Debuff Master

“Kyuuu! What’s wrong, owner punk?!” Hamchi cried out in shock after seeing the blood dripping down Siegfried’s leg.

“What do you mean what’s wrong? There are obviously rats around us,” Siegfried grimaced and grumbled in response.

“Kyuu?”

“It’s amazing how they managed to avoid being noticed by us so far.”

Siegfried was honestly in awe. He instinctively felt something was off and twisted while drinking his Mint Chocolate Ade ten seconds ago.

Shwik!

And the blade that popped out from the ground struck his thigh...

What if he hadn't twisted in time?

‘Ughhh! My butthole would have been penetrated!’ Siegfried shrieked inwardly as a shiver ran down his spine. If he hadn't moved earlier, the blade would have penetrated deep inside, reaching even his guts.

In other words, the target body part was indeed embarrassing to even mention, but it was undoubtedly an extremely effective way of killing a target.

Siegfried looked around and said calmly, “Come out."

Hamchi grew his size to that of a grizzly bear and growled, “Kyaaaak! I’m coming after you if you don’t come out now! Kyaaak! Kyaaak!”

However, the assassins refused to appear despite the warning from both Siegfried and Hamchi.

“Oh? So all eleven of you have no plans to come out?” Siegfried asked, counting all eleven assassins in hiding.

“Kyuuu! We know you’re hiding!”

“Behind that boulder.”

“Kyuu! There’s one behind that bush!”

“Eh? One of you dug a tunnel under this road?”

“Kyuuu! There’s one wearing a funny costume on the ground!”

Siegfried and Hamchi recited the locations of each and every assassin.

The two had truly failed to notice the assassins, but it was only because they weren't paying attention. Now that they were on their toes with their senses heightened, they easily spotted the assassins.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

The assassins appeared one by one and surrounded them.

“Hmm…” Siegfried rubbed his chin and looked at the assassins with eyes full of interest. Then, he took out his +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp and said, “Awesome timing! I was starting to get stressed from doing things I don’t normally do. Hohoho!”

He walked toward the assassins with a grin that exuded madness.

The two sides clashed, but the battle lasted only for a minute and a half.

“Ugh…”

“Argh…”

“Ack!”

The assassins were one-sidedly beaten by Siegfried. This was an obvious outcome, as the assassins specialized in ambushing their targets rather than fighting head-on.

Would an assassin still be considered an assassin if they were strong in head-on clashes, too? A person of that caliber wouldn't have to hide in the shadows and assassinate their targets, as they could just brute force their way through and kill their targets in battle.

“Heads down and asses up, you bastards!” Siegfried shouted after beating up the assassins just for them to be barely alive.

“Kyuuu! Heads down and asses up!” Hamchi exclaimed.

“I’ve been feeling pent-up and frustrated these days, and you dare come after me? Do you have a death wish?” Siegfried growled as the +13 Vanquisher’s Grasp transformed into a baseball bat.

Then, he hazed the assassins one by one.

Bam! Bam! Wham!

“Ack!”

“Aaaack!”

“Heuk!”

“Kuheok!”

The assassins cried out in agony every time the +13 Baseball Bat whacked their asses.

Bam! Bam!

“Ack! W-Why did you hit them once but hit me twice?!” one of the assassins cried out, sounding aggrieved, as Siegfried had smacked his ass twice with the baseball bat.

“You stabbed my thigh,” Siegfried replied icily.

“T-That's—”

“You applied poison, too, right?”

“...!”

“Sorry to say, but I’m immune to most poisons,” Siegfried said. Then, he smirked and added, “I think you deserve three more hits.”

“Ack! Aaack! Aaaack! Heuk! Kuheok!”

In the end, Siegfried ended up smacking the assassin five times instead of three after he dared to argue with him. There was a saying that one could escape extra punishment as long as one stayed quiet, and the saying proved to be true in this instance.

Siegfried hazed the assassins for a while to relieve stress, but their worst nightmare was what came after that.

“Kyuuuu! Die!” Hamchi exclaimed and shoved down the Mint Chocolate Ade down the assassins’ throats.

Then, something shocking happened.

Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!

“K-Kuheok! Just kill me instead…!”

“P-Please… I will tell you anything you want…!”

“You demons! Just kill me instead–Bleurghhhh!”

“I will speak! Stop this–Bleurghhh!”

The assassins refused to utter a word no matter how much they were hazed by the baseball bat, but they instantly begged for their lives and offered to spill out everything they knew right after getting fed the Mint Chocolate Ade.

Of course, this Mint Chocolate Ade was the same drink that Siegfried enjoyed drinking just a while ago.

Kwachik!

A cross-shaped vein bulged on Siegfried’s forehead.

***

Technically, it wasn't the Mint Chocolate Ade that forced the assassins to surrender.

Why were they assassins in the first place? These individuals had experienced and survived the harshest training out there, so they wouldn't succumb to merely something that tasted foul and minging.

The reason they surrendered was a complex combination of numerous factors. They had sustained many injuries in the battle against Siegfried, and their mental state had deteriorated after getting lined up and hazed with a baseball bat.

While in this state, an unknown fizzy liquid that tasted horrible was forced down their throats, causing their mental state to collapse even further.

Unfortunately, Siegfried had zero empathy for the assassins—no, it was more like he could not be bothered to understand the assassins.

“Are you looking down on me and my taste buds?!” Siegfried lashed out at them. Then, his anger slowly turned into hysteria, and his hysteria into madness as he snickered and said, “Hehehe… So you don’t like this that much?”

Siegfried then started muttering something to himself before taking out all of his Mint Chocolate Ades and forcing them all down the throat of the assassins.

Chug! Chug! Chug!

The Mint Chocolate Ade gushed down their throats like a waterfall.

“K-Kuheok! Bleurgh! P-Please—bleurgh! I-I will tell you everything I kn—bleurgh!”

The assassins begged him to stop the torture.

“You will tell me everything? Hehe…” Siegfried said with a warm smile. Then, his smile turned icy as he added, “Count Gunther sent you, right? Who doesn’t know that?”

“K-Kuheok! Y-You knew?! Yet you’re torturing us—bleurghh!”

“Why? Is it illegal?”

“Y-You psychopath—”

“What did you say? Ah~ Do you like it? Then have some more! Kekeke!” Siegfried cackled like a madman and shoved two bottles of Mint Chocolate Ade down the assassin’s throat.

The assassin not only had the fizzy chocolate drink shoved down his throat but even down his nostrils, too, which inflicted extreme agony on him.

How could a drink inflict extreme agony on someone? Well, the Mint Chocolate Ade’s taste was one thing, but having a carbonated fizzy drink shoved down your nose would indeed be painful.

In other words, Siegfried was waterboarding the assassins with his favorite mint chocolate fizzy drink.

Moreover, the fact that he did not kill them nor try to get any information out of them made it far more terrifying, and the psychological damage that the assassins had suffered so far was far greater than the physical pain that they had to endure.

“Allow me to feed you until your stomach is full to the brim! Kekeke!” Siegfried said while cackling like a madman. It went without saying that he did not stop shoving the Mint Chocolate Ade down the throats of the assassins.

***

One hour later…

“Kyuuu! Go hide at Count Gunther’s castle and wait for further instructions!” Hamchi showed off his hypnotic skills and sent the assassins to Count Gunther’s castle.

Siegfried preferred to just tell them to assassinate Count Gunther and get it over with, but he was currently drawing a big picture, so he had to be satisfied with just asking the assassins to hide in Count Gunther’s castle.

‘It’s no fun if I just kill him,’ he thought.

“Kyuuu! Go!”

The assassins received Hamchi’s command and walked off like a bunch of mindless zombies.

“Count Gunther’s castle…”

“Ambush… Wait for instructions…”

“Mint Chocolate Ade… Good stuff…”

Siegfried got up after the assassins walked away and said, “Alright, shall we go too?”

“Kyuu! Let’s go!” Hamchi exclaimed in response.

They arrived at their next destination, the Chateau Territory, which looked to be in terrible shape. The people in the territory looked gloomy and downtrodden with most of them looking badly malnourished.

But that was not all...

The roadside drains weren't being maintained properly, which meant that they were overflowing with sewage, creating an absolute stink in the air. There was also a variety of insects buzzing around.

On top of that, the houses looked so old and weathered that they'd probably collapse at any given moment.

“Things are indeed as bad as I heard…” Siegfried growled under his breath while gritting his teeth.

Based on the information he had collected, the Chateau Territory’s feudal lord, Viscount Anterlock, was a classic textbook villain. He was infamous for squeezing his people dry by increasing the taxes during tax season and forcing them to take high-interest loans from him if they ended up failing to pay their taxes.

It went without saying that those who had failed to repay their debts were enslaved and forced to work the fields while receiving treatment worse than that of livestock.

“That guy is an absolute piece of trash,” Siegfried growled.

“Kyuu! Let’s just bash his head open, owner punk!”

“I would love to, but…”

“Kyu?”

“It’s not the right time. It will be better to just kill all of them at the optimal timing.”

“Kyu?! What do you mean by that?!”

“Just wait and see,” Siegfried said before walking away.

‘What in the world are you planning, owner punk…? Kyuu… I swear I really can’t tell what he’s thinking at times…’ Hamchi thought.

Why?

It was all because, even though Siegfried appeared extremely dense, he was actually a very cunning guy who'd plan two to three steps ahead of others. Hamchi was very certain that Siegfried was planning something, judging by how he—who was a very lazy person—was going around meeting even the feudal lords one by one, including an evil feudal lord.

***

“What? That brat has come here to see me?”

“Yes, lord.”

“Ha! I heard about it from Count Gunther, but I didn’t expect him to come here.”

Viscount Anterlock was in disbelief after hearing the report about Siegfried's arrival. The fact that a king would go around meeting nobles without even an attending knight was already baffling enough, but the fact that Siegfried was going around with a hamster made it sound even more absurd.

“What should we do, lord?”

“Let him in and tell him I’m busy, so he’ll have to wait,” Viscount Anterlock said while waving his hand.

“My lord? I believe you do not have any matters to attend to today,” the butler said cautiously.

“You fool! Who said I’m really busy? I’m making him wait so he loses his temper!”

“Ah! Apologies, my lord!”

“Tsk… Why am I even keeping a fool like that around?”

“I apologize, my lord…”

Viscount Anterlock shook his head before saying, “I’ll go and speak to Count Gunther and relax a bit before meeting that brat.”

“Yes, my lord!”

“Hoho! I heard the new elf that I had bought today has silky smooth skin.”

Viscount Anterlock was excited at the thought of violating the elf slave that he had purchased recently. He was completely oblivious to the fact that Siegfried van Proa’s wife, the queen of the Proatine Kingdom and the princess of Elondel, was an elf herself.

The viscount had been living his entire life feeling entitled to things due to the fact that he was a noble of the Marchioni empire. His complacency meant that he hadn't read a single report about the Proatine Kingdom, which he deemed to be weak and poor.

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