“Dammit! A high priest of the Holy Empire gave their blessing to a member of the Dark Clan and a monster? Are they mad?” Baron Lusa shouted angrily while returning to his territory. Unlike when he was with the leaders of Moyna, he was only accompanied by a small number of nobles he was pretty close with, so he abandoned his fake demeanor.

“What if Sir Buildemain lied? Buildemain is a knight of Duke Viseche. Moreover, wasn’t he a part of the delegation along with Sir Palo? He brought the King of Maren back to our land. Protecting the King of Maren would be protecting Sir Palo, and the Duke of Viseche as well. So, maybe…”

“Sir Buildemain is a highly reputable knight. He isn’t a shallow man who would try to trick us with trivial lies. Besides, he’s not a fool. Why would he lie if the truth will be revealed sooner or later, anyway?”

The man who spoke first shut his mouth with a reddened face at the response of another noble.

“Now, now. In any case, it will be impossible to call out the King of Maren regarding his faith since he has received a blessing from the Holy Empire’s High Priest. Does anyone have any other ideas?” Baron Lusa asked.

“…” Unfortunately, only silence greeted him.

The baron couldn’t hide his disappointment as he clicked his tongue. “Tsk! I wonder what His Highness Voltaire will have to say about this.”

“Well… Now that things have come to this, why don’t we just attack the King of Maren and the expedition directly?” one noble suggested carefully.

Baron Lusa responded with a frown, “Do you think that makes any sense at all? The King of Maren was invited by Baron Palo, who was acting on behalf of Duke Viseche. Are you asking me to go to war with Maren?”

“N-no! That’s not what I meant.” The noble quickly shook his hands, then continued in a quiet voice, “The inland is a mess right now because of the monsters, right? I’m suggesting that we hire a moderate number of mercenaries and ambush them. Couldn’t we hold them back, even if we can’t outright defeat them?”

“Hooh…”

It wasn’t a bad idea. No, it was a pretty good idea. In the first place, Crown Prince Voltaire had simply wanted to delay the King of Maren as much as possible. It didn’t matter if it was done by inviting him to a banquet or sending mercenaries to attack him as long as the results were the same.

“But what about the money to hire the mercenaries?” Baron Lusa asked.

“…” The nobles became silent once more. Normally, they would have willingly offered hundreds of silver coins, but their pockets were currently empty after having just shown ‘sincerity’ to the King of Maren.

“Tsk! I’ll hire them with my money first. Send me the fund later after you return to your families, sirs,” Lusa said.

“Oh! You are as generous as you are honorable, Lord Lusa.”

“Sir Lusa is truly the only one befitting to lead the independence of Moyna.”

“Never mind. Let’s write a promissory note,” Baron Lusa said.

“…” The nobles swallowed their disappointment, then started writing promissory notes. They had been lauding the baron while hoping for a different outcome.

“By the way, Sir Lusa,” one of the nobles called out.

“What is it?” He answered.

“Your dungeon will really be safe, right?” the noble asked. The other nobles stared at Baron Lusa with anxious gazes as well. At a time when monsters were literally pouring out of the evil lands located inland of the dukedom, nothing was happening to the Lusa territory’s dungeon. It was like a lie. However, if something did happen to the dungeon, they would clearly suffer a tragic fate, as they were located adjacent to the Lusa territory. How could they hope to stop hundreds of evolved monsters with a few knights and dozens of soldiers?

Baron Lusa had been so loud when he boasted, and nothing had happened thus far as well, which was why the nobles were following him. However, their worries hadn’t completely disappeared.

“Haha! There is absolutely nothing to worry about. My territory’s dungeon will be safe even if all the other evil lands in the dukedom explode. Of course, all of you; my dear neighbors, will be safe as well. If you still harbor doubts, feel free to leave right now,” Baron Lusa said.

The noble responsible for asking the question shook his head while breaking out into a cold sweat. “H-how could I have any doubts? Ha, haha… My words were unnecessary. My apologies.”

Baron Lusa continued, “There’s no need to apologize. Anyway, you sirs simply need to watch and eat the cake after everything’s done. Once there is only one evil land to be subjugated on this land, which is mine, then who else would I cooperate with to subjugate it? Who else but all of you sirs? After all, our faith was built over many generations, right?”

“Oh! That’s a given!”

“The friendship between my family and you, sir, will last forever!”

Hahaha…!

Baron Lusa and his followers were overjoyed as they laughed. The brutal situation that threatened the very survival of the people inland was nothing more than just a lucky break for them.

***

“My god…” The nobles accompanying the expedition repeatedly drew the holy symbol in the air. The village located closest to the Bemos territory was completely devastated. The smaller buildings were in ruins and bloodstains were everywhere. However, what scared the nobles the most was that there were no human corpses, which meant only one thing.

“The monster must have dragged all the residents away.”

“…” Everyone fell into silence after hearing someone’s comment. Monsters weren’t intelligent, so they wouldn’t take slaves like humans. There could only be one reason why they had dragged the humans away.

“Bwegh…! Uweeeegh!” One of the nobles started vomiting on the spot after having a certain thought. The other nobles took on pale expressions after having similar thoughts. They had traveled with Eugene’s expedition and had already witnessed several battles. However, humans killing monsters was completely different from monsters devouring humans.

“Master. We can’t just turn a blind eye to this. Let’s go slaughter all of those bastards,” Galfredik said. He usually remained cool-headed as an outstanding knight, but even he could not hide his anger this time.

Eugene nodded. “Marloff, Ilaf. Look for their traces.”

“Got it,” Two beowulf warriors answered before running out like wild beasts. The beowulf warriors were superior to even vampires when it came to their sense of smell. They could surely discover traces of the monsters that attacked the village, as well as traces of the captured villagers.

“Your Majesty.”

Princess Lilisain and Romari finally returned. They had gone to look around the village with the elven knights.

“There’s no sign of any magic for now. I’m sure there were only monsters,” Romari said.

“In terms of the debris and fur, there were only goblins and knolls for lower-rank monsters. The number should be over two hundred. In addition, there were long strands of fur as well. And from the footprints they left behind, I believe there were five or six lycanthropes present here as well. Lastly, there were three trolls, one of whom is judged to be the head of the group that attacked the village,” Princess Lilisain reported.

The nobles were astonished that Princess Lilisain and Romari had gathered such extensive information regarding the monsters in such a short amount of time. On the other hand, the expressions of the knights guarding the nobles became quite serious.

“There are too many of them. And the monsters are traveling in groups regardless of their species?”

“I can’t believe His Majesty’s words were true…”

Unlike the ignorant nobles, the knights were well knowledgeable about monsters. It was extremely rare for monsters to travel together with other types of monsters. Although there were cases where intermediate or stronger monsters overwhelmed groups of lower-ranking monsters and mobilized them with force, it was unprecedented for large groups of several different types of monsters to travel together.

Although there had been a precedent in the Carls Baggins Peninsula, wherein a group of dominant monsters ruled over another group of monsters, there had never been a case of more than three different types of monsters grouped together.

“The term monster uprising was quite accurate after all,” Buildemain commented.

The other knights nodded in agreement as well. The knights initially thought Eugene had been slightly exaggerating when he described the situation as an uprising of monsters, but it turned out to be quite appropriate. As far as they knew, it was unprecedented for monsters to gather and attack human settlements systematically on such a large scale.

“Christian. Rohime,” Eugene called.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The two vampire high lords came to Eugene like the wind before kneeling.

Eugene continued, “You two will escort His Highness the Prince and the other sirs. You two should be capable of dealing with intermediate-rank monsters as well, right?”

“I alone should be sufficient to deal with an intermediate-rank monster. And if it’s the two of us, even a high-ranking monster shouldn’t pose a threat,” Christian answered confidently. Several nobles looked at the two vampire high lords as if they were surprised. Two or three skilled knights could handle one intermediate-rank monster, while high-ranking monsters were rarely found even in evil lands. They couldn’t help but be shocked after hearing the two vampire high lords regard high-ranking monsters as if they were nothing more than just random mutts on the street.

“Romari, you wait here. Evil spirit, stay with her,” Eugene continued.

“Yes, Sir Eugene.”

“Got it!”

The two answered.

“Dark Lord! We found it!” The two beowulf warriors returned after discovering traces of the monsters.

They then continued, “Those bastards headed in the same direction, and they left a strong, pungent trail behind them.”

“It has only been a day since they left…”

‘A day?’

The nobles shared puzzled gazes. Monsters did not travel on set paths like humans. How could they possibly chase after monsters when those monsters moved through mountains, forests, valleys, and other places difficult for humans to traverse?

It wasn’t that ‘only’ a day had elapsed—one day had ‘already’ passed. Prince Localope recognized the nobles’ concern and spoke on their behalf, “Your Majesty. Wouldn’t it be better to leave them alone for now and head to the Bemos territory? I think it might take too much time.”

“His Highness is right. There’s the problem with time as well, but aren’t there simply too many of them? If we want to annihilate them all…” Vizak voiced his agreement as well.

Selena, who had become quite close to him, responded with a smirk, “Is it because you’ve lived a comfortable life in a castle? You really don’t know anything.”

“Ha! What did you just say?” Vizak retorted.

“You’ve grown quite a lot, Selena. Maybe it’s because Galfredik has been working you so hard until now,” Eugene commented.

“I’m flattered, Your Majesty,” Selena answered. Vizak stopped himself and retreated slightly after hearing Eugene’s words.

Eugene turned toward Localope and the nobles, “Although a day has passed, the monsters had been dragging the villagers from here in the meantime. They will obviously have to travel slower than usual.”

“Ah…”

Eugene continued, “And judging by their size, I think it’s likely that this is the most powerful group among the monsters that originated from the Bemos territory. And that means, if we track them down, we should be able to find the one responsible for causing the monster uprising in this area. Above all else…”

Eugene looked around at the nobles, then settled his gaze on Baron Palo, who was standing with a particularly grim expression.

“This is the land of the Viseche Dukedom, and the villagers who were taken away are the people of the dukedom, right? I think it is my duty to save them according to the contract. Don’t you agree, Sir Palo?” Eugene asked.

“…!” Baron Palo’s eyes widened for a moment before he nodded with a touched expression.

“That’s right. You are truly honorable. Your Majesty’s mercy and generosity toward the people of my nation. I will never forget it,” Baron Palo responded. With the representative of Viseche giving his affirmation, the other foreign nobles could say no more. They could only hope that Eugene would defeat the monsters as quickly as possible and save the villagers.

“Ah, and one more thing,” Eugene said after mounting Silion and pressing down his helmet.

“You sirs won’t have to wait here for that long.”

“…?”

What was he going on about now? It would take at least two to three days to track down and exterminate all the monsters.

“Half a day,” Eugene said.

“…!!!”

“I will take care of this tonight and return,” Eugene declared.

‘I’m not going to kill all the monsters, anyway. And I have a job for them as well...’

Saving the people of the Viseche Dukedom? It was a noble act, but Eugene was not interested in it. It would be nice if he could save them, but it couldn’t be helped if he couldn’t do so. However, he was interested in the hundreds of monsters responsible for taking the villagers. The village was located outside the Bemos territory where the monster uprising began. No one would be suspicious even if the group of monsters happened to spread elsewhere. Everyone must be praying that their own territory would be spared, but they would simply count themselves unlucky if the monsters came.

‘Lusa or Rosa. He’ll think the same way.’

Eugene slapped Silion’s reins as he schemed to damn the nobleman who clearly had a relationship with Crown Prince Voltaire.