The Mercenary's Instinct Fails
Aik had already lit three cigarettes, his gut screaming warnings. The sun had set long ago. By the original plan, he should've rounded up the kids and bolted by now. But even after waiting far longer, not a single subordinate had returned.
What the hell are you idiots doing?! Aik irritably tossed the spent butt and ground it under his heel. Ash scattered wildly, caught by the wind.
Raiding a single orphanage shouldn't take this goddamn long! Aik trusted his men. Sure, he'd smash their faces without hesitation if they stepped out of line, but their skills were solid regardless. Some were thick-headed, slow on the uptake. Still, most could read a situation and make smart calls. If anything felt off on the way in, they should've hightailed it back here ages ago.
So this was wrong. All wrong. At least a couple should've trickled back first, then the rest in waves. That would've been normal.
How the fuck hasn't even one shown up yet?!
He turned to glare at the captured demon girl.
“……”
She'd spat that she had nothing more to say. Even after he'd slapped her, pummeled her with fists, she endured in silence, eyes shut tight.
“Argh, fuck!”
He shoved off the wall he'd been leaning against and stomped straight for her, driving a boot into her gut.
“—Guh!”
Gia let out a sharp yelp and tumbled backward.
“Talk straight, bitch. What's in that orphanage? Why aren't my men back?!”
“Kuhk… ah…”
Coughing through the agony radiating from her abdomen, Gia managed a faint smile, like pieces were falling into place.
“I don't know how many you sent… but they won't be coming back. Any of them.”
“Ha, what?”
“The kids at our orphanage? They're strong. Amazing, really.”
“Amazing? What kinda bullshit—”
“And here's the real kicker…”
Flat on her back, Gia flashed that same venomous smirk at Aik.
“You pissed off our director. You're not surviving this.”
Another shiver crawled up his spine. Was it because she was a demon brat? Something slithered in those snake-like eyes, unknowable and foul.
“Ha, that's your story, huh.”
Aik sized it up fast and made his call.
“Think I'm gonna buy that crap? That my men are dead? No fucking way!”
He slammed a fist into the wall, driving home his point.
“When I asked earlier, you didn't say shit—but your face twitched. I saw it!”
His instincts nailed it again.
“Right when I asked if there was some precious treasure hidden in there. That flinch was as good as a confession! Only then did you react like that!”
Figures. An orphanage in a weird spot like that? Housing a high-value demon girl? Obvious from the start.
“Yeah, it's gotta be a stash for nobles' dirty money! Nothing else explains this shit!”
Fewer guards than expected, or his boys slipped through some perfect gap. Either way, that fake orphanage was loaded with loot. True to form, those sly bastards sized it up, grabbed the good stuff, and bailed.
Ditching their boss.
“Loot sells easier than slaves anyway. Up top or down low, buyers everywhere! Hah, those ungrateful fucks—after all I've done for 'em!”
Aik smashed the wall again, clamping his jaw shut. He snatched up his discarded gear in a rush: leather armor on, helmet strapped, club and sword at the ready. Fully armed.
“Fuck it, who cares! I can replace grunts. Sell you, and I'll make that cash back easy!”
He unhooked the chain from her cuffs and lashed it to his rope.
“On your feet, you damn bitch! We're outta here!”
Aik yanked viciously. The force stretched her arms straight; Gia resisted, refusing to stand.
“Ugh, you stubborn cunt! Fine, let's see how long you last!”
He dragged her roughly, kicking open the door and hauling her outside. Charging ahead at full speed, her body scraped the dirt—but she still wouldn't rise.
“Tough bitch. Don't you get carrying you is just as easy—”
“—Ahh.”
Gia's gaze flicked past him, her face blooming with deep relief and joy.
“Right on time, as always. Director.”
What the hell's that nonsense? Aik muttered, whipping around.
“…Nah, I'm late. Sorry, Gia.”
There'd been no one ahead just moments ago.
“Heard from villagers about some outsiders poking around the orphanage since morning…”
Silver hair shimmering with a blue tint, whipping in the wind. Porcelain skin anyone would call beautiful. Slender frame and features. Narrow slit eyes, half-lidded, ambiguous. Plain village clothes that somehow didn't suit her striking looks.
“Didn't expect scum like you to move this fast in just one day.”
The woman blocked his path. Five paces away, tops.
“…Who the hell are you, bitch?”
To a normie, his armed-up menace would've been terrifying. She didn't flinch a millimeter.
Her voice dropped low as she spoke.
“You got a kid you're dragging like a dog?”
She jabbed a finger at Gia behind him.
“She's mine from the orphanage. I'm the director, asshole.”
She withdrew her hand, thumping her chest with a thumb.
“…Director, huh?”
Teeth grinding, Aik eyed her sharply.
“…My men?”
“Men?”
“What'd you do to the guys I sent to your orphanage?!”
“Sigh, a gang, huh? Snuck 'em in while I was out?”
Aren—the woman—shook her head with a sigh.
“You hid pretty far from the village, so I was busy combing every corner like a rat hunt.”
“Yeah? Then by now, my boys have your orphanage—”
“Probably all dead. If they're the type to follow trash like you.”
Aik couldn't swallow that absurdity.
“Camella said she'd watch outside. Serelda and Epia are checking the main building… sigh, cleanup's on me. Bad for the kids' heads, too…”
The woman muttered something incomprehensible, then crooked a finger at him with a lazy smile.
Blatant provocation.
“Anyway, I hate wasting more time. Drop the kid and come at me. You ain't going anywhere unless you kill me first.”
Aik muttered in disbelief.
“…Cocky bitch. Fine. No clue where you get the balls to come alone, but…”
He flung the rope tied to Gia's cuffs far away, drew his club and sword to chest height, and squared up.
“You'll pay big for underestimating me. I'll make you regret it in hell.”
Aik drew a deep breath. Invisible heat haze rippled from his body.
Internal Aura Technique.
A staple for battle-hardened close-quarters fighters pushing past mortal limits. Refine mana in the dantian, convert it to aura, and infuse the body. The foundational enhancer to surpass human bounds. Thrumming through his veins, it flooded him with euphoria as he growled.
“I'll rip you apart. Then that demon bitch'll crumple nice and quiet.”
Muscles tensed, he exploded forward, stomping the earth. Club for her right, sword for left. He mapped the air: smash the right thigh to unbalance, then slash the throat. Clean kill. His trusted instincts screamed certainty.
“Ah, Internal Aura Technique.”
The muttering woman revealed her right hand, held behind her till now. A slender twig, barely two spans long. What the hell was she—
No time to judge. His lunge closed on Aren.
Or seemed to.
Where'd she—
Club and sword cleaved empty air where she'd stood. Only after the swing did he register her vanish.
Not even his aura-boosted eyes caught her motion's blur.
No aura, and she still—?!
Instinct screamed; he spun. Aren stood casual, twig raised, watching him.
“What trick was that?! How'd you slip me at this range—?!”
Mid-rant, Aik felt his hands lighten. Eyes dropped: club and sword blade sheared clean off. Just hilts left, really. Precisely above the grips, every threatening edge sliced neat.
“…What, with a goddamn twig?”
Swallowing hard, he looked up—and saw the impossible.
The twig in her hand glowed. Around it coiled silver sword aura, far longer and thicker than the branch, shaped like a blade.
…Sword aura? She's an Expert?
Aik had barely scraped Beginner with basic Internal Aura Technique. His eyes quaked like an earthquake.
Beyond internal body reinforcement: project aura outward, shape it at will. External Aura Technique. Only Experts could infuse it into weapons like that.
Coat a twig that solidly…
“Not even close.”
As if reading his mind, she spoke.
“I'm pretty pissed at you, y'know.”
The sword aura contracted. Compressed to the limit, it frayed into hair-thin threads scattering in the air.
In the blink of twice.
Sword threads—the next realm after sword aura. Master territory.
And it didn't stop. From the twig's tip, five lethal silver strands lashed out, weaving the void.
Two or more threads, that quick and easy, with a twig instead of a sword, wielded freely…
“—Ah.”
Aik's eyes narrowed. Panic spun his sluggish brain into overdrive.
Young woman. Silver hair with faint blue sheen. Creepy slit eyes. Arrogant smile. Suspected Master.
No fucking way. Her…?
Parates family's prodigy. Youngest black-rank adventurer. Dirty-fighting psycho bitch. Cravalten's savior. Slayer of corpse dragon and evil dragon. Dual-dragon slayer. Silver reverse scale.
Aren Parates.
Why's a woman like this running a rural orphanage…?
Aik sensed his next words would be his last.
“Ha… fu—”
Too fast for his eyes. Five silver threads surged, shredding his body to ribbons.
The pathetic end of a man who'd lived by instinct alone.