Chapter 76

Chapter 76. It Will Not Even Take Five Minutes

The darkness of the city was not a serious problem for Balun. He had fought a life-or-death battle in the forest in the dead of night, so what trouble could darkness of this level possibly pose?

A forest at night was a darkness in which nothing could be seen, but the darkness within a city was not that pitch-black. All sorts of conveniences of civilization cast small lights here and there.

The area around Balun was proof enough. The narrow alley and the houses on either side reflected the moonlight, giving off a faint glow, and from the tavern beyond the alley, lamplight spread gently, mingling with the low sound of idle chatter.

That was not all. The smithy across from the tavern was bright enough to be called radiant. The sound of hammering iron seemed to reach all the way over to him, carrying heat along with it.

Thanks to those countless lights, Balun had no difficulty chasing the bastard who had directed killing intent at him in the darkness.

Grab!

“Ghk!”

Balun grabbed the back of the man’s neck, seized him by the collar, and lifted him into the air. The man, suddenly caught by the throat, dangled in midair and gagged in agony. Perhaps his left arm had been struck by the thrown axe, because blood dripped steadily from beneath it.

“What are you?”

“Why are you chasing me? What did I do wrong?”

“Why did you try to kill me?”

“What? What did I do? I was just walking down the street….”

Whack!

“Ghk!”

“Do not lie. It will not work. I will ask again. Why did you try to kill me?”

“I am telling the truth! I was just trying to go down the street….”

Crack!

“Aaaargh!”

The man whose arm had been twisted screamed sharply, but the sound did not spread. That was because Balun covered his mouth hard at the same time he twisted his arm.

Even so, some of the sound leaked out, but unfortunately for him, it could not escape beyond the alley and was buried in the darkness.

“I will ask one more time. If you do not answer this time, I will cut off a finger. If you still do not answer after that, I suppose I will cut off two. Answer me if you do not want to become a cripple without hands or feet. Why did you try to kill me?”

“Ugh, w-well…”

“That will not do.”

“An errand! It was an errand!”

“An errand?”

“Yes! Someone told me to follow you! That is all! Krrgh!”

Tears streamed down the man’s face. Balun slowly lowered Crimson Moon, which he had raised, but the suspicion in his eyes did not fade. There was still a question that had not been answered.

“Then why did you direct killing intent at me?”

“K-killing intent? When did I…”

“You were clearly trying to kill me.”

“I told you, I was only going to follow you! He said he would pay me the rest of the money if I did that! It is true!”

“Is that really all? Are you hiding anything?”

“Ugh, that is…”

Whack!

“I was going to steal your things! You have been throwing money around these past few days, so I thought you had a lot of money, and your axes looked expensive too, so I thought I could get a good price if I sold them…. That is all!”

“I see.”

“A-are you going to let me live?”

“Who was the person who gave you the errand?”

“Huh?”

“Do not ask me again like an idiot. I asked who gave you the errand.”

When Balun brought Crimson Moon’s blade before the man’s eyes, the man trembled and opened his mouth.

“Uh, well, I do not really know either. He just suddenly came up to me, put some money in my hand, and gave me the job. He said he would pay me more if I did it well, so…”

“Where did you meet him? What did he look like? How tall was he? What kind of voice did he have? What was he wearing?”

“Uh, I met him at the Red Rooster. The Red Rooster is a tavern on Cross Street…”

The man’s explanation was quite incoherent. However, it was not difficult to understand.

“So a man wearing pitch-black clothes and a hat approached you while you were drinking and gave you the job?”

“Y-yes.”

“And you do not know where he went?”

“I do not know. I came out right away. Then I followed you. That is all. It is true!”

“Understood.”

“You believe me?”

“Yes.”

He said that, but he did not believe him. Even so, he stopped the interrogation there because there was no further meaning in continuing.

Either way, the fact that this man was a mere pawn did not change.

If he wanted to catch the one who had targeted him, he had to find the mastermind in the end.

“I told you everything, so please let me live. Please…”

“I will let you live.”

Whack!

Balun drove his fist into the man’s face. With the sound of bones breaking, the man collapsed to the ground and fainted.

‘You dog of a bastard. Whoever you are, you are dead once I catch you.’

You dared to target me?

Balun laid the man down in a corner of the alley where not a single speck of light reached, picked up Blue Moon from where it lay sprawled on the ground, and immediately headed to the Red Rooster tavern on Cross Street.

Even though darkness had fallen, the Red Rooster tavern was lively.

Inside the fairly spacious interior, more than twenty guests were drinking and chatting animatedly. Perhaps because of that, no one paid any attention when Balun entered.

Balun pretended to look for an empty seat while quickly scanning the tavern’s interior, but there was no one who matched the appearance and clothing described by the bastard who had followed him.

Well, that was what he had expected. Why would the man be crazy enough to remain here? If he had any sense, he would have left long ago.

Balun went to the tavern owner. Perhaps because he had stopped by once before visiting Eclipse, or perhaps because of his foreign appearance and unusual build, the owner recognized him.

“Aren’t you the Barbarian fellow who came by earlier? What is it? Here for another drink?”

“No. I want to ask something.”

“What are you curious about?”

“Did you see a person wearing pitch-black clothes and a hat? He was not tall, and he had a slender build. His voice was quite low.”

“How would I know? How am I supposed to remember every single customer who comes in… Hup!”

The tavern owner’s eyes widened. Balun had slipped a gold coin into his hand without anyone noticing.

“Think carefully. He definitely came here. He stayed for quite a while. If you think hard, you will remember.”

“Uh, wait a moment. I feel like I might remember… Ah!”

“You remember?”

“I remember! It was that person! That nuisance!”

“Nuisance?”

“Yes! He ordered one mug of the cheapest beer and sat there for half a day. Good grief, I suffered so much wanting to kick him out.”

The tavern owner shook his head. He seemed to grow angry just remembering it.

“He did not order any food?”

“If he had, I would not be talking like this. That stingy bastard. He looked like he had plenty of money, so why was he so cheap? Good grief.”

Balun paused at the tavern owner’s grumbling.

“What do you mean by stingy and looking like he had plenty of money?”

“Ah. That bastard was a Rogue from Eclipse. A First-Class Rogue at that. If he is a First-Class Rogue from Eclipse, he must make a decent amount from smuggling. There is no comparing him to someone like me, who barely scrapes by selling alcohol.”

“You know him?”

“No, I do not.”

“Then how do you know that?”

“Ah, I saw the Eclipse symbol tattooed on his neck. The picture of the moon covering the sun.”

“A solar eclipse, then.”

“Yes, that. Eclipse divides the ranks of its Rogues by how much the moon covers the sun. His tattoo showed the sun being completely covered. That means he is First-Class.”

“I see.”

When Balun gave him one more gold coin, the tavern owner’s mouth stretched to his ears in a grin.

“You are quite knowledgeable. You have been helpful.”

“Oh, that much is basic. I have been doing business here for fifteen years. Anyway, thank you. Have a good day! May you be blessed!”

Money really was good.

After all, instead of the racial discrimination he usually suffered, he had received a blessing.

After leaving the tavern, Balun leaned against the alley in front of it and organized his thoughts for a moment.

‘So Eclipse targeted me for my money. They even used an outsider to run an errand so they would not be exposed.’

Balun tilted his head. Once he drew that conclusion, there was one point he could not understand.

The bastard who had targeted Balun had hired the errand runner during the day. However, Balun had gone to Eclipse around the time the sunset was fading.

That meant Balun had been their target since daytime…

Did that make sense? The timing did not match.

If they had approached him after seeing his money, then the earliest time they should have chosen him as a target would have been early evening, would it not?

‘Were they targeting me from earlier? Could it be because I have been throwing money around for the past few days?’

Balun shook his head. Such minor details were not important. The important thing was the fact that they had targeted him.

He wanted to smash them.

No, seriously, how was he supposed to endure something this outrageous?

But it would not be easy.

After all, Eclipse was said to be a large guild with many skilled members.

To be honest, it was intimidating, but it was worth trying. Balun was not the Balun of the past. He had grown stronger, and he had gained the Rotenfeld Family as his backing.

‘Should I call a Mage first?’

The night was long, and there was plenty of time. He had more than enough time to prepare.

***

Some time later.

In the dead of night.

A sudden giant of a man carrying axes stormed into the first-floor lobby of Eclipse, a Rogue Guild that presented itself as a tavern.

Seeing Balun stride in with bits of blood on his body and an enraged expression on his face, the bartender tilted her head.

“What? Why are you here again? I told you to come in the morning… Hmm.”

The bartender stopped speaking halfway through. That was because Balun had dragged a man in with him.

When he roughly threw him onto the wooden floor, the man let out a harsh groan.

At that, the eyes of the bartender and the guests occupying the tables narrowed.

It was partly because he had broken the quiet atmosphere.

But above all, Balun’s expression was unusual.

A quiet anger could be glimpsed in his sunken eyes, and some unknowable resolve could be seen in his tightly clenched mouth.

“What is this? What are you doing?”

“A Rogue from your guild targeted me. I heard he was a First-Class Rogue.”

“What?”

“Bring that Rogue here. If you bring him before me, I will let this pass.”

The bartender let out a dry laugh. What kind of absurd nonsense was this supposed to be?

“No, explain it so I can understand. He targeted you? Someone from our family?”

“Yes.”

“Ha, that makes no sense. Who was it?”

“A First-Class Rogue.”

“How am I supposed to know if you say it like…”

“A person wearing pitch-black clothes and a hat. He was not tall and had a slender build. His voice was quite low. The mark of a First-Class Rogue is drawn on his neck.”

“…”

“I think that should identify him well enough. I know there cannot be that many Rogues who are First-Class. It should not be difficult to bring those people here.”

The bartender chuckled.

“Do you have any proof that we targeted you?”

“I do. Here.”

Balun pointed at the man sprawled on the floor.

It was the same man who had followed Balun.

“Your First-Class Rogue ordered this bastard to follow me. That is proof that he targeted me.”

The bartender looked at the man lying on the floor and groaning, then let out a small sigh before speaking.

“Listen. We have no intention of targeting you. We stab people and smuggle goods, but we are not so vile that we target a foreign mercenary’s money. If we were going to do that, why would we have come out into the open? Why would we have set up a guild branch in a place like this? We would have built it somewhere shady, like Crescent Moon Blade.”

“Everyone who has targeted my money has said the exact same thing. They all said they were innocent, but once their fingers started getting cut off, they ended up apologizing and talking.”

The bartender closed her mouth without realizing it. She instinctively hid her own fingers and asked,

“Do we have to bring him just because you tell us to?”

“If you want to live, I suppose you will have to bring him.”

“It is late. Everyone is asleep by now. It is impossible to call a First-Class Rogue over something like this at this hour.”

“Do I have to be considerate of that as well? Do you people show such consideration to your enemies?”

“Are you saying you are going to become enemies with Eclipse right now?”

“If you cooperate quietly, I will return as a customer tomorrow. I will learn Stealth as I originally planned.”

Balun spoke without expression. The bartender’s eyes wavered.

“Now that I have let you talk, you think you can say anything you want. Hey, who do you think you are to cause trouble here? Huh?”

Perhaps unable to hold back any longer, one of the customers stood up. He had been drinking while pretending to be a customer, but in truth, he was a Rogue affiliated with Eclipse. And he was not the only one. Every single customer inside was the same.

He drew a dagger and approached.

“Hey, I am warning you. Get out right now. Otherwise…”

Grab!

Crack!

“Aaaargh!”

A sharp scream erupted. Balun had grabbed the wrist of the man approaching with a dagger and twisted it sharply.

The man’s hand, bent in a bizarre direction, dangled limply, and the man staggered before collapsing as if leaning against the wall.

“…”

“…”

“…”

The atmosphere turned vicious in an instant.

The bartender’s hand slowly wriggled toward her thigh beneath the hem of her red dress. Without even looking at her, Balun gave a low warning.

“Woman. I am warning you. If you draw the dagger hidden on your thigh, your head will be split open.”

Her hand stopped abruptly on its way down. However, the threat did not disappear. The customers who had been sitting at each table all stood up at once.

Coincidentally, their positions formed a siege around Balun.

It could not be helped. From the beginning, the building had been designed so that anyone entering through the entrance would inevitably arrive at the very center of the first-floor tavern.

It was a structure that allowed the Rogues seated at each table to surround anyone who entered the building simply by standing up.

One of the Rogues extended his dagger and spoke.

“Barbarian. We will let this slide just this once, so get out while we are still speaking nicely.”

“So you will not cooperate?”

“To hell with cooperation. We know nothing about this, so get out!”

“I see.”

Balun nodded.

“Understood. Then it cannot be helped.”

Jingle!

At that moment, the door suddenly opened, and someone entered. It was a man wearing a red robe.

At that abrupt appearance, confusion appeared on the Rogues’ faces all at once. Why had a Mage from the Red Tower suddenly appeared?

The red-robed Mage, Oskal, glanced over the vicious atmosphere inside, then let out a hollow laugh.

“Well, now.”

Then he asked Balun, who was surrounded by more than ten daggers.

“I wondered why you suddenly changed your mind and accepted my proposal, but was it because of this? Are you planning to clean out Eclipse entirely? Even if you are the Hero of the Expedition Team, that would be difficult. Eclipse’s influence reaches beyond the Kingdom of Corint.”

“That is not it.”

“Then what is it? Why did you call me here?”

“To use a Human Lie Detector.”

“Pardon?”

Balun pointed at the bartender and continued.

“Use the Human Lie Detector magic on that woman. No, on everyone here.”

“?????”

Oskal’s head automatically tilted.

Human lie… what?

“Are you referring to the Eye of Truth magic?”

“Ah, so that is the name of the magic.”

“Ha.”

“Can you not do it?”

“No, I can, but… did you call me here just for that?”

“Yes.”

Oskal could not help letting out a hollow laugh. There was probably no one else but this Barbarian who would use the mighty Red Tower for such a trivial matter.

“Ah, if you need to use it, I suppose I should take care of them first. Wait a moment. I will finish this quickly.”

“Pardon?”

“Wait there. It will not even take five minutes.”

“No, Lord Balun. Wait…”

THUD!

Balun slammed his foot against the ground and launched himself forward. In an instant, the tavern turned into utter chaos.