A strong blast of bloody wind was blowing. Unable to resist against my swirling sword with a curvature, the mercenary soldiers fell to the ground and scattered their blood around. I was a swordsman at the master level. Suddenly coming from nowhere, I was like a complete nightmare for these mercenary soldiers. Although pointing the blades of their spears and swords towards me, they still stepped back hastily.
“Don’t come close to me. Otherwise, I am going to kill her.”
A mercenary soldier nearby put a sword on a lady’s neck and threatened me. She was Benny. At the moment when Shura who managed to get out of iron nets was about to shout, my eyes were full of a murderous spirit. Then I threw my sword towards Benny and the mercenary soldier’s chest. He got frightened and ran away while leaving Benny alone. Soon, my sword swirled and flew towards him in a strange trajectory. His leg got cut off by my sword.
Shura came towards me while giving her arm to Benny who’s in a ghastly pale look.
“Ma, master…?”
I put on a bold face.
“Hah! This is the way it is. Those who take hostages to save their own lives actually do not hurt hostages when their lives are in real danger. They just run away.”
“Ah….”
“Anyways, you are free and alive. So fight. I need a lot of help.”
Shura picked up her sword. The runaway mercenary soldier was floundering on the ground. Then I cut off both of his arms and looked at Benny who’s half-naked.
“He can’t move now. You kill him. If you can’t kill him, I will come back and kill you instead. If the person whose life was saved by me is actually an idiot, I get really pissed off.
“Yeah, yeah…”
“But don’t dig into his pockets. If you do, you’re dead.”
Her eyes became full of a murderous spirit and she nodded her head back and forth.
At that moment, I felt an eerie feeling. In fact, an arrow was shot from behind and heading towards me. Turning my body quickly, I grabbed the arrow in the air. And I yelled at the crowd of mercenary soldiers in confusion.
“Who the f*** was that!”
Since I shouted with a murderous spirit, none of them could step forward. I made a strangely twisted face and threw a sword towards a mercenary archer who’s closest to me. It pierced through his forehead. Then I picked up every weapon on the ground and threw those weapons towards all the mercenary archers. They were all dead now.
“Mon… ster…”
The guy who just called me a monster was also dead. To kill him, I used my survival swordsmanship chapter 2 – type 1 skill called ‘Nice! Earthen Pot’. Whenever I use this skill, the whole bodies of opponents from head to toe are totally crushed into pieces so other people can’t even identify them.
“Where is Zes! Let me see his skills!”
I called Zes ceaselessly. If I miss him, there’s no big reason for me to get rid of his mercenary group. To complete the Road of Asceticism mission in the future, I certainly need his head.
However, Zes was nowhere to be found. Instead, an old mercenary soldier, trembling like a leaf, was pointing at somewhere. It was the corpse of which pants were half-rolled down. Also, it showed a spasm occurring after death. Actually, it was the corpse of the mercenary soldier who I murdered at the very first moment.
“That guy is Zes?”
“Yeah.”
“Stupid asshole. Why is he dead so early? Shit.”
As I finished my sentence, I cut him off with a single stroke. Once Zes is dead, I can murder these mercenary soldiers and dig into their pockets with an easy mind. Immediately, I jumped into the crowd of the mercenary soldiers and used my survival swordsmanship chapter 1 skill called ‘Massacre of the Innocent Ones’.
Mercenary soldiers who lost their fighting spirits were busy running away as if a herd of sheep fled away from an angry lion. Once demoralized, even experienced mercenary soldiers become more cowardly than a kid. This is what war means to people.
They were too weak. A seven-year-old kid who I saw briefly in my past life was stronger than them. The kid was crying but still trying to protect his blind parents by wielding a broom against demons. This is a warrior. These mercenary soldiers who’re running away from me were not warriors. No matter how strong they were and no matter how strongly-armed they were, they became even weaker than kids once they lost their fighting spirits and started running away.
“Yeah. Actually right now, I was just slaughtering civilians instead of mercenary soldiers.
“How dare you raid our village. It’s unforgivable!”
After Shura saved the members of the civil militia who were in danger, they cornered the mercenary soldiers and advanced towards the gate together. Perhaps they were trying to block the entrance so that those mercenary soldiers who raided their village could not escape. However, it wasn’t a great move in terms of strategic views. If cornered, even a mouse would bite a cat.
‘Tut, tut. What were they thinking? When they are cornering enemies, shouldn’t they allow at least one escape route? And what is that swordsmanship? Even an idiot won’t fight like that.’
I was worried but I didn’t really stop her. I also didn’t have any intention of letting anybody alive. Imagine how much money I can get from them. Certainly, I won’t let them escape. Every one of these mercenary soldiers has money that I can use for my entertainment expenses. Thus, they are valuable to me.
“Huh, when did it happen?”
Other mercenary soldiers who were raiding village houses got wind of the situation outside and gathered around the battle scene one by one. But they couldn’t dare to jump into a battle and only made a ghastly pale look. In fact, they were just trembling from fear because they saw a mountain of their fellow soldiers’ gruesome corpses at the front of the village entrance.
Leaving their treasure and village women behind, they were busy stepping backwards.
But actually, there’s no escape route for them. Three sides of the Aeem Village were surrounded by cliffs so there’s only one entrance covered with wooden fences. And of course, Shura and the civil militia were guarding there. Also, I myself, a swordsman at the master level, was here.
I shouted.
“Hey! I know there are still around a hundred mercenary soldiers left. I am not that strong. Please come and attack me! Hurry.”
The mercenary soldiers were in a panic. They thought that the village was totally in their control and started raiding with their easy minds. But after some noise was heard outside, their situation changed completely. They seemed to delude themself as if they were dreaming some kind of nightmare.
Yet, there’s always some brave ones. Soon, a few brave mercenary soldiers rushed towards me but their entire bodies were torn down into pieces like meat by my aura blade. And their body pieces spattered on the ground.
Simultaneously, the mercenary soldiers were rushing towards me one after another. I was happy with it for sure and grabbed my sword. But soon, I knew something was going wrong. The mercenary soldiers were climbing over the wooden fences around the entrance to run away.
“Hey! How could you run away! Don’t you feel ashamed?!”
I chased after those mercenary soldiers who were climbing over the wooden fences and cut off their heads. Yet, there’re around a hundred mercenary soldiers so I certainly couldn’t kill every one of them. At last, some of them were able to climb over the wooden fences and ran away.
I was really pissed off and trying to chase after them but I couldn’t. The villagers started to gather around one by one. So, I aimed my sword towards them and yelled.
“Don’t come over here. It’s all mine! If anyone digs into the pockets of these dead mercenary soldiers, I will kill all of them!”
While I rushed digging into the pockets of dead mercenary soldiers, a group of six or seven people came closer to me. They were wearing armor but had no weapons so I didn’t murder them until now.
“Who are you guys?”
“Well….”
“Mercenary or civil militia?”
“We’re mercenar…”
Before they finished their sentence, my sword swirled and danced in the air. Just at that moment, Shura was coming to me and stretched her arm to stop me. But it was too late. Their heads already fell on the ground.
With an innocent face, I looked at Shura.
“Why? They’re mercenary soldiers.”
“They’re mercenary soldiers hired from the village.”
“Mercenary soldiers hired from the village?”
“Our village hired those mercenary soldiers.”
I rolled my eyes. If she’s right, I was not supposed to kill them.
I looked around and studied people’s faces. Then I put my hands together and made a prayer for a brief moment.
“Ah… The real warriors who devoted their lives to save the village from bandits… You were very brave and excellent mercenary soldiers. God bless your final journey.”
I was pretty sure that villagers had a rough idea of what I meant. These dead mercenary soldiers hired from the village were killed after they gallantly fought against the Zes’ mercenary group. Truly, they’re warriors who should be extolled as paragons for the whole continent.
After that, the villagers and I together collected money, armors, and garments owned by the mercenary soldiers. I was trying to do it by myself at first but I needed help. Because it’s too much work for me to dig into all the pockets of more than a hundred corpses.
Therefore, I didn’t take all of them on my own. Only taking money, armors, and some valuable items for myself, I generously allowed those villagers who helped me to take the rest of them. What a fair and beautiful distribution of rewards.
* * *
It was near dusk but the Aeem Village was busy. They’re having difficulties in getting rid of the corpses.
It was quite easy to throw roughly a hundred corpses, which were piled up at the village entrance, off the cliff outside the fences located in the backside of the village. Demons and wild animals would take care of them.
But it was not the same case for thirty corpses of injured soldiers at the hospital which was located outside the village farms. I killed all of them before I came to Aeem Village. And the distance from the village to the hospital was pretty far so it wasn’t easy to get rid of those corpses.
That’s why the villagers were having difficulties in getting rid of the corpses and the whole process got delayed a lot.
“One, two, three, four…”
At the backstreet of the village, I crouched into a springing position and counted my income today. The total amount of money I saw in front of me was 233 riffs of gold and some change. In addition, I found the Virtual Pocket from Zes’ clothes. It’s the lowest rank magical item and its capacity was about that of a small pocket. Yet, I might be able to sell it for at least 30 riffs of gold.
Overall, it was pretty a good haul. I can’t earn this much income even by hunting demons but I just did it from the mercenary soldiers. For real, I even considered chasing after mercenary groups as my profession.
But there’s bad news too. I went to a weapon store and blacksmith shop to sell armors, valuable items, and garments that I got from the corpses. However, the mercenary soldiers took all the money from them so they’re penniless. Ah… those mercenary soldiers who escaped at the last moment were the real prize. It’s a shame I missed them.
Still, I handed over the items. Since I got assured that I’d receive money when I would return to get Zes’ head later, it’s good enough for me.