I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 36
At the bold declaration, Tepe and Gorgo’s faces hardened in an instant.
“Count Moro.”
“Of course, everyone here is well aware that His Grace is a hero to be emulated.”
Edward watched the count, who spoke while looking around at those gathered, with utter indifference.
The count was subtly preening, relishing the attention.
“Gasp!“
“H-How could you, to His Grace, the hero…”
Even the few nobles who murmured such things had faint, sardonic smiles tucked behind discreetly covered lips.
This, too, was familiar scenery, if familiar it could be called.
‘It happens, occasionally.’
A hero was not always universally beloved.
Precisely because they were beloved by all, there would always be those who wished for their downfall, and those who sought to find some flaw, any flaw.
Count Moro, his face caked with spite, seemed to belong to that breed of human.
And this gate wasn’t even a place where demonic beasts frequently appeared.
There was a strong possibility he considered what Edward did to be nothing particularly special.
The count shook his head from side to side.
“But as their lord, I cannot simply drive my people into a place of danger, now, can I.”
Even as he spoke with polished eloquence, the count was inwardly suppressing his simmering resentment.
‘Hmph. So what if he’s a dragon incarnation?’
Slaying demonic beasts was simply what an incarnation was supposed to do. He felt no particular gratitude.
What irked him was that this man had arbitrarily given orders to soldiers who should have been under his own command.
‘This is my territory, officially recognized by His Imperial Majesty!’
Truth be told, the count had no interest in the territory beyond the revenue generated by the gate.
But opportunities to swagger before none other than Edward Le Thesseron were rare.
‘Didn’t my cousin get humiliated by him not long ago?’
“Haha! Your Grace! Thanks to you, our enterprise is positively flourishing…”
“By enterprise, you must mean fraud.”
“Pardon?!”
“The by-products of demonic beasts would have no such medicinal effectsânot for treating hair loss, nor for eternal youth.”
“…”
“Keep flapping your gums if you wish to flap them.”
All he’d done was buy up the by-products of the demonic beasts the duke had slain at low prices, then quietly spin some tales and sell them. And he’d been branded a fraud, his business ruined.
And this after he’d even been considering sharing the profits of his enterprise with the duke.
His cousin had been thoroughly, grievously wronged.
Duke Edward’s despicable personality was infamous, and the nobles who had suffered at his hands were far from few, but still.
‘Even so, this is vengeance!’
Count Moro had no desire to miss this chance to triumph over the hero, all in the name of avenging the humiliation his cousin had suffered.
“A silver mine, you say. It’s a closed mine, no longer in use, I grant youâbut surely we cannot evacuate the residents of the territory to such a hazardous place.”
“…”
“It’s cramped as it is, with only a single exit. If the demonic beasts were to rampage and collapse the tunnels, everyone would die.”
The nobles, swayed by Count Moro’s words, murmured among themselves.
“…He has a point, doesn’t he?”
“Why would His Grace give such an order?”
All of it only made the count preen all the more.
The count lightly thumped his chest and swaggered.
“For an evacuation, the standard choices are, of course, an academy building or a temple, are they not?”
“…”
“They are far more spacious and comfortable, and far easier for tending to people.”
Which was why he could not follow the duke’s orders.
Having said his piece, the count smiled with leisurely confidence.
After all, anyone could see his logic was correct.
The nobles of the gate city, too, whispered among themselves, glancing back and forth between the two men.
Some looked at the count with new eyes.
“Was the count always such a learned man?”
“It’s as though his intelligence has suddenly heightened somewhat…”
“Perhaps he absorbed it from the hero’s brilliance through osmosis?”
There were some ambiguous remarks that hovered between insult and compliment, but in any case.
The count, now thoroughly emboldened, swaggered one last time.
“Of course, I am well aware that Your Grace is far too busy dashing about as a hero, but surely something of this nature is common sense.”
“…What did you just say, to His Grace?”
Clench.
At the mention of common sense, Tepe’s hand moved instinctively toward his sword.
Gorgo, too, was staring at the count with a rigid expression, whenâ
“L-Lord Count! No, Your Grace! No, Lord Count…!”
A soldier, his face ashen, the expression of a man who no longer knew whom he ought to address, came bursting into the courtyard of the inn.
The count, who had been strutting upon his self-made stage, glared fiercely.
“What is it! You dare interrupt when your superiors are in conference…!”
“Th-The academy! The academy being used as the shelter!”
“What about the academy!”
“It… it collapsed, they say!”
