Choice
The death of the legendary wizard, ‘Black Market Merchant Daniel’ was confirmed, Old Man Jake finally confirmed that it was done by the elf.
The mysterious archer became the popular topic in the ‘Mercenary’s Home’ once again.
With a new topic to discuss after dinner, really gave the mercenaries the joys of gossiping.
The only one that was not happy, was Iron Gauntlet and his group.
Of course, being unhappy means there was going to be some follow up.
The morning of the next day, unsurprisingly, all the members of the Eagle Troop arrived at the lobby for breakfast.
They sat at two large tables talking and laughing loudly, but every one of them carried weapons.
But the elf did not appear.
Until breakfast time neared an end, most of the mercenaries had departed, did a figure pa.s.s the knight’s table.
“Good morning, Cain.”
The elf had changed out of refugee clothing, finally looking more like a normal mercenary. Only his health seems not to have recovered, he was still pallid, he seemed to have light shadows under his eyes.
Old Man Jake was not here, so breakfast became a buffet style.
The elf took two pieces of wheat bread, followed by black tea, finding an empty table to sit down.
Seeing this scene, many of the mercenaries who were planning to leave, suddenly found that they could chat for a few more minutes.
Thus, after a short moment of silence, the breakfast lobby became as noisy as before.
But the loudest, was still the two tables occupied by the Eagle Troop.
From time to time the words ‘Black Market Merchant’ could be heard, then it became louder, overpowering other’s conversations.
“A single killing stroke from a knife, it sure was clean.”
“It can’t be helped, even if it was a wizard, to be in that type of unprotected situation?”
“That type of situation?”
“That’s to say,” one of the rogues in the Eagle Troop laughed, “Probably when he was lying on top of him, and giving him the killing blow while he was exhausted.”
Then the whole group laughed, turning to look at the elf, all their expressions lewd, it wouldn’t be too rude to describe it as ‘visual rape’.
The knight frowned.
The Eagle Troop didn’t just want to play verbal jousting, they came with a plan, to anger the elf, and pick a fight.
The lobby was silent again, the mercenaries felt that they were about to get a good show.
But the elf was still calmly drinking tea, the hand holding the cup was steady with no signs of shaking, it was as if he didn’t hear anything.
Seeing this, Iron Gauntlet suddenly changed topics, starting to ‘share’ his experiences. The topic continued finally coming to what sort of hidden birth marks Fil had on his body.
The Thorns were still on mission, their whole party was not present, so these words were obviously meant for the elf’s hearing.
The elf was still expressionless, but his hears stood up slightly. Even for just a moment, the knight could see a flash of anger in his eyes.
“I was outside that day,” that same rogue from the Eagle Troop was saying again in a loud voice, “Even though he’s a man, but his crying made me hard just hearing it, hehehe.”
The elf suddenly stood up.
A buzzing sound spread across the whole lobby.(1)
The fight’s about to start!
The mercenaries silently confirmed this message with each other, a few were already eager, waiting for the elf to make a move before lending a hand.
But the elf only stood silently for a moment, then turned to leave out the door.
Then the buzzing sound became a sigh of disappointment.
So, that’s the end?
The elf moved slowly, one step at a time, the short ten or so meters distance seemed unending.
The knight looked at him, his feelings became complicated.
The elf should know, if he were to fight, that there would be many who would stand on his side.
Then why, why remain silent, would he turn to leave when his friend is insulted?
The elf had almost reached the door.
The knight suddenly felt a flare of angry disappointment.
—Not at the elf, but at himself.
What, Cain Frank.
You’ve only left the Holy Paladin Order for a month or so, have you already fallen to this state?
Does throwing away the name of Felix Paladin, means throwing away your principles as well?
Only waiting for someone else to start the fight, before you dared to follow?
The things about mercy, justice, honor, a hero’s pledge, were they all dog food?
There were still a lot of people in the lobby, fighting will attract a lot of attention.
But the knight didn’t want to worry about that anymore.
He stood up to stand in front of the Eagle Troop’s table, grabbing the rogue that was still talking loudly by the collar, he pulled him from his chair.
“d.a.m.n it Iron Bucket,” the rogue fought to turn around, “Are you out of your mind?”
“That would be you,” the knight replied coldly, “your mouth stinks so much, I can’t even eat my breakfast.”
Then he raised his fist, thought for a moment, and controlled his strength, only breaking half of the teeth in the rogue’s face.
The members of the Eagle Troop all stood up to surround the knight.
A small cheer sounded from the lobby.
It’s finally started!
It’s alright, elf.
The knight thought.
—You can stand aloof, but someone will always step up.
In the chaos, the elf’s calm clear voice carried across, forcing very thing to a halt.
“Do you only know how to scream around in the house? If you want to fight me then come outside, Fly Troop.”(2)
The Eagle Troop shifted their hatred immediately, turning neatly to glare at the elf, daggers, swords and fighting gloves came out.
“Don’t take my prey, elf,” the knight said coldly, “I can deal with them all myself.”
The elf didn’t reply, smiling, he turned and left.
The whole room stood nervously, fighting to get out the door.
–This time they’re going to get a good position.
“I said,” the knight said, “I can do this myself, I don’t need your help.”
“You had better not,” the elf said, “Since close quarter combat isn’t my strong point. Thinking of it as one and a half versus twenty one would be better.”
“Not that many.” The knight replied, “A rule of fighting a group – just get rid of the stupidest ones in the group, the smart ones will naturally run.”
“Is that so,” the elf smiled, “thank you for the advice.”
“Focus on that iron bucket,” Iron Gauntlet ordered, touching the sharp spikes on his gloves, “Leave the elf – I’m going to mess him up until he can’t even cry.”
“Looks like that one is the stupidest,” the elf said, “do you mind if I chose that one?”
As if the knight couldn’t be bothered to reply, he aimed at the closest one, casually striking out with a fist.
The sound of breaking collarbone came from his opponent, he heard the sound of metal clashing behind him.
The elf was also moving.
The knight grabbed the second enemy, slamming him head first into the third knocking them unconscious. Then lifted his hand, casually blocking the dagger that came from the side.
Heavy armor limited vision and hearing to a certain degree, but the pressure of going on defense is decreased by quite a bit.
If he was only one person, he would still have to be alert for attack from the back, but now that didn’t matter.
The Eagle Troop quickly realized their error.
They had originally planned to deal with an archer that had no protection once the fight became a close quarter fight, so they had only brought weapons along.
But now blocking them was an iron bucket that couldn’t be moved. Human bodies without armor against his metal cased fists, is like smashing through paper.
So, even though their leader had ordered it, they still subconsciously moved towards the elf, planning to wait for a chance to attack.
Of course the knight refused to let that happen, he turned, blocking the attack from Iron Gauntlet, then pulled the elf behind him, the two switching placing.
“Watch my back, just defense is fine.”
“…Better make this quick, I can only hold for a minute or so.”
“Ten seconds is enough.” The knight said, grabbing Iron Gauntlet’s fist, he turned sideways. .h.i.tting him with the elbow of his other arm.
Iron Gauntlet himself was wearing full gear, unluckily what he wore was only chain mail.
The flexible chain mail can block attacks from knives and other sharp weapons perfectly, but under the power of this blunt attack it didn’t seem to do much.
So, he immediately fell to the ground coughing up foam.
“Good, anyone else idiotic enough?”