.｡.:✧ Chapter 15 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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That evening, Iris and I prepared to meet the lord. We had originally planned to go the next morning, but apparently, the bastard had sent a servant to tell us to come now.

Iris wore a white sleeveless top and dolphin shorts, just as she had been doing, while I put on some ordinary cloth clothes. It was a relief that the men’s clothing didn’t change.

“Do you understand? Don’t act on your own under any circumstances, and if that bastard asks you something, just keep your mouth shut and stay still. I’ll take care of the answers.”

“Got it. How many times have you said that already?”

“It’s not excessive to repeat it like this. Keep in mind, we don’t know how that bastard will treat you or what fault he might find. It means you must absolutely stay still.”

Throughout our journey on horseback to the lord’s mansion, Iris repeated her advice numerous times in her own way. It was advice that didn’t hold much meaning.

If that bastard really intended to find fault, such advice would be completely useless, and above all, I knew far more about the lord than Iris did.

Iris and the other knight commanders had simply been subjected to his tyranny. But I was someone who had experienced killing him in various ways while playing the game.

Of course, I couldn’t go as far as cutting off his head from the very first meeting, as it would make the aftermath quite troublesome, but I was confident I could take care of him within two weeks at most, including the preparation process, without any repercussions.

“Here it is,” Iris said.

After riding into the city center for some time, Iris stopped the horse in front of a grand mansion.

It was a mansion of a size that was absurdly ridiculous to the onlooker. I was momentarily at a loss for words, staring at it blankly, as it was much larger than the mansion I remembered from the game.

Was it still a setting that he couldn’t let go of his vanity despite being of imperial bloodline? It seemed believable even if it was said to be the mansion where the emperor resided.

‘Come to think of it, the emperor would also be a woman, right?’

In the NPC appearance retouching mod, even the emperor was a woman.

No, to be more accurate, it was better to think that most of the humanoid bosses in the appearance change mod had been changed to women. It was so rare for a boss to remain male that it was more noteworthy.

My head felt complicated. Alright, the emperor was probably a woman. I just hoped the personality hadn’t changed as well.

“Halt! Halt!” the knight standing in front of the gate leading into the mansion shouted irritably after seeing us. It was a stark contrast to the city entrance guards who had treated us with some semblance of courtesy.

His posture was sloppy, his face was filled with annoyance, and his tone was curt. In terms of skill, he wouldn’t even last a single punch against Iris, but he seemed to be acting that way because he trusted the lord.

“Why are you here?” he asked bluntly, without even the minimum courtesy. It was enough to make me, who was watching from the side, lose my sense of propriety, but Iris spoke with an indifferent expression and tone, as if she was used to such treatment.

“I came to report about the prison dispatch.”

“Oh, is that so? Then go in on your own. Leave the horses somewhere appropriate.”

Now, instead of using hand gestures, he was pointing inside with his chin, telling us to go in.

Iris gave me a look telling me to endure it and dismounted from the horse. I also got off the horse and walked past the knight.

“Wait, who’s the one next to you?”

Just when I thought we would pass by, he curtly asked about me, pointing with his chin.

“A new recruit.”

“New recruit? Hah, trying to get kicked out in a day again? Do you lack learning ability?”

The knight laughed out loud, and Iris silently tied the horse’s reins to a tree. When we were far enough away from the knight in the garden that he couldn’t hear us, I whispered in her ear.

“Is this normal?”

Even in the game, when you talked to the knights at the mansion before progressing much in the story, they generally gave rude and disrespectful responses. But it wasn’t as severe as this.

“You’ll have to get used to it too. The longer you stay in our knighthood without being kicked out, the more you’ll hear such words and actions.”

Iris answered indifferently. It wasn’t that she wasn’t feeling irritation or anger, but rather, her tone was closer to resignation.

After that, until we were told to wait in the reception room inside the lord’s mansion, I acutely felt the mistreatment the Silver Dawn Knights had been subjected to.

I wasn’t sure what the problem was, but it was definitely worse than in the game.

In the game, the servants looked down on the player but still did their roles, but now, it felt like they didn’t even perform their minimum roles because they were too busy looking down on us.

How long had we been waiting in the reception room, almost thrown in there, when suddenly a group of women wearing maid uniforms entered and laid out all sorts of refreshments on the empty table.

“The lord is coming in,” one of them announced.

Of course, the refreshments were not for us but for the lord who was about to enter. He left us waiting while we were supposed to have dinner, and now he was going to eat something else?

Hearing the sound of someone entering, I finally lifted my head, thinking I would at least see his face.

‘…Wow, what the fuck.’

And I was shocked by a visual that was far more atrocious than I had thought.

Not only was his entire body filled with layers of fat, but the fat had even seeped into his face, burying his features, and his whole body was so obese that it made me wonder how he could even walk with that physique.

It was the first time in my life seeing a human whose vertical and horizontal lengths were almost the same.

I wanted to applaud the fact that he had entered by standing up and walking on his own two feet, not by rolling on the floor. His knee joints were still intact despite walking around like that?

‘He was fat in the game too, but not to this extent.’

The lord waddled in and plopped down on the sofa with a long sigh. The spot where he sat sank deeply. The first thing he did after sitting down was to eat the snacks on the table.

After the sound of munching continued for a while, the lord, who let out a long burp, finally opened his mouth.

“So, you’ve returned, Iris.”

“…Yes, as you said, I investigated the prison.”

Despite his appearance, perhaps because he was of imperial bloodline, Iris was using extremely polite language with the lord. Her own face, which was using honorifics, was unusually twisted.

“Report,” the lord said.

“Including the prisoners and guards, all the humans inside the prison were attacked by monsters, except for one person. By the time I arrived, the situation had already unfolded, and there was no room for intervention.”

“Tsk, I told you to take thorough precautions. I don’t know why you didn’t listen to me.”

Well, well. That monster was lured in by you, wasn’t it?

Knowing the full story behind the incident, I inwardly sneered. He had people lure the Human Butcher into the prison, and now he was acting like he had foresight. There was no bullshit like that bullshit.

“Is the one next to you the sole survivor of the prison?” the lord asked.

Despite his appearance, he seemed to have considerable experience in politics from the imperial palace, as he glanced at me and immediately recognized my identity. Iris nodded.

“That’s correct.”

The lord seemed to ponder something for a moment, then grabbed a handful of snacks from the table, munched on them, and made a gesture with his hand for Iris to leave while looking at her. Iris was greatly flustered.

“You, wait outside, Iris.”

“Pardon? Butㅡ”

“I told you to wait outside. Are you going to disobey my order?”

“……”

Iris looked at me with eyes filled with unease, but there was no good solution. Biting her lip once, she bowed her head sloppily and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

It was unexpected to be in this situation from the very first meeting.

Well, from my perspective, it didn’t really matter. It was an event that had to be gone through at least once to eliminate the lord without any repercussions.

In the game, you could have a private meeting with the lord starting from the third encounter, so if he was speeding up the progress like this from the first meeting, it was rather appreciated for me, who wanted to take care of him as soon as possible.

Once we were alone, the lord arrogantly rested his arm on the back of the sofa and even put his feet on the table. It was a completely dismissive attitude towards me.

Well, from the lord’s perspective, I was a prisoner from the prison, so such behavior was only natural for him. Someone who looked down on even the knight commanders wouldn’t care about a mere prisoner.

Considering the fact that the personalities of the people in the mansion had become much more arrogant compared to the game, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had crossed the line long ago.

“Hey, you,” he said.

“Yes, Lord.”

“You said you were imprisoned in the prison?”

“That’s right.”

“And you barely survived by meeting Iris?”

“That’s also correct.”

“Did you have any trouble with that knighthood in the middle, or did you fight with any of the knight commanders?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Recalling the choices that appeared in the game, I selected only the answers that would make the lord propose something to me. The lord nodded his head knowingly and thought about something for a long time.

“Why were you imprisoned?”

That’s right.

Confirming that he was asking the exact question I had anticipated, I inwardly sneered. It seemed like things would go quite well.

“Why else would I be imprisoned in such a place? It probably wouldn’t be much different from the charges you’re thinking of, Lord.”

“Hmm, I see, so that’s how it is…”

I deliberately put on the most despicable-looking smile I could muster.

If it had come this far, the grave-digging was almost done. Now, I just needed to prepare the burial goods and make this bastard voluntarily walk into the grave once he saw them.

Finally, after being lost in thought for a while, the lord opened his mouth.

“Are you interested in women?”

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