Debuff Master

Chapter 135

“Thank you very much for your gracious words, Your Majesty. I just did my job as your loyal subject,” Baron Retona replied while kneeling on one knee with his head down.

“Not at all! Our kingdom would have been overrun by the monsters from the Dimensional Rift if you hadn’t come up with your brilliant idea! On top of that, you killed two birds with one stone by making the Proatine Kingdom face ruin instead! Hahaha!”

“Your Majesty’s insight is truly awe-striking, but speaking of which, Your Majesty…” Baron Retona started.

However, Baron Retona was interrupted by a messenger who rushed in and announced, “Your Majesty! We have received a magic transmission from the Proatine Kingdom!”

King Fitzgerald was taken aback for a moment before he waved his hand and replied, “Hmm… Tell them we have an urgent matter in our kingdom, and we will call them back at a later date.”

King Fitzgerald seemed like he wanted to avoid any communication between his kingdom and Proatine out of guilt.

“No, Your Majesty, I will speak with them,” said Baron Retona.

“You will? It could put us in a pickle, so why don’t we just ignore them for now?” King Fitzgerald asked in response.

“Your Majesty, this is a great opportunity. We have to be even more thick-faced and brazen in times like this. Why should we save face when our country’s benefit is at stake? We should reap whatever profit we can harvest from this situation!”

“What do you mean? What profit can we make from this situation?”

“Please leave it to me. I will make sure that our kingdom will handsomely profit from this, and we shall flourish soon enough!”

“Is that so? Alright, I will leave it to you then!”

Baron Retona immediately called for the signalman and received the call from the Proatine Kingdom after receiving King Fitzgerald’s approval.

“Who might you be? You look quite young?” Baron Retona asked, seemingly taken aback after seeing Michele on the other end.

— My name is Michele, and I am the Minister of State of the Proatine Kingdom.

“A young man like you is a minister? Geez…?it seems like your kingdom is desperate for talented people…”

— I can perform a thousand times better than you with my eyes closed, so shut your stinking mouth and put King Fitzgerald on.

“…!”

— I don’t think you are at a level to be speaking with a minister like me.

Baron Retona almost lashed out with curses at Michele’s provocations.

‘This damned little bastard actually dared to…!’

He had never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, that a boy not even twenty years old would dare to be so insolent toward him. However, Baron Retona composed himself and smiled. He would teach this upstart a horrifying lesson.

“Hoho! I see that you haven’t been taught manners. Hey, did you say your name was Michele? You should know that your actions could have severe diplomatic consequences if you are truly the Minister of State of the Proatine Kingdom and—”

— I’m pretty sure I told you to shut your stinky mouth and put King Fitzgerald on the line.

“Hoho… His Majesty is currently busy looking after the affairs of his kingdom, so he tasked me to speak to you instead.”

— I hope he didn’t pass his responsibilities onto his subordinate and is hiding somewhere…

“…”

— You don’t look that reliable as well. Anyway, I will get straight to the point since you are claiming to be King Fitzgerald’s representative.

“I don’t look reliable?”

— His Majesty Siegfried van Proa conveys that you should clean up your own shit.

“Shit? What do you mean by that? Are you claiming that we did something wrong against your kingdom?”

— We already know that you lured the monster wave over to our territory.

“There must be some sort of mistake. The monsters simply chase us while we were conducting military drills. This is a huge misunderstanding,” Baron Retona feigned ignorance like a pro.

He even pretended like he realized something as he revealed a look of stupefaction and muttered, “Wait a minute… Are you having a hard time fending off the monster wave, so now you’re trying to drag us into your problem as well?!”

— …?

“If that is the case, then you better listen up, young one. Our kingdom is not going to fall for petty tricks like these, so you should stop with your underhanded tactics and pay up fair and square if you need our assistance.”

— Pay up fair and square…?

“Obviously, you need troops, but we can’t simply let our soldiers bleed for someone else without fair compensation. We might consider offering you military aid if you respectfully submit a proposal.”

The officials of the Renoma Kingdom could not hide their amazement at Baron Retona’s brazenness.

‘Oh! As expected of Baron Retona!’

‘Who knew he would be so thick-faced?!’

‘Not only did he lure the monster wave over to them, but he is now extorting gold out of them!’

‘This makes me feel pretty dirty, but I have to agree that this is all for the benefit of our kingdom…’

How was this any different from pushing someone into the water and asking them to pay up in exchange for fishing them out? Baron Retona’s brazenness was something that even the worst of criminals would note down in awe.

— Haa…?I guess there are all sorts of scum in this world.

Michele sighed and revealed a sinister smile.

“Scum?! Ha! Do you even have time to speak such insults when time is running out for your kingdom?”

— You better prepare yourselves. His Majesty is really pissed off, and you guys are about to get royally fucked.

“Keke! I’m afraid that we won’t lend you any aid if you keep up this insolence!”

— Your Majesty, I think we should just kill them all. I see no value in keeping them alive.

Michele said out of the blue.

“Hmm? Who are you talking to? It seems that King Siegfried is with you right now. King Siegfried, I know you’re there, so why don’t you stop hiding behind a little kid and show yourself?” Baron Retona openly taunted Siegfried.

He taunted Siegfried, thinking that he was beside Michele right now, but Siegfried wasn’t next to Michele at all.

Crack… Craaang!

The glass ceiling above Baron Retona shattered into pieces.

Thud!

And a man suddenly fell from the hole in the ceiling…

“W-Who are you?! How dare you trespass on our castle!” Baron Retona shouted in anger.

“Siegfried van Proa.”

“S- Siegfried van Proa? A-Are you the king of Proatine?!”

“Yeah…”

“Why would the king of Proatine be here…?”

“You called me, didn’t you?”

“W-When did I…?”

“You told me to stop hiding and show myself?”

“I-I didn’t mean it literally…”

“Anyway, let’s start with some good ol’ beating first,” Siegfried said. He immediately retrieved his hammer and smashed it into Baron Retona’s head.

Puuuk!

Baron Retona’s head exploded like a watermelon.

“…!”

The officials of the Renoma Kingdom were both horrified and stupefied at the sight.

***

“Haa…?His Majesty can be quite eccentric and unpredictable sometimes…” Michele shook his head and sighed as he ended the communication.

It was Siegfried’s own idea to infiltrate the Renoma Kingdom.

Three hours ago, when Siegfried was about to exit his throne room…

“Hold up…” Siegfried suddenly stopped walking. He fell into deep contemplation for a while before coming up with a brilliant idea.

“Michele.”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“How do you think is the Renoma Kingdom right now?”

“It should be quite empty, I believe? They successfully lured the monster wave over to us, but the Dimensional Rift is still there. They would have to send most of their forces over there to deal with any monsters coming out from it.”

“Is that so? They probably have suffered some casualties as well, so they probably stationed their army near the Dimensional Rift just in case another monster wave comes out from it again…”

“Precisely, but why are you asking this, Your Majesty?”

“If that’s the case, then…” Siegfried muttered with a mischievous smile. “I should probably charge into their base instead.”

“What?!”

“Why bother talking to them when I can just go kill a few of their officials and abduct their king?”

“T-That’s…!”

Michele’s eyes widened in both shock and horror at Siegfried’s idea of abducting the enemy king instead of dealing with the monster wave first.

“But, Your Majesty! That is dangerous—”

“I can do it,” Siegfried replied with confidence and continued. “They are just another small kingdom like us, right? It would be a different story if it’s a bigger kingdom, but don’t you think it’s possible against them? I highly doubt that they have a Master among them.”

“But it could still be possible—”

“I’ll be off then~” Siegfried nonchalantly waved his hand and left.

That was how Siegfried decided to enact revenge and then take care of the monster wave instead of taking care of the monster wave and then enacting revenge.

It was truly a brilliant and unprecedented idea.

***

“Hey, Hamchi.”

“What, owner punk?”

“Go and fold them in half. I’ll give you one pack of nuts for every single one you fold,” Siegfried commanded.

“Alright! Kyu!”?Hamchi exclaimed. He slowly got larger until he became larger than a grizzly bear.

It was Hamchi’s skill ‘Grow Bigger!’.

“Kyu!?I’m going to fold you! For my nuts!”

The huge Hamchi was still cute, but his strength wasn’t cute at all.

Whoosh!

Hamchi swung his front leg.

“Euck!”

A Renoma Kingdom official folded in half like a shrimp. Hamchi dealt with him exactly as Siegfried commanded.

“K-Knights! Hurry up and stop him!”

The royal knights of the Renoma Kingdom appeared and brandished their swords.

Whoosh! Whoosh!?

They were knights of a small kingdom, but Siegfried could see that their swords were infused with aura. It seemed that the royal knights were made out of knights who could use aura.

However, Siegfried simply responded by activating the ‘Wave of Oppression’ and disrupting their flow of mana.

Psshh…

The shining swords of the Renoma Kingdom royal knights were extinguished.

‘What?!’

‘M-My aura!’

‘My mana is not listening to me…!’

While the Renoma Kingdom royal knights were stewing in their own shock at the indescribable, unprecedented turn of events…

Puk! Bam! Puk!

Siegfried swung his hammer and took most of them down.

Only one royal knight was fortunate enough to survive Siegfried’s attack, and he immediately charged Siegfried to counterattack. However, he would soon realize that he had made a mistake.

“Keu…?Keuhup!”

Siegfried unleashed his radioactive energy, and the royal knight died on the spot.

The Renoma Kingdom’s throne room instantly became chaotic. King Fitzgerald, who was now left all alone, couldn’t do anything but tremble in fear. He tried to crawl away quietly from the chaos, but Siegfried quickly caught him by his nape.

“L-Look here, King Siegfried, why don’t we calm down and resolve this with words—Kuheok!”?King Fitzgerald tried to peacefully resolve the situation, but Siegfried replied with a punch to his face.

“Kuheok…”

“Would you be able to ‘calm down and resolve this with words’ if you were in my shoes?”

“I-I apologize… I’m sorry…”

“I know you did it for your own survival, but don’t expect me to be too kind.”

“I apologize, so please don’t kill me…”

“I don’t plan on killing you. You can do a lot of things for me, after all,” Siegfried replied with a smile.

Then, he picked up King Fitzgerald and called out to Hamchi. “Let’s go, Hamchi.”

“Alright! Kyu!”

Hamchi deactivated ‘Grow Bigger!’ and ran toward Siegfried.

Siegfried was about to rip a teleportation scroll and escape from the Renoma Kingdom, but he noticed something strange.

‘What the hell are those…?’?

Fwaa… Fwaa…?

Embers started floating out of the corpses on the ground.