Chapter 30

Chapter 30. Illegitimate Son vs. Illegitimate Son (2)

"But if we sneak out like this in the middle of the night, won’t people come looking for us?"

"I’m fine. I like wandering around the castle, so they don’t even bother looking for me anymore."

So they had all just given up?

The secret passage of the lord’s castle was utterly ordinary.

There were no skeletons lying in the middle of it, nor was there any hidden treasure vault.

Along the way, I saw several points where the passage connected to other rooms, but we did not touch any of them and headed straight for the exit.

The long secret passage stretched past the inner ward and connected to a building a short distance away from the lord’s castle.

When we reached the dead end, Adria pressed hard against one section of the wall.

Rrrrrk.

The wall directly in front of us sank downward, and an altar emerged from the ceiling.

It was the same kind of altar I had seen in the temple, the kind used to enshrine a god.

The altar descended all the way to the floor, and the place where it had been became a passage leading upward.

We were able to step outside through the spot where the altar had been.

'A temple....'

Moonlight streaming through the window softly illuminated the temple, which was blanketed in dust.

Ah, right. Bianca had mentioned it yesterday.

She had said the temple had stood empty for the past year.

And the reason was probably....

She had said the priest in charge had gotten drunk, walked backward along the city wall, and then the place had been declared off-limits, had she not?

Wait a second.

"This is a place we’re not supposed to come into! Didn’t they say it causes impotence?!"

Horrified, I barked at Adria.

Adria turned to look at me with a puzzled expression. She looked me up and down, then tilted her head.

"You’re still young, so it’s fine."

No, how do you know whether it’s fine or not?! Nine years old still counts as a proper man!

The air inside the temple suddenly felt heavy. Cold sweat began to run down my back.

This was not a problem I could just brush aside. Impotence? This was such a grave matter that I might have to kill myself on the spot.

"Heh, for a child, you really do worry about the strangest things."

Seeing how tense I was, Adria laughed.

"It’s a curse caused by mana contamination, so it doesn’t affect people who have Awakened, or nobles. It only affects commoners."

"Really?"

I was finally able to relax at Adria’s words, but I had no choice except to ask again.

"I told you, it’s fine."

It had better be. If it turned out not to be, then in the next life I would never help you again.

Though I still felt deeply uneasy, in the end I had no choice but to trust her.

Once we stepped out of the silent temple, the night view of the city spread out before us.

The city at night was extremely dark and quiet.

There were a few houses with lamps lit, but the streets were dark, and hardly anyone was passing by.

I, who had been imagining the streets at night from my previous life, could not help but feel a little surprised.

Then again, I could not judge this world by the standards of my previous life. There might be mana and inherited abilities, but if they could not illuminate the whole city at night, then naturally the streets would not be lively after dark.

"It’s too dark here. Let’s hurry. They said there are lots of people in Mercenary Street even at night."

She took the lead and began walking through the dark streets.

Retracing the road we had taken during the day, we headed toward Mercenary Street.

A short while later, when we arrived, Mercenary Street was every bit as rowdy as Adria had said it would be.

"Stop right there!"

"Goddammit! Do I look like I’m running away? I’m just going to the toilet and coming right back!"

"Bleeurgh! Damn it, what did you put in the booze?!"

"It splashed all over me! Do you have a death wish?!"

A mercenary running away and another chasing after him. A man vomiting liquor into the street and another mercenary beating him for splashing it everywhere.

It was still only early evening, yet the street was already overflowing with drunkards and mercenaries.

"Wow! What a complete mess!"

Adria looked around the street with astonished eyes.

Centered around the mercenary office were the mercenaries’ lodgings and inns, along with shops, taverns, and even a forge.

Even though the sun had already gone down, the stores and inns along this street were all brightly lit.

It was not enough to be a city that never slept like in my previous life, but it still felt like I was looking at an entertainment district from that world.

"Ah, I’m getting tipsy."

A drunken mercenary staggered past Adria as she walked forward, excitedly looking around at everything.

At the exact moment the mercenary passed by her side, I saw his hand brush against her clothing.

He was a pickpocket.

But I did not bother warning Adria.

That was because the moment after the mercenary’s hand slipped away, I saw Adria’s own hand move, leaving behind an afterimage.

Unlike the mercenary’s hand, I did not see exactly where hers went, but I could guess well enough.

There was no way an ordinary pickpocket with nimble fingers could possibly escape the eyes of a noble who had Awakened an acceleration-type ability.

'At least she didn’t start shouting or cut his arm off.'

If she had done that, she definitely would have drawn everyone’s attention.

Seeing that Adria was not causing a commotion, I felt a little more at ease.

But it seemed I had relaxed too soon.

"Ah! My money pouch is gone! My pouch!"

The astonished cry of the staggering mercenary rang out as he moved away.

Frantically patting himself down, he turned around.

The drunken sway had vanished completely, and his face was filled with nothing but shock.

That was not the expression of someone who had merely lost the thing he had stolen, was it?

Surely she had not just taken back what he stole, but stolen the pickpocket’s belongings in return as well?

Adria stood there with an innocent tilt of her head, but there was no way the pickpocket would fall for that expression.

"You! You bitch!"

As I watched the pickpocket shout and come charging toward us, I gripped the sword hidden inside my clothes.

As long as I did not kill him, it would be fine, right?

Even if it caused a little commotion, I needed to deal with this quickly.

As I waited for him to come closer, someone suddenly stepped in front of me.

Whoosh!

"If you failed at stealing, then just run. Don’t go picking fights with innocent kids for no reason."

The person blocking my way was a mercenary of small build, wrapped in a cloak that covered even his head.

He hooked the legs of the approaching pickpocket with the sheathed sword in his hand, sending him sprawling to the ground, then lectured the fallen thief in a roughened voice.

People began to gather around the sudden spectacle.

"You bastard!"

The pickpocket who had fallen down shouted in rage and lurched back to his feet, but the mercenary’s sword moved again.

Thwack!

The sound of something cracking rang out, and the pickpocket collapsed face-first onto the ground once more. This time, perhaps because he had blacked out, he did not get back up.

"You kids, are you all ri—... huh?"

Before he could turn around, I grabbed Adria by the arm and hurried into the crowd.

I was grateful that he had handled it for us, but we could not afford to draw any more attention.

He looked skilled enough that even if he got dragged into some troublesome matter, he would be more than capable of dealing with it.

Adria did not look pleased, but perhaps because she knew she had been the one to cause the disturbance, she obediently followed where I led.

After we had gotten away from the place where the crowd was gathering, I let go of her arm.

"Sorry. I didn’t think he’d notice that quickly."

At her words, I held out my hand.

"Hm? Why?"

"I’ll keep quiet for you, so let’s split it in half."

"What?"

"I’ll keep it a secret from the others."

What had happened had already happened. I had not stolen anything myself, so there was nothing for me to be caught over.

A great deal of money had gone out while I was coaxing Juan, and I was short on funds. Judging from the pickpocket’s shocked expression, the money pouch Adria had taken seemed fairly heavy.

Adria stared at me with her mouth hanging open.

Why was she so surprised?

"What is wrong with a child already being this greedy for money?!"

Do children not need money too? What was with this discrimination against children?

"I feel bad for the person who helped us when we slipped away without saying a word. How about giving it to him when we go back?"

"After seeing that people were gathering?"

At my words, Adria stuck out her lower lip.

But in the end, she still split the stolen money pouch in half.

As expected, people’s expressions did not lie. Judging from the weight of it, my mood brightened considerably.

'More importantly, who was that mercenary?'

I had only glimpsed him briefly, but the mercenary who helped us had been far too skilled to be called an ordinary mercenary.

He was not large, but from the way he moved his sword, I could easily guess how capable he was.

'He hides his face with a cloak and even sounds like he’s forcing his voice to be different. There’s nothing normal about that level of suspicion.'

And yet, for someone so suspicious, he had been absurdly meddlesome.

On top of that, the sword sheathed in the scabbard he had swung still lingered in my mind even now.

It had been an ordinary scabbard, and the sword itself had not looked special at all.... so why?

"Ah! That’s the place, right?"

While I was lost in thought, Adria spotted the inn where Martin was staying.

The Silver Hero Inn.

"Wow, that name really doesn’t suit it."

She shook her head as she looked at the shabby inn.

Well, the Hero who had borne that epithet had been as beautiful as his title suggested, but he had also been famous for acting obsessively neat and refined. There was no way a shabby, filthy mercenary inn suited him.

When we entered the inn, the first-floor dining room was packed with mercenaries eating and drinking.

"Ah! There he is!"

Fortunately, this time Martin was in the dining room.

He was sitting alone in a corner, drinking by himself. Martin sat there with a face as though he were carrying all the anguish in the world on his shoulders.

"Brother Martin!"

With a bright face, she ran over to him.

At the sound of his name, Martin lifted his head and saw Adria approaching him.

Martin’s expression changed several times.

Anger, regret, sorrow, pity.

After all those shifting emotions, he finally smiled at Adria.

'A forced smile.'

It was a smile that concealed his inner thoughts well, but because I had imitated that very expression so many times, I recognized the hidden face beneath it immediately.

"How did you get out here?"

"I snuck out because I wanted to see you, Brother Martin."

At Adria’s words, Martin looked at me.

There was not a single false word in what she had said, so I had no choice but to nod.

"You did something like that? Everyone must be worried!"

"They said not to come looking for me after dinner. No one will know until morning."

Well, in my case, even without being told that, there was no one who would come looking for me before breakfast.

"Don’t send me back. Do you know how much I wanted to see you?"

If an outsider had heard that, it might have sounded misleading, but neither Adria nor Martin showed any sign of that kind of discomfort.

Well, Martin’s face looked far more complicated than hers did.

In the end, Martin raised both hands.

"Then I’ll take you back a little later."

"Mm. Mm."

Adria looked delighted by Martin’s answer.

It seemed things had gone well enough. I spoke to the two of them.

"I’m going to look around a bit."

"Okay."

"You’ll be all right on your own?"

Adria agreed at once, while Martin showed concern for me.

I tapped the sword hidden inside my clothes.

"Well, with your skill, I suppose you’ll be fine."

Perhaps Martin remembered my ability, because he nodded.

"Is Alex really that good?"

"Ah, well, we sparred several times on the way here...."

The half-siblings, reunited after so long, happily began chatting about me.

Both of them were smiling brightly, but one of them was hiding a face utterly different from the expression shown on the surface.

'There won’t be any immediate danger.'

There was no way anyone would touch Adria and alarm the marquess’s house while I was here as well.

Leaving the two of them behind as they talked, I stepped out of the inn.

Then I surveyed my surroundings and entered the alley behind it.

Mercenary Street was noisy, but the moment one stepped only a little off the main road, both the noise and the light vanished.

Hiding myself in the darkness, I pulled out the sword and cloak I had concealed inside my clothes.

Then I fastened the sword at my waist and wrapped myself in the cloak.

Once my body and face were hidden beneath the cloak, I, too, became someone who fit in on Mercenary Street.

Unfortunately, I could not hide my build, but among mercenaries there were female mercenaries and dwarves as well.

At the very least, I could hide the fact that I was the boy who had come as a guest of the marquess’s house.

"Then shall I go?"

For the first time since I was born, I was walking around alone in a place where no one recognized me.

I could feel my heart pounding with the exhilaration of that first taste of freedom.

I calmed my racing heart and moved forward through the darkness.

My destination was the lodging of the Red Bear Mercenary Company.

It was time to go and find the ones who had killed me.