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Sudden emergence of the baboon king
What the hell?! What the hell is that monster!?
He kept asking himself the same question over and over as he ran frantically, but of course, he couldn’t find the answer.
I was naive! No, I was too gullible!!
He was a genuine monster in human skin.
Poisonous Liquor was, undoubtedly, one of the top executives of [Laguna]. He had slaughtered numerous strong people, he had even crossed blades with legendary creatures like mythical beasts and dragons.
However, Poisonous Liquor had never seen such a horrible and disgusting creature in his entire life.
Red eyes and a mouth that hung up to the corners. Above all, dense and vicious crimson mana  flowing like a muddy stream from his whole body, even distorting the atmosphere around, had scraped the thing called fighting spirit from Poisonous Liquor.
In addition, his profoundly mysterious ability to twist the thread and his subordinates. He even wondered if that was really magic? However, even if it was, he was just too powerful. Even mythical beasts or spirits couldn’t use that kind of power.
If he had to make a guess, it was an inhuman existence. That spider monster that had attacked the headquarters of Laguna on Grey’s order. It was considerably strong. After all, it took all Four Cardinal’s sins to repel that monster. He used a monster of that caliber. There was nothing odd about him being stronger than others.
Furthermore, he had come to learn from some intel that Sagami Co. had taken faerie tribes under their jurisdiction. Faerie tribes considered humans lowly. Their pride would never allow them to serve people of their own volition, let alone force them to obey them as slaves.
If that was the case, then that Grey was the kind of inhuman that had enough merit for a faerie tribe to kneel. There were only a few of them. That was: an ultra high-ranking spirit.
Don’t tell me, it’s that so-called legendary creature, the Holy Spirit King?
Holy Spirit King was an existence worshipped by spirits. It was akin to a deity for them. How could a human go against a deity? He was a supernatural being, that was why he was a god.
We have to get rid of him as soon as possible.
It wasn’t the kind of existence that humanity could manage. Above all, he had left the message.
“I’m going to kill you in the worst and cruelest way I can think of.”
A monstrosity like him had set its sight on [Laguna]. Would an inhuman spare the lives of humans? In the end, just like his subordinates, he would—
“Don’t be ridiculous!!”
There’s no way I can let it happen to me!! I will show him. I will definitely escape.
This Empire was the base of that monster. He had to abandon it and flee to a foreign country.
It was inevitable for the organization’s influence to fall back, but it was still better than being one sidedly trampled or crushed.
Have I arrived?
[Laguna]’s headquarter was in the red-light district, a little southeast of Straheim.
“Hurry up and prepare to leave this place immediately!!”
He shouted while almost rolling inside the mansion, but no one answered. No, there wasn’t even a single soul here to answer him.
This was the [Laguna] division of the metropolis area like Straheim. Beginning with management, there were a considerable number of members staying there. The fact that there was not a single person in sight was abnormal no matter how you looked at it.
“Oh my, you have finally arrived.”
A masked man completely clad in black cloth appeared from the back of the room.
“Did you do this?” he asked with unconcealed rage, but the other person just shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah. Don’t worry, I’ve got them waiting for you in the back. They’re important materials, after all.” he replied in a cheerful voice.
“Material? What did you do?”
It wasn’t like he cared about them, as he saw his subordinates as nothing more than a meat shield. However, that was exactly why, to shake off the pursuit of that monster, they were the necessary soldiers for him to safely escape from Straheim.
“Rather than that, you’ve just escaped with your tail between your legs, haven’t you?”
“Of course! Can you even say that person is a human!? You scheming bastard!!”
He was furious, but that guy just smiled spookily and said, “He’s a human. You have my words for that. But then again, he only looks like a child of the natives, and we still don’t know what era or country he’s brave of.”
“Native? Brave? I really don’t get what you, sir, is saying at all!”
Although he said that, he recognised the doll-like forced smile, and was struck by a disgusting feeling, as if countless bugs had been crawling all over his body.
“Yes, I want to know. I want to know what’s inside his body and yet, you flee without even testing the effect of the pendant. It’s not unacceptable. It’s really not unacceptable.”
With his arms outstretched in an exaggerated manner, he profusely criticized and insulted Poisoned Liquor.
Normally, he would be furious. But Poisonous Liquor’s instincts were painfully insisting him to run away from this place at all cost.
“I have no choice. It’s a little too much for me to take on that monster head on.”
It’s dangerous. This man is just as dangerous as that monster. I shouldn’t have gotten involved readily.
Is this what I get from being in the warm water too much!?
If it was his prime, Poisonous Liquor absolutely wouldn’t have thought of teaming up with such a suspicious man of unknown origin, and he would have gotten more accurate information about the monster Grey before making a move.
Rising to the top of the underworld, with no worthy enemies in the world, he must have become arrogant. But, regretting at this point was no use now. Right now, the only thing that mattered was how to get through this gambling-den-like situation.
“That’s why I want you to be useful.”
The words didn’t fit together. Perhaps he wasn’t even listening to Poisonous Liquor’s words.
“Let’s make a preparation then.”
While nodding vigorously, he confirmed the escape route with sidelong glances and slightly  lowered his centre of gravity so as not to be noticed.
The only thing left was the timing.
“First is the pendant. It has a certain function. Or more like it’s not an exaggeration to say that it is the pendant’s original role.”
He put his hand on his chin and whirled around on the floor.
“I see.”
He interjected, and the moment that guy turned his back to Poisonous Liquor, he took a step back as fast as possible to the door behind him.
It was perfect timing. With this, it was possible to escape—or that was how it should have been.
He felt something against his back. When Poisonous Liquor turned around, he saw him holding his neck with a big smile on his face.
“I still haven’t finished talking. Don’t run. Actually, you can’t run away.”
He held Poisonous Liquor’s face with his left palm, shook his head from side to side, and lifted his neck.
R-ridiculous!! He caught me so easily!? I’m one of the Four Cardinal, Poisonous Liquor!!
Poisonous Liquor understood easily at this point when he was being stared down by the dark eyes dwelling behind the mask. This person is the same as that guy, another monster.
“Let me go!!”
He struggled desperately, but that guy didn’t buzz at all. It was simply terrifying.
“Hmm, let’s try the effect of that [Demon King Vessel] right away. Be happy. You are a very powerful person among the natives of this world. You should be able to become a powerful Demon Lord indeed.”
“Ugh……”
He groaned from feeling the peculiarity of despair as if he was being dragged down to the bottom of an unseen valley.
“Hopefully, this may reveal the origin of that person.”
Conductor pointed his left hand at the pendant Poisonous Liquor was wearing and slowly tried to touch it.
“Stop it! Stooooooop!!”
In spite of his denial with all of his might, Conductor’s hand touched the pendant.
Thump!!
The pendant pulsated, and a hellish pain as if a red hot rod was directly nailed into his brain immediately ran all over his body, dying his vision red.
“Guoooooooou—”
“Well, fight bravely. I wish you the best of luck.”
After Conductor’s jubilant voice, his last memory as Poisonous Liquor disappeared.