The Hunter of Hawk and Wolf-Chapter 26 : Chapter 26

The man’s question, tinged with both mirth and menace, silenced the inn. The quiet was born of fear.
From the terrified expressions on the patrons’ faces, Sevha gathered that the man was infamous in the Blanc Territory.
“Why has everyone gone so quiet? I could have sworn I heard you cursing us just outside. Did I mishear?”
The mirth faded from the man’s voice.
The innkeeper bit his lip, suppressing his anger. But survival quickly won out, and he offered the man a fawning smile.
“You must have misheard, Sir… Tito. Who would dare curse you, when you work so hard for Blanc?”
Hearing the flattery, Tito laughed heartily.
Then, in an instant, his smile vanished.
“So you’re calling me deaf? Saying I can’t even hear properly?”
“Sir Tito! That’s not what I meant…!”
“It wasn’t? He says it wasn’t. What do you think?” Tito asked the patron sitting nearest to him.
The patron stammered out a reply. “He—he wouldn’t have meant it like that!”
The words had barely left his mouth.
“So now you’re calling me a dolt? Too stupid to understand what he meant?”
Tito drew the longsword at his hip and slashed open the chest of the patron who had answered.
The patron collapsed with a thud, blood spewing from his lips.
“W-What is the meaning of this! Quickly, a doctor…!”
As the innkeeper rushed toward the fallen man, Tito drove his longsword into the patron’s back without hesitation.
“Now there’s no need for a doctor. See? Aren’t I clever?”
Tito cackled, and his men roared with laughter.
The sight of them, laughing like madmen over a fresh corpse, sent a new wave of terror through the inn.
Sevha, on the other hand, watched the scene dispassionately.
His swordsmanship is nothing special.
But he has no hesitation in shedding blood. This scum has killed plenty of people weaker than him.
Teresse was just as unmoved by the twisted spectacle.
Like Sevha, she calmly observed the corpse and Tito.
He knows the patrons could overwhelm him if they rushed him all at once.
That’s why he acts like a rabid dog… to keep them afraid.
Having made their individual assessments, Sevha and Teresse met each other’s eyes.
They mouthed a single, silent judgment.
Wild dog.
Tito stopped laughing and stared at the innkeeper.
“And now, the bastard who called me deaf must be punished, mustn’t he?”
The moment Tito finished speaking, a trembling waitress cried out.
“S-Sir Tito! Please forgive my father!”
Immediately, Tito beamed and began to clap.
“Shouting at a murderer to protect your father! Now
that’s
the kind of bravery we like to see in the Knight Kingdom! Everyone, applaud!”
As Tito shouted, his men clapped, their lecherous eyes fixed on the waitress.
“Young lady! In honor of your courage, I’ll only take your father’s arm!”
“P-Please…!”
“What? Hoping for more mercy? Then perhaps you could show a little more courage yourself?”
The waitress understood the disgusting meaning behind his words and squeezed her eyes shut.
On the verge of tears, she replied, “If you’ll just forgive my father… I’ll do anything.”
Tito burst out laughing and jerked his chin.
His men seized the waitress.
“You sons of bitches! What are you doing to my daughter!”
The innkeeper could no longer contain his rage and rushed at Tito.
But Tito easily kicked him down and stomped viciously on his chest.
“Father!” the waitress screamed.
The patrons were frozen in fear.
Sevha watched, as still and silent as before.
This was someone else’s business, a stranger’s trouble, and he had no reason to get involved. Entanglements like these were dangerous.
“Hah! For your daughter’s courage, I’ll stop here!”
When the innkeeper passed out, Tito spat in his face and looked up.
His eyes swept over the room, landing on Sevha, Legra, and finally, Teresse.
Tito’s gaze lingered on her, a lecherous smile spreading across his face.
He strode toward their table, turning to Sevha. “You were the one cursing me, weren’t you?”
Sevha and Teresse instantly understood why Tito was targeting him.
“Magus…” Sevha murmured under his breath.
“Being too beautiful is a sin, I suppose,” Teresse replied, her voice just as low.
As Sevha sighed at her remark, Tito stood before him.
“I’ll forgive you for cursing us. In exchange, I’m taking this woman. All right?”
Sevha eyed Tito silently, then nodded.
“Little runt! You look young, but you’re wise!”
Tito struck Sevha hard on the chest.
The next instant, with a heavy
thump
, it was Tito who was sprawling on his ass.
He stared up at Sevha, dumbfounded.
Sevha was still watching him quietly, observing him as if sizing up his prey.
An unknown dread washed over Tito. He scrambled to his feet and started to back away.
“N-Never mind. Leave the woman…”
Tito was about to give up on Teresse, but he stopped when he saw the patrons watching him.
If he showed weakness here, they might rise up against him.
“F-Fine, take this woman, too.”
“Captain, you fell so suddenly. Are you all right—?” one of his men began.
“Just take the women and go!” Tito snapped.
He hurried out of the inn, and his men followed, dragging Teresse and the waitress with them.
As the patrons rushed to the innkeeper, Legra cried out, “Lord Sevha? The witch has been taken, what should we—”
But Sevha was no longer beside him.
“Lord Sevha…?”
Meanwhile, on the main road outside.
Tito walked hastily like a man being pursued, paying no mind to his men.
“Captain? Why are you in such a hurry?”
Tito didn’t answer.
Teresse, who was being dragged along, answered for him in a mocking tone. “A wild dog has to be sharp if it wants to live long.”
The man expected Tito to get angry at her mockery, but he didn’t.
Expression tense, he asked, “Woman. That punk… what is he?”
Tito recalled the feeling of striking Sevha’s chest. It was like hitting half-molten steel, a body that promised to solidify into pure iron at the first sign of a real threat.
“Who knows? I haven’t known him long.” Teresse feigned ignorance with a slight smile.
Tito raised a hand to strike her.
But then, he heard something.
A footstep that was not his own, nor that of his men, falling into step behind them.
Tito flinched. He stopped and frantically looked around.
“Captain? What’s wrong?”
Again, Tito did not reply, only scanning the people nearby.
The residents of Rasseu walked with weary faces, lowering their heads to avoid his gaze. No one met his eyes.
And yet, Tito felt an intense sensation of being watched.
“As a warning… he’s revealing his presence,” Tito muttered to himself.
Following his premonition, he said to his men, “You all have your fun tonight.”
“Sir?”
“Shut up… and go on without me.”
Tito deliberately stomped off in the opposite direction.
His men, smirking as if they’d won a prize, dragged Teresse and the waitress away.
Leaving Tito behind, the men arrived at a two-story house.
They went inside, shoved Teresse and the waitress into the attic, and went down to the second floor, arguing over who would go first.
Left alone with the waitress, Teresse scanned her surroundings.
The attic was cluttered with discarded furniture and a rickety old bed. The only exits were the stairs leading down and a small window at the very top of the attic.
I’d be caught immediately if I went downstairs.
The window… it’s too high. I won’t reach it even if I stack the furniture.
Guess there’s no way out.
Teresse decided to simply accept the future she had foreseen. Until then, she would gather information from the waitress.
“Your name?”
The waitress only trembled, so Teresse approached her, gently cupping the girl’s face to calm her.
“Breathe deeply.”
Hearing Teresse’s sweet voice, the waitress took a deep breath instinctively.
“Good. Your name?”
“It’s Mary.”
“Mary. Who are those men, to brazenly kill someone in the middle of a castle town?”
“They’re the acting lord’s knight order.”
“A knight order? When they act more like a pack of bandits?”
“I heard it’s an order the acting lord formed with wandering knights, right after he took power.”
“So a pack of bandits it is. But Blanc is being ruled by an acting lord, not the Marquis?”
“Yes. The Marquis of Blanc is currently…”
Just as Mary was about to explain, two of Tito’s men opened the door and thumped up the stairs into the attic.
“Which one?”
“Let’s take turns.”
“You… are you a genius?”
The men snickered and approached Teresse and Mary.
Mary scrambled back to the wall, but one of the men grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the floor.
Teresse, however, did not run.
“Looks like you’re prepared,” the other man said.
“I was about to say the same thing to you.”
The man, not understanding her retort, grabbed her by the shoulder.
Just then, Teresse heard Mary’s screams and the sound of her struggling.
But she didn’t look. Instead, her gaze remained fixed on the small window at the top of the attic.
“Right, right. It’ll hurt less if you look away. Probably.”
“That’s what I was about to say to you.”
“Huh?”
Teresse tore her gaze from the window and fixed the man with a cold stare.
Then, in a voice even colder than her eyes, she said, “Brace yourself and look away. Then you’ll die with less pain. Probably.”
The sound of the high window opening echoed softly in the attic.
Creeak…
The man holding Teresse looked toward the window. But something else filled his vision.
Sevha, dropping down with a handaxe in his grip.
He landed and drove the axe into the head of the man who had met his gaze.
Crack!
The man pinning Mary heard the sickening sound of flesh and bone giving way.
He turned. Sevha was already yanking the handaxe free from his companion’s skull and hurling it.
There was no time to even dodge. The flying axe slammed into his face, sending him crashing to the floor.
In an instant, two corpses lay on the floor, their faces pulped messes. Mary tried to scream.
But Teresse, now standing over her, covered her mouth.
“Breathe deeply again,” she said.
As Mary calmed, her eyelids fluttering, Teresse chided Sevha.
“Couldn’t you show some mercy and kill them a little more cleanly?”
Sevha pulled the handaxe from the second man’s face and replied, “It’s mercy to kill prey with a single blow so it doesn’t suffer.”
“No wonder Diaka and the God of Love don’t get along.”
Sevha ignored her remark and started toward the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Teresse called out.
“To kill the rest of them.”
“We can just escape. What about this girl? Their comrades will come after her for revenge.”
“Really? What should we do, then? I’ve already killed two of them. Want to resurrect them with your magic?”
Teresse considered how to resolve the situation. Then, a rapturous smile spread across her face, as if she’d had a thought that was brilliant even to herself.
“You know what, Hunter? Nevermind me. Just kill them all.”
Seeing Teresse endorse murder with such a blissful smile, Mary trembled.
But Sevha was different.
He merely nodded, his expression sharp, the face of a hunter who had intended to do so from the start.