The two-week journey ca to an end.
Fortunately, after dealing with the hyena pack, there were no further advances. Yor realized that any wrong move could have resulted in a disaster.
‘Should’ve done this sooner.’
He thought to himself, feeling a bit regretful. But it wasn’t all bad. He had enjoyed the early days of the journey, so he decided to let it go.
They were now in a territory slightly to the southwest. They still had to go further to reach the place where Andras had appeared, but the caravan’s destination was here.
"Well, we’ll part ways here. Thanks for helping us with the hyenas," said the caravan leader.
"Don’t ntion it."
After parting ways with the caravan, they took a mont to decide what to do next.
"So, what now?"
"I think we need to go a bit further to find the demon, but I heard that place is a wasteland... it’s tricky."
"Let’s just find an inn for tonight. We can rest and eat. We may log out, but Yor’s probably exhausted from sleeping in the carriage for two weeks."
Yor nodded at Chaerin’s suggestion and they headed to a nearby restaurant.
"Welco!"
The restaurant was quite empty. It seed to be a small town, with not many people around. Yor briefly worried about the food, but the small crowd was a relief.
After all, he had recently realized how uncomfortable it could be when too many eyes were on him. He made a ntal note to always bring a hood next ti. The food, thankfully, was good enough.
"So, should we look for an inn?" Chaerin asked.
"No, I’ll go by myself this ti. I want to look around the city."
"Hmm... alright."
After finishing the al, they briefly separated. Yor wanted to explore the city.
For the first ti since receiving his identification badge, he was walking through the streets with confidence. Even though the city wasn’t part of the Empire, it was still a significant feeling to walk through the streets with such freedom.
He wandered the streets, observing people. So gave him curious glances, while others were filled with worry about the recently appeared demon.
Since this place was close to where the demon Andras had appeared, it seed that rumors about him had spread.
‘The knights still haven’t arrived, it seems.’
After all, the knights had more preparation to do than he did, so they likely had more equipnt to gather.
As he wandered, absorbed in his thoughts, sothing strange caught his attention.
‘...?’
His senses detected sothing odd. Among the people passing by, soone had quietly started following him. At first, he thought it was just his imagination, but when he turned a corner, they were still following him. If it had been Chaerin or Heaven, they would’ve called out to him already.
Soone was tailing him.
‘Tch... this popularity.’
He figured it must be soone trying to strike up a deal with him in this relatively quiet town. It was a bit of an ego boost, but it was the only explanation his mind could co up with.
Since he had covered his collarbone, it wasn’t likely they’d recognize him as an otherworlder. Plus, he had been receiving more than a few advances over the past two weeks. His mind was naturally inclined to think along those lines.
‘Alright, let’s deal with this.’
Of course, he ant in a different way. He intentionally walked toward a quieter, less crowded street. Unless an S-rank adventurer showed up, he figured he could easily subdue them.
He planned to deal with it himself. If it went wrong, he could always just run away.
"..."
As he stepped into the quiet street, the followers began to approach. There were two of them, both wearing hoods, so their faces were hidden.
He quickly swung his spear at them to subdue them.
Swoooosh!
The spear cut through the air, heading straight for them. But it never reached its target.
Crack!
A thick ice barrier appeared in front of him. Although part of it shattered, the attack didn’t penetrate further.
"What?"
He was montarily stunned. Then, a familiar voice ca from the other side.
"Wait, wait! Don’t attack!"
The voice sounded familiar. They lowered their hoods, revealing their faces. Yor was even more surprised.
"...It’s us."
It was none other than mbers of the Legaton faction: Sephir, the fifth-wave mber, and Nikki.
It was a strange encounter in such an unexpected place, and questions naturally arose.
"Why are you two here?"
Nikki frowned and asked in return, "Why are you here? You’re always in the forest, why are you here?"
"..."
A brief, tense silence followed between them.
Legaton was a rather ambiguous group to Yor.
They were a faction that served demons, and he held a lot of resentnt towards demons, making it impossible for him to look favorably upon them. Of course, they did raise the sowhat eccentric demon "Barbatos" deep in the forest, but that was a different matter.
Due to his hostility, he had never entertained any recruitnt offers from them.
But was it really necessary to crush them just because they were enemies?
He did intend to deal with Harold later—after all, Harold was the reason he missed out on Dantalion and wasn’t soone Yor looked favorably upon.
But thinking about it, the other mbers of Legaton hadn’t done anything particularly troubleso. In fact, he had even received so help from them.
Nikki had told him how to remove the berserk state, and Sephir had given him an ergency contact network, which was crucial for him to be able to confront the knights without blindly clashing.
Because of this, even though they were enemies, it was hard for him to imdiately consider them as pure opposition.
The brief standoff continued for a while. The first to speak was Nikki.
"So, why did you attack us out of nowhere? I tried to approach because I recognized you, and I was happy to see you... and then you suddenly attacked."
It seed like she felt a bit unfair about being attacked imdiately.
Yor hesitated before coming up with an excuse.
"...Well, you started following . Would you just let that go?"
He could never say, "I thought another rapist had appeared because I was so amazing," that would just sound too embarrassing.
Thankfully, Nikki seed to feel a bit guilty about her own actions. After a short pause, she changed the subject.
"Alright, so why are you here?"
Yor answered, "I heard a demon appeared here, so I ca to catch it."
There was no reason to hide that fact. After hearing that, it was easy to guess why they had co here as well.
"Then you’re here to protect Andras, right? Because that’s your job."
Yor’s expression beca slightly troubled as he thought that maybe this ti, they were indeed enemies. But that guess turned out to be wrong.
"No, this ti it’s the opposite."
It was Sephir who spoke this ti, releasing the ice barrier she had erected earlier.
"Well, this works out well. We’ve co to deal with the demon, Andras, too."
Yor was imdiately taken aback by what she said.
"What do you think? How about we cooperate this ti?"
After hearing the suggestion, Yor invited them to the inn where they would be staying. It was likely to be a long conversation, and it would be awkward for Chaerin and Heaven if they overheard it.
As expected, they looked surprised when they saw two unfamiliar people accompanying him. Heaven cautiously asked, "Uh... who are they?"
"It’s a bit complicated to explain," Yor replied.
"...You have companions?" Heaven said with surprise.
An awkward silence fell between them for a mont, especially since Nikki and Chaerin had t once before. They couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable.
In the midst of this, it was Sephir, their etiquette master, who broke the ice.
"Nice to et you. I’m Sephir, the Fifth Faction Leader of Legaton."
"Legaton...!"
"...Faction leader?"
For a mont, Yor’s party looked shocked, especially Chaerin, who knew about Legaton but hadn’t expected to et one of their leaders. Both Chaerin and Heaven briefly displayed caution.
"This is fate, so... how about joining Legaton? If you’re close to Yor, you might have so grievances with the Empire. If you need it, you can always join us. We’re always looking for new recruits," Sephir casually offered.
Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Sephir didn’t hesitate to make her pitch. It was a bit absurd, but it eased the tension in the room.
After a brief introduction, they all sat together at the table. It was clear that eting mbers from opposing factions made them uneasy, but they were willing to talk.
Yor, trying to ease the awkwardness, decided to continue the conversation.
"So... you’re planning to take down the demon yourself? What brought this on?"
"It’s... this demon is too violent. We judged it couldn’t be controlled," Sephir explained.
"Yeah, and it’s not in line with our goals anyway," Nikki added.
Yor nodded in understanding. It seed that Andras was quite troubleso, even to Legaton.
‘It’s clear now—they didn’t summon it.’
It was surprising, but what stood out most was the use of the word “faction.” As Barbatos had ntioned, it seed they were aware that there were multiple demon kings in the Demon Realm.
Yor decided to probe further, hoping to gather more information.
"Factions... You’re implying there are several powers in the Demon Realm, then? Why is Andras serving a different king?"
"Hmm, well... if you join our faction, I could tell you," Sephir said with a small laugh. She wasn’t going to make it easy.
Still, her attitude suggested it wasn’t a massive secret.
Yor asked another question.
"So, what does it look like? What’s its power and combat ability?"
"Hold on, before we tell you that, shouldn’t you decide if you’re cooperating with us or not?" Nikki interjected.
Yor didn’t hesitate to answer straightforwardly.
"Honestly... I’m not sure if I can fully cooperate with you. The knights should be arriving soon, and it could be problematic if we’re together. If you’re secretly helping, that’s fine though..."
Yor felt it was difficult to fully trust either side—both Legaton and the knights. He wasn’t entirely sure where he stood with either of them.
"Still, it feels like both sides are trying to recruit ," he thought, but the relationships were far from friendly. Either side could turn into enemies at any ti.
"Well, whatever. If you’re going to help, that’s fine."
Then, they began discussing the demon more.
"Andras is a female demon with long golden hair. At first glance, she doesn’t seem much different from a human, but you’ll know when you see her. She has owl wings and a flaming sword," Sephir explained.
"And she’s very violent. She tries to kill everyone, regardless of age. Destruction is her only goal. We’re lucky she appeared in the barren plains—if she had appeared near a city, it would have been a massacre."
"And she keeps shouting ‘Plauros’ for so reason," Nikki added.
"Plauros? What’s that?" Yor asked.
"I don’t know. Probably another demon," Nikki shrugged.
Yor was curious but didn’t press it.
‘Guess she’s a bit touchy,’ he thought.
They continued talking, though the conversation didn’t last long.
Suddenly, they heard so commotion from outside. They went to check it out.
"Ah... we made it! Finally!"
"Don’t worry! We’ll defeat the demon!"
"Thank you! Please protect our town!"
A crowd of relieved citizens gathered, and at the center, a woman was giving a grand speech.
It was the Second Knight Commander, Odilia Paphnila.
‘That was fast...’
The knights had arrived.
Yor felt a rush of realization. That ant the knights had made it to the town. He had expected them to arrive sooner or later, but their quick arrival was still a surprise.
"Looks like they’re here," Yor muttered under his breath as he glanced at the crowd.
Sephir, Nikki, and the rest of the party stepped outside to see the commotion. The people gathered around Odilia, the Second Knight Commander, who was confidently delivering a speech. Her aura of authority was clear.
"Well, looks like the knights beat us to the punch," Sephir remarked, her expression unreadable.
Yor nodded. "Seems so."
He wasn’t entirely sure whether to feel relieved or uneasy. With the knights now in town, things would undoubtedly get complicated. He knew he’d need to be cautious about how he proceeded.
"We need to move quickly," Yor muttered, mostly to himself, but everyone around him heard. "The situation could escalate quickly now that the knights are involved."
The crowd continued to cheer as Odilia and her knights made their presence known. While most people were relieved, so, like Yor and his companions, could sense the rising tension in the air. The knights' arrival was both a sign of security and a potential complication.
"We should head back to the inn and regroup," Yor suggested, his voice steady but serious.
Nikki and Sephir exchanged a look. The tension from earlier had shifted sowhat, but they knew that the situation was far from over. They all walked toward the inn, keeping their eyes on the scene unfolding around them.
As they neared the inn, Yor took one last glance at the streets. The presence of the knights brought an undeniable shift to the atmosphere. Things were about to get much more complicated.
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