How long, how long it had been since I have been walloping Lorian like a wet cloth on river rock?
Lorian, his voice howling and growling, had suddenly became inaudible.
I clamped Lorian’s ankle and lifted him up. I grabbed into the guy’s unnecessarily long hair. Citizens who stayed nearby were all evacuated in advance, so there was no need to worry about maintaining a Hero’s prestige.
I returned to the inn, dragging Lorian on the floor.
When I opened the door of the inn and entered, countless eyes fixed at me.
The eyes that started with wonder soon erupted with different emotions.
“He, Hero Lorian!”
Astonished. Poignant. Worried.
“Cloud-sama..!”
Apprehension. And, at last, awe.
Eliciting those emotions, I threw Lorian inside. Thud. As Lorian fell to the floor, all eyes that were directed at me turned to him.
“Brother…!”
Lorraine put down her sword and hurried toward the fallen Lorian. She knelt down and examined his neck artery with quivering fingers. After confirming a few more sections, she let out an audible sigh of relief.
“He has just passed out…”
With her words, the air that had been strung like lead loosened a little.
It was not completely liberated though.
I glanced around the inn.
My comrades and Lorian’s party members.
The two groups faced off, armed. And when I brought back the fainted Lorian, the tension multiplied.
Before the nobles who ascertained Lorian’s rise and faling chest could say anything, I spoke first.
“Who was this?”
“… yes?”
“Who told you could draw your weapons?”
– …
Silence fell.
But the sound echoing and rolling was loud. Probably bogging them into thinking how to get out of this situation.
I tried not to give that opportunity, but someone stepped forward.
“That was me. I gave the order, Hero, sir.”
It was a middle-aged nobleman.
“Order? Who are you to give orders?”
I approached the middle-aged man and asked. Instead of lowering his head, he answered with a stiff posture.
“Reltor Artos. I am the current head of the Artos Family, Duke Artos. In the absence of Hero Lorian, I am expected to take command.”
“You? Not Lorraine?”
“That’s right.”
When I turned my eyes, I saw Lorraine, shaking at Leltor’s words. I turned my gaze back to the nobleman standing ramrod straight, shoulders squared up.
“Didn’t you say you gave the order? Then you are responsible for all the actions they committed. Can I hold you accountable?”
“Yes, you can, sir.”
“Right…”
I crossed my arms and pondered for a while before pulling out my sword. The aristocrats began to mumble. Ignoring them, I faced the aristocrat in front of me and asked one last question.
“Do you have a son?”
“Yes. He’s my heir, a brilliant son and my pride.”
“That’s good.”
I drove the sword into the resolute aristocrat’s chest. I grabbed him by the shoulder as he trottered, blood pooling around the wound. I said in a low voice that only he could hear.
“Duke Artos. I’ll remember you.”
“Do you mean… we’re clear…?”
I nodded slowly.
“Of course your son would hate me.”
“It’s natural that he would hate his father’s killer… but don’t worry… he’s not a guy to lose sense only because emotions sway him…”
“It would be nice to have a brave family like Artos in our kingdom. What a pity.”
The middle-aged chuckled bitterly.
That was it.
Reltor’s body fell limp and his escort knights approached.
After I nodded, the two escort knights hauled Reltor’s corpse on their backs.
‘The master they served is dead, but no emotions to show on their face.’
As if they expected it to be like this from the moment I entered.
‘Reltor Artos.’
One more name to remember.
Although he couldn’t be an ally.
As I scratched the nape of my neck, I could see the commotion stir in the inn.
“Reltor-nim, he…”
“That was done without due process, Hero! You have crossed the line!”
Agitated by the death of Reltor, the nobles began spurring criticism.
I addressed the noisiest of them all.
“What if I crossed the line? What would you do? Do you want to formally protest against me to the Empire and the Church?”
An impressively black mustached man shook his head with a solemn expression.
“We don’t even have to go there. Get us out of this fucking city right now, or we’ll order the troops outside to attack!”
“You know that’s bullshit, ha? You guys are going to be arrested, how are you going to give orders, and even though Lupus has been destroyed partly, the walls are still intact. Can they get over it?”
“Hoh! Hero, you’re the one talking bullshit. How could we have entered here without a safety implementation? Once we’re arrested, the hidden minions shall spread the word to the army outside the city. High walls? What if there are walls. You don’t have an army to protect it.”
The man with the impressive mustache urged to let them go immediately if we sought good for the sake of the citizens of Lupus.
Perhaps impassioned by his confident demeanor, other nobles clamored to get them out.
Ah, so noisy.
“…these dare-”
Leslie, who was worse off, was about to step forward but I raised a halting palm.
Instead, I called out our party mascot.
“Shedia, take that one out.”
“Who?”
Shedia asked, sticking her face out of Katarina’s shadow.
“Huh?!”
“That, that person appeared from the shadows?!”
Ignoring the astonished nobles, I raised my index finger towards the target. Then she nodded her head and threw something out of the shadow.
And something fell to the floor with a dull sound…
“Wh.. huh..!?”
It was a human head.
The nobles who saw it began to be visibly frightened, naturally.
“Is this the guy? The minion you mentioned. Don’t lie that there are more. I’ve checked everything.”
“…”
The mustachioed man was silent for a moment, then stammered out.
“So, so what? Even if it’s not this guy, if we don’t contact them, the army outside the city will find out the strangeness. Later on, they’ll attack Lupus to save us. In the end, it would be an extension of what I said earlier!”
His loud voice resounded in the inn. At the same time, the door burst open, and knights in armor entered one after another.
Looking at the knights who suddenly appeared, he shut his mouth.
Or had to.
If he had a good eye, he would have noticed that those knights weren’t knights of Lupus.
Among the nobles, there were even those who were horrified to find out the knights’ identities.
Either way, I waited for all the knights to file in.
The knights who came in first lined up in two columns and made a path. An old man and a middle-aged man in dazzling armor walked side by side.
The old and the middle-aged man got down on one knee toward me.
“The Comital Lopez family responds to the summon of the Hero and Her Highness the Queen.”
“The Ducal Collins family responds to the summon of the Hero and Her Highness the Queen.”
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