Chapter 24

Chapter 24. Wolf Blade (1)

Even when faced with something he had never expected, Balun’s expression did not break. The life he had lived had been far too turbulent for him to show panic over something like this.

How many desperate battles to the death had he fought? How many enemies had he cut down? Compared to all that, this kind of threat was child’s play.

Balun repeated that to himself. He felt it was the only way he could stay calm.

“I do not know what you are talking about. I lied? Me?”

“Yes.”

“What lie?”

“The lie that you did not commission Seria to make arms and armor for you.”

The man continued,

“I will give you a chance to explain yourself, barbarian who has cast aside honor. Go on. I am curious to hear what excuse you come up with.”

Balun let out a faint laugh. The whole thing was absurd.

Who was this man to talk about giving him a chance to explain himself?

“That was not a lie.”

“What?”

Absurd as it was, Balun answered anyway.

There was the slightest chance this could still be resolved with words.

The fact that the man had not immediately drawn his sword had to mean he was willing to settle this in a civilized way.

“Balun really did not lie. Balun did not commission arms and armor.”

The corner of the robed man’s mouth twisted.

“You are a funny Barbarian. I came straight from confirming that Seria has already begun forging your equipment. There were people who heard you talking with her as well. There is evidence everywhere, and you still plan to deny it?”

“You checked well. That part is true. Seria did agree to make an axe for Balun.”

“I knew it....”

“But that is not a business deal. It is a gift Seria is giving Balun.”

The robed man’s brows twisted.

“A gift?”

“Yes. Seria is Balun’s friend. Balun is receiving a weapon from a friend.”

From this moment on, Seria had become a friend in Balun’s heart.

If someone gave him a good weapon as a gift, then that made them a friend.

“Is receiving a gift a crime? Is that why you are doing this?”

“You are trying a cheap trick. Do you expect me to believe that?”

“What happens if you believe it, and what happens if you do not? If you believe it, will you let me go? If you do not, will you drag me away?”

“It does not matter whether I believe it or not. The moment you met Seria, you had already fallen out of favor with Wolf Blade.”

Balun let out a hollow laugh. What was this? The man had already decided the answer before asking.

“No one other than us is allowed to do business with Seria. That is the order of Pordel.”

“Why? Are you soldiers? Do you have authority?”

“Being a soldier is not what allows one to create order. Those with power create order.”

“Then are you men with power?”

“Yes.”

“Then if you fought soldiers, would you win?”

“Is that not obvious?”

Balun parted his lips slightly. Where did that confidence come from?

“Would that not count as treason? Can I go tell the Lord about that?”

“You are talking nonsense. The Lord is backing us. Of course it would be pointless.”

“Then is your will the Lord’s will? Is threatening Grand Smith Seria and interfering with her livelihood the Lord’s will? Threatening one of the only ten craftsmen like her?”

“That is right. Naturally that would.... Mm.”

The robed man stopped in the middle of speaking. Then he shook his head hard.

Why in the world was he being led around by the words of some barbarian bastard?

“Do not muddy the issue with pointless talk. What matters is that you disrupted the order of Pordel.”

Balun clicked his tongue softly.

What a shame. He had almost led him all the way into it.

“No matter why you met her, that does not matter. The fact remains that Seria is forging equipment for you.”

“Then why ask in the first place? Was it not a meaningless question anyway?”

“I wondered whether you might have some legitimate excuse. But you did not. You only rattled off ridiculous nonsense.”

The robed man smiled unpleasantly and continued,

“What? You expect me to believe that that insane woman, with standards as high as the sky, is making equipment for you as a gift?”

“You should believe it. It is true.”

“You are ridiculous.”

No, it really was true.

Had these people spent their whole lives being deceived?

“You deceived us. You deserve to die. In any case, even if a primitive Barbarian like you dies, there will be no one to mourn you, so it hardly matters.”

“....”

“Take him.”

The robed man flicked his hand. At once, the guests sitting around the first floor and lazily sipping beer began to rise and look toward Balun.

They were wearing the same robes as the scar-faced man. Balun saw their hands move toward the swords hanging beneath the folds of their robes.

‘So they were all part of the same pack.’

No wonder their clothes had looked so similar.

“Heh.”

Balun laughed.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because this is absurd.”

The absurdity of it made him laugh under his breath.

“Balun only tried to get a weapon. But you people tried to kill Balun for that. Is that right?”

“If you do not know, then you die. That is the law of the world.”

“The law. The law.”

At those words, the irritation rising inside him suddenly surged. A crushing sense of injustice exploded and scraped raw at his nerves.

‘Why do I have to be picked on by bastards like these?’

All he had done was try to live honestly, yet one threat to his life after another kept coming for him. Balun found it unbearably unfair.

He wanted to ask.

What grudge did this damned world have against him, to keep doing this?

Discrimination against Barbarians? Fine. He understood that. Barbarian discrimination supposedly had as long a history as discrimination against people of color, so what could he do? He just had to endure it.

Almost getting kidnapped? Fine. What could he expect from a savage world like this?

Balun had wanted to grow stronger precisely because he did not want to suffer things like that.

And that was why he had tried to get a new weapon.

But what now? Commissioning a blacksmith to make him a weapon was a crime?

‘Then what am I supposed to do? Stay weak?’

Was he supposed to throw away his weapon like an idiot every time he used Enhancement Art and fight barehanded? Really?

Fine. All right. He would even endure that. That was why he had decided to give it up and leave. Because his life mattered more.

And now they wanted to take even that life away from him?

“These fucking bastards.”

In the end, Balun spat out a curse. It felt as though there was no other way to vent the rage boiling inside him.

His entire body tensed on its own. He could not control the excitement surging through him. That excitement rose all the way to the top of his head, until it completely smothered the fear of the timid man he really was inside.

“The law. I like that. The law.”

Boom!

Muttering that, Balun stomped down hard with his right foot. In that instant, the mana sleeping in his muscles flared awake and distributed explosive strength through his body. The ground trembled in fine ripples, and the tables and chairs shook along with it.

Everyone on the first floor staggered.

“W-what?”

“What the...?”

Balun drew the hand axe from his waist and threw it at once. The robed man twisted his body sharply and dodged it.

In that opening, Balun charged him. The robed man drew the sword at his waist and thrust it toward Balun. At that instant, the muscles in both of Balun’s arms swelled thickly.

Balun caught the sword aimed at him with his bare hand and squeezed. With a loud crack, the blade snapped in two.

“Damn it!”

For the first time, the robed man panicked. He had never imagined Balun would snap a sword barehanded.

Naturally he had not. What kind of madman tried to grab a sword that had already been thrust at him?

And even if someone did grab it, no one would imagine they could break it.

“Did you say that if someone does not know, then they die? I will give those very words back to you.”

“You bastard, how can you have that much strength...?”

“You do not know, so die.”

Smash!

Balun’s fist slammed into the robed man’s face. With a sound like a watermelon bursting, a hole tore through the man’s skull.

Thud!

Without even managing to put up a proper fight, the robed man collapsed to the floor.

“...!”

“...!”

In an instant, the room fell silent. Shock flooded every face. He had punched straight through a man’s face?

“You said I cannot get my weapon made? Nonsense! Balun will not yield!”

“....”

“No one can force Balun! A warrior of the Red Fang does not kneel before injustice! Balun will face you!”

Balun roared at the top of his lungs. His booming voice, like the roar of a tiger, carried all the way outside the inn.

“Is there no one else? Are there only cowards here? Is that all you Wolf Blade bastards are?”

“What are you doing? Attack him!”

“Yes, sir!”

At the order, one of the men in the rear pulled out a long harpoon-like device and aimed it. Even in the middle of all that fury, Balun had a sudden flash of alarm.

‘Huh? That is...?’

Fwoosh!

A net shot out from the harpoon and came flying over him. It moved so fast he could not dodge.

“Tighten it!”

The man who had fired it cranked a lever with all his strength, and the net cinched around Balun. Balun thrashed wildly, but it would not budge.

He gathered all his strength. His forearms thickened even more.

“Whew, we finally got him.”

“I did not think we would have to bring this out....”

One man’s words cut off. His eyes widened in disbelief at what he was seeing.

Because, impossibly enough, Balun was tearing the net apart with sheer force.

Riiip!

He ripped at the net with his bulging arms using every ounce of strength he had, and the man was so shocked that he fell backward.

“Damn it! How can he tear that apart by force?”

This was a capture-net harpoon meant for hunting monsters. Which meant it was not something a human could tear apart with brute strength.

So how was this possible? Unless he had the strength of a troll, this made no sense.

“Forget capturing him alive, just kill him! Kill him now!”

The man who seemed to be their leader screamed at the top of his lungs. He had done it out of fear, but unfortunately for him, that only further enraged the beast before him.

Balun charged straight at him. The man nearly jumped out of his skin and swung his sword. Balun easily ducked under it, then drove his fist into the man’s chest.

Thump!

The man’s body shuddered violently, then crumpled to the floor.

He was not dead. Balun had deliberately held back.

He could use the same kind of blow that punched through a man’s face, but doing so consumed far too much stamina.

Of course, his enemies did not know that.

All they knew was the terror that the same attack might hit them next.

“Damn it!”

“You savage bastard, you will regret this!”

In the end, the frightened swordsmen fled for their lives. Left behind at the scene were only the corpse, still warm because it had not yet gone cold, and the wounded men groaning in pain.

Soon even those injured men staggered away.

Balun did not bother chasing them.

‘So I finally did it.’

Balun let out a long sigh.

There was nothing else he could have done. His rage had climbed all the way to the top of his head, and he had not been able to hold it back.

If there had been any other option left, he might have restrained himself, but now Balun had only one choice.

To fight back.

Riiip!

Balun tore a strip from the fallen man’s clothing and wiped the blood from his face.

Then he handed 2 gold to the innkeeper, who was trembling in the corner.

“Sorry. I caused trouble. Take this money.”

“I-it is all right! You do not have to give me anything!”

“No. I broke chairs. Buy new ones with this.”

“Th-thank you!”

“Can you heat some water? I want to bathe.”

“Yes!”

The innkeeper bowed repeatedly as he accepted the money, then hurried through a door in the corner.

Balun sat down in one of the chairs still standing and thought,

‘Now it really is war.’

He had harmed members of Wolf Blade. That meant they were now enemies.

Which meant he would have to fight them.

Of course, even now, there was still the option of running.

‘No. I should not run.’

His thinking had changed.

‘Things like this are obviously going to keep happening in the future. I cannot run every single time.’

Balun wanted to live well in a fine house and eat good food, not spend his life as a fugitive.

Why should he have to live so uneasily?

And more than anything else—the weapon.

He could not give that up.

‘Fine. Let us crash into this head-on. There is no reason I cannot do it.’

Balun clenched his fists tightly.

He was the one who had won countless battles. He was the one whose very name had been etched into the warriors of the great plains as a thing of fear. What in the world was there for him to fear?

‘Ah, but I still do not want to do this.’

To be honest, he was afraid.

“S-sir. The water is ready.”

The innkeeper’s sudden voice broke Balun out of his thoughts.

As Balun nodded and started toward the bath, another voice followed.

“Sir, that was magnificent.”

“Hm?”

It was the innkeeper.

“I mean when you killed Derek. It was truly satisfying to watch.”

Balun turned at that, wondering what he meant, and the innkeeper continued,

“To tell the truth, I had wanted to kill that bastard myself more than once. It has always been a bitter resentment of mine that I could not. ...It was truly satisfying. I mean that.”

So that scar-faced bastard’s name had been Derek.

Though those scars are gone now.

“Why was it satisfying? Did he torment you?”

“Yes. There is not a single merchant in Pordel who has not suffered because of them. They really are sons of bitches.”

The innkeeper continued speaking.

“Who do they think they are, forcing us to pay them protection money? They are not even the Lord!”

“Are you paying them taxes?”

“Yes! If they say they will overturn everything unless we pay a space fee, what are we supposed to do? Of course we pay!”

There was a deep bitterness in his face now.

“What about the guards? Do they not say anything?”

“No. It is useless. They are all in it together.”

I see.

Balun nodded. So this city had that kind of corruption.

‘Why are they all in it together? Are bribes changing hands?’

Or was it some kind of family enterprise? Maybe the guild was run by relatives or something.

“It is the same for that elf blacksmith. Honestly, what wrong did that woman ever do? Why do they make her life so miserable?”

Watching the innkeeper, who had once been trembling but was now speaking with growing excitement, Balun thought,

‘They really must be utter bastards. If even small business owners are talking like this.’

Otherwise, why would he be cheering on a monster who had just killed someone right in front of him?

‘Then again, if I were being taxed twice, I would probably think it was bullshit too.’

“Anyway, sir, please be careful. Those bastards are not going to leave this alone. Frankly, running right now might not be a bad idea. I know a secret way out. I can guide you.”

“Balun will not run.”

‘No, stop tempting me.’

It felt like he might actually change his mind.

“Balun is strong. Balun will beat them all. Balun can crush them all.”

“Ohh!”

That was a lie.

The truth was, he had no confidence at all.

They were supposedly one of the powers of the city, so how was he supposed to wipe them all out alone?

‘Ha. Did I mess up? Should I not have done that after all?’

Even after displaying such overwhelming might, Balun’s insides were rotting with anxiety.

“Mercenary sir! Stay strong! I will be cheering for you!”

‘No, do not cheer either.’

It only made his heart feel heavier.

“Haha! Just believe in Balun! Escape the double taxation of hell!”

Unlike his true feelings, Balun puffed himself up and shouted boldly.

Because in front of someone looking up at him with eyes full of expectation, pretending to be weak felt unbearably shameful.