Chapter 102 - It Was the Snowfields

The Mercenaries' Guild.

Just as every hero joined the Heroes' Guild, every mercenary joined the Mercenaries' Guild. Unlike the Heroes' Guild, membership was not mandatory, but its long-established reputation, reliability, and organization made it so in practice. People trusted those with mercenary badges more than those without.

'They must be alive.'

The Mercenaries' Guild had a presence wherever people gathered, and this place, on the front line bordering the snowfields, was no exception. Granada made time to visit it.

Red Hawk had become a raiding party, but at heart, it was still a mercenary company. If its members were alive, they would surely be resting at the familiar Mercenaries' Guild.

'Surely they haven't all died?'

They had always been good at surviving on their own. Of course, that came with the problem of valuing their lives over their missions, but this was no time to quibble over that. They had been together for over a year now, and through good times and bad, he had grown attached to them.

'You never know.'

Anxiety coiled within him. Excellent as their survival instincts were, even he could not guarantee survival after what had happened in the snowfields. Demons, demonic creatures, and monsters had swarmed everywhere. The harsh natural environment was another problem.

However merciful the Demon King of Bitter Cold had been, people had still died. There was no guarantee that they had survived.

CREEEAK

"Drink more! More!"

"What's wrong, Deputy Leader? Did all that snow you ate out there leave no room for booze?"

"Maybe it's because he slept under a demonic creature's hide, complaining he was freezing to death. He was the only one who thought that disgusting hunk of meat tasted good, too!"

"Shut up, you bastards! If I can't empty this whole oak barrel, I'll give up being deputy leader and go back to being the rookie!"

"Oh, now that's a good offer!"

"I'll see your rookie and raise you a servant! Count me in!"

And the moment he opened the branch's door and stepped inside, his worries vanished.

With the snowfield monsters providing an endless supply of work, the guild branch in this northern city was bound to be large. Naturally, a large building drew many mercenaries. Even amid that bustling crowd, the voice of the former Red Hawk Mercenary Company's captain stood out.

Granada walked between the tables, through the heavy reek of alcohol, booming laughter, and a medley of food smells and sweat. He reached the loudest, noisiest group of all.

Ignoring their startled stares, he pointed at them one by one.

"One, two, three... thirty-two."

"C-Captain."

"So you're all alive?"

Every last one of them.

Granada smiled. The men offered awkward smiles in return.

"Haha... After we held out for a few days, the pursuit got strangely lax..."

"I know. Well done."

"R-Right?"

"Yes. Staying alive was good, but..."

CRACK

Granada ripped an armrest off a nearby chair to make a club.

"Carousing like this without even letting me know you're alive? No matter how you look at it, that wasn't good, was it?"

"C-Captain!"

"L-Let's talk this out. Talk!"

"Communication! Humans are human because they can communicate!"

"I'm an elf, you little shits!"

A beating followed. The Red Hawk members fled in every direction, while the surrounding mercenaries, furious over their overturned drinks, began fighting one another.

It was a complete shitshow.

* * *

"So you want money because you have to pay for the damages?"

Had he lost his mind?

"... Well, these idiots wrecked the whole tavern."

"What? That was the cap—mmph!"

Berge gave a disbelieving laugh. Granada desperately avoided his gaze.

"Already causing trouble. Elves are usually well-behaved. Are you not an elf?"

"..."

"Forget it. Just come with me."

"Has something happened?"

"Hillen Cargill is awake."

One of Margrave Chernian's knights had brought the news. The knight had arranged for Berge and Granada to visit Hillen.

When they entered the private sickroom, they found him sitting blankly on the bed.

"... Where am I?"

"Cherville, the northern fortress. In its lord's castle."

"... I survived."

Hillen's last memory was of the snowfields: Berge descending from the sky, mana cannons unleashing their firepower. Their renewed flight, and the sound of horns shaking the snowy plains.

"Thank you."

Hillen bowed his head.

"I'm alive thanks to you."

"At least you know it. Granada has already told me everything. Demons and demonic creatures came pouring out, did they?"

"Yes. I've never seen them open the tower doors and come out first."

"It wasn't the first time."

"Wasn't your case different, my lord?"

It had been on an entirely different scale from a few monsters launching a surprise attack in the night.

"When you tried to stop me before, did you foresee this?"

"I expected, at least, that you wouldn't succeed easily. I didn't know it would go this far."

"... Even after hunting down two Demon Kings, I'm still not strong enough."

"It's been nearly a hundred years since Reina descended upon Arain. However many heroes there are, Demon Kings are among the strongest even in the Demon Realm. They aren't beings you can afford to underestimate."

"I've learned that painfully well."

Hillen nodded.

When Berge appeared and rescued him, he had truly felt it in his bones: he could not yet leave the Demon King's protection.

Perhaps this had all been Berge's doing. But it was the Demon King of Bitter Cold's forces alone that had defeated them, and he realized how far he still was from being able to face Demon Kings who had held out for decades.

"I like that look on your face. How do you feel?"

"Not bad, aside from being a little sluggish."

"Naturally. You weren't seriously injured to begin with. Now that you're awake, the margrave will summon you soon. He might summon us along with you."

"The margrave..."

Hillen wanted a connection with the margrave just as much as the margrave wanted one with him. Though defending the north left him with little influence in central politics, he wielded great power in the north and commanded one of the Empire's foremost military forces.

"I won't interfere with whatever relationship you establish with him, or whatever you're scheming."

"Thank you."

"However, don't let his attention turn to me."

"Would it really be so bad for you to take a more public role, my lord?"

"Don't say things you don't mean."

Of course, it would not necessarily be bad. But Berge was a Demon King, after all. He was not as accomplished an actor or as familiar with human society as Hillen.

Meeting Cain of Akan had taught him that the longer he left a trail, the more certain he was to be caught.

As long as he had pieces like Hillen Cargill and Granada, there was no need to step into the spotlight himself. He decided to be content with maintaining a suitable relationship with Akan.

"Yes. I'll do as you say."

"Now that you're awake, I no longer need to stay here."

"Margrave Chernian won't take kindly to your leaving."

"Must I concern myself with the opinion of a mere human margrave?"

"It may not matter to you, my lord, but it matters to Hillen Cargill and me."

"Which is why..."

Berge turned his gaze to Hillen Cargill.

"I waited until this fellow woke up."

"What...?"

"Yes."

Hillen nodded.

"I'll take care of it."

"You may link me to Akan. I do have some ties to them, after all."

"Yes."

"Then I'll contact you again if something comes up."

"Yes."

RATTLE

Berge opened the window.

"Ah, would you please leave openly through the front gate? If you say you're going out for some air, they should let you pass. I'm still here, after all."

"Very well."

He left through the door.

* * *

"I thought you weren't coming."

At the boundary between the snowfields and the Empire, some twenty kilometers from the northern fortress of Cherville, Ernyan sniffled. She had walked here alone, then hidden herself beneath the snow again.

"Hillen took longer to wake up than expected."

"Thankfully, he did wake up, then."

"His wounds weren't that deep to begin with."

"Still, you never know."

"It seems you didn't run into any monsters."

"I kept well hidden on the way. You have no idea how nervous I was that a demon might appear."

"Good work."

"Is that all?"

"What else?"

"I spent an entire day beneath the snow, wandered the snowfields alone, and then spent several more days beneath the snow again, you know?"

"I said, good work."

"... Yes. Well."

"Let's return south. I'm curious what the Empire and the southern alliance have been up to."

"Ah. Right. I'd forgotten."

That was how exhausting their time in the north had been. Simply remaining in the snowfields, where the cold assailed her and she constantly had to watch for demons, drained considerable mental energy.

"We'll use a teleportation circle in another city, not Cherville. I'll have to make sure my hair and eyes are covered so I won't be recognized."

"Doesn't that not matter as you are now?"

"I slipped away without the margrave's knowledge."

"What? Won't that cause problems?"

"Handling such things is what Hillen and Granada are for."

"Hmm."

Just then—

BUZZZ

The communication orb inside Berge's clothes vibrated. It was his private orb for contacting Reina. He gestured for Ernyan to move far away.

『Berge Deias.』

"What is it?"

『Where are you now? You don't appear to be in your tower.』

"Erjest. I stepped outside for a while to take monsters as servants."

Demon Kings were not absolutely forbidden to leave their towers. They simply had to remain at the summit whenever heroes entered, and they could not let humans catch them wandering about without dignity.

Examined closely, it amounted to much the same thing as being unable to roam freely, but going out to take monsters as servants was nothing particularly unusual.

『I see.』

"What is it?"

『You will remember that I told you I intended to capture Hillen Cargill.』

"I remember. You said you'd spare the other humans and heroes, but kill Hillen Cargill as an example. Did you succeed?"

『I failed.』

"Failed? Surely you didn't make your preparations carelessly."

『I prepared as thoroughly as I could, but apparently it wasn't enough. I underestimated the humans' strength.』

"This is Arain. Complacency is dangerous."

『I shall take your advice to heart. But there is something else.』

She paused. That brief silence felt like hours to Berge.

'Has she noticed something?'

There was no particular reason she should have. Yet perhaps because he had a guilty conscience, he felt uneasy. Somehow, he could guess what she would say next.

『The high-ranking demon I sent to capture Hillen Cargill said something strange.』

『He said he saw you.』

Just as he had thought.

Berge answered as calmly as possible, scrunching his face into a puzzled expression.

"Me?"

『Let me correct that. More precisely, he said he saw a human who looked exactly like you.』

"A human who looks exactly like me... What an amusing thing to say."

Berge snorted.

"What did this human do?"

『He rescued Hillen Cargill when we had all but captured him. You could call him the one responsible for ruining my plan.』

"Kill that demon."

『What do you mean?』

"I have never left Erjest. He dared to slander another Demon King to cover up his own failure. I mean that even killing him on the spot would be too lenient."

As he growled, she gave a soft chuckle.

『He did not actually say that human was you.』

『Only that, aside from his hair, eyes, and energy, everything looked identical.』

"Do you know what people usually call that?"

『What?』

"Completely different."

『That sounds reasonable.』

"Why are you telling me this at all? Do you genuinely believe I did it?"

『No.』

"Had it been me, Hillen Cargill's head would have been rolling through the snow long ago. I have an old grudge against him myself."

『If I offended you, I apologize. I was simply frustrated and wanted to vent to you.』

『I was certain of success, so failing has left me in a foul mood.』

『But I cannot exactly pour my heart out to my subordinates, can I?』

"True enough. But remember this: I would never do anything to harm you. We agreed to cooperate, and I believe mutual trust must come before anything else."

『I'm sorry. You have my apology.』

"... I accept. What do you intend to do now?"

『I intend to begin considering that now.』

He could sense a faint anger in her words. Struggling to keep his expression under control, Berge continued.

"There's little I can say about your failure. You'll succeed next time."

『Yes.』

The connection ended. Berge let out the breath he had been holding in a rush.

"... That went over well, didn't it?"

Surely it had. Common sense dictated that no one would consider a Demon King and a human with no trace of demonic energy to be the same person merely because they looked alike. Besides, Reina's manner had suggested not suspicion, but simply that she had an amusing incident to share.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

Berge and Ernyan hurried on once more.

* * *

The Tower of Bitter Cold, in the northern snowfields.

For a long time, Reina could not tear her eyes away from the darkened communication orb. Sensing something amiss, Nina called to her.

"My lord?"

"... It was."

"... Pardon?"

"... It was... the snowfields."

A communication orb showed the surrounding environment as well, though only within a very narrow radius.

Behind Berge had been snow-covered ground. A broad plain. A landscape utterly familiar to Reina Sordein.

Though it had been closer to the Empire than to her own domain, it had unmistakably been the snowfields.

"It was the snowfields..."

Reina muttered like a woman possessed.