Assault Of The Royal Palace Knights!

――Boom!!

“—!?!”
“—!?!”

The mansion’s front entrance was forcibly broken down.

The ones who entered were a man and a woman in the armor of the Royal Palace Knights.

“You’re Sid Ranorus, aren’t you?”

“We condemn you for the crime of murdering His Highness the Second Prince Sylvan!”

The two knights drew their swords at the same time.

“Hey, hey—you’ve come way too fast.”

It’s only been a day since I killed the Hero party.

This mansion was originally a property managed by the Adventurer’s Guild.

And the Guild is a state organization—so it only took them half a day to pinpoint where I lived.

“Fine by me—but I took down a Hero party of A-Rank Adventurers all by myself, you know? You really think the two of you can kill me?”

“…!”
“…!”

I checked the statuses of the two Royal Palace Knights.

Their sword skills are at least passable, but their Levels are only 25 and 27.

They only have stats equivalent to about C-rank adventurers.

If I wanted to, I could slaughter them without even rising from my chair.

“Well? Hurry up and come at me, then?”

I drew a longsword from Vanargand’s extra-dimensional storage—and sent out a killing intent as if to finish them.

The bold knights took a step back, sweating, and glanced behind them.

From their reaction, this mansion is probably surrounded by the knight corps.

――Crack!

“…!?”

As they focused only on the entrance where the two knights were, the sound of dishes breaking came from the kitchen.

No way—

“Rin!?”

“Whoa! Don’t move, Shikai Tribe. Unless you don’t care what happens to this slave, that is.”

――Bad premonitions are the ones that come true.

“Master… I’m so sorry…!”

“Now the tide has turned, huh?”

While the two knights made a flashy entrance through the front door, a separate squad had slipped in through the kitchen back door.

And they took the helpless Rin as a hostage—an effective tactic.

If you can turn a blind eye to the fact that it’s the Royal Palace Knights—supposedly the country’s peacekeepers—doing it…

I can’t believe they’d even discovered that I own a slave.

“General… surely taking an unrelated slave hostage is going a bit too far…?”

“Wasn’t the original plan supposed to be a pincer attack…?”

“Shut up, you lot!”

The one holding Rin hostage was being called the General.

He must be the commander-in-chief of the Royal Palace Knights.

But even his subordinates were confused by the inhumane tactic.

But this General—his face seemed familiar.

When I checked the status, it displayed “Greiss Wolf.”

Wolf—that’s the same family name as Garen.

He’s probably a bit stronger than Garen.

Which means—if Rin weren’t being held hostage, he wouldn’t be my match right now.

“You… are related to Garen?”

“That’s right. I’m the older brother of Garen, whom you killed. I’m avenging my little brother! I’m going to take you down, scum!”

“The two brothers are real pieces of trash, huh.”

Ekarraat was also dumbfounded.

“Either way, you’re done. No matter how you win, as long as the public doesn’t find out, there won’t be a problem. Drop your weapons. If you don’t want the slave’s face torn to pieces…”

“Wah! Don’t worry about me, Master!”

“Don’t struggle, brat!”

Garen’s brother—Greiss—held Rin down from behind and pressed the longsword against her cheek.

Just from that, Rin’s cheek was cut and a thin stream of blood ran down.

I see—if they wanted to, they really could kill innocent unrelated people.

Then—it’s fine for us to ignore the rules too, right?

“Understood. I’ll do as you say.”

I dropped my weapon and put both hands behind my head.

“Heh! You should’ve done that from the start, you trash. Disgusting that a member of a slave tribe would have the audacity to keep a slave.”

Greiss loosened the sword he had against Rin slightly—

“…Do it.”

—At that moment.

Within the Shadow Field, Shadows stretched to Rin’s feet, and the summoned Goblin Lord smashed into Greiss!

“Ugh!?”

“GRARAA!!”

Greiss was blown away and slammed into the wall.

“Rin! Come here!”

“Master!”

Rin ran to me.

I put my hand on Rin’s back and pulled her into my chest.

Her small body was still trembling, and the facial wound was deeper than I thought.

I thought it was only a shallow cut to the skin, but the flesh had been sliced cleanly.

I need to finish this quickly and get Windine to treat her.

“Goblin Lord. Show no mercy—beat him to death!”

“Grrr!”

“Ugh! Stop! Don’t! S-stop—”

—Crack! Thud! Wham!

The Goblin Lord straddled the Royal Palace Knights’ General and pummeled his face over and over.

After bones and teeth were broken and his face caved in, on the tenth blow his HP hit zero and he died.

“Do you want to end up like that too?”

“…!?”

I asked the two remaining knights.

They were just hired men after all, and it seemed they hadn’t been told about Greiss’s hostage plan.

So, I’ll grant them mercy—just once.

“Eek!?”

“P-please forgive me!!”

The knights dropped their weapons and fled out through the broken entrance.

“You’re too soft, Sid Ranorus.”

“The Royal Palace Knights are, rotten as they may be, an organization that maintains order—the guardians of justice.”

“Do you still believe in people’s goodness at this point? One day that’ll be used against you.”

Ekarraat seemed displeased with my choice.

I give no mercy to scum who harmed me; if possible I choose methods that prolong their suffering and humiliate them, but even so I haven’t descended so far into carnage that I can kill people who approach indiscriminately.

I’m sure Ekarraat hopes I’ll fall into that state of bloodlust.

While Rin’s presence barely keeps me tied to humanity, Ekarraat tries to guide me toward the path of a demon at every opportunity.

Where will I end up in the end…?

“In any case, this mansion is unusable now. It’s an expensive buy, but we have to abandon it—Vanargand.”

Vanargand’s great maw appeared at my feet, swallowed me, Rin, and Ekarraat, and submerged back into the darkness.

――A few minutes later.

Even when the two knights who had fled returned with comrades who had surrounded the mansion and stormed it again, they found only Greiss’s corpse—the mansion had been emptied of everyone…