“Let’s get going,” he said. “Open the door.”
“Okay.” Siasha waved her hand, the boulder covering the door crumbling.
Zig had his hands on his weapon in case of reinforcements, but his worries were unfounded. Night had already fallen beyond the boulder. The moon was full, the night bright under the magically lit lights.
They highlighted the half circle of corpses right near the entrance. Cause of death: laceration by sharp object. The cuts to the torsos and necks were severely sharp, going through flesh with little to no resistance. Whoever did this had an extremely sharp blade.
It was all in a day’s work for the artist who produced this massacre. She stood in the center of the corpse pile.
“You’re late.” Isana turned to face them, silver hair gleaming in the moonlight.
“What are you doing here?” Zig asked, somewhat cautious.
She didn’t seem to mind his wariness and wiped the blood from her cheek, flicking it to the ground. She took a deep breath to calm herself from the battle high and said, “I’m here to repay a favor. That’s all.”
Zig’s eyebrows furrowed at her nonchalant statement. “You’re an idiot. One wrong move and you would’ve made an enemy out of the whole Claritist Church.”
Isana narrowed her eyes, somewhat annoyed. “You did that too once.” Although Zig had a working relationship with the mafia now, he could easily turn them against him the moment he took up a job with the Jinsu-Yah.
“We’ve got different loads on our backs. Do you really want to wreck the peace you’ve built up with this idiotic stunt?” Zig was unusually disapproving for once.
“You could’ve just said ‘thank you’…” Isana had been hoping for words of gratitude, if not a simple bow. When she received neither, her ears drooped like a disappointed dog.
“Huh?”
It was then that Isana’s sharp hearing picked up on some footsteps. Her drooping ears perked up immediately as she cast a cautious eye in its direction. Several figures appeared from the corner of a building. Their shoulders were hunched, violence radiating from them. These weren’t ordinary townspeople out for an evening walk.
Somehow, Isana slackened her expression. “You’re from Bazarta.”
“Lady Isana? What are you doing here?”
Albano, the tough guy with a scarred face, looked visibly surprised. Neither expected the other to be here, so both had confusion written on their faces. However, there was no time for deliberation considering Zig’s condition.
“Sorry, but you guys can have this conversation another day,” Zig interrupted and looked at Albano. “As promised, we left the building mostly intact. The door and furniture inside are pretty much gone, though.”
Albano couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You really did it… Just the two of you?”
Zig tossed the thing in his hand over to him. Yaesar’s crozier fell on the ground with a rattle.
Albano’s eyes widened in shock and recognition. “That’s…”
“I killed Yaesar the remitter.”
That was all the evidence they needed. There was no way its previous owner would let go of his weapon without a fight.
“Take care of the rest,” Zig ordered.
“R-right…”
Albano turned to his men and motioned them to enter the church.
“That’s it. Not bad for prep, huh?”
Isana could imagine what kind of deal Zig struck with Bazarta. He had promised to sell the church to the mafia after claiming its territory, solidifying their grip on the area.
That was why he went to see them this afternoon. “They laughed at first. ‘You’re welcome to try,’ they said.”
Isana shrugged, Vanno’s slimy smile popping up in her head. “I can imagine…”
No matter how good you were, claiming an entire Claritist Church was not something two people could reasonably do. She was very interested in seeing how the snake would react to the report, but that was a luxury only his men would get to enjoy.
“I wasn’t expecting you to bring Siasha, though. I thought you were supposed to be protecting her.”
“Trust me, I wanted to leave her behind too.”
Isana followed them after they left the church. She was perfectly right, but there was more to tonight’s incident than just getting even. The church had made an attempt on Zig’s life and he had been banned from the guild. Siasha’s anger had been at a boiling point. If she hadn’t let it out tonight, it would have blown up elsewhere. He didn’t want to think about the damage she could have done then.
“It couldn’t be helped, really,” Siasha said. “Zig wasn’t allowed to set foot in the guild as long as those people had their eyes on him. All I wanted to do was to make it as a proper adventurer. Don’t you think it’s awful?”
“Uhh, I guess?” Isana said.
“So, I thought why not just do everyone a favor and exterminate them as quickly as possible?”
“True…”
Why is she agreeing with her? Zig knew Siasha wasn’t well adjusted, but this other woman definitely had some screws loose. He recalled her earlier question.
“So why are you here?” he asked.
“Look, I said I was repaying a favor.”
“Yeah, I got that. Who told you about what happened?”
“Urbas and Bates… Elsia too, I guess.”
Word had spread further than he thought. Understandable considering the scene that broke out at the guild earlier today.
“Urbas felt awful about it. He thought he got you dragged into this mess.”
“I already told him he had nothing to do with it…” Apparently, Zig’s explanation had not been enough for the scalefolk, who valued debts of gratitude highly.
“Bates and Elsia are going around to clear your names too.”
“They really didn’t have to.”
Zig realized he was getting a lot of help with this incident—even Isana had helped to take care of reinforcements. He would have to thank them later.
“Ugh.” His knees went out from under him.
“Zig!” Siasha immediately caught him, but his weight was too much for her to bear. Isana stepped in to help just as he was about to squash her.
“Hey, you doing okay?” Isana asked.
“Sorry. My legs got hit a lot worse than I thought.”
“It’s all right. Siasha, you take that side. We’ll take him to a doctor Bates knows.”
“All right.”
They walked together, both supporting Zig.
“Sorry about this,” he said.
Isana swallowed at hearing how weak he sounded. She could only imagine how difficult the battle had been. She couldn’t tell how bad his injuries were earlier, but now that she was up close, she could see they were terrible. The wound in his stomach was particularly deep; it was a wonder Zig was still able to walk.
Isana was silent, her ears twitching in wonder as she examined his wounds. The strength of this mercenary was extraordinary. Even though she was considered a master of war amongst the Jinsu-Yah—a people known for their ferocity—she had never seen a fighter like him. How fierce his opponent must have been to fight him until he was so heavily injured.
She felt a smile forming on her face. “So… How tough was that remitter?” She knew it wasn’t the time, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Plenty tough.”
“Tougher than me?”
“Tougher than you, than me… He was really strong.” His reply was more than what she expected.
Isana’s smile deepened. She couldn’t hide the surge of emotions welling within her.
“Stronger than you? But you won, though?”
Zig remembered the sensation in his hands as he killed Yaesar. He balled up a fist, letting blood that wasn’t his drip to the ground.
“He was stronger than me. I just happened to beat him, that’s all.”