The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 16

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Our Neighborhood’s Strongest (16)
“If you’re simply guarding a door, step aside. But if you’re a mercenary with the Maximus Mercenary Company, don’t complain when you die. Start by clarifying which one you are.”
“This bastard’s completely insane. It was absurd enough seeing him arrive laden with every weapon imaginable, but I didn’t want to see blood this early. If you don’t want to die, get out of here.”
“I’ll ask one final time. Are you a mercenary, or a doorkeeper? If you dodge the answer again, I’ll kill you.”
“What! Kill me? You’re actually going to make me see blood!”
As the two men reached for their weapons, Jang Ga-in drew his blade and severed both their necks in a single motion.
“Gack!”
“Ugh!”
“I only asked because I didn’t want to kill an innocent person. But judging by their actions, they were definitely mercenaries.”
With their heads separated from their bodies, the two men could offer no reply, only fountains of blood as they collapsed.
Jang Ga-in stepped over the falling corpses and kicked the door.
Crash!
The door shattered, splinters scattering, and startled mercenaries came rushing out with weapons drawn.
“Who is this guy!”
“What kind of lunatic is—”
“Wait! Gidel and Balankon are dead!”
“Damn it! Kill that bastard!”
The rushing mercenaries spotted their fallen comrades and charged toward Jang Ga-in and Ingram.
Whoosh—
Wind erupted around Jang Ga-in in an instant, the ground beneath his feet exploding outward. His body shot forward like an arrow toward the mercenaries, and somehow both a sword and a blade had appeared in his hands.
The mercenaries froze at the inhuman speed—nothing in their experience had prepared them for a man moving this fast. The frontmost among them never got their weapons up before their necks were severed or their hearts pierced.
Clang, crack-clang, schwick, thunk, thunk, schwick, schwick, thunk-thunk-thunk—
Those coming from behind desperately swung their weapons, but it changed nothing.
Some fell with their weapons still in their hands, their necks severed. Others swung massive axes that cut only air before their hands were sliced away. Still others raised shields to protect their torsos, only to have their legs cut from beneath them.
Within seconds—barely more than a handful—over a dozen mercenaries fell like bundled straw, and the building filled with the screams of the gravely wounded.
“What… what is this…”
Ingram was knocked back three steps by the recoil from when Jang Ga-in had torn the ground apart. He regained his footing, then started toward him to help—and stopped dead.
“So this is the strength that took down an Ogre with a single spear…”
He’d never imagined a human could move like that.
With such skill, there was no need for him to help. No—if he’d rushed in without understanding what was happening, he would have only gotten in the way of those extraordinary movements.
Moments later, as screams continued to fill the building, another group of mercenaries rushed in.
“Who is—wait, what in the—”
The mercenaries who entered froze at the sight of Jang Ga-in standing in the center of a nightmare landscape: blood, screams, and chaos.
* * *
‘Damn it—this unease that wouldn’t fade… where did this monster come from?’
Maximus, who had rushed here at the sound of screaming, went pale seeing more than half his men dead.
From the moment he’d heard the screams to reaching this place had taken barely a minute. Yet in that short span, twelve men lay sprawled in death, and four more were shrieking, missing one or both limbs.
He glanced at his subordinates—his second-in-command Jinerman, the Aura users Kalien and Drugg, and Beulpu—and saw them swallowing hard, their throats working dry.
They couldn’t bring themselves to charge at their opponent; instead, they’d turned to look at him, and when their eyes met his, their intent was unmistakable.
‘Captain, fighting that monster is suicide!’
‘Damn it! If anyone’s dying, it’s not going to be me!’
‘Captain or not, I don’t want to die! I want to live!’
No will to fight—only desperate calculations about survival burning in their eyes.
Maximus, meeting those gazes, reluctantly stepped forward.
“W-who are you… why are you attacking us?”
“I won’t waste words. Where are the Dwarf Race children and warriors you kidnapped?”
“Is this… are you committing this atrocity because of the Dwarf Race we captured?”
“Atrocity? Ha! The real atrocity is what you did to the Dwarf Race. And the way you speak—it’s absurd, like you’re trying to sound wronged…”
“Ga-in, sir—these monsters kidnapped our children and killed our comrades. Please, kill every last one of them.”
At that moment, Ingram, standing near the door, recognized Maximus and his companion, and cried out.
“I understand your feelings, Ingram, but first we need to determine the condition of the kidnapped children.”
“Yes, you’re right! You demon bastards—where are our tribe’s children!”
Maximus immediately recognized who was shouting at the door.
It was the Dwarf Race warrior who had desperately fled to escape his second-in-command’s attack.
Letting that prey slip away had brought this disaster upon him.
“The Dwarf Race children and wounded are in the Warehouse—locked in, well, secured, I mean, kept safe.”
“Then guide us to where they are.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maximus sheathed his drawn sword and led the way toward the Warehouse. His men followed behind, and Jang Ga-in and Ingram came after them.
“The Dwarf Race children and wounded are in here.”
“Open the door.”
“Yes. Sub-captain, what are you doing? Open it quickly.”
“Yes! Ah, yes.”
As the sub-captain hurried to open the door, children and warriors of the Dwarf Race imprisoned in a room made of iron bars came into view.
Ingram, who had been standing behind, saw this and rushed inside.
“Irun, Dellan, Mogli, Haruyan, Zeta, Suotangl. Is everyone all right? You vile wretches! Belirao and Muranguti are in such critical condition—why did you just abandon them without taking any measures? Belirao! Open your eyes. Belirao! Muranguti!”
Then, seeing the state of the children and his comrades, he seized the bars confining them and cried out in anguish.
Jang Ga-in followed Ingram inside and found himself frowning without realizing it.
“Even the Demonic Cult handles kidnapped children roughly, but not to this extent…… This is like caging beasts.”
Seeing that Jang Ga-in and Ingram’s emotions were running high, Maximus quietly drew his sword from its sheath, and the sub-captain Jinerman covertly drew a short blade from his robes.
‘Madmen, distracted the moment they enter here! Perfect!’
Thud.
Maximus saw clearly that his opponent’s attention was elsewhere and thrust his sword with all his might, but he realized the tearing sound was coming not from the opponent’s back but from his own chest, and he lowered his head.
“What—when?”
Where his blade had struck, the opponent had somehow already stepped to the side, and the sword he’d drawn was now piercing through Maximus’s chest.
“I’ve dealt with your kind far too many times. How is it you have not a shred of creativity? Everything you do is stamped from the same mold.”
Crack.
In that moment, the head of sub-captain Jinerman, who had been reaching into his robes to draw and strike with a short blade, separated from his neck and fell to the floor.
‘When?’
* * *
‘C-crazy! I couldn’t even see how he moved in that instant! When did the sub-captain’s neck get cut?’
Kalien, who had been ready to help the captain and sub-captain and attack the enemy if needed, trembled as he watched the sub-captain collapse with his neck severed and the captain sink down with his chest pierced through.
He quietly released the grip of the sword he’d held and stood motionless as if he’d done nothing, and his opponent spoke to him and his comrades with a bloodstained gaze.
“Why? Why don’t you draw your sword too? You seemed quite brave.”
“M-my trousers were falling. I was just pulling up my belt.”
“Would you like me to cut below the waist so you won’t need to pull up your belt anymore?”
“I was wrong. Please spare me!”
Thud.
Kalien dropped to his knees without hesitation.
“I haven’t killed all of you not out of mercy. I need a carriage to transport the wounded, and I need a driver for that carriage. Anyone here who knows how to drive a carriage, raise your hand.”
In an instant, everyone who had followed into the Warehouse raised their hands.
“I don’t need this many.”
“S-sir, not everyone can fit in one carriage, so we’ll need several.”
“Hmm, that does make sense.”
Slash.
As Jang Ga-in swung his sword, the iron bars confining the Dwarf Race were cut clean through from top to bottom and clattered down.
Gulp.
Kalien swallowed hard without thinking.
Ordinarily, when you strike iron bars with a sword, sparks fly and the blade warps. But these bars had been severed as cleanly as if they were cloth.
Even as a veteran mercenary who handled Aura to a considerable degree, he could not even imitate such a sword strike.
‘An absurd monster…… Perhaps today truly is my memorial day.’
“Belirao! Muranguti! Come to your senses!”
As the iron bars were cut, Ingram rushed inside to check on his unconscious comrades.
He drew Potions from his robes and had them drink, applied them to wounds, and tore cloth to bandage the injuries. As he busied himself with this, Jang Ga-in had the mercenaries bring the children outside and tend to them.
“You there, the one with the heavy beard.”
“Yes? Do you mean me?”
“That’s right. You take three of your subordinates and fetch a carriage to carry the children. And you with the long face and you with the scar under your eyes—guide me to where this mercenary company’s vault is located.”
The men Jang Ga-in had indicated with his sword were Kalien, Drugg, and Beulpu—veteran mercenaries of Semi-Knight Class who could handle Aura.
The three men understood that Jang Ga-in had not singled them out by chance and nodded.
“The large room over there is the Captain’s Room. The vault is in the Captain’s Room.”
“Understood. Oh, and one more thing for you—if you even think of running off while pretending to go fetch the carriage, you’d do well not to. My Aura Sensing covers not just this building but the entire surrounding area. If you run, I’ll chase you down and kill you first.”
“Y-yes. Ah, yes. I won’t run. Don’t worry.”
Beulpu answered while cold sweat dripped down his face, and Jang Ga-in followed behind Kalien and Drugg.
* * *
“W-what is this…?”
After eating breakfast and arriving at the quarters of the Maximus Mercenary Company, Dobil and Arthur’s eyes widened as they saw the shattered door, the dead mercenaries, and those screaming in distress.
They hurried over to those who were screaming and asked what had happened.
“What happened here?”
“Who did this to you?”
“P-please, save us. Please save us!”
“I’ll save you, but first tell me what happened.”
Dobil and Arthur brought rope from nearby and bound the severed limbs of the wounded mercenary to stop the bleeding.
“Just, just a moment ago, a Dwarf and some man covered in weapons all over his body came and killed our comrades…….”
Dobil and Arthur wore expressions of disbelief as they listened to the armless mercenary speak.
“……And when our captain saw that, he got terrified and started groveling before the man, then led him to where we were keeping the Dwarf locked up.”
“Impossible! Maximus is known to be a Semi-Knight Class powerhouse, and you’re telling me even he didn’t draw his blade and went crawling to that man to show him where the Dwarf was?”
“Not only that, but the vice-captain and other senior mercenaries were all acting submissively in front of him too.”
“Arthur, this doesn’t seem like something the two of us can handle.”
“If someone’s strong enough to make Maximus act that way……we could lose our heads if we stick our noses in where they don’t belong.”
“What do we do?”
“Let’s go report this to the Guard Station commander.”
“That’s the right call. Come on, let’s go tell him right now!”
“P, please, soldier, we need your help, sir.”
“You two will get your turn soon. Right now I’ve got more pressing matters.”
Dobil and Arthur ran for roughly ten minutes before bursting straight into the Guard Station commander’s office.

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