<h4>Chapter 480 The duke’s visit (21)</h4>


    There were many insults andints that came at me once they recovered from their shock, but they fell onto deaf ears.


    I didn''t care at all about what they said and just gave a nod to the knights for them to do their jobs.


    The elves were brought out into a line and forced to lean forward.


    Behind each of the elves was a knight that held a sharp mithril sword.


    As they leaned forward, the elves kept cursing and begging for their lives, but not a single person was moved by their words.


    The knights just looked down at the elves in front of them before turning to look at me, as if they were waiting for some signal from me.


    I just gave a simple nod for them and then the swords that they had been holding up came down.


    Even in the moment of their death, the elves never believed that they would really die.


    After all, it really was too hard for them to believe that they would be killed like this.


    The looks of disbelief on their faces as their heads rolled to the ground really was something else.


    Once these elves had been executed, I said to the knights, "Just bury them somewhere. Even if they were enemies, we aren''t brutes."


    They nodded in agreement before picking up the corpses of the elves to take into the forest nearby.


    But before they could leave, Moon came forward to stop them.


    They all looked at her with confused looks as she said, "Let me take a look at them first. I want to see if there''s anything that we can use as evidence."


    The knights looked at me and I just gave a nod in agreement.


    Though I didn''t feel like she would be able to find anything, it definitely didn''t hurt to let her try.


    So Moon went over to the side with the knights holding the corpses.


    It was also at this time that the remaining knights came up from the valley and joined us.


    While we had been fighting the elves, these knights had been down there cleaning up the rest of the goblins.


    Once the goblins had lost the Goblin General, they had been a mess and it had been easy for the knights to clean them up. Still, there had been quite a few goblins, so it took them a while to clean them all up.


    It seemed like they really had a hard time cleaning up those goblins judging by the state of their weapons and armour, as well as the amount of blood that they were covered in.


    All of us avoided them since they really stunk with the blood on them.


    So all they could do was reveal bitter smiles.


    Still, they cheered up when I promised to give them a special reward when we went back.


    The only thing was…I had no idea what to give them as a special reward.


    It was worth noting that we didn''t suffer a single casualty this fight.


    Because of Cecilia''s n and everyone''s increased strength, we had been able to fight the goblins without problem.


    If this was before, we definitely would have struggled with the goblins.


    But this was a testament of everyone''s training and hard work during this time.


    I really couldn''t help feeling grateful for everyone working this hard while I had been away.


    Thest thing to take care of was…the duke''s family.


    They had been watching from the side with some knights guarding them.


    They had been patiently waiting, but in the end…they were guests and I had to apologize for everything that happened.


    So as soon as I came over, I prepared to bow my head.


    However, before I could, the duke came forward to stop me. He took me by the arms and lifted my upper half back up as he said, "There''s no need for you to say anything. I know that you were nothing more than a victim in this matter."


    After a pause, he added with a bitter smile, "In fact, if it wasn''t for me, we might not have even gotten in this situation."


    Perhaps he was right since if we didn''te here, we wouldn''t have met the elves from the capital.


    If we didn''t meet them, then they wouldn''t havee up with the n to use me as a scapegoat and we wouldn''t have had to fight all of these elves and goblins.


    However, I knew that it ran much deeper than this.


    In the end, it was the consequences of my own action since I was the one that had decided to kill Apollo back then.


    It was only because he had been killed that these elves hade from the capital to investigate this matter.


    So it could even be said that I was the root cause of all of this.


    But I would never admit that even if I was beaten to death.


    Still, I had to say something since I couldn''t let the duke take the me.


    I shook my head and said, "No, even if you didn''t want toe, this still would have happened. It just came faster because we were unlucky enough to bump into this group."


    The duke looked at me with aplicated look.


    But in the end, he just gave a sigh and patted me on the shoulder.


    There was nothing that I could say in response to this even though I knew what he was implying.


    I just gave a nod and said, "I hope that this doesn''t ruin your visit."


    The duke revealed a faint smile and said, "It certainly has been an interesting and exciting trip, but it can''t be considered ruined."


    The two of us were about to keep chatting, but before we could…


    "Come over here, there''s something you need to see."


    Moon suddenly called out to me from where the knights were burying the corpses.


    I looked over with a surprised and confused look, but I still walked over in the end.