At Natasha’s frigid tone, the three mercenaries turned their heads.
The hulking mercenary leered at Natasha from head to toe, then sneered with a flash of yellow teeth as his gaze fell on Mona’s slight frame standing behind her.
Natasha snatched a stick rolling on the ground, and her figure vanished in an instant.
She cracked the stick down across the hulking mercenary’s arm, seized him by the collar, and threw him forward over her shoulder.
Startled by her terrifying skill, the remaining two mercenaries fumbled in panic.
Natasha didn’t miss the opening. She rammed the stick into the second mercenary’s side and swept her foot behind his knee while he was still stumbling.
The last man lunged at her back, but without even turning to look, she stomped the instep of his foot, pivoted smoothly, and struck hard into his ribs.
While Natasha handled the two, however, the hulking mercenary who had fallen to the ground staggered back up to his feet.
A seasoned thug with a tough hide, he aimed straight for the young girl behind the old merchant to take her hostage.
With a wicked sneer, the brute reached out for the child.
Hiss—!
A sharp spray hissed through the air, and the hulking mercenary clutched his face with both hands, screaming in agony.
Mona, having stepped in front of the little girl, had unloaded a wild stream of tear-gas reagent straight into his face.
Having completely overlooked Mona, the mercenary rolled on the ground, thrashing and clawing at his burning eyes.
“…!”
Natasha glanced at Mona in mild surprise, then grabbed the other two mercenaries by their hair and slammed their heads together.
With a dull thud like smashing watermelons, the two men collapsed limply.
Then Natasha stomped her heel straight into the solar plexus of the thrashing brute, knocking him out cold.
With the brawl wrapped up in seconds, the old merchant and the child bowed repeatedly before hastily gathering their scattered wares from the dirt.
Natasha peeled off her soiled leather gloves to shake off the disgusting sensation of gripping the greasy hair, casting a sidelong look at Mona.
Mona had tossed and groaned in her sleep like a frail, delicate scholar, yet here she was shielding a child without hesitation.
She had even deployed an offensive reagent at the exact right moment like a combat alchemist, which caught Natasha pleasantly off guard.
Natasha gave a faint smile.
Mona’s gaze drifted toward the mercenaries foaming at the mouth on the cobblestones.
Natasha’s expression turned frosty.
She had purposely gone around unarmed outside the castle to avoid intimidating the small territory’s populace.
Yet here were rough, menacing mercenaries parading through town without reason.
Something smelled foul.
***
Grok Troben, the lord of the land hosting the survey team, pressed the leader of the Black Fang mercenary troupe in a raspy, frantic voice.
About a week ago.
The lord had covertly summoned a mercenary troupe of decent renown from the west to dispose of a monster that had appeared in a cavern near the hill.
It was all to keep the imperial survey team stationed in his territory.
The lord had collected a bounty from the imperial family for offering the abandoned hill as their base camp, along with grant money under the pretext of supporting the expedition.
The trouble was that he had signed the contract with the imperial family while concealing rumors of the monster lurking in the nearby cave.
If he reported those rumors to the imperial court?
They would cite safety hazards, relocate their base camp elsewhere, and cancel the agreement.
‘I’ve already splurged on fine porcelain and expensive rugs…. I can’t pay a penalty fee!’
Fortunately, the monster had caused no trouble so far.
So he assumed it would be enough to hire mercenaries behind the imperial family’s back and quietly get rid of it.
Yet the mercenaries he had spent good coin on proved far slower than promised.
The survey team had already arrived, but the mercenary captain had still failed to fulfill the contract, driving the lord into a frenzy.
The rough-looking mercenary captain, bearded and heavily scarred, dug at his ear with a twisted sneer.
The captain barked savagely, reeking of bloodlust as he backed the lord into a corner.
Triple the reward….
Even so, it was far cheaper than paying the imperial penalty fee.
The lord’s expression shifted slyly.
“…Hmph.”
The mercenary captain uncrossed his arms, his scowl softening slightly.
Right then.
Crash—!!
With a deafening explosion, one of the doors to the lord’s solar was blown off its hinges and slammed into the opposite wall.
When Rihart appeared, dragging three battered mercenaries behind him, the faces of the lord and the captain drained of color.
The lord knew little about Rihart’s specific identity.
He only knew he belonged to the Imperial Knights, but that alone was more than enough to terrify the ruler of a minor territory.
However, the mercenary captain, having seen countless blowhards strutting about their ties to the Imperial Knights, flared up in anger.
Glaring murderously, the captain stomped toward Rihart, only to freeze mid-step.
“…Urgh!”
He hadn’t chosen to halt.
Bizarrely, his body, gripped by raw terror, refused to take another step forward.
The man hadn’t even drawn a blade; he was merely looking at him, yet his throat tightened suffocatingly and his limbs locked up like stone.
Forty years of scraping by as a mercenary, and he had never felt such a bloodcurdling sensation….
His knees buckled, and the trembling captain collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath.
Rihart pulled his gaze away from the cowering mercenary captain and turned toward the lord.
Drenched in cold sweat, the lord looked on the verge of frothing at the mouth under the oppressive, suffocating pressure.
It was not a question; it was a verdict.
Rihart’s lips curled in a cold sneer.
He called for the official dispatched from the capital.
Henry, the imperial official tasked with logistical support for the survey team, had gone pale as a ghost over the local lord’s recklessness.
Issuing his command, Rihart stepped past the shattered door and called out to Dominic, who was waiting in the hallway.
He held no fondness for this territory, but the base camp was already settled.
To prevent disaster, the beasts lurking in the nearby cave had to be put down swiftly.
Yet just as Rihart and Dominic stepped out of the lord’s castle, a woman in a black robe came rushing up to them.
The monster scholar who had a peculiar habit of grating on his nerves.
…Mona Bellose.
“M-May I come along?”
