Chapter 353 - Who Is the Craziest?

["Win all the ministers over to your side."]

Krang recalled the Queen's words. They had met in a secret location, not the audience chamber. 'What was her first question again?'

He thought back to that meeting as Encrid spoke to the wild horse with mismatched eyes. "Shall we go?"

Ah, that lunatic. Where did he intend to go? And why was the wild horse nodding as though it understood him?

At that sight, Krang remembered his conversation with the Queen word for word. ["Why should I yield the throne to you?"]

The Queen had asked, and he had answered. He did not know whether it had been a good answer. He had merely revealed his intentions. ["The throne should belong to someone who will swear to protect the kingdom."]

That had been the conclusion of his brief answer. ["There are others who will ask you the same question."]

The Queen had offered no judgment on his answer. She had simply spoken calmly.

Krang bowed his head in respect for her wishes. The conversation that followed had been more practical. ["The nobles have their factions, too. Can you distinguish them all?"]

["Even a mage who has mastered mind reading could not know that."] Predicting changes in the weather was exceedingly difficult. It required reading the flow of water and discerning changes in nature.

Yet even mages who could accomplish such feats could not know the human heart as it changed from moment to moment. ["I could predict how much rain will fall throughout the coming month. But I could not know the heart of the farmer before me, who will be tilling this land then."]

A mage's words, once a famous maxim across the continent. Whether anyone had actually spoken them was uncertain, but their meaning was clear. Someone who had sworn loyalty to him yesterday could waver tomorrow over a few gold coins. That was human nature.

Politicians in particular changed their minds between morning and noon, reversed themselves again by evening, and, as if that were not enough, changed yet again before dawn. 'Prediction is impossible.'

How could anyone detect every change of heart?

But it should be possible to steer them where he wanted: through blackmail, threats, promises of reward, and insight into their wants and desires. Even when mages could not, politicians and strategists whose strength lay in their wits could sometimes read another person's mind. It was a feat accomplished through insight rather than the mysteries of spells. 'Identify the factions. Win all the ministers over to my side.'

He understood the Queen's intent. Could he fill the ministerial offices, the audience chamber, with his own people? It would be difficult. Most people would call it absurd.

How many factions currently existed in Naurilia's royal palace? Even the Queen could not know. Some were agents of large trading companies. Some were nobles who had banded together and dreamed of founding a nation on their own lands. Others had sworn loyalty to another great noble. Amid them were those who remained steadfastly loyal to the royal house.

Not one of them was on Krang's side. It would be difficult beyond measure. But...

'The process will be arduous. Exceedingly so.'

It would. Still, there was a way. Krang had nodded at the Queen's words. ["As you command."]

["May the goddess of luck remain at your side."] Naurilia's Queen worshipped the God of the Scales, who governed the sun and moon: a god of impartiality and judgment, inclining to neither side.

Yet she had invoked the goddess of luck. That must mean she expected that much hardship to lie ahead of him. ["May fortune favor you in battle. May the impartiality of the Scales be with you."]

Krang had ended the conversation by invoking the god his elder sister worshipped. The Queen had never given birth. She could therefore have no child.

Krang was the previous king's son.

Why had the late king concealed a child fathered in his old age? At the very least, it could not have been in preparation to pass on the throne. But matters had grown increasingly tangled, and the royal palace had become a chaotic marketplace. No, an arena was closer.

Some puffed themselves up to intimidate others; some hid daggers behind their backs.

He was the one who had chosen to step into it. 'Win the ministers over to your side.'

Those words had returned to him again and again since his meeting with the Queen. To accomplish that, he considered dozens of problems and made dozens of decisions every day.

There was a way. The process would simply be grueling. As a result, he constantly suffered headaches that felt as though his skull were splitting.

Laughing his head off at Encrid had eased the pain somewhat, but a dull ache still throbbed in his skull. If anything, it was familiar. That was the path he walked. Calling it a path of thorns would have been generous.

He knew that all too well, but had no intention of turning back or giving up. Hadn't the man before him shown him how? ["What do you want to be?"]

["A knight."]

He had asked and received his answer. It was not laughable. It sounded far better than some fellow who had spent his days idling away and reciting poetry in a remote frontier manor setting his sights on the throne.

Above all, he could feel the sincerity in those words. The Queen's words and Encrid's rose and mingled in Krang's mind.

His thoughts should have been tangled, yet they were calm. His headache should have worsened, yet it did not.

For fifteen days, surrounded by assassination threats, he had felt an unprecedented peace. That was entirely thanks to these people's abilities. Was that why? Because he had room to breathe? "I'm getting on."

Conversing with the horse, Encrid mounted the wild horse. He leaped onto its back without the animal bothering to lower itself. Encrid kicked off the ground. His body rose sideways, his upper body leaning forward while his legs extended behind him.

It was an odd way to jump. He seemed to pause directly above the wild horse before settling onto its back. He had launched himself with precisely the right amount of force, maintained perfect control, and halted at the apex before mounting.

An astonishing feat.

And so the wild horse with mismatched eyes took the weight of a man and all his equipment. There was a thud, but the wild horse did not budge. It stood as solidly as a statue beneath him.

Both the horse's steadiness and its rider's movements were remarkable. 'Without even gripping its mane?'

He had mounted a bareback horse with what was practically a standing jump. "What are you doing?"

The fellow called Rem asked from behind. Ragna merely watched in silence, Dunbachel looked curious, and Jaxon observed with an odd look in his eyes. "I'll be back."

Without even looking back, Encrid vanished.

THOOM! Krang's jaw dropped. What the hell was that? What kind of damned horse tore up the ground as it ran? The wild horse kicked off and raced away at a speed no ordinary horse could approach. Explosive booms rose from the ground, and in an instant it became a streak.

Encrid was already crouched low, as though he and the horse were one. At that sight, Krang felt as though half his troubles had been resolved. Quite apart from his astonishment, something inside him opened up. He had known the answer, yet agonized over whether a better one existed. He had racked his brains. At some point, the headaches had begun. "Ha."

Krang let out a disbelieving laugh.

Encrid did not agonize over anything. He acted less like a man setting off to catch that distant bastard of an archer than someone going for a run because the horse had asked him to. "That man is insane," Krang said.

"You only just figured that out?"

The gray-haired barbarian beside him agreed. "Isn't he your captain?"

"He is. But crazy's crazy. Watch yourself. All those lot are a little wrong in the head."

Rem circled his right index finger beside his ear, putting every member of the company on Encrid's level in one stroke. Ragna turned at that. He had been watching the direction Encrid had taken, but he could not let Rem's words pass unchallenged. "His hobby is burying axes in people's heads. He makes no distinction between friend and foe, so take care."

"Don't let him fool you. That one has a demon of sloth inside him."

"You're one to talk." Jaxon chimed in, and Rem went on.

"That one's got dozens of Sneaky alley cats inside him, so watch him even more closely. I'd advise keeping your distance whenever possible. Don't forget, that bastard might try something on you, too." "Wow. Coming from you?"

Dunbachel clicked her tongue in disbelief.

"That one's a poor Beastman with a head injury. Happened when she was little, so be understanding," Rem added.

"Who has a head injury?" Ah, these bastards were all insane.

Krang was too well-mannered to say what he was thinking aloud. "Isn't this a bad time to fight?"

A few words were enough to divert their attention.

Without his noticing, his voice had regained the liveliness it had held when he first met Encrid. Before, he had spoken to lend his words gravity. This was how Krang truly spoke. "Anyway, watch yourself."

Rem glanced at Krang and insisted on getting one last word in. Krang turned his head. He saw the trail left by the wild horse carrying Encrid.

A headlong gallop that said to hell with worrying.

The fog clouding his mind seemed to clear. 'Act instead of wasting time worrying.'

Dozens of unresolved problems that had dogged him even on the journey to the palace now vanished. His headache went with them. He felt refreshed, as though he had woken from a good sleep to greet clear sunlight. And wasn't the sun shining brightly all around him? "Look at him go," Krang said in admiration.

Horse and rider, moving as one, were now a mere speck. "Right? They call it a wild horse, but it sure runs fine with someone on its back, doesn't it?"

Krang wondered why this fellow Rem kept staying at his side. Frankly, he wished the man would move away.

To his eyes, this one seemed the craziest of all.

* * *

Encrid did not truly understand what Odd-Eyes was saying. Communicating with an animal like this would require a druid.

Esther knew that. The panther's half-lidded eyes swept over Encrid's back. She knew that what he was doing had nothing to do with mystic arts or spells.

He was interpreting the wild horse Odd-Eyes through its cues. That was possible in part because Odd-Eyes possessed intelligence far beyond that of an ordinary animal. It clearly expressed what it wanted and what it intended to do. NEIGH.

Through cries, gestures, and actions. Encrid understood and climbed onto its back, just after signaling Rem to protect Krang.

Left to themselves, those fellows might merely watch, whether Krang got himself killed or not. As he settled his weight onto Odd-Eyes with a thud, he felt a blazing power unlike anything he had felt from an ordinary mount.

An intangible vitality emanated from its mane, its fine hair, and every part of its muscles. 'Will?'

At the very least, it was something similar. It resembled what he had felt through the Will of refusal, his momentary acceleration, and the Crushing Sword. "What are you?"

No sooner had he whispered from the horse's back than his eye level dipped slightly. 'I'm going to run.'

This time, there was neither gesture nor cry, yet its determination came through directly.

Encrid immediately lowered himself, and Odd-Eyes ran. BOOM!

Had he ever seen a horse run with the ground exploding beneath it?

'I'm riding one right now.' It was impossibly fast. Everything around him streaked past as lines.

It felt as though he had activated his Will and kept running in a prolonged burst of acceleration. Adjusting was not difficult. "Holy shit!"

They had already caught up behind one of the archers when the man shouted.

His mount was a fine steed, but how could it compare with a creature that had partially transformed into a demonic beast? Odd-Eyes caught up to the horse in an instant and adjusted its speed. Bending and extending its knees, it slowed the rate at which its hooves struck the ground, drew alongside the horse it had chased, and rammed it with its body.

THUD! From the archer's perspective, he had barely shouted before he was tipping sideways. The charge was that swift and unhesitating. Despite the collision, Encrid felt almost no impact atop Odd-Eyes. The horse had absorbed and dispersed nearly all the shock through its own body. 'You crazy horse, Odd-Eyes.'

With that thought, Encrid threw a cheap dagger. It whistled through the air and lodged in the archer's neck. "Let's keep going."

At his words, Odd-Eyes replied as it ran.

NEIGH!

It sounded like agreement. He had no idea why it had suddenly decided to carry him. Had the sight of those fleeing men, practically daring it to catch them, fired its competitive spirit? Encrid's guess was right. Odd-Eyes, who deeply disliked its own name, did not like the sight of those retreating backs, fleeing so leisurely.

They seemed to say, "You can't catch us." It was a trivial reason, but for a beast that had made running its reason for living, it mattered. "Let's go."

Encrid caught four more archers. After that, there were no more attempts of that kind. Even on their return to the others, Odd-Eyes ran twice as fast as other horses, then stopped as gently as a falling feather.

It was a born runner. "Good work. So that horse does let people ride it?"

Krang asked as soon as he rejoined the group. Encrid felt that Krang's manner of speaking had changed a little. He looked more at ease somehow.

Until now, he had behaved as though he had chewed up and swallowed a stone, though they had still traded jokes and he had done his part well. 'This does look better on him.'

It was a fleeting impression. After he dismounted and they set off again, Krang spoke.

"What will you do once you become a knight?"

"I thought I'd try ending the war." Krang's pupils contracted.

"As a mere knight?"

Could anyone call a knight mere? Only someone with such grand aspirations could say that. "Why? Shouldn't I?"

"No, that's not it."

Why was he shaking his head at something he had said himself? Krang could not help it. They shared the same dream.

Yet to bring an end to it, he would have to set fiercer, larger events in motion. It felt contradictory somehow.

Well, that was how it was. He no longer agonized over it. Ridiculous as it was, watching that bastard Encrid race away on a wild horse had made some of his worries seem utterly unnecessary. "Let's cross swords sometime."

"Anytime." As though assassination threats no longer mattered, Krang talked with Encrid and everyone else.

He soon became fairly friendly with them all. More precisely, rather than becoming friends, he managed to get a few words out of everyone. "I hear you get lost a lot."

"I do not. I simply value going the right way over getting there quickly."

He talked with Ragna. "You really are a bit creepy."

"If the barbarian threatened you into saying that, you can wave your carrot."

He also spoke with Jaxon while they happened to be eating boiled carrots for dinner. "I hear your hobby is burying axes in your superiors' heads."

"Who said that? It's not a hobby. It's a specialty."

He laughed and bantered with Rem, too. "I think you're a little crazy."

"Know who's really the craziest? The Captain."

Rem even shared a secret. "Are you sure you're a Beastman? Not a weretiger?"

"My beast form is a white lion. Don't you think saying that to my face might make me want to bite you?"

"Enkie would be angry."

"... You're a sly one. Have you always been like this?"

There was some teasing of Dunbachel as well. With all that conversation along the way, Naurilia's capital was soon before them. They had reached it after more than fifteen full days of steady riding. "Why won't you let me ride?"

Rem had kept trying to mount Odd-Eyes ever since, but there was no chance of that. The horse would not even carry Encrid again.

It seemed to be telling him to use another mount for ordinary travel. At any rate, they had reached the capital.

Walls stronger than those of any other city stretched far to either side. The heart of Naurilia, the home of the monarch's bedchamber, the city where the royal palace stood.

The capital, Nauril. Looking at the capital, Krang straightened his back and squared his shoulders.

Dawn was just breaking, and sunlight fell upon the walls. Their dull, dark gray gradually brightened in the light. When night came, the walls that had taken in that light would cast a soft glow over their surroundings. It was the power of a spell passed down from ancient times. Even the sight of them absorbing sunlight was magnificent. Watching it, Krang held himself straight and spoke.

"I've figured it out." "What?"

Encrid, who was admiring the walls beside him, asked.

Krang answered at once.

"You really are the craziest of them all." What the hell was he talking about? Had he spent too much time with Rem?

Encrid was concerned about Krang's state of mind.