"Gack!"
Yove's eyes snapped open from searing pain as he flailed his arms and tried to tense his waist. But after being slammed downward, his head smashed twice more into the table leg under the bed with two solid thuds. He lost his balance completely, crashing head-first onto the floor.
"Huff, gah!"
Unable to gather his wits as he struggled to get up, Yove felt his hair expertly grabbed by Consensus Yuval, who yanked him back and threw him onto the bed. Yove's rolling eyes locked onto the dagger Yuval was holding.
"Don't worry, buddy. We're just curious about something."
"Y-you rob-robbers..."
Watching Yove try to speak boldly despite barely being able to raise his voice, Merein, who was searching the room like she was picking through trash, let out a hearty laugh.
"What do you want..."
"First, have a seat in the chair."
Yuval spoke calmly, settling Yove down and making him compliant. Since Yuval was holding a weapon, Yove had no choice but to follow his orders. If he cooperated, it seemed like they wouldn't hurt him.
Of course, it was Yuval who'd made him smash his forehead into the table leg in the chaos.
Tied tightly with rope, Yove kept swallowing. His nervousness was obvious.
"The guy I'm looking for is real good with a halberd. And you were singing about how much you know about that."
Thunk.
Merein, who'd just pulled out an entire drawer, added, "Not just any halberd. The axe part is seriously oversized. Once you see it, you can't forget it."
Halberds were very long weapons, with hooks below the axe to catch enemies' armor gaps and pull them in, spear points for stabbing, and axe blades for chopping, so the axe blade couldn't be thick. But Handless Sendabil, with his tremendous strength and exceptional build, wielded such a halberd with one hand.
Gut strength. Spinal power. Rowan, whose core muscles, what people call the center of body weight, were highly developed, could swing it one-handed once or twice. Sendabil could use such a halberd freely for extended periods.
Yove's expression went deathly pale.
"You were hanging out with criminals pretty well, so you must be one of Sendabil's guys, right? Control your face. I can see everything."
At Yuval's words, Yove started babbling frantically.
"N-no! Everything about Sendabil is a lie, I've never seen him!"
"Guess a far-away Sendabil is scarier."
Yuval grabbed Yove's hair and shook it while slicing through Yove's silk pajamas with his dagger. Yove's adam's apple trembled up and down as he gulped hard.
"Hhhhh..."
"Is the far-away fist scarier, or the fist up close?"
"Th-the fist up close is scarier."
Yove answered that question right away. Yuval nodded.
"If you don't want to die, speak straight."
That's when Merein called out to Yuval.
"Boss. Catch this."
Whoosh!
It was a book wrapped in black-dyed leather. Inside, yellowed paper was neatly bound, easily a hundred sheets, and the paper was pretty thick. Though still thinner than parchment.
"Ugh."
Yove made a choking sound and clamped his mouth shut.
"Real ledger."
Yuval, who'd looked inside, read aloud what was there.
"Ten barrels of moonshine every week? You must've made bank."
First on the list was untaxed moonshine. Just like how rich people scramble to reduce their taxes, the profits from selling tax-free booze were enormous.
"Looks like plenty of criminals come and go too. This guy 'Double-Axe' gets booze for free. Is he your backer?"
He also sold booze without taking payment. It was written there plain as day. Not only that, but he'd also laundered money by purchasing liquor separately while paying taxes. He occasionally fenced stolen goods too, given the substantial volume.
"..."
Yove didn't know what to say, so he kept his mouth shut. He immediately got whacked on the head with the ledger.
"Ugh."
"Talk. Talk. Is he your backer or not."
"Y-yes. That's right."
At those words, Merein said, "Wow, did you just sell out your own brother? Who knows what'll happen if Double-Axe's crew hears about this."
Yove turned his head violently.
"N-no! It's not like that!"
His eyes shook wildly.
"If this Double-Axe guy with multiple front men gets arrested, that'll be something to see."
"He'll go around killing anyone he thinks is a traitor."
"If we expose the inside story of White Pub after it's been stirred up and say you snitched, you're dead meat."
"Guaranteed. The situation itself is the evidence."
Yuval and Merein went back and forth. Yove's mouth trembled.
"Th-that's slander."
"Even if it's slander, you're still screwed."
Yuval said that while putting away his dagger. He patted Yove's shoulder with his hand.
"To get out of this situation where you're dead either way, you've gotta make us happy, right?"
Merein then placed the fake ledger in front of him, followed by a jewelry box. Five leather pouches of secretly hidden emergency funds arrived one after another.
Then Yuval drank with Yove. They shared a bottle of pretty strong liquor, taking turns drinking until it was empty. Not a single snack.
In a situation where everything about him had been exposed, there was only one thing Yove could do.
'I have to survive!'
"I'll tell you everything. Just ask."
"Tell me about Sendabil."
"Everything about him is really a lie."
"Alright. Then tell me."
Yuval lightly scratched Yove's thigh with the dagger. Pain shot through him and blood trickled down. The tip of that dagger pointed at his knee.
"I don't even want to kill you. Just cripple you and make you live your whole life as a serf on some farm. That'd cause you more suffering."
"I-I'll talk! I'll talk!"
As he thrashed and tried to pull back, Merein, who'd found everything worth finding, stomped her foot on the chair to block it. Yuval put the dagger away again.
"Let's not drag this out and make it tiring."
"Yes. Yes, yes."
Nodding obediently, Yove opened his mouth again.
"I've been a peddler going around mountain villages, and I was trying to expand it into a merchant group doing business in remote villages. But some damn petty thief was working with me, and he got caught trying to steal in a village."
Watching Yove tell everything from the very beginning, Yuval smiled with satisfaction and nodded repeatedly. It meant keep going.
"That thief bastard tried to boldly steal a two-legged bear's whole hide. The villagers had to drag us in too. They said some guy named Rowan, who'd broken through chains with a giant halberd, slapped the thief across the face once, quieting him down to subdue him."
"Strong as an ox, huh. You can tell me what that halberd looked like, right?"
"The axe blade was easily three times bigger than other halberds."
The moment Merein, positioned behind Yove, heard that, her lips moved. 'Jackpot.' Yuval maintained his smiling expression even at Merein's reaction.
"Did he have no hands?"
"I couldn't tell because of the shield."
A halberd and round shield.
For Yove, the images of blood, rain, flashing lightning, and thunder remained intensely vivid. He recalled that first, even before the image of Rowan, who'd seemed ordinary and quite gentle.
That's why Yove never went back to Black Mountain Village. The only image of Rowan he could immediately remember even now was that intense warrior's appearance.
Yuval immediately realized that guy was Sendabil.
'No hands, so he fixed the shield to his forearm.'
The halberd Sendabil used, which Rowan had used to instantly break chains through deadlifts, had been used here for tracking. It gave him certainty.
"Where'd he say he lives?"
"Black Mountain Village. It's an abandoned mine now, so there aren't any real resources."
For the first time, Yuval spoke the name believed to be Sendabil's alias.
"What does this Rowan guy do there?"
"He's a hunter. Uh... hunter of the black forest? Ah! He's called the deep forest hunter."
"So he hunts big game."
Yuval stood up. Merein skillfully collected the jewelry box and emergency funds, leaving only one of the emergency fund pouches.
It was a total dick move. Might as well have taken everything.
They left the converted attic. On the second floor, two criminal bodyguards lay unconscious, beaten. Shield-bulk Keireon, who'd been sprinkling white powder on their wounds, grinned at Yuval when he saw him.
Yuval shot him a sharp glare and scolded him.
"You woke them up to beat them again?"
"Made a little bet. I won."
It was a bet between Keireon and Bedum. They were always causing trouble. Bedum came out with two leather backpacks slung over his shoulders after ransacking a private room.
"Boss, you done?"
"Yeah. Finished cleanly. Yove's mouth was lighter than I thought. It's Black Mountain Village, five days from here."
"Where the hell is that?"
Keireon let out a hollow laugh. True to a village with 'mountain' in its name, it seemed like it'd be in a hellishly rough location. Plus, it was a place name he'd never heard before.
They finished the job faster than originally expected, so they just removed the trap fixed to the first-floor window and stepped out into the alley.
"Huh?"
A vagrant flinched and moved aside unsteadily. Yuval grabbed a few copper coins from his pocket and tossed them.
"Be satisfied. Coins from the god of thieves."
"My mouth is solid clay."
The vagrant said that and got down on the ground to pick up the thrown coins. The Skull Mercenary Group quickly packed up and managed to get in line to leave the gate just as the sun was starting to set.
The people who came after them were turned away by the soldiers.
"The line ends here."
"Oh no. We're too late!"
A disappointed peddler wailed and stepped back. Bribes didn't work on the soldiers of Torch Fortress.
Watching that, Bedum was impressed.
"First time seeing a peddler back down without trying a bribe."
"The inspections here are proper, at least."
As the line shortened, one guard who was getting off duty saw the Skull Mercenary Group and went back into the barracks. Then the guard captain came out. Five guards followed behind, and one of them was holding several sheets of parchment with composite sketches drawn on them.
"Wait. You there, mercenaries."
"What's the matter?"
Yuval stepped forward. Merein was among that group, but Keireon stood in front of her, blocking her from view.
"The lady in back, come out too."
"Tsk."
Clicking her tongue, Merein stepped forward. The guards' eyes instantly focused on her figure. The guard captain Sebegin, who turned around, caught them staring. The Skull Mercenary Group also tensed up at the sight of the guards flinching.
Through the soldiers' fear of Sebegin, they could tell how strictly he ran his troops with iron discipline.
"Skull Mercenary Group. You've been hired by the lord and have made quite the distinguished achievements. But that doesn't mean you can rough up Torch Fortress however you please."
"We just do what Lord Medio wants and get paid."
At those words, Sebegin nodded. They were guys who moved for money, not honor. That's why he thought he needed to warn them, and Yuval's words had just confirmed it.
Yuval also understood what Sebegin was thinking when he nodded.
"Torch Fortress never makes accommodations for a single mercenary group. Always watch your behavior."
Guard captain Sebegin poked Yuval's chest with his index finger.
"Don't think the lord's crest will solve everything."
Unlike conscripts, the pride of enlisted soldiers reached the sky. Sometimes they talked as if they were above the lord when it came to fulfilling their responsibilities.
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Hmph!"
The guard captain turned around and went into the barracks. The mercenary group didn't give him any lip. They just made a show of straightening their clothes and such.
The Skull Mercenary Group headed straight for Black Mountain Village.