“Klad? What’s wrong?”
“Follow me.”
Loitering around here would only let unpleasant words flow into Jake’s ears.
Klad dragged Jake, who was looking around in confusion, back to the inn.
“What on earth is going on?”
“Someone is spreading rumors.”
“Rumors?”
Most of those spreading rumors were outsiders. Among them, usually travelers or mercenaries.
Outsiders who looked like they hadn’t even unpacked their luggage were deliberately seeking out the crowded plaza to add their words to another city’s affairs.
As if they’d been commissioned by someone.
It wouldn’t be strange even if they’d come all the way here for the purpose of spreading rumors.
‘I didn’t expect this.’
He’d been so focused on thinking about the disastrous situation of the breakwater village that he’d forgotten the fact that this city right next to it had been consistently peaceful.
There would have been those who were happy to hear the Hero was visiting, but that news would have brought anxiety along with it.
The anxiety they’d forgotten while living their fierce lives. The reality that the Demon King had appeared in the world.
‘At the point where the Hero appeared before their eyes, the war between the Demon King and the Hero would no longer be someone else’s affair but their own.’
When the Hero was right in front of them, was there a law saying the Demon King wouldn’t appear? People came to harbor hope that the Hero would help them, while simultaneously harboring anxiety that the Demon King might invade.
Up to here was within the expected range.
What he really hadn’t expected was the Duke’s reaction to this.
Jake had claimed that the Duke would forcibly carry out demon race subjugation in place of the Hero to steal his achievements.
But the Duke seemed to have made an entirely different choice.
Rather, the choice to use this to bring an even greater disaster and drive the Hero into ruin.
‘Has he gone mad?’
To devise a plan that even the demon race wouldn’t do. This Duke West was a madman who could be counted among the fingers even among the insane Wests.
“The Duke plans to unleash the demon race in this city.”
“To commit such a horrific act! That’s absurd.”
Seeing Jake’s idealistic reaction made Klad feel somewhat better.
“Why on earth would Father commit such an act?”
“The Duke has no intention of revealing the village’s existence to the world and protecting it. On the contrary, he plans to hide it even more.”
According to Jake’s plan, the Duke should have taken the initiative in demon race subjugation to prevent the Hero’s reputation from improving. Jake’s speculation was that he would eliminate as many demons as possible so the Hero couldn’t achieve anything.
However, instead of doing that, the Duke planned to unleash the demon race in the city, bring chaos, and then blame it all on the Hero.
Even if the village’s existence was accidentally revealed in the process, all he had to do was insist that it wasn’t originally there as a breakwater to block the capital, but rather ‘a victim that suffered damage when the demon race flocked because the Hero caused a disturbance.’
The Duke would appear and announce only after the city was devastated. That he would not forgive the Hero who ‘deliberately’ caused this. He intended to curry favor with the impression that he would protect the Empire’s citizens by punishing him severely even though he was his son, without forgiveness.
As a bonus, instilling fear that where the Hero appears, the demon race also appears.
It was truly an amazing and horrific idea.
“Aah…”
Jake staggered as if his legs had lost strength and collapsed onto the sofa. Thinking that his clumsy plan had driven many people to hell made his vision go dark.
His heart tightened and he felt suffocated as if his breath was blocked.
“This is my oversight. I should have considered that such a possibility existed…”
“Don’t blame yourself. It’s natural not to think of such thoughts.”
He simply hadn’t thought that others would do the same because he’d never imagined achieving his goal by driving others to death. It wasn’t Jake’s fault.
Klad straightened up Jake, who was crumpled as if stuck to the single-person sofa.
“Think about what to do from now on instead of spending time on that.”
“But… if my plan makes someone else unhappy again…”
“So are you planning to just leave them as they are?”
“I can’t do that. I can’t let the territory residents be attacked by the demon race.”
Jake interpreted Klad’s words about needing to take revenge on the Duke and Baron who planned this as meaning they should protect the territory residents from the demon race.
If they just sat here like this, the demon race would come flooding in and drive all the city’s people into terror.
They had to stop it.
They had to make all these rumors as if they never happened from the start.
“It could be that you misunderstood, so I need to determine the facts.”
Jake forced himself to pull himself together and stood up.
“Let’s go to the lord’s castle, Klad.”
“You’re going to find the Baron?”
“The Baron manages the demon race. Father’s plan can only be completed with the Baron’s help. If what you say is true, whether we stop the Baron or obstruct him, we must foil this plan.”
“Good.”
“This could also be Father’s trap. If that’s the case…”
“You want me to escape alone and find the ducal house’s descendants?”
“Save me. If you fail, then you can go find the descendants alone.”
“I won’t fail, so don’t worry.”
Klad layered all kinds of protective magic over Jake, who was walking ahead. Even if hellfire fell on his head, it would only result in his hair getting slightly singed.
Jake headed toward the lord’s castle cautiously, unaware of how safe a state he was in.
Unlike the bustling plaza, the lord’s castle was quiet.
Eerily so.
“To Baron Nolson, Her—”
“What are you doing?”
When Jake tried to speak to the knights guarding the lord’s castle, Klad grabbed his nape and pulled him back.
Because of that, Jake, who nearly bit his tongue, blamed Klad with a face full of complaints.
“Klad. The fact that I haven’t punished your rudeness all this time doesn’t mean you can treat me carelessly.”
“Did going to the lord’s castle mean knocking on the door and greeting them as you enter? If you’re going to do that, why not buy some cookies and hold a tea party?”
“If we don’t knock on the door, how do we enter the castle?”
“Haah.”
Jake’s problem was that while he seemed smart, he was simple in useless areas.
Since it was obvious how he would act, the Duke probably didn’t even think to dig a trap. When all he had to do was tell the knights guarding the door to detain Jake if he came, why bother with a trap?
“We need to sneak in. Whether we climb over the wall or dig a hole and crawl through. There must be better options than greeting them as we enter enemy territory.”
“I cannot climb over walls. Digging through the ground is worth trying, but… usually castles where lords stay have alarm magic prepared for intruders, so we’d be caught the moment we dig.”
“I’m here. I can solve that much.”
Jake hadn’t tried to enter while greeting a place teeming with enemies because he was stupid.
He’d simply grown accustomed to his options narrowing and his actions becoming simple since there usually wasn’t much he could do besides walking and running.
But with Klad, he could do many things.
He’d already accomplished things beyond what he could do several times, and would continue to do so in the future.
Thinking that way, the options that usually stopped at one or two increased tremendously.
“…Fine. Then what should I do? Should I dig the ground?”
Instead of explaining that digging the ground was just an example, Klad wrapped his arms around Jake’s waist.
And before Jake could even make a sound, he leaped high.
“Whoaaa!”
“Be quiet.”
Thud.
Klad crossed over the wall in one bound and landed as softly as a feather.
Jake looked around without even realizing he’d wrapped his arms around Klad’s neck.
“To think… it would be this easy to enter…”
Klad carried the dazed Jake on his back and entered the castle.
‘Why is no one here?’
Though it was a castle with fewer servants than most lord’s castles, right now it was so quiet that aside from the two soldiers guarding the door, it felt like no one was there.
Feeling something was strange, he found the lord’s room, which was completely empty. No clothes or jewelry remained either.
“He ran away.”
“Taking everyone who was here with him?”
“He would have taken the soldiers and knights. As for the rest, he only took the necessary people and gave the others vacation. To let them tremble in anxiety that the demon race is invading.”
“…I need to go to the office.”
He might have taken the jewelry, but in that short time he couldn’t have taken all the documents and papers. If they searched through those, they might be able to figure out the Duke’s plan.
Jake followed Klad, who led the way, running through the empty corridor to find the office. However, the lord’s office was also completely empty.
Ash powder that hadn’t been completely cleared away flew around, as if he’d taken the necessary documents and burned the rest.
“…There’s nothing. This is terrible.”
“No. There’s one thing the Baron missed.”
The office that looked like an empty room to Jake looked full of clues to Klad.
Right above the Baron’s desk, mana remained.
And enough mana to connect a communication crystal sphere all the way to the capital at that.
Shwoooooo—
Klad forcibly pulled up the remnants of mana remaining in the office. The mana that swirled as if swept by wind then gathered and rose like smoke, forming the shape of a person.
It was the figure of the Baron holding a crystal sphere and conversing with the Duke.
