My Name Is Albrecht Part 5

“We caused a pretty big mess, so it is time to say goodbye to this town,” Gonz said. He told me we would get our travel preparations ready tomorrow and head to another town.

Thinking about the possibility that the thrift store in the slum might take some kind of retaliation, I suggested that we change inns.

“It is a pain, so no.”

Gonz sulked like a child, but I somehow managed to persuade him and got his agreement.

I owned almost no personal belongings. I decided that I could use the money I had obtained today to buy replacements later, and headed to Gonz’ inn as it was.

It happened just as we were leaving the inn to collect Gonz’ belongings and move. We were surrounded by several armed men. The thrift store’s response was faster than I had expected.

They already seemed to know the location of Gonz’ inn. Gonz stood out in many ways, so it was only natural that they had figured out where he was staying.

If only we had acted immediately when I suggested changing inns. I shot Gonz a resentful look.

No matter how strong Gonz was, he could not defeat this many enemies head on. Just counting those in sight, there were four of them.

There were no hostages like at the thrift store. The back entrance was surely blocked as well. I gave up on living.

Gonz grinned, drew his sword, looked in my direction, and said, “Looks like the money is going to increase again. Today I am really on a roll.”

I could not believe my ears. What was he saying in this situation? Did this man really think he could win? Or was he simply not thinking at all?

While I stood there in confusion, Gonz burst out of the inn and slashed at the men. Why would he charge straight into a surround? Was something wrong with his head?

“Hyaaah!!”

Gonz gripped a thick bladed bastard sword with both hands and brought it down from high overhead.

The men clearly had not expected him to leap at them, and their reactions were slow with surprise.

They frantically tried to block Gonz’s attack with their swords, but they were overwhelmed by his brute strength. Their blades shattered as their heads were smashed in.

Fragments of the broken swords flew toward Gonz, leaving small cuts on his face, but he did not even blink.

The remaining men slashed at Gonz.

Gonz thrust one handed at the closest opponent. He was wielding the heavy looking, thick bladed bastard sword with a single hand. It seemed Gonz possessed strength far beyond normal limits.

The man who took the thrust collapsed with a croaking sound, like a crushed frog.

The bastard sword was sturdy but seemed to have poor sharpness. The blade did not pierce the spot it struck, instead leaving it caved in as if from a blunt blow.

Left wide open, Gonz was cut across the back. Another man followed up with a slash. Gonz blocked the strike with his arm.

His unarmored arm had been cut by a sword. I thought his arm was going to be severed.

But the blade stopped in Gonz’s arm muscle.

It did not even seem to reach the bone. Such terrifying toughness. Just what were Gonz’s base stats like?

Gonz grabbed the stunned man, whose blade he had stopped with his arm, using that same wounded arm. Then he hurled him toward the man who had slashed him from behind.

Throwing a human being with an arm that had just been cut by a sword. Witnessing Gonz’s utterly abnormal behavior, I was overwhelmed with shock and confusion, and my thinking shut down.

As the two men collapsed together after the unexpected attack, Gonz leapt at them with a speed unimaginable for someone of his massive build.

Closing the distance, he swung the bastard sword down from overhead. The thick bladed sword crushed both men at once as they lay piled together.

Faced with the overwhelming battle unfolding before my eyes, I doubted what I was seeing. Back in my days as a bureaucrat, I had opportunities to observe military training and mock battles between generals.

Compared to those, this fight was lower in level and crude in technique. Even so, Gonz’s way of fighting left an overwhelming impact on me.

Gonz had defeated the men. I was saved. Letting my guard down from the relief of being alive, I relaxed for a moment.

A shadow fell across my vision. When I looked up in that direction, a man was raising his sword, about to strike me.

The men who had been watching the back entrance must have noticed something was wrong and broken into the inn from behind. Paralyzed by fear, I shut my eyes, my body stiffening as I curled up.

I had been careless and let my guard down. Cursing my own foolishness, I trembled in fear of the pain that was about to come.

Clang. I heard the sound of metal colliding and braced myself, shaking. But no matter how long I waited, the pain did not come.

I cautiously opened my eyes. The man who had been about to attack me was being lifted one handed by the neck by Gonz.

While suspended in the air, the man swung his sword at Gonz’s face. Gonz twisted his head to avoid it, but his face was lightly cut.

“You bastard, that hurts!” Shouting that, Gonz slammed the man he was holding into the ground. The floor of the inn shattered into pieces, and the man’s face smashed through the floor and into the ground below.

Gonz crushed the man’s head under his foot. Then he leapt at another man who had attacked at some point, charging him with his bare hands.

The bastard sword Gonz had been holding was lying on the floor. He must have thrown it at the man who tried to attack me, closed the distance, and grabbed his neck.

That was my guess.

Charging bare handed, Gonz was slashed in the side, but he paid it no attention and wrapped his arms around the man.

“Hmph!”

Still holding the man with both arms, Gonz exerted his strength. A sharp cracking sound of bones echoed, and the man spat blood and went limp.

“Are you all right, Al?”

I could not answer right away.

Relief at having survived, and gratitude that Gonz had thrown away his weapon and risked his life to protect me even at his own disadvantage, made tears well up in my eyes.

If I spoke now, I might embarrassingly burst into loud sobs.

Emotionally, I felt deep gratitude toward Gonz. But my reason, and the dark emotions swirling inside me, denied it.

He had been kind when I was vulnerable. Do not trust someone easily just because of that. Taking advantage of someone in a weakened state was a common tactic.

Steeling myself against being swept away by emotion, I spoke to the big man in front of me, who was looking at me with concern.

“I was a little startled, but I am fine. Thank you, Gonz. More importantly, let us tend to your injuries,” when I said that, Gonz replied that there was something he needed to do first.

He then began looting anything of value from the corpses. I thought his priorities were strange, but I followed his judgment.

While he was gathering valuables, I asked the innkeeper to prepare water to wash the wounds and clean cloths, and handed her a gold coin.

It was far above the usual rate, but considering it as compensation for the trouble and for repairing the floor, I thought it was reasonable.

After Gonz finished collecting valuables, he told me that he could not treat the wound on his back by himself and asked me to take care of it.

The wound on his back was not immediately fatal, but it was quite deep.

Would it not be better to stitch it? I asked Gonz, but he insisted that applying wound medicine would be enough, so I treated it as he said.

If the sword fragments that had scattered across his face were left in place without being removed, the wounds would close over them and the fragments would become embedded in the flesh.

Gonz looked at his reflection in a bucket of water and carefully picked out the fragments one by one.

He seemed to place more importance on removing the tiny fragments than on the cuts to his back, side, and arm. Perhaps Gonz had his own strange sense of priorities.

Normally, one might think there was some deeper reason. But considering it was Gonz, there was probably no serious reason at all.

Though we had only just met, I formed my own evaluation of the man called Gonz. His combat ability was first rate. His intellect was third rate. And perhaps, just perhaps, he was someone I could trust a little.

After the treatment was finished, Gonz plunged his hand into his pocket and clenched it tightly. Then he slammed several gold coins onto the table at the inn.

“Innkeeper, this is compensation. Take it. Thanks for everything. See you.”

With that, Gonz hoisted the money and goods taken from the attackers and left the inn.

“Gonz, that amount you just paid was clearly too much. Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah. I caused trouble, after all. Smashed up the floor too. Ha ha ha ha!”

I did not know what he found so amusing, but Gonz laughed loudly, clearly enjoying himself.

Then he started striding forward. Where was he going? For now, I followed after him.

This road looked familiar. Of course it did. We had walked it earlier. The buildings around us grew more and more dilapidated, and a foul stench began to drift through the air.

No way. This man could not be thinking of…

“Hey, shop owner. You have got some nerve pulling a stunt like that.”

Gonz stormed into the slum thrift store, glaring at the owner and radiating killing intent.

The shop owner, covered in bandages, presumably from being treated for the injuries Gonz had inflicted earlier, stared back in shock, his mouth hanging open as if his jaw might drop off.

Gonz slammed the attackers’ weapons he had brought onto the counter and said, “Buy these for twenty times the price from before. That settles everything between us.”