Volume 2, Chapter 15: Feudal Lord, Earl Mondo⑦
As Lambert left the guest room, the employees chased after him to see him off. This small incident was resolved, however only on a surface level.
The silence continued on for a while after Glasco’s unconscious body was carried out of the room. Eunos acted like nothing had happened and expressed his gratitude for Earl Mondo’s invitation to his mansion. He also urged Fando to tell the earl about the detailed process of unicorn’s subjugation.
But Earl Mondo’s attention was no longer on the matter of the unicorn subjugation.
Lambert’s words kept ringing in his head, forcing him to think about the countermeasures against 『Devil’s Piper』.
No one truly knew the real scale of the revolutionary sorcerer organization, 『Devil’s Piper』.
Their crimes varied from mass abduction of children to the disappearance of a village in a single night in Regios Kingdom.
Although their motives and the people behind the organization were never truly revealed, the investigators who came out later always found traces of high-ranking magic being used.
Basically, there was a rumor that 『Devil’s Piper』 was actually behind those strange incidents.
『Devil’s Piper』’s name had only become widespread in the past 20 years. But there was a theory that they actually existed long before that. They simply used a different name.
Although the government often caught their tail when they captured one 『Devil’s Piper』’s members, none of those captured members knew about the upper echelons of the organization. The ones who were captured were always low-ranking members, simply disposable pawns.
The same went for Earl Aubock, whose evil deeds were exposed to the public after Lambert ransacked his mansion. As well as being one of the kingdom’s upper nobility, he invested in 『Devil’s Piper』 to secure his position in the future, but he died mysteriously in jail.
Although Earl Aubock’s cause of death was hidden from the public, one night when one of the prison guards was patrolling around the cells, they found the earl had already become a rotten, repulsive corpse. His rotted and bloodied corpse was found grasping on the lattice while muttering incomprehensible words in his last moment.
It was clearly done with necromancy.
Earl Mondo heard about the death of Earl Aubock directly from the royal messenger.
The first time he heard about that, a chill ran down his spine. He was terrified.
But Barreira City, the city where Earl Mondo resided, was the capital of adventurers.
If by some chance,『Devil’s Piper』 really came to invade the city, they should be able to repel those invaders.
But he was forced to reconsider his naive thoughts. Lambert’s warning about the adventurers being unfit as a defensive core had shaken mind, forcing him to abandon his naive idea.
「And then, just when we abandoned all hope of surviving that siege, that man in full-plate armor appeared. The way he slaughtered 『Slaughterer Circus Troupe』 in a flash raised our morale! I still remember Robinhood’s shocked expression when such a drastic change was brought upon him by a single man. His sword… was far too fast even for me… In addition, it was extremely powerful and deadly on top of that!」
Although Fando passionately retold Lambert’s heroic deeds, Eunos signaled to Fando with his hand to stop the story.
Even though Fando was looking at Eunos with a puzzled look on his face, he still stopped his retelling.
And then, Eunos called out to Earl Mondo, who was still deep in thought.
「Earl-sama. Are you by chance… still worried about what that man named Lambert said a while back? About the adventurers’ lack of responsibility in the worst-case situation.」
「…」
「Let me tell you, he’s completely mistaken about us. At least no one from 『Dancing Sword』 would flee for their life if the city was facing a crisis. We’ll show you that we’ll be the one who stand on the frontlines when that 『Devil’s Piper』 comes. Moreover, in my opinion, your private army is wonderful, Earl-sama. Please, don’t waste your time worrying about those rebels.」
Although Lambert evaluated the earl’s private army as nothing more than a paper tiger, that was exactly the reason why Eunos praised them—for his own gain.
Surely, the current private army had risen to their current position not due to merit. It was more like they inherited their parents’ job.
But they fell short compared to first-rate adventurers—like Eunos, who was rich with combat experience to back him up.
Although it was true that the majority of the members of the private army were hot-blooded, prone to jealousy, and insidious, it didn’t mean that they neglected training. Since the majority of them were trained in combat by their parents ever since a tender age, they were more talented compared to the innumerable third-rate adventurers in Barreira City.
In addition, it was not like they didn’t have loyalty either.
「T-That’s right! No need to worry about the empty rambling of that man! Please, put more trust in us!」
The members of the private army who remained in the room agreed with Eunos.
Glasco was supposed to participate amongst them too, but he was still out of commission after being exposed to Lambert’s killing intent.
Although the majority of the private army was hostile toward 『Dancing Sword』—who they judged as the invaders of their territory—their hostility toward 『Dancing Sword』 faded when the outsider Lambert suddenly came in and denied their existence right in front of their faces. Unexpectedly, support for them came from 『Dancing Sword』’s guild master himself.
‘They’re idiots who will ruin themselves even if I simply leave them be. There’s no need for me to waste my time to belittle them. They’re not even considered as opponents for me.’
This was what Eunos really felt inside about the earl’s private army.
Naturally, he kept those thoughts to himself.
One of the soldiers of the private army thanked Eunos, and he simply smiled back at that soldier.
「…How reliable. But that isn’t my only worry. The truth is, I’m worried about which guilds I should commission for this matter. The reason why I called you guys today is related to that matter, but… hearing Eunos-dono commitment, I guess it’s better to leave this matter to 『Dancing Sword』. Though I feel bad for stopping Fando-dono’s story… Let me continue this matter about the invaders if 『Dancing Sword』’s adventurers don’t mind.」
「Of course. It’s our honor to receive such a request from Earl-sama himself.」
The members of the private army in that place knitted their brows upon hearing their lord request the adventurers instead of his own private army.
Even though they were right there, they couldn’t help but feel humiliated seeing him do so.
But none of them protested over this matter that was already set in stone, keeping their reservations to themselves.
Eunos had expected this development upon receiving the invitation from Earl Mondo to come to his mansion, and his guess was spot on.
「Since Robin Hood has returned to Barreira… his aim is most likely my head. Considering that guy’s personality, he’ll raid this mansion in the near future. I must ask you guys to stay in this mansion for a while… and help to keep the safety of this mansion.」
Barreira City’s strongest adventurer—Robinhood.
He was the former guild master of a small guild in Barreira City.
Despite their small size, the members of that guild were all elites. In order to subjugate the ogre king, they went into 『Lost Folk’s Great Forest』, into which entry was banned by Earl Mondo for safety reasons after the appearance of the aforementioned ogre king.
Ogres were giant, human-like monsters with two horns growing from their heads.
Ogres never lived in packs. When another individual appeared in their territory, they’d be driven out of that territory. Sometimes, they even killed each other.
When an ogre killed its kin, mana would gather in its horn, giving a blue hue to its red skin.
That was how an ogre differentiated ranks in their species. The lower ones would sometimes surrender their territory or submit to the stronger party.
An ogre king was a special individual whose body had turned into a deep blue color and had many subordinates.
It was an existence whose strength couldn’t be compared to a normal ogre.
In addition, it had many ogre subordinates with it.
The most dangerous thing about an ogre king was the fact that any ogre below it would have their endless thirst for battle diminished, and the giant was more intelligent.
To make matters worse, the ogres’ loyalty deepened the darker the blue color of the ogre king’s skin.
There were some worries that killing the ogre king would incite the rage of its subordinate and make them leave the forest to attack the city.
And yet, despite all those warnings, Robin Hood still led his subordinates into the forest, killing the ogres along with the ogre king.
That achievement was enough proof for his selfishness and power, the person himself was getting conceited of his achievement.
Having accomplished that, it wasn’t wrong to call him a hero.
But as a result of them sniping the ogre king from afar and escaping right after, the survivors were enraged. They left the forest and attacked Barreira City, which resulted in many casualties.
Even Earl Mondo’s wife, whose whereabouts were unknown when she evacuated during that incident, was later found in an extremely tragic state.
After that event, all members of Robin Hood’s guild were executed, but Robinhood himself managed to escape his prison by using his glib tongue to trick his jailer, and had been in hiding ever since then.
And that terrifying person had finally returned to Barreira City.
His goal was simple, to clear the resentment of his subordinates, who were executed by Earl Mondo.
‘Robinhood… huh…’
Although Eunos’ strength was amongst the strongest in the current Barreira City, he knew that he couldn’t defeat Robin Hood in a frontal fight.
But time was on his side; he could cook up some plans. He didn’t have to fight Robinhood by himself.
Moreover, as long as they accomplished this request along with the unicorn subjugation’s request, they would cement the Earl Mondo’s trust toward the 『Dancing Sword』 even further.
「We’re honored to receive that commission. Moreover… some of 『Dancing Sword』’s adventurers, our comrades, died at the hand of Robinhood a few days ago. We’re really happy to get the chance to avenge our comrades.」
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