Shall We Have a Little Chat?
"······."
"······."
"······."
"Make yourselves comfortable. Go on, sit easy."
Leon leaned back into the leather chair, crossing one leg over the other as he spoke.
They were in the grand conference room on the third floor of Pribil City Hall. Inside sat Leon, Hera, Aria, Riel, and Fenril — along with the city's key officials: the mayor, the councilors, the captain of the guard, and the rest.
From the moment they had entered City Hall to the moment this little gathering took shape, exactly five minutes had passed.
The guards on the upper stairs had been waving their spears around and shouting themselves hoarse. They weren't martial artists — they weren't even mana-awakened. Ordinary men. The instant Hera let slip a thin thread of killing intent, they had crumpled one after another.
After that, Leon's party had simply climbed straight up to the third floor and found Pribil's entire administrative staff huddled together in the middle of a meeting — with the city guard, who should have been protecting the streets, all gathered here in one place.
And after that? Well. The names Crusif and Mukwol Squad had crushed them flat in a single breath. Now the lot of them were just sitting there, pouring cold sweat.
"W-well··· are you truly here to help us?"
Meric, the mayor of Pribil, thrust his haggard face forward as he asked. It was the third time he had asked the same question. Heat flared behind Leon's eyes.
"Ah, I already said yes! What, you think I came all this way in the rain just to sit around and freeload? What's your problem, huh? What exactly is bugging you?"
"Y-yes, sir!? N-no, nothing! It's just — I can hardly believe it······."
The moment Leon snapped, Meric flinched hard and waved both hands. Fair enough that he couldn't believe it. Out of nowhere, the infamous Mukwol Squad had shown up at this shabby little city offering help — and not just any members, but the leader and vice-commander themselves.
"Let's start with a situation report."
The one who had dragged them all here — Leon Crusif, third son of House Crusif — lit a fresh cigarette and gestured with it.
"······Understood."
A detailed map of Pribil lay spread wide across the table, dotted with a dense scatter of red marks. Markers for where the victims had been found.
"As of now··· the victims number over a hundred — no, over two hundred."
Meric spoke with a grim expression. From the city officials came involuntary groans and sighs. Leon's party, by contrast, didn't so much as blink. They simply stared, faces saying keep talking. Meric cleared his throat and pressed on.
"Ahem. For the past three weeks, those bastards have been targeting five people every single night."
"Always?"
"Not always. For example······."
When the guards were out on patrol. When several people were gathered in one place — one room. Or when someone tried to flee the city.
"So that's why everyone's barricaded themselves indoors?"
"······Yes. Every time someone leaves the city, those monsters snatch them up like ghosts and put the bodies on display in the middle of the square, like a trophy. Of course the citizens are terrified."
If every person who left came back butchered without exception, no one would have the courage to step outside. It couldn't be helped, Meric insisted, eyes lowered in appeal.
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Leon's gaze cooled a fraction as he continued.
"And what about them? The ones in the mountains······."
"The Forest Owls."
"Right, the Forest Owls. You said they vanished completely? Where did you hear that?"
"They didn't disappear from inside the city."
Meric pulled out another map — this one charting the geography around Pribil. His finger pointed to the forest east of the city.
"Here. They went out to search the woods, and··· we've had no contact since."
"So you figured the enemy was holed up in the forest."
"Yes. That's our conclusion as well. As you can see··· there's simply nowhere inside Pribil to hide."
Aside from the forest, the surrounding terrain was nothing but flatland and low hills. In a city this small, places to conceal yourself were limited. The theory that the enemy was operating out of the woods was reasonable enough on its face.
After that, Leon and Riel took turns asking a few more questions.
"Alright. We've heard enough. We'll discuss this among ourselves for a bit."
"Y-you'll resolve this for us?"
"We'll try. First we're going to settle into our lodgings and sort our gear. Wait here."
Leon's party stepped out of the conference room and headed for the quarters the mayor's office had provided. They needed to stable the horses, unload their packs, and check their equipment.
Once they had put some distance between themselves and the officials, they all spoke at once.
"Something's off, right?"
"They're hiding something."
"I felt the same."
"Yeah, left a bad taste in my mouth."
No one disagreed. Every one of them had sensed something suspicious during the conversation. There were too many pieces of the city's situation that simply didn't add up.
First.
"The citizens are far too reluctant to leave."
Barely ten people had even attempted to flee the city. In a disaster of this scale, you would expect panic — families, whole groups trying to get out. But there had been no mass exodus at all. That only made sense if someone was actively controlling and agitating them.
Second.
"The Forest Owls marching straight into the woods on day one is also strange. If it were me, I'd spend at least one night in the city observing the situation."
According to the officials, the Forest Owls mercenary company had arrived and immediately swarmed east into the forest, claiming it looked suspicious. For a group of their reputation, that was reckless and uncharacteristic. Someone had almost certainly asked — or urged — them to investigate there.
Third.
"Calling in one mercenary company and then doing absolutely nothing else doesn't make sense. Even for a city of three thousand, they can't be that broke."
Even if the Forest Owls were a reasonably well-known outfit, one contract wouldn't drain the coffers dry. Impossible. The entire city was under emergency lockdown and couldn't function. They should have scraped together every last coin and begged for more help. And it wouldn't have been just city funds — the citizens would have opened their purses without complaint.
Of course, some outfits might have refused the job because of Pribil's grim reputation.
"This industry is crawling with people who'll do anything for money," Riel said. "They might not land a first-rate company, but hiring something between second- and third-rate would have been more than doable."
Coming from Riel — an authority in the mercenary world — that carried weight. Fenril, who had been listening with his mouth hanging open, finally spoke up.
"So we just rough those bastards up, yeah?"
"Well, they don't look like full members — more like coerced collaborators."
That didn't mean the mayor or the councilors were Gonghyeol Group. None of them looked cruel enough to tear people apart like insects. Their eyes belonged to people who had never killed anyone.
Fenril, with his years of mercenary experience, agreed on that point — but still.
"Still, if we shake 'em hard enough, something's gotta fall out, right?"
"Honestly, I was going to do exactly that. But someone already beat me to it."
"······?"
"We'll talk more inside. Aria's found something."
Fenril rolled his eyes in confusion for a moment — then noticed Hera was already gone.
"······Ah. Got it."
He nodded to himself.
Crunch. Crunch.
In the conference room Leon's party had left behind, the sound of someone gnawing their nails rang out without pause.
"M-Mayor··· what do we do?"
"······."
"Mayor···!"
"Shut······!"
Meric turned on the councilor with bloodshot eyes.
"······up! What do you mean, what do we do?!"
The councilor flinched, then clenched his teeth and tried again.
"It's the Crusifs! The Crusifs! And the Mukwol Squad on top of that! We should just cooperate while we still ca—"
"Ha — what? Cooperate? Have you forgotten about our families being held hostage?"
"······B-but if those people solve this······."
Meric's face twisted violently.
"Don't be absurd······. You think those monsters will keep the hostages alive that long? Damn it, my wife and children are in their hands!"
"······."
After that brief explosion of rage, Meric went back to chewing his nails, muttering under his breath.
"We have no choice. No choice······. We do whatever they tell us. And whatever it is, we just pray it works."
The name of a noble house — especially Crusif — was overwhelming, immense. High nobility you might never lay eyes on in a lifetime. If they discovered that these men had lied and concealed the truth······ that would be the end of everyone.
But.
"We have no choice······."
Yes. There was no choice. Considering everything they had already done, even telling the truth wouldn't guarantee their lives. The situation was a dead end either way. Die this way or die that way. Meric decided to take the gamble that still held a sliver of possibility.
"Like with the last mercenary company, then."
"Exactly. If we can just get through this one more time. They said they'd be finished soon enough."
The captain of the guard, who had been listening, let out a low groan.
"I worry. Whether they'll actually release them as promised······."
"······."
Meric harbored the same doubt deep down — but he forced himself to ignore it.
"······It's not as if we have any other options."
Even a thin hope was better than none. For his family, he would do anything. Even if it meant driving hundreds of citizens to their deaths.
······Yes.
Using the city guard to lock down the gates so no one could leave. Issuing public orders to shut every door and window and stay indoors. Fabricating death records and deliberately piling corpses in the square to stoke terror. Luring the hired mercenaries into the forest exactly as instructed. Embezzling the funds collected from the citizens.
All of it was fine. All of it was something he could do.
Meric glanced at the clock.
"Seven o'clock······. Today's Friday, so······."
"The rendezvous is at nine, then."
"Hmm~ is that so?"
"······."
"······?"
"······Who just······?"
A beat of silence.
"······!"
"······!"
"······!"
And then, all at once, the realization hit. The room went ice-cold. Every pair of eyes in the chamber flew wide. Every body locked rigid, as if struck by lightning.
"······."
"······."
"······."
They rolled the only things still moving — their eyeballs — slowly sideways.
"Honestly. You never deviate from my expectations by even an inch."
How long had she been there?
In the corner of the conference room, a pale-skinned beauty sat with her long legs crossed, languidly dragging her tongue across her lower lip.
"Alrighty."
Hera rose from the chair with an exaggerated stretch and set one foot lightly atop the table.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Then she began to walk slowly across it, sweeping her gaze over them one by one, her right hand resting on the hilt at her hip.
"Mmm~."
Tap — tap — tap —
Heartbeats and breathing turned ragged. Inhaled air caught behind their throats and refused to go down. No one could even blink. Scalps prickled. Something felt ready to burst at any second — an atmosphere so chilling, so skin-crawling, it defied description. Crushed beneath her presence, they couldn't even make a sound.
"There's not much I want to know······ and you lot don't know much anyway······."
—Tap.
Her foot stopped dead. Directly in front of Mayor Meric. His body began to convulse wildly.
"But there are far too many mouths that need to talk······."
The instant the words left her lips—
Shhk!
A flash of steel, and a thin red line was drawn across Meric's throat.
"······?"
A beat later, the line split open from top to bottom.
Fwaaaaaash!
From the neck, severed cleanly halfway through, a fountain of blood erupted in a long arc. The table and Hera's feet grew warm and wet.
"······!"
Meric's hands flew up, groping at his own throat. Disbelief and horror exploded across his face.
"Ghk······! Grk······!"
He opened his mouth, but no voice came out.
"Kk — grrk······!"
The hands clutching desperately at the wound dropped away with a dull thud. The light in his eyes went dull, then faded. His body slumped bonelessly from the chair and slid down.
Psssshhhhh—
Glurk, gurgle—
The sound of escaping air. The sound of bubbling froth. And bright red blood streaming steadily down his chest.
"Hahat."
Hera, who had been standing motionless watching the spectacle, started walking again.
Tap — tap — tap —
"Well then. Shall we have a little chat?"
With the innocent smile of a mischievous child, she gave her sword a playful little twirl.