房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"I kind of expected at least one of them to survive."

"I apologize, I might have put too much effort into the sword enchantment..."

The black-haired young man didn't quite know whether he should feel relieved, satisfied, or angry, still, the pale-blue-haired knight didn't seem all that remorseful.

"I will be going now. Young lord Deviso informed me that lady Rokiana returned home... She's devastated because of what happened to Roiso so I... you know... Come."

Mizoe breathed out and called out one of the armored wolves.

He mounted it and nodded at his son.

"Take care."

"You too, dad~"

The man waved his hand and the armored wolf trotted away after Zoemi waved back.

"I can't believe it ended up like this..."

Leveo was standing there with her face buried in her hands and sighed.

"I don't want to think what kind of mess you just got yourself into..."

She added, sounding and looking very upset.

"...Leveo, do you think that this spot would be so empty if the king didn't know what I was about to do?"

"..."

Zoemi asked and the girl flinched in realization.

"...I still can't believe it..."

"That's fair."

The brown-haired girl complained and the black-haired boy nodded with approval.

"...I really thought that my mom had a chance with sir Mioze...!"

Leveo cried out in disbelief...

"Wait! What?! THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE UPSET ABOUT?!"

Hearing her, Zoemi was so taken aback that he staggered back, almost stepping in the puddle of blood.

A few moments later a group of silent servants walked out of the castle and started handling the aftermath. They greeted Zoemi and Leveo with polite bows but were surrounded in aura of fear.

It was easy to understand them, after all, if the heads of the six great families were fair game then how could they not be scared for their lives?

"...it's upsetting when people who should be the pillars of the kingdom turn against it..."

Zoemi glanced at the corpse of duke Espine and shook his head with disappointment before walking back to the castle.

"L-lord Banemor... were the documents you showed them real...?"

Leveo flinched and run after the black-haired young man and asked as she caught up to him.

"The papers were copies of the original documents that were handed to the royal advisors, yes. This one too."

Zoemi confirmed the girl's hopes and even took out one last piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to her.

"That's...!"

Leveo's eyes widened and she gasped as she unfolded the document and read through it.

"Yeah. Not only were they basically enslaving commoners, but they were also selling some of them to the secret facility to be experimented on AND they promised the scholars working there amnesty after the Bellcephora kingdom would lose the incoming war."

The black-haired young man nodded and smirked.

"Funnily enough it would have taken weeks to get to this document if not for young lady Aedlier. Her reading speed is the real magic here."

Zoemi boasted, puffing out his chest proudly, boasting about his extended family being so amazing.

"It's really messed up... it's aristocrats' duty to care for the wellbeing of their subjects, to think that anyone would be willing to do something like that to the people they are supposed to protect..."

The brown-haired girl shuddered and returned the document back to the black-haired young man.

"Greed. Pride. The sense of superiority. There are plenty of reasons for those who forsake the honor of true aristocracy."

"..."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and sighed making Leveo bite her lips with an upset expression.

Inside the castle the two of them were bout to split, Zoemi was supposed to report the situation with Espines directly to the king and Leveo should head to the canteen to join the other participants in the training... but then...

"Lord Banemor...!"

A panicked servant spotted them and rushed over, calling out the black-haired young man's name with urgency.

"My lord! His majesty summons you immediately! It's terrible! Everything that could go wrong went wrong!"

"What?!"

The man cried out in panic, grabbing onto the shocked Zoemi's clothes.

The servant did not calm down at all, he was shaking more and more by the second actually, but he still lead Zoemi to the meeting room and Leveo followed them.

The king together with all of his advisors were waiting for them.

Aspaekony, lord Moyena, lord Irghun, and many nobles Zoemi knew by name but didn't talk with were there too.

"Lord Banemor, we request your immediate help."

"...!"

The king stood up the moment that the balck-ahried young man walked in, and went straight to the point.

"The forces of Barbariacca nation routed thousands of monsters and created a monster wave directing it towards the Perserios and Parrats territories. They are reports of humans transforming into beasts spotted amongst them. At the same time at our border with Atreterve nation, chaos erupted amongst the joint forces of the Victureo and Espine families which resulted in breaking the formation and basically allowing the forces of the alliance to march right in...! Both at the same time, it seems that the order to pacify the contested Espine forces was the lynchpin It's a disaster."

The monarch explained clenching his fists just like everyone else.

"..."

Zoemi straightened his back and looked at Aspakeony.

"Right before the offensive began both armies activated some devices that were delivered by the couriers directly under the leaders of the nations and I lost control of the puppets within their ranks."

The gray-haired necromancer reported clearly being the most upset person in the room.

"Gemini."

Zoemi breathed out and closed his eyes and divided himself in two.

"Aspy, my father just left the castle on an armored wolf, get one of your puppets to teleport him to the Perserios territory immediately. Also, get me on both fronts. Since they started it, I am not going to hold back."

They declared reaching their hands toward the gray-haired girl.

"Be careful - when I say I lost control over my puppets I mean it - they were taken over by something and if I didn't sever the connection I might have been taken over by whatever kind of magic they were using."

Aspaekony breathed out and pointed out while Moxeoni and one other gold-haired corpse puppet appeared by Zoemis' sides at the same time.

"...sure..."

Both Zoemis nodded and disappeared in the flash of gold light together with light corpse puppets.