"Wahaha!"

"So if I hadn't looked after this guy back then, he would have been a big mouthful for a magical beast, right?"

"Don't be ridiculous. How could I be defeated by a guy who's not even D-rank? I'm Brown of Yudron!"

"Hehehe. Arnold, this guy is already drunk."

"Come on, cheers!"

"Drink!"

The night deepened.

The mercenary guys who had been endlessly pouring poisonous substances down their throats were now, one by one, raising the white flag and falling into dreamland.

I gently swirled the glass containing the mind-numbing poison and looked out the window.

The moon was high in the sky. As if to drive away the darkness of the alley.

I held the glass out the window.

The swaying moon was contained in the rippling glass.

I swallowed the moon in the glass along with the cold fire.

For a moment, something hot flowed down my throat, but thanks to the moon floating in it, it was bearable.

"Kuh..."

I emptied the glass and then stood up, swaying slightly.

Camus, who was pouring wine into his glass, looked at me with hazy eyes.

"Hey, leader. Where are you going?"

I also replied with a hazy smile.

"To take a leak."

"Hehe... I don't know if you can aim properly while swaying like that. I hope there's no unfortunate incident of you peeing on your own feet!"

I answered in a solemn tone.

"Don't worry. Even if your leader is drunk, he doesn't pee on his own feet."

"Hahaha!"

"That's our leader."

"I'm so proud I could die!"

I left the noisy guys behind and went out of the inn.

Sway, sway.

I walked down the dark street with a rather loose gait...

Chiiik—

The alcohol vapor escaped from my fingertips like steam.

My staggering steps, like a drunkard's, gradually found their place.

"Huu—"

Thanks to that, my breath smells a little of alcohol, but my mind is very clear.

Of course. I can't be drunk when I'm facing a master of infiltration and assassination.

A street where the moonlight pours down.

I walked with a dancing gait, smiling like a waning moon.

***

A pub with its lights on.

Even though the moon had already set quite a bit, the pub was full of the liveliness of the day.

The noisy chatter, the occasional burst of laughter, and the faint sound of a plinking piano seeping in between.

A playground for those who live the night as if it were day. A bonfire where moths that enjoy the pleasures of the night gather.

A stranger came to that place, which was no different from usual.

Bang!

A man entered the pub with a refreshing laugh and his arms wide open.

"Hahahaha! My friends! How have you been!"

The people who were drinking at their seats blinked their eyes and looked at the man who had just entered.

He was dressed in fancy clothes as if he were a nobleman, and he looked as if he had just come from a social party.

However, his clothes were not neat and were disheveled here and there, so it looked as if he had stolen a nobleman's clothes.

A white shirt and a blue coat embroidered with sparkling gold.

A fancy hat with a feather was perched crookedly on his head.

The man's eyes sparkled with mischief.

"...."

The people looked at him with dumbfounded faces.

Because he was a stranger.

Although his clothes were those of a nobleman, no one thought he was a nobleman.

Because there was no reason for a noble nobleman to appear in such a shabby place.

But regardless.

The man approached a man who was close to the entrance and spoke to him in a friendly manner.

"Hey, Nelson! It's been a while! It's good to see you, good to see you!"

"Uh, uh."

The man called Nelson shook hands with the stranger, who had grabbed his hand, with a stupid face.

"But why are you just holding your glass and not drinking? Isn't it a crime to just pour a drink and not drink it! Alcohol is not for decoration, my friend. Ahem, I'll take care of it for you."

And then he snatched the glass and gulped down the cool beer.

"Kya! The taste is to die for! As expected, you have to drench yourself with beer after work!"

The man, who had his beer snatched away without knowing why, stared at him blankly.

"Do you know me?"

The man grinned. The dim lighting of the pub made his white teeth shine.

"Hey, you. You shouldn't tease a friend."

The man wiped his mouth with his expensive-looking sleeve and then passed the table, greeting people here and there as he went inside.

"Hey, Houston. Seeing you here, you must have been kicked out by your wife! Ah, Drake. What have you been doing until now? I've been looking for you. Is your mother well? I heard the flower shop business isn't what it used to be, so I bought some flowers on my way here."

And then, as if by magic, he took out flowers from behind his back and handed them to him.

"Ta-da! Here, take it. Sometimes, a flower given to a gentleman, not a lady, has its value."

The man who had received the flowers in a daze muttered.

"...The flower shop closed in the early evening?"

The man naturally ignored his words and moved on.

"Oh, Jackson! This must be Mrs. Jackson next to you. It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am. I am Dofang, Jackson's close friend. I heard you hurt your leg, but it seems you're much better now."

The people could only blink their eyes as they looked at the stranger who was spouting words without giving them a chance to speak.

The reason they were speechless was not just because he didn't give them a chance to speak.

They were surprised because everything he said was true.

He knew the names of the people he greeted in a friendly manner, and even their circumstances, so much so that people even thought for a moment that they had forgotten the man in front of them.

"Hey, Hummel. What are you looking at? Even if it's been a while. You haven't forgotten me, have you?"

As the stranger was spouting words and stirring up the pub.

A man slammed the table!

The plinking piano sound stopped with a tragic melody, and the pub instantly became quiet.

The man who had slammed the table had his eyebrows furrowed as if he were in a very bad mood.

He stared at Dofang with a cigarette in his mouth and spat out his words.

"Hey, you handsome guy over there. Can you be quiet? Can't you see I'm playing a game?"

At those words, Dofang approached his place and scanned the table with his eyes.

"Aha, you're playing cards. Hmm, judging by the chips piled up, it's a very big game. My apologies."

"If you know, then shut up."

"But the situation doesn't seem to be in your favor. I don't know why you're stubbornly holding on to that crappy hand, but now is not the time to be reckless. It's not the time to bluff! I advise you, fold now and..."

"Damn it!"

Crash!

The man flipped the table over.

The stranger looked at the man who had flipped the table with a dumbfounded look.

"No, friend. Why are you so angry all of a sudden?"

The man's eyes flashed fiercely at him.

"...Friend? The people I can call friend don't exceed ten. And you're not one of them."

He was a man with a fierce face and a fierce atmosphere that anyone could see.

But the stranger didn't stop his chattering with a smiling face.

"Oh dear. What a stuffy friend. If you were ostracized by those friends, you'd lock yourself in your room and cry your eyes out. As they say, it's not good to have too many friends, but on the other hand, it's not good to have too few. I once had a friend who was as socially inept as you..."

The man with the fierce impression looked at the man who was still unfolding his story with a smiling face, and then he slowly stood up.

The heads of the people who were watching slowly lifted up, following him.

He seemed to be rising endlessly.

When he was fully standing, he was a giant over 2 meters tall.

He looked down at Dofang and said in a fierce, growling voice. He was on the verge of slamming the chatterbox to the ground.

"Do you know who I am?"

At the tension that arose between the two, the pub became so quiet that you couldn't even hear a breath.

The people watched the two with bated breath.

But the stranger smiled and didn't avoid his gaze.

"I know you well. Aren't you Begin, the right-hand man of the infamous Tramy gang that rules our Parselson Street?"

The giant called Begin laughed fiercely.

"You know that and you're still doing this?"

"Is there a reason why I shouldn't?"

Begin's expression crumpled.

He was on the verge of eating him up.

"I haven't seen your face before. I don't know where you came from, but you picked the wrong opponent. This is not a place where you can run wild as you please."

Screech—

Like a wild dog baring its teeth, a sharp dagger was drawn from his bosom.

When the blade appeared, short screams and gasps erupted from all over and then quickly disappeared.

The pub, which had been bustling just a moment ago, was as quiet as a mouse.

Everyone swallowed their saliva and watched him.

The stranger raised his hands with a startled face.

"No, friend! Why are you suddenly taking out a blade? Let's talk, let's talk."

"Talk? I don't need that."

"You don't need to talk? You need to talk for everything, friend. You can resolve conflicts step by step by talking, just like untangling a tangled thread. So let's also untangle the tangled thread by talking—"

"Shut that mouth! One more word and I'll tear that mouth up to your ears."

The man shrugged and made a gesture of sewing his mouth shut.

At that moment, Begin suddenly sniffed and his expression changed.

"You. You smell of blood."

"Blood? Me? That can't be."

And then the man sniffed his own clothes.

"You can't fool my nose. How many people have you killed? I feel like my nose is going to fall off."

"Ah, it was a figurative expression. I'm sorry, I'm sometimes slow on the uptake. Well... it's an old story. We all live with some of our past buried, don't we? You seem to have a dirty past too. But you're still in the present, while I've cleanly settled my past, so I'm at least better than you—"

Thud—

Begin took a step towards the man, cutting him off.

"You're unlucky. To meet Begin of this Parselson Street."

"H-hey. Let's put down the knife—"

"Sniff, sniff. Now you smell of something else."

Begin bared his yellow teeth and smiled.

"The smell of death."

Begin said that and then thrust the sharp dagger he was holding at the man with all his might.

His movements were agile, unlike his large body.

Screams erupted from all over.

"Tsk."

The stranger, who had clicked his tongue, seemed to blur for a moment, and then he suddenly appeared in front of Begin and grabbed his arm, which was holding the dagger.

Begin's eyes widened. He hadn't even seen it.

The arm that was caught by him was as immovable as if it were caught between a rock.

It's cold. His body stiffened at the feeling of death creeping up on him.

Begin looked at the man.

His eyes were still sparkling with mischief.

"You, who are you?"

"Are you finally in the mood to talk? It would have been so much better if we had resolved this with words."

The man slowly released Begin's fingers one by one, and then he took the dagger.

The sharp tip of the blade was aimed at his neck.

"I, I am Begin, the right-hand man of the drug lord Tramy. If you kill me, it's war immediately. Do you know that?"

The man smiled.

"It's also fun to wake up the city's boredom."

"You crazy...!"

The man whispered in his ear in a low voice.

"Friend. Do you know that?"

The sharp tip of the blade that was aimed at the opponent.

"Death is closer than you think."

Was drawn towards his own neck.

"Much closer than you think."

Pshuk!

The blade cut his Adam's apple.

"Gurgle!"

Begin desperately tried to stop the blood gushing from his neck and made a gurgling sound.

The man caught the staggering him and gently laid him on the floor, murmuring in a soft tone. It was as if he were singing a lullaby to a child who was afraid of the night.

"Shhh... don't be afraid. The boatman will come to get you soon."

He, who had slowly collapsed under the man's guidance, crawled on the floor, clutching his neck with one hand.

"I'll give you a piece of advice. If you don't want to be thrown into the river, it's better to be polite to the boatman."

"Gurgle... kuruk!"

His movements gradually slowed down and then stopped completely.

The man threw the bloody dagger at the quiet Begin and said in a casual tone.

"When you don't have a weapon, don't panic and use your opponent's weapon."

Then the man looked around the quiet room and smiled.

"Ah, there was a little commotion. I'm sorry, my friends!"

"...."

But there was no answer.

"Hmm. This guy ruined all the fun. The atmosphere is ruined. But it's okay. I'll take responsibility."

The man slowly walked somewhere and began to sing slowly.

"The grumpy gambler Begin. He can't gamble anymore. Goodbye to the boring card games."

The place he walked to was the piano, and the man who was sitting in front of the piano played the piano as if he knew what to do.

Ting-ding-ding—

The stranger put his arm around his shoulder and naturally put his voice to the melody.

"It was last summer. When the grumpy Begin started frequenting the pub."

The melody gradually quickened and became cheerful.

The atmosphere was reversed.

"But no one liked him. The grumpy Begin."

—The grumpy Begin.

When the man sang first, people began to sing along one by one.

"The grumpy Begin."

—The grumpy Begin.

The people who had been stiff also turned their eyes away from the bloody corpse and sang along.

"It seems he was ostracized by his friends who said he wasn't one of the ten. He wasn't welcomed here either. He only earned hatred with his scowling face."

The man jumped up onto the bar and sang cheerfully, stomping his feet.

"But it's okay! That unpleasant face that was always scowling is no more. He won't have to scowl anymore. The grumpy Begin."

—The grumpy Begin.

"We don't care if he's somewhere in hell now."

—We don't care!

"Yeehaw!"

Dofang, who began to dance in earnest.

The people had already forgotten the corpse.

"The grumpy Begin is now wiping the floor with his belly."

—Wiping the floor!

"The boring Begin was taken away by the boatman."

—Taken away!

A few people hurriedly opened the pub door and left, leaving the cheerful song behind.

And before the door closed again, a man with a hat pulled down entered with a black smile.

He found the man who was singing and dancing on the bar and smiled slightly.

"Found you."

He shouted.

"Hey, you boastful Dofang!"

Dofang, who was dancing excitedly, looked that way.

The man with the hat pulled down shouted without warning.

"I heard Sherwood disbanded because some idiot died?"

The smile disappeared from the man's face, which had been smiling all along.

(End of Chapter)