Episode 57 - Brash Brigade: Beginning 2

The fortress was close to completion.

The outer walls were already finished, and the sound of hammering drifted out from within — interior work still in progress.

"Just right... or so I should say."

"Indeed... if it's only workers inside, we may not need to exert ourselves too much."

Maengseol inwardly felt a measure of relief as he looked toward the entrance — and sure enough, even mid-construction, proper sentries were posted.

"Halt! You there — stop right where you are!"

One of the guards on duty held up a hand and stopped Kaftin's group as they approached.

Kaftin responded with an easy smile.

"Heh... I was hoping to ask about the state of the construction."

"What? Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"The person who's going to be the owner of this fortress."

The guard stared blankly for a moment at the answer — then reset his grip on his spear and took a proper stance.

"I'd like to think it's impossible, but... you're not actually planning to take this place with that many people, are you?"

They were clearly not the mercenary company slated to be posted here.

Which meant they were almost certainly lunatics planning to seize the fortress — that much was obvious.

The guard set his jaw with grim certainty.

Attacking a place like this — the new City Guard's future base of all things — meant one of two things: either they were insane, or they were genuinely confident.

"And what if we are?"

"Over my dead body before I'll let—ow?!"

Before the words were even out, Kaftin had flicked his hand out of his trouser pocket and tossed a fistful of dirt straight into the guard's eyes.

Simultaneously, with a movement so natural it seemed entirely incidental, he drove a powerful kick straight up between the guard's legs.

"Squawk?!"

A cracking sound — mixed with the unmistakable snap of something breaking — made it clear that some part of the pelvis had given way on impact.

Maengseol flinched at the sheer destructive force, shook his head, and let out a sigh.

"Boss. Couldn't you have just knocked him unconscious? He was nothing more than a doorman."

"I thought that was perfectly restrained?"

"......"

Realizing that by Kaftin's standards this genuinely qualified as mercy, Maengseol closed his eyes.

The group passed through the entrance and into the fortress without anyone noticing.

The few members stationed inside were the sentry rotation — sound asleep — and the workers were too absorbed in the interior construction to register anything happening around them.

"Well, well... this is getting a little dull. I suppose we'll just have to go looking for them ourselves."

"...Seems that way."

"In that case—"

They immediately split up and moved toward the various buildings inside the fortress.

As expected, fewer than ten City Guard members were doing rounds inside as security personnel.

Everything else was construction workers — completely absorbed in finishing the job, oblivious to what was unfolding around them.

In short order, the Guard members were subdued and bound in the central courtyard, while the workers were ordered to continue their work.

A few of them initially showed signs of resistance — but the moment Kaftin announced that any defiance would result in the bound City Guard members being tortured instead of the workers, they folded with surprising ease.

"By the way, Boss... that thing you just said — did you mean it?"

"...Which thing?"

After the situation had settled somewhat — in the watchtower built midway up the fortress wall.

Fawza Bulkro, who had been hanging the large Brash Brigade flag, carefully tried to confirm whether the threat to torture the City Guard members had been serious.

"I mean what I say. Always."

"......!"

At Kaftin's flat, unambiguous answer, Fawza gave a slow nod and let out a quiet internal sigh.

"Usually it would be common sense to threaten the workers, but..."

"Th-that's right. I was thinking the same thing — and then you suddenly said you'd be torturing the City Guard members instead, so..."

"Hmph. Think about it rationally. Those workers still have to finish the construction on this fortress. What happens if I beat them half to death? We have to do it ourselves."

"Ah...!"

The thought struck Fawza like lightning.

As Kaftin said — any ordinary villain, confronted with workers resisting, would naturally think to threaten the workers themselves as the direct parties involved.

That was the standard, common-sense approach for an ordinary villain.

But the boss standing in front of him?

He had taken the premise that the construction had to be completed — left the workers entirely alone — and instead seized the unrelated City Guard members as hostages.

"Oh, and — once the construction is finished, I'll be chopping all of them up and putting them in the underground cold storage."

"...Pardon?!"

"So — there's no one walking out of here alive. Don't think too hard about it. They're all going to be dead soon enough anyway."

"......!"

Fawza swallowed hard.

He had expected something along these lines — but what he had imagined and what was unfolding in front of him existed on entirely different planes.

What he had pictured was a madman cackling and running wild, drunk on the smell of blood.

But Kaftin was something his imagination had failed to account for.

He was ordering the killing of people the same way someone might tell you to clear the rubbish off the street.

"So they're... lives that were going to end anyway."

"Yes."

"...Which means we are as well..."

"...Yes. You, me — everyone ends up dead someday, in some way nobody could have predicted."

Kaftin responded with a dismissive snort, as though it were nothing — and Fawza's expression darkened.

His own death — that was fine. He had already come to terms with that on the day he agreed to follow this man.

But his sons were still young.

"Fawza. Do you think it's presumptuous of me — young as I am — to talk about life to someone like you?"

"Eh... no... not particularly..."

"Good. Then let me tell you something worth knowing."

He placed a hand slowly on Fawza's shoulder, let out a shallow sigh, and shook his head.

"Don't waste your attention on things you can't change. The only one who loses is you. Before you start worrying about death and life, think about what you can do right now — and what you want to do right now."

"......!"

Kaftin finished speaking and went down the watchtower first, and Fawza stood there for a long moment, watching his back.

Just what had this young man seen and lived through — that he could say things like that, so casually, at his age?

Top floor reception room of the fortress keep.

Small in scale — but fitted at the center ceiling with a high-quality chandelier, the space had been designed closer to a ballroom than anything else.

A map of the Maritime Kingdom's royal capital had been spread across the round table at the center, and the members of the Brash Brigade were plotting their strategy around it.

"The main entry routes would be the rear gate in the outer wall at the back of the fortress, and the front gate."

"There is a secret passage, but I don't think they'll be using it."

"Wait — there is one?"

"Of course there is."

"...Why won't they use it?"

Kaftin immediately countered Whispermere's confident remark. She gave a small shake of her head.

"Using it would certainly deal us an unexpected blow."

"......"

"But at the same time — it would expose both the existence and location of the passage."

"Ah."

"In a situation where our identity and scale are still unclear to them, I don't think they'd take that gamble."

Either way, the incoming security force wasn't due for roughly three more weeks.

Even before then — the moment they realized the fortress had been taken, a punitive force could be dispatched at any time.

"By the way — there's one thing I'd like to confirm, if I may."

"What is it?"

"The punitive force — or the security unit — coming this time, we'll drive them off. But does the government simply give up on this fortress after that?"

At Maengseol's question, Kaftin let out a quiet laugh and shook his head.

"Hardly. This place shares a wall with the royal capital's outer fortifications — it's a reasonably critical strategic point. They can't afford to abandon it."

"Then — even if we repel this first attack, they'll keep sending new units. What's the plan for that?"

Maengseol's sharp observation made every face at the table stiffen.

The first one or two assaults might somehow be managed.

But the opponent was a nation.

And not just any nation — the Maritime Kingdom, which didn't hesitate to claim the top spot in the Southern Alliance for sheer financial power.

A country wealthy enough to outsource part of its national defense by paying enormous contract fees to numerous mercenary companies from the Mercenary Kingdom.

Anyone with a brain would know how spectacularly foolish it would be to face that head-on.

"It doesn't matter. We attacked this place from the beginning with exactly that in mind."

"What do you mean by that..."

"An important fact — so I'll state it in advance. From here on out, we fight without end. We fight before we sleep, we roll out of the way of blades the moment we wake up, and we stab forks and knives into our enemies' eyeballs during dinner."

"......!"

"If you're asking when it ends — until the enemy gives up and stops coming. We will nail their corpses to the outside of the walls and display them there, continuously."

Every face at the table went cold.

"Kaftin! You plan to sustain a meaningless bloodbath indefinitely?!"

"It isn't meaningless. It's a necessary fight."

"Necessary how?! All I hear is that you want to keep killing people pointlessly—!"

"First — it's training."

Leaving Maengseol's growling behind, he continued his explanation without any change in expression.

"Most gangs — once they grow large and comfortable, they start squeezing their operations for money, burning through funds, and going soft. I'm sorry, but I won't tolerate that."

"......!"

"Continuously fighting — a grinding machine, honed to a razor edge, capable of drawing blood anytime, anywhere... no — hungry for blood, driven half-mad by the wanting of it. That is the ideal gang I am aiming for."

"...You mean a group of killers!"

Kaftin nodded and raised another finger.

"Second — the food supply."

"...Food supply?"

"Yes. Food."

Every head tilted in confusion.

Kaftin turned that characteristic unhinged smile on them and began to explain.

"I may have mentioned this before — but I intend for the majority of this organization's personnel to be demi-humans and animals rather than humans."

"...You did say something like that."

"So that's why Maengseol and I were recruited."

"Exactly. And since ordinary animals alone won't be enough... I intend to have the carnivores develop a taste for human flesh, as far as possible."

Whispermere's expression curdled.

She closed her eyes and turned her head away — as though even imagining it was too unpleasant.

But Kaftin only nodded, his gaze firm, showing no sign of reconsidering.

"...You really do come up with the most inhumane schemes. You as well... do you truly intend to go completely off the rails?"

"Heh — why so serious? There's no more effective plan than this, is there? If not human flesh, then carnivores eventually need to eat herbivores we bring along — or we'd need to procure a massive, truly massive amount of meat at great expense. Is anyone here confident they can manage that?"

The practical reality of it left everyone speechless.

They were appalled — but what he said wasn't wrong.

"That's still too cruel! Even if you accept human members—!"

"Of course I'll take them. But that doesn't solve the food supply problem."

"Kgh...!"

"Which is why — once the construction is done, I'll be chopping the workers up and putting them in the underground storage."

The declared massacre — stated as though it were already a settled matter — finally pushed Maengseol over the edge.

He slammed his palm down on the table.

"Wait! Those people have neither the will nor the ability to fight — they're just construction workers! They're not even hostile to us! Why do they need to die?!"

Kaftin sighed as though he still couldn't believe this needed explaining.

Even after everything that had already happened...

"Didn't I mention it? My philosophy of crime."

"......! Witnesses—!"

"Yes. They've seen us. I can't let them go."

"W-wait! Just order them to keep quiet! Threaten them — they'll listen! They're timid people—!"

"Can their answers be trusted? They're ordinary civilians — a few coins would have them talking freely."

"Kgh...!!"

Something — there had to be something.

Maengseol desperately turned it over in his mind.

At this rate, those innocent construction workers would genuinely be caught up in this.

"May I offer an opinion?"

"Whispermere? Sure — go ahead."

"Well... if we're going to keep fighting the government's forces indefinitely from here on, I imagine the fortress will take damage sooner or later, large or small. For that reason — wouldn't it be better to keep the construction crew alive?"

Maengseol's expression brightened, just slightly.

She might be someone of the underworld — but he thought he and Whispermere might get along well — and he nodded forcefully at Kaftin in agreement.

"She's right. If the government forces bring siege weaponry and start firing, repairs would be beyond us."

"......"

Kaftin went silent, working his jaw — clearly not thrilled, but turning it over.

He had a habit of rubbing his chin whenever he was deliberating deeply.

"The risk of information leaking is certainly significant — but on the other hand, that same risk might be what keeps them bound to us."

"What do you mean?"

"They've been continuing to build this fortress even after it was forcibly occupied... in a certain sense, they've become our accomplices."

"......!"

"Using that as leverage — with the right mix of persuasion and pressure — they might genuinely cooperate."

At Maengseol's line of reasoning, Kaftin finally gave a nod.

"...Fine. Regrettable — but we'll work out an arrangement with the construction workers and send them back."