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Chapter 73 Part 1 – The Tragic Caterpillar Doll Room

The three old warriors moved so swiftly that they looked like a jet-black hurricane.

The people of the Inquisition that were stationed in the abandoned church were subdued before they even realized what was happening. The three old warriors were as relentless as wolverines. They easily entered the building and first turned off all the lights in the room.

「What’s going on!?」

「There’s intruders coming from the north side!!」

Screams and shouts resounded through the air and the area plunged into chaos.
Contrary to all the fuss, the three old warriors hardly made a sound.
The actual intrusion took place from the other three directions, but no one was able to notice it correctly.

The people that are in charge of fighting had their carotid arteries slit open with a single slash.
They were not even given enough time to adjust to the dark environment.

「There’s ten intruders!? No, there are twenty of them!!」

「We’re going to get killed!! Someone please send support here ……!! Hiiii ……!?」

The voices were all either missing the mark or pleading for help.
Scared of an invisible enemy, they were so frightened that they gave up on taking control of the situation by themselves.

There were also mercenaries and ex-knights among them and those people reacted somewhat better.
To avoid the foolish mistake of being defeated individually, they tried to gather the scattered forces and attempt a counterattack.

「…… But the result is still the same. Can’t you walk a little more quietly?」

「I didn’t think that they’d actually expect to somehow defeat us with just that much. They really underestimated us.」

「If they had made preparations and taken advantage of their geographical location, I would still give them a passing mark. But they only tried to converge together after their forces had been reduced so much.」

The three old warriors boasted as they wielded their one-handed sickle.

「……!?」

The sound of the spear cutting through flesh and bone echoed.
Some of them had chainmail covering their necks, but it was useless.
They were slain before they could all gather together.
For the three old warriors, their movements, which they thought were stealthy, was the lousy equivalent of a loud clapper. They had conveniently informed them in advance where they were moving toward and exposed their own backs to their blades.

The most capable people in the group chose to retreat, gathered the remaining forces, and attempted to make an ambush.

…… They made the wrong choice.
They should have fled while their comrades were still acting as meat shields.
The three old warriors lurking in the darkness were so dangerous that they could stay in a small room with a black panther.
They got an unpleasant realization of this shortly after when they saw the three old warriors stopping at the hastily constructed barricade after they tried to ambush the three of them all at once.

「…… Hey, you youngsters. I’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.」

The voices of the old warriors who should have been in front of them came from behind them.
The moment they turned around, they saw that their neck and torso had been separated.

「You guys are fifty years too young to try to ambush us.」

「Even before you guys were born, we were already spending all our time fighting against the enemies in the battlefield.」

The last thing the mercenaries saw was the cloaks of old warriors slowly falling to the floor right in front of their eyes. It was completely empty. The chainmail that was sewn into it acted as a core and stood on its own for a short while. The old warriors left only their cloaks behind and made it look as if they were still there and ambushed them from behind.

「This is not enough. That 『guy』 is not here.」

「Our apprentice chicks in the Imperial Guards are ten times better than them. They can’t use their eyes and ears at all. Would it be a little more fun if we had shown ourselves right in front of them and fought against them?」

「Stop the nonsense. There is a possibility that the young master is going to run into that 『guy』. If we get injured, we would not be able to rush to help. We won’t do anything unnecessary and finish this up quickly and stealthily.」

The white-bearded Brian chided in a hushed voice and then once again the old warriors melted into the darkness.

The three old men are first-rate warriors, but their main specialty is assassination.
Their duty is to secretly bury in the dark those who have bad intentions toward the Lingard family.
That is why they use sickles which can be easily maneuvered indoors, instead of swords and spears.
They can move around during the night as if it were daytime.
It is the result of many years of training.

The old warriors wore defensive cloaks that can repel blades and arrows and fearsomely sturdy gauntlets, but their opponents were so easily overwhelmed that they couldn’t make use of it. Their counterattack could not even graze the three old warriors.

…… This only happened later on, but the reason why these three old warriors suffered an embarrassing defeat in the battle against the demon dog Gallam was because Gallam was even more of an assassination monster than they were. As a human being, their extraordinary night vision, hearing, and sense of smell are nothing more than a child’s play compared to a demon dog. The demon dog Gallam is also more proficient in the art of concealment as a hunter.

When it comes to assassination, the demon dog Gallam had an atypical instinct that surpassed talent.
The only human being who had ever fought against Gallam and was close to defeating it was Bradd, the child prodigy of the 「Lawless Crew」.

In the end, the three old warriors had no choice but to confront the monster known as the demon dog Gallam head-on with many of their techniques specializing in assassination not working on it. There was no way they could win.

But since their current opponents are human, the old warriors lurking in the darkness could display their unparalleled strength.
They could defeat the enemy unilaterally without being detected, so the result would be the same no matter how many of them were gathered together.
To them, the opponents were like a bunch of blindfolded scarecrows.
As long as the conditions were right, just one of them could even fight against a group of knights on his own.
If the three of them were to work in tandem, their fighting power would increase even more.

The only people who could possibly defeat the three old warriors that are committed to mastering assassination techniques are godly geniuses like the 「Crimson Duke」 or an exceptional first-rate knight like Matzo who possesses of extraordinary durability and offensive power. Otherwise, the only way to defeat them is to assassination skills that surpass theirs. But such warriors are rare throughout the world.

The Inquisition building fell into a state of panic.
They mistakenly believed that they were surrounded by a large army and thought that they had been completely overpowered.
They could never imagine that the Inquisition building that is armed like a fortress could be infiltrated in an instant by just three men.

By the time they realized that there were only three intruders, the place was already in a state of devastation.
The only ones that were overlooked were the clerical officials who had nothing to do with the fighting.

「Hey, release the mayor and the others. If you disobey, I’ll kill you.」

The white-bearded Brian’s frank threat frightened them to the point of incontinence.
The bearded, burly warriors with bloodstained sickles placed at the base of their throats reminded them of man-eating bears. The floor was covered with corpses and the iron-like stench of blood filled the air.

Some people broke down and vomited.

The black-bearded Bobby was disgusted.

「This is why I don’t like sallow-faced people who have no imagination. You guys have killed a lot of people with your witch-hunting paperwork. What we did is nothing compared to what you guys did.」

The officials were ashamed, but unlike the somewhat amiable Blackbeard, Whitebeard and Brownbeard behind him were filled with killing intent. Not daring to argue, they had no choice but to lead the three men to the torture chamber in the basement where the mayor and the others were being held captive.