Chapter 548 - Uncle

Krais lived perpetually swamped with work. He knew it would stay that way for some time, and he had a rough idea of several things that lay ahead.

For instance:

'Will another six months at most be enough to work things out with Aspen?'

If he sat back and watched, they could remain indifferent, awkward neighbors for years. But measures to ease that tension were already underway. Things might not go as planned. So what? It wasn't as though anyone would die if they failed. He might as well try.

The unknowns were an invasion by another nation or a breach of the Demonic Realm borderlands.

'Those are beyond my reach.'

There was nothing he could do about the Demonic Realm borderlands, however much he worried, so he could set that aside. As for foreign invasion, Krang had already made his move.

He did not know how far Krang's gambit would succeed, but the other nations would watch and wait for a while. Rather than set the entire continent ablaze, Naurilia and Aspen had joined hands.

Fighting? No, we've made up.

They had effectively said as much to the entire continent. That was what yielding land along the border meant.

Moreover, Border Guard had proved its strength. Those in the know would have heard that Aspen had lost every last one of its knights. And what did that mean?

'It's evidence that Border Guard has the strength to do that.'

In short, no one would attack lightly without first gaining a proper measure of their forces.

It was as though Naurilia suddenly had two Scarlet Cloak Knight Orders. Even those who had expected some increase in strength must have been startled. While songs about the Iron Wall Sword or Knight spread, the coolheaded would have been calculating Border Guard's military strength.

'Rem and Ragna are lunatics with edges too sharp to hide.'

It was safe to assume the information had already spread.

And now the two warring nations had joined hands, however tentatively. If Border Guard's knight-order-level forces stood alongside Aspen, that too would be a formidable force. In short, neither the great southern nation nor the Empire would invade just because they disliked them. Not for the time being. At the very least, they would investigate Border Guard more thoroughly before acting.

'What else is there?'

If he excluded outbreaks of Cultist activity and the like, which he could not account for anyway, it was fair to say they had won themselves a measure of temporary peace.

'And no bands of swordsmen, bandits, or mercenary corps will pick a pointless fight with us now.'

When a nation was weak and powerless, being overrun by nothing more than a renowned mercenary force was commonplace. In the past, a small southeastern nation had even been swallowed up by a mercenary corps.

Indeed, the trade city that proclaimed itself an independent southern state had once lacked military strength and been extorted of Krona repeatedly by mercenary corps. It then turned the corps against one another and used a mercenary corps it had raised itself to slaughter every last survivor. That incident, known as the Trading Company's Blade, was so famous that few had not heard of it.

Were the mercenary forces under the trade city called Gold, Silver, and Bronze? The Gold Mercenary Corps, the Silver Mercenary Corps, and the Bronze Mercenary Corps. Truly uninspired names.

The city's leaders were also said to have ties to the continent's foremost assassins' guild, and the mercenary corps called the Trading Company's Blade supposedly meddled in other cities from time to time. But...

'Would that trade city have any reason to make enemies of us?'

If the trade city were a person, it would be a tough, aggressive one. The question merited thought.

They did not care whether they dealt with the Empire, the South, or Naurilia. What mattered was business. Trade. Leona, the head of Roquefried, had told him that she had even received a marriage proposal amid the chaos of taking over the company.

["Fortunately, he wasn't some fifty-year-old, toad-faced pervert of a bastard. But that doesn't mean I'd hand over my trading company as a dowry."]

The trade city's aim was clear. Through marriage, it must have wanted to acquire Roquefried's reach. Experience gained by traveling the continent was anything but common. Roquefried had even established trade with the Black Leather Guild and the Glacier Rangers. Of course they coveted it. They might have thought the change in leadership presented an opportunity.

Had Roquefried joined the trade city, it would have grown more easily than it had. But from that point on, it might have been difficult to call Leona its owner.

Such complications came with opening a shop on someone else's Krona. At first, they handed over the money with a smile. Later, they demanded repayment, and if you could not pay, you had no answer when they insisted that part of the shop belonged to them.

Leona might have fallen for it had she been just a little less sharp. But she was clever, and she knew exactly what she wanted. She wanted the trading company to be hers alone.

"So much damn work."

Breaking off his thoughts, Krais took a sip of tea. It had arrived as a gift from the royal household, accompanied by a letter from Marcus thanking him for his consideration on various matters.

'Unless we're going to turn against the crown, we might as well get along.'

The tea Marcus had specially selected seemed to clear his weary head a little. So this was why people bought expensive tea leaves. Perhaps he should stock some in a corner of his salon when he opened it.

A salon would be worth less if it offered nothing but food, drink, and amusement. He would have to make it a place for important conversations and forging connections. Noble banquets and parties currently served that purpose, but seeing how cafés were taking root in the city, a salon could surely fill that role.

For now, salons were places where young noblewomen married to old nobles gathered, along with layabouts crazed with lust. But surely that depended on how one ran them.

'There won't be any trouble at court, will there?'

["Don't worry. I'm going with him."]

Remembering Rem's words before he left made Krais's stomach burn.

Would the nobles gathered at the palace quietly acknowledge the Captain? Surely some would grumble about giving Border Guard more power. Well, that was for the Captain to handle. He would manage. Rem was a concern, but in truth, no one except Encrid could control him anyway.

"Ah, I just want to open my salon and retire from the world."

There was a reason old tales featured sages living in seclusion. After working on the front lines until they were about to collapse from overwork, wouldn't they simply throw everything aside and retreat into the mountains to enjoy the forest air?

If they were unlucky, they might become a monster's meal. But if they hated working that much, they could learn magic before becoming recluses. Of course, Krais had not the slightest intention of doing so. He disliked responsibility, not the pleasures a city offered.

With so much to do, his thoughts even strayed to that fellow Abnaire. How much easier would life be with a mind like his helping out? Still, putting him to work right away did not sit well with Krais. Perhaps he should ask Encrid about it when he returned.

With that thought, Krais drained his tea. Time to get back to work.

He had to organize the troops selected during training into their respective formations, see to their weapons and armor, and sift out people entering the city for unwelcome purposes. He could not do it all himself, so he had placed people here and there to handle things, but there were still too few hands.

Once again, Krais wondered whether this was truly where he belonged, but he ignored the question. What could he do even if a trace of resentment lingered? For now, he had work to drown in.

* * *

The sun had been blazing when they set out, but the sky had turned dreary before they knew it. Its gray resembled Rem's head. It looked as though rain would come soon.

"Looks like rain. Hmm. It'll pour soon. We'd better find shelter."

Rem spoke after a glance at the sky. He had always been quick to notice changes in the weather.

"How do you do that?"

Could this be called boring? The safe roads did not yet cover the entire stretch between Nauril and Border Guard, but the routes to the major cities were well laid. They had paved the roads with stone and erected three-story watchtowers at half-day intervals.

The towers had arrow slits that let defenders shelter inside and shoot at attacking monsters or demonic beasts. They would be relatively vulnerable to griffins, harpies, and Wyverns, but large ballistae seemed to have been installed atop them for that very reason.

Apparently, they had spent some time gathering demonic-beast hair for those ballistae, and women had cut and sold their hair. Once the frames were built, they would have made the strings from ox sinew and assorted hair. He had heard that quite a few people had earned a tidy sum of Krona selling their hair then.

In any case, thanks to the safe roads, they hardly saw a bandit, let alone a monster. The route was safe and peaceful. They saw numerous merchants traveling on trading journeys, and most of the soldiers hired to escort them belonged to Border Guard's standing army. That spoke to Border Guard's enormous influence on the region's safety.

It was safety, not boredom, but for Encrid, Rem, and Audin, the journey was rather uneventful. All three were mounted. Rem turned his horse with the reins and answered the earlier question.

"Knowing how won't mean you can do it."

"Why?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions. I spent my whole life in the West. Be born there and learn a little spellwork, and you get sensitive to changes in smell. It's a knack you get from living in a dry climate for a long time."

"I see."

That would be difficult to learn, Encrid thought as he followed Rem on horseback.

He had heard the stablekeeper had struggled to find a horse Audin could ride. It was that large an animal. Odd-Eyes could have carried him, but the horse rarely let anyone other than Encrid onto its back.

Being as clever as a person, it would carry others in emergencies or bring back Ragna when he got lost. But it would not lend its back for a trip like this, and it had shown no inclination to come along. The same went for Esther.

["I have much to do."]

She was busy teaching and refining her spells.

Back in human form for the first time in a while, Esther had also been looking after the soldiers who were either her pupils or her subordinates. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

["Eyes down. Let them wander without permission, and I'll pluck them out."]

That was how she greeted her troops, though every soldier had already calmly lowered their eyes before she spoke.

Whatever had happened before, they were remarkably obedient. All of them carried fist-sized crystal balls, constantly polishing them and muttering. To someone who knew nothing about them, they too must have looked like a band of lunatics.

"Let us spar when we stop for a rest, brother."

Audin's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Let's."

Encrid nodded.

"Count me in."

Rem joined in too.

A proper bout would end only when someone was injured, so it would be more of a warm-up than a serious fight. Even so, an unknowing observer would have stared wide-eyed. Their journey was a repetition of such things.

When rain seemed imminent, they found a nearby city or cave for shelter.

ROAAR!

If a demonic beast emerged from the cave, all three stepped forward without waiting for the others.

If monsters and demonic beasts capable of surviving Audin's fists or Rem's axe splitting their heads were common, this entire land would already have become a Demonic Realm. They watched passing trading companies and groups, sparred again, rode on, and traded jokes. Before they knew it, Nauril lay just ahead.

Someone responsible for a vast territory would ordinarily bring a great many servants when visiting the capital. Count Molsen and other nobles had done so in the past, but Encrid's party numbered just three. There was no reason to come in a crowd.

Only three, but two of them were knights. Who would dare attack them? No one should have, of course, but most people did not know Encrid's face. That was only natural. However famous someone was, you had to have seen their face to recognize them.

But the guard captain on the city wall could not fail to recognize him. He had seen Encrid during the civil war in the capital. There was more traffic at the wall than Encrid had expected. He waited patiently in line and made his way in, where the guard captain watching those coming and going at the gate recognized him.

"Huh? Huh? Whaaat?"

The captain pointed at Encrid, sputtering helplessly before finally getting the words out.

"Demon Killer!"

That epithet still seemed to be better known in the capital.

Audin's sheer size had already drawn attention. Everyone who heard the guard captain turned to Encrid. Heads whipped around him, every gaze landing on Encrid.

"That fellow?"

"Show some respect, you idiot."

"Ah, that gentleman?"

"The one?"

"The Master of Border Guard?"

"The King's Dear Friend?"

"So that's the Demon Killer."

"... Why is he handsome?"

All sorts of comments buzzed around him. Dozens of eyes watched him, but Encrid remained unruffled. He had experienced this several times even before becoming famous. At noble banquets, for instance.

"I am Encrid of Border Guard. The palace summoned me. May I enter?"

There was no need to present a tag to prove his identity.

"Of course, sir."

The guard captain went so far as to take his reins and lead him in.

Having visited once before and tumbled about the place fighting, Encrid found the surroundings fairly familiar. The only differences were more noisy children and a slightly smaller slum near the city wall. Krang could hardly have spent his time idling since becoming king.

They had passed through the wall, and Encrid was just about to send the guard captain back when the bearded man abruptly spoke.

"I admire you."

The guard captain was a man who knew Encrid's songs by heart. Born and raised in the capital, he loved his country. To someone like him, the hero who had protected his nation, his city, and his family stood on equal footing with a god. Encrid was his faith.

There were plenty of people like that in Border Guard too, so Encrid gave an appropriate nod. On this second visit to the capital, the clear sunlight was warm and the air cool with the freshness of early autumn.

As he looked ahead, between the foul stink of the stables lining one side and the sharp reek of urine from an alley on the other, he noticed a small commotion.

"Don't pick a fight. We're only passing through."

"Hmph. All I did was offer a fair price."

Encrid had not expected to meet them here, but he recognized both sides.

"Huh?"

Rem knew some of the group too, and greeted them first.

"Twins? What are you doing all the way out here?"

On one side stood the western twins and Henri, who had switched from hunter to merchant. With his hair cut short and his beard closely shaved, Henri looked quite presentable.

Unlike Rem, Encrid also knew the person opposite them. A merchant. What was his name again? Malton. That was it. He was the man who had scolded Encrid in front of the Giant merchant in Border Guard.

'What did he say back then? If I was the Roquefried company head's friend, he was General Encrid's uncle?'

"Uncle?"

Encrid greeted him with a warm smile.

Malton looked at him for a moment, then tilted his head. He did not seem to recognize the face straightaway. What a disgracefully unreliable memory. How could he fail to remember his own nephew's face?