Chapter 101

Joonbum opened his eyes as he yawned. It was already near dawn.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

Gazlow handed over some cold water. Joonbum looked at the many warriors who had already gathered around to prepare for an attack. Howen, who was also one of the warriors, arrived at the scene spoke out.

“We will drive them out of the mountain range.”

There was no long speech or explanation. Just a simple sentence was enough for everyone to understand what they were about to do.

“Joonbum, let them see hell let loose.”

Joonbum nodded and aimed his sniper rifle.

“Whoo…”

He let out a breath, aimed it at the target, then pulled the trigger.

“AMBUSH! RUN!”

The first gunshot sound alerted all the sleeping mercenaries and they got on their feet. They began running around, looking for cover with their life. They knew what the sound meant after being stalked by the sniper rifle for a long time.

“Devils! Devils are on the loose again! Run! Hide!”

“Go behind a rock!”

“A tree will work! GO to the trees!”

“Wear your helmets! Hide under your shields! Do it!”

They acted quickly as they experienced this throughout their time here. Their quick actions also helped them to block all the arrows that were fired upon them. But it was still not very useful against the sniper rifle.

“UGH!”

Joonbum found a small opening to shoot through and the mercenaries fell to their deaths. As they were frantically searching for shelter from the sniper rifle, Ainos warriors who approached them carefully threw a series of grenades at once.

“RUN! Run for your lives! RUN!”

Benjamin, who figured out that there was no way to hide, shouted. He already knew they had no chance of fighting them so he tried to just survive, but even that was hard. The Black Talon was the strongest mercenary group within Toria Kingdom, but it was only when they were able to fight. These Ainos were nowhere to be seen. They were one with the forest and the Black Talon had no way to fight the forest. The only thing left for them to do was run.

‘I can’t just run… they won’t let us. Then…’

Benjamin began to think. They had no way to fight back, so they had to run. But they needed a bait so they could freely run away.

‘Maybe…!’

Benjamin glanced at the bonfire that was still burning from yesterday.

“Everyone! Retreat! Run for your life! Rest when you get out of the mountain! Set the forest on fire! And RUN!”

Benjamin began spreading the bonfire around. He began throwing the coal everywhere and the leaves began to catch fire. Others followed Benjamin’s actions. The area was soon burning with fire.

“Those idiots started a fire!”

“That’s dangerous for both sides! Dammit!”

Joonbum did not know what to do as it was unexpected.

“You four, go after them. The rest will keep the fire from spreading,” Howen ordered as warriors began to move to put out the fires from spreading to the trail.

“Let’s go!”

Joonbum and others began following the Black Talon mercenaries.

*

“Ah! I’m sleepy.”

“Dale, are you sleepy already? You just got here! Wait- Have you?”

Dale, who had been yawning like he had not slept yet, grinned at his friend Biggs as he realized what he had been up to.

“Heh. So, you’ve noticed.”

“You did! You really did it then? Did you sleep with Henna?”

“Haha! I did. She is mine now. We will be living together soon.”

Biggs’ face turned angry.

“You bastard! How dare you take Henna away from me!”

“You’re crazy. She’s mine now.”

“No way! She was my wife since we were little babies! I challenge you to a duel.”

“That was child’s play!”

“I will not forgive you!”

Biggs yelled but Dale’s eyes were not looking at him. He was watching the Khalodanian Mountain range.

“What are you doing? Don’t ignore…”

“H-hey. Look. Who are they?”

Dale frowned as he found men walking towards the village from a distance. There were several men in rags walking toward them from the mountain.

“Are they bums? Why are the bums coming from the village?”

“Hey, they have weapons. They must be mercenaries!”

“Mercenaries? Since when did mercenaries enter the forest?”

They asked themselves, but they could not find the answer. No mercenaries hunted in the forest, at least not in a while. It was almost the end of spring and it wasn’t a good time to hunt as the monsters or animals had not grown as much. The group of men came closer as they pondered the reason why they were coming out from the mountain and Dale frowned at the sight.

‘What happened to them?’

A man fell to the ground and the others began to do the same. The men who fell did not move or make noises. They just shivered slightly. Biggs felt a chill running through his spine at the sight and shouted, “H-Hey! Who are you guys! Drop your weapons and identify yourself!”

All of them began dropping their weapons to the ground. The man at the front opened his mouth.

“W-we… are t-the Black…”

He then fell to the ground. The other men behind him also fell. It seemed they were falling asleep.

“W-water…!”

Another man dropped. Biggs and Dale opened the door and went out to them.

“Who are you! What happened?”

Dale frowned as he smelled a terrible stench coming from them. Biggs handed his leather pouch to have the man drink some of the water.

“Ugh.”

The man gulped down the water, then spoke.

“We-we are mercenaries from the Black Brotherhood…”

Then he dropped to the ground, falling asleep. All of the other men were in the same state.

“Dammit! This is not some inn! Dale! Go call them!”

“Who?”

“The guards! We need to take these people in!”

“Oh, yes.”

Biggs began counting down the men who were asleep on the ground.

‘There are forty-two. How did these men get here? What were they doing in the forest?’

The questions continued swirling around, in his head but he shook it off. He knew he wasn’t the one to questions. He needed to protect this place and report it.

*

“Dale? What’s going on?”

“Where’s the captain? Lieutenant?”

Todd pointed to the side as he saw Dale running into the guard’s post. Hectos and Jackson were walking toward Todd.

“Captain!”

“Huh? Dale. Why are you here? What about the gate?”

“Sir! There is a group of bums calling themselves the Black Brotherhood sleeping in front of the gate!”

Both were confused by the report. It made no sense.

“Dale, are you drunk?”

“Huh? I drank yesterday.”

Jackson intervened as Hectos began asking stupid questions.

“Dale, explain. From the beginning.”

“Oh! Yes. So, Biggs asked me if I did it with her and I was like, I did! But then, there were these men! No, bums! So I asked them who they were, but they started falling asleep! So we went out and asked who they are, and another man called himself the Black Brotherhood. I think there were about fifty of them. We gave them some water.”

Dale’s explanation was all over the place but Jackson understood what he was saying. He let out a sigh, glanced at the big wound on Dale’s head, and shook his head.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes?”

“To the gate.”

“Yes, sir!”

“My brother-in-law! I will stay-”

“You have to go.”

“You can take care of-”

“Shut up, and come.”

Hectos glared at Dale as if he was going to hit him. Dale, however, did not realize his gesture and grinned at Hectos.

“Captain, I heard this new woman at Hortern’s has big boobs! Like, this big!”

“Oh! Wow. Really?”

“Yeah! If you poke it, it’s like – so nice!”

“Really? Really?”

Jackson decided not to hear what they were talking about from behind and walked fast.

‘Black Brotherhood? Why are they here? And how did they come from the mountains? When did they go? Why? Did the Donian’s main group make a move?’

It was the only possible explanation. There was no other reason.

“Todd! Bring all the soldiers and follow me!”

“Yes, sir!”

Jackson walked fast to prepare.

‘No way, it’s war if they laid their hands on the countess!’

There were rumors of the count falling in love. There was big construction going on in his castle to clean up the interior and fancy it up a bit. It seemed like the count was decorating the castle with some of the items he received from the countess. Jackson figured it was very normal for a man who fell in love to do such a thing. It was obvious that the count wanted to invite the countess over to his castle.

‘I hope they did not do such a thing!’

Jackson’s face showed that he was now very concerned.

“The guards are moving!”

“What’s going on this time?”

“Did the Ainos come back again?”

“They won’t be here until next year.”

“Right. But where are they going? Jackson is leading them.”

“Well, if he’s up to something, it should be dealt with in no time.”

Everyone began mumbling to themselves as they saw Jackson and the guards moving through the roads. Jackson soon arrived at the wall and looked outside.

‘That’s the Black Talon of the Black Brotherhood! Why are they here?’

“Wow, they sure look like bums. Is there a war somewhere? Are they refugees? Ugh, they smell so bad. Hey, make them clean themselves by the river before they enter the village. Okay?”

“Hehe, Yes, sir! Oh, Captain. Do you want to visit the place at dinner today?”

“Hmph! Dale, how nice of you. You know my thoughts!”

Hectos and Dale were still having irrelevant discussions.

“Arrest all of them and lock them up in our cells!”

The guards ran out to them and began tying them down. Some tried to resist, but they were pounded with a club and arrested.