By Zephyria =======
With a cold wind, a man with powerful muscles strode inside. His face, crisscrossed with scars like a spiderweb, looked to be around the same age as Black Weasel, and coincidentally, he was dressed in wolf skins. In his rough hand, he held an axe stained with dark red blood. Silver recognized him at a glance. He was the captain of the warriors who had been causing a ruckus at the tavern.
As the man scanned the room, a thick vein bulged at his temple.
“You idiots!”
A thunderous voice rang out. The warriors, who had been in a frenzied stupor, flinched in unison.
“I told you not to touch the prisoners! Get dressed now! We leave before sunset!”
At the loud shout, the warriors hurriedly put on their clothes. The Warrior Chief looked around and walked briskly among them.
“Put the prisoners back in the stable! You there, stop fighting over clothes! They’re all rags anyway! Just eat your damn food! Owner, bring some ice water and splash it on these bastards!”
The shouting Warrior Chief suddenly looked this way. While Silver wasn’t particularly surprised, the one who felt the piercing gaze was Black Weasel.
Right now, Black Weasel likely cared for nothing other than the liquor cup in his hand, but the Warrior Chief felt differently. From their build and beard length to their aura and even their attire, they were similar. His already fierce gaze grew even more menacing. In this situation, there was only one most desirable outcome Silver could hope for: that these two uncles, who looked like twins, would settle it with a single arm-wrestling match and be done with it.
“Hey. You there.”
The Warrior Chief spoke in an openly provocative tone.
“Who the hell are you? Which tribe are you from?”
“Hmm?”
Black Weasel glanced over while sipping his drink.
“Tribe? What’s that?”
“Are you joking with me? What’s your name?”
“The Valiant Black Weasel.”
The human stone managed not to forget the modifier attached to his name as he blurted it out. The Warrior Chief’s eyes flared with intensity.
“I am the ‘Charging’ Rock Hyrax. Which tribe’s warrior are you? Are you a Warrior Chief? Just looking at the modifier ‘Valiant,’ you can’t be ordinary.”
“Warrior Chief, please wait a moment.”
As things were going, it felt like a bloody scene was about to unfold. Silver had no choice but to step in.
“I am the Stupid Fox, the slave of Lord Black Weasel. I swear by the Goddess Enidu, my master is absolutely not a warrior. He is a pitiful widower who spends every night smoking hallucination herbs since he was bereaved four months ago. Long-term inhalation of hallucination herbs makes one’s mind unstable. My master is in that state. He just arbitrarily attached the modifier ‘Valiant’ because it was something he secretly desired.”
“Don’t lie! Just looking at his face, he’s a man who has killed over a thousand!”
That was accurate. Silver didn’t panic at all and smiled brightly.
“I’ll show you the evidence. Hey, Ice Armor Warrior. What’s my name?”
“Silver.”
“Why can’t your sons sitting across from us speak the Stohl language?”
“Don’t know.”
“See? Even though a slave acted insolently, he didn’t cut off my head. He probably can’t remember my name, nor his sons’ names.”
Silver shrugged. The Warrior Chief looked left and right, appearing bewildered, before speaking.
“What does your master do?”
“He’s a wanderer who does this and that. He happened to reunite with his sons after a long time when he was bereaved. He is currently contemplating whether to send his sons back to Atania for the sake of their future.”
“His wife was an Atanian woman? I guess the kids grew up with their maternal family.”
“Yes. Despite how he looks, he cares deeply for his family. This is a delicate matter, but there are quite a few commoner fathers who wish for their children to live in prosperous Atania.”
“Hmm.”
The Warrior Chief’s expression softened as he scanned Wolf and Red Eagle. The Prince and the Attendant kept their eyes cast down, looking only at the floor. The Warrior Chief asked suspiciously.
“Is there an enemy hiding on the floor? Or are you playing dice with your toes? Answer me, you feather swords.”
‘Feather sword’ referred to a coward who could not handle a weapon. Even after hearing an insult that passed for an extreme degradation in Stohl, the Prince and the Attendant quietly stared at their toes. The Warrior Chief spat on the floor.
“The father is thunder, but the sons are mere drizzle. I can see why your master wants to send them back to Atania.”
“It would be hard for them to survive a single day in Stohl like that. Thank you for comparing my master to the legendary thunder.”
“I happen to like diligent fathers. I’ll give you one piece of advice. The sky is howling. Half a year ago, an entire tribe in this vicinity was wiped out.”
With those words, the Warrior Chief departed. Silver frowned and rested his chin on one hand.
‘The sky is howling.’ It was a golden taboo passed down from ancient times in Stohl. One day, a tribe is found slaughtered. Adults and children, warriors and commoners, slaves—everyone was killed. The condition of the bodies was horrific. There was no looting. The perpetrator was never found.
While inter-tribal conflicts occurred as often as meals in Stohl, a massacre without looting like this was unprecedented. It was as if a cow had appeared and started chewing on people instead of grass. Since then, similar incidents occurred intermittently throughout Stohl. At some point, people began to accept these incidents as the wrath of a god…
「Silver. Silver!」
Wolf tapped the table lightly toward Silver.
「Why that look on your face? Did that man threaten you or something?」
「Ah, that.」
Silver was about to give a vague answer and drop it, but then he stopped. He remembered how excited Wolf had been about the ‘mysteries’ of Stohl. The massacre incident was mysterious(?) even by Stohl standards; wouldn’t he jump with excitement if he heard it? The Prince might even lose sleep over it.
「A rather famous golden taboo in Stohl came to mind. Want to hear it?」
Silver’s expectation was misplaced. The civilized men countered indifferently.
「Shouldn’t we first suspect an attack by beasts? Even to me as a foreigner, Stohl is a harsh environment not just for people, but for animals too.」
「I agree with Wolf. Incidents where a whole village disappears overnight happen occasionally in Atania as well.」
「Really? This is the first I’ve heard of it, Prince.」
「Because there are no large beasts in Levenon. I only heard stories from foreign ambassadors at royal banquets. They said it happens often in remote villages surrounded by forests.」
「How do they handle such incidents?」
「First, they deploy cavalry and hunters to the scene…」
The civilized men chatted for a long while. The process of identifying the cause of the incident, establishing measures to prevent recurrence, providing support for victims and arranging post-processing procedures… To Silver’s ears, it sounded like ♣♩◑. Birdsong is at least pleasant to hear, but ♥※▶ was simply tedious. Silver snatched the liquor cup from Black Weasel’s hand and stood up abruptly.
「Let’s go wash up. Everyone, get up.」
It was quite dark outside the inn. Dark gray clouds shrouded the sky. The inn’s employee girl was lighting a fire in the hearth in front of the stables. Dogs, cats, chickens, and geese wandered here and there. In the distance, a ragtag crowd, intoxicated by hallucination herbs, danced in circles around a bonfire. A song that sounded like a howl tore through the darkness.
Walking ploddingly, Silver stopped unconsciously. A chill crept up his spine. Suddenly, it became silent. The boisterous laughter and singing vanished abruptly, like a coin dropped into a well. All the ragtag people had collapsed on the ground at some point. Because of the flickering bonfire, their forms looked like long, cast shadows of pitch-black trees.
Before the vague anxiety could take the form of a clear question, the event occurred. Black Weasel’s head fell. Just thump.
Silver blinked. Once. Twice. In that interval, the light vanished from Black Weasel’s pupils. The massive body that once carried Silver on its shoulder and strode forward collapsed onto the ground with a thud. Even Wolf collapsed as his waist was severed. Red Eagle was split open from the crown of his head to his groin. Blood splattered everywhere.
Next was Silver. His chest was ripped open. All four became corpses. Very quickly. Without time to scream or be seized by terror.
Thumping sounds continued from the inn’s tavern. Bright red blood flowed down, staining the windows and thresholds. In an old house a few steps away from the inn, the light illuminating the window snapped off. It did not take long for only corpses to remain in the small village by the river.
Dogs gathered in front of the inn door and barked. Geese and chickens wandered, pecking at the ground. A calico cat walked gracefully, stepping on the blood pooled everywhere like autumn leaves. The wind scattered.
36 – Hell Execution Order