Chapter 67: Night of the Black Cloaks
“Damn it, kill him!”
“Get everyone!”
The men raised their voices.
They were all caught up in the excitement and couldn’t make a cool judgment.
It was also because their leader, the scarred man, had collapsed, covered in blood.
To begin with, they weren’t very smart.
They were just the ones who had been ordered by the Knight’s Guild to keep an eye on the Egret workshop.
That Knight’s Guild was, in turn, moving on the orders of the Southern Branch of the Alliance… In the end, they could be called the dregs of the dregs.
“Keugh!”
“Ugh…!”
As Sirius swung the jagged sword, they all collapsed, spurting blood.
They all died without even being able to swing their swords properly.
“Sir, I could’ve handled those kinds of small fry.”
“Once you’ve drawn your sword, you should cut down even small fry.”
After replying to Aleion like that, Sirius went outside the reception room.
Outside, the blacksmiths of the Egret Workshop had gathered while holding their weapons.
“Listen up.”
Sirius spoke while lowering his worn and rugged sword.
“As of today, the Egret Workshop will be severing its ties with the Alliance.”
“……!”
“If there are any who are dissatisfied, step forward. I will deal with you.”
However, no one moved.
Rather, there were some who looked pleased.
“Their response is different from usual. What happened?”
Behind him, Berith tilted his head.
“Now, just a moment!”
Just then, the only man who had survived in the reception room rushed out.
He knelt in front of Sirius and raised his voice.
“L-let me explain! Please put away your sword!”
“It seems there are circumstances. Shall we hear him out?”
After listening to Andres’s story, Sirius put away his sword.
“Before that.”
Thwack!
A dagger flew through the air and pierced the back of a man who was trying to escape through the back door.
“Restrain anyone who tries to escape immediately.”
“Yes, leave it to me.”
“Don’t worry.”
He had said that he would sever ties with the Alliance, but anyone who tried to escape must be killed with top priority.
After ordering to restrict information from leaking outside, Sirius entered the reception room again.
* * *
The original owner of the Egret Workshop, Atillan Egret, explained what had happened so far.
After hearing the story of how they had unintentionally killed an Alliance official, causing half of the blacksmiths to be killed and enslaved by the Alliance, Sirius nodded his head.
“So, you were not in favor of the Alliance, were you?”
“Yes, they made us create weapons without paying us properly, and sometimes they even took money from our safe……”
Atillan sighed, and Andres nodded.
“I was surprised to hear that the Egret Workshop was connected to the Alliance, but there were such circumstances.”
“Yes, that’s why we would welcome it if you could liberate us from the Alliance. There are some who came from the Knight Guild who will oppose it, but……”
“We’ll have to identify those guys separately.”
The man who had tried to escape earlier must have also been from the Knight Guild.
“Atillan, is this Knight Guild a large organization?”
“Honestly, we, the Egret Workshop, could face them with our strength alone. They’re just a group of thugs who bully people in the nearby entertainment district.”
Atillan spoke in a resentful voice in response to Sirius’s question.
“Even so, we had no choice but to submit to the Knight Guild. There is an even more fearsome organization behind the Knight Guild.”
“A more fearsome organization?”
“It’s an organization called the Sinclair Sword Society. The Knight Guild was managing our workshop under the orders of the Sinclair Sword Society.”
“Is there any chance that the Sinclair Sword Ash is directly connected to the southern branch of the alliance?”
“I’m not sure about that. There might be one more step in between.”
“……”
Sirius was lost in thought for a moment.
“It’s quite the complicated structure. It’s like a staircase.”
“Yes…”
First, there’s the southern branch of the alliance.
Under the southern branch, there are executives.
Under the executives, there are organizations that follow their orders.
Under those organizations, there’s the Sinclair Sword Ash that follows their orders.
Under the Sinclair Sword Ash, there’s the Knight Guild that follows their orders.
Under the Knight Guild, there’s the Egret Workshop that follows their orders…
“Verdian, is the southern branch normally structured like this?”
“Like I said, I don’t know much about the southern region.”
Verdian, who had been listening from the side, pushed his hair back and spoke.
“But it’s possible.”
“Hmm…”
With a structure like this, it would be difficult to properly confront even small fry like the Knight Guild.
Originally, the Egret Workshop had the power to stand up to the Knight Guild, but they had no choice but to submit out of fear of the upper organization.
There must be many people in similar positions.
“I never knew it worked like this…”
Andres grimaced.
“What should we do?”
“Will you cooperate with me?”
“Of course.”
Andres had originally planned to help destroy the Egret Workshop.
The Egret Workshop had already been liberated, but Andres planned to continue fighting alongside Sirius.
Andres was already a loyal member who shared the same ideals as Sirius.
“Since they’re structured like a staircase, it seems like we’ll have to climb up one step at a time.”
“What do you mean?”
“First, we’ll destroy the Knight Guild.”
Since their base is in the nearby entertainment district, we should be able to catch them quickly.
“Then, we’ll get information from the Knight Guild and move on to the Sinclair Sword Ash. If we destroy the Sinclair Sword Ash, we can get information on the upper organization, and if we destroy that organization, we can get information on the one above it.”
“……!”
“We have to get rid of them all anyway. Let’s crush them all as we climb the staircase.”
At Sirius’s words, Andres nodded solemnly.
“We’ll need manpower. Gather the Letiwood family’s troops.”
“There’s no need for that.”
“What?”
“If we try to wipe out all the small fry, it’ll take too much time. And that will give them time to prepare.”
“Argh…!”
“We need to get up the stairs quickly, taking out the executives and the captain.”
Our priority now is to break the chain of connections between the Black Knights.
Without the power of their parent organization backing them, those Nineth Guild punks will be nothing but neighborhood thugs.
“How are we going to do that? Are we really going to move with just these members?”
“No.”
We have to deal with this quickly.
We can’t give them time to prepare.
The fewer people we have, the better.
“Let’s just have the two of us go.”
“……”
Andres shut his mouth for a moment.
“Are you kidding me?”
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“I’m serious.”
“……”
In front of Sirius, who spoke with an indifferent face, Andres broke out in a cold sweat.
* * *
The sky was getting dark.
Sirius took Andres to a nearby city.
The entertainment district there was the headquarters of the Nineth Guild.
“Let’s change our clothes first.”
“Change our clothes?”
“If you walk around in such fancy attire, everyone will know that Sir Andres has appeared.”
“……”
To be honest, Andres was quite flashy, even in appearance.
His family’s distinctive red hair was eye-catching, and his features were handsome in a manly way.
If he wore the crimson uniform of the Retijud family on top of that… it would be like advertising that Sir Andres Retijud was here.
“I have some clothes I used to wear with Velid.”
“With Velid…?”
It was the outfit he wore when he raided the hideout of bandits upon first meeting Velid.
If it were just Sirius, he wouldn’t need to wear something like this to sufficiently conceal himself, but for someone like Velid or Andres, it was necessary.
“You can become a Man in Black.”
“A Man in Black…?”
“You can change in those bushes over there.”
After handing Andres the clothes, Sirius went to another bush to change.
Wearing jet-black clothes, a jet-black hood pulled over his head, and a jet-black mask covering his face… the perfect Man in Black was born.
“Sirius, is this really okay…?”
A moment later, Andres emerged from the bushes.
Andres had also become a Man in Black, clad entirely in black.
However…….
“What’s wrong with my fashion sense?”
“……!”
“I don’t think it’s very good.”
Andres’ red eyes wavered in the darkness.
His eyes were filled with great shock.
“No, the clothes I usually wear are tailored to my body shape, but these aren’t like that at all….”
As a son of a noble family of Retijud, he was a man who prided himself on his appearance.
He tried to explain himself in a resentful voice.
“Sir Andres, a member of the Black Order should originally be stylish.”
Sirius said as he corrected Andres’ fashion sense.
“They should suddenly appear in the darkness and create an atmosphere that suggests something is going on, but do you think this hideous appearance will do? What are you supposed to do when you can see white socks under your black pants?”
“No, the pants are too short….”
He used a dagger to rip the hem of the pants and make them longer.
After adjusting the angle of the hood and mask, it looked better.
“Now you have some of the flair of a member of the Black Order.”
“Is that so…?”
“Yes, you look great.”
“Thank you. You look great too.”
Sirius and Andres looked at each other and laughed.
If Justitia had been there, she would have sighed and said, ‘Even when they get older, men are always….’
“Now, Sir Andres, we will become members of the Black Order and raid the Night Guild. Then, after we crush them, we will rush straight to the Sinclair Swordsmanship Tournament.”
“After that, we’ll go to their parent organization?”
“That’s right. We’ll keep running without resting and wipe them all out.”
They will be defeated one after another without even understanding what is happening.
“No one will notice that it was the work of Sirius Canisルート and Andres Retijud. Who could possibly imagine that the unknown members of the Black Order who suddenly appeared are the youngest son-in-law of the Rigel family and the son of a noble family of Retijud?”
“Hmm, no one could imagine that.”
Andres nodded.
“No one except a madman.”
“It sounds like you’re calling me a madman.”
“I didn’t mean it that way, but now that I think about it, there seems to be something to that.”
“Your younger brother, Sir David, is also honest, and your older brother, Sir Andres, is also honest.”
“You were the one who suggested that we speak honestly to each other in the first place.”
“Well, that’s fine.”
Sirius changed the subject again.
“Later, when rumors spread that unknown members of the Black Order are killing members of the Black Mass, other members of the Black Mass will also be discouraged.”
“There could be such a ripple effect.”
“On the other hand, some of them will go around searching for the unknown members of the Black Order in the wrong places. We can watch them waste their efforts and then take them down one by one.”
If they continue to overturn the Black Mass in the south in this way… The ‘branch manager’ in charge of the southern branch will have no choice but to come forward.
They will be able to draw out the direct disciple of the head of the Order of Constraint, one of the most powerful people in the alliance.
“For now, let’s forget about such complicated things tonight and have some fun as members of the Black Order.”
“Hmm, let’s do that.”
“There’ll probably be a lot of people asking who you are, just tell them, ‘You don’t need to know.’ Try adding a meaningful laugh afterwards to make it more convincing.”
Sirius went into hiding in the city with Andres.
They headed towards the entertainment district, leaping over the rooftops in the darkness.
Andres was a Circle 8 Mage, so he could use flight magic to keep up with Sirius’s Lightness.
“According to the information the scarred man gave me, that building is the headquarters of the Night Guild.”
“It’s a seedy-looking building. How are we going to get in?”
“The window on the third floor is open, so we’ll go in through there.”
Sirius with Lightness, and Andres with flight magic.
They melted into the darkness and leapt through the window.
“Wh-what!?”
A fat man was in bed, rolling around with a young woman.
The man was terrified when he saw two people dressed in black suddenly appear.
He couldn’t help but be surprised when he was suddenly rolling around with a woman and then some guys dressed in black appeared in the room and were looking at him.
“Who, who are you!?”
The man asked in an urgent voice, and Andres crossed his arms and spoke.
“You don’t need to know, hohoho…”
He was a perfect man in black.
He recited the line that Sirius had taught him earlier perfectly, and the laugh he added at the end fit the atmosphere.
Perhaps Andres had been waiting for an opportunity to do something like this.
When else would the eldest son of the Retiud family, who carried a heavy burden, be able to do something like this?
“What the… guh!”
The man let out a pig-like squeal as Sirius swung his blade.
At the sound of his scream, members of the Night Guild began to gather.
However, they too would lose their lives to the blades and magic of the two men in black.
The night of the men in black who would strike fear into the hearts of the dark society organizations of the south had begun.