Barbarian in a Failed Game

029 Wagner (3)

“Hold your shields properly, you brats─!”

Diego shouted furiously and dashed forward, thrusting his sword into the back of a newbie who had faltered in fear even before the fight had properly begun.

Gurgling, the man whose throat had been pierced let out a suppressed groan, raising his hands, as Diego did not hesitate to pull out his sword and step back.

“Liam! You damn bastard!”

“Kill that bastard! Kill him!”

The assailants were incensed by the death of their comrade, their veins throbbing with a burning will to fight. The bandits pretending to have loyalty…

“Ptui! Bring it on!”

Diego moved without a moment’s pause, rushing towards the advancing ranks with the intent to disrupt their formation, snipping off a spear-wielder’s fingers.

Though an opponent shielded themselves and pushed forward, Diego, with swift movements, kicked the shield aside, forcing the enemy to miss.

‘This is screwed…!’

Despite having killed one and cut off another’s fingers, that was the extent of it.

Diego took a moment to catch his breath and survey the allied formation.

Of the mercenaries hired for the caravan traveling from Wagner to Nordic, only four were employed, including Diego and a greenhorn barely out of his youth.

One had long since died, pierced through the neck by an arrow.

‘This is the worst.’

Essentially, the only meaningful force was Diego himself.

On the other hand, there were seven attackers, all reasonably skilled with the sword.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Diego knew who they were. Not long ago, one of their comrades had been maimed by Diego’s hand.

‘Shit. This is indeed unfortunate.’

“Hey, you bastards! Committing retaliatory murder in Count Hefeldt’s territory! Do you want to go out of business?!”

“Shut up! We’ll send you to join Simon and Liam!”

“That Simon bastard is still alive!”

“Kill him!”

It was utterly maddening.

Whether they realized that this fight was unrelated to themselves after the exchange, or not, Diego noticed the greenhorns and the caravan’s laborers sneakily withdrawing.

‘Those fools…!’

The attackers would not leave behind evidence of their involvement…

Before Diego could reveal this, he was suddenly struck in the stomach by a spear thrust.

Unless one were a knight wielding mana or a master of the sword, there was a limit to what one could handle alone.

Stubbornly fighting on despite vomiting acidic bile, Diego managed to slice the throat of one assailant halfway through but ultimately found himself captured and forced to his knees.

“Pl-please… spare me…!”

“We didn’t see anything! We saw nothing!”

A massacre ensued, as was inevitable.

“Do you really think you can get away with this? Do you think Count Hefeldt would just sit by and hear of this?”

Diego screamed out the name of Count Hefeldt as if it were his only lifeline.

However.

“HaHaHaHa!”

“This sucker still hasn’t heard the rumor?”

The attackers burst into laughter as if they had heard a hilarious joke.

‘A rumor?’

Even facing death, Diego tried to remain calm and think.

But no plausible solution came to mind.

The very fact that they carried out retaliatory murder based on a grudge was beyond the pale of common sense in these parts.

“It’s simple, Diego. Count Hefeldt doesn’t interfere, whether we stab people or openly loot in the street. Even if we kill you… it won’t be a problem.”

“Bullshit! Count Hefeldt would never… Urk!”

Diego involuntarily raised his voice in disbelief and choked.

The leader of the attackers, who had been laughing, suddenly punched him.

“You can ask Count Hefeldt himself after you die.”

“I’d like to hear it now, actually.”

The leader, who was about to pierce Diego’s throat with a dagger, suddenly froze.

The other attackers did the same.

“Which dumbass is this…?”

Irritated by the interruption, the leader, without turning back, ordered,

“I need to deal with this one. Clean up the rest.”

With that, the leader completely disengaged, his lips curling into a customary sneer at the thought of how to make Diego’s death as painful as possible.

Thump! Thump! Crunch…

‘Morons. Couldn’t you make it a quick death?’

The sound of beating resonated multiple times.

The sound of his men tormenting the opponent as painfully as possible without killing them immediately.

“Regardless of who this clueless idiot is, don’t you think it’s really unfortunate, Diego? If you had just ignored and walked away, you might have lived…”

“Who’s being oblivious?”

“…!”

The leader, who was spinning his dagger skillfully within his hand, sprang to his feet at the voice that came from just behind him.

Simultaneously turning towards the source of the sound, he thrust the dagger forward.

Or rather, he tried to.

If a fist, thick enough to be mistaken for someone’s head, hadn’t smacked into his face first, that would have been the case.

Crack!

The leader’s body, his face squashed like dough, flopped to the side, dead on impact.

“Ahhh!”

Diego let out a startled yelp, not merely because of the sight of a head squashed like dough, but because of the identity of the creature who managed all this with just a punch.

A physique as massive as an orc’s, a rare sight of gray skin in the kingdom, muscles boasting vicious curves.

“Y-you barbarian…?”

Diego stammered, saliva dripping, shocked not just by the retaliation against the mercenaries from Wagner’s region but by the startling identity of their attacker.

“Damn. Why did this happen.”

The actual punch thrower seemed surprised himself.

After all, the punch, intended only to knock out, had turned his opponent into mush, killing him. Sure, he had reflexively added a bit more force in response to the dagger…but still.

‘It shouldn’t have been fatal.’

Khan gazed dumbly at his fist, muttering internally.

Has my strength become too great?

* * *

This was the first time Khan directly experienced the physical changes that came with a boost in his stats.

Right after leveling up, his stamina was almost depleted, so aside from feeling weak, he hadn’t noticed much. Since then, he had been in recovery, lacking the chance to test his strength.

‘To fail at controlling my strength to this extent…’

Khan’s face grew serious.

He knew that with higher stats, the increase in capabilities per stat grew larger, but this time the increase seemed too extreme.

Could it be that surpassing 60 has broken some sort of threshold?

‘It isn’t out of the realm of possibility.’

Just as crossing an intelligence of 100 allows one to challenge the high master of the five-colored magic tower in a mage build. Perhaps it’s a similar case for a barbarian build, which was a first for him, too.

‘Hmm. Not exactly thrilled about this.’

Being already concerned about his disproportionately high strength causing severe stamina consumption from skill use. As seen in his fight with Darkin, using ‘Surging Strength’ while exhausted could indeed result in irrecoverable detriments.

‘…I need to hasten the purification of the blood vessel.’

“Ahem. Terribly sorry to interrupt your grave thoughts, but… what are you planning to do with these madmen?”

Pulled from his thoughts by Diego’s casually thrown question, Khan replied.

“That’s not my concern.”

Khan hadn’t helped Diego with that intention.

“Continue with what you were saying about Count Hefeldt. That’s why I stepped in, after all.”

“I’m not quite sure. Though I don’t know if you’re aware, but Wagner basically prohibits combat outside conflict zones…. These fools suddenly attacked, perhaps gone mad.”

Not very nutritious info. Khan internally scoffed, swiftly lifting one of the scrambling stragglers from the ground.

“Spill everything you know before I smash your remaining limbs, starting with what you said about Count Hefeldt. You might just earn my mercy.”

“G-Guuuh. Uhhuh…”

The guy, with one arm already broken, started to cry.

When Khan smiled kindly at him, the straggler burst into full tears, beginning to confess everything he knew, as if in confession.

‘Carrot and stick. Good cop, bad cop. The best rhetoric works even in fantasy.’

Thinking he was doomed, he was surely moved by Khan’s gentle persuasion. Medieval folks probably would just resort to brute force…

‘As a distinguished intellectual and a man of the 21st century, I can’t just do that.’

“I-I’m Simon from the Iron Lance Mercenaries! The boss wanted to avenge a comrade, and I just followed… I was against it because violating Count Hefeldt’s rule means cutting off our money source, but… he said Count Hefeldt is holed up in his house and will never come out, so I had no choice but to believe!”

The straggler’s explanation was chaotic, as if articulating his thoughts coherently for the first time.

‘As if to prove how barbaric these medieval folks are. Can’t even speak properly.’

In these cases, Khan had to filter things through his own brain to make sense of it.

‘So, to summarize…’

“Count Hefeldt has turned into a recluse, huh.”

Khan grimaced, concluding the discussion with some distaste.

“Hey. I’ve heard Count Hefeldt is quite the authoritarian. Is that true?”

“Yes, y-yes.”

‘Why on earth has such a man become a hermit?’

It was perplexing, at least for the moment.

From what information these people had, it seemed ‘Count Hefeldt suddenly shut himself in his mansion.’Heading through Wagner was evidently the best option for making our way to the North.

In the uncertainty of when Jerome could supply weapons, roaming unarmed indefinitely was not a reasonable expectation. Given Wagner’s reputation as one of the kingdom’s eminent armories, procuring weapons for temporary use seemed achievable.

“Hey, you. The one who nearly met his end but lived.”

“My name is Diego…”

“Right, Jego. Strip these scoundrels of their gear and load it onto that abandoned wagon.”

“It’s Diego, not Jego… Oh, understood.”

Cowed by Khan’s steely gaze, Diego resignedly divested the surviving mercenaries of their gear, loading it all onto the cart he was guarding.

Even so, he pondered, ‘With the horses gone, what’s the plan for this loaded wagon?’

Blissfully unaware of the grueling task that awaited him.

*

*

*

Wagner is a large city.

Having been embroiled in disputes with nearby cities for decades, it was more populated with individuals involved in the mercenary trade than farmers. Thus, it was both natural and necessary for a branch of the mercenaries’ guild to be established in Wagner.

“This is infuriating… After being told to keep out of trouble, these idiots stir up more?”

‘Just you wait till you return. I’ll make sure you regret it.’

And then,

The red-haired woman nervously biting her nails at Wagner’s outer walls was none other than Maya, the manager of the mercenaries’ guild branch in Wagner, and a noted warrior herself.

“Look here, Branch Manager. Instead of waiting around, you should just leave it to us and relax at the guild headquarters…”

“Silence. You’re just going to stutter and let them off when it comes down to it, aren’t you?”

“No… It’s just that interference beyond necessity goes against the guidelines unless absolutely required…”

“That’s it! I tried speaking nicely, but you just won’t listen, will you? This is precisely the scenario where we need ‘that’ excessive intervention!”

“Eek!”

The balding middle-aged man fell flat on his butt at Maya’s roar.

‘And to think such a person is in charge here, no wonder the mercenaries take the guild lightly.’

She couldn’t help but sigh.

Especially since the situation in Wagner was becoming increasingly chaotic, and the bald coward was the only one slightly worth his salt.

It was an unfortunate but understood circumstance.

Maya had only recently taken her position in Wagner, and with just the timid bald man and some desk-bound staff who could barely manage their assigned tasks, there hadn’t been enough time to rectify the disarray the branch was in.

‘And to make matters worse, there’s now trouble with Count Hefeldt.’

It seemed like adding insult to injury. She was on her feet to manage this situation herself.

“That Diego is a swordsman capable of single-handedly slaying an orc. With him and a couple of workers and mercenaries from the caravan, they won’t be easily overtaken…”

“What rubbish. You think a couple of kids who haven’t even seen a goblin, plus some workers who can barely throw a punch, will be any help?”

Maya quickly shut down the previous Branch Manager’s feeble attempt at an excuse and decisively grabbed a spear nearby.

“Why, why are you doing this…!”

“I’d feel more at ease checking things out myself.”

“Oh dear. If you go, Maya, how are we supposed to hold back the mercenaries…!”

That’s your job, you fool! Maya managed to suppress the rising tirade within her.

At any rate, she had to prevent the chaos within the city from spilling over the walls.

Should Count Hefeldt return, Branch Manager Maya would not be able to escape accountability.

“Just do as you’re told. If things are a mess when I get back, everyone’s necks are on the line. Literally.”

With a growling threat, Maya stepped forward.

‘What in the world is that?’

At the edge of her vision, a bizarre scene unfolded.

“A cart? But why is it being pulled by people…?”

It was a sight that defied belief. Yet, what astonished Maya more was the realization that the swordsman she thought was dead was the one pulling the cart.

Thump…! Thump…!

Where Diego began pulling from was a mystery, but his body was drenched in sweat.

Remarkably, he didn’t seem to slow down. As if, something invisible was pushing the cart from behind to hasten its speed.

At last, having dragged the cart to the checkpoint, the swordsman, Diego, collapsed to the ground.

“Pant! Pant! We’ve, we’ve made it…!”

A scene and situation beyond comprehension. Maya, momentarily stunned, was about to inquire Diego about the happenings.

“Damn. This isn’t the back seat of a luxury ride, it’s unbearably shaky…”

“But, but it couldn’t be helped! It was my first time trying to push a cart with magic…”

“Get used to it next time. Unless you want to push it by hand.”

“Eek…!”

From inside the cart came a conversation. The problem was, among the voices, was one uncomfortably familiar to her.

A deep, wild voice, reminiscent of how an ogre speaking human language might sound. Where have I heard that before…?

And then it hit her.

The embarrassing past she thought she had erased from her memory flooded back.

‘Yes. That voice is definitely…!’

“The Executioner?!”