“Sir Palo,” Lord Bemos called out.

“Ah, Sir Bemos. You’re still awake?” Baron Palo responded with a smile. He had been deep in thought while gazing at a campfire. Lord Bemos had come out of his tent without any guards or servants.

“Wouldn’t it be strange if I could easily fall asleep? I can’t do such a thing when guests had to enter a dungeon to save my territory from a crisis,” Lord Bemos said.

“Well, that’s true. Here, please have a seat,” Baron Palo said.

“Yes, then please excuse me,” Lord Bemos responded. Baron Palo felt rather favorable toward Lord Bemos, who was one of the few lords with unyielding loyalty to the Dukedom of Viseche. In fact, if that monster uprising had started elsewhere—such as Baron Lusa’s territory—Baron Palo didn’t think that he would have signed a contract with the King of Maren.

“Please don’t worry too much. His Majesty the King is truly an unparalleled knight. I could only walk the path of the sword for a short while, but in my humble opinion, knights capable of facing off His Highness could only be counted on one hand,” Baron Palo said.

“Oh…”

“In addition, he is an honorable man who always keeps his word. There is a good reason why the nobles of the other kingdoms followed His Majesty all this way after heading to Maren as delegations for their nations,” Baron Palo continued.

Lord Bemos responded, “It certainly seems that way. They are figures of great status in their own kingdoms. Moreover, even His Highness the Prince of the Roman Empire is here as well.”

“Well, he’s…” Baron Palo started, then stopped himself. It would be a diplomatic discourtesy to speak of the matters between two nations aside from his own. Moreover, he had a hunch that Prince Localope’s future may change as long as he remained by the side of Maren’s King.

“Anyway… do you really think it’s possible for them to finish within today? Ah, of course, it’s not that I don’t trust His Highness the King and yourself, Sir Palo. However, it’s just that it’s a little—” Lord Bemos hesitated.

“Far-fetched? Overexaggerated? Is that what you want to say?” Baron Palo interrupted.

“…” Lord Bemos showed silent affirmation, and Baron Palo gave a smile. He cast his eyes on Buildemain, who sat at a distance and was looking around the surroundings with sharp eyes.

Buildemain explained on Baron Palo’s behalf after receiving the latter’s gaze. “When His Majesty said he was going to save the High Priest of the Holy Empire, everyone thought it was impossible. Rather, they thought he would pay the ransom to rescue them. After all, fighting on the sea and fighting on land are completely different things.”

“…?”

Buildemain continued, “But he did it. He did it in an extraordinary way without losing a single soldier. Furthermore, he was recognized for his achievement and was blessed by the High Priest of the Holy Empire.”

“…!”

“Before arriving at the Bemos territory, everyone thought it would be difficult when he declared that he would deal with a group of monsters that had devastated a village. Everyone thought it was absurd when he said he would take care of it in three days. This time, for sure, the king couldn’t possibly keep his word. But he succeeded once again. In addition, he even inflicted a big blow on Sir Lusa, who was being disloyal to the duke.”

“...” Lord Bemos had a stupefied expression.

Bulidemain shrugged. “So, he will do it again. And even if everything that His Majesty has done until now had been a stroke of luck, what if his luck kept on going? Doesn’t that mean that he’s…”

“He is chosen by the gods…” Lord Bemos concluded.

“Yes.”

Once could be called chance, twice an inevitability. Three times and the person was chosen by the gods.

“However…”

“What I just told you were things that happened after His Highness offered to resolve the monster uprising. It doesn’t include any of his other, past achievements. Sir, you know some stories about the king, right?” Buildemain asked.

“…!”

“Even if half of the stories are true, I don’t think there is any need for us to doubt him. What do you think?” Buildemain continued.

Lord Bemos had no choice but to nod. “I will have to believe in his promise and wait.”

“Yes. That’s enough. For the rest…”

Buildemain was interrupted by the movements of big, black shadows in the dark. It was the beowulf warriors.

“Uh… I think those monster bastards are coming. You folks rest,” Selena translated the Brantian words of the beowulfs to the two people.

“Monsters?!”

“T-they are coming here? How many of them…”

Buildemain jumped to his feet, and Lord Bemos asked urgently.

“Well, I think there are quite a few,” a beowulf warrior said while scratching his head. He then continued with a wide grin, “Well, it doesn’t matter how many of them are here. This is why the dark lord left us behind. Let’s get to work.”

Papapapapat!

The beowulf warriors dashed into the darkness like beasts without waiting for Selena to finish interpreting their words.

“We should get ready as well.”

“L-let’s do that.”

Buildemain got busy. The soldiers of the Bemos territory and the guards of the nobles were alerted and awakened. Torches started to bloom to life, and shouts erupted around the campsite as well. The overall atmosphere of the encampment became quite tense.

Nobles entered the safe area within the perimeter of the carriages, and soldiers got into formations on the outside. Soon, silence descended once more. The soldiers and knights secured adequate vision by throwing torches near their surroundings, then carefully observed the vicinity while holding on to their weapons.

The chirps of the grass bugs only added to the tension. The suffocating silence lasted for a while. But even after a few minutes, there was neither sound nor any movement.

“Hmm. Perhaps the beowulf warriors were mistaken…” one of the knights muttered.

It was then…

Kyaaaaaaah…

A desperate cry erupted from somewhere far away. The soldiers became alert and tightened their grasp on their weapons.

Kyarr… Kyeeer… Kyaaah…

Pained screams, which were clearly not human, continued to resound at more frequent intervals. Those with weaker hearts trembled at the terrible screams. The mere sound made their hair stand on end as chills ran down their spines.

“Where is it coming from? H-how many of them are there?”

“Sirs. Shouldn’t we get away from here?” some of the nobles asked with fear.

The knights shook their heads. “No. It’s too dark to travel by horse, and we don’t know where they might be hiding. It’s best to stick together like this.”

“Please follow our instructions, sirs.”

“Sirs. We have that. Please don’t worry,” Buildemain stepped forward, then spoke while pointing in a direction. Everyone turned their gaze toward where he was pointing.

The nobles felt slightly relieved when they saw the twin-headed ogre standing in place with glowing red eyes. Indeed, they would be safe with the monster king on their side. However, they were still fearful. After all, they knew that the only one capable of giving orders to the powerful monster was absent. At that moment, the nobles came to a realization. Although they had experienced many unexpected predicaments on their way here, they had neither been worried nor fearful, and they finally realized why.

‘Jan Eugene Batla…’

‘It’s because the King of Maren was by our side!’

His absence alone drove them to great apprehension. Time continued to pass as they trembled with fear and anxiety in the dark.

About ten minutes later, black shadows quickly approached the encampment from the far forest, and the soldiers quickly raised their crossbows. But when they realized that it was the beowulf warriors, the soldiers showed relief.

“Ugh!” Several nobles grabbed their noses when the beowulf warriors came near. They reeked of sweat and blood. Although it was a disrespectful gesture, the beowulf warriors ignored it and approached Prince Localope, according to Eugene’s instructions.

“We got them all. Oh, well, we didn’t get them all, but the rest ran away, so they won’t come around anymore,” one of the beowulfs reported.

Prince Localope responded, “Is that so? But how many of them were there?”

“Uh, well, I’m not that good with numbers…” The beowulf warrior scratched his head while looking back at his colleagues. The other beowulfs either avoided his gaze or shrugged their shoulders.

The beowulf warrior clicked his tongue with a disapproving gaze, then suddenly took on a bright expression and said, “That thing. If you have about a dozen of those, you should be able to load all of the dead monsters.”

Prince Localope and the nobles turned toward what the beowulf was pointing at. There stood the largest carriage in the expedition—a vessel capable of carrying more than ten people.

“…!”

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock. If the beowulf warrior was speaking the truth, didn’t that mean they had killed about a hundred monsters in that short period of time? In addition, they had done so on a dark night without even a single torch.

“Oh, what a waste of energy. My stomach’s growling.”

“Me too. I’m suddenly craving meat.”

“You too? Hey, me too!”

“Should we grill?”

“Let’s grill!”

It was unbelievable. The beowulfs had done a ridiculous thing in less than thirty minutes, but they quickly got their appetite back. However, the bewilderment of the nobles lasted for only a short moment. Prince Localope and the nobles spoke to their subordinates with relieved expressions.

“Why are you cooking meat yourselves?”

“What are you guys doing?! Are you going to let those brave warriors grill the meat themselves?”

“My friend! Leave such trivial tasks to our servants!”

Their fear had disappeared. It was replaced by bustling noises and the smell of grilled meat.

“It might be possible…” Lord Bemos muttered while watching the scene play out with a blank gaze.

“What?” Buildemain asked.

“O-oh, no. It’s nothing,” Lord Bemos hurriedly turned his gaze while waving his hands. However, his expression was very bright, unlike before.

***

Kuweeeeeegh!

The troll lord fell backward with a scream. It had been posing as one of the rulers of the Bemos dungeon alongside the minotaur.

Splat!

Eugene pushed his left hand deep into the troll lord’s heart, then pulled out the monster’s heart. As the troll lord’s life faded away and the evil energy dissipated, the heart started to turn black. Eugene squeezed the mass and gulped down the blood that poured down like a waterfall.

As energy surged through his body, Eugene tossed the heart away.

“Dismantle it,” Eugene ordered.

“Yes!” The two vampire high lords answered before they started cutting the troll lord’s body apart with knives. Although it was beneath them to perform such meager tasks, they were nothing more than meek sheep in front of Eugene. They had originally been obedient, but they became absolutely subservient after seeing Eugene’s ‘true form’ inside the dungeon. It was especially true with Rohime. Unlike Christian, Rohime had never faced Eugene directly. As such, he had been hoping to return to his clan once he returned to the empire. However, his plan was thrown aside less than an hour after entering the dungeon.

The masters of the clans or even he could also fight against these monsters. However, that was only possible if he used both his power as a knight and a vampire. It was a different situation entirely with Eugene. Both Eugene’s skills as a knight and his powers as a vampire surpassed the clan masters.

‘His equipment. No, he could wipe out the clan masters with that sword alone.’

An evolved troll lord was a powerful monster, and it was difficult to defeat even with a weapon of pure silver. One had to defeat the troll lord in a battle of pure strength, or through Fear. However, Eugene had finished off the monster with a single swing of his spear and sword.

Fear? How could one possibly describe a Fear that could stretch to every corner of the complex dungeon to navigate and track all the monsters? It was truly an unimaginable mystery for Rohime, who could only stretch his Fear out for dozens of meters at most.

Moreover,

‘That’s not his limit. That person is… truly the King of Darkness.’

When Christian first referred to Eugene as such, Rohime thought it was due to the overwhelming presence Eugene had displayed during their first meeting. After all, even he was forced to prostrate. Nevertheless, the loyalty he had toward his father—the master of his clan—as well as the strand of pride he had left, didn’t allow him to completely submit to Eugene.

But now, everything had changed.

Submission.

As a member of the Dark Clan, who else could he submit to except the true King of Darkness?

“Here it is, great one,” Rohime kneeled on one knee before presenting the troll lord’s mana stone with trembling hands.

“Tsk.” Eugene clicked his tongue, and Rohime felt his heart drop. It was the same reaction Eugene had shown after obtaining the minotaur’s mana stone.

“Hmm. It’s just a regular mana stone again, Master,” Galfredik said.

“It must be because they were artificially evolved. Well, I had been extremely lucky, anyway,” Eugene responded. He was a little disappointed that the mana stones of the minotaur and the troll lord weren’t red. Strangely enough, it was getting more and more difficult to acquire red mana stones recently. It was almost as if there was a shortage of red mana stones compared to the past.

‘Is there a secret here as well? Hmm.’

Eugene looked down at Christian and Rohime with cold eyes. He found them a bit pathetic, as they didn’t know much about red mana stones, even though they were high lords.

‘And they’re supposed to be right beneath the clan master. Maybe even the clan master bastards are nothing much.’