
The surprised shouts of the guys who were waiting were heard. After that, it was Rem's stage again.
"Was it you!"
He shot up again, asking his incomprehensible question. He stepped on the stairs with his first foot, then on Audin's thigh with his second, and flew through the air, swinging his hatchet. Enkrid was below, so he could only see Rem's butt.
But the result was clear. With the thumping sound of bodies falling, blood flowed and trickled down the edge of the broken hole.
"That brother has bad manners. Stepping on another's thigh to get by."
Audin dusted off his thigh and climbed up first, followed by Jacksen and Ragna, and then Enkrid and Krais.
Fwoosh.
As they climbed up, they were surrounded by torches.
"I was wondering what kind of crazy bastards you were."
And a voice was heard. Enkrid looked left and right. At least thirty able-bodied men were visible.
Everyone was holding a weapon. A spiked club, a shortsword, a spear, and a weapon called a black jack, which was a leather pouch filled with sand, were visible. It meant their armaments were diverse.
Thanks to the torches, the view became bright. Krais threw the straw torch that had served as their eyes into the hole they came out of and exclaimed.
"Wow, there are a lot of them."
Yeah, there are a lot. Enkrid had the same thought.
"You're soldiers?"
Among the more than thirty men, one man stood out, dressed in a fine silk shirt and pants, with a monster hide coat over them. He stood leaning on a cane. It wasn't a cane used because his legs were bad.
It was the kind of cane with a jewel embedded in the handle that nobles or wealthy merchants carry to symbolize their wealth. What need is there for a cane when both legs are perfectly fine? It's just a symbol of vanity.
"Are you Gilfin’s crew?"
Enkrid answered a question with a question. The man exuding an air of nobility frowned. It was clear he was displeased.
"I wonder why everyone's so eager to die."
"We came to ask about the ambush incident that happened within the Border Guard."
Before Enkrid could even finish his words, Rem spoke up.
"Was it you?"
A short but heavy question. He had wondered what he was asking, but Enkrid finally realized. He was asking about the ambusher who had targeted him.
But would they answer just because he asked like that? Though it was a method that suited Rem well.
‘Even I wouldn’t answer.’
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Far from being flustered, the opponent was full of confidence. That confidence was, in fact, suspicious. And for Enkrid's squad members, suspicion alone was enough.
"It's that bastard."
Jacksen muttered.
"Hmm, seems it was him."
Ragna also looked at the opponent holding the cane. No, considering the usual Ragna, this was practically a glare. Because he was looking straight at the opponent with his eyes wide open.
Usually, he walked around with his eyes half-open.
"Brother, did you really target our Squad Leader?"
Audin took a step forward and asked. Three or four men nearby were startled. In the dark night, the shadows cast by the torches made Audin's body look even bigger.
Enkrid was close to 180cm tall, but Audin was a handspan taller than that. He was just under 2m tall. It wasn't just his height.
If you looked closely, his entire body was muscle. The thickness of his forearms was greater than that of an average woman's thigh. All the members of the troublemaker squad, including Enkrid, had solid, muscular bodies.
Even Krais had built his body for all the women he met and possessed well-defined abs. But Audin boasted an overwhelming presence even among them. If the thickness of one's muscles was a measure of manliness, Audin might be one of the greatest men on the continent.
"Is that right? Brother?"
"What kind of bullshit is this? A Squad Leader or whatever, why would I bother sending an assassin to kill a mere soldier."
Perhaps startled by Audin's physique, the man spat out unnecessary words.
"I never said you sent an assassin."
I said ambush, not that there was an assassin. At Enkrid’s words, the noble-looking man's expression instead became calm.
"So?"
What are you gonna do about it. They were a criminal gang of over thirty men. They were heavily armed.
It seemed they already knew Enkrid's party was coming. It meant information had leaked from somewhere. So, does that change anything?
No. At least, that's what Enkrid thought. It was the same regarding the facts of the crime. There was no evidence.
Therefore, whether they admitted it or not wasn't important. Therefore, nothing mattered. That was true for both the opponent and Enkrid.
What need is there for evidence when wiping out a criminal organization. So, what to do now. Even if it's a criminal gang, there must be some among them who just grabbed a club in the heat of the moment.
Do I have to kill even those people? Enkrid had no intention of doing so. So he decided to give them a chance.
Ch-aeng.
Enkrid silently drew his longsword and drew a line on the ground. Seeing him draw his sword, a few flinched, but no one attacked. A line appeared on the earthen floor, frozen by the winter cold.
Since the torches were the only source of light, the line wasn't clearly visible, but it was enough as long as the meaning was conveyed. A short line appeared in the wide, open space. Enkrid pressed the tip of his sword on the line he had made and spoke.
"Anyone who has never killed the weak in their life, anyone who will go to prison quietly, anyone who doesn't want to die, throw down your weapons and cross over."
This is not a battlefield. Even if they are criminals, from now on, it will be a scene of one-sided slaughter. The opponents didn't know, but Enkrid knew this fact, so he gave them a chance.
"Be careful. Or you will all die today."
He speaks of slaughter. It's that kind of world. An era where killing and being killed is not strange.
Even so, murder couldn't always be pleasant. If this were a battlefield. If it was to survive.
Then I would say it couldn't be helped, but not now. That's why I gave them a chance.
"What'd he say?"
"Huh? Who's gonna die?"
"Did he get so scared he went crazy?"
"Hey, friend. You didn't piss your pants, did you?"
The criminal brothers mocked Enkrid to their hearts' content. There was even a guy twirling his finger next to his ear. In the end, no one crossed the line Enkrid had made.
"What are you doing?"
Rem asked.
Enkrid wasn't ashamed. Because he had intended to give them a chance from the beginning.
"Brother, a devil has clouded their eyes, so they will not believe unless they see."
Audin whispered.
Killing them all is a bad move. Enkrid chose the next method.
"Who's the best swordsman here?"
He would broaden their window of choice by showing his skill. Unlike before, he was confident now. Confident that he could win against almost any opponent.
Enkrid stepped forward with his sword drawn.
"Deal with him."
The guild leader answered with a snort. It was as if he was just watching a little show. An opponent stood before Enkrid.
"You're getting a little cocky, aren't you?"
He looked like a former mercenary. He had a long beard, making it difficult to guess his age. He didn't seem to be over forty at most.
"You'll die if you keep that up. While I'm asking nicely, just..."
Vallen-style mercenary swordsmanship. Attacking in the middle of talking. That was the trick the opponent used.
It was as if he were seeing his past self. The opponent literally stopped talking and suddenly thrust his spear. His skill in thrusting the spear in his hand was not ordinary.
But it was inferior to the first perverted soldier's thrust. And it was far below that of Mitch Hurrier, who had blocked the front of the flagpole. Enkrid dodged the incoming spear, closed in on the opponent, and raised his sword.
A sword strike thrusting from below.
Puk!
It was a single blow. The match was decided in a single exchange. The opponent's level was just about the same as his former self.
Because of that. Enkrid realized his own growth.
‘This much.’
He didn't even need a repeating today. The moment he saw him, he knew the opponent's level. Because it was a fight that ended in one exchange.
The man, stabbed by the sword, gurgled as he bled. Enkrid pushed the man aside with his strength. As he pulled out the sword with a slick sound, the body that fell to the cold floor trembled, and steaming hot blood poured out.
Silence descended upon the scene along with the cold air. A single sword strike was enough to make the opponents understand him. Everyone's gaze towards Enkrid changed.
Enkrid asked again.
"Anyone crossing over?"