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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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Damn it.
I’d been careless.
Forget spacing out or whatever, I hadn’t even imagined it.
That these guys weren’t soldiers, but ultimately criminals, the dregs of humanity who bought and sold people.
“Aaaaaah!”
Of course, such scum wouldn’t adhere to strict military discipline or regulations.
Still, I had to give them credit; the first guy I encountered, whom I’d just liberated from the pain of existence, was talking about going to a brothel and refusing to deal with slaves.
Who would have guessed they’d be hiding prostitutes in another tent for personal use?
Once again, I barged in, intending to kill first and ask questions later, but the shadow I thought was a blanket turned out to be a woman lying there.
What could I do, now that the damage was done?
Mustering all my patience, I addressed the prostitute, who was alternating her gaze between the two dead men and me, screaming her lungs out.
“Sigh… Excuse me.”
“Aaaaaah!”
She just kept screaming like a crow, shredding my patience to tatters.
“I was having such good luck today, too…”
I brought seolleongtang, but why won’t she eat it?!
Ah, that’s not the point.
“Sigh. Fine. They’ll be swarming here any minute anyway, so what’s the point of yelling at you to leave? You stay here. I’m leaving.”
I had planned to assassinate the entire camp with the mindset of “no witnesses, no crime,” but that plan had spectacularly failed.
Letting out a deep sigh, I exited the tent, and as expected, men were already emerging from all directions, armed and panicking at the screams.
Observing their reactions with the prostitute’s shrieks as background music, I noticed something odd.
“What, what’s going on?! What happened?!”
“Who’s that? Anyone know him?”
“Never seen him before…?”
It seemed they didn’t all know each other, as these kinds of reactions kept popping up.
Exasperated by their sheer incompetence, I couldn’t help but offer some advice.
“If you see an unfamiliar face, shouldn’t you assume it’s an intruder? You’re a funny bunch.”
“What?! Emergency! Emergen—cy!”
“Intruder! Get the boss!!”
I’d already taken out about half of them, it seemed, but there were still quite a few left.
Just the ones I could see numbered over ten, and I could tell there was more commotion further away.
Taking advantage of my height to observe the situation, three energetic-looking men started approaching me with swords and ropes.
Did they bring those in case a slave escaped?
Ingenious, yet understandable.
“Stay put, and you won’t get hurt. Quietly…”
“Hey, idiot, do I look like a slave to you?”
Despite their preparedness, their actions were idiotic.
One of them, seemingly having lost all sense of fear just because I was standing there doing nothing, approached me directly, so I punched him in the face and snatched his sword.
Another unexpected development was that he died from just that.
How did I know?
His forehead caved in like he’d been hit with a “STOP!” sign.
It would be strange if he were still alive.
Wow?
Was this because of the gauntlet’s hardness?
I’d have to control my strength better from now on.
While I was surprised by the change in my own strength, they were even more startled and began to back away.
“H-holy shit, his head exploded from a single punch…!”
“Who, who are you?! How dare you intrude here, knowing where this is!?”
“Seriously. Anyone would think I’d trespassed on some noble’s land. A bunch of slave traders acting like they’re royalty.”
They were going to die anyway, even if they’d groveled at my feet, but their blatant lack of awareness only fueled the bad Eldmia and the worse Eldmia within me.
My annoyance was evident on my face, but I saw no reason to hide it, so I pointed at the ground and replied.
“What is this? A street-side slave shop, a scene of human rights violations.”
“H-human rights what?”
Despite my blatant hostility, they still didn’t dare attack me en masse, so they were probably just thugs who preyed on innocent civilians under the guise of slave hunting.
Fueled by my overflowing disgust, I pointed at myself with the finger that had been pointing at the ground and continued.
“Who am I? Eldmia Egga, slave trader hunter.”
“W-what did we ever do to you?!”
“You didn’t, but my sister was once taken by slave traders. Since then, all of you are my enemies.”
“C-crazy bastard!”
Situation assessment complete.
Even with about ten of them gathered, they were still hesitant.
These guys were nothing.
As always, I unleashed my mana, propelled myself forward, and beheaded the man who had dared call me crazy.
“Even a crazy bastard’s sword can kill you!”
With his head cleanly soaring into the night sky as a warning, the battle began.
“Shit, he’s an Aura user! A crazy Aura user has appeared!!”
Meanwhile, some of the men further away were yelling at the top of their lungs, acting as human alarms.
They probably thought they were pressuring me while summoning more allies, but…
“It seems to me like all your allies are already here.”
Including the ones still approaching, there were about twenty of them?
Even those who were cautiously emerging from the shadows were being silently picked off by Asirye’s arrows.
Their hesitation and attempts to retreat only made things easier for me.
What good was their superior number if most of them couldn’t even attack simultaneously?
Even when they did manage to charge, it was only in groups of three or four.
“Shit, crossbows! Get the crossbows!”
“What are the others doing, being so late… Uwaaagh!”
“Get the tridents if you can’t find the crossbows, you idiots!”
Numbers could always be a threat, so I remained vigilant, but unlike my responsible approach to combat, the panic and confusion spreading among them, lacking a leader to restore order, had spiraled out of control.
Perhaps things would have been different if they hadn’t yelled about me being an Aura user.
After that outburst, those lacking confidence started hesitating and eventually fled, only to meet their fate at the end of Asirye’s arrows.
Their numbers dwindled steadily.
As if proving that anyone calm and skilled enough to witness heads flying with every swing of a sword wouldn’t be wasting their talent on slave hunting, it took less than five minutes for their numbers to drop from over twenty to just four.
Hmm.
I might be pretty strong…
“S-spare…”
“Not a chance.”
Finally, I beheaded the last man, who chose to surrender and drop his weapon rather than flee, concluding the massacre.
Unlike him, the three who chose to run would either die by Asirye’s arrows or somehow escape and disappear, but judging by their appearance, they weren’t high-ranking enough to report to anyone connected to Count Bosha, so I decided to leave them be.
What concerned me more was the boss, who hadn’t appeared despite the five-minute carnage.
Standing amidst the bloodbath, I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Boss! Come out, come out, wherever you are! You win!”
I doubted those guys would be so eager to find a boss with no combat ability.
Maintaining my reasonable suspicion, I took about twenty more steps when a voice called out from my right.
“Who the hell are you?”
A muffled voice, as if his vocal cords were fat.
A heavily armored giant, who looked like a knight, emerged from the large tent where nobles had been coming and going.
“Wow, I’m not short myself, but you’re even taller.”
The armored pig, with no visible weakness except his still-lowered visor, addressed me with a disgusting smile.
“You little runt caused quite a mess. What happened to my men?”
“Can’t you tell by the silence? They’re all dead. And I’m not that small. You’re only about 5 centimeters taller than me, at best.”
He was acting like he towered over me by 20 centimeters.
I almost beheaded him right there out of spite.
“But it’s strange. You don’t seem particularly bright. Are you really in charge here?”
Provoking him out of spite, he responded by swinging his warhammer at my head.
I dodged easily and took a step back to observe him.
It wasn’t comparable to Yekaterina’s siege hammer, but it was still a sizable warhammer, and his movements were faster than expected, despite the heavy armor.
But that was all.
Yekaterina was much faster.
“Are you an Aura user?”
Just in case, I checked with my enhanced senses and felt a faint trace of Aura, so I asked, and he replied with a smug grin, resting the warhammer on his shoulder.
“Khehehe. Yeah. Scared now?”
“Scared? Uh-huh-huh-huh. Alright, I’ll bet all my money and both my wrists.”
Man, it wasn’t something nice to say to a woman, but Yekaterina truly was a monster.
How could she swing that siege hammer, much heavier than this one, like a spear?
Anyway, with my minor question resolved, I had no further business with him, so I leveled my sword, matching his gaze, and took my stance.
“You little shit…”
As he scoffed at me and reached up to close his visor, preparing for a proper fight, I charged with all my might and swung my sword.
What distance?
Even the slightest opening was enough for me to strike.
The distance, which had seemed insurmountable to him, closed in an instant, faster than his perception, and my sword pierced his skull and one of his eyeballs without resistance.
“…Huh?”
Such a grand entrance, only to end with a single swing.
A fitting end for a slave-trading scum.
The so-called boss died without even reacting properly, his remaining eye rolled back in its socket.
As expected, surprise attacks are always the right choice, and carelessness invited death.
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[For the guy in the comments that hates cliffhangers, this one is for you! no cliffhanger!]
I can’t tell who the T/L is talking about…