Chapter 142

The San Klero Mercenary Corps was a first-rate mercenary unit specializing in monster subjugation, VIP protection, and convoy security.

While there was no official standard for a first-rate mercenary corps, if they were not first-rate, no other mercenary corps in the Umba River basin could be called so.

Their motto was simple.

‘Specialized personnel for where combat personnel are needed’.

There were those who would say that mercenaries were just people who had no way to make a living other than the sword but couldn’t become knights.

San Klero, the master of the San Klero Mercenary Corps, had to agree with that public perception to a certain extent.

Mercenaries were a motley crew.

Even if not all of them were, most were.

That was why San Klero had great pride in his mercenary corps.

He had served for a long time as a training instructor in the regular army of West-Erta and using his background, he actively introduced systematic training and organization into his mercenary corps.

The result was a success.

The San Kleo Mercenary Corps was nothing short of a model case that had fought head-on against the negative prejudices about mercenaries and won.

They acquired professionalism through training that was on par with regular troops and the fact that a private mercenary corps had professionalism comparable to the regular army of a great nation was his greatest pride.

Among them were particularly selected combat specialists.

Super-elite mercenaries created by immense money, time and money, grueling training and more money, named ‘San Klero’s Ten Fingers’.

Each one of them was more than capable of forming their own mercenary corps or becoming a regular knight, professionals of combat that he could introduce without hesitation, San Klero’s greatest pride!

Therefore, San Klero was so dumbfounded it was almost sorrowful.

Because his pride had crumbled like a leaf on the roadside.

But there was no time to dwell on the sorrow. He raised his voice and roared.

“Block him, you bastards!”

San Klero yelled as he fled.

His mercenaries gripped their weapons and charged forward, and soon, they were flying through the sky.

Whether they were new recruits who had just joined or the super-elite mercenaries called the ‘Ten Fingers’, they all flew through the air impartially.

It wasn’t that they had suddenly discovered a hidden magical talent, but rather that an invisible hand was throwing them.

“Block him even if you die!”

The sound of things breaking was deafening.

The screams and shouts of people were added, making his ears hurt.

His subordinates shot angry glares at their mercenary master who was abandoning them and running away, but it couldn’t be helped. He was human too, so he had to live first.

He was out of breath, but he couldn’t stop and kept running.

He bit his lip hard.

A nightmare was chasing right behind him.

“He’s here!”

As the nightmare finally approached, San Klero let out a lament.

He wished it wouldn’t come, but it had. It had become reality and appeared before his eyes.

“That bastard has finally come to our side too!”

Damn it.

I thought I had a few more days! He cursed repeatedly and quickened his pace.

He passed the training ground owned by the San Klero Mercenary Corps, entered the building, went around the corridor, entered the office on the first floor, and locked the door.

Even so, his anxiety didn’t disappear in the slightest, and his hands trembled.

He didn’t feel safe at all.

‘I have to hide, have to hide!’

Simply entering the office was not enough.

He opened a secret safe hidden behind the office chair, and then behind the bookshelf and crammed his huge body inside.

It wasn’t designed for a person to enter, but with some effort, it somehow worked.

He crammed his body in like that and closed the door.

A heavy sound echoed.

As it became completely dark, the images of his subordinates flying through the sky flickered in his mind.

He felt very sorry. But it couldn’t be helped.

It was because he, too, was human.

Doesn’t one have to live, even the great San Klero is human.

‘Go away, go away. Please…!’

There was the sound of a door opening.

The bastard had clearly entered the office.

There was the sound of footsteps.

The bastard was clearly moving around the room, looking for San Klero.

The sound of things being rummaged through, the screams of his subordinates that had gone quiet.

San Klero, crammed inside the dark safe, prayed. He won’t find me, he must not find me.

‘Please go away. Just disappear quietly…!’

Alas, unfortunately, a loud bang.

It was the sound of the iron door being crushed.

Then bang, bang, and with a crash, the iron safe door was completely crumpled.

Light seeped through the crumpled gaps.

The master of the San Klero Mercenary Corps let out a groan.

“Heek!”

Through the light, the bastard could be seen.

Golden hair and blue eyes, a boy as pretty as a girl at first glance.

The bastard sneered and asked.

“The master of the San Klero Mercenary Corps?”

San Klero had no choice but to answer.

“…Yes, that is I, but…?”

“Why are you in a place like that? Is it a hobby?”

“…No, a ruffian broke in, so I had to hide in a hurry….”

“There’s such a bad guy?”

At the brazen tone, San Klero almost shouted, It’s you, you!

Without realizing it, he managed to hold it back.

Instead of saying what he wanted to, he slowly crawled out of the cramped safe.

He didn’t forget to wear a fake smile.

“…Haha, so what business brings you here?”

“Your hospitality for a guest is quite poor. Asking questions before even offering a chair?”

“…Please, have a seat.”

For someone who had just smashed the furniture and sent his subordinates flying, his words were excessively shameless.

But San Klero couldn’t complain. It was because the other party was the one who had smashed the furniture and sent his subordinates flying.

There was no guarantee that he wouldn’t be sent flying through the sky too.

He hesitantly offered a chair, and the boy sat down with a satisfied smile.

Then he took out a metal case from his pocket, tapped it, tuk, tuk, against his hand.

Peppermint-scented lozenges rolled out.

The boy mumbled them in his mouth without offering any to San Klero.

“It was tough coming here, they kept trying to stop me.”

“…Haha. Who would have stopped you?”

“It was you.”

The boy with golden hair and blue eyes glared.

“Why did you stop me?”

“…Pardon?”

“You stopped me. Why are you playing innocent? I’m asking why you blocked me from entering.”

“…Right, I blocked you. Why did I block you…?”

San Klero let out a silent scream.

‘I heard the rumors about you, you think I’d welcome you!?’

A rumor was circulating in the Merion area, and further in the northern part of the Bururade Peninsula.

That the bastard who brought down the Del Conti family was cleaning up his business partners. That any place that fell out of his favor was utterly destroyed!

That bastard was the one in front of him.

There was no room for doubt.

So he had to avoid him and block him and yet, how shameless the bastard was!

“I just wanted to see your face, but you’re being too much. Acting like someone with something to hide.”

“Haha, so it would seem….”

San Klero laughed awkwardly.

The bastard’s eyes gleamed as he swept back his hair.

The golden hair was brilliantly beautiful under the sunlight, which made it even more unpleasant.

“First, since this is our first meeting, I’ll introduce myself.”

The blue eyes were deep.

“Shion of the Verchello family. I took over… inherited Del Conti’s business.”

You stole it!

San Klero barely suppressed the scream that rose to his throat.

Of course, he had heard.

That the adopted son-in-law of the Verchello family had brought down the Del Contis and that it had all happened in just five days.

It was an event that inspired fear beyond surprise.

“Now you know why I came, right?”

“…I don’t think I do?”

“You really don’t know, Master of the San Klero Mercenary Corps?”

“…No.”

San Klero was just bewildered.

If the other party was Shion of Verchello, the bastard who brought down the Del Conti family in five days, he couldn’t understand the reason for this.

“Our mercenary corps is already yours, isn’t it! After acquiring it for such a huge sum of money…!”

“You really have nothing to hide?”

Shion’s smile deepened.

“You know who instigated the Del Contis. I’m holding back from saying the name because it would put you in a difficult position.”

“……!!!”

San Klero’s eyes shot open.

It was because he had poked a very deep secret.

Shion chuckled as if he knew it all along.

“Judging by your reaction, you knew after all.”

“…No, we have no connection!”

The Del Contis were puppets of the Cordis Empire.

If they cooperated with them, it wouldn’t be strange to be hanged immediately in the West, which hated the Empire.

That was why San Klero desperately denied it.

“You’re saying you didn’t know?”

“Right!”

San Klero passionately argued.

“I didn’t know! I suspected there was something behind them, but I deliberately ignored it!”

“Hmm….”

Shion stroked his chin.

“For someone who says that, you have a very suspicious secretary.”

A woman flew in holding a dagger.

It was San Klero’s secretary.

She was caught in mid-air.

It was the ‘Fantasy Finger’.

Before Shion had a chance to dig for information, her face turned pale blue.

It seemed she had hidden poison in her mouth or somewhere else.

Looking at the woman who had become a corpse, Shion clicked his tongue overtly.

San Klero was dumbfounded, but Shion paid him no mind and searched the woman’s clothes.

A small device came out. Few would recognize it, but Shion could.

It was a communication device used by agents of the Cordis intelligence agency to exchange information.

It was even more certain when it soon heated up and exploded.

“An Imperial spy, as expected.”

Shion muttered while looking at the secretary’s corpse.

San Klero, who had never once thought his secretary could be an Imperial spy, just blinked in bewilderment, his eyes darting back and forth.

He opened his lips to make some sort of excuse.

“No, that is, what happened was….”

“You’re going to say you really didn’t know, aren’t you?”

The Regression Prince shook his head.

“But it doesn’t matter anymore.”

San Klero realized he was completely cornered.

“Your secretary was an Imperial spy. Evidence has emerged that you tacitly cooperated with Cordis, even if you weren’t actively involved.”

“…I, really….”

“I’ll give you a choice.”

Shion held up a finger.

“Either hand over the names of others who might have colluded with the Empire, or rot in prison for the rest of your life.”

***

“We, we have no connection!”

“The master of the San Klero Mercenary Corps said the same thing.”

Shion gave a scornful smile.

“But San Klero confessed everything. He said you cooperated very actively?”

“Ugh, that damn San Klero bastard!”

The fat man roared.

“After testing the waters like that, he sells our names!?”

His eyes even flashed.

“Fine, fine! If we kill you, the one who brought down the Del Contis, we can take that position!”

“That’s a very optimistic interpretation.”

“It would be, if we didn’t have magi-soldiers!”

The fat man yelled at the top of his lungs.

He gestured to his subordinate, spittle flying.

“Activate them, hurry!”

Hmm. Shion let the fat man and his subordinate do as they pleased.

He had already assessed the level of their forces, so he felt no threat whatsoever.

Soon, the scent of mana and the sound of activation echoed, and several magi-soldiers popped out.

There were four beast-form magi-soldiers.

The fat man wore a triumphant smile.

“Huhu….”

He seemed very confident.

“You didn’t know we had such a weapon, did you?”

It was understandable.

He would have had no way of knowing that Shion had single-handedly defeated seven beast-form magi-soldiers and one giant-form magi-soldier at the Merion Dam.

However, it was also understandable for Shion to find the fat man laughable.

He was swaggering about with just three beast-form magi-soldiers, not even knowing that he was a regressed hero.

“Three beast-form magi-soldiers?”

The first Ars.

‘Fantasy Finger’.

The three beast-shaped magi-soldiers’ necks were snapped in an instant, and they stopped moving.

The fat man looked back and forth between the corpse-like magi-soldiers and Shion several times. It was because the situation had ended all too futilely.

“Now there are none?”

“……”

The fat man brought his hands together.

“…Excuse me, what should I start telling you about first?”

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