Chapter 18 - Target

I feel pissed right now.

To be an ability user is already pre-determined at the moment of your birth.

I wonder if the pope was a good man who became twisted while growing up or if he was just a madman from the beginning.

While we do share the same objective I do not want to be put in the same category with the likes of him.

His methods are far worse than Claude's!

How dare he threaten an innocent man for his own desires?

While I do force people to do what I want them to, I only do so to people who aren't even worthy of being called 'human'.

Most may say that it is hypocrisy at its finest for someone who preach freedom and equality to resort to these kinds of methods.

Well I don't give a fuck about them.

Even I know the difference between making an asshole, who have committed countless sins, to do your bidding for the sake of saving innocent lives and enslaving innocent people by blackmailing them for your own greed!

"Please calm down"

"I am calm"

"I doubt that"

"How come?"

"Because that's the same look you had when you beat up the young lady from the marquessate who splash her tea on Cedric's lover"

Of course, that bitch knew that Cedric doesn't like her and she dares to get in between them? In between that prince, who I do not care about, and my cute puppy? And she has the audacity to say that it was the normal thing to do?!

Just thinking back about that time makes my blood boil even more.

"Let's go back to my house for a while"

"Okay"

Without asking me why, he opened a portal to the basement of my house.

"Anne and... duke Edward"

"Jerome... bitch I thought you were dead!"

"Why the hell are you killing me"

Oh, right, right.

"Eddie she is Janna the only ability user in the demon hound guild. Janna he is Eddie, the duke of the Dominique duchy in the Berda empire"

"I see that you have been up to bigger things while I was gone"

Edward clicked his tongue.

Now that I look at him he seems to be... sulking?

"Something wrong?"

"You say that she is the 'only' ability user when I am here?"

"Let me rephrase it then"

He sure is childish at the oddest times. I find it quite charming though.

"She is the only 'official member' of the demon hound guild who is an ability user"

"Eh?"

"Duke, there is something called 'exams' that are held if someone wants to be an official member in our guild. I guess that you never took it, huh"

"Well, she never told me anything about it"

"You never ask me though"

Of course there would be an entrance exam to be a part of the guild. Why would I bother to send out dogs that can't even do their jobs right.

Eddie had the face saying that "I want to take it! Now!". However, we were short on time so I decided to put that on a later date.

Janna reported what happened in the viscounty of Rahullion. There was a problem regrading monsters and since she was already near there she took on the job to find out the cause of it which took her months to do so.

Many lives were save as she killed the monsters that wreck havoc as well as heal those who were injured using her powers as a druid.

"Eddie, is the school almost done"

"Yes"

"That's good. I don't want to burst their moment but can you call Sarah and Sir. John now"

"Wait here for a moment"

A minute or two later, he came back with the two behind him.

"Listen, you two. Sarah Benzel from now on you will be continuing your work in the eastern part of the empire, at the place the Benzel's own. Meanwhile, Sir. John will now be your knight"

"Hey, guild master! You can't just force someone to become a knight and serve someone they don't even know!"

"Idiot, just because you were out there killing monsters for the past few months, have you gone blind that you can't even see the mood right now?"

Janna and Jerome look closer to the two. They saw that Sir. John and Sarah were blushing and was holding each others' hand. The two now understood what my words truly mean.

"Being a knight is only a pretext. Besides, Sir. John's family would also be near there. It is a whole week trip on carriage though"

"Are you by any chance going to make their family stay at the Rahullion viscounty?"

"Yes"

The viscounty of Rahullion is the closest territory that I have influence on to the empire. This way, these love birds should be able to live a quiet life.

John's knees fell on the ground. He was shaking and crying, much more so than last night's event.

"How... how can I ever repay your... kindness?"

His voice was shaking as he express his gratitude to me.

"Just make sure that you won't break Sarah's heart. If you do, I will personally deal with you. Got that"

"Yes! I promise I will never do such a thing to lady Sarah Benzel"

He stood up firmly and saluted to me.

I gestured for them to go upstairs as we still have important matters to talk about.

"What were you guys talking about?"

"Explain. You bitch, you know that we can't talk sukelian so explain what you guys were talking about just now"

(Note: Sukelian is the language used in the kingdom of Sukel)

"It's fine. You guys don't need to know about that"

We went back to our small meeting regarding the budgets and finance of future works and the current range of influence we currently have in the continent.

After some time the two left to get to the others and exterminate another rotten noble.

"Anne"

"Yeah?"

"How come that only you and that girl named Janna the only women in the demon hound guild?"

"What are you talking about. The men in the guild is about seventy while the females here are more than two hundred"

"How come I never met them?

"That's because they are the ones who manages intel gathering in other noble houses by working as maids while there are some who works by in the branches of the merchant and adventurers' guild"

I always make them to choose what they wanted. Intel gathering team or the strike team.

They knew themselves that fighting is not really what they do best so almost all of them chosen to be a part of the intel gathering team.

This way, they were able to work normally in an environment that treats them well.

"Do you want to see other women? I'll show you to a good brothel if you want"

"There's no need to do that. I'm not the type to sleep with someone I barely even know"

That's sweet but I somehow feel like he is also guilt-tripping me right now.

I took him by the collar and dragged him downstairs.

"Strip. Now"

...

"Does you back hurts, Eddie?"

"A bit"

"Next time, try working on the technique instead of mindlessly thrusting in and out so that you won't hurt yourself, okay"

"Okay"

I'm the one getting penetrated, so how come he is the one who is having a sore back?

After that, me and Eddie went back to Sukel via portal gate and left as soon as I handed out a letter for the pope in the hands of a priest.

By the time they read it, they will most likely think that John deserted or have been killed after being discovered.

As they do not have any evidence of us killing John, they can't frame us. Even if they wanted to, I don't think that Charlotte would stay back and let the pope to framed the man of her dreams to be locked away from false charges.

"Where should we go next?"

"To Otvon. But first, we need to go to the northern most part of the empire"

"To the Azara duchy?"

"Yup"

He opened a portal and we went through it. The moment the portal closed, the white frost knights, knights of the Azara duchy raised their swords and pointed it towards us.

I whispered.

"Did you by any chance did something in the past that angered them?"

"As far as I remember, no, I did not do such a thing"

Then why are they so hostile towards the empire's strongest man?

"Stop! Do you morons don't know who that man is?!"

"Lady Sophia, these unknown individuals suddenly-"

Bonk!

Sophia hit the knight's head. It was more like a slap than a hit. Though it made a loud sound I somehow felt that it didn't hurt but rather it was intentional to be loud to get the attention of the others.

"That man is the duke of the Dominique duchy who is also known as the empire's strongest man. Are you all confident that you can beat him?"

Wait, by any chance... no way that's possible.

"Hey Eddie, don't tell me that they never saw you before?"

I was looking at him with an anxious expression. Of course there is no way that is true. He's been here countless times already.

But the answer I got was the answer that I wasn't expecting.

"Well, I never met any of them. When I came here only the head butler and Benedict ever saw me so..."

I can't believe it.

After Sophia vouched for our identities she led us to the duke's room.

"Where is Benedict?"

"He's out fighting the barbarians that are plundering the villages further north. You guys?"

Eddie look at me intensely. He was curious to know why we came here.

"I need to kill someone. He is a wizard. To make sure no causalities will occur I need both Benedict and Eddie to kill that man"

"Why?"

"Not only does he have a powerful demon, he is also an addict at killing people"

At the second part of volume one, as Alex brought chaos upon Temal there was a wizard with a demon whose ability is necromancy, the ability to reanimate the dead and make them his own meat soldiers.

He then fled to the borderline between Otvon and Temal after he acquired a large number of undead soldiers.

He then brought chaos upon Otvon in part three when Otvon and Sukel was in the middle of the war.

Being attacked by both sides, Otvon was destroyed in less than a month.

He then died at the ending of part three when the saintess barely won after using her on that maniac.

"Based on my dogs, there are currently abnormal movements of undead in Otvon. The cause of that would be the wizard. So before his army of the dead grew any bigger we will have to kill him before who knows what happens"

The two nodded in agreement.

With the two strongest man in the empire, they should be able to beat David without any problem.

Sophia said that Benedict would come back to the duchy after four days, so me and Eddie went to Otvon's royal palace, unannounced.