episode_0075

“Hey, I heard something from your boss. Could you open the door for a moment?”

Clearly, the other person seemed to have mistaken the room.

Creak, creak!

Despite forcibly shaking the doorknob, it remained locked and wouldn’t open.

“If it doesn’t open in 3 seconds, should I break this door? One, two…”

Thinking that it would go away if ignored, Iris turned her gaze towards Lian’s clothes as she unexpectedly raised her eyebrows at his sudden aggressive words.

“Three!”

Crash!

With a rough noise, the door shattered.

“Huh? There was no one in front of the door, huh? You never intended to open it in the first place, did you?”

Iris’s gaze turned towards Lian’s clothes. Fragments of the door flew and tore the edge of his clothes. Iris’s eyes sank deeply.

“Oh, those girls over there seem quite evenly matched, don’t they? In fact, isn’t it true? Hey, wouldn’t it be better for you to come over to our side? I’ll treat you as nicely as possible. Hehe….”

The person with a huge stature reminiscent of an orc was not a man, but a woman. The woman, who had a appearance resembling a gorilla, did not hide her disdain for the young Iris.

Iris found all of her behavior that messed up her territory, ruined Lian’s clothes, and her unpleasant gaze not just uncomfortable, but beyond that, repulsive.

At the moment she was about to turn the woman into a woman.

“Grrr!”

With a sound like a giant beast roaring, something rushed at the woman.

Thud, crack!

“Gah -…”

Enraged by having her territory invaded, Jess grabbed the woman’s head and tore it off.

Thud!

The body and head separated and rolled on the ground.

“Argh!”

Jess let out a long cry, then lightly licked the blood on her hands and quickly turned to look at Iris.

“Whoa! Is it okay to kill… her?”

Jess asked belatedly, ears perked up. Iris approached the corpse, kicked it hard in the stomach, and answered.

“Yeah.”

At that moment, Lian’s voice came from the bathroom.

“Iris! Is something happening outside? I think I heard a loud noise.”

Iris’s frozen expression melted in an instant. She approached the bathroom and spoke.

“No, it’s nothing. It sounds like someone… fighting outside.”

“Really? Can I go check?”

“…Yes.”

Iris finally replied after a long silence, thinking that if she said she needed to come out now, she might see Lian’s naked body.

“Okay. If anything happens, let me know right away.”

“Yes.”

As Iris finished speaking, the sound of water could be heard again. Lian tended to take long showers.

Partly due to the fact that the shower cost was included in the inn fee and her frugal mindset had kicked in, and partly because there were few opportunities to bathe with warm water during the trip, she had developed a habit of taking long showers each time.

For these reasons, Lian did not notice the commotion outside. In the world of comedy, it was quite common.

Thud, thump!

Before Vienna’s blood dried, those who resembled her in stature and appearance came rushing down.

“Oh no! Lady Vienna!”

“Lady Vienna has been attacked!”

“This can’t be happening!”

Approaching the lodging where Lian and her companions were staying, they stumbled upon Vienna’s head lying in the corridor and froze on the spot.

The giants, who had played the role of their leader, remained motionless at the news of Vienna’s death. The one standing at the front gnashed his teeth and shouted.

“Darn it! It’s war!”

“But…”

“Our boss won’t spare us for failing the mission and even losing our leader. Our only option is to subdue those two!”

Clang, clash!

Realizing there was no turning back, the giants drew their swords and lunged at Iris and Jess.

“How fortunate.”

Iris murmured in a low voice, smiling beautifully as if whispering, “There are so many things I can kill.”

Iris was genuinely pleased that there was still a place where she could unleash her anger.

She drew her sword leaning against the wall and dashed out into the corridor. She didn’t want to further dirty the room with the blood of filthy things.

***

Ten minutes ago, in the most luxurious room of the inn where Lian and his party were staying.

A spacious living room with a splendid carpet on the floor, and on top of it, a soft leather sofa was placed in the middle, facing a luxurious wooden table.

Noah was sitting on one side of the sofa with his legs crossed, and on the opposite side, a fierce-looking elderly woman was sitting. Behind each sofa stood one of the organization’s guards.

Due to continued training and innate reasons, Noah looked much younger than his age. At least 17 years old.

“I didn’t know the boss of Nest would be this young.”

The middle-aged woman with a square jaw sneered as she spoke. It was an obvious mockery, but Noah just shrugged with a casual expression.

“I didn’t know Vivian’s boss would be such an old lady. Oh, is she your grandmother?”

“What…?!”

Her face turned red and blue. Hearing the sound of her grinding teeth, Noah looked at her with a cold gaze.

“More unpleasant than I thought.”

Why is Noah sitting face to face and having a conversation with such an unpleasant person?

To know that, you have to briefly understand the current situation of Cardishan.

The dwarf boss who ruled the northwestern region of Cardishan, the Deviatan who ruled the eastern region, and the organization alliance Verimosa, which is always at war in the southern region.

Among them, the area in the northwest ruled by the dwarf boss became unsettled due to the boss’s death and began to collapse due to internal strife.

For the sake of getting even a piece of bread, for the sake of occupying even a small area, various humans gathered in the chaos.

At first, there was all sorts of confusion, but as time passed, the shabby ones easily collapsed or withdrew, and the pattern of the fight became clear.

Noah’s organization “Nest,” which was newly formed and had grown to a terrifying extent, engaged in a fight with the “Deviatan,” which had been targeting the land in the northwest while waging war with the dwarf boss.

It was unbelievable that the young Nest members were fighting on equal terms with Deviatan. No, it was beyond belief.

A twist occurred. Nest began to gradually swallow up territories beyond being on par with Deviatan.

However, that was the limit. To push out Deviatan and swallow up vast territories, more power and people were needed.

Noah, with overwhelming charisma, swallowed up relatively clean organizations and expanded the size of the organization. Even with such efforts, it was not enough to completely push out Deviatan.

The method that came to mind in such a situation was “alliance.” By forming a temporary alliance with an organization that had been cruel and not even worthy of attention, they would grow in size and easily push out Deviatan.

At present, there was no other suitable method than that.

That was why Noah was facing unpleasant individuals.

“Tsk, I thought we could at least have a conversation.”

He was someone who made judgments and ridiculed others based on age and appearance. There was no way to have a proper conversation with such a person.

Noah clearly read the disdain and desire in the woman’s eyes. When faced with the desire to swallow up the chubby prey called “Nest,” his mood sank.

“I should give up collaborating with trash after all.”

Forming an alliance with someone who might stab you in the back at any moment was no different from suicide.

Noah looked at the woman with a cold expression and stood up from his seat. No, he tried to stand up.

At that moment, the guard standing behind the woman’s sofa drew his sword. Noah furrowed his brow and slightly pressed his raised buttocks against the sofa. The guard sheathed his sword.

“Whoa, where are you going when we haven’t even had a proper conversation yet? More than anything, I’m here because of your request, not because I want to be.”

“I’m sorry, but it seems the conversation can end here.”

I spoke too harshly. I’m sorry, but it’s a habit to suppress the opponent when meeting with the boss.

She seemed to smile warmly as if it was really a mistake, but Noah did not let down his guard.

“Alright… Let’s have a conversation to gather information about the other party, since this is a hard-won opportunity.”

Even without forming an alliance, it seemed possible to obtain the opponent’s information through conversation.

“…Alright. Then—”

While Noah was slowly bringing up his business, Bian’s boss gave a signal to his guard. Pretending to scratch his neck, he lightly tapped his shoulder three times. As a result, the guard grabbed the lower part of his collar and activated the communicator.

Next door to the room where they were conversing, about 20 people had gathered.

They were mostly women, with massive muscular bodies. Their muscles were so abundant that even their facial muscles were rugged, making their figures look different.

They were the orc unit of the Bian organization gathered to carry out the plan under the boss’s command.

The order they received was simple: to take Noah’s subordinate as a hostage.

Vienna, the leader of the orc unit, smirked as she looked at the communicator.

“It’s the signal. She must have said her subordinate is resting in room 2023 on the lower floor, right?”

In response to Vienna’s words, her subordinate shook her head and said, “I heard it’s not 2023, but 2024… cough!”

Thud!

Frighteningly, Vienna struck her subordinate’s back of the head with her fist for delivering incorrect information.

“So, are you saying I got it wrong?! If I say it’s 2023, then it’s 2023!”

“Y-yes, yes!”

Vienna said with a triumphant expression.

“I’ll go first to check briefly, so you guys come down in 5 minutes.”

“What? But…”

“What? Got something to say?”

“N-no…”

Facing the statement of taking all the credit, the subordinate tried to resist, but seeing Vienna threateningly raise her fist, she had no choice but to submit.

“Then I’ll go first. Wait quietly!”

Around 5 minutes after Vienna left, the members of the organization went downstairs.

And then, they all departed to a place from which they could not return.

Unbeknownst to Noah, the boss of Vienna nodded in agreement with Noah’s words and secretly laughed wickedly inside.

“Haha, foolish woman. Not even knowing what state my subordinate is in, she’s spouting such nonsense.”

The real foolish one was herself, as the main force of the organization had been annihilated because of her foolish subordinate, but there was no way for Vienna’s boss to realize this.