Chapter 62

Chapter 62. Dunmore (4)

It was the dead of night. Darkness had fallen over the entire Bled Mountain Range, yet the bandit village inside the valley hidden within the mountains was not ruled by darkness.

It was because of the torches planted between the wooden fence and the houses.

The bright light of the torches was announcing the village’s existence in every direction, but the bandits were not especially worried that their base would be discovered. They knew well that the valley’s distinctive terrain, sunken inward and blocked off on all sides, kept the light from leaking outside.

Even so, the bandits still put effort into maintaining secrecy, even going so far as to place a magical barrier around the area. The reason was that this natural fortress did not stop the smoke from rising.

As always, tonight was no different now that darkness had fully settled.

Amid the low sounds of insects chirping and the stream running through the valley, two men assigned to barrier duty for the safety inspection were making a round of the village with torches in hand, yawning widely and dragging their worn leather shoes.

Their voices faintly echoed through the bandit village buried in silence.

“Haah, I am so tired I could die. Can we not just do this roughly and go back in?”

“We cannot, sir. You know our captain will kill us if we get caught doing a sloppy job.”

“Hah, seriously. He is ridiculously strict. We will not get caught anyway.”

“Stop whining, and let us hurry up and go back in. That way, we can sleep even a little more.”

“That is true, but did you just tell me to stop whining? To your senior, who is like the sky above you?”

“Oh, come now. How much difference is there between us? You are only six months ahead of me, sir.”

“Hah, this bastard has gotten ridiculously insolent. Six months is usually enough that you would not even dare look your senior in the face. I am only going easy on you because it is me. Understand?”

“Yes, yes. I understand, so let us hurry up and go back in.”

The two bandits, who had been exchanging words back and forth, soon stood in front of a pillar erected inside the village fence. Then they took out a blue orb slightly larger than a fist from their clothes and brought it to the upright pillar.

Then something surprising happened. The blue orb flickered as if blinking, then began to emit blue light.

The blue light seemed to spread from the orb and wrap around the pillar, but soon lost its strength and fizzled out.

The two bandits’ eyes widened at the sight.

They instinctively realized that something had gone wrong.

“What the hell? Why is this happening?”

“I know, sir. Why is it not working?”

“Try again. Did you do it wrong?”

“It is the same no matter how many times I try.”

Normally, this pillar, which formed one axis of the barrier, should have absorbed the light completely.

But this was not absorbing it. It was outright rejecting the light.

That meant only one thing.

Damage to the barrier.

“Hey, hurry up and run over there. Wake the Vice-Captain. Quickly!”

“Yes, sir!”

After confirming that his subordinate had run off behind him, he immediately turned and ran deeper into the village.

No, he tried to run.

WHOOSH!

STAB!

“Gah!”

His eyes bulged at the sharp pain stabbing into his back.

When he lowered his gaze, he saw the tip of a blade jutting out very slightly from his chest.

‘An intruder……!’

He tried to open his mouth right away, but no sound came out. Even when he tried to breathe in, it felt as though his lungs would not move.

Soon, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground without uttering a single word.

Through his slowly closing eyelids, he ended up seeing it. Behind the junior bandit running toward the Vice-Captain’s quarters, a large, muscular man charged forward and swung an axe.

‘How did he get inside……?’

Before his thought could even finish, his eyelids closed, and his head sank into the ground. Through ears that had not yet fully shut, all he heard was the horrifying sound of an axe cutting through flesh and bone in a single stroke.

***

STAB!

“Ghk!”

Along with a death cry, the sound of a bandit who had been standing guard collapsing to the ground rang out.

The torchlight was too faint for him to tell whether the man was dead or alive, but Balun did not try to confirm it. Before he threw it, the sensation of the dagger in his fingertips had assured him that it had struck true.

Including the first two men he had killed and the two men on patrol duty after that, he had eliminated four bandits in less than a minute. Even so, Balun was not satisfied. There were still four more men on duty.

‘No, what kind of insane bandits assign guards this tightly?’

Two men on watchtower guard duty, four on patrol duty, and two men fiddling with pillars that radiated a great deal of mana. In total, eight bandits had stood guard.

And since he had confirmed that the guards had changed five times throughout the early dawn, that meant a total of forty-eight guards had been thoroughly responsible for the early morning hours.

It was enough to make him wonder whether these were bandits or soldiers, but what could he do? Even if the guard was strict, he had to get it done.

“Huh? What is th……?”

He saw a bandit walking ahead with a torch. Perhaps because of the death cry the dead bandit had let out, the man turned his head in this direction.

Before the man could recognize him, Balun hurled Blue Moon.

WHOOSH!

CRACK!

Blue Moon flew through the air and smashed the head of the isolated patrol guard.

Balun quickly ran over, retrieved Blue Moon, and used it to slit the throat of the man who had discovered him and was about to shout.

SLASH!

“Ghk!”

‘Two left.’

Balun’s eyes moved to the watchtower located at the village entrance.

He saw two bandits standing on top of the watchtower, blankly staring outside the village.

If he killed those two, the men on guard duty would be completely finished. Then he only had to enter the house where the boss was staying and kill him.

Of course, by that point, his infiltration would be discovered, but that did not matter. If he eliminated the boss, their chain of command would collapse.

Balun took two daggers from his waist. Holding them in his hands, he took a deep breath and stared at the two bandits on the watchtower. Then he hypnotized himself.

‘Balun. Remember this. You have to kill both of them at the same time. Absolutely at the same time. Otherwise, you will be discovered.’

He fiddled with the handles. Feeling the rough texture of the grips, he flung the daggers.

He had two daggers left. If these missed, he would have no more daggers to throw.

WHOOSH!

The two daggers that flew from Balun’s hands lodged in the chests of the two bandits on the watchtower at the same time.

‘I hit them!’

Instant deaths. There was no need to check. Balun moved without confirming the two men’s deaths. His target was the boss’s house.

He had already identified its location. The boss was a middle-aged man with a slender build and an impressive close-cropped head, and he lived in the deepest part of this bandit village.

Since more than a hundred people lived there, the village was rather large, but it was quiet and covered in darkness. As long as he moved stealthily while silencing his footsteps, there was no reason for him to be discovered.

He had already killed all eight bandits who had been standing guard, so what was there to hesitate over?

As he approached the house, he heard loud snoring. The man was clearly asleep.

However, Balun did not rashly go inside. It was because he felt that something was strange.

Balun listened without moving in the slightest. Only after listening to the loud snoring for about ten minutes did he become certain.

‘He is not asleep.’

The rhythm of the snoring was far too regular. For the entire ten minutes, no less.

Of course, he could not determine whether someone was pretending to sleep based on that alone, but Balun was certain that the owner of this snoring was pretending.

‘It is bait. He has noticed my presence.’

Balun’s thoughts grew complicated. There should have been no way for him to be discovered, so how had the man noticed? If he had truly noticed, why had he stayed still without showing any sign of it, even after eight of his subordinates had died?

Countless thoughts crossed his mind, but none of it mattered much. He would have been discovered eventually anyway.

The fact that he, who had no talent for assassination, had managed to deal with all the sentries was enough to make the operation meaningful.

Thanks to that, he had managed to get this close to the boss.

‘If he is pretending to sleep, that means he is waiting for me to sneak closer. In that case…….’

Resolution settled over Balun’s face.

‘I might as well use a frontal approach.’

Balun took a deep breath. The mana sleeping in his bones and muscles exerted its strength, and Balun’s muscles swelled. He felt power beyond the limits of humanity clamoring as if it would burst out at any moment.

But Balun was not satisfied with that. He put even more strength into his entire body. Then the muscles that had swollen like balloons began to compress.

He had entered his Awakened State.

Power filled his whole body. His senses began to awaken. Despite the darkness that had fallen, everything even felt bright.

“Hooop.”

Imagining that he was loading the power that was rampaging wildly into his feet, Balun stomped down on the ground with all his might.

BOOOOM!

The ground shook. From the vibration, the log cabins built from wood began to creak and tremble along with it.

BOOOOM!

He stomped once more. As the shaking overlapped, something astonishing happened.

Fine cracks appeared in the ground.

CRAAACK!

As he kept stomping, the ground finally began to split.

After confirming that the logs forming the house had broken, Balun charged into the house with a body slam, drew Black Moon, and swung it immediately.

CRASH!

He missed. Had his senses been wrong?

No, that was not it. The man had definitely been here. If he had still missed, that meant the man had dodged.

Despite the fact that he should have been disoriented by this violent shaking.

In that instant, the back of Balun’s neck prickled. Balun twisted his body. A gleaming blade scraped through the air where Balun’s face had been.

“What a shame. If not for that strange ground-shaking technique, I would have killed you.”

Balun turned his head at someone’s mutter. It was a middle-aged man.

He was wearing loose clothing that looked like sleepwear, holding daggers in both hands as he stared fixedly at Balun.

Balun asked him, “Since when did you know?”

“From the beginning.”

“What beginning?”

“I receive an alert when the barrier is damaged.”

“So that was it.”

Balun clicked his tongue. That meant the man had known even before he killed the bandits on guard duty. In other words, he had been discovered the moment he secretly broke those mysterious magical devices.

“Why did you not get up? You could have informed your subordinates earlier.”

“It could not be helped. Sacrifices are inevitable when catching the strong.”

“Even if that means sacrificing eight subordinates?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know me?”

“No.”

“Then how did you decide that I was strong?”

“The fact that you infiltrated this place and still were not discovered is itself proof that you are not some rabble.”

Balun looked into the boss’s eyes as he spoke. There was not the slightest wavering in them. He could not see even a hint of fear.

After seeing those eyes, Balun became certain.

“You are not just a bandit.”

“Why do you think that?”

“It makes no sense for someone with eyes like yours to be an ordinary bandit boss.”

“That is a reasonable point, but could your thought not be wrong? There are all sorts of thieves in this world who became criminals for all sorts of reasons. Among them, there are quite a few mages and knights who once had considerable names.”

“Are you saying you were a Former Knight?”

“That is right. You understand quickly. I had to flee because of an unfortunate incident, but I was certainly a knight.”

Balun let out a snort. Who was this bastard trying to fool? Had Balun not watched them for three whole days?

“Are you telling me to believe that?”

“What is there that you cannot believe?”

“I have no choice but to disbelieve it. There is too much evidence.”

Balun had vaguely expected it too. These people were not ordinary bandits.

Had he not seen it while coming up? Their equipment was far too well-prepared for bandits, but more than that, their movements were too orderly and systematic.

The way they orderly took charge of their own areas, searched quickly and precisely, then withdrew at once, as if they knew exactly what they had to do.

That was absolutely not the skill of mere bandit trash.

The suspicions Balun had begun to feel then had become certainty through three days of observation.

The uniformity of their identical equipment without a single exception, their excessively tight and thorough guard duty, the tactical placement of that guard duty, their extremely clear hierarchy, the firmly established order within the village, and even the distinctive turns of phrase that occasionally slipped out, revealing an origin they could not hide.

“You are soldiers.”

“What?”

“Not just you. All of you.”

At Balun’s confident words, the corners of the bandit boss’s mouth, which had been slightly lifted, lowered faintly.

“Why do you think that?”

“Bandits would not complain about how long they have to keep doing this damned duty here.”

At Balun’s words, the corners of the boss’s mouth twisted grotesquely.

With obvious displeasure, he spoke as though suppressing his voice.

“Those foolish bastards. I told them so many times not to make it obvious.”

“There is no need to scold them. I have already killed them.”

“Thank you. You saved me the trouble.”

The boss soon smiled.

“Well, it does not particularly matter. You will die here anyway. I cannot let someone who has learned our true identity leave alive.”

At those words, Balun tilted his head.

‘True identity?’

He had merely asked if they were soldiers, so why was the man reacting like that? As if something had struck a nerve.

Could there be something else hidden?

“I will kill you.”

In that instant, a chillingly sharp aura began to flow from the boss’s body.

When Balun saw that aura become tangible and flow out from the twin daggers the man held in the form of blue light, he was suddenly frightened.

The Aura he felt from the daggers was too dense.

Feeling as though he must not let that attack be unleashed as it was, Balun swung Black Moon with all his might. His tightly compressed muscles exerted their power.

SPLIT!

The boss, his eyes thick with killing intent, was split cleanly in half.

“Huh?”

Balun’s expression turned awkward.

‘Damn it, control your strength!’

The man had died. It seemed Balun had accidentally put too much force into the attack.

‘I was going to extract more information before killing him!’

No, after acting so imposing, why had he died so easily?

It was utterly regrettable, but Balun could not stand around stamping his feet.

Because every bandit in the village had awakened.

And they were all armed with shortswords and bows.