Chapter 122: Of Progress and Sudden Changes in Situation.

Chapter 122: Of Progress and Sudden Changes in Situation.

Rhodas had hesitated in coming to a decision, but immediately swapped to a series of quick, decisive actions the moment he did. That is, he managed to sortie his troops within the hour.

A part of his rapidity was due to the lack of a need to make any sort of major preparation. He didn’t bother delivering an address. He simply told the guards that they were taking Waint and Bluke into custody, and that was that.

And of course, we ended up having to join them so we could show them to the manor’s location.

『Urushi, can you tell if the lord’s second son is actually there or not right now?』

(Woof!)

『Alright, good.』

It would’ve been a huge pain in the ass to end up not finding the Lord’s second son present even after going out of our way to get what was effectively a warrant for his arrest.

The lord had his troops stand by as soon as they entered sight range of our target. Turned out that he was still indeed hesitating, which, honestly, was pretty fair. He didn’t have any real evidence, the only thing he had to go off of was what he probably thought to be a suspicious girl’s testament. He didn’t know exactly who owned the manor, and thus, could potentially have to end up being liable for any damages caused, especially seeing as he was basically about to have the city’s guards assault it.

In other words, it was up to us to take the initiative.

『Fran.』Geett the latest novels at novelhall.com

「Nn.」

「Whatever are you doing!? Return at once!」

Fran dashed out in front whilst ignoring Rhodas’ protests. Our target was the gatekeeper. We didn’t want to end up having to argue with him, and we figured that getting him talk would probably help convince the Lord that we were in the right.

「Huh?」

I appraised the man and verified that he was not only a criminal, but also afflicted with the whole heart of evil thing. Only after confirming all that did we strike; Fran silenced him by smacking him in the face with her fist.

We then tied him up and gagged him before healing him and waking him up.

「Mrrggphh!」

「Quiet.」

「Mrrggphh!」

Specifically, Fran had woken him up by kicking him hard enough to bend his spine into something that seemed to resemble a “less than” symbol. She then repeated the process until he finally stopped resisting.

Only after that did Rhodas finally approach, several aides in tow.

「And what is it that you are doing right now?」

「Nn? Interrogation.」

「It appeared as but mere torture to me... That aside, who precisely is that man?」

「Dunno specifics. Some enemy.」

「And do you possess the evidence to support that claim?」

「Could tell at a glance.」

「Does that not simply mean that you have none whatsoever?」

Rhodas planted his face into his palms as he shook his head back and forth. He didn’t have the ability to use appraisal, so he obviously had no clue that the man was indeed one of our enemies. Thus, he was probably contemplating what he was going to do about this whole situation.

「Will ask questions now. Answer honestly, no more pain. Make a fuss, death.」

Hearing Fran’s words caused the gatekeeper to nod as fast as he could, with his face as pale as could be. He ended up just sitting there, looking at us meekly after we removed his gag.

「This manor. Who is owner?」

「The place is owned by The Eathra Company. I-I’m just a lowly guard, So that’s all I know!」

Hmmm, didn’t look like he was lying.

「Eathra Company?」

Dannan, one of Rhodas’ older aides, filled us in on a few details after he happened to catch sight of Fran repeating the unfamiliar name under her breath. Dannan was actually quite the impressive guy. He took on every single chamberlain-esque duty whilst also managing the lord’s domestic affairs. Moreover, he was even about as strong as the average D ranked adventurer. The old man was seriously just a huge bundle of talent.

「The Eathra Company is a subsidiary under Sir Bluke’s Tormayo Corporation. It is known as a rather greedy company, and widely detested as a result.」

The Tormayo Corporation was actually a rather expansive business. It mainly focused around the sale of luxuries to nobles, many of which Bluke would personally introduce to the store. It had so much wealth and influence that not even the Lord himself could really do much to it, at least not openly.

The Eathra Company had The Tormayo Corporation backing them every step of the way, so they were pretty much able to avoid all inspections and audits.

「I recall Sir Bluke stating that he knew little of Tormayo’s subsidiaries as he’d left management of its affairs to one of his retainers......」

Yeaahhhh, no. That was obviously a lie.

「Man named Bluke here?」

Like, why did he think he could become Barbra’s Lord by making his father step down from his position? If the ordeal was actually so serious that they needed to arrest the Lord for it, then the country definitely wouldn’t have let his family retain any power. Rhodas’ whole household would’ve gone down with him.

Oh well, either way, we managed to stop the coup, which was good. All we had to do now was to reduce the number of victims by detaining Waint and preventing him from selling anything his stuff tomorrow.

We could cure the abnormal stats conditions that all the people had by feeding them the Recovery Water we’d made. So yeah, all was fine and dandy.

Or it should’ve been, had Bluke not suddenly started screaming.

「Guhguahhhhh!」

「Bluke? What is the matter?」

「Gugugaugagaguaguaguaaaaaaaaaah!」

Bluke’s body began giving a black aura. Okay, yeah that totally didn’t look all fine and dandy.

『Fran, have him drink the Water of Recovery.』

「Nn. Urushi, hold down.」

「Bark!」

Urushi held Bluke in position with his front paws as the man convulsed and continued to scream. Fran approached him and tried to pour some of the Water of Recovery out and into his mouth, but he kept moving and refused to drink even a single drop.

「Urushi, turn upside down.」

「Woof.」

Urushi did as he was told and flipped Bluke over so he had his back against the ground. Fran then finally managed to pry his mouth open and make him down several gulps of the Water of Recovery.

『Sheet, we didn’t make it in time!』

I’d thought that we finally managed to resolve the situation, but I was wrong. Appraising him didn’t result in what I’d expected.

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General Information

Species Name: Evil Human (Evil Being)

Level: 1

Status Condition: Insane, Rampaging.

HP: 61

MP: 70

STR: 26

VIT: 31

AGI: 18

INT: 33

MGC: 36

DEX: 24

Skills

Intimidation: Lv 2

Martial Arts: Lv 1

Innate Skills

Evil Arts: Lv 1

Titles

Evil God’s Slave

Description: Unknown.

_______________________________________________________________

His status page looked exactly like that of a magic beast’s, and his species totally said he’d turned into some type of evil being. The way his level had reverted back to one almost made it seem like he’d undergone some sort of evolution. That said, his stats were super high for a mere level one’s. He obviously wasn’t as strong as we were, but he probably had the strength to take down a guard.

Good thing he wasn’t an adventurer, or really strong to begin with or anything like that. If that were the case, we probably would’ve been screwed.

「Giggagagagagagaaaaa!」

「Gugagagagagaaa!」

And then, it happened. A series of similar screams resounded from outside the manor’s confines.