CH 93

The Azure Knife Inn, where the mercenaries often stayed in the capital, was now quietly surrounded. Its front side was surrounded by the capital guard, while its backside was surrounded by a group led by Baron Kretschmer.

Despite being a noble, Baron Kretschmer prefers to wield weapons on the frontline. He was a brave man who was highly respected by his subordinates. Grand Duke Seyfart also trusted him deeply. He was one of the army commanders in the refugee escort mission. However, because he mostly interacted with the adventurers during the refugee escort mission, the kingdom left him to guard the capital during the Finnoi defense battle. Truthfully, this decision by the kingdom had disappointed him.

But now, the Crown Prince had told him the news of the demons lurking in the capital and he was entrusted with the demons’ extermination, albeit as a commander of the support troop. He was itching to fight.

“Have the citizens around the inn been evacuated?”

“Yes. With the guise of ‘leaving their houses to see the parade,’ the citizens have safely been evacuated from their houses to the Eight Guard Station.”

“Good.”

While questioning the messenger of the capital guard, the Baron gazed at the inn’s back entrance.

As an inn frequently visited by the mercenaries, the style of architecture of the Azure Knife Inn differed from the usual commoner or noble houses. This inn was built with only practical use in mind.

“What’s the result of the investigation?”

“No one has seen the owner of the inn for a few days now. As for why, even the merchants who usually brought the ingredients for the inn’s food didn’t know.”

“How many people are inside?”

“There are about 13 people. The Eagle’s Nest Inn in the 3rd district and the Drunkard’s Wind in the 5th district also have roughly the same number of people.”

“Noted. Our job was only to make sure no one escaped from this inn, right?”

“Yes, sir. In a worst-case scenario, your group was also allowed to kill.”

The Baron smiled ferociously. That being said, raiding the inn was the job of the capital guards, while his group was only responsible for taking care of the people who would try to escape the inn. That was why the Baron secretly hoped for a few people to escape the inn so he could fight.

“Do you have any other questions, sir?”

“No, that’s all. Good luck on your mission.”

The messenger nodded and left. Baron then gathered his subordinates and split them into several groups. Two groups to guard the sides and a group to guard a little further away from the back entrance. With this arrangement, the Baron would minimize the chance of his enemies escaping. Not long after, shouts reverberated from the inn’s front side, and the inside of the inn became noisy.

Guards rarely changed their equipment since they had all used different equipment depending on their duties and the place they were assigned.

The gate guards would use long weapons since they may need to stop charging horses intending to forcefully enter the capital. The guards in charge of patrolling the capital used shorter swords with smaller blades compared to the ones used by the knights. This was because the chances that they were going to fight amidst a crowd of people or inside of buildings was quite high, so they were equipped with weapons that had high maneuverability. They were trained more in thrusting art rather than slicing. After all, most of their fight was going to take place inside a building and most buildings wouldn’t be wide enough to freely swing large swords.

Therefore, the job of raiding a building such as the current inn would be handled by the capital guards, who had more expertise in this aspect rather than the noble or royal knights. The Baron could only pray that some enemies manage to escape the inn, so that he could also fight. Although he knew praying for that sort of thing was inappropriate‌.

Either the Baron’s prayer was answered or the enemies were just one step ahead of the guards. Several shadows of beings that were once been humans burst through the wooden storm shutters on the second floor and landed on the street. After Baron confirmed they were werewolves and weretigers, he gave his command.

“SHOOT!”

Dozens of arrows rained down on werewolves and weretigers. Some of them collapsed after being hit by arrows, while the others succeeded in cutting the arrows with their claws and escaped. As he was admiring the demon’s skillful movements, the Baron let out a ferocious smile.

“Charge! Don’t let them escape!”

The Baron closed the distance and cut a werewolf with his glaive. Using a glaive in a cramped inn would be hard, but an open road was a different story.

The Baron’s subordinates all had confidence in their fighting capability, befitting the soldiers of this world. Following their commander, they closed the distance with the demons and a fierce clash unfolded on the spot.

After a short and intense battle, all demons, including the ones inside the inn, turned into silent corpses.

“Is the front fine?”

“Yes. After all, we used the anti-demon medicine provided by the royal family.”

“Good, then.”

To tell you the truth, the Baron had hoped he could fight a bit more. This desire was perhaps noticed by his subordinates as they looked at the blood-drenched Baron with troubled expressions.

“It looks like we won’t have enough time to help the battle at other places,” Noticing his subordinates’ expression, the Baron changed the subject of conversation.

“I don’t think we’ve let anyone escape, so not helping the others should be fine.”

While nodding at his subordinates’ answer, the Baron turned his gaze to the palace.

***

At the same time, a fierce battle had also been unfolding at the Drunkard’s Wind.

The commander of the guards in this battle was Baron Dohnanyi. He was a member of the military faction, but he suffered an injury in the battle against the demon outbreak. Although he safely returned from the battle due to his subordinate’s sacrifice, the Baron had been away from the military scene because he wished to focus on his recovery and on training his subordinates.

A large scar he had gotten from the battle against the demon outbreak decorated his face. It was possible to heal that scar using an advanced potion or advanced magic, but the Baron did not do so, claiming he would rather use the budget for healing his scar to train his subordinates. The truth of the matter was that the Baron felt this scar was his pride.

Despite his capability, when the emergency dispatch order was issued, the Baron was instructed to take care of another matter, so he remained in the capital when the Finnoi defense battle occurred.

The Crown Prince did this on purpose. He didn’t want to send the nobles of the military faction who had brains but comparatively low positions. As a result, many nobles with good fighting capability remained in the capital. For the demons, though, it was a troublesome situation.

“Charge!”

The Baron rushed into the building, leading the elites among his subordinates. Normally, it would have been the guards’ job to take care of the enemies inside of the building, but this time, the guards were forced to split their force to create a 2 layer encirclement to prevent the demons from escaping. After all, this building’s toughness was quite ordinary. It would be easy for the demons to escape the building by breaking the windows or the wooden wall. That was why the Baron chose to rush inside and became the hunting dog that would force the demons to leave the building and guide them into the guard’s encirclement.

That being said, according to multiple witnesses’ accounts, the Baron himself was clearly full of the desire to fight when he rushed into the building.

Inside, the Baron sprinkled the anti-demon medicine with his left hand while swinging his sword with his right hand. His one swing cut off the one hand of the mercenary-like man that stood up with an expression mixed with pain and surprise. The man didn’t scream and just immediately swung his other hand to the Baron. Noticing that the man’s arm wasn’t a human arm, the Baron ducked to dodge, then held his sword in a piercing stance and pierced the man’s stomach.

“Our opponents aren’t humans! Don’t hesitate to fight!”

In response to the Baron’s words, the soldiers slashed the mercenaries-like demons who had been drinking and eating. A sword cleaved the demon’s feet, and another sword stabbed their heads. The soldiers who used spears supported the swordsmen from the rear. They attacked their opponents, forcing them to retreat while making sure no one among their allies falls into a one-to-one battle with a demon.

Nevertheless, demons didn’t take the beating one-sidedly and started to fight back. They used their claws to clash with the soldiers’ swords and used their fangs to chomp the soldiers’ necks. However, the demons had lost the initiative of this battle and, not to mention, they were currently confused because of a sudden raid. In this kind of situation, the kingdom side held the upper hand.

After they saw many of their commanders were dead, the demons started to escape. The second they turned their back on the soldiers, however, they were cut down. Many of them were reduced into porcupines by the rain of swords and spears. It was to the point it wasn’t the enemies’ fierce resistance that troubled the soldiers, but the corpses sprawled around in the building.

One needed to watch their steps in a battle in a confined space, lest they lost their life. There was this rather amusing story about a soldier who chased his enemy but forgot to watch his step and ended up tripping when the road changed into a stone road, causing that soldier to fall and he was killed by the enemy he was chasing instead.

Some demons escaped by destroying the wall of the buildings, but they ended up being exterminated by the guards outside. The Guard Captain knew that his side was weaker than the demons, so he ordered his men to use projectiles and long weapons to avoid a close combat fight with the demons.

***

An army led by Count Mühe was stationed on the outskirts of the capital. In the Hildea Plain battle, the Count was the commander of the left flank’s second team under Marquis Schramm. His appearance couldn’t be called handsome, but no one would doubt his ability, be it in commanding an army or as a politician. Marquis Schramm deeply trusted him. The fact that he was trusted as a commander of this separate army on the outskirts of the capital was proof of how much the kingdom valued his military experience. Back when the rest of the army was busy with the victory parade, the Count led his army and silently left the capital using a different gate than the one used by the parade.

The Count was highly regarded for his military and literary talent, but weirdly enough, he was hated by animals to the point there were barely any horses that would be willing to be ridden by the Count. Because of that, he never got the chance of doing jobs that required high mobility. He mostly would be entrusted with a job that would require the ability to protect a base or a job where political ability was needed.

“Your Excellency.”

“You’re here.”

Standing on a chariot pulled by two horses, the Count looked at the two people who were running out of the capital and gave a nod. Those two looked like normal capital guards, but their mannerisms and the speed of their runs suggest otherwise.

“Surround them!”

The Count’s job was to make sure no demons escaped the Capital. There were only two demons who tried to escape in front of him, but for the Count, the number didn’t matter, as he would simply do his best to complete his job. The Count’s army formed a team and surrounded the two werewolves who were still wearing guard uniforms and trying to escape. No matter how strong they were, they wouldn’t be able to escape the Count’s team encirclement as there was too much difference in the number.

“They have been disguising themselves as the gatekeepers and they even got their hand on the gatekeeper’s identification paper.”

“It was a shame that we couldn’t capture them alive.”

“Well, our priority is, after all, to not let any demons escape.”

“In any case, I hope we can kill more demons.”

The Count mumbled as he observed his orderlies extracting the magic stone from the demons’ corpses. He heard a noise coming from the palace, so he turned his gaze to the palace, but in the end, he saw nothing out of the ordinary as the Count continued his mission. He patrolled the area and waited for the messenger from the palace.

Demons wouldn’t be able to cross the gate because it was sprinkled with anti-demon medicine. The only thing the Count’s men could do now was the boring and inefficient work of checking the people that wanted to cross the gate one by one.

After that, the Count was busy. He was forced to check all people who knew nothing and just wanted to leave the capital and dealing with the demons disguised as humans that actually tried to leave the capital.