Chapter 36

I whistled a tune as I climbed the stairs of the building. Suddenly, a man wielding an axe came falling down from above.

“Die!”

I dodged the slash released along with his battle cry. The axe embedded itself deep into the stairs, and the man frantically tried to pull it out. It was a pathetic sight.

“Go back and try again later.”

I delivered a kick to his wide-open flank, sending him flying until he crumpled into the wall. He coughed up a massive amount of blood and stopped moving. It didn’t look like he had just passed out.

I pulled the axe out of the floor and hurled it behind me. The blade exploded into the face of a man who had been trying to sneak up on me.

“Gugh, ga…!”

With an axe sprouting from his face, the man tumbled down the stairs with his arms flailing in the air. Fresh blood dripped steadily, staining the steps.

“Hm…?”

I heard a low voice from above, speaking with a distinctive pronunciation and rhythm. It was a magic incantation. I looked up, but there was no one there.

I kicked off the wall and leapt upward. Peering into a blind spot, I found a mage hiding while chanting. The mage fell onto his backside, his eyes going wide. He stared at me with his mouth hanging open in a daze.

“Yo. Don’t be shy, come on out.”

“Hie…!?”

I lunged at the mage. I snatched away his staff and slit his throat with my knife. The mage breathed his last, drowning in his own blood.

I sheathed my knife and surveyed the stairwell. This time, there truly was no one nearby. It seemed I had wiped out the entire ambush party.

I discarded the staff and continued onward. About fifteen minutes had passed since I infiltrated the organization’s building. I was making steady progress toward the upper floors, killing anyone who stood in my way.

The monsters that appeared along the way weren’t much of a threat either. Most of them died if I put a rifle bullet through their heads. There were a few individuals whose hides repelled bullets, but in those cases, I simply closed the distance and beat them to death. Compared to a dragon, they were like puppies.

“Oh, they’re going at it.”

The sound of explosions and angry shouting drifted in from outside. Looking out the window, I saw the golem car rampaging through the estate. While plowing through anyone who attacked, the arms sprouting from the chassis were busy tossing bombs. The vehicles pursuing it were being blown up one after another.

Needless to say, it was Alice. She was handling the diversion well. Thanks to her, my own burden was lightened. From the organization’s perspective, the golem car was a threat they couldn’t afford to ignore. They would have to send a certain number of people to stop it. It seemed I didn’t need to worry about Alice.

I had to fulfill my own role. I’d finish this quickly and head back to her.

When I reached the top of the stairs, a large door stood before me. This was the top floor. There didn’t seem to be any other rooms; likely, the entire floor consisted of a single hall. Quite extravagant.

I checked my equipment before heading in. First, two rifles. I had plenty of ammunition left. They were already reloaded. It was enough to handle a prolonged gunfight.

As for bombs, I had one tear gas bomb, one incendiary bomb, and two standard types—four in total. It was a bit meager, but I couldn’t complain. I had used most of them on the way up. My handmade bombs were the best tools for scattering large groups of people.

My melee weapons consisted of the knife I brought and a machete I’d stolen from a man along the way. Both blades were smeared with blood, but they were still functional. They were useful weapons that were easy to handle and didn’t make much noise.

All in all, the armament was decent. Setting the bombs aside, I felt I had managed to conserve my other resources well enough. In the worst-case scenario, even if I ran out of weapons, I could always rely on hand-to-hand combat. This body, blessed by my level, was my greatest weapon. Since I could destroy even a dragon’s claw, breaking a human body was child’s play.

I’ll show them I can crush them like styrofoam.

Well, as a general rule, I intended to focus on fighting at the optimal distance. Complacency and carelessness create fatal openings. Rather than priding myself on strength, the priority was to mechanically continue choosing the optimal solution. That was the ironclad rule of a mercenary.

After finishing my gear check, I gripped my rifle and machete and pushed the door open. I slipped into the room without a sound.

A luxurious chamber stretched out before me. Plaster statues and vases were positioned throughout, and the walls were decorated with paintings and taxidermied animals. It was like a small museum.

In the middle of all that, dozens of muzzles were fixed on me. From a slight distance, members of the organization had their rifles leveled in my direction. The handful of staff-wielders mixed in among them were likely mages. They seemed intent on flinging magic along with their bullets.

I was surprised there were still this many people left. It appeared they had used the men downstairs to buy time and set up this formation. A sound judgment. I could clearly sense their resolve to kill me.

Standing at the center of this group was a powerfully built man in a black suit. He was a beastman with a rugged face and the head of a lion. Ralph Hanvielud. The description matched the information I’d squeezed out of Dalles. That was the head of the organization.

“Well, this is quite a grand reception. Were you really that excited to meet me?”

When I played along with a joke, Ralph furrowed his brow and let out a growl.

“…You insolent bastard. Who are you? Who hired you?”

It seemed he was under the misunderstanding that I was someone dispatched by a rival faction. While I had taken jobs like that before, that wasn’t the case this time. I offered a cheerful correction.

“Just your average, law-abiding citizen. I wasn’t exactly hired to carry out this raid.”

“A law-abiding citizen? Save your jokes for someone else.”

“It’s no joke. You know a man named Dalles, right? I had a bit of a run-in with him. To ensure there was no lingering bad blood, I figured I’d just wipe out his entire organization.”

The room suddenly erupted into a stir. It seemed Dalles’s name carried a fair amount of weight. He was a piece of work, but since he was apparently an executive, I suppose that was only natural.

After a somewhat long silence, Ralph spat out his words.

“To avoid lingering bad blood, you’re wiping out the whole organization? Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I’m always serious.”

“—You’re insane. And you happen to possess some ridiculous power to boot. You’re the worst kind of guest.”

“I get that a lot. It seems I have a personality that isn’t particularly welcomed.”

I shrugged, feigning a look of sadness. In truth, even back in my original world, there were factions that loathed being involved with me—more than I could count on both hands. It seemed I was born under an unpopular star.

Ralph, meanwhile, made a declaration while pointing a finger at me.

“Enough idle chatter. I’ll kill you here. We can take our time investigating your background after you’re dead. You’ll regret picking a fight with the Hanvielud Family.”

The moment he finished speaking, they unleashed a simultaneous volley. I dodged the bullets by jumping and rolling, then sprinted forward while gauging the trajectories of the rounds. Because there were so many shooters, even a second’s pause would mean getting shot. I moved around as much as possible to keep them off balance.

“Here, a present for you!”

Mid-sprint, I twisted my body and fired my rifle. The bullet flew true toward Ralph, but its trajectory was diverted with the sharp sound of clashing metal. Ralph had unleashed a thrust at the last possible moment, parrying it with his claws.

‘He’s pretty good.’

His kinetic vision and skill were impressive. He wasn’t just talk; he possessed strength befitting his position. It was likely because he had such capabilities that he had built a status for himself in Eurea, a place where merit was everything.

Having confirmed a glimpse of Ralph’s power, I took cover behind a statue. The sculpture began to chip away under the hail of bullets. It was a staggering barrage. If I mistimed my next move, I’d likely be turned into a pincushion.

I looked for openings to fire back, thinning out their ranks. However, there were simply too many of them. At this rate, killing them one by one would take too long. This statue would turn into rubble long before I finished them off.

“I guess I can’t afford to hold back anymore.”

Reaching that conclusion, I pulled a tear gas bomb from my coat and threw it. To the sound of air hissing out, the confused voices of the men reached my ears. They seemed to be getting a full taste of it. While this didn’t have direct lethal power, it certainly wasn’t something they could ignore.

While they were distracted, I tossed in an incendiary bomb for good measure. As I waited for the damage to spread, I heard a magic incantation. It seemed someone was brave enough to try a counterattack despite being tormented by the two types of bombs.

Sensing danger, I leapt from my position.

“Whoops.”

A moment later, a red bolt of lightning struck the statue. The front of the sculpture vanished as it was pulverized into dust. The lightning reached all the way to the back, scorching the floor and wall as it swept past. If I had been a second later in dodging, it would have been disastrous. With my current physical specs, I probably wouldn’t have died, but I certainly had no desire to actively tank a lightning strike.

Before the gunfire could resume, I slid into cover behind a nearby pillar. Being forced onto the defensive like this was stressful. There was no reason for me to play by their rules. First, I’d change the field to suit my tastes.

“Now then, let’s get this party started.”

I threw my remaining two bombs toward the ceiling. Flying like high-speed fastballs, they embedded themselves into the ceiling, sending cracks spiderwebbing outward. A few seconds later, the explosions brought the ceiling crashing down.