Chapter 307 : Wish Ticket

I sent Shushuruta, who was on her way to a mission.

And to clear my head, I wandered around wherever the wind took me and then returned to the Sherwood hideout.

As soon as I returned, I received a report from Commander Hud.

Because Sherwood was currently at war with the Dark Heaven Society.

Some might scoff at the idea of fighting a war with less than ten people.

But Sherwood was a place where such an impossible thing was possible.

"How is it? Is it going smoothly?"

"So far? We're beating them up as we see them, but..."

Hud marked the destroyed Dark Heaven Society bases in red on a map of the Maia Kingdom and explained.

"This is bigger than I thought."

The red dots were spread all over the Maia Kingdom.

Looking at it like this, it seemed as if the entire Maia Kingdom was suffering from a fever.

"What. There were this many?"

It was so disgusting that it was like an anthill.

It was as if they had laid eggs all over the kingdom.

"As you can see, what can I say? They don't really have any rules."

Hud pointed at the map and explained.

"It's strange, but it's clear that there are some executive-level guys who are giving orders from above, but the form is a cell organization."

"Is that possible?"

"That's why they haven't been caught yet. When we catch a guy who seems pretty important and interrogate him, he just shouts 'The Dark Heaven will come!' and then vomits blood and dies. It's not easy."

"Hmm."

"Sorrow is going around beating them up, and whenever he sees a guy who seems important, he catches him alive and is studying the mechanism... but the executives are so few and they move so cautiously that it's not easy to catch them. If we had more samples, we might get a better idea."

"So?"

"So, the current goal is twofold."

Hud raised his index finger.

"First, to catch the Dark Heaven Society executives without killing them as much as possible and help Sorrow figure out their mechanism. When Sorrow finally figures out how their black magic works and can prevent them from committing suicide, then we can interrogate them very gently, being careful not to kill them, and we might be able to find out their main base."

I nodded.

"Sorrow has a heavy burden on his shoulders."

Hud raised his middle finger.

"Second, just go around and beat up as many as we can see."

"Oho."

"We'll just keep beating them up until we get caught. If we go around destroying everything with the mindset of exterminating them all, we'll eventually find their main base."

"I like the second one."

"Right? Me too."

[I also agree.]

To think that they would just go around destroying everything, hoping to get lucky.

It was so refreshing.

One thing, if I were to risk revealing a heavenly secret and tell you the truth of the world.

Whatever it is, as long as it's refreshing, it's fine.

You will witness a miracle where unnecessary worries are cut in half.

"Yes. That's right."

"What?"

"Hud. I can't just tell you the truth for free."

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about all of a sudden."

"I'll think about it if you give me about 10 gold. It's cheap! A heavenly secret for 10 gold!"

"Eat this."

When Hud lowered the index finger of the two fingers he had raised to explain, only a pretty middle finger remained.

So there were two paths to success.

Even if it took a lot of time, even if one failed. It meant that there was a high probability of reaching their main base.

"Alright. You're doing well. Let's keep going like that."

"But you know."

Hud said, tapping his lips with the back of his pen.

"The more the outline is revealed, the bigger their scale is than I thought."

"Really?"

"Yes. There were more of them disguised as ordinary villagers than I thought. It turned out that the whole village was a den of the Dark Heaven Society, so there were quite a few times when we just burned it all down."

The whole village was a damn fanatic?

For some reason, I felt like bad memories were coming back to me.

"Are the other guys doing well?"

"Of course. The three crazy swordsmen are at the forefront."

Hud explained, spinning his pen.

"First, Dofang..."

Dofang, who was an expert in this kind of thing as a former assassin, was said to be carrying out his mission with a smile, saying it reminded him of the old days.

He was searching for the hidden bases of the Dark Heaven Society faster and more accurately than anyone else, and then.

He would just seep into the darkness and slit their throats, and then burn or destroy the base, and he was moving forward at an amazing speed.

It seemed there had never been a time when his face was so full of life as it was these days.

'Well, enjoying your work is a blessing.'

The demonic swordsman was said to be burning with the desire to avenge the northern monster wave.

I could easily imagine his expression, with his lips curled up like a beast.

The harmony of Sorrow's cold brain and Hartz's beastly nature was said to be closely following Dofang's performance.

Hartz had already defined them not as people, but as prey.

The number of hunts he had failed at could be counted on one hand, so the Dark Heaven Society guys would be having nightmares.

'Sorrow's head and Hartz's claws. There's nothing more terrifying than having them as an enemy.'

And, the last of the three crazy swordsmen, the debauched knight, Lyle.

He was also said to be doing his best.

Saying that the ladies were trembling in fear, he was said to be faithfully fulfilling his romantic knightly duty to reassure the ladies as the black knight of the half-night...

But that was Lyle's one-sided claim.

According to Hud's opinion, the truth was a little different.

Thanks to the Dark Heaven Society's rampage, the night streets had become scary, so the ladies were not coming out and were hiding in their houses...

Our debauched knight, Lyle, whose interests were always the same, was enraged that it had become very difficult to pick up ladies who were out and about at night, and had appointed the Dark Heaven Society as the main enemy of the ladies.

It was said that he was going around beating up all the Dark Heaven Societies as if he had a grudge against them.

I heard that he was finding out the location of the bases in a rather unusual way, by seducing the female believers who had joined the Dark Heaven Society.

"...Is that possible?"

"They say it is. He's a hundred percent successful. In terms of accuracy, Lyle is number one."

"..."

I was at a loss for words.

Should I try that method too?

[Don't even think about it.]

'Why? Why are you stopping me?'

[Why? Isn't it obvious that they'll run away as soon as they see your eyes? You're supposed to approach them secretly, but you're causing chaos.]

'...Damn it.'

[There's a method that suits everyone.]

The Heavenly Demon chuckled and teased me.

In the following words, Schmidt and Shushuruta were also said to be busy beating them up.

I had wondered where Shushuruta was going in such a hurry, and she was on her way to destroy a Dark Heaven Society base.

"And you?"

"Me too, well. I can't go far because of the paperwork, but whenever I feel stiff, I go and beat up something nearby."

"How diligent."

I nodded with satisfaction.

Everyone was diligently following the captain's instructions.

Was this the authority of a captain?

"Currently, Dofang is maintaining first place in the Dark Heaven Society base destruction competition."

"...What's that?"

"They were betting on who could destroy more bases, and then they realized that their scale was bigger than they thought. So it became a competition."

"Oho. How desirable."

Because competition sometimes greatly speeds up the progress of work.

"What's the first prize?"

"I don't know. I heard it started as a simple drinking bet, but now it's become a matter of pride."

"As a captain, I can't help but support it. As the captain of Sherwood, I declare that I will add a first prize."

"Oh! What is it?"

Hud asked with a bright face.

"Hmm... what would be good?"

Hud's purple eyes sparkled.

"How about the captain granting one wish?"

"...A wish?"

A wish.

There was no prize as abstract as that.

Given the nature of the guys, who were realistic mercenaries, I didn't think they would like it very much, so I was going to do something else, something material...

"No, this will be the most effective. If you do it right, the first place might even be overturned."

"With just one wish ticket?"

"Yes. I think there will be a few guys who will go crazy for it."

If I could push the damn Dark Heaven Society guys out of the world by sacrificing myself once.

Willingly.

I nodded.

"Let's do that, then."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Hud immediately took out a piece of paper and scribbled on it, and then handed it to me.

"Sign it."

"What's with the signature."

"We have to be sure."

"Alright, alright."

I took the pen from Hud and scribbled.

"There."

Hud smiled without a word, and then went downstairs with the paper.

"What?"

After a while, with a thumping sound, Linda, who had been rolling around in the hideout, ran up the stairs.

"Devil! Is it true? You'll grant a wish if I get first place?"

"Um..."

Next, the sound of someone coming up with a thumping sound was heard, and Siri also peeked her head out.

"I saw the pledge that Big Sister Hud gave me. How far can the wish go?"

"Uh... that's..."

Shushuruta, who had returned at some point with the smell of blood on her, landed lightly on the railing like a cat.

"It was clearly written 'anything'. Is it true that you have no right to refuse?"

"..."

Hud, who had leisurely come up the stairs, waved the pledge I had signed.

"You promised, right?"

I didn't know what these guys would ask for as a wish, but looking at their expressions...

"Hehe."

"Hehe."

"Huhu."

...I had a strong feeling that they would ask for something very terrible.

[You dug your own grave.]

I could hear the Heavenly Demon's low laughter faintly.

"...You son of a bitch."

This competition, I have to win.

Somehow.

* * *

I grabbed a handful of the documents that Hud had sorted on one side and ran out of the hideout.

Busy, busy.

There's no time.

I could hear the voices of the guys protesting from behind, but I ignored them and ran, glancing at the documents I had brought.

"What's this?"

The result was a bust.

It seemed they had been sorted by region, and the ones I had picked up were all from the western region of the Maia Kingdom.

Commission requests from the western region, and suspicious activities and incidents that seemed to be the work of the Dark Heaven Society.

"Damn it."

The Sherwood Mercenary Corps' hideout was located in Milestone.

Milestone was in the eastern part of the Maia Kingdom. And it was a free city located on the outskirts, near the misty cliff at the very end.

It was literally from one end to the other.

I had just grabbed the thickest-looking pile of documents.

Because they were at opposite ends, the distance was far, so the other guys hadn't picked them up and had left them, and I had picked them up.

No wonder they had chased me and then quickly turned back.

The distance was one thing, but there was another reason why I was reluctant.

"Damn it... the western part of Maia, and the wasteland at that, I'm a little reluctant to go there."

[Why?]

"I have bad memories."

The Heavenly Demon snorted.

[Are you in a position to be picky right now?]

"...That's true."

Just as I hadn't looked for Sirnberg, where Tina's grave was, that place was similar.

—Oh my, mercenary sir. Please save us.

The image of the middle-aged man who had been rubbing his hands with a servile expression came to mind.

"...Fuck."

I feel like shit.

I muttered a small curse and then turned west.

Anyway, since the other guys hadn't gone that way, it seemed there would be a lot of lively Dark Heaven Society guys.

To use a metaphor, it was as if an orchard with ripe fruits that had never been picked was waiting for me.

This was just what I had grabbed in a handful. In reality, there would be more.

The only way to win this shitty competition, where a wish ticket was added as a prize, was this.

I tore apart the ghosts of the past that were crawling up, and then unfolded my movement art toward the west.

"You Dark Heaven Society bastards. Wipe your necks and wait. Your nightmare is coming!"

I felt very dirty, but as I shouted as if to chase away the ghosts and took a deep breath of the wind and ran to my heart's content, I felt better again.

Hmm. A somewhat volatile emotional swing is also helpful at times like this.

"Hahaha..."

The thought of giving the Dark Heaven Society friends in the west a bloody nightmare made me laugh.

[Take it easy. The heart demon will come out on the way.]

"Hahahaha..."

I could hear the Heavenly Demon's sigh.

[I thought he was getting better. Why are his symptoms getting worse as time goes on.]

"Hahahahahaha!"

I answered the Heavenly Demon's concern with a bigger laugh and unfolded my movement art to the west.

(End of Chapter)