77 – Attaining a New Name!
I tried to regain my senses and escape, but someone pushed in from behind, causing me to exclaim, “Huh?” and end up occupying a table and sitting down.
As soon as I sat down, the inn door closed abruptly, and the assembly began in a heavy atmosphere.
It was clearly not an atmosphere where we could leave immediately, so I gestured to Jess and Iris to stay quiet and rolled my eyes to assess the situation.
“Only those who have proven skills have been selected for this Black Assembly. That’s how dangerous and high-paying this mission is.”
As the man in the black robe spoke, everyone in the inn listened intently. The man continued speaking, filling the air with a heavy atmosphere.
I listened carefully to the man’s words for a while and organized the information in my head.
“So… the Black Assembly is a strange gathering created by a place called Deviatan to secretly gather strong mercenaries. The goal of this gathering is to wipe out an organization called Nestra that has taken over the western lands.”
It seemed like the boss of Deviatan was someone who had a severe case of chuunibyou, just like the person who came to our house with a sword. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have imposed the condition that only those wearing black robes can participate in the assembly.
“The humans in black robes gathered at the inn… they seem very suspicious, and it feels like all the information will leak out. And on top of that, we, who have no connection whatsoever, are sitting here, which means that the assembly is being conducted very carelessly.”
As my thoughts reached that point, everyone in this place seemed pathetic.
“Is there really no one here who thinks this gathering is strange? Or is it just a gathering of stupid people?”
While having such thoughts…
“Hachoo!”
Due to the floating dust in the poorly ventilated room, Jess let out a cute cough. At the same time, Jess’s robe hood flipped back.
“What, what is it?”
“He took off his robe…”
“More importantly… was such a guy among the mercenaries?”
The bright red hair and pointed ears immediately caught everyone’s attention. I quickly put the hood back on Jess and assessed the atmosphere around us.
“A kid with an unfamiliar face…”
The atmosphere in the inn instantly quieted down at the man’s whispered words spoken with a raised voice. Sensing the unusual tension, I quietly summoned my dark sword.
No, I tried to summon it.
Shoooom-
The pattern on the back of my hand shone brightly, and a vibrant crimson liquid resembling wine shot up into the air. The blood-like substance, captivating the gaze of others like a work of art, quickly transformed into the shape of a sword and fell into my hand.
[This body has arrived!]
I let out a low sigh, covering my face with my empty hand. The thought of failure filled my mind. In that moment…
“…! I’m sorry about this.”
“…?”
“I should have recognized you right away from your white hair and the pattern on your hand. I made a mistake because the information was slow.”
I looked up at the man who was spouting nonsense, raising my head. The atmosphere in the inn grew restless.
“Do you know that guy?”
“Well, well… those who know how to read would have come across him. The story of a gladiator with white hair who slaughtered dozens, hundreds of monsters in the arena, the ‘Butcher’ mentioned in that newspaper, that guy is him.”
“….Ah!”
The voices filled with admiration erupted from all around as his words came to an end. It was the reaction of those who knew how to read.
Even those who didn’t understand the situation listened to the explanations from others and belatedly burst into admiration, forming an atmosphere of understanding.
“The red-haired person next to him must be the Red Queen.”
“…??”
‘What, a queen?’
I was so dumbfounded that my throat choked up, and I couldn’t ask the question. Even without asking, they were murmuring among themselves and laying out information about the Red Queen.
“…! They say she wiped out all the beasts in the arena…”
“And she tore the fearsome Ashellican’s throat in one go…”
Gloomy stories poured in from all directions. I looked at Jess with a feeling of disbelief. Jess had a smirk on his face and was scratching the back of his head.
When I saw his puppy-like face, I thought, ‘It doesn’t seem like it.’
“The remaining one must be the ‘Light Swordmaster.'”
I finally reached a conclusion as I looked towards Iris. This place was nothing more than a gathering of crazy chuunibyos. Otherwise, there was no way they could casually mention nicknames like the Slayer, Red Queen, or Light Swordmaster.
‘Or, maybe not? Could this be the culture of the dark fantasy world?’
Confusion washed over me as grown adults spoke such words with serious faces.
“If the three of you participate in the Black Assembly, we can consider victory in this fight guaranteed.”
“hehehe… it will be easier.”
“Hey! Welcome!”
I don’t know how things are working, but at least it felt like we had escaped from a dangerous situation and I let out a sigh of relief.
“Well then, let me explain further. The one we need to target is the boss of the Nest organization, ‘Noah.'”
‘Huh…?’
The familiar name that sounded terrifying made her eyes widen.
“Underneath, ‘Nero,’ ‘Lily,’ ‘Koan’…”
As she heard the words line up one after another, her pupils began to dilate. Every single one… They were the names of the children who had been with her.
“All the executives above must be captured alive.”
As she said that, she started sticking portraits on the bulletin board against the wall. The faces were slightly more grown-up than she remembered, but they were definitely the faces she had been searching for.
“Since the Boss of Nest can’t stand to see his subordinates being brutally beaten, if it’s difficult to catch the executives, it doesn’t matter if you kill them in front of the Boss of Nest. There’s nothing easier than dealing with someone as excited as him.”
A light laughter spread at those words. Sensing her expression turning cold, she tightened her grip on the sword in her hand.
“Creak…”
At that moment, she heard Jes’s low whimper. When she turned her head, Jes was glaring at a man who was babbling.
“It’s difficult to handle so many without Jes or Iris getting hurt.”
Rationally, leaving this place immediately would be the right answer. But she couldn’t calm down easily.
“When did I become so attached to them?”
She burst into a laughter and looked towards Iris. Iris was only looking at her face, and their gazes met immediately. Iris slowly approached her and whispered.
“Do as you wish, Oppa. I’ll always be by your side.”
“…”
Upon hearing those words filled with trust and faith, her grip loosened even more. The sense of responsibility to take care of Iris and Jes created hesitation.
“…There’s no one stronger than us here.”
“Ah.”
Iris covered the back of my hand and playfully whispered. Hearing those words, my tension eased, and laughter flowed out. There was no basis for her words, but for some reason, I believed her. Or maybe I just wanted to believe it so badly.
Even if an accident were to happen here, no one would get hurt.
Thud!
As soon as my thoughts were sorted out, I jumped up from my seat. Jess turned her head towards me, her ears and nose twitching. In that motion, her hood fell off again.
“…Do you have something to say?”
The man who had been rambling about the operation for a while looked at me with a puzzled expression. Without saying a word, I reversed the demonic sword, now in the form of a dagger, and stuck it into the table. The sword smoothly sank into the table, as if cutting through tofu.
I looked at the man and spoke.
“Blood Wave.”
As soon as I recited the short incantation, blood-like liquid spread along the table, just like shadows extending from the blade of the demonic sword, reaching all the way to the floor.
In an instant, the interior of the inn was dyed in the color of blood. The blood continued to rise, reaching ankle-deep. The pungent scent of blood seemed to paralyze my nose.
“W-What is this…”
Crrraaack –
Somewhere, the sound of waves could be heard, and the interior of the inn was instantly swallowed by the blood.
“Ugh…!”
“Screaaam!”
“W-Wait, spare us…!”
Crrraaack -…
A sound that couldn’t be distinguished as either the sound of waves or the sound of flesh being sliced reverberated throughout the inn.
A protective barrier in the shape of a hemisphere formed around the table with the dagger stuck in it, and we were unharmed.
In the place where the waves swept through, there was nothing left. Not even a bone fragment.
Crrraaack, shluurp!
From Noble mtl dot com
With a single sound of waves reverberating, the blood was instantly sucked into the demonic sword. The world, which had lost its color, gradually returned to its original hues, and only four people remained inside the inn.
I, Iris and Jess, and… only the man who was presumed to be the representative of the Black Assembly was alive and breathing. The rest had turned into a handful of blood and left no trace.
“He, heheheheek…”
The man, thanks to my will, did not die, but he was in a state of being engulfed in waves of blood and emerging from it. He was completely terrified and had wet his pants, probably from what he had seen and experienced.
With a wrinkled brow from the smell that pierced his nose, I approached the man.
“Hey.”
“Kyah!”
I didn’t want to use polite language with the guy who threatened my colleague, so I called him informally, and he reacted as if he were starting a match, trying to step back. I sat down, holding the dark sword.
“If you keep running away, I’ll stick this into the ground, you know?”
“N-No, nooo! Please..! Please don’t send me to that dreadful hell! R-Rather, just kill me! Kill me!”
The man shook his head violently with a pale face. I was starting to get curious about what kind of experience he had gone through.
Smiling, I gently laid down my doubts and spoke.
“If you tell me everything you know, I’ll let you live.”
After spitting out those words, I thought that maybe I had been too villainous, but I decided to worry about that later. The safety of Noah and the other children was what mattered now.
***
“So, what you’re saying is… the man with white hair who wiped out the orc unit of the Vian Organization at the western inn participated in the Black Assembly, and then the Black Assembly disappeared without a trace… is that it?”
“Yes, yes…”
“A man with white hair…”
One man looked down at the newspaper with fierce eyes. The old newspaper contained a photo of a blood-soaked arena and an article about Lian, who slaughtered dozens, hundreds of monsters.
“…there was a killer behind the nest? No, wait. In this case, the killer would be the nest’s hunting dog.”
Tsk.
The man muttered with a click of his tongue.
“This is getting troublesome.”
Unbeknownst to herself, Lian had earned the nickname “Nest’s Hunting Dog.”