/
Zero, having parted from Haruto, was walking up the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Hmm. Judging from the presence ahead, there don’t seem to be many.”
He had become a butler through and through that his tone was polite even when no one was around.
He walked up the stairs without making a sound.
Two men were standing at the landing on the second floor, but they saw Zero and called out to him.
“…A butler? Who the hell are you supposed to be?”
“How did you get here in the first place? What about the guys downstairs?”
The two men were wary, pointing their swords at the unidentified fellow.
However, in spite of the weapons pointed at him, Zero bowed gracefully and introduced himself.
“My name is Zero, and I am a butler in a certain mansion. If you’re wondering about the plight of the gentlemen downstairs, I can assure you that they’re sleeping quite soundly…one which they will never wake up from, though.”
Hearing Zero’s words, the men looked at each other as if wondering, what the fuck is he talking about?
Then they looked at Zero again, but he was no longer there.
“Where’d he go?!”
“Find him!”
They couldn’t have lost sight of him in such a narrow space.
The two men started to panic, but then they heard Zero’s voice from behind them.
“What a pair of slowpokes.”
““The hell!?””
As dimwitted as they may appear, they were still no doubt assassins, the two turned around swinging their swords in response.
“What the?!”
“That can’t be.”
“—That’s but an illusion. The real one is right here.”
Those words were the last they heard.
Zero then began probing for signs and the number of enemies on the second floor.
“A total of ten in that side room, three at the far end…only one guy seemed worthy of note, I guess he must be an executive.”
Zero began entering the rooms, killing enemies along the way, and finally arrived at the room where the executive was.
Zero quickly tried to open the door, but it was locked.
“Oh dear…what a badly fitted door, this one.”
Zero said, then gripped the lock and broke it.
As soon as he opened the door to go in, knives came flying in. However—
““The fuck?!””
Two startled voices leaked out.
Yup. Zero had easily grabbed all the knives that flew at him.
Seeing this, the strong among them, who seemed to be an executive, asked.
“You’re pretty good…who the hell are you? Who sent you?”
“I apologize for the rough greeting. My name is Zero, and I’m the butler of a certain individual.”
Zero replied to the man in his thirties who was sitting in the chair across from him.
Two black-robed guards stood beside him, their weapons at the ready, wary of Zero’s attack.
“So, what business does Mr. Butler have here? You do know where you are, don’t you?”
“This is Cobra’s headquarters, isn’t it?”
Hearing Zero’s words, the executive man’s eyebrows twitched.
“…That’s right, and very few people are aware of that fact. So, how can we help you, a request perhaps?”
“Not at all. My only purpose for coming here is to decimate this stronghold.”
“Hmph, cocky bastard. What’s your deal with us, anyway?”
Zero narrowed his eyes and stared at the executive who smirked scornfully.
“You tried to assassinate my master in a back alley, ring a bell?”
“…Your master, is the adventurer Haruto, huh.”
“Yeah.”
“I see, well, that makes sense…but do you think you can do that, in your current predicament?”
“—What a dumb question. Rather, it’d be funny if you lowly insects think that you can really defeat me?”
The intimidation that Zero unleashed made both the executive and subordinates unable to take a single step forward.
“Ugh, what pressure…”
“Hiek…”
“Ughh…”
Instead, the two subordinates collapsed, unable to even remain standing, and both got stabbed through the heart by Zero’s sword and died.
The executive tried to stand up to escape, but his legs gave way and he fell to the ground.
“You are the only one left.”
“D-Don’t do it! I’ll give you all my money! So please—don’tghaaaaahhh.”
Along with the scream, blood splashed through the air.
Zero grabbed the unconscious executive, whose arms had been cut off.
“Done already. So boring…”
After stopping the bleeding for the time being, Zero headed for the stairs leading to the first floor.
～
After parting with Haruto, Sebas was heading toward the entrance of the underground passage that would be an escape route.
“—I guess this is the place.”
Without hesitation, Sebas rushed into the room and dropped the heads of the three guards inside.
“Hmm. I wonder if these men are the ones responsible for seizing anyone who trespasses into this passageway.”
He opened the door further back, which then revealed a single pathway.
“Now then, according to master Haruto, a few of them should be coming this way…”
Immediately after Sebas muttered that, the door to the entrance of the room was opened.
“Hohoho. Nothing less from Master Haruto, as usual.”
Sebas muttered to himself, and the two men who had entered the room stopped in their tracks when they saw the corpses lying at his feet.
“…Who goes there?”
The larger of the two men asked with a sharp gaze.
“My name is Sebastian. I have come to exterminate Cobra.”
The larger man reacted when he heard the word exterminate.
“Ohh, have you gone senile, old geezer?”
“Oh no, I’m very much in good health, thank you.”
“That so…then go to hell.”
As the large man said this, the other man, who had been waiting on standby, approached Sebas, throwing a knife at him.
“Well, well, well, this is quite the boisterous greeting.”
Sebas effortlessly avoided the knife and cut down the man approaching him.
“…Ohh. You’re pretty good, geezer.”
“Thank you for the compliment. What can I say, I’m feeling pretty psyched about this since I have history with you guys.”
“History huh…come to think of it, Sebastian hmm, a few decades ago, one of the top executives at the time was killed by a rookie S-rank adventurer bearing the same name…”
“Oh, you know about that.”
“Wow, so it really is you. Kukuku, this just got interesting. How about I demonstrate to you the power of the current executives!”
As soon as he said that, the man closed in on Sebas.
The executive was not holding a sword, but he probably had a weapon of sorts on his fists.
Sebas judged so and turned his body to avoid the swinging right fist.
“I knew you would do that! —So long, butler geezer!”
The executive smiled and activated a contraption in his left arm.
And then—
“Guhaa…”
The next moment, the executive was coughing up blood from his mouth.
“W-What just——?!!”
He looked down and saw that his left arm had been cut off and a sword was sticking out of his gut.
“Ugh, gguh…”
At the same time that Sebas pulled out his sword, the executive retreated, letting out a cry of anguish.
“Oh, you’re still standing, I guess you really do live up to the title of an executive of Cobra uh.”
“F-Fuck you…”
“But the one I fought before was much stronger.”
With such a dismayed voice, Sebas’s figure disappeared from the executive’s sight.
The next moment, the man collapsed to his knees and fell forward.
Before he could tell what was going on, both of his legs were broken.
Sebas smashed them with his sword, still in its sheath.
“Guuuaaaaaahhhh!?”
The man screamed out in pain.
“All right now, stop being so dramatic and take a nap will you.”
Sebas said, and silenced him with a blow to the neck.
“Now then, I better take him upstairs, just in case.”
◇ ◇ ◇
As I, Haruto, headed upstairs, Zero had just come down.
He was carrying a man without arms as if he were carrying luggage.
“Good work, who is he?”
“He appears to be an executive. He didn’t put up much of a fight though.”
“Well, at our levels, you’ll find that most people are no match for us.”
Zero nodded in agreement with my words.
I was able to link up with Zero and returned to the first floor, where Sebas had just returned from the basement.
“Oh, good job…is that an executive?”
“Yeah, I guess. He was not as formidable as they used to be, I have to say…”
“Well Sebas, you’ve also become stronger than when you were an S-rank rookie, haven’t you? And it seems you’ve been training with Zero lately, right?”
“That’s true…is that person with Zero an executive as well?”
Zero nodded in response to Sebas’ question.
“I captured one of the executives alive too, but I left him in the basement because he was a pain in the ass…well, looks like the soldiers are here, I guess I’ll leave the rest to them.”
With that said, I released the barrier and soon after, I heard the sound of armor scraping and footsteps coming from outside the building.
Zero and Sebas rolled the two men they had captured to a corner and joined the women hiding in the back room on the first floor, and we went outside.
Among the soldiers was Thomas, the gatekeeper, whom I knew well.
“Hey, Thomas, you came as well?”
“Well done, Mr. Haruto. His Majesty thought it would be better to have someone familiar on site to talk to Mr. Haruto…so, how did it go?”
“Makes sense. The Cobra perps are in there. Only three of the executives are alive, two are on the first floor and one in the basement.”
I didn’t dare to mention the other members, but Thomas guessed it and his face turned blue.
“G-Got it. Also Mr. Haruto, what about the ladies over there?”
Thomas glanced at the three behind me and tilted his head.
“They were being held downstairs. I’ll leave them in your care, so please treat them politely.”
“Understood.”
“Oh, also. There were several hidden escape routes in the basement. I don’t know where they lead, but please try and look into it and figure it out.”
Well, I know it is connected to Count Balazel’s mansion, but if I tell them that, they will wonder how I came to know all that. So, I’ll let them find out on their own.
“I understand! So what are you planning to do next, Mr. Haruto?”
“Hmm? I’m outta here. I can’t do much with so little information until you finish your investigation. So tell Dillan I’ll see him tomorrow.”
Thomas and the other soldiers bowed their heads in response to my words.
And immediately, they proceeded into the building to investigate.
～
The three of us headed straight back to the mansion.
It was already quite late, and although I already had dinner, I was craving something light.
When we arrived at the mansion, Zero opened the front door for us. He seems to have mastered how to act as a butler.
“We’re back~”
“Ah, welcome back, Haruto.”
The one who greeted me was Finne.
“We all contributed to making dinner and were waiting for you.”
Finne said and took us to the dining room.
The dining room was filled up, and the table was laid out with a simple buffet ready for pickings.
As we dug into the hot homemade late-night meal, we talked about what had happened at Cobra’s hideout.
The rest, however, will have to wait until we see what the soldiers uncover.
We split up for the day, and I went to bed with Finne at her request.