Debuff Master

Siegfried was neither upset nor enraged at their reaction.

‘Ah… this is so embarrassing…’?

However, he felt like he wanted to dig a hole and hide in it.

‘It feels even more embarrassing after saying it with my own mouth… It’s not like I don’t understand why they are laughing at me… A greenhorn suddenly appears out of nowhere and claims to be the king… How can someone not laugh at that?’?

Siegfried completely understood and agreed with the guards’ responses, and he decided to explain the situation to them rather than get worked up over it.

“That’s…” Siegfried muttered as he retrieved two items from his Inventory and showed it to the guards. The items Siegfried had retrieved from his Inventory were the appointment letter bestowed on him by the emperor and the emperor’s letter for Baron Verbon regarding Siegfried’s appointment as king.

“I’m really the new king,” Siegfried said once more, and then he explained, “I happened to win the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament and was awarded the Proatine Province by His Majesty, the Emperor. I know it’s difficult for you to believe me, but you will understand if you read these letters…”

However, the guards weren’t interested in what Siegfried had to say, so they immediately dismissed his words.

“Wow, this guy is really nuts.”

“Hahaha! Did you hear that? He says it’s an appointment letter and a personal letter from the emperor~”

“It has been quite a while since we had such a lunatic in town.”

In fact, the guard that had his spear shoved close to Siegfried’s neck was the one who got upset and growled, “Hey, kiddo. Listen up. You just made a grave mistake.”

“Huh?” Siegfried tilted his head in confusion.

“I have no idea where you learned such a scam that even a monkey won’t fall for. Sure, we can just let you off and think that you are just young and cute, but what did you just say? The emperor? How dare you bring up that bastard’s name in front of us?” the guard said, openly displaying his animosity toward the emperor.

No, he wasn’t the only one.

“The emperor was the best you could come up with? Tsk, tsk…”

“So what if he is the emperor? He did jackshit for us, but what now? He even gave us away as a reward? Ha!”

“We will never acknowledge you as our king even if you do turn out to be someone appointed by the emperor. Do you understand?”

It seemed that the guards of Casein Castle didn’t have a favorable opinion of the emperor.

‘I’m not getting through to them at all…’?Siegfried inwardly complained as he finally gave up on talking to them.

“I have no idea why all of you are being like this. If you won’t believe me, then please call your superior,” Siegfried said.

“Superior?” the spear-wielding guard growled with fury.

“Yes...”

“This bastard…!” the guard exclaimed as he tightened his grip on his spear. He was about to press the spear tip closer to Siegfried’s neck, but things didn’t turn out as he wanted.

Tak!

Siegfried easily pushed the spear away from his neck, and then he repeated in a more rigid voice. “Please call your superior. And I am warning you not to make the same mistake twice. You will seriously get hurt.”

“Ha!?Listen to this bastard!” the guard scoffed. He then thrust his spear toward Siegfried.

Whoosh!

The spear failed to connect with anything.

Pukeok!

Siegfried dug his knee into the guard’s abdomen.

“Kuheok!”

“I already warned you that you will get hurt.”

“This… this bastard dares to…”

“Call your superior while I’m still being nice. Then, I will let this incident slide. Let’s not cause any trouble between us, shall we?”

“Kill that bastard!”

And it started…

“This crazy bastard!”

“You wanna die? Ha?!”

“Who do you think you are?!”

The guards at the castle gate ganged up on Siegfried.

***

Almost a hundred guards were moaning in pain on the ground in front of Casein Castle’s gates.

“Urgh…”

“Uwooo…”

“Argh… Argh…”

“Do you need more beating to understand what I’m saying? When is your superior coming?” Siegfried asked with a hint of annoyance mixed in his voice.

He tried to resolve things in a peaceful manner with them, but they attacked him instead of calling their superior. Siegfried fought them with a significant handicap, as he had to make sure not to kill them since they were necessary to guard the castle gates.

“We sent someone to call him, so just wait right there…” replied the spear-wielding guard while groaning on the ground. He was the first one who attacked Siegfried. It seemed that he was still fine because he still had the strength to threaten Siegfried. “The elite forces will be here at any moment now, and they will rip you apart—Kwek!”

A mace flew and smacked him on the head, interrupting his threat. 𝙗𝒆𝒅𝙣𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝙢

Whooosh… Pukeok!

“Ha…” Siegfried let out a sigh as he complained, “If you had just let me through, none of this would have happened…”

“Kill that bastard!”

All of a sudden, fifty knights appeared along with someone’s shout, and they instantly surrounded Siegfried. In addition…

“What’s all the ruckus about?!” a high-pitched voice exclaimed.

Another group wearing light leather armor rather than heavy armor appeared.

‘What’s going on?’?Siegfried wondered while looking at the two groups that had just appeared.

“Sir Ronan, what happened here? Why are the guards on the ground?” said the woman, who seemed to be the leader of the group wearing leather armor, to the knight who commanded the other group to kill Siegfried.

“Ah, Dame Oscar,” Ronan responded, seemingly taken aback before explaining, “That bastard dared to cause a fuss at the castle gates, so I came running here.”

“A fuss? Who dared to raise a fuss here?” asked the woman named Oscar.

“That kid over there,” Ronan replied, pointing at Siegfried before saying, “That Adventurer appeared out of nowhere and started beating our guards.”

“Is that true?” Oscar glared at Siegfried.

[Oscar]

[Type: NPC]

[Level: 101]

[Affiliation: Proa Territory]

[Position: Vice Commander of Proa Territory Forces, Commander of the 1st Mountain Battalion, Commander of the 2nd Artillery Battalion.]

[Rank: Lieutenant Commander]

The female knight named Oscar was a tall beautiful woman who seemed to be more than 170 centimeters tall. She had flowing golden hair and mesmerizing deep blue eyes. However, she had a very cold demeanor that would make any man tense up, and her stern manner of speech was more than enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

“Is it true that you kicked up a fuss at the castle gates?” she asked.

“No,” Siegfried replied with a shake of his head.

“Bullshit! There’s no doubt that this bastard did this to the guards!” Ronan exclaimed before asking the guards on the ground, “Am I correct?”

“That bastard did this to us!”

“You have to kill him!”

“That devil did this to us!”

The guards started to exaggerate the things Siegfried had done.

Shiik…!

Oscar unsheathed her sword and asked, “Are the guards speaking the truth?”

“No…” Siegfried nonchalantly replied.

“No?”

“I am the newly-appointed king of this place.”

“What did you just say…?” Oscar asked. She seemed to be having a hard time believing Siegfried’s words as she said, “I must have heard you wrongly, so I will ask once more—”

“Look at this…” Siegfried cut her off and extended the appointment letter and the letter personally written by His Majesty the Emperor and said, “That’s the appointment letter from His Majesty the Emperor, and this is the letter from His Majesty addressed to Baron Verbon.”

“Hmm…” Oscar muttered as she went through the letters.

“It is a grave crime to forge official documents of the empire, and it is even a greater crime to forge a letter from His Majesty the Emperor. Anyone caught guilty of the latter will be severely punished and have three generations of their family killed.”

“Check it,” Siegfried coolly said.

“It’s not difficult to check this. I will just have to use communication magic. Will you be able to handle the consequences?” she asked.

“Sure…”

“Alright,” she nodded and called, “Signalman.”

“Yes, Dame Oscar!”

“Go to the communication room at once and check whether the contents of these letters are real or not. And inquire if His Majesty the Emperor has sent a new lord over to our lands.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” the signalman replied with a salute before taking the letters over to the communication room.

“In the event that you are lying—” Oscar started.

However, Siegfried cut her off as he nonchalantly said, “Just cut my head off then.”

“Dame Oscar!” Ronan butted in once more and exclaimed, “Why are you falling for the lies of that bastard?!”

“I am not. I am just checking whether it is indeed true or not,” she replied.

“What is there to check?! What kind of a mad emperor will give his lands to an Adventurer?! It is obviously a lie, so we should cut his head off this instant!”

“Enough,” Oscar cut him off and said, “It is not too late for us to cut his head off after we have proof of his crimes.”

“Dame Oscar! How can someone be so rigid? We should just cut his head off first since it’s obviously…”

“I will no longer entertain any of this,” Oscar drew the line before saying, “I am having a hard time believing this man’s words as well. However, what will you do if it turns out that he was indeed telling the truth? Then, you and I will be labeled as shameful ‘King Slayers’ if that happens.”

“What are you even trying to imply…” Ronan grumbled.

And they continued arguing for quite a while…

‘Both of them don’t get along. I can see that much,’?Siegfried observed.

***

“D-Dame Oscar!” Around ten minutes later, the signalman returned with a ghastly pale countenance. “It is true! T-That bastard is…! No, that person is the newly-appointed king of the Proatine Province! I have confirmed his name and face! Siegfried van Proa! He is indeed the new king!”

“Are you sure? Are you a hundred percent certain?” Oscar asked.

“Yes! I checked three times! There’s no doubt about it!” the signalman exclaimed.

Then…

“I, Oscar, greet my lord!”

Oscar immediately knelt and greeted her new lord as soon as the signalman finished his words.

***

At the Lord’s Hall deep within Casein Castle…

Baron Verbon grimaced and asked, “What did you say?”

He was a fat middle-aged man with tiny eyes the size of a needle’s hole.

“The new king has come?”

“Yes, my lord,” replied a knight named Batista.

He was a loyal subject of Baron Verbon along with Ronan.

“He really came?” Baron Verbon asked once more.

“Pardon?” Batista asked in response.

“There was a message from the royal capital a few weeks ago. They said that a new king was going to be crowned,” Baron Verbon said while rubbing his fat chin.

“Is that true?” Batista’s eyes shot open in surprise.

It was a normal response since these lands had long been forsaken by the empire.

“I doubted it, but who knew it would actually happen?”

“Then what should we do?”

“What do you mean what should we do?” Baron Verbon smirked and said, “We just have to chase him out.”

“However, the emperor himself has appointed him…”

“Batista, I never knew that you were such a nice person.”

“Pardon?”

“Were you the type to easily let someone else take your rice bowl away from you?”

“N-No…”

“I might be stuck here in the middle of nowhere, but as you know… Ehem…?Ehem…!”

“…”

“I can’t let someone else take away my cash cow. Don’t you agree?”

“I agree, but—”

“Let’s kill him first, and then we’ll think about it.”

“Kill him…?”

“He won’t really die since he’s an Adventurer, so let’s kill him for now and then think about what to do.”

“How do you plan to handle the backlash…?”

“We aren’t going to kill him with our own hands, so what would be the problem? We can just call them and ask them to do it on our behalf and make it look like he got assassinated. We aren’t paying them for nothing, right?”

“I understand. I will ask them to pay the castle a visit tonight, then,” Batista said before leaving the Lord’s Hall.