Chapter 174: Pertinax Auction House (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 174: Pertinax Auction House (3)
Centered around the figure in the crow mask, they fanned out in a Crane Wing Formation. Blood-red eyes gleamed from the shadows of their hoods.
The House of Order, the Auditore. They had raided the Pertinax Auction House.
However, Pertinax IX had known for a while. He knew those shadow bastards had been poking around Geodam City lately. Rumors travel fast in the underworld.
At first, he had sent someone to bribe the Auditore. That person returned without a body, only a head. It was a clear reply: there would be no negotiation.
He knew they were a stubborn, hard-headed family, but this was a razor-sharp rejection.
If that was how they wanted to play it, what choice did he have but to change his strategy? Rather than losing sleep over anxiety, he would meet violence with violence. Pertinax IX decided to hire mercenaries.
However, mere riffraff would be no match for the Auditore. Since he was spending the money anyway, he needed to recruit the real deal.
Pertinax IX contacted the Villain Syndicate. The Syndicate readily accepted the auction house's proposal, sending some of their most formidable villains to serve as mercenaries.
Their easy compliance was unexpected. He had thought they would play hard to get at least a few times, but the deal was struck instantly. The Syndicate naturally demanded a massive sum, but Pertinax IX paid it without a word of complaint.
He later heard that the Villain Syndicate was also suffering from a massive headache because of the Auditore. They had been caught by the tail due to Elder Cladi.
The Auditore had been relentlessly tracking the Syndicate, chipping away at their forces bit by bit.
On top of that, Vendetta, who had gone to capture the traitor Choi Seol-ah, had been completely wiped out. They had learned almost nothing about the truth of the matter. Just that they had been chopped into neat little pieces? Judging by the corpses, it was the work of a single person.
Thus, with the Syndicate's foundation shaking, collaborating with the Pertinax Auction House was a sweet proposition.
Since they were already backed into a corner, they needed to make some money to cover their losses.
Their interests aligned. Among villains, that single reason was more than enough.
The auction house gained a reliable backer in the Syndicate, while the Syndicate gained a goose that laid golden eggs in the auction house.
And the stage to confirm the close bond between the two groups was set right now.
Crash!
Dozens of villain mercenaries kicked open the doors and rushed into the auction house.
The leader of the mercenaries, Can, scanned the auction house. Having already received a radio transmission, he didn't need a detailed explanation of the situation.
"Ah, fuck. I was enjoying my dinner, and now they're pulling this shit."
Ptooey.
Can spat out a glob of phlegm and ground it under the sole of his shoe. He narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.
The figure in the crow mask sitting leisurely in the center of the auction house. That had to be Al'tair, the head of the Auditore.
He had heard the rumors, but seeing him in person, the man truly deserved his title as the strongest assassin. Even from this distance, the bloodlust he radiated made Can't throat sting.
'Well, this isn't going to end quietly.'
Can did his best not to let it show as he ordered his subordinates.
"Everyone, move as planned for this scenario. We have the advantage in numbers. But don't let your guard down, and focus on crushing the small fry first. Their 'Raven's Blessing' is particularly annoying."
His subordinates nodded. They pressed their index fingers and thumbs tightly together, preparing for battle.
"Hey, Pertinax IX. Since this was agreed upon with the higher-ups, we're going to do our job. But we don't give a shit about the lives of the attendees, so we'll fight without holding back. Got it?"
Can't words plunged Pertinax IX into thought. If a bloody battle broke out, the attendees would inevitably get caught in the crossfire.
Most of them would probably die. The probability of not a single guest dying was close to zero. In that case...
Pressing his temples, Pertinax IX spoke in a dry tone.
"I would prefer it if not a single person makes it out alive. Whether they are attendees or shadows."
Suddenly, Can burst into wild laughter.
"Ha! I underestimated you, Lord Pertinax. Of course. If even one person gets out alive, rumors will spread everywhere that the Pertinax Auction House has joined hands with the Syndicate. So you want to kill them all and pin the blame on the 'Auditore'."
"To put it bluntly... yes, that is the plan."
"As expected of someone who holds a high position in the underworld. Yes, if you're going to do a job, you might as well do it cleanly so there are no loose ends. I was originally going to ask for a bonus, but I like your attitude. I'll take care of the attendees as a free service."
Can bared his teeth savagely. Pertinax IX grinned back. A dark malice bloomed between the two.
Just as Can was about to shout to his subordinates in a voice filled with ecstasy—
Slash— Thud.
Can't temple struck the wooden floor of the stage. Gravity seemed to be acting sideways, as if he were lying on his side on a sofa.
...What just happened?
His confusion did not last long. In his field of vision, a headless torso was spraying a fountain of blood. Can realized that body was his own.
Can rolled his slowly dilating eyes. A young girl was looking down at him, flicking the blood off her blade. Her pupils were so empty they looked like the eyes of a dead fish.
Only then did the back of his neck burn. The pain had finally caught up.
Can groaned inwardly, but the sound only echoed inside his mouth.
The assassin girl muttered with dull, lifeless eyes.
"Once I finish this job... I can go back to the Academy."
Chloe gripped her sword hilt in a reverse grip. She drove the blade into his head with all her might.
Squelch. A sound like stabbing a pumpkin echoed, and Can't vision instantly went black.
* * *
Starting with Chloe, the assassins placed their hands on their sword hilts. Then, they simultaneously activated [Raven's Blessing].
Shimmer— Every member of the Auditore vanished as if melting into space. In the next instant, the assassins' blades struck their enemies from their blind spots.
The battle was entirely one-sided. The Auditore swept through their enemies like a hot knife through butter. Sounds of death erupted sporadically.
"Aaaaargh!"
The assassins' blades relentlessly targeted the villains' hands. Fingers were severed, falling like dry twigs.
Before they could even scream, another blade flew from the opposite direction, piercing through their flesh.
Moving as if they were two bodies sharing a single mind, the assassins hacked the villains to pieces without a single wasted motion. They peeled away their enemies' skin like tearing open wrapping paper.
A villain spilled a handful of steaming innards. The assassin finished the job by cleanly severing the neck.
To the onlookers, it looked like livestock being slaughtered. It couldn't even be called a battle.
Though somewhat brutal, it was a necessary procedure. A villain's vitality was far more tenacious than a human's.
Therefore, they had to completely extinguish one target's life signs before moving on to the next.
Since the night of the purge, the Auditore had thoroughly analyzed and researched methods to counter villains. Applying this to real combat, they achieved results that minimized their own casualties while drastically reducing the Syndicate's forces.
'Oh...'
I couldn't help but marvel. Without me having to lift a finger, the villains were being turned into vil/lains.
For someone like me who was always wilding out on the front lines, this was so easy it was almost boring. That was how exponentially the Auditore family's combat power had grown.
Especially Chloe's growth was striking. I didn't know what kind of training she had undergone during the break, but her martial prowess had leaped bounds. Under her sword, the villains' bodies were helplessly cleaved apart.
'I'll have to be more careful once Chloe returns to the Academy.'
...A short while later, the enemy was completely annihilated. Only the traces of their resistance remained as reddish stains on the auction house floor.
"T-T-This... t-this can't be...!"
Pertinax IX's face turned as pale as a corpse. His knees slammed heavily onto the stage floor. He ripped off his clown mask and began to retch, throwing up his stomach contents.
It was too difficult to witness this sudden massacre with a sane mind.
While the clown stared blankly at his own vomit, Kang Geomma strode forward.
The black-hooded assassins escorted him as if serving their lord. He looked like the leader of a flock of ravens.
Kang Geomma squatted down in front of him. He stared down at the crown of the head of the man who was trembling violently with his hands on the floor.
"My Lord, is there anything you wish to extract from this man? Just say the word. Your shadows will make him confess, by any means necessary."
Al'tair respectfully spoke to Kang Geomma. Kang Geomma's act of playing the family head was not over yet.
Kang Geomma pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
"I do not wish to dirty your hands to such an extent. There is nothing of value to learn from a man like this anyway, so behead him immediately."
"W-W-Wait! Lord of the Auditore!"
The clown desperately grabbed the hem of Geomma's pants. In that position, he began to slam his forehead into his own vomit like a pestle.
"M-Money! I will give you as much as you want! No, if that's not enough, I will hand over this entire Pertinax Auction House to you! Of course, including all the personal information of our members! So please...!"
"The members' personal information? I already have all of it."
"...?"
Pertinax IX reflexively looked up. The crow mask showed him a smartphone screen. On it was indeed a dense list of the Pertinax members' information.
"H-How..."
Pertinax IX fell into a deeper panic than when his mercenaries were wiped out. How could information protected by triple-layered security firewalls be in that man's hands?
Al'tair, who apparently hadn't known about this either, was genuinely shocked. That was information even the Auditore's intelligence network had failed to obtain despite numerous attempts.
Kang Geomma stared down at Pertinax IX, then quietly stood up. He turned around and cast his gaze into the distance.
A crowd of masked figures was watching the stage with tense faces. These corrupt and depraved individuals, hiding behind their masks, were warily reading the room.
'They didn't kill a single one of them. Well, I suppose simply participating in an auction isn't enough justification to execute them.'
I chuckled softly. It reminded me once again that the Auditore was indeed a House of Order.
But I was different from the Auditore. Even if I couldn't kill those pieces of trash, I could at least expose their faces to the world.
While the bloody battle was in full swing, I had asked Ryozo to hack the auction house's network. I had suddenly remembered her saying she could assist me remotely.
Ryozo had grumbled about the security being unnecessarily thick. Even so, she had quickly stolen all the data and sent it to me.
'Ryozo's hacking skills are improving by the day.'
I handed the smartphone to Al'tair and instructed him.
"These are the identities of everyone here. Release them to the media, along with the details of today's auction."
"Ah, yes, of course."
Al'tair nodded with a slightly dazed expression. I stood before the clown once more. Looking down at him sprawled on the floor, I spoke.
"Pertinax IX, I know you don't just trade magical beasts and demons. You've also been secretly buying and selling fellow human beings."
"...!"
At my words, Pertinax IX's face filled with utter shock, wondering how on earth I could know even that.
It was nothing new to me, since the auction house episode of 'Miracle Blessing M' was all about uncovering those very secrets.
Pertinax IX muttered with hollow eyes.
"J-Just how much background research did you do... to find out even that?"
With this, all of his misdeeds were laid bare. Now that it had come to this, he could be summarily executed without any room for leniency. It was deeply satisfying.
"I will take care of this one."
Al'tair personally raised his sword. The blade struck his neck without hesitation. Thud. The clown's head rolled off the stage.
Al'tair clicked his tongue and flicked the blood off his blade. He would have preferred to torture him thoroughly before sending him off, but he held back because there were too many eyes watching. Instead, wiping out all of this bastard's subordinates would more or less balance the ledger.
The family head turned his head to the side. Amidst all this chaos, Kang Geomma was busy untying the baby dragon.
"Eliminating a sinful life, then saving an innocent one..."
The family head shuddered with awe. It had truly been decades since he last felt this way.