"Is it even possible to make a titled noble of his rank 'disappear' discreetly?"
"With the right preparations…yes."
Evan just blankly stared at the Duke who casually answered him while sipping tea from a cup.
"This is the part where you're supposed to say 'No', isn't it?"
Duke Cheverton only shrugged his shoulder lightly in response while Ralphie voiced out something important.
"Even if we are dealing with it discreetly, we're still going to need evidence to present to the royal family."
"I agree, we're going to have to give Emperor Rudeus an explanation."
"True that.
Even if we don't do so, there's no way that Emperor would not notice something is wrong and try to investigate it. And when he does, he would definitely discover something.
After all, he's someone who almost discovered the Demonic Hand's existence on his own with very little prior information."
Evan concurred with Ralphie's words as he placed a hand on his chin and sunk into his thoughts, while the Count, Dasyra and Eliza all stared at the three high nobles while simultaneously thinking the same thing.
'Why are the three of you talking like it's a given that you're going to make the man 'disappear'?!'
Of course, the three could predict what they were thinking and chose not to make any comments in regard to that.
"Dealing with all this shit makes me feel like I'm gonna go bald from stress."
"Young Duke, you're just thirteen."
"Doesn't mean that it's not possible to go bald, you know? Not that I wanna lose my hair, I'm just saying that although it's uncommon, it's not impossible."
The young hero replied to Ralphie's words with a sigh before turning towards Duke Cheverton and saying.
"Okay Duke, let's get a few things straight.
Most of my information comes from capturing Senior Members of the Demonic Hand and also the fact that I basically ￡Nlq:)"V U/6$3G#n ;70+pEO|?PX&O6+0."
"What the fuck?"
Dasyra couldn't help but let out an exclamation of confusion when she heard the strange static that accompanied Evan's words.
"It's nothing serious, just that I said something I wasn't supposed to say."
After giving that short sorry excuse for an explanation, Evan turned back to the Duke and continued.
"As I was saying, despite how much I know, even I am not aware of exactly which members of the Demonic Hand contact which traitorous noble.
Well…not all of them.
And unfortunately, Marquis Antebellum's cousin happens to be one of the ones who I have no idea about the member of the Demonic Hand that he corresponds with.
If we want to find that out, then it means capturing basically every senior member of the demonic hand under the Eighth Finger and getting them to talk until we eventually find the one who is in contact with him and that's not exactly a feasible plan considering the number of demonic hand Senior members."
"Why don't we ask the elf we captured?"
"Faerora isn't exactly part of the 'Human Relations' department."
"Then why did you tell me to capture her then?"
Evan flipped the map in front of him before turning to Greed and replying to his question.
"So that we can find out where the Eighth Finger is hiding undead and launch simultaneous attacks on them just like he did to us.
He didn't keep everything inside Zacular's expansive space, after all. He definitely has some on standby in some other locations to make that kind of simultaneous assault easier."
"Ohh…"
It was at this point that the Guild master, Dasyra couldn't take it anymore and voiced out her confusion.
"Half of what you're saying honestly doesn't make sense to me.
From what I can garner, you somehow knew about this undead incident before it began and informed the Duke about it, and you seem to know the people involved.
The Dem-what again?"
"Demonic Hand."
"Yes, that.
Then who's this other person you keep mentioning, 'Eighth Finger', you called him?"
Evan placed a hand on his chin and sunk into his thoughts for a moment before his eyes flashed with the light remembrance.
"Aha!"
Lightly slamming his fist on his palm, he turned towards Dasyra and asked.
"You know about Graugro right? Twenty-five years ago?"
"Yes, I do."
"Good…. that was him; The Eighth Finger.
The same person who was behind all that is the one who is trying to mess shit up in Cheverton now.
You may not believe it since you think he'd have been killed by the 'Beast King' but he wasn't. The fact that the undead are currently attacking Cheverton is proof of this fact."
Evan's words brought a different kind of surprise to the faces of both Dasyra and the Count, but the young hero didn't let that sink in and casually dropped another bomb.
He placed his finger on the map and pointed at a County that shared borders with Bultom to the west and spoke.
"Oh yeah.
This guy; Count Falos, is also a traitor and I know who he corresponds with. I'm going to need your help in assembling adventurers to go with the knights and deal with him, Miss Dasyra.
I already have a simple plan to deal with him."
He was about to move on to the next topic as if he didn't just tell a Duke that another one of his vassals was a traitor but Duke Charles quickly cut him off and squeezed out every other bit of important information from the young hero.
It was only when they could see the sun setting outside that they were able to finish their discussions.
Since there were a lot more people who were supposed to be present before any full-scale planning could be made, they had to postpone their talk for when these people arrived.
On the list of said people, were the Paladins from the churches, the Mages from Kasteblum and the Second Sword who was arriving with more soldiers from the capital.
◇ ◇ ◇
'Even though the Duke made it seem like shit had hit the metaphorical fan, things were actually a lot better than expected.
Well…besides the death toll of tens of thousands, after all, that's what the Demonic Hand wants.'
The young hero thought to himself as he sat on the collapsible chair on the balcony of the Bultom City Lord's Mansion while twirling around a glass of strawberry wine in his hand.
'The Eighth Finger pulled another large-scale assault, but even though the Duke didn't know about said assault beforehand, he was able to completely reverse the situation using only the troops in his territory.
He commanded the adventurers, Knights and regular army soldiers all from the Duchy's capital city and was able to make it so all the simultaneous attacks were defended against completely.
In the end, he even made a huge move that the Eighth Finger would have never expected, taking action in person and racing through multiple cities on his own to wipe out Grandmaster-level undead.
It was pretty much a hit and run!'
With the speed and stamina of an intermediate grandmaster level existence like the Duke, crossing kilometres in a matter of seconds wasn't so difficult for him to achieve.
And he used that to his advantage, succeeding in personally wiping out five level 300 death Knights and three similarly levelled liches and a fleet of lower levelled undead wyverns.
'And he did that all in one day.
Should I say as expected of the 'Third Sword' of the Empire?'
??
Note;
Concerning the levels of certain existences that would be mentioned throughout this arc.
Whenever an A rank adventurer is mentioned; the level of the A rank adventurer is within the range of 300-320 unless stated otherwise.
Whenever Grandmaster level undead are mentioned; the level of the undead in question is within the range of 300-310 unless stated otherwise.
Whenever Grandmaster level Military officers (Colonels or higher), Mages, Knights and Paladins are mentioned; their levels are within the ranges of 300-310 unless stated otherwise
Thanks for your understanding
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