Answering The Challenge (5)
*** Author Note ***
What time of the week is it? Yeah that's right, it's a bonus chapter day!!!!
Once again readers so pleased you are dropping so many stones, and an equally big thanks to those of you who've reviewed the work ;)
I think we're only a few reviews left away from getting an actual star rating on the book itself.
Lastly, as I stated before if anyone is interested in a physical copy of the book check out my Patreon I'm currently working with an editor to correct my work a little to make it more legible for printed copies and correct some of my probably horrendous grammatical mistakes haha
***
"Is he a great man?" <Lillian >
"Yes, he is! I don't know a lot about him, but he seems very important." <Woman >
What Lillian saw was the imposing figure of Julius and another group of uncles who had killed all the scary soldiers.
The man who gave the orders to those uncles, he might be able to help her sister.
Such thoughts occupied Lillian's mind.
Now that Sedin was dead, all she could think about was Frill and the promise she made to her dead parents.
He had saved so many people, so he should be able to save Frill too.
As Lillian was thinking about this, Julius gave orders again.
"Bente, I'm going to the capital, so stand by and secure the fortress with the soldiers. When I return, I'll take everyone back!" <Julius >
Lillian, who had been watching her, rushed over to Julius as if she had made up her mind.
She was ready to do anything if it would help Frill.
* * *
- - Gensema POV - -
Gensema visited the son of Duke Ronen, Selville, who was also his most important client.
As long as this son was a client, Duke Ronen could not do anything about Gensema.
"You wanted to see me, sir? Lord Selville." <Gensema >
The dukedom still belonged to Ronen.
Until he inherited his father's title, Selville held the title of Count managing some of his Fathers lands.
"I don't like the slave from the other day." <Lord Selville>
"Oh, I see! We don't accept returns, but if you don't like it, Your Excellency, we can of course get you a replacement!" <Gensema >
"Thank you for that. When I become Duke, I will encourage your trading company with the whole country." <Lord Selville>
"We can only wait for that day and be loyal to you. Hahaha!" <Gensema >
Gensema smiled as he agreed with Selville's assertion.
"Then change it at once. Huhuhuhu." <Lord Selville>
Selville drank the glass he was holding and sat up.
"Yes, sir. I will deliver it immediately." <Gensema >
Gensema walked out with his head bowed. On his way home, he blurted out to his men.
"You son of a bitch. What exchange? There is no exchange for slaves." <Gensama >
"Isn't that why they brought the child from the fortress?" <Grunt >
"Well, that's true. It hurts my pride...to give it away so easily, I can't help it." <Gensema >
Gensema said and walked towards the secret hideout in the royal capital.
***
- - Julius POV - -
We knew the general location of the fortress and were able to mobilize the cavalry to find it quickly.
The problem was that there was no representative in the fortress and no account book.
I needed the ledger to shake down Hero Elheat.
It's a classified document, so the representative must have it.
Based on the information I obtained from torturing the remnants, I visited their hideout in the royal capital.
With a map in hand, we arrived in front of an ordinary two-story building.
The remnants confessed that their hideout was in the basement of this building.
"I've never seen a representative before, either. They only show their faces to people they really trust." <Zeff >
"I see." <Julius >
We'll be seeing that face soon.
Zeff went down to the basement at my signal.
His brute force had shattered the basement door like it was a piece of paper.
Inside, a group of grim-looking men gathered to drink.
When the door suddenly blew open, the men looked at us with confused expressions.
There were about seven of them.
I cupped my chin and Zeff rushed out with his sword.
"What the hell is wrong with them?" <Slaver >
"I'm going to kill those slavers." <Zeff >
Zeff sentenced them to death, but the slavers only scoffed at us.
"You've got to be kidding me, you know we're here and you're attacking us. What, did we catch your girlfriend? Hahahahaha." <Slaver Captain>
Then one of them said the forbidden word.
Zeff's eyes went red from anger.
At that moment, the head of the man who had been taunting him parted from his body, the severed head was then sliced into four pieces.
"Hey, bro!" <Slaver >
The rest of the guys attacked Zeff, but it was a very easy fight.
In less than a minute, all the men on the first basement floor had been beheaded before they could scream.
It was a massacre without a shred of mercy; the basement floor was covered in a sea of blood.
The blood from the seven decapitated corpses soaked into the wooden floor and people started coming up from the floor below.
"You're making too much noise." <Slaver >
A man came up, scratching his ear, he was holding hands with a little girl.
It corresponded to the image of her sister, which Lillian described, fortunately, we weren't too late. I whispered to Yuri.
"Will you save and protect the child?" <Yuri >
"Yes." <Julius >
As soon as Yuri replied, the slaver frowned and said,
"Representative, it seems that some crazy people have invaded." <Slaver >
"Looks like it." <Gensema >
______________________________________
[Gensema]
[Age: 49]
[Power Level: 71]
[Intelligence: 66]
[Command: 70]
______________________________________
______________________________________
[Luthrie]
[Age: 26]
[Power Level: 94]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Command: 30]
______________________________________
The old one was the representative and the tall man must be his bodyguard.
He was probably the strongest one in the Doro Trading Company.
The assassin they sent to me was number two, and this guy was number one.
Well, it's no big deal anyway.
Yuri quickly ran towards Gensema.
When Luthrie tried to stop her, Zeff rushed forward and made way for Yuri.
"You're Zeff, aren't you?" <Luthrie >
Then Luthrie noticed Zeff.
When Zeff noticed him as well, he glared at him and shouted.
"Captain of the assassination squad!" <Zeff >
"Yeah, that's me. I used you because you looked like you could be useful, but you did something terrible and ran away, didn't you? I'm not sure what to do with you." <Luthrie >
"Shut up!" <Zeff >
Zeff swung his sword and Luthrie parried the attack.
Yuri took the opportunity to kick Gensema's arm and save the girl.
It seemed that Luthrie had intended to put Zeff away immediately and protect Gensema, but Zeff had become much stronger than when he worked for the organization.
Luthrie's face contorted as he sensed this and Yuri pulled the girl towards her.
"Who the hell are you?" <Gensema >
"Me? I'm Count Aquitania, the one you tried to kill." <Julius >
"Aquitania? What the hell? What about Hogg?" <Gensema >
Hogg, apparently, that's the name of the assassin who attacked me.
"He's dead. Didn't stay alive long enough to give his name. That's why I'm here, to find out who's behind it." <Julius >
"Hogg's dead? That's impossible!" <Gensema >
Gensema still didn't understand the situation.
"There are some people in this world that should not be offended." <Julius >
Gensema snickered when I told him that.
"Did that guy kill Hogg? It might be possible since he can even compete with Luthrie. But Luthrie is many times stronger than that Hogg!" <Gensema >
Gensema seemed to have a great deal of trust in Luthrie, the man who was fighting Zeff.
He didn't even realize that it was a useless trust.
"Give me the name of the one who hired you. I can spare your life." <Julius >
Of course I'm not going to let him live.
I didn't mean it, but Gensema still ignored what I said.
"What are you doing, Luthrie? Get rid of him and kill the Count, too! Leave the lady alive! She'll fetch a high price!" <Gensema >
Well, I suppose that in terms of power level in the Lunan Kingdom he had no opponent other than Hero Elheat.
It was because of that assassination organization and that guy that Gensema could wield power in the continent even though he was just a slave trader.
"Zeff, back up a bit." <Julius >
To shatter Gensema's confidence, I summoned Heavenly Demon Rain into my hand to attack Luthrie, an opponent against whom I didn't even need to use [Crush], Luthrie's torso was immediately cut in two.
"What!?" <Gensema >
Gensema, who had believed in the power of Luthrie, was so surprised that he froze.
"Luthrie is a man whose strength is second to none in the Lunan Kingdom!" <Gensema >
Finally realizing something was wrong, Gensema stepped back and squeezed out a few words.
His face, which had been full of confidence, was now stained with shock.
Then he began to descend to the basement as he tried to run.
There seemed to be a hidden passage in the basement, but…
"Trash." <Yuri >
Yurasia covered Frill's eyes with her hands and cut Gensema's legs with Rossade.
I walked over to the trash and cut off one of his arms.
"Gaaaaaah!" <Gensema >
The single arm that had been cut from Gensema's shoulder grazed the ceiling and fell to the floor.
Gensema's face contorted in pain as he grabbed the section of his shoulder that was bleeding and groaned.
"Do you want my help?" <Julius >
Gensema nodded furiously as I pointed my sword in front of him.
"Then take me to the place where you were going to take her. If you don't, you're dead Oh, and give me the ledger, too. And I hope you'll tell me who hired you to kill me." <Julius >
"..." <Gensema >
"Still struggling in this situation? Then so be it" <Julius >
I raised up my Perk Blade without any regrets.
"Wait, wait, wait! Are you really going to spare me? If I do what you say...you'll spare me, right?" <Gensema >
He seems to think that if we'll spare him here, he'll have a chance at revenge.
"You've got five seconds to decide." <Julius >
"Okay, okay, I'll show you. And the one who asked me to kill you is Count Hayna Berghin." <Gensema >
Eventually, Gensema confessed, grudgingly nodding.