"Stop drinking."
"Are you the enemy?"
"No."
"Why can't I drink?"
"You've had enough."
"Not even one more sip?"
"It's not possible."
He resolutely removed all the liquor bottles from the table and stood up.
The man, who had been bombarded with repeated questions, awkwardly scratched his head and gathered his thoughts.
"Uh... I didn't know it would be like this, but I'm sorry..."
"I'm glad you know that."
"Haha..."
He couldn't help but look at Ben's eyes.
In fact, isn't the problem caused by him offering alcohol?
Ben knew that too, so he glared at him, but it had already happened. He let out a deep sigh, as if resigned, and racked his brain over how to resolve this.
'Should I call Ed, too?'
No matter how he thought about it, that would be best. He needed to bring some Corps members as well so that they could quickly prevent any unexpected accidents.
"There is no communication stone..."
When he thought about it, he didn't bring it with him.
Ben, the attending physician, rarely left his room in the Demon King's Castle.
The only thing that happens is when Demon's condition worsens and he rushes out. In that case, there was no time to take the communication stone, so for Ben, the presence of the communication stone was almost like air.
Of course, he took it with him as part of his luggage when he left the castle, but it would still be buried somewhere in his luggage.
It was a mistake that Ben made not only because he did not take care of the communication stone well, but also because he did not think that he would be separated from the
Deputy, Ed.
"...Do you have a communication stone?"
"Yes? No."
"..."
"But the owner here probably has one."
"...I see."
Ben looked back and forth between the man, who was laughing awkwardly, and Demo, who was still rubbing his cheek against the table.
He couldn't drag around the Commander of the 0th Corps who had become incompetent, and h was anxious about leaving him behind... Regardless of his concerns, he had decided what to do in the end.
He grabbed the man by the collar.
The guy's flustered face filled his field of vision.
"What ? What's this all of a sudden?"
"The reason I respected you was because this person showed favor to you. But if you can't even repay that, why should I respect you?"
"Who says I can't?"
The man looked at Ben with a bewildered expression as he walked away to talk with the owner, as if he had heard the answer and that was enough.
Well, he had no intention of repaying him anyway. He just saw an opportunity and tried to steal the money bag.
Wasn't this also considered a 'foolish trick'?
Wasn't it quite cute compared to drugging him?
If Miles' plan had been successful in the first place, he wouldn't have had to come forward.
'It's definitely my job to clean up after the damn bastard.'
If he got angry before someone else got angry, their anger would subside.
In particular, the stronger the intensity, the more the anger disappears and in its place is embarrassment, and the man saved his friend from danger several times using this method.
The other person, who had no way of knowing that he was going to scam and rob them, would be embarrassed, and he approached the other person with the excuse of apologizing on his friend's behalf, and then stole their money.
But something was a little strange about this opponent.
Originally, he didn't plan on drinking this much.
Just then, when they were going up to the second floor with their arms around each other's shoulders, he tried to sneak some money, but...
'I felt bad.'
So he gave him alcohol until he got drunk.
It was a bit costly, but as long as he could get his hands on the money pouch on his waist, it wouldn't be that much of a loss, so he spoke and acted without hesitation.
And now.
A man with white hair and red eyes was putting his head down on the table.
He seemed completely defenseless to anyone looking on, so why?
'Why do I have this ominous feeling?'
But he couldn't put it off any longer.
In order to separate the attendant, he deliberately pretended that there was no communication stone, so if he still couldn't steal it then, his reputation in this world would be damaged.
Now was the perfect moment as the party involved was lying around like a piece of cake and the unlucky attendant had gone to borrow a communication stone.
Because this was an opportunity that would never happen again, the man became more alert than ever and secretly and quickly moved his hand to where the money bag was one his waist. And─
"!"
─Caught.
The man looked down at his captured wrist with an expression of not understanding what had happened.
His wrist was held securely.
As he moved his gaze along the pale arm holding his wrist, he saw a face looking up and smiling brightly.
"Are you the enemy?"
"...No."
He barely licked my lips.
His mind had already been in chaos for a long time.
How? Even if he looked like this, he could confidently say that his pickpocketing skills were excellent.
How did he know and catch him before he did something illegal? Should I take it away by force?
As he was thinking that, it seemed like it was suddenly getting noisy outside.
Ding, ding, ding.
The bells signaling an attack began to ring.
"Is it monsters?"
"It's time to strike."
There was no hesitation.
After all, there were different people who were tasked with protecting the castle here.
But the problem was here. His escort rushed over as if he had finished using the communication stone.
Seeing him getting closer in an instant, the man narrowed his eyebrows.
Damn, the money was gone.
"Demon, wake up! It's the monsters!"
"Hmm, are you the enemy?"
"The monsters are the enemies."
As Ben answered, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
He probably shouldn't say this, but the timing was good.
Even though he was very drunk, if his blood flow was slow, the Commander of Corps 0 would move on to the next level of drunkenness without even having to drink any more.
In such a situation, it was a monster attack at the right time.
"Ed and the others will be waiting outside. Let's go down."
Ben, who referred to the 0th Corps members as 'the rest', hurriedly helped Demon. He wanted to go down to the first floor as soon as possible, but the atmosphere was strange.
People in the bar got up from their seats one by one.
Ben's expression slowly hardened as anyone could see that their actions of non-discreetly blocking the stairs did not have very good intentions.
In the meantime, our 0th Corps Commander Demon was still smiling.
"Are you the enemy?"
"It looks like both drugging and pickpocketing failed. So these guys are our prey, right?"
"..."
The man frowned but closed his mouth as if he had nothing to say.
When no one answered his question, Deon slowly tilted his head and opened his mouth again.
"Are you the enemy?"
"..."
"Are you the enemy?"
"..."
When there was still no answer, the laughter deepened. At the same time, the voice also gained strength.
Anyway, he's just a drunk guy. There was only one colleague. A sneer remained on their lips.
"Well, if you give me the money from your waist, I can just be a customer in the bar."
Everyone clearly saw how much they had won at the gambling house. Unfortunately, most of the people inside the gambling hall were familiar with each other.
They sometimes robbed the pockets of customers as if competing with each other, and sometimes worked together to steal money.
There was no way they would just let someone who had swept away a mountain of gold coins go.
There were only two of them, so they should be very easy prey.
"Ah hah..."
"?"
"Hahahaha! Ahahahahahaha! Hehehehe..."
The white-haired man started laughing like crazy.
He threw his head back and burst into laughter, but at some point he stopped laughing and spoke with a straight face.
A dagger was spinning in his hand, but it was unclear when he had taken it out.
"You are the enemy."
***
Creeaak, creak.
The sound of old wooden stairs being walked on was heard overlapping with the sound of heavy footsteps.
A man with white hair, or rather red-haired now, with a money pouch on his waist was leisurely coming down to the first floor.
Even though the money bag was so openly visible, no one on the first or second floors could stop him. No, they couldn't even get close.
Those who saw his cruelty in front of their eyes were terrified, and those who could not see it were driven mad by the sight of Demon smiling while covered in blood.
Among them, the man who had witnessed all of this before his eyes and who had even been drinking with him before was standing there shaking, as if he had been nailed to death.
It was not because there was a massacre.
He only killed one person.
But.
'To kill so cruelly.'
Everything happened in an instant.
Just when he thought the white-haired man was done spouting nonsense, almost at the same time, a dagger was dug into the shoulder of the guy who was giggling first.
Before anyone realized, the white-haired man yanked his dagger out of the guy's should. Blood splattered across his face, accompanied by a horrifying sound like "Shlick!", but he didn't care.
Rather, he severed the muscles in both arms, rendering them unable to move, and then began chopping up the opponent with a maniacal smile as if he was thirsting for blood.
Regardless of whether he was stabbing the face, stomach, arms or legs, he just smiled and slashed without hesitation, as if he were cutting a knife into the ground. The sight was so cruel.
When he stopped, his once pure white hair had turned red.
And the man could see why he had stopped.
'Because the body was completely unrecognizable.'
A corpse that had been torn to shreds and its original state is unrecognizable.
They couldn't even tell when the victim stopped breathing, but they instinctively knew it the moment they saw it.
'Oh, if I attack, I'll end up like that too.'
Those blocking the stairs seemed to have sensed this as well and began to retreat. The man nodded, looking at the path that naturally emerged.
That poor man probably died after feeling all the pain that can be felt while alive.
As living beings, it was natural to prefer to die as painlessly as possible. At least, no one would want to die that way.
In suffocating silence, a man walked down the stairs holding a dagger dripping with blood. A person who appeared to be an escort was following behind him, but it didn't bother him much anymore.
Because he was just a formal escort.
Or perhaps he was playing a role in controlling the sleeping beast so that it would not wake up.
The people on the first floor were desperately trying to avoid the situation even though they probably didn't see the situation on the second floor.
A suffocating silence enveloped the entire building. By killing just one person, that now red-haired man overturned the numerical difference and brought the momentum to his side.
Was it instinctual or intentional? Well, either way, it was the same result, so what did it matter now?
The atmosphere was quieter than ever, but it felt like the eye of a storm, and the man couldn't move any further and just closed his eyes.
"I've sobered up."
"... Is that so?"
Ben answered with a shocked expression.
If anyone were to witness something like that or do it themselves, it would be sobering. Rather, it would be amazing to see that much blood and still be drunk and half- asleep.
He didn't mind the shortened words. Because this didn't only happen once or twice.
The Commander of Corps 0 used to speak informally whenever he was drinking or seriously entering a battle.
Demon ran his finger over the blood on the dagger and headed for the door. Then, as if he had discovered something, he stopped for a moment and looked somewhere.
"Hiek!"
Miles, who was hiding in the corner, hurriedly retreated.
Their eyes met!
He desperately wished he saw wrong, but the man covered in blood was clearly looking at him with his shiny red eyes. As soon as he felt his life threatened, regret washed over him like a tidal wave.
'I'm crazy. Even if I get caught, why try to rob a guy like that!'
There was no way Ben couldn't have seen the 0th Corps Commander's gaze directed at him.
The crazy guy who dared offer Demon a drugged drink.
If he didn't know, he didn't know, but he had no intention of forgiving it since he noticed.
However...
Ben narrowed his eyebrows and said, "There is no need to waste your time on a guy like that. If you just tell me, I will..."
"No."
"..."
Deon cut off Ben's words at once and slowly turned around and approached Miles.
Although he was clearly walking slowly, he arrived right in front of him in an instant. He slowly bent down on his knees in front of him, looked at him, and smiled.
"You weakling."
"Yes, yes!"
"If you don't want to die..."
"..."
"Give me all the remaining drugs."
"…Yes?"