Chapter 6: Blood Fang (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 6: Blood Fang (2)
The pub was called Dew of Dawn.
In the bustling center of town, where foot traffic was heaviest, Blood Fang boldly operated under an open sign.
Chime.
"Welcome."
A bell chimed as Roman pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The interior looked no different from any other pub. People gathered around tables and the bar, chatting boisterously, while a man who appeared to be the owner busily served beer. At a glance, business seemed good; over a dozen patrons filled the room.
"Huh?"
"Gasp! It's Young Master Roman."
In an instant, all eyes turned to Roman.
It was impossible not to recognize a member of the family that ruled the Dmitry Barony. As if on cue, the noisy chatter died. Roman Dmitry. No matter how much people called him a fool, to the common folk, Roman was a man of immense power—someone they wouldn't dare meet in the eye.
The patrons quickly averted their gazes.
Amidst the heavy silence, Roman calmly walked over and took a seat at the bar.
"Tears of Dawn, 27-year-old vintage."
"I'm sorry, but we don't carry a drink called Tears of Dawn. May I recommend something else?"
"That's fine. Make it as strong as possible. I have work to do at dawn, so I figure I should get a little drunk."
Flinch.
The owner's expression froze.
Tears of Dawn.
Strong drink.
Work to do at dawn.
The sequence was the secret code used by Blood Fang.
The problem was that the person speaking was Roman Dmitry, a man everyone recognized. In the silent room, the patrons' eyes darted between the owner and Roman. Some watched with pure curiosity, while others harbored more complex emotions. A smirk played on Roman's lips. In that same instant, the owner whipped a dagger out from under the counter.
"Get him—urk!"
Thwack!
Shatter!
Roman smashed a beer mug over the owner's head.
As the owner stumbled back, several patrons who had been drinking nearby lunged at Roman.
Thud! Thud!
Daggers embedded themselves in the bar counter.
Under the dim lights, the members of Blood Fang revealed their vicious eyes. The information Roman had gathered was correct. Several men, disguised as customers, rushed him all at once.
"Ahhh!"
"Run!"
The real patrons screamed and scrambled out of the pub.
Thanks to them, it was perfectly clear who his enemies were.
Eight of them.
They clashed in a chaotic melee. Daggers swung at point-blank range, aiming for Roman's vitals, but he evaded every strike. He didn't just dodge; he countered instantly, his blade piercing his opponents' throats. With swift, concise movements, his enemies sprayed blood and collapsed, one after another.
"You bastard!"
"Kill him!"
The peaceful pub was gone. These weren't laborers soothing their fatigue with beer; they were bloodthirsty monsters who had just revealed their true nature.
However.
Their opponent was a predator capable of devouring them all.
Even as they swarmed him from all sides, it was the members of Blood Fang who fell.
Thud!
Crash!
He slammed the last man's face into a table. The sturdy wood shattered, knocking him out cold. As the man slumped to the floor, Roman kicked him in the face without a moment's hesitation. The man rolled away, coughing up blood, his body going limp as his life left him.
"Is that all?"
It had happened in the blink of an eye.
Every man who had rushed Roman was dead.
Except for one.
Only the owner, who had been struck by the beer mug at the very beginning, looked up at Roman, his face slick with blood.
"W-Why are you doing this?"
"Why? You already know the answer. You know why I came here and why I attacked. If you didn't, you wouldn't have attacked me first."
Roman smirked.
As he pulled up a chair and sat directly in front of him, the owner's terrified expression contorted into a demonic sneer.
It was the expression of a ferocious beast.
The owner shrieked with venomous rage.
"We are Blood Fang! Even if we die by your hand, our comrades will hunt you down and take their bloody revenge! Your noble status? You think that trash will protect you? Not a chance! Nobles are just humans, like us. When a blade pierces their flesh, they bleed, scream like pigs, and die all the same!"
"That still won't save your life."
"Fine, kill me! Blood Fang does not fear death!"
Roman's smile widened.
The more his opponent struggled, the more certain Roman became that this was exactly the kind of place he had been looking for.
"Good. You're exactly the kind of person I was hoping to meet. Someone who doesn't fear death, who would guard their secrets even under torture. Only a man like that would possess truly valuable information."
Roman stood up.
He scanned his surroundings, then spoke in a chillingly calm voice.
"Let's find out right now if you're truly strong enough to keep your mouth shut."
*
The owner's resolve was indeed strong.
Unlike the weaklings who screamed like children and spilled everything, he did not open his mouth even as his fingers were severed.
However.
Roman knew exactly how to break a man like him.
"Is this a picture of your son?"
The owner's face turned pale.
The photograph, carefully kept in a drawer, showed the owner looking happy beside a boy who was his spitting image.
"N-No, it's not."
"Don't lie. He looks exactly like you."
"You son of a bitch! Are you, a noble, seriously planning to threaten me with my family?!" the owner thrashed, screaming in desperation.
Roman had hit his mark.
He walked back over to the owner and waved the photograph in front of his face, his expression cold.
"While investigating Blood Fang, I uncovered something interesting. People fear Blood Fang because you carry out retaliatory attacks, even at the cost of your own lives. But those suicide attackers all have one thing in common: they weren't originally members. They were people who owed your organization massive debts. People who clearly weren't vicious enough for suicide attacks suddenly turned into demons. Why? What could possibly make them change like that?"
"..."
The owner clamped his mouth shut.
It didn't matter.
That reaction alone proved Roman's theory was correct.
"Blood Fang commits all sorts of crimes to collect on debts. Taking a debtor's family as slaves is a common occurrence. That is the true nature of Blood Fang. You aren't a band of demons who willingly throw your lives away. You corner people, take their families hostage, and force them to carry out your revenge. A plausible hypothesis, wouldn't you say?"
"Even so, nothing changes. Blood Fang always gets its revenge."
Roman chuckled.
What a fool.
The moment his silence confirmed the hypothesis, the owner failed to realize he had walked right into a trap.
"I swear on the name of Roman Dmitry. If you don't tell me what I want to know, I will return to the inner castle, order my family's knights to find the child in this picture, and kill him. And I won't let him die quickly. I'll have them torture him, taking their time as he begs for death."
"W-What?"
"Why? You think I won't do it?"
"You're a noble! How could a noble do something so—!"
"That's just prejudice. If your family is the reason you're hostile to us, then we have no reason to spare them either."
In a world where the strong prey on the weak, defeat meant death.
Justice?
Such things were utterly meaningless.
The reality was that one must do whatever it takes to win, and Roman had no qualms about doing so.
Just because he had shown courtesy to the fiancée he would soon part with, or because he had accepted Hans, a mere servant, as one of his own, it didn't change his fundamental nature.
People have many sides. And Roman, who had lived as the Heavenly Demon, possessed a demonic one.
Roman spoke.
"Remember this clearly. I don't care in the slightest about the well-being of those I deem my enemies. No matter how they die or what agony they suffer, I view the lives of those who threaten my safety as more worthless than flies. So think carefully. Your family is in danger either way. Will you bet on Blood Fang, the very people who enslaved them? Or will you give me the information I need to wipe them out completely before they can ever touch your family?"
He twirled his dagger.
Then, he drove the blade straight into the head of the boy in the photograph.
"Now, make your choice."
In that moment, the owner knew for certain.
Roman Dmitry.
He was not the man they used to know.
Staring at his son's face, torn beyond recognition, the owner finally hung his head.
*
Sometime after Roman left, the Dmitry Knights, led by Jonathan, arrived at the devastated scene. Hans was with them.
"What in the world..."
Jonathan's expression stiffened.
He had heard the witnesses' testimonies. They said that as soon as Roman spoke with the owner, the owner and the other patrons launched a surprise attack.
But the aftermath was what lay before him now.
Burly, able-bodied men were strewn across the floor in gruesome states.
Young Master Roman handled all of them by himself?
It was unbelievable.
Roman was a weakling who had never shown a shred of talent for combat. A fool who trembled at the sight of blood and couldn't even swing a sword properly. The idea that this Roman had taken down so many men alone was simply incomprehensible.
He couldn't reconcile the two images.
The Roman he knew was nothing like the man the witnesses described.
It was then.
"Commander! There's a survivor here!"
The pub owner.
He was still alive.
Jonathan rushed over to find the owner in a wretched state.
"Cough!"
The owner spat out a mouthful of blood.
As if he had been tortured, all the fingers on his right hand were severed, and bits of what looked like internal organs were mixed in the thick blood he coughed up. It was clear he didn't have much time left. Yet, he still clung to his final breath. As if experiencing a final moment of clarity, he spoke to Jonathan in a clear voice.
"You must follow Young Master Roman immediately!"
"What do you mean?"
"I told Young Master Roman everything. I told him that Blood Fang's headquarters isn't here in Dmitry, but right in the middle of Lawrence. As soon as he heard that, he left. He's planning to handle this alone, but there's no way he can face them by himself! Please, go help Young Master Roman! You must help him and pull Blood Fang out by the roots!"
The owner's voice was desperate.
He had already turned traitor by spilling the information.
Just as Roman had said, his family would only be safe if Roman wiped them out completely.
The owner crawled along the floor. He grabbed the Knight Commander's ankle with a blood-stained hand and pleaded in a wretched voice.
"Please… please, destroy them all."
"..."
Jonathan's eyes wavered.
It was a complicated situation.
The sight of a Blood Fang member begging him to help Roman was baffling enough, but the biggest issue was Roman's actions.
Did he really go to handle them all by himself?
Lawrence.
That territory did not belong to Dmitry.
The realization that Roman had gone there alone made his mind go blank.
If not for Hans's voice, Jonathan would have lingered there for a long time.
"Knight Commander Jonathan! We must set out immediately! Didn't you hear him say the young master is in danger?!"
"Right."
Jonathan snapped out of his daze.
Roman.
He could not allow the eldest son of Dmitry to die in another territory.
Although they hadn't coordinated with Lawrence beforehand, there was no time to ask for permission now.
The Dmitry Knights departed in a hurry.
Their destination: Lawrence.