CHAPTER 43 – THE SLY WOLVES AND THE VELCHE SLAYER

Merc was walking around the city with the men who had agreed to be her bodyguards when she found herself being led into a less populated area.

If one hadn’t been paying attention, they would have missed the fact that they had gradually moved from a densely inhabited neighborhood to a less densely populated one.

The men were also very active, so by the time one realized something was wrong, they’d already been led to a location where they couldn’t call for aid. Merc figured the men were fairly used to this based on how smoothly they proceeded through everything.

“This place should be good enough.”

The men led Merc down a narrow alleyway, then halted in front of the entrance, blocking it.

“What are you doing?”

“We’ll spare your life if you give us your recommendation.”

As he pulled out a knife, one of the men said, his face serious. When compared to the lighthearted smile he had shown at the start, his current figure appeared extremely imposing. If a weak-willed individual had been confronted with such a drastic change, they would almost certainly have lost their cool.

“Hehehe. Don’t think about running away now. It’d be a shame to break such a beauty.”

With a sly smirk on his face, the remaining man said as he, too, pulled out a weapon1.

The weapon he pulled out was a small hammer. That hammer, Merc imagined, was used for torture rather than battle. The man was probably trying to imply that he would torture Merc if she didn’t comply.

Hmph. So that’s how it is. They split up in the beginning so they could trap me like this.

Merc spotted a third man wielding a longsword as she turned around to look at the alleyway’s other entrance. Merc reasoned that they must have separated at the time where Merc had been approached by the middle-aged man and had planned to assault her here.

However, there was something that Merc couldn’t quite grasp.

“Was the man that approached me at the start part of your group?”

“Hehe. Like hell he is. Who’d want an old fart like him2.”

“Does that mean you weren’t expecting him to approach me?”

“Precisely. Although that idiot sure did come up at the perfect time. If we protected you from that guy then you were bound to believe us, isn’t that right? Which is why I quickly came up with the idea to split up and lead you into a pincer attack.”

The man with the hammer explained, a smug expression on his face.

“I see.”

The man wielding the hammer was most likely arrogant since he had successfully devised a plot to apprehend Merc on the spot. Seeing him act like that slightly irritated Merc but she let it slide.

What was noteworthy was that the man who had initially approached her was not a member of their group. Merc felt a little more at ease now that she knew that.

After all, if that man had been a part of their group then she would have had to hunt him down later. However, since he wasn’t, then there was no need for that. The only thing Merc needed to do was scare these three away so they wouldn’t bother her again.

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“Give us your recommendation!”

As he glared at Merc, the man with the knife stated. Merc, on the other hand, merely returned his stare.

“My name is written on the recommendation. No one but me can use it.”

“Hmph. That can easily be forged. To begin with, we won’t even use it.”

“What?”

“After all, Jonahim, the Hero’s disciple, is the one who wrote it. Do you have any idea how much it’d go for?!”

“Really…”

“Don’t play dumb. We saw you acting all friendly with Jonahim back at the Guild. He’s the one who wrote it for you, isn’t he?”

“That’s right. But, simply because Jonahim wrote it, does its price change that much?”

“Are you stupid?”

All three men were shocked when they heard Merc’s absurd comment.

“Well… Jonahim is the Hero Foldia’s only disciple. This means that he is Foldia’s successor. Which in turn makes him the most famous adventurer in the world.”

“Moreover, he has a really good image. The rich will go mad for this recommendation just because it was written by him.”

“Whoa. I didn’t know.”

Merc responded casually, caught up in the men’s polite explanation, which didn’t fit their criminal character at all. Even now Merc still had trouble comprehending the fact that adventurers were treated as idols. Merc was more or less the only one that viewed Jonahim’s recommendation as a simple sheet of paper.

“You’re quite the strange one, you know that, miss? Despite not knowing the value of that recommendation, you’re rather brazen to make such a scene inside the Guild.”

“Perhaps it’s because she isn’t aware that she unwittingly exposed it. Well it doesn’t matter now. Missy, hurry up and hand us that recommendation!”

“I refuse. I don’t know how much this recommendation is worth, but it is something that Jonahim went out of his way to write for me. There’s no way I’ll hand it over to strangers.”

“Hmph. Quite brave, aren’t we? Did you really think such words would work with us?”

As he steadily began to narrow the distance between them, the man with the knife said. His stance appeared to be quite refined, while his knife, on the other hand, appeared to be somewhat worn.

There was no way he would be able to break through Merc’s Mana Hardening with it.

“There’s one more thing I’d like to ask. Do you have any intentions of taking the adventurer exam after you steal this recommendation? From what I’ve seen up until now, you’ve probably stolen quite a bit of recommendations.”

“The adventurer exam? We’re fine just taking that thing once. It only takes one time to realize that the exam is impossible.”

“Impossible?”

“That’s right. Only a small handful of monsters can pass that exam. In other words, if you’re weak enough for us to steal your recommendation, there’s no chance you’ll pass!”

As soon as the man finished his sentence he kicked the ground and quickly closed the gap between himself and Merc.

His movement was quick, but the speed with which he thrust his dagger at Merc was ridiculously slow. He was most likely delaying the attack down on purpose, giving Merc the opportunity to evade and scare her even more afterwards.

Based on this attack, it was clear that they weren’t aiming to kill her, just as they had stated at the start.

“You’re quite nice for bandits.”

“…?”

As the slowed knife thrust at her, Merc made no movement and simply met it head on. Just as the knife was about to pierce through Merc’s chest it stopped… It wouldn’t go any deeper.

Instead of simply coming to a halt, the knife shattered in half with a loud crack. The man was utterly speechless after seeing his knife break in half.

“A-A-Are those clothes made with special materials?”

“That’s right. My mother made them for me.”

“ARGH?!”

Merc lightly pressed her fist against the man’s solar plexus just as he was pondering what to say. The man slumped down in pain, but he didn’t pass out since Merc had purposefully missed his vitals.

She left him on the ground, writhing pitifully in anguish and unable to breathe.

“Y-You!”

The man wielding the hammer suddenly lifted it up and aimed it at Merc’s head. After watching his friend’s knife snap after contacting her specially constructed clothes, he most likely opted to aim at Merc’s undisclosed areas.

Merc, on the other hand, same as before, didn’t move and took the attack head on. The hammer bounced off Merc’s head and flew out of the man’s arms.

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“Argh! It hurts! J-Just what are you?! WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU?!”

The man screamed, his wrists trembling as he backed away. Merc, on the other hand, began to close the gap between them.

“You just aimed at my head, didn’t you? This means that unlike your friend just now, you actually tried to kill me, isn’t that right?”

With a chilly tone, Merc said. When he saw her getting closer, the man realized they had messed with someone they shouldn’t have messed with. As the man looked into Merc’s eyes, shivers started running down his spine. His arms were extending forward for no apparent reason, his muscles were cramping, and his teeth were chattering.

“I-I d-did n-not…”

“This means that you’re prepared to die, correct?”

Merc said, thrusting her fist at the man’s face. Only the air pressure from Merc’s punch fell on the man’s face as she altered her strike to stop directly in front of his face.

“Ah…”

However, even just that was enough to bring the man to his knees. Tears and snot were streaming down his face, as if his soul had abandoned him.

“There’s no reason to get this frightened…”

Merc had only intended to frighten him a little, not to completely frighten him. Merc imagined the man in front of her was better at judging an opponent’s ability than she had originally assumed. Otherwise, he would not have displayed such a shameful part of himself to a young girl like Merc, no matter how terrifying the situation was.

However, given that he had attacked Merc in the first place, his ability to judge others wasn’t particularly strong.

“That just leaves… Oh, you’re running away?”

After dealing with the men who had led her here, Merc shifted her attention to the man who had been blocking the other exit and was now fleeing. It seemed like he had decided to leave his friends and run. One could argue that that was a wise decision, assuming he had the ability to flee from Merc.

“Hmph.”

Merc emitted a burst of Mana from her feet and used the recoil to propel herself forward, closing the gap in an instant. She dashed past the last man and took a position in front of him.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit pitiful to run away after trying to ambush someone?”

“P-Please spare me! W-We didn’t think you’d be the real deal! We assumed Jonahim must have taken a liking to you, which is why he’d written you the recommendation!”

The man shouted this while threateningly pointing his long sword at Merc. Merc was perplexed as to the other party’s genuine feelings, but the man must have felt the same way.

He was probably so terrified that he had no idea what he was doing.

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“You’re quite rude, you know that? Nonetheless, it appears like you are transparent about your mistakes. If you swear not to mess with me again then…”

“I swear! I swear, so please spare us! We won’t bother you ever again!”

The man said, vigorously nodding his head, his sword’s shaky tip still pointing at Merc. Merc grasped the blade with her right hand, a little taken aback by the situation.

“W-What?”

“I see. So you swear. Since you’ve sworn I’ll leave you with just this.”

Merc said this as she shattered the man’s blade like it was made of sugar. Even though the man’s sword was made out of iron, it was still metal. It wasn’t every day that you saw someone crush iron with such ease.

“W-What!”

“If I ever happen to see you guys again, it won’t be your weapons that I break, but your whole bodies.”

As she pointed the hand that had just shattered the long sword towards the man, Merc said with a smile.

“U-Understood…”

The man muttered this as he collapsed on his buttocks and remained motionless. He appeared to be relieved that he had been able to escape this predicament.

“What are you waiting for, go and pick up your buddies.”

Merc remarked as she walked away, unsure if the stunned man had heard her or not. This was most likely her last meeting with these three3.

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