By Zephyria =======
He wasn’t a stupid fellow. It was already evident from the way he spoke. His quick wit wasn’t the kind one commonly encountered in the slums. And yet, he had committed the stupidest act possible.
What? ‘They’re all my precious brothers’? Is he kidding? Do I look like such a fool that I’d just swallow that?
You. You’re hiding something.
For the first time in a while, Silver’s brain began to churn slowly. He retraced every situation he had experienced from the moment he discovered Stuffy Field Mouse on the beach until now. A clue surfaced quickly.
The fellow had said that becoming a pirate captain was his life’s dream. At the time, Silver had dismissed those words as mere barking. He had brushed it off as some improvised excuse concocted on the spot to somehow get into a pirate crew.
Back then, it might have been an excuse.
But now, perhaps it wasn’t.
People act in pursuit of profit. An assassin kills to receive the remaining balance. A merchant sells goods to make money.
Conclusion: Stuffy Field Mouse’s goal is to be a pirate captain.
In other words, the Shark Tooth Gang was merely a means to him. A resource and a workforce to realize his own profit. When those assets were on the verge of being slaughtered, he played the part of a stupidly loyal man in front of Silver and rushed out in a panic.
This was the only framework where all the pieces fit. Silver leaned against the wall and let out a hollow laugh. That bastard, he was an ambitious one after all?
He had calculated it well in his own way. Controlling the Shark Tooth Archipelago would be equivalent to possessing power comparable to a decent tribe. As for the druggie pirates, he could simply replace them with competent personnel when the time was right. Building his own maritime kingdom!
At this point, Silver even doubted if ‘Quick-to-Die-Rat’ was his real name. When asked for his name, the fellow hadn’t answered immediately and had hesitated. What if he had intentionally offered a ridiculous name to lower the pirates’ guard?
〔Pruru. Are you feeling better now?〕
Silver snapped back to his senses at Starry eyes’ voice.
“Sorry. Was I spacing out?”
As he opened his belt pouch, Starry eyes flew out and hovered in front of Silver’s face. Long green forelegs rubbed against Silver’s forehead.
〔I’m glad, Pruru. Your fever has gone down. Why on earth did you leave the lodging and wander around outside? For almost a whole day, no less.〕
“That’s…”
Silver trailed off. Starry eyes had only overheard a few words of conversation that night and hadn’t seen what had actually happened. The body heat and the closeness. That confusing, churning experience.
“Well, it looked like that guy was about to kick the bucket.”
His voice came out slightly stiff.
“If he died while I was asleep, it would be like sleeping with a corpse. That’s disgusting.”
It wasn’t a lie. The more he heard the fellow’s labored breathing, the more he was seized by a terrible sense of nausea. The image of the breathing stopping abruptly, the skin turning ashen, and the handsome face being etched with the stiff, eerie expression characteristic of a corpse kept sticking in his mind. When he came to his senses, he was outside in the pouring rain.
〔But Pruru, although that guy is noisy, he seems decent in his own way. He took care of you while you were sick.〕
“Yeah, he’s useful. More so than the druggies.”
〔But he seems dumber than the druggies here. He went out alone to save the pirates, calling them brothers! He said there are about thirty prisoners?〕
“That’s just a number. They’ve been locked in a pigsty for days without proper food, so their actual combat power won’t match their head count. Ten at most?”
〔Is it easy to face ten people alone? Of course, it’s easy for Pruru!〕
“I could easily kill a hundred healthy men.”
Silver stopped talking and frowned. Even with superior skill, one could lose a fight. Due to arrogance, carelessness, or bad luck. Starting with Black Weasel, hadn’t his body and neck parted ways in an instant because he underestimated Wolf?
That field mouse bastard was quite arrogant, too.
He was handsome. He was clever. Judging by the way he handled the prisoners, he must have grown up winning almost every fight since childhood.
Wait, whether that guy dies or not is none of my business…
…
…
Right, he did take care of me. I should pay back the debt.
Silver put Starry eyes back into his belt pouch and stood up abruptly. The pouch shifted and bulged.
〔Pruru, are you seriously going out? No! Your fever only just broke!〕
“Did you forget? I am thunder.”
〔Rain doesn’t care about that! Even thunder can catch a cold!〕
“Don’t worry.”
Silver pulled his robe hood down and stepped outside. The rain pelted down. With every step, he trod through the squelching muddy water.
Keeping his head down, Silver walked slowly, scanning the surroundings with his eyes. Left and right. Between houses. The dark entrances of alleys. Carts and crates, ropes and nets scattered everywhere like a throwing tantrum of a child. A few corpses that were clearly members of the Shark Tooth Gang.
The first prisoner appeared at the corner where the slope ended. It was a corpse. Silver quietly observed the angle of the wound, the depth of the cut, and the way the bone had been severed. A clean strike. An axe had dug into the crown of the head and exited behind the ear. With that force, half the skull had been easily sliced off like an apple and slammed into the muddy water, and the body had been pushed back about five steps before collapsing.
The second prisoner was next to a barrel near the corner. Another single strike. Precisely in a fatal spot.
Silver walked along the trail of blood. During thirty-five steps, he encountered five more corpses. They likely would have been a pack that moved together. They probably scattered to avoid the attacker and were taken down one by one.
Excellent dynamic visual acuity. High-level combat capability that exceeded expectations.
Moreover, in this weather.
When it rains, the ground becomes slippery. The hand gripping the weapon slips, and vision becomes blurred. It was the perfect condition for strikes to miss. Yet, the corpses had been processed as cleanly as geese on a cutting board.
Above all, the strength. Looking at it now, the fellow’s claim that he did the work of five people was an act of great modesty. The axe had finished its job with utmost strength, without hesitation, and without the need for additional strikes. It is surprisingly rare to possess both strength and speed. Stuffy Field Mouse was a well-honed warrior.
He remembered the fellow’s keen eye. He had gauged Silver’s skill through the minor motion of drawing and aiming a dagger. With a casual tone as if it were nothing, he had slyly poked, ‘Do you fight often, brother?’ In that instant, he had actually grasped the opponent’s skill, and perhaps even their level of training.
With this skill, he might actually be able to start a maritime kingdom. King Stuffy Field Mouse.
“Pfft! Ahahaha! That’s fucking hilarious!”
A burst of laughter erupted for the first time in a while. Just then, someone suddenly leaped out from inside the alley. A greatsword gripped in both hands pointed at Silver.
“Die…!”
The voice, filled with desperation, was cut short. The greatsword hit the muddy ground with a clanging metallic sound. The opponent took a few clumsy steps before collapsing flat.
Silver flipped the corpse over with his toe. A dagger was buried deep in the corpse’s chest, with only the handle remaining.
“Damn. Should’ve washed up before attacking.”
He had noticed the opponent before they even leaped from the alley. A pungent stench had announced the attacker’s presence like a trumpeter. Silver pulled the dagger from the corpse, wiped it on his sleeve, and tucked it inside his robe. He continued walking.
He made a full circle around the village. He found a total of twenty-seven corpses. Every single one had dropped in one hit. However, Stuffy Field Mouse was nowhere to be seen.
Before he knew it, he was in an alley near the communal dining hall. The heavy rain had subsided into a drizzle, but the sky remained gloomy. Smoke rose from the chimney of the kitchen behind the dining hall. The thin, thread-like grey smoke quickly scattered in the wind. It wasn’t a particularly suspicious sight. The communal kitchen’s furnace always held an ember and sent smoke through the chimney.
But…
A kind of certainty washed over him. He had killed dozens of people since morning without even eating. Having spent his energy, he must be hungry. Especially Stuffy Field Mouse; judging by his build, he was the type to be sensitive to hunger.
Silver went around the dining hall and headed toward the kitchen in the back. Sure enough, a pair of large footprints were stamped into the muddy path leading to the communal kitchen. The intervals were deep and steady. He had walked without rushing, as if going for a stroll in a nearby forest.
The door was slightly ajar. A faint scent of flour dough carried on the warmth flowing from inside. Silver peered through the gap in the door.
The kitchen walls were blackened, soot-stained from the furnace smoke. Iron pots and pans hung in clusters from hooks on the low ceiling. The embers of the hearth at the far end cast a reddish glow on the heavy oak workbench in the center.
Stuffy Field Mouse was standing behind that workbench.
Kneading flour.
97 – Hell’s Execution Order