I Became a Slave to a Mythical Shepherd

Episode 17. Quest (2)

“Uh, are you going to take it?”

After Cassius left, the old man groaned for several minutes.

“…it can’t be helped.”

Uncle Skleos finally sighed and answered.

“Unfortunately, Cassius-nim is right. I’ve never heard of a good friendship between brothers in that family. You’d better accept that request.”

As soon as Cassius died, the younger brothers would cut each other with their swords, and it would be difficult to think of harming the city’s blacksmith, whom they had no connection with.

“Conversely, if Cassius wins without our support, he won’t let us go.”

I sorted out the image of Cassius I had just seen.

A person who can calmly put even his own death on the table, a person who doesn’t blink an eye even when over a hundred people die in his family.

The revenge that such a person would return to his enemies and his allies… I did not want to imagine.

“Then, you must make the memorizations that Cassius-nim ordered.”

until one week later.

I need to quickly hit that huge amount of orders.

“I couldn’t measure it myself, but I took the body measurements of Cassius himself, his servants, and his brothers.”

Skleos called his fellow blacksmiths and put down a clay board with something written on it. A total of nine names and numbers were written, including the servant who said there were only five left, the three brothers, and Cassius himself.

“I will design bracelets and anklets assuming that the battle is going on inside the mansion. And rings make poison needles come out when you shake hands, and necklaces and earrings let poison leak out when you wear them…”

In fact, they are weapons that can save the life of the user and take the life of the enemy. That’s why the design and production were done carefully.

“Skeleos-sama, can Cassius himself use this bracelet?”

“possible. At that age, he’s a decent person who still goes fox hunting. I will never get tired of carrying some heavy gold bracelet.”

At the same time, it is aesthetically excellent enough to hide that it is a weapon.

“First of all, let’s emboss the bee pattern. Cassius-sama’s ancestors raised their family through beekeeping.”

“There, a merchant named Cassius is famous for his maritime brokerage trade. Decorate the rim of the bracelet with a wave pattern.”

It was a spectacular sight to see beautiful assassination tools being created in Hephaestus’ forge under the leadership of Skleos.

The artisans, who must have worked with him for decades, shared their roles without anyone telling them to, and they moved as if their limbs were attached to one body.

The sight of the parts created by the two people fitting together and assembling them as if they were originally one body aroused even a sense of pleasure.

“Take a good look. If you don’t want the dagger to come out and hurt the wearer’s wrist, save yourself here…”

– Pushup.

“The pork cuts well! But it penetrates the skin, but does not cut the bone…”

“Anyway, it’s a thing that mainly targets vital points and kills them with one shot. I don’t need that much intensity. The deadline is one week. Think about complying with it.”

The strength and sharpness of the blade are tested with pigskin and meat, or with layers of wool or burlap.

“A poison needle?”

“You have to shake too hard to get out? But if you don’t do this, it’s usually dangerous…”

“It’s a bad idea to decide whether a handshake will cause a stinger to come out. When you press the jewel above, the poison needle moves or something changes.”

In the process, the weapons constantly change their structure and materials, and each time they change, they come back stronger.

Given a week’s deadline, most of the weapons were completed in five days, and their quality was guaranteed in six days. And when the seven days came…

“#$%#, please.”

“… will it really be all right?”

It’s time to deliver the finished products.

“Usually, there were many cases in which items that were requested in secret like this were found in person or by sending someone, but now there are only five people left under Cassius-sama. There can’t be room on that side, so we have to send someone.”

“still···”

“And you are the only one whose name and face are not revealed in our workshop. As soon as anyone but you shows your face at the gate, it will be revealed for what purpose you are visiting.

“Ha, I see. Can I take Theo instead?”

“Hmm… yes. For personal safety, I will entrust you with an escort.”

Theo followed me without a word. Luggage including ‘stuff’ was distributed on the back, and the older brother hid a dagger in his waist.

“Follow me carefully. just in case.”

I nodded, and with Theo leading the way, we walked up to the nobles’ quarters.

Houses built of mud bricks and wood disappear behind them, soon lined up with huge mansions decorated with white stone exteriors. Even if you walk down one main street in a small city, the smell and atmosphere change completely.

And when the stench in the streets went away and even smelled more fragrant, we started to be vigilant.

When Theo stopped at the designated location, a gate engraved with a bee pattern blocked our way.

It was the mansion of Cassius. The dove that Theo had placed on his shoulder flew up with bandages on its wings.

As you’ve heard, the grand scale of destroying and combining three already large mansions.

Since this place was also used as a lodging for superiors and servants, it would have been inevitable for the size of the house to accommodate well over 200 family members and to do business.

However, from what I’ve heard, the maximum number of people left is around 50. The mansion, which suddenly lost a person to live in, somehow exuded a dreary atmosphere unique to an abandoned space in a luxurious setting.

I knocked, and the gate opened slightly.

“Who are you? There were no guests scheduled for today.”

We were the intended guests. Theo answered after being conscious of the belt with the dagger hidden in it.

“It can’t be. We’ve come here by the master’s command, but… I’m sure there are some of the nobles in this house who know us.”

When we deliberately blurted out who ‘the person who knew us’ was, the servant frowned through the slightly open gate… and soon opened the door wide and greeted us.

“I will soon find out who called you guys. Wait in the corner room over there.”

“···thank you.”

We moved slowly. To ‘guide’ us, two servants, Carl Chan, followed us on either side. Seeing that, Theo whispered softly.

“Arm… stab…”

-Kudangtang!!

And the whispers were not finished.

From the door on the side of the hallway, someone covered in blood came out as if spurring through the door.

Men with drawn knives follow from the room and surround the bloodied man.

“Bah, traitors! Who or who raised the family… this is how Cassius-nim’s legitimate property is…”

“shut up! Tell me where your master is hiding in the mansion!”

“That, he is your master too, you bastards!!”

Our guides glared at us with their hands on the handles of their knives.

“Ignore it and continue walking.”

“Well, isn’t that murder? An unjustified murder in this city is a crime punishable by death…”

“Because you keep walking.”

Soon, blades raised high flashed, and the force of gravity caused them to fall on the person below. A short scream and silence.

Theo muttered.

“…Do you have four allies left now?”

“I can’t hear what you said.”

“It’s nothing.”

Gradually, the corner room we were guided to began to appear. A corner of the square-shaped mansion with a courtyard was blocked off by a wall except for a door in front of us.

“Is that room empty?”

“hmm? Oh, yes. ”

“Are you sure?”

“Well, it’s a room where servants of someone else’s house who stop by for a while, who is there?”

“Good, then. @#$$, get ready.”

“Yes?”

Theo pulled the dagger from his waist. Before anything could stop him, the servant next to Theo collapsed with a slit carotid artery.

“What is this bastard doing…”

“bracelet!!”

“Ah, yes!”

I pressed the button on the bracelet I was wearing and grabbed the thigh of the servant next to me.

– Pushup.

“Quaaa!!!”

Then, a protruding dagger pierced his thigh. And the blade of Theo’s brother stuck in his mouth as he screamed and staggered. The blade protruded like a horn growing from the back of his neck, then went back in.

Two enemies fell like that.

Even then, it will be knocked down…

“What are these guys doing!”

“Wrap around!!”

About 40 people left.

Before he could ask what he was going to do now, Theo snatched the bow and arrow from the shoulder of the fallen servant and quickly loaded and fired.

-Shhhhh!

An arrow sprouts between the eyebrows of the servant who came closest.

The servant who approached next had an arrowhead go into his left cheek and come out through his right cheek.

“Hee-hee-hee!”

“Come on, you cowards!”

Stepping back into a corner, Theo shouted after blocking the possibility of an attack from the rear.

“If you don’t step back right away, the first pup to come will be pierced through the neck and die!”

Theo proved his point by driving another arrow into the chest of one of his close servants.

This kind of time dragging is very effective.

Everyone knows that ‘one person goes first and sacrifices’ and the rest wins, but nobody wants to be the one who goes first and sacrifices.

A confrontation that lasts for 1 minute or 10 minutes continues, and then a realization suddenly spreads among the enemies.

If you’re afraid you’ll be the first to charge in and be the one to sacrifice…

“Everybody jump in!!”

“aaa!!!”

It is enough to share the possibility of becoming that one person.

When dozens of men gathered in the courtyard charged at once, Theo calmly shot and killed the three fastest men, then discarded his bow and picked up a knife that had fallen to the floor.

“$#$#!”

“okay!”

I immediately threw the necklace and earrings in the sack.

The earrings that were hit right in the face of enemies shattered, spraying the poison inside into the eyes and noses of the servants. Of course, they were designed to shed extreme poison only when worn, so there was no great effect.

“Lord, kill me, kuaaa!”

-Suddenly.

Instead, it bought Theo a split second to aim for their necks.

“Anyway, there were only about fourteen people here. Since the rest of the mansion is so large that they are scattered, I thought I would kill each person one by one. okay?”

“···what?”

When I answered in a bewildered voice to the plaintive tone of a farmer pulling weeds, Theo took a step forward.

“like this.”

As Theo drew a single line with the blade, the two flying blades staggered away.

Taking advantage of that gap, he burrowed close to the chest of one servant, stabbed his heart, and cut off the left eye and ear of the other.

“Quaaagh!”

As he stumbled, Theo kicked him in the stomach, knocking him into another enemy running from behind.

While the two were entangled and unable to move, Theo quickly stabbed them through the chest like a skewer and killed them.

All that remains is four or five cowards who have not been able to charge even Ah-jin.

They were unable to move even with an absolute numerical superiority of 14 to 2.

As about ten people died in front of their eyes, they lost their fighting spirit and shivered.

When Theo picked up a bow from the floor and pierced one of the guys through the head, they jumped in knowing they couldn’t escape.

“$@@, you take the leg of the left one.”

“Yes?”

“Another bracelet!”

“okay!!”

“Baby!!!”

After narrowly dodging the blade that swung at me from above, I clung to my leg and cut my thighs and calves without hesitation with the daggers protruding from both wrists.

Taking advantage of his staggering moment, Theo decapitated the two of them, then came over and cut his chest obliquely.

“···oh my god.”

The moment the last person was cut down, this large house was filled with silence.

Blood seeped under the soil of the garden in the stillness.

I was appalled.

Looking back at Theo quietly, Theo looked around at the corpses with a cold face he had never seen before.

-Hook.

– Pushup.

…As if they were going to kill them for confirmation, they stabbed each corpse with a knife. In fact, some of the people who had been hiding for dead struggled and died, making the sound of being blown away.

I didn’t say anything.

In fact, it is the first murder of his life. It wasn’t that Theo-hyung defeated him, or that he hit him with a bow from afar.

My hands are still shaking. The sensation of the blade protruding from her wrist digging through her flesh still twitched uncomfortably.

But Theo was calm.

“I didn’t kill them all. A third of it?”

“I-do I have to do this twice more?”

“That won’t be it. Well, maybe I should.”

With the enemies gone, Theo carefully selected a new weapon from the floor and placed it in his hand. It was the sharpest smelted blade I had ever seen here.

“Let’s go to the warehouse. If Cassius is inside this mansion, there’s a good chance he’s hiding there.”

Theo and I quickly ran to the warehouse. On the way, the soldiers who stood guard one or two were quickly cut down by Theo.

“Kill them!!”

“Catch Cassius!!”

-bang!!

“… Cassius-sama?”

“Ah, you guys are here.”

Cassius was still dignified, holding his spear in his blunt expression, holding back the approaching enemies.

However, his whole body was covered in blood. Except for Polemon and one other servant standing around, there were no allies in sight.

It’s hard to stay like this for long.

“First, kill those bastards and kill them!

“yes!”

“Wowaaa!!”

The enemy must have made a reasonable decision, about half of the 10 or so soldiers ran to us. My older brother grabbed the three people who were approaching and took the time.

“@#$#$, stay back!”

“Ah Okay!!”

When I threw the necklace that I couldn’t throw earlier to cover it, my brother killed three of them and charged at the others. Even dealing with several people by himself, he was never pushed back.

However, it is unreasonable for one person to handle 10 people. Even Theo is tired from the battle he just had.

Even if it’s as my older brother said…

-Tattah tat tat tat.

There are still dozens of enemies left.

“what?”

“It’s a child I haven’t seen before. What should I do?”

“Do you think it’s okay for a witness to remain?”

Three men walking towards the entrance of the warehouse where I stood said to each other. One of them was one of Cassius’ brothers whom I had met.

“I have to kill you.”

-Surereung.

Blades are drawn without hesitation to kill a child. Three sturdy adult men walk by.

“Ah… Damn it…”

What do we do? How can I survive now…

– Whoa.

There is a whirling sound in your hand.

I feel a familiar touch in my right hand. As I grabbed it without realizing it, the right arm was pulled by a feeling of weight that was perfect for my arm strength.

Hephaestus’ gift.

Men flinch in surprise at the miracle of a hammer appearing out of thin air.

“What is that…”

“I can feel the divine energy.”

But that’s all.

The surprise of the moment soon leads to a rational judgment that ‘it must be cleaned up before anything more happens’.

“Kill me right now!!”

“yes!”

The faster my steps, the stronger the swinging blade approaches my body.

The situation doesn’t seem to have changed much from before. The only thing that has really changed is the hammer in my hand.

– Whoa, whoa!

-bang!!

And that one changes everything.

“What, what?”

Suddenly, the hammer soared upwards on its own and plunged into the ground. The marble tiles shatter and the pieces bounce in all directions, scratching the shins of the two men who come closer.

“Quaaagh!”

“You bastard is arrogant!”

The hammer rises in the air on its own, unsuitable for its heaviness. I’m barely holding the handle with the grip of a nine-year-old.

Enemies come, ruin

“Quad Deuk!”

Crush the skulls of enemies that come before you.