NOVPUBPeros Gelion.
As the lord of Kiton, he was drinking alcohol with a lavish feast today as well.
Beautiful women wearing barely anything poured drinks beside him.
“My lord~ Please have a drink here.”
“Hmph!”
Peros raised his glass with a sour expression.
Usually, he would have been drinking heartily with loud laughter, but today he couldn’t do that.
He couldn’t shake off the unsettling feeling, as if something was stuck in his throat.
“This food is garbage! Hey!”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Clear away this trash and bring something else. Hurry!”
“Understood.”
Lord Peros threw the food down irritably.
Usually, leftover food would go to the servants working in the mansion.
Even though Peros knew this fact, his behavior was purely to vent his anger.
However, what he didn’t know was that the servants would desperately rush to eat even food that had fallen on the floor.
“Head butler! Where is Butler Gibson!?”
“You called for me.”
Gibson, the head butler who had been waiting, came running.
“Has there been any contact from Lord Holkman?”
“We are still searching for them.”
“Still?”
“Yes. I will report to you as soon as Lord Holkman returns.”
“Tch… Tsk tsk.”
Peros clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“I had high hopes since Lord Holkman personally took charge, yet there are still no results.”
“If you wait a little longer, there will be good news, my lord.”
“Good news? Do you know how much money that bastard Arken was bribing left and right? The assets under management!?”
“…”
“He was essential for my return to the capital. And such a man had his head blown up overnight!”
Peros’ cheeks trembled as he spoke in great agitation.
There was a reason for his intense anger.
It was because Arken wasn’t just a collector, but also handled money laundering and lobbying.
“How long must I remain in this backwater!?”
Although Kiton is called the frontier due to its proximity to the Demon Boundary, it was quite a large city.
Known as the city of mercenaries, money flowed actively, and the quality of forces available to command was high.
It could be considered a kind of marquis of the frontier.
However, Peros was not satisfied.
Having originally lived in the capital, he had not the slightest desire to spend the rest of his life in such a frontier.
“Sigh… Father is so heartless! To dump me, the eldest son of the family, in such a stinking place!”
Peros Gelion.
There was a reason why he, the eldest son of the prestigious ‘Gelion family’ in the Domis Kingdom, became the lord of Kiton.
“Useless piece of trash.”
He had been demoted by the head of the Gelion family.
Yet Peros hadn’t come to his senses and was using Arken’s organization to bribe various people in an attempt to return to the capital.
“At the very least, we must recover the funds and ledgers they possessed. No matter what!”
Just then, as Peros was shouting.
The awaited report arrived.
“Lord Holkman has returned!”
“Oh! Tell him to enter at once!”
Although it was already late at night, Peros had no patience to wait.
Shortly after, Holkman entered the dining hall.
He glanced around the dining hall and frowned, but it was so brief that no one noticed.
“I pay my respects, my lord.”
“Forget the formalities! Lord Holkman. How did the matter you took charge of go!?”
“We are still searching.”
“What?”
As Peros’ face crumpled, Holkman hurriedly continued.
“It won’t be much longer. We’ve confirmed they haven’t escaped from Kiton, and we’ve mostly finished searching the territory with only a few places remaining. We’re gradually tightening the net around them, so you can rest assured.”
“Listen here, Lord Holkman.”
Peros said with a sigh.
“Do you know how much money you receive monthly?”
“…”
“Do you know where that money comes from?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“I know…”
“If you know this, then why are you acting this way!”
Peros jumped to his feet.
With his face flushed red, his shouting appearance was so agitated that it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had grabbed his neck from high blood pressure.
“Right now! Bring those bastards before me right now!”
“Yes!”
Holkman bowed his head and quickly left the dining room.
Peros sat back down and gulped down his drink.
“Ugh…! Appointing an old commoner as the Knight Commander. I must have been crazy too! This is why you shouldn’t associate with low-class old folks! No sense of responsibility! No dignity! No ability! Nothing at all! Isn’t that right!? Butler!” 𝚗ovp𝚞b.𝚌om
“Yes, my lord.”
Butler Gibson bowed his head while continuously rubbing his palms.
That was the most important part of his duties as the head butler.
***
At the same time.
Choi Hyun-seok and Abelson were having a strategy meeting in a civilian house.
Since staying at the inn drew too much attention, they moved to a safe house arranged by Holkman.
“We should kill the lord, right?”
Choi Hyun-seok opened the conversation.
Rachel and Abelson, who were listening, nodded.
“We have no choice. Someone like that can’t be rehabilitated.”
“Hero! Didn’t you see the list earlier? Even the gods would be angry if we let such a despicable person live!”
Holkman had handed over documents summarizing the atrocities committed by Lord Peros.
It contained so many evil deeds that one would doubt whether a single person could commit such numerous atrocities.
“No, it’s obvious the Lord deserves to die. I’m worried about something else.”
“What is it?”
“After the Lord dies, who will manage this place?”
Abelson answered Choi Hyun-seok’s question.
“Usually, the Lord’s child would succeed him, but I haven’t heard anything about this Lord having children.”
“Yes, same here.”
“Then it’s one of two possibilities.”
“Either the Gelion family sends someone else to manage it, or the royal family of the Domis Kingdom appoints a new Lord. I think the latter is more likely.”
“Either way, another noble will come down to act as the boss.”
Abelson nodded.
Choi Hyun-seok’s question was perfectly natural.
It didn’t make sense for a city of this size to be without a noble administrator.
“Hmm…”
Choi Hyun-seok fell into thought, holding his chin as if considering something.
“Hero. Is there a problem?”
“Remember the hero quest content I told you about?”
“Of course.”
“There was an additional objective.”
Choi Hyun-seok checked the hero quest again.
Defeat the corrupt lord and save the grief-stricken Kiton!
However, you must remember this:
Evil exists everywhere!
“Evil exists everywhere. Remove the axis of evil operating in Kiton. Isn’t that meaningful?”
“It certainly is.”
While eliminating Lord Peros Gelion was the main objective,
Something else was needed to achieve the additional objective.
After contemplating, Choi Hyun-seok made a decision.
“I need to meet that old man Holkman again tomorrow.”
***
The next day.
Choi Hyun-seok didn’t need to go looking for Holkman.
Holkman came first, at the crack of dawn.
Choi Hyun-seok was sleeping peacefully while hugging Bobo, and seeing this, Holkman shouted angrily.
“What are you doing!?”
“Mmm, what’s the matter?”
“We need to cut off that Lord’s head right now! Are you planning to stay here forever?”
Choi Hyun-seok sat up while yawning.
“Yawn~ I need to make a plan too, don’t I?”
“What plan!? Didn’t I tell you? I’ll get the knights out of the mansion, so you just need to go into the empty house and take the Lord’s neck! With your skills, it should be as easy as eating porridge while lying down!”
“Ah~ It’s not as easy as you say. There may be no knights, but there are quite a few soldiers. And we need to be careful not to reveal our identity. Anyway, there’s a lot to consider~”
Choi Hyun-seok said with a sly smile.
Holkman closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
If he hadn’t, he felt like he would have smashed the head of the man in front of him right then.
After barely containing his anger, he asked.
“Then when do you plan to do it?”
“I’ll handle it within two days at the latest, so don’t worry. Yes.”
“Yes… I understand.”
As Holkman was about to leave the house, Choi Hyun-seok called out to him again.
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Is the Lord really the most influential person in this city?”
“You’re asking the obvious.”
“Then who’s second?”
“Second?”
“Yes. Who’s the next most influential person after the Lord?”
Holkman fell into thought for a moment.
“Hmm, probably the Guild Master of the mercenary guild.”
“And third?”
At the continued questioning, Holkman scratched his head irritably.
“How long do you plan to keep asking?”
“Third is the last one.”
“Sigh, probably Arken, the boss of the Arken organization that you killed.”
“We should exclude those who are already dead. Who’s next after him?”
“There isn’t really anyone after that. They’re all about the same level. Those three were the real power holders who controlled Kiton.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Choi Hyun-seok nodded with a strange smile.
Seeing this, Holkman narrowed his eyes.
“You. Don’t tell me you’re planning to deal with the mercenary Guild Master too?”
“Is there a problem with that?”
“Don’t make unnecessary trouble. Targeting the mercenary Guild Master is completely different from dealing with a disowned noble fool. If you’re not careful, you could provoke the entire mercenary guild.”
“For someone who was talking about a knight’s duty, that’s quite a practical answer.”
“I’m not a romantic. Plans without practicality are just empty ideals.”
“Yes, yes. I understand.”
Holkman wore an expression of disapproval, but he was the one who needed help now.
Having no choice, Holkman said as he left the house,
“Get it done as quickly as possible. Before the lord becomes suspicious from too much delay.”
With those final words, Holkman departed.
Choi Hyun-seok watched the door he left through while resting his chin on his hand.
“That old man. No matter how I look at him, he’s suspicious.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t explain it precisely, but he’s strangely unpleasant.”
“That’s quite a hero-like statement.”
“Anyway, I don’t like it. My instincts are telling me. That old man is also fishy.”
“You can’t kill someone just because you have a bad feeling about them.”
“Of course not. What am I, a psychopath? Going around killing anyone?”
Rachel stared intently at Choi Hyun-seok.
“What’s with that irreverent look?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Anyway, we need more information. Simply taking the Lord’s head won’t be satisfying.”
Dealing with Lord Peros Gelion wouldn’t be that difficult.
To be honest, it would have been possible even without Holkman’s help.
The aftermath might be a bit troublesome, but taking the Lord’s life itself isn’t a difficult task.
However, Choi Hyun-seok couldn’t be satisfied with just that.
‘Nothing would change even if we did that anyway.’
What would change if the Lord is replaced in an already corrupted city?
Presumably, nothing would be different.
Even if the new Lord is a decent person, the established system would likely corrupt them too.
“If we’re going to do this, we should uproot it completely.”
Choi Hyun-seok was thinking of properly overthrowing everything.
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