At the owner’s fierce shout, the subordinates hurriedly nodded, pulled a lever on the wall, and ran into a passage connected to the underground sewer.

Since those insane knight bastards were prowling around outside right now, they had to use the secret passage if they wanted to contact the other associates they knew in the city.

-Are you going to deliver the message? Make sure you deliver it quickly. And do not forget to include everything in the report.

“......”

“......”

The thieves were utterly horrified when they saw the Death Knights casually speaking to them in the underground sewer that no one was supposed to know about.

They were talking leisurely as though they were guards patrolling the area, which made it even more frightening.

-Are you not going to answer?

“...W-We will.”

-Good. Hurry! We are busy people, and the Successor is even busier. If you cannot find them, even we cannot predict what he might do!

'You insane mage bastards! You insane evil-god-worshiper bastards!'

The thieves cursed everything in the world as they ran through the damp underground passage.

Why could those people not simply fight among themselves outside? Why did they have to come to this city and do this?!

***

Vepaim’s nightmare did not end with the tavern.

Once even a single person was caught, that person could not be released without revealing every suspicious location in the city, and as a result...

Countless ordinary citizens of Vepaim who had been conducting illegal business with modest and honest hearts were struck by disaster.

“Is this the place?”

“Yes! Yes! Please let me go!”

“We have to check first before letting you go. If there is no suspicious person here, you are coming with me to Einroguard.”

“......”

The smuggler wore an expression suggesting serious consideration of whether it would be better to swallow poison immediately.

Long ago, several companions had been dragged off to Einroguard and had never been heard from again.

“Tell everyone inside to come out.”

At Lee Han’s words, the apothecary naturally protested loudly.

This shop, which hung a brass mortar-shaped ornament as its sign, traded not only various reagents but also illegal stolen goods, and a shop like this was somewhat different from the tavern earlier.

Since it was located in a busy commercial district, it enjoyed a certain degree of sponsorship and protection from nobles and wealthy patrons.

Accordingly, the apothecary brought up the name of the baron who had received the most money.

“Are you insane?! Do you even know where you are?! Baron Waltaha—”

“You heard that, right? Please bring him here.”

-Yes. Yes.

The knights left in a crowd, speaking as leisurely as merchants taking an item down from a display shelf.

The sight froze the apothecary as though struck by ice magic.

What the apothecary had just seen was more terrifying than any threat, shout, or curse.

“D-Do not bluff. You cannot simply seize the baron as you please in Vepaim. Do you even know what kind of person Baron Waltaha is?!”

“I will be returning to Einroguard anyway, so I do not care.”

Lee Han replied indifferently.

Lately, he had been realizing that being affiliated with Einroguard could be surprisingly useful.

Especially if one caused trouble and then returned to Einroguard, there was not much even Imperial law could do.

Of course, the enraged Skull Principal would punish him under Einroguard’s laws, but would that not still be better than being punished outside?

'Could this be why the seniors went around causing trouble outside?'

While Lee Han arrived at a dangerous realization, the apothecary was at a loss.

On the one hand, common sense said that they could not possibly drag Baron Waltaha here in the middle of the night. On the other hand, since the other party came from Einroguard, perhaps they truly were insane enough to do it.

If they really brought the baron here...

'That would be... disastrous.'

From Baron Waltaha’s perspective, whether or not he complained to Einroguard afterward, he would first try to seize and kill the apothecary.

To think the apothecary would drag him into something like this just because the baron had taken a few bribes and granted a few conveniences.

“Wardanaz. While we are waiting, shall we check whether there are any illegal reagents inside?”

“That is an excellent idea. Please do.”

“Wardanaz?!”

The apothecary’s eyes widened upon hearing the house name.

“If you are a mage of House Wardanaz, then surely... are you not a mage devoted to helping the good people of the Empire?!”

“It seems you heard some false rumor.”

-It is not a false rumor.

When Lee Han answered curtly, the knights beside him interjected.

Of course, they were currently turning the apothecary’s shop upside down, but even while doing so, the knights still wanted to insist that the good rumors about the Successor were true.

-Do you know how much Student Wardanaz has done here? If you did, you would not be barking about some Baron Woof-Woof-Woof or whatever his name is.

-Who do you think saved the starving city of Vepaim, you ungrateful bastard? Do you not know shame?

“......”

Even under the knights’ condemnation, the apothecary was merely dumbfounded.

Why was such a great and kind mage doing this in the middle of the night?

-We have brought him!

Along with the distant clatter of hooves, the knights appeared with the baron seated behind them on a horse. The baron, still dressed in sleepwear, had gone deathly pale.

“His face looks strange. Did they threaten him?”

“Shh. Please be quiet, Priest Siana.”

Nigisor quickly stopped the friend’s whisper. People from the surrounding shops were murmuring and watching.

“He is probably cold because he came outside at night. Also, the knights are undead, so an unnatural chill surrounds them.”

Priest Tiziling quickly added in support. At those words, the surrounding shopkeepers made expressions of understanding.

Anything sounded plausible when spoken by a priest with such an earnest appearance.

Of course, Siana was not fooled by such words. Siana was simply astonished.

'To think Priest Tiziling would tell a lie like that...!'

“Baron! Please help me— Agh!”

“You madman! You madman! What wicked demon possessed your heart and made you drag me into this?!”

The baron, overcome with fury, struck the apothecary with the nightcap he was wearing.

It was not a sight one would normally expect from a dignified city noble in the middle of the street at night, but Baron Waltaha could not help it.

He had suddenly been abducted and dragged away in the middle of the night, and after saying a few words of resistance on the way, he had even been subjected to terrifying threats. And all of this had happened because this apothecary bastard had dragged him down like a drowning man.

“Die by yourself, you bastard!”

“Agh! I was wrong!”

Thoroughly cowed, the apothecary obediently revealed not only the hidden ledger but also every suspicious person seen recently.

Unfortunately, none of them were evil-god worshipers. They were all smugglers and thieves who had recently crept in to take advantage of the chaos.

-What a shame.

-Ah. How unfortunate. I truly thought this person might be an evil-god worshiper.

-Why? Because of the vicious appearance?

-No. I became suspicious after hearing that a criminal lived such a regular life.

-I see!

Watching the knights chat among themselves, Baron Waltaha cleared his throat.

The sleepwear did not lend him much authority, but the baron still squeezed out what remained of it and spoke.

“Ahem. Ahem.”

-Ah. Baron Woof-Woof... Woof...? Hmm. Baron. What is it?

The knight became confused over the name, then quickly changed course. Forcing a guess and getting it wrong seemed even ruder.

“Now that the matter involving this insolent apothecary is over, may I return as well?”

-Yes. Let us go together.

“You intend to escort me?”

-Escort you? Ah... yes. We will escort you on the way, and we also need to inspect your estate.

“......”

The baron, who had been about to move, froze in place.

Where had they just said they were going to inspect?

“I-I believe I misheard... Why are you inspecting my estate?”

“You took money from the apothecary, so we must investigate. There may be evil-god worshipers inside the estate.”

Lee Han answered in the knight’s place. The baron flared up.

“What absurd nonsense! Do you have any evidence that I did such a thing?!”

“You just said you took money from the apothecary.”

“Do you know how many people in this city have taken money from apothecaries?!”

“Then tell us all of them.”

“......”

Baron Waltaha was horrified by the suffocating feeling of speaking to a wall.

What was wrong with this bastard?

“I will never permit this!”

-What do you intend to do if you do not permit it?

The knight who had personally brought the baron asked quietly. Baron Waltaha froze at the question.

The threats heard on the way here returned to mind.

-For your information, Baron, do you know where the supplies distributed in Vepaim came from? They came from Count Bouillon’s estate.

“You will cause the baron to misunderstand. To be precise, we did not plunder them. It was because of the embezzlement of relief supplies...”

Lee Han tried to explain, but the baron was no longer listening.

-Baron. We do not normally give two warnings. Yet we have already warned you twice. Do you think we are some scarecrow knights of the Empire?

Though such incidents had become relatively rare in recent years, these knights had originally been ruthless riders who spread destruction and ruin under the Skull Principal’s orders.

As incidents read about in Imperial newspapers during childhood surfaced in the baron’s mind, Baron Waltaha unconsciously swallowed.

“...No. Absolutely not.”

-Be careful how you behave from now on.

The Death Knights spoke as sinister light blazed in their eyes. Lee Han offered consolation instead.

“If you cooperate, nothing serious will happen.”

“......”

Honestly, Baron Waltaha found this mage bastard more frightening than the knights.

To command such insane undead while remaining so calm...!

***

When night passed and morning arrived, a storm of letters of protest began pouring in.

Naturally, those who had been raided during the night could not send such letters, so the people who had not yet been raided by sheer luck took the lead in terror.

They could not remain still when they had no idea when the blade might fall upon them.

The first people they approached were the bishops of the religious orders. Since the disaster in Vepaim had been so severe, the bishops were staying nearby.

“Bishop! Please hear our plea! Even if they came here to do good, does that mean they may ignore the laws and morals of the Empire and act however they please?! Everything has a proper procedure!”

The city’s scoundrels even brought up laws and rules they ordinarily did not follow.

That was how frightened they were.

Some insane mage was supposedly leading Death Knights in attacks...

However, the bishops’ reactions were completely different from what they had expected.

“If it is the mage of House Wardanaz, is that not the mage who has spared no material or personal support for this disaster?”

“If you are attempting to slander the young mage now because of the incident involving Count Bouillon, the order can never agree.”

“N-No...! This has nothing to do with Count Bouillon...! We are speaking entirely sincerely...!”

The nearby bishops and priests already held Lee Han in the highest possible regard, so no slander could work.

One bishop even shouted, “How dare you make such an absurd accusation, you wicked people!”

Swallowing their resentment, the scoundrels retreated and sought their next target.

They turned to mages from another Imperial magic school.

They were somewhat unreliable, but a magic school was still a magic school...

“Great archmages of Valdrogard! Please witness the tyranny of a fellow mage and—”

“Hmph! I know exactly what you are trying to do, you wicked people. You intend to drive a wedge between Valdrogard and Einroguard. Even if Wardanaz used a slightly excessive method, do you truly think that will work?!”

'Slightly?'

Jandanni’s junior thought skeptically, but unfortunately, the person in overall command of the Valdrogard students was this senior.

When no persuasion or report worked, the scoundrels once again withdrew with tears of blood.

“Does the Empire have no law?!”

In the end, the scoundrels made the choice they had wanted to avoid most.

They reported the matter to an Imperial official.

There happened to be an inspector who had been dispatched even before the bishops because of the disaster.

The Imperial inspector, reduced to skin and bones from overwork, was examining badly damaged farmland when the group came rushing over. The inspector frowned.

Several of them were people even the inspector recognized as merchants engaged in suspicious business.

“What is it?”

“Your Excellency! Please redress our grievance!”

No one had a worse relationship with Einroguard mages than Imperial officials. This was especially true of high-ranking officials.

If they heard that the Skull Principal’s minions had been rampaging through the city without regard for the law, even in the name of justice, it would not have been strange for them to fly into a rage and immediately write a report.

“Wardanaz? Did you say House Wardanaz?”

“Yes! Definitely House Wardanaz, currently attending Einroguard!”

“I see. Understood. I will immediately write a letter and submit it to His Majesty the Emperor, so all of you may return.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

Once the scoundrels left in delight, the inspector immediately burned the paper on which notes had just been written in front of them.

Had the wicked archmage personally caused the incident, the inspector would have reported it immediately. But if it was that boy from House Wardanaz, the situation was somewhat different.

There was no way the inspector would report a young mage cherished not only by His Majesty the Emperor but also by the officials beneath him merely because of a few slanderous remarks from people like those.

'Those bastards must have caused trouble themselves.'

It was a sight that would have made the Skull Principal collapse from jealousy.