Chapter 55: 55

Chapter 55 – Road to the Empire (7)

“Hey, Donovan. Are you still alive?”

Urich entered the tent to find Donovan who was lying down. Donovan’s face was entirely swollen. No part of his body was uninjured, and he was wearing a splint to align his broken arm.

“Fuck off. You could leave me behind or whatever. Up to you,” said Donovan as he spat out saliva mixed with blood. His eyes, half-closed from being swollen, were still filled with malice as it always was.

‘He’s not someone who’d be broken by something like this.’

Urich knew Donovan. He was someone who would always get back up again as long as he wasn’t dead.

“Did you see their faces?” Urich asked while sitting down at Donovan’s side.

“They attacked me from behind. They covered their faces with bandanas and had a blast beating the shit out of me. Damn it. It probably—”

“I know. It’s probably something that the gate captain here set up. He was having a lot of fun insulting you a while ago.”

“Ohber, that fucking bastard! I should’ve just killed him back then. I can’t believe I let him go because he looked so damn pathetic, groveling like that when he’s supposed to be my superior.”

“‘That bastard’ is the gate captain here now. We have to take Fahel to the capital. Or do you want to just fight the gate captain here? Should we just kill him and the entire gate defense guards and run away?” Urich cackled. Donovan laughed as well before groaning from the pain.

“Stop bullshitting and just do the job properly. I’m betting my life on this request. I don’t plan on ruining it just because of something like this,” said Donovan while struggling to raise himself. While he was opposed to taking on a request that involved the royalty, they had already come this far. It would be too much of a waste to throw it all away now.

‘A reward from a king…’

For the vast majority of mercenaries, it was an opportunity to change their lives.

“I called for a sentry here just in case. Just focus on getting better. ‘Cause if you can’t keep up with us, we’re going to leave you behind,” said Urich while leaving the tent. Donovan wouldn’t be able to move for a while. He would have to be carried on a stretcher.

“How can I sit still when the vice-leader of our mercenary group got assaulted like that,” muttered Urich while leaving the mercenary camp. Phillion, who arrived just a step later, tried to look for Urich. However, none of the mercenaries knew where Urich went.

‘Please, don’t cause any trouble, Urich!’ prayed Phillion while pacing around.

There was a village of tents of some sorts in front of the gate. The village of tents was filled with merchants and travelers who were waiting for their turn for inspection, prostitutes who tried to seduce those men, and petty thieves who tried to aim at those travelers’ pockets. One had to always be careful in front of the gate.

Urich went deeper into the village of tents.

“Hey, barbarian. How about for half a gold coin?”

A woman who was somewhat good-looking was the one who asked Urich first.

“Come over here. I’ll do it for 10,000 cil,” said a woman who just started to gain wrinkles on her face.

“You shouldn’t talk with girls like that. Come over here. One gold coin,” offered a wandering dancer with an alluring smile.

Even if they were all the same prostitutes, the differences in price was night and day. Urich swatted away the prostitutes’ hands.

“Fuck off. I’m not in the mood for it.”

As Urich spoke roughly, the prostitutes started to curse at him.

“I’ve never seen a crazier bastard than this. Why would you come here if you didn’t want to do it?”

Urich blankly looked at the prostitutes without responding.

“There was a guy here not too long ago that got beat up. Do any of you know about that?”

The prostitutes just laughed. Urich pulled out a handful of gold coins from his pocket.

“Oh no, these gold coins are slipping out of my hand and are looking for their owner.”

Urich flipped a coin with a flick of his thumb and caught it with his other hand. All of the prostitutes let out an ‘Ah!’ They were people who moved for gold coins.

“I know the girl that met with him.”

It was the girl with the wrinkly face who was the quickest to blurt it out. It seemed like travelers still embraced her despite the fact that she was old and had an aged body.

“Yeah? Well, if you guide me, this gold coin will definitely run away from my hand.”

Urich followed the girl’s lead, heading deeper into the red light district. It was quite a distance from the gate and filled with an ominous mood. On one side, men—who practically had ‘criminal’ written all over their faces—gathered around a campfire.

“Keke, this guy has a bunch of gold coins!” yelled the woman as she ran behind the gruff-looking men. The men started to stand up while lifting their blunt weapons.

“Oi, my man. Just drop everything that you have and go. Then we’ll let you go in one piece.”

There were six men who surrounded him. They puffed up their chest while threatening Urich.

“Take it.”

Urich scratched his head and dropped the gold coin pouch on the floor. One of the men slowly walked over and reached for the pouch.

CRUSH.

Urich stomped on the man’s arm with his foot, bending it the opposite way.

“U-Ugguaaaargh!”

The man screamed while grabbing his broken arm. Urich looked at the men again and wagged his finger.

“Come take it, quickly. If it’s gold coins you want, it’s right here, no?”

The men grabbed their shoddy blunt weapons, a sign of human traffickers, and surrounded Urich.

“If only you handed it over. You would’ve gone back safely. You brought this to yourself, barbarian.”

Urich let out a loud laugh after hearing that.

“Huat!”

One of the men charged in. Urich stole the man’s weapon with his bare hands.

“Huh?”

The man, who had his weapon stolen, faced Urich without thinking. Urich’s fist then landed squarely on his face. The front of his face caved in, and an eyeball popped out.

“UWOOOH!”

A different man lifted his weapon high while grabbing Urich’s back.

Swirl.

Urich pivoted on his right foot. His kick, with its added centripetal force, struck the man’s side.

Crush!

An impressive sound echoed. The man Urich kicked was rolling on the floor, screaming.

“A-Ahem.”

The men slowly backed away from Urich. Two of them were downed in an instant. They instinctively knew that the barbarian in front of them was not an ordinary person.

“Do you still want the gold coins?”

Urich lifted the gold coin pouch by kicking it with the tip of his foot.

“W-We’re fine!”

The men shook their heads while helping the injured. They lowered their tails to Urich.

“No. You guys like gold coins, no? If you’re a man, you should take what you want,” said Urich. He walked closer to the men and patted their backs. The men were terrified. They looked at him with a horrified expression.

“W-We’re sorry, Sir Warrior! Please let us go just this one time.”

“I’m telling you, I’m going to give you some gold coins. What are you getting so scared for?”

Urich laughed while patting the men’s cheeks. He pulled out coins and gave one to each of them.

“W-Why are you doing this?”

They couldn’t understand Urich’s actions. Urich tilted his head, then laughed.

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“You guys like gold coins, right? I do too.”

Urich grabbed the men’s shoulders so they couldn’t run away. Their shoulders were starting to bruise and turn blue.

‘What the hell is with this crazy barbarian?’

They were trembling.

“I’ll give you some of the gold coins that we all love so much, so find someone for me,” said Urich while shaking the gold coin pouch.

“…Find someone?”

All of the men’s attention was focused on the sound of Urich’s pouch.

“I promise to give you gold coins if you find someone for me. You guys like the Sun God too, right? I’ll vow this on Sun God Ru’s name. If you find the person that I am looking for, I will give you plenty of gold coins.”

The men looked at each other before nodding.

“Who are you looking for?”

“The bastards that dared to beat up my ‘brother’,” answered Urich. He was grinding his teeth. It wasn’t a matter of Urich and Donovan’s personal relationship. No matter what anyone else said, Donovan was a member of Urich’s Brothers. In fact, he was the vice-leader that Urich picked himself.

His brother, Donovan, came back after being assaulted by someone. Urich didn’t intend on using the request as an excuse to justify ignoring the fact that this happened.

‘Because this is how I do it.’

The men quickly brought Urich news and received their gold coins.

* * *

Translator – goguma

Proofreader – yukitokata

* * *

“Damn it, I feel like a couple of my ribs are broken. That bastard resisted pretty hard.”

Four vagrants were whispering amongst themselves near the outskirts of the village of tents. Their bodies were covered in bruises.

“If we fought him properly, we would’ve been the ones getting beat up. He started fighting the moment we showed up despite doing it with that whore.”

“So we beat the ever-living shit out of him for it. Who knows, maybe he’ll croak in a day or two.”

The vagrants snickered and laughed with each other. They were individuals who lived by panhandling and doing petty thefts near the gate.

“But they told us not to kill him. Did we go too far?”

“Who cares?”

The vagrants who lived near the gate all had shady backgrounds. It was filled with runaways and criminals. And because the floating population of the village of tents was high, the soldiers couldn’t regulate every single thing that occurred there.

The vagrants were playing with the gold coins that they received for their advance. It was plenty enough to embrace women and drink alcohol for a long while.

“Are you sure that no one is following us? The back of my head feels itchy,” said one of the vagrants who had keen senses. He pressed his bandana onto his head before splitting up from the others. They agreed to rendezvous at the promised location.

“GUAAAAAH!”

The vagrants, who had split up, all flinched. They could hear a scream echoing throughout the village of tents. It was a familiar voice.

‘I knew we were being chased. One of the others got done in.’

The vagrant moved carefully. He was shaking in terror after hearing his comrade’s scream. Obviously, he wasn’t going to go save them.

‘I should try to get the rest of the payment and run away.’

The vagrant rushed faster towards the promised location.

‘Was I the first to arrive? Or were the others all done in…’

The vagrant paced around in the filthy shed. It was formerly a relay station but was deserted and eventually turned into a shed. There was dried horse manure all over the floor.

Creak.

The shed’s door opened. The vagrant pulled out a dull short sword, on guard.

“Did you come alone? Well, it’s obvious that you might not trust me as well. Here, it’s the rest. Since it’s something that I swore on Ru’s name, of course I’d give it. I don’t want to wander this world when I’m dead.”

Fortunately for the vagrant, it was their employer. The employer slowly walked over to pull out the remaining balance.

“Hehe, a good exchange, sir.”

The vagrant laughed as if he was never afraid. He was happy from the thought of taking all of the money for himself.

‘Hmph, I never want to see these bastards again.’

The employer, after finishing their business, wanted to quickly leave the shed. He reached out to grab the door.

CRASH!

The shed’s door was broken. A massive hand reached out through the broken planks to squeeze the employer’s neck. A barbarian, covered in the blood of other people, lumbered in while glaring at everyone inside.

“K-Kaaack!”

The employer started clawing at the barbarian’s arm. The barbarian threw him at the wall and glared even harder at the vagrant.

“Hiiieeek!” screamed the vagrant, terrified. He unfortunately saw what was tied to the barbarian’s waist.

‘H-Heads!’

His comrades’ heads were tied to the barbarian’s waist. Their hairs were tied together like ropes and then tied to him.

“Guuurgh.”

The barbarian used his other hand to drag in another vagrant, one who had turned black and blue from getting beaten. It was the vagrant who spilled everything about the meeting place to the barbarian.

“You fucking imbecile! Did you squeal like a rat?!” shouted the trembling vagrant, looking at his accomplice. The vagrant that was being held by the barbarian couldn’t answer. It was because his neck was sliced right after.

“I found you, every last one of you bastards,” said Urich the Barbarian after cutting the vagrant’s neck. He then tied the head to his waist and let it dangle there.

“Y-You barbarian bastard!” shouted the vagrant. Urich smiled with his blood-covered face and kept spinning his axes.

“You’ll end up just like him soon, so don’t act like that.”

The vagrant tried to run away. Urich threw his axe to tear the vagrant’s ankles.

“Kaack! Kaargh!”

The vagrant even tried to limp away. Urich grabbed the other leg and crushed it with his hands.

CRUSH.

“GUAAAAAARGH!”

The vagrant shit and pissed himself. Urich kicked away the disabled vagrant and glared at the employer—the one who started it all.

“You bastard! Do you know who I am?! Go away, right now!” shouted the employer as he pulled out his sword. Urich quickly unsheathed his imperial steel sword to swat away the man’s sword. The employer’s palm ripped as the sword flew to the sky and embedded on the ceiling.

The employer, who had become defenseless in an instant, looked at Urich with a horrified face.

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. The only thing that I need is your mouth. I’ll get rid of all of these useless things for you,” said Urich. He then grabbed the employer’s arms and legs and twisted it with all of his strength.

In the other corner of the shed, a vagrant was violently shaking.

Crush, snap.

A horrifying sound filled the empty shed. The vagrant wished that he was unconscious instead. He couldn’t believe what was happening in front of him. A human was being twisted and bent like a doll… while he was still breathing.

‘Barbarian…’

The vagrant murmured to himself. He gave up on everything and started praying to the Sun God.

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