Volume 2, Chapter 29: Earl Mansion’s Raid④
Five adventurers of 『Dancing Sword』 gathered on the third floor of Earl Mondo’s mansion. Inside the office, they fought against a horde of undead.
The room was ransacked.
The desk was overturned, documents were scattered on the floor, and corpses lay unmoving on top of that mess.
Earl Mondo stood in the deepest part of the office, protected by the red-haired man with a crop cut, the guild master’s assistant Fando.
「RUOOOOOOOOOOO!」
Fando swung his axe wildly.
His wide slices slid through three adventurers-turned-undead, cutting one’s face, the next’s forehead, and the last’s head. They fell down on the floor, scattering grey matter everywhere.
『Dancing Sword』 was the candidate for the top guild in Barreira City.
Their members’ abilities were a cut above the rest of the other adventurers.
Since Fando was the assistant of Eunos, there was no mistaking his combat capabilities. Thus, he could somehow deal with normal undead.
But Fando’s movement grew duller as time passed.
He glanced at the three adventurers who were just fell by him.
One had a stretched tongue and an eye that could never focus; this was Beylisha of 『Red Rat Group』. The one whose face was crushed was Fluke of 『Heroic’s Crest』. Lastly, the one whose face was split cleanly by his axe was Fluke’s buddy Marcis.
The trio were people whose names and faces were known by Fando.
As a straightforward and extremely patient man, Fando often went out to barter information with the other guilds or negotiate with them.
For that reason, he had a wide range of connections and was good at memorizing faces.
The memories of his acquaintances distracted Fando’s mind for a moment.
「CHANCEEEEE!」
A tall man whose body was bandaged all over sent a kick toward Fando.
The power behind that kick was enough to send Fando’s huge frame into the air. Even when he had somehow regained his stance after landing on the ground, the clothes in the area where he had been kicked were torn, and blood seeped from that place.
「My bad. My claws are long after all, hehehe.」
The ominously tall man laughed at Fando.
The tall man was eerie because his tall stature wasn’t the only thing off-putting; even his arms and legs were abnormally long.
Fando had no idea whether the man before him was an undead or simply just a living human with strange stature.
The tall man’s movement was way too delicate to be reproduced by any average person.
「You fu*cking monster… See what you can do after Eunos-sama returns…」
Fando muttered as he adjusted his breathing.
「I’m not a monsteeeer… Well, sure enough, 70% of my body has been tampered with, but the other 30% is still the same! How dare you call this 『Bulkny of Patching』 a monster! 」
The man called Bulkny spread his arms, screaming as his body trembled.
As his hood came off, the face peeking out below it was a bizarre bald head. It seemed to be a patchwork of many different faces.
His eyes stilled as if a frozen lake covered his violent outburst.
Earl Mondo looked at their exchange with a complicated look on his face.
Eunos had already abandoned Barreira City, leaving his subordinates behind to die.
Although he knew from observing Fando’s attitude that Eunos left Barreira City without saying anything to his subordinates in 『Dancing Sword』, Earl Mondo missed the timing to tell Eunos’ subordinates about their boss’ betrayal.
If he told the truth about Eunos in this kind of situation, Earl Mondo’s death aside, all of 『Dancing Sword』 could die after their morale crumbled down upon learning of their guild master’s betrayal.
「Manzi-sama is— is— is— heading to this place —ce —ce. Once he sees you guys, you’ll meet a more terrifying fate than death.」
Bulkny made full use of his long limbs and weapon, attacking Fando from outside of the latter’s range.
Fando was forced back upon receiving Bulkny’s attack with the blade of his axe.
It felt like his attack was cutting through rotten meat.
A mysterious reddish-brown liquid dripped down from Bulkny’s arm, but it didn’t seem to be severed.
Fando’s axe was designed to be used as a blunt weapon rather than for cutting.
But even if that was the case, Bulkny’s arm was too tough.
Cutting his arm aside, Fando couldn’t even feel the sensation of his axe cutting Bulkny’s bone.
From the response he felt upon cutting that arm, Fando concluded that Bulkny’s body was closer to that of rubber.
Bulkny’s entire body felt like a thick whip made to parry any kind of attack.
At this rate, Fando wouldn’t have any other way to deliver a sure-kill strike against Bulkny.
Although Bulkny would surely die as long as Fando chopped the former’s head, he had no way to close in to land a decisive hit on Bulkny while fending off his attacks.
Bulkny kept swinging his long arms like a whip.
Though his movements were simple, his reach was incredible.
Bulkny’s elastic arms elongated as they swung around, grazing Fando right on his jaw despite the latter believing that he was already out of Bulkny’s reach.
That graze peeled off part of his jaw’s skin. Anything more than a graze would surely make Fando fall to his knees.
「DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!」
Bulkny intensified his attack against Fando.
Even though Fando was desperately parrying Bulkny’s attacks with the blade of his axe, every single one of Bulkny’s attacks was too heavy.
The first, second, and third attacks came from the same position. Though the fourth attack came from a slightly different angle, its aim was to slip through Fando’s axe.
「E-Eunos-sama… this is… the end for me…」
At that moment, Bulkny suddenly abandoned his attack, taking some distance from Fando.
The reason he did so was because of the sound of an arrow piercing through the wind, aiming to take his life.
Bulkny turned around and pinched the arrow with his elongated fingers.
While he managed to pinch the arrow in midair, he couldn’t hide his surprise.
The arrow was precisely aimed for the moment when he almost killed Fando. In short, the one who fired this arrow was watching their movements during their battle.
To be more precise, the archer could see Bulkny’s fast movements.
「…Interestiiiiiiiiiing. To think that a person who can see this great Bulkny’s movements exiiiiiiiists…! Now I—」
The moment Bulkny showed his interest toward the archer, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.
It turned out there was another arrow hiding in the shadows of the first arrow, and that second arrow had pierced Bulkny’s chest.
Both arrows were fired with such godly rapid-firing and precision.
The second arrow gouged easily into the weak point of Bulkny’s bizarre body.
「To be killed… in this kind of place.」
Bulkny groaned in pain as the third arrow pierced through his forehead, perpendicular to the second arrow.
Bulkny’s tall figure collapsed on the floor with an eerie movement.
「W-Who… the hell…」
The figure of Robin Hood entering the office with composure was the last thing he saw.
The one who was surprised the most upon seeing that figure was Earl Mondo and the 『Dancing Sword』’s adventurers.
「…You’ve come to take my head, huh. So you want to kill me with your own hands before I’m killed by the undead, huh.」
Earl Mondo gritted his teeth as he sent a glare toward Robin Hood.
Robin Hood was glaring back at Earl Mondo in silence.
「WHY, WHY DID YOU APPEAR AT THIS KIND OF TIME?!」
The female adventurer Talmiya shouted at Robin Hood. She didn’t even care to hide her disgust and shock upon seeing Robin Hood.
The moment she shouted, Talmiya’s movement stopped for a moment, and that moment was used by the undead soldier to disarm her knives.
「OH, CRA…!」
At that moment, an arrow pierced through the crown of the undead soldier’s head.
It was obviously support coming from Robin Hood.
「W-What the…!」
After that, Robin Hood’s arrows pierced through the undead soldier almost without any resistance.
When the undead soldier fell quietly, Robin Hood entered the office.
Robin Hood’s action seemed to be as bizarre as ever in the eyes of the 『Dancing Sword』 adventurers.
This confusion was reminiscent of what they felt before, when Robin Hood interrupted them from completing their request and killed their comrade.
His godly skill along with his cunningness was what turned him into the worst kind of mad hero.
And now, that very same mad man was helping the city lord, the one who he should regard as his mortal enemy.
…Even if the other party didn’t regard him as their ally.
From Robin Hood’s point of view, he already lost his reason to kill the 『Dancing Sword』 adventurers.
Robin Hood’s goal was to make Eunos experience the same despair as him, watching helplessly as 『Dancing Sword』 died by his own hand. He wanted to drive Eunos to despair.
That was just how much he hated Eunos, who snatched everything from him.
He thought that the hatred in his heart would be appeased if he killed Eunos after making the latter experience the same suffering as him, watching his trusted comrades die in front of his eyes.
But it turned out, Eunos didn’t feel that way toward his guild members.
But upon calming down after the euphoria he felt after he killed his mortal enemy, he realized that the 『Dancing Sword』 adventurers weren’t Eunos’ comrades. They were nothing but disposable pawns, thus making Robin Hood lose his reason to kill them.
The sense of loss he felt after the euphoria was simply something that couldn’t be expressed in words.
But Robin Hood knew that he felt self-depreciation upon recalling the fact that he was reduced to the same level as Eunos, in the way that he couldn’t care less about involving innocent people in his selfish revenge.
By this point, he had no intention to act like a hero again.
「You know the story, right? About how the fallen hero loves to help those who are at a disadvantage.」
Robin Hood then took out a gold coin from his bosom pocket as the tip of his lip curved into a smile.
「Since I got no reason to kill you people right now, I’ll spare your lives. You know how I work, right? Currently, I’m your ally. There’s no greater ally than me in your current situation, right, Marquis-sama?」
「…YOU BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU… THAT DAY!」
One of 『Dancing Sword』’s adventurers walked toward Robin Hood while pointing their sword in their hand, ready to kill the latter.
But Fando stopped the adventurer.
「He’s someone we can’t trust… but at the same time, he’s not someone who we can ignore in this situation. Fighting him here will only result in losses on our side. I understand your feelings, but please calm your fury for now. We have no choice but to work along with this flighty, mad hero.」
「But… Fando-san…」
「We can’t find Eunos-sama. Let’s go with the assumption that the worst thing happened to him. Let me repeat this, I understand how you feel, but… Please just follow my orders obediently this one time.」
A ripple formed in Robin Hood’s heart the moment he heard Eunos’ name.
But he feigned ignorance and didn’t let them know what he felt.
「Hyohohoho… Eunos is the one they’re talking about?」
Suddenly, they heard a hoarse voice come from the entrance of the room.
The owner of that voice was an extremely pale-skinned old man with a bizarrely long bald head that had several lumps.
Following behind him were five undead.
And there was a figure of a man with, particularly long hair.
That man’s eyes were bloodshot, and there was an arrow sticking out from his back, right where his heart was supposed to be. That man was none other than 『Dancing Sword』’s guild master, Eunos.
The 『Dancing Sword』’s adventurers and Earl Mondo were frozen on the spot upon seeing Eunos’ appearance.
Robin Hood was the only one who was glaring at the undead Eunos with eyes that sent chills running down the spines of everyone else in the room.
He regretted the fact that he didn’t thoroughly destroy Eunos’ corpse since he was in a hurry after killing the latter.
「There’s Robin Hood who killed Bulkny. It seems there are so many toys to play with. Hehehehehe.」
The eerie old man named Manzi, one of 『Devil’s Piper』’s Eight Wisemen, cackled upon seeing the corpse of his subordinate laying on the floor.
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