Raon looked behind him as the annex building came into view. Balder was following them with an intense frown on his face that made him look like he’d gained wrinkles.
‘He isn’t running away, at least.’
Balder tried to absolutely refuse, but he had to follow them all the way to the annex building because what he’d said before had come back to bite him.
However, he was dragging his feet on the ground, showing that he was really reluctant to come.
“I won’t forget today’s humili—”
Balder violently ground his teeth at Raon, and the Gambling Monster smacked the back of his head.
Whack!
With a loud sound resembling a shattering pumpkin, Balder’s body swayed to the point of collapsing.
“Uaah!” Balder screamed while clutching the back of his head. “Why are you hitting me?!”
“Carrying out inspection with resentment? The special inspector shouldn’t do that. Do you seriously have a death wish? Should we go to the lord’s manor together?”The Gambling Monster raised his fist, which was as sturdy as a boulder, while glaring at him.
“Kuh…”
Balder did dare respond, lowering his head.
“I-I was just saying it because I was irritated!”
“A special inspector shouldn’t be swayed by their emotions. Aren’t you aware that you must always remain objective and thorough to understand the situation?”
“But you can’t do that either, Sir Herrian…”
“That’s why I wasn’t a special inspector!”
The Gambling Monster twisted his lips and smacked Balder’s forehead with his palm.
“Ack! Please stop!”
“I’m even speaking politely like you wanted, special inspector. Is there a problem?”
“You are only pretending to be polite! You keep swearing and hitting me! It’d be better to just act like before!” Balder shouted, unable to put up with it anymore.
“Well, that makes it easier for me.”
The Gambling Monster smacked Balder’s head once again with a frightening smile on his face.
“You idiot! If you got lucky enough to become a special inspector, you should focus on doing a good job and being recognized by the head of house! Instead, you’re just trying to vent your anger everywhere! How come you become more and more idiotic as you get older?”
He went next to Balder and started to nag him, acting like he had received a great opportunity to do so.
“Uah…”
Balder clutched his stomach as if he were having some digestive issues and curved his body in a circle.
“Let me give you a piece of advice while we are at it.”
The Gambling Monster raised his finger to point at Raon.
“You should’ve realized since you saw it today, but he’s a complete nutcase. There’s no one as crazy as him in this entire house, or even this entire continent. If you want to keep having authority inside the house, you’d better submit to him.”
“S-submit? Despite how I am, I would never lose to a youngster like him!”
“Of course, you have the upper hand for now. However, that order will be reversed in a short time. This is my last piece of advice for my damned disciple, so you should keep it in mind.”
“No! I haven’t reached my full potential yet!”
Balder violently shook his head, saying that it was the one thing that he couldn’t accept.
“And go back to speaking politely from now on!”
“Wow, you are changing your mind so much. This shit is so annoying, Sir!”
The Gambling Monster spoke politely as he wanted and smashed the back of his head. The blunt sound of something hitting a rock could be heard this time.
“Wow, did you just block it with your aura?”
“It really hurts!”
Balder quickly gained distance from the Gambling Monster while covering the back of his head. The staff from the inspection department followed from behind, frowning even harder upon seeing his unsightly footwork.
“Haa…”
The Gambling Monster sighed quietly while watching Balder roll his eyes.
‘I knew he wouldn’t listen. I guess I would’ve also refused if I had been told to submit to my nephew. Still, you aren’t qualified to be the head of house.’
He knew it better than anyone else because he’d watched Balder ever since his childhood.
Since he was a brave and powerful warrior, he could become a general standing at the vanguard, but he couldn’t become the monarch ruling over the entire house.
If Balder ended up as the head of house, it wouldn’t even take ten years until Zieghart fell.
‘On the other hand…’
The Gambling Monster licked his lips while watching Raon’s unwavering back.
‘He’s the real deal.’
Even a bold person would’ve been glad and satisfied with it once the Gambling Monster stopped Balder’s violent conduct.
However, that crazy kid took advantage of his name as much as possible to screw with Balder and the inspectors, and he even ended up with some earnings. It was honestly not something that a normal person could decide to do.
On top of taking away the enemy’s weapon, he would even take away their food and the bowl containing the food. He had the feeling that Zieghart would surpass the Five Demons and the Six Kings to be the only one at the peak if Raon became the head.
‘His age is the issue.’
Since Raon was still too young, his achievements and might were still lacking compared to Karoon, Denier, and Balder.
He felt like Raon would do just fine competing against the others to become a successor as long as that was taken care of.
‘I wonder if I can help him in any way…?’
The Gambling Monster was putting his thoughts together about Raon and Balder when Raon stopped walking and raised his hand.
“Welcome to the annex building, special inspector.”
Raon politely lowered his head while pointing at the garden’s entrance.
“It’s so shabby.”
Balder frowned upon seeing the garden, which lacked even a single flower because it was winter. He continued with a ferocious voice, as if he were venting his frustrations so far.
“It’s the ugliest and dirtiest garden among all of the gardens in Zieghart. It wouldn’t be strange if it were just a dirt patch.”
“Is that so?”
Raon maintained his calm smile even though Sylvia’s garden was being mocked.
“You can tell a lot about the owner’s personality from looking at the garden. The annex building’s owner must be unremarkable and narrow-minded…”
“General Administrator.”
The Gambling Monster ran towards Balder as soon as he heard Raon’s call and smacked his mouth.
“Cough!”
Balder got hit while he was talking and stepped back with a frown.
“Do you have a rag stuck in your mouth? Speak more kindly, Sir.”
The Gambling Monster shook his hand with a frown on his nose after hitting Balder.
“Aww…”
Balder couldn’t even rub his mouth. He simply groaned in pain, his eyes drooping like a puppy who wanted to go back home because he was too tired of the stroll.
“Please come in.”
Raon stood in front of the annex building’s main door, guiding Balder and the staff from the inspection department. They followed without saying anything at all thanks to the Gambling Monster.
He opened the door, and he could see Sylvia and Helen coming down the stairs.
“Young master?”
“Why are you back so early? You said that you had a lot to organize today…”
Sylvia tilted her head but stopped walking upon seeing that Balder was standing behind Raon.
“B-Balder, I mean, Sir Balder…”
Her pale lips turned pale and trembled, showing that she was afraid of Balder.
“Sylvia, you still haven’t learned your lesson…”
Balder frowned while looking at Sylvia. His lips were about to twitch as he opened them to say something when the Gambling Monster raised his foot.
Whack!
The Gambling Monster loudly kicked Balder’s ass and entered the annex building.
“Get out of the way already! I can’t enter because you are standing there like a bear!”
“Ugh…”
Balder rubbed his ass and stepped aside. He accidentally hit the door with his shoulder because he was being careful about the Gambling Monster.
Raon didn’t miss the opportunity and pulled off the door completely.
Crack!
The door twisted and fell with the sound of crushing metal.
“Huh…?”
Balder’s jaw dropped as he looked at the fallen door, which was spreading dust around. Everyone in the area looked at him.
“N-no! I didn’t do it!”
“You hit it with your shoulder, special inspector.”
“How would hitting a door with a shoulder even destroy it?!”
“I told you, we have to be careful because the annex building is worn out.”
Raon shook his hand towards Dorian, who came with them.
“Ah, yes. One door panel for now…”
Dorian took out his notepad and wrote down one door panel.
“That’s wrong.”
Raon shook his head while looking at the content of the notepad.
“You can’t simply change only one panel in a double door. Write that we are changing both of them.”
“Ah, yes!”
Dorian nodded and modified it to two door panels.
“It was his doing, not mine! He pulled off the door panel with his hand!”
Balder extended his thick finger and pointed at Raon.
“General Administrator.”
Raon didn’t even argue with him, immediately calling on the Gambling Monster.
“Everyone saw that you hit it with your shoulder. What kind of bullshit are you even spouting now?!”
The Gambling Monster walked up to Balder and frowned as soon as Raon called for him.
“No, it’s impossible for a door to break just because I hit it with my shoulder!”
“Look at your body! It would be strange if it didn’t break!”
“Ugh…”
Balder sighed because he couldn’t argue anymore and gestured with his hand toward the inspection staff behind him.
“I-investigate this place. Do it as fast and safely as possible. Make sure to not destroy anything.”
He glared at them, saying that they shouldn’t spend any more money on compensation.
“U-understood.”
“We will keep that in mind.”
The inspection staff were bending over halfway because they were also intimidated, and they scattered after they nodded.
“Wh-what’s even happening…?”
Sylvia’s stiff face finally relaxed after she saw Balder acting as intimidated as a mouse facing a cat.
“Why is Balder so intimidated?”
She blinked, unable to understand the situation.
“I know, right…?”
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Hmm…”
Helen and the maids also gasped, not expecting Balder to be so deflated.
“I brought the special inspector because he said he wanted to investigate the annex building.”
Raon walked up to Sylvia and the maids, smiling gently.
“Don’t worry, since nothing bad is going to happen.”
He reassured everyone by incorporating his will inside his voice. Sylvia and the maids looked like they were a lot more at ease.
“Special inspector, it would be good to start from there.”
Raon raised his hand and guided him to the corridor on the left side.
“Tsk.”
Balder briefly clicked his tongue and followed him.
Creak.
The left corridor was the narrowest passage in the annex building, and Balder’s huge body completely filled the passage. Naturally, a frame hanging on the wall fell.
Claang!
The sharp sound echoed throughout the corridor as the fallen frames shattered into pieces.
“Gasp!”
Balder panicked and leaned his back against the wall.
Crumble!
The moment Balder’s back touched the wall, Raon pushed the wall by concentrating all his strength into his hand.
Thanks to his title, the King of Destruction, the wall completely crumbled even though it was a simple gesture.
A-are you insane? Why are you destroying the house?!
Wrath’s jaw dropped as he said that he had never seen anyone destroy their own house.
“Ah…”
Balder’s jaw dropped as he watched the wall crumble into pieces.
“N-no! It’s really not me! He’s the one who destroyed it!”
He pointed at Raon with a trembling chin.
“That’s so rude. Everyone saw that you smashed it with your back, Sir Balder.”
Raon shook his head while pointing at the people behind them.
“There’s no way a wall would be destroyed just because someone leaned against it!”
“Are you saying that it makes sense that it was destroyed just because I pushed it with my finger?”
“Ugh…”
Balder was unable to refute his words, his face turning red.
“This is driving me nuts! I didn’t do it!”
He violently stomped the ground, unable to withstand his anger.
Crack!
Raon delivered his force into the remaining wall according to that resonance to finish it off completely, even making the ceiling collapse.
Rumble!
Even the people in other locations came running because of the collapsing sound of the ceiling and wall, their jaws dropping as they looked at Balder.
“Don’t look at me like that! I’m innocent!”
Balder shouted while slamming his chest, but no one listened to him.
“Are you planning to destroy this entire house now?!”
The Gambling Monster smashed the top of his head, telling him to grow up already.
“I’m really innocent!”
“Shut up!”
He stopped him from talking, showing that he had no intention of listening to his excuses.
“Dorian.”
“Ah, yes…”
Dorian was afraid of Balder, but he still diligently wrote down the estimate for the damage in the annex building.
‘It worked perfectly.’
He’d brought Balder to the narrowest and the most worn-out corridor, and the plan worked perfectly. It was so perfect that he was even surprised.
You are really insane. Even those bastards in the heavenly realm won’t be a match for you, despite them being the best at swindling!
Wrath exclaimed, saying that he was impressed from the bottom of his heart.
“I-I won’t move from here! I won’t be fooled by your dirty plan anymore!”
Balder covered his arms and sat on the ground. He even closed his eyes, declaring that he wouldn’t move from the spot until the other inspectors finished their investigation.
‘There’s still a method if you are going to do this.’
Raon left Balder alone and followed the staff from the inspection department.
When they started to search the annex building, Raon broke worn-out objects that weren’t that important, adding them to Dorian’s bill.
“Seriously, why are you doing this?!”
“Please leave it alone! That’s yours!”
“I didn’t break that vase!”
“You demon!”
The inspection staff couldn’t do anything about it and simply watched their finances go down the drain with teary eyes.
“Arrrgh!”
“Please stop!”
Balder raised his trembling eyebrows upon hearing the screams coming from all around the annex building.
“Is this a demon’s castle…?”
* * *
An hour later.
The inspection staff were standing in front of Balder.
“W-we didn’t find anything.”
“Same goes for us.”
“I-it’s completely clean.”
Everyone lowered their heads, saying that they didn’t find anything strange at all.
“R-really? Let’s leave then!”
Balder stood up with a smile on his face, glad at the fact that he could finally leave the annex building.
“Where are you going?”
Raon stood in Balder’s way and shook his finger.
“The inspectors destroyed our house a little bit, and we will need to be compensated.”
“Hmph! The anion again! It won’t work anymore! It’s what the scammers usually say. It doesn’t even exist in this world!”
Balder raised his chin. He must’ve looked into anion items in the meantime.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any anion items in our house.”
Raon calmly shook his head.
“Everything that was destroyed were ordinary objects.”
“R-really? Then it shouldn’t be that expensive!”
Balder smiled happily because they weren’t related to anions.
“However.”
Raon lowered his head and sniffled.
“The lives of myself, my mother, and the maids dwelled in those objects and this house. They are even more precious than anions…”
“Arrgh!”
Balder clutched his head and started to scream.
“So how much is it?”
“About thirty gold coins?”
“That’s way too expensive!”
“Memories can’t be purchased with money. I’d like to switch them to the best products to offer a small bit of happiness to my mother.”
Raon’s shoulders trembled faintly, his head lowered.
“So sad.”
The Gambling Monster also sniffled from behind him.
“Wow. This is driving me mad…”
Balder handed over thirty gold coins in the end while watching the Gambling Monster with trembling eyes.
“I’m leaving now!”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
Raon stood in Balder's way once again as he was trying to leave.
“I can’t find the high-tech temperature management artifact, the Warmie no.1.”
“Wh-what are you even talking about now?”
“There was an artifact that I got from House Yonaan next to the frame that you destroyed, special inspector. It’s an artifact that keeps the entire house warm, but it must’ve exploded when the frame broke.”
“Nonsense! There was nothing other than frames! How much money do you have to suck out of me before you are satis—”
“General Administrator!”
The Gambling Monster came up to them right away and nodded for him.
“Ah, I also saw that before. Didn’t it look like a small bead?”
“Yes, I think it got destroyed when Sir Balder was moving.”
“Hmm…”
Raon and the Gambling Monster stared at Balder at the same time.
“Haa…”
Balder sighed in resignation and took out his subspace pocket.
“How much is that?”
“As I mentioned before, it’s a precious artifact that manages the temperature of the entire annex building, and it was hand-made by House Yonaan’s successor…”
“Just tell me the price already!”
“It’s thirty gold coins.”
“Keep it reasona—”
“General Administrator!”
Raon called the Gambling Monster right away, just as Balder started to give a long answer.
“Do you want to give away three hundred gold?”
“Why are you doing this, seriously?!”
“Just give him what he wants!”
“You really are going to live a long life.”
Balder glared at Raon before he took out thirty gold once again.
“Thank you.”
“......”
Balder walked towards the entrance with exhausted steps. He looked like he didn’t even have the strength left to respond.
“I already paid for this door, right?”
“Of course. However…”
Raon furrowed his brow while looking at the table next to the door.
“I can’t see the high-tech alarm artifact, Peek-a-Boo no.1. I think it broke when the door fell off.”
“That didn’t even exist to begin with!”
“Dorian, you saw it too, right?”
“What? Err… I-I saw it! The Peekie-Boo no.1!”
Dorian nodded while averting his gaze from the Gambling Monster.
“Peekie-Boo! He just said Peekie-Boo instead of Peek-a-Boo!”
Balder shouted Peekie-Boo as if he had the perfect excuse.
“That’s not the important part right now. General Administrator!”
“Hey!”
The Gambling Monster shook his hand at him, telling him to give up the money already.
“Haa, do I have to die for this to be over?”
Balder's lips parted as he looked up into the air, acting as if he had given up on everything.
“So how much is that Peek-A-Boo?”
“It’s 30 gold coins.”
“Did you have an agreement on prices or something? Why are they all thirty gold?!”
He laughed bitterly while shaking out the empty wallet.
“I have no money left, you bastard!”
“You can also pay on credit.”
“Credit…”
“Since you’re the special inspector, the interest is only going to be 10% per day.”
Raon nodded and raised a finger.
“Even loan sharks don’t have that kind of interest, you crazy bastard!”
Blader slammed his chest with his fist and stomped the ground, unable to withstand his frustration.
Rumble!
The table completely collapsed because of that impact.
“Adding the table…”
Dorian added it to the list of destroyed furniture on his own.
“Argh! Just you wait! I’ll make sure to send the money today.”
He left the annex building with an intense frown on his face. He looked like he wanted to kill him.
Raon followed him and struck the center of the garden with the space sword.
Whaam!
An explosion occurred from underground, and the garden trembled violently.
“Wh-what is this…?”
“It looks like you caused it, special inspector.
“What did I even do this time?!”
Balder glared at him, asking what he was even talking about.
“Did you ever hear that plants understand human speech?”
“Huh?”
“Researchers concluded that saying good things to the plants accelerates their growth, and saying bad things to them slows down their growth.”
“What does that have to do with anything?!”
“You called them ugly when you first got here, special instructor. It looks like the seeds were shocked by that and killed themselves.”
Raon used the space sword once again as he spoke.
Whaaam!
Explosions occurred over and over inside the garden, and dirt splattered all over the place.
“Look, they exploded underground because they couldn’t withstand the stress.”
“Don’t make me laugh! You just used your aura, didn’t you?!”
Balder noticed that Raon had used his aura despite how irritated he was, as expected of a palace master.
“I only did that to protect myself. Did you see the aura leaving my hand?”
“Th-that’s…”
Since Balder wasn’t aware that Raon had learned the space sword, he obviously couldn’t refute it.
The King of Essence is going mad instead.
Wrath sighed at his ridiculous behavior.
How could you use the special art that you learned from slaying a lizard for a trivial matter like this…?
He shook his head, calling Raon the incarnation of an evil fiend.
“It can’t be helped now. We also need to be compensated for this. All those seeds included germanium…”
“Stop, stop! Please stooooop!”
Balder covered his ears and used his footwork to the best of his ability to run away. His body disappeared from sight in an instant.
“Since the special inspector is gone, let’s settle the bill between us, shall we?”
Raon waved his hand toward the inspection staff while watching Balder leave.
“Uhh…”
“Why are we even here…?”
Raon’s hand looked like a death god’s scythe to them as they muttered with trembling lips.
* * *
Rimmer was leaning his back against Tiger Rock. He straightened up.
“I’ve never seen Balder run away before. He always fought until the very end no matter how many enemies he faced, yet he’s running away so quickly!”
He burst out into the laughter that he’d been holding back as he watched Balder run away without even looking back.
“Did you expect this to happen?”
Rimmer looked upwards, full of laughter.
“There’s no way.”
Glenn calmly shook his head, standing above Tiger Rock. His mouth was also curved into a smile, finding it rather entertaining.
“I did think that Herrian was going to stop Balder’s misconduct. However…”
Glenn looked away from Balder and saw Raon, who was ordering the inspectors to tend to the garden.
“It didn’t even cross my mind that Raon would take advantage of this situation.”
“Well, I guess. No one would’ve expected that. Raon is the crazy one here.”
Rimmer nodded in agreement.
“He already extorted sixty gold in the fifth training ground, so I didn’t expect him to bring him to the annex building just to do it again. He’s so cruel.”
“That’s not true.”
Glenn shook his head and looked at Sylvia, who was standing behind Raon. Her complexion had returned to normal.
“Raon brought Balder to the annex building to give Sylvia confidence.”
“Confidence?”
“Yes. Raon declared that he would make Sylvia a part of the direct line next year. Once that happens, Sylvia will have to encounter the executives from the house once again. He showed her Balder so that she will be confident when that happens.”
“Ah…”
Rimmer nodded while listening to Glenn.
“He’s so thoughtful after all… Hmm?”
He raised his gaze while admiring his thoughtfulness and saw that Raon was extorting money from the inspection staff.
No matter how he looked at him, Raon simply looked like a thug taking money from poor children.
“Is that really the case?” He asked again, and Glenn’s fist started to tremble.
“M-my lord?”
“It’s frustrating.”
“What?”
“I’m so frustrated that I can’t give anything to him despite how commendable he is. It would be nice if he extorted my money, just like he did to Balder…”
Glenn’s trembling fist suggested that he was seriously frustrated.
“He can extort me all he wants! Just threaten me!”
“......”
Rimmer shook his head while watching Glenn murmur that he was even willing to give away the entirety of Zieghart’s treasury.
“This house is going to fall soon.”
‘Should I look for another job…?’
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