Translator: Nox

Chapter 34

“This makes me so sick I feel like throwing up.”

In truth, the word ‘wound’ didn’t even fit. If one had to find a more appropriate term, perhaps ‘mutilation’ would suffice.

Despite saying he felt like vomiting, the man with the snake tattoo growled as he crushed the head of a man whose scalp had been entirely torn away.

“Say something, you son of a bitch.”

The victim’s remaining eye rolled back, showing only the white.

“How many of you bastards are under Oscar von Reinhardt? Where are the rest of you? Huh?”

Only a sound like scraping iron leaked from a throat melted by boiling water.

The man with the snake tattoo clicked his tongue sharply at the sight. After mockingly tapping the victim’s head with his fingertips, he turned his gaze toward another Wolf lying slumped nearby.

There was no point in weighing who was more damaged in this situation, but if one had to judge, that one was worse. He lay limp, shivering intermittently, looking as if he would drop dead any second.

The subordinate performing the torture nodded, signaling that the man was on the verge of death.

The snake-tattooed man licked his lips and flicked his finger. The man who had opened the iron door hurried over and bowed his head. The tattooed man stroked the subordinate’s hair as if petting a dog while giving his command.

“Bring the dogs.”

“You mean the hounds, sir?”

“Yeah. Once those things got a taste of human flesh, they won’t eat anything else.”

“Shall I release them at once, or—ugh!”

The snake-tattooed man suddenly gripped the hair he had been stroking. He pulled the subordinate’s distorted face close to his own and whispered.

“We have to get permission from the Chairman first. If something goes wrong after feeding them without his word, can you take responsibility?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Let’s be smart about this. Smart.”

The snake-tattooed man shook his head and walked out of the torture chamber.

Outside the chamber lay an endlessly long corridor, decorated with startling elegance.

Marble, which had been the exclusive property of the nobility until half a century ago, was spread across the floor, and the walls were adorned with paintings depicting famous scenes from mythology. Natural crystal chandeliers hung overhead, and porcelain vases imported from the East lined both sides of the hallway.

The man with the snake tattoo, the vice-commander of the Beta Mercenary Corps, currently referred to his superior and the commander of the corps by a specific title.

“Where is the Chairman?”

“He hasn’t come out since he entered his office, sir.”

He crossed the hallway with a leisurely smile.

The feeling of stepping on marble was always pleasant. It wasn’t for nothing that the nobles loved it so much.

The world was changing.

An era where a commoner with money was better than some penniless noble. The day when wealth overwhelmed status had finally arrived.

This particular job was said to be an order directly from the King of Luxen. If they handled this well and gained the King’s trust, wouldn’t they become the new nobility themselves? To keep pace with the rapidly changing times, they planned to discard the vulgar name ‘Beta Mercenary Corps’ next month and launch the ‘Beta Group.’

Regardless, they had to resolve this matter successfully.

It was a bit unsettling to be killing those affiliated with Reinhardt, but according to the mercenary corps’ intelligence team, the number of armed forces within the Marquis’s house would not exceed three hundred at most.

It was surprising that a mere noble family, not even royalty, possessed a secret force of three hundred. However, in the world of mercenaries, a group of three hundred wasn’t even enough to justify the name of a corps.

“Chairman!”

When he opened the heavy wooden doors, a room revealed itself, filled with a gaudy assortment of various tastes. The Chairman was sitting on a sofa facing the window. The Chairman’s feet were visible beneath the high back of the sofa.

“Aie, they’re stubborn. Both of them have been turned into idiots, but they won’t open their mouths.”

“…….”

“The dogs are starving and going wild. …Shall I feed them?”

The Chairman did not answer.

“I’m sorry, Chairman. But what can I do if they won’t talk? Besides, you said it’s fine if they die.”

“…….”

“…Chairman?”

“…….”

The silence shifted into an ominous foreboding.

The man’s leisurely expression flipped instantly to one of coldness. He lunged from his spot toward the Chairman.

“……!”

There was no need to call for him. A blue-bladed dagger was embedded in the center of his forehead.

A chilling shiver ran down the man’s spine to his toes.

The Chairman had been literally hacked to death. It was strange that the amount of blood spilled was small compared to how much his body had been mangled, but that wasn’t what mattered.

“Aaaakh!”

The moment a death cry echoed from somewhere, the man violently wrenched the dagger from the Chairman’s forehead and stormed out of the office.

“Those sons of bitches!”

At the man’s enraged roar, mercenaries poured out from all directions.

However, the Chairman’s death and that single scream were only the beginning.

The sound of clashing steel, screams, and geysers of blood suddenly descended upon the Beta Mercenary Corps’ headquarters like a torrential rain sweeping everything away.

---

A hill where dry grass grew haphazardly.

“We heard from the search team.”

Simon reported to Oscar, who stood staring down at the Beta Mercenary Corps’ headquarters.

“They found the mercenary leader, but he is already dead.”

Oscar’s dry laughter drifted through the air like a parched wind. Simon moistened his lips with his tongue and reported the next piece of news.

“And they have secured the locations of the Team 3-2 Intelligence Leader and Deputy Leader.”

“Their condition?”

“They say recovery seems impossible.”

Before Simon could finish his sentence, Oscar began descending the hill. A Combat Team surrounding him moved like silent shadows.

The wind tore roughly through his hair. His hair, as black as a moonless night, disarrayed itself and obscured his vision. He applied strength to his hand as he swept his hair back.

Normally, in a siege, it was said that the one trying to break the walls must have three times the forces of the one defending to stand a chance. However, that was assuming the capabilities of both forces were similar.

As the search team that had secretly infiltrated launched a surprise attack from within, the Combat Team outside broke through the headquarters with overwhelming power. The mercenary corps began to waver in utter chaos.

“Aaaaaagh!”

The closer they got to the headquarters, the thicker the scent of blood and slaughter became in the air. When Simon, who followed at Oscar’s side, signaled behind him at a certain point, the men following like shadows moved to flank Oscar.

Oscar, whose face had been expressionless throughout, curled his lip into a sneer the moment he stepped into the mercenary headquarters. A smell of blood-stained money wafted from the vulgarly gilded entrance.

As Oscar stepped through the doors held wide open for him, the search team waiting inside approached as if they had been expecting him.

The rage of the Wolves could be felt in the air circulating within the headquarters. Licking the scent of slaughter and the metallic taste of blood, he followed the search team down the stairs, where a hallway as opulent as a wing of the Royal Palace revealed itself.

The corridor, lined with crystals, marble, and oriental porcelain vases, was nearly filled with mercenaries holding swords. Seeing this, Simon immediately looked back at Oscar.

He was about to ask if Oscar would like to step back for a moment, but Oscar only swept his hair back with a cruel expression. Simon silently tightened the buckles of his leather gloves.

Just then, one of the mercenaries laughed exaggeratedly and hurled an insult.

“Damn, is this a ballroom? Shirts, jackets, and dress shoes.”

The mercenaries erupted into boisterous laughter.

However, the Wolves did not laugh.

Their silence overwhelmed the mercenaries’ laughter in an instant. In the place where the laughter vanished, silence settled like frost, and it was the mercenaries who could not endure it.

“Kill them all!”

At that moment, the stalemate broke.

“Kill!”

“Aaaaaah!”

Shouts intended to overcome fear shook the delicate crystals.

The Wolves, led by Oscar, took a step forward.

And then,

A one-sided slaughter began.

The Wolves, moving a step ahead of Oscar, swung their fists at the mercenaries charging with blue-tinted blades. Oscar walked along the path they cleared.

“Die!”

A mercenary lunged with eyes filled with madness and fear. Seeing those eyes, Oscar felt the demon he had barely kept caged inside begin to stride out.