Chapter 5 – That incident that happened in the Morcus’s estate (4)

“We don’t have enough time. He might leave tomorrow morning, so tonight during dinner….”

“My god!”

Laney was cut short halfway through her sentence.

It was because Heinze had jumped out of his seat as if the world was ending.

He then quickly opened the window.

“What’s wrong?”

“Shit….”

Heinze cursed without thought.

That’s how bad the situation was.

Whether his body was in bad shape or not, he was angry at his helplessness.

This made him angry and remorseful, however, this wasn’t the time to be angry. He had to think of countermeasures.

“Ah ah! Do you hear me voice? You guys are already surrounded, so obediently come out. Well, I won’t stop you if you want to sit there, but wouldn’t it be better to die a quick death rather than be burned alive?”

The ringleader on the enemy’s side spoke while volumizing his voice with mana.

It was as if he had already won.

However, they weren’t empty words as an arrow was pointed towards the inn.

The inn would very easily burn if they added fire and oil onto the arrow.

“Kyyaakkk!!”

“Wh, what is it? What’s going on?!!”

Many people within the inn rushed out as they heard the threats coming from the scar faced, middle-aged man.

However, the group that surrounded the inn seemed to be completely uninterested in everyone else.

“Sir!”

During that time, all the of the knights that were resting rushed and gathered into Laney’s room.

They were all fully equipped.

“Things are getting quite weird.”

“……Mister Jade.”

Jade appeared as if he had just finished washing up.

He had wet hair as he walked into Laney’s room with Hwid in his arms.

However, different from his words, his face did not show any surprise.

“What had happened is….”

Heinze spoke as no one was able to respond.

Although they were late on the explanation, they had no choice but to explain to Jade their circumstance now.

“Lord Heinze, I will explain it to him.”

“….Yes ma’am.”

Heinze was interrupted midway as Laney stepped in to speak with a determined expression.

“The situation is as it is, but we had something to tell you during dinner time, mister Jade. At that time, we were…..”

“Wait. You can explain it to me after we handle this situation. I think that’s our priority.”

Jade spoke as he stared at dozens of archers preparing their fire arrows.

Objects caught on fire when introduced to flame, but what was more worrisome than that was lack of oxygen.

That’s why it was a priority for them to get outside.

“Let’s then.”

Heinze immediately replied as he understood what Jade was saying.

And, as he spoke, the knights and mage quickly moved their feet.

Of course, the party did no forget to protect Laney and Lloyd amidst everything.

“You finally came out. I was about to burn the place down since there was no response back.”

The rough looking, middle-aged man spoke to the group while smiling.

However, Heinze was unable to give an impetuous order because the man had high military prestige for a mercenary.

Not only that, but their numbers were higher and even expert level mercenaries were considered strong.

Although most of them were at the beginner level, there was a huge difference between those who could use aura and those who couldn’t.

This meant that the opposing side had perfectly prepared everything.

‘If Jade wasn’t here, half of us would’ve had to prepare for the worst.’

If his body was healed, Heinze wouldn’t have any trouble killing hundreds of the mercenaries by himself. However, the problem was that his body wasn’t healed.

His internal injuries had improved but the damage was still deep, and he also had two people he had to protect no matter what.

The enemy was fully using this weakness to their advantage by surrounding their group.

Drip.

Thinking up to that point, a cold sweat dropped from Heinze’s forehead.

The reason why their pursuers were unable to find them was because of the Great Forest.

They had purposely pretended to chase after the group to trap them in Morcus.

In addition to inducing their last distraction.

“Looking at your expression it seems like you finally understood everything.”

“……Did you receive a request from the Marquis?”

“Who knows. I have nothing to say regarding that. It’s an unwritten rule to keep our client’s information a secret.”

“I’ll give you two times more than what they offered you.”

“Ha! Does Sir Heinze really have that kind of money to offer when you’ve spent your whole life working for the royal family?”

The middle-aged man scoffed.

However, he wasn’t the only one.

The other mercenaries around him also began to jeer one by one.

They knew too well that Heinze had lived his life filled with integrity, so there was no way he would have a large sum of money.

“That’s right. I don’t have it. However, you should know who it is that I’m escorting?”

“Ah ah, That’s right. If it’s the royal family, they should have more than enough money to hire us mercenaries. But, did you know? A royal daughter and crown prince that don’t have the recognition of the royal family isn’t considered to be royal blood?”

Crack!

With the middle-aged man’s sarcastic words, Heinze’s eyes were filled with killing intent.

However, even though killing intent was pouring out from a Sword Master, the middle-aged man’s cheeky expression did not change.

It was because he knew that Heinze was deeply hurt and wouldn’t be able to recklessly attack him, because of the two people he had to protect.

“They’re just a pretty girl and a useless brat.”

“You dare!”

Heinze’s face grew bright red and the middle-aged man scanned Laney’s body up and down.

However, Laney still had a calm expression, even with the man’s disrespectful gaze.

He was nothing but a vulgar old man, while she was a royal princess.

If anything, Lloyd’s face was filled with anger.

“And, as of today, you have fulfilled your duties as a Sword Master. We have come fully prepared to deal with someone like you.”

Rustle!

A dozen or so mages appeared behind the middle-aged man fully equipped with their special robe and staff.

Although they didn’t look to be high level mages, they radiated a fairly sharp air around them showing they had been in the mercenary game for a long time.

“Mm!”

A middle-aged mage hummed as he stood behind Heinze on standby.

The man would have been comfortable taking all the mages on by himself if he wasn’t hurt, but as of now, he may be able to take down half of them.

“Am I on the list to be killed by chance?”

“Ah, you’re that guy. The one that joined the group in the Great Forest.”

“That’s right. I was a guide to be exact.”

The middle-aged enemy stared at Jade.

However, his eyes were quite cold.

“Just think of it as bad luck. You know how everyone is walking on a tightrope. There’s nothing you can do since you grabbed onto a rotten rope this time.”

“That must mean you’re going to kill me?”

“They want us to kill everyone who is connected to the request. And, we told them we would take care of all the back-end work.”

“That’s quite the rope you latched onto.”

“Haha! That’s right. I’ve met quite the rich client after a long time.”

Jade shrugged his shoulders.

He asked by chance, but it was as he’d expected.

“Then, without further ado. Noem.”

“Huh?!”

At the same time as the intermediate level spirit Noem was summoned, an earth wall of about three meters formed in front of the archers.

The group and mercenaries were completely split in two.

However, this was only the beginning.

The raccoon looking Noem pulled the archers into the ground one by one, at the same time as it created the wall.

“H, help me!”

“What’s going on!”

The mercenaries were shocked as they had never experienced anything like this.

However, a few of them dodged Noem’s grasp as they could make quick judgments.

They had reacted as soon as they felt that something was amiss.

“What are you guys doing! Attack!”

The middle-aged man that appeared to be the leader of the mercenaries yelled out.

He had shown a quick response to an unexpected situation.

Bang bang bang!

With the command of the leader, the Expert leveled mercenaries broke apart the wall.

Nevertheless, half of their archers were already buried into the ground, and Noem wasn’t his only weapon.

“Scylla.”

Neigh!

As soon as Scylla appeared, it shot a wind arrow as soon as the wall collapsed.

“Agh!”

“Ugh!”

Normal mercenaries were unable to defend against the wind arrow.

“N, no way!”