By Zephyria 
Those sitting and those standing let out annoyed sounds a few times.
Then, one of them leaning against the wall took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Smoking something like that next to a sleeping child. I felt incredibly frustrated, wanting to scold them but unable to.
Ruben and Benjamin’s chests were rising and falling with a steady rhythm, but their inability to wake up despite the commotion was deeply worrying. I tried my best to check the children’s complexions, but I couldn’t see from this angle.
The man with the cigarette in his mouth mumbled, “…We’ve pulled out all the ones worth touching, but where are we supposed to get five more in two weeks?”
“If you can’t find any, sell that one.”
“Are you crazy?”
The man on the sofa gestured with his chin towards Raul, and the woman pulled Raul into her embrace again. Raul hesitantly hugged the woman’s waist in return, feigning fear. The man with the cigarette let out a hollow laugh and glanced at the scene.
“That kid won’t even fetch enough for meat if we sell him, idiot. They said it has to be at least a top-tier Sword Expert.”
“Then sell yourself.”
“You little brat, you’re really throwing words around.”
The cigarette man threw his half-smoked cigarette butt at the one complaining. But as if he had no intention of hitting him, the butt landed weakly on the carpeted floor.
A skinny man who had been watching nervously nearby quickly picked up the butt and placed it in a wet dish on the table.
As the Sword Master standing guard next to a sniffling Raul suddenly sat down, Raul quickly buried his head in her shoulder and whined. The sight of a grown man acting spoiled was repulsive, but the woman indulged him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him close.
“Noonaa… I’m sorryyy… I, I really didn’t know… Everyone was wearing Felix’s clothes, and I just wanted to get praised by you, Noona… I just thought they were mercenaries.”
“You really have eyes for decoration. Well, whatever. How many times do I have to say the same thing? Just like you said, as long as the Owner doesn’t find out, it’s fine. We’re okay.”
The man on the sofa, seeing the scene, exploded in anger again.
“They saw our faces, you know? What do you mean, ‘just like he said’? Are you crazy?”
“So what if they saw? We just say we didn’t know and let them go. We were just doing as we were told.”
“Are we going to dump it on the Owner?”
“Yeah. Then we just need to find three more.”
Where did they plan to sell the children?
Still, it was fortunate that I discovered them before they could be handed over.
If Hugh Benson hadn’t warned me, I would have rushed in without thinking, but I waited patiently. My patience was possible because they were talking amongst themselves without touching Ruben and Benjamin.
“When do we leave?”
“Tomorrow? Which way should we go… Ugh, I wish we could just drag any random kid along.”
“If we can’t find anyone, we’ll have to go to the auction.”
“Buy one? Where’s the money coming from?”
“Earn it, or steal it.”
“Honestly.”
Listening to their idle chatter, I calmly assessed the enemies.
The woman leaning against the wall, the man with the cigarette, the woman protecting Raul, and the man on the sofa. These four were Sword Masters. Judging by their rough breathing, they hadn’t received formal training and seemed to be former mercenaries. The first two used short swords, and the latter two used ordinary longswords.
The skinny, gaunt man who had quickly run errands earlier, and Raul, were at the level of high-tier Sword Experts. The swords hanging at their waists looked old, as if they hadn’t been used in a while. They didn’t seem to use any special poisons or magic, so I just needed to be careful about Artifacts.
However, watching Raul sniffle gave me a strange feeling.
…What was it that he didn’t know?
Raul knew Hugh Benson. He had already confirmed he was Sierren’s knight, hadn’t he? He must have known that we, his companions, were also related to Sierren.
Furthermore, Raul guided us to the Diamant mansion. As if to show us, so we would know their objective…
What did they intend to use us for, by pitting us against them?
As the evening sun began to cover the sky, Raul and the skinny man stood up, saying they would go prepare a meal. Should I follow them? Or should I continue to stand guard over the children? My head grew hot from the intense worry.
❖ ❖ ❖
The sun slowly set, and the surroundings turned black.
More than an hour had passed since Raul and the errand boy had left.
In the end, I stood fixed by the window. How could I leave the children among these beasts? Regardless, since Raul and the man with him had left under the pretense of preparing food, I figured I would encounter them soon.
Every time the thugs approached Ruben and Benjamin, I clenched my fists, and every time they moved away, I exhaled in relief. I wanted to smash my head against the wall several times. My insides burned, but I had to be careful not to even breathe, so I endured it.
I had lived my life without needing to endure anything until now. It wasn’t even funny.
Living in the Central Plains, enduring and enduring again was life, but after being reborn, I had become accustomed to soft and sweet things and forgot about hardship for a while. Was I unable to endure even this much? No matter how much I scolded myself, the heat that suddenly pulsed in the back of my neck refused to cool.
The man on the sofa, from his seat, kicked the table in anger.
“Damn it, really. Why are they taking so long?”
“You always get worked up when it comes to food. Do you think the kids are going to cook? They have to buy it.”
“Honestly, there isn’t a single useful person among them. We need to eat quickly and get it over with so we can do what we need to do.”
If there were servants in the mansion to prepare food, they would have been back in a moment.
Buy it? From 7th Street onwards, it’s difficult to purchase food privately from other nobles’ mansions. Are they going all the way to 6th Street? …Are the only ones moving around this mansion right now these four?
My mind was in a hurry, and I had headed straight for the main building without looking around. If these annexes were all empty, unlike the Diamant family’s, I could have avoided unnecessary commotion. First, I would cut down the one closest, and then…
I traced the path of my sword with my eyes. My fingertips, resting on my sword hilt, tingled with every step they took.
By the way, why is Hugh Benson so late? I couldn’t tell if he hadn’t met Marianne and Elvin yet because they were wandering, or if something else had happened to them, which made me anxious.
An hour felt like three years. Just as I thought I couldn’t wait any longer, my shoulder twitched.
A familiar thread of Mana brushed against my fingertips and then withdrew. It was Hugh Benson. He was with Elvin. Without needing to ask further, I immediately asked.
[Are we attacking?]
Then, Hugh Benson narrowed his brow and drew a square in the air with both hands. He pointed at me, then drew a line from one corner, diagonally across the invisible square.
It meant to move the two by the window away from the children.
I nodded and was about to depart, but Hugh Benson firmly pressed down on my shoulder and spread his right hand, showing his fingers.
[Five seconds?]
He nodded again.
Hugh Benson and Elvin disappeared into the shadows. I counted to five in my head.
One, two,
I took a breath.
Three,
I meticulously traced the sword path I had drawn countless times on the inside of the window frame in my mind.
Four,
I gripped my sword hilt tightly.
Five.
The sound of glass shattering and the faint vibration resonating through my fingertips were almost simultaneous.
From the start, I had no intention of letting any of them leave alive. Humans are such fragile beings; even the strongest can have their necks easily severed in an unexpected situation.
A neck, severed five times more easily than an Orc’s, flew through the air. Before the stream of blood, tracing an arc with long hair, could even fall, a flashing blade lunged to tear into me.
The ones who had been lounging carelessly were masters of a similar realm to mine. Within a second, they drew their weapons and charged.
However, almost simultaneously, the door leading to the inner corridor was half-broken and swung open.
The cigarette man burst into my embrace. His eyes were chillingly calm, making it obvious. He was skilled at killing people. But he chose the wrong opponent. I, too, was a master at killing.
With the sword in his right hand, the man parried my sword, disorienting my vision. The rapidly thrusting swords were all feints. With dozens of seconds of dazzling swordplay, the distance between us narrowed. As he was practically in my embrace, he quickly aimed for my waist with a hidden sword.
Did he think I would fall for such a cheap trick?
I parried his sword with my sword-energy-infused backhand and immediately thrust my left palm forward. My hand, extended like a Sagall, pierced his abdomen. As he gasped and recoiled, I powerfully shook my right hand and severed the cigarette man’s neck.
I am a warrior who has crossed battlefields.
I have seen enough of the brutal and cruel. I survived amidst monsters that tore off limbs with their bare hands. The fiercest beasts are those with their young by their side; the grass-eating beasts, the meat-eating beasts, and the sword-wielding beasts were all the same.
There was no rest. Blue sword energy flared from my sword like lightning. I swung down from above towards the back of the sofa man, who was busy dealing with Elvin. The sofa man, in great alarm, spun halfway around and blocked my sword.
Soon, blood spurted from the sofa man’s mouth. Elvin’s sword protruded from between his chest.
The moment the sword was pulled out, blood splattered from the ceiling to the wall.
As I lunged to cut down the remaining woman, Elvin blocked my sword.
“Why?”
“Hmm.”
The woman, who had become increasingly anxious as her companions fell one by one, gritted her teeth and stopped. Hugh Benson, who had been blocking all of her sword techniques and protecting the children, explained instead of Elvin, pointing his sword at her Adam’s apple.
“Calm down, kid. We have to keep one alive to know why they did this.”
“…”
“There’s no one left to keep their loyalty, and it doesn’t seem like they had much loyalty to begin with.”
“…”
“It’s over, right?”
The woman who had been with Raul bit her lower lip. She glared at Hugh with a venomous gaze, her face showing such frustration that blood was about to seep out, but I felt no pity. She re-sheathed her sword.
I walked over and pressed on her acupoint from behind.