Chapter 52: Purge

***

The night was pitch black.

Moonlight was shrouded by clouds covering the sky, casting a gloomy shade over the dim streets.

It was already deep into the night, residents of Winter City had long gone to rest, doors and windows of houses and buildings were tightly shut, hardly any lights could be seen burning, the entire city was in complete silence.

Occasional dog howls broke the silence, more frequent than usual, as if hinting at this not-so-peaceful night, and what was about to happen.

Or rather, what had already happened.

In a deep alley in the north of the city, three hunters wearing leather armor and coats, wielding exotic weapons, emerged from the dark alley.

The hunters appeared to be in a hurry, their footsteps moving swiftly. Under the cover of night, they crossed several main streets before finally stopping in front of a low building.

The hunter standing in the middle spoke.

“46 Michael Street… this is the right place, isn’t it?”

“Yes, the address is correct.”

“Then let’s begin, resolve this quickly… knock on the door.”

The hunter beside him nodded, raising his hand to knock firmly.

Bang bang bang.

Bang bang bang!

“…Coming, coming.” A woman’s voice came from inside, along with approaching footsteps and her muttering: “Who could it be, at this late hour…”

After a moment, the door creaked open. A middle-aged maid holding a lantern stood at the doorway, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

When she saw clearly that the visitors were three men holding weapons, she froze.

Then a strangely shaped long blade was pressed against her throat.

Clang.

The lantern fell from her hand, and the maid looked at the expressionless hunters in terror.

“You…”

“Shh——”

The lead hunter made a gesture for her to be quiet.

“Don’t make a sound, or we’ll kill you, nod if you understand.”

The maid swallowed hard, scared to the point her legs were weak, she nodded with difficulty and stepped aside.

“Very good, we’re going in.”

Creak, creak——

Leather boots stepping on the wooden floor made teeth-grinding sounds. The house was dark inside, the building’s owner had clearly gone to bed, the hunters looked around.

“Where are they?”

Startled by the sudden question, the maid jumped, not daring to raise her head, trembling as she pointed upstairs.

The lead hunter looked up to where a closed door was. He pressed down his round hat and made hand signals to the other two.

The three gripped their weapons and quickly went upstairs, arriving at the door and immediately kicked it.

Bang——

The door shattered and fell to the ground with a huge crash. The figure sleeping in bed was startled awake, suddenly sitting up.

“Who!”

The hunters continued forward without stopping or speaking, walking towards him.

Click click click.

The long blade made strange friction sounds as it suddenly extended forward a great length, the lead hunter raised his right arm and slashed horizontally at the man who clearly still didn’t understand the situation.

A cold flash passed, the head flew off. Blood sprayed from the neck, splashing onto the hunter’s face.

“Ah——!!”

The woman lying next to the figure let out a piercing scream. The next moment, the still-dripping blade pointed at her neck.

“Shut up. Tell me the name of the dead man.”

The woman’s teeth were chattering.

“…Who… who are you… do you know… you just killed a Shanter military…”

“Tell me. What—is—his—name. Say one more word and you’ll die too.”

“Flicks…”

The hunter nodded to his companion upon hearing this.

“Mm, that’s him.” Then he lifted the hem of his coat, casually wiping his weapon, “Let’s go, next one.”

Yet he paid no attention to the fresh blood dripping down his face as he turned to leave.

Creak, creak…

The sound was like death itself prowling in the darkness.

At the same time, in another low building across the street, the same scene was playing out.

Crash!

A hunter breaking in through the window held his blade level, pressing it against the half-naked man’s chest.

“Gunter?”

“…Hunters? This is completely lawless! Which team are you from, I want to speak to your captain…”

“Looks like it’s you.”

Swoosh——!

A cold flash, and blood gushed from the man’s throat like a fountain.

“Next one.”

……

Central Workshop.

The top of the tall blast furnace glowed blindingly bright, looking no different than usual.

The disheveled furnace craftsmen had reached their shift change time, walking towards the dormitory one by one with weary eyes and continuous yawns.

“What’s the word for tonight, any wine to drink?”

“Give it a rest, still drinking? I got drunk last night and got a fierce scolding from my old lady. If I do it again tonight, I’m afraid I won’t even be able to get in the door.”

“No way, how can you be so spineless, afraid of a woman?”

“Don’t mention it, you all know the temper of my wife…”

“That’s true, haha!”

“Hey, say… don’t you feel something’s off tonight?”

“What’s off about it?”

“Not sure, feels like something’s missing…”

“Now that you mention it, I hadn’t noticed. We’ve walked all this way, has anyone seen any patrolling hunters?”

“…Doesn’t seem like it.”

“That is strange. Aren’t they usually quite frequent? How come we can’t see any trace of them tonight, could all the hunters have gone on vacation?”

“That’s impossible.”

“But occasionally slacking off a bit, who would care? After all, no one dares to cause trouble here.”

“Haha! The hunters must be tired too——”

The group walked away laughing and talking.

No one saw the black figure crouching on the warehouse wall behind them, sneaking up behind the guard and stabbing a blade into his chest.

……

At a corner of the southwest city wall, two groups of hunters were facing off with weapons drawn. A man with quite long hair raised his snake-shaped sword, pointing the tip directly at the slender woman opposite him.

“Bella, what is the meaning of this?!”

“To kill you.”

The silver-haired woman wearing a tricorn hat stood against the wind, her face completely calm, only tightening her grip on the double-headed long blade.

The cold wind blew, gently lifting her coat hem.

“Kill me? You want to kill me!?… You, do you know what this means?”

The man’s eyes were wide with anger, but his harsh words didn’t seem as confident as they appeared.

“You can’t kill me… what right do you have to kill me! I am the vice-captain of Shanter military’s second team! You have no authority to do this!”

“So much nonsense.”

Bella shook her head slightly, taking a step forward.

Clang——

The double-headed blade in her hand split in two at the handle, becoming two arm-length narrow blades. She held one in each hand, then shook her arms, speaking to the hunters behind her without turning back: “Don’t interfere.”

Her footsteps grew faster and faster.

“…Attack, kill her.”

The man waved to the several hunters beside him, but began slowly backing away himself.

“Hmph.”

Bella showed a cold smirk of disdain. She lightly tapped the ground with her foot and her whole person flew swiftly towards the opposing hunters.

Moon Step.

Swoosh——

Spinning around once, blades rising and falling, two hunters instantly fell. After pausing her steps, she immediately bent her waist, dodging a thrust from the side, raising her hand to cut open the enemy’s throat.

Then sidestep to dodge, swing blade. Dodge, swing blade. The entire fight didn’t last half a minute, with only the vice-captain left standing.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of blood.

Bella looked at him, swinging her narrow blade downward.

Boom!

The blade burst into roaring flames.

“Not going to resist?”

“…Ah——!!”

The man let out a hoarse cry, thrusting his snake-shaped sword at Bella, clearly prepared to fight to the death.

Clang——, Clang——

There were only two clashes of weapons before Bella’s third strike sent her blade into his chest.

The intense flames made the flesh sizzle.

“…Ah! Bella!!”

Bella’s expression remained cold as she applied more force, the narrow blade’s tip protruding from the man’s back.

The blood evaporated before it could flow out.

“Cough cough…” The man’s legs weakened and he fell to his knees, the light in his pupils gradually fading, “Wait… Bella… you… I was directly appointed by His Majesty, you can’t kill me… spare my life…”

The narrow blade slowly pulled out from his chest, the flames extinguishing with it.

“It’s exactly people like you that we’re killing.”

Thump——

The man fell to the ground, twitched twice, and went silent.

……

In the study of Shanter Castle, flickering candlelight cast shifting shadows as Duke Scalliger sat at his desk, seriously reading a book in his hands.

The door was suddenly opened. The Duke looked up to see his wife walk in, fully dressed.

He gave a light chuckle.

“Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

“You’re still laughing… with such a big matter, how could I sleep?”

“Where’s Peipei?”

“She’s sleeping quite soundly.”

“Then you should go sleep too.”

The duchess shook her head.

“Are you hungry? I can go make you some soup?”

“I’m not hungry, don’t worry about me, go to sleep. There are so many people in the kitchen, why would you need to do this yourself, you’re just needlessly worrying all day.”

“…I’m needlessly worrying? Such a matter… you just decided to do it without discussing with anyone, I’ve been anxious all day…”

“Don’t think too much, I have everything under control.”

The duchess wanted to say something more, but at that moment there was a knock at the door.

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