Chapter 196: “But I Still Refuse!”
Putting Bali aside, the various nobles and knights have started looking at Shien with some amount of fear.
Shien had came in from the start with a massive show of force. That was already enough to deter a number of the nobles from getting ideas. Thus, all they could do was opportunistically join their voices to Bali when he's taking the lead. Besides that, many of them no longer dared to do anything openly.
Now though, after another reminder from Shien, the fear in their hearts had increased.
This was someone who didn't bother with propriety at all here. Given his already great powers, if he acted without restraints, then it would definitely be an utter disaster for them.
Is it really worth making an enemy of someone like that?
The nobles were quite terrified.
"Pff."
Liadella on the other hand couldn't hold back her laughter. She even turned and addressed her little sister.
"As expected of the man that caught your eyes. He really is quite interesting, far more so than those boring noblemen."
Liadella started giggling. She seemed to be having quite a bit of fun.
"He's not a man that caught my eye, elder sister Lia." Lucy on the other hand kind of wanted to roll her eyes, but she stopped herself in consideration of her image. Instead, she just spoke resignedly, "Does elder sister think he's interesting? You won't be thinking that in the future."
That guy isn't interesting at all. No, he's maddening.
(My naive and fun loving big sister, you must not become interested in him. You'd definitely regret it.)
Lucy thus silently prayed in her mind.
Therefore, Lucy didn't notice the fact that Liadella gave a similarly disapproving smile while muttering in her own mind.
(Really? My sister's standards are sky high, to the point where she even refused to become a resident of the divine realm. Be it the Kingdom's nobility, the princes of other nations, or the important personages of the other races, none of them could match her standards. So if he wasn't interesting, could that sister of mine really have gotten so close to him?)
At the very least, Liadella had never seen her sister give a person of the opposite gender such special treatment. Not only did she invite him to join her in her room every so often, they'd even spend practically half a day together every time. She even gave away her royal token, and when they showed up here, the two of them walked while keeping an unprecedentedly close distance.
Not even herself and their father had been so close.
Therefore, Liadella had actually been quite curious when it came to Shien the whole time. She hoped to see just what this man that her genius little sister treated so specially was really like.
However…
"For now, let's see how he's going to deal with this issue."
Liadella focused her attention back onto the matter at hand.
At this point, there was a new development on field.
The cause of that was a statement from Ancil.
"No matter what, rewards must be given for achievements. Even if there are still plenty of questions remaining, there's no way to prove that there's an issue with Sir Shien. If there really is some kind of misunderstanding within and one who achieved great merits were to instead by left out due to undeserved suspicion, then isn't that just far too bitter?"
Ancil put out such a statement.
"Much like Sir Shien just said, if anyone believes that there are issues with Sir Shien, then bring out the evidence. Otherwise, mere words prove nothing. Our Kingdom cannot refuse to recognize his merits just because of that."
The nobles on field started looking among each other in response to Ancil's statements.
Bali had stopped talking. It seems like he had realized that there was no point to continue opposing the matter.
After all, they indeed lacked any evidence that there are issues with Shien.
And without any evidence, and under the situation where Ancil was determined to win Shien over, then there's no way to really oppose it, right?
However, this is naturally not the only card up Bali's sleeve.
Truth be told, now is where Bali's real plan is about to begin.
"In that case then, may I offer a suggestion?"
Bali spoke up like he suddenly thought of something.
"What might elder brother Bali want to say then?"
Ancil did allow that much for Bali.
Thus, Bali stepped forward and spoke before everyone there.
"In my opinion, why not first withhold the reward and instead give the adventurer Shien a chance to prove himself."
Bali begun with that.
"Actually, I came here to the Capital this time because I had an important matter that I wanted to report." Bali swept his gaze across everyone there, "In my territory, we've recently discovered traces of Old Demon Faction activity."
The moment those words came out, the crowd started making a commotion.
Up on the throne, Ancil's gaze sharpened.
By his side, Jacinta reacted similarly. His previous light expression had completely vanished.
Joule frowned.
As for Shien, he originally wanted to see just what that Bali guy was up to, but he was rather taken aback by this bit of news.
"No way, right? Wasn't the Old Demon Faction already destroyed?"
Shien visibly showed his complete surprise.
Seeing Shien's surprised expression, Vivian hurriedly whispered the explanation.
"Did you think the Old Demon Faction led by Baydr and Jillian was the entirety of the Old Demon Faction?" Vivian whispered, "That's wrong. There are a lot who didn't want to see the demon race kneel to the gods and mortals, betray the Demon King's will, and live in peace with the gods and mortals. Baydr's group was merely one of them."
The Old Demon Faction actually can't really be called one organization at all. Instead, it's more like an object of faith.
They didn't all get together and plan to oppose the world together. Instead, each had their own thoughts and ideas, and each drew in demons and expanded their organization using methods based on their own circumstances and plans. There are even those who didn't care at all about the so called will of the Demon King, and instead just wanted to destroy the current peace for their own selfish reasons. They're just borrowing the Demon King's name to trick others into joining them, that's all.
Thus, there are in fact many faction to the Old Demon Faction itself. Baydr was merely one of them.
"Ten years ago, Baydr's branch was one of the most dangerous branches of the many Old Demon Factions. Not only were their numbers high and their influence widespread, each and every one of them were also skilled in assassination, so their danger level was the highest among the various Old Demon Factions. However, during the mass assassination ten years ago, we also managed to greatly damage Baydr's branch, so they've fallen to become one of the weakest of the Old Demon Factions. Otherwise, they wouldn't have gone so far just to rescue a single person. It's because their membership has already become far less than what hey used to have."
Vivian's explanation made Shien understand.
"In other words, there are still other branches of the Old Demon Faction still around, right?"
Shien basically understood what Bali was planning.
The result was completely within Shien's expectations.
"Since the adventurer Shien has claimed that there's no issue with himself, then why not allow us to witness if he really did have the ability to subjugate the Old Demon Faction?" Bali so declared.
"My suggestion is, let the adventurer Shien head to my Stalim territory and once again subjugate the Old Demon Faction there."
"If he succeeds, then that proves that his abilities are real. At that point, we can simply give him the rewards for both achievements at the same time."
"And if he fails, then even if we can't prove that there are problems with him, I still must ask your majesty to properly reconsider the matter of the reward."
"What does your majesty think?"
Bali's reasoning got everyone to exchange glances and nod.
Even Joule and Jacinta seemed to have been convinced, with how their eyes were shining.
Ancil was silent. After a while, he finally looked toward Shien.
"Sir Shien, what do you think?"
Ancil asked for Shien's opinion.
Shien thus sighed.
"It seems like I can't refuse."
Shien so spoke, making everyone think that this matter had thus been settled.
But right then…
"But I still refuse!"
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