In truth, Keldric hadn’t actually believed this would work.
It was just common sense that it’s hard to adjust after a sudden transition from bright light to darkness, and he thought it might apply similarly in this situation.
“This actually works?”
The situation was ideal.
The kitchen, once faintly illuminated by a flickering torch, was now quickly engulfed in darkness as the torch was extinguished.
Thanks to that, the mercenaries who had been glaring at Keldric, who had held the torch just moments ago, still hadn’t adjusted to the darkness.
“Ugh, ahh!”
A mercenary wielding a double axe floundered in the dark.
Keldric’s fist, clad in iron gauntlets, shot forward like lightning.
Boom!
The mercenary’s nose was crushed instantly, and he staggered.
Keldric swung his fist again with all his might.
This time, it wasn’t just the nose but his entire face that caved in.
Though Keldric’s expression remained indifferent, he was a bit startled.
He had swung his fist lightly, but the mercenary’s face was smashed like a rotten tomato, without even a scream.
It was because Keldric hadn’t fully gauged his own strength.
With the iron gauntlet over Keldric’s already powerful fists, it was an effective killing weapon.
“D-Donovan! Lars! Over here!”
“Lucas! Shut up, you idiot!”
While Keldric was swiftly taking down two mercenaries, the remaining ones seemed to gather with difficulty, their voices coming from one place.
But speaking up now was the worst choice they could make.
Whether Donovan or whomever, the mercenary presumed to be the owner of the name lay facedown on the kitchen floor with his face smashed in.
Keldric started to walk briskly toward the source of the voices.
Two shadowy figures entered his view.
At first, Keldric thought he might spare them if they surrendered.
However, they refused to surrender, and, looking back, weren’t there already five mercenaries unconscious in the courtyard? There was no need for more hostages.
If they wouldn’t surrender and were useless, he would have to kill them.
“Don’t come any closer! Stop!”
“Draw your weapon!”
Finally, adjusting to the darkness, one of the surviving mercenaries began to scream in a shrill, girlish voice at the sight of Keldric approaching.
Keldric’s brow furrowed.
Northern men didn’t scream like that.
“Damn!”
In a panic, the mercenary Lucas was replaced by a more seasoned-looking Gunter, who swung a falchion.
Clang!
But Keldric effortlessly parried it with his sword.
The falchion flew far and only stopped after skidding across the floor several times.
“Aah!”
Thanks to this, Gunter’s wrist was shattered.
Gripping a sword tightly might have been the right choice in a typical battle, but not now.
Clutching his broken wrist, Gunter quickly recovered his composure and drew a dagger from his coat.
But Keldric, who was already close, was faster.
Thud!
“Guh!”
Gunter took a punch to the solar plexus and collapsed, blood foaming from his mouth.
Keldric faintly felt something hard snap upon impact.
“Did I break a rib?”
It had happened because Keldric’s fists were so large.
Adding the thickness of the iron gauntlet made it like a battering ram to the mercenaries—a ram not for castles, but for bodies.
“S-Save me, sir knight! I’ll tell you everything! Everything! Please, just…”
Lucas, who had witnessed Gunter’s collapse, cried and begged, snot and tears streaming down his face.
Keldric hadn’t planned to spare him, but he paused, his sword still poised to strike.
He figured he might as well listen.
“Are there only ten of you in total?”
“Y-yes…”
“Answer! Ten, right? And who hired you?”
“Yes! There are only ten of us! And the one who hired us was… Joseph! The traveling merchant who came to town!”
“I already know that.”
“Then what do you want to ask?”
Facing Keldric, Lucas was nearly going mad with fear.
With his fellow mercenaries dropping like puppets and the knight’s voice drifting from the darkness mixed with the smell of blood, terror permeated his very being.
Feeling the metallic tang of blood filling his nostrils, Lucas stammered out a response.
“T-Then, what do you want to know?”
“Did Joseph hire all of you? How much did he pay?”
“It was… two Grasens per person at first! But, a few hours ago, he promised us an extra eight and a half Ducato coins each if we took on a new task…”
“What was the task? You’d better tell the truth.”
“I-I’ll tell you everything! He asked us to kill a noble of this house…”
Lucas’s voice trailed off.
Of course, it was essentially admitting, “He asked us to kill someone from your household, so we gladly accepted.”
Lucas had no choice but to lower his head in submission before Keldric.
He glanced at Gunter, still vomiting blood on the floor, and cursed him inwardly.
“Damn fool! All because of that idiot!”
Lucas felt tears of frustration welling up.
With the smell of blood and the metallic tang of the knight’s chain mail merging, it created a disturbing harmony that only made Lucas’s tears and bladder harder to control.
“Who exactly did he want dead? Did he specify?”
“Yes, he said he wanted the current head of the household… your… your lord…”
“Hilmer. Hilmer of House Bellaf. Is that right?”
“Yes…”
Lucas nodded, biting his trembling lips desperately.
He felt he had said all he could.
Now, what would happen?
“I see.”
The answer was simple.
The tall knight, Keldric, placed the tip of his long, sharp weapon against Lucas’s neck.
Feeling the cold touch of steel, Lucas’s skin prickled as a deep chill ran down his spine.
He didn’t want to die.
Not here—not like this!
“Out…outside!”
Just as Keldric was about to swing his sword, Lucas suddenly remembered something and shouted.
Keldric’s sword stopped in mid-air.
Seeing this, Lucas thought, Maybe, just maybe…
He might actually survive.
Lucas firmly clung to the tiny spark of hope that had appeared in the darkness.
“There are knights Joseph brought outside!”
In that moment, Lucas made the wrong choice.
He lied.
The cavalrymen in thick gambesons and leather scale armor appeared well-armed but were certainly not on par with knights.
While there were poor knights clad in leather armor, any knight hired by a noble wouldn’t dress like that.
“There are about six of them! When I counted, there were six, but there could be more!”
Lies flowed smoothly from Lucas’s mouth.
Ironically, he hadn’t intended to lie in such a situation.
If he’d been more composed, he would have given a reasonable amount of information with a mix of truth.
But Lucas was in no state to think straight.
The overwhelming terror and pressure of facing such a powerful force had him on edge.
Normal conversation was already out of the question.
“Six, you say?”
Meanwhile, Keldric was quite taken aback by Lucas’s desperate words.
Didn’t he say there were only ten before?
The sudden change in Lucas’s story was baffling enough, but the unexpected claim of six knights waiting outside was astonishing.
Furthermore, Lucas’s suggestion that there might be more heightened the anxiety—though that anxiety rapidly evolved into something else.
“Didn’t you say there were ten in total?”
“Our mercenary group does have ten! But then that bastard Joseph brought in knights…”
Six knights? And Joseph has that kind of money?
“What? That’s… um…”
Hiring six knights, fully armed and mounted, just to destroy the humble Bellaf family? Absurd.
If Joseph truly had that kind of wealth, he wouldn’t be meddling in this business.
He’d be living comfortably in a big city, flaunting his wealth.
Moreover, even if he had the money, bringing six knights all the way out here, especially to assault another noble family, was a task even Baron Volpen wouldn’t manage easily.
It was unlikely that Joseph’s financier, Fritz, had enough money or influence for such a plan.
Even if Fritz had scraped together funds from village operations and presumed that knights would work for the bare minimum, hiring six knights for even a day was a fantasy.
Hilmer, the one in charge of the village, would’ve hidden the funds securely.
So, the idea of six knights stationed here was impossible.
Keldric was well-acquainted with the harsh realities of the world.
He looked at Lucas, who was trembling uncontrollably.
Even in the darkness, he could see Lucas quivering enough to know he wasn’t in his right mind.
“Alright, so you’re saying there are six of them, for sure.”
“Y-yes. They’re all on horseback.”
Even six well-trained light cavalrymen would be a significant threat to the village of Carlton.
And if there were possibly more…
A heavy concern settled in Keldric’s mind.
However, as it was critical information, Keldric decided to push Lucas for more.
“Is there anything else? Tell me everything honestly!”
“Then… if I do, will you spare me?”
But after seeing Lucas’s reaction, Keldric swung his sword without hesitation.
Lucas’s body fell to the side, his head hanging limply.
The reason Keldric swung was simple.
When people have nothing left to offer, they often say whatever they think the other wants to hear.
If he had promised to spare Lucas, Lucas would’ve added layers of lies, making up anything.
Keldric clicked his tongue softly, stopped trying to sheathe his bloodied sword, and rested it on his shoulder.
Sheathing a bloody sword would damage it.
Finally, he resumed his halted steps, leaving the kitchen.
Only the sound of Lucas’s labored, dying breaths and the warm blood spilling onto the floor remained.
Gunter, whose rib had been shattered and who had been fatally injured, took his final breath and closed his eyes in pain, regretting accepting the damned merchant’s offer.
It didn’t take long for silence to return to the kitchen.