I Alone Regress in a Hero Party That Was Annihilated - Chapter 93

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#93. The Scent of Money (3)

Trickle, trickle, trickle…

Various things flow through the underground waterways beneath the Imperial Capital.

Household sewage mixed with excrement and urine, rainwater, mud, cat corpses, and all kinds of trash get swept down in the thick, murky current.

In these dirty and secluded places, human corpses sometimes surface, most of them vagrants intoxicated by alcohol or drugs.

…They slip on the steep drainage paths and tumble down headfirst, soon hitting their heads on protruding water pipes and losing consciousness.

And they fall into the sewage, never to rise up again.

But the corpses floating in the sewage swamp today were a bit unusual.

Splash!

A well-trained, muscular body falls into the pit of excrement and urine.

A fierce-looking man sank beneath the sewers without even being able to close his eyes.

“Huff… Huff… Huff…”

Survivors dressed in black clothes run toward the end of the underground waterway.

Soon, they reached a dead end blocked by thick prison bars.

A woman with a cold expression, a young man, and an old man with a long white beard.

The man spoke with a somber expression.

“Master, Senior Sister. Please, at least you two escape. I’ll hold him off.”

“No, Senior Brother! I’ll, I’ll stay! With my Aura Blade, I can easily cut through these iron bars…”

The woman answered in an urgent tone.

Then, the old man let out a quiet breath.

“Quickly cut the iron bars. And both of you run far away. I’ll hold that bastard off.”

“Master!”

“Master, no!”

Two men and women cried out at the old man in black clothes’ words.

But the old man’s attitude was resolute.

“You are the last hope of our clan. Live. And someday, avenge us. Our clan that was only used and then abandoned…”

Just then.

“How touching.”

A low voice echoed from the end of the underground waterway.

The old man and the two men and women’s eyes widened as if they would tear.

“Im, impossible! How did you get here so quickly…?”

“What use are assassins if they’re so easily startled?”

Soon, a face emerged from beyond the darkness.

Black hair, skin so pale it had a bluish tint, sunken eyes and protruding cheekbones, dark circles cast heavily under his eyes.

And two eyeballs burning purple.

“I heard the ‘Descendants of the New Moon’ do good work. Seems that’s not entirely true.”

“…Lord Marquis.”

At the old man’s words, the man called Marquis smiled quietly.

He waved a tongue he held in his hand.

“For assassins, their lips were quite tight. I had to pull out thirty-four tongues before I finally learned your location.”

“They say after catching the rabbit, they boil the hunting dog… How fitting those words are, Lord Marquis.”

“Now, Mountain Elder. Even if our mouths are crooked, let’s speak straight. Why would the hunting dog be boiled? Because it failed to hunt the rabbit. Incompetent dogs must be boiled, wouldn’t you say?”

“It’s Lord Marquis whose mouth is crooked. We ‘Descendants of the New Moon’ made no mistakes. As requested, we eliminated every single high noble from the Imperial Capital who had retreated to Mörsolt Territory. Didn’t you see the signs we left on the targets’ chests?”

“I saw them well. But the affairs at Rebarb and Purosange were quite disappointing.”

“That’s not a problem with our Assassins, is it? It’s a problem that occurred within the Mage Private Organization that you possess, Marquis. Do you take us for fools?”

“Hahaha— I can’t beat our Elder’s tongue.”

The Marquis threw away the tongue he had been holding in his hand.

…Splash!

The moment the long-drawn tongue fell into the sewage swamp, the Elder shot forward like a beam of light.

Flash—

A silver flash aimed for the Marquis’s chest.

However.

Thwack!

The crimson rapier drawn from the Marquis’s waist was half a beat faster.

The eerily gleaming blood-red trajectory connected dot by dot through midair before breaking off.

…Thud!

The Old Man’s body rolled across the filthy floor.

“M, Master! How dare that bastard!”

“Die, Berserker!”

The two enraged man and woman charged toward the Marquis.

“Don’t!”

The Old Man screamed desperately, but reality was cruel.

Thwack!

With a single strike the Marquis delivered while smiling, holes were pierced through both the man and woman’s foreheads.

…Splash! …Splash!

The two young man and woman with beautiful faces were plunged into the pit.

“Ooh! You bastard, Berserker!”

The Old Man screamed in anguish, tears of blood streaming down his face.

The Marquis stood before him, frowning.

“Don’t cry, Elder. I’m the one who feels like crying right now.”

He stood there with a truly tearful expression, shaking his head from side to side.

“I invested a full five years to get my hands on the Northern Region. And what about the money? The payment I gave you people is nothing compared to my total investment—just pocket change for a child’s snacks. I poured in manpower too, eighty percent of my carefully cultivated spies went to the north. All of this was to concentrate the Imperial Family’s power and establish the greater cause…”

The Marquis sighed deeply.

“But I failed. All because some declining Margrave House that’s worse than a Baronet from the Imperial Capital Outskirts interfered.”

“Mö, Mörsolt… Cough!”

The Old Man spoke while coughing up blood.

Hearing those words, the Marquis clapped his hands.

“Yes. Elder. You’ve succeeded in displeasing me for the first time.”

“Mörsolt…”

“That’s right. Lately, just hearing that name makes me extremely unpleasant. I feel much worse than when my clothes got ruined and my blade was damaged while capturing and killing your thirty-four Subordinates. It feels like my eardrums are being violated.”

“Mörsolt! They will bring about your destruction…!”

But the Old Man’s words couldn’t continue to the end.

Thunk—

Because the Marquis’s sword had pierced a hole through the Old Man’s throat.

“Enough, Elder. Stop defiling the purity of my eardrums any further.”

But the Marquis’s warning was useless.

Because the Elder had also soon sunk down beneath the shit pit.

“Hmm, are the Descendants of the New Moon finished with this? Somewhat of a waste. They were quite useful puppets.”

The Marquis clicked his tongue as he looked down at the ripples on the filthy water created by the Elder’s corpse.

“That’s what happens when you make deals with the Mörsolt forces behind my back.”

Long ago, the Marquis had ordered the Descendants of the New Moon to cause unrest within Mörsolt Territory.

The Descendants of the New Moon had carried out operations in the Northern Region according to that commission.

But at some point, the Descendants of the New Moon began to make independent moves beyond the Marquis’s commissions.

The Marquis discovered that Mörsolt had noticed the Descendants of the New Moon were active in the Northern Region and had contacted them to commission work in reverse.

“There must be someone clever in Mörsolt. Who could it be? Someone who noticed that the Imperial Capital has taken an interest in the Northern Region.”

The Marquis pondered in the darkness for a while.

But in this situation with no information, there was nothing to gain except the terrible stench.

“Number 5 seems to have failed too. Habu’s bio-signals have been cut off, so he’s probably dead. Nothing’s been going right lately.”

The Marquis let out a deep sigh and climbed the stairs leading to the surface.

Step— Step— Step— Squelch— Squelch— Squelch—

After stabbing to death several vagrants who were sprawled out drunk for his amusement, the Marquis soon melted stickily into the shadows at the mouth of the alley and disappeared.

Leaving behind only the stench and darkness.

* * *

Splash—

Featherback stepped out of the bathtub.

The bathwater that had been boiling hot was now cold enough that thin ice was floating on the surface.

“You even have time for a bath, how nice.”

Rorschach waved some documents as he greeted Featherback coming out of his bath.

Featherback narrowed his eyes.

“What brings you here at this dawn hour?”

“The budget proposal is finished. I came to get your approval.”

“Put it over there.”

“If you don’t mind, why don’t you look at it right now? We’re both short on time. Oh, I’ll dry your hair, so please look at the documents first.”

Rorschach snatched the towel from Featherback’s hand.

Featherback sat silently at the table and examined the documents.

Meanwhile, Rorschach dried Featherback’s hair with the dry towel.

“Um, why don’t you put something on while you look?”

“You said to look at it right away?”

“Even so, reviewing documents naked in front of a woman is a bit much, isn’t it? At least put on a robe.”

“You barge into someone’s room at dawn without notice, then tell me whether to dress or not.”

“By the way, this is the first time I’ve seen you with wet hair. You know you’ll get hair loss if you don’t dry your hair properly, right? You’re fine now, but when you get older, there’s a saying about ‘scalp battles,’ so you need to take care of it in advance.”

“Battles are fought with swords, not hair.”

“That’s a bit different from what women think. Anyway, from now on, make sure to dry your hair properly and only show me, your subordinate, such disheveled appearances, okay?”

Rorschach subtly changed the subject.

Featherback put on a robe and then reviewed the documents again.

“The cost calculation for the Caucasus expedition is complete. Good work.”

“You’re going on another expedition. Last time it was ‘Beauvoir Abandoned Mine,’ then ‘Nightmare-Eating Tree Spirit,’ and this time it’s ‘Graveyard of Mad Kings’?”

Graveyard of Mad Kings, Caucasus.

There’s a reason this region earned such a nickname.

There’s a saying in the Rikeion Empire: ‘When a king goes mad, he goes to war in Caucasus.’

Even the most powerful conquest monarchs in human history avoided this place.

The blazing sunlight is hot enough to melt iron into mush, and the endless desert contains nothing but salt and sand.

Moreover, the countless races living here are warrior peoples who have survived the ethnic cleansing of numerous empires, and they still maintain the savagery and belligerence inherited from their ancestors since ancient times.

Perhaps because it’s the land of fierce Barbarians living in harsh desert regions, more than a few nations have perished while trying to conquer this place.

That’s why it even has the ominous nickname ‘Empire’s Graveyard.’

“It’s nominally territory belonging to the Rikeion Empire now… but in reality, it’s the result of giving up the fight against the Barbarian Tribes.”

Rorschach was right.

Caucasus is territory belonging to the Rikeion Empire, but within it, countless Barbarian Tribes are engaged in fierce competition.

To put it nicely, it’s a ‘Free City,’ and to put it harshly, it’s an ‘Outlaws’ Wasteland.’

Featherback spoke in a leisurely tone.

“Shedyoldis came from Caucasus. Biological Experiments and Human Sacrifice related to Dark Magic must be taking place there.”

“So you’re going to investigate directly?”

“Is there anywhere in the Northern Region I can’t go?”

“The Northeastern Region is a bit far to call it the Northern Region.”

“That’s why I set aside a large budget.”

“When will you depart?”

“When this Hair is completely dry.”

“…”

Rorschach frowned.

Her hand holding the Towel suddenly became slower.

Featherback spoke with his characteristic expressionless face.

“It’s a joke.”

“So you do know how to make those. At least give me plenty of time to prepare.”

“Of course. We’ll depart in a week, so finish all the Documents by then.”

“….”

Rorschach’s hand holding the towel stopped completely.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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