“A cult?”
When Encrid asked nonchalantly, the one-eyed man frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
Was it not? It didn’t seem like it. If it were a cult, they wouldn’t carry out their plans so sloppily.
Moreover, as Krais had said, if someone important in a cult were involved, they wouldn’t fail to recognize him.
“Think about it. If someone always shows up to interfere whenever you do something, it’s only natural to find out who they are. It would be strange not to attempt an assassination.”
That was Krais’s opinion. If they delved deeper, there had been actual assassination attempts, but those were things they didn’t know about.
Requests had also been made to Jaxon, and he either blocked or resolved other assassination attempts midway.
There was even a visit from the Apostle of Curses once, but understanding the details of that was difficult.
How could anyone know that the grotesque figure who suddenly dropped dead was the Apostle of Curses?
In any case, Krais had said that cult members would grind their teeth upon hearing his name.
So, with an attack of this level, the probability of them being cult members was extremely low. That was Encrid’s conclusion.
“Is it human trafficking?”
He asked again without drawing his weapon, and the men felt the atmosphere grow oddly tense.
Did they mess with the wrong person?
Should they retreat now?
But then again, they couldn’t just back down.
Unbeknownst to Encrid, Cross Guard was turning into a lawless city.
The influence of the market or administrator was weak, and groups like the Thieves Guild or Brotherhood held power.
The people who attacked Encrid belonged to a group with the laughable name of Awl Brotherhood, implying that they would stab you if provoked.
They were also notorious for exacting revenge if anyone harmed one of their own, but the problem was, they had no idea who they were dealing with.
When a traveler arrived, and despite seeing him escorted by the administrator, they had only been tempted by the Krona he carried.
Their leader was a fool, it was a wonder they had survived this long.
“Kill him!”
When the one-eyed man gave the order, the men with narrow, awl-like daggers charged forward.
The narrow hallway wasn’t ideal for wielding long swords.
Thus, they used short awl daggers as their weapons. At least they were somewhat coordinated.
They didn’t rush in a mob but moved in pairs, attacking simultaneously in the confined hallway.
However, even if only a Squire from the Knights’ order had been present, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.
No, even a skilled soldier from the Border Guard Reserve would have sufficed.
Encrid didn’t draw a weapon but stepped left and right, extending his hands.
His speed was, of course, beyond their ability to react.
Shadows surged and sank under the lamp’s light.
To the Awl Brotherhood, it might have looked as though a black, smoky specter was devouring their shadows. Perhaps it truly was.
Encrid grabbed and twisted a wrist at a speed they couldn’t react to.
Crack!
“Ah!”
A scream followed, and as soon as the wrist was twisted, the jaw was dislocated as well, a specialty of Audin.
By pressing below the jaw with his fingers and pushing down, the joint would pop out.
“Urgh!”
Having his jaw forcibly dislocated, the man couldn’t even scream properly, drooling uncontrollably and tearing up.
The one-eyed man hesitated, sensing something was off, and turned to flee, but Encrid wouldn’t just let him go.
The dagger dropped by the man whose wrist was twisted was already in Encrid’s hand.
He weighed the dagger and threw it immediately.
With a whizz, the dagger cut through the air and pierced the back of the one-eyed man’s thigh.
Thump!
“Ugh!”
Thud, thud, thud.
He tumbled down the stairs mid-flight.
Encrid hadn’t intended to kill him, but if he died from that, so be it, he thought.
All of this happened before a single breath could be exhaled.
The remaining men froze. Those who had awkwardly raised their swords and intended to stab shifted their rolling eyes.
Meanwhile, Luagarne, who had dealt with the two on the roof, came down.
She leaped outside and began climbing from the first floor, ready to catch anyone who might use something like sleep incense to escape.
Although no one could evade them, fighting with an understanding of the terrain and situation was Luagarne’s habit.
Encrid had learned such things well from her, which was why they split up to fight.
All of this contributed to creating an environment that blocked any retreat.
Even without detailed discussion, the two knew this much instinctively.
There were still two men standing. They were holding daggers, but they couldn’t move a muscle.
“Are they dead?”
Encrid asked, ignoring his surroundings, and Luagarne, climbing the stairs, answered.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t it suffice to leave just one or two alive? The kid seems uninvolved, and the innkeeper looked like he knew something. Seemed like someone had scared him.”
Luagarne was quick. She had even scanned the innkeeper’s face in the meantime.
Encrid nodded indifferently.
Had they turned a blind eye just to make a living? That could also be considered a wrongdoing.
If one gains from witnessing wrongdoings, that too can be considered culpable.
Anything can be considered a sin if viewed as such, but he had no intention of pursuing it.
When living in a harsh environment, people adapt to survive, and for thugs who were so determined, threatening the innkeeper was probably a trivial matter.
“Want to keep going?”
Encrid asked amicably. The two thieves with daggers meekly knelt.
To them, these two were monsters. And they weren’t wrong.
To ordinary people, both Frog and the Knight were indeed monsters.
They had relied on sleep incense, but when that failed, the outcome was inevitable.
Encrid shrugged and took the incense burner outside.
“Change the burner.”
“Excuse me?”
“Change the burner.”
There was no need to relocate just yet.
Looking at the atmosphere, moving somewhere else wouldn’t change much.
Despite seeing the administrator escorting them, they had still tried something. That pointed to two possible reasons.
Either the administrator was aware but turned a blind eye, or the administrator was backing them.
Encrid’s thoughts stopped there as he searched the thief’s belongings and found a thick rope.
“It is human trafficking.”
If they were capturing and selling people, they would have tools to bind them, and they did. They hadn’t intended to kill.
Encrid tied the thieves’ hands and feet and sat them in front of the door.
“Wake us if someone comes.”
He had effectively made the thieves into doorbells.
“You need to sleep when you can.”
Hearing this, Luagarne nodded in agreement. It was a truth of life to rest when possible. And so, they both slept.
The two thieves, tightly bound, didn’t dare think of escaping.
They endured the night in terror, surrounded by their dead comrades.
When morning came, the source of their fear emerged and untied them, saying,
“Clean this up.”
The thieves cleaned up the traces of the previous night, though they couldn’t erase all the bloodstains on the floor.
The inn already smelled musty, and now it reeked of blood.
Encrid dragged a backless chair from the room with a screech and sat it in the hallway.
Luagarne rubbed her eyes, wrapped her whip around her waist, and leaned against the wall by the stairs, ready to react to anything.
“Who sent you?”
Encrid asked.
“No one sent us.”
One thief swallowed hard and answered.
“When travelers or merchants come, we threaten them and steal some Krona. That’s it.”
The thief continued, and it didn’t seem like he was lying.
Unfortunately, their leader, who had tumbled down the stairs, was dead, though the cause of death was strange.
His neck wasn’t broken, but there were strange fragments in the whites of his eyes.
“It wasn’t his neck breaking that killed him.”
Even accounting for rigor mortis, the corpse was unusually stiff and heavy.
It seemed like his body was turning into stone.
Or maybe his internal organs had turned to stone.
The corpse was so heavy that it took two grown men groaning to move it.
Encrid found it peculiar but didn’t have anyone to ask. Luagarne had also noticed but simply called it strange.
“The administrator brought us here. What were you planning to do after this?”
When asked by the two “doorbells”, they said the administrator was a useless idiot who didn’t even bother to pay attention.
They claimed that the city had become so rotten, with daily murders due to guild wars, that the administrator was only focused on preserving his own life.
Encrid inwardly wondered, ‘Really?’
He had already met the administrator with snake-like eyes and didn’t think he seemed like someone who overlooked things.
The two remaining thieves added that the truly strong person here was someone called Wind Blade, and Encrid found their story quite amusing.
They said he was hiding here after having killed a famous Knight from somewhere.
The two thieves didn’t stop talking. Naturally, neither of them wanted to cross the River of Death with a single stroke of a blade.
As they babbled, half-crying, Encrid managed to gather a few useful pieces of information.
The conclusion was that whether cult-related or not, this city was thoroughly rotten.
So, what now?
‘Breakfast first.’
He thought.
Encrid followed his instincts and got up to order food.
“Are you really going to eat here?”
The innkeeper asked. He was holding a large kitchen knife, but he didn’t seem intent on fighting. His face betrayed his worry and fear.
“If not at an inn, then where do you suggest?”
“Go outside and catch a grasshopper to eat.”
Luagarne chimed in from the side, but Encrid simply tapped the table.
The innkeeper let out a deep sigh and turned around. Then, a young employee approached Encrid, whispering cautiously.
“You should run away.”
“Why?”
Children tend to see the world from their own perspective.
For a child who had never left the city of Cross Guard, what was the most terrifying thing?
The people who routinely threatened them. Those who had never been punished for their actions.
To this child, the crime guilds were as fearsome as death itself.
“Scary people will come.”
The child didn’t think Encrid seemed like a bad person. That’s why they spoke up with courage, but their words fell on deaf ears.
The ground floor of the inn doubled as a dining area.
Although it was early morning, a few customers began trickling in.
Among them were two men with grim faces who approached Encrid.
Screech.
One of them dragged a chair by its backrest, placing it next to Encrid’s table.
He spread his legs, rested his chest against the chair’s backrest, and stared at Encrid before asking,
“Who are you?”
Encrid naturally turned his gaze to assess his opponent.
His eyes first landed on the two short swords strapped to the man’s waist.
These appeared to be his primary weapons. The worn leather on the handles indicated long-term use.
Despite the seemingly uncomfortable posture, the man was ready to draw his blades at a moment’s notice.
Just from his stance, Encrid could tell.
“A guest waiting for breakfast.”
“Well, that’s not wrong.”
Encrid replied, and Luagarne chimed in.
Cross Guard was controlled by three major crime guilds.
A lot had happened for the city to reach this state, but to put it briefly, a few crime guilds suddenly grew in power, and no one was able to control them.
A garrison commander had been killed after being entangled in guild wars, and another commander was rumored to be little more than a guild member in disguise.
Over time, the city became a lawless place dominated by crime guilds.
As a result, gambling and drugs became rampant, and finding people dead on the streets was common.
The alleys reeked of foul odors, and waste wasn’t properly managed, leaving excrement scattered everywhere.
This, in turn, led to an infestation of rats and a high incidence of disease.
The man now facing Encrid was a member of one of the three major crime guilds.
“Oh, is that so?”
The man chuckled. His face wasn’t exactly cute, but to Encrid, he looked somewhat amusing.
Although he acted relaxed, his tension was evident, with his feet and hands stiff with effort.
His intentions were clear.
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