Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 73

Even a small razor against the throat makes most people flinch, let alone an Aura Sword that slices through steel like butter.

The woman Keinzel had slammed to the ground screamed, her face pale.

“I’m not suspicious! I’m Emily, the daughter of Baron Mino! P-Please, put the sword away!”

The woman with fiery red hair wore leather clothes that clearly showed off her figure.

Normally, this would be a situation where she needed something to prove her identity. However, Keinzel had met Emily, the daughter of Baron Mino, a few times when he was younger.

Keinzel sheathed his sword and quietly extended a hand.

“Please, get up, Lady Mino.”

Emily brushed the dust off her body and bowed deeply.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop…”

However, he couldn’t let his guard down just yet.

Emily was using a technique to conceal her presence. She was quite skilled; if it weren’t for Fallen Star, he wouldn’t have known she was hiding.

‘Besides, she has two daggers on her waist. They don’t seem to be just for self-defense.’

A strange tension filled the air between the two, and Percival stepped in.

“Well, well… What brings Lady Mino to such a humble place?”

“Well, I wanted to meet Percival. I thought I could talk here without worrying about other people’s eyes.”

“I also pay taxes to Lord Mino. You can always meet me at the tavern.”

As Emily received suspicious glances from Keinzel and then Percival, she nodded as if she had made up her mind.

“Actually, I wanted to gauge your skills. The Highlanders, though now gone, were a mercenary group of a different caliber than the mercenaries out there.”

Percival shook his head with a surprised expression.

“I think you’re greatly mistaken, Lady Mino. As I told the Lord five years ago, I have no intention of working as a mercenary anymore. I’m just an ordinary tavern owner now.”

“What? So, the people here aren’t gathered to rebuild the Highlander mercenary group…?”

“Absolutely not.”

Only then did the group seem to understand why Emily was acting like this.

She had misunderstood that Percival was gathering people to restart the Highlander mercenary group.

Emily stood up and clenched her fist.

“But aren’t you all in the dungeon to make money? If so, I have a job I’d like to request.”

Then Abel shook his head and said.

“How unpleasant. It’s for a friend, not for money.”

“I came here to get stronger.”

“Huh? Th-That’s…”

The answer Emily had expected came from a completely unexpected place.

Zeke, who was setting up a voice-activated barrier that would sound when a monster approached, clapped his hands in delight.

“New requests are always welcome! After all, the world isn’t all about money! Oop! Oop!”

Keinzel, startled, covered Zeke’s mouth, but he couldn’t take back the words he had already blurted out.

Percival spoke on behalf of the group.

“First, let’s hear what the request is. Since we’re not mercenaries, we’ll all agree on whether to accept it or not. Is that alright with you?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Well, the request I have for you is… Please catch the werewolf hiding in the dungeon. I’ll give you a reward of one hundred gold.”

Emily’s eyes widened. Though covered in dirt, she had a pretty, almost cute face.

“Aren’t you surprised?”

It was Keinzel who answered.

“We already knew there was a werewolf here.”

“T-That’s amazing! No mercenary has ever seen a werewolf until now, and you found out in just one day… But who are you?”

“Let’s just say I’m the representative of the people here for now. You can call me Captain.”

The group realized that Keinzel was hiding his identity for some reason.

And they naturally started calling Keinzel Captain, as if they had agreed on it.

“Yes, Captain is right.”

“I’ll just call you *hyung-nim* [older brother/respected elder].”

“Ahem!”

Emily briefly explained the situation in which she saw the werewolf. She said she happened to be taking a night walk and saw someone coming out of the dungeon.

“He was like a sculpture, so handsome. The only strange thing was that he was covering his body with a black cloak. And I followed him without realizing it. And I saw it.”

His identity was a Lycanthrope.

Hair began to grow on the man’s body as he was bathed in the light of the full moon, and he instantly transformed into a huge werewolf.

“…And he grabbed the bodies of several mercenaries who were fast asleep and disappeared back into the dungeon.”

“He must have been trying to turn them into werewolves to make them his subordinates. I saw some guys who seemed to have just become werewolves wandering around in the dungeon.”

Percival, who used to be a mercenary, chimed in.

Even if mercenaries are crazy about money, they still have a basic sense of camaraderie.

“If several sleeping mercenaries disappeared like that, there would have been a big commotion. But I haven’t heard anything like that.”

Emily nodded and replied.

“It seems that the money the mercenary group was managing disappeared with them. So, they thought they had run away in the night.”

“Hmm…”

Several mercenaries disappeared with a large sum of money. How many people would think that it was an accident and they went missing?

“I believe in Percival and Captain’s skills to defeat a huge number of monsters. If the werewolf comes out of the dungeon, something terrible will surely happen. I want to get rid of him before that happens.”

Emily’s words conveyed a sense of urgency to protect the people of the territory.

‘Baron Mino was definitely hiring mercenaries to defeat the monsters near the territory. Besides, we were going to catch Sirius anyway. It’s even better because we can get paid.’

However, Emily’s identity was still a mystery. Too skilled in stealth and concealment for a noble lady. Besides, those sleek clothes looked like the kind that female bandits would wear.

Emily took out several pouches hidden in her bosom with a confident expression.

“I’m not asking you to help me for free. Here’s fifty gold as a down payment.”

Zeke narrowed his eyes when he saw it.

“Hoo! Lady, you have very good taste.”

“Huh? W-What do you mean?”

Zeke took out a pipe from his pocket and lit it. He took a deep puff and said.

“You’re telling two lies.”

At that moment, Zeke’s presence, who hadn’t done anything until now, exploded.

“I-I’m not hiding anything…”

“Is that so? First of all, you said you happened to see Sirius coming out of the dungeon. Is that really possible? There are many mercenaries camping out nearby. Just passing through there for a night walk? That’s clearly a contradictory statement. Do you have anything to refute?”

“……”

“And I was going to just gloss over it, but the reason why the missing mercenaries case was swept under the rug was because a large sum of money disappeared. Did Sirius really calculate that far ahead and act? Isn’t it actually a completely separate incident?”

“……”

“Then I’ll tell you my conclusion. You needed a lot of money for some reason. To get it, you decided to steal the mercenaries’ money. And you could have easily achieved your desired goal. But a problem arose. The Lycanthrope kidnapped some of the mercenaries. It would have been a big deal normally. But it was swept under the rug because it coincided with you stealing the money. You’re feeling guilty that another person might go missing, aren’t you?”

Everything was just Zeke’s speculation.

If she denied it, it would be impossible to pursue it further.

However, Emily wasn’t shameless enough to do that.

“Hic, sob… Hwaaaa! I-I’m sorry!”

After sobbing quietly for a while, Emily confessed everything.

“Everything’s messed up because of the dungeon…”

The dungeon, filled with enormous magical power, attracts countless monsters. It’s fortunate if the monsters enter the dungeon safely.

Keinzel recalled that the entrance to the dungeon was half-blocked due to infighting among the mercenaries.

Naturally, the number of monsters flowing in would have decreased significantly.

“…In the end, the monsters attracted by the dungeon began to trample the territory. My father… Baron Mino, used his own money to hire other mercenaries to defeat the monsters, but that was also limited…”

How much money would a poor rural lord have in his pocket?

In the end, Emily began to steal small amounts of money from the mercenaries’ pockets to earn money to protect the territory.

She said she didn’t feel much guilt because they weren’t paying the taxes they were supposed to pay anyway.

The problem started with the appearance of the Lycanthrope Sirius.

“From there, everything Siegfried said is correct. The terrible incident of the werewolf’s appearance was buried because of me. I was looking for a way to solve it, and I thought Percival, the leader of the Highlanders, had started working again, so I…”

Emily clung to Keinzel as if she would grab his leg.

“Captain! Please help me! If it’s revealed that I stole the mercenaries’ money, my arm will be cut off!”

Percival said with a heavy look.

“Isn’t that what you were prepared for?”

“……”

Whatever the purpose, it was true that Emily had stolen the mercenaries’ money. But the mercenaries who didn’t pay the fixed taxes were also at fault. Which one is right?

Keinzel quietly sighed.

One fortunate thing was that she didn’t remember his face. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to talk so casually.

“Lady Mino, I will accept your offer, but there is one condition.”

Emily couldn’t say anything for a while, looking blank after hearing that.

But it was a condition she could never refuse.

The group of six defeated the monsters at an incredible speed.

In the meantime, Emily performed the role of a scout almost perfectly.

Her concealment skills were enough to deceive even monsters with sensitive noses.

She had to wear specially made leather clothes and apply monster fluids, but the effect was great.

‘Where on earth did she learn these things?’

Emily had heard that she had taken refuge in the house of a distant relative when the Seven Sins War escalated and the battlefield shifted to northern Britannia.

And Emily, whom he met again after ten years, had completely mastered the skills of a thief.

Emily licked the sauce off her finger and muttered.

“The fact that the Captain cooks is the same as the Highlander mercenary group. Are you really not the Highlander mercenary group?”

“If you’re done, I’ll clean up.”

“Ah, I’ll do it!”

When Emily found out the location of the monsters, the four who could handle Aura Swords would kill them.

The coordination of the three, who had matched their skills several times since the training center, was impeccable.

And Zeke was in charge of the monsters’ corpses.

His skill in extracting only the magic stones without touching any other parts was excellent.

Five days passed like that.

Kundam was the first to become a Sword Knight.

Kundam’s whole body was soaked in sweat, but he had a strangely refreshing expression.

Percival said with wide eyes.

“The waste accumulated in your body is coming out through sweat. Congratulations on becoming a Sword Knight.”

“Thank you, Percival. The Aura that was vaguely felt at my fingertips is now clearly felt.”

“Shall we have a sparring match while we’re at it?”

“Yes, gladly!”

As Kundam concentrated, the Aura that had only been incompletely formed at the tip now enveloped the entire sword.

This was the true Aura Sword.

Joy appeared on Kundam’s face.

But he couldn’t openly rejoice.

Unlike Kundam, who had absorbed the Aura contained in the magic stone and became a Sword Knight in an instant, there was someone who was not making much progress.

Abel, who was sitting at the table and cutting a steak, muttered softly.

“When I try to absorb the mana contained in the magic stone, my body violently rejects it. I’m sorry, Keinzel. I didn’t know the schedule would be delayed like this because of me. I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. Come to think of it, you definitely said that mana gathers better in the forest after accepting the Elven bloodline, right?”

“Hmm, did I?”

“You definitely did. Maybe it’s because this isn’t a forest.”

“I definitely get tired quickly when I’m inside the dungeon.”

Keinzel quietly nodded.

It seemed that Abel becoming a Sword Knight would have to be postponed for a few days.

There were a total of three werewolves that had been confirmed so far. It would be better to deal with them before the number increased.

Keinzel looked at the stairs leading down to the 3rd basement floor.

Three days from now.

The night of the wolf hunt arrives.

Grilling Meat in the Center of the Dungeon #4