Elqueeness - Chapter 14

“This… What is the meaning of this! As comrades undertaking the same mission, how dare you do this! I will report this to the Guild Master and set you all straight!”

The next morning, when everyone was still half awake, the Captain of the Vodka Mercenaries burst into the residence of the Champagne Mercenaries, who in return, stared back stupidly.

Excluding Trom-Well, Sherry, and I who already knew of everything, everyone else was left in the dark.

‘Is this guy crazy’ was the look Harol was giving the abrupt intruder. Scratching his brown hair, he bluntly asked.

“What are you saying? Tell us what is wrong before you make a report.”

“Shameless!!! Are you going to play ignorant? Your members assaulted my men!”

“Assault? Who assaulted who? Sigh~ This is unbelievable. Should I say this again?”

“It’s no use even if you play dumb! We already have the evidence!!”

The place that he took us was the tree where Matthew had hung up the 3 thugs.

Perhaps to use as evidence, they were not yet taken down and were still dangling from the branches. Right below them were numerous villagers just spectating their misery.

Seeing how pitiful they looked while struggling against their ropes, Harol had to force himself from bursting into laughter by clamping his mouth.

Next to him, Matey was coughing violently while clutching his stomach.

“HAHAHA~ Just what the hell is that? A masterpiece, that’s a true masterpiece!”

“Woah! They really got sucker punched. Were they dangling there for the entire night? Whistle~ I don’t know who did that, but they really are awesome!!”

“YOU! Are you going to play dumb till the end?! It was your members who did that!!”

But the Vodka Captain’s boisterous voice was drowned by the roaring laughter of the mercenaries.

If it was not for Hosane who was still retained his tranquility, those two would probably be rolling on their backs laughing.

Looking like something didn’t make sense, Hosane looked a little helpless so he demanded an explanation from the Vodka Captain. At that moment, the thug Trio started screaming in rage.

“YOU!! You bastards! Untie us now!!!”

“I will kill you!! I went easy on you since you looked pretty, but you dare do this to us!”

“Ehuppp!! Ehuppp!!!” (TLN: The Magician is gagged)

“Huh? Looks like it really was one of us.”

Even though Matey realized that his party had a hand in this manner, he did not look apologetic in the slightest. Rather, he eyed Harol suspiciously.

“Is it you, Harol? Oh dear. Why do you cause trouble wherever you go?”

“Huck. Do I look pretty in your eyes? Are you trying to put the blame on me when you’re the real culprit?”

“Chet. How would I have the strength to overpower 3 Silver Ranked people and hang them up like that? Can’t you see? There is not a single scratch on their bodies, no sign of any struggle. They were all taken out in an instant, blitzkrieg style. I’m not capable of such a feat.”

“Oho? So it’s not you too? Then the only person who’s pretty and has monstrous strength is.. Huck! Is it you Matthew?!”

When Harol was the target of suspicion, the attitude of the other mercenaries’ was ‘Of course it was him;’ but now when Trom-Well was being suspected, the reaction was ‘What?! No way!!!’

As if to confirm the truth, one of the men who was hanging from the tree screamed with rage.

“ACK!! Untie us right now! You bastards! You over there! Blue hair and black hair! I’m talking to you two! Do you think you guys will be fine after doing this?!”

“Huh? Looks like it’s true? But blue haired… Perhaps El?”

I gave a wry smile to Iale, who stared astonished. As if gaining courage by our reaction, the Vodka Captain glared at Hosane and raised his voice even louder.

“How will you take responsibility for this?! How could allies create discord amongst each other! The Guild won’t let this slide! Even if you’re a Gold Rank, you won’t be able to escape the consequences!”

“Hmm. Let’s wait. There must have been a circumstance. I don’t know about others, but Matthew wouldn’t do such a thing without a reason.”

“Circumstance? What damned circumstance? You still won’t be able to escape punishment from the Guild!”

But even as he was becoming increasingly boisterous, he immediately stiffened after Sherry’s following words.

“Haha, if we were to get punished for something like this, I wonder what the consequences will be for someone who assaulted a woman and a child in the middle of the night?”

“Huh? That. What do you mean by that? ”

“It’s as I said. Those three tried to violate me last night. They even used the Binding Spell so I couldn’t move and reinforced it with a Silence Spell so that no sound could pass. If it wasn’t for Matthew and El who was passing by chance, the one to be victimized would be me, do you understand?!”

Because she spoke with confidence and without hesitation, everyone including the Vodka Captain could only gape.

Hosane’s eyes were trembling violently. I could tell that he himself received an even greater shock than anyone here present.

“They are 3 Silver Ranked Mercenaries. Furthermore, one of them is a Magician. That’s why, even with Trom-Well’s strength, defeating them all would be difficult. So, I acted as bait to draw their attention and while they let down their guard, Matthew ambushed them. Seeing how they’re acting now, it doesn’t look like they have any sense of guilt so we hanged them up on the tree as punishment. We could logically consider this as self-defense.”

“Th.. That’s..”

“Of course its self-defense! But didn’t you go too easy on them? You should have stripped them of their clothes as well! Or you should have cut off what makes them a man and turned them into eunuchs!!”

The nearby men turned pale from Iale’s violent rambling.

The 3 thugs hanging from the tree instantly went pallid as well and sighed in relief that the one they had assaulted was not Iale. But they did not forget to shoot glares of hatred and loathing while screaming insults.

The moment the tables turned, the Captain of the Vodka Mercenaries no longer even had the guts to wipe his forehead of the cold sweat that was dribbling down and smiled awkwardly.

His form seemed pitiful, but none of the mercenaries were planning to let this slide.

Who would ignore the danger that one of their members suffered? While they angrily glared at the Vodka Mercenaries, Hosane’s gaze looked like he was itching to rip their throats out and was currently even more frightening than a savage beast.

When the Vodka Captain was pressed back by his murderous intent, Hosane’s voice resounded deeply in the air.

“Did you ask for an apology?”

“No, that’s not it… They just told me it was done by the Champagne Mercenaries….”

“So you believed them after only that, without demanding the details, and made such a commotion at our side?”

In his rage, Hosane forgot to show any signs of respect and continued to pressure the Vodka Captain, who was trembling in fear. His domineering aura that was so like of a savage serpent gave the Vodka Captain no respite. Even though they are both Captains of their respective groups, the difference between Gold and Silver Rank was like Heaven and Earth.

Even if Hosane had his guard down, the Vodka Captain would still not be his match.

Furthermore, the party at fault was clear that his own men were in the wrong so he could not come up with any sort of excuse as his face turned paler than porridge.

But even with his sorry state, Hosane had no intention of letting him slide and drew his sword from his waist.

Before anyone could stop him, he swung his steel at the thugs dangling from the tree.

“Huck!!!”

“Kyaaa!!”

Because I thought a murder was about to happen right in front of my eyes, I could not calm down. Since Hosane was usually really calm, the shock was even greater for me.

But the fear only lasted for a moment.

Because his action was so sudden, I had not even been able to register what had just happened. But now that I looked closely, I saw that something was wrong.

Hosane definitely swung his blade with the intent to kill, but the thug trio did not have any visible changes in their body. Even though rope remained unchanged.

“ …..? ”

Did he miss? The reactions of others were identical to mine. At first they cried out in shock, but now, they stared blankly at Hosane and the trio.

However, the mystery did not last long.

Shaa~~ With a sudden noise, the clothes of the thug trio began to rain down in pieces.

The cries of shock resumed, although it was for a different reason this time for the females.

“Kyaaaa~”

“Oh my oh my oh my oh my~ What the hell did I just see?”

“Mommyy~~~ I didn’t see anything~~”

I was not the only one that thought that the screams sounded like a beautiful melody.

Along the screams were resounding whistles and cheers.

I blankly stared at Hosane, who was the culprit. To think that he would actually strip off their clothes…

Although his skill that accurately cut away only their clothes without leaving a single scratch was marvelous, it was overshadowed by the vulgar nudity of the thug trio as everyone who gathered here was unable to hold back their laughter.

“Mpph…HAHAHAHAHAHHA! Brilliant Boss! I’m finally starting to like you a little!!”

“Kyahahahaha! Good Job Hosane~ You really are terrific~~”

“KHAHHHA! Pitiful bastards! Look at their little willies, we could see everything~~”

“…..hahaha…..”

By now, none of the other mercenary parties would even dare to think about offending the Champagne Mercenaries.

Such a cruel revenge. Rather than beating a person to near death or forcing them to compensate with currency, this was the best way to place a person in true misery.

There probably are people who will grumble that this is childish, but once they suffer the same fate as those three, they will definitely realize how effective this method was.

Especially if females were watching without reserve.

Afterwards, as a gift from the Inn Owner(A woman) for the fine view that we gave her this morning, we were presented with free alcohol.

The Vodka Mercenaries on the other hand were shouting out ‘This isn’t over!!’ and left onto a different road after discontinuing the contract.

Hearing from Harol that the fine from cancelling a contract is extremely heavy, the Vodka Mercenaries may be crying tears of blood at this moment.

“But, is it really okay? What if they come after us for revenge?”

It was easy to tell that today’s incident had implanted deep grudges within their hearts.

Yet no one seemed to be too worried about that point.

“Don’t worry. Garbage like that is all bark and no bite. They threaten because that is the only thing they can do. If they do come after us, we could report them to the Guild. As long as they don’t want to be pursued for the rest of their lives, they better behave themselves.”

“The Guild is that influential?”

“Of course!! All mercenaries are part of the Mercenary Guild. Without the rank passes, no one will hire you for a job. They usually don’t care about what we do, but they never forgive mutiny during a request. If a person doesn’t wish to have their rank pass revoked, they better be careful.”

In all civilization, there are rules and regulation. This is true even for a primitive world like Arkadon, where science has yet to develop.

At this rate, I may get attached to this world that does not have TVs or computers.