The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

At this point, Yulin had descended and stopped right over Shien. She saw the knights surrounding Shien and let out an enraged roar.

“Hii…!”

Among the knights, there seemed to be individuals who let out such a shameful sound.

They can’t really be blamed though.

A terrible demonic beast capable of instantly wiping them all out is right above them and is even roaring angrily. Who could withstand such thing?

If not for the fact that all the knights there were warriors who have withstood countless battles, as well as also being of the Stalim territory’s Second Knight Order, who are only surpassed by the First Knight Order who guards the national border, then they may have already begun running away.

A dragon’s fierceness is like hell. Yulin merely released a bit of her aura, and it was already enough to terrify those level 50 or so knights to half death.

Just as Terrance had thought, a dragon like that could easily annihilate a city, never mind a nearly unmatched king of demonic beasts like Yulin.

Thus, Terrance had no choice but to give the following order.

“All of you, lower your weapons!”

Terrance’s voice had a hint of reluctance to it.

Even though his opponent was merely a 20 years old youth, and he only had a child and a maid with him. Yet, the Second Knight Order of the Stalim dukedom was forced to lower their weapons in submission. That really was somewhat humiliating.

At the very least, it’s a humiliation that Terrance had never experienced before.

It can’t be helped though. The other side has such a terrifying dragon as a mount after all.

This means that the other party must either have an enormously powerful faction backing him up that is capable of granting him a mount like that, or that the other party is a taming master with a high leveled [Taming] skill.

No matter which one it is, neither is something that Terrance can afford to provoke. In fact, even the Stalim family who he is vassal to may not be able to afford to provoke him.

Add in the actual threat of that dragon, Terrance must have something wrong with his head if he doesn’t understand and back off.

Only…

(A taming master capable of taming a true dragon, huh?)

Terrance has never heard of a taming master of such level.

No, that’s not right…

(There recently seemed to have been some rumors about a noble capable taming dragons over at the Capital, right?)

Terrance suddenly remembered that matter.

Could it be then…

“Are you Viscount Bayztrot then?”

Terrance hesitated for a moment before he decided to ask that.

“Oh?” Shien smiled then, “So you know of me?”

Know of.

Of course he knows of him.

After all, according to the rumors, although this noble is only a viscount, he’s actually unbelievably amazing. He seemed to even have a superpower from over in the demon world backing him up, and even the royalty favored him quite a bit.

In fact, there were even rumors about how the idol of countless people, the Treasure of the Kingdom, had quite a good personal relationship with him.

Terrance even remembers that back when he first heard of that news, a lot of noble scions let out cries of sorrow and various insults in their refusal to believe it. It had ended up causing quite a bit of commotion on a certain level to the territory.

Even his own son had bugged him for some time in trying to get him to collect more information on this matter and to see if it’s actually true. Thus, Terrance did have some impressions of Shien.

Finally, Terrance understood just why he felt that name Shien sounded so familiar to him.

So he’s that rumored viscount, huh?

“My apologies for our rudeness.” Terrance was thinking furiously, but he made sure to speak with the utmost politeness, “So you’re also a noble of the Kingdom. I had thought that the neighboring marquis family was invading again, so please forgive me for any offense I might have given.”

“Not at all.” Shien replied with a smile, “This is all my fault here. For me to have allowed my mount to cause such a huge commotion and scaring everyone so, I’m truly ashamed.”

“No, not at all.”

“No, it indeed was my bad.”

Shien and Terrance thus went through the their show of mutual contrition. It really did give them a feel of the usual dealings between nobles.

Either way, Airi was looking at it with a disdainful expression.

“Hadn’t that guy always really hated that kind of thing before?”

In the past, just who was it that kept on repeating that he hated the falseness of nobles?

Aren’t you now acting exactly like what you used to hate so much? Ptui!

While Airi was showing such disdainful look, Lasha on the other hand was utterly calm. She simply stood quietly to the side without a word or any opinions, looking very much like just a follower.

Thus, as this continued, Shien and Terrance had enough of their etiquette and finally got into the main point.

“Might I know why Lord Bayztrot has come to Jiltry for? Please let me know if you need any help from me!” Terrance stated.

Shien had also stopped with the polite talk and finally went back to his original attitude.

“The main reason for my coming is due to the Princess’s request. I am here to resolve the matter of the Old Demon Faction within the Stalim Dukedom.”

Shien shamelessly borrowed his future wife’s name and stated his position.

“The Princess’s request?”

Terrance immediately narrowed his eyes.

It looks like this viscount really is like the rumors say, having quite a good personal relationship with the princess.

Terrance had never heard of anyone else being requested of things like that by her highness. To be sent off to such a faraway place like to take actions.

If that fop of his family were to find out about this, he’ll probably end up going insane out of envy, right?

Ever since he took a trip to the Capital and saw that princess, Terrance’s son had basically completely lost his soul, screaming countless times over and over about going back to the Capital. He even started rambling on about escaping the vassalage to the Stalim family and bringing the family over to the Capital instead. His actual goals for that was rather obvious there.

Terrance didn’t actually say anything in objection.

It was because he knew just how unrealistic it actually was.

Did he really think that the Capital is so easy to truly enter?

Never mind for nobles, even normal commoners would at least need a good connection to act as recommendation in order to live and work in the Capital, and that’s not even getting into the sheer money needed. The Georgi family might be viscounts, but considering just how many nobles throughout history have tried and failed to squeeze their way into the noble circles in the Capital, how easy did he really think it is to move to the Capital?

It was for that reason that there is in fact a difference between the nobles living in the Capital and the nobles outside of it.

Even if their statuses and authority are the same, the former’s connections, wealth, options, and all that more are all far better than the latter. Thus, it’s completely valid to consider the Capital nobles to be the higher class society members among the nobility.

In this world, there are viscount with riches beyond measure, and there are also penniless counts on the verge of bankruptcy.

Thus, if his son were to actually somehow manage to reside in the Capital, that would in fact be a major cause for celebration, so why would he try to object?

It’s just too bad for his son though. He thought that moving to the Capital would let him get a bit closer to her highness, but he had no real idea just how hopeless it really is.

There are already countless nobles who have lived and developed themselves in the Capital for hundreds of years, yet not even they had been able to gain her highness’s favor. Thus, what hope did a viscount newly arriving at the Capital have?

This isn’t even getting into the fact that they haven’t even gotten their foot into the Capital yet!

Thus, if not for him not wanting to shatter his son’s dreams and crush all his motivation, then Terrance really did want to shake him awake and get him to stop daydreaming.

However, this man before him is also a viscount, just like him, yet not only did he gain great fame recently, he even had an actual personal relationship with her highness. If his son ends up learning about this, then wouldn’t he end up going crazy?

(Let’s just try to get him to leave as soon as possible.)

Terrance made his decision and spoke up again.

“Regarding the Old Demon Faction appearing in the territory, I’ve heard of that as well.” Terrance stated, “According to what I’ve heard, after they appeared within the territory, all kinds of strange things seemed to have started appearing all around the territory. My lord’s appearance at our Stalim dukedom truly is a source of great relief.”

Shien ignored all the flattery in that statement and instead focused on the important point.

“Strange things?” Shien looked toward Terrance and asked, “What kind of strange things?”

“That… I don’t know much about it myself.” Terrance spoke with some embarrassment, “Jiltry is after all the border of the Stalim territory, the furthest city from the center even. All information from within the territory will generally arrive here last, and we never experienced any of those strange things ourselves. Thus, I’m not actually all that clear about just what those strange things actually are.”

“Alright.” Shien did not actually have all that much hope that he could get anything out of Terrance, so he simply nodded before speaking decisively, “In that case, where should I go if I wanted to learn more about this matter then?”

This question made Terrance frown and think deeply for a while.

Then, Terrance thought of something.

“I heard that the Old Demon Faction seemed to have first appeared over in Cosmos. The rumored strange happenings also appeared there first. Duke Stalim even sent the army over for this matter, and they have been dealing with it even now. Perhaps Viscount Bayztrot might be able to learn something from there.”

Terrance gave out such a clue.

“Cosmos huh?” Shien brightened up and considered it for a bit, “I remember that it seems to be a city fairly close to the border to the Ragna Empire, right?”

“Yes.” Terrance confirmed, “I heard tat the Empire is also moving due to this matter, and there has even arisen rumors that all this is the plotting of the Ragna Empire. If you want to go there, then you need to head north following the road and pass through the span of the dukedom first.”

Jeez, that means another long flight.

Realizing this issue, Shien’s eyes dulled by quite a bit.

But he’s going to have to go anyways.

In that case then…

“Well then, thank you, Lord Georgi, for your guidance.”

Shien first thanked that knight captain.

“Is Lord Bayztrot planning on heading over right now?”

Terrance attempted a little probe.

Shien shook his head at once.

“After flying all the way here from the Capital, all of us here are already tired, so we’ll first rest for the night here.”

That was what Shien was planning on.

“Then, shall I arrange some accommodations then?”

Terrance was acting quite warmly.

“No, no need. We’ll take care of it ourselves.”

Shien grabbed the hands of the two beauties with him and refused Terrance’s offer.

“Alright then.”

Terrance could only nod to show his disappointment.

Only then did Shien pull Airi and Lasha along and left.

The knights also hurriedly made way, allowing Shien to pass through their encirclement.

“Roar!” Yulin let out a roar, giving everyone there a terrible fright, also left along with Shien.

While watching the figure of the dragon moving into the distance, the warm look finally faded from Terrance’s face.

“Pass along the news. Let the citizenry know that the dragon is a noble’s mount and that there’s no need to panic. At the same time, make sure to keep yourselves in check and absolutely not provoke any incident.” Terrance ordered a knight to his side.

“Yes, sir!”

The knights accepted the order and hurried off to carry it out.

Terrance gave another glance in the direction that Shien left in and stewed in admiration while looking at the departing dragon.

If he had a dragon for a mount as well, as well as the princess and a powerful figure from the demon world to back him, then he could probably act arrogant like that too, right?

Truly, such is the difference between people.

No, rather, it’s the differences between viscounts.