144

The main road near the Haidern estate.

The night was deep and dark.

A group of figures gathered one by one. Meeting under the moonlight, their attire and appearances were varied. As diverse as their looks were, they stood on edge, eyeing each other while waiting for someone.

It was then.

“Is everyone here?”

A man appeared.

“…….”

The atmosphere shifted instantly at the arrival of this single individual. The men, who had been growling at each other as if ready to pounce, turned as docile as lambs. They lowered their weapons and quietly bowed their heads.

“Hehe, it’s the Boss’s order, so of course we are.”

“It looks like some people are missing.”

When the man called ‘Boss’ scanned the faces of the gathered members and asked, a sycophantic individual replied hurriedly.

“W-well, that’s because it’s been two years since we were all last together, hasn’t it?”

“They’re dead, then.”

“……Yes. That’s right.”

As the sycophant nodded, the Boss gave a dry nod of acknowledgement. The sycophant breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived.

“Disappointing.”

“…….”

At the Boss’s single word, everyone present swallowed hard. The Boss scanned them with a cold gaze.

“Do not disappoint me further.”

““Yes!””

They answered with discipline and lowered their bodies. The sycophant bowed his head as well before cautiously opening his mouth.

“Um… shall we recruit more members? Three seats are vacant…….”

“Forget it.”

The Boss cut him off with a shake of his head. Then he muttered coldly:

“They were clearly lacking to begin with. Unworthy of the name ‘Pale Noose’.”

“…….”

Cold sweat trickled down the sycophant’s back once more at the chill in that voice. He managed to speak through the tension.

“H-however… among the deceased is the ‘Smiling Fox of Maron’.”

“…….”

The Boss’s eyebrow twitched. A subtle change in expression. He asked briefly:

“How did he fall?”

“He was captured and executed while carrying out a request for the Lord of Solmer. However, it is said that the one who captured him was the Lord of Heidern here.”

The Boss nodded at the sycophant’s answer.

“I see.”

That was all. There was no sympathy, no anger. His expression suggested that his curiosity was satisfied, and that was enough. He looked down at the men looking up at him. There were no more than twenty of them in total.

However, the martial prowess of each and every one of them was beyond imagination. This was the result of him personally selecting and training those with talent. Whether it was the one with the fearsome epithet ‘Slaughterer of the Battlefield’ or the one with the disgusting title ‘Corpse Eater’—they were all merely his blades and tools.

The Boss spoke tonelessly.

“Tonight, we shall erase the place we stand from the map.”

“……By that, you mean?”

“The objective is the complete annihilation of the estate.”

The eyes of the members sparkled as the Boss continued. Even in a chaotic era, such an event was rare.

“Not a single person must escape this place.”

“……!”

At the Boss’s words, the members all stood up, barely containing their excitement. They were all born killers and hunters; none among them would not rejoice at such an opportunity. The Boss drove the point home.

“Do not worry about the aftermath. Kill everyone.”

“……Yes!”

The twenty individuals began to walk toward the estate, their eyes gleaming with excitement.

The start was the Gilmore family mansion.

According to the client, the mission was over once they eliminated some of the vassals in the mansion and the troops at the nearby outpost. It was a mission so easy it was almost anticlimactic—normally, a task for two or three members.

Despite that, there was only one reason he had gathered the entire group.

‘Because the client was that man.’

The leader of the Pale Noose felt a complex emotion. It was because he thought of him. A mixture of slight fear and awe.

Did people know? The fact that the world was moved neither by the Emperor of the Empire nor the Pope of the Church. It was moved by a mere follower of an Evil God called a ‘heretic.’ He, alone, knew the terror of that man. He knew the strength of the God that man served.

Soon, the whole world would know. Common sense would crumble overnight, and the order of the world would be overturned. And when that day came…

‘No one will be able to stand against him.’

So, there was no harm in staying in his good graces now. Of course, if the opportunity arose, he would gladly devour him and become the apostle of the God he served.

Nod.

Finishing his thoughts, the leader gave a short nod. Immediately, several silhouettes leaped over the mansion walls. This task was the prologue to his plan. Today, he—and the Pale Noose—would write a new history.

Step, step.

A moment later, he walked through the mansion doors his subordinates had thrown wide open. It was this easy. The moment his men entered, this mansion was finished.

‘By now, there shouldn’t be anyone left alive……’

“Hm? Someone else has arrived.”

The leader of the Pale Noose momentarily doubted his eyes. A boy was dusting off his hands as if he had just finished a chore. He looked to be barely ten years old. Wearing pajamas, the boy looked at him with a sleepy expression.

‘Why are there still survivors?’

The leader tilted his head at the scene, which was entirely different from what he expected. That was likely why he was slow to notice the forms lying at the boy’s feet.

“……That is.”

“Ah, these rude people? I have given them all a lesson.”

The boy spoke as he nudged three corpses on the floor with his foot.

Thud.

The three corpses, which had been barely propped up, fell over like dominoes. Their necks were all twisted at impossible angles.

“…….”

The leader immediately drew his sword and widened the gap between them. This was no ordinary opponent. His subordinates had died without being able to offer resistance, or even let out a scream. That meant only one thing.

‘They were taken down in a single blow. All three of them.’

For the first time in a very long time, the leader felt an emotion. The name of that emotion was bewilderment.

‘My men were taken out without even a scream?’

The information he had been given was wrong. Terribly wrong. This was something he hadn’t anticipated in the slightest.

The boy walked forward with large strides and said, “I believe you require a lesson as well, sir.”

“Who are you?”

“You break into someone else’s home uninvited and ask who they are?” the boy asked, looking incredulous.

Who was he? The leader felt a strange sensation from the boy. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but the atmosphere was alien. There was no smell of danger or blood. Rather, it was a smell that felt like… déjà vu.

Just as he was pondering its identity:

“Ehehe. Boss! Everyone is waiting outside, can we start—huh? What’s this? Who’s this brat?”

A sycophantic subordinate approached from behind and asked. He walked toward the boy without a hint of fear.

‘Does this fool not see the men dead behind him……’

The leader’s body froze. They were gone. The area where the corpses of his subordinates had been just a moment ago was now clean. As if something invisible had gulped them down. The leader’s gaze naturally turned to the boy’s shadow. Through the open door, the faint moonlight illuminated the boy.

The boy’s shadow writhed. A massive shape whose identity was hard to discern. And that was—

“Hey, you brat. Who do you think you are, holding your head up so high in front of the Boss? No, wait. What were the other guys doing, letting a kid slip—”

Crunch.

As the boy reached out, something invisible seized the sycophant’s jaw. An invisible hand gripping his face.

“Urgh?”

The subordinate rolled his eyes in panic, but nothing changed. The invisible hand tightened its grip, and the man’s face began to distort into a grotesque shape. He tried to pull out his weapon in a hurry, but it was too late.

“Grrrrgh.”

The sycophant, letting out a pain-filled groan, dropped the deck of playing cards he was holding. Then—

Crrack.

With a sound like a pumpkin smashing, he turned into mush. The boy looked on indifferently. As the boy’s gaze swept over the remains of the fallen corpse, a shadow slid forward and swallowed it.

Gulp.

Not a single drop of blood remained. Now, only he and the boy were left.

“Ah.”

The leader muttered under his breath. The identity of the déjà vu he had been feeling finally came to him.

‘A calamity.’

The true nature of the strange smell coming from the boy. It was the smell of a calamity. A village flooded as he saw in his childhood. A storm-tossed sea. A parched field in a drought. It was… an inescapable divine punishment.

The boy’s eyes as he approached were calm. As natural as breathing in and out. And so, death drew near.

“What is that clown doing? He said he was going to fetch the Boss.”

One of the members of the Pale Noose grumbled while fiddling with his saw. The member sitting leaned against a tree in the mansion garden replied lazily.

“He’ll be here soon~.”

“Right, I’m sure you’re relaxed. I heard your requests this year are already in the double digits.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“Did that sound like a compliment? I meant I have nothing to do because you’re hogging all the work.”

“Why blame me for your trash skills?”

“……What? What did you just say……”

Just as the assassin with the saw was about to get angry, the member who had been smiling with narrowed eyes jumped up. He held a scythe attached to a chain. The man with the saw flinched.

“W-what? You want to go right now—”

“Shut up.”

The narrow-eyed assassin looked around frantically. After a moment, he wiped sweat-soaked hair from his forehead and muttered:

“This is bad.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden……”

As the man with the saw followed his gaze and looked around, he felt a presence. The problem was that it wasn’t just one.

Step, step.

Dozens? Hundreds? No, perhaps… more. Troops too many to count. Soldiers appeared from out of nowhere and surrounded the mansion. Since when? Was it a trap from the beginning? Countless questions surfaced, but that wasn’t the most terrifying part. Even behind all those questions, a single doubt grew larger and larger.

‘Why isn’t the Boss coming out?’

What on earth… was happening inside that mansion? Just as the narrow-eyed assassin swallowed hard:

Clip-clop.

The sound of horse hooves echoed from somewhere. The main gate of the mansion. A single knight entered through the spot where several members should have been standing guard. He was a knight in black armor riding a black horse. No blood stained the weapon he carried.

Instead, blood dripped from the swords and spears of the knights following behind him. There hadn’t even been the sound of a struggle. Realizing this, the narrow-eyed assassin slowly lowered his chain-scythe.

“Haha… I have no idea what’s going on.”

“…….”

“Can I ask something before I die?”

“As long as you aren’t noisy.”

The knight nodded. It might have been a final mercy for the assassin’s resigned attitude.

“Who are you? No, what on earth is inside that mansion……”

“…….”

The knight remained silent for a moment before raising his visor and replying:

“The one inside is an existence beyond all standards.”

“Ah, I knew it…….”

“And I am merely the captain of the guard of an ordinary estate.”

“……What kind of nonsense is that.”

Just as the narrow-eyed assassin was about to speak in disbelief, the face inside the visor looked strangely familiar. As if he had seen it somewhere before…

“Huh? No way… Hey, is that face by any chance……”

The narrow-eyed assassin tried to call out to the assassin standing next to him, but stopped. The man was already no longer of this world.

“……Is this a dream?”

As the assassin muttered, the knight who had approached him raised his spear high and whispered:

“No.”

“…….”

“This is reality, and the price for your sins.”

Crunch.

With that final sound, the mansion fell into a deathly silence. No one would ever know that the renowned assassin group, the Pale Noose, had vanished in a single night.