Chapter 131

(Hhhk–)

The men stiffened for a moment at the sight, then all moved at once. The first to react was the one facing the first victim. Instinctively, he reached for his waist and tried to shout, but all that came out was a wheezing gasp as he collapsed with a crash.

Eugène had drawn his eyes just long enough for Hunter, bursting out from the cellar, to drive a blade into his back. Hunter immediately kicked the leg of the chair he was sitting on and jumped over his fallen body.

Eugène’s second target, the man on the right flank, was quicker on the uptake. Maybe he was cautious by nature, as he had left his sheathed sword lying at the table’s edge within easy reach. The moment he grasped the situation, his hand shot for the hilt. But Eugène was faster by a hair.

Clamping a hand over the man’s mouth to stifle any cry, Eugène slashed his throat without hesitation. The dagger he had thrown into the first victim was a balanced, workmanlikepoignard, but the weapon that carved open the second man’s gullet was far more sinister, asica.

A pirate’s blade, designed solely for ripping human flesh, its curve was so extreme that the grip nearly formed a right angle with the edge. Like a farmer’s sickle through ripe wheat, the sica harvested the man’s life in one sweep.

While Eugène was pulling his weight, Hunter was not idle either. His target sat on the farthest side of the landing, which was the worst possible position. And between them lay a mess of obstacles.

“Fuck this,”Hunter swore under his breath, vaulting over the first fallen body and charging the second. Unlike his luckless comrades who’d gone down with no chance to react, the last man had just enough time to move.

The moment he snatched up the sword from the table, he rammed it up, still in its scabbard, against Hunter’s blade.Thunk!A dull, bone-jarring sound rang out, followed by a sting that shot up his wrist. The shock of steel biting into leather-wrapped steel without release rippled straight into his bones.

The man kicked the gambling table aside to free himself, trying to stagger backward. But there was no second stroke of luck waiting for him. Like Eugène, Hunter carried a dagger in each hand, and the brutal turf wars of the back alleys were the perfect training ground for every filthy trick and underhanded ploy imaginable.

The moment the first dagger was blocked, the second slipped in silently from outside his line of sight. Compared to the first thrust, which was honest enough to catch the eye, the second strike occupied the blind spot and crept in like an assassin’s blade.

The reversed dagger darted sharply toward the side of his head. Only belatedly realizing it, the man jerked his head to the side and managed to block with his forearm instead of his skull. Thanks to that, the second strike cut through his arm rather than his ear, but just then, the third attack flowed in as naturally as water.

The dagger he thought he had stopped, the first one, slithered along the scabbard like a serpent climbing a vine. Hunter’s devious, irregular blade drove straight between the man’s ribs. Stabbed in a vital spot, the man let out a strangled grunt and instinctively tried to draw back.

But seated as he was, his body had no room to pull away. Instinctively retreating, he struck the chair’s backrest with a thud, caught in place, and had no choice but to face the follow-up strike head-on.

Puhk!The steel rammed straight into his ear canal, burrowing deep into the soft flesh within. With it came the horrific tearing sound of his eardrum ripping apart, exploding inside his head. That was the last sound he ever heard in this world. Struck with successive fatal blows, the man’s life ended right there without even a chance to thrash about.

sLL OA mCfI CNRRJyJz fy gDm Ny fyImNym. QO IOOyJt CNz dDymJt zJNLm EfmC mCJ LNIm oNy mCNy CJ fooJzfNmJLe mDtyJz gNhX mOENtz CfI AftIm mNtqJm. WCJy CJ CNz ImNggJz Cfo fy mCJ gNhX, CJ CNz NfoJz AOt mCJ LDyq Oy RDtROIJ, gDm JFJy IO, CJ hODLz yOm NIIDoJ mCJ JyJoe ENI AfyfICJz OAA.

But when he turned around, what he saw instead was Eugène stamping down on the fallen man’s throat.Crrk!went the bones, a sickening crunch, as the man’s limbs convulsed and then dropped lifeless. Eugène ended him with one brutal, efficient motion, tore his dagger free from the first corpse, and flicked gore and fat from the blade into the air.

What a vicious bastard. Three men dead in the space of a breath?

EIT diUT BTqdI fS kUNèJT’A AdiTJNdI ILB gYfmJ qLAd TaTJ KUJdTi’A gfYBTAd NUTAATA. KT ILB LYmLpA dIfUNId IQNIYp fS IQA fmJ qifmTAA, gUd mLdGIQJN kUNèJT QJ LGdQfJ GIQYYTB IQP df dIT PLiifm.

“WJLL zOyJ. kODLz eOD yOm CNFJ LJAm Nm LJNIm OyJ RJtIOy AOt fymJttOqNmfOy?”

Annoyed at having felt intimidated for even a moment, Hunter picked a fight for no reason. Eugène calmly sheathed his dagger at his belt, reminding him of the purpose that had first brought them here.

“If your information was correct, there should be at least one more.”

When he said that, Hunter had nothing to say. Once the brief uproar was over, the room fell into silence. Considering the number of men slaughtered, the carnage that had just taken place had unfolded almost in complete quiet. Still, they remained vigilant.

They waited a little, but no one seemed to have noticed the commotion and come running. After briefly checking the situation outside with some spacing between them, they started moving again.

Unlike the kitchen, which at least carried some hint of human presence, the atmosphere outside was downright desolate. The empty hallway, stripped of everything but the basic furnishings a landlord might leave for tenants, was so devoid of warmth it could have been mistaken for an abandoned house.

The second obstacle they encountered was a lone sentry sitting across from the main entrance. He had a rifle laid across his knees and stared at the doorway with a bored expression. If someone tried to enter through the front, he was in a position to fire immediately. But if one thought about it logically, no intruder sneaking into someone else’s house would ever stroll brazenly through the front door, making his placement nonsensical.

What sharpened Eugène’s suspicion was the fact that the man sat alone, in the center of the hall, without even a cover.

A trap.

Just seeing it was enough to send a powerful warning through Eugène’s instincts. When he glanced at Hunter for confirmation, Hunter gestured toward the opposite side of the entrance hall. Like most houses rented out to tenants, this mansion wasn’t particularly elaborate in its design.

As with the other nearby houses, stepping through the front door led directly into a round entrance hall, with staircases on either side leading up to the second floor. What Hunter indicated was the tall decorative mirror facing the landing between the stairs.

Neglected like the other furnishings, the mirror hadn’t been properly cleaned and was covered with dust. Even so, Hunter had managed to catch the glint of metal reflected on its surface.

Thanks to that, they realized there was another sentry stationed at the top of each stair landing. So that was their setup. Finally understanding the situation, Eugène gave a small nod.

This time, the signal he gave was a sailor’s hand sign used at sea. Eugène had chosen to use it because he needed to convey something a little more complicated than before. Fortunately, since Hunter often used Imperial merchant ships for smuggling, he had no trouble grasping Eugène’s intent.

I will draw off the two escorts. You take the target.

With that simple order, Eugène lightly kicked off the wall and caught hold of a decorative ledge above. Then, like a sailor climbing a mast, he scaled the wall with agile movements and gripped the wooden structures supporting the balcony rail.

In an instant, he was hanging from the second-floor balustrade. Then, without the slightest sound, he vaulted over and landed atop it. For a man of his size, the sight of him moving as silently as a cat was hard to believe even with one’s own eyes. He moved with the grace and ease of a large feline.

His first target was, most unluckily, the sentry to the right, stationed nearest the kitchen passage. He had not sensed a thing until Eugène was already on the rail, and before he could react, a boot to the chest hurled him against the wall.Thud!A heavy impact boomed, the wall shuddering from the blow.

The remaining sentry, who had been keeping a wary eye on the floor below, was startled when a black shadow burst forth and struck down his comrade. He swung his rifle up, but his movements lagged behind by a fatal beat.

Eugène seized the throat of the right-hand sentry to choke off any cry and slammed him back against the wall. With his other hand, he drew a dagger from his belt and hurled it at the left-hand sentry. The blade sank squarely into the center of the man’s forehead. Though a distinguishedpistoliertrained by years of harsh drill, he had not even the chance to chamber a round before his life was cut off in vain.

His death would not be lonely for long. In the very next moment, his comrade followed after him. The right-hand sentry, desperate to free himself from the terrifying grip crushing his windpipe, drew a dagger from his belt and slashed.

But his elbow was caught and twisted, and in the struggle he drove his own weapon straight into his heart. Eugène never released his hold on the man’s throat, stifling any final scream until his life was extinguished.

(What the hell, Mark? What is all that noise?)

Goddamn it!Hunter’s estimate, that there would be no more than six or seven at most, had been wrong. Eugène froze and held his breath, listening past the corpse of the sentry slumped against the wall. There were more men. Judging from the racket, not just one or two, either.

Three? Four? With Hunter there, they could handle that many, but any more and the situation would turn against them. While Eugène dealt with the two sentries, he hastily reached out to Hunter, who had taken care of the decoy and climbed up to the second floor. Almost anxiously, Hunter handed over the dagger Eugène had entrusted to him.

There are more people.

How many?

I cannot say for sure. Three or four?

But reality has always been crueler than hope.

BANG!!

The front door suddenly burst open, and a dozen or so men poured into the mansion. They showed no attempt to hide their presence and charged up the stairs without hesitation.

(It is an attack!)

Inside, everyone reacted instantly to the rude intrusion. From beyond the walls, guards called out in Camarin, and as if in response, every door on the second floor except one flew open, spilling armed men into the hall.

One, two, three, four… seven, eight, nine, ten. Almost a full squad revealed itself. They strode down the corridor, their eyes blazing as they took in the bodies of the sentries that Eugène had already slain.

Eugène grabbed the corpse he had been holding and threw it at the man, swinging a cutlass head-on, then used the scabbard to block the dagger thrust aimed at his side.

His light self-defense sword was too weak to handle a standard blade, so he refrained from drawing it. Its relatively short length also made it ineffective, making it impossible to counter with the dagger. With no other option, he swung the scabbard and struck the attacker squarely across the jaw.

The man, hit solidly and spun around, lost his balance, leaving a brief opening in the assault. At that moment, a sudden warmth pressed against Eugène’s back. It was the body heat of Hunter, who had smartly pressed close to prevent a flanking attack.

“Who the hell are these guys?”

“How the hell should I know?!”

If not for their sudden intrusion, things would not have escalated so uncontrollably. At least there would have been time to respond. Eugène asked the question out of curiosity about the strangers, and Hunter snapped back irritably.