The Price of Treachery

A presence stirred nearby as if lying in wait, carrying with it a familiar trace of perfume.

"Sasha."

"Hey there."

Stepping out from the shadows, Sasha offered a casual wave. Bennett regarded her in silence.

"You figured I'd come this way."

Sasha answered smoothly, her tone conversational. "Bennett, you're always like this. If there's a hard job to be done, you insist on doing it yourself. That's why I arranged things this way. Anyone heading for the exit has to pass through here, and the Bennett I know was guaranteed to take this route."

She offered an apologetic, fluttering smile. "Sorry about lying to you. But you know me, right? I was never really the sweet, saintly type."

"The Union?"

Sasha put on an exaggerated conspiratorial air, as though sharing a priceless secret. "They offered me something I've always wanted."

"A Mana Breathing Technique and elixirs?"

"Yep. The kind handed down in noble houses."

Sasha had already unlocked mana and practiced a breathing method, but it was a crude, third-rate scrap that couldn't hold a candle to the ancestral techniques guarded by true nobility. While it was enough to make her a formidable operative in the mercenary scene, she was painfully aware of how far behind she lagged when standing before the genuine article.

"I made it this far with nothing more than a half-baked imitation," she said, her eyes alight with fervor. "With a true breathing technique and the right elixirs, reaching the rank of Mana Knight would be well within reach, wouldn't it? Hell, maybe even beyond that!"

Bennett conceded without hesitation. "Most likely."

"See? I knew you'd understand—"

"However."

Bennett's voice remained flat. His face held neither terror, nor disappointment, nor fury. It was a mask of cold detachment, as if he were merely acknowledging an objective fact of nature.

"What good is any of that once you're dead?"

Sasha froze for a fraction of a second before the corners of her lips curled upward. Her smile lingered, but the light in her eyes hardened into raw, vicious killing intent.

"You know, I actually had some fond memories of us. I was hoping to send you off without any pain."

Shring.

Sasha drew her weapon—a bizarre, wicked blade with one edge ground into jagged serrations. In response, Bennett quietly slipped the heavy pack off his back and set it on the floor.

"If you're so eager to drink the cup of punishment," she purred, "who am I to stop you?"

Just when she seemed about to charge, Sasha snapped her wrist.

With a sharp hiss, a throwing dagger ripped through the air. At the same instant, the fabric partitions concealing the room tore open, and ambushing swordsmen flooded forth. A faint, shimmering azure aura clung to their limbs—every last one of them was a mana practitioner.

Twisting his torso to let the dagger slice harmlessly past, Bennett whipped up Shooting Star.

Thwip-thwip!

Steel bolts punched into the charging swordsman, one in the chest and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the other directly between his eyes.

One.

He tried to pivot the repeating crossbow toward the next target, but the ambushers had already closed the gap. One man threw a savage front kick meant to knock the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weapon from his hands, yet Bennett withdrew his stance by a hair's breadth, dodging the boot cleanly. As the man overextended and lost his balance, Bennett pulled the trigger.

"Guh!"

Two.

Even as the second man collapsed with a quarrel lodged in his chest, Bennett threw himself into a roll across the floor. A throwing axe shaved past his shoulder and buried itself deep into the drywall behind him.

"Take him now!"

Seizing on Bennett's recovery beat, several blades plunged down at once. Strengthened by mana physical reinforcement, their strikes were terrifyingly swift and lethal. Steel scraped violently against concrete, sending a shower of orange sparks dancing before his eyes.

Flowing into the roll, Bennett closed the distance and locked both legs around the lead swordsman's lower leg in a scissor wrap. Caught completely off guard, the swordsman crashed to the floor. The man thrashed frantically to pull free, but Bennett gave him no opening, pressing the muzzle down and snapping the trigger.

Thwump!

A bolt drove straight through his eye socket. The swordsman shuddered once and went limp.

Three.

"Magic Arrow!"

A sudden chill crept up the nape of Bennett's neck as glowing arcane projectiles converged upon him. He snapped his body around, leading with his armored torso. The surface of his light armor flared as an inscribed magic circle ignited into radiant life.

Crack-crack-crack!

Balduin's custom-crafted armor absorbed the kinetic shock of every projectile. While the defensive barrier held, Bennett raised his repeating crossbow and fired a sweeping spray toward the origin of the spell. His iron quarrels tore through cloth partitions and stacked cardboard boxes, carrying their lethal momentum into the shadows beyond.

"Aaaagh!"

A shrill shriek pierced the air as the shredded partitions collapsed. Behind them lay a female mage clutching a wooden staff. Blood bubbled from her lips as she stared down at the bolt lodged in her chest before slumping into stillness.

Four.

Seeing the spellcaster fall, another swordsman froze in horror and looked back.

"Lily!"

Recognizing the lapse, Bennett wasted not a heartbeat. He swung Shooting Star like a club and cracked the heavy stock across the man's skull.

Smack!

The swordsman's head snapped back, bone splintering under the blow. Bennett grabbed the reeling man and shoved him bodily into another attacker who was lunging forward. Entangled with each other, their movements came to a dead halt. Bennett leveled his weapon and emptied the magazine into the tangle of limbs.

Th-th-thwip! Click.

Turned into pincushions, both corpses dropped heavily to the floor.

Six.

Bennett swept his gaze across the room while working the release catch to swap magazines, but a sudden jolt seized his ankle. Before he could react, a concealed snare snapped taut.

Snatch!

The rope pulled violently, dragging him through the air until he hung suspended upside down.

"Got you, bastard!"

A triumphant shout preceded the lunge of a spear. It was a premature celebration.

Coiling his core with explosive force, Bennett hoisted his upper body upward, causing the thrusting spearhead to slice empty air beneath him.

"What—?!"

Drawing the backup dagger strapped to his shin, Bennett reached down with one hand. As the lunging spearman stumbled past, Bennett caught him by the collar, dragging him in, and repeatedly drove the steel blade into the unarmored seams of the man's neck and armpit.

"Guh... urk!"

Seven.

With a final, deep twist into the base of the skull, Bennett slashed upward, severing the snare rope in one clean motion.

Thud!

He landed flat on his back, the impact driving the breath from his lungs and sending black spots swimming across his vision. Swallowing a groan, he scrambled to his feet—only for his pupils to constrict.

Sasha stood twenty paces away, leveling an apparatus that bore an uncanny resemblance to a repeating crossbow.

Bennett dropped into a crouch, curling his arms tightly over his head.

Clatter-clatter-clack!

Dull, tearing impacts hammered across his body. Bolts pierced his limbs—shorter quarrels than the ones fired by Shooting Star, clearly modified for compact firepower. Their range was compromised, but at this distance, they carried more than enough lethality. While his breastplate repelled the hits, the bolts bit deeply into the exposed flesh of his forearms and calves where the vambraces and greaves left gaps.

I thought she said the counterfeit versions hadn't hit the market yet?

Without pausing to wrench the quarrels out, he forced himself upright.

Whoosh!

He hurled his dagger, forcing Sasha to lean aside and break her aim. Bennett reached down to scoop up Shooting Star, but before his fingers could close around the grip, Sasha threw her emptied knock-off crossbow with pinpoint accuracy, cracking it against his hand.

"Ngh!"

The stinging impact bought her the split second she needed to close in, swinging her jagged sword in a sweeping cleave. Infused with mana, the blade ripped through the air with a savage, shrieking whistle. Bennett threw himself sideways, barely slipping past the glowing azure arc.

"Oh? You weren't this fast before!"

Even as she laughed in mock admiration, Sasha pursued him relentlessly, her physical speed elevated by mana circulation. In that fleeting breath, Bennett abandoned the crossbow, drew his baton, and summoned his Psionic Energy.

The jagged sword struck downward, carrying the force to cleave a man in two.

CLANG!

Expecting the baton to shatter like kindling, Sasha's eyes flared wide with shock.

She knew Bennett's baton. It was a well-crafted piece by a renowned artisan, but it had never possessed the structural integrity to withstand a mana-infused blade. Yet not only did the slender rod hold, but it also seemed to actively gnaw away at the mana coating her steel, causing the blue glow to gutter out on contact.

"What is this...?"

Even amid her confusion, instinct took over. Honed through countless skirmishes, her body snapped a brutal kick aimed directly between his legs. It was a dirty trick, but an undeniably lethal one.

Thud!

Anticipating the strike, Bennett raised his leg, taking the brunt of the impact along his outer thigh. A sharp, numbing ache bloomed across the muscle, but it was infinitely preferable to taking the blow in the groin. He immediately swayed his upper body in a rapid zigzag.

"Cheap feints won't work on me!"

Yet his motion was far from a simple feint. By the time her words left her mouth, Bennett had vanished from her line of sight.

Startled, Sasha swung her blade blindly behind her back. Bennett checked the strike with his baton and brought the butt down hard against her wrist.

"Ah!"

The serrated sword tumbled from her numb fingers, and Bennett immediately kicked it skittering across the floor. When she tried to draw a hidden dagger, he slapped her arm away, stepped in close, and locked her in a suffocating hold from behind. One arm clamped tightly around her throat, while his legs entwined her lower body, sealing her hips.

Crash!

Bennett hauled her backward, driving both of them into the floor. The shock jolted through his spine, but he clamped his jaw shut and tightened the choke with relentless force.

"Ghk...!"

Sasha squirmed and thrashed with every ounce of strength she possessed, but against Bennett's leverage and deadweight, she couldn't break the hold. After a frantic series of violent bucking motions, her struggles began to wane as exhaustion set in.

"I've... I've been thinking about this..." she rasped.

"..."

"Why don't we... just get along like we used to? Hmm?"

Sasha suddenly began shifting her hips, rubbing her backside against his lower abdomen in a desperate attempt at seduction.

"I must've lost my mind for a second. I was wrong, okay? Can't you let it slide just this once?"

Bennett reached up with both hands, gripping her head and bracing to twist. Realizing what was about to happen, Sasha's body went completely rigid.

"B-Bennett...?"

She began to thrash in blind panic, but Bennett showed no mercy. With cold, mechanical efficiency, he wrenched her neck to the side. There was a faint moment of elastic resistance, followed by—

CRACK!

"Ah..."

Her violent convulsions died instantly. Sasha went limp like a marionette with its strings severed. A brief, faint tremor ran through her limbs before she settled into complete stillness.

The metallic stench of blood rapidly overtook her perfume. Bennett rolled the deadweight of her corpse off his chest and stood up.

Sasha's brow was furrowed, her dead features bearing the lingering remnants of bitter regret and resignation.

They had never been formal lovers, but they had once been comrades who shared each other's beds. Yet the very second she drew steel with intent to murder him, none of that mattered in the slightest.

...I told you, she wasn't my lover.

Scanning the perimeter, Bennett's eyes landed on the device anchoring the spatial barrier. Like most tools of its kind, it took the form of a metallic rod driven firmly into the floor. He raised his boot to crush it, then hesitated.

On second thought, these devices commanded a steep price on the black market. Keeping it intact seemed like the smarter choice.

With a faint hum, the barrier dissipated as he dismantled the rod. Bennett raised his voice down the corridor.

"Kyle! Edgar! Erika!"

"Yes! Coming!"

The party hurried into the room, only to freeze dead in their tracks at the sight of corpses strewn across the blood-soaked floor.

"D-did you really take out all of them on your own?"

"I was trapped in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠here. Had no other choice."

At his nonchalant response, they stared at him in stunned silence. The look in their eyes was one reserved for monsters.

"What?" Bennett asked.

"Even a fully fledged knight would struggle against eight men alone, especially with a combat mage backing them up..." Kyle muttered.

The party members nodded, lost in their own thoughts. They couldn't help recalling their recent encounter with the Drake Family's expedition unit. Even then, Bennett had single-handedly broken a formidable squad of elite knights and mages.

Considering that, I suppose this is well within his capabilities...

Looking back, Bennett had always shattered his own limits whenever cornered in life-or-death crises. The more brutal the predicament, the further he advanced. It wasn't merely that he was strong; he was someone who actively evolved in the crucible of danger.

"Enough standing around," Bennett said flatly. "Start looting."

"Right away, Bennett-nim!"

Bennett knelt beside Sasha's body. Beyond gathering spoils, he wanted to see if she carried any written contracts or correspondence linking her to The Union.

First, he stripped her gear piece by piece.

As an experienced, high-ranking mercenary, Sasha's equipment was remarkably high-grade. Her serrated sword was a bespoke commission from a master smith, and her armor, while appearing to be plain leather on the surface, was reinforced with hardened steel plating underneath. Her throwing knives and utility belts were top-quality, and even her casual undergarments were woven from heavy-duty puncture-resistant fibers often favored by wealthy mercenaries as secondary defense. Anyone with deep pockets dressed this way.

Nothing here.

Though he searched every pocket and seam thoroughly, he found no physical intelligence regarding The Union. Searching inside her undergarments produced only a thick, heavy gold signet ring instead of documents.

Deciding he would pay a visit to her private safehouse once they returned to the city, Bennett pushed himself up.

"Bennett-nim, we've gathered everything!"

"We move straight to the exit. No stops."

With their Sub-space Pouches and backpacks stuffed to maximum capacity, Bennett and his party hurried down the stairs toward the third basement level.

Sasha's stripped corpse was left abandoned on the cold floor behind them.

The layout of the third basement level mirrored the floor above in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠broad strokes. It had been designated as an emergency civil defense shelter, and right in the center of the subterranean hall sat the public exit gate.

"...There are far too many ambush blind spots around that gate," Kyle whispered, tightening his grip on his sword hilt.

Erika's detection spell corroborated his assessment. "I'm picking up multiple life signatures."

Men were concealed behind partitions, crates, and debris, waiting like vultures to strip any wounded scavengers trying to reach the portal.

"Looking for a hidden exit might be our best—"

"Wait, what the hell is this?"

Bennett and the others snapped their heads toward Edgar, who was staring blankly into a corner of the hallway.

"There's something glowing inside here."

What Edgar was pointing at was an oversized industrial dumpster. Floating inside its hollow cavity was a shimmering portal swirling with distinct blue light.

"Well," Bennett murmured, "that's a first for a secret exit."

Though cluttered with scraps of decayed garbage, it was infinitely safer than running the gauntlet at the public portal. After a brief hesitation, the party climbed into the dumpster one by one, slipping through the dimensional gateway and out of the dungeon.

Stepping in last, Bennett shook his head against the sharp wave of spatial vertigo.

When his vision cleared, the cool, familiar air of the Dungeon City filled his lungs.

"Good work, everyone."

"Not at all, Bennett-nim," Kyle replied with a weary smile. "You bore the brunt of the hardship."

Just as the party began to breathe a collective sigh of relief over their successful return, a harsh voice rang across the staging area.

"Hold it right there!"

A retinue of armored knights flanked by heavily armed foot soldiers moved in, blocking their path.