Reincarnated Hero System

"The Knight Captain did note that Terence had a crest on the back of his palm that glowed multiple times mid-fight, one that looks similar to the crest on you two's hands."

Before she could even say anything more, Evan sighed and held up his hand, facing the back of his palm towards her and summoning Vanitas.

The crest glowed and the sword of pride appeared in his palm, causing the knight beside Leena to quickly unsheathe her blade and hold it up.

"Nice reaction but if I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead.

Besides, I only did that just to show you what I can do with this crest. I'm assuming that Terence has a similar weapon, most likely a huge Great sword, right?"

Hearing his words, Leena recovered from her shock before nodding silently.

"Thought so."

Evan spoke and then unsummoned Pride's sword, before continuing with his words.

"This Terence guy doesn't seem like the kind of person who would just sit still after making such a scene and killing one of the most powerful people in Osto.

What happened after the failure of the subjugation force?"

From the way the viscount's daughter had described Terence to him, Evan refused to believe that the man would sit still after such a blatant attempt on his life.

Hearing the question, Leana summarized the happenings in Osto after the failed subjugation force.

It turned out that Terence lost quite a bit of his own forces after the raid, and had not made any big moves since then.

But it didn't mean that he sat back and did nothing.

Apparently, Terence had taken to terrorise the people of Osto, by simply taking away whatever treasures or items of value they possessed.

If one had anything that was very valuable, like a family heirloom or a treasured artifact, or some sort of expensive decoration, Terence would send people to retrieve this item(s), forcefully.

Even if the one who possessed the item attempted to hide it, it was futile as Terence somehow was able to sniff out its location.

The merchants living in Osto were the ones who suffered the most, especially the rich ones who were among the Merchant guild's higher-ups.

Terence had personally attacked the Merchant guild building and had taken away a great number of their valuables and treasures, including their Magic projection artifacts and other communication devices.

As far as something of high monetary value made its way into Osto, Terence would somehow appear and forcefully take it away from its owner.

This had gotten him the nickname; 'Greedy Red', because of his greed for items of high monetary value, his red hair, and the red blood that spilt whenever someone opposed him.

One of the adventurers with an appraisal skill, noted that Terence had become far stronger than he was before the subjugation force attacked, causing widespread panic across the city.

But perhaps he knew that even if he took control of Osto, it would have been pointless if the people in it died out, so he didn't touch food supplies or basic necessities.

He also didn't go about randomly killing people, unless they provoked him first like a group of adventurers from another city who challenged him only to be turned into bloody mists by a wave of his sword.

People that worked jobs in the food production sector were the ones who felt Terence's terror the least. He had only sent over some of his subordinates to watch them and make sure they didn't flee to another city.

Naturally, it was simply impossible for the citizens to stay locked in their houses forever because of their fear, after all, they needed to eat, work and perform other activities. As such, the city somehow regained a semblance of its previous state.

Even the merchants who had been robbed by Terence naturally tried to recover their losses.

However, it didn't mean that they were content with Terence's presence, and were obviously scheming to take him out by calling in forces from other cities.

And although Terence should know this, he didn't take action for some reason, something they believed to be his confidence in his ever-growing power.

"However, seeing as he sent people after me just when my father sent me out means that he isn't actually doing nothing to stop them from plotting against him, they just don't know this."

Leana's words were a trigger for Evan to finally ask about why she was attacked in the first place, to which the teenager replied.

"My father has been in contact with other city lords nearby, asking for help to deal with Terence while also trying to find out when the Guild Masters would return from their expedition.

He had sent me out secretly to go to a neighbouring County and request help from the Count there as he couldn't move in person for fear that Terence would notice.

However, Terence somehow found out and...and...he...s-sent those..."

She suddenly started shuddering as she spoke, something that made Evan and Pride who were ardently questioning her take a step back.

'She almost did get assaulted by those guys so her reaction is expected...'

The young hero didn't and could not relate to how the girl was currently feeling so he just kept silent and allowed Eliza and the knight with her to calm her down.

He did notice the knight gritting her teeth in anger, something also within expectations as the knight had indeed failed to protect the daughter of her lord and had allowed the teenager to go through a horrible experience.

'There's also that dude who nearly got assaulted by the Warhammer-wielding woman too. Is he okay?'

Evan looked out the window as he thought that, trying to locate the knight in question when Leana suddenly spoke up, saying she was okay.

"Young lady-!"

"Stop. I know what you're thinking but right now they are our best bet at taking out Terence and restoring Osto back to what it was previously.

Don't forget the fact that his strange power didn't work on the two of them. It means that they can fight him at full power and succeed in defeating him.

In that case, I would not hesitate to give them whatever information they want. That is also one of the reasons I said we should return to the city and not continue to the County."

Hearing her words, Pride rose an eyebrow in slight surprise, while Evan who was about to say something about the possibility of them actually not having to fight Terence kept his mouth shut.

'Still, this Terence dude, huh?

He seems to be the decisive type. Sending out people to kill her on the same day she left the city.

If they succeeded in taking out the viscount's daughter, no one would ever know that the viscount had sent his daughter out to another city to ask for help in person.

They might even think he sent her away in secret to avoid Terence.

He's probably planning something big and isn't taking direct action because of that. Just laying low and increasing his power.'

As for how his power kept increasing despite his level not changing much, it was still a mystery to the people of Osto.

However, it was not a mystery to Pride and Evan who knew about Greed's skills.

"If my guess is correct, it isn't that Terence is growing stronger, it's just that Greed is recovering his power and Terence is getting access to more of that power.

That's why it looks like Terence is becoming stronger even though he's doing nothing but robbing people."

Evan spoke to Pride who nodded in affirmation. Hearing his words, Eliza who had been silent since the beginning of the conversation posed a question.

"Then doesn't that make defeating Terence pretty simple? You just have to stop Greed from getting his power back.

How is he even regaining the power in the first place?"

Her question made Evan turn silent for a while before deciding that it didn't really matter if Leana heard about it either way.

'Since I can bring up and display the appraisal results of skills in my memory, I should be able to do the same with the skills in the memory of the previous 'Second'.'

Evan then held up his palm in front of Eliza, with a familiar semi-transparent notice board popping up a few moments after.

"Whoa, it actually worked."

While Evan was in a state of surprise upon seeing that his idea worked, Eliza was reading the details of the skill on the board.

|Power of Wealth;

Type: Rare Active Skill

Effect;

There resided deep within the Incarnation of Greed, resides an unquenchable, insatiable greed. One can never have too much power, wealth, or treasures. This skill makes it such that the Incarnation of Greed's power increases proportionately with the amount of treasure they own. |

"What the heck?!"

Eliza couldn't help but exclaim upon reading the skill's description, her gaze turning towards Pride as she asked.

"Is this for real?"