Chapter 103: The Knights (4)

Yuliana’s voice turned icy.

“……Don’t you dare say such things carelessly elsewhere. Got it?”

“I get it. Do I look like the kind of person who goes around blabbing?”

“Yes.”

At Yuliana’s response, which was delivered as if it was completely obvious, Royer stared blankly with his mouth open for a moment, before soon shaking his head.

“What glory did I think I’d get coming to the Knights…….”

“Quiet, and for now, let me know again when there’s more investigation on that matter.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll see to it, Madam.”

“Don’t be sarcastic.”

“What do you want me to do then?”

Royer shook his head.

“For now, we’ll continue investigating the matter regarding the Twilight Troupe…….”

He didn’t know what contract and magic the ones who might be the Twilight Troupe were seeking to obtain, going as far as human sacrifice, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the only matter the Griffin Knights currently had to deal with.

A threat that hadn’t been revealed yet was certainly dangerous, but unfortunately, what the Griffin Knights had to do right now was eliminate the threats that had been clearly revealed.

“How’s the Union side?”

“They’ve been quiet since the Bernhardt Incident. It was no ordinary matter, after all.”

Yuliana nodded her head as if agreeing with Royer’s words.

She had certainly been so surprised when she received the report about what had happened in Bernhardt…….

Aside from what happened there, the fact that Bernhardt was on the verge of falling into the hands of the Eastern Union had given the Empire a great shock.

“I was a bit surprised when The Lightning Emperor stepped up. To think Cain was there at that time…… could it be true?”

Royer shook his head.

“Who knows. Judging by the circumstances, it seems like the Dragon Slayer was messing around using The Lightning Emperor. If Cain was really there, wouldn’t there have been no need for The Lightning Emperor to step up?”

“That’s true, but…… there’s also a rumor that Cain became a wreck from the price of magic, isn’t there? So maybe he couldn’t. Or maybe he just couldn’t be bothered.”

“Don’t be like that. You know what kind of guy Cain is, Commander. Do you think he’d be unable to handle the price just because he overused magic a bit?”

In the World of Justice, Cain’s name was spread like some kind of ghost story, so it was easily treated as a false rumor, but those who had directly faced Cain knew that the ghost story hadn’t arisen for no reason.

No, rather, the ghost story failed to properly capture the terror that the name Cain inspired.

Cain knows all magic.

Cain knows how to not pay the price for all magic, and has even personally executed some of it.

Cain…….

Royer, knowing that those absurd rumors were not just rumors, believed the hypothesis that Cain wasn’t there in the first place was more likely, rather than that Cain had become a wreck, unable to handle the price.

To be precise, he thought Cain probably didn’t exist in this world.

If a big shot like Cain really existed in this world, this world wouldn’t be as it was now.

“……That’s not wrong.”

Yuliana also nodded her head slightly, as if agreeing.

“Rather than that, isn’t it more important to find out the Dragon Slayer’s purpose for calling The Lightning Emperor to Bernhardt? I have a feeling, but that guy, the Dragon Slayer, smells pretty fishy. He’s clearly high-level, but I don’t have a single person in mind.”

“He could be someone from the Hall of Subjugation.”

“For now, I think so too, but…… there’s always an ‘if’.”

If he was someone from the Hall of Subjugation, it wasn’t unreasonable that ordinary users wouldn’t know information about him.

Basically, in the World of Justice, the Hall of Subjugation was like a public enemy, and naturally, except for a few cases, its members did not reveal themselves.

The moment their identities were revealed, they would literally be hunted by the Empire, the Punishment Order, and all sorts of large guilds.

“That’s enough about the Union side…….”

Royer said.

“What do you think about the Winter Castle soldier who came earlier? You must have figured something out since you talked for a bit.”

“Well. I don’t know, not yet.”

“Really? He looks a bit suspicious to me.”

Yuliana nodded her head.

“For now, it’s true that the possibility is quite high. It’s not common to build a reputation in such a short period after being dragged to Winter Castle as a sinner. On top of that…… Some of the rumors I’ve heard are unusual. Ah, he also said he went to the Demonic Realm alone.”

“No physical evidence, only circumstantial. That’s not a method of reasoning the Commander is fond of, is it?”

Yuliana’s gaze shot sharply at Royer, but Royer naturally avoided her gaze.

He always felt it, but this guy had a strange talent for getting on people’s nerves.

“Then should I check him out myself? If I scare him a little, won’t he spew out something right away?”

“Stop it. Have you forgotten where we are? Don’t cause an unnecessary disturbance. I’m being serious.”

“Commander, sometimes you seem like an NPC, not a player. What’s the big deal about causing a little disturbance here…….”

“It’s not just because of problems with Winter Castle. If we move unnecessarily, we might attract their attention.”

“Their? Aah. Right.”

Royer spoke as if it was strange.

“But then shouldn’t we move even more? What if Vell Blackwood is on their side?”

“My insight didn’t show the madness unique to a Demonic person or any other major symptoms.”

Demonic person.

A being that was once human, but had now been consumed by Demonic and become something in human form.

Along with the Eastern Union, they were the greatest threat to the peace of this world currently.

“You never know. It’s also true that their mimicry gets more cunning by the day. Even your insight isn’t perfect, is it?”

“I agree. But that’s why we have to be even more careful, my impatient member.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“We have to watch. If he’s a Demonic person, it’ll show in some way. A moment will come when he can’t control his emotions, or he’ll be fanatically obsessed with fragments.”

“Watch? Until when? We have to leave this place soon. You know that.”

“It’ll be enough time before we leave.”

“Hmm…… well, if the Commander says so.”

He knew that dragging this out any further would just get him another pay cut, so he didn’t say more.

“So, what are you going to do if that soldier isn’t a Demonic person?”

“Is there a need to ask that? Obviously, we have to recruit him.”

Yuliana added.

“Into our Bellerophon.”

***

The snowfield should be a peaceful place covered in white snow, but at least for today and the days that had been today, that peace was broken.

The snowflakes falling from the sky descend gently as if to soothe the world’s sorrows, but the sight hidden beneath them was only tragic.

It was because this place had now become a hell filled with the corpses of demonic beasts and soldiers.

The corpses of the demonic beasts spread over the snow varied in size and shape.

It was difficult to tell exactly what kind of demonic beast it had been because the corpse was crushed and torn, but some demonic beasts had an appearance that seemed completely alien to this world, while others resembled ordinary beasts.

Their blood melted the snow and stained it red, dyeing the snowfield’s color into something other than its original.

Among the corpses filling the snowfield, it wasn’t just demonic beasts.

No matter how much of a siege defense it was, quite a few soldiers who had fallen from the walls or been abducted by flying demonic beasts, as well as cavalry members from the reinforcements, were among them.

Some were frozen, still clutching their weapons tightly, in the state they were in when they fell while fighting bravely.

Their shields and armor were broken and dented, and beyond their crushed faces, they preserved the very moment of pain and resistance.

“Ugh…… cold. I thought it had gotten a bit warmer for a while, but this godforsaken weather is still the same.”

“Stop being such a baby with that big build.”

“It’s colder because I’m big. The surface area exposed to the cold wind is larger.”

The war with the demonic beast legion was over, but that didn’t mean Winter Castle had found complete peace.

No, in a sense, it was no exaggeration to say that a task more difficult than the war awaited.

It was time to clean up the corpses of the demonic beasts scattered across the snowfield.

If left as they were, they wouldn’t even rot properly due to the northern climate, and above all, the demonic beast corpses were Winter Castle’s main source of income.

Naturally, every single one had to be collected and processed so that they could purchase the necessary supplies during the next regular trade.

“Move it, move it!”

A massive demonic beast corpse collection and processing operation began.

It was a large-scale operation, mobilizing not only the soldiers of Winter Castle but also ordinary farmers.

Should I call it a kind of neighborhood environmental cleanup combined with economic activity?

The soldiers were in the midst of processing and transporting the demonic beast corpses.

“Move this one first and process it!”

“Ugh, my back’s gonna break! Put some more muscle into it over there!”

“I’m already using all the strength I have!”

“You’re an orphan.”

“This bastard?”

In any case, since it was an operation that mobilized all personnel in Winter Castle on a massive scale, the 4th Special Task Force, which was usually left out of most things, was also mobilized.

It seemed that making soldiers do all the work whenever something came up was the same here as it was back home.

“……I knew it, but this is really something. Wouldn’t Winter Castle have been finished at this rate?”

Conlan shook his head as he looked at the endless corpses spread across the snowfield, looking fed up.

“It probably would have, if the King of the Demonic Realm hadn’t been stopped.”

Conlan chuckled at Albino, who was subtly showing off his own achievement.

“Didn’t the commander say there would be a sufficient reward for that anyway? Let’s wait.”

“Hmph, who said I was waiting for some reward?”

“If you don’t need it, give it to me.”

“I suppose there’s no need to refuse something that’s being given.”

They were the same as ever.

“By the way, that old man, the commander, he always manages to slip out whenever it’s time to do this stuff, doesn’t he?”

“I agree. It’s times like these that he should be showing responsibility as a commander.”

“Whitey, for once, you and I see eye to eye.”

“It’s a bit regrettable that I see eye to eye with you…… but I won’t deny it this time.”

“So contrary.”

Just as they said, Edric had neatly slipped out of this cleanup operation under the pretext of having work to do.

In the process, he naturally saddled me with the title of temporary squad leader.

Saying something like he knew I could handle it well.

‘Well, it’s good for me, though.’

I left the proud idiots of the special task force behind and continued walking through the snow, weaving between the demonic beast corpses.

It wasn’t to faithfully participate in the demonic beast corpse processing work, but because I was looking for something.

‘There should definitely be at least one or two…… but I can’t seem to find any.’

What I was looking for was none other than.

The corpse of a mutant.

With a legion of this size, there should have been quite a few mutants mixed in, but I couldn’t see any corpses that looked like mutants.

To be precise, should I say that I couldn’t recognize the mutant corpses at all because they were so badly damaged?

“Tsk.”

I thought I could get something easily for a change, but as expected, the world wasn’t that easy.

“What are you doing?”

At Alicia’s question, who had approached my side at some point, I gave a vague answer.

“Seeing if there’s an expensive one somewhere.”

“If it’s that, then this is perfect. I found a pretty unusual demonic beast.”

“An unusual demonic beast?”

“Yes, this way.”

Following Alicia, I walked the red path made of corpses for a few minutes, and just as Alicia said, the corpse of a demonic beast with a rather unusual appearance emerged.

“I think this one might be worth quite a bit, what do you think? I don’t really know.”

“It certainly looks like it.”

The individual Alicia found was a level 7 demonic beast, Gardorom.

It was a demonic beast with an appearance similar to a giant wolf, with bizarre tentacles wrapped around its neck. Unfortunately, it was just born looking this grotesque; it wasn’t a mutant.

‘It’s a shame, but I guess I’ll have to take this.’

In principle, the processed byproducts from demonic beast corpses were all property of Winter Castle, but they tended to turn a blind eye to taking a little.

Only then could the soldiers and territory residents trade with the merchant guild during the next regular trade.

Should I call it a kind of desperate measure to circulate the economy within Winter Castle?

‘Hm?’

As I approached to process the Gardorom’s corpse, I saw something pinned underneath its body.

‘A corpse?’

It was the corpse of a demonic beast I was seeing for the first time.

And considering that there were no demonic beasts I didn’t know, it wasn’t hard to figure out the identity of the demonic beast here.

‘Well, well…….’

Found it.

A mutant.

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