#026. The Noble Escort is Too Kind (1)

#026. The Noble Escort is Too Kind (1)

There are many wronged souls in this world.

But Shoah’s unjust circumstances were enough to make the flames of Theresa’s party burn.

“Such a cruel fate. Gomorrah, the vice-guild master of the Sodom Guild, is a far worse person than the rumors suggest.”

“What rumors are going around?”

“That she subtly uses people to ruin adventurers she doesn’t like. And if they still won’t listen, she cripples or kills them.”

It was a rumor that was hard to be worse than.

Gomorrah had managed to do the difficult task.

In Theresa’s opinion, she was trash on par with her ex-husband, Lonowe.

“I absolutely cannot stand this.”

The mother shot up from her seat.

Naturally, I was terrified.

“It’s dangerous.”

Even Shoah’s charge, heedless of death, had ultimately failed to overcome Diego, the high-level adventurer known as the Final Hurdle, and had been broken.

No matter how strong Mother was, compared to Shoah who risked her life, poured all her remaining lifespan into a suicide attack…

Compared to…

‘Mother might be stronger…?’

Incredibly.

Truly incredibly, the Player’s experience spoke.

That Mother was stronger.

Were Ian and Anna before the real Player possession made of iron or something?

How could they survive enduring the violence of such a monstrous mother?

“An adult has an adult’s way of handling things. Watch quietly. See what results your compassion brings.”

Saying that, the hand roughly ruffling my hair was so sturdy and reliable that I nodded without realizing it.

Catching up belatedly, I realized that the situation was unfolding with astonishing speed.

“Guild Master. Decide. Shall we lose all our adventurers and crumble to ruin? Or shall we sever half, and hold our ground?”

“What in the world are you planning!”

“I will gather the adventurers and townsfolk to bury the Vice Guild Master. Speak now, if you wish to be buried alongside him.”

She burst into the Guild Master’s chamber, intimidating him.

“Look! This is what those b*stards wrought, bending the will of adventurers!”

She revealed Shoa’s existence to the Guild’s adventurers, openly inciting rebellion.

My mother, whom I’d only known to wield strength, acted with such aggression that she swiftly gained the support of the Guild Master, and countless adventurers. Even townspeople, hearing the news and incensed by the injustice, joined their ranks.

“Vice Guild Master, come out now!”

“Come out!”

A throng of protesters filled the streets, and the village elder, town guards, and the Vice Guild Master’s faction of adventurers hastily formed a human wall, surrounding his mansion.

“This is Lord Gomorrah’s private residence, a private estate! You are violating the Public Order Maintenance Act’s prohibition of unlawful assemblies, noise regulations, and the Aristocrat Protection Act’s protection of aristocratic privacy. You will be dragged to prison, facing thirty years imprisonment or three years of conscription!”

In this insane era where monsters are real,

if you don’t want to starve to death in prison, you should spend 3 years in the army instead of thinking about 30 years in prison.

Of course, there is no possibility of getting out alive after those 3 years either.

You only need to look at the last miner, who, after committing a crime, wielded a pickaxe in the mines to get his sentence reduced.

If things go wrong, everyone dies. One ends up involved in things where one has to be careful about what one says with a precarious life.

“Under the Emergency Community Assembly clause, unauthorized assembly on private property is permitted! Especially in cases of kidnapping adventurers’ families and using their lives as leverage! I, Sodom, Guild Master of the Sodom Guild, will vouch for your safety!”

“Waaah!”

The Guild Master was deeply shocked by the rapidly shifting tides and the fact that the Vice Guild Master’s secret misdeeds were far more severe than his vague estimations.

As a result, more and more residents continued to pour into the streets and participate in the protests, and the size of the protest continued to grow because the Guild Master was protecting them and keeping them safe.

“Let’s set it ablaze!”

“Death to the scum!”

As the demonstration threatened to devolve into violent rioting, the Vice Guild Master, unable to withstand the pressure, hurriedly emerged from his mansion.

“???”

This was all just chaos to me.

I’d never seen or heard of an event of this scale.

A path unprecedented was being paved in real-time.

“Are you people insane?”

The Vice Guild Master declared, incredulous.

“I am the brother of the head of the Romaneum House! One message with a magical communication tool and I can contact the capital’s aristocratic council! Do you understand what happens when they hear that mad commoners are threatening nobility? Every single one of you filling this street will die!”

The reason injustice and absurdity are upheld is simple.

The perpetrator possesses power.

Power. Wealth. And Violence.

Not one, but all three, belonging to Gomorrah.

If he truly desired, even if he lost control of the village, he could beat the residents into submission and display the heads of the ringleaders on pikes.

“Even so, he kidnapped and killed a child.”

“Look at the assassin girl’s body, ruined by doping drugs.”

“Even so, a noble is a bit much.”

Among the people who were belatedly weighed down by the weight of reality, anxiety spread like a plague.

Voices lost their power.

A trembling gaze.

Uneasy gestures.

A hesitant, wavering stride.

Even the adventurers were beginning to stir, wondering if they’d be left holding the bag, seeing how easily the common folk seemed ready to scatter at the slightest push.

“Cease this madness and turn back. The instigators may face justice, but the innocent citizens who were swayed unknowingly will be spared. Go now! Go!”

Even amidst the pervasive fear, Mom didn’t yield an inch, meeting the promise of harsh punishment for the agitators with even fiercer defiance.

“Bread to fill bellies. A warm home. Someone to care for their children—words from one who didn’t hesitate to use the threat of killing a child to get their way, from one whose promises lasted not even a day!”

“…!”

“Garbage spews only garbage. Seek no sincerity from the faithless. It is our righteous anger, our shared pain for another’s child as if it were our own, that holds true strength!”

The citizens’ fury began to eclipse their fear.

“That… that unspeakable wretch!”

“No matter what he says now, who could believe him?”

“Why would we trust the word of a man who breaks his promise in a single day?”

“Mother Teresa speaks the truth.”

“A woman who loves children so dearly could never condone the garbage who held a child hostage and even killed them after a day. Now I understand why she’s standing here.”

“There’s… no other choice but to kill him, is there? That scum. If we let him live, he won’t leave us alone.”

Even the guards, now stricken with terror, were stumbling backward, such was the murderous rage emanating from the townsfolk.

“Stand aside. Any who block the path to the heretic’s head, to be displayed in the square, will be slaughtered.”

“By what right do you presume to speak of enforcing the law! Do you fancy yourself some kind of official? Don’t overstep, Teresa! You’re just an adventurer!”

There was no brainwashing here.

Only raw, unvarnished truth laid bare.

And still, none retreated.

One step, they followed Mom.

Another step forward.

The guards, unable to even raise a spear, abandoning all pretense of resistance.

Past them, the throng advanced.

“What are you waiting for? Kill them, now!”

“Without their focal point, they’re nothing but scattered sheep. Charge!”

A group of adventurers lunged for Mom, but her blade, fueled by righteous fury, traced arcs of blood across the weapons and limbs of the first few to attack.

Shattered weapons embedded in the walls, severed arteries gurgling onto the cobblestones.

In an instant, four adventurers lay dead.

Those adventurers from the Vice Guildmaster’s faction, so deeply embroiled in Gomora’s crimes, hesitated for only a moment before surging forward.

“Protect Teresa!”

“Exterminate these scum!”

“First the assassin’s brother, next it will be Teresa’s son. If we falter today, Ian will die.”

“Draw your swords, all of you!”

“Wipe out the Vice Guildmaster’s lackeys!”

The time Mom and I had spent together.

The impact of those short yet meaningful moments, enough to turn many adventurers against the Vice Guildmaster’s faction.

‘Normally, I’d have to build trust with the adventurers, or brainwash them to expand our forces, then do monthly clan operation for cutting off Gomora’s limbs three times.’

At least half a year.

That journey, consuming a considerable amount of time, was being compressed into a single day.

*Shuu-shuu-shung-*

*Tta-dda-dang-*!

Arrows blanketed the alleyway, shields rising to meet the rain of death.

Though fewer in number, the staunch equipment of the Vice-Guild Leader’s faction, higher in level, remained unyielding even amidst the volley fire.

＜Power Bow＞

“Then take this as well.”

Nina’s arrow, drawn with all her heart, struck a shield squarely.

*Kwang!*

The shield-bearer toppled backward, shattering the formation.

“Second rank, fire!”

“Get up, quickly!”

“Think we’ll let you?”

Gorgor and the low-ranking adventurers slathered a lubricant of Fairy Lilac, smuggled in at great cost, over the Vice-Guild Leader’s faction.

Before the broken formation could reform, they were thrashing, falling; those collapsing grabbed at nearby comrades, dragging them down as well, multiplying the chaos.

Above them, a second volley rained down.

*Shuu-shuu-shung-*

*Pur-buh-buk-*!

“aaagh!”

“Kkuaaagh!”

The players’ small ingenuity overturned the hierarchy between high-level and low-level adventurers.

The lithe, golden-haired swordswoman, using the struggling, disoriented adventurers as stepping stones, swiftly crisscrossed her feet, leaping over them.

“Gomora-!!”

Gomora, turning to flee, widened her eyes as Mom’s dagger hurtled towards her.

“Not so fast.”

The dagger was deflected by a sword that flashed out.

Diego.

A skilled warrior clad in considerable heavy armor, full body.

Gomora’s last bastion.

The superior adventurer harshly muttered, feeling the pain throbbing in his arm.

“Not worth the cost.”

“I’ll pay double, no, triple! Protect me and the manor!”

“Tenfold.”

“What?!”

“If you cannot pay, I withdraw.”

Diego demanded an even greater sum than he had during Shoa’s rampage.

Evidence that Mom and the protestors posed a threat more than three times greater than Shoa’s berserker rage.

“I’ll pay it. I’ll pay anything, just stop that monster!”

“You must not break your promise. Unless you wish to see the monster become two.”

Sodom Village, an urban siege.

The clash between the protestors and the garrison had narrowed to a showdown between their respective commanders, Teresa and Diego.

The strongwoman who alone received half the funds Gomorrah invested in adventurer clans.

You could feel it just from her aura.

He wouldn’t be able to overcome her as easily as the adventurers he’d crushed so far.

Would Mother be alright?

Wasn’t now the time for me to step in?

Clinging to Nina’s back, I watched with Anna, and Mother scoffed, as if to say, not a chance.

Against a powerful, high-ranking adventurer, a Level 6 no less, Mother bellowed in a resounding voice.

“I am Teresa of the Starsephia family! A noble of blue blood. He who dares raise a blade against me, shall know the price of defying nobility!”

“?!”

Diego, utterly flustered, hastily drew his sword and shield, retreating behind them.

Against a pedigree associated with dangers beyond the reach of fallen nobles, free knights, or high-level adventurers, the courage to stand firm did not come easily.

Mother didn’t even spare a glance for the demoralized Diego, instead hurling her daggers once more at Gomorrah, who was fleeing into the distance.

One struck a subordinate running beside him, the other also found its mark when the vice guildmaster, hearing the scream, pulled his own man in front of him, who took the blow.

Gomorrah, coldly abandoning his screaming limbs, vanished into an alleyway.

“It’s over,” I said.

I sensed the final act of Gomorrah, the Chapter 2 boss.

The alleyways of Sodom Village.

How many days had our family spent in these inescapable sewers?

No matter where Gomorrah ran, he could not evade us in here.

Thanks to her destructive progress, blazing through connected quests and making a beeline for the chapter boss, he was trapped in a dead end.

He was already a dead man walking.