Chapter 25 - Nightfall

“So this is the home of that righteous trash?”

A large man with a grim face spoke out in an angry town as he turned to the group that was following him.

“Yes, team leader! That greedy broker asked for a large sum just to reveal such simple information. It seems like that hateful kid really cares about the people who live here to put that much effort into hiding its location.”

The large man’s frown turned into a smile as he imagined what that brat’s face would look like after they were done with this place, but it didn’t take long before the smile dissipated.

The man’s face quickly distorted as he seethed with rage fueled with pain. Even then, his face still looked particularly remarkable, the large horizontal scar that went through half his face was hard to miss.

‘This is only the beginning! You will definitely regret what you did to me!’

Ever since that night when he got into an argument with that arrogant brat, he was no longer capable of laughter or smiling. The constant pain that he felt from the wound that took one of his eyes kept him frowning all the time.

Every time he remembered that brat’s face, his face felt like it was burning, so he developed the habit of beating someone up for venting in the last few days.

‘It’s a good time to vent.’

Fortunately for him, he could already see the small shack that was hidden in the periphery of the forest. If the information they bought wasn’t wrong, then his most relieving venting was just around the corner.

Jingle~

“What was that?”

As they approached the shack, the group of men that were walking confidently vigilantly held the hilt of their swords after hearing a soft sound. Although they were only supposed to face a group of children and a weak woman, they were still on their tiptoes in the one possible chance that the kid their boss talked about was there.

“Must have been the wind hitting the grass or something, no need to be that scared~”

Despite being the first to hold his sword, one man from the group acted as if it was nothing and walked forward. While he was indeed a coward, he wanted to be the first one to have a taste of one particular target…

“Alright, don’t make any more noise. Remember to c-”

“Gaaaaah!”

A jarring scream sounded out just as the scar-faced leader was in the middle of his whispers.

Even though the opposite of his order was carried out, the leader didn’t question his subordinates, instead, he exchanged looks with them in confusion.

The man who was just acting brave a second ago had disappeared, the only thing left of him was the resounding of his scream.

Only the man who was just by his side could see what happened, fear apparent on his face as he stared at his ‘colleague’ who had turned into a kebab.

“What the heck is this?!”

Slowly stepping back to get away from the hole full of spears, the man quickly followed the example of his friend.

“Kahhggg!”

This time, the rest of the men were able to understand what just happened, what seemed like a bear trap had caught hold of the unfortunate man’s leg.

“Traps…?”

The scar-faced leader found it hard to believe how the situation turned out, but two of his men had already gone down.

“Everyone, stay still. Don’t move around carelessly, try to look for something to disarm the traps with. As for-”

Just as the scar-faced leader was trying to reassure the rest of his men so that they wouldn’t fall into the same mistake as the other two did in panic, he went silent as his gaze focused on the second man who fell to the trap.

“I think he is already… dead.”

The man who had just vigorously screamed no longer showed any signs of life as foam climbed out from his mouth, his eyes turning white.

“...Poison?”

At this point, the leader was unable to process what just happened at the last minute, the situation seemed to only escalate, and his head couldn’t come out with an explanation.

“Ahkk!”

While he was carefully looking around in search of the instigator of all of this, another man of his screamed as he was trying to pick up a pebble. This time it wasn’t a trap.

Thanks to the timing they chose to attack the Orphanage, the scar-faced leader had to concentrate as he looked at the body of the man who just fell, only to notice something falling out from his back.

“Which piece of shit did this?! Come out!”

The object that fell was a small throwing knife, although the wound that it left was shallow, it seemed to have caused great pain to the man.

‘More poison?’

The scar-faced leader looked around with ferocious eyes, he felt scared deep inside as he looked at the man’s mouth that was already foaming, but he turned his fear into anger as he finally obtained a clue of human involvement.

Creaaak…

As he kept scanning the woods surrounding them with his eyes in search of the thrower, the leader’s scarred face suddenly turned to look back at the source of the surprising sound.

The door of the shack that had been closed up to now, was now open. A small figure emerged from the darkness.

“Another… kid?”

“kgyaahh!”

Staring at Leo’s face that was hardly visible, a familiar sound invaded the scar-faced leader’s ears.