“Lord Carlein. Do you know this?”

“……”

“Between Her Majesty and me, we have pet names. Very cute ones.”

“……”

“Do you see this trinket? Her Majesty made it for me. Then question. Why did Her Majesty tug my hair? That’s because Her Majesty had her hand on my head.”

Tasir laughed joyously at the side, but Carlein did not utter a word in response.

“You continue to ignore me. Periodically.”

Tasir grumbled at Carlein’s lack of reaction, but still, Carlein did not answer.

However, even though he was repeatedly ignored, Tasir only smiled, showing no sign of feeling bad.

“Even if you pretend not to be, it seems you’re quite shocked, King of Mercenaries. After all, you only advance when you have a request, as it’s ingrained in your body not to do anything without a request.”

In the end, Carlein looked at Tasir and gave him the reaction he so desired.

“One more word and I’ll tear your tongue out.”

“Last time it was an eye, now it’s a tongue? You’re very interested in every part of me.”

Yet, as Tasir showed no sign of shrinking back, a vein popped up on Carlein’s marblelike forehead.

Tasir’s subordinate was scared and looked at Carlein and Tasir alternately, but he couldn’t intervene between the two.

Instead, he sighed and looked behind. As the leader of the Dark Forest and the captain of the Black Reapers were like this, it was natural that the assassins and mercenaries underneath wouldn’t get along.

Even though they were walking silently, a chilling standoff was unfolding, as if something would happen at any moment of collision.

After a while of walking.

“Here we are.”

Tasir, who had been provoking Carlein, stooped down and picked up a fallen leaf. Underneath it were cleverly hidden footprints of several people.

“It seems they went this way.”

“So it seems.”

Carlein also agreed, looking at a small model drawn on a nearby tree stump. It was a picture indicating ‘They passed here,’ left by a subordinate attached to Anakcha beforehand.

“Let’s go quickly. That way, we can return to our Majesty sooner.”

Although the pace slowed momentarily because the marking was heading towards a steep path, the party continued to move without stopping.

After some time, they found an old mansion built halfway up the mountain.

It was a twostory mansion. Only old pillars remained in the pavilion erected in the mansion garden, and the fence of the mansion was so worn out that it creaked and made noise whenever the wind blew.

“It seems this is the place. But with the door like this… it’s even harder to sneak in.”

Upon seeing this, Tasir muttered under his breath. However, at that moment.

“What is this guy doing?”

Carlein, not caring about going in quietly, kicked the door open.

“King of Mercenaries!”

Tasir protested in a low voice, but Carlein ignored it and slowly walked in like a beast.

“Oh my. Look at his haste.”

Tasir hit his forehead with one hand, but with things having gone this way, he followed suit.

Despite the loud noise, no sound came from inside the house even while they walked on the uneven stone path. It was the same when they opened the halfbroken front door.

Upon opening the door, a corridor wide enough for several people to pass at once extended, and several doors hung on both sides of the corridor.

Carlein didn’t pay attention to those doors and just walked straight ahead.

Finally, upon reaching the end of the corridor, both blocked sides opened up, revealing a large hall. It was a hall with an open structure with a ceiling on the second floor.

But only the hall was predicted, it was not actually visible because of the zombies surrounding it layer upon layer.

“Oh.”

Upon seeing the zombies filling the room, Tasir uttered a short exclamation.

Carlein silently pulled out a weapon from his waist. When he grasped the weapon, a small crescent blade sprang out sharply from his hand.

From that point, the zombies began to rush at them all at once, and Carlein, using the weapons in both hands, dealt with the zombies’ throats one by one as if he had become a real beast.

“Ah, I really hate this kind of thing. I’m a merchant who sits at a desk and taps on the abacus, not a fan of moving around like this.”

Tasir, even in the midst of this, kept muttering to himself, but he handled the enemies well using his feet and sword, making it look easy.

When the mercenaries and assassins didn’t shrink back and immediately launched an attack, before long, the zombies that had filled the hall were all on the floor, their necks severed and their movements halted.

Tasir let out a sigh and muttered, “Is it over?”

At that moment. From the corridor they had come through, the sound of doors creaking open echoed, and once again, the zombies began to swarm in.

“Ah… Your Majesty. You said it would be easy.”

When the sound of doors opening also came from the second floor and zombies started to jump from the railing, Latil’s voice, saying that they should run if it seems dangerous, came to mind.

Tasir let out a groan while holding his forehead.

“Your Majesty, there’s no way to run.”