“What are you trying to do?”
Friede glanced at the decapitated corpse of a beggar and asked.
Since it was a human who deserved to die, she wouldn’t say much about it. But her face clearly questioned why I had started swinging my sword without any plan.
“I’m talking about the Beastfolk looking for me. They don’t exactly seem like they’re searching for me with good intentions, do they?”
“Right…?”
Friede tilted her head as if to ask why I was even questioning something so obvious.
“If I’m going to stop this nonsense, I’ll have to step in myself. But fighting against that many Beastfolk is a heavy burden, even for me.”
Bagest is an organization that can truly be called the strongest of Pesengwigel, boasting sheer brute strength. Each member possesses superior physical abilities and regeneration skills, making it an unwise choice to confront them directly.
If by any chance their leader, Lakan Krakel, stepped in personally, then facing them head-on would essentially be a suicide mission.
The black wolf Beastfolk, Lakan Krakel, is powerful enough to take on royal knights depending on his condition or elemental affinities.
In plain armor, if he fought with ‘Manifestation of Karma’ sealed, I couldn’t even guarantee a victory against him. Hence, I had to avoid direct confrontation at all costs.
If he came at me for a one-on-one duel, I might handle it somewhat, but if he brought his underlings for a pincer attack, there would be no way to win.
“…So what’s your plan?”
“Normally, it would be best to strike right after they wipe out the Abandoners when they’re somewhat worn out, but… it seems we wouldn’t be able to handle the aftermath, right? So we have only one option left.”
I raised my finger in front of her and swaggered as I laid out my impromptu plan.
“We’ll ambush the separated Beastfolk, reducing their numbers as much as possible, while simultaneously persuading the Abandoners to turn them all into our allies. Until the strength of the Beastfolk and ours is balanced.”
That was my plan.
To kill one Beastfolk, you’d need more than five riffraff, which means the Abandoners will be overwhelmingly outnumbered for now… but how long could that last?
“So you’re suggesting we treat the Beastfolk as enemies and the beggars as allies…?”
“Exactly!”
If we selectively deal with the Beastfolk, the power gap between Bagest and the Abandoners would inevitably narrow.
Even if one Beastfolk could take out four or five beggars, if the enemy’s numbers doubled in an instant, the only outcome left would be getting sliced up in resistance.
“As the balance of power levels out a bit, Bagest will have no choice but to retreat. If they face defeat, it’s game over, and even if they win, they’ll end up a wreck and could be annihilated by another organization.”
Bagest had a lot of enemies. Their overly aggressive nature made them at odds with every other organization.
Sure, the other organizations also considered everyone except themselves as enemies, but at this moment, the balance of power among them was precariously matched. They were simply watching each other because fighting would mean mutual destruction.
But what if that balance were to crack?
Then they’d no longer just watch; they’d act based on their abilities. It’d be foolish not to step in if they could secure an outright victory.
So if I could convince both sides that they’d end up annihilated in this ongoing battle, Bagest would ultimately have to withdraw quietly.
“Ugh… It’s certainly a plausible explanation, but…”
Having heard my entire explanation, Friede fiddled with her hair, trailing off as she subtly pointed at the corpse of a riffraff who had sprawled out lifeless.
“Shouldn’t we have spared that person then? Since you planned to persuade them.”
“Uh… persuading doesn’t always guarantee success, you know? Sometimes it fails. That was just a result of failure.”
I shrugged slightly and forced a sheepish smile.
Persuasion needs words to connect; how would you convince a guy who started cursing and swinging a sword at you?
“…….”
“Don’t worry. Surely, not all the scumbags in the slums are like that, right? If you look hard enough, you can find those who know how to properly be grateful to their savior.”
I awkwardly tried to toss out optimistic expectations, causing Friede to stare at me intently. She finally let out a small sigh and nodded.
“Ha… Alright, I got it. Let’s try it that way for now. I can’t think of any better options.”
Hmm, that was a rather cold response. She used to be different.
I could clearly feel the drastic drop in her trust towards me.
Rather than seeing me as a reliable and strong leader, I felt like I was treated as a reckless screw-up who could cause an accident when left alone.
…Well, I can’t exactly blame her; even I wouldn’t trust myself.
With all the trouble I’d caused previously, expecting her to fully trust me was a stretch, to say the least.
So I really needed to make sure I handled this situation properly. I had to raise my bottomed-out trust rating back up.
“Shall we slowly head inside then?”
With that determination, I led Friede and Eleadra into the slums.
If it were up to me, I’d want to keep Eleadra as far away from this bloodbath as possible, but that was simply unrealistic.
Leaving Eleadra alone would be madness, and if I wanted to separate her, I’d have to send Friede away too… which simply wasn’t happening.
Given that one night of being apart had already led to this mess, I had no choice but to stick together as a trio.
◆◆
After that, we engaged in six rounds of persuasion.
The first encounter was with a fox Beastfolk wielding a three-bladed sword and four riffraff who had holes pierced in them by that very sword. I immediately ambushed them from behind as soon as I laid eyes on them.
The fox Beastfolk was cut into three pieces like some insect and died, while the riffraff, ignoring our words, charged at us, forcing us to take them down.
I hadn’t intended to kill them this time, but when they attacked not just me but Eleadra too, I had no choice but to quickly strike them down.
If Eleadra started to rampage properly, it would escalate into a disaster that would completely overshadow the conflict between Bagest and the slums.
The second group consisted of two wolf Beastfolk and seven riffraff.
While I was busy dealing with one Beastfolk, the riffraff lynched another Beastfolk to death, and they didn’t even stop but turned their sights back on me.
“Take this!”
Sprinkling some powder that might be poison or drug, I kicked the Beastfolk down to shove them off and quickly swung my cloak to scatter it.
“Augh!”
“Cough…!”
Two riffraff who got caught at the end of that attack died with their necks snapped, leaving no room for conversation.
Friede, who sighed at the scene, sliced down a Beastfolk in my place, while I stabbed the five charging riffraff to avenge my comrade.
“…You said there would be people grateful for saving them?”
“Uh, well… I suppose if we look a bit more, we might find some eventually…?”
My half-hearted excuse fell flat, as every riffraff we encountered after had the same dire ending.
The third group. The fourth. The fifth. Ultimately, up to the sixth group.
“Why is it that you all have such a problem? What in the world is going on?”
At this point, in sheer frustration, I asked the ones I had only half-killed why they were coming at us.
“I spared your life just now. You can’t even repay me and yet you keep trying to come at me? Did that Puff guy offer you three meals a day or something?”
“Shut up… Get lost…!”
The riffraff continued to spit blood as they exuded their hostility towards me. It was baffling.
It was perplexing to understand where this enmity and spirit were coming from.
They didn’t seem to have been genuinely loyal to Daniel either, so what could have caused this? These bastards.
“Die, you… lackey of the upper town…!”
“Upper town lackey…? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“I know it all…! You’re one of the ‘Guild’ sent down from the upper town…! These rich bastards want to come down here and pick us clean…!”
What in the world is this?
They spat out their bloodied words, shrieking in their dying breaths, completely absurd accusations that left me dumbfounded.
‘One of the Guild people? Me?’
How could anyone come to such a conclusion? Was this guy high on something?
◆◆
The woman who massacred the core members of the Abandoners is a lackey sent by the Guild to encroach on the slums.
They claim to offer power and protection if you obey, but it’s all a lie.
Once the encroaching is done, they’ll discard you all like unnecessary waste.
That was the bizarre rumor that had quietly spread throughout the slums while I had been sound asleep in the early morning.
The way I spoke mixed terms that sounded like they came from those upper town folks, along with my armor and clearly trained swordsmanship, all bolstered this rumor’s credibility.
Given that the first Guild leader, Albert, was a former royal knight, they viewed me as his student and secret weapon.
Declaring myself a member of the Shadow of the Eagle and not having any of my organization members appear only added to the rumor’s persuasiveness.
The reason why the riffraff I saved all charged at me with their eyes rolling back was centered around that bizarre rumor.
In the eyes of the riffraff, I had turned into a witch who needed to be killed.
“What on earth….”
Once I understood the whole situation, I could only let out a hollow laugh.
I had no idea who started these rumors, but looking at the situation, they surely had an effect.
These ignorant slum dwellers had believed that rumor without a shred of doubt and were now risking their lives to kill me.
After I tried to refute it all as mere, baseless gossip, none were willing to listen to me, even when they were on the brink of death.
With this, not only was it impossible to act as a ruler of the slums, but even the prospect of rallying the riffraff against Bagest seemed utterly unattainable.
‘Sigh, damn it, nothing is going my way…’
Whoever spread such rumors was definitely on my list of people to cut into ten pieces if I ever found them.
