Annoyance will be dealt with (part 1)

Losing the coachman forced Medea to take his place, which meant that the time for debauchery got obliterated.

Nonetheless, Zorivia seemed to take it far worse than him when they arrived at the last stop before the arrival at their ultimate destination – the royal palace.

Since the village they stopped in was very close to the capital of the kingdom, they did have a rather luxurious inn suited for the nobility on their way to and from the royal-owned city.

For once, it seemed like Medea actually wouldn't have to worry about Zorivia's well-being... pfft...

Yeah, as if that was even possible in the first place.

The door to the room opened, and before the large man standing guard in front of it managed to turn around and ask the noble guest what he could help her with, his arm was grabbed, twisted...

*CRUNCH*

"AURGH!" *WHAM* *THUMP*

...and broken – as the guard let out a shout of pain right before a powerful kick in the back sent him tumbling on the floor.

As the large man was scrambling to get up without using his broken arm, a woman with a vertical scar on the side of her face and a ghastly pale white-haired man with reddish eyes showed up in the hallway.

"Hey, what was that...? Vincent?!"

"What the hell?!"

The woman asked in a bored voice, but as she saw the state of the large man, she came out and rushed to his side while the white-haired man took out a metal baton concentrating on the person standing at the door to the room.

"In addition to the one big silver coin for the room, a fee of additional big silver coin was paid for the service of guarding young lady Zorivia Rotteloss... and you are telling me this is what it amounts to?"

A black-haired man of average height wearing thick glasses smiled in a friendly manner, despite his words being very far away from positive ones.

"Wait...! You...! You are a servant of that noble girl! What the hell are you doing here? This floor is for aristocracy only; your room is...!"

*WHOOSH* *STAB*

The woman with the scar straightened her back, looking from over the large man at the black-haired one, and scoffed angrily – the next moment, a knife hit the wall right next to her head... but not before brushing against her skin, creating a horizontal wound crossing her vertical scar and shutting her up in an instant.

"...!"

The white-haired man with a baton froze in place, with his eyes bulging out at the black-haired man who threw the knife without even a grain of bloodlust or murder intent, making the movement look as if he was merely going to rub the back of his head.

"The safety here is trash. Do your job properly because I will come back here to test your vigilance again... and if you fail to spot me, I will kill all of you."

"!!!"

The black-haired man announced with the most benevolent smile as he walked past all three guards hired by the owner of the inn and got his knife out of the wall.

"Medea? What was that commotion... are we in trouble...?"

"...!"

Another person called out and emerged from the room, causing the trio of guards to flinch in fear, but the young tall, blond-haired woman who showed up seemed like the definition of docility.

"Nothing to worry about, my lady. It seems that the hired guards of this place had some sort of a quarrel, but we all managed to settle down before it became anything serious~"

"?!?!"

The black-haired man turned right around and said with a serious expression, causing the bewildered trio to look at each other – the large man suffered a rather serious injury, and the woman with the scar had blood trickling down her face, but he said that things didn't get serious...?

Even so, the hired guards ended up catching on to the meaning – when the black-haired man was speaking about seriousness and whatnot, he meant murder.

"Eh?"

The young blond-haired woman tilted her head in confusion, but then she glanced over at the troubled guards and instantly lowered her gaze as if in embarrassment.

"...I will leave those sorts of things to your discretion..."

"I will do my best to not fail the faith you have in me, my lady."

"!!!"

The woman murmured, which made the black-haired man smile and sent chills down the spines of the trio – that scary guy just got permission to kill them! His earlier threat instantly became ten times more terrifying!

"My lady, if you allow."

Medea lowered his head, offering Zorivia his arm, which the girl literally ran up to with such haste as if there was competition for the spot.

Then the duo walked down the hallway towards the staircase that they then descended all the way to the ground floor where the restaurant part was.

As they were taken to the table reserved for Zorivia's room, they passed a group of rather loud individuals who all appeared to be around their age, enjoying the late evening drinks... their a bit too jolly behavior made it look like they already had too many...

"..."

They were... nuisance... to say the least – which made Medea, who wanted to focus solely on Zorivia, start smiling in a friendly manner before long.

The food itself was good, but the obnoxious bunch was definitely souring the mood – especially since their number grew as more people showed up and joined them. It was to the point that they were in need of more chairs, and one individual offered to get more.

The young brown-haired man with a face flushed because of the alcohol stumbled across the floor, managing to make his way towards the table taken by other guests... that turned out to be the table occupied by Zorivia and Medea.

The drunk man didn't was focused solely on the chair; he didn't even open his mouth to say anything as he just grabbed it and was about to carry it away.

"..."

"..."

His sole presence made Zorivia flinch and cower while looking to the side, which was something that brought the most amicable smile on Medea's face.

"Mister, leave it and get out."

"?!?!"

"Medea...?"

The black-haired man leaned forward and raised his voice enough to startle the intoxicated man as well as make Zorivia flinch and gently grab onto his arm.