By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 6

Chapter 7, Episode 44: Call to Action

The five men who awaited us outside the meeting room door were clearly an organized team: each carried a sword and wore chain mail under his matching coat, embroidered with a golden hawk. I recognized the man who spoke and the designs on their coats. These were the mercenaries Serge had hired as his bodyguards.

“Thank you for your patience. Oh, that’s right.” Serge turned to me. “I haven’t introduced them to you yet. They are the Golden Wildhawks, a mercenary group I hired to guard me and my business.”

The man who had first spoken to Serge said, “I’m Vice Captain Yashuma.”

“I’m Ryoma Takebayashi. We met once in front of the Morgan storefront, I think. I appreciated your consideration when I had come without prior arrangements.”

“Our mission at the time was to guard the store. We would never interfere with business beyond the scope of our mission.”

That was a very professional response, illustrating that they kept a respectable distance between their client and themselves—no unnecessary questions. The five mercenaries looked a little intense now, probably because they were on the job. I didn’t sense any animosity from them, nor were they acting aggressively.

The mercenaries and I exchanged no further words as we all exited the building. En route, Yashuma subtly shifted to walk beside Serge, with me on the other side. The other four mercenaries were stationed ahead, behind, and on either side of the group. Even then, they remained unintrusive, communicating with each other and watching the passersby and any blind spots around us silently, so as not to interrupt our conversation. They pulled off this masterful coordination so naturally that I couldn’t help but watch them, impressed.

Soon, we’d arrived at the lobby, which had a reception counter for the entire building. As we stepped into the space, however, the air shifted.

Like a faint scent of rotten flesh. Like an insect crawling up my back.

The feeling was hard to place, but it was visceral, and it replaced all logic in my brain with a gut feeling: someone’s watching. 

“On guard!” Yashuma shouted, evidently having sensed the same.

To our right, between two of the decorative aquarium tanks that looked like an empty space to the naked eye, I sensed a human-shaped silhouette of magical energy. I noticed the knife in the silhouette’s hand as it came straight towards Serge. “To your right!” I called out reflexively, unspooling the wire slime from my left arm before throwing it like a bola at the silhouette. The attacker dodged the wire slime, nearly diving to the ground, and made a strange sound as it did so. That sound was enough to betray its location to the Wildhawks.

“Stop him!” The two guards to the left and right of our group attempted to form a wall between the attacker and Serge, although it looked like they still couldn’t see the attacker. The Wildhawks must have acted on that single sound—or, in the case of the beastkin mercenaries, on the attacker’s scent.

However, the attacker saw this and changed course. The Wildhawks’ hesitation gave the assailant another chance to attack. The silhouette halted its charge and moved to throw its knife at Serge.

Not so fast! As I reached for the iron slime in my belt, Yashuma shifted his position to keep Serge behind him. Seeing that the mercenary had put himself between Serge and the incoming knife, I drew and threw the slime sword.

The sound of metal striking metal rang out just beside me, and a great spray of blood painted a whole section of the lobby. That seemed to break the spell. The air warped before my eyes, revealing a man wearing something like a full bodysuit.

“Grab him!” ordered a Wildhawk.

The mercenary closest to him put the attacker in a choke hold, and he went limp. How quickly he went down was a little off-putting, but I couldn’t find any other attackers, even through magic detection.

Now that the immediate danger had been dealt with, I shifted my attention. The quick but bloody battle had naturally caused a commotion in the busy lobby, especially since it was midday. Serge and the Sionjis, while quiet, also seemed shaken by the encounter.

Yashuma gave me a look.

“Let’s turn back. We can’t very well leave him here,” I said to our group. We had to think about our next move.

■ ■ ■

That evening, two men were engaged in ominous conversation in the drawing room of a shop within Gimul.

“Progress report, Wanz?”

“All executed to your specifications.”

“With less than a week to plan, everything’s been done perfectly? There must be members who were unhappy about us taking over.”

“Naturally. Each of us has been working undercover in this city, anywhere from a few months to a few years, patiently laying the groundwork and performing subtle sabotage. Just when our efforts were about to come to fruition, our orders changed drastically. There’s little wonder that some of us would question how you’ve come out of the woodwork to give us new orders. Still, while your group and ours have different methods, we all belong to the underground guild. We respect the chain of command. I promise you our full effort to follow those orders and serve under your command.”

“Indeed. I trust you will. Let’s say all is going according to plan. I have one more order for you personally.”

“Anything.”

“Tell me everything you know about the boy Ryoma Takebayashi.”

Wanz froze for a moment. “I believe I gave you a detailed report about the boy.”

“I received it. Think of this as verification. Anything you know, no matter how insignificant it may seem. We have our orders to eliminate the boy as we progress with our plan.”

“Eliminate the boy? It seems overkill for you to take on a single child. I dare say I pity him.” Despite what he said, Wanz could barely contain his ecstasy at the idea.

“I would be lying if I said we didn’t agree. But orders are orders. Besides, I hear the boy casts spells of a caliber far beyond his age.”

“He’s going around shoveling snow with some grand water magic contraption. Who knows how he’ll use magic in combat? He definitely holds a lot of magic energy. I hear he’s put a group of delinquent adventurers under his command by beating them in combat, but even I could tell they were amateurs. Well, he did give me some holier-than-thou speech and sabotage my operation. I suppose he has enough talent to back it up.”

“Is that all...?”

“What do you mean?”

“Midday today, one of us attempted an assassination on the president of the Morgan Trading Company. He hasn’t returned, and the president is still alive.”

“I understand why he was a target of assassination, since he was deeply involved with both the duke and the boy...but you think the boy thwarted the attempt? Morgan was constantly being guarded by several members of the Golden Wildhawks. I would assume they had a hand in it, rather than the boy.”

“We knew about the Golden Wildhawks, which was why the Unseen Blade was assigned the job. He had a great chance of pulling off the kill, even with the mercenaries there. The point of attack was within Ryoma Takebayashi’s security headquarters. We had gained intel that Morgan would join him there for lunch. We were ordered to stage the kill in front of the boy, if possible.”

“Still, I’ve already explained everything about the boy that might’ve aided him in combat. He could have used magic, if anything, but the odds of him holding out against the Unseen Blade... It would make more sense to think that a Wildhawk, an agent of the duke’s, or a high-level adventurer hired on to the security company had a hand in it. I can shed some more light on those possibilities.”

“Go on.”

Wanz continued to divulge his intel, bit by bit.

“I believe I’ve told you everything I know on these matters,” Wanz finally said.

“Very well,” the man replied.

Unfortunately, Wanz hadn’t just run out of information to share; he’d also run out of time. The other man thrust a dagger deep into Wanz’ sternum.

“Wh-What are you...?! I thought you were here...to help...!”

“If we hadn’t told you that, you would have fled without furthering our plans. Worthless scum that you are, I merely squeezed a modicum of usefulness out of you before your time was up.”

“No... Help...” Wanz’ final plea was unheard.

Once the man had confirmed that Wanz had drawn his last breath, he pulled his dagger out and wiped it on his victim’s clothes. Then he opened the door to reveal another man, who appeared to be an unremarkably dressed merchant.

“I’m done here,” the first man said. “Are we ready?”

“Yes, sir. The shop is fully rigged, with the office at its center.”

“Then we’re taking the body to the office. Use plenty of oil in this room.”

“Understood. Wanz had to be eliminated, then?”

“He seemed aware that he was a failure, but still believed wholeheartedly that he would be kept alive if he could only demonstrate his usefulness. For all that, he barely produced any valuable information. He only exhausted me with a tirade of presumptuous personal observations.”

“Perhaps as a member of the underground guild, he expected room for reconciliation. To us, he was just a disposable piece on the board.”

“If only he’d understood that, he would have been useful in some way, at least. But it’s all over now. The Unseen Blade still hasn’t returned?”

“Not according to his last scheduled communication.”

“I see. Even if it was a miscommunication, he won’t get the antidote in time. We move on without him. Utilize a few pawns. While there is a chance the attempt was sabotaged by an unexpected third party, be on full alert when it comes to Ryoma Takebayashi. He makes a move, I know about it. Let’s begin.”

“Yes, sir!”

The pair of men swiftly carried Wanz’ body out of the room.

When they returned, they poured a jug full of oil all over the room, stripped their robes onto the floor, set it all ablaze, and left.

It would be some time before Wanz’ corpse was discovered...