Killing the Lord – 6

The Knight Commanders’ faces instantly drained of color, and their bodies trembled. Their eyes, filled with shock, were fixed on me.

That level of reaction was well within what I had expected. It was enough that they didn’t immediately try to kill me, asking if I was out of my mind for lying to the Emperor.

“Newbie, you are…… truly……”

“Ah, don’t misunderstand, Iris. It’s not like I harbored any ill will towards His Majesty the Emperor or anything. This was the only way to deal with that bastard without any repercussions.”

Perhaps still not fully recovered from the shock, Iris remained silent. But her eyes sent an unspoken gaze, indicating she would at least hear me out, so I continued speaking.

“As you all know, that guy is from the imperial family. Of course, he’s the kind of person who wouldn’t even turn his head towards the throne, but even if he’s far from the throne, the mere fact that imperial blood flows in his veins grants him more power than most nobles. To deal with such a person without any repercussions, ordinary methods wouldn’t work, would they? So I dealt with him using an extraordinary method.”

“……”

They would know better than anyone that the former Lord was not someone who would die peacefully. Because he had struggled even while being exiled, the Imperial Knights had been dragged down to this remote territory along with him.

They must have also guessed that to deal with such a person without incident, truly extreme methods would be required. It’s just that the method I used was far more extreme than they had anticipated.

I made him gain the attention of a demon, stripped him of all his rights, and then had the Emperor deal with him directly. Could they have dared to imagine such a method?

“I didn’t tell any particularly dangerous lies. The only lie in what Aurora explained was that I approached the Lord to discuss how to handle a book I accidentally found.”

“The severity of the lie doesn’t matter. The fact that you lied to His Majesty is what’s important. And what if the truth is revealed? What will you do if the truth that you lured in a demon with the intention of harming a member of the imperial family from the start is exposed? Why did you commit such an act?”

“No. Even if it’s exposed, it won’t be a problem.”

Aurora, who had been observing the situation, suddenly interjected. Iris looked at Aurora with eyes that seemed to say, ‘That’s not a problem?’

“His Majesty the Emperor now, that is, my aunt, didn’t particularly like that pig bastard either. She just deliberately left him alone because the more he acted out, the more secure her own position would become. Since he was dealt with without any repercussions, and the noble factions she was acquainted with now have a pretext to pressure him using this incident, it’s highly likely she’ll just let it slide.”

‘So there was such a backstory?’

I didn’t want to complicate the matter, and since the Lord was an incompetent idiot anyway, I thought there was nothing to gain from digging deeper, so I just assumed he had ended it at his own discretion.

I never imagined that even the Emperor disliked that guy.

Of course, the Lord here had a much more chaotic personality than in the game, so it was uncertain if he would be thinking that way in the main story of ‘Brdk 4’. In that, he at least possessed some common sense.

“So, Knight Commanders, you don’t need to worry. We simply dealt with a worm that was eating away at society, cleaned up the trash he left behind, and restored things that were arbitrarily twisted back to how they should have been. It’s just that a very slightly negative method was employed in the process.”

When someone who could call the Emperor ‘aunt’ guaranteed that they didn’t need to worry, a little color returned to the Knight Commanders’ faces.

As for me, I knew how the story would unfold from the beginning, so I remained calm.

“But still…… lying to His Majesty……”

“You Knight Commanders don’t need to speak up directly. That is a task for Aurora and the new knight sitting over there. Your role is simply to have rushed here upon receiving an urgent request for aid and continuously prevented the demon from rising.”

“……Preventing the demon from rising, you say?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, we have no way to deal with a demon.”

Aurora then glanced sideways at me. I met her gaze confidently. For a very brief moment, a look of incredulity flashed across her eyes.

“Don’t overthink it. It’ll definitely be beneficial for you all too, you know?”

I sprang up from the sofa. It was time to move locations.

“Everything we’ve received so far, we’ll pay it all back, with interest.”

I led the Knight Commanders and Aurora down to the basement, where the Lord, driven to the brink of death, was writhing. As soon as the four saw the half-human, half-demon Lord, they instinctively reached for their weapons.

“……He really looks hideous.”

Rije muttered, saying a word.

“He’s merely writhing on the floor, but that alone is utterly disgusting. If a half-human, half-demon in a dying state is like this, I can’t even imagine how immense the power a true demon would display.”

A dying state. Well, that wasn’t wrong. I had intentionally brought a blessed dagger and whittled down the Lord’s HP to the brink of death. Of course, there was a separate reason for this action.

Even in a state where he couldn’t properly recover his strength, perhaps because his fundamental nature was still that of a demon, leaving the half-human, half-demon Lord as he was would gradually contaminate the surrounding terrain.

To prevent that, we had to keep beating the Lord until the Emperor arrived and purified it. So that he wouldn’t contaminate the surroundings with his remaining strength, but rather keep recovering his stamina.

‘Leaving it to the Knight Commanders is perfect. They’ve been tormented by that guy until now, so it’ll be a chance for revenge too.’

However, since we didn’t know how long it would take for the Knight Commanders to arrive here and for us to finish explaining, I had to take measures to prevent that guy from contaminating the surroundings during that time.

That was also why I had brought the blessed dagger.

“……So, you’re telling us to stop this guy from recovering his strength?”

Claudia casually rested a greatsword, as long as her own height, on her shoulder. Seeing the faint smile on her face, it seemed she had roughly guessed what I was going to ask.

“Didn’t I tell you? Everything we’ve received so far, we have to pay it all back, with interest. You can just beat him to your heart’s content. Of course, you’ll have to control your strength appropriately so the basement doesn’t collapse.”

Actually, it wasn’t a strictly necessary process. I had already whittled down his HP with the blessed dagger, so even if he was left as he was, the surroundings wouldn’t be contaminated.

However, hadn’t the Knight Commanders been terribly tormented by that Lord for the past few years? Naturally, there was a need to pay back everything they had received so far.

Even if you kill him, you should get your revenge first.

“Oh? Then I won’t hold back.”

The first person to step forward at my words was Claudia. She gripped her greatsword as if it were a golf club, then swung it full force with the flat side, striking the Lord’s body.

With a crisp *Bbak!* sound, the scale-covered body floated up. The Lord flew a long distance backward and slammed into the opposite wall. It was an attack strong enough to make the basement wall rumble.

Iris and Erica seemed startled by her sudden action. In contrast, Rije thought for a moment, then drew a dagger from her waist, wreathed its blade in ice, and smiled brightly.

“So if we don’t beat up that pig, the demon might revive, right? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that never happens.”

Rije, with a brief ‘Thanks, newbie!’ of gratitude, charged at the Lord, leaving a frosty trail. Claudia watched her retreating figure with a pleased expression.

“Don’t think too deeply, Iris. If that guy dies, this is a chance that won’t come again in your lifetime. Just don’t think about anything, and enjoy it until it’s over.”

“……Are you serious, Claudia?”

“Of course I’m serious. And you’re thinking something similar to me, aren’t you? If you were truly going to object, you would have taken your hand off your weapon first, wouldn’t you?”

Claudia pointed at Iris’s hand. That hand had been fiddling with the sword hanging at her waist for a while now.

It was a posture that suggested she would draw her sword and charge in with them at any moment, if only she had the chance and could convince herself. Perhaps embarrassed that her true feelings had been exposed, Iris’s cheeks instantly flushed red.

“If I had heard about such a plan from the beginning, I would have objected. But the newbie has already done it, and it’s an irreversible situation, so what can we do? We have to trust him. He’s already proven that he keeps his word. So Iris, you just roughly accept it and come along. Let’s join them and beat him up together.”

A chilling cold swept in from the other side of the basement. Although the situation wasn’t clearly visible due to the ice, Rije seemed to be rampaging quite excitedly.

As the air rapidly cooled, Aurora shivered. Then she subtly approached me and pressed her arm against mine. Wondering what she was doing, I turned my head. A shameless gaze asking ‘What’s up?’ was returned.

“Erica, let’s go.”

“Uh, yes? Me?”

“Then who else named Erica is here besides you? You’re surprisingly similar to Rije, so it’s obvious what you’re thinking right now. Don’t pretend to hesitate and just follow.”

Erica grumbled for a moment about being similar to her sister, but perhaps because it wasn’t entirely wrong, she obediently followed behind Claudia. Small flames began to rise from the weapon in her hand.

Iris, left alone beside us, stared blankly at the other three who had begun to beat up the Lord in the distance. Then she let out a deep sigh and looked at me.

“Newbie.”

“I’m listening.”

“It’s as Claudia said. If you had tried to get permission beforehand, I would have vehemently objected. Lying to His Majesty the Emperor-that’s something I could never allow while in my right mind.”

However.

Iris’s demeanor, which had initially seemed to be reprimanding me, changed at that word. The corners of her mouth defied gravity and turned upwards, and her eyes softened slightly, becoming much gentler.

“I trust that you have something planned this time too. When you went to subjugate that monster, I couldn’t trust you until the very moment you returned…… but this time is different. Given the actions you’ve shown so far, even the most absurd plan would be enough for me to trust you just this once. I will entrust this matter entirely to you.”

Iris finished her words and was about to head towards the other Knight Commanders, stirring wind into her weapon, but she paused for a moment and turned her head halfway.

“And, I’ll also say thank you for providing this opportunity.”

“Don’t mention it.”

On the other side of the basement, something akin to a storm was already raging. The basement flashed brightly. Aurora and I watched the scene for a moment before coming outside.

The moon floating in the sky was slowly sinking beyond the mountains.

“You, you said you hadn’t been with the Silver Dawn Knights for long, right?”

“I don’t know the exact date, but I think it’s probably been about two weeks now.”

“And you gained that much trust already? Your resourcefulness is amazing.”

I replaced my answer with a laugh.

I had merely tried to progress the story as it was in the game, but from other people’s perspectives, it was simply perceived as an unbelievable achievement. By my standards, this was normal.

Moreover, the scale of the enemies that appear will continue to grow from now on.

If I follow the storyline of ‘Brdk 4’ exactly, I’ll have to single-handedly defeat all the monsters with enough power to easily destroy a city.

Since the recommended level range to see the ending in the first playthrough was roughly 100, beating thousands or tens of thousands of weaker ones to level up was just a bonus.

Subjugating dozens of city-destroying monsters and thousands or tens of thousands of ordinary monsters-even the Emperor probably couldn’t do that.

All of that was the achievement of a single player.

‘That’s how all game protagonists are, I guess.’

That’s why they’re the protagonist, aren’t they?

We sat in a corner of the garden, exchanging trivial stories, and waited for the Emperor, who would arrive by morning at the latest. Aurora was quite a good conversationalist.

Time passed, and it was time for the sun to show its face, but the Knight Commanders still hadn’t appeared. Given how much resentment they had accumulated, it was perfectly understandable. They could probably do it all day long.

“So, later, we’ll have to completely replace all the servants-ah.”

They were in the middle of discussing how to replace all the valets, servants, and maids. Suddenly, a magic circle appeared in the adjacent garden. The magic circle, crushing and burning the grass as it emerged, shot a blue pillar of light into the sky.

Teleportation magic. It was identical to what I had seen in the game, so I recognized it immediately. We stepped back a good distance, preparing to greet the Emperor.

Inside the pillar of light shot up by the magic circle, blue particles coalesced, forming a human shape. Arms, legs, a head, and a body appeared, and clothing was draped onto it.

The cluster of light, transformed into a perfect human form, slowly walked out from beyond the pillar.

“……?”

It was a woman who looked exactly like Aurora.