There was chaos in the forest that had been quiet just a moment ago.
ppajijijijig! ppusisisisig! wasasasasasa...
The screams of frying gnolls tore through the night sky.
The foul stench of burning wild beasts wafted out of the den.
Even those who had barely survived were covered in hot oil.
[Grrrr! Grrrr!]
[Crackle!]
[Gah!]
The gnolls scrambled out of the den in agony, each baring their teeth and nails.
The wounded beast's vision is narrowed. That means it can't see anything.
Although it was only a C+ ranked monster, the killing power it unleashed while struggling was comparable to that of a higher rank monster.
However.
…Poof!
All of its viciousness was meaningless in Vikir's hands.
A crude iron skewer quickly pierced the gnoll's neck.
[Huh?]
The gnoll who was just coming out of the cave felt a stinging sensation on the side of his neck, but he was so helpless that he ran straight ahead without even thinking about looking to the side.
But of course, he couldn't take more than a few steps before his neck was punctured and he stumbled to a halt.
Thud.
A fountain of red blood gushes from his neck, and for a few seconds, the gnoll lies motionless, blurry-eyed and breathless.
Vikir stays close to the side of the cave, continuing to stab the gnolls in the neck as they leap out of the cave.
…pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug! …pug!
There's not much to stab. Just once. I strain my arm, extend it, withdraw it.
Every time the iron skewer monotonously moves back and forth, the gnolls that jump out of the cave fall down and pile up in front.
Soon, every single one of the gnolls that jumped out of the cave turned into cold corpses and piled up in the empty space in front of the cave.
Vikir roughly wiped the blood from his face and ran a hand through his hair.
"Looks like we're done here."
A grisly scene of slaughter.
Minpin couldn't help but cluck his tongue as he watched the killing spree unfold with such skill and precision.
" ...What in the world are you doing?"
"What, you've never seen someone catch a gnoll before?"
"Of course, it's my first time seeing you. Where is the person who catches gnolls like this?"
By the time Minpin had finished speaking, more than a dozen gnolls had been flipped out of the den.
Minpin collected the bodies of the gnolls that kept piling up in a certain spot and loaded them into the cart.
There were so many of them that the cart would never be able to carry them. They would have to ask the local government or guild to help them.
And even now, Vikir was waiting by the den.
Dipping a skewer in and out of the throats of leaping gnolls with lightning dexterity.
Just then.
[grrrr...]
An unpleasant sound came from the den.
As soon as Minpin heard it, she called out.
"Gah, Mr. Boss! Dodge! There's something else coming!"
Next thing you know, something big pops out of the hole.
It was a gnoll, three times larger than a normal gnoll, but unusually, it had black-green fur all over its body.
Its fur was needle-sharp, and sticky oil dripped from its bloodshot eyes like tears.
Minpin cried out in horror.
"It's a poison gnoll, a variant of gnolls! It's ranked A in danger, and its strength and speed are dozens of times that of normal gnolls! Plus, its teeth, nails, and fur have a poisonous venom that can drive a person insane...!"
But there was no time for explanations. The poison gnoll suddenly burst out, smashing through the narrow cave entrance.
"Eiss!"
Minpin raised his greatsword and rushed toward Vikir.
He hoped to buy his client time to duck for cover.
But.
[Aang!]
A cloud of dust fell from above, stopping Minpin's life-threatening lunge in its tracks.
"...?"
Minpin froze in place, dumbfounded.
That's because this small lump that looked like a butterfly that fell from the sky immediately rushed to the Poison Gnoll in front of it as soon as it hit the ground.
And what's even more amazing is that as soon as the vicious Poison Gnoll was bitten on the nape of the neck by the tiny speck of dust, it immediately rolled its eyes, foamed at the mouth, and fainted.
[Grrrrr!]
Poison Gnoll rolled over on its back, spewing whatever was inside of it out of its mouth and anus, and then stretched out completely.
"Huh?"
Minpin looked back and forth between Vikir's and Poison Gnoll's corpses, dumbfounded.
What kind of monster was a Poison Gnoll? Once it appears, a small village in the mountains is wiped out for the day.
A named monster that even a few small and medium-sized hunting guilds couldn't defeat with all their might.
It even travels around with its minions, so large guilds must mobilize their elite forces to take it down.
... but.
"Well done, come back."
Vikir waved his hand, and the dust balls quickly jumped up and crawled into the hem of Vikir's sleeve.
[hack-hack-hack-]
The hatchling stuck out its tongue and gave him a look that seemed to ask for praise.
Meanwhile.
Minpin was just blinking as if he couldn't believe that the small furball in front of him, which he couldn't even tell was a living thing, had killed the poison gnoll in one bite(?).
"Haha, I thought these past few days at the hands of my boss were a nightmare... but now it's more like a dream, is this even possible?"
"It's real, just think about the reward money and the sale price of the byproducts."
Minpin nodded at Vikir's natural command.
And Minpin had to hold his tongue as he counted the gnoll and poison gnoll corpses piled up in front of him.
"If you count the ones that died in the den, the number must be staggering, and I'm afraid I can't even begin to count them; we'll have to go out to the big city and get them appraised by several experts."
"If there's a reward per head, we'll have to get all the bodies."
"Yes. The ones that were choked to death or had their throats slit can be skinned and sold, and the ones that were fried in oil should be fine to sell for their bones, but I'll have to go in later, when the heat in the den has cooled down."
The gnolls' den was still burning hot, so Vikir and Minpin sat outside the den for a while, collecting the gnoll corpses.
During this time, a few surviving gnolls sometimes crawled out on notice and were sorted out at the cub madam line.
Eventually, when the heat in the den had cooled down enough, Minpin grabbed a torch and crawled inside.
As he dug, he made small incremental steps forward, until he saw an amazing sight in the depths of the tunnel.
"Sah, boss, you have to see this for yourself!"
Hearing Minpin's exclamation, Vikir followed suit.
What awaited them inside was quite unexpected, even for the ever-calm Vikir.
A gold coin. Piles and piles of gold coins, dipped in oil and glowing with golden light.
In the flickering light of the torches, they cast eerie lights and shadows on both sides.
It's fitting that a man would freeze when suddenly exposed to so much wealth.
" ... What's all this?"
Minpin looked back at Vikir with a slightly frightened expression.
But Vikir remained nonchalant.
"Apparently, someone's been using this place as a safe."
"What? That's a safe... ah!"
Minpin exclaimed, then gasped.
As I've said before, gnolls have a habit of collecting shiny things and hoarding them in their burrows.
It was possible that someone had taken advantage of this behavior and was storing black money here.
"With so many gnolls, it would be hard for anyone to steal it. They're natural safekeepers."
"Ha, but what kind of big man would keep his money in a gnoll's nest?"
"I don't know. But at least one thing is certain."
At Vikir's words, Minpin tilts his head, puzzled.
Then his face turns white at Vikir's next words.
"He must be confident enough to kill all these gnolls and retrieve the gold."
Someone who could kill all the gnolls in this place as easily as opening a vault door.
What's more, this is a large enough colony that even poison gnolls are lurking.
"...."
Minpin shuddered slightly as he looked at the gold coins in front of him.
A huge pile of gold coins.
Rattling-
Vikir picked up a gold coin lying randomly on the dirt floor.
"... No serial number."
A gold coin without a serial number yet.
This means that it is an unregistered coin that has been created in a currency-producing country but has not yet been officially distributed to banks.
"Bourgeois Damian, the director of the Department of Money Manufacturing, enacted a law requiring unique serial numbers to be engraved on banknotes and coins. It looks like these coins were stolen before the law was enacted, or just before serial numbers were engraved."
"Are you saying that these are all the result of a bank robbery?"
"That doesn't explain it."
Vikir thought about whether there had been any recent articles about banks being robbed.
... There was. There had been.
A being is said to have been destroying major facilities in the Imperial Capital as of late.
[Exclusive] The Night Hound, and its viciousness...
-The Night Hound's evil deeds have crossed the line... The Night Hound's assault on the Academy was... anti-human and anti-national... Meanwhile, the Night Hound's destruction of key facilities in the system during the festivities was... The Imperial Bank...
Vikir remembered the article well, as it was written by Vikir himself.
The villain had recently raided the Imperial Bank and stripped it of all its riches.
A mysterious terrorist who mimicked the crimes of the Night Hound, only to commit even greater crimes.
A name pops into Vikir's head.
"...!"
It casts an ominous shadow over reality.
Vikir and Minpin quickly scrambled out of the cave, and something long and large fell in front of them.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwak!
Vikir stumbled back from the sudden explosion.
When the dust settled, he saw a long, winding scar on the ground.
It looked as if a giant snake had slithered across it.
It was a mark made by the strange man who was currently standing on a bare tree branch and looking down.
[Hohohoho – rats crawled into my piggy bank?]
A modulated high-pitched voice is heard through the air hole in the mouth of the mask.
The color drains from Minpin's face as he hears the voice.
He looked even more horrified than when he'd seen countless gnolls.
"Mi-Miss Ouroboros!"
He encountered the worst villain who was terrorizing the night of the Imperial Capital.