The Noble's Audacious Claim
The incompetent commander spoke up. “Oh my……? What’s this?”
“I don’t know either.”
“How can you just kill it if you don’t know what it is!?”
“It’s a monster. You can kill any monster you want.”
“Even so……”
Richel stared at Albert in disbelief. Without the slightest hesitation, he swung his fist, and the massive monster collapsed in a single blow. She had known he was strong, but the sheer power was astonishing no matter how many times she witnessed it.
‘His strength defies all common sense. If he can even command a dragon, this is only natural, I suppose?’
Albert examined the fallen monster. It was unlike any creature he had seen before.
‘System.’
Analyzing.
This monster is not listed in the monster encyclopedia.
However, I feel like I’ve seen a monster with a similar structure in that other world.
From a Gate?
Searching.
Found it.
Thirty years ago, you fought a monster with a similar structure. The Hunter Association named its species like this.
‘What did they call it?’
Chimera.
Though the memory was hazy after thirty years, the word “Chimera” immediately brought something back—an unpleasant recollection. A terrible hell. Yeouido had been reduced to rubble by a Chimera’s rampage. Rising smoke and death. The horrific screams and desperate wails of people had tormented Albert for a long time afterward.
What made it even more horrifying was that humans had been used in the Chimera’s creation. The worst kind of monster, made by attaching parts from dozens of different creatures onto the bodies of hunters who had vanished inside Gates.
That was what a Chimera was.
Albert’s stomach churned. Blood oozing from the Chimera’s burst head began to sizzle and melt the ground.
It’s poison.
Poison. It carried such potent toxicity that it could even melt the ground. An ordinary person could die just from touching it. The Chimera must have been mixed with a poison-type monster during its creation.
“Th-this is poison!?”
Richel hurriedly covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief. Albert was unaffected by poison, but Richel, being an ordinary human, could be in danger.
Albert turned to Hydra standing behind him.
“Your turn.”
“What?”
“Go on, Hydra! Eat the poison!”
At those words, Hydra’s expression clearly said, “What kind of lunatic is this?” Then, in disbelief, it spoke.
“……What nonsense is this?”
Albert looked disappointed. It wasn’t playing along?
“You purified the poison you spread across the territory, didn’t you? Can’t you do this?”
“……That was only possible because it was poison I had released myself. I cannot do the same with others.”
“Useless. And you call yourself a dragon?”
“What!?”
“Never mind.”
‘System.’
Summoning Gluttony.
A small light appeared, and Gluttony was summoned.
Boing~ Boing~.
The small, cute pink slime Gluttony approached Albert, delighted to have been summoned, and acted cute.
“Gluttony, eat that.”
Boing! Boing!
Following Albert’s command, Gluttony approached the Satyros with its head burst open. Then it opened its mouth wide.
Aaaang~
Crunch!
Unable to swallow it all at once, Gluttony divided the meal into several bites, stuffing pieces into its mouth and digesting them.
“Good heavens……”
Richel was stunned by the sight. To anyone’s eyes, Gluttony was a small and adorable slime. She had known it wasn’t an ordinary slime, but still……
“How does all of that fit inside? That huge thing into such a tiny body……”
It was nothing short of miraculous. Despite swallowing something so massive, there was no visible change to its exterior. How was that even possible?
Boing boing~.
Having devoured the entire Satyros, Gluttony seemed satisfied with its full belly. Happily, it hopped around Albert.
“Good work. Go back now.”
Gluttony was unsummoned. With the poison cleanly removed, all that remained was to harvest the fruits from the tree behind them. Judging by the circumstances, the Chimera had likely been guarding the tree.
A massive tree inside the dungeon. It was strange. Normally, trees needed water and sunlight to grow, yet this was a dim dungeon with no sunlight reaching it.
“It really is amazing. A tree in a place like this……”
Red fruits hung abundantly from the branches. The fruits gleamed with a beautiful luster, looking so delicious that one might want to take a bite right away.
Albert reached out his hand.
Telekinesis skill activated.
As the Telekinesis skill activated, all the fruits clinging to the tree fell. Albert picked one up.
“Looks like an apple?”
Its shape resembled the apples he had often eaten in the other world. The red luster was tempting. The faint sweet scent suggested it was ripe.
Is it a honey apple?
There isn’t much information available on Bacchus.
“It looks really delicious! May I try one?”
“You said it tasted bad.”
“I’ve only heard about it. This is my first time actually eating one. You have to try these things yourself to know!”
“Well…… fine.”
With Albert’s permission, Richel smiled brightly, picked up a fallen fruit, and took out her handkerchief to wipe it clean several times.
“The smell is nice, isn’t it? It seems like it’ll taste good.”
Richel’s eyes sparkled as she took a big bite of the Bacchus. After chewing a few times, her expression twisted horribly.
“Ugh! Ptui!!”
She spat out what she had been chewing without hesitation.
“It’s awful! It’s really awful! It’s bitter! What the—!? It smelled sweet!! Why is it like this!?”
“……”
Seeing that, Albert, who had been about to take a bite of his own Bacchus, stopped. He quietly stored it in his subspace.
“Bleh bleh bleh bleh, it’s really disgusting!”
Richel cursed in a way she normally never would, as if she had eaten something filthy that should never have been consumed. Her face was contorted in misery. It was as if she had bought what the market vendor called “honey melon~” only to discover it tasted terribly bad. She glared at the Bacchus with resentment, feeling as though she had been betrayed from behind.
“This is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life!”
“I see.”
Good thing you didn’t eat it.
“Well, that’s settled. Let’s pack up and head back.”
Albert opened his subspace, intending to store the fruits. But then several figures appeared to stop him.
“Halt!!”
It was the knights and mages who had fled from the Satyros earlier. Pushing through them came a man in noble attire, pointing his finger at Albert.
“Put those fruits down! They belong to the second son of Count Febra’s house! To me, Lord Bessen!”
Albert looked at him as if to say, “What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this?”
“Haa?”
* * *
“What are you going to do now?”
Having come outside to catch his breath, Bessen shouted angrily at the knight commander.
“How could you just retreat like that!!”
“But we can’t fight any longer. You saw it yourself. That thing is a monster. If we had kept fighting…… we would all be dead.”
“You’re knights! You can’t even kill one lousy monster!? Why do we pay you a salary!?”
“……”
Knight Commander Rosen had plenty to say, but he clenched his fists and held it in.
“I’m sorry.”
“You incompetent fools!! If you take money, you should do the work! You imbeciles can’t even handle one monster! Ugh, and these are supposed to be knights!”
“……”
“While coming here, several men got injured after encountering monsters!”
“Isn’t that because Lord Bessen gave reckless orders and forced them to attack the monsters?”
“What? So you’re saying it’s my fault? Right now, you’re—!? You’re saying it’s my fault!?”
“……”
‘Of course it’s your fault! The deaths of my precious subordinates are all because of you! You, you, you, you! Is that thing on your shoulders just decoration? A hat stand? If it’s useless, should I get rid of it!?’
He desperately wanted to retort, but he couldn’t. He was a knight. No matter how incompetent and depraved Bessen was, he was still the son of the lord to whom Rosen had sworn loyalty. Moreover, he had a family to support. He had no choice but to endure.
“I’m sorry.”
“Tsk, don’t just say sorry with your mouth! Show it with action! With results! Prepare within an hour! We’re going back in!”
“G-going back in? That’s impossible! Look at the state of your subordinates! Fighting any further is out of the question!”
“What’s with the whining over a few scratches? Potions can fix that easily! Enough! We’re going back in after an hour, so get ready!”
“……”
Bessen was forceful and stubborn.
“I must return with the Bacchus. If I lose to my brother again…… I’ll be further from the position of family head.”
He nervously bit his nails. This was his chance. If he could bring back the Bacchus, he could earn his father’s recognition and gain some ground as a candidate. He couldn’t let the gap with his brother widen any further. He had to catch up.
‘The family head will be me, not my brother!’
He would bring it back no matter what. It didn’t matter how many knights died or were injured in the process. If he ran out of knights and mages, he could simply replace them.
“Lord Bessen!”
Just then, the knight he had sent to scout—actually, the one Rosen had dispatched without Bessen’s knowledge—came running out in a panic.
“What’s going on?”
“I-inside! Th-the monster has disappeared!”
“The monster disappeared? What do you mean?”
“I-it’s exactly as I said! The monster is gone! And now there are humans whose origins I don’t know trying to take the fruits!!”
“What are you talking about!? How can the monster be gone!? Just moments ago, it was clearly there!”
“I-I definitely confirmed it! Th-there is no monster!”
“……We’re going in for now.”
Rosen stopped Bessen, who was about to rush inside.
“Lord Bessen! We must be cautious. There might be something wrong. We should investigate a bit more……”
“Shut up! I’m the commander! All you have to do is obey my orders!”
“Lord Bessen……”
“Shut up and follow me!”
Bessen stubbornly led the knights and mages back into the dungeon. And then they saw it.
“There really is no monster.”
“Not even a trace.”
“What? Where did it go?”
Leaning against the wall, Bessen narrowed his eyes.
“Where did those guys come from?”
The dungeon was a one-way path. Since the entrance and exit were the same, if those people had entered, they should have known about it.
‘Who is that guy? Where did the monster go?’
“Huh!?”
When the handsome black-haired man among them tried to gather the fruits, Bessen grew frantic.
‘Those are mine! How dare some nobody—!!’
“How dare they!”
“Lord Bessen, p-please calm down. We don’t know who they are, and we don’t know where the monster is…… so we must be careful.”
“Shut up, you incompetent fool who can’t do anything. Those fruits are mine! I found them first.”
Rosen tried desperately to stop Bessen, but he refused to listen. His ears were closed, his eardrums shut. He only heard what he wanted to hear and saw what he wanted to see, with selfish ears and eyes. Even his words came out without any filter, as if his brain didn’t exist.
It was a dangerous situation. A little thought would reveal something was amiss, but Bessen apparently lacked the brain for such thoughts. He boldly revealed himself.
“Put those fruits down! They belong to the second son of Count Febra’s house! To me, Lord Bessen!”