BBYW Vol. 3 Chapter 26 (WN)
Chapter 26 – Poor Unfortunate Pirates
A short while earlier…
Not all the pirates who had invaded Brutos had also headed towards the governor’s palace.
In every group, there are always people who disrupt order: ruffians such as pirates were especially prone to such behavior.
Three pirates had slipped out of the strikeforce going to the palace, and had instead broken into a nearby house.
The house had been abandoned and the door left unlocked, so they did not even need to pick locks or any such techniques to go inside.
After rummaging through drawers and shelves, one of the pirates kicked the furniture in anger.
“Damnit!! Can’t find a single thing!!”
“Tch…shit out of luck.”
Another pirate spat on the ground and scratched his head.
“Hey, can we really keep doing this? If they find us they’ll make us pay.”
“Whatever, it’s not like they’ll let low rankers like us take credit for anything we do anyway. We might as well make sure we get something good out of this mission.”
“Something good…?”
The pirate who asked the question looked around the room.
There were clothes and kitchenware scattered everywhere, but not because of anything the pirates did: the house was in that state before they came in.
The former inhabitants clearly left in a hurry, but took all valuables with them nevertheless; there wasn’t a bronze coin to be found.
“If it was going to be like this, we should have raided the town yesterday! Why the hell did we give them time to run away? What the hell is that transvestite thinking!?”
“Man…! If someone hears you, you’ll get turned into shark feed!”
The pirate tried to appease his comrade, then looked out of the window. The sounds of battle could be heard from outside. A bloody battle had surely broken out at the governor’s palace by now.
“…well, I wouldn’t dream of waging my life in battle anyway. Better to have safe coin than a deadly fortune.”
The man muttered, then moved towards the door.
Creak.
“….hm?”
From under his feet, however, he heard a different kind of sound.
“Is there…a basement?”
The pirate cleared the scattered clothes and found that one of the floorboards could be moved.
“…might as well check it out.”
The pirate removed the board and peeked inside.
That very instant —
“Ghah…!?”
A hand emerged from below, firmly grabbed his neck and pulled him down. The pirate’s upper body disappeared in the darkness, leaving only his legs flailing about on the floor.
“H-Hey!! What’s going on!?”
The other pirates noticed their comrade’s distress and ran up to him, but his legs soon stopped moving.
The two pirates pulled the third up with some effort, and noticed bright red hand marks on his neck — which had been snapped.
“He…he’s dead…!”
“Tch, you found out already?”
“W-Who the hell are you!?”
A large man emerged from under the floor, to the great surprise of the pirates.
“Seriously, I’m 60 years old this year, you know? Who’d shove an elder under the floor like that?”
“W-What did you do to our…!?”
“Shut up! They’re going to find us!”
The large man’s right hand moved with blinding speed, as his battleaxe sliced through the pirate’s neck.
“Eek…”
Seeing his two comrades die before him, the third pirate dropped on the floor, a pool of liquid slowly spreading from under him.
“Don’t take a step on the battlefield if you’re going to piss yourself over something like this! Out of my sight!”
“Bwah!?”
The large man swung down his axe on the pirate’s skull, splitting it in two. Blood splashed on the walls and floor — the large man was now alone in the room.
“H-Hey!! For the love of…! Mr. Boyle!”
“Force majeure, all right? The poor bastards were just unlucky.”
A young man came up from the basement.
The large man who exterminated the three pirates was indeed Glen Boyle, leader of Brutos’ mercenary guild.
Boyle, who was hiding with a subordinate in the basement, kicked away one of the pirates’ corpses and plopped down on a chair.
“Ow ow…staying cooped up in that narrow place got to my back…damn, I hate getting old…”
“You’re still in your prime, guildmaster…anyway, looks like there aren’t any other pirates around here.”
“Yeah, no need to make a fuss. We can continue with the plan…”
Suddenly, the blaring of a trumpet could be heard from the direction of the governor’s palace.
Boyle cast a sharp glance towards the window, then raised again the hips he had just laid to rest.
“…it’s a bit earlier than expected…but we got our signal to go.”
“Indeed. Let us go!”
“Time to kick some pirate ass!!”
Boyle’s subordinate drew his sword and kicked the door open.
Boyle, his trusted battleaxe in hand, headed for the battlefield.