TL: Currently busy with real life issues, so probably update is on next week’s Saturday.

Chapter 96 – Fallen (1)

The battle was over. Conrad and the Disciples of the Black Flames’s bishop stood together to survey the battlefield strewn with corpses, as wafts of white smoke rose thickly. There was death everywhere.

Demons, disciples, mercenaries’ bodies were gradually becoming colder as their blood poured into the ground. They were still living a while ago, but their skin were becoming taut and their muscles rigid.

Conrad walked over a few steps, turned over a female mercenary’s body and a groan could be heard from the latter. He frowned and ran his sword through her heart and ended her life.

He then raised his heart and said impatiently: “No, Duke Rhun’s only son isn’t here. That fucking bastard Makarov!”

“Since you knew him so well, why did you fight this battle?” The dark bishop said with a low voice: “We lost quite a few men, and it was that giant who was beside Makarov.”

“How do you reap the benefits if you don’t invest?” He laughed as he licked his lips. He pulled out the sword stained with blood and pointed to his nearby men: “Bring the rest of the prisoners to me!”

Several shivering men from the Grey Wolves Mercenaries were quickly brought before him. They fought like the bravest warriors during battle, but once they were out of it they realized they had no chance to fight back. Their comrades-in-arms were skinned alive or eaten by the demons and they realized they had no chance to change their fates.

Once they understood this, fear of their unknown fate gripped their hearts.

Amongst them was the familiar white-haired youth that Brendel knew well. He looked condescendingly at the other frightened men who were pale. He had stayed behind to cover Yula and a few other Grey Wolves Mercenaries to allow them to escape, so it was a given that he got caught.

He glared defiantly at Conrad. He had once thought he was the commander of the ‘Paper Cards’ mercenaries.

[Bloody fucking hell…… That bastard Brendel was actually right. Not only was this shit bastard colluding with the Disciples of the Black flames, he was the dog of the Tree Shepherds.]

Conrad did not look much older than Brendel, and Redi was furious over how Brendel had humiliated him. Now that Conrad did the same thing by catching him, he saw Brendel and Conrad as the same arrogant fucks who deserved to get their faces crushed by hammers.

He used the most condescending gaze he had to look at his enemies, trying to incite their anger.

[If this piece of garbage intimidates me, I’ll be able to shame him and let these unworthy bastards know the bravery of the Grey Wolves Mercenaries.]

He planned to do so, but Conrad merely paused and smiled at him. The latter then shifted his gaze and looked at another mercenary.

“Are you looking down at me?” Redi was angry and said muffled words because his mouth was gagged, trying to struggle and rush at Conrad, but the latter’s men restrained him tightly. He could only watch helplessly as Conrad walk over to the last man of the Grey Wolves Mercenaries on the right and said something to him.

That mercenary was momentarily stunned before he shook his head with much difficulty.

Redi thought that Conrad would have tortured him at least for a while, but that monster waved his hand and his comrade was taken away. Redi could not turn his head, but the sounds of flesh tearing apart could be heard behind him. It was as if flesh was being ripped apart from the bones while organs started slipping out from the body and dropped on the ground. Desperate shrieks of pain echoed throughout the forest, which gradually turned to sobbing howls and finally hoarse gasps with a final low bellow.

The voice disappeared after a while, and the remaining mercenaries trembled at the same time.

Conrad walked to the next mercenary and asked something. That mercenary was scared out of his wits and merely knelt on the ground and said nothing. The young commander shook his head with regret and signaled to the men behind the mercenary. They moved away, and Conrad suddenly stabbed through the mercenary’s eye with his sword and kicked him backwards.

He clapped his hands and let his men take the corpse away.

There were three men left, including Redi. The white-haired young man saw that his fellow mercenaries seemed to lose their sanity because of fear. It seemed like they had started to remember they joined the profession because they simply wanted to live and not die from starvation. All the glory and belief that they got from their various feats in battle crumbled in an instant.

The two men realized they only wanted to live on.

Redi watched them act like cowards. They used to laugh in the face of danger and were proud of themselves, but their actions now made Redi curse at them in his heart, but he hurled muffled abuses at Conrad.

“Kill me now, you cunt!” Redi wanted nothing more to prove himself. Was it not just death? He wanted to prove to his comrades who were controlled by fear that death was nothing to be afraid of.

The most shameful thing was to submit to the enemies.

Conrad seemed like he could not hear Redi. He dismissed the other mercenaries without even asking any questions. Before the final mercenary was dragged away, he managed to loosen his gag and kept begging for his life. He swore to join the Paper Cards and said that he was willing to tell everything that he knew, but in the end he was taken away.

Redi was the only one left.

Conrad stood right before him—

Redi acted without thinking, and he tried repeatedly to pounce at him like a crazed animal. But his chest was immediately kicked hard backwards, and he looked like a kicked dog who rolled a few times on the ground. When he crawled back up, he realized that he was the only one left.

[There’s no one left to witness my bravery? Who should I show now? The enemy?]

He looked at the reticent Conrad and the bishop who had his features hidden in the shadows. They would not give appreciate his heroic actions. A bone piercing shiver permeated his whole body and Redi trembled. He thought of a problem. Was he going to die here like the cowards in a shitty death without reason or rhyme?

[I’m the most talented youth aside from Eke in the mercenaries, if I die here just like the corpses here, who would know of my heroic deeds? No, I can’t die just like that, but there’s no one else in the forest to record them. Was there really no one hiding in the forest? Someone who’s pretending to be dead?]

Redi did not want to die a meaningless death like the cowards before him, but he knew that it was a wishful thought for someone to record his honorable death. Before the Disciples of the Black Flames, no one except the commander and Buga could hide in the forest.

He hesitated in his heart. Dying an ignoble death was something that he could not bear and his expressions kept changing.

Conrad looked coldly at him. He had said nothing from the start to him, then he suddenly pulled out a dagger from the bishop’s waist and approached the white-haired man. Redi’s straightened up subconsciously as he realized death was approaching. He did not expect Conrad to say nothing at all. He was from a long lineage of high nobles and descendant of the Knight Mark, and he struggled before feeling the cold dagger blade on his neck.

He did not want to die.

Redi’s heart finally had the color of despair in it. The will to fight back had disappeared, and Conrad did not miss the expression of his eyes. The knife was instantly withdrawn and his gag was loosened.

“Do you want to die?” Conrad asked.

Redi opened and closed his mouth several times, wanting to curse at him, but he realized that he was merely trembled and could not say anything. In the end he nodded once, before he suddenly realized what he was doing and shook his head repeatedly. He suddenly felt his face hot. It was not because of his own weakness, but because he was actually afraid till the point where he did not even listen to his question properly.

An utter disgrace.

“Then I’ll ask you a question.” Conrad straightened up to look down on the kneeling man: “The other group of men who traveled with you, where did they go and how many men did they have?”

Redi was stunned. If the monster in front of him wanted him to reveal the core information about the Grey Wolves Mercenaries, he thought he would not be able to bring up anything, but to mention that particular group of men would mean getting revenge. At that moment, Redi saw them as people to cooperate with, and not surrendering to them.

[I will first get revenge on that bastard.] He gritted his teeth.

“They headed for the east before you attacked. They are fifteen in total and their leader is around your age. Amongst them are twelve guards and two girls.” He paused for a moment: “The guards are at least Silver-ranks. I know this because I secretly listened to the commander and Buga talking.”

He spilled everything out without even Conrad’s reminder. If Brendel was to see this scene, he would have been laughing out loud from anger. He only punched him once while Conrad had kicked him like a dog, and it seemed like he had completely forgotten about that fact.

Conrad and the bishop exchanged glances.