But soon, Decker's pot lid-like hand slapped his cheek.
"If you're going to attack, you should do it yourself, why are you making your younger siblings do it? Cowardly."
Even though he had only been slapped once, the young man couldn't get up from the ground. The boys who saw this hesitated in confusion.
Even in the midst of all this, Asha was beating the leader with an expressionless face.
"Asha. Are you trying to kill him?"
The boys' faces turned pale at Decker's casually thrown question.
'That's not a joke.'
The boys, who were born in a back alley and grew up experiencing all sorts of hardships, quickly realized.
Truly fearsome people did not threaten or blackmail. They simply did terrible things with an expressionless face, as if they were doing something annoying but necessary.
And now, the two young men and a woman, with blood boiling, were the kind who could easily kill someone for a simple reason.
"R, run away!"
At someone's cry, the boys who had surrounded the hooded guy scattered at once. As if they didn't care what happened to the leader of their own gang.
Asha looked down at the man who had passed out with a bloody face and muttered.
"…Should I kill him?"
"Let's not cause any trouble before we enter the palace."
Decker replied, kicking the man I had slapped unconscious.
"But wouldn't it be better for the kids if we killed him?"
"If we kill one of them, another guy will become the leader. It's the same."
Asha tilted her head crookedly as if she couldn't make up her mind, looked down at the man, and finally clicked her tongue and turned around.
And then only did her eyes meet the person who had almost become a victim of the thugs.
'Huh?'
In an instant, Asha almost drew the sword she had at her waist.
Although he was wearing a hood and a veil covering half of his face, so that only his eyes were visible, Asha, who had spent many years on the battlefield, realized instinctively.
'He's a dangerous guy.'
As evidence, he casually greeted them as if he hadn't just been in danger of being robbed.
"Thank you for your help."
In a dry voice that didn't sound grateful at all.
"Thanks to you, I was able to escape danger, so I would like to thank you."
He was talking about gratitude and thanks, but his eyes were fixed on Asha and Decker.
'He hasn't moved an inch from where he was first standing.'
Asha thought, glancing at his feet.
It was natural to be scared and back away after such a violent incident, but the hooded man stood still in the same spot where he had first stood, as if nailed down.
Asha shook her head with a feeling that she would see something bad if she got involved any further.
"It's okay. I feel like I got in the way unnecessarily."
But before Asha could finish her answer, Decker stepped forward.
"Are you new to this area by any chance?"
The man stood still, seemingly thinking for a moment, then shook his head.
Upon seeing this, Decker chuckled and said, "Then, as a token of our appreciation, how about you tell us about a decent inn nearby? Somewhere decent."
"This alley is where people come to look for 'not decent' things. There's no way there's a decent inn here."
"Is that so? Haha, this is…""
Decker and Asha looked at each other and sighed lightly, but the man spoke again.
"I know of a few decent inns in other places, not here."
"Haha! It's embarrassing to say this on our first meeting, but we can't afford a place that's too expensive. There are three more people in our party besides the two of us…"
"Since you saved my life, I will pay for the inn."
Decker quickly waved his hands.
"Oh, no! That's not what I meant…""
"As I said before, I want to express my gratitude. The cost of my life is more expensive than the inn, so please don't refuse."
Decker looked at Asha with a 'what do we do?' expression, and Asha nodded after looking at the man's side profile for a moment.
The man, who seemed to have realized that Asha was the decision-maker, spoke to her.
"Then Let's go. Oh, before that."
As if suddenly remembering something, he drew his sword from his waist and swiftly cut down the unconscious gang leader and his second-in-command lying on the ground.
Asha and Decker gasped in astonishment and were speechless, but the man turned around and approached Asha and Decker as if he had just finished a trivial task.
"It's better to clean up it properly"
And he started walking ahead.
"It's not far from here. Follow me."
Asha and Decker didn't look back even as they walked out of the alley where the smell of blood was starting to permeate.
They were too busy following the man walking ahead.
***
The inn the man found for them was much better than expected.
He exchanged words with the innkeeper and then nodded towards Asha and Decker.
"I'll give you the best room. I've already paid the bill, so please don't worry. And please feel free to have your meals as well."
"We're so sorry for that…"
"You are the ones who helped me, so this is the least I can do. I'll leave now since it would be more inconvenient for you if I talked for too long. Well, then…"
He didn't show his face until the end and just nodded his head.
Asha didn't feel good about his greeting for some reason, so she suddenly reached out her hand.
"Thank you. Please be careful on your way back."
The man looked at Asha's hand once, then at Asha's face, and then shook her hand.
"Have a pleasant journey."
Since the man was wearing gloves, it wasn't even bare skin touching, but he seemed bothered by it and quickly finished the handshake. Then he left the inn without any lingering feelings.
Asha and Decker could only stare blankly at the door he had left through, as if they were possessed by a ghost.
"I… I heard there are three more people in your party, so how would you like me to arrange the rooms?"
Thanks to the innkeeper who spoke timidly, Asha came to her senses abruptly.
"Ah! The cheapest way…"
"It's definitely the cheapest if you get one single room and one four-person room… But you don't have to worry about the price, you can decide."
However, Decker interrupted from the side.
"One single room and one four-person room will be enough."
"Then I'll give you that. Breakfast is available from 7am to 9am, and the bathhouse is on the first floor of the inn. Please let me know in advance if you want hot water."
The innkeeper bowed his back and finished his explanation kindly before handing over the room keys.
Asha and Decker, who had rented the inn, brought the resting party and unpacked their luggage while explaining the lucky fortune they had accidentally obtained.
Of course, the rest of the party was stunned with their mouths half open.
"So… you're saying that you helped someone who didn't need help and received a reward?"
"…That's what happened."
Asha scratched her neck in embarrassment.
It was clear that they had tried to save someone who was about to be robbed, but somehow they felt like they were the robbers.
"But it wasn't like we could refuse the reward."
Decker protested as if he felt wronged somehow. Asha agreed with him.
They didn't know who the man was, but it was difficult to refuse his offer.
'It felt more like an order than an offer…'
If they had refused to the end, it seemed like they would have made an enemy of the other person.
Just as their heads were starting to get complicated, Luka, who usually had a simple and bright personality, summarized the situation.
"We can't do anything about it, so let's just enjoy it. Oh, this is good!"
Saying that, he flopped down on the fluffy bed.
At his words, the rest of the party looked at each other and quietly lay down on the bed or pressed their hands on the mattress and exclaimed.
"It's fluffy because it's expensive."
"Even nobles don't get to sleep in a place like this."
Asha watched the party members whose mouths were wide open just because they could sleep in a comfortable bed, and decided to put her thoughts about the man aside.
'I'm not going to see him again anyway. Well, let's just think of it as luck.'
Right now, she was busy planning to enter the palace and meet the emperor.
* * *
"You're late."
In a dark room. The young man's voice hit Carlyle.
"I had a bit of a minor accident on my way here."
He took off the gloves he was wearing and handed them to Lionel, who was standing next to me.
"Throw them away."
Lionel dutifully threw the gloves into the fireplace where the wood was burning.
The young man, who was watching this, spoke to Carlyle again.
"I'm sure you had a hard time with the war dragging on into the winter."
"The south is quite warm even in winter, so it wasn't that hard. It's more of a chore to sit in the palace."
Carlyle plopped down on a chair near the fireplace and lightly puffed on the cigar that Lionel had handed him.
Even though it was spring the evenings were still chilly, so the warmth from the fireplace was welcome.
"So, tell me what's been going on. I heard you got a smack on the head from the Empress?"
"I apologize."
"I didn't come here to hear you apologize. Why didn't you get in touch? Did you really have nothing to report?"
Carlyle glared coldly at Pete, the head of the information guild 'Nest'.
Nest was an organization that Carlisle had raised since he was a child, and its informants were called by bird names such as sparrow, pigeon, goose, and owl, depending on the type of information they provided.
"The overthrow of the Emperor's government was a miscalculation on our part. With the government changing so many times, we didn't feel the need to inform you."
"Well, that's understandable."
"In fact, there's a more important issue…"
"Are we getting to the main point now?"