/

chapter 91




I turned to them and bowed politely.
“May I presume that you are Marquis Mastafon and you, his wife?”
“…Yes. And you?”
“I’m sorry, allow me to introduce myself, I am Locke. An Adventurer.”
“I am Shia. I’m also an Adventurer.”
“…Mister Locke and Shia…”
Marquis Mastafon looked at me with a troubled expression.
His wife noticed Tama and looked surprised.
“But there is Tama. Does that mean you two Adventurers were hired and sent here by Philly?”
“Yes, something like that.”
It wasn’t exactly correct, but it would take too much time to explain.
And so that could wait until things calmed down.
“Tama, I’m so glad you are well. So you protected Philly? Thank you.”
“Ruff.”
Tama barked softly and rubbed against the wife’s leg.
She petted Tama gently.
“So Philly is alive. Is she well? Has she lost a lot of weight?”
The marquis’s wife asked with concern.
“Well, I would have no idea if she lost weight, as I have never seen her before. However, she did seem well.”
“I see. Thank you.”
She looked relieved as tears filled her eyes.
The Marquis also looked relieved as he placed his hands on his wife’s shoulders.
Then, as if coming to a decision, they turned around to face us.
“Mister Locke. Miss Shia. Thank you so much for accepting Philly’s request and coming here.”
“No, don’t mention it.”
“You must be very capable Adventurers to make it all the way here.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say…”
It was probably not necessary to say that I was an F Rank Warrior here. It would complicate things.
“However, this mansion is overruled by the dark ones. Would it be possible to take us and escape?”
“Yes, about that…”
I had killed all of the vampires.
I was about to say this, but the Marquis looked grave and then shook his head.
“I understand. Saving us is the requirement for Philly’s request. But we are not fighters. We will only slow you down. And even you two are not capable of taking us out of here without being seen.”
If that situation had been the reality, then yes, it would have been very hard to escape.
I would have probably used concealment magic and hoped for the best.
“You are so capable that you might be able to escape by yourself. And if you do, please go to the royal palace and seek help. Our great king and ruler will surely find a way to resolve this.”
“It’s fine.”
“No, it is not fine. They are dark ones, but not goblins. You may find this very hard to believe, but there are Vampire Lords in the capital!”
It was true that the Marquis wanted us to escape so we could call for help.
But there was also a very genuine concern for our safety.
“It’s fine. I already killed the Vampire Lords. And I’ve cleaned the house of dark ones as well.”
“…You don’t believe us, do you?”
It was considered impossible for vampires, let alone Vampire Lords, to enter the capital.
And so the Marquis thought that I didn’t believe him.
He thought that we didn’t believe and were making things up so we could just escape. That’s what he thought.
But I probably wouldn’t have believed it either, were it not for the existence of the magic tool that allowed you to trick the barrier.
“Mister Locke, you must be thinking that I am deranged or that I simply confused a lesser vampire with a Vampire Lord. Isn’t that right?”
“No, I believe you. But the thing is, I already killed them all.”
“…I don’t mind if you don’t believe me. I understand that what I’m saying sounds absurd. But…”
It now seemed that an explanation with words was not going to do any good.
And so I took out the vampires stones from my bag.
These I placed on the table.
The Marquis and his wife looked at them with suspicion.
“And what is this?”
“This and this are magic stones from Vampire Lords. And these here are from Arch Vampires.”
“…Uh.”
The Marquis looked confused.
Shia chimed in from the side.
“Mister Locke. Most people aren’t familiar with…”
“…Oh, I guess that’s right.”
I put the stones back in my bag.
They wouldn’t be able to tell which monsters they came from by looking at them.
Adventurers were able to tell how strong the monster was by just looking at the stones.
Strong monsters had large, brighter stones.
And so the stones from Vampire Lords were very large and bright.
That being said, it still did not mean much to the average person.
Shia asked in a quiet voice,
“What should we do?”
“Yes. I will just have to use my trump card.”
I took out the necklace that Eric had given me. It proved that I was a representative of the king.
“It’s true that Philly wanted my help, but…”
“That! I had no idea that you represented the king! How insolent of us!”
The Marquis and his wife immediately kneeled before us.
Well, the necklace was quite effective indeed.