Chapter 558 - A Festival and a Guest

THUMP.

The organ that had been quietly pumping blood throughout his body suddenly made its presence known. His heart pounded, hammering away as if to declare that it was there.

In truth, there was one thing Krais valued more than dreams, more than his life, more than living itself. How to describe it? Provision for the future, perhaps, or the value of something tangible that he could see and hold.

In short, Krona.

His future, his symbol of value, his dreams, his life—all of it came down to Krona.

What would he do once he opened a salon and earned heaps of gold coins?

He had no idea. He would simply do whatever he wanted. Even when he didn't know what he wanted, all he needed was a pocket full of gold.

That was how Krais envisioned his future.

And now Encrid was whispering of that future, of those dreams.

"If that happens, you'll make an incredible amount of Krona."

For an instant, Krais saw a mountain of gold coins appear before him. A hallucination. He hadn't taken any drugs, yet he was hallucinating.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to build that city of pleasure you mentioned on the border between the imperial nobles' lands and the southern Great Kingdom."

Krais's eyes grew dreamy. His mind seemed to have already reached the distant future.

He had recently heard that Ann's failed attempt at developing a remedy had produced a liquid that glowed at night. They were using the glowing liquid to build beacons to light Border Guard's nights. What if they researched and developed it further?

A few alchemists capable of at least some research had joined them after Ann, so it wasn't impossible.

They could build a huge sphere in the center of the city and fill it with the glowing liquid. What if they made it enormous, a landmark representing the city of salons?

With a builders' guild skilled in construction, it was entirely possible.

In his daydream, Krais climbed atop a high wall built along the southern border.

"Now, take a look. That is the city of pleasure."

He spread a hand, showing it off to the dozens of nobles he led. They followed his gesture and saw a city shining in the night. A city of pleasure in every sense. The city itself emitted light.

The mere thought sent a thrill from his toes to his scalp, making every hair stand on end.

'No, I can't stop there. Let's make it turn.'

He would build a mechanism to turn it from side to side. Could he make it move automatically? Could they create a power source using magic?

"Now, take a look. The shining city—Salon de City!"

The city didn't merely glow. It scattered light all around it.

He had blurted out whatever name came to mind, but it had a pleasing ring to it.

Krais hadn't realized it, but the moment he decided to give up, he had stopped thinking deeply. In short, he hadn't been using his head.

That was why every problem had seemed so difficult. He had accepted them as insurmountable walls because he had lost his motivation. His heart was no longer in it.

Now his mind softened like hard bread soaking in hot soup, and began whirring at full speed.

Encrid watched the sudden change in Krais's eyes. First they had gone dreamy, then the light had returned.

'What's gotten into him?'

He didn't know. He didn't particularly want to know, either, so he simply kept encouraging him. This was what Krais had wanted to do in the first place.

Krais himself had briefly forgotten, but Encrid hadn't.

A vast city of salons, the Krona it would earn, the mountain of gold coins he would amass. He had said he liked both the salon city and the gold. That was why Encrid had brought it up.

As they talked, Encrid found himself wondering about the goals of his unit members—or rather, the members of his knight order now. What were they all here for?

He had some guesses, but had never asked. Until now, there hadn't even been a need.

But things had changed a little. They were a knight order now, and he had made them part of it. Did Rem and everyone else have to follow blindly just because there was something he wanted?

They officially bore the name of a knight order, but he had never specifically told them they were its members.

Even if Rem would lend his axe to eradicating the Demonic Realm, what about the others?

These thoughts had come to him as he talked with Krais. He would have to visit each of them and ask. He would also have to decide the order's exact size and structure.

Krais had handled everything concerning the knight order so far, but while his attention had briefly strayed elsewhere, Encrid had thought of it first this time.

"Are you feeling sick?"

The way Krais's eyes were rolling made him wonder if he had a fever.

"No."

His eyes, once as dull as a dead fish's, were shining with life again. He probably wasn't sick.

Perhaps he had noticed Encrid's brief moment of contemplation, because words began pouring from his mouth.

"We've more or less settled into sharing a border with Aspen, but the hostility still worried you, didn't it? And the factions forming in the city and all the other problems must have been giving you headaches."

No, they hadn't been that much of a headache. In truth, he hadn't given them much attention.

If trouble erupted, he would resolve it. But since he couldn't just cut everyone down or beat them senseless right now, wasn't it best to leave things alone?

Encrid was sharp enough to recognize the problems, but the solution he had privately settled on was to wait until they festered, then lance the boil and remove it.

In reality, however, his territory was far too large to govern that way. Many people felt frustrated for various reasons, even if they weren't quite discontented.

And that was despite the city running smoothly, with food to spare and plenty of Krona coming in. It couldn't be helped. No matter how favorable the circumstances, not everything could be good.

What, then, should be done?

Until a moment ago, Krais hadn't had an answer either. Now he did.

"I have an idea."

By now, all that remained in Krais's mind was that whirling contraption. It was pouring out gold coins before his very eyes.

Give up? Danger? Didn't you have to take risks to reap rewards? Hadn't the Captain standing before him done exactly that?

Krais forgot his wavering resolve. Merely steadying himself wasn't enough, so he chose to forget it altogether.

"We've stockpiled a lot of food this year. I'll put it to use."

Starting with the reclamation of Green Pearl, they had built safe roads, expanded the surrounding farmland, and devoted resources to pastoralism and hunting. Ranger training even included a separate regimen for hunting animals and demonic beasts.

Border Guard's original role as a trading city had also grown. Henri's trading company had recently arrived from the West, giving them the chance to open a trade route there as well.

One resulting benefit of all this was food.

Put that way, Border Guard already sounded wealthy. The problem was that none of it belonged to Krais personally.

He couldn't take everything and run, nor did he want to. He, too, had learned from Encrid to move forward honestly and uprightly.

He would follow that straight path and build a shining city.

Krais made his decision.

"Uh, sure."

"Right, then."

With that, Krais turned and left.

"What was that? Why'd he come?"

Rem had finished washing and was vigorously toweling his hair dry.

"No idea," Encrid answered honestly.

"Thought he was busy?"

"So did I."

Encrid put it down as just one of those things and moved on. The next morning, he heard that Krais had persuaded Abnaire, whom they had brought back as something of a prisoner.

When he later asked why, Krais said this:

"I'm going to put him to work."

Asked how he could trust him, he replied,

"I don't. Honestly, I don't trust any of them. Instead, I make sure none of them knows what the work they're doing really amounts to."

He also said he would limit Abnaire's work to matters involving Aspen.

"Even if we leave out armaments and military affairs entirely, he won't have enough time for trade and stabilizing relations."

So Krais said. And just as promised, Abnaire devoted himself fully to his work.

Although Encrid had been the one to summon him, he had never visited. When he finally dropped by, Abnaire was bent over his desk and didn't even look up.

He wasn't asleep. He was too engrossed in checking documents.

"Who is it? Put whatever documents you've brought down below."

Feeling he shouldn't have come, Encrid quietly closed the door and left.

In any case, with Abnaire taking over trade with Aspen and various other chores, Krais finally had some breathing room. He used his spare time to establish a commemorative day for the city.

It might have seemed out of the blue, but it was exactly what the city needed most.

Why? People needed an outlet.

Border Guard had defeated Aspen, yet now they were neighbors sharing a border. Many people weren't happy about that. Some had lost family or friends to Aspen.

Well, there weren't that many. Their clashes with Aspen had rarely escalated into large-scale pitched battles.

Still, there were people with grievances, and various undercurrents of unrest lingered.

Viewed from the other side, Aspen was in the same position. They had suffered worse.

Aspen had tried to resolve the problem by moving people who had never lived along the border into the borderlands. Naturally, it was Abnaire's doing.

That was why a mass migration had taken place within the principality.

Under these circumstances, they needed something to unite everyone. A commemorative day. A festival.

Krais added a few more touches.

"Shall we commemorate the knight order's founding? Or call it Border Guard Defense Day?"

Encrid didn't mind either, but since he felt he had yet to obtain everyone's agreement about the knight order, he thought the latter was better.

And so Border Guard Defense Day was established, and a festival held.

It was a three-day festival of eating and drinking, with a martial arts tournament on the final day. Each unit held its own qualifying bouts, and the main tournament took place in Green Pearl.

Anyone could enter, even those who didn't belong to a unit, and enthusiasm ran high.

The knight order merely watched, while the soldiers under its members competed. The winner would receive a whole purse of gold coins and, if they wished, an honorable discharge.

Rem's soldiers went wild. They fought so furiously among themselves in the qualifiers that the man who reached the main tournament limped onto the fighting platform.

"Will he be able to put up a fight, brother?" Audin asked at the sight.

The opponent was a martial artist whom he and Teresa had personally trained.

"Wouldn't matter if he were missing a leg."

Rem snorted, but victory went to the soldier from Audin's Holy War Infantry.

"Raaah! I am a bear!"

Though his victory cry was a little odd.

"Shall I teach him a Frog battle song?"

Hearing Luagarne's offer, Audin declined.

"I'm quite a singer myself, Sister Frog."

After fully recovering, Luagarne had roamed the mountains like a crazed Frog. Lately, however, she had been staying close to Encrid.

"Next is, uh... Clemen Who Fell Over?"

By now, it had all but become her proper name.

She stepped forward with a short wooden sword. Her opponent came from the Swordsmanship Infantry, led by Ragna with Roford as his deputy.

They really had named their units whatever they pleased.

Encrid watched the fight with that thought. As he always believed, there was something to learn from anyone, regardless of skill.

For that reason, he thoroughly enjoyed every bout in the main tournament.

The fight was one-sided. Clemen excelled not at swordsmanship, but at fighting.

She entangled their swords, rushed in, hooked his leg, and struck his Adam's apple with the edge of her hand. Neither her forward footwork nor the way she applied her strength left anything to criticize.

"She's good," Luagarne said with a nod.

Clemen Who Fell Over had followed Luagarne around and learned a few techniques. But she hadn't sought instruction only from the Frog. She had eagerly learned from anyone she could, then trained like a madwoman to reach this point.

It didn't even take a discerning eye. Encrid sensed something like the flow of Will from Clemen Who Fell Over.

It was a kind of intuition. Insight, one might call it.

Just as he saw the future in battle, he saw signs of someone advancing in Clemen's movements.

"She's going to become a proto knight."

As in every knight order, the squire stage came before becoming a proto knight. In other words, Clemen had now reached the level of a squire.

She had started as an ordinary soldier. This was the result of talent and hard work.

"I'll announce that the winner can also join the knight order."

Having overheard from behind them, Krais added another prize to the tournament.

Encrid nodded. That was hardly difficult.

Of course, no soldier in their right mind would dream of joining the knight order.

They saw Encrid train even more ferociously than they did. From a distance, he was an impressive hero who inspired respect. Up close, he was just a crazy bastard—no, a training fanatic.

It wasn't called the Lunatic Knight Order for nothing.

Even Aspen's Hurrier family took part in the tournament. Excitement ran high, and the winner came from the unit directly under Encrid.

"Raaaaah!"

The winner roared into the air. One might have thought she was a half-Giant.

She was a female soldier with her hair hanging down in a single braid. Her name was Clemen Who Fell Over.

She wanted to become a squire in the knight order, and so she did.

Thus ended the three-day festival.

After the festival, Border Guard's urban improvement projects raced ahead like a speeding carriage.

It was much like the days when Encrid would go away and return to find a new wall. Once the festival ended, the city was rezoned.

The strips alongside the city's left and right walls, where land had previously been secured and the city expanded, were designated as an outer ring road. The interior was also divided into lodging and commercial districts.

Craftsmen were grouped with craftsmen, merchants with merchants.

It was all Krais's work.

It happened around then. Encrid was returning to the barracks after training, visiting Eitri, and traveling back and forth through the city on various errands.

"The festival was so enjoyable, I couldn't take my eyes off it."

He heard a blind, white-haired old man spouting nonsense in front of the barracks.

How could a blind man say he couldn't take his eyes off something?

The jest rivaled Fairy humor.

It was a sunny autumn afternoon.

Encrid looked at the old man and, without knowing why, placed his hand on his sword grip.

"Stay close."

Jaxon's voice came from behind him. He had subtly made his presence known as he approached, so Encrid wasn't startled.

It seemed they had happened to return at the same time.

"Why?"

"There's something strange about that old man."

It was an odd thing for Jaxon to say. Dangerous was dangerous, and bothersome was bothersome. But strange?

Encrid didn't think he had ever heard Jaxon use that expression before.