NBAA Vol. 7 Chapter 4 Part 4
About a dozen men with armor and weapons appeared.
They were not ordinary adventurers or soldiers, and the armor they wore was of different designs, and all of them had old wounds on various parts of their bodies.
They all wore a red bracelet on their right hand, with a crest on the surface that resembled a “snake.”
The men noticed Reito and the others standing in front of the door and shouted in surprise.
“Huh? Hey, who are you guys?”
“Are you adventurers by any chance?”
“Damn… you’ve been snooping around here, haven’t you?”
“…Did they find out?”
Gonzo looked at the bracelets they were wearing, and his eyes narrowed as if he had noticed something.
“Are you guys… mercenaries of the ‘Red Snake’?”
Dain replied, gasping at his words.
“Red Snake? You mean the notorious mercenary guild?”
“Hey, brother, you have the nerve to openly say that we are notorious in front of us, don’t you?”
“Hiik!”
“…mercenary guild?”
As Reito frowned, Airis’ voice reached his mind.
『Yes. As I have explained before, this is a different organization from the Adventurers’ Guild. They make their living by subduing bandits, protecting merchants and nobles, and sometimes being hired in times of war. If adventurers are experts in exterminating monsters, mercenaries are experts in exterminating humans.』
Thanks to Airis’ explanation, Reito was able to remember what the mercenary guild was all about.
The humans from the mercenary guild named “Red Snake” appeared in front of Reito and the others, glaring at them with suspicious eyes.
“So who are you guys? You’re probably adventurers sent to dispose the monsters in the sewers, right?”
“We’re sorry you had to come all the way down here. But we’re the ones who have the contract to do the work around here. Get the hell out of here!”
“No, no!! We are adventurers who came to investigate!!”
As soon as Dain retorted, the look in their eyes changed completely.
“When you say it’s an investigation… What kind of investigation is it?”
“Hiek!?”
Dain let out a small cry and retreated behind Reito and the others.
Gonzo answered confidently on his behalf.
“We heard that undead had appeared in the sewers and came to investigate. And while searching for traces of undead, we arrived at this place.”
“What!? Shit, that’s a different story…The Adventurers’ Guild has already found out about it!!”
“Hey, is there anyone else investigating besides you.”
“…There’s no reason to tell you that much.”
“Watch your mouth, kid? Don’t get carried away just because you’re a Giant. We’re experts at killing people, right guys?”
The mercenaries showed off their weapons with creepy smiles.
Gonzo held up his favorite weapon, the “Gold and Silver Battle Fist,” but Reito and Hanzo quickly stopped him.
“Calm down, Gon-chan.”
“We must not carelessly start a fight between different guilds, that we must not!!”
“Oh? Was that a woman? I thought she was a man because her chest was flat!!”
“…Ah?”
Hearing the mercenary’s words, Hanzo forgot to add her usual sentence ending and exuded a murderous intent.
“You too, calm down.”
Reito hastily stopped Hanzo.
Under her pressure, the mercenary shouted back at her with a trembling voice.
“Y-You want to fight? Do you think you can beat us with only four people?”
“I think Dain alone is good enough.”
“Wait, Reito!? What are you talking about!?”
“You have some nerve… are you going to kill us?”
The moment the man, who seemed to be a beastman and the leader of the mercenaries, shouted, Reito immediately pulled out the Reflection Sword at his waist and activated “Shrink Ground” to move in front of the man and placing the blade against his neck.
Everyone there was astonished by Reito’s action, as he closed the distance in an instant and also mercilessly thrust his weapon at a vital point.
Reito glared at the mercenary with both eyes shining.
“Don’t use the word ‘kill’ so easily…”
“Ugh…wait!! Okay, let’s calm down, okay? Hey, big brother…”
.”If you pull out the sword from your waist, I will cut you.”
“…I-I understand.”
The man tried to casually reach for Reito’s waist while reassuring him, but Reito read his actions and warned him first.
The man’s face turned blue at the sight of Reito, who was as deadly and cautious as an assassin, and he hurriedly raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. After confirming this, Reito lowered his sword, but never returned it to its sheath.
“We are the adventurers of the Black Tiger, the Fang Dragon, and the Hailstorm. Dain is different, but… anyway, we are adventurers of the three guilds.”
The mercenaries were clearly upset by Reito’s words.
“W-What?”
“So…does all the guilds already know about the sewer incident?”
Next, Hanzo opened his mouth.
“I’ve already reported the sewer problem. I’m sure other guilds are organizing new investigators by now…”
Upon hearing this, the mercenaries’ faces turned even paler.
They were probably mercenaries secretly hired by the Battle Association to defeat the undead, Reito guessed.
In fact, Reito was not wrong.
–A few days ago, the Battle Association hired the mercenary guild “Red Snake” to exterminate the undead that had been released into the sewers.
About a month earlier, the Battle Association had been temporarily placed monsters killed in matches in the sewers and used necromancers hired behind the scenes to create “Dead Soul Puppets”. And then they used the Dead Soul Puppet repeatedly in the matches.
The sewers, with their abundance of Deodorizing Stones, were the perfect place to store the carcasses, and the monsters that lived in the sewers would eat and dispose of the carcasses when they were no longer needed.
However, a necromancer who had been dismissed from the Battle Association unleashed the undead into the sewers in revenge. He thought that if he made a big fuss, what the Battle Association was doing would eventually come to light.
And indeed, this was how Reito and his friends came to this place – they visited the place.
Reito asked the mercenary man.
“You said that you were mercenaries hired by the Battle Association. From the what you said earlier, does the Battle Association know about the appearance of the undead in the sewers?”
“Oh, yes. That’s why they hired us to hunt them down. Hiring adventurers would cause all kinds of problems…”
“I heard that the Red Snake mercenaries will do any job as long as you pay them… is that true?”
“Hey, come on, you make it sound bad… we’re jack-of-all-trades, remember?”
The mercenaries smiled wryly at Gonzo’s mutterings.
They believed in taking on any job as long as they got paid for it. The Red Snake mercenary had been asked to dispose of the undead in the sewers – and to “eliminate” the rest who sensed the presence of the undead.
“I’m sorry, but now that that much is known, I’m going to get rid of you. Don’t worry, I’ll let you die without suffering.”
“Are you going to kill us, that you are? Even if you kill us here, they will just send new investigators, that they will!”
Hanzo said, but the mercenary’s leader would not listen to her.
“But if we send you back, our request will fail anyway, won’t it? If we kill you here and take care of the undead, we will have accomplished our mission. As long as we get the money, we don’t care about the rest.”
Even if the sewer misconduct became public after the work was completed, it was a matter for the Battle Association. It had nothing to do with the mercenaries they had hired.
The mercenaries took out their weapons to finish off Reito and the others here.
“I let my guard down earlier, but I won’t go easy on you this time!”