Ambushing the Ambushers (3)
The patrol squad, including Hestia Cloudy, entered the alley first.
I followed them slowly from behind.
"Um, isn't that guy over there your boyfriend? Why isn't he coming along?"
"Y-Yes?! N-No... it's not like that! Boyfriend...?"
Awkward chatter drifted back to me.
They were probably flailing around to ease the tension.
It'd be better to keep the tension high, though.
Of course, I wasn't tense at all. If anything, I yawned lazily and trailed them at a snail's pace.
From an outside view, I looked like the one in danger. Their group totaled five, while I was the lone straggler bringing up the rear.
If I were the ambusher, I'd target me first.
Nothing suspicious so far...
According to the intel from Professor Temiri's underground warehouse, the kingdom spies had unleashed a bunch of thugs into these alleys.
Like the tails shadowing me from behind, for instance...
No consumables were as disposable as the capital's vagrants, which was why the spies made full use of them.
"No issues so far."
"Hey, don't let your guard down. Time to get tense."
We were venturing deeper into the alleys now.
Between the buildings. Narrow, dark, reeking.
Sunlight dwindled exponentially, replaced by filth and stench.
"Ugh... smells like mold mixed with piss."
"I couldn't last a week in a place like this."
I got why the guards were griping. Even I was struggling with the stink.
But since I'd been in a rundown, filthy dungeon just yesterday, I adapted faster than most.
Once my nose adjusted to the stench and gloom, I picked up on the presences around us.
The tails trailing me and the guards had grown to two more.
Eyes watched from every shadowy nook.
Being under surveillance was par for the course once you entered here.
The patrol ahead hadn't noticed yet, but we were already crawling into the monster's maw.
That's when someone plopped down in front of the patrol, blocking the way.
"Patrol squad. Please step aside, sir."
"Y-Yeah... comin' through."
"You rotten bastards... rotten... ROTTEN BASTARDS! Get out of this alley now!"
Up close, it was an old man.
Probably a vagrant or beggar living in the alleys.
He grabbed at Hestia's skirt hem with filthy hands, bellowing at the top of his lungs.
"Eek?!"
"G-Get off her! Do you know where you are?!"
"We can't do that."
"Don't touch her again, vagrant."
"This... this ain't your turf! Get... out..."
And just like that.
The old man crumpled to the ground.
As the situation turned weird, the patrol members tensed up, hands drifting to their swords.
After the old man hit the dirt, people started emerging from the alleys one by one.
"That rotten old fart almost spilled too much. Nearly too late..."
A dagger was buried in the old man's back.
Right after, the tails behind me revealed themselves too.
In this narrow alley, over ten thugs flooded the space in an instant.
"How much is the bounty per patrolman?"
"One silver, right? Kill three and you can escape this rotten alley."
"Idiot. Don't you know these alleys are a land of opportunity? Kill more, earn more, then get out."
"What do we do? There are too many of them..."
"Eek...!"
Hestia panicked.
Of course, as I'd told her, we weren't the ones who needed to worry.
Slash!
I'd killed a person before. Back when I handled family duties solo for the Lotus house, bandit groups would pop up now and then.
The first time left my stomach churning for a while. Now? No hesitation.
It was true that killing humans still felt more off-putting than slaying monsters, but if I didn't cut them down, they'd cut me—so it was no different from fighting beasts at its core.
"What the...!"
Slash!
I took out all the ones tailing me first.
Honestly, back-alley thugs weren't much of a challenge.
They say the strong recognize the strong. At least to my eyes, none of them qualified.
"F-Fight!"
"How dare you mess with our clan!"
"Clan my ass."
Twing!
The thugs plunged into combat late, caught off guard, but not one got to swing their blades.
Stun Magic. The killing intent projection spell I'd learned from the Draugr.
In that moment, the thugs encircling us twitched like rabbits in a tiger's jaws, unable to move properly.
The line between prey and predator sharpened, and the atmosphere flipped in a heartbeat.
Not bad as a special perk.
The dungeon class had paid off. Plus, it barely drained my mana—nice.
Downside: it didn't work on the strong. I'd instinctively grasped and resisted the principle the moment I understood it, so the same spell wouldn't faze me.
"Man, you're all so honest. Coming out to greet us like this..."
"H-Huh..."
"From now on, I'll give the orders. Stake your lives on it—worth more than any patrolman's bounty."
There's this famous interrogation anecdote.
Say you've got two criminals who won't crack no matter what.
Now add a twist: the first to confess walks free, but late confessors eat the other's sentence too.
Can those two keep their mouths shut?
If it's just two, maybe. But what if it's three? Five? Eight?
Can you really trust the other seven to stay silent?
That takes bonds thicker than blood.
"I'll spare exactly one. Tell me who posted the bounties, who ordered the hits. First one talks lives; the rest die."
""...""
Of course, that alone wasn't enough. All stick, no carrot.
Mercenary basics: carrot and stick. So I offered the carrot.
I pulled five gold coins from my pouch. Even frozen stiff, the thugs' eyes tracked them.
I quietly released the stun magic.
"The lone survivor gets five gold. Enough to ditch this alley rot and start fresh. Hell, you could blow it on a month of casino highs, hookers, and still have change."
Pair that carrot with the fear of instant death, and betrayal was inevitable.
Sell out your crew now, escape alley life, reclaim freedom as a citizen.
Let someone else beat you to it? You're dead meat here.
No thug was dumb enough to pass that up.
"I-I'll tell you everything...!"
"No, me first!"
Slash!
Exactly one. Everyone but the first talker lost their head.
Honestly, this felt less tense than facing the stone golem when I first became Kael.
Human flesh was soft, emotions dulled their moves.
Slicing two or three necks in one swing? Easy.
"No way... it's over in seconds."
"What are you gawking at? Arrest this bastard."
I clapped the shoulders of the guards, who'd stood there dumbfounded through it all.
Snapping to, they moved in and captured the lone survivor.
Leaving the blood-soaked slaughter behind, we pulled back to safety.
With the capital guard patrol's permission, we interrogated the captured thug.
Five gold's power was mighty. He squeezed his brain dry and spilled everything he knew.
"They wore white masks! Approached our clan, promised one silver per patrolman killed! We've taken out five already and got paid!"
"Nothing else?"
"The white masks had huge beaks, like plague doctor masks from occult novels. That's all I got! But they seemed to hate the empire big time, that's my guess."
"Spill more."
"I don't know beyond that. Honest! Nothing left to guess."
White beak mask.
Approached the clan to commission patrol hits.
Guessed to harbor strong anti-empire sentiment.
Putting it all together? Definitely kingdom bastards.
But intel was still thin. Professor Temiri's leftovers were tapped out.
Guess I need to scour these alleys harder for a while.
Not really necessary, though. Normalize Prince Lucas, prep for war our way—that's enough.
Still, letting it slide felt too nagging.
"C-Can I take the gold now? C'mon? I helped a ton, right?"
"You did."
"Heh... heheh. This'll cover everything I've missed for a month. Heheheh..."
"What're you on about? Off to jail."
"Huh...? What..."
"I said I'd pay, not pardon your crimes."
"Y-You never said that! You tricked me!"
"Tricked? You fantasized that solo."
Time to spit out the sweet after sucking it dry.
This guy's lucky, all things considered. Buddies all dead, but he survived solo.
Rot in a cell till he's a white-haired geezer, get out with five gold, start anew.
I handed the thug back to the guards.