Chapter 77
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 077
Chapter Title: Hermit's Hideout #3
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"...."
Bloodstained daggers held up for each other to see by the masked thugs.
Since they were looking at me, I smoothly extended my own bloodied knife.
I wasn't entirely sure, but this seemed like some kind of ritual or initiation rite.
If I showed them the knife, I might be able to pass without issue.
'Will it work?'
As I tensed up, I could see the masked thugs' shoulders relaxing.
The wary glares they'd fixed on me vanished.
"Then we're all successful?"
"Test's over."
"No more of that grueling training."
I focused on their chatter.
Test.
Training.
Strange words ringing in my ears when someone suddenly poked my side.
"Seven, wanna grab a drink tonight too?"
Her face was masked, but her voice sounded feminine.
The woman in front of me seemed to think I was someone called 'Seven.'
'Probably because of the dagger.'
I'd checked earlier when we showed our bloodied daggers—each blade was engraved with a number.
Mine was '7.'
The woman in front of me was '6,' I think.
That's when she burst out laughing.
"No way, are you doing your silent vow again today? You Valkar worshippers are so weird. Geez—."
The woman poked my side with her finger.
It tickled like crazy, but I somehow held back the scream.
'For now, I'll blend in and figure out what these guys are.'
What could they have against us?
If I didn't find out now, I'd have to watch my back every time I went to the bathroom.
But a problem arose.
Splash, splash.
Felix appeared in the distance, holding a lantern.
"Who's that?"
"Isn't that Felix? Seven, your target's still alive."
"How'd you do your job?"
The black-masked gazes turned back to me.
I might get exposed as not one of them.
'That idiot! I told him to wait!'
No choice—time for a plan change.
I whipped my knife to the throat of the woman approaching me.
"Don't move, you bastards!"
"Huh, what?!"
There were six of them.
We were two, but my hostage-taking created a standoff.
"P-Please... spare..."
My hostage spoke amid the tension.
Whoosh!
In that instant, a short, sharp blade sliced through the darkness.
I dodged sharply, but the masked woman I'd grabbed couldn't—she took a knife to the chest.
"Urk!"
It was a fatal wound at first glance. Clearly lethal.
She hadn't cared about the hostage at all.
'These bastards aren't comrades after all!'
But who cared about that.
Splash, splash—Felix was rushing through the sewer toward us.
"You fucking bastards!"
"This is getting annoying."
"No choice—we'll cooperate then—"
Slash!
Felix decapitated the masked thug mid-sentence.
Flash.
Every time a red blade gleamed in the dark, an arm or head hit the ground.
'Felix, you crazy bastard!'
Felix showed no hesitation in killing.
By the time I snapped out of it, he was the only one moving.
The water flowing at our feet ran red like a river of blood.
"Haa, haa..."
Felix panted roughly, glaring at me.
I yanked off my mask and shouted urgently.
"It's me! Yor!"
"Haa... it was you."
"Felix, come on—even so, you can't just kill them all."
I wanted to know who these guys were.
And why they were after us.
"No answers now."
I reached for the woman's corpse to check her pockets.
But then she coughed up blood.
"Grgh..."
The dagger had pierced her ribs and punctured organs—how was she still alive?
She seemed to be struggling to breathe, so I pulled off her mask first.
"P-Plea...se..."
She looked about Nimble's or Hermit's age.
A young woman, trying to say something through bloodied lips.
"P-Please... spare me..."
"What are you people?"
I pulled out the 'wound-healing mushroom' Nimble had given me before and asked.
Better to keep her alive and ask more.
"W-We... are from the... facility..."
"Facility?"
What was that?
It seemed like it would be a long story, so I switched questions quickly.
"Why were you trying to kill us?"
"A... commission..."
Commission?
Killing us was a commission?
Like an assassination contract?
"Who issued the commission?"
"...D-Don't... know... we just... do as told..."
Click.
Felix reversed his grip on his sword.
Before I could stop him, he pierced the woman's throat.
"Hey!"
I jumped in shock and yelled.
I wanted to heal her wounds and ask more—why end it like this?
But Felix just shook the blood off his sword and walked away.
He didn't return even after sunrise.
For the record, we got 100,000 Ether total from the thugs' pockets.
"Yor, six people died at the Great Wall last night."
Morning.
Hammer spread jam on his toasted bread and shared the odd news.
Seemed several explorers had died overnight.
"We almost ended up the same!"
I recounted last night's events.
Especially emphasizing how Felix was a total killing machine.
"That bastard's gonna cause an accident someday!"
"Haa... Yor, try to understand this time."
"Understand?"
"They were bell-wearing thieves."
"So?"
"I don't usually gossip about others..."
Hammer glanced around.
Then he began his tale.
"Felix is from a knight family. But he's basically an orphan without parents."
Felix was an orphan?
I knew that much.
That's why Lieutenant Colonel Leiden raised him like adoptive parents.
"When Felix was a fluffy little kid, thieves broke into the estate and killed the whole family. His sister was dragged off by them."
"Huh...!"
The horrific story made me grimace.
And awkwardly, Felix showed up right then.
"Hammer, what're you talking about? I heard my name."
"Ahem—not really about you...!"
Hammer played it off.
I looked away pretending ignorance when Felix sat in a chair.
"Probably talking about the bell-wearing thieves."
He smeared jam on toast with a bread knife as he spoke.
"My parents' blood pooled on the floor, and my sister screamed as strangers grabbed her. Guess how I survived?"
"How should I know?"
"I was hiding under the bed. Holding my breath, just staring at their ankles."
I pictured a terrified kid crammed in a tight space, hand over mouth.
The kid's eyes must've spotted the thieves' ankles—and the bells dangling there.
That might explain why Felix hunts bell-wearing thieves obsessively.
Why he goes straight for the neck with any thieves.
Clink!
Felix tossed bells onto the table.
Bloodied bells.
Probably collected from the thugs he killed last night.
"I still don't know what these guys do or why they targeted us. But snakes know their own paths best, right?"
Felix looked at me.
"Yor, take me to the Thieves' Guild."
"You want me to drag a tiger into a rat hole?"
He might start a sword dance the second he sees thieves.
"Nothing like last night will happen."
"You swear on your sister's name?"
"...Yeah."
Fine.
I went to a manhole near the training grounds and slipped into the sewer.
Felix clicked his tongue.
"Damn, I knew there was a thieves' den somewhere at the Great Wall, but this close?"
"You better not cause trouble!"
And so Felix entered the Thieves' Guild.
The thieves huddled in groups, chuckling slyly, all turned to stare at us.
"Isn't that the Butcher Felix?"
"Why's the Thief-Killer Felix here?!"
Felix was pretty infamous among thieves too.
Amid the commotion, Sister Germain appeared.
"Little brother Yor, what're you doing bringing a non-thief into the guild!"
"Sis, Felix is kinda a thief too. He steals lives."
"Not wrong."
Soon Sister Germain crossed her arms and eyed Felix.
"What brings our honorable knight to this humble place?"
"You're Germain, right? Got questions. What's this?"
Clink.
Felix showed the bells to Sister Germain.
She narrowed her eyes thinly.
"That's like a symbol for guys training at a certain facility. A mark of the rookies."
"That facility—is it Narakje's orphanage in Cunning Town?"
"Yep. They take kids from there and train 'em into money-makers for all sorts of jobs."
Narakje Vane's orphanage.
Sister Germain and Deborra came from there, right?
The Blaset twins too.
Sister Germain continued.
"It's a brutal place—training like grinding bones to dust. Those bells relate to the final test at the end."
"Final test?"
"Yeah, pass that and you're done with training, free at last. Well, a illusory freedom at best..."
She closed her eyes slowly.
"The final test could be stealing something—or an assassination commission. The director decides the job."
"These bells mark that you're taking the 'test'?"
"Right. Imagine thieving and robbing with bells on—easy to get caught just approaching. But most succeed."
Bell-wearing criminals.
Idiotic, yet most commissions succeed.
'Means they're that skilled!'
'Freaks trained as assassins from childhood!'
We nearly died last night without a peep.
Even Felix's knight family got brutally massacred.
"...For assassination commissions, how do they pick targets?"
Felix's voice trembled slightly.
Sister Germain replied casually.
"The director takes external commissions and decides."
"...Commission fee?"
"Insanely high. Can't be helped when you're hiring Vane's elite trainees."
Someone paid a fortune to kill us.
The Dantes family maybe?
As I thought that, Felix's hand went to his scabbard.
"How do you know so much?"
"I'm an alumna of that facility."
"...Even 14 years ago?"
"I escaped 15 years ago."
"...."
Felix turned on his heel.
"Nothing more to see here."
"Hey! Wait up!"
I left the Thieves' Guild with Felix.
Time passed to lunch.
The Blaset twins approached me mid-lunch training.
"Brother Yor, training again?"
"Play with us!"
"If you're here to bother me, scram!"
"Kekeke, Sister Germain sent us."
"She said give this to you, brother."
"Sister Germain?"
Flutter.
The twins handed me a leather scroll.
Unrolling it revealed writing.
「Hammer, Felix, Yor, Nimble.」
「To the Director of Cunning Town Orphanage. W.」
"Oho! This is a facility commission scroll!"
"Four at once? Must cost a fortune!"
The twins cackled excitedly.
That's when I realized not just me and Felix—Hammer and Nimble were targets too.
Trying to wipe out the whole party?
Who the hell?!
I grabbed the ominous scroll and headed to the strategy room.
"Hammer, check this out!"
"Yor, what's that?"
"Ew, this funky smell!"
Nimble snatched the scroll from my hand, sniffed it, and her tail fur bristled.
"Why does this weird thing smell like truffles?"
Truffles?
As I wondered, Hammer chuckled.
"Truffles are called 'gold of the earth'!"
"Ooh! Gold!"
"...Not real gold—it's a mushroom."
Mushroom?
Aw.
As my disappointment swelled, Hammer spoke slyly.
"It's a mushroom, but a rare delicacy. Only grown in Pilgrim's territory, so the price is insane. Hence 'gold of the earth'!"
"...Wait, Pilgrim's territory?"