Volume 8 Chapter 4 Reunion with That Backstabbing Bastard
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”…Do you even get drunk from booze, Cianie?”
”I don’t.”
Two mugs of beer sat on the table between them. He grabbed one and downed it in a single sharp gulp.
The tavern was noisy, packed with clattering laughter and voices, but at their small table tucked off to the side, it somehow felt quiet. Being with Cianie always had that strange effect—like the world dimmed out around her, the noise fading until it felt like just the two of them in their own little pocket of air.
Maybe it was the dying sunlight slipping through the window, casting a warm orange haze that nobody seemed to notice. Or maybe it was just her. Either way, it felt… oddly isolating, like they were invisible, like the crowd had subconsciously decided to leave them alone.
They’d met up after Klock’s latest bit of exploration, and wandered here without much thought. It was a shop in the commerce district, the kind of place that burned bright at night but sat wide open even now in the middle of the day.
The place was already lively. Not quite packed, but loud enough that it could’ve been evening rush hour. Soldiers without their helmets or spears lounged around. Adventurers by the look of them. Fishermen, shop clerks, guys who looked like street punks, all clutching drinks and talking over each other.
A bunch of people with too much time on their hands. Maybe that explained why the barmaids didn’t look particularly thrilled to be here.
”So,” Cianie asked softly, “have you decided what to do next?”
”Sorry. Got no plan.”
Klock lifted his hand in defeat. Cianie just nodded once and went quiet, like that was the end of it. She didn’t look worried at all. Probably really wasn’t. But Klock couldn’t help the faint trace of panic chewing at the back of his thoughts.
Before coming here, she had tracked down the town hall’s location from a local and led them there, planning to meet the town mayor first.
The town hall had been small and old, nothing like the sleek government offices of the capital. Just a worn building guarded by a handful of merfolk soldiers. Whether the mayor was under house arrest or the whole place had been seized, they never found out—because they couldn’t get anywhere near him.
Klock had wanted to convince the mayor to rally the townsfolk. In his mind, the only way to fix this whole situation was to spark an armed uprising. It wasn’t like he had other options. And the fastest way to ignite it was to have the mayor raise the flag himself, but of course that had gone nowhere.
If they could’ve gotten the mayor to secretly rally the town without the Fishkin noticing, maybe there’d been a chance. But with the mayor stuck under watch, even moving would give him away. A rebellion needed surprise; if the Demon Lord’s Army caught wind of it, it would die before it even began.
So, yeah—Klock’s plan had crashed straight into the dirt. And he didn’t even have a second one. They were here mostly because they had nothing else to do.
”Man… maybe we should just head back. To the Beast Country.”
”If you really wanna, that’s fine.”
”…I’m kidding.”
He always ran away when things got hard. Facing problems head-on just wasn’t in his nature. He wasn’t seriously going to leave now, but that didn’t mean he could magically think up a solution either.
Ugh. Seriously. Why had he thought playing savior would be fun? He’d been so sure it’d be over in a week, tops. It was obviously gonna take months. He’d just wanted to show off a bit in front of Cianie, and now look where he was. Totally stuck. Totally screwed. What was he even doing here?
He sighed, the laughter and chatter crashing against his ears like waves. The locals around them didn’t seem weighed down at all. There was maybe a faint heaviness under it all, but the noise drowned it out. The adventurers didn’t look happy exactly, but they weren’t hollow either. If it came down to it, maybe they’d still pick up their weapons and fight.
”…By the way,” he muttered, “you pick up anything useful?”
”Not really. Oh—but I might’ve figured out why the Demon Lord’s Army isn’t attacking the residents.”
”…Yeah?”
”There’s that rumor they’re controlling Monsters, right? Well… they might be feeding them with humans.”
”Feeding… them?”
”Mm. I overheard some merfolk talking. They said maybe the reason they don’t kill humans right away is because they’re saving them as food for the Monsters.”
For a heartbeat, time just… stopped around Klock.
”…So the people here are all lined up to be eaten alive?”
”Or they get killed first. Right before, I guess.”
”Wait, wait, wait—no way. That’s… that’s too messed up. They’re still people. Even for the Demon Lord’s Army, that’s—”
”Demonkin are supremacists. They tend to look down on other races. Wouldn’t be weird if some of them wanted to wipe out humans and spread Demonkin blood instead.”
Her voice was calm, flat, but the words were ice-cold. Klock just froze. It was insane. Demonkin were from another continent altogether, a completely different race, with totally alien ways of thinking. Maybe there were reasons for it, reasons humans could never imagine. But still—if they were really doing this, then the ones who needed wiping out weren’t humans. It was them.
Feeding people to monsters. He’d never heard of any ruler sinking that far. You couldn’t write it off as a tyrant going rogue. And if the Demon Lord herself was leading it… that was unforgivable.
”…That’s a sick joke,” he muttered. “They’ve lost it.”
”It’s just gossip. They didn’t sound sure about it. And… I don’t think Suzette would go that far. So it might not be a ‘Demonkin’ thing.”
She had a point. Just blaming all Demonkin was too hasty. Maybe it was just something happening inside the Demon Lord’s Army. That place was a coalition, eleven different races each with their own seat on the council. No way they were all in perfect agreement. If the merfolk didn’t even know about this, it probably meant there was no real unity inside—no shared ideals holding them together.
”…Cianie?”
He noticed her face. She looked uneasy—not like she was worrying about humanity or anything. That wasn’t her style.
”…Hermine. Something might’ve happened to her.”
”Still no word from her, huh.”
Right. He’d almost forgotten. They were supposed to be waiting for contact from their hero party leader.
”Yeah. I’ve tried calling her a bunch, but it’s just… nothing. It’s weird. It’s like the messages aren’t even reaching her. Maybe she went far off somewhere.”
If Hermine had picked up the telepathic link, she would’ve answered. The silence after hours could only mean she wasn’t getting them at all. Which probably meant she’d left the fortress, gone so far the connection couldn’t reach.
”Or she’s just napping in broad daylight.”
”Hermine? No way. She’s the type who can’t rest until everything’s perfectly done.”
”Yeah, kinda figured.”
If they couldn’t link up with Hermine, maybe sticking around here wasn’t the right move. They’d come all this way just to hit a dead end. Maybe it’d be smarter to regroup with the princess and talk over their next move.
”Not like we’ve got anything better to do. Might as well jump over and—…huh?”
”…You guys seriously don’t know? Mermaids, man—they never outright reject affection from men on land.”
The voice slipped in from behind, casual and drawling, and Klock froze. He knew that voice. His head snapped around on instinct.
Klock froze. That voice—he knew it. His head jerked around before he could even think.
”So what, you’re saying if a guy pushes hard enough on one of those fishy girls, he’s got a shot?”
”Exactly! Though, they say if you charm a mermaid, you’ll get cursed to never leave the sea again!”
Loud laughter—raucous, throaty, spilling out without shame—shook through the group of rugged sea-worn men at the nearby table.
Klock’s chair scraped hard against the floor as he suddenly stood. Cianie blinked, eyes widening slightly at the abrupt motion, but he didn’t spare her a glance. He left her there without a word, boots thudding as he strode toward the men’s table.
”Anyway, that’s just an old story. Could be bull. I mean, who in their right mind would actually try hitting on a fish gir—”
”Yo, Boit. What the hell are you doing in a dump like this.”
The cluster of scruffy men went quiet. Brow furrowed, Klock glared down at them as he said the name like it tasted sour.
”Huh? What’s your—wait… Klock?!”
A short, plump man in his middle years whipped around, eyes bulging. His face went pale like he’d just seen a ghost. On a normal day, he probably would’ve just laughed it off.
”You—you’re alive?! What the hell are you doing—”
”That’s my line. You’ve got guts showing your face after you betrayed me, you piece of shit. You ready to pay for it?”
Klock closed the space between them, every step thick with anger. Boit blinked blankly for a beat, then seemed to remember exactly what he’d done. His chair screeched back as he shot to his feet, hands raised like he could ward it off.
Boit. A weapons merchant. And not the clean kind. He’d been running black-market trades in illegal Monsters and slaves under the table. He used to operate around Crotopone, and back in the days when Klock was based in the Royal Capital Rocetta, they’d known each other for years.
And Klock remembered perfectly what had gone down months ago. Cianie’s blade pointed at him, his whole world collapsing, and he had fled the capital with nothing left. He’d run to the port town of Shinnit, planning to escape on Boit’s ship. But right before they could board, the hero party’s vanguard Tiet had caught up to them.
They’d been forced to flee in a stolen carriage—Bandit-style—while Tiet bore down on them like a nightmare. But Tiet was too strong. She closed in within moments. And then she had made that offer: “Leave Klock behind and I’ll let you go.” Boit had jumped at it. Without even hesitating, he had thrown Klock out of the carriage.
Boit had escaped alone. Klock had been left to get beaten into the dirt by Tiet.
So yeah—Boit was the backstabbing bastard. That smug rat face had burned itself deep into Klock’s memory. One day, he’d promised himself, he would make him pay. Among scoundrels, it was an unspoken rule: get tricked, you trick back. Getting revenge on Boit wasn’t just payback—it was an obligation.
”C’mon, Klock, don’t get so worked up. No hard feelings, yeah? I helped you out for a while, didn’t I? You’re the one who got the damn hero party on your back. No one can go up against those freaks.”
”That’s your excuse for betraying me?”
”Ha ha ha, don’t be so touchy. So, you busted out after getting caught, huh? Good job, man. Alright, first drink’s on me—booze’s rare these days, right?”
”Shut the hell up. Like I’d ever forgive you. Pay up—with your damn head.”
”…Hah? What’d you just say to me?”
Klock’s voice cracked sharp with rage. Boit’s grin twisted down into something hard.
”You’ve got a big mouth for a two-bit nobody. Think you can puff your chest at me just ’cause I’m being nice?”
”Oh yeah? You mad now? Guess guys raised like crap never learned how to apologize.”
They were face to face now, glaring so close their foreheads nearly touched. Klock’s eyes burned like coals as he scowled, Boit’s eyebrows flaring high as he glared back.
Around them, the tavern had gone still, eyes shifting toward the brewing fight. No one looked worried—if anything, people were grinning, leaning in like they’d just gotten front-row seats. A brawl was just another form of entertainment. Especially in a place like this town, crushed under the current chaos.
—And then the air moved.
A gust, sudden and sharp, whipped past their sides. Gray hair sliced through it like a blade of wind.
”What are you doing.”
”—guhBEHH?!!”
Her hand closed around his neck, and the man—heavier than average by the looks of him—rose into the air like he weighed nothing. Cianie had stepped between them in an instant, faster than a flash, and had Boit by the throat.
”mmggkh?! w—wa—wait—gkHH—!!”
”W-Whoa, wait wait wait, Cianie!! Stop, stop, whoa whoa—!”
Boit’s legs dangled off the floor, kicking helplessly, shoes scraping for footing that wasn’t there. Fights might be fun to watch when it was just shouting, but this—this crossed the line. This was blood about to spill.
The man choked out broken sounds. A chair toppled. A table skidded. A glass hit the floor and shattered. People scrambled back in a ripple of scraping boots.
One of the barmaids screamed, and suddenly every eye in the place was on them. The weight of it slammed down all at once.
Crap. Right. They were supposed to be undercover. Stirring up chaos here was the exact opposite of subtle. Cold sense finally slammed back into Klock’s skull. Only now did he realize how stupid this was.
They didn’t have time to play around. This town was on the edge of disaster, and they were supposed to be ghosts.
”Damn it… we’re leaving. Now. Cianie, drop him—Boit, you’re coming with us!”
They were way too obvious now, brighter than the sunset outside. Klock and Cianie shoved out through the door in a rush, dragging the wheezing Boit with them.
Notes:
• Cianie – A noble girl with a fluffy white and light blue dress, indicating her high status. She has a hesitant and flustered personality but is kind and courteous. Her relationship with Klock begins as an accidental encounter and develops into a romantic interest. She has a fiancé but expresses feelings for Klock, complicating their relationship.
• Suzette – The older maid from Viscount Fennec. The head maid at the Viscount Fennec’s villa. She is confident, clear-spoken, and professional.
• Hermine – Daughter of the Emperor of the Second Empire of Dusselhelm. A companion and friend of Anna. The mage. She is pragmatic and encourages Anna to focus on her duties as a hero rather than her personal revenge.
• Boit – A merchant involved in human trafficking, with a villainous face and a loud, obnoxious voice. He is pragmatic and willing to help Klock escape the country in exchange for something. His relationship with Klock is business-like, though both are aware of each other’s illicit activities.
• Rocetta – The royal capital of the Kingdom of Crotopone, where the knight barracks are located.
• Shinnit – Located south of the royal capital of the Kingdom of Crotopone, separated by mountains. A bustling trading town and the nation’s largest economic hub, controlling the Four Islands. It is a port city with gray outer walls, known for its strategic importance and military presence.
• Tiet – A companion and friend of Anna. A holy knight from the royal capital. She wears light armor and carries a shield adorned with a dragon holding a sword, indicating her affiliation with the National Military Police. She is concerned about Anna’s well-being and tries to support her emotionally.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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