The answer he wanted. No, it was more than that.
Since the Hero came out like this, Klad’s mindset of just roughly following along with however the situation flowed also changed a little.
“Alright. I’ll help you.”
“Klad.”
Jake’s two eyes, shining in the faint sunlight, turned toward Klad.
Was he moved?
He’d never even dreamed of creating such a heartwarming atmosphere with someone bearing the West surname, but it wasn’t bad.
If Jake, moved to tears, expressed his gratitude in a tearful voice, he was even willing to accept that greeting as it was.
Klad inwardly anticipated Jake’s response.
“You’re my party member, so it’s natural for you to help me.”
Ha. What anticipation.
“Talking like it’s natural. I’m going to count it all as debt.”
“That’s a bit troublesome.”
“If it’s troublesome, don’t receive help.”
“Then who will clean my hands every morning?”
“So your hands, ha……”
He had no idea why they were having this conversation.
Klad shook his head and walked ahead.
Whether he knew Klad’s feelings or not, Jake slowly followed behind with restored steps toward where the city was.
The place they arrived at after walking for over 10 minutes at the original pace was a small city, larger than a village but smaller than a typical city.
The difference between a village and a city is usually determined by population, the number of knights and soldiers, and the presence or absence of walls. With just a glance at the population that barely seemed to satisfy the criteria for a city and the formalistic walls, he could immediately grasp how small this city was.
‘Is this also something the Duke set up?’
To plant his own people as lords, he would have needed a city, even if just a facade. What were the odds that a pathetic city of a scale recognized as a city but only meeting minimum conditions so as not to attract the attention of merchants or mercenaries would happen to be in the location the Duke wanted?
Clearly close to zero.
This city wasn’t fortunately positioned where the Duke wanted.
This place was also created by the Duke.
“Hey, Hero. Are you certain you saw this city on a map?”
“Of course.”
“You’re not talking about a map you saw in the Duke’s office, right?”
“I confirmed it on a map I purchased from a general store as well.”
Maps can only be produced after receiving the Emperor’s approval to prevent fake ones from circulating and causing confusion. Since obtaining that approval is complicated and they’re mass-produced at once to reduce magic ink consumption, maps are only published once every dozen years or so.
The consumers who purchase maps are limited to some merchants and travelers, and since geographical changes are rare, there are cases where new maps aren’t made even after decades pass.
And Klad had just recently heard news that new maps were being published in the capital for the first time in 20 years.
That meant the map Jake saw was created at least twenty years ago.
Twenty years ago was long before the Demon King appeared. The timing didn’t match for establishing a city to hide a village.
‘Does he have another scheme for establishing the city?’
Tax evasion? Rebellion? Expansion of influence?
Perhaps he could find the House of Duke West’s weakness here.
“If it’s a lord ruling such a small place, he probably isn’t very powerful.”
“If he were powerful, he wouldn’t have been dragged around doing as Duke West says.”
“Then are we going to find the lord now?”
“What would we do finding the lord? Are you planning to advertise ‘I’m here’ to the Duke?”
“That was my plan.”
Klad turned around with a scrunched face to look at Jake.
“Are you sick somewhere by any chance? Like your head?”
“I’m not sick anywhere. Your magic has no aftereffects and is amazing. Thank you for worrying.”
Klad pressed his forehead.
If he continued this conversation, it was clear the one who would get a headache wouldn’t be Jake but Klad himself.
“Knowing that if you find the lord your position will immediately be revealed to the Duke, you’d still crawl into the lord’s castle?”
“It seems you didn’t understand what I meant by saying I want to defeat demons in the Hero’s name.”
“Then you really plan to reveal your identity to the Duke?”
Jake nodded greatly.
No matter how great a mage Klad was, he wouldn’t be able to uproot all demons with his abilities alone. Considering Klad’s abilities were closer to support than combat, engaging in battle was especially dangerous.
Moreover, going to where demons gathered and sweeping them out wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem. If new demons appeared later, everything would repeat itself anyway.
But they couldn’t stay here forever dealing with demons. It wasn’t like demons only appeared here.
So Jake decided to reveal himself.
“I plan to spread the fact that the Hero is here. If this place’s lord is Father’s person, just visiting the lord’s castle will immediately send word.”
“Are you planning to lure the Duke?”
“Similar but a little different. From the point Father pushed all of the ducal house’s crimes onto me and imprisoned me, the House of Duke West and Hero Jake West essentially became enemies. Father isn’t someone who would watch an enemy’s reputation improve.”
Only then did Klad catch on to Jake’s plan.
Jake’s statement that he would ‘defeat demons in the Hero’s name’ didn’t simply mean he would exterminate demons. It meant he would announce to the entire world that the Hero had begun activities.
The reason Duke West hadn’t shown any particular movement until now was because Hero Jake West hadn’t done anything to interfere with his course of action.
But if the Hero took action in earnest?
Even people who believed the rumors Duke West spread as they were because the Hero stayed still would become confused about which side was right.
Since a Hero is ‘a person chosen by God,’ there might be more people who would side with him.
The more Jake made a big deal of things, the more eyes would be watching, making it difficult to silence him by killing the Hero.
Then what choice would the Duke make here?
“He’ll try to reduce opportunities for the Hero to be active.”
“Yes. But he won’t openly interfere with me.”
“Right. It would be a big problem if he got caught interfering and rumors spread that ‘Duke West doesn’t want demons to disappear.'”
“Above all, there’s a better method than interfering with me, isn’t there?”
“……He’ll eliminate the demons first.”
“Exactly. Father will immediately send a knight order to eliminate the demons.”
If Jake had been moving alone, the Duke would have just scoffed at the Hero’s declaration, but he had a collaborator.
And a collaborator skilled enough to tear open an underground prison protected by a powerful dragon and rescue the Hero.
“If things get that big, Father won’t be able to prevent that village’s existence from being revealed. Then Father will push the crime of neglecting the village onto this place’s lord. And he’ll publicly announce that he ‘coincidentally’ discovered the village while eliminating demons, taking on the Hero’s role who fled without fulfilling his responsibility.”
“Once the village is revealed to the world, he can no longer use that place as bait or a breakwater.”
“As a bonus, he’ll act like he’s supporting the village in place of this place’s lord. Father knows how to turn crises into opportunities. All of this will help the village in many ways.”
He couldn’t help but acknowledge it.
If everything proceeded according to plan, they could gift the small city and village residents peace and safety beyond just eliminating demons.
This plan was perfect.
Except that it was fatal to the very person who made the plan, the Hero Jake West himself.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s not.”
“The Duke will drag your reputation to rock bottom to give himself justification for demon hunting in place of the Hero.”
“I anticipated that.”
“He’ll spread rumors that ‘Hero Jake West escaped prison harboring dangerous ideas and tried to wield force using his position as Hero.’ It would be less embarrassing if the prisoner was competent enough to escape rather than the ducal house being incompetent and letting a prisoner go.”
Having gained justification, Duke West would put a bounty on the Hero’s head. He could imprint the impression that the Hero is a criminal on the people, and it would be easier to gather information on ‘a Hero with a bounty’ than ‘a fleeing Hero.’
It meant from now on, he’d have to deal with not just the Duke’s knights but bounty hunters and mercenaries too.
Even ordinary citizens who treated him favorably could turn into enemies the moment they learned there was an enormous bounty on the other’s head.
Even though he knew this fact better than anyone, Jake didn’t change his mind.
“Since I failed to fulfill my responsibility and am essentially passing that work onto others, I should bear that much risk.”
“…….”
Klad, who had been watching the shining blue eyes, nodded.
“Let’s proceed with that plan.”
“Since we’re putting out the Hero name anyway, it would be good if we could find the remaining party members here.”
“Well, fine. What are the criteria for party recruitment?”
“The conditions I want for party members are always the same. When we successfully defeat the Demon King, they must be those who won’t think of sharing the credit and will be satisfied with appropriate money.”
“Of course.”
Klad cut off the conversation before Jake’s way of speaking, which crossed between favorable and unfavorable, plummeted to the worst.
“Now then, shall we go cause a commotion?”
