Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Demonic Realm Conquest
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“Ugh~ I’m hungry.”
“It’s only been how long since we ate, and you’re already hungry again?”
“More than that, it’s weird that you’re even thinking about food in a place like this. I’m still scared out of my mind.”
The workers huddled together in front of the securely locked iron gate, murmuring among themselves.
“By the way, you think the knight’s okay? It’s already been a day and a half.”
“What? You dare doubt the master of the Twin Crown?”
When the blockheaded worker glared, the hunter-turned-dismantler tsked his tongue.
“Oh, come on. Man, Twin Crown or whatever, does it make sense for one guy to conquer a whole dungeon by himself?”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I just don’t get what the earl was thinking, letting the knight go in alone.”
Most of the workers nodded in agreement with the dismantler, leaving the blockheaded worker to speak in frustration.
“You guys just didn’t see Sir Eugene fight. He smashed holy knights and everything, all by himself!”
“Holy knights are still human, right? Fighting dungeon monsters is a different story.”
“The ignorant fool’s spouting sense for once. Hey, that’s a dungeon crawling with monsters. If it was just goblins or kobolds, maybe, but if even one mid-tier monster shows up……”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Gah!?”
“Eggs-mercy!”
Heavy sounds echoed from inside the iron gate, startling the workers.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The workers stared wide-eyed at the gate, suddenly recalling the knight who had entered through it yesterday morning. They scrambled to cling to the door.
Heave! Heave!
Even the soldiers guarding the demonic realm’s entrance joined in. With over ten men pushing with all their might, the iron gate finally swung open.
“S-Sir!”
“Are you alright?”
A knight in black plate armor, splattered head to toe in blood, emerged. Everyone stared in disbelief.
“Eek!?”
Then one person spotted a massive monster corpse sprawled near the dungeon entrance. All eyes snapped toward it.
“Huh?”
“W-What’s that?”
Soldiers and workers gaped as Eugene’s nonchalant voice reached their ears.
“It’s a manticore. That one’s too tough to dismantle, so load it whole onto a cart. There’s a drake corpse further in—load that one too. Handle the mid-to-lower tier monsters yourselves.”
Eugene walked past the slack-jawed soldiers and workers without a second glance.
* * *
The Winslon earl’s family owned two demonic realms.
Both were dungeons that had been opened over thirty years ago. Unlike others, the types of resident monsters and internal paths were almost perfectly mapped out.
This was thanks to Earl Winslon’s reverence for martial prowess and favoritism toward knights.
While other lords mainly hired mercenaries and sent only one or two knights to conquer dungeons, Earl Winslon dispatched plenty of knights.
Moreover, he took exactly half the mana stones and byproducts, so the participating knights were always highly motivated and satisfied.
They had no hesitation delving deeper to face stronger monsters.
Even so, only the realms’ layouts had been fully explored—no high-tier monsters had ever been slain in either.
Cyclops, manticore, and drake.
These were powerful monsters so rare that even across all the kingdom’s demonic realms, they could be counted on one hand.
And now, they had finally been slain.
By one person.
The news spread like wildfire, alongside the announcement that a knight who achieved the Twin Crown for the first time in sixteen years at the Winslon earl family’s knight tournament had been born.
* * *
“……!”
Prechella shuddered as she stared at the line of carts stretching across the merchant group’s courtyard.
“Careful! Be careful unloading!”
“Heave! Heave!”
From one cart, an enormous monster corpse was lifted down intact.
“M-Manticore!?”
“That one’s a dragon!”
“Idiot, it’s a drake! Dragons are way bigger than that.”
“Gods above…….”
Not just Prechella—the entire Feilin Merchant Group was in an uproar.
They had seen mid-tier monster corpses like trolls, war boars, or lycanthropes a few times before.
But no one had ever laid eyes on high-tier monsters, let alone a manticore and drake.
The crowd first marveled at the monsters’ overwhelming presence, then gasped again at how little decay had set in despite the long journey.
“Deputy manager.”
“Y-Yes, Sir Eugene.”
“I shelled out a hundred silver coins for preservation magic, so keep that in mind.”
“Yes! I’ll settle it right away!”
Prechella nodded frantically, then glanced at the unfamiliar face and whispered.
“But this knight is…….”
“Sir Lanslo of Durak. He’ll be with me for a while.”
“With you? Then…….”
Sensing Prechella’s gaze, Lanslo grinned and approached.
“Pleased to meet you, lady. I am Lanslo of Durak. Might you grant me the chance to feel your warm glow?”
“Oh my?”
Prechella’s face flushed bright red in an instant. She had never met a knight who called her ‘lady’ before.
“I-I’m no noble, Sir Durak.”
“No?”
Not only did her tone shift subtly, but she suddenly started speaking in a cutesy whine. Eugene squinted one eye at her.
“The jeweled flower blooming in Golden Castle, the wildflower fiercely growing in blue meadows, the moonflower budding on sheer cliffs—all are precious and beautiful flowers to me. The flower named ‘lady.’”
“Oh, oh my.”
Lanslo lightly kissed the back of Prechella’s outstretched hand as she flailed in flustered delight.
Eugene felt goosebumps prickle his skin—skin that had been unfazed during battles with manticore and drake—and spoke coldly.
“Cut the nonsense and supervise here, Lanslo. Deputy manager, I have some questions. Let’s go inside.”
“Y-Yes!”
“We’ll make proper introductions later, Lady Feilin.”
Prechella yanked her hand back in surprise, but Lanslo flashed his usual captivating smile.
She twisted her body in utter bewilderment.
“Master, master. Looks like the merchant vixen’s fallen for the quarter-elf master.”
Mirian whispered while eyeing Lanslo warily. The spirit, who feared nothing but Eugene, seemed uneasy around the quarter-elf knight who could see and hear him.
“Vixen? How dare you speak of a lily-like beauty that way, undine.”
“Keeek!”
Sure enough, Lanslo’s sidelong glance made Mirian shriek and dive into the leather pouch.
“What was that, Sir Durak?”
“Haha. Nothing at all, Lady Feilin. See you later.”
“Yeees.”
‘They’re a perfect pair of bastards.’
Eugene shook his head and entered the merchant group building.
* * *
“Wow, royalists?”
The sudden topic snapped Prechella to attention.
“Yeah. Anything you know about Maren’s royalist faction?”
“Begging your pardon, Sir Eugene, but why the royalists all of a sudden?”
Nothing good came from tangling with royalists, so Prechella pressed her anxious chest and asked cautiously.
If Eugene was somehow involved with them, no matter how much profit he brought the merchant group, it would be serious enough to cut ties right then.
“I’m thinking of teaching them a lesson.”
“……!”
The unexpected answer surprised her, but it was a relief. Better to punish them than ally with them.
“Anyway, tell me about Maren’s royalists, or point me to someone who knows them well.”
“Well then…….”
Prechella thought for a moment, then looked up.
“For that, you’d be better off consulting the mercenary guild master.”
“The mercenary guild master?”
“Yes. If you named the two people in Maren who hate the royalists most, it’d be the guild master and the mayor. But if you meet the mayor, Sir Eugene, it’ll draw eyes, so the guild master’s the way to go.”
“Hm.”
Fair enough—a knight meeting the mercenary guild master wasn’t odd at all.
—I’m not sure if this helps, but there’s something I want to tell you. The holy knight came to my territory because of the royalists. Maren’s royalists……
Recalling Earl Winslon’s words before leaving his domain, Eugene said.
“Then set up a meeting with the guild master. The sooner, the better.”
“Understood. Anything else?”
“Lanslo—er, Sir Durak—needs new plate armor. At the Betisak armor workshop…….”
“I’ll place the order in my name right away! I’ll cover it!”
Eugene paused, about to say Lanslo would pay later.
He’d once thought her a kindly merchant, but today she seemed to have ulterior motives.
So Eugene said something different.
“No need. He’s got money someone gave him for armor, so Sir Durak will pay.”
Wearing Golden Moon Knight Order armor would reveal his identity too quickly, so Earl Winslon had given Lanslo hundreds of silver coins for a new suit.
“Oh? Ah… yes.”
Merchants should rejoice at saving money, but Prechella looked as glum as a refugee.
* * *
Two hours later, Eugene left the Feilin Merchant Group with Lanslo and Luke.
The two headed to the shopping district for armor measurements, while Eugene went straight to the mercenary guild.
Trevic, who had cleared his schedule upon hearing Eugene wanted to meet, came out to greet him at the guild building and personally escorted him to the office.
“I heard, Sir Eugene. You swept the Winslon earl’s knight tournament? And took down a manticore and drake to boot!”
“Your info network’s quick. Just got lucky.”
“What? Hahaha…….”
Trevic burst into honest laughter at Eugene’s humility—despite an achievement any other knight would boast of till death.
“Anyway, you had something to discuss?”
“Yeah. Deputy manager Prechella said the guild master knows all about the royalists?”
“Hmm. Well, that’s true, but do you have business with the royalists?”
Trevic’s earlier excitement plummeted as he asked in a subdued tone.
“Don’t misunderstand—I came because I heard you’re one of the people in Maren who hates them most.”
“Ah! Is that so? Then, are you perhaps thinking of…… dealing with the royalists?”
“I can’t go into details, but Maren’s royalists tried to screw me over.”
‘These crazy bastards! No—these brave souls!’
Trevic felt like dancing for joy.
He didn’t know what they’d done, but the royalists he desperately wanted gone had crossed the one man who’d want to keep ties with them!
“Those vile scum! I knew it’d come to this someday!”
Blending genuine fury with exaggeration, Trevic ranted swiftly.
“Sir Eugene, the royalists are bad everywhere, but Maren’s are notoriously snake-like. Worse than goblin shit. And moreover…….”
Eugene cut off Trevic’s enthusiastic bashing of the royalists with cold words.
“I know that already. Just give me their roster.”
“Of course. But Sir Eugene.”
“……?”
“You need some idea of the situation to judge those snakes yourself or put them on trial—and the city can provide support.”
“Hmm.”
Trevic continued in a sly whisper unbefitting his bulk as Eugene showed interest.
“At minimum, inform the mayor of the details—it’ll benefit you. Just tell us, and we’ll. Han. Dle. The. Rest. How about it?”
“Deal. Here’s what happened…….”
Eugene concisely explained why a holy knight had suddenly joined the Winslon earl family’s knight tournament.
Trevic’s face shifted through expressions before settling into grim seriousness.
“Sir Eugene. Maren’s royalists have almost no connections to the central church or royal capital. Holy knights need a cardinal’s approval to act, as far as I know. For a direct letter to reach the central church and mobilize one that fast? Doesn’t add up.”
“You think so? Then… maybe someone’s meddling in between?”
“High possibility. So… ah!”
Trevic suddenly recalled something and spoke rapidly, slightly excited.
“There’s a noble named Sir Cyranosa among Maren’s royalists. His distant relative is none other than Earl Evergrow. And the Evergrow earl family…….”
One face naturally surfaced in Eugene’s mind.
‘Jevin Evergrow. You again?’
Eugene’s gaze turned icy.
(To be continued)
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