Chapter 59: A Sleight of Hand

Dusk had long faded, and night had fully descended. The walls of Coldsteel City remained unlit, leaving the ramparts shrouded in darkness beneath the evening sky. 

On the southern wall, two private soldiers changing shifts yawned lazily. One of them, freshly arrived for duty, walked with weak, unsteady steps and deep shadows beneath his eyes. Anyone could tell at a glance what he had been doing all afternoon. 

The soldier brushing past him nudged him with an elbow and grinned suggestively. “Hey, Martin, fooling around all day again?” 

The man called Martin bared a row of yellow teeth, his face full of smug satisfaction. “You bet. That little bitch we brought in had some fight in her. Watching her struggle like crazy was fucking exciting. But in the end, she still couldn’t handle my golden spear.” 

The other guard let out a lewd laugh. “Damn, not bad. Next time I ought to grab one myself and have a taste.” 

Martin lazily pulled a flintstone from his pocket, preparing to light the torches along the wall and bring a little brightness to the dull night. 

The moment he raised his hand, a cold shadow silently emerged from the darkness behind the battlements. 

The figure seemed like part of the night itself. Martin never even realized death had arrived until a black dagger kissed his throat. The blade did not hesitate for even an instant. It cleanly slit through his windpipe and artery. 

Martin tried to scream, but only wet, gurgling sounds mixed with blood bubbled from his throat. Clutching desperately at his neck, he watched warm blood gush through his fingers as his life ebbed away with his fading body heat. 

A slender figure stepped from the shadows. 

Vivi looked down at the twitching corpse in disgust before wiping her dagger clean on his filthy clothes. 

She had heard every word of the earlier conversation. Her tiger ears twitched slightly, and fury burned within her amber eyes. Renee had been personally taken away by Baron Haus, so the “little bitch” the man mentioned probably was not her. But that did not stop Vivi from wanting to send every piece of trash in this place straight to hell. 

Darkness fully swallowed the sky. 

Vivi strode to the wall, picked up the torch Martin had failed to light, and lightly tapped it against the battlements. 

Two long. One short. One long. 

It was the signal Nolan had decided on. 

Moments later, seven dark figures shot upward from below the wall with sharp whistling sounds. Grappling hooks bit perfectly into the stone battlements. 

Nolan climbed onto the wall first. He glanced at the corpse on the ground and then at Vivi. Their eyes met, and he gave her a thumbs-up. Nothing more needed to be said. 

Hank came up right behind him without a word. The two of them worked together in silence, dragging the body into the shadows of the watchtower before quickly stripping the armor from it. 

Two minutes later, soldiers from the neighboring section of the wall noticed something strange. 

“What’s Martin doing? Why hasn’t he lit the torch yet?” 

Before he could finish speaking, “Martin,” who should have been guarding his own section, came clumsily running over. His clothes were disheveled, and his crooked helmet obscured most of his face. 

“Brother! Brother! Damn it all, my flint must’ve gotten damp. I can’t light it!” 

“Hurry up and lend me a flame. If the captain sees this, he’ll skin me alive!” 

The guard did not suspect a thing. Laughing at the other man’s incompetence, he turned to pull out his own flintstone. 

“Look at you, useless as ever. You’re always causing trou—” 

Before he could finish, a sharp pain exploded through his chest. 

A dark heavy sword pierced straight through his heart from behind. His body slowly crumpled to the ground, disbelief frozen in his eyes. Until the moment he died, he could not understand why “Martin” had attacked him. 

Nolan expressionlessly withdrew Mountain’s Resonance, letting the corpse collapse limply to the ground. He waved a hand behind him, and Little Donnie immediately led several Fire Fox mercenaries to repeat the same tactic elsewhere. 

Nolan and Vivi split up, each strike killing instantly. Before long, every torch along the southern wall had been lit, and ten guards now stood at their assigned posts. Not a single one of them belonged to Baron Haus. 

Once they had finished changing disguises, Vivi and Little Donnie led several mercenaries swiftly down toward the southern gate. 

A series of dull impacts and muffled groans echoed briefly through the darkness before silence returned once more. 

Near the city gate, a few startled residents peeked through cracks in their doors after hearing the commotion. 

They saw several corpses of private soldiers lying on the ground. Before they could cry out in alarm, a young man wearing a private soldier’s armor smiled and raised a finger to his lips in a silent gesture for quiet. 

These residents had long suffered under the abuse of those soldiers. Though shaken with fear, they silently retreated back inside, shutting their doors and windows tightly as if they had seen nothing at all. 

The gate had changed hands. 

At the southern battlements, Nolan, Hank, and the others, now disguised as private soldiers, regrouped. 

“Everything went smoothly,” Nolan said in a lowered voice. “The southern wall is completely under our control now. We move to phase two. Bring the rest of the mercenary brothers into the city and divide them into three groups of fifteen to take control of the other gates. Especially the north gate. The private soldiers’ camp is outside the city there. As long as they can’t open the gate, they’re useless.” Then his gaze shifted to Vivi. “Remember the layout of the lord’s manor I told you about? The dungeon should still have guards, but we’ll create an opening for you.” 

Vivi nodded and smiled confidently. “Don’t worry. I’m a professional.” 

Nolan finally turned to Rehanna. Her face had been smeared with dirt and blood, making her look utterly miserable. “What comes next might be a little rough on you.” 

There was not the slightest hesitation in Rehanna’s eyes, only burning resolve. “Compared to what Renee’s suffering, this is nothing. Do it.” 

***

At the entrance to the lord’s manor, four elite guards of the lord’s personal retinue lounged idly against the pillars, chatting among themselves. Their armor was clearly far superior to that of ordinary private soldiers, and their expressions carried even greater arrogance. 

Suddenly, a commotion rose from the distant street. 

The guards looked up to see seven or eight private soldiers dragging along a red-haired woman while shouting noisily as they approached. 

The “private soldier” leading them wore a smug grin as he yelled toward the guards, “Hurry! Let us in to see Lord Haus! We caught ourselves a good one!” He roughly yanked Rehanna’s hair, forcing her head toward him. 

At that moment, Rehanna’s armor was shattered and tattered, exposing large stretches of pale skin marked with shocking streaks of blood. Her lips were swollen and bleeding, her hair hung in disarray, and two men restrained her violently as she struggled with all her strength, unable to break free. 

Like a man claiming credit for a great achievement, the leader grabbed Rehanna’s cheeks and forced her face upward. “This bitch went completely crazy earlier and tried to charge the south gate all by herself! But damn, she’s got some real skill. We lost four or five men before we finally subdued her!” 

The manor guards took a closer look before bursting into mocking laughter. “You ignorant idiots. Open your damn eyes. That’s the captain of the ‘Fire Fox’!” 

One of the guards curled his lip disdainfully. “You bastards really lucked out. Normally, even ten of you trash together wouldn’t be enough to beat her.” 

“Lord Haus just happened to take a liking to her little sister today. It should’ve been the opportunity of a lifetime for them, but apparently these sisters don’t know what’s good for them.” 

The fake private soldier leader immediately lit up with delight. “Then what are we waiting for? Move aside! I’m going to collect my reward from Lord Haus!” 

But the lead guard’s eyes shifted slyly as he stepped forward to block him. His lecherous gaze wandered openly across Rehanna’s stunning figure. “What’s the rush? Lord Haus is busy exercising his right of first night. He doesn’t have time for small fry like you. Leave the woman with me. I’ll pass the message along to Lord Haus for you. Don’t worry, you’ll get your reward.” 

As he spoke, his filthy hand could no longer restrain itself and reached toward Rehanna’s chest, clearly intending to “take over.” 

Smack! 

The lead private soldier shoved him hard enough to send him stumbling back two steps. 

Red-faced with anger, he pointed at the guard and roared, “What the fuck are you doing?!” 

“Just because you’re in the personal guard doesn’t mean you can steal the reward my brothers risked their lives for!” 

The guard had never expected the private soldiers, who normally cowered before them like mice before a cat, to dare talk back. Furious, he grabbed the other man by the collar. “What are you supposed to be? Think you’ve got a pair now? Get the hell out of my way!” 

The two sides instantly began shoving each other. This time, however, the private soldiers surprisingly did not back down. Every one of them stood firm, jostling violently against the personal guards, and the scene quickly descended into chaos. 

While everyone’s attention was drawn to the sudden infighting, the guard who had started the confrontation suddenly stiffened as a sharp pain exploded in his chest. 

Struggling, he lowered his head. 

There was a sword there; a sword that should never have been there. 

He recognized it immediately. It was his own sword.  But now he could only see half the blade… and the hilt. Wrapped around the hilt was a slender, pale hand with elegant fingers. 

A woman’s hand.