After the celebration of the successful defense against the army that the Castellan brought to potentially siege the rebel's village, the three of us went to Alain's office to tell him we will finish the job. When we entered, Alain is cleaning his gear as usual. Although he didn't have a chance to fully use his weapon and armor, he never ceases to clean them.
"Alain, are you busy?" I asked.
Alain stopped wiping his sword and looked up. He wiped his sweat and stood up from his chair when he realized it was us.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't realize you guys entered. Come on, sit down. I am not busy, I will be preparing some beverages for you guys."
"No need Alain, we are not here to chat. We are here to ask permission if can perform a follow-up operation after the last defense mission. We want to finish the thing right this evening," Sigma bluntly revealed.
"A follow-up mission?" Alain frowned since he is not sure what Sigma was talking about
"We are talking about "dispatching" the Castellan tonight," Harmless Sparrow whispered in Alain's ear though loud enough for Sigma and me to hear.
"W-what? Are you guys out of your mind? Do you three want to go and deal with him right now after he retreated? I know you guys are strong but this is a suicide mission!"
"He is most vulnerable right now so it is better to strike while the iron is hot," Sigma reasoned.
"I know that this is the opportunity but did you guys think he wouldn't have any men to spare to guard his house fully right now? His place would be armed to teeth right now so I am going to say that this is very outrageous and dangerous."
"Looks like you are underestimating our capabilities," Harmless Sparrow furrowed her brows.
"No, I am not underestimating you three. But being overconfident will come and bite you. This is a warning so that you guys knew that what you guys are trying to do would be the death of you all. I am worried you guys are just going to waltz in and just go ham on everyone there. I think this is not the right time."
"Don't worry Alain, we are not amateurs in this job after all. We know what we are doing so you don't need to be worried at all. We might regret it if we don't finish up that guy and he will bring a stronger army. The sooner we eliminate the main threat, the better it is for us so that we can focus on the tactician himself. He will be the second main threat. Finishing off the Castellan will weaken the link between the enemies and they will have loose control over the place. It will be a big benefit to all of us."
And we spent a few more minutes arguing with him. Despite his wishes to not do the deed, he eventually said yes after we pester him without stopping.
"Fine, you guys win. I will permit it, but since you guys are the ones who pester me about this, I will not be going to issue any reward with the completion of the task. This is a big mistake so I hope you guys would think this through after this. You guys would really be in big trouble and I can't bail you all out after this," Alain can only shake his head.
"Don't worry, we will bring the good news, you won't be worried."
Because the quest is not an official quest, there is no prompt for us on whether the Castellan is the target or not. There are no objectives either. More like we can choose who we want to beat and kill like in some open-world games where you can start killing enemies present on the map even though you are still not supposed to go there.
"So what is the main plan?"
"Can I trust you guys to make a ruckus while I am going to handle the main kill?"
"That's easy. I really want to see you assassinate that bastard but since we don't have any Ninja or Assassin skills that can help us with that, I guess we will just be better off fighting those lackeys of his."
"Then that is settled. It's already dark out now. Let's finish this so that we can start resting after we are done. Shall we?"
"Heh, I am always ready. I am just waiting on you guys," Sparrow grinned.
"Alright. Time to get this quest complete because it will not complete itself! Let's go!"
...
Nove l B(in).C OM
...
...
In the manor full of guards outside, a frustrated Castellan is drinking away his loss after seeing his overwhelming defeat. If he didn't escape that time, he would be part of the people becoming corpses there. Just thinking about how everyone was defeated despite the overwhelming numbers of them is unbelievable. In fact, if he tell anyone that his army that he marched on the plains to conquer one small village was annihilated by three people, no one would believe it.
Cannot contain his anger, he threw the glass of wine glass to the wall, splashing all of the broken glass to the floor.
"F*CK! THOSE BASTARDS DARE TO STOP ME? THEY ALL DARE TO STOP ME JUST BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT THEY ARE SUPERIOR! F*CKIING BASTARDS WILL DIE THE NEXT TIME I WILL SEE THEM. I AM NOT JUST GOING TO LET THEM LEAVE ALIVE. I WILL TEAR THEM APART LIMB BY LIMB THE NEXT TIME THEY APPEAR TO ME."
The Castellan is known to be a valiant leader, someone who will lead an army to victory and will always achieve that result without fail. However, if anyone knew that he retreated the moment all of the soldiers he brought with him were wiped out, he will be the laughingstock of everyone and that is something that he really doesn't want to see happen to himself.
His failure, the incident that forced him to flee, it will forever stain his pride. He is not ready to accept it. He is not ready that his untarnished record would be easily tarnished like this.
As he sat down on his chair and put his face down on the table face flat, he heard some noises outside his window but he is too tired to even bother with all of the sh*ts he experienced that day. And with the alcohol he drank finally kicking in, his consciousness is also fading away. He just wanted to laze away and forget everything that happened earlier are just one big and long dream he experienced. Once he closes his eyes, everything will be back to normal, everything will be good as new and everything will be just like it once before.
But then, he slowly heard someone talking in his room. He is too tired to care or even open his eyes but he heard almost everything.
"Wow! Just my luck! Isn't this a pretty good outcome even for me? I thought I would be going to do some fights but this is fine too!"
And then, his consciousness slowly drifts through the dreamland.
...
...
...
The Castellan opened his eyes and soon enough, he realized that he is sitting in a chair. He tried to stand up but then he realized that he cannot do so as something is binding his body from doing so. He opened his eyes and tried to move his hands but he also realized that even his hands are tied. He shook his head to fully wake himself up and blink a few more times to look at what is happening to him.
"Looks like you are finally awake. That took you long enough, man. I thought you wouldn't even bother waking up or something like that."
He frowned when he saw the three people from before who slaughtered all of his soldiers currently in his bedroom. He tried to speak but he realized that something is blocking his mouth from doing so and he can't spit it out so that he can speak. He can only do some grunts and muffled noises due to the restriction. He also tried to force himself to drag the chair he was sitting on too but there was no movement at all.
"Give it up. I made sure the chair won't be dragged away from you and escape so I hammered and nailed the legs down to the floor so that the chair will remain there, unmoving and motivated to handle anything that will be coming soon."
The Castellan shook his head, makes a lot of muffle noises, and tried to wriggle his way out from the rope that is tying his body to the chair. However, it was too tight that he is having a hard time too.
"Now then, perhaps it is time to learn some info from you, yes?"
The Castellan's eyes went wide when an insect person appeared behind the guy wearing a wolf mask carrying a few sharp needles and even a scissor and needle and thread.
"Let's begin the operation now, shall we?" said Bladeheart who is slowly approaches the terrified Castellan who is about to wet his pants.