"Arudoha? Never heard of him."Ren Kuroda didn't even bother to hide his impatience. "Sorry, but I'm busy right now. I don't have time to go meet this so-called Lord Arudoha. If he has something to say, he can come here himself."
In truth, Ren had heard the name Arudoha before.
Back when he first arrived in this world and began gathering information, the name had come up more than once. Arudoha was the lord of Akaseru and the surrounding districts—a regional ruler, a so-called noble.
If the man had sent a polite invitation, Ren wouldn't have minded meeting one of this world's nobles. He might even have taken the opportunity to ask about the so-called Mobile Fortress while he was at it.
Unfortunately, the guards' attitude had been unbearably arrogant.
And from the quality of a man's subordinates, one could usually guess the character of their master.
When Ren—a mere commoner, an adventurer—casually spoke the noble's name aloud and did so with such blatant disdain, the guards, who already looked down on adventurers, reacted exactly as expected. They swarmed him at once, clearly intending to beat him into submission by force.
They weren't ignorant of the rumors. They had heard that Ren Kuroda had defeated Beria, a commander of the Demon King's army, and had become known as the "Hero of Akaseru."
But in their eyes, that was nothing more than dumb luck.
Or perhaps it was nothing but exaggerated hearsay. Ren was barely more than a kid. He wasn't a chosen hero, and he wielded no divine artifact. How could someone like that possibly defeat a Demon King general?
Hundreds of guards rushed him all at once.
As for the outcome—there was never any suspense.
Their levels didn't even come close to those of the undead knights Beria had once commanded.
In less than a minute, Ren—barehanded—rolled his shoulders as if finishing a light warm-up. Around him, the ground was already littered with groaning, writhing soldiers.
"Some 'great lord,'" Ren snorted coldly. "When the Demon King's army showed up, he was nowhere to be seen. Now that the danger's gone, he suddenly remembers how to act tough in his own backyard."
He turned away, utterly uninterested.
"Go back and tell your lord this: if he wants to talk, he can come himself. But if his attitude is anything like yours…" Ren paused, glancing back with a chilling smile. "I can't guarantee he'll make it back alive."
With that, Ren walked straight back into the shop without a single backward glance, leaving Wiz standing there among the fallen soldiers, her face a mask of utter confusion.
From Wiz's perspective, opposing a noble was nothing short of suicide.
No matter how strong an adventurer might be, they were still just adventurers. Nobles were the true rulers of the kingdom, holding power over life and death. That wasn't something brute strength alone could defy.
Wiz understood that well—she had known it back when she herself was a top-tier adventurer.
But Ren, still a newcomer by adventurer standards, seemed completely oblivious to this unspoken rule.
In fact, Lord Arudoha of Akaseru had thought exactly the same way.
He believed Ren was nothing more than a lowly adventurer who would never dare defy a noble of status and power. That was precisely why he had dispatched so many elite guards—to give Ren a warning, a show of authority.
As for why he wanted to see Ren, the reason was painfully simple.
He wanted Ren's achievements.
Akaseru was a remote border region. Even if Arudoha held the title of lord, what did that really amount to in a place like this?
Yet Arudoha was a man of towering ambition. He wanted to become a great noble, to enter the kingdom's highest circles of power.
But gaining major merit in such a backwater was almost laughable. Royal recognition was a distant dream. Arudoha had been preparing to curry favor with the royal court through other means—until the Demon King's army suddenly invaded.
What he hadn't expected was that, just as he was preparing to flee, news reached him that the Demon King's forces had been defeated by a band of dirt-poor adventurers.
Worse—one of the Demon King's commanders had been slain.
Akaseru was his territory. A Demon King commander had died here.
That was an enormous achievement practically falling into his lap.
The only blemish was that he hadn't been the one to kill the commander. Officially, he might receive some credit for "competent leadership," but that alone would never be enough to elevate his title.
Then he learned that the adventurer who had dealt the final blow was someone who had only registered a few months ago—a nobody with no reputation in the kingdom.
That was when Arudoha got ideas.
He had seen countless adventurers like this before. A lucky break, that was all. After all, hadn't Miyaken Hibiki fought the Dullahan first? Clearly, the headless knight had already been on his last legs, and this Ren Kuroda had simply swooped in to steal the kill.
And adventurers like that were Arudoha's specialty.
Most adventurers were greedy and short-sighted. Add the pressure of noble authority, and it would be easy to make Ren hand over the credit.
Once that achievement was his, all Arudoha had to do was send a report to the royal capital of Berusegu. His title would be elevated in no time, and he could finally escape this godforsaken frontier and step into the true centers of power.
After all, while the kingdom had repelled the Demon King's army many times, no one had ever slain one of its commanders before.
There were only a handful of Demon King commanders, each monstrously powerful. With such a feat attached to his name, Arudoha had no fear of being denied promotion.
At long last, the guards he had sent out returned.
But the report they brought back filled him not with triumph—only rage.
"He really said that?" Arudoha roared. "A mere adventurer? A filthy commoner who crawls in the mud dares to act so arrogantly in my territory?!"
As the battered, bruised soldiers reported what had happened, Arudoha's grotesque, bear-and-boar-like body trembled violently with fury.
He had sent hundreds of elite guards to "invite" Ren precisely so the boy would learn his place.
Instead, his own men had come back beaten black and blue.
"Lord Arudoha," the captain of the guard said carefully, stepping forward. He was both one of Arudoha's earliest followers and a minor noble himself, which gave him the courage to speak. "It's not that we lacked resolve. That adventurer truly possesses strength. We never even saw him move before we were defeated."
He hesitated, then continued, "I believe his victory over the Demon King commander may not have been luck at all. If we wish to take his achievements… using force may be impossible."
"So what?" Arudoha snarled. "Are you suggesting that I—a lord, a noble whose status eclipses that gutter trash by countless degrees—should humbly go pay him a visit?"
He sneered.
"Hmph. I didn't want to use that, but it seems I have no other choice. If I don't teach this adventurer a lesson, he'll never understand exactly how much he weighs."