The next day quickly arrived. Liumiala had gotten the information to Arnold quicker than he thought she would.
The two were inside a carriage that was headed towards a guest house that was located in the same district as the Imperial Palace. It was still early day so heading towards the palace to attend the banquet right at this moment would be unwise.
They had to wait a few hours until late afternoon before they left to attend the banquet.
Arnold had left the inn where he and Elora had stayed in. He told her that he had errands to run. He was worried that she would be against him leaving for who knows how long but her reaction was out of his expectations.
She didn't seem to care if he left or not. He was partly worried because she was a very important comrade for the future. Of course, viewing her objectively was wrong in many ways but he had started to see her like a little sister(?) who he had to constantly protect and guide.
Perhaps it was better to have space between them for a while because of the shock he received a few days ago. To be honest, he had no idea how to act around Elora now. The two being in the same room together, alone, was also quite awkward.
He needed a little time to get used to it.
Arnold noticed that the carriage was too quiet so he spoke first.
"Is everything going according to plan?"
"Yes. As you ordered, I got all the names of everyone involved with the attack on the castle as well," Mia gave Arnold a piece of paper which had a list on it, "The amount is quite a lot. Will you really kill them all?"
"…"
Kill, huh.
Liam was a normal gamer until a month ago. He was ready to hop on the server to try and challenge a dungeon event after getting back home but he was suddenly reborn as Arnold.
His life until now had been a rollercoaster. There were literally no breaks for him because his death flags were numerous.
He thought it would be easy to eliminate the death flags and that he didn't need to worry for the time being but reality was much crueller than one would expect.
It felt like he was playing reality in hard mode. Death was everywhere.
It was naïve to think he could live peacefully since he was a DOP. However, just because he was near omniscient didn't mean that he couldn't die.
That was why Arnold's answer was—
"I will kill them because that is the intent they had when they decided to follow along with that bastard's plan," Arnold looked into Mia's eyes, "Even a simple bribe deserves some punishment. As of now, I am the law in my own right."
"Pffft."
"W-What's so funny!?" Arnold raged when Mia laughed.
"It's just funny."
"What is?"
"These baseless rumours that always spread bad things about your name. Impregnating women left and right, sleeping with the women of other men, stealing things from nobles… Even killing."
"…"
"I investigated but found that the majority of these things weren't true. The girls who claimed they were impregnated went silent after a few months when pregnancy should've shown visible signs. Your father was tricked into giving them money. And then there was the fact that you steal wives. Yet, who are these wives? I was beginning to think that you were hated by everyone because of silly reasons. Sure, you're trash who crashes formal parties and you bully others for pure enjoyment," she paused, "But none of these things have caused any serious danger for others. It's just the doings of a trashy noble son."
That was true. Liam already knew that Arnold hadn't done any serious crimes like killing. He was the kind of person to act on his desires and he was very honest about it. His only good qualities were the abilities to scheme and manipulate people.
If he wanted a woman then he tried his best to woo her but he would give up if the person wasn't willing to leave her husband or lover for him. If there was a brat weaker than himself who arrogantly flaunted his strength then he teaches that person a lesson.
He was also very emotionally weak. As seen by how he flew into rage when Olivia rejected to see him that day Liam was reborn.
Something happened after the School Arc that changed Arnold forever. However, that didn't mean that Arnold wasn't a shitty person to begin with. For example, he ruined Lauran's life just because he wanted her for himself.
Through the years his behaviour would get worse and finally…
The tragic villain was made into one of the most renowned villains of Star Fantasy.
Even if Arnold had a motive for the things he had done, that didn't mean that Liam would hate him any less. His downfall was decided the first moment he ruined someone's life.
"Misunderstand me all you want. I am tired of allowing these people to walk all over me like Jurius had done all these years," Arnold leaned back and looked out the window, "They decided to mess with the wrong person. It must be their unlucky day."
"Huhuhu. Indeed, young lord. So, what should we do with the families?"
That was a question Arnold didn't want to answer. What would happen to a noble family without a head? Other people would try to swallow that family up.
"You didn't seem to hear me. Everyone will be punished. And I don't just mean the deaths of the ringleaders."
Even if all of them were involved in this scheme, only James and four others were the ringleaders of the operation.
They deserved to die.
"I'll have their families receive some kind of debt to me,"
'I don't have enough people to mine the crystals yet so this is the perfect opportunity to get more. The villages surrounding the city is too few in number.'
Since those people wouldn't have anywhere to go either, it was best to make them work for him in his city.
"Hmm… That's no fun but okay. What should we do about those besides James? Do we kill them individually or…"
"Have them," Arnold thought of a place where the plan could go underway, "—all taken to James' mansion. No, we should bring all their families along."
"Oh, ho? Why?"
"This will be a lesson that needs witnesses. They should see what happens if they try to mess with me. You see, I have a goal for the future. I'd be damned if I allowed others to interfere."
"Mhm!"
He had to make a disturbance big enough so that everyone in the empire should notice it. It was probably not enough to stop them, but Arnold could prevent his death flags from appearing out of nowhere—like this one had.
"Quick question," Liumiala spoke up.
"What?"
"Why… are you wearing that thing on your head?" She pointed at the ominous jet-black helmet with demon horns sprawling out of Arnold's head.
The reason was rather simple; he had a bad feeling for quite a while now so he decided to check his status to see if something was wrong there.
And lo and behold…
· System alert!
· Death flag detected!
'Being an NPC with a status is seriously tough.'
He had to make use of the helmet which was part of the game's interface and connected to the system.
By the way, Arnold was now level 35. He probably gained all those levels because he killed all those Imps. Still though, the amount of levels he gained from killing such monsters ranging from level 20-30 was miniscule.
'If I want to level up faster then I need to fight stronger monsters.'
Labyrinths and such would serve as the perfect place to farm experience points.
"You already know of this power. Should I ask permission to use it?"
"No, I'm not saying that… It's just weird how you're wearing demon lord armour in the open like this. If someone sees then both you and I will be hunted down by the Pope and his cultists."
"Oh, well." He took the helmet off, "I'm done anyway."
"We're approaching the mansion," said Liumiala.
"There are an awful lot of people standing in the driveway," Arnold could see multiple figures around the property of the guest house.
"Those are… my subordinates."
"I thought you can only have three subordinates with your current rank?"
"Of course you would know something like that…" Liumiala took out something from her pocket, "I'm officially a Legion rank. I don't need to borrow men from others like I did when I saved your ass from that inquisitor."
'Oh?'
Legion was the rank given to official members of Serz. Liumiala had been a 'No rank' member ever since the two of them met.
"Isn't it odd how you were given this promotion during a job?"
"You think so too, huh…" She nodded, "…I was told the reason by the one who gave this to me yesterday."
"I guess I can't ask what it was?"
"Unless you want to die?"
'Haha…'
Arnold laughed bitterly inside. If a job is compromised then it was required to erase all evidence. Naturally that included the ones who knew about the job.
"Is it alright if I take a guess?"
The two of them stepped off the carriage.
"Go ahead."
"It's the vampire lord who rules the Undead Nation, right?"
"…." Liumiala was flabbergasted, "Are you a mind reader…"
"Like I said before, I have a strong information network. Serz has every reason to want to eliminate that vampire," Arnold stopped walking, "The leader's goal is to conquer the world, right?"
"…." Liumiala's eyes shook.
'That's right. You must've been doubting whether or not I knew secrets to your organization.'
He purposefully mentioned their leader's goal. Of course, Arnold knew that person wouldn't be able to accomplish something like that with people like the Hero and Demon King around.
'Well, their former leader…'
He wanted to see Liumiala's reaction and it was just as he expected. She was taken aback.
"You want to meet the leader, right?"
"…What kind of question is that. Each and every one of us want to meet with the man who is hated yet feared by the entire world,"
'It's so amusing that they think it's a guy.'
Arnold turned around and faced Liumiala, "You might be one of the first to meet them directly," he said with a meaningful smirk.
"Eh? What do you—"
"We can speak about this later on."
"Kuh, such a tease!"