Chapter 40
My Villains Episode 040
11. Secret Passage (1)
Grania and Arnal had good stamina, befitting mercenaries, and as Mr. Luke said confidently, he was as healthy as any young man.
Maybe that’s why, even though all three of them were carrying fairly heavy gym bags, everyone seemed to walk very lightly.
Thanks to the increased number of companions, Ellen was carrying only a small rucksack in addition to her sling bag.
Bandages, hemostatic ointment, and various antidotes were mainly light medicines, so it wouldn’t be too heavy.
However, as the search time got longer, the light steps gradually became heavier.
His shoulders drooped, his gaze turned toward the floor, and his reaction to the occasional noise became dull.
On the other hand, my senses grew sharper and sharper. It was because he had to stand in the lead while looking at the map, and at the same time, he had to be vigilant in all directions, even for the share of his tired colleagues.
Thanks to my sharpened senses, I succeeded in detecting suspicious signs even among the clattering footsteps.
“for a moment.”
After signaling to my colleagues who had stopped with a bewildered expression to be quiet, I closed my eyes and listened.
To do so, a humming echo could be heard in the distance, and I pressed my ear close to the wall.
“Damn it—what the hell.”
“Shut up—get hit–
I heard a few
99 words, but it was impossible to make out exactly what they were talking about.
I guessed the direction the voice was coming from and turned to my colleagues.
“A person. At least two more.”
“person? Are you a mercenary?”
At Arnal’s murmuring, I asked Grania a question.
“Are there other mercenaries besides us who have been commissioned by the castle lord?”
“As far as I know, none.”
“Not even one?”
“huh. That’s also true, the reason we received the request in the first place was because of the expectation that we would be able to receive your cooperation. Because there is no need to send down mercenaries with the level of skill that are high enough when there is already a shortage of troops.”
Mr. Luke, who was touching his neatly trimmed chin, opened his mouth with a thoughtful expression.
“Looking at it this morning, it seemed like they were slowly controlling access to the sewers. There’s no way the soldiers came down…” When
Mr. Luke was speechless, I put my ear to the wall again and listened to the unidentified figure.
No more words could be heard as if the conversation had stopped, but the sound of footsteps that were louder than before made me guess that they were passing nearby.
“…it looks like it’s heading west.”
“West? But there…”
I handed over the blueprint to Grania while still listening. Grania, who was muttering strangely, carefully opened the blueprint and narrowed her forehead.
“There are three stairs going up from the 4th floor to the 3rd floor… Among them, the stairs in the northwest have collapsed, so only one in the south and one in the northeast are all that remain.”
“That means it’s not going up.”
“Then”
“Let’s follow.”
My colleagues’ faces hardened for a moment at the low suggestion.
It must be because he knows very well that unidentified humans are more threatening than corpse worms or zombie rat men. But I pretended not to see their expressions and continued.
“This is already the third time I have been down the sewer, but this is the first time I have met other people. I need to check the situation.”
“Are they vagabonds? I think I heard rumors that criminals in the village live underground.”
Arnal’s words were plausible, but I firmly shook my head.
“If so, you must hide on the 2nd or 3rd floor. Why would you come down to the 4th floor? It’s not that easy to live in the realm of rat men.” Little by little, the sound of footsteps fades. I need to hurry up…
“Let’s move first. I have some guesses about who they are.”
“Nigimi.”
A man with a red hood on his head and a short cloak draped over his shoulders quietly cursed. Then, those who followed behind began to look at them.
“You’re just being treated like a dog.”
It was a small voice to say to someone, but a loud voice to say to oneself.
The bald man, who had served under the man in the red hood, or ‘Torvald the Quick-foot’, for quite some time, knew very well that now was the right time to step in. So I asked cautiously.
“Where are you uncomfortable, Mr. Torvald?”
“Are you uncomfortable? Cancer uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable at the thought of going back to that damn pig pen.”
“Don’t be too disappointed. When the city drops sooner or later,
won’t we be able to enjoy it to the fullest?”
Despite the bald man’s words, Torvald frowned and grunted.
“Sounds like you don’t know anything. Do you think there will be something to enjoy even after the city has fallen? Good food, tender women, and expensive treasures will all turn to garbage if they get into the hands of thieves.”
‘Isn’t Torvald a thief, too?’ the bald man barely swallowed the words and answered with an awkward smile.
“Didn’t you hear the boss or the baron give a speech the other day? It sounds like you’re going to sit down here and throw it away… I don’t think I’ll eat it like a farm-covered village.”
“Imagine that even the pirates crawled in to over 1,000 people on our side alone. Will you be able to control Nigimi? It’s good that you don’t get stabbed.”
Torvald grumbled and spat in pain.
‘Sequence and what, X arm. What’s the use of that?’
Torvald was tired of being an outlaw.
It was normal to get stabbed in the back, and if you couldn’t do it, you could become a monster’s food.
They had to worry that the noble families would raise a punitive army, and they had to worry that the cruel boss would pluck out their eyes.
Torvald was a heinous criminal who killed people like he was eating rice, but longed for a stable life. It was his dream to open a shop inside a strong castle.
‘I’d be able to hang out and eat for the rest of my life if I had a big bar.’
The reason I fell into this delusion while passing through the dark and damp sewers was the memory of the night before.
Torvald delivered a letter to a snitch in South Harbor.
The snitch was quite wealthy, and he hid Torvald and his men in his mansion, providing them with good wine, rich food, and a satisfying bed.
At the unexpected hospitality, the stupid subordinates only giggled and enjoyed themselves. But even in the midst of happiness, Torvald felt pain.
It was because he knew that the good people, the order that guaranteed safety, and the tension that was released like a thread were just a night’s dream to him.
‘…okay. If we take over the city this time, we’ll have to make a big splash. I have to go to Mitter Regerant. I can’t speak the language, but as long as I have enough gold…’
Around the time Torvald’s plan to settle in the new land was roughly completed, the bandits arrived at their destination.
“Do you mind if I open it, Mr. Torvald?”
“I asked something and sat down. Catch it quickly.”
“yep.”
Eight men, including Bald, began to fumble along the walls of the sewer as if they had waited.
Shining a torch like that, he looked for a crack in the wall and pulled out an iron nail the length of his palm.
When the number of iron nails pulled out reached twelve, Torvald, who had been leaning his back against the wall in silence, suddenly shouted in a low voice.
“Shh! Everyone stop!”
His subordinates, who were poised to tear off the stone wall, immediately stopped moving.
As Torvald rolled his eyes and drew a knife from his waistband, the bald man asked in a whispering voice.
“Is it Rat Man?”
“No, not Rat Man.”
Noticing Torvald’s eyes glowing with tension, the bald head frowned for a moment, then whispered again.
“Wouldn’t it be better to just move on? If you work in a hurry, it will close in an instant…”
“No, no.”
Torvald’s eyes brightened sharply, and he took out a small glass bottle from his bosom.
“You might get stepped on. Everyone turn off the torches.”
The bald head, reading the firmness in Torvald’s expression, pulled out a dagger from behind his back.
The other bandits who saw it threw torches into the central aqueduct and took out their own weapons.
The passage of the sewer where the nine men were holding out fell into silence.
The bandits didn’t move, only rolling their eyes and scanning all directions.
The iris grew as it grew, but it was difficult to secure the field of vision in the basement where no light entered.
Torvald knew that too, so he quickly drank the contents of the vial. Then his eyes began to glow light green and see through the darkness.
However, despite such an arrangement, light began to flicker along with the faint sound of footsteps beyond the dark passage.
Bubbly.
“When Tsut
Torvald let out a short wind noise, he cautiously moved in the direction from which the presence of four horsemen, led by the bald head, was heard.
The bandits stopped at the corner and waited for the owner of the presence with bated breath.
However, the sound of footsteps was slow enough to be frustrating.
Thanks to this, Bald was able to count the number of people approaching and was soon convinced that there were three of them.
“Tschut
Torvald must have noticed this as well, so he sent a signal to two of his subordinates nearby and joined them on the bald side.
Now, the number of magicians lurking around the corner is six. It was a task that two people would have to deal with one by one, aiming for the moment when they turned the corner.
At that moment, a sudden sound
was heard from behind.
Wedge juice puck!
“Damn it!”
One of the two bandits next to Torvald collapsed with a painful groan. An arrowhead was sticking out of his chest.
Torvald looked back with a stunned expression and shouted.
“It’s after this shit!”
As he shouted, a fireball flew from behind. The ball of fire clattered at Torvald’s feet and started a huge flame.
Roaring!
“What the hell is this!”
“be careful! Stay seated!”
In the eyes of the magicians, what looked like a fireball was a lit Molotov cocktail. As the scarlet flame drove away the darkness, the Wen In Young appeared.
“Ouch! What is that!”
The magician who discovered In-young screamed at the grotesque appearance.
The human figure, holding a sword and shield, was running at a furious speed with her body as low as possible. His unhuman movements and long bloody eyes were bizarre, but what was even more strange was his outfit.
He wore an iron helmet, but his upper body was naked, and he wore Vambraces and shin guards, but his feet were bare. In addition to that, the human figure’s sword was glistening dark red as if it had been soaked in blood.
“ 0 O 99
—= 7*
Torvald’s vision was confused with green and red lights mingling here and there because of the sudden spark.
While Torvald, embarrassed, blinked his eyes a couple of times, the human figure rushed in like a beast and swung his sword to decapitate the demon by his side.
Suck it!
“Damn it!”
Meanwhile, Torvald, who had regained sight, threw a knife at the bizarre assailant.
However, the assailant took Torvald’s arming sword with his shield and stepped back.
Wedge liquid!
As if waiting, another arrow landed on Torvald.
w_k 99
Torvald was so talented that he pretended to be an executive in a large gang of bandits.
Thanks to that, I managed to twist my shoulder to dodge the arrow flying in the dark.
Fu-wook!
I was stabbed in the side with a knife.
The assailant with animal-like movements was aiming for an opening and attacked.
“Hey nigga-”
Torvald cursed at the terrifying pain in his side.
He desperately drew down his arming sword, but the assailant deflected the attack with his shield again and swung his sword again.
The ‘Pulsion of Lion’s Tooth’, no, the ‘Lion’s Fang Sword’, which had the blood of a blood knight, sprinkled a magical light.
Wow.
‘Torvald the Fast-footed’, whose head was split, fell helplessly to the ground.