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224. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2)
Demon headed to the underground training center while holding the knight by the collar.
The way Demon walked was full of confidence, as if familiar to this kind of attitude.
How could a cat who had tasted fish just pass by the fish market without doing anything?
And Demon wasn’t a cat, but more akin to a tiger.
And so it wouldn’t be strange for Demon to consume humans, not fish.
In Millions’ perspective, he had raised a baby tiger.
Demon, who had become as strong as possible, was planning to tear apart the master.
Because Demon had already tasted the sweetness of consuming the slaves of the training center, it would be difficult to resist the temptation to do so again.
Not only that, but the only person who could stop Demon, Millions, was absent.
This was a chance for Demon that may not come again before the summon back to the celestial plane.
The crushing killing intent that was felt back in the fight with Jurassic.
Demon was positive that Min-Cheol was there at the festival.
That’s why Demon was not satisfied with butchering the slaves from before.
Coming down the long spiraling staircase, Demon arrived at the entrance of the underground training center.
At the entrance were guards who oversaw the slaves.
After meeting the gaze of Demon, the guards were quite startled.
Marquis Millions had commanded the training center be accessible before.
However, the marquis was absent at this time, and they hadn’t received any new orders regarding it since.
Not only that, but the knight that was supposed to guard Demon’s residence having his collar grabbed while flailing about had made this all the more suspicious.
The guards pointed their spears and spoke.
“Demon. Why are you here at the training grounds at this time!”
“Kuhu. This isn’t the first time.”
“We didn’t receive any new orders from the marquis. Return at once!”
“You do not need to open the door for me. What’s the point of the lock on such a flimsy steel door?”
“You little… Do you dare go against the marquis’ order?”
“R-Run…”
“Kuhu!”
The knight who was forced to take on the role of a guide spoke with a labored breath.
He was asking them to flee.
However, that wasn’t possible.
Even if this was an open field, they would be caught by the difference in speed, but the only exit that existed here was back up through the spiraling staircase.
The one blocking the way to said staircase was Demon.
Demon had become a greedy murderer who didn’t want to miss out even the small power the guards carried.
Perhaps aware or unaware of what was going on, the sound of explosions occurred beyond the door within the training center.
The sound of an explosion caused by one of the slaves acted like a signal for Demon to move from the starting line.
With the explosion announcing the start of the hunt, Demon charged at the guards.
The hands that Demon stretched out forward absorbed the guards like how it was with the butchering of the slave in the past.
With the weapons and helmets being torn off and split, the ten guards were sucked in without leaving anything behind, meeting a horrific death.
This was only the beginning.
Behind this door were around 100 slaves.
As the Festival of Blood became heated, so did the number of people willing to become slaves increased, and this was a great chance for Barub.
Not to keep hold of the title of king in the festival, but for being supplied prey.
“Eeek!”
“Now, let’s get this party started. I hope that I’ll be satisfied.”
“Kuhu. There are far more people than before. It really is tempting…”
“D, Demon!”
“What? Huh? Why is the king of the festival here in a place like this…”
“I shall give you all the chance to become king… Kuhaha!”
****
Demon, having left Millions’ estate, was covered in blood.
It was expected, as Demon had slaughtered roughly a hundred slaves.
It was also obvious the slaves in the underground training center were just prey.
After all, they had all perished without leaving even a small cut, much less a small wound.
Unlike their weak attempt at resisting, the power that Demon gained was massive.
However, this wasn’t even close to satisfying Demon’s greed.
The reason why Demon had kept one of the knights alive came into play here.
As stated before, today was an opportune day that would not come again.
The small group of the top nobles were absent in order to accept the invitation of the castellan’s banquet.
The plan was to attack the residences of the nobles where slaves were being trained to become warriors, and to steal all the power of the Protectors.
After that, the nobles.
By killing all of the slaves, Demon would be able to obtain enough power to face off against a count or marquis.
Min-Cheol’s planned targets and Demon’s targets were now overlapping.
They didn’t follow through with their plans at the same time, but this would bring a great change in the playing field.
Demon took in a deep breath before speaking in an excited tone.
“Guide me. Do as you value your life.”
“Where did you want me to guide you to?”
“Kuhu. Must I tell you it myself? The counts and the marquises. From them, guide me to the residences of the ones raising warrior slaves.”
“Yes, yes! I understand.”
Because there wasn’t much time, Demon moved quickly to the location the hostage pointed out.
Before the nobles returned after the banquet’s end, Demon had to obtain enough power to be stronger than them.
To do so, Demon had to kill as many slaves as possible.
Following the guide, the first place that Demon arrived at was Count Eind’s estate.
It wasn’t as grand as Millions’, but it was still a large estate and the amount of slaves being trained weren’t little.
As expected, the knights serving Eind weren’t letting their guards down and were patrolling around the estate.
“Seems I’ll be needing a new guide.”
“Huh?”
“Your role ends here. You don’t know the estate inside and out, right?”
“L-Let me live! Please let me live!”
“Kuhuhu! How could I miss out on such a scrumptious snack?”
“P-Please!”
-crunch!
Taking the knight’s life, Demon charged into Count Eind’s estate.
There were many guards on alert, but they were taken down in an instant, and it didn’t prove much of a challenge for Demon to locate the training facility of the slaves.
This location did not fare better, as expected.
After taking down the knights, guards, and of course the slaves, Demon muttered while wiping the blood off.
“Yes… This is it! I wanted to get stronger at this pace!”
“Urgh!”
“Lead the way.”
****
An alarm through Soul Messenger appeared for Min-Cheol, who was in the middle of focusing on his hunt in the unexplored territories.
“What’s this?”
Because he had never used the skill since obtaining it, it was bothering him quite a lot to see the number appearing on his status window.
It almost made him wonder if there were free points he had forgotten to put into his stats.
After opening up the status window to check, he could confirm that it was Dan trying to contact him.
Unlike before, Dan didn’t reside in Min-Cheol’s storage and was living independently.
Because Min-Cheol was lacking information due to only focusing on the hunt, it was to obtain rumors regarding the castle and Larkenta as a whole, and also to see what the nobles were up to.
Min-Cheol accepted Dan’s request for communication sent through the Soul Messenger.
“Master!”
“Oh wow. This is quite an amazing feature, you know? It feels like I’m receiving a phone call for the first time in a while.”
“It’s a huge issue!”
“Hm? A huge issue? What happened?”
“There’s chaos within the castle walls!”
“What do you mean? Calm down and explain to me slowly.”
“You know of Demon, right? The king of the festival!”
“…”
After hearing Demon’s name being mentioned, Min-Cheol’s expression soured.
He had expected Demon to cause trouble eventually.
This confirmed that his suspicion that Demon was Barub wasn’t wrong.
Since not many days remained before having to return to the celestial plane, Demon was most likely beginning to act seriously.
With a heavy frown on his face, he asked Dan.
“Right. So is Demon on the move?”
“Yes! Demon is on a wild rampage!”
“Are you saying that Demon already obtained power greater than that of Marquis Millions’? That’s impossible! I’ve been keeping track of all those that faced the king of the festival. Even if Demon did butcher all of Millions’ slaves…”
“I also do not know how Demon had grown stronger so rapidly. However, Demon has now grown strong enough to fight with the nobles!”
“Damn it! If this is the case, then I have to take action… Dan.”
“Yes!”
“Since Demon is on the move, we cannot leave this be.”
“Of course! Master cannot lose the prey that he has already set his eyes upon!”
“Where are you currently?”
“I am at the castle. Should I head over to where you are?”
“No. Summon me instead. Since it is an essential skill, I’m sure you have it too?”
“Of course. Just like Soul Messenger, all you have to do is accept.”
“Good.”
-Do you accept Dan’s summon?
-Location. Larkenta castle. (Coordinates 335:533)
The system message rang again.
This was a sound that Min-Cheol hadn’t heard since living as Protector here.
However, this notification sound was something that he had heard back on Earth to the point of annoyance whenever he leveled up or obtained a new skill.
Considering the massive amount of experience points obtained when taking out a group of monsters at once, the sound was enough to get stuck in his head.
Min-Cheol immediately agreed to Dan’s summon.
At the same time that Min-Cheol accepted, Min-Cheol was sucked into the air space in front of him, as if using Warp to travel to another space.
Surprisingly afters, in Min-Cheol’s field of view was Dan.
Min-Cheol’s astonishment at experiencing the summon for the first time was brief.
Demon’s doings cause the hair on the back of his neck to rise.
“Where is Demon headed right now?”
“My guess is that Demon is headed for the palace of the castellan. I’m sure that Demon plans to slay all the nobles gathered due to Friday’s banquet.”
“Did you confirm it with your own eyes?”
“N-No. It’s merely a guess. Demon has already raided all the estates without the counts and marquises presence there clean. I wonder if Demon had grown stronger by killing all the slaves meant for the festival. There’s no better place left for Demon to go on a rampage after all.”
“No. Demon wouldn’t go there.”
“Huh? Then where?”
“Demon has no guarantees. And lacks information, even more than I.”
“…”
“Dan, do you know how strong the castellan is?”
“No… That, I do not have any information on. It’s because no one had dared to fight against the castellan before. Since there is no one to compare it to, I can’t even begin to fathom. All I know is that since power is set depending on your status, the castellan would be unreasonably strong.”
“Of course. I am aware of that as well. So would Demon just go to the castellan’s palace and fight the nobles? Let’s say that Demon can face off against counts and marquises. But what against the castellan?”
“That’s… Don’t you think that Demon is just recklessly charging forward?”
“No. Demon wouldn’t take a fight without a chance at winning.”
“Then where do you think Demon disappeared off to?”
“If I was Demon, I would’ve picked out two choices. Either hide in the castle and ambush the nobles, or go after the ranker Protectors outside the castle.”
“Oho… Then what will you do?”
“Move as planned. Only the time to act has been rushed forward.”
“Will it be okay? Because of Demon rampaging through the castle, the situation isn’t all that great right now.”
“It can’t be helped, right? Rather than let it be stolen, I have to take on some risks.”
“I understand.”
“Now let us go. Make sure to not make any mistakes reading the names off the accounting books and stay close.”
“Yes!”
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