"Thanks the lord for saving us."
"We can finally restore our previous life."
"The lord is even sharing the meat with us to go through this winter."
"The lord is amazing. The second young master should be the next lord of the Lawrence!"
"But I've heard from the soldiers that there was a group of people who handled all those demons. Where are they?"
"They must be the people from the Lord himself."
"But shouldn't the Demon Banner Army be the one solving the problem with demons?"
"Don't forget that we're in Lawrence's territory. They have lasted for generations in defending this area, so of course, their strength is enough to handle all these demons!"
"Long live Young Master Hagen Lawrence."
The people were cheering. Despite the temperature that had dropped due to the winter, they could finally smile, knowing that this winter was survivable because of the meat.
Meanwhile, the lord himself could get recognition from the family and should get a huge advantage in this battle of succession.
This was a win-win situation, except for the fact that they disregarded the true helper this time, the Demon Relief Squad.
A guy, who was just cheering with the people a moment ago, suddenly stopped and returned to his house. There wasn't a smile on his face. Instead, he looked at these people and the lord in contempt.
When he opened his door, there were a few cages storing pigeons. He hurriedly walked toward one of them and put a small scroll into the small tube attached to the bird's foot.
After that, he opened the window and let the bird fly.
On the other hand, Noel couldn't help but ask, "By the way, if we leave them here, how do we prove them claiming our deeds? If we stay there, they don't dare to do it. But now that we've left, I don't think we can prove it."
"Ah, you don't have to worry about that. You should know about the Demon Observer Squad, right?"
"If the Demon Observer Squad is in charge of the investigation of the demons, the Demon Beholder Squad is the one monitoring us. In other words, they're the ones who keep us in check.
"I mean, sometimes people abuse their authority, right? That's why this Demon Beholder Squad has to be formed. They'll watch how we perform and report it to the headquarters.
"Of course, they're not solely observing us, they also watch the behavior of the nobles and handle it when they abuse their authority. In other words, they're a double edged sword, so all we have to do is perform our duty and let them do the rest.
"With their observation and our complaint, the Demon Banner Army will handle the problem." She smiled.
Noel furrowed his eyebrows, feeling something was missing. "If they're known, shouldn't the noble be afraid of them?"
"Not really. They simply don't know about their existence because Demon Beholder Squad is the name that only the Zero Squads know. What people know is the Demon Adjudicator Squad and people think they're simply the people who will investigate our behavior when nobles file complaints."
"Oh… Does that mean you also have one in my family's former territory?" Noel asked.
"Ah…" Stella scratched the back of her head, wondering how to explain this.
Noel only chuckled. "I don't blame you or anything. In fact, this is truly an amazing system. It seems that each squad has its own purpose, which makes the Demon Banner Army very versatile and can adapt to all situations."
"Well, yes. So, we'll just go to the neighboring fort and file a complaint about our treatment and the headquarters will review the information from the Demon Observer Squad before handling the situation."
"Understood." Noel nodded with a smile.
As she explained, the bird that had been sent by the Demon Observer Squad had arrived at the headquarters.
"Mhm…" The staff in the headquarter opened the message and furrowed his eyebrows. He hurriedly straightened his back, fixed his clothes, and went straight to the commander. "Commander. We've received information about the abuse from Lawrence Fort."
"Come in," said the commander as the door opened itself as if following the commander's order.
The staff hurriedly entered and gave him the letter.
The commander opened the letter and read it for a while before calling, "Tell Milfa to handle my work next week. I'll solve this problem. Also, inform Mark to prepare for my trip to the Lawrences, including the merchants, a few soldiers, and citizens from the Lawrence Fort as witnesses."
The commander then waved his hand, dismissing the staff. The fort would only be reopened tomorrow or the day after because of the incident, so he couldn't really go right away.
However, the moment it was reopened, they had a perfect chance to get merchants and commoners in that fort to testify.
And that was all he needed to get whatever he wanted from the negotiation.
Noel didn't know everything that happened behind the scene, but if the complaint was actually working, the Demon Banner Army truly had a good system.
As soon as they reached the next fort, they didn't announce their identity as the Demon Relief Squad and picked the best inn. Instead, they just let the soldiers know they were normal people and rented some rooms in a good but cheap inn until they received their next mission.
Of course, now that they had taken care of the money problem with the Demon Crystals they got from the hunt.
It was the time for Paul to give rewards to those who contributed to the battle.
He gathered the entire group in one room as he stated, "There are two Peak Level Demon Crystals in my hand. These are the symbols of the people who have the highest achievement in the last battle.
"Hence, I will announce those two names to receive their trophy. Even though her role didn't stand out too much, we all knew that without her, we wouldn't be able to produce such a perfect result. So… Rose!"
"Yes." Rose received the Peak Level Crystal from him and returned to her seat as Paul continued to the second biggest contributor.
"Despite joining the squad recently, he has proven himself by creating a plan that could make us complete the mission easier. He even helped taking down a Peak Level Demon before helping us eliminate the demons around the wall. He is truly befitting this position. Noel!"
"Yes." Noel smiled and stood up.
Paul thought Noel's contribution was slightly bigger than Rose's, but the reason why he chose Rose as the first one was because he didn't want Noel to be complacent after this achievement. He knew Noel would go far further from this spot, so he placed him second in the hope for him to continue improving.
At the very least, he didn't suppress his achievement and gave him enough recognition.