Chapter 61: Salgaera (4)

Before heading back to the carriage, Henry looked at the bandit leader’s arm.

‘But first.’

Henry ripped off the clothing on the arm. If his guess was right, the bandits would have at least one or two tattoos somewhere that would indicate who they were affiliated with. A spot on the arm caught Henry’s attention.

‘Just as I thought.’

It was a tattoo of two striped snakes wrapped around each other with their jaws open as they looked up at the sky. It was commonly known as the mark of a double snake. It was the symbol of the Viper Knights of the imperial palace, a group led by Salmora, the tenth sword of the Imperial Ten Swords.

‘I didn’t expect that the imperial army would be the institution that commissioned the work.’

It was only then that Henry could understand the operations of the transportation.

‘Aubert must have been in charge of this attack.’

Excluding the imperial family, the power structure of the empire consisted of six Great Families—one duke family, two marquis families, and three count families which all participated in the state administration.

The title of a Great Family was not awarded according to size but on how much a family contributed to the development of the empire. It was a status appointed by the emperor to the most elite aristocrats among the aristocratic families.

This included people like Henry, an Imperial Archmage, and Grand Masters of other fields. They all participated in the administration of the state as grand dukes.

Aubert was a member of the Great Families and was the head of the Crimson family, one of the marquis families.

‘How pathetic. They say a leopard can’t change his spots, and he’s still that leopard that hasn’t changed one bit.’

The duke and marquis families were also known as the Three Great Families because they had so much power that they were almost equal to the imperial family. However, their power was not absolute.

‘I’m going to destroy them all.’?

Now that he’d seen the symbol, Henry ignited a fire in his palm and began to burn the bleeding wound on arm.

Sizzle…!

It smelled like a barbeque.

After cauterizing his wound, Henry returned to the carriage, carrying the bandit’s arm like a trophy. Munke’s frozen expression had transformed into one full of fake emotion as he hurried toward Henry.

“Thank you for your hard work! Thanks to you, we can move safely!”

Henry’s fist headed straight for Munke’s face.

Kapow!

Munke’s face snapped to the side.

Thump.

Munke shook as he held his cheek. Everyone, even Hagler, was shocked at what they had just seen, but no one dared to break the silence.

The atmosphere turned cold. Henry asked, “Who are you?”

“W-why are you doing this?”

“I’m going to ask one last time, who are you?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…

Argh!

”

Henry had shown mercy to Munke, but Munke had stupidly kicked it away, not realizing what it was.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

It wasn’t worth using his fists on a liar, so Henry kicked Munke over and over instead.

“S-stop! I-I will tell you everything, please stop…!”

The terrible pain made Munke begin to beg as he grabbed Henry’s pants. However, Henry had already given him his chance. “It’s too late now.”

Crack!

Henry firmly stepped on Munke’s hand.

“

Arghhhhh!

”

He didn’t use any mana, but even without it, the punishment was enough to make a liar change his ways.

The beating continued for a while. Henry stopped only when Munke couldn’t even straighten his back.

“

Sniff sniff…

”

No one had any clue why Henry was acting this way, but they could only stay quiet since Henry was the strongest of them all. Otherwise, he would target them next.

‘Nasty bastards.’

Henry was being ruthlessly violent for a simple reason: Aubert’s marquis clan was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty innocent mercenaries. Perhaps it was unfair because these men didn’t know any better, but they were still people of the empire. Munke and the bandits had been following the empire’s orders too, so they couldn’t be held responsible either.

Marquis Aubert had planned to cut off the supplies to the exiles, not kill the mercenaries. If they had any feeling of remorse, they would have handled the matter without having to kill the mercenaries.

‘If I think about how many mercenaries they had to kill just so someone could witness it, slitting his throat isn’t even enough punishment.’

However, Henry did not kill Munke because death was the simplest form of salvation for those who were suffering. Henry wanted to make Munke live a life of atonement and pain for the rest of his life. Perhaps it would soothe the souls of the dead mercenaries.

“

Phew…

” Henry let out a long sigh. He pulled out his sword and walked toward the parked carriages that were parked.

Slice!

Henry cut the lock off the first carriage. It was supposed to be filled with supplies for the exiles.

“Ha?”

However, Henry scoffed when he saw what was inside. There were only a few crates of alcohol, cigarettes, and a bag of rotten potatoes in the carriage—not the potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other food that should have been there.

It was the same for the second and third carriages. Henry checked all the carriages supposedly carrying daily necessities, but he found that the supplies were a lot fewer than he expected.

The merchants realized the seriousness of the situation.

‘So their plan all along was to kill us all.’

The emperor’s guilty conscience and fear of the dead Henry had probably pushed him to send supplies to the exiles. However, despite receiving the imperial order, Marquis Aubert had still brought in private merchants and the Imperial Knights to slowly kill the exiles.

It was a cumbersome and complicated process, but his resentment made Aubert desire the complete extinction of the State Contributors.

‘This is enough. I'll have to give back just as much as I’ve received.’

“Um… Sir, are you okay?” asked Hagler, who approached Henry carefully after waiting in silence.

“Hagler.”

“Yes, sir.”

“This situation was planned by the bandits and merchants.”

“Really? Is that true?”

“If I could, I would go back to Vivaldi right away, but we still have about one carriage of supplies left, so we’re going to continue to Salgaera.”

Just because he knew the truth didn’t mean that he wanted to go back right away. Although they didn’t have many supplies, the exiled people in Salgaera were suffering because they didn’t have it.

“That son of a bitch!”

Whack!

Vilay couldn’t hold back his anger and began to hit the dying Munke.

Hagler asked, “Shouldn’t we stop him?”

“No, leave him be.”

Even though he was a vulgar and shallow man, Vilay still had the right to express his anger at Munke. Thanks to Munke and the bandits, his dream of a mercenary corps was destroyed in the blink of an eye.

“Let's go.”

After Vilay had vented his anger, Henry designated a carriage as a prison cell and put the blood-covered Munke inside.

Then, the merchants continued heading toward Salgaera.

* * *

After passing through the gorge, which doubled as the main gate, the merchants managed to reach the Slan Gorge and enter the Salgaera region.

It had grown quite cold when they drew close to the Slan Gorge, and before they knew it, snow began to fall and white vapors of breath began to fill the air.

The merchants soon reached the checkpoint at the entrance of the gorge.

Rattle, rattle.?

As the carriage came to a stop, the soldiers guarding the checkpoint walked out leisurely and greeted them.

“Thank you for your hard work. Oh, where is Lord Munke?”

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“He’s in the back. Where is the checkpoint chief?”

“The chief had a few too many drinks and is sleeping.”

“At this time of the day?”

“Well, yes. This isn’t the first time this has happened… By the way, do you mind me asking, who are you?”

“I’m one of the mercenaries in charge of escorting the supplies.”

“Oh, I see. You might not know this, but we’re always like this since no one comes here other than the Painted Merchants… Anyway, I guess you didn’t encounter any bandits?”

The soldier spoke in a tone that made it seem like he was familiar with the worst situations, just as he neglected his duties.

Henry frowned and replied shortly, “We just wiped them out completely.”

Henry threw the bandit leader’s arm on the ground in front of the soldier.

“W-what is this?”

The soldier's sleepy, half-closed eyes opened wide in surprise at this sight.

Henry said bluntly, “Please bring out the checkpoint chief.”

He spoke in honorifics, but his tone was authoritative. The soldier didn’t dare refuse, overwhelmed by Henry’s fierce eyes.

After some time, they heard the sound of something falling inside the checkpoint, and soon, the door inside the checkpoint opened.

“

Ughh…

Who the hell is it…? If it’s the Painted Merchants,

hic

! It must be Munke…”

The chief's voice was full of drunkenness. He was not properly dressed in his uniform and was only wearing a fur coat to protect himself from the cold.

The anger that Henry had barely suppressed started to boil again. However, as soon as he saw the chief’s face, his expression changed to one of surprise.

‘Vhant?’

It was Vhant, the gatekeeper. He had gained some weight and had grown a long beard, but if Henry’s memory was correct, he had to be the gatekeeper Vhant.

‘What is he doing here?’

Sword Master Vhant was also known as the Shield Gatekeeper because of his outstanding talent in sit-down strikes. Henry himself had given him a medal for his excellent swordsmanship, organized work, and dignified social life.

How could a man like that crawl out of the checkpoint in his disheveled uniform, drunk despite working hours? Henry suddenly thought of something:

‘Is it possible that he has been demoted?’

The position of checkpoint chief of Salgaera was so low that it was impossible to even compare it to the status of working at the imperial palace. There was only one reason a man with his reputation would end up in a situation like this: Vhant the gatekeeper had been a member of the State Contributors with Henry in the past.

‘Vhant is probably not the only one who’s in a situation like this…’

As Henry thought about it more, he felt sorry instead of angry. If he had acted a little more wisely in his previous life, Vhant wouldn’t have ended up like this.

“

Hic…

what is it?”

Vhant stood in front of Henry, reeking of alcohol. His face had aged quite a bit since Henry had last seen him. Henry didn’t say a word and grabbed Vhant’s hands.

“

Hic!

What are you doin...!”

Henry passed his mana to Vhant through his hands. He used a simple spell that eliminated hangovers and sobered Vhant up right away. After a while, by the time Henry let go of his hand, Vhant’s flushed face had gone back to its original color.

“Ah… Suddenly I feel sober.”

It had worked. Henry then officially introduced himself.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Henry Morris, the leader of the Million Corps. I was commissioned to escort the Painted Merchants.”

“...You have the name of someone that I miss quite a lot. Nice to meet you, I’m Vhant, the chief of the checkpoint.”

Vhant’s face filled with a sad expression at Henry’s introduction. The same thing happened to Henry as well. After a moment of silence, Vhant hurried to speak in order to lighten the mood.

“Anyway, what happened to Sir Munke? Why are you conversing with me instead, Sir Henry?”

“I came forward to talk to you because of that,” Henry started his explanation.