Chapter 238 - Hostage Crisis

The half-Giant gazed silently at the pouring rain. She had dried herself off and sat by the window, watching the downpour, when the words of the man called Encrid came back to her.

["Tomorrow too?"]

Tomorrow rather than today. The future rather than the present. Was she allowed to live thinking of such things? Would that really be all right? Those questions swirled within her.

As a cultist, a member of the Cult of the Sacred Demonic Realm, her duty was clear.

"Hey."

That was why she had to let this man's words sway her now. Though her heart did not stir at all, she had to force herself to agree. The man called Swallow Blade spoke, leaning against her doorframe.

"I never cared about sparring in the first place. Weren't you much the same?"

Swallow Blade was quick on the uptake and had a good memory. The half-Giant had met him before. In other words, he knew what she was. That was why he was making this offer. Cultists were hardly a group that worshipped martial prowess. If she had come all this way, her purpose was obvious.

"Let's kill him. That's what we have to do, isn't it?"

It was. The half-Giant knew it too. Even so, her head would not readily move. She could not bring herself to speak. But it had to be done, so she nodded.

["Endure if you wish to survive. Kill if you wish to survive."]

The evil cult's teachings remained vivid in her mind. Until she died, she was nothing but a cultist, a warrior of the Cult of the Sacred Demonic Realm. She acted exactly as those words dictated. She agreed to Swallow Blade's proposal.

"I have a plan."

Swallow Blade stepped closer. A foul, rotten stench came from his mouth. What came out of it reeked just as badly. That was how it began.

Swallow Blade loitered near the gate until he found a soldier.

"Hey, friend!"

"Hm?"

The rain was heavy enough to make an oiled cloak useless. Darkness lay all around. It was the sort of day that narrowed one's field of vision, dark even beneath a roof with a torch burning. It was only natural that visibility was poor.

Bell stepped into the light to see the face of the man calling him. The other man did the same. The face was familiar.

What was his name again? Come to think of it, they had not even asked his name when he entered the domain. One thing was certain: he was Encrid's guest. A swordsman staying at the inn, and one of his sparring partners. He was also someone Marcus had told them to watch closely.

"What do you need?"

Swallow Blade smiled. Something about that smile grated on Bell, but he said nothing.

"Have a little time to spare?" the man with the nasty smile asked.

Bell was on security patrol. Of course he had no time to spare. What sort of pointless nonsense was this? He was just about to answer.

"Urk!"

His head snapped around at the sudden sound. A hulking warrior had appeared behind him. The half-Giant warrior. Another familiar face. Bell had watched Encrid spar several times, after all.

The instant he saw the female warrior's cold, rigid face, he opened his mouth to shout a warning of an attack, an ambush. Cold steel touched his throat before he could. It was too fast for him to react.

"Shh."

That was the last Bell knew. Something struck the back of his head, and when he next opened his eyes, his hands and feet were tightly bound. He was soaked through, and he was not alone.

"Our Lord in heaven."

The prayer came from right beside him. A middle-aged woman was murmuring through her tears. She sold seasoned jerky and was a fellow soldier's mother. There were a few other familiar faces besides hers.

"Vanessa?"

"Damn it, you're finally awake?"

The boisterous innkeeper was here too. Her manner was as rough as ever, but her eyes wavered, betraying her anxiety.

Bell looked around again. His vision was blurry, but not so much that he could not recognize people. Dozens of them, himself included, were all tied up. And then:

"Resist, and I'll kill them one by one."

The voice came from some distance away. Only then did Bell realize he was in some sort of hut. A few familiar things caught his eye: an old leather sunshade, several rotten hides giving off a musty smell, and a dead fireplace that had not held a fire in years.

It was a hunter's hut in an isolated spot outside the gates, not within the town. An abandoned hut, in other words. What was going on? They were all familiar faces, bound with rope and imprisoned in a hunter's hut.

Sunlight streamed through the window. Lying on his side, Bell tensed his stomach muscles.

"Hup!"

After heaving himself upright, he looked out the window. There was the back of the man he had seen just before losing consciousness.

'That bastard?'

His head still throbbed. Something sticky against the side of his face as he sat up suggested he had bled a fair amount too. He was not dead, but his skull had been cracked.

Beyond the man's back, he could make out a blurred figure, though he could not see clearly. The voice, however, told him at once who it was.

"Then I think you'll die too."

It was Encrid's voice. Bell quickly grasped the situation. A hostage crisis.

At the same time, he wondered whether it would accomplish anything. This was a world of killing and being killed. In a world like that, would Encrid die for these people, even if there were dozens of them? That seemed out of the question. So why was this still going on?

Questions kept forming in Bell's head. He would have to watch a little longer to understand what was happening.

* * *

Swallow Blade's scheme was neither extraordinary nor brilliant. It was merely simple and fucking nasty.

"I told you, I'll kill them all."

From his first day in Border Guard until now, he had studied his surroundings. He had observed and taken stock. He had learned a few things in the process. First:

'Fuck? They put me under watch right off the bat?'

Someone had eyes on him. Thanks to Krais, word had reached the higher-ups on the very first day. Marcus had consequently assigned people to watch him. Swallow Blade found that deeply unpleasant.

Surveillance aside, he had learned other things afterward. From what he could see, Encrid was closer to the people around him than he might realize. Even so, if Swallow Blade took them hostage and demanded his life outright, he would naturally scoff. Hostages only meant something if they held sufficient value to the target.

'They aren't family or lovers.'

Nor were they secret children of his. Just acquaintances. That was all.

"I'm not asking for anything grand. Just this. Send the people around you away and stay here alone."

That was why Swallow Blade offered terms his opponent might accept. Frankly, he believed that he and that crazy half-Giant bitch could kill Encrid if they fought together. What was the problem, then?

'Those bastards, of course.'

The one behind Encrid, snickering as he stroked his axe. The great bear of a man who looked a full two heads taller than Swallow Blade. The one who acted so quiet, yet whose behavior suggested he might stab someone anywhere, anytime.

"You especially. Don't disappear. If I lose sight of you, this woman dies first."

He was speaking to Jaxon. Swallow Blade already had one of the residents held against him. She was the woman who made marmalade. A sharp knife pressed tight to her neck. A drop of blood soon trickled down.

Encrid could not remember her name. Krais, however, did.

"Lay a finger on Juri and you won't die easy."

Krais was unusually serious. She made excellent marmalade with those hands, so her fingers certainly were important.

Juri was deathly pale and unable to get a single word out properly. As rigid as though her entire body had been coated in wax, she could only let Swallow Blade drag her around with his rough grip.

Even watching that, Encrid showed no impatience. It only deepened the smile on Swallow Blade's face.

'That bastard's eyes really piss me off.'

If things went his way, he would gouge those eyes out first.

"Is what I'm asking so hard? No, it isn't. Unless you're not confident you can win... Now, that would be a different story."

The taunt was as crude as ever. Swallow Blade's terms were simple. Send the others away. Leave Encrid alone. And afterward?

"Beat the two of us on your own, one after the other, and that's the end of it."

Do that, and he would release the hostages. It was obviously bullshit, but he was not asking Encrid to die or cut off an arm. And he would kill people without hesitation if Encrid refused. That made things awkward. Couldn't he agree to even these modest terms?

'That's what he's aiming for.'

Viewed dispassionately, it was absurd. He was being told to send his allies away and face two enemies. What if both of them attacked to kill him at once?

'Could they handle the consequences, then?'

What if he were seriously injured? Even if he sent them away, Rem and the others were not people who would stay quietly out of it. They would give chase immediately. Did Swallow Blade have some other means at his disposal?

How many years had Encrid survived on his wits because his skills were lacking? When it came to reading a situation, he was as good as anyone. He read Swallow Blade's intentions. Not merely read them, but glimpsed what lay beyond. Beyond his five senses, his Sixth Sense was telling him.

'He'll have something hidden, besides a way to escape.'

Beside Swallow Blade stood the half-Giant, helmet pulled down, sword and shield in hand. Even handling that one warrior alone was beyond him. No, it had been beyond him. Before, before his encounters with Pell the Shepherd, it would have been out of the question.

'I think I might manage it.'

He was composed and untroubled. His eyes were no different. Looking into them, Swallow Blade smiled more broadly. That smile had been repulsive from the first time Encrid saw it.

But he had left the man alone because he wanted to see the skills he was hiding. Encrid considered this his responsibility. He was about to agree when:

"Bullshiiit!"

What a booming voice.

"Hm? Who's been listening in on my thoughts?"

Rem spouted nonsense behind him. The shout had come from inside the abandoned hut. It was Bell.

Wouldn't that get him killed first? Encrid was privately concerned. This had all happened because of him, and every one of those faces was familiar. It would bother him if they were stabbed to death here, away from any battlefield. He wished Bell would keep his mouth shut.

Swallow Blade's face no longer looked like a smile at all, but some grotesquely distorted mask. Didn't his facial muscles hurt, grinning like that?

"Ho ho, brother with the unpleasant smile. Let us talk instead. The scriptures say that those about to take the wrong path should look behind them. Now, look behind you."

Along with those baffling words, Audin extended a hand, naturally guiding the man's gaze aside. In time with that, Jaxon subtly lifted his left foot. Rem let his left hand hang loose. Only Ragna watched with a yawn.

"Cut the bullshit."

Swallow Blade did not fall for it. Encrid made his decision. What else could he do? He did not think he would even be risking his life.

"Everyone, go back, wash your feet, and get some rest."

"Tch. Going to do this alone?"

"I think I can."

He had often said that before. In the past, Rem would have responded with scathing mockery, asking whether he was going off to die alone. But now? Judging by their spar just before coming here...

'Tch.'

Rem swallowed his words. Encrid had improved. He truly was not someone to take lightly anymore. Moreover, he had awakened Will, even if it was only a part, a fragment. He was now qualified to enter the Scarlet Cloak Knight Order, the kingdom's only knight order.

Well, joining a knight order would mean satisfying various other requirements. But he had actually received an invitation to join some unknown order.

"Well?"

Encrid nodded at Swallow Blade, whose eyes were narrowed to almost nothing by his smile. Then he sent everyone back, far enough away that they were completely out of sight.

Swallow Blade never released his hostage. If not for the woman held against him, Juri or Joori or whatever her name was, Encrid would have made a move long ago. He had been holding a knife all this time, concealed behind the back of his hand. He was ready to use the Throwing blade technique.

If he threw it now, Swallow Blade would use the hostage as a shield.

'Should I kill her myself, then rush in and cut him down?'

The hostage would die, but it was one way to subdue his opponent. Sacrifice one person and resolve the situation cleanly. That was an option too.

But then someone would die. A resident of the domain he was supposed to protect would die because of a situation he had created. He would not be wracked with guilt over it. He had no taste for tormenting himself over things already done. But neither did it suit him to stand by and watch something he could prevent.

SHING.

"I never swore to protect the people of Border Guard, but they live in my domain," Encrid said, drawing his sword. "I can't just stand by and watch."

The rain had cleared from the sky. Beneath that clear, cloudless sky, beneath that shining blue sky, stood Encrid, sword in hand.