The Knight of the Nameless Village
Deep within the northern Great Mountain Range, in the heart of Pandemonium. Eligos, the demon in the guise of an old man, stood motionless before the empty throne.
This was the deepest recess of Pandemonium. Even the other demons, who gathered frequently in the meeting halls, rarely ventured this far. Only Eligos, the de facto leader of Pandemonium, visited from time to time.
A heavy silence stretched for a long while.
Sssss.
Suddenly, a thick, foul demonic energy characteristic of high-level devils began to swirl behind Eligos, and a demon with a horse's head atop a human body materialized from the darkness.
"Where is the Pope currently?" Gamigin, the horse-headed demon, asked.
"He has covered about half the distance," Eligos replied in a low, gravelly voice.
"Slow."
"Even if he has mutated after receiving our blessing, his body is still that of a mere human. It matters little. We have no reason to rush, so we can afford to wait patiently." At Eligos's words, Gamigin tilted his head.
"Is there a particular reason you ordered a human to transport the bones? We could have easily retrieved them ourselves."
"There is," Eligos replied calmly. Gamigin pondered the reason behind such a tedious and inefficient method.
"Ah, I see." A sinister realization dawned on him. "You intend to lift his madness the moment he arrives."
Eligos met Gamigin's deduction with silent affirmation.
Angelo III was currently the only human afflicted with this specific madness. In his twisted perception, his own demonically mutated body appeared angelic.
Furthermore, he believed without a shadow of a doubt that the Demon King's bones he carried were a sacred relic of Justia.
The moment he reached the heart of Pandemonium, Eligos planned to purge the madness gnawing at his mind.
Once he suddenly regained his sanity, Angelo would behold his own hideously warped flesh and realize the true nature of the object he had risked his life to transport...
"Understood. I shall remain quiet for the time being, as instructed." With those words, Gamigin vanished in an instant, leaving Eligos alone once more in the vast, silent chamber.
"Incredible. To think a village of this scale could spring up in a mountain valley where humans rarely set foot."
"Did you pave the entire road leading from the mountain cabin yourselves?"
The investigation team dispatched by the Lord of Balifield initially wore expressions of sheer disbelief, but they quickly adopted a serious demeanor as they inspected the village.
It was only natural for them to be shocked. A settlement of two thousand people had suddenly appeared in the deepest, most isolated wilderness.
Moreover, the Lord's administration had long turned a eye to the man-eating trolls that used to infest this region. Although they had received reports that Yohan's group had wiped them out, this was likely the first time they were seeing the actual site with their own eyes.
Hmm. Thinking about it made Yohan a little annoyed... but getting angry now wouldn't change anything. He decided to let it go.
After all, it was precisely because of the Lord of Balifield's passive, lukewarm approach that Yohan had been able to propose his own knighthood in the first place.
"Giant trees are densely packed right along the center of the village. Did you settle in a place where such a forest naturally formed?"
"Well... something like that," Yohan replied vaguely.
In truth, these massive trees hadn't always been here. The Nameless Village had expanded rapidly to accommodate the influx of refugees.
The original village boundaries were surrounded by giant trees grown using Falco's Guardian Deity's Ring, acting as a natural defensive wall. Recently, some of them had been felled to improve transit and secure building materials.
There was no need to completely hide the existence of the ring, but there was also no reason to boast about it to outsiders. Fortunately, the chief investigator didn't press further and quickly redirected his gaze.
"For now, we've sourced all our farming tools and the guards' weapons from the outside. We don't have a facility to produce blades in the village yet."
Of course, they now had a blacksmith from the Holy Kingdom, and a forge was currently under construction, so metal goods would be produced locally soon enough.
"What is that building's purpose? It doesn't look like a residence." As Yohan and the investigators toured the village, the chief investigator, leading the group, pointed to a brewery whose outer walls were still being worked on.
"That's the brewery. As you know, this area yields an abundance of exceptionally high-quality fruit."
"Ah, I see. You intend to establish a production system on a village-wide scale."
"Exactly. Aside from building the brewery, individual households are already fermenting their own wine. Some are even making cider or beer."
At Yohan's explanation, the investigators' eyes lit up in unison. Yohan didn't miss the shift. How many years had he spent in this godforsaken world? During his days as a grave robber, Yohan had encountered all walks of life, which had taught him one crucial truth:
Almost no one in this world disliked alcohol. He had seen trolls who refused meat and elves who detested vegetables, but he had never once met a person who turned down a drink.
"Alcohol, you say..." "Ahem."
Sure enough, the investigators began exchanging subtle glances.
"We actually happen to have a barrel brewed recently. Why don't you have a taste?"
At Yohan's offer, the chief investigator waved his hands in polite refusal. "Ahem. We appreciate the hospitality, but as we are currently on official duty under the Lord's orders..."
Yet, despite their words, they were already completely reeled in.
"Oh, come on. It's not like we're drinking to get wasted. Think of it as checking the quality of the goods you'll eventually receive as taxes."
"Hmm..." As Yohan bantered, the lips of the chief investigator and his subordinates twitched.
"Ch-Chief Investigator, what do you think?"
"Ahem. Well, then we shall have just a small taste. Yes. Strictly to verify the quality, of course."
They took the bait. Everything was proceeding exactly as intended.
Pfft! How transparent these humans are! The Goddess's laughing voice echoed in his mind.
Heh. Yohan also suppressed a smirk. I'm going to give them the full Nameless Village course. He rubbed his palms together in anticipation.
The Lord of Balifield had actually put a decent amount of effort into this investigation team, even if it was technically just a formality. The chief investigator was one of the Lord's vassals, holding a social status far higher than Yohan, who was technically a commoner.
The other members also held various roles within the Lord's castle, and they had even been assigned several soldiers as escorts. This wasn't just noble vanity; it meant the Lord was beginning to take a genuine interest in the Nameless Village.
For Yohan, the composition of this team was highly significant. The chief investigator and his subordinates were close aides who knew many of the Lord's hidden tendencies—details Yohan hadn't been able to grasp yet. In other words, this was Yohan's chance to understand the local power dynamics. And he had no intention of letting such an opportunity slip away.
Yohan started by serving wine fermented from the finest grapes of their harvest, followed by beer that Annie had poured her heart and soul into brewing.
That wasn't all. He provided fresh fruits, including the village's signature sugar apples, and even served beef jerky—the very same jerky that Justia herself had praised—as snacks.
The effort paid off spectacularly.
"Bwahahaha! Pour another! Drink up!" The serious, duty-bound investigators from a few hours ago were nowhere to be seen.
"So, how is the beer? To your liking?"
"Superb! It far exceeds my expectations. It doesn't fall short of what's supplied to the Lord's castle at all. In fact, in terms of freshness, it's even better."
Although Balifield was located on the frontier, it was still a proper city, and it had several breweries. While the beer distributed in the Undercity taverns tasted and smelled awful, the products supplied to the castle were bound to be of high quality. Satisfying the palate of an investigator accustomed to castle-grade alcohol proved the commercial value of their brew.
I should go and share this good news with Annie later, Yohan thought, nodding to himself.
Of course, maintaining quality control when mass-producing in a brewery for external sale was vastly different from small-batch home brewing. But Annie was dead serious about her beer, so she would figure it out.
"Drink as much as you like, we have plenty." "Hahaha."
The investigators had completely abandoned any pretense of conducting an investigation and were now entirely focused on eating and drinking. Yohan shrugged as he watched them gulp down beer after beer.
"Ugh... I overdid it last night. My head is splitting." The next morning, the thoroughly hungover investigators somehow managed to pull themselves together and prepare for their return to Balifield.
"Here, take these for the road. A gift for the Lord." "Ahem. Yes, I will make sure to deliver it to the Lord."
Yohan handed over two small oak barrels. One contained the wine and the other the beer they had eagerly consumed the night before.
"And... it's a bit awkward to call this a local specialty, but..." The gifts didn't end there. At Yohan's signal, Billy stepped forward and presented a glass bottle containing a High Potion.
"It's a High Potion. The quality is identical to the ones we supplied to the Magic Tower in the Royal Capital, so you don't have to worry."
Billy's potion-making skills were improving by the day. The liquid inside the glass bottle was perfectly clear, without a single impurity. Upon seeing it, the chief investigator's eyes widened, his hangover instantly vanishing.
"Understood. I will make sure to present this to the Lord as well."
"Safe travels, then."
"Yes. I hope to see you again, Knight Yohan of the Nameless Village."
The man called him a knight, even though the official ceremony hadn't taken place yet. No matter how bad his headache was, the head of the delegation sent by the Lord of Balifield wouldn't make such a statement lightly. In other words, the chief investigator's words were a formal acknowledgment of Yohan as the rightful ruler of the Nameless Village.
Soon, the carriage procession carrying the investigation team departed. Yohan and Billy stood quietly, watching until the carriages disappeared behind the dense forest.
After a moment of staring blankly toward the woods, Billy spoke up. "Are you worried things won't go well?"
Yohan immediately shook his head. "No, the knighthood is a done deal. There's nothing to worry about there."
"Then?" Billy tilted his head.
"I'm thinking about what's happening up north."
"Ah."
The demons of Pandemonium had temporarily given up on taking over the Holy Kingdom and retreated. However, that didn't mean their plans had completely failed. In fact, their true objective had been to steal the Demon King's bones sealed beneath the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Having achieved their goal, they had cleanly abandoned their attempt on the Holy Kingdom, which was expendable to begin with.
Of course, the Holy Kingdom and Justia weren't sitting idly by. Even now, inquisitors and Holy Knights dispatched by the Central Church were pursuing Angelo III.
"You mentioned earlier that the demand for weapons and healing potions suddenly spiked in the northern part of the continent, right?" "Yes, that's correct."
"We don't have solid proof, but I have a feeling those demon bastards have been up to something in the north since around the time the potion demand started rising."
But the Holy Kingdom couldn't simply march an army into the north just for an 'investigation.' If push comes to shove, I might have to head to the northern part of the continent myself. Yohan sighed softly at the thought.