Chapter 281
Chapter 281
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: King of the Desert (3)
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“No, I’m telling you, it’s true. The Empire’s Greatest Sword!”
A young man in a robe shouted in a loud voice.
However, the sharp-featured middle-aged man who had come down the corridor remained impassive.
He wore an expression that said he couldn’t believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes.
“That’s impossible. No matter how much you’ve refined the purity of the Dilma, there’s no way a Grand Master would get poisoned so easily.”
“I confirmed it. He drank three glasses, and his pupils dilated sharply. Isn’t that the initial symptom of poisoning?”
The man appeared to be Samadian, with sun-bronzed skin.
However, his Western features suggested mixed blood, and though not particularly muscular, he had a large, lean build.
“The Greatest Sword is still human physically. He can’t escape medicine.”
“I won’t believe it until I check his condition myself.”
He passed through the banquet hall and accompanied him deep into the corridor.
Then, the moment they arrived at the room in question and opened the door.
The intensified Dilma scent, so thick it was hard to stay clear-headed, made him furrow his brow.
“What is this? How much of that stuff did you produce?”
“Haha... He kept demanding more, so...”
Drunken men in the room caught his eye, chuckling to themselves.
Passing them by and entering the living room, he spotted me sitting on the sofa.
“That’s the Empire’s Greatest Sword?”
My shirt unbuttoned, women on either side, chuckling away.
Empty wine bottles rolled around the round table.
However, what stood out were the wine glasses.
Blue residue pooled at the bottom of the glasses—how much Dilma had they put in?
Just looking at that and my flushed face showed I was in a state of drunken poisoning.
“Doctor, why are you so late? I’ve been waiting forever—”
“Sorry, I had some business to attend to—”
As the doctor rubbed his hands together like a fly, I locked eyes with the middle-aged man behind him.
At that, I moved even more shamelessly.
I kicked the round table, sending a precariously placed wine bottle tumbling to the floor.
The fallen bottle rolled limply and bumped into his shoe.
“This gentleman is an executive from the brewery. He came in person after hearing of your reputation, Marquis.”
“What reputation... It’s just an empty title...”
I smirked and shook my head.
The middle-aged executive’s eyebrow twitched at my skeptical demeanor.
“Empty title? What do you mean? You’re already one of the Empire’s most famous people.”
“What good is being treated like a celebrity on the surface?”
I shoved aside the women I’d had beside me.
Already drunk, they giggled and dozed off on the sofa.
“These imperial folks and nobles, you see—they obsess over ‘pedigree.’”
While drinking, I pretended to have hurt my hand and showed my palm.
Pointing to a bloodstain from bumping somewhere, I said.
“Because I’m a lowly orphan from an orphanage, they won’t even meet me properly. Won’t give me a key position either.”
The Empire’s Greatest Sword, yet not even a knight order captain or grand general.
Even with a marquisate, no marquisate territory provided.
At those words, the middleman pursed his lips and let out a deep breath.
Only after the bespectacled doctor whispered the info he already knew did he gradually open his ears.
“It’s true. They say Marquis Veil Mikhail is still just a low-level palace guard.”
“...”
Who knew refusing work out of laziness would be seen this way.
They looked at me with pity and disdain.
“Well, not even a commoner, but an orphan to boot—makes sense.”
The middleman finally nodded in understanding.
“I understand. I too am disillusioned by the nobles’ contempt.”
“Then you get my position...”
I chuckled and held out my wine glass again.
The bespectacled doctor hurriedly grabbed the bottle and poured plain red wine.
“That’s not the stuff you let me drink earlier.”
I glared at him murderously for handing me unadulterated wine.
He glanced at the middleman as if to say, look at this.
“Please wait a moment, Marquis Veil.”
He sent the doctor away and approached himself.
Then, showing me his palm, he asked one question.
“How many fingers do you see?”
The liaison held up his index and middle fingers.
At that, I snorted in disbelief and shouted.
“Two, isn’t it? Who do you take me for, an idiot?!”
My booming voice made the doctor behind me flinch and step back.
But the middleman was different.
Dressed in a sharp suit, he finally seemed satisfied, a smirk playing on his lips.
“Sorry. I just had to check since you seemed excited.”
Saying that in his right mind.
Thinking I was sincere, he told me to calm down and wait.
“I’ll contact my men to get you more product. Please wait a moment.”
The middle-aged man took his subordinate and stepped away from me briefly.
They turned the corner, far from the room, and resumed their conversation.
“See? He’s hooked. The Empire’s Greatest Sword is just physically strong—still human.”
“...”
The doctor continued excitedly.
“Yes, once the hallucinogenic effects kick in, they tend to be brutally honest, spilling their true feelings.”
Resolved, he pulled a pocket notepad from his pocket.
He wrote an order and passed it to a subordinate waiting in the corridor.
“But pushing more Dilma on him right now is risky. We should distribute mainly to the less seasoned young lords for now...”
The doctor worriedly eyed his boss, who was trying to bring Dilma into this mansion housing Samad royalty.
The middleman, knowing his concerns well, nodded silently.
“I know what you’re worried about. But this is a golden opportunity.”
The middleman stroked the Samadian sword at his waist.
Once a soldier, he knew the upper class’s hierarchy inside out.
“No matter how much they snub him for his background, he’ll have chances to meet countless elites. Parties he hosts will make our Dilma wine trend, for sure.”
The man with a grave yet sharp visage glanced back, savoring the music from the corridor’s end.
“Soon, Dilma will dominate the VIP banquets. Then the Empire will fester bit by bit.”
“That’s...”
The doctor swallowed hard.
Feeling the ripple effects through the Greatest Sword, cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
“You’re making your life too, you know. The man who personally dealt with the Greatest Sword.”
He slowly melted his subordinate’s anxiety by mentioning a brilliant future.
Truly the tongue of a mid-level clandestine organization leader.
“When the men arrive, supply just one crate of Dilma first.”
“Just one crate? Judging by how much the Greatest Sword consumed, he’ll finish it in two days...”
The middleman chuckled and shook his head.
He quietly admonished the still naive subordinate.
“The less you have, the more it lingers in your mind.”
The middle-aged man smiled ferociously with seasoned eyes.
He tapped the clinking gold coins in the doctor’s robe pocket and said.
“Just like how you constantly calculate how much money you have left when it’s short, it makes you crave the herb nonstop.”
“As expected of you, Mr. Deyan. Your reputation from the Samad strategy department hasn’t faded...”
Middleman Deyan clasped his hands behind his back in response to his subordinate’s admiration.
And waited quietly for his men to arrive in the corridor.
How much time passed.
Twenty minutes later, four of his men in black suits filled the corridor.
“The herb?”
“We brought one box as instructed.”
As the Samadians handed over luxurious silk-wrapped parcel, Deyan checked the contents.
It brimmed with blue herbs exuding a subtle, rich aroma.
“Then let’s go in.”
The middleman smirked, neatly tying the silk bundle.
He opened the room door with his characteristic sharp gaze, hands behind his back.
――――――.
“Sir Veil, we’ve brought the goods.”
He leisurely walked down the long room passage, about to turn the corner.
But upon entering the passage, the pungent Dilma smell that should have wafted strongly was gone.
“Hm...?”
Moreover, the young lords who had been leaning against the wall, cackling and drinking Dilma wine, were nowhere to be seen.
“They must all be asleep.”
The doctor reassured him and took the lead around the corner.
However, at that moment.
Doctor Pavan stopped dead, face drained of color.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Deyan hurried up to the statue-still man.
Turning the corner himself to view the living room.
「You’re here.」
I was standing upright, when he’d expected me collapsed drunk on the sofa.
「Total of four, huh? Fewer than I thought.」
I’d casually laid the collapsed young lords on the bed.
The ladies and gentlemen sprawled on the mattress like dried fish.
「Now you’ve sent reinforcements for nothing. We’re not that close yet.」
I pointed to the open window.
The messenger pigeon from the cage had long vanished.
「But you guys are bold. Samad royalty right downstairs, and you pull this off.」
I sat leisurely on the sofa, crossing my legs.
Then, arms draped over the cushions, I challengingly asked.
「What, you’ve got something to rely on?」
“...”
Seeing my sober, pale face with no trace of intoxication, they swallowed hard.
The doctor, especially terrified of me, trembled limbs shaking.
“You’re not drunk...?”
「I’ve experienced far more stimulating stuff than this.」
Sudden intense memories surfaced.
A lion in a dark rabbit mask, a wolf’s fluffy tail.
「No way this mediocre weed could cover that flavor.」
I stood, brushing off my wine-soaked pants.
Silently rolling up my shirtsleeves, I said.
「Sit. Rest easy till the knights arrive.」
Countless knife scars on my forearms caught their eyes.
Plus the axe and spear marks under my open shirt.
「Soon you’ll rot on a cold prison floor forever.」
Witnessing the sober Empire’s Greatest Sword, they instinctively sensed death.
“Is this really necessary, Marquis...?”
Ignoring the trembling doctor, Deyan asked calmly.
He approached the sofa to confirm I wasn’t drunk at all.
“You liked the herb wine, right? That much was true...?”
Perhaps because he’d seen me blissed out on Dilma earlier.
The middleman slowly added a proposal to persuade me.
“Tell us what you want. If you permit it, we’ll supply Dilma free for months.”
「....」
I stared piercingly at his black eyes glinting under thick brows.
Annoyed just looking at him, I grabbed a fruit from the table.
Luckily, a watermelon.
「How long does it take to harvest that Dilma of yours.」
“Call it the blue herb, please. If you’re worried about supply, don’t be.”
Assuming I was interested, he continued calmly.
“Our herb grows in about two weeks after planting. It boasts massive yields. We can procure any amount you want.”
As expected of an executive, he rattled off about Dilma fluently.
Like a salesman pitching a product.
“And it grows anywhere.”
Thinking I wanted in on the business, he kept talking.
But.
「That pisses me off halfway through.」
My short remark shut his lips.
“Pardon...?”
「I take at least three months to cultivate watermelons properly in good soil...」
I devoured the watermelon in hand.
Then dangled the rind indifferently like a bone shard.
「And this dogshit trash overruns in two weeks.」
Fellow agribusiness man, perhaps.
I’d planned to wait for reinforcements, but irritation surged, and I approached him.
“Marquis...?”
As I neared the flustered middleman, his men reflexively blocked me.
Samadians, they didn’t seem to know who I was.
“Don’t come any closer.”
Their bold stance drew an involuntary laugh from me.
Slowly, I recounted their number with my fingers.
「One’s enough to reveal the backers.」
I concentrated golden aura on my arm.
The men sensed the mana suddenly and reached for their sword hilts at their waists.
That instant.
Pow―――――!!
My fist pulverized one man’s face.
A blow so powerful his nose bridge caved in, twisting his body and sending him crashing into the wall.
Kwang...!!
He hit hard enough to crack the wall, motionless.
At the sight, the middleman and doctor jumped up in shock.
“Block him!!”
Unaware their opponent was the Empire’s Greatest Sword, they tried to stop me.
Meanwhile, the remaining two and one subordinate bolted.
“Hraa...!!”
A Samad mercenary raised his curved sword and charged.
I twisted aside lightly, dodging the arc, and smashed my elbow into his jaw.
“Krack―!!”
The Samad mercenary screamed through his shattered jaw.
Leaving them behind, I swiftly pursued the middleman.
――――――!!
Knights themselves, perhaps—they fled fast.
Reaching the corridor end, they shattered the window and leaped from the third floor.
I hurled myself after them out of the building.
By then, they headed into the dark garden they knew well.
“Darkness suits you, huh?”
I instinctively tailed their palpable mana.
Spotting one subordinate, he gave up fleeing and brandished twin swords.
“Hya!!”
He swung short, sharp blades in a dance.
The eerie trajectory curved toward my neck.
But that was it.
Ignoring the flashy swordplay, I thrust my fist, smashing his face.
Then drove my heel into his knee.
“Hraaak......!!”
Unsure whether to clutch his face or knee, I kicked his face for him.
Thanks to that, he could no longer complain of pain.
―――.
Meanwhile, they pried open a manhole cover deep in the garden.
And slipped into the underground waterway.
I stared at the manhole they entered.
Then smirked and plopped down in front of it.
As if I knew they’d return here eventually.
「You’re not planning to drag them back dead, are you?」
Yawning, I sat on the back of the passed-out subordinate.
Silently waiting, I thought of a woman stationed closest to Rubinsk.
「――――――」
“Huff.... Hek......!!”
The doctor panted madly, out of stamina.
Deyan snapped irritably.
“Damn it, of all people, that guy...!!”
The middleman nimbly crossed the dark waterway.
His speed whipped the air.
Finally, the two reached the waterway’s end.
Climbing the ladder, they opened the manhole cover linked to their hideout.
“Phew...”
They finally breathed fresh air.
“Even a Grand Master isn’t that fast...”
“Don’t let your guard down. He could catch up anytime.”
The clean air relaxed them somewhat.
They climbed to the surface slowly, voices relieved.
But.
That fleeting relief turned to despair instantly.
“Old-school tactics.”
They thought themselves the most shadow-accustomed.
“Yeah. Who knew knights still used sewers these days.”
A woman and man in even darker uniforms awaited them.
“What now, Captain Lin?”
“What do you mean? We owe Sir Veil a debt, so we pay it.”
A woman with black hair, white bandage over one eye.
Her remaining black eye gazed bloodlessly down at Deyan and Pavan.
“Huff......!!”
Pierced by that gaze, the doctor froze as if his heart stopped.
This time, the middleman too.
Even he, battle-hardened, was speechless at these death’s-door knights.
“Didn’t I say not to kill them?”