chapter 12

On the road between the previous city and that of the province capital, where Leonard, Sachi and the other peoples of the Red Eagle tribe had met up with Edward through a coincidence and they spent some time catching up with one another- Leonard used that opportunity nicely and managed to get some juicy details out of the fat meatball.

Such as him being gone for a year and a half and his family and in-law raising hell for the Rosen Kingdom and the Holy kingdom in his absence.

But that's for another time, now he had another thing to do, much better thing… because standing before him was a group of five people who wore the same type of identical armor and had their face covered with a piece of black cloth acting like a hood, only revealing their eyes, they are now all tied up and sat on the floor, glaring at him and Sachi.

"Alright, let get the "fun" started shall we?" Leonard grinned as he began cracking his fingers, making that nerve wrecking popping sound, signally the incoming torturous fun time for all of them, actually it's more of Leonard having a good time than these peoples unless they are masochists.

"Alright, this is your last chance, tell me...who sent you guys to kill us?" Leonard glance at them as he began to pulled out some of his "tools" from his collections that he amassed when he was inside Sword Art Online- most of these tools are forged by him personally as he needs a way to level up his blacksmithing skills, and what better way to increase it by forging useful tools that might come in handy in the far distant future instead of making vendor junks?

The group of masked men remained silent and just glare at him instead of talking.

"I was hoping that you would remain silent...since I do need some practices since I'm starting to get really rusty, you know?" he smiled as he held a bolt cutter like tool with one hand while holding a bottle of healing potion on another.

*****

Flashback to Count Bulsis Mansion.

The Count was looking through a stack of papers that contained details pieces of information about the youngster that made his beloved son goes insane.

He remembered the day that the guards from the border checkpoint brought him back in chained while screaming bloody murder.

What made him even more heartbroken was the fact that his son barely recognized him, it was only through great effort and help from a priest that he managed to calm down a bit to recognized his Count Bulsis.

The Count asked the priest afterward if he could help- unfortunately, however, it there wasn't much the priest could do, all he said was "the curse was too potent for the power of the god and saints."

"Leonard eah? No surname...commoner? No… something's wrong here… but whatever…go find the Black-Hand, pay them a thousand gold for this youngster's head- no, tell them to capture him alive- I don't care if his limbs are broken- but I need him to be able to cure my son when he gets here! And kill everyone else that was with him!" The Count then tossed his bank card to the same subordinate and ordered him.

"By your will, my Count." he bowed before silently left through the door, of course, he had that vicious smile on his face as he left.

The man had found one piece of important information about Leonard that he chooses to not share with the Count, personally from the guard captain himself after he went through some trouble of persuading the man, telling him that he wants to screw the count over.

"You're so dead this time…" that information was about Leonard, Leonard Welser, the third son of the Duke of the Northern Domain.

Of course the man would still hire those assassins- but he make sure that he hired the weakling and give them as much detail about their employer and as little details as possible for the intended "victims" , because when he asked the captain about the youngster own strength- he could only reply that he was very strong, even a rank four like him would felt the horrifying bloodthirsty aura that he emitted.

Flashback end

*****

Four out of the five-man that was tied up previously are now laying on the fresh, young green grass in a pool of blood, and in pieces at that.

"You're the last one, so are willing to tell me yet? If not I'm going to extend this "fun" experience further than just ten of your toes you know...maybe I'll move to the finger next...and then *ahem...third limb." Leonard asked as he placed the bolt cutter like tool on one of the man exposed toe and placed the blade so that it would directly touch the skin.

"Erghhh!!!" of course the man struggled and muttered incoherently as a piece of cloth gagged him, making it close to impossible for him to scream or say anything in that matter.

"Hmmm...guess I have to step up my game now." Leonard smiled as he used the bolt cutter and removed the man last remaining toe with a loud and crispy snapping sound.

"URGHHHH!!!!!" the assassin eyes bulged out as tears and snot dripped out.

"Huh...that was some nice reaction…" Leonard commented and pulled out the piece of cloth that he used to gag the man.

"Please! Stop this! I'll tell you!" the last assassin cried out.

"Please go ahead, I'm all ears."

"It's a man from Count Bulsis! He told us to find and kill you because of what you did to his son! He pays us a hundred gold coins for your head! At first we were really skeptical about the whole thing because of the payout amount- however, he said that you are only a rank four." the assassin continued to spill out every single piece of juicy secret information for Leonard as time went on.

"Count Bulsis...eah? Isn't that the father of that trash I played with when I was at the border checkpoint?' Leonard scratched his chin as he tried to remember what he did to that poor fool that tried to make a move on Sachi and the people that were with him.

"Is there anything else that I should know about? You already know the consequence if you dare to try and hide anything right? I'll make sure that you won't die by constantly healing you up and cutting off your small limbs…" he threatened.

"Yes yes! There's more! He also paid us an amount to look for the people that you had contact with when you were in the city! However, he didn't pay us much of it so we only sent out a few hired thugs to give him a beating at most…" the man answered.

"Leonard, does that mean Edward is in danger?" Sachi asked out of worry, as she notices that Edward was one of Leonard good friend and had helped them quite a lot when they were in the city, she too didn't want anything bad to happen to that fatty.

"Don't worry about him too much, he had quite a number of trump card hidden, and remember what I gave him before we set off?" Leonard reminded her while having a bright smile on his face.

"Oh...right...why did I not remembered that…" she giggled.