Black Iron’s Glory
chapter-144

Claude climbed back up. He had fallen back into the alley as a result of being forced back by the thug with the knife. Fortunately, that was the end of the alley and it was more spacious, giving Claude more space to duck around.

He really couldn’t afford to underestimate anyone. Even a common thug of Blacksnake was able to push him so far. Had he not risked using Magic Missile while on the ground, it was hard to say whether he would survive or not.

He wasn’t a true battlemagus after all and only had a single true combat spell, Magic Missile. While he could take care of the thugs without problem, he didn’t know how useful it could be against a real magus. He wasn’t able to do much against the bearded magus that attacked him in the small forest back then. Had it not been for the fact that his opponent didn’t have his own combat spells, he would’ve probably lost.

Claude would always reflect on his actions after every such occurrence. That was one advantage he had. This time, it wasn’t any different. He felt that he was becoming too reliant on Magic Missile and thinking that he was invincible against Blacksnake with it. So, he became too careless and even declared that he would be robbing them.

Even if he used Projectile Barrier before challenging them, he shouldn’t have dropped the handaxe when two ranged weapons were raised against him. That way, he would’ve been able to parry the strikes of the knife-wielding thug and beat him. It would be far better than fighting unarmed anyway, at the very least, he wouldn’t have had to do nothing but evade. Fortunately, the alley was wide enough to allow him to do so.

Currently, all six Blacksnake thugs in the yard were beaten down, with at least four dead. What made Claude wonder was how there wasn’t the slightest commotion in the house even though such a huge ruckus transpired in the yard. Not a single person went out to check, so he better be careful.

After casting Projectile Barrier on himself again, Claude entered the yard and walked up to the three Shark bodyguards. He found the one feigning injury on the ground and gave him a light kick. “Get up and stop playing dead. I know you’re fine. If you don’t, I’ll make sure you stay down for good.”

The guard sat up and kneeled immediately. “Lord Magus, please spare us. We are not one of them, in fact, we’re also the victims. Look at my face, I was beaten up by them too…”

Claude had to admit that the injury wasn’t as light as he had initially thought. His face was bruising so much it swelled badly. His scalp was probably cut too, given how much blood there was on his face. The bruises and swelling were more than enough for him to scare people on the streets without putting on horror makeup.

Claude was surprised the moment he saw the face, but he could tell that the guard was an experienced fighter given how fluently he spoke and how well he moved. His injuries were mostly external and he was pretty much fine.

He pointed at the six bodies in the yard and said, “Go search them and give me their wealth.”

The beaten-up guard didn’t really expect that the magus was there to rob them and couldn’t react after hearing what he did. It was only until Claude snorted that he scrambled up to the body whose back was punctured and began searching.

Claude stood at a distance of two meters away from the guard as the latter searched the corpse in a practiced manner, not allowing even the slightest corner to stay unsearched. The pig-faced guard was quite the expert in searching bodies.

Yet, that wasn’t enough to change the fact that the dead thug was a poor sob. THe guard only managed to find one riyas and four sunars of copper coins that weren’t stored in a money pouch, but within the man’s clothes pockets instead.

Claude motioned his chin to the other corpse. Soon, the other two injured and three dead thugs were searched cleanly and their loot was gathered before Claude. What pissed him off was that these six thugs were even poorer than the former six he encountered earlier. The gold ring and money of the former six combined could probably amount to a single crown. But these six didn’t even have a silver ring and they had less than three thales in total.

Claude looked at the two other collapsed guards who had ceased groaning. “There are two more.”

The pig-faced guard was surprised. “Lord Magus, they’re part of our gang, Shark. We’re not with Blacksnake and we aren’t your enemies.”

“You aren’t my friends either,” Claude said darkly, “Move faster, will you? If you won’t search, you can lie down and rest.”

“I… I’ll search them.” The guard had no choice but to move to the other two Sharks. He understood what Claude meant by rest.

“Don’t forget to give me your stuff too,” Claude reminded, “I already said I was going to rob you, yet you didn’t believe me. I want your money, whether you’re Blacksnake or Shark.”

The guard almost banged his head on the ground. He finally started believing that the magus had indeed come to rob them instead of going out of his way to save them.

Claude was finally satisfied. The three Sharks had six thales in total. Each of their money pouches contained at least one. It looked like Sharks were richer, and the guard who did the searching was the riches. Apart from the three thales, there were more than ten copper coins of varying value. The riches he carried far exceeded what his getup would suggest.

“What are you looking at me for? Can’t part with your money?”

“N-no… Lord Magus…”

He put the three money pouches in his backpack and thought, great, now I have around 15 thales. His mood improved considerably. He patiently consoled the guard, “Just think about it like this. If I hadn’t come to rob you, you would’ve ended up far worse and continued being beaten. Your money would’ve been taken by the Blacksnakes anyway, same goes for the other two. Now that I’m here, even though you lost your money, at least you won’t have to keep being beaten. It’s a far better deal, won’t you say?”

The guard wore an awkward expression. That’s how you justify it? Sigh, your fist is bigger. Your word is law.

“How many other people are in the house?” Claude asked.

The guard responded only after a moment’s stupor. “More than ten came here… Ah, wait, I think a few of them went there.”

He was pointing in the direction Claude came from.

“There are six of them lying there. You don’t have to worry about them,” Claude said impatiently, “I was asking how many people are within the house now.”

“Oh, inside… T-there’s that second-in-command, Fatbull Bowen and his four guards… Jerad, Kesline and Kefnia are also inside, as well as one of my comrades, Ablonk…”

That means there are nine others in the house. Why is there no sound inside? Had Claude not felt the breathing within, he would’ve really thought that there was nobody in the house. The candles weren’t lit either and it appeared pitch black from the slit in the door. It seemed that Bowen and the rest noticed what was going on in the yard and were hiding in the house in ambush to wait for Claude to step inside.

“Is there an exit at the back of the house?”

“No, there are no windows on the ground floor at the back, only two windows on the first floor. But it’s a height of five to six meters and it’d be hard to climb down from.” The guard was quick on the uptake.

“So there’s only this way to enter the house?” Claude asked.

The guard hurriedly nodded. “This is the only way for anyone to exit. There are no other doors and the windows on the ground floor are sealed with iron bars. There’s no leaving from there.”

Claude spoke intentionally in a louder voice, “The lights inside are all out. Do you think it’ll be fine as long as you hide? With me doing the robbing, none of you can escape.”

Then, he pointed at the guard and back at the wooden door, motioning for him to open it.

The guard pointed at himself, stupefied. You want me to open the door?

Claude nodded with certainty. He even gave him an encouraging glance. It’s you alright. What are you waiting for? Open the door quick.

The despairing guard headed for the door hesitantly. When he saw the corpses of the Blacksnake thugs behind him, his eyes shone bright. He turned to pick up a corpse to use as a shield before pushing the door open.

Claude gave the guard a thumbs-up. The experienced fighter knew well to protect himself.

With a creek, the door opened and the body of the thug got beaten up harshly at that moment. The guard that held the corpse up wasn’t able to withstand the blows at all and he pushed the corpse forward before rolling back twice to move away from the danger.

The poor corpse landed on the ground face-up and its forehead was split open by a few sharp throwing axes hitting it squarely in the head. A few shortswords found their way into his chest, flaying it completely, and its left leg somehow got cut off cleanly, leaving behind a bleeding stump.

The inside of the house was still pitch black and silent, as if the brutalization of the corpse had been nothing but an illusion. Claude could feel, however, that the breaths of those within it turned far rougher. The attackers definitely didn’t know that the one that they just beat to ‘death’ was nothing but a corpse. Their ambush was rendered completely useless.

Claude pointed inside the house before a flash of bright light appeared inside the house. Right after that, it formed into a glowing ball that was immeasurably bright. It was Luminous Pearl, a spell considered harmless used for illumination and powered by mana.

‘There aren’t any useless spells, only useless magi.’ Claude agreed with that saying immensely. A so-called harmless spell like Luminous Pearl could be used to cause quite a bit of damage to the attackers in the house. The sudden change in light intensity wasn’t something anyone could just grow accustomed to in a moment. Those who could still move instinctively blocked their eyes and groaned.

Claude darted into the house immediately and anyone that caught his sight got a Magic Missile. Dead bodies could be searched as well as live ones, so he didn’t really care whether the Blacksnake thugs were dead or alive.

Five Magic Missiles were loosed, felling five people within, the exact number of people that entered the house. There was one on either side of the door, one below the table and another sitting on a chair, as well as one standing behind a chair, five in total.

But where were the sisters and the temporary boss of Shark?

Claude turned around and found them tied up in a corner. The three of them were teary-eyed and had their eyes half closed thanks to Luminous Pearl. They were looking at him with terror. In front of them was a person lying flat on the ground, probably the comrade the former guard mentioned. However, his chest had three knife cuts out of which blood oozed. That guard was probably long dead.

“You, come in and continue,” Claude ordered curtly.

The guard entered the house and narrowed his eyes. He couldn’t withstand the light from the orb either.

The four thugs inside the house were as poor as the others. They only had some two thales of cash on them. The fat man beside the chair, however, was the second-in-command of Blacksnake called Fatbull Bowen. He gave Claude quite a surprise. Within his intricate-looking deerskin pouch were five crowns and more than ten thales. Claude finally felt that his effort that night was worth it.