"No stress. We also have our own reasons for joining in."
"Nevertheless, it does not change the fact that you helped us avert a disaster."
It took Evan a minute to prevent the poor knight from kowtowing on the ground to express his thanks, making the hero feel more exhausted than he did fighting the Warhammer-wielding woman, mentally, that is.
"May I know the name of our benefactors?"
Hearing the man ask for their names, Evan did his usual job of introducing the members of the group one by one while Eliza looked him and Pride over for injuries.
"She's Pride, our resident support, Eliza. The two spirits are Amy and Kayla respectively, while Kuro is in my shadow.
Oh yeah, Liz, can you keep that guy on the floor alive for a little longer?"
"...Okay..."
Evan's words confirmed the Knight leader's thoughts, as the young hero didn't bother to hide the identity of the spirits in the first place. After telling Eliza to prevent the bandit leader's slow approaching death, he turned back to Enro and introduced himself.
"As for me, I'm Evan Bourne Eris. Nice to meet you sir Enro."
As Evan spoke to the knight leader, Sir Enro, he held up his family identification badge and imbued his magic power into it, causing the crest of the Eris Ducal Family to light up.
The dark bronze crest of two crossed swords overlaid by a roaring lion head looked familiar but Sir Enro couldn't put his finger on exactly where he saw it, until a slightly dazed young female voice from behind him spoke up.
"...the Eris Dukedom."
Hearing it, Sir Enro's mind finally clicked and his eyes widened in surprise. Although there were many people who had the last name 'Eris' in the Alpha continent, with some of them being nobles, when one added a 'Duke' to that name, there was only one family they were referring to.
The family that had held the position of being the Prime Ministers of the Great Western Empire since its inception nearly a millennia ago.
Evan tilted his head to the side and gazed at the girl in her late teens who recognized his family crest. She had above-average facial features with brown eyes and waist-length black hair that had bangs hanging on the left side and a slender, well-defined body.
She was quite tall, standing at nearly 170cm and when Evan appraised her, he found that she was older than him by at least four years.
"It seems lady Perhorn took her studies quite seriously. There are quite a few young nobles who would not recognize this crest after all."
Evan spoke as he tossed the crest back into his inventory, yawning a bit before turning to Pride who was about to paint the ground red with the bandit leader's blood.
"Can you guys hold on a bit, and remain here? You too, Liz.
Pride and I have a few things we need to deal with.
Oh, and its best for you that you don't come in this direction."
As soon as he spoke, he turned around and downed a magic potion, before clicking his tongue and muttering something about it being less effective as he grabbed Pride's arm and that of the half-dead man on the floor.
"Let's go somewhere else."
Like so, he left the two spirits and Eliza with the knights, causing the blonde teenager to heave a sigh of exhaustion.
She then turned to the knights and asked.
"Anyone with injuries? I can take care of that for you."
◇ ◇ ◇
As for Evan and Pride, they had dragged the half-dead man deeper into the forest and tossed him against a random tree, causing him to groan out in pain but Evan and Pride honestly could not care less.
"Now then..."
Evan sieved through the memories of the previous second that he possessed as he activated his Blessing of Destruction skill, coating his palm in the dark red aura and pressing it against the chest of the bandit leader.
"GAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
His screams echoed out through the forest, with the sound scaring away any animals that happened to be in the area and making Eliza and the Knight/Noble Lady group feel a chill down their spines.
The sheer amount of pain that one felt when their soul was damaged was on a totally different level entirely.
Pride, who was behind Evan, stared at him in shock as she dispersed the cold demonic energy she had been gathering in her palm.
"Forceful Interrogation 101.
'Show the target a little taste of the pain that they would receive if they refuse to give you the answers you want.
It'd make them more cooperative in answering your questions afterwards.'
Or at least that's how it works according to the previous 'Second'."
Evan spoke before removing his palm from the chest of the poor brown-haired man on the floor, while Pride narrowed her eyes at him and asked.
"Are you sure you're okay doing that? This is the first time you are using it more than once in a day after all."
The high demon was naturally referring to his usage of his skill's first activation for the second time today, to which Evan replied.
"I'm fine, nothing wrong with me in any way.
This confirms my theory that I can use this skill multiple times in a single day, provided that the total usage time does not exceed one hour."
This was something that Evan had been suspecting ever since he saw the skill's description that said 'For the total time period of one hour per day' and not 'Once Per day'.
Seeing that the boy was okay, Pride turned her attention back to the bandit leader who was staring at her with a fear-stricken gaze.
This was quite weird, considering the person who had just inflicted a huge amount of pain on him was Evan and not her.
Evan naturally noticed this and asked, only to be met with silence, however, he simply raised his palm which was still coated in the essence of destruction and the man started spilling all he knew.
Apparently, he had felt that Pride was a lot similar to his 'Boss' in more ways than one. However, the thing that caught his attention the most, was the Deadly Sin Crest at the back of her right palm, something he realised Evan also had mid-speech.
It turns out that he and the rest of the 'bandits', were actually just a squad under an underground organization that existed in the large dungeon city of Osto.
Said organization recently underwent a few changes to the top brass and the person who was the squad leader before he was brutally killed by the new 'Boss', causing him to get promoted.
The two also learnt that the new 'Boss' of this organization, had pretty much covered the entirety of Osto with the palm of his hand.
He was quite powerful and ruled the organization with fear. He had also managed the feat of repelling the coalition of Knights and adventurers who had attempted to take him out when his actions that terrorized the people of Osto had gone too far.
They also learnt that the new Boss, was the one who sent them to attack the carriage with the daughter of Osto's lord travelling within. It seemed that he had been trying to prevent the viscount from requesting reinforcements to deal with the organization.
Evan and pride, however, could not care less about that and only wanted to discover about why he had become Greed's thrall.
They could discover about the situation in Osto from the Viscount's daughter, after all.
Sadly, the bandit leader seemed to be unaware of the existence of anyone who either answered the name 'Greed' or looked like how Pride had described, and thus, he could not provide them with the answers they wanted.
"Then how did you gain that 'ability' of yours?"
"T-the Boss!
H-he ga-a-ave it to u-u-us!"
"The same boss who has a similar crest on the back of his palm? And uses a Large Great sword to fight?"
Seeing the man nod repeatedly in response to the question, Evan and Pride simultaneously turned to each other and reached the same conclusion instantly.
"Greed's contractor."
"There's no doubt."
Having discovered the identity of this 'Boss', Evan was about to turn the bandit leader into an experimental subject when he realised something.
"Wait up.
Since Greed's contractor can use his Idiosyncrasy, doesn't that mean that I should be able to use yours?"
He posed the question to the high demon beside him, who only gave him a blank stare before turning and walking away.
However, Evan wasn't going to let her go so easily.
He blinked in front of her and blocked her path, his mystic eyes shining as he stared into her red eyes and asked once more.
"Since Greed's contractor can use his Idiosyncrasy, doesn't that mean that I should be able to use yours?"
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l