Succession Round 2, Duke Ransel. (6)

11.

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—Imperial Calendar 821, March 8th. Weather: very clear.

—In the early spring plains where winter has receded, Marigold has finally embarked on her long journey. What awaits her at the end of this road?

※Marigold feels her heart swell with the journey with her fiancé. Charm, Grace, Stamina, Sex Appeal UP! Morality, Faith Down.

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“Why is that going down?”

Lancel briefly broke out in a cold sweat looking at the words floating in front of him, but Marigold’s expression was brighter than ever.

She seemed to have no worries or concerns.

“Hehe.”

In the endless prairie, Marigold’s hair, where the hood had fallen off in the blowing wind, embroidered the air.

Holding a notebook, she was giggling to herself.

“What are you writing?”

“Ah, nothing. It’s nothing.”

She quickly hid the notebook behind her back. Her feigned ignorance was clumsy.

“Suspicious.”

As Lancel’s eyes narrowed, Marigold hurriedly pulled out a map from her arms.

“U, um, first we’re going to go through this plain and head to Porland.”

She was mumbling.

“I heard that this is the famous place of origin of Porland Ale beer. It’s also the time when travelers gather because there’s a beer festival. I heard that if you order food at the inn during this time, they give you free beer.”

“Hmm.”

He stood next to her and looked at the map.

“The destination is the Imperial Capital, but why are there so many towns to stop by?”

It was a long travel route, even when looking at it again.

It was a route purely planned by Marigold alone. Lancel didn’t say a word.

He couldn’t.

It was already completed when he showed it to Lancel, and he didn’t have the slightest idea what ‘the road to find the Demon King’ was, so there was no reason to point it out.

Lancel decided to follow this strange travel route that Marigold had laid out for now.

‘She said she’s been researching this route for the past few years, so there must be some basis for it… right?’

Thinking that, he glanced up at Marigold.

“Ehehehehe. Ehe, ha!”

Hmm.

Looking at her smirking with a sinister face, he felt his trust plummet to the bottom, but what could he do now?

Lancel had already promised to entrust this life to her. Once he decided to trust her, he would trust her thoroughly. That was all.

“Just trust me, Lancel. When we arrive in Porland, we’ll go to the Mercenary Guild first to gather information.”

“Oh, and then?”

“We’ll find clues about the Demon King there.”

“That’s a terrific plan.”

If there happened to be clues about the Demon King at the Mercenary Guild.

.

.

.

“Did you come to catch the Demon King too?”

“……?”

The Porland Mercenary Guild was crowded with those who had gathered to defeat the Demon King.

11.

“That nostalgic feeling, haa.”

Marigold closed her eyes tightly, feeling the bustling atmosphere of the Mercenary Guild. She seemed to be recalling some kind of memory.

“The very place where I shared sweet and passionate love with the Master…”

It seemed that some fabrication was mixed in with her memories.

“Here it is. The request form for the Demon King.”

The receptionist of the Mercenary Guild soon appeared with a piece of paper.

Lancel and Marigold put their faces together and looked at the request form.

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—The Bandit Boss of the Fork Mountains, also known as the Demon King.

—A large mole in the middle of his forehead, from central continent, dark skin, hooked nose, leading a large Bandit group of about 20 people.

—Reward: 15 Gold coins and all spoils. => Reward increased to 30 Gold coins from March. Additional reward if the son of the Porland Baron is safely rescued.

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“That’s just a Bandit?”

“I guess so. It’s ordinary.”

“What did you think it would be?”

The receptionist woman’s cold reaction followed.

Lancel and Marigold had nothing to say.

“Something dark, villainous… something…”

“Mary. Quiet.”

Explaining it at length would only make them look like strange people.

“A dark villain. That’s right. Killing people in dark mountains, kidnapping, raping, and selling them as slaves.”

The receptionist replied with a sullen face.

‘Certainly.’

Now that she heard it, it was true that he was a dark villain.

It was just a little embarrassing that he was so blatantly a villain.

“The Porland Baron recently doubled the request reward. All the Mercenaries who came for the festival are drooling because the reward is so good.”

“His son is captured?”

“Yes. He foolishly said he would subjugate the Demon King with only his squire, and last week, one of his fingers was cut off and delivered. He said that next time, his head would come back, so he should quietly hand over 200 Gold coins, right?”

“That kind of thing…”

“If you want to participate, come to the Guild by tomorrow morning.”

Lancel glanced at Marigold.

“Shall we catch him for now?”

“Shall we?”

She nodded and continued.

“Maybe he’s the real Demon King, and even if we share the thirty Gold coins with the Mercenaries we go with, it’ll be good for travel expenses.”

“I don’t think he’s the real Demon King…”

“But you never know.”

“I don’t know.”

A hooked-nosed Demon King with a big mole in the middle of his forehead.

No matter how broken her sister’s aesthetic sense was, she wouldn’t have made such a montage into a Demon King, a main target character.

Probably.

“I’d like to ask for accommodation.”

“Ah! Please make it one room.”

The receptionist frowned as she looked at Marigold, who was sticking to Lancel all along.

“Tch.”

As if to show her, Marigold stuck even closer to him. A mean-looking smile was on her lips.

“Hmph.”

What are you doing.

“A wife, you say?”

“Yes.”

That evening.

The Mercenaries gathered around Marigold and gave Lancel a bewildered look.

“Not only is he traveling with his wife, but he’s also going on a Bandit subjugation together, what is this…”

“Never heard of it…”

It was treated as bizarre. It seemed like they were living with their lives on the line as a married couple.

“It wouldn’t be strange if only one of them was left within a year.”

Lancel passed the Mercenaries’ reactions with one ear as he passed the beer down his throat.

“Think carefully, wife. If you follow that scrawny husband, you’ll be a widow before long.”

“If you’re a man, you have to have a strong body. A body strong enough to survive even in war. Like me.”

“It’s not too late to join us, wife. I’ll make sure you’re not disappointed.”

He didn’t care much even when a few vigorous Mercenaries showed off their muscles and approached.

“Come outside.”

It was because Marigold stood up before he could react.

She dragged the Mercenaries out of the Guild, and not long after, a dull noise was heard. A series of shrill screams erupted.

Soon, Marigold returned with a refreshed look and sat back next to Lancel.

“What did you do?”

Lancel asked, handing her the beer glass he was holding.

“I just persuaded them well and sent them away.”

In a short time, the Mercenaries’ gazes towards the two of them had changed.

12.

“Blonde hair, green eyes… If we take all of them, there’s no end to it.”

Rio Dante nodded at the reaction of the Knights gathered in the salon.

No matter how limited the area is, if you hear the words to take all the women with blonde hair and green eyes… everyone will react like that.

“Isn’t this a matter of whoever has more numbers wins? It’s not something we can do.”

“I think so too. We can’t just grab women indiscriminately like some vulgar Mercenary group.”

The Knights gathered in the salon were all listless.

Even the famous Birdnia Knights were only about thirty people. With this number of people, there was no chance of winning.

But Rio Dante’s thoughts were different.

“That’s why you have to handle the authority of Knights and nobles well.”

“……?”

Rio Dante spread the map wide on the table.

“Spread rumors in this area.”

“Rumors, what kind of rumors…?”

“Just spread it as it is without hiding anything. His Highness the Prince is looking for a woman with blonde hair and green eyes.”

“……Yes?”

It was a flustered reaction.

“Of course, that alone wouldn’t mean anything. Add just one more word to it. For example.”

His eyes drew a curve.

“Among the women with blonde hair and green eyes… he has decided to give one night’s opportunity.”

The Knights’ eyes widened in shock.

“Of course, the rumors we spread weren’t like that, but rumors are bound to be embellished and distorted, aren’t they?”

“W, would that work?”

“Making it work is our job, gentlemen. So that women will go to His Highness the Prince on their own feet, and there will be countless people who will push them even if they don’t want to.”

Rio Dante shrugged.

“Imagine there’s a father with a blonde-haired, green-eyed daughter in front of him. If he’s a commoner who’s starving because he’s poor, what choice would he make?”

“……You mean he’ll send her once just in case.”

“Make them have that vain dream that they might receive the grace of His Highness the Prince if they succeed.”

“But Captain?”

“What is it?”

One of the Knights, who suddenly had a question, raised his hand.

“If a woman who goes on her own feet after being caught in a rumor actually turns out to be the person His Highness the Prince was looking for… how do we prove that we found her? Isn’t it a secret that we spread the rumor?”

“Hahahaha!”

Rio Dante suddenly laughed in a loud voice.

“You still haven’t read His Highness the Prince’s intentions.”

“……?”

The Knights exchanged bewildered glances.

“Do you think His Highness the Prince would have come all the way to this distant frontier because he hasn’t been able to find a naive woman who would be fooled by rumors and come looking for him? Until now?”

“Yes?”

“The woman His Highness the Prince is looking for is the opposite.”

Rio Dante’s eyes flickered in the chandelier light.

“A woman who will be surprised by the rumors and hide even deeper. We’re going to look for that kind of woman.”

“……!”

“Because there will be the answer among those few women.

Rio Dante said that and sat down on the chair with his legs crossed.

“We’re not the ones who are going to hug the women who will go on their own feet and work hard in vain. They’re our competitors with bad heads.”

He raised his glass.

“The hero of the Empire… Kyle, Lancel. This brother will go down to his hometown with the flag of the Imperial family, so wait for me.”

What kind of person is the woman the Prince is looking for?

Rio Dante briefly imagined that unidentified existence in his head.

A commoner? A Knight? A noble? A fallen family? Or…

.

.

.

“Is that a person or a monkey?”

The Mercenaries all looked up at the tree in horror.

It was a subjugation party gathered to subjugate the Bandit called the ‘Demon King’.

They had entered the mountainous area and were now mesmerized by a woman who was crossing between the trees as if it were her own home.

Marigold.

She moved freely over the trees as if she were something that had lived on this land for a long time.

“Oop-cha!”

Waving her cloak and blonde hair, she climbed to the top of the tree once again.

She felt so light that she even had the illusion that she was flying.

“Can you see?”

When Lancel shouted from below, an answer soon came back.

“I see them! They’re coming this way.”

“What is?”

“The Bandits.”

“What?”

The Mercenaries, who didn’t understand, blinked their eyes.

“They said there were twenty people, but I think there are sixty… seventy people? Shouldn’t the Mercenaries run away? There are at least three times as many as us.”

“……Huh?”

It was already too late when they panicked and drew their swords.

Dozens of arrows flew and poured down on the Mercenaries.

Pabababak-!

“Kkeuaaak!”

“A, an ambush! It’s an ambush!”

The Bandit group ambushed the chaotic scene.

“Keuhahaha! The Porland Baron still hasn’t come to his senses! Everyone, wipe them all out! This Demon King will punish you!”

The Bandit boss’s loud voice echoed from the mountainside.

“Kill them!”

The Bandits, holding swords, spears, and axes, jumped up and struck down on the Mercenaries.

“Hiiiik!”

“Aaaaaaak!”

Blood and flesh splattered non-stop. Screams and roars mixed together, and the area was a mess.

“Keuhahaha! Kill them! Kill them all!”

In the middle of the mountain that had become a scene of carnage, Lancel stared at the Bandit boss, the ‘Demon King’.

“No matter how you look at it, he’s not the Demon King I was looking for.”

He was just a hairy middle-aged Bandit leader. What was in the middle of his forehead was closer to a protrusion than a mole.

“Keuhahahaha!”

It was an extremely vicious face.

“…Let’s just make money, Mary.”

“Just leave it to me, Lancel.”

For some reason, Marigold’s expression looked happy.