Chapter 84 - Marching Out

"... Cher's crying."

"So?"

"Hurts."

"It should hurt more. A pity I only hit him once."

The collapse of the annex had been settled as an accident caused by the princess's chimera failing to control its strength.

That did not mean Berge's anger had subsided. For a mere demon—and a dog modified by a human, at that—to offend a Demon King was a crime so grave that tearing it apart on the spot would hardly suffice.

Had this not been the lord's castle in Hortonwork, with Akan's princess right in front of him, the titan would have been a ti/t/an, rolling down a snowy mountain in pieces.

"What is that thing doing?"

"Reflecting."

"Unbelievable."

A giant crouching miserably and staring at a wall was a rare spectacle he had never seen even in his previous life. Had Ugar seen it, he would have called it a disgrace to their race and ripped its head off at once.

"Tell him that if he does it once more, I'll rip his tongue out."

"Likes you."

"He did it because he likes me?"

So what?

"And why do you keep coming to see me?"

"Like."

"Me?"

"Mana."

Lavinia fell silent after that. Her darting eyes made it easy to guess what she was thinking. She probably wanted to ask for mana, but their existing agreement kept her from asking right now.

Even so, she sidled a step closer. He swatted her away and pushed her back.

"Why?"

"If you circulate mana beside me, I won't let it slide."

"Know. Just..."

"There's no 'just' about it."

His patience was increasingly reaching its limit. Irritably, he downed the rest of his tea in one gulp, then dragged his chair back and stood.

"Where?"

"What business is it of yours?"

"Chimera."

If she made one...

"Give?"

"I will. I promised."

"Okay."

Lavinia smiled brightly and disappeared along with the titan still sulking at the wall.

"What a nuisance."

If she weren't a princess, he would simply have ignored her.

'Anyway, what exactly are these people up to?'

He had already been here for four days. Lavinia had visited every day, but Cain and the rest of Akan's leadership had not sought him out. Their behavior was quite a departure from their initial hospitality.

"Have they caught on?"

Well, anyone who readily believed he was royalty just because he threw his weight around would be a sucker, not a royal.

'This was my mistake.'

He had come down so readily without anticipating even such a simple situation. They were probably smiling to his face while investigating his background behind his back. But he wasn't concerned.

'If things go wrong, I can just run.'

It would be nice if his identity as Pale became more successful in the human world, but there was no need to stake everything on it. Granada and Hillen Cargill were his representatives, after all.

They were implicated, but he could simply tell them to feign ignorance of him. They could say they had met him by chance, but never knew he was going around impersonating royalty.

'They might be a little suspicious...'

Well, what could they do?

Hillen Cargill was now a great hero who had killed two Demon Kings, and an Argan of the Guild. Something this trivial wouldn't put a dent in his standing. He had grown that much.

Another week passed.

"Now, shall we draw up a proper contract?"

Despite having clearly completed his investigation, Cain held out a contract as though nothing were amiss.

* * *

The long wait, which had consumed another week, was over.

During that time, Berge had roamed the annex and castle as a guest, trying to find out what the Akan bastards were preparing.

'For now, chimeras and artifacts, I suppose.'

Chimeras called demon hounds to track demonic energy, and artifacts to counter the monsters that would swarm them at night. Perhaps this was only to be expected of a kingdom of magic: the enormous shipments arriving practically every day consisted entirely of magical artifacts.

'They aren't really going to make it all the way to the tower, are they?'

With preparations like these, day or night no longer mattered. The monsters would be lucky not to get wiped out the moment they charged.

'What if I do nothing at all?'

No, that would be a bad move. It might have worked if he hadn't assigned Granada to them, but now that Granada was their guide, he had no choice but to make a reasonable show of guiding them to avoid suspicion. In the process, the distance they needed to wander would shrink dramatically.

'If I'd known this would happen, perhaps I shouldn't have sent Granada.'

Of course, that didn't guarantee they would find the tower. If it did, Erjest would never have remained a forbidden region. Besides, that damned place contained monsters even Berge in his current state couldn't handle.

The problem was that their chances would increase considerably, and Berge wanted no part of that possibility.

It was around then that Cain sent a servant to invite him to lunch.

"Welcome, Lord Pale."

He had expected the other leaders to be in the dining room, but only Kyle was there. A maid brought out the food: tenderloin steak.

"Please, help yourself."

"I will."

Berge sliced the steak with his knife. Beneath the crisp exterior, the flesh was bright pink. Medium-rare. The meat was high quality, tender and pleasantly juicy.

"Is it to your taste?"

"The pepper is strong."

"Oh, do you dislike pepper?"

"I meant that I like it."

"I'm glad."

Cain smiled. After that, conversation ceased. For a long while, the only sound in the dining room was the two of them eating their steaks.

CLACK

Cain set down his knife and fork. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and savored a sip of red wine.

"I've received word from home."

"Word?"

"Didn't we agree to a trade?"

"I've been waiting. It's taken quite a while."

"This isn't a trivial matter. There were things we needed to review."

Cain pressed the bell in front of him. A servant waiting outside came in and handed Berge some documents.

"Please read them."

The terms hadn't changed much from their verbal discussion. Berge would supply Akan with mana, and Akan would compensate him with money and artifacts. The documents specified exact figures.

"Two hundred gold and one Grade Two artifact per storage orb? Aren't you stretching yourselves too far?"

"We are. We've made a considerable effort."

"So it seems."

Two hundred gold was by no means a small sum. And an artifact on top of that. It was all the more generous considering that the storage orb Berge would provide contained not a core, but expendable mana that would eventually be used up.

'I'd been thinking fifty gold at most...'

Even fifty gold was a tremendous amount of money. Still, he had thought the mana of a mythical beast like the Phoenix was worth that much. Berge wasn't the one in need here. Apparently, they needed it more desperately than he had imagined.

"It doesn't seem as though mana is all you want."

"The mana is indeed our sole objective. As an added benefit, we merely hope to earn your goodwill and establish a connection, Lord Pale."

Not a chance.

Berge didn't take that at face value.

'They might be paying extra because of my connections with Hillen and Granada.'

Either way, he wasn't about to turn down what they were offering.

"Are you pleased with the terms?"

"I am."

But there was something he couldn't understand. They must have investigated his background, yet there was no mention of it. Cain said nothing about it through the end of the meal.

"Then I'll fill one storage orb within a week."

"Yes. I'll have a knight deliver the orb to your quarters. You'll receive the agreed payment when you give us the mana."

"Very well."

Berge left. A servant cleared the empty plates, and a knight entered.

"Is it truly necessary to go this far to maintain ties with him? That man isn't royalty."

They had examined the genealogies of every kingdom and royal family. They couldn't claim to have identified every royal perfectly, but they had found everyone reasonably well known. Nowhere was there a royal named Pale, or anyone they suspected might be him.

Some had argued that Pale should be arrested immediately and charged with impersonating royalty. It was the orthodox course, but Cain had chosen the exact opposite.

"It is. If he were merely someone with pure mana, I would have used other methods, but he has close ties to Hillen Cargill."

Roselle Charnt had explained how she had become acquainted with Pale and obtained his mana.

"He went out of his way to persuade Roselle to include Hillen Cargill in the final battle against the Demon King. He would never have done that for a casual acquaintance."

Hillen was a rising sun. Still only in his late twenties, he had killed two Demon Kings and become a powerful figure in the Heroes' Guild. What he had already achieved was impressive, but more importantly, his future held even greater promise.

"And we cannot completely rule out the possibility that he is royalty."

There were many kingdoms, and even more royals. As Cain had told Pale, some royals had circumstances that required them to conceal their identities. If Pale was one of them, finding him in such a short time would be impossible. It was a remote possibility, but Cain refused to dismiss it.

"Keep investigating. Above all, we need to learn how Hillen Cargill and Pale met."

"Yes. We'll keep looking."

"Even if we find nothing in particular, I intend to maintain our relationship unless a serious problem arises. Hillen Cargill aside, his mana is genuinely useful to us."

Pure mana would be immensely helpful to the mage towers' research.

"And above all..."

Whatever the reason, his older sister liked him so much.

"No, never mind."

Cain swallowed his last remark. It was an unnecessary aside he had no need to share with the knight.

* * *

A week passed.

Berge filled a storage orb to the brim and handed it to the prince. The prince gave him the promised money and artifact.

And that first trade became their last, for the time being.

"I told them they can contact me through you."

"Yes."

"Have a good trip."

"Yes."

"Do your best, but if there's any chance of arousing suspicion, don't do it. You need to work another ninety-nine years before you die."

"It feels as though you've added a few months."

"One always rounds up such trivial details."

"Understood. Will you be returning to the tower, then?"

"I've already finished preparing to welcome you. A word of advice: watch out for monsters and snow."

"... Fuck. The same trick as last time?"

"Oh, just in case—if you find the tower and enter the first floor, you know what to do?"

"I absolutely won't open it myself."

"Keep the prince and princess well away, too. If they die, it'll be a real headache."

"I don't know whether I can manage that, but I'll try."

"Quite a mouth on you for an elf."

"... I'll make it happen somehow."

Berge smiled in satisfaction.

"I'm not worried about those Red Hawk bastards. They'll survive like rats again, all on their own."

"It's sad that I can't deny that."

"Indeed."

After saying farewell to Lavinia and Cain and giving Granada his final instructions, Berge left Hortonwork without looking back.

Not long after the trade between Berge and the Kingdom of Akan, Akan finally stirred into action.

"March out!"

The Blue Meteor Mage Corps, the White Wolf Knights, and the elite soldiers whose numbers had been replenished to two hundred—a total force of four hundred, joined by the Red Hawk raiding party—began the exploration of Hortonwork.

* * *

In the snowfields, the snow never melted, whatever the season. Summers were cold, winters brutal.

A blizzard raged. The pure white snow was covered in red blood. Steam rising from the hot blood meant their deaths were recent.

"It's done. There are no survivors."

Armand, a frost demon, exhaled a plume of white breath. His sovereign answered from beyond the crystal ball.

「Well done.」

"I merely did my duty."

「Leave now. Don't leave any evidence that you did this.」

"Yes."

Even without evidence, they would have a fair idea. But suspicion and proof were different things. The White Eagles and Gillian would realize this was a warning from the Demon King.

To the sluggish bastards in the Empire, however, it would be nothing more than a single barbarian tribe overrun by monsters. That distinction mattered.

「Do not return to the tower. Keep watch on the White Eagles.」

"As you command."

The demons and demonic creatures left the tribe's now-deserted settlement. Only shattered wreckage and corpses remained to show that people had been alive there moments before.

* * *

"Nina."

"Yes, my lord."

Having ended the call, Reina leaned back in her chair.

"What do you think will happen?"

"First, they'll be furious."

"And then?"

"They may try to influence the Empire and the Heroes' Guild. But the Empire is unlikely to listen."

"Why?"

"According to the documents Demon King Jason provided last time, the Empire wants the northern barbarians' numbers to decline."

Decades had passed since Reina Sordein settled there. As the monsters of the snowfields came under her shadow one by one, she had reduced unnecessary clashes to a minimum. That had led to a measure of peace and explosive population growth among the northern tribes.

Naturally, the Empire wasn't pleased. The snowfields were nominally imperial territory, and the barbarians were imperial subjects, but everyone knew that was merely a facade.

"Then they'll stand by and watch."

"Yes. Of course, if their numbers drop too far, they'll intervene again."

"Finding the right balance will be crucial, then."

Reina smiled in satisfaction. She disliked having to concern herself with the wishes of an empire founded by humans, but she was a Demon King who knew how to face reality. For now, this was the best option.

BUZZZZ

Just then, a communication orb on one side of the office vibrated fiercely.

"Ugar?"

Reina infused it with demonic energy.

「Reina Sordein. I am certain.」

She questioned the out-of-the-blue declaration.

"What are you talking about?"

「I have seen it. The things Jason Cockmundo has done for us, for the conquest of Arain.」

"Explain it so I can understand."

「I cannot tell you! But I am certain! Jason Cockmundo is not the one who killed Drakson!」

「Trust me!」

CLICK

He abruptly cut off the call.

"... Is he playing games with me?"

"He did seem sincere..."

The Demon King and her adjutant were speechless for a long while.