The double life of a count’s bastard

Episode 9

“What the hell, there are red bear carcasses everywhere!”

The man in the lead, carefully guiding the way, looked around at the signs of a fierce battle and its results.

He scanned the area for any red bear kills, the scent of blood, and any other predators lurking.

“This isn’t a good shot. Look. He just blew them all clean off their heads.”

One of the mercenaries who had followed the guide spoke up as he examined the red bear carcass.

“Judging from the condition of the carcasses, it’s no easy task …… to hunt down seven red bears in the infamous Yinkeran Mountains alone, albeit with some time to spare.”

The other mercenary looked at the red bear carcasses as if it were a familiar task, deducing the time of death for each one.

He hadn’t taken on seven red bears at once, but he dared to do it right in one spot, which could be interpreted as a sign of confidence in his skills.

“I don’t know what kind of a fellow he is, but he’s got as much guts as he does skill, and if he slacks off, he’s going to have to…….”

“What are you guys talking about? Shut up and let’s get the blood out of him!”

The man who seemed to be the leader of the group barked orders at the mercenaries.

“Hmph, the goddess of fortune has been showering this xenophobe with gifts since yesterday!”

The man laughed, considering the amount of money he’d been bringing to the temple.

As the man laughed, doing quick calculations in his head, the mercenaries regained their composure and began skillfully draining the red bear’s blood into a large leather bucket.

Once the blood is drained, skinning is the second part of the job.

“Mr. Xenophy.”

Xenophy, who had been watching with narrowed eyes in case the mercenaries damaged the red bear pelt, frowned.

“Why?”

“It just doesn’t feel right.”

“You got this many whole red bear carcasses without spilling a drop of blood, and you don’t feel good?”

“Anyone who can hunt so casually on the Slater estate, let alone anywhere else, must be related to Count Slater.”

“Perhaps, but perhaps not. Humac, as you know, the Earl of Slater is away on an expedition.”

Rumors of trouble had already spread through the surrounding estates before Count Slater’s expedition even began.

Xenophy had heard the rumors, too, and dared to sneak into Slater without paying the toll.

“I’m sure all but the bare minimum of defensive personnel have been sent out on expeditions, and there’s no way they’d have anyone left to hang around here hunting, Bonamana.”

After a pause, Xenophy continued, a wicked grin playing across her lips.

“He must have sneaked in to get a piece of the action like the rest of us, otherwise why else would he have taken the gall?”

Common sense told Xenophy that the Earl of Slater’s character would not have left the blood, skin, and claws of a red bear lying around like that.

“That’s it…….”

Humac found that part of Xenophy’s reasoning to be utterly incomprehensible.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re getting a cut of the action, and it’s all good, you bastards! Keep your head, too! It’s all money! Money!”

The red bear’s head, lying haphazardly on the ground, could be sold as an ornament, so Xenophy had the mercenaries clean it.

“Qual!”

Xenophy’s hired guide, Qual, came scurrying up from his perusal of the surroundings.

“You called for me?”

“Can you find the tracks?”

“Traces?”

Qual narrowed his eyes, and Xenophy frowned, squinting at the red bear carcass.

“You mean the one you hunted?”

“Yes. Can you follow it to where it went?”

At Xenophy’s subtle tone, Qual realized what he wanted.

“Chase them?”

“Yes. Keep a reasonable distance, like you are now. Look at this. He’s dropping a bunch of beans like this.”

Xenophy frowned.

Whoever had killed the red bear for blood was leaving all the byproducts behind, except for the gallbladder, and he couldn’t think of an easier way to make money.

“I wonder if I can get all the gallbladders.

Xenophy’s eyes smiled wickedly at another unspoken wish.

* * *

“……Look at this?”

Rousseau wiped the wolf’s blood off the blade of her sword and glanced behind her.

It was three days ago.

Rousseau had become acquainted with the men who openly carried away the carcasses of his prey.

At first, he’d assumed they were going in the same direction, that the carcasses had been abandoned and the byproducts taken.

I laughed it off, saying that they were lucky to have the byproducts of their own discarded bodies.

But it was too much of a coincidence that they were following him, blatantly keeping their distance.

“I’m going to get my money’s worth, aren’t I?”

The other man was too greedy to turn a blind eye, and the things he’d thrown away because they were a nuisance could be worth a lot of money, so Rousseau was determined to make sure he got his money’s worth.

But first.

Rousseau started a fire.

He didn’t know who he was up against, but he had quite a few mercenaries with him, and he needed to keep his stomach full and his strength up, just in case.

It had been quite a few days since he had hunted alone in the Inceran Mountains, so Rousseau skillfully roasted the wolf meat over the fire.

Rousseau chewed the meat and regained his strength while remaining alert to his surroundings.

Finally, when Rousseau had finally gotten some of the fatigue out of his body, he stood up just as darkness began to slowly descend on the entire Inkeran Mountains.

“Gah!”

Stretching to his fullest, Rousseau looked in the direction he needed to go, a wide grin spreading across his face.

“Well, I guess I’ll just go catch up on my debt.”

Calling it what you will, Rousseau began to move quickly toward the group that had been following him.

* * *

“Slowed down?”

Xenophy asked, and Qual, her guide, nodded.

“I think they’re tired.”

“Really? You’re exhausted?”

At Qual’s mention of exhaustion, Xenophy immediately summoned Mercenary Captain Tris.

“What do you think his skill level is?”

Xenophy asked, and Tris answered as if she had been thinking about it the whole time.

“I’d say he’s about the level of a fourth-ranked knight.”

“Compared to you guys?”

“Against Coulson and me, we’re tied, and with Walt and Walter, we’re tied…….”

Tris’s face was filled with the confidence of a warrior as he answered, though he slurred the last part.

Xenophy did not doubt that Tris and his companions were very good mercenaries.

Moreover, his opponent might be exhausted by now. No, even if he wasn’t, Tris’s confident look only fueled Xenophy’s greed.

“All right, we don’t want to waste any more time, so first thing tomorrow morning, we’ll hit him …….”

Before she could finish her sentence, a knight in full plate armor, gray in color, appeared.

“Who are you!”

The mercenaries were the first to react to the stranger’s arrival.

As the mercenaries drew their weapons in unison, their eyes glittering with readiness for battle, the stranger asked bluntly, his voice devoid of any hint of nervousness.

“Do you have passes?”

Rousseau, who had come to see Genofi’s group, asked first.

“What do you mean, a pass? What kind of bullshit…….”

“Well, it’s right at the top, so I’m sure you’ve got a pass from Count Slater, right?”

At Rousseau’s words, the mercenaries stared at Xenophy, speechless.

“You’re the top? Show us your pass.”

Xenophy stepped forward and spoke up.

“Why should I show you my pass when I don’t even know who you are, and apparently…… you’re not even a knight of Count Slater, so what does it matter?”

His full body armor covered his face, but there was no symbol of the Earl of Slater anywhere on his chest.

Not only that.

“Judging by the poor quality of his armor, he’s either a wandering knight or a knight in training.

Xenophy’s eyes glittered with fear as he realized that, as a free knight with no backing, he would not be harmed if he were to die here.

Normally, such a reversal of identity would have caught him off guard, but instead, Rousseau let out a thinly veiled laugh.

“I see you have a long tongue, so you don’t have a pass.”

Rousseau knew instinctively that Xenophy was an unauthorized and illegal topic.

The Earl of Slater collects five percent of the profits from the tops as a toll.

Some unscrupulous lords would extort as much as 40 percent, depending on the size of the tollbooth and the amount of revenue, but the Earl of Slater’s rate was the same for all: five percent.

There were no cheaper tolls anywhere on the continent, so most merchants got passes to travel the safe and fast routes.

“There’s no way a topper with a pass would be traveling upstream through such a dangerous area!

Rousseau is convinced and draws his sword.

“You do realize that illegal tops without passes are not protected by Count Slater, don’t you?”

Unable to finish his sentence, Rousseau lunged at the nearest mercenary, who was now standing with his sword drawn and pointed at him.

“What are you going to do on your own!”

Coulson, who hadn’t expected Rousseau to be so blatant about not having a pass, expertly moved to the side as Rousseau lunged at him.

“You seem to be counting on your full body armor, but your slow movements don’t……!

Coulson’s eyes widened at the speed of his opponent, who was calmly aiming for Russo’s joints and stabbing his sword.

Rousseau, whose movements should have been somewhat unnatural due to his lack of speed, smoothly rotated his body and swung his sword.

KANG!!!

Despite Russo’s unbelievable speed and smoothness, Coulson barely managed to raise his sword to block the initial attack.

But then.

BANG!!!

“……black!!!”

Coulson let out a short scream as he bounced back from Russo’s secondary attack, which was a straight torso slash.

A shoulder strike to the chest followed by a shoulder strike to the head sent Coulson stumbling backward, and Rousseau went straight after him, bringing his blade down.

Poof!!!

“Crack!”

After plunging the blade relentlessly into Coulson’s right thigh, Russo finished with a light toe kick to his face to silence him.

Pfft!!!

Coulson’s nose crushed, his entire body instantly going limp and stunned.

“……!”

“……!”

Russo, who had rendered Coulson incapacitated in the blink of an eye, wiped the blood from his blade aside and opened his mouth.

“What are you guys doing, newbies, can’t you see the situation?”

Rousseau’s cocky demeanor, even pointing a finger in a taunt, prompted the mercenary captain, Tris, to step forward, gripping her Bastard Sword.

“Mercenary Tris.”

“Leader?”

Tris nodded and took a stance.

At the same time, Walt and Walter took up positions to her left and right.

“One on three…… should be fun.”

At a glance, Tris was no match for Rousseau, and his companions were as strong if not stronger than him, not weaker.

Normally, he would never have stood a chance.

“As long as I have Excalaeon, I can never lose!

Rousseau had seen the power of the ancient full-body armor in action for days in the Inkeran Mountains.

Without hesitation, Rousseau lunged at the mercenaries who surrounded him.

“Aim for the lower body!”

After shouting that to Walt and Walter, Tris swung her sword at Russo’s upper body.

The full body armor of her opponent was a nuisance, but overcoming a numerical disadvantage is never easy.

Besides, Tris had plenty of experience.

‘Even with his full body armor, he’s fast and flexible. His advantage is more likely to be in speed than strength, and you’ll need to tie him up feet first to avoid damage!

Tris quickly understood how to fight a knight in full armor and what her opponent’s strengths were, so she remained calm and followed her winning pattern.

Kaang!!!

Tris’s sword collided with Rousseau’s with such force that sparks flew.

Tris was in her early thirties and at the peak of her physical prime, so she had a clear advantage in strength over Rousseau, who hadn’t yet finished growing.

“I see!

The difference in strength was evident in the single clash, and Tris could see the outcome of this battle in Rousseau’s inability to shake off his blade.

‘Gotcha!!!