"Cult?"
Enkrid asked nonchalantly, causing the one-eyed man to furrow his brow.
"What are you talking about?"
Maybe not?
It didn't seem like it.
If it were a cult, they wouldn't have been so careless in their actions.
Moreover, Krais had said that those performing important tasks within the cult would surely know him.
"Think about it. If there's someone always getting in the way whenever something happens, it's only natural to find out who they are. It would be strange not to attempt an assassination."
Those were Krais' words.
If one looked more closely, there had been actual assassination attempts, but they didn't know about them.
There had even been requests sent to Jaxen.
Other assassination attempts had been stopped or resolved by Jaxen along the way.
Once, a Disciple of the Curse had shown up, but it was hard to truly understand the backstory.
How could anyone know that the gruesome person who suddenly died was a Disciple of the Curse?
Anyway, had Krais not said that even just hearing their name would make someone gnash their teeth?
Therefore, the likelihood that these attackers were cult members was very low.
This was Enkrid's conclusion.
"Human trafficking?"
Enkrid asked again, without drawing a weapon, causing the burly men to feel that something was off.
Did they just touch on something he shouldn't have?
Should they back off now?
But, they couldn't do that either.
Enkrid didn't know, but Cross Guard was becoming a lawless city.
The influence of the market or the administration was minimal, and groups like the Thieves Guild or Brotherhoods held power.
The group that had ambushed Enkrid was also a strange one called the "Needle Brotherhood," which implied they would strike if provoked.
This group was notorious for avenging their own, but the problem was, they didn't even know who they were dealing with.
These people had just seen a traveler recently arrive and noticed that he was guided by the administrator, yet they were only interested in the Krona he carried.
The leader was an idiot.
The ones who had survived this long were the ones who had managed to be resourceful.
"Kill him!"
The one-eyed man shouted, and those around him unsheathed short, dagger-like swords and rushed forward.
The narrow hallway was not ideal for swinging large swords, so they opted for short, pointed daggers.
They were well-coordinated, at least.
They didn't rush all at once but moved in pairs, attacking simultaneously.
However, they wouldn't stand a chance against a squire.
No, even a decent soldier from the Border Guard's standing army would have been enough to handle them.
Enkrid made no move to draw his weapon.
Instead, he moved one step to the left, then to the right, and extended his hand.
Naturally, the attackers couldn't react to his speed.
The shadows on the walls, cast by the lamplight, rose and fell dramatically.
It looked as if a blackened specter was devouring the shadows of people.
The Needle Brotherhood members, under attack, could have easily felt the same way.
At a speed they couldn't even react to, Enkrid twisted the wrist of the first attacker.
Crack!
"Ah!"
A scream followed, and as soon as the wrist was twisted, Enkrid immediately dislocated the man's jaw.
A special skill of Audin's.
By pressing a finger under the jaw and pushing downward, the joint would pop out.
"Ughhh."
The dislocated jaw caused unbearable pain.
The man, now unable to scream properly, drooled and shed tears.
The one-eyed man hesitated for a moment, then attempted to fight back, but as soon as he turned around, Enkrid wasn't going to just stand by.
The dagger dropped from the first man's hand, but it was already in Enkrid's possession.
He quickly gauged its weight and threw it.
The dagger whistled through the air and lodged itself into the one-eyed man's thigh.
Thud!
"Ugh!"
He stumbled and tumbled down the stairs.
Enkrid hadn't intended to kill him, but if he died from this, it was unavoidable.
All of this transpired in less than the time it took to exhale.
The remaining attackers froze.
Those who had awkwardly raised their swords and attempted to strike were now wide-eyed, frozen in place.
In the meantime, Luagarne had already finished dealing with the two on the roof and was descending.
She had even jumped out of the window and was climbing up from the first floor.
Enkrid, of course, wouldn't let anyone escape, but if anyone attempted some trick to flee, he was prepared to catch them.
It was just a habit of Luagarne's to fight while assessing the terrain and situation.
Enkrid had learned this from her, which is why they sometimes split up to handle enemies.
Everything had been set up to block any escape routes.
They hadn't exchanged many words, but they could sense what each other intended.
There were still two attackers standing.
Both were holding daggers but were frozen, not daring to move.
"Did you kill them all?"
Enkrid asked, ignoring the surroundings and looking down.
Luagarne, stepping up the stairs, replied,
"Yeah. Only one or two are left. The innkeeper seemed to know something. It looked like someone might have intimidated him."
Luagarne was quick with her hands.
In the meantime, she had even taken a good look at the innkeeper's face.
Enkrid nodded as if it didn't matter much.
Did the innkeeper turn a blind eye just to make a living?
That might be considered wrong too.
But Enkrid wasn't interested in judging.
People have to live in accordance with their circumstances, and if they were willing to target the innkeeper, threatening him would have been easy.
"Do you want to do more?"
Enkrid asked casually.
The two thieves knelt obediently.
To them, these two were monsters.
That wasn't a lie.
They had relied on Sleep Scent and attacked, but when that didn't work, the result was obvious.
Enkrid shrugged and brought the Sleep Scent incense burner outside.
"Change the burner."
"What?"
"Switch the burner."
It didn't seem necessary to change rooms yet.
Looking at the atmosphere, it seemed like nothing would change, even if they moved.
They had clearly seen the administrator guiding them, but if they were trying something, it meant one of two things.
Either the administrator, Nari, knew and chose to ignore it, or the administrator might have been backing them.
Enkrid thought about this and searched the thieves' belongings, finding a thick rope.
'Human trafficking.'
If they were trying to catch people to sell, they would likely have tools for binding them.
And indeed, they did.
Enkrid didn't intend to kill anyone.
He bound the thieves' hands and feet and set them in front of the door.
"Wake me up if anyone comes."
In essence, he had created a makeshift alarm system using the thieves.
"We should sleep when there's time."
Luagarne nodded in agreement.
It was a truth that one should rest when the opportunity arises.
Then, they actually went to sleep.
The two thieves, tied up tightly, couldn't even think of escaping.
They endured the fear, surrounded by their dead comrades, wondering when those two would come out and stab them.
It wasn't until dawn that the fearsome figures appeared and began untying the ropes.
"Clean up."
The thieves quickly cleaned up the traces of the previous night's chaos.
Naturally, the bloodstains on the floor couldn't be fully erased.
The inn already had a musty smell, but now it was mixed with the scent of blood.
Enkrid dragged a chair without a backrest from the room and placed it in the hallway, sitting down.
Luagarne, rubbing her eyes a few times, wrapped her whip around her waist and leaned against the wall by the stairs.
She was in the ideal position to react to anything that might happen.
"Who sent you?"
Enkrid asked.
"No one sent us."
A thief, who swallowed his saliva, spoke.
"When travelers or merchants come by, we just capture them, threaten them, and steal some Krona."
The thief continued speaking, and there seemed to be no lies in his words.
Unfortunately, the captain, who had rolled down the stairs, was dead, but his cause of death was strange.
It wasn't that his neck was snapped, but his eyes had turned white with what looked like small fragments scattered in them when he died.
'His neck didn't break, though.'
Even if rigor mortis had set in, the body was strangely stiff and heavy.
It felt as though his body was turning into stone.
If that wasn't the case, maybe his organs were made of stone.
The corpse was so heavy that it took two strong men to grunt and carry it away.
Enkrid thought it was strange, but there was nothing to ask about. Luagarne had seen it as well, but had only mentioned it was odd.
"The administrator brought us here, but what are we supposed to do now?"
When Enkrid asked the two thieves, they answered that the administrator was a fool, a useless idiot who didn't care about anything.
The city was already a battlefield due to the guild's civil war, with killings happening almost every day, and the administrator was too busy trying to save his own skin.
Enkrid wondered to himself,
Really?
He had already met the administrator, and that man didn't seem the type to be worried about such things.
The remaining two thieves added that the real powerful one was someone called
Wind Blade
They kept talking non-stop, not even pausing to take a breath.
Of course, neither of them wanted to end up on the wrong side of a sword.
Enkrid managed to gather a few useful bits of information amidst their rambling.
The conclusion?
The city was rotten to the core, no matter how you looked at it.
What should I do now?
'Guess I'll have breakfast first.'
Enkrid followed his own instincts.
He stood up and ordered food.
"Are you really going to eat here?" the innkeeper asked, holding a large kitchen knife.
Though he didn't seem to be preparing for a fight, his face revealed anxiety and worry.
"If I don't eat here, where else can I eat?"
"You could go outside and catch some locusts to eat," the innkeeper replied.
Luagarne muttered something under her breath, but Enkrid simply tapped the table.
The innkeeper sighed deeply and turned away, at which point a young worker rushed over and whispered.
"You should run away."
"Why?"
The child, whose view of the world was shaped by his own narrow experiences, likely had never left the city of Cross Guard.
For someone like him, the scariest things were those who normally threatened him—the ones who never faced consequences no matter what they did.
To this child, the criminal guilds were as frightening as death itself.
"Some scary people are coming," the child said.
The child didn't think Enkrid was a bad person, which is why he had the courage to speak up, but his warning was ignored.
The inn's first floor served as a restaurant, and despite the early hour, a few customers were beginning to trickle in.
Among them, two rough-looking men approached Enkrid's table.
The screech of the chair sliding across the floor rang out as one of the men dragged it over and placed it next to Enkrid's table.
He spread his legs, placing the chair backrest against his chest, and stared at Enkrid intently before asking.
"Who are you?"
Enkrid turned his gaze and naturally took in the man's appearance.
Two short swords hung from his waist, clearly his primary weapons.
The worn leather around the hilts suggested that these swords had been well-used for a long time.
Despite the uncomfortable position, the man was clearly ready to draw his weapons at any moment.
Enkrid could tell just from the man's posture.
"I'm just a customer waiting for breakfast," Enkrid replied.
"That's not wrong."
Enkrid spoke, and Luagarne added on.
Cross Guard was ruled by three criminal guilds.
The city had decayed to this point after a series of events, but to summarize it briefly, a few guilds had suddenly grown too powerful, and the authorities were unable to control them.
There were even cases where the commanding officers of stationed troops were killed in guild wars, and rumors spread that other officers were practically members of the guilds themselves.
Over time, the city had become a lawless place, ruled by criminal guilds, where gambling, drugs, and even deaths in the streets were commonplace.
The man now approaching Enkrid was a member of one of those three guilds.
"Is that so?" the man said, smirking.
While his face wasn't necessarily attractive, Enkrid found it somewhat amusing.
The man spoke with a tone of feigned confidence, but his body was clearly tense, with his feet and hands clenched tightly.
His intentions were obvious.

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