By Zephyria ======
The boy drew a cross with a dagger across Wolf’s face.
“You can’t seem to tell races apart very well, can you? If you wander around a bit, you’ll start to see the characteristics. The seven races within Atania all look different. Even among fellow Stohl people, mixed-bloods and pure-bloods look different. You are undoubtedly a pure-blood Stohl. In particular, the amber hue of your eyes is a rare color, famous for appearing occasionally even among the warrior class.”
Wolf forgot to argue. Just as the boy said, Wolf’s parents were of the warrior class. The warrior class insists on pure-bloods, refusing to marry Atanians. This is because pure-bloods possess superior physiques, even if there is a risk of giving birth to mutants.
“Your dynamic visual acuity is good, isn’t it? Without those quick eyes, you couldn’t have dodged that spear even by sheer luck. The spear thrust by that guy whose jaw you sent flying—didn’t it look as slow as a sick mule to your eyes?”
“Not… that much. I could… sort of… see it.”
Wolf answered in a mumble. Until the boy pointed it out, he hadn’t even known that his dynamic visual acuity was superior.
「Hey! Why are you chatting away like a magpie, unlike yourself!」
The ‘Ice Armor Warrior’ appeared out of nowhere and slapped the boy on the shoulder. The boy let out a click of his tongue and looked back at him.
「Speak in the Atania language. These morons are deaf to the Stohl language.」
「Oh?」
The Ice Armor Warrior was a man who looked to be in his early for0s. His overall impression was as rugged as the wolf skin draped over his body. Dirty blonde, bordering on brown. He had a massive build that made the nickname ‘Ice Armor Warrior’ understandable. A distinct brow and bridge of the nose, a thick beard, and grey eyes that seemed to pierce through people.
As soon as he saw the Ice Armor Warrior, Prince Red Eagle hurriedly hid behind Wolf. Wolf, for the first time, cursed the god who gave humans eyes. That was how difficult it was to look at the Ice Armor Warrior’s state. His entire body was drenched in blood, and intestines—which once handled someone’s eating and digestion—were hanging long from his shoulder like sausages. On his left chest, a human eyeball was stuck like a runny egg yolk.
“Thank you for your help. This is Prince Red Eagle.”
Wolf tried not to let his voice tremble as he stepped aside to introduce Prince Red Eagle. The Ice Armor Warrior scanned Prince Red Eagle with narrowed eyes and frowned. Wolf felt a sense of déjà vu from that expression. It was similar to how the River Vole used to glare at Prince Red Eagle.
Was that it?
He realized now why the River Vole had openly shown hostility toward Prince Red Eagle. It seemed Prince Red Eagle was pathetic. Indeed, a prince who inherited the blood of the Stohl King appearing assimilated into Atanian civilization could not be viewed favorably.
“Well… I see.”
The Ice Armor Warrior flicked the eyeball stuck to his chest away with the tip of his finger.
“My name is the ‘Valiant’ Black Weasel. You lot shall call me Uncle.”
Unlike the River Vole, he had a modifier before his name. He was a man who had killed more than a hundred people.
Black Weasel turned around.
“Follow me. We must leave this place quickly before it starts snowing again.”
* * *
With Black Weasel leading the way, Wolf and Prince Red Eagle walked. Silver followed behind them, blocking Prince Red Eagle and Wolf from the rear. He was preparing for a surprise attack.
「Damn it. Everything’s getting stuck to me.」
Black Weasel muttered in the Stohl language, brushing off the intestines hanging from his shoulder. To that man draped in wolf skin, killing seemed to be a trivial daily act, like watering a flower bed. Wolf suppressed a gag reflex.
This is crazy. Everyone in this country is insane.
Dozens of people had engaged in a sword fight and died in broad daylight, yet no cavalry appeared. The Stohl people who were watching the scene of the slaughter resumed bargaining with the horse traders as if nothing had happened. It was something unimaginable in Atania.
He had known. Stohl is not a nation governed by law. Until now, this had been common knowledge to Wolf, no different from ‘bookshelves should be placed away from sunlight.’ However, when that single sentence took the form of slaughter and suddenly crashed into him, the actual scene surpassed his imagination. To the point where the temple murals depicting hell seemed like a peaceful rural farmhouse landscape.
After organizing his thoughts, Wolf spoke.
“Warrior. About those guys earlier… the reason they attacked the Prince… you know it, don’t you?”
“I do.”
Black Weasel walked with long strides without looking back.
“Those guys have been lurking here for a week. They are mercenaries sent by Blue Eagle.”
“Blue Eagle?”
“Yeah, the older brother of the prince you serve. Orange Pigeon.”
“….”
Wolf tried hard to maintain his expression. Black Weasel continued to explain, seemingly feeling no problem with his own words.
“Was it half a year ago… the Stohl King was gored by a deer’s antler while hunting. His torso was pierced, leaving him a corpse that barely breathed, and his children started a dogfight. The king married three times. Excluding the illegitimate children cast away to Atania, there are nineteen born from the legal wives. I heard the number dropped to eight after ten days of that dogfight.”
Sweat beaded on Wolf’s temples. No way… No, please let me be wrong.
“Those eight bastards have called a truce for now. While the siblings were fighting, the influential tribal chiefs of Stohl began to covet the throne. One of those chiefs is the mother of Prince White Deer and Prince Yellow Rooster.”
He wasn’t wrong. The starting point of the bloody incident that just occurred was White Deer.
Black Weasel looked back with a smirk.
“If the Prince had married Princess Levenon, White Deer would have given up her greed. You can’t put a son-in-law of another country on the Stohl throne, right? But you were only engaged. Even if he’s an illegitimate child, as long as he’s recognized as a prince, he can be placed on the throne with the power of his maternal family. White Deer calculated it that way and sent you back to the country.”
Wolf glanced at Prince Red Eagle. His face was as pale as a blank sheet of paper.
“You came all the way here knowing nothing, didn’t you? I can tell just by looking at that pretty hairstyle. If you, who grew up as Atanian morons to the bone despite inheriting Stohl blood, had known the current situation, you would never have come here.”
“That my mother was critically ill… was a lie?”
Prince Red Eagle asked back in a voice that sounded like it was about to extinguish. Black Weasel burst out laughing.
“White Deer lured her own son with a lie like that? Prince, I don’t know if this will be a comfort, but your mother is the most vigorous woman in Stohl.”
“Do you know Lady White Deer well?”
At Wolf’s question, Black Weasel nodded.
“I’ve never seen her in person, but I’ve heard her name until my ears bled. She’s the most famous female warrior in Stohl. The eight siblings are also outstanding warriors. The Prince has a reliable maternal family.”
“I will return to Atania.”
Prince Red Eagle spoke immediately. Black Weasel raised one eyebrow.
Prince Red Eagle looked at Wolf.
“Wolf, I’m sorry. There’s no way the Levenon royal family didn’t know the situation in Stohl; they must have hidden it from me and rejected the request for a foreign visit. If I had known in advance, I would never have come here…”
“Prince, wait a moment!”
Wolf turned around and ran back in a flurry. The corpses sprawled in pools of blood were visible even from a distance.
“Damn it!”
Wolf stopped, clutching his head with both hands. Prince Red Eagle, who had followed him, asked, “What is it, Wolf?” Wolf let his shoulders slump.
“The chest broke in half during the fight earlier. Gold coins spilled onto the ground then… do you see over there? Not a single one of those many gold coins is visible.”
After checking where Wolf pointed, Prince Red Eagle covered his mouth with one hand.
“I think people rushed in and swept them all up as soon as we left. I was stupid. To think I didn’t secure the gold coins…”
“What do we do…”
Prince Red Eagle muttered blankly. It was truly a disaster. He had become penniless in a foreign land where he couldn’t communicate, and in Stohl of all places. It was as if he had reserved an ending where he would freeze to death on the street before a single day passed.
When Wolf and Prince Red Eagle trudged back, Black Weasel and the boy were clutching their stomachs.
「Hahaha! These guys really know how to make someone laugh!」
「Are they idiots!」
Though it was in the Stohl language, the meaning was sufficiently conveyed to Wolf. It was somewhat unexpected. He thought someone who killed as if eating a meal would maintain a stoic, expressionless weight at all times. However, the two killers before his eyes were laughing out loud with their heads tilted back.
When those two people, who exuded a desolate chill like the winter wind of the North Sea, laughed without hesitation, they instantly transformed into an impression of boisterous pranksters. A killer who laughs well is easier to deal with than a killer who scowls coldly, but…
And yet, in the midst of this, I’m weighing which killer might be more manageable. I’ve become far too accustomed to this.
9 – Hell Execution Order