By Zephyria =======
I felt as foul as when I was crossing a field strewn with stinking corpses. For the first time in a long while, I found myself thinking back to that night.
Fire leaping onto the window frames. My mother collapsed, her face pressed into the floor. A massive man approaching with heavy steps, holding an axe that dripped with blood.
‘You. Are you this woman’s child?’
Wolf couldn’t open his mouth. After staring intently at Silver for a long time without even blinking, he spoke.
「Did Uncle kill your mother and make you a slave?」
「Don’t ask.」
Silver turned away.
「And you and the Prince aren’t going to die. Ask the Ice Armor Warrior for the details.」
* * *
“Hey. Get your face over here.”
Silver beckoned to Black Weasel and strode toward him. Wolf was still clinging to the wall, having not even descended a quarter of the way.
“We had a deal, right? Three hits.”
Black Weasel couldn’t close his wide-open mouth. Seeing the look of profound shock on his face, Silver felt bewildered. Did this bastard actually believe Wolf would win?
The thought of ending this moderately vanished like dust. Silver clenched his fist tight.
“Hold your breath. Here I come.”
Lowering his body as much as possible, he snapped a punch upward. The accelerated fist slammed deep into Black Weasel’s abdomen. The bison-like giant shuddered as if pierced by a spear. Watching from nearby, Red Eagle let out a small gasp and covered his mouth with both hands. From the second hit to the third, Black Weasel took them all without letting out a single groan.
Silver shook his wrist and stepped back. Black Weasel’s endurance was consistently eerie. Was this guy’s entire body made of rock?
“Hmm. Hmmm! This is truly unexpected.”
Muttering while stroking his beard, Black Weasel burst into laughter.
“Haha! Hahahaha! Amazing, Silver! In all of Stohl’s history, there will be no thunder that surpasses you!”
“Why go that far with the…”
The grandiose praise actually made Silver feel nauseous. Black Weasel shook his head.
“No, you will become the greatest warrior in Stohl’s history. You easily beat a guy on the level of a legendary protagonist!”
“That bullshit again. That legendary protagonist you keep rambling about is the leader of a beggar gang, right?”
“It would be a blessing if he were just a beggar gang leader. He’s a guy who died young without achieving anything. He had the skill to suppress not only the thunders of his era but also hundreds of special forces alone, but apparently, he just suddenly suffered a nosebleed in his early twenties and dropped dead.”
Silver became even more bewildered.
“Aside from dying young, he sounds like he was pretty capable? You thought a titan like that was on the same level as the Attendant? Why?”
“Well… I don’t know, the guy’s face just looked like he had something going for him. How should I put it, a magnetic charm? A sinister aura? I felt it the moment I saw him. Right? You couldn’t take your eyes off the Attendant either.”
Silver was surprised by those words. Black Weasel had also received a powerful impression the first moment he saw Wolf. To insist so stubbornly that Wolf was on the level of a legendary protagonist, he must have been more strongly affected than Silver. For example, something like, ‘as if the storm had ceased and the whole world was filled with flames’?
Regardless.
“Stop believing in legends. People’s memories tend to deviate from the truth after a few days. That protagonist’s skill was probably inflated like dough in an oven.”
“That’s true. Since it’s a legend, the exact volume might differ from reality.”
“Not volume, skill.”
“…Huh? Ah! Right. Skill.”
Black Weasel took dice out of his pocket and sat down.
“Let’s play dice until the Attendant gets down. The loser gets a flick on the forehead.”
“Sure. By the way, what was that legendary protagonist’s name?”
Silver asked as he sat opposite Black Weasel. The curiosity vanished the moment the dice were thrown.
* * *
Wolf stepped onto the cave floor. Red Eagle, who had approached closely, whispered in a tiny voice.
「Did you get hurt outside? Why did it take so long to come down?」
「One must maintain etiquette.」
「Etiquette? Ah… right.」
Red Eagle stepped back without asking further. Wolf silently dusted off his palms. Even then, Black Weasel and Silver were playing dice, trading forehead flicks as if refusing to lose to one another.
Black Weasel turned his head toward Wolf.
「I’m disappointed, Attendant. Did it really take this long just to come down one wall?」
「I am not Silver. I’m also carrying a backpack.」
「Hmph, excuses. Fine, cave life is over! Sleep tight tonight and we leave tomorrow!」
Black Weasel threw the dice aside and stood up abruptly.
「The Prince and the Attendant, you’re curious about the situation, right? Summary: White Deer has made peace with the Prince’s older brother. Once I deliver the Prince to his mother and collect the remaining balance, it’s over. We just need to travel five days by sea from here.」
「Really?!」
Red Eagle and Wolf looked at each other and embraced.
「Wolf! We’re saved!」
「Prince! Now we can return to Atania!」
Pushing aside the blubbering idiots, Silver stuck close to Black Weasel.
“Hey. Were you late because you were gathering information?”
“I had a hunch. Just in case, I stopped by a brothel near Ekbos.”
Ekbos is an area close to White Deer’s tribe.
“Where do vigorous warriors always go after finishing a fight? The brothel, of course. I decided to wait five days and killed time while drinking. On exactly the fifth day, the warriors swarmed in. From what I heard, the young Prince’s older brother led a warrior legion and traveled to the area adjacent to Ekbos. White Deer hurriedly summoned his own warriors and rushed there.”
“And then?”
“And then, well, it ended with the next king and White Deer getting married. I heard they’ll be staying at a castle by the lakeside for a while.”
A story known to the assassin and his assistant, but unknown to the Prince and the Attendant. The fifth prince, who has now emerged as the hegemon of Stohl, proposed to White Deer immediately after his father became bedridden. He calculated that marrying the most powerful tribal chief in southeastern Stohl would be advantageous for the succession to the throne.
However, White Deer rejected the proposal. The designated next king was a widower who had lost two wives in succession and had seven children. Aside from the hollow title of Queen, it was a marriage anyone would refuse.
All of this happened before the ‘blood union’ took place.
“I’m disappointed in the Prince’s mother. Why call for the son if this was the plan? The son just suffered for nothing.”
“What can you do? That guy’s power grew too large.”
Black Weasel kicked the door open and raised both arms high.
「Let’s just drink our fill tonight! You two have a drink too! Down it in one go!」
「No, we’re fine. Just you and Silver, Uncle…」
Wolf and Red Eagle tried desperately to escape, but they eventually received their cups and were knocked out in one shot. Beside the unconscious Prince and Attendant, Black Weasel and Silver emptied the casks. Perhaps because it had been a day that left his head complicated in many ways, Silver got drunk faster than usual. Black Weasel appeared as dozens of people.
“Ah, that’s right.”
Silver spoke as a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“I told those idiots about the ash tree. They were all curious about where it pees. Where does it pee?”
“What the… obviously it pees with a dick, you brat.”
“Huh? You said the ash tree doesn’t have a dick?”
At those words, Black Weasel paused while lifting his cup. Hiccuping, Silver circled his finger in front of Black Weasel’s face.
“You’re the one who said it, did you forget? You said the ash tree has no dick.”
“…No. It does. You misunderstood my explanation.”
Black Weasel rubbed the back of his neck with one hand.
“Silver, trace back your memory. I clearly said, ‘the ash tree is a guy who doesn’t need a dick.’”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“It’s different, brat. A guy who doesn’t need a dick means he has one, but it’s as if he doesn’t. In other words, he has a dick. Silver, you’re probably the only person in the world who heard my explanation and immediately accepted it as ‘the ash tree has no dick.’”
“You son of a…”
Silver’s face turned red and purple.
“You explained it like a stray dog and now you’re blaming me? And the ash tree doesn’t exist, you bastard! Seriously, this guy always believes in some scrap of a legend he picked up somewhere.”
“It’s folklore studies! Director Erem said she’s researching it!”
“You trust that crazy Grandma?”
“More than I trust you. More than someone like you who has no thoughts about anything!”
“You want to get beaten by me again…!”
Silver couldn’t finish his sentence. His consciousness snapped.
30 – Hell Execution Order