Chapter 85 – Dead Ember (6)

A small ember led by Randolph, an elderly leader who had now become white-haired.

The tiny ember, with a population of only five hundred people, was spending peaceful days under his rule.

As was usually the case with nameless embers, although many things were lacking, they were living relatively happily through tight-knit solidarity and harmony among the people.

However, the peace did not last long.

Because it was the law of this cruel ice age not to leave even such a small ember alone.

It was only a day ago, after a group of fifty plunderers raided the ember, that their small and simple peace and happiness vanished.

“Bring every single one of them, without leaving a single person behind! Hurry!”

“Yes, Boss!”

A middle-aged man with a long scar engraved diagonally from his right eye to his lips shouted in front of the Eternal Embers.

Following the order of their leader, the plunderers armed with mana guns began to move busily.

It was only an instant for the five hundred citizens to gather in front of the Eternal Embers.

Although their number differed by tenfold from the plunderers, they had no way out before the overwhelming armed force of the mana guns.

Before the citizens kneeling and trembling while surrounded by the plunderers, the man called the boss stood holding the white-haired elderly man by his hair.

That elderly man was Randolph, the leader of this ember.

Bang, bang, bang!

The boss, who fired his mana gun into the air, began to shout toward the citizens.

“If you do not want to die, start mining glacial stones immediately. Even if it weren’t for us, you would have had to secure glacial stones anyway, so why are you being so stubborn?”

What the boss of the plunderer group wanted was a shelter to stay in during the snowstorm.

Fortunately for the plunderers and unfortunately for the citizens, this was the nearest ember.

However, this small ember lacked productivity, as befitted its scale.

Naturally, they had not secured a sufficient amount of magic stones to endure the snowstorm, and having learned that fact by torturing Randolph over the few days since occupying the ember, the boss had summoned the citizens together in a fit of rage.

However, the leader Randolph appeared unyielding despite the harsh torture and intimidation.

“No matter what you bastards do, you will not obtain what you want from us.”

Even as his consciousness faded from losing too much blood, Randolph spoke clearly.

The elderly man, knowing that complying with the plunderers’ demands would ultimately end only in death, was resolved to perish along with them.

Dumbfounded by that sight, the boss snorted.

“Has this old man lost his fear because it’s time for him to die? Or does the threat of death sound like a joke to you?”

Saying so, the boss pressed the mana gun against the forehead of the elderly man, who was bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose.

Then, a sizzling sound of burning flesh rose from the elderly man’s forehead.

“Le-Leader!”

“Father!”

“Randolph!”

The citizens watching while kneeling screamed.

Although the mana gun had been fired into the air as a threat, since it had fired anyway, the muzzle was in a heated state.

That meant the boss bastard had seared the elderly man’s flesh with the mana gun, which was no different from a branding iron.

“…!”

However, despite the terrible pain of his flesh being seared, the elderly man only glared with wide eyes and did not let out even a groan.

Then, when the muzzle finally cooled down enough that it could no longer inflict pain on him, his mouth finally opened.

“Since you bastards kill as easily as eating meals, your threat of death must be sincere… but well, I am not afraid.”

“What?”

“Perhaps because I have lived with the grim reaper of the ice age by my side since the moment of my birth, I lost my fear long ago. And you merely look like a worthless scoundrel mimicking the grim reaper.”

“This old geezer…!”

Although it was a dying voice, the spirit of Randolph, the elderly leader, was anything but ordinary.

That was not something that could emerge simply because the years he had lived were long.

Since enduring the pain of burning flesh and a detached attitude before death were not things that could come just from being old.

Was it due to Randolph’s attitude of not submitting even before ruthless violence?

“Fine. I will show you clearly today who your grim reaper is.”

The boss, as if his anger had reached the absolute limit, pressed the muzzle threateningly and placed his hand on the trigger.

Randolph’s boldness had rather hastened his demise.

“Kill me if you will. You will only learn that fear cannot dare do anything to our ember.”

However, the elderly man, who had already accepted death, merely closed his eyes silently.

His words that it was not strange to die at any moment because this world was cruel were truly not a bluff.

And it was because he believed that his death could not change anything in this ember.

“This old man truly does not seem to fear death. The same goes for his blind faith in the ember.”

Even the boss, who glared at the elderly man as if to kill him, muttered in admiration.

Because as a plunderer, he knew well how ugly those facing death could act just to survive, yet he had never seen anyone like this old man.

“Fine, I will not kill you.”

At that moment, the boss pulled back the gun aimed at the elderly man.

Then, flashing an unpleasant smile at the bewildered elderly man, he immediately turned the muzzle toward the citizens.

Wearing a fiendish smile, he spoke.

“To use death as a threat against someone who does not fear it. I was foolish. The muzzle should have been pointed at them, not at you.”

“…!”

“Aren’t you curious to see if they also do not fear death, just as you don’t? Let us see how many victims it takes for the words of apology to come out of your mouth. I look forward to this.”

A threat to kill the others one by one if they did not follow him.

Licking his lips while flicking his tongue like a lizard, the boss was wicked to the extreme.

Since the threat against Randolph, the leader, did not work, he had taken the citizens hostage.

And that threat of his was definitely effective.

“You bastard! Stop this instant!”

For the first time, a crack appeared on the face of the elderly man, who had maintained a consistent expression.

Even if he did not fear his own death, the deaths of his ember’s citizens were extremely terrifying to the elderly leader.

“Bwahaha! Acting like a sage who has mastered the ways of the world, only to end up in such an ugly state!”

The boss burst into laughter with satisfaction as he watched him shriek.

Along with him, the plunderers surrounding the citizens also began to snicker and let out ridiculing laughs.

The old and powerless leader raged with fury, but he could do nothing with his body, which had become a rag after a severe beating.

At that moment when justice fell to the ground, the man’s laughter also stopped.

It was precisely then.

Bang!

In a silence where time seemed to have stopped, a gunshot rang out without warning.

With an expressionless face, the boss spoke.

“First, one.”

Simultaneously with him finishing his words, someone among the kneeling citizens collapsed with a thud.

There lay a man who had expired with a hole pierced in his chest.

Randolph, who raised his trembling body to check the man’s face, shrieked.

“N-No. Adolf, Adolf!”

The first victim was his son, Adolf.

At the moment he was about to execute Randolph, the boss had not missed Adolf, who had called him father.

“Oh… was that unlucky bastard your son, old man? I must apologize for that.”

However, the man narrowed his eyes and mocked Randolph as if he had not known.

Having lived his entire life as a plunderer on the snowfields, he had mastered how to maximize human despair.

“Come now, it would be troublesome to be like this already. We’ve only just begun, haven’t we?”

But unfortunately, just as the man said, Adolf’s death was only the first.

This ruthless slaughter would not stop until Randolph and the citizens submitted.

But to mine magic stones in this bitter cold with a snowstorm rolling in—there was no difference between being shot to death and dying from exhausting labor.

Knowing that was the fate they would eventually face anyway, Randolph shrieked loudly even while shedding tears.

“Do you think we will submit to worthless scoundrels like you just because of this? If we do not work, the magic stones will be depleted and you will also face death! If we are to die anyway, at least we will not do anything to benefit you!”

Randolph, who had shouted at the man, began to shriek toward the citizens in the same manner.

“Never, let no one submit! What we must do is die together with these trashes. If these bastards do not die, tragedies like this will merely repeat again in other embers!”

Was it because he was a respected leader, or because he was a father who had just lost his son? Or was it both?

At his shriek, the citizens began to respond in absolute unity.

“Let us never submit! For Adolf!”

“For Adolf!”

“For Adolf!”

Among the citizens prepared for death, the will to never bend before violence boiled.

The death of the leader’s son, Adolf, had lit a fire in their will to resist.

“These trashy bastards…!”

Looking at the citizens who resisted to the end, the boss grew furious.

Just as Randolph said, if this ember did not mine magic stones before the snowstorm arrived, the Eternal Embers would go out due to the depletion of magic stones during the snowstorm, and it was destined to face its end along with the ember.

Therefore, it was a difficult situation even for the man who had to make them mine the magic stones.

Although he had said he would kill them all, he had thought they would prostrate themselves on their own if he killed a few.

However, the situation did not flow according to the boss’s wishes.

The resistance of those who were insignificant to even be called an ember was quite fierce.

But he was a man who had prolonged his life through plundering.

So far, there was nothing he had failed to make submit except for the ice age.

“Fine, if you want it so much, I will kill you all. As you said, aren’t you all destined to die here anyway?”

Thud!

The boss, who struck Randolph’s head with his mana gun as the elderly man shrieked like a parrot not to submit, moved immediately.

Stepping forward without hesitation, the place he headed to was where the children were.

Knowing how effective the presence of children was when breaking adults, the boss had gathered them separately on one side.

Aiming the muzzle at the children, he spoke.

“I will count to three. Unless you swear to obey me by the time I count to three, all the children die.”

The children shed thick tears as they cried out for their mothers, fathers, or if they had neither, the name of the elderly leader Randolph, who was like their biological grandfather.

Although they were still at an age too young to understand death, they knew empirically the fact that a person who died once did not return.

“Y-You beasts worse than animals…!”

“N-No. Caitlin!”

“Darling, darling! Do something!”

Where in the world would there be a parent who could remain indifferent to a threat holding their children’s lives hostage?

But hadn’t Randolph, who led them, burned with the will to resist to the end even after losing his son?

Thus, the citizens were conflicted between protecting Randolph’s will and protecting their children’s lives.

However, no grace period for a choice was granted to them.

“Too slow. I will help you get a grip.”

“No!”

Bang—!

Along with the boss’s sneering words, a gunshot rang out once more, and the citizens, sensing that a second victim had emerged, shrieked.

However, there was a difference from before.

First was the fact that the gunshot was too loud, and second was that the one who collapsed was an adult, not a child.

And the one who collapsed was none other than the boss.

“B-Boss!”

At the sudden situation, the plunderers began to panic and mill about in confusion.

It was because the man’s head had literally exploded, making it impossible to specify where the mana bullet had flown from.

Having lost their boss and become a disorganized rabble, they began to fall one after another to the subsequent gunshots, unable to put up much resistance.

They followed the boss who had departed to the afterlife.

“W-Who is it? What bastard is it!”

The last remaining plunderer, who was blindly shooting arrows toward the invisible snowstorm, shouted in a voice filled with fear.

The fear of not knowing when he would die was paralyzing his reason.

Perhaps that was why. He missed the sign of someone approaching him.

Before he knew it, a cold and sharp blade touched his neck.

The grim reaper whispered in his ear.

“What will a bastard like you do knowing my name?”

Slash—

Soon, the plunderer’s head fell to the ground, scattering bright red blood.

Aylen Vale stood with the black snowstorm as his background.