Chapter 44

On a deserted street in the middle of the night, I sat on a wooden crate by the roadside.

I was munching on some food I’d bought from a stall.

It was seasoned meat wrapped in a thinly spread dough.

It was easy to carry around, and the taste was decent enough.

This kind of bold, heavy flavor could be addictive.

The price was quite low, making it a dish widely enjoyed throughout the city.

As I silently filled my stomach, the faint sound of an engine reached my ears.

Looking to my right, I saw a truck approaching.

Perhaps out of consideration for the late hour, it was driving at a reduced speed.

I knew for a fact that the majority of that cargo consisted of illegal goods.

“Alright. Shall we get the surprise ready?”

I stood up slowly.

I had just reached the point of being tired of waiting.

If it had taken much longer, I’d been considering using a different method.

I was glad things seemed likely to proceed according to plan.

The moment I passed the truck, I slapped an Adhesive Bomb onto its rear.

The action took a fraction of a second.

The driver probably didn’t even notice.

Sure enough, the truck drove away as if nothing had happened.

I ducked into an alley, scaled a wall, and moved onto the roof of a building.

It was easy, as there were plenty of places to gain a foothold.

I could climb something like this faster than a monkey.

I sat on the edge of the building and observed the truck’s destination.

“Now then, I’ll watch from the best seat in the house.”

The truck turned a corner and entered a large premises.

A warehouse stood there, with an office building adjacent to it.

A clock tower towered over the top of the office.

The truck driving through the grounds vanished inside the warehouse.

Having confirmed this, I pulled a switch from my breast pocket.

“This is the signal to start. Give me a grand show, won’t you?”

I pressed my thumb down on the switch.

In an instant, the warehouse roared with the sound of an explosion.

The roof tore open, a hole appearing as white-hot flames erupted upward.

The window glass shattered all at once, creating a deafening din.

“Oh.”

As I watched the entire warehouse burn with a roar, I noticed a strange phenomenon.

The explosive flames that had initially erupted took on a humanoid shape and began to dance madly.

While emitting something like a high-pitched voice, it began to radiate fire in all directions.

It licked across the warehouse and office, expanding the damage.

The humanoid flame flew around unrestrained, but finally, it caused a massive explosion right in the middle of the grounds.

The warehouse buckled under the blast of hot air, and those nearby were caught in the flames, dying instantly.

Leaving a scorched crater in the ground, the humanoid flame vanished.

“Hahaha! I could make a fortune if I performed this at a parade!”

Having witnessed its disappearance, I gave it a round of applause.

I instinctively reached for a cigar and lighter but quietly put them back in my pocket.

I was still on the job.

I had to endure until I finished my objective.

This time, the bomb I had attached to the truck used a Spirit Stone I had bought at the market.

Specifically, it was one that had a fire spirit sealed within.

I had set the ruby-like stone as the core of the bomb.

Among Spirit Stones, those with actual spirits sealed inside are apparently rare and expensive.

Normally, they are merely stones that possess a specific attribute due to a spirit’s influence.

Because it was such an item, it cost a lot of money to purchase, but I had no regrets.

It had served as a good power test, and I’d been able to witness such an amusing sight.

The results were worth enough to get change back.

‘Spirit Stone bombs seem like they’ll be worth using in the future.’

Just by introducing them into the detonation circuit, I could easily aim for an increase in power.

The lack of control after the explosion is a drawback, but if the objective is pure destruction, it’s not a problem.

Since this was a prototype, I could expect even further performance upgrades with some ingenuity.

All in all, it was an excellent material for a bomb.

“Is there no one who can use water magic?! Gather here immediately!”

“It hurts… My arm…!”

“Move the injured out of the way! You’re in the way!”

Inside the premises, numerous angry shouts and screams intermingled.

It was a state of pure panic.

People were busy rescuing the injured and extinguishing the fire in the buildings.

Considering the scale of the damage, it would likely burn down before they could stop it, but I suppose they couldn’t just stand by and watch.

“Quite the excitement. I think it’s about time I joined the party.”

I climbed down from the building and drew a handgun from my holster.

It was the semi-automatic pistol type I’d received from Alice.

I pulled the slide back to chamber a round.

I had come here for retaliation.

My objective was to crush the organization that had attempted to assassinate me.

My source of information was the woman who had tried to seduce me—the one I’d used as a guinea pig for the Remote Bomb.

Raids like this had become my daily routine lately.

I would torture the fools who thought of committing such insolence to gain information, and then dismantle their organizations.

It was a method I had used frequently since my time in my original world, and it had turned into a routine.

With the handgun in one hand, I jogged toward the burning premises.

I wouldn’t use the other one, the revolver.

That one required specialized ammunition, and its power was too high.

It would be a waste to use it on mere members of a criminal organization.

It was safer to save it as a trump card.

I intended to let any troublesome enemies have it without mercy.

With those thoughts in mind, I reached the main gate.

The two sentries carrying rifles were shaken by the warehouse explosion.

They seemed to want to take some kind of action, but they couldn’t leave their posts, and were fumbling about suspiciously.

One of them eventually noticed me.

“Stop! Who goes there?!”

“Your lover.”

I replied while pulling the trigger, shooting one of the sentries dead.

I dashed up to them with a dash of style and picked up the dropped rifle.

“Wha—?!”

The other sentry, overcome with surprise, fired toward me.

I pivoted my body to evade the shot while returning fire with the rifle.

A hole opened in the sentry’s chest, and he flipped backward.

He didn’t move again.

I scavenged the sentries’ corpses and helped myself to their spare ammunition.

I could repurpose it for my own handgun.

Being able to fire rapidly meant that my frequency of use and ammunition consumption had increased accordingly.

To prepare for unforeseen circumstances, I wanted to keep as much of a surplus in my remaining ammo count as possible.

Discarding the rifle, I used the corpses as shields to move into cover.

From there, I began to dispassionately pick off the individuals working to extinguish the fire.

When they gathered in large numbers, I blew them away with the bombs I had on hand.

Utilizing the flames and the commotion to shift my position, I thinned their ranks while blending into the chaos.

Occasional counterattacks came my way, but the attacks from those panicked fools were nowhere near hitting me.

“Haha, this reminds me of the battlefield back when I was a recruit. I was surrounded by flames and blasting away with my gun back then, too.”

With my back to a barricade, I tucked an empty magazine into my pocket.

In its place, I took out a fresh magazine and slotted it into the handgun.

As expected, this was far easier than a single-shot type.

It allowed me to continue the battle smoothly.

As for their long-range options, they had nothing but single-shot rifles or magic that required incantations.

There was no reason for me to lose.

Having wiped out the people outside, I then stepped into the office building.

I searched for my target while killing those lying in wait as I advanced.

At the very least, there were no signs of an escape.

He was almost certainly inside.

After searching for several minutes while keeping an eye on the fire, I discovered a blue-haired man frantically gathering large sums of money in the back of the office.

He wore an eyepatch over one eye.

I had finally found my target.

I approached him with a broad grin.

“You’re the boss of ‘Black Wolf’s Nest,’ Freed Benuat, right? I’ve come for payback.”

“A-Ah… You, you’re the Bomber!”

Freed tried to back away and tripped.

The money he had gathered scattered across the floor.

It made a loud, clattering sound.

“You intend to dismantle my Black Wolf’s Nest… What a monster.”

“Hey now, don’t act like the victim. You’re the one who sent assassins after me, aren’t you?”

“Silence. I have no intention of listening to your nonsense.”

Standing up, Freed gripped a dagger tightly.

The dagger was adorned with jewels and was clearly a high-end item.

Since the blade was glowing, it seemed some kind of magic had been imbued into it.

“Die!”

Freed shouted as he lunged forward.

The thrust from his silent dash was a decent move.

He had likely been an assassin before.

Or perhaps he was still active.

However, I wasn’t someone who couldn’t predict such a thing.

“Whoops, calm down. You should cool off for a bit.”

I unleashed a low kick with centrifugal force behind it.

The kick shattered Freed’s right knee, causing him to fall forward with momentum.

I stepped on his back and twisted his arms up to ensure he couldn’t stand.

From that position, I quickly bound him with rope.

“Man, if I was going to tie someone up, I’d have preferred a beautiful woman. No, I’ll endure. I’m the type who can separate work from my private life.”

“Y-You damn Bomber…”

Freed spat out curses, but I gave him the cold shoulder with style.

After all, it was just the utmost resistance from a powerless human.

I suppose I should praise his brave attitude.

I stuffed the money and documents from the room into a bag, then dragged Freed toward the interior of the clock tower.

Freed groaned every time he hit his head on a step, but that was none of my concern.

I didn’t possess enough kindness to be that considerate.

“H-Hey! Handle… me… more… gently…!”

“Don’t wail so much, baby. Want me to get you some milk?”

I grabbed Freed’s fingers and crushed several of them together.

A pathetic scream echoed through the inside of the clock tower.

He was so loud I couldn’t stand it.

Having become completely docile, Freed began to speak in a trembling voice.

“…S-Sorry. I was… wrong… If you let me go, I’ll give you half of the organization’s interests… No, seventy percent. How about it? Won’t you reconsider?”

“Regrettably, I’m not hurting for money. More importantly, your death is a settled matter. It’s useless to stall.”

“…Ha…. hahaha… Ah, haha.”

Upon hearing my declaration, Freed let out a dry laugh and didn’t say another word after that.

It seemed he had understood reality.

I was glad he’d shut up.

Before long, we reached the top floor of the clock tower.

I stepped outside through the provided door.

The clock face and the minute hand were right there.

I tied the boss to the minute hand, suspending him in mid-air.

Then, I forced a bomb with a lever into his hand.

I made sure to pull out the safety pin.

I spoke to the dazed Freed.

“The moment you let go, it’ll explode. If you don’t want to die, hold on tight.”

“Hahaha, ahaha… haha…”

Freed just kept laughing.

Perhaps the mental strain had become too great and he had gone mad.

To not even be able to endure this much—for an organization boss, he was quite the coward.

I had wanted him to show some spirit like the lion-headed beastman—Ralph.

Feeling somewhat disappointed, I shouldered the bag and headed down the clock tower.

While listening to Freed’s mad laughter, I strode past the blazing warehouse.

I walked right through the crowd of onlookers.

Just as I left the premises, the clock tower exploded.

The clock face, snapped in two, fell to the ground, and the tip of the tower crumbled.

The minute and hour hands, sent flying, pierced into the warehouse roof with a roar.

When I squinted my eyes, I could see a lump of flesh clinging to the minute hand.

“…Barely a passing grade.”

Ignoring the commotion of the onlookers, I took a back alley to return to the base.

That was the end of today’s schedule.

I walked while reading the documents I had obtained.

Unfortunately, the information I was seeking was not there.

I tore up the documents and sighed.

Two months had passed since I started living in Eurea.

Due to the destruction of Ralph’s organization, the struggle for supremacy in the Fortress City had intensified.

Caught in the middle of it, I had been dismantling hostile organizations one after another like this.

I left alone those organizations that showed submission or remained neutral.

It wasn’t like I wanted to create conflict pointlessly.

By the way, the information I was seeking was the whereabouts of the other summoned people.

At the very least, regarding the brown-haired man I met at the dwarven settlement, there was a high possibility he was within the country of Eurea.

I had also commissioned Letona the handyman to search for his whereabouts, but no solid leads had been found.

It seemed better to assume he wasn’t in this city.

‘Maybe I should try going to a different city soon.’

It might be about time to expand my range of activity.

Once I returned to the base, I’d consult with Alice, who was looking after the house.

“…Hmm.”

As I was thinking about my future plans, I suddenly sensed a presence from a shadow up ahead.

I came to a halt and drew my handgun.

I placed my finger on the trigger and sharpened my nerves.

What emerged from the darkness was a woman wearing a white mask.

She was dressed entirely in black, with her indigo hair tied back in a ponytail.

Though I couldn’t see her face, I had a feeling she was a beauty.

Even so, her presence was strangely faint.

Even for an assassin, a person this refined was rare.

I could tell she was no ordinary person just by her demeanor.

While her overall appearance was suspicious, strangely, I felt no hostility.

The masked woman bowed without moving from her spot.

“You are Jack Aaron, I presume?”

“Who are you?”

I questioned her while pointing my handgun.

The masked woman didn’t flinch in the slightest and shook her head like a doll.

“I am merely a messenger. Not someone worth naming.”

“A messenger?”

I made a suspicious face.

What business could a so-called messenger have in contacting me?

Even after thinking about it, nothing came to mind.

Since she used my name, there was no chance of mistaken identity.

Meanwhile, the masked woman spoke her business in a voice devoid of intonation.

“One of the Representatives who rule Eurea—Lord Dorgu Vingria—desires an audience. I request that you accompany me immediately.”