11. Belek
Dawn had broken.
The sun was rising.
I pondered all night. Whether it was really necessary to intervene in what was happening in this transit city, Akan.
There was also another way, to completely ignore everything and head to the ‘southern region’, otherwise known as Count Rubert’s jurisdiction.
But that option didn’t seem quite appealing either.
There was a risk of running into Belek’s pawns, who were reportedly stationed all around the city, which could pose a hindrance to our journey.
It was annoying.
This troublesome situation itself was quite disturbing.
Gelmore.
Perhaps meeting him face to face was the cause.
“There seem to be too many bad guys! Yuma.”
Clone, who had recovered stamina with a sleep potion, recognised the situation and said so.
And those words became a driving force for Yuma.
There was clearly a villain.
And in a situation where it wasn’t impossible to stop him.
Yuma, sitting in a chair at the door, walked towards the innkeeper Meidel, who was tied and gagged.
“Heeek!”
Meidel was startled at the sight of Yuma.
“Is there a city guard?”
“Ye-yes, there is!”
“How many of them are Belek’s minions?”
“About half! Half!”
‘Half of them still follow Mayor Gelmore’, Yuma quickly calculated.
“Guide us to the guards.”
To avoid annoyances, he would have to deal with this himself.
***
The sun had risen, but in the dark building, where the sun didn’t penetrate, the Mayor of Akan, Gelmore, had arrived at the behest of Belek.
Gelmore’s blue hair was terribly disheveled.
“…Brother.”
This was because the face of his younger brother had become bloodied and was sprawled on the ground.
“Blood, bandages. I need bandages… Belleck! Belleck!!”
Damor, the younger brother of Mayor Gelmore, pleaded like this while leaning on the freezing cold floor.
Gelmore gritted his teeth as he stared at the Belleck in front of him.
Belleck crossed his legs and arrogantly lifted his chin.
“Mayor Gelmore, how was it? The street of pleasure I created. Didn’t you see it clearly with your own eyes on your way here!”
Gelmore’s forehead creased in response.
True to underground king Belleck’s words, the transit city of Akan had inadvertently become riddled with drugs, all spread by this man in front of him.
“Thanks to your excellent business acumen, the drug business has prospered quite easily. It was enough to distribute the drugs through the commercial routes that you had established.”
Belleck had summoned him to this place.
Throughout his journey to this place, the nightlife of Akan that he had seen had exceedingly surpassed Gelmore’s imagination.
People writhed all over, looking for drugs.
One person, lying on the ground, raised their head and looked directly at him, their words permanently ingrained in his mind.
“Gelmore…? sh*t, after taking the drugs… I can see even our invisible mayor. sh*t! Mayor! You’re f*cked! hahahahaHa! Everything has become Belleck’s! The people who move this city, they’ve all been fed Belleck’s drugs! hahahaha!”
“In fact, even meeting you now is an unnecessary task for me. Now, the city’s security forces, the merchants forming the city’s core, more than half are all my customers, my friends, and my subordinates!”
Belleck revealed his yellow teeth, looking down on Gelmore condescendingly.
“I don’t ask you for much, Mayor Gelmore.”
Finally, Belleck began to bring up the real issue at hand.
“It doesn’t matter if you continue everything you’ve been doing so far.”
Though Gelmore’s eyes drifted to his brother lying on the ground, his ears were keenly attuned to Belleck’s words.
“But just one more person will be placed above you, issuing orders to you. That is, Belleck. In doing so, I will continue to provide drugs to sustain your brother’s life, to keep him from going mad.”
Only then did Gelmore look directly into Belleck’s snake-like gaze that he had continuously avoided.
“You want me to be your puppet?”
Belleck twisted his mouth.
“To put it harshly, yes, that could be said.”
The sound of a sword being unsheathed rang out from Gelmore’s direction.
“After enduring, I can no longer tolerate this incessant nonsense.”
Of course, it wasn’t Gelmore who had pulled out the sword or spoken these words.
“Although the mayor is not an aristocrat, he is a quasi-aristocrat and the leader of this city appointed directly by His Majesty the Emperor. You’re an inferior being who has no place issuing orders.”
Killer intent was visible in the eyes of knight Haros, who stood next to Gelmore.
A clear aura flowed from the sword. Haros was a high-level sword expert.
The aura that rose like a blue flame, prominently visible.
Yet strangely, Belleck was not afraid at all.
“hehehe, Sir Knight. Do you think I would carry out such a thing without investigating the knight who always accompanies Mayor Gelmore?”
Belleck did not avoid Haros’ deadly gaze.
“Knight Haros Geller. Third son of the fallen Geller Marquisate. Why would I fear a knight of a fallen house that has nothing left.”
Haros Geller flew into a rage.
Rightly so, the anger was emanating from him from head to toe.
“This good-for-nothing mongrel!”
The blue sword aura that he had wrapped around his blade burnt even more fiercely.
Velleck looked back at the giant man standing behind him and deeply bowed his head.
“I beg of you.”
This was an astonishing situation.
Velleck, who had been rudely asking favors of the Gelmor Market and the knights, showed such courtesy to this man who had merely been standing quietly behind him—who seemed to be one of his own.
A slightly old voice came from the man.
“…Keep to your promise.”
“Of course, sir.”
Tap-tap—
The unidentified man took a step forward.
Seeing his face and muscular body, devoid of any unnecessary fat, Knight Haros was dumbfounded.
Simply looking at him, you could feel his extraordinary aura.
The man stood close to two meters tall.
His hair, white as a lion’s mane, hung down loosely.
And a deep scar ran across his left eye.
Haros stared at the old man with a hard expression.
“…Why is a man like you behind that kind of creature?”
A faint reply came from the old man.
“I’m here to witness the ultimate skill of the sword.”
Haros scrutinized the old man’s eyes.
Those words were absurd no matter how you looked at them.
The ultimate skill of the sword?
There was no way he could understand such a thing by the side of a pig-like creature.
“Just an old man losing his mind!!”
That rage-filled shout echoed through the building.
With a resounding stomp, Haros moved forward.
Swish—ssst!
Their swords stretched out simultaneously and their positions were reversed.
Thump—ssst!
The one who fell after that eerie flesh-cutting sound was Haros.
What was rising from the sword in the old man’s right hand was a red sword aura.
The Aura Blade, evidence of one who has mastered the sword.
Having slaughtered Haros with an overwhelming disparity, the old man sheathed his sword with an emotionless face.
Gelmor the Market did not believe this situation.
The cold body of Knight Haros reflected in both his eyes.
“As long as Sword God Chronos, the second seat of the former empire, is here behind me, there is no one who can stop me in this place, Gelmor Market Master.”
“The second seat of the former empire…?”
At Velleck’s words, Gelmor gripped Chronos, the second seat of the former empire’s Sword God, with a vacant face.
How did this monster end up being on Velleck’s side?
“Kraaak!”
Yuma hit the innkeeper, Meidel, with all his might.
The place Yuma arrived at with Clone was Arkhan’s security forces.
Yuma’s purpose for coming here was simple.
To recruit the guides to lead him to Bellek, and the meaty shields to defend him.
Krrr…
Yuma opened the door of the security force’s headquarters.
There was bound to be attention when a man and a young girl opened the door of the security force first thing in the morning.
“What the, who are you?”
Even before Yuma opened the door, the atmosphere of the security force was malevolent. Among the total 70-odd members of the security force, already half had become subordinates to Bellek.
Everyone knew that it was the day to decide who grasped the reins of the Gelmore marketplace. The groups supporting Gelmore and Bellek were keeping each other in check under a cold atmosphere.
Yuma pulled out a golden badge from his pocket.
“The representative of the 1st princess, Bridget.”
And he thumped it on the table.
“Yuma, the sword of the princess. Arkhan’s Security Force. I have accidentally obtained the information that half of you have ended up under a bastard named Bellek.”
“Ha! The representative of the princess? The sword of the princess? But where do you get a mere gilded badge and…”
Shuck!
One of the security force members, with a menacing look, drew his sword. With a languid look on his face, Yuma repelled the attack with a short dagger.
Clang!
“Huh?”
A purple sickle appeared in the man’s line of sight.
Shear!
And that was the end. The security force member whose neck was brutally cut had his dead body stabbed into the ground.
Since no one saw Yuma make the attack, everyone was just frozen on the spot.
“I command as a representative of the 1st princess.”
Yuma spoke again.
“If you consider yourself a member of Arkhan’s Security Force, and not a dog of a guy named Bellek, then kill the dogs of Bellek standing next to you right now.”
A chilling atmosphere rose in the security force.
“Prove your loyalty to the empire.”
And that remark touched a chord in a member’s heart.
Swish!
The security force member who drew his sword shouted with veins popping at his neck.
“Kill Bellek’s dogs!”
Swish! Swish!
The sounds of unsheathing swords echoed.
Members of Arkhan’s Security Force drew their swords at Bellek’s dogs.
