Joen pushed open the heavy, gilded doors of the banquet hall.
The clamorous music and voices were cut off behind him, and the intermittent cries for help suddenly became much clearer.
He followed the sound, making several turns before pushing open a partially closed wooden door and stepping into the “rest area” corridor.
The crimson carpet beneath his feet was thick and soft, but the sights along the way made his brow furrow tighter and tighter.
The air was thick with the cloying, fermented scent of wine, perfume, and food grease, making it almost suffocating.
Most of the guest rooms on both sides of the corridor had their doors wide open, revealing unsightly scenes.
Noble gentlemen, reeking of alcohol, pinned disheveled handmaidens against the walls, biting at their necks while the women responded mechanically.
A morbidly obese noble stuffed Gold Kurons into a succubus’s bodice, eliciting waves of wanton, flirtatious laughter.
In another room, two female nobles with heavy makeup surrounded a trembling, handsome youth.
The leather whips in their hands shimmered with a greasy light under the candlelight.
Joen did not know what they intended to do, but he instinctively felt uncomfortable.
He stepped forward and asked the boy, “Do you need help?”
The boy’s clear, almond-shaped eyes scanned the tall Joen before glancing at the two female nobles.
He swallowed hard and eventually shook his head with forced composure.
“Big brother, thank you, but… there is no need.”
Unexpectedly, one of the female nobles’ eyes lit up when she saw Joen.
She chuckled and approached him.
“National Protection Army? To be able to claim such a grade of spoils, you must be very brave, Sir Knight?”
“What do you mean?” Joen frowned.
The woman’s gaze swept over his armor with a sense of entitlement that made him extremely uneasy.
In the next second, the female noble who smelled most of wine swayed toward Joen.
“Hic~ I love conquering brave knights the most…”
Before she could finish, Joen irritably brushed her hand away.
“I have business to attend to. Excuse me.”
Joen felt a surge of regret for getting involved and wasting time with these three strange people.
The woman’s expression shifted instantly, her voice turning sharp and shrill.
“Whose attendant are you? How dare you! Do you know who I am? Do you know how close I am to Duke Zyra?”
Joen did not bother listening to her nonsense.
Activating **[Super Speed]**, he strode past her, continuing his pursuit of the distant cries for help.
*Crack.*
Joen’s iron boots crushed a stray glass cup and accidentally caught onto a torn bodice.
It was made of Snow Silkworm Silk—an expensive luxury he would never have the heart to buy even for Lily.
Now, it was discarded like trash.
He looked around.
Each guest room was like a cage for beasts to mate.
These nobles, who were usually high and mighty, had torn off their masks and were drowning in a flood of primal desires, turning a deaf ear to the faint cries and sobs.
The decadent murmurs echoing in his ears sounded like the whispers of a demon or a silent sigh.
As expected, Joen stumbled upon an act of violence that was just beginning.
A pot-bellied noble was pinning a harpist from the resting theater troupe to the ground, drunkenly tearing at her dress.
Joen moved instantly, picking the noble up like a fat chicken and tossing him against the wall, leaving him dazed and disoriented.
The terrified harpist scrambled to gather her clothes, hurrying to pull her scattered, broken dignity back onto her body.
“Thank… thank you…”
A few syllables squeezed out of her sobbing throat.
“It is good that you are alright.”
Joen gave her a concerned look and then asked, “Is there anyone here who can convict this man and uphold justice for you?”
The harpist froze and gave a smile that looked more painful than crying.
“He is the one who upholds justice here. He is a Saint of the Church of Justice and the Chief Justice of the Qianhe Domain…”
Joen was left speechless.
The God of Justice was the second greatest faith in the Empire’s Four Great Orthodox Religions, second only to the Goddess of Light.
He presided over the concepts of “order, rules, and justice.”
His Saints could borrow Divine Power to uncover the truth, judge sins, and notarize contracts.
Due to the nature of their power, the Church of Justice was most closely linked to the Imperial government, with its members often serving as judges or judicial knights.
But Joen never expected…
“Sir Knight, may I ask a favor of you?”
The harpist suddenly asked, her voice timid and cautious.
“Please, speak,” Joen nodded.
“Please do not tell anyone about this, and do not make a scene. Just act as if it never happened, alright? I do not want my reputation to be damaged and affect my work with the troupe or my future marriage. I am also… afraid he will retaliate against me afterward.”
“But according to Imperial Law, I should cut off one of his feet,” Joen said, slightly stunned.
“Please don’t!”
The girl turned pale with fright.
She instinctively blocked the unconscious noble, her eyes pleading.
“I beg of you! Please let him go! I do not want to cause such a great amount of trouble…”
Joen’s eyes gradually widened.
The shock of this scene was even greater than when Demon King Lia had suddenly accelerated countless times.
It was absurd—the victim was actually protecting the perpetrator?
She was advising him not to uphold the law?
He suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion.
It was as if a dark cloud had settled over his heart, gray and messy.
He did not even know which way the wind was blowing or which rain was falling.
Joen lost the energy to persuade her.
He silently drew his short sword, tossed it to the girl, and said, “I will leave everything for you to decide. I am the Empire’s Her—no. I am the Commander of the National Protection Army under Demon King Lia, an unruly demon. You can push everything onto me. I will take full responsibility, so you need not worry about any consequences.”
With that, he pushed the door open and left, passing through that long, narrow corridor once more.
The decadent murmurs sounded like songs of hell.
The crimson carpet felt like the tongue of a giant serpent.
As he passed one of the guest rooms, Joen’s footsteps suddenly paused.
It was the room of the two female nobles.
Now, the thin, suppressed whimpers of a youth were echoing from inside.
—
The clock ticked a few more minutes forward.
Joen returned to the banquet hall, where the air was filled with slow, soothing music.
Wine glasses clinked crisply amid laughter and chatter.
The brilliant crystal chandeliers shed a radiant glow that covered the spotless white jade floor like a tide.
The rotating orchestra was performing a classical dance piece.
Beneath the strings, skirts fluttered, blooming into elegant ripples as they spun.
The nobles were dressed in brocade and fine silks, skillfully dancing a dance Joen had never learned in his 18 years.
The scent of high-grade incense and the mellow aroma of red wine floated in the air.
Everything seemed so orderly, noble, and self-restrained.
“What is wrong?”
Seeing Joen standing there motionless, Liya turned her head to ask him with concern.
Joen shook his head.
“It is nothing.”
No one could see the loneliness beneath his helmet.
But Liya smelled it.
Perhaps it was because she had also experienced the loneliness of a 17-year-old who felt abandoned by the entire world, or perhaps because she knew well the filth hidden beneath this glazed beauty.
She abandoned her “empty-handed” business deal just as it was reaching a critical point.
Lifting her skirt, she straightened her back and flew to Joen like a light butterfly.
“Friend~” she said seriously.
“No matter what happens, I will always be on your side!”
“Lily…”
A crack suddenly opened in Joen’s chest, and his blocked throat opened along with it.
His lips moved, and then he whispered the events that had just occurred to Liya.
When he finished, he gave a self-deprecating laugh.
“Do you think there are no good people among the nobles? Is it possible that once I become a Duke, one day, I will also become…”
“No, you won’t.”
Liya suddenly reached out and covered Joen’s mouth.
Then, she opened her arms and gently hugged him, resting her cheek tenderly against the side of his cold helmet.
“Power indeed makes people a little ‘willful’ involuntarily. But Lily believes in her friend, because her friend is someone who treats even Pupu well. Therefore, my friend will not become a bad person. He will always be kind and always be upright.”
“Joen.”
She pressed closer to the Hero and said in a lowered, gentle voice, “You are Lily’s hero. A great hero.”
All the gloom he had just experienced seemed less real and less powerful than Lily’s praise and encouragement.
Joen’s mood suddenly brightened.
He looked around nervously and, taking advantage of the fact that others were not paying attention, he pulled Lily into his arms and gave her a tight, yet restrained hug.
Seeing that she had comforted the Hero, Liya’s mood also improved significantly.
However, at that moment, a pot-bellied noble, clutching a pale girl in a performance costume, burst into the banquet hall in a fit of rage.
He threw the girl to the ground.
“Speak! Where is that member of Demonkind who attacked me just now? Point him out to me!”
The girl looked around the crowd in terror.
Her gaze fixed on Joen for a split second before quickly darting away as she shook her head desperately.
“That demon was very strong! He was 7 or 8 meters tall! He is not here!”
Liya understood most of the situation at a glance.
The corners of her mouth twitched twice.
She was furious.
‘Dammit! I was almost able to trick them out of the local steel-making formula!’
“Friend, watch for the signal. Once I drop my glass, blow the horn and have the Nagas attack.”
She let out a low, mocking laugh.
‘Interrupting my scam, are you? Watch as I turn into a bandit!’