Chaoter 10

Baberi barely managed to stop herself from cursing when she realized her lie had almost been exposed.

“What I mean is, he’s the only family we have left.”

Baberi lightly kicked Kure’s leg under the table.

Kure, who had been about to eat his pie, paused and shot her a sidelong glare.

Oddly enough, unlike Baberi, who had regained her energy after eating the pie, Kure’s complexion was getting darker and darker.

“Why?”

Kure asked Baberi with hollow, oblivious eyes.

Play along. She’s suspicious.

Baberi glared and subtly gestured toward Sharon with her eyes.

Kure sighed weakly, looking thoroughly annoyed.

He put down his pie and looked at Sharon.

“Jay… is our cousin. On our father’s side.”

Baberi noticed that he had momentarily forgotten Jacob’s name.

But somehow, the shortened name sounded like a nickname, which made the lie seem even more believable.

I played along. Happy now?

Kure glanced at Baberi before trying to eat his pie again.

“All our other cousins are dead. They were eaten by a dragon.”

Baberi leaned toward Sharon and whispered.

“Dragons act all high and mighty around other people, but they’re actually filthy gluttons.”

Kure must have heard her muttering insults because he looked at Baberi.

Baberi smiled at him.

“Eat plenty, little brother. It’s nice to see you eating well.”

She pretended to be his older sister, saying things she didn’t mean at all.

Kure’s displeasure was obvious.

Finding it amusing, Baberi decided to torment him a little more.

She placed her right hand over Kure’s left hand, which was resting on the table.

“We came to Rondar because we at least wanted to find out whether Jay was alive or dead.”

There was no need to look at Kure’s expression.

She could feel how much he hated it from the way he had completely stiffened, unable even to pull his hand away.

At least I got my revenge for losing the last piece of pie.

“We’re planning to stay in Rondar for a while.”

Feeling a little more satisfied, Baberi stood up.

“We’ll come back again, so if you happen to hear anything about Jacob, please let us know.”

Baberi handed Sharon the money for the pie and asked her.

Sharon looked troubled for a moment, then eventually nodded.

After leaving the shop, Baberi checked her surroundings before slipping into an alley.

“That woman definitely knows something about the mercenaries.”

Kure nodded.

“But I don’t think she’ll give up the information easily.”

Kure nodded again.

Baberi glared at Kure, who kept doing nothing but nod.

He was still eating his pie.

“Swallow it already.”

This time, Kure didn’t nod.

Instead, his jaw moved even harder and faster.

Silence fell between them.

The sound of Kure gulping down his pie seemed unusually loud.

“If we hang her upside down, she’ll talk whether she wants to or not.”

After spending quite some time eating his pie, Kure casually suggested torturing Sharon.

Baberi frowned.

“Such a barbaric idea?”

She shuddered at how cruel it sounded.

Kure let out an incredulous laugh.

Barbaric?

Coming from the woman who had suggested robbing villagers after they fled from a dragon, that was rich.

“Anyway, let’s keep an eye on her.”

To do that, they first needed somewhere they could watch Sharon without attracting attention.

Baberi looked around and, fortunately, spotted a sign shaped like a key.

She went to the inn and rented a room on the second floor.

It had two small beds.

“Good. This will do. We’ll take turns keeping watch.”

Baberi looked down at Sharon’s shop through the window.

But Kure didn’t answer.

“Which insolent subject dares not answer when the king is speaking?”

Baberi turned around angrily.

Kure was lying on the bed, staring gloomily at the ceiling.

Because of his height, his feet dangled off the end of the small bed.

“Again?”

Seeing his pale complexion, Baberi clicked her tongue.

Kure had been like this the entire way to Rondar.

Just when it seemed like he was walking normally, he would suddenly say he needed to rest and lie down on the ground.

What are you doing? Get up. We still have a long way to go.

Even after Baberi nagged him, he wouldn’t move for two hours.

“I’m dizzy from not having enough magic.”

Kure exhaled heavily.

“You were stuffing your face with pie just fine a little while ago.”

Baberi sat by the window and looked over at the exhausted Kure.

“A frail dragon.”

Baberi said it aloud, then found the combination strangely amusing.

Who would have imagined it?

The dragon who had once terrified the entire continent was now lying on a tiny bed, groaning in misery.

“I endured it thinking I just had to hold out until we reached Rondar…”

Kure murmured with his eyes closed, almost as if he were talking in his sleep.

He seemed deeply troubled. His jaw clenched quietly.

“I’m going to kill every bastard who stole my magic stones.”

He spoke as though all the magic stones in Rondar had originally belonged to him.

Baberi crossed her arms and thought.

When they had been walking around, Kure hadn’t been able to smell anything.

“So they must be hiding somewhere deep…”

Maybe they weren’t inside the castle at all.

“Then I guess all we can do is keep watching Sharon and trust that she’s connected to them.”

Baberi turned her gaze back toward the window.

There was still no movement from Sharon.

It wasn’t until late at night that Sharon finally made her move.

She pulled a black robe over herself and hurried out of the shop, glancing around as if afraid someone might see her.

Baberi had been watching outside by moonlight without using any lights.

The moment she spotted Sharon, she called Kure.

“She’s going somewhere. Let’s go.”

He had rested enough by now, so he should have been able to move.

But Kure was in terrible shape.

He stared blankly into space with hollow eyes.

“Hey.”

Baberi grabbed his shoulder and shook him.

Only then did he seem to come back to his senses.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Kure exhaled once and got out of bed.

Baberi stared at him curiously as he staggered along, then left the room.

The two of them quietly followed Sharon.

Even while walking quickly, Sharon would suddenly turn around without warning.

Every time, Baberi held her breath and hid herself in the shadows.

“She’s ridiculously cautious.”

Baberi kept her distance so Sharon wouldn’t notice them.

Sharon weaved through several alleys before finally stopping in front of a dead end.

Then she pushed against the wall blocking her way.

The wall rotated.

Sharon disappeared behind it.

A moment later, Baberi followed and pushed the wall herself.

A staircase appeared.

“Looks like a passage leading underground.”

With no lights to guide them, Baberi and Kure slowly descended into the dark underground passage.

When they reached the bottom, they could see Sharon walking ahead with a candle.

At a fork in the passage, she turned right.

“Baberi.”

Baberi was about to follow when Kure called her.

Baberi gestured for him to be quiet, worried Sharon might hear them.

“I can faintly smell magic stones.”

Kure said, looking to the left.

And before he had even finished speaking, he turned into the left passage and disappeared into the darkness.

“Hey!”

Startled, Baberi called after him in a whisper as loudly as she dared.

But there was no response.

Only the eerie sound of empty air and distant wind.

Now alone, Baberi prepared herself to draw the sword at her waist at any moment.

Then she slowly proceeded down the right-hand passage.

Before long, she heard voices and saw flickering light.

“How long are we supposed to stay cooped up down here?”

“The boss must have a plan. He always does.”

“Exactly. We just have to follow the boss’s plan. That’s how we survive.”

Three men were drinking by candlelight.

From their conversation, Baberi realized she had definitely come to the right place.

How should I quietly take care of these three?

Just as she was thinking about it, one of the men spoke.

“Why’s that guy taking so long? He said he was going to take a piss.”

At that moment, Baberi sensed killing intent behind her.

She instinctively lowered her stance and kicked the leg of the enemy behind her.

The man went crashing to the ground.

The men who had been leisurely drinking sprang to their feet and grabbed their swords.

Baberi pointed her sword at the fallen man’s neck.

“Who’s there?”

The drinking men called toward the corner.

Baberi signaled the man beneath her sword to answer.

The man raised his hands as if surrendering, then shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Intruder!”

“Oh, shit.”

Baberi tried to cover his mouth too late.

It was useless.

She could hear footsteps approaching from all directions—not just from the men who had been drinking.

Baberi took off running.

She intended to escape through the entrance they had come through, but she soon became lost in the maze-like underground passage.

“Why is there suddenly water here?”

Baberi was confused.

She hadn’t seen anything like this on the way in.

To make matters worse, several sets of footsteps were rapidly approaching from behind.

“Margaret?”

Then she heard a familiar female voice.

It was Sharon.

“How did you get here?!”

Apparently, Sharon hadn’t realized she was being followed.

She stared at Baberi in shock, then pointed at her.

“That’s her. The woman who said she was Jacob’s cousin.”

The dark-brown-haired man standing beside Sharon looked at Baberi.

“Sharon, there’s no one named Jacob in our mercenary company.”

The leader of the mercenaries, Medo, spoke in a gentle voice despite looking troubled.

“Then that woman is…!”

“She’s probably a bounty hunter who came after the bounty Rob put on my head.”

Medo said it as though this were something he was very familiar with.

“I suppose even I’d lose my head over 100,000 gold, but being the one with the bounty on me is exhausting.”

“Wait!”

Baberi suddenly shouted.

“What did you just say?”

Not 10,000 gold.

Not even 20,000.

100,000 gold?

Baberi suddenly felt her heart pounding.

She hadn’t even known there was a bounty on him, and now she was hearing it was 100,000 gold.

Just hearing the amount made her excited.

“That’s right. I came here for your head.”

Blinded by money, Baberi had already forgotten that she had been planning to run away.

She raised her sword.

So what if I can’t use my right arm?

I can fight hard enough with my left.

Baberi charged straight at Medo’s neck.

Medo drew his sword and stepped forward.

“A lot of bounty hunters like you have come after me.”

He forcefully knocked Baberi’s sword aside and immediately followed with an attack.

The force behind it was much heavier than she expected, and Baberi instinctively used both hands.

A sharp, ringing pain shot through her right arm.

She nearly dropped her sword.

Baberi belatedly regretted charging in without thinking about a plan or strategy.

But by then, it was too late.

“As for what happened to the others…”

Medo pressed his attack.

“The fact that I’m still alive should be proof enough, shouldn’t it?”

Baberi barely managed to block his attacks.

I’m going to lose like this.

If I make one mistake, I’ll die.

Baberi instinctively realized she had to escape immediately.

But Medo wasn’t the only enemy anymore.

Before she knew it, enemies were surrounding her from every direction.

At this desperate moment, Baberi spotted someone.

She grabbed Sharon by the arm, yanked her toward herself, and pressed her sword against Sharon’s neck.

“Don’t move if you don’t want to see this woman get hurt!”

Baberi flashed Medo a sly, vicious smile.