One week later.
The commander was sitting in front of Earl Lawrence. He crossed his arms while staring at the Earl coldly.
The Earl wasn't aware of what happened in his fort. He asked with a calm expression. "I wonder what's the purpose of your visit today, Mr. Oscar… I can safely assume it's not to drink some tea, right?"
The Earl glanced to the window as if looking at the people he brought into his residence before continuing, "Especially after bringing those people."
Oscar also didn't plan to beat around the bush. He was already too busy with his work, so he immediately stated, "It's simple. I want to ask whether the Earl doesn't put us in your eye or something."
"Mhm?" The Earl felt something wrong with that statement. He had been doing business with the Demon Banner Army this whole time, so of course, he wouldn't want to offend the Demon Banner Army for no reason.
He furrowed his eyebrows and asked, "Can you explain what do you mean by those words?"
"To put it simply, your second son, Hagen Lawrence, has threatened my Demon Relief Squad. As the Earl, you should know the circumstances of your fort, right?"
"Of course. I've received a report that there was an attack from the demons and my son had splendidly destroyed them…" Upon saying it, he began connecting the dots. His expression was gradually distorted as if the more he realized things, the more he was afraid of the consequence.
"Your second son has forced my Demon Relief Squad, specifically the Zero Squad…" The commander paused for a moment. When he heard the commander mentioning the 'Zero Squad,' his face became pale because every noble knew what it meant to be the Zero Squad.
It was basically the pinnacle of existence of the fifteen squads of the Demon Banner Army. And Demon Relief Squad was among the top five squads, so he knew the importance of that zero squad.
That was where the commander butchered the earl with his words. "Your son has forced my Demon Relief Squad to stay in his mansion after they've rejected it."
"That's… that's must be his way to be polite. Your Demon Relief Squad has gone all the way to the fort to help my son, so he should at least offer you place to stay and let you rest before doing your mission." The earl tried to explain, avoiding the blame.
Unfortunately, the commander had prepared for everything. He added, "Of course, my Demon Relief Squad would love to stay in that mansion if the situation allowed it. Sadly, the fort situation is a mess.
"If I'm not wrong, there are granary and food storage in your fort that can last for a whole month even if you have to feed the whole city."
"Yes, that's correct. One month should be enough to arrange a large-scale reinforcement." The Earl nodded, confirming their existence.
"Yet, what the people said about the situation was vastly different. The fort looked like a slum. The gloomy atmosphere and the preying gaze made my people uncomfortable. I've brought a few commoners from that fort to testify the situation on how your second son didn't open the food storage and let the people suffer.
"It seems they could barely eat from the meat that the soldiers brought back for them. This is quite an unfortunate thing, isn't it…" The commander narrowed his eyes.
The earl gulped down, but before he could explain, the commander had continued, "Our Demon Banner Army acts for the people, so our Demon Relief Squad would like to move immediately to restore the fort.
"However, the moment they met the lord, they were forced to stay. My squad had smelt alcohol and sweet perfume in their meeting… I don't have any plan to teach Earl Lawrence how a noble should act. But I've heard that your son has been forcing the women on that fort to satisfy his need in order to feed their family. Of course, that didn't really matter to my Demon Relief Squad.
"It's just… with how your son acted, I felt unsafe to leave my Demon Relief Squad in your son's hand, especially with the fact he forced them to stay. We've three beautiful ladies in our squad after all… I presume you understand what I mean."
The Earl didn't say anything this whole time. But he was already raging inside, cursing his son for making this mess. Fortunately, this action could still be tolerable. As long as he gave a bit of compensation, the commander wouldn't mind ignoring this problem.
Unfortunately for him, the commander had just started.
"Well, let's ignore that problem for the time being. Let's talk about how he insulted my people. We might have different squads, but it doesn't mean we're not solid. Ask your soldier what they think about their comrade and you'll understand what it feels to have your comrade being insulted when the one who insulted them was actually asking them to help him. Really shameless…"
"That's… You can't just make up things, Mr. Oscar. There is no witness. If you claim everything without a witness, I can consider it as you making things up!" The Earl gritted his teeth.
"Of course." The commander rolled his eyes as if he had expected it. He continued, "I'm telling you about that reason not to pressure you but to let you know why my Demon Relief Squad has to leave the mansion.
"After that insult, our Demon Relief Squad left the mansion, but I already told you that our Demon Banner Army acted for the people, right? Despite being insulted, we only left the mansion but didn't abandon our mission. We wanted to leave to finish the mission as soon as possible.
"Yet, before leaving that mansion, your son stopped them and pointed his sword at them…" The commander became even colder as there was even a trace of killing intent emanating from his eyes. He asked with a cold tone. "Say, Earl Lawrence… are you trying to pick a fight with us?"
