“That’s what you have to say after I looked after you?! Do you have any idea the position you’re in?! Shame on you!” Barbatos was boiling over with rage. It seemed he was incredibly prideful.
He likely believed those under him were there for exploitation.
“I don’t care what you say… I’ve got someone I want to help…,” Ravi protested meekly.
“You? When the only magic you can cast is a flimsy magical barrier? You think you can aid anyone? Don’t make me laugh!”
Ravi, unable to endure Barbatos’s berating, quivered and began to sob.
I looked from the girl to the count.
“…You’re right, I’m only good for defense… I can hardly ever make use of my abilities, but that’s exactly why I need to put them to use whenever possible. Like now, to stop you.”
“Shut up! We’ll destroy your little bubble and start by executing you first.”
“Please go right ahead,” I invited, allowing a small amount of my hostility to show. Barbatos grit his teeth. “What do you take Ravi for? You call yourself a lord, yet you still think her skill is magical? Don’t make me laugh!”
Barbatos and his men backed away and fell to the ground as though buffeted by a strong gust. They weren’t the only ones affected by my unleashing animosity, either. Everyone had collapsed.
I turned around and saw Ravi was the same as the others.
“Y-you’re scary when you’re mad, Roland…”
“No, I’m not mad,” I replied.
I helped Ravi up, and she mumbled, “Thanks for what you said.”
Barbatos was creating a scene outside of Ravi’s barrier. “Incinerate the soldiers! Scorch them!”
“B-but Count Barbatos… The town—”
“I don’t care. I don’t mind burning down a village or two in pursuit of my grand plan.”
The man who spoke up was either incredibly loyal or already knew of his “grand plan.” He nodded solemnly. The mages behind Barbatos, on the other hand, looked grim and shared bewildered glances with one another.
When Ravi’s barrier was broken by one of the mages, the others prepared for attack.
“Roland, at this rate…”
“I know,” I assured her.
Ravi invoked her skill again, but it was quickly undone once more.
I stared into Barbatos’s eyes. It seemed he’d been frightened by my shouting at him. He quickly backed away.
“H-hey! Come out and protect me!” Barbatos cried at seemingly no one in particular.
I’d known about the three men hidden in the shadows who’d been watching us. It wasn’t difficult to guess they were guards.
They were all quite skilled. Had I not detected them earlier, fighting the three would’ve been difficult. One of the men emerged from a dark corner and headed to Barbatos’s side.
“Him! Him! Do something about him!” Barbatos pointed at me.
“Count Barbatos, please free us from the obligation of defending you.”
“Wh-what? You idiot, what are you—? What are you saying?!”
“Our duty is to protect you, Count Barbatos…but not to die while doing it.”
“But that’s what I hired you for! You have no idea whether you’ll perish until you try!”
The man quietly shook his head. “No, we know. If he decides to take action, we won’t be able to touch him. The girl behind him called him Roland. How he carries himself, his powers of perception, his paralyzing animosity…everything about him is superior. In the industry, there are whispers of a Phantom Demon Lord Slayer. And I am sure those legends speak of him.”
The Phantom Demon Lord Slayer?
When had I earned such a ridiculous title? Still, it was better than the “Roland gang.”
“H-how powerful is this guy supposed to be?!”
“There’s something about him that is undeniably greater. You should assume that he’s as powerful as her.”
“Y-you can’t be serious! Th-this goes against the contract! A breach! I paid you for protection, and now you’ve scrapped the arrangement?! No one will hire you ever again!”
“We are aware of that, of course. If we honor our agreement with you, we will face death and you will be executed. Knowing this, we would rather cast aside our reputations and live. That is all there is to it.” With that, the leader of the three guards disappeared. I sensed the remaining two depart, as well.
“W-wait! Wait!”
As Barbatos scanned around for the trio, I approached him and tapped on his shoulder.
“Eek…!”
“I’d like you to stop the attack.”
“O-okay…fine…”
Barbatos issued the order right away. Ravi had been using her skill where needed, so the fire hadn’t spread too far.
“There’s somewhere I’d like to take you,” I stated. “That fine with you?”
“S-sure…”
I tied Barbatos’s hands behind his back.
“Wh-who are you…?” he questioned.
“What are you talking about? I’m the man you were looking for.”
“I was looking…for you?”
“You put a bounty on me for destroying your arena.”
“What?! Th-that was you?! Do you know how much I lost because of that?!”
“I don’t think you’ll need to worry too much about any financial losses soon.”
“Huh?” Barbatos looked confused.
“I’m taking you to King Randolf. He’s already had suspicions about you.”
“H-His Majesty would never believe what the likes of you has to say…”
“I think he will after reading this letter. Especially since it’s clear as day when read in the moonlight.”
“No, stop… Please, anything but that…”
I waved the envelope in front of the count’s face.
“I thought you’d never seen this letter before in your life?”
Barbatos let out a groan.
“It’s likely the Guerrera family, and all those within three degrees of relation to it, will face public execution. Your folly has made all of them threats. The young, the old—there likely will be no exceptions.”
“S-stop!”
“You should be happy. Your name will live forever in history. That’s what you wanted, right? The only difference is people will speak of you with disdain.”
I explained everything to Barbatos’s men once we captured them. Most of the mages were astonished to hear their lord’s plan.
“Then the stockpile of weapons and food…was all for his insurrection…”
“His Majesty himself will be punishing him,” I told them.
They all nodded in clear understanding. By now, the storehouse was empty and the supplies were in the magic circle.
I had the mages help with the transport.
“There are a few other caches. I’d like you to feed mana into the arrays to teleport the goods. And don’t worry, the hoarded weapons and food are all part of a surplus.”
I left the mages to finish the job and took Barbatos with me to Felind’s capital by way of a Gate.
“Really now… What were you thinking?”
King Randolf let out a prolonged sigh in the audience chamber, as though he were trying to release all the air from his body.
Several senior military officers sat to the right of him, facing the throne. The king’s senior civil service advisers watched from the opposite side. Everyone was staring at Barbatos, who was on his knees.
I observed everything from the farthest seat on the civil service side.