Chapter 811
The Salon owner's hands froze.
The tongue that was about to spew flattery also stopped.
An escort gulped.
The servant's legs trembled.
The atmosphere changed, and the people around them created distance.
A spy?
The south?
Who?
Who said that?
The Demonic Knight?
The Ender of the Civil War?
The Demon Slayer?
The weight of a word changes depending on whose mouth it comes from, and Enkrid was currently one of the most influential people in Naurillia.
The Salon owner, his face crumpled in a sense of injustice, asked back.
"...Excuse me?"
Enkrid judged that this man was not a spy.
No matter how outstanding one's acting skills, one cannot hide all the reactions that come out unconsciously.
All the more so since his opponent was an ordinary person who had not been properly trained.
"If you misspeak, your head will be smashed."
Rem threatened from the side.
Slayer of Nobles, Collector of Noble Heads.
The two nicknames flashed through the man's mind.
He unconsciously gripped the handle of his sword-stick.
Even though there were more than a few nobles with whom he had built a friendly relationship, no one stepped forward to help.
In a moment of crisis, one can only trust oneself.
The owner shut his mouth and chose his words.
The owner of the Calderan Ruins Salon, though he had bought the title of a Baronet with his merchant origins, possessed the experience to know that he shouldn't mess with a knight because of it.
"You might die if you draw that, so I recommend you don't."
The frog advised him from the side.
That is to say, Luagarne had spoken with the intention of advising, but to the listener, it sounded like a death threat.
The frog's gruff voice itself evoked fear, and her distinct, shiny skin reflected the light.
The frog were a combat species.
So it was right to be afraid.
In that respect, there was probably no one as scary as Rem, though.
The Salon owner's mind became complicated.
'Is this the end?'
Have I fallen out of favor with the royal family?
Is that why this is happening?
But still, sending a knight for this?
Doesn't that make sense?
The owner, who had been trembling, soon found his jaw trembling as well.
"N-n-n-n-no, sir."
"S-s-s-s-seems that way."
Rem mimicked his stutter.
Half of his intention was to tease, and the other half was due to the antipathy he felt, knowing that this man's conduct was not so righteous.
This man had come this far by committing illegal acts.
According to the information the kingdom had provided, that was the case.
However, he now had a household to feed, and among them were many from the slums.
His intention was to raise intelligent and talented children to place them under his command, but that was indeed a good thing.
He had also reportedly donated to the church while keeping an eye on the kingdom's mood.
He had also contributed quite a bit of funding when the national educational institution was established.
According to Krais.
"If he's paid this much Krona, we should leave him be. His illegal activities were at the level of selling eastern artifacts at a premium, and his past involvement in unsavory business is all there is to it."
The man didn't know Enkrid's thoughts, but he now believed he had escaped death, although it was just a coincidence.
The owner of the Salon had barely saved his life.
One of the reasons he had survived was that he had put his best efforts into running the Salon.
Krais had valued that point highly.
"Live a good life."
Rem said, and the owner nodded.
Silence fell upon the Salon.
"They are frightening people."
A woman in a dress with a tight waist and voluminous arms and thighs muttered.
"Shh!"
The pot-bellied noble next to her quickly raised a finger to his lips.
He wanted to avoid the tragedy of the grim reapers' footsteps turning toward them because of some careless words.
"It seems we've ruined the mood."
Enkrid's gaze swept over the pot-bellied man and the lady before he spoke, then he rose from his seat.
"I'll be watching."
Rem pocketed the bottle of liquor, added one more word to the Salon owner, and turned away.
Enkrid, who had come outside, asked Shinar.
"Are you going to keep following me?"
"I cannot miss the opportunity to spend time with you at night."
How could she say it so confidently?
Furthermore, they weren't even alone;
Luagarne and Rem were with them.
Enkrid figured he might as well and moved on.
The night sky was clear.
The temperature was also moderate, so it wasn't bad for a walk.
The sound of night insects chirping could be heard from here and there.
They had decided to visit the other two Salons today, so if they didn't want to stay up all night, they would have to pick up their pace a little.
What was the next Salon after the Calderan Ruins?
Was it called the Square of Heaven?
It was said that a few devout priests and the church within Naurillia repeatedly protested that they should change the name, but they held their ground.
'The pursuit of pleasure is human nature.'
The Salon named Square of Heaven had reportedly claimed that they too were believers in God, along with these words.
That claim was not a lie.
It was a Salon established by one of the religious orders that had spread in the south.
The god they served was the goddess of pleasure and
hyang'yu
Here,
hyang'yu
had a double meaning.
One was "to enjoy and possess," and the other was because they actually sold "perfumed oil."
It was said that the most precious of those oils, applied instead of perfume, was worth as much as a potion from a decent religious order.
Since it was a Salon established by a southern religious order, it was a place that couldn't help but arouse suspicion.
As Enkrid was thinking this and walking, he lifted a hand in front of his face, spread his fingers, and touched his thumb and forefinger together.
At that, a thin needle that had been aiming for his eye or somewhere on his face was caught.
Naturally, all of this happened so fast that an ordinary person wouldn't even have been aware of it.
The assassination attempt continued.
That is to say, it was a series of useless acts.
"This is absurd, these bastards."
Though he couldn't use his shamanistic powers as before, Rem was still Rem.
He kicked the head of the man who had been aiming for his back with his heel.
It was a kick where he pivoted on his right foot, twisted only his waist, and shot his leg out.
On the surface, it looked like that, but it was a blow sufficient to smash a man's head if it connected.
The opponent was no ordinary foe either and momentarily tried to endure by thrusting his forehead forward.
Of course, it was useless.
Thwack.
With one kick, the neck of the man who had been aiming for Rem's back bent backward and he collapsed.
He was dead.
For a person with a broken neck cannot live.
Rem spun the bottle of liquor in his hand, chuckled, and said.
"What? Do I look like an easy target because I don't have a weapon?"
The assault was short.
No, to be precise, they were killed in a single blow as soon as they attacked.
"I cannot fight yet, my fiancé."
Shinar pretended to be weak, but there was no one particularly aiming for her.
They mostly aimed for Enkrid, and he deflected the majority of the attacks.
In the midst of this, he was careful not to damage his clothes.
Since they were on their way to a Salon, shouldn't he be wearing neat clothes if possible?
All the more so since his job today was to capture everyone's attention.
And he had to do it not with an accident, but with his mere presence.
There were six assassins, and Luagarne captured one.
It wasn't a difficult task either.
As he charged with a dagger, she blocked the blade with her palm and broke his nose with her forehead.
"Kugh."
The man who let out a groan sprawled on the floor and swallowed a pill he had hidden in his mouth.
Soon, blood began to trickle from the corners of his mouth.
Luagarne watched the process intently, rolling her large eyeballs.
Then she sniffed the man's blood and said.
"It seems he used a rather expensive pill."
What this meant was that the ones behind the assassins had considerable resources.
It also meant that it wasn't some clumsy information guild or assassination guild.
The assault had been clumsy.
It wasn't at a level to aim for a knight.
When they searched their bodies, they found handkerchiefs, and all of them had a pattern of several vertical lines with one horizontal line drawn across them.
"Is it something like the mark of an anti-king?"
A stratagem to sow discord.
A good means to make them turn on each other.
It was a scheme to create a fictional organization to make the king and the nobles distrust each other.
It was a ploy one could fall for even while knowing.
'The royal family has grown in power.'
That power had resulted in the strengthening of royal authority.
Therefore, the nobles had come to know that the royal family's power could strike them at any time.
In the meantime, the prosperity of a few noble families who had stayed close to the royal family had grown.
'Starting with the Duke of Okto.'
And Marquis Baisar, Marcus, Andrew.
The noble society could ostracize the royal family at any time.
Because they felt threatened even if the royal family did nothing.
It was a tower that could collapse at any time with just a small trigger.
It was because everything, starting from the cornerstone, was so flimsy.
Krais had said that all those problems should be prevented by making the nobles fight among themselves.
'Then what about me?'
He would call everyone and question them.
He would face it head-on.
'But is that the answer?'
Was it the most ideal solution?
No.
His intuition told him so.
Then should he just beat them all up?
'That seems like the worst.'
Enkrid briefly reflected.
A moment ago, he had been thinking too much like Rem.
"Your gaze is unpleasant."
Rem said as their eyes met while walking.
"It's nothing."
Enkrid didn't think any more deeply.
He did what he had to do, knowing it was something he couldn't handle himself.
He went to the second Salon and unleashed Rem.
"Liquor!"
The rampage of the attention-grabbing party.
"The stench of rotten potatoes is overwhelming."
Shinar found and burned the drugs that were being secretly spread inside the Salon.
"The flames are so pretty."
The elf who had once feared demons and fire was now engrossed in playing with fire.
"What is this ruckus!"
The bishop who served the goddess of pleasure and sensuality, and also the owner of the Salon, came out.
The half-loosened string of his trousers seemed to prove what he had been doing until just a moment ago.
Of the three Salons, was this the smallest but the one where they partied the hardest?
"That is not a Salon. It's a red-light district. Clean it up."
Krais had said so firmly.
No matter how much you only hit the one holding the shield, the shield might get a little dented in the process.
"Stop the corruption of the Salon, Sir."
At the words Krais had spoken in a solemn tone just before they left, Rem had smacked him on the back of the head.
"Ouch, that hurts, Rem. That hand is a hand that splits monsters. You shouldn't hit people with it."
"That mouth of yours sure runs well. I'll show you the handiwork that splits monsters for real."
Krais had run away, looking for someone to save him.
"Captain, Commander, Lord."
It was a scene he saw often.
Enkrid had moderately mediated and decided to grant Krais' wish.
The expedition to stop the corruption of the Salon had been formed like that.
"What is this!"
"If you have a complaint, come to the Border Guard."
Enkrid emptied the Salon, burned the drugs hidden inside, and came out.
"I will surely take this matter up with the royal family!"
The Salon owner shrieked, as if drunk on the drugs.
At those words, the turning Rem approached him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
The lightly placed hand held his body, and his struggling quickly stopped.
"Really?"
Rem asked.
Had he sobered up in that time?
His excitement cooled as quickly as it had risen.
Or perhaps the chill of Rem had cooled his heat in an instant.
"Um, on second thought, I don't think I should."
"Right?"
Rem's teeth reflected the moonlight.
"Next."
Enkrid visited the third Salon as well.
They continued to draw attention and move.
After the commotion of the night had passed, Enkrid spent two more days and met Krais again.
Krais was taking off a dress and removing his makeup.
He was in the process of removing his disguise as the woman they met at the Salon on the first day.
"Was it fun?"
Rem asked, chuckling.
"It was very fun. This is a bigger deal than I thought."
The spies from the south had spread like a cell-based organization, but in reality, several guilds had allied to orchestrate the matter.
Among them were those who had been tricked into joining, but they too were not unaware that it was all against the interests of the royal family.
"His Majesty will move immediately."
And the work of The Order of the Madmen Knights was finished here.
They were knights.
A military force called a calamity.
There was no need for them to step up further.
Even now, they had only acted with the intention of showing off their friendship with the royal family and at Krais' request.
Enkrid's gaze turned to Krais.
Big-Eyes was not a person who took risks.
So when he asked.
"It's a wonder you stepped up yourself?"
"Ah, of course I had Jaxen watch over me the whole time. As for his payment, I recently obtained a precious item and gifted it to him."
No wonder I haven't seen Jaxen at all.
Enkrid had eaten well and rested well for three days straight.
And just as he was about to leave, Krang sent people several times to hold him back.
Marcus also stopped him.
"My father is on his deathbed."
It was around the time that those who moved in secret among the Royal Guard were annihilating the southern spy organization.
However, the spies' operation had to be considered a success.
"If the royal family's power grows any larger, what will become of us?"
Some of the nobles openly expressed their anxiety.
And in the midst of this, Marquis Baisar passed away.
When someone dies, a power vacuum is bound to be created.
Furthermore, rumors were rampant that the Marquis had not designated a legitimate heir.
It was three days after Enkrid had turned the Salons upside down in the middle of the night.
The funeral was held.
Kin Baisar stood guard over the proceedings, wearing a plain, jet-black dress.
Marcus stepped forward as the heir and representative of the house.
The atmosphere among some of the nobles was incredibly cold.
A few of the nobles' businesses had been wiped out while striking down the southern spy organization, and it was likely because they were wary of the royal family's power while expressing their anxiety.
"That dissatisfaction won't be easily quelled."
Krais said.
It was as the funeral was proceeding.
The Duke of Okto approached Enkrid's side.
"Have you been well, Sir?"
The Duke asked.
Enkrid nodded toward the weary-looking Duke.
"His Majesty has asked that you grant his request."
They were words delivered by a Duke, no less.
Enkrid was about to ask what the request was, but Krang was faster.
"I have something to say, since everyone has gathered like this."
He opened his mouth, capturing everyone's attention.
Everyone gathered in the great hall looked at him.
At that moment, Enkrid remembered the words Marcus had told him.
Hadn't he said that the Marquis had shown a wide smile just before he died?
He had said that smile was not the face of a man worried about the future.
He had also said that he had a private audience with Krang just before he died.

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