The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Chapter 289: The Tumultuous Capital

This day was definitely a tumultuous one for the Capital.

The matter of the entirety of the National Knight Order that was keeping guard at the Ataru Canyons being annihilated had spread out to every corner of the Capital within but a few hours.

This wasn’t something that could be kept secret.

After all, the whole thing was just too much. Plus, the wasteland left outside the Ataru Canyons was still there, and the knights and adventures who ran away in terror had also swarmed back to the Capital and was witnessed to far too many people,. Add in the fact that there were also recent incidents with sealing off areas around the Capital and the abnormalities with demonic beasts, the people of the Capital were paying a high amount of attention to everything that might happen from the start.

With all those factors, the news spread very quickly. There was no time or opportunity to keep the news from getting ouit.

Thus, the Capital was in a highly excited state. There was no way to calm things down.

Of course, that was just the appetizer.

The real excitement came after.

First, a dragon was sighted flying into the Capital, which caused a great deal of panic.

Given that dragons are the king of demonic beasts, one flying so obviously into the Capital of the Kingdom is definitely cause for alarm. If Lucy didn’t sent someone to report the matter and prepare for it ahead of time, then the Royal Knights would already have been deployed.

Then, Shien and the others who rode Yulin back to the Capital were immediately summoned by the palace. They didn’t even have the chance to go home, eat, and rest before they were hurriedly rushed into the palace by the knights.

This especially goes for Shien, as Yulin’s master. Plus, there was also information pointing to the fact that he had headed toward the Ataru Canyons right before everything happened, that he had a conflict with the National Knight Order, and then he even stayed a whole night in the Canyons. These bits of information made it obvious that there’s no way that he’s uninvolved.

In that case, it’s only natural that the Kingdom wants to question him.

Shien didn’t hide it either. In the audience chamber, he very readily admitted it before all the royals and nobility there.

“It was indeed I who annihilated the National Knights who were guarding the Canyon.”

At that moment, the entirety of the nobility in the audience chamber went dead silent. Not even Ancil was able to remain calm, showing a flabbergasted expression.

It can’t be helped. They really haven’t ever seen such an arrogant criminal, to dare to admit their crime before the throne like that. Especially not one that did so with such readiness and ease.

However, right after that, they learned that this matter wasn’t nearly so simple.

“The Garibaldi family were working with the Old Demon Faction in secret. They set up an evil magical ritual within the Ataru Canyons in a plot against the Kingdom.”

Shien truthfully reported the facts.

He didn’t mention the matter of the Demon Lord Spawn, nor did he mention the Demon Refining Ritual. He just told everyone that the Garibaldi family was working with the Old Demon Faction to activate an evil magical ritual.

The evidence for that is that they ignored Princess Lucy’s orders and kept everyone else from entering the Ataru Canyons. This in itself is suspicious.

Add in the fact that there are still a ton of refining demons wandering about in the Ataru Canyons that haven’t been subjugated yet. This is something that the Kingdom can easily verify just by sending some people in to investigate.

Beside that, Shien provided additional information, saying that the Garibaldi family sent their private army into the Ataru Canyons. There were even many other nobles working with them who were up to various mischief in the Canyons.

This was also something that can be found via an investigation.

The corpses of the Garibaldi family’s black knights were still within the Canyon. This includes the bodies of those two vice captains of the National Knights. The Kingdom could very easily send people in to check.

It’s the same for all those other noble families. A simple investigation would have yielded the fact that they’ve been meeting a lot recently, as well as the fact that they gathered and left the Capital just a bit ago, before then disappearing.

Those are all points of suspicion. All of them can be traced.

“For the Kingdom, and for the people. I thus decided to subjugate those foolish nobles and knights.”

Shien repeatedly made that claim.

The result is that the palace ended up going through a long discussion over this matter. In the end, just as Shien had predicted, given the power that Shien has shown and the many suspicious acts of the National Knights, the palace decided not to pursue this matter any further.

Although there were still many nobles who claimed that Shien commuted a major crime, costing the palace a ton of fighting power, and so he should be taken into custody. There were even people who claimed that Shien is just like Diere’s mother from ten years ago, being a spy sent from some other nation to act against the Kingdom. However, none of those people can bring out any evidence, and they were also quite intimidated by all that Shien had done, so they weren’t able to make anything of that in the end.

The main point is the fact that Shien had already become the master of the black dragon of Ataru. That fact made quite a lot of people more fearful and cautious.

As for the Kingdom’s side, they ended up considering Shien with even more seriousness.

“Given that he was able to tame such a high leveled dragon, this adventure most likely has an extremely high leveled [Taming] skill.”

With Ancil at the lead, the various higher ups of the Kingdom all thought of this point. Thus, the gazes they had toward Shien had also changed.

As a note, the vast quantity of wyverns that the master tamer of the Kingdom tamed for the Kingdom is no small force for the Kingdom, be it in combat or support.

The knights of the Royal Knight Order would deploy on wyverns, which greatly boosted their effectiveness.

If Shien could tame true dragons, then the advantages that could bring the Kingdom would be unimaginable.

Just that single factor means that there’s no way that the Kingdom would do anything to Shien so long as it hasn’t been truly determined that he was acting to harm the Kingdom.

That’s not even mentioning the fact that Lucy had chosen to stand on Shien’s side in this matter. The nobles led by the Latrard family had also been claiming that the National Knight Order’s actions were very suspicious. In the end, even Jacinta appeared in the audience chamber and signaled his own support for Shien. Thus, how could the Kingdom possibly try making trouble for Shien?

Thus, after a whole day’s worth of brewing, a piece of news was released to the Capital.

“Many nobles, with the Garibaldi family at the head, colluded with the Old Demon faction in an attempt to hold an evil magic ritual within the Ataru Canyons in a plot to harm the Kingdom. Now, all the participants, including the mastermind Farbin Garibaldi, have all been subjugated.”

“From now on all the nobles with the Garibaldi family at the head has been attained of their noble titles by the royal family, and thus made into commoners.”

“The National Knight Order will soon be rebuilt. The captain, vice captain, and various other positions will be selected at a later date.”

“In this matter, the adventurer Shien had contributed great accomplishments, and thus is rewarded by the Kingdom.”

These bits of information exploded out within the Capital and once again spread out to every corner.

Only then did the people learn of all that had happened.

Afterwards, the Kingdom needs to deal with various issues.

For example, with the National Knight Order being heavily damaged, various neighboring nations may attempt to take advantage of the opening, so the Kingdom must intensely monitor any actions and react appropriately.

As another example, the Kingdom will also need to rebuild the National Knight Order, as well as select new noble families to lead the National Knight Order.

The aftermath in the Ataru Canyons will also need to be dealt with.

All of those matters need the Kingdom to decide on a plan to deal with and then to resolve.

Then, no matter what else happens, one person’s name is certain to also be known in every corner of the Capital along with all these events.

That person’s name is Shien.