Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 044
Chapter Title: For the Eternal Prosperity of the Alto People
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Bolin, who had come face-to-face with Shan in the darkness, couldn't barge into his house and demand to know what he was up to.
It was like running into a tiger in the woods—no one would dare shout at it. The moment he saw those gleaming eyes, his brain simply froze.
But he was a seasoned knight who had weathered all sorts of situations.
As Shan strode toward him, Bolin finally snapped out of it and shouted.
"Sir Shan! What is the meaning of this outrage in the dead of night? Have you no sense of honor?!"
Even as he yelled, Bolin clenched his fists, ready for battle.
He knew all too well that his opponent was a warrior several cuts above him.
But in the moonlight, Shan appeared completely unarmed.
Unlike armed combat, bare-handed fights favored physique over skill.
He wasn't particularly tall, but he still had half a head on the boy—and he'd grown up throwing punches in the city's slums.
No greenhorn drilled only in swords and spears from childhood could—
Before the thought could finish, two green lights blurred through the air.
Bolin tried to block the incoming kick with his arm, but to his confusion, he felt nothing.
'What the...?'
The dim moonlight made it hard to see, but Shan's leg, which had risen at a sharp diagonal, had soared higher than his grasp before slamming back down.
Crack. Bolin's consciousness snapped off as his temple took a precise strike from the instep.
Shan looked down at the fallen man and thought.
'That startled me.'
He had planned to slip in while Bolin slept, dose him with the potion from Sherin, and carry him off.
He hadn't expected the man to wake the instant he closed the door, forcing him to give the guy an opening.
Well, he'd knocked him out anyway, so no harm done.
As planned, Shan trickled the potion into the unconscious Bolin's mouth, hoisted him over his shoulder, and left the room.
Bolin's two squires in the annex slept soundly, oblivious even in their dreams that their lord was being taken.
"Heave-ho."
Like a leopard dragging prey several times its size up a tree, Shan effortlessly vaulted the wall with the bulkier, half-a-head-taller Bolin on his back.
If anyone had spotted him prowling alleys or leaping rooftops with a man over his shoulder in the murky night, they would have pegged him for a criminal.
And they wouldn't have been wrong.
About thirty minutes of dodging night watchmen by ducking into shadows.
Shan successfully infiltrated Count Paless's mansion, which Sherin was using as her villa.
The princess, her escorts, and Roden were waiting inside to greet him.
"I'm back."
"You're quick. Did you give him the potion?"
"Yes."
"Hm. Looks like he was knocked out with blunt force, though?"
"He woke up right as I entered, so I put him back to sleep."
"Figures! Bring him inside for interrogation, then."
The mansion's basement had already been prepped for questioning.
In the dimly lit chamber lit only by a few candles, Kagon tied Bolin to a chair while Aran doused him with cold water to wake him.
Shan and Roden were struck anew by how naturally the two handled this.
Clearly, they had done kidnappings and interrogations like this more than once or twice.
"Kahk... Hah... Wh-where am I?"
"Bolin—or should I say Cadek? Grinding down perfectly healthy fangs to hide your Altoin traits... impressive willpower. I couldn't have endured the pain."
Horror flickered across Bolin—Cadek's face at Sherin's words.
A secret he'd guarded his whole life, spilled by some girl he'd never met.
As she said, his true identity wasn't just a knight backed by the Brotherhood—he was an Altoin knight they had raised themselves.
His long tusks filed down to pass as an ordinary westerner.
'How the hell...?'
How had she learned a secret known only to the Brotherhood's top brass?
Why kidnap him here?
Could it be because of the report he'd sent—
Sherin removed her amethyst glasses and began chanting. Aran grabbed Cadek by the hair, yanking his head up to force eye contact.
Cadek's terrified eyes suddenly glazed over.
Shan recognized it—the same enchantment magic he'd experienced through the vampire, one that mesmerized the target and temporarily suppressed their reason.
"N-no...!"
"Yes."
Cadek tried to muster a knight's resolve and resist, but the circumstances were too dire.
Beaten senseless from sleep and dragged to a basement—it was hard to summon mental fortitude like that.
The potion Shan had dosed him with on Sherin's orders also clouded the mind, weakening resistance to such spells.
Though its main effect was closer to a sleeping aid.
"Good, he's fully under. Your name?"
"Bolin......"
"No, your real name."
"Cadek......"
Roden swallowed a silent groan as Cadek answered every question without hesitation.
'So this is it.'
He'd just glimpsed the secret behind Sherin's overwhelming intelligence network.
If you could extract truth like this, building a powerful info web was child's play.
Of course, you had to have no qualms about getting blood on your hands...
While Roden pondered, Sherin continued drawing out Cadek's confession.
He was originally from the slums of a southern Pendia port city. His exceptional physique and features easy to disguise as a westerner had drawn the Brotherhood's attention young.
Through connections, he became the adopted son "Bolin" of the knightly Anis family, rising to full knighthood—a model freelance knight.
Now a mid-level Brotherhood exec, he delivered letters to Shan and assessed how much of a threat Roden, his squire, posed to their plans.
Naturally, he'd reported upward that Roden needed eliminating first to recruit Shan.
That fact alone sealed Cadek's fate—he'd never leave this mansion alive.
"Good boy, you talked well..."
Having extracted his personal details, Sherin flashed a sly smile and coaxed more.
Current hideouts of Brotherhood remnants in the capital, top execs' identities, and such.
Unfortunately, Cadek didn't know the Brotherhood leader, and only a couple of high execs he'd directly taken orders from.
To wipe them out, they'd need to capture and interrogate more.
Sherin double-checked every detail before ending the interrogation.
"Alright, we've squeezed all we can from this one. Kagon?"
"Yes, Princess."
At her call, Kagon nodded, pulled out a rope, and garroted Cadek's neck tight.
No sense making a mess with a blade here—strangulation was cleaner.
As Cadek's face turned blue, Roden asked.
"What about the body?"
"Magical experiment waste. No worries about it being found."
The princess's face showed not a shred of guilt.
Shan felt the same; only Roden felt queasy amid the kidnapping, murder, and corpse disposal.
Though he kept it to himself, since it was all for his sake.
"So, who do we grab next?"
At Shan's blood-scented question, Sherin briefly itched to point at one of her brothers' hidden forces.
This powerhouse could tear through anyone.
She shook it off and gave a proper answer.
"Before the next hunt, I have a proposal."
"A proposal?"
"This Brotherhood... Digging into their structure, they seem more fragile than expected. Dismantling them outright feels like a waste."
The Brotherhood ran on strict hierarchy and secrecy.
Members obeyed superiors absolutely; all info and power concentrated at the top.
Roden caught her drift and sighed softly.
"You're not destroying them—you want to take them over?"
"Not a bad deal for you two, I'd think."
Sherin eyed Shan and Roden in turn.
"Sir Shan's dream was to become lord of a territory where Altoin could live freely, right?"
"Yes."
"No land runs on incompetent paupers alone. You need capable bureaucrats, merchants, warriors. Exactly what Altoin lack."
The Brotherhood's nature meant a higher ratio of such Altoin.
Sucking their kin dry to infiltrate elites under "fellowship."
Crushing them would doom educated or skilled Altoin to death or ruin.
Better to devour, purge the useless, and repurpose the rest—that was Sherin's pitch.
"Cut the upper echelons, plant someone plausible, and seize control. Plenty we could do then. Improve Altoin lives as advertised, or relocate them to your territory later, Sir Shan."
"Who's this 'plausible' someone? Put the wrong person in, and it'll backfire."
To Roden's question, Sherin unexpectedly pointed at him.
"But I'm not Altoin."
"Most members don't even know their leader. Does race matter for anonymous command?"
"Why not do it yourself, Princess—"
"I'm busy. I've already skipped official events to focus here, neglecting court intrigue."
Thus, taking the Brotherhood would fall fully to Shan and Roden, she added quietly.
Roden admitted it wasn't a bad offer.
They couldn't stop shadowy hands, but sensing them was better.
The Brotherhood, part of the criminal 'Council,' had the antennae for it.
He hated tangling with such scum, but they wouldn't back off just because he played clean.
"What do you think, Shan?"
"If it helps build an Altoin territory later, as the Princess says, sure. And I'd rest easy with Roden handling it."
"I see..."
Roden closed his eyes briefly, sighed deeply, then opened them wide.
"Fine. Let's give it a shot."
Shan and Roden slipped out of Sherin's villa after dawn, returned to the Webers mansion incognito, and slept till noon.
That night, Shan alone left with a letter, prowling the capital.
It listed addresses of Brotherhood execs Sherin had extracted.
An eclectic bunch: retired low officials, respected scholars, once-courted high-end courtesans—even an Old Faith priest who should hate Altoin most.
Regrettably, most skimped on guards.
No one buzzed about one mid-exec vanishing for a day.
Whether they'd connect it to attacks if they knew was doubtful.
Post-first kidnapping, Shan's infiltration grew stealthier with experience.
Scaling walls and buildings silently was basic.
Locks fell to two thin, bendy metal rods.
His sensitive fingertips, hearing, and spatial sense let him "see" inside.
Execs awoke to nothing—drops of potion, then bundled in sheets out windows.
The night op ended just before dawn.
The gathered execs spent days in Count Paless's basement spilling to Sherin.
The Brotherhood leader's identity shocked even more.
"Marquess Besallia's mistress... that's the Brotherhood head?"
"Yes..."
"Not the Marquess himself?"
"He's... utterly smitten. Gives her anything... so we didn't... recruit him..."
Fine, not all top brass were nobles—but the leader just a noble's sidepiece?
Shan, Roden, even the princess's guards exchanged stunned looks.
Then Roden noticed Sherin wasn't fazed.
Impressive restraint—or prior knowledge, his gut said.
All intel extracted, the top execs were garroted, boxed airtight.
Tomorrow, magical waste down the river.
Trash who'd wrung kin for petty power and wealth—no mercy.
"What about the leader?"
"Tricky now. Besallia's a trek from here."
Shan on Ahwin could make it days, but too conspicuous.
A Horace steed knight visits, then the mistress vanishes? Suspicious.
Plus, sharing a bed with the Marquess meant sneaking his bedroom.
Worlds from grabbing well-off commoners.
"Bide time, handle later. We've severed all her limbs anyway."
Brain intact, but head and neck gone.
Time to graft replacements.
A week after the top brass vanished.
Brotherhood execs without noble/knight disguises—ones who could move unseen—gathered at the Golden Theater.
Some based in nearby satellite cities, not capital Hasra.
"Long time, Olaf."
"You've aged too."
"Aged my ass!"
Old comrades reminisced with laughs, but execs kept wary side-eyes.
First time all mid-ranks gathered since the Brotherhood formed.
Plus, some top Leaders had just vanished.
This summons had to relate.
Two figures mounted the stage.
"Hm?"
"That's..."
Full animal masks hid faces and heads: lion and horse.
The lion mask bulked like a knight; horse slimmer, leggier, shorter.
The lion mask boomed.
"Kin oppressed, toiling day and night—thanks for answering the call amid your duties!"
"Who the hell are you?"
"The Leader sent me."
Mention of the Head tensed every exec.
In their rigid hierarchy, the Head was king.
The lion mask scanned them, then continued.
"Recently, infighting claimed our Leaders."
Execs gawked, exchanging looks.
Those vanishings explained?
"To prevent collapse, the Head sent us. We'll reorganize here."
"Heard anything?!"
"Nothing!"
"Teacher's... gone?!"
Chaos erupted briefly, till a burly exec bellowed.
Scarred thug face screamed gangster or merc.
"Show proof! Proof you're from the Head!"
"How else could I contact everyone via official channels?"
The lion's cool logic made the man groan.
True—they'd all gotten secret code letters tailored to their IDs.
Only insiders knew all that.
If Leaders died, these had to be the Head's envoys.
Then the man rallied.
"Traitors! Survivors grabbing power after offing the rest!"
"Could be."
The lion conceded easily.
Leaders knew Head comms codes; mid-ranks didn't.
No way to verify.
"But no proof means no division. Choose: obey or rebel? Regulations say traitors die."
"Traitors to the people" made them gulp.
They'd seen purges under that banner.
Secret society's rules: strict, brutal.
But the first rebel stood firm.
If true, seizing control now could claim the Brotherhood.
How he'd envied Leaders' effortless power while he slaved.
Ambition crushed instinct.
"Think cheap threats scare me? Listen—these guys, we don't need to—"
"Talk."
The horse mask stepped down with eerie, floating gait—eerie with the dumb mask.
"...Wanna... try?"
The thug drew a hand axe; nearby cronies pulled knives, clubs.
Tax collectors squeezing Altoin—gangsters, basically.
Not elite knights (Cadek was one), but top muscle.
Good he'd brought extra guards, the thug thought.
"Eliminate the traitors."
The lion commanded; horse mask lunged like a spring.
Ankle bending double—freakish.
Thug swung axe first—but horse unsheathed invisibly fast.
Shing. Wind whistled; head rolled, spraying blood.
"Boss!"
"You bastard!"
Rushers met quick ends.
Blade flashed candlelight; limbs sheared, guts spilled.
"Aaaagh!"
The youngest fled screaming, but horse bounded seats grotesquely, stabbing his back.
The lavish Golden Theater reeked of gore; nearby execs froze.
Crime org life meant even non-fighters knew a pro.
'A knight...!'
Not ordained, but equal skill.
How else slaughter six with one sword so fast?
Overlooking the carnage, the lion declared grimly.
"Next traitor?"
Heads shook; loyalty sworn amid muffled mask laughs.
"Remember: We know who you are, where you are. Betrayal costs you—and family. Price for betraying your blood."
Prostrated execs thought: Didn't matter who the lion was; even the Head might not scare this much.
Direct contact meant intel net intact.
Defy, and that horse monster comes.
No choice but obey.
"For the eternal prosperity of the Alto people,"
"Prosperity!"
A quiet vow met desperate chorus.