Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 713
Chapter 713: Special Force (4)
Let’s see. One, two, three, four, five, six…seventeen.
The Noarkan special force was made up of seventeen individuals. Although I only recognized three of them, I could use the three in question to gauge the level of the rest. And really, I didn’t even need all three of them to begin with.
The vice-captain of Orcules Roland Banozant, also known as Demon Eyes. Because he was leading the group, I had a grasp of the power level of the rest of the members.
In short, they were all elites of Noark, worth a hundred people each. We had no chance of winning if we just clashed head-on.
If I had all of my clan members with me, it might have been possible, but the only person I could trust among the people present was Raven. Not to mention, five of the twenty had specialized in searching rather than fighting. However, that didn’t mean I planned on running away with my tail tucked between my legs.
Tap, tap.
After all, it had been quite some time since we first entered the marquess’s mansion.
It’s about time they showed up…
“Bjorn Yandel! You bastard!” The Corpse Collector glared at me with pure rage in his eyes as he was put in cuffs. “One day, I will rip out your eyes myself, devour them, grind up your organs, and feed them to the goblins! I’ll then pour preservatives over your corpse so it doesn’t rot, and then—”
“I understand. You must have more work you need to do on that side,” I consoled. Knowing that he might be trying to prove his innocence by cussing me out, I kept my reaction to his outburst mild.
“Huh?”
“Did you hear that, Banozant? As you just saw, the Corpse Collector isn’t a spy for me, Bjorn Yandel. He is completely innocent. So let go of him.”
Of course, the vice-captain didn’t free him just because I told him to do so. Although he didn’t completely fall for my tricks, he had to take responsibility as the leader. He probably wanted to eliminate at least one variable, just in case.
“Y-y-you…!” Corpse Collector stuttered a little, seemingly lost for words. However, in the end, he couldn’t do anything but shake in his binds.
Stomp, stomp, stomp!
Suddenly, we could all hear the sound of armored knights running outside the door.
“This is going to be a problem, vice-captain,” Glasses mumbled. He was probably the smart character of the group.
The vice-captain scanned me from head to toe. “So it was to buy time…”
However, I couldn’t see any flare of emotion in Banozant’s eyes. He wasn’t angry, frustrated, or caught off guard. He was just looking at me, and because of that, I didn’t recognize the one strand of emotion I did find in his near-expressionless eyes.
Soon enough, though, I realized what it was.
Curiosity.
It was like he was in the pure information-gathering stage in an attempt to understand what kind of person I was. And the reaction that followed told me he had gathered some data on me.
“You are quite a tricky opponent,” he acknowledged. Then he turned to his group. “Untie Abed Necrapeto.”
“Pardon?”
“The variable has disappeared.”
Although he gave no explanation as to what he meant, Glasses carried out the order without question. It was as if he had complete faith in his vice-captain’s judgment.
“I told you!” the Corpse Collector huffed furiously as he was freed from the grasp of his allies. Still, freeing him seemed to have improved his mood. “Hah, really! A savage like him having such a lively tongue… I truly can’t understand!”
He returned to that weird way of speaking he had abandoned in his surprise. His display of renewed confidence made me want to just slam a punch down over his head.
Unfortunately, though, it was the door that slammed open with a resounding boom, and in entered a white-haired veteran knight with his subordinates. The old knight began shouting like a police officer who had come with a warrant.
“Stop right there, Baron Yandel! The supreme commander has relieved you of your position, and has declared you to be punished for having exceeded your—”
His expression froze when he confirmed the situation in the room, however.
“Huh? Why are they here…?”
Taking in his shocked expression, I figured that was probably the same look I’d had when I burst into the room.
The Noarkan elite unit that couldn’t be found anywhere was discovered in the marquess’s mansion. And they were even facing off against me, Bjorn Yandel, who had been deemed to have “exceeded my authority.”
Since I obtained results, I probably won’t be punished.
Sure, this happened because of sheer dumb luck, but the world only cared about results. I no longer needed to worry about the consequences. The only problem left was to defeat all the opponents with the help of those knights over there.
“It’s been a while, Morgan Kalitumur.”
“You are…Demon Eyes?”
So the vice-captain knew that knight. The room buzzed with murmurs at the name drop.
“By Kalitumur…”
“The knight captain of the 2nd Knight Order of the Palace…?”
“He’s the famous Knight of the King…?”
I knew the marquess would send someone of decent status to collect me, but a person with a much higher qualification than I expected ended up coming.
Morgan Kalitumur.
Dubbed the Knight of the King, he was the famous former guard knight and right hand of the King of the New World. After the King of the New World fell into seclusion out of health concerns, Morgan ended up retiring due to political reasons. However, he had been reinstated as the knight captain of the 2nd Knight Order of the Palace when the position opened up not long ago.
“Pshe… Pretty rare to see him out and about.”
Maybe it was only natural that his appearance here would shock everyone. Although the vice-captain of Orcules was pretty famous in his own right, the reputation of that old monster over there didn’t lose out at all. Before his retirement, nine out of ten people in the city would have marked him as the “strongest” if asked.
“Demon Eyes, Banozant. The fact that you’re here…means that Baron Yandel has succeeded in his mission.”
Uh…
“That’s what happened,” I confirmed robotically.
“From what I heard, it seemed as if you recklessly entered the marquess’s home, but that wasn’t the case in reality. I did wonder why someone of your status would act in such a way. Just how did you do it?” the old knight asked wonderingly. “This is information that not even the imperial Department of Intelligence has been able to obtain.”
“The secret…is a logical deduction and being suspicious of the right things.”
“Oho? So you won’t tell us who your informant is?”
Uh…
It felt as if a senior member at my company were looking at me with pride, and I ended up just closing my mouth shut from the pressure of it.
As always, that would get me far enough.
“In any case, with things as they are, I will save the conversation for later. It won’t be too late to exchange perspectives after we capture these wicked insurgents.”
“I’ll help too.”
With that, my conversation with the Knight of the King came to an end.
Okay, that was a bit too long… I’m glad he isn’t a paladin.
Knight Gramps drew his sword, and I took up my battle stance with him. We had the numbers advantage, and the terrain advantage since the marquess’s office didn’t have a single window.
He probably didn’t put any in to stop people from sneaking in from the outside.
The marquess’s mansion was famed for its durability. I heard that it was constructed the exact same way that the king’s residence was. The external walls were made from extraordinary materials, and thanks to all sorts of magic being applied to it, it would supposedly be able to stay standing for at least a minute even if the world ended.
“Put down your weapons and beg for our mercy.”
Which meant that the only exit was currently being blocked by the Knight of the King.
“That is the only choice before you today.”
However, even when faced with Knight Gramps’s powerful presence, Vice-captain Banozant didn’t show any emotion. Rather, he only said one thing.
“Sure. We surrender.”
Huh?
“What did you just say?”
Guess it wasn’t just me. Knight Gramps sounded as caught off guard as I was.
The vice-captain expressionlessly repeated the same words again. “I said we surrender.”
Well. That was totally unexpected.
The Orcules elite unit must have had some reason for infiltrating this far into city limits. And yet these guys were surrendering so easily? They weren’t going to try and resist and fight us until the bitter end?
Everyone could tell that we were in a suspicious and unpleasant situation. Since Knight Gramps was no exception to this, he stepped up personally and captured them himself. However, in the end, the Noarkans put up no resistance whatsoever, and the situation was resolved with their arrest.
“Y-you have accomplished a great deed. Congratulations, Lord Baron.”
“Please tell the marquess that we did well, if you would…”
While the members assigned to me by the marquess also sensed something was off, they were ultimately glad. Also, in an attempt to eliminate the uneasiness hiding behind their joy, they tried to be as optimistic as possible.
“I’d wondered why they did it at first, but it’s the obvious choice, honestly.”
“That’s right. With the Knight of the King here, there’s nothing they can do.”
“He must’ve concluded there was no way out except to surrender.”
Well, it was true that they were in a disadvantageous situation, but I really didn’t think they would act like that. It wasn’t just intuition on my part this time either. I had proof.
It’s unbelievable that no one opposed his decision…
The moment the vice-captain declared their surrender, no one commented on it. Not the Corpse Collector, or the Wailing Witch, not Glasses—who looked to be his loyal right-hand—nor anyone else in the unit.
Vice-captain! What do you mean, surrender?! We should fight until the end!
If we get captured here, we’ll just be tortured to death!
I’d rather die fighting!
I’d expect reactions like those from at least one or two people. It was far, far too suspicious that no one raised any opposition. It didn’t make sense unless they already planned and discussed this situation beforehand.
They’re obviously scheming something.
The problem was that I had no idea what this scheme could be nor if there was anything I could do about it at the moment.
“Kalitumur,” I called. “What are you planning to do with them?”
“It is not in any way related to your mission, but I will answer you, as you have contributed greatly to their capture. They will now be transferred to the palace. They will then be imprisoned there as the Department of Intelligence makes them spit out everything they know.”
Okay, so what I expected…
“Can’t we just kill them all here?” I talked about how dangerous they were and the possibility that they let themselves get captured on purpose, but Knight Gramps didn’t even pretend to listen to me.
No, to be precise, he listened to every word I said, then dismissed my suggestion outright.
“I understand the basis of your concerns. However, we are currently at war, and we need the information they hold if we want to win that war.”
“So we can’t justify it.”
“That’s right. And if we kill these people whom we have captured after they willingly surrendered, who will take responsibility for it?”
I didn’t answer.
“Do understand that I cannot take responsibility for something driven purely by gut feelings.”
However sternly Knight Gramps was in declining my request, he seemed equally uneasy about doing so, as he personally went around helping out and checking on the bindings of the prisoners.
“We will now transfer them to the palace. As they are high-priority prisoners, anyone who slacks off until the transfer is complete will suffer heavy punishment.”
With that, Knight Gramps led them all out to the garden, and the Noarkans were moved onto a carriage specialized for transporting criminals.
However… What was this?
“Bjorn, son of Yandel.”
As he was being dragged into the special carriage by the knights, the vice-captain spoke to me.
“I will be seeing you,” he said with an ominous smile. Anyone could tell that was not the face of someone being dragged to his death. It gave me the certainty that I would regret just letting him go here.
“Wanna die?” I said, unsettled.
The vice-captain responded with his signature, annoying smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “So what? Are you going to harm me? You, with so much to lose?”
I stayed quiet.
“Despite appearances, you are a very logical individual. And it isn’t difficult to deal with people like—”
“Yeah,” I said curtly, cutting him off.
He didn’t seem to fully understand why my answer was so short, but he probably had a guess.
“Are you saying you are going to harm me?” the vice-captain asked, his eyes once again filled with that “curiosity.”
I answered him with my words and the hammer that had suddenly appeared in my hand.
“Yeah.”
Crunch!
It was clear that things would get troublesome after this point.
Crunch!
But it’d be better than living with regret. If I let him go now, I got the feeling that I wouldn’t get another chance to kill him.
Yeah, so…
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Demon Eyes, was it?
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
His eye for people was completely off when it came to me.
English