Chapter 54 – 054. Generation Gap (3)
“Hmm.”
Eunhyun stroked her chin and did not immediately respond to Abros’ invitation.
“I’m not interested in the nobility of this country, but I’m interested in the duke’s thoughts. May I ask what your intention is? If you need help, I am willing to help to the best of my ability.”
This is a line he would never have done if he was the usual Eunhyun.
Eun-hyeon was not always the one who actively intervened in everything and took active action, but he was always the one who took passive action, fulfilling the request by setting conditions and paying the price.
Therefore, it was very unexpected for him to express his intention to cooperate with a human named Avros first.
This change in Eun-hyeon’s behavior was caused by her goddess, Belldandi, releasing the restrictions placed on Eun-hyeon.
The current Eunhyeon is changing little by little to a more active way of helping herself, which is different from before, hiding her identity and acting behind the scenes.
If Belldandi had seen the first step of the change in her thoughts, she would surely have had a happy expression on her face.
However, even though the method was slightly different, Eun-hyeon’s principle of action was the same.
‘Grow people up and prepare for future threats.’
He was only faithfully fulfilling the mission given by the goddess.
“You willingly gave me a large sum of 600 platinum coins before. And then he figured out exactly what he was going to use the money for.”
“Restoration of the holy sword Durandal…”
After hearing about the situation at the time from Eunhyeon, Riod muttered softly.
A holy sword is literally a holy sword.
The swords imbued with the power of the seven goddesses who recreated the continent devastated in the aftermath of the war between the demons and mankind in the ‘Era of Void’ are the holy swords.
In preparation for the demons to reappear on the continent of Arcena through some method someday, each of the seven goddesses created a holy sword containing their power and bestowed it on humans, and by using the holy sword, humans voluntarily threatened the demons. It helped me to fight against it.
One of them, ‘Durandal’, was the weapon owned by the first king who founded Pernias and rewrote the kingdom’s history.
About 200 years ago, the then King of Fernias granted Durandal to the then Armitas family, and the holy sword Durandal became an heirloom of the Armitas ducal family.
That Durandal was broken 20 years ago in the Great War of Arcena.
“I won’t ask where or how you got the information about Durandal. What matters is your intention. You knew that by giving the Durandal I restored to the 2nd prince, I claimed to have become the owner of the holy sword, the weapon of the first king, and tried to make him the crown prince. Am I right?”
When she said what she had told Eleanor earlier without making any mistakes, Eunhyun nodded her head obediently and affirmed Avros’ question.
“That’s right.”
It was very suspicious how long he had been aware of his actions, but Abros did not bother to ask Eun-hyeon about it.
At least there was no malice in his actions.
“I heard about the Archis Grand Labyrinth from my children. Your actions and way of thinking are completely incomprehensible and reluctant, but at least I thought your intentions were to prevent chaos in the kingdom and save people.”
Even though he is not a citizen of this country, he thinks about the future of this country more than anyone else and makes a lot of advance preparations with the danger in mind.
Although Avros did not know that it was an apostle’s mission that contained the will of a goddess.
He had no choice but to admit that a man named Eunhyeon was the person who had contributed the most to the stability of Fernias without anyone knowing.
“If this continues, this country will only gradually fester and rot.”
Drooling
“Father.”
“Alex? What are you doing here?”
In the middle of the conversation, the old sliding door opened and Alex appeared and all three men made unexpected faces.
Alex walked into the room, smiling, and he naturally took a seat in one of the remaining chairs and sat down.
“I heard that an attendant entered the mansion, brought out Montas wine, and headed for the Black Witch’s mansion. Coincidentally, Eleanor was also there, so I took a belated step. When I arrived, I heard that the three of you went out for a drink like this, so I immediately thought of this place.”
“Do something useless. After finishing all the duties of the Royal Guard and leaving work, I will rest quietly at the mansion.”
“Don’t you know? The inside of the capital is in trouble these days. Wasn’t Eleanor worried about that, so she didn’t let her go home at night and asked the witch-sama to stay overnight?”
“Joy.”
Abros didn’t respond and quietly poured the drink into the glass in front of Alex.
“But what were you talking about?”
“It was the car I suggested to this person if he had no intention of becoming a nobleman.”
“Oh?”
Alex looked at Eunhyun with an interesting expression.
“You seem to have gotten pretty close.”
“No, I find that gaze very burdensome. I haven’t done anything, why are you looking at me with those eyes? Why?”
Seeing Eunhyun with a shy expression on his face, Liod smiled.
“Of course you would have refused, right?”
Looking at the reaction of Abros who nodded, Alex made an expression that he knew that.
Avros explained to Eunhyeon the content of today’s court meeting.
“Devil… Do you really believe that such an entity is infiltrating the capital?”
“It is still a possibility. I haven’t seen it myself, so it’s impossible to conclude anything based on the circumstances.”
“To be honest, it doesn’t make sense, but… If it is true that a demon called a succubus is attacking nobles like that, how should we respond?”
Eunhyun opened her mouth to Alex’s question.
“What they use is hypnotism, the greatest weapon they can use. It displays realistic dreams in people’s heads and manipulates their perceptions. This hypnotism and the range of power that can be used differ depending on the level of the succubus. The lower succubus just show illusions through dreams, but the hypnosis of the higher succubus can even manipulate the will to blindly follow oneself. It is also possible to make allies die and kill each other.”
People under the hypnotic state of a high-ranking succubus are corrupted into servants of the devil.
They do not harbor any dissatisfaction with the orders given, and do not feel any doubts.
It was the ‘hypnotism’ they used that made them capable of killing even their own family members, even if they were like colleagues who had been together for the rest of their lives.
“It is terrible.”
After hearing Eunhyun’s explanation, Alex frowned.
“During the war 20 years ago, I had never met a succubus that could use such strong hypnotic powers.”
“Of course. The demons that steered the Empire from behind the scenes 20 years ago are the lesser demons naturally born on this continent. What they were trying to summon through the demon summoning ritual was the advanced demons that exist beyond the borders of the void I explained earlier.”
“How do you know that information?”
“Whenever you come to the Mervis library, we will lend you a book written about the life of the first king of Pernias. There is a vague description of the advanced demons that existed in the Age of Void.”
Unable to reveal that it had existed since the era of the void, the era of the earth before its destruction, Eun-hyeon casually put on a plaintive expression and spread lies.
“To continue the story, dealing with succubi itself is not that impossible from a human point of view. It’s not high-level, and low-level dreamers can only use simple mind manipulation magic. If you only have immunity measures against brainwashing, you can subdue them with force.”
“Then, why are your father’s and Mr. Leo’s expressions so bad?”
“It is not a problem that can be solved by knowing how to deal with it. We don’t even have a clue or presence right now, and those demons are as good at camouflage magic as they are brainwashing magic. If you’re determined and pretend to be a human, there’s no way to find it. Of course, this doesn’t seem to be the only cause, right?”
Eun-hyeon glanced at Abros and Riod and threw his words into a question mark.
“What sighs the most is how the nobles are coping.”
“Wasn’t the outcome of the meeting going in a very good direction?”
“As a conclusion, we ended the meeting by keeping only the possibility in mind and discussing it again when we find more definite clues. Only… Even if it is certain that the devil is indeed infiltrating the capital, there are opinions that it should not be made public.”
“That… Why?”
“I’m concerned that the image of the kingdom will deteriorate if it is revealed. The devil may be lurking in the capital and roaming the streets, but who can be there safely?”
When the truth is announced, the people will fall into anxiety, and there may be a response to leave the capital, even if it means abandoning the property and house that they have built a lifetime. Confusion caused by anxiety affects public order, merchants who have heard rumors may not come to the capital, and foreign countries may interfere with the pretext that the country is infiltrated by the devil.
Although everything was just an extreme and rapid imagination that made no sense, the aristocrats, whose anxiety was amplified by this imagination, were in a hurry to hide the truth.
“It is a difficult problem.”
Alex, who had heard the story, also muttered with a complicated face.
“The nobles at the center of this opinion are mostly young nobles who have not had any contact with demons. It’s because you don’t have proper information about the vague existence of the devil. They are only concerned about the possible harm to themselves and do not give any opinion on solving the fundamental problem. He hates suffering more than dying, but does not take an active part in resolving it and only blames others.”
Avros and Alex frowned at the thought of the young nobles who denied the possibility that the devil had infiltrated the capital and took responsibility for it, talking condescendingly about Queen Diane’s existence.
Guessing that the time of the meeting was not very fruitful, Eun-hyeon nodded and opened her mouth.
“Can you just say that to me? Anyway, that’s the contents of the court meeting. I am just an ordinary person.”
“Ha, what kind of sad words have you come back now?”
Alex sneered at Eunhyun’s answer and smirked.
Eun-hyeon narrowed her eyes at Alex’s grin and stared at him for a while, then sighed and asked Abros again.
“I mean, is it like this? The current young generation of aristocrats, who have not experienced war with demons, have little sense of crisis, show no will to solve problems in a crisis situation, have no sense of responsibility, and are just insect-like beings who eat the salary given by the country every day. Are you saying?”
“The expression is too direct, but accurate.”
Abros laughed at Eunhyun’s tidying up.
“And, as a vassal of the duke, I became an aristocrat, carrying the duke’s strength and prestige on my back, showing a different side to those aristocrats, and supporting this country in a different way than before, not from the back, but from the front, the duke’s wish. .”
“Yes.”
“You are asking for too much. Do you think I can do that?”
“At least I don’t think it’s impossible.”
This man is thinking too highly of his abilities.
Eunhyun thought so.
“I had no intention of doing it in the first place. However, I have been thinking about this serial raid on aristocrats.”
“Hmm?”
“I think this incident is a golden opportunity to instill a sense of crisis among young nobles about the devil that the duke is worried about…”
Intentionally blurring the end of his words, Eun-hyeon smiled.
Avros habitually frowned.
It was because the expression as if a snake was flicking its tongue and eating itself was the reluctant face it made when plotting something.
“Leod.”
“What?”
“Are the victims limited to nobles?”
“For now, it is. At least, I have not received any report or report that there is a patient with similar symptoms among the common people.”
“The aristocrats who were the victims I was talking about earlier. For some reason, the name sounds familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“Sometimes, I took Erin to her clothing store because of something unpleasant. What nobles do there is spectacle. While dressing his daughter in expensive clothes made of high-quality fabrics, he proceeded to extort even an expensive jewel while using the novel logic of ‘It is natural for a commoner of a low status to give clothes to an aristocrat of a noble status.'”
He was the owner of a personality that seemed to have been disintegrated because his conscience was out of order to the point where it was impossible to say that the things he had were added.
“It was at least the price of three gold coins, but it seemed like he did it more than once or twice. But among the victims this time, the name of a garbage aristocrat who is worse than the truth is included?”
“What?”
“Maybe recently. Did the other two victims have similar troubles or incidents?”
“… In one case, the victim’s son in Aether severely beat a commoner he didn’t like, but in a trial, he was sentenced to a fine. But another…”
“Viscount Berman. He is the boss of the former baron Renion Hersha, who turned a blind eye to his embezzlement of trust.”
At Eunhyeon’s words, the three opened their eyes wide and looked at Eunhyeon.
As soon as the topic was thrown, Eun-hyeon was showing a surprised expression at the clues about the incident that came out of her mouth.
“Ignoring whether the culprit was a human or a demon, it was really unexpected that he seemed to be acting like a bandit. I’m not sure if that’s really good intentions, or if it’s malicious intent disguised as good intentions.”
“Did you know about the commonality of these cases from the beginning?”
“What a rough. I thought I’d tell you if you asked.”
Riod doesn’t much prefer to rely on Eun-hyeon.
It was because she was so reluctant to ask her friend for help whenever something happened.
However, this time, Eun-hyeon showed an unexpected behavior by presenting information first.
Leo also noticed that it meant that there was a picture that Eun-hyeon was drawing, and that he had something he wanted.
Helping Eun-hyeon, who was a friend and a benefactor, was something that Riod wanted most of all.
“Is there anything I need help with?”
Eunhyun, who nodded slightly, opened her mouth to the rich man of the Duke of Armitas who still had a hard expression on her face.
“Duke, I mean. I have no interest in the welfare of the nobility of this kingdom. I don’t know if it’s a duke or a noble like Riod, but I don’t think it’s worth helping someone who has done trash to the point of becoming a target for someone who pretends to be a rogue like that. However, I am in favor of instilling a sense of crisis in the nobles who stand at the center of this country.”
“…”
“Would you like to join the painting I am drawing?”
What are you thinking?
In the midst of mixed feelings of fear, strangeness, and confusion, a powerful curiosity that nonetheless suppresses these feelings.
At least this man is twisted in his ways, but he always tries to lead this country in a good direction.
That’s why the desire to watch his progress was even more intense than to stop him.
At the temptation of the trickster, who was plotting another serpentine scheme, Avros sighed and nodded.
