The Second Strongest Has Returned

Chapter 59

Side Story – Meeting

“Hey, a new face, huh?”

A rough-looking man kicked open the inn door and swaggered inside with an insolent attitude.

“When did this place become a playground for little brats, innkeeper?”

The man rubbed his hairless head and sneered at the boy standing near the entrance. The boy was young, so much so that he barely reached the man’s shoulder in height.

The innkeeper, who had been about to show the boy to his room, glanced nervously at the bald man, his expression flustered.

“Th-that’s not it.”

“Are you just a heavy drinker, or do you have problems with your eyes and head?”

The atmosphere turned chilly, and cold sweat trickled down the innkeeper’s face.

“…Hey, kid. What did you just say?”

“Is there something wrong with your ears now?”

“You little…!”

Just as another thug was about to step in, the bald man stopped him.

“I’ll let it slide since you’re just a kid. If you don’t want to die, pay the toll.”

“I’ve already paid the inn.”

The innkeeper was clutching the pouch of money the boy had handed him with trembling hands. He feared it might get stolen any moment.

“Ha… hahahaha! Are you serious? Do you even know whose territory this is?”

“That beggar Decal or whatever his name is, right?”

“…What did you say?”

Upon hearing their boss being insulted, the expressions of the entire group twisted in anger.

“You heard me, so why are you asking? Did you shave your head and accidentally shave off your brain cells too?”

Some of the thugs stifled laughter, but to the bald man, it was an outright provocation.

“Grab him and kill…!!”

Leonardo picked up a teacup from the innkeeper’s table.

Splash!

“Aaaargh!!”

The hot tea splashed onto the bald man’s face. Since the tea had just been boiled and was still steaming, it was only natural that he couldn’t open his eyes and suffered burns.

“Boss?!”

Crash.

Leonardo didn’t waste the empty cup either, throwing it at another thug.

“Ughaaah!!”

Shards of the teacup embedded themselves evenly in the thug’s face, including his eyes. The pain from the cuts would be far worse than the burns from the tea.

“Move! I’ll take care of this brat…!”

Thunk.

This time, Leonardo thrust his sword into the neck of the thug charging at him. Due to his smaller stature compared to the adults, the boy had the advantage in surprise attacks.

“He’s just a kid!! Why are you…!”

Wham, thud.

The boy grabbed the thug’s club and threw it at the thug who had raised his voice.

“Ughhh!!”

The club was studded with iron spikes, enhancing its power and lethality. As soon as it hit the thug’s face, his skull caved in, and his face was crushed.

“Aaaargh!!”

By the time the boy stabbed the throat of the thug with the crushed face, the last uninjured thug screamed in sudden terror.

“Shut up already.”

What he threw next was a dagger.

It was a hunting knife he had kept in his pocket.

With a thud, the thug who had been screaming also collapsed.

“…You…! Who the hell are you…!”

Had he overcome the pain? The bald thug rubbed his stinging eyes and glared furiously at the boy.

“Finally, the boss shows up? Took you long enough. Decal.”

The boy, still smiling calmly despite the intense killing intent, looked toward the back as he spoke.

“Bo… Boss?!”

The bald man quickly turned his head.

Thunk.

A sword pierced his chest. The boy had stabbed him while he was distracted.

“Idiot.”

The boy twisted the sword in the man’s chest as he spoke. He hadn’t expected a thug to die so easily.

“…Ah… ugh… th-this…”

The innkeeper looked at the blood-soaked scene in shock and confusion.

“Sorry about this, mister. Things got a bit messy.”

“Y-you…! Do you even realize what you’ve done?!”

Seemingly regaining his senses, the innkeeper shouted in a panicked voice. Decal’s gang, the bandits controlling this area, were notorious for their brutality—they killed everyone connected to those who harmed their members.

“But you asked me to do it. I came here for this in the first place.”

“What nonsense are you talking about?! I never…! I didn’t ask for this!!”

Ignoring the innkeeper’s outburst, the boy calmly rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a metal tag attached to a chain.

“You put in a request with the mercenary guild a few days ago to wipe out the bandits, right? I heard you were the one who made the request.”

The mercenary tag clearly displayed the rank, name, and a special seal for verification.

“Th-then you should have told me earlier…”

“If I had told you earlier, you would’ve just thrown a fit, asking why they sent a kid, instead of welcoming me with open arms saying, ‘We’ve been waiting for a mercenary like you.'”

The boy spoke as he nudged one of Decal’s dead men with his foot.

“Well, as you can see, I’m quite capable, so if you have any complaints, feel free to voice them after I’m dead.”

The name engraved on the mercenary tag was:

【Leonardo】

* * *

“So, you’re saying that Decal’s gang showed up about half a year ago, the guards said they’d take care of it, and then you didn’t hear anything else?”

“Yes… That’s correct. They claim they’re exploring options for support, but…”

“They probably won’t help, even after a year.”

Leonardo interrupted, speaking with confidence.

“W-what?”

“All the inns and shops here are in the back alleys. To be honest, those guards are only interested in their records, so they don’t lose anything by not helping out.”

The guards’ services were primarily for the benefit of the officially recognized residents of the town, those who lived in the more respectable areas.

“In fact, seeing how things are around here, it wouldn’t be surprising if the guards are being bribed by Decal’s gang. If I were in their shoes, I’d probably do the same.”

“A connection between the guards and the bandits… How could that be…”

Leonardo paused, then spoke with a serious expression.

“…Connection? What’s that? Don’t use complicated words. Why make things hard for a kid to understand?”

Hearing that, the innkeeper suddenly remembered just how young the mercenary in front of him was.

“So then…”

“Are there more of Decal’s men besides the ones I killed earlier?”

“Yes, they’re out collecting money right now. Decal is at their hideout…”

“Then I guess I’ll have to head there.”

Leonardo dusted off his pants and stood up.

“What?”

“It’s easiest to take out the leader. So heading straight to the bandits’ hideout is the quickest way.”

“But… is it alright to go so suddenly?”

“A surprise attack should be quick. I’ve got a rough idea of their location.”

As he spoke, he showed the innkeeper a map and a key he had pulled from the pocket of one of the corpses. The faint lines drawn on the map with a pen gave a rough estimate of the bandits’ level of organization.

“Besides, these idiots don’t seem too bright.”

“But… still… what about…”

“I’ll take this as the down payment.”

Leonardo casually picked up the pouch of money he had used to pay for the inn.

“That’s originally…”

“Inn fees and down payments are separate. I’ll pay what I owe, but I’ll also take what’s mine. I may be young, but I know a thing or two about fair trade.”

With that, Leonardo grabbed the inn door and pulled it open.

“By the way, make sure the meal is decent. After all that hard work, there’s nothing worse than coming back to a tasteless gruel.”

His words carried an odd humor, but before the innkeeper could respond, Leonardo stepped outside.

Time passed, and as the sky darkened into the crimson hues of dusk, Leonardo still hadn’t returned.

The innkeeper, who had been tense, eventually grew accustomed to the silence and even managed to clean up the bloodied interior of the inn, tending to his tasks with a sense of normalcy.

‘…Could he have died…?’

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the door swung open.

Drip…

A face appeared, dripping with blood—Decal’s face, slightly swollen.

“De… Decal…?!”

“It’s me. Fortunately, my face seems to be in decent shape.”

The one who entered was the young mercenary, holding Decal’s severed head.

His arms were swollen, as if they had been badly injured.

“Th-that… that’s…”

The innkeeper stared in shock, his face a mix of disbelief and astonishment, at the severed head of the bandit leader to whom he had been paying tribute for half a year.

“It’s Decal’s head. I took him out as you requested.”

“By yourself… you killed Decal…”

“I got lucky. It was just Decal and a few of his close aides, and I didn’t take them head-on.”

Leonardo casually explained how he had taken down the bandit leader.

First, he had walked to a nearby forest known to house a beehive. He gathered various herbs and flowers from the area and smeared them all over his body.

“That way, the bees don’t sting as much. I guess they don’t like the smell.”

After that, he carefully ripped out the beehive and wrapped it in cloth. Of course, he got stung, but thanks to the herbs he had applied, the stings were less painful and the swelling was minimal.

“Then, I threw the beehive into where Decal was. No matter how tough he was, there’s no way he could fend off hundreds of bees without some kind of pesticide.”

The rest was simple. When Decal, chased and stung by bees, rushed out the door, Leonardo took the opportunity to behead him.

After that, he killed Decal’s lieutenants by either trapping them at the exits or tying up their ankles before finishing them off.

With that, the mission was complete.

“Is… is that so…?”

The innkeeper’s tone had subtly shifted to a more respectful one. The boy’s skill and strategy were so exceptional and refined that they made grown men and other mercenaries seem inadequate by comparison.

“That’s how it is. I brought the head back for confirmation. It’s more reliable than just saying he’s dead, don’t you think?”

The innkeeper agreed, though having Decal’s head placed next to the table was deeply unsettling.

“So, prepare the food and the rest of the payment. I’ll be stepping out for a bit.”

“W-wait! Stepping out?”

“Yeah. I plan to carry this around and announce that I killed him.”

“W-what?!”

The innkeeper, shocked by the boy’s nonchalant mention of such a reckless act, began to protest.

“Th-that’s dangerous!! If you do that, the remaining gang members will…!”

“That’s exactly why I’m doing it.”

“What?”

“I’m going to make sure everyone in town sees it. That way, the bandits will be less likely to mess around here.”

Decal was the ringleader who had tightly controlled the town’s underworld. As Leonardo had suspected, the bandits were in cahoots with the town’s guards.

“But what do you think will happen if a mere kid kills Decal and walks around town carrying his head?”

“…It would serve as a warning? To the other bandits.”

“That, and it’ll also reassure the townsfolk. They’ll think, ‘Even Decal wasn’t so tough after all.'”

By doing this, Decal’s gang would lose their reputation, and it would also send a strong message to the guards and the remaining thugs. It would give the townspeople a sense of security and allow them to focus on their livelihoods—at least while Leonardo paraded the head around.

“…But what if the remaining members seek revenge?”

“It’ll be fine. I left plenty of loot at their hideout. If they’re smart bandits, they’ll be more interested in grabbing that before anyone else does, rather than seeking revenge.”

And if they ended up fighting and killing each other over the spoils, all the better.

“…I see…”

“That’s why you need to use your head. Without it, you’re just a corpse. Like this.”

With that grim joke, Leonardo stood in the inn’s doorway, holding Decal’s head.

“Oh, by the way, there’s something I want to ask.”

The innkeeper, sensing what might be coming, braced himself for the question.

“Who’s the strongest person in this town?”

“…That would be…”

The innkeeper, with trembling hands, pointed to Decal’s severed head. Leonardo made a clicking sound with his tongue, almost as if disappointed by the answer.

“No rumors? No tales of a wandering knight or a hero passing through?”

“…Now that you mention it… there’s talk that a young lady from the Hero’s family has come to town.”

“A Hero’s family?”

Leonardo had heard of it. The family descended from Ruben Reinhardt, the hero who had saved the world—a legendary lineage.

“Is she really that strong?”

“According to rumors, she killed an orc at the age of 10 and a wyvern at 13…”

At this, Leonardo couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s ridiculous. How could a kid, even a person, do something like that?”

The innkeeper looked at Leonardo with a conflicted expression, clearly holding back words that were on the tip of his tongue but reluctant to say them.

“Well, anyway, I get it. It could be interesting to meet her.”

And with that, the 13-year-old mercenary walked out of the inn, carrying the head of the bandit leader who had killed more than a hundred people.