"Yo, great job, pup!" Velucan greets me with a grin. "Didn't expect you could take an entire Dukedom down by yourself."
Instead of immediately responding, I take a good look at my troop mates first. They are grinning at me as if they haven't deviated from the plan.
I am very sure I told them to use six different Teleportation Gates to enter the Dukedom. The idea was to scatter them throughout the Dukedom to make conquering it easier.
Now that they have come out of the same spot, we have to scatter once again to locate the army, which is going to waste our time. No matter how negligible it is, my OCD tendency makes me quite pissed about it.
"Why are all of you here?"
Still, instead of reprimanding them, which I can't absolutely do to begin with, I ask them for an explanation. I am sure they have a good reason for doing what they have done.
"Well, we agreed that coming out of 6 different Teleportation Gates doesn't look awesome, so we decided to come out of the same gate. You know, to make us look extra intimidating. " Velucan shrugs.
The answer leaves a sour taste in my mouth. They are lucky that Iancov, the Army Commander decided to not use the strategy I suggested, so their decision to come out of the same Teleportation Gate doesn't really affect anything.
"Besides, those guys are out of the Dukedom. Only a few of them stay inside the Dukedom, so we figure it's better to just conquer the Dukedom before having fun with them."
"Oh, is that so?" I say in surprise. "Of all choices, they chose to fight us directly? They are really optimistic, aren't they?"
"There's a miss on my part." Velucan scratches his head with a sheepish grin. "Apparently, the sole Holy Maiden among the summoned Heroes has just finished investigating Amizanima Forest, so she is spending her time her."
"In other words, we are also going to face Paladins and Knights," I sigh lightly. "I have met that bi—Holy Maiden. In fact, I have just run away from her."
Blinking his eyes, Velucan then looks at me weirdly. "Are you serious? Running away from a Holy Maiden?" He snorts funnily. "Didn't you know that Holy Maidens can't hurt Demons if they are immune to Divinity?"
I am definite that I haven't been taught about that, so the information surprises me as much as it irks me. As far as I know, Holy Maidens are just the more powerful version of Female Priests, which was I thought Brianna would be able to kill me.
"So that is the reason why Holy Maidens are always surrounded by Paladins." I mutter in realization.
"Kinda unexpected for someone as bright as you to realize it late." Velucan snickers.
Clicking my tongue in irritation, I ignore his laugh, and ask, "What are we going to do next?"
One of my troop mates step forward. He is an Orc, which is a Monster that looks like a human other than the body size, the tusk, and the ashy grey skin color.
"Having fun is essentially what we are going to do!" Grinning, he adds, "It's your first time, right? I can teach you how to have fun."
"No, thank you," I decline politely. "I am going to look for the Holy Maiden first."
"You should give up on her. The Temple must have provided her with an Escape Relic—she must have already gone by now," Eliseus says. "Don't waste your time looking for her."
"That's right, so let's go have some fun!" My friendly Orc senior beams.
"I am sorry, I just remembered I left something at the hotel, so I am going to retrieve it." I put up my hand, then turn my head to Velucan as soon as I see the Orc turns sad. "I've got something to talk to you."
Velucan doesn't seem he gets what I am talking about at first, but understanding dawns on him eventually. He nods his head lightly, then tells my troop mates to have fun, which is basically eradicating all of the soldiers remaining in the Dukedom.
He turns to me when everyone has left the place, and I immediately take him to Golden Goblet, which is the hotel where I left Winerva and Xenon at. No words are exchanged between us while we are on the way, but I can sense his solemn mood.
Upon reaching the hotel, I find two noteworthy things. First, the hotel is already empty, which means everyone has gone to the bunker; and second, Velucan has assumed his human form.
"Is it necessary—the disguise?" I ask.
"I met Xenon as Lucan, so I wanted to kill her as Lucan too. I want her to know that Velucan didn't betray her—Lucan did," he answers with a hint of forlorn.
Nodding my head in understanding, I drop the matter, and enter the hotel. I run to my room, and Velucan follows closely behind me.
After half a minute of rushing through the empty hall way, we reach the room. I stretch my Mana behind the door to detect any Magical activity before entering.
When I find none, I put my hand on the doorknob and turn it to open the door. I enter the room, and immediately step aside to let Velucan approach the bed where Xenon and Winerva are (kind of) sleeping in.
"Why is Winerva here?"
"... I accidentally spared her life."
"Accidentally, huh?"
Waving my hand nonchalantly, I say, "Anyway, you won't need my help, will you? I am going to retrieve something, so I am going to leave. I will come back though, so don't leave without me."
No, I am not running away. Although I have unconsciously spared Winerva, it doesn't mean that I can't kill her or watch her getting killed right here right now.
I just want to retrieve Niles' head, which is what my mentor, Valeria, and Ilschevar want me to bring home. I forgot to take it with me because I was too distracted by the thought of setting up the Array before.
"Alright, just leave it to me."
As soon as I receive the green light, I get out of the room, and close the door out of habit. I immediately rush to the ballroom, and enter it without even scanning it first.
Luckily, there is no one to suddenly attack me inside. The state of the room is also the same, so that means no one has entered it ever since the conclusion of my fight with Niles.
"Where is—oh, there you go."
Walking to the body, I take a cheap sword to cut Niles' neck that is split in two along with the head. After successfully cutting it, I piece the split head together and think of a way to keep it attached to each other.
Shrugging nonchalantly, I use my cheap sword to pierce through the side of his head. It's a little crude, but his head is now in one piece again thanks to that.
"I am becoming more and more like a psychopath in each passing day, aren't I?" I muse with a chuckle.
Shaking my head faintly, I store my cheap sword and the head, then walk to the door. Before I get out however, Rexorem communicates with me through our Bond Seal, in other words, telepathy.
[Master, my I ask why you don't let me consume people's blood?]
"I am very sure that I am not prohibiting you to do that, so I don't know what you are talking about. I let you consume Yūto's blood, didn't I?"
[Yes, but why can't I consume these people's blood?]
"... You can do that?" I blink my eyes in surprise. "I thought you only consumed strong people's blood."
[I can consume anyone's blood to temper my blade.]
Nodding my head lightly, I summon Rexorem and plant it into the ground. A red light envelopes its blade, and the blood pooling the floor of the room is immediately absorbed into it.
In less than a minute, all of the blood in the room is drained. The bodies on the floor have also dried—they looked they were just skin and bones.
When I pick Rexorem up, I notice it has becomes slightly heavier, meanwhile the aura has become more oppressive. I unsummon it with a satisfied smile, then get out of the ballroom to return to my room.
I am curious to what Velucan has done to the two girls. I have a feeling that he couldn't bring himself to cut Xenon though, so I am sure the only one who has died is Winerva.
Upon entering my room, I find my guess wrong and right at the same time.
"This is...?"
"That was quick, pup." Velucan grins. "I have found a better use for them."
Velucan indeed couldn't cut Xenon, but he also didn't kill Winerva. Instead, he put a Geas on them, which turns them into his slaves.
The two of them are looking at us fiercely, while sending their killing intent. Their Geas is shining brightly on their chest.
Tonight, along with the Dukedom's, I also witness the fall of two female Adventurers.
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