Chapter 124: Bloodless Masscare
"Well... I want to know how much you know about our operations and the code to enter," the Santa-looking old man mumbled, narrowing his eyes at the young noble as he gestured to his men.
"Someone must be leaking things from inside. It’s far too dangerous to let you walk out alive... but before you die, you’re going to tell us who gave you that information, like a good lad."
Eren sighed at generic dialogue, slipping off his jacket and carefully placing it on the chair. "Trust me, old man. Nobody gave me any information. I’m literally the only person in this entire kingdom who knows... well, at least for another twenty minutes."
He rolled up his white shirt sleeve over his forearm. "To be frank with you guys...up until now, I actually never killed anyone."
"Don’t worry, kid!" The towering bald man who almost killed Eren earlier roared, pulling his massive blade out from the floor. "I’ve killed plenty of people before!"
With that, the giant lunged forward with explosive speed, swinging his sword straight down at Eren to cut him in half like a fruit.
Eren didn’t even step back at the incoming attack. At the last moment, he took a half-step to the left, and the blade whistled past him. Before the baldy could recover his momentum, Eren drove his elbow straight into the side of the brute’s neck with a small burst of aura.
To the surrounding mercenaries, it looked like a pathetic little tap against a mountain of muscle. A few even started to grin until the bald giant’s grip loosened and he dropped his sword with a clatter. He collapsed onto the floor, completely unconscious.
The entire warehouse instantly turned silent.
Eren exhaled, casually gathering his dark hair and tying it back into a tiny, adorable ponytail. "Come on, gentlemen," Eren chuckled, raising his fists. "Let’s speed this up. I don’t have all day."
"Kill him! He’s just a damn academy brat!"
Six thugs charged simultaneously from all directions, their weapons flashing at him with deadly speed. But Eren sidestepped a thrust, grabbed the shaft, yanked the attacker forward into the path of another incoming attacker, and delivered a brutal, aura-infused palm strike directly to the spearman’s heart.
The impact sent the man flying backward into two other mercenaries, shattering their ribs and bowling them over like tenpins.
Turning around, Eren ducked under a lethal horizontal slash, closing the distance to the dual-dagger wielder. He caught both of the man’s wrists, twisted them until the joints made a sickening pop sound, and drove his knee straight into the guy’s stomach.
The thug doubled over, coughing up spit, before Eren delivered a precise axe kick to the back of his neck, driving his face flat into the floor.
It wasn’t a battle; it was a bloodless massacre. Eren didn’t even draw a blade. He moved through the swarm of armed mercenaries like a master conductor directing a symphony of pain, leveraging their own momentum against them, striking vital points, and leaving them in groaning, broken bodies.
The old Santa looked horrified as the young noble pinned the final mercenary on the ground, yanking the man’s arm backward until the audio confirmation of a bone-breaking sound was made. The thug wailed, thrashing on the floor.
Eren huffed, dusting off his hands.
The old man stepped back, his face pale, his soul already vacated his body.
Not a single drop of blood had stained the young noble, yet he had effortlessly dismantled twenty hardened mercenaries in under ten minutes. Those strange and terrifyingly martial moves, the overwhelming physical power...
’He isn’t a human kid,’ the old man’s brain screamed.
He spun around and ran toward the locked exit for his life.
There was only one tiny problem: despite his legs running at full speed, he couldn’t move a single inch. His boots helplessly skidded across the floor like a cartoon character.
He looked back over his shoulder with wide eyes as he found Eren holding him by the back of his collar, offering him a sweet smile that made the old man’s blood run cold.
He yanked the old man and slammed his face straight into the nearest wall. "Where do you think you’re going, Santa? You haven’t even given me my Christmas present yet." He pulled one of the man’s arms painfully behind his back, bending the wrist.
"Let’s skip the useless foreplay, old man," Eren whispered right into his ear, his tone chilling. "Who is manufacturing the substance?"
The old apothecary groaned, spitting out a mouthful of saliva as he gritted his teeth, stubbornly refusing to answer.
"Ah... I see. Choosing the hard way," Eren noted with sarcastic pity.
SNAP!
"AAAAAAAGH! MY FINGER! GODS ABOVE, MY FINGER!"
The old man’s agonizing screams filled the warehouse as his pinky finger snapped back like a twig without mercy.
"I really don’t know! I swear on my life, I don’t know!" the old man laid out, his body trembling. "Someone... someone anonymously approached me three months ago! They paid me a fortune to distribute those suppressants directly to specific runners without involving the official Black Market network!"
"So you’re the only rogue smuggler distributing this specific batch in the capital?" Eren enquired; to ensure maximum honesty, he snapped the ring finger as a complimentary bonus.
"AAAAAAAH! YES! YES, I’M THE ONLY ONE!" the old dealer shouted, his face drenched in sweat and tears. "Please... I beg you, stop!"
"Good Santa," Eren complimented, his blue eyes narrowing. "Now... were you aware these suppressants were being fed to a girl at the Royal Academy? And more importantly... where is the current batch?"
"I don’t know who receives them; I just hand over the crates!" the old man rasped out, gasping for air. "The... the new batch is locked inside the secret compartment of my office desk! The keys are on the desk! Please... just leave me alone!"
"Appreciate the cooperation, Santa," Eren chuckled.
Eren, the old man, collapsed onto the floor, clutching his broken hand and whimpering in agony.
Eren turned and walked toward the desk.
From the floor, the old man let out a raspy laugh through his pain, his tear-filled eyes gleaming with a sudden, malicious spite. "You... you think you’ve won, you arrogant brat?!" the old man wheezed out.
"The moment my men failed to respond, the subterranean security wards triggered! Those heavy iron vault doors behind you are magically sealed from the outside! The main key was destroyed in the fight! You’re trapped down here with me until my secondary strike team arrives!"
Eren paused right beside the desk, turning his head to the groaning old criminal, giving an innocent, amused smile. "Oh? About that...did you really think a simple lock was going to keep me away from my group date?"