Episode 567 Closing Gate (1)

“Hey Baron Yandel…?”

As soon as I came up to the shore, I saw a lot of hardened knights who found me.

Well, from their point of view, it seems that the ghost has returned.

Because Jerome forcibly put me in a state of unconsciousness.

“I… are you okay…?”

A knight who didn’t come closer and spoke to me from afar, perhaps feeling something strange. But for some reason, he couldn’t even make eye contact with me properly.

Do you feel any guilt?

“Call the Count of St. Red. I have something to tell him.”

“yes? Ah… yes! I will hurry up and give you the news!”

One of the knights standing guard near the tree suddenly ran and headed somewhere, and soon Jerome St. Red, accompanied by many knights, appeared.

As if examining my essence, he stared at me silently for a long time before opening his mouth.

“I’ll take care of this place, so everyone can rest for a while.”

Okay, is it safe for now?

While thinking about that, he carefully maintained his expressionless state.

Well, that’s the crux of this plan.

Making Jerome think I’m the chief.

“….”

“…”

Silence continues for the time being, even though we are in a state of quiet conversation.

I was the first to break the silence and open my mouth.

“Don’t worry. The ceremony was successfully completed.”

A tone of voice that Bjorn, the son of the barbarian warrior Yandel, would never have said.

Only then did Jerome open his mouth, perhaps feeling relieved.

“I’m glad you succeeded. Now give me ‘it’ as promised.”

“….”

“Did you have any regrets now? If so, I hope you will soon fold your heart. If you don’t give up on that, you won’t be able to live properly with that body even when you go outside—”

“There is no regret. But at that time, there was something I didn’t tell you…”

As I blurted out my words, Jerome looked at me with an expression asking me to explain.

“The item is currently unable to move.”

“…what does that mean?”

“Literally. When I opened my eyes in this body, there was a dimensional tombstone next to me. And… the thing was bonded to the dimensional tombstone. Many attempts have been made, but in the end I have failed to get the thing off.”

Surprisingly, half of this story is true.

I heard that he fell only then when he opened the portal to escape from this place? It is said that it was at that time that he realized that he could not ride the portal with the body of a monster.

However, Jerome, who did not know this fact, was very angry.

“Damn it. Why are you saying that now?”

“Isn’t everything supposed to have a priority?”

“I mean that now—!”

“What’s wrong? You must have been trying to get it for the king anyway. Why don’t you bring it here and use that thing? Besides, I haven’t been able to find a way to get the thing off, but maybe it’s different for you.”

As he boldly went out to the station, Jerome kept his mouth shut.

Rather than feeling like they are forcibly suppressing their anger, they seem to be calmly assessing the situation…

“…directly.”

Soon, Jerome’s mouth, which had been tightly closed, opened.

“I’ll have to check it myself.”

“Hmm, then I will take all the warriors and empty the village. So after we leave, slowly—”

“No, you can’t go anywhere until all the checks are over.”

…Yeah, I knew you would.

“Do whatever you like.”

The rest is up to the village chief.

***

Town of monsters hidden under the trees.

The order given to the expeditionary force that finally arrived there was neither assault nor annihilation.

“Wait until further instructions come down!”

An indefinite stand-by order.

However, at that simple instruction, the knights, priests and wizards who belonged to the exploration army gulped their saliva with nervous faces.

It was for a very simple reason.

I didn’t just have to wait, I had to wait in a confrontation with hundreds of village warriors.

“Evost, if those monsters start to move or show signs of something suspicious, run and kill them right away.”

“All right.”

“While I’m gone, make sure that Baron Yandel is well ‘assisted’.”

Judging by the nuance of the word ‘bopil’, it seemed that he had explained the situation to some extent to the deputy commander.

It’s probably not detailed because of his personality, he just told me to keep an eye on my teammates to make sure they don’t get close or do anything.

“But are you really going to be okay by yourself?”

“It’s okay. If you do your part here, nothing dangerous will happen.”

In fact, Jerome’s behavior was hard to see as reckless.

That’s because he believes that the village chief resides in my body.

If even the village monsters are tied up like this, there is no particular threat in the village.

“Kuhmm…”

Soon after Jerome entered the village alone, the deputy commander came next to me, coughing awkwardly.

Either way, I kept thinking.

‘Well then, what will happen…?’

said the village chief.

Just make Jerome St. Red come to the cave alone, then he will take care of the rest.

Because he was so confident, I said yes too.

Even if the village chief fails in the first place, I have nothing to lose.

Whether the village chief subdues Jerome and takes his body.

Or Jerome counterattacks and kills the village chief.

Either way, nothing bad for me.

Of course, if Jerome comes back alive, I’ll find out about my cheating with the village chief



Should I say so-called teacher?

There will remain ill feelings, but as long as there are faults with each other, it is worth reconciling through dialogue and moving on.

‘If the village chief wins, there are advantages to winning.’

Therefore, the climax of the plan was all entrusted to the village chief.

I even wanted that in the first place.

The only thing I’m worried about is if the two of you collude again and hit me in the back while I’m gone…

‘I’m afraid I’m going to die. Whether it’s the village chief or Jerome, how can there be no bastards you can trust?’

The more I thought about it, the more pessimistic I felt, so I ended my thoughts at this point.

After all, it’s not like we don’t have a plan for that time.

For now, the best thing to do is to wait and see.

“Evost, can I talk to my colleagues for a moment?”

Just in case, I tried to make such a request to the deputy commander, but he was rejected without a word.

“sorry. After that, when the commander returns, the baron will make a strong request so that he can talk with his colleagues, so please wait until then.”

“…I get it.”

I was worried about my co-workers who were tied up, but I hurriedly gave up my lingering feelings. Judging from her stubborn attitude, it seemed that no matter how much she persuaded her, it wouldn’t work.

‘…I have to ask Misha about the Rejuvenation Stone.’

Of course, I’m not asking because I’m really curious, it’s more like fact-checking.

The source of the stone of resuscitation must be 100% Lee Baek-ho.

I can roughly guess for what purpose he gave this to Misha.

‘Ha… that bastard is always like this when I really want to trust him now.’

To be honest, I don’t even feel betrayed anymore.

I’m just fed up with the guy’s persistence.

“Whoa…” Sёarch* The novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Anyway, as I was thinking about this and that while being watched by the knights, time passed quickly.

And…

“The Count has returned…!”

Jerome St. Red, who entered the village alone, returned and stood in front of me.

I was nervous for some reason.

‘Is it the village chief or himself?’

The answer was soon to be found.

Soon, the commander of the exploration force reached out his hand while looking at me.

“Thank you, Baron Yandel. Thanks to you, I was able to defeat him.”

yes you succeeded

***

It is unknown what happened when the two of them were alone.

There is only one thing I can know.

‘The village chief won.’

The village chief succeeded in overpowering Jerome St. Red and stealing his body.

To put it simply, the entire exploration force of the royal family’s high-end talents was taken over by some strange guy.

Command of this expeditionary force now rests with us.

“Release all of Baron Evost Yandel’s colleagues.”

“…yes? But…”

“You don’t have to worry. Everything I did to the baron was just a tactic to deceive the man called ‘the village head’.”

“…yes?”

Our deputy commander seemed embarrassed by the change in his superior’s position, so I stepped forward and opened my mouth.

“The village chief had the means to secretly watch everything that happened on the island. So in order to fool him, I needed to fool everyone first, including you.”

“yes? Then…”

“It was all acting from the beginning. To catch the village chief easily.”

After that, he did not go into detail about the process.

It’s because there was not enough time to go into detail and there could be mistakes that you

don’t know about. Acting like that wouldn’t have been easy.”

“haha! This is no big deal!”

The deputy commander couldn’t easily understand, but he couldn’t say anything as the two of us laughed and chatted hahahaha.

We are like that, but what are you going to do?

Besides, people naturally tend to believe in positive situations for themselves.

“Uh… I still thought it was a little strange. I thought that everything would have a meaning and I followed it… but it seemed like the commander was using Baron Yandel like a throwaway…” In the end, if

all of these situations were a process of me and Jerome cooperating, there would be no trouble whatsoever. does not occur

Is that why?

The members of the Exploration Corps did not doubt our words themselves, even though they felt some doubts.

‘Once, the first hurdle ended smoothly.’

In fact, it was very important to convince the expeditionary force of these excuses.

Only then can the village chief, who will later live as Jerome St. Red, not lose money, and the next plan can proceed naturally.

‘The problem is that I don’t want to get caught before that…’

Of course, I’m not particularly worried about this part either.

You could tell just by looking at what happened after that how thorough this guy was.

“Commander…! The monsters have started rampaging!”

“They must have finally realized that their boss is dead.”

Soon, the monsters in the confrontation shouted something in the ancient language and screamed, and the village chief gave the order without any hesitation.

“All-out assault! Destroy the monsters!”

An order for subordinates who had been treated like limbs until recently.

“Nia Lapdonia…!”

The monsters were helplessly slaughtered as the expeditionary force continued their general offensive with an assault posture.

They couldn’t even resist properly.

It wasn’t because he lost the pivot of being the village chief.

“What the hell… did they do so they can’t even resist properly?”

“It’s nothing.”

“…?”

“I told you to just deal with it moderately and die. Aren’t they useless now?”

…What kind of bastards are there?

Apart from the chills running down my spine for some reason, the behavior itself was understandable.

‘…Since they are intelligent and can even communicate in ancient languages, this is the most reliable method.’

The dead don’t speak.

The problem is that now I am the only one in the world who knows the chief’s secret.

Still, I decided to always be vigilant but not think only of the bad side.

It’s not that there weren’t any positives.

“It’s over now…”

The village chief who swallowed Jerome’s body told me after the village was cleared.

“Baron Yandel’s contribution to this battle is very great. So I’m trying to give him a decent reward….”

“….”

“Essence collected so far? hearthstone? Equipment? Let me know if you want anything.”

There is a means to legally suck the blood of the royal family.