It was an extremely complicated, troublesome story, but some things were clear.

“A knight of the Drak family is serving under the Duke of Batla?”

Knights of the Drak family rarely ventured into the outside world, and even if they did, it was mostly to perform good deeds for others with chivalrous intentions. Knights of the Drak family never engaged in political strife. However, such a figure had stepped into the fray, which surely represented many things.

"But what could this mean?”

“I’m not sure… But a girl who could become the wife of Count Crawlmarine, who is an aide of Duke Batla, which means… Dammit!” One of the nobles burst into anger while slowly reiterating Lanslo’s words from earlier on.

“Shouldn’t we try to talk to them first?”

“Hmm. Let’s do it.” Cameron the Third nodded with a grim expression at the words of the terrified nobles. They felt suffocated just from seeing the opposing army. If the enemy decided to attack, their walls would fall within an hour or even thirty minutes.

“Send a messenger. Tell them that the King of Brodia wants to see the Duke of Batla,” Cameron the Third stated.

“Yes, Your Majesty. But who should we send?” one of the nobles asked.

“Well…” Cameron the Third looked around at the nobles. The opponent was the Duke of Batla. Even a simple messenger had to be someone with sufficient status. However, the nobles hurriedly avoided the king’s gaze. They were scared and none of them wanted to take responsibility.

“Ha… Sir Roswell and Sir Avoran, please take care of it,” Cameron the Third said with a sigh.

“Uh… I-I understand.”

“I-I will carry out your orders,” the two nobles answered with dissatisfied expressions before heading down from the wall. However, the two did not leave through the gates even after several minutes had passed.

“What are they doing?!” Cameron the Third’s patience eventually reached its limit, but just in time, the castle gates finally opened and the two nobles departed.

“What…?” Cameron the Third felt dumbfounded as he looked down. The two nobles were heavily armed in chainmail, and they were accompanied by a dozen guards and servants as they headed toward the knight of the Drak family.

“Ha! Haha…” Cameron the Third’s lips twisted upwards as he laughed bitterly. It was such an embarrassing, miserable sight to see the cowardly, weak nobles heading toward the opposing knight, who stood tall and proud even though he was alone.

After a while, the two nobles hurried back into the gate as if they were running away.

“Y-Your Majesty!” The two nobles called out. Even though Cameron the Third didn’t feel like speaking with them, he suppressed his emotions and responded. “What’s wrong? What did the knight say?”

“What a wicked man! He told us not to be absurd and to send the king or a messenger who can represent the king’s authority!” one of the two nobles exclaimed.

“W-what?!”

“And that’s not it! He told us that he would wait one hour and that if a messenger isn’t sent by then, he would attack.” He continued.

“Keugh!” Cameron the Third felt his face reddening. He had never experienced such humiliation in his entire life. However, he was without any other choices.

“Phew! Then who should I send…?” Cameron the Third once again looked over the nobles before sighing. The nobles were trying their best to avoid his gaze, and their faces were stricken white with fear.

There was only one option…

“…I will go myself,” Cameron the Third stated.

“Ohhh! The people of the kingdom will bless and revere Your Majesty’s brave and honorable actions!”

“Your Majesty is the true defender, the shield of this kingdom! History will forever remember your honorable decision!”

The nobles immediately welcomed his decision with a unified voice. The young king was forced to clench his eyes shut.

***

The gates of Brodin slowly opened once again.

“Hooh?” Lanslo had been waiting on his saddle for Brodia’s answer. His eyes glimmered when he saw a figure exiting from the castle gate. There was only a single knight wearing shiny chainmail coming out from the castle. Moreover, he wasn’t wearing a helmet like any other knight. Instead, he wore a gold crown embedded with jewels.

“Did the king come out personally? By himself?” Lanslo nodded with admiration. The nobles from earlier had failed to make eye contact with him during their entire trip. But unlike the nobles, the king appeared proud and dignified. The young king stopped once he was about five meters away from Lanslo, then spoke in a confident manner. “Lanslo of Drak. My name is Garif Cameron Brodia, the ruler of the Kingdom of Brodia, and one who receives the blessings of the spirits and the gods to ascend the throne of Brantia.” The young king gave his grand introduction.

Lanslo smiled and placed his hand on his left chest before giving a light bow. “I am honored to meet you, oh, King of Brodia.”

Cameron the Third’s forehead creased slightly at the knight’s curt response. He had made his resolution earlier, but he was still unfamiliar with receiving this kind of treatment.

“Lanslo of Drak. If you leave quietly, then I will forget the mistakes of yourself and the Drak family. Your bizarre story has…” Cameron the Third started to speak.

“Bizarre? No, I only spoke about strict facts.” Lanslo said, interrupting him.

“What?”

Lanslo took out a piece of parchment and waved it before continuing. “This is a written threat from Your Majesty’s knights. It says that Sir Reyma Fransil is being held hostage, so if we want him back…”

Lanslo calmly recounted the contents of the letter, and Cameron the Third’s expression changed dramatically.

‘Those crazy men! I told them to go figure out the situation, but they caused such a big accident instead?!’

Cameron the Third felt like he was going insane, but he could also finally understand Laslo’s mysterious words.

‘Then that means…’

Perhaps it wasn’t necessarily a bad situation. Cameron the Third regained his composure and responded. “Hmm. After hearing your story, I’ve come up with an idea...”

“…?”

“If your words are true, then my knights had been persecuting the successor of the Fransil family, who is also the older brother of a lady who is going to marry Count Crawlmarine, right? Which means if you are persecuting me and my kingdom…” Cameron the Third explained.

Lanslo interrupted with a chuckle. “Haha. You are misunderstanding something, my king.”

“What…?”

Lanslo continued with a shrewd smile. “Lady Lorraine is still technically a prisoner. It has not yet been decided whether she will become Count Crawlmarine’s companion or not. So, would it be necessary for the duke to care about the Fransil family right now?”

“W-well…” Cameron the Third lost his composure in an instant. However, he was a quick-witted man. He instantly came up with another idea and responded.

“If that’s the case, then there’s even less of a reason to treat me and my kingdom like this, right? Brodia has nothing to do with Duke Batla, so if that was a misunderstanding, then why…”

“Regardless of whether Lady Lorraine marries Lord Crawlmarine or not, won’t the Fransil family owe us if we rescue their successor in advance? And I don’t know if I should be telling you this, but…” Lanslo pretended to look around, then lowered his voice. “His Excellency the Duke has a slightly, no, very dirty personality. He is not benevolent enough to simply leave potential threats alone. The duke doesn’t care at all what the threat might be, whether it is the Brodia family or something else…”

“…!” The young king’s expression turned pale. Lanslo was telling him that the Brodia family could come under attack, regardless of the reason.

“My king, you should count yourself lucky for speaking with me. If it were the duke instead of me, then he would have taken you prisoner immediately,” Lanslo said.

Cameron the Third responded furiously at Lanslo’s threat, “How dare you! If you dare to treat me like that, then my knights won’t leave Duke Batla alone, as well as the Fransil family…”

Lanslo interrupted once again. “Please don’t even think that you might be able to do something about the duke. He is a daywalker. Moreover, he has defeated two swordmasters of Brantia. The bottom line is…”

Lanslo smiled, revealing his white teeth. “There is nothing that you can do, Your Majesty.”

“…!”

“However, since you came out personally, I will show you consideration and give you until sunrise tomorrow to decide. You can either come personally or send a messenger. I’ll be seeing you then,” Having finished his words, Lanslo pulled his reins and turned around without hesitation.

“Ugh!”

“Oh, right.”

Cameron the Third gritted his teeth with a red face at the humiliation. Lanslo stopped his horse after a few steps and turned around before speaking with pity. “If you are planning to send messengers, please exclude the sirs who came earlier. I saw earlier that they were too scared to even speak properly. You must have many worries to have such people as your vassals. All right, I’ll get going.”

Lanslo turned around and left after driving the final nail in the coffin.

“Keugh!”

Cameron the Third continued to bite on his lips with frustration. His lips eventually burst and started to bleed.

***

“Kihehehe! Sir, sir! Over there! There, there! Kieeeeeh~” Mirian shouted excitedly. 

Eugene turned and nodded after seeing the numerous, glaring torches.

“That must be Brodin…”

Upon hearing the news that the Fransil family’s troops had invaded Brodia’s territory, Eugene picked up the pace and arrived near the City of Brodin in less than two days.

“Master, we should look for our army first, right? Where the hell are those bastards?” Galfredik said.

“Hmm. They might be on the other side,” Eugene answered. Since it was their first time in the vicinity, Eugene’s group was having trouble finding their way. They had managed thus far by asking the robber and bandits they defeated on their way.

Seeing as their main army wasn’t anywhere in sight, it appeared that the army was on the other side of the city.

“Even if we fight, it will be tomorrow during the day. Let’s take our time.”

The three horses trotted leisurely. The only human, Reyma, was dozing off on his saddle.

Twenty minutes later…

“Hmm? Wait a minute. I see something.” Eugene pulled his reins while narrowing his eyes.

“What, what?! What’s wrong? Are there monsters?” Reyma was jolted awake and shouted while wiping off his drool. 

Eugene ignored him and spoke while staring into the darkness. “They’re not moles, so why are they crawling out from underground?”

“Underground? Are they undead?” Galfredik asked.

“No, they’re humans. There are around thirty of them,” Eugene answered.

Reyma became even more anxious when the two ignored him and started talking in the language of the Caylor Kingdom.

"Galfredik, go get them all. It’s suspicious.” Eugene ordered.

“Leave it to me,” Galfredik answered with a grin, then rode into the darkness. Soon, sounds of things breaking and screams resonated from the distance. Galfredik returned with a group of people.

“What are these bastards?” Eugene frowned while looking at the fairly large group of humans.

“M-m-ercy!”

“Sir! W-wealth! I can give you as much as you want! Just please, pretend you didn’t see us and let us go!”

Three men rushed toward Eugene and begged after taking off their hoods. After seeing their faces, Eugene asked, “Are you the nobles of Brodin?”

“T-That’s right! Sir! Please!” one of them answered.

“Why did you crawl out from underground at this hour?” Eugene asked.

“That’s…”

The nobles seemed hesitant to answer. Then, a man who appeared to have the highest status among them came forward and responded with a determined expression. “Of course, you might misunderstand us, sir. However, I’m telling you, we are no cowards. It’s just that the army of an evil, dishonorable, insidious man is attacking our city. We are holding onto the city’s hope and Brodia’s future with sincere…”

The nobles desperately explained themselves using all sorts of noble expressions, but in the end, it became clear that they were just running for their lives.

‘Isn’t this a great opportunity?’

Eugene started to think. However, a particular term used by the noble continued to bother him.

“Evil, dishonorable, insidious man? Who is that?” Eugene asked.

“Duke Batla! His army…” one of the younger nobles immediately answered after judging that he could talk his way out of the sticky situation.

“Sir Roswell!” One of the other nobles felt an ominous feeling and quickly dissuaded him, but it was already too late.

“You. Do you know me?” Eugene asked.

“Huh? I think it’s our first meeting… Ah! Have we met somewhere before? This is great! Sir, what a great…” Roswell said excitedly.

“No. This is my first time seeing you as well. But how come you already know me so well, hmm?” Eugene said, narrowing his eyes.

“What…?”

The expressions of the nobles stiffened after finally realizing the strangeness of the situation. Eugene grinned while looking at them.

“I’m the evil, dishonorable, insidious Duke Jan Eugene Batla.”

Eugene’s fangs glinted coldly under the moonlight. At the same time, the nobles’ expressions turned ghastly and white.