Chapter 200

The giant monsters, who towered over human men, fell backwards with loud shrieks.

Stab!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Thomas wiped the sweat from under his chin after digging his sword into a fallen monster’s neck and ending its life.

“Whew, these punks are always a handful, since their skin is so tough.”

Nearby the grumbling Thomas, Colin and Max were handling monsters in a similar manner.

The three men had begged and begged to join this monster subjugation. It was only after they wrote an oath, swearing that they wouldn’t push themselves too hard, and recited it to Yelena that they were granted permission.

‘I always feel like my skills improve dramatically whenever I participate in a subjugation. There’s no way I’d pass up on the opportunity.’

Lately, the three knights had been displaying a fervor that was basically an obsession with improving their skills.

‘The stronger we are, the safer Madam will be. I won’t let what happened last time happen again.’

Thomas, Max, Colin. The three men’s eyes shone with firm determination, equal in intensity.

Then, Max whipped his head up after piercing the heart of a monster with green skin in surprise, eyes wide.

“Duke Mayhard!”

“Your Excellency!” Thomas called Kaywhin right after, startled.

There was a reason for their surprise. A monster the size of a house was dashing towards Kaywhin, but the latter stood still, spaced out, as if his mind was elsewhere.

Grahhh!

The monster swung its thick arm, which was like a lethal weapon in and of itself.

“No!”

“Your Excellency, watch ou…!”

Thomas rushed to draw his sword out of a dead monster and leap towards Kaywhin.

Kaywhin moved his right hand slightly, not even looking at the monster that was running towards him.

Slash!

“…!”

He sliced the monster’s head off its neck, which was the width of a human’s waist.

“Urk.”

Crash.

Thomas rolled on the ground with a racket, the result of abruptly stopping in his tracks while sprinting. Max, who had shouted, “No!” with an anxious and restless face, scratched the back of his head with a bashful expression.

“Never mind… He handled that monster without batting an eye.”

“Tsk, tsk, you fools.”

Colin, the only one who had kept calm and hadn’t freaked out, sneered at the two.

“You thought that a mere monster would be a threat to His Excellency?”

“No, I mean, of course, I wouldn’t have been worried under normal circumstances… but he was spacing out.”

“Exactly.”

Thomas and Max glanced at Kaywhin.

Kaywhin was in the same condition as before. He was just standing there, as if in deep thought, paying no mind to the battles surrounding him or whether or not a monster was closing in on him.

Nonetheless, the skill with which he swiftly did away with any monster that tried to attack him, without even looking at them, was fascinating.

“…Though he does seem to be distracted.”

“It’s because of Madam, right?” Max asked in a whisper.

Thomas and Colin exchanged glances and nodded.

“…More likely than not.”

“He seemed to have been really shocked.”

The three men had been there when the duke and duchess were saying their goodbyes before the subjugation unit departed, which meant they had witnessed Yelena avoid Kaywhin’s hand and take a whopping three steps back.

“Why did Madam do that…”

“Did they fight?”

“Naw, then His Excellency wouldn’t be like that. Isn’t he in more shock because he has no idea what’s wrong?”

“That makes sense.”

The three knights who had been chatting among themselves shook their heads.

“I’m sure they’ll resolve things on their own.”

“Right, this isn’t a matter we should be making assumptions or debating about.”

“And it’s not just anyone, it’s Madam…”

“Let’s go back to catching monsters!”

“Yeah!”

The three knights who were crazy about improving their skills had a simple train of thought. Soon, they were back to diligently wounding, stabbing, and knocking over monsters.

While the three knights were concentrating on the subjugation…

‘…What could it be?’

Kaywhin impetuously searched through his memory, trying to figure out what he had done wrong.

‘What caused the problem?’

His wife was avoiding him.

He was sure that it was because of something he had done, but no matter how hard he thought about it, nothing came to mind.

‘In the mountains… No, I don’t think it was then.’