Chapter 48 - Frightening

'So he came after all.'

Galahad narrowed his eyes at the man seated beside Pumpkin.

The man had been pestering him since their academy days. His father was the Director, who had landed his Intelligence Bureau position through connections. The son of such a Director ought to have been an arrogant brat or a backroom schemer, but this fellow simply kept challenging Galahad without giving up, and was surprisingly gracious in accepting defeat.

In fact, he refused the Director's help, all for the sake of a "fair contest" with Galahad. When he decided he couldn't beat Galahad without knowing magic, he had even gone and learned it.

A knight learning magic—

It was utterly ridiculous bullshit, but he had proved excellent at it. By the end, he had actually become troublesome even for Galahad.

'He actually followed me all the way here.'

Galahad knew about the man's obsession with him, but he hadn't expected him to follow him all the way to the North. The man's gaze burned with considerable intensity as he looked at Galahad.

Normally, Galahad would have found some way to get rid of him.

'But this isn't bad.'

He needed manpower. He had originally intended to visit the Intelligence Bureau safe house and fetch someone suitable, but the man had come to him first. Though not on Galahad's level, he was a useful Mage and a useful agent. He was a far better choice than anyone Galahad might have picked up at the safe house.

He had unexpectedly drawn the best card in the deck.

Except—

'... What was his agent name again?'

Galahad murmured to himself as he looked the man up and down. The man spoke first.

"Enough joking."

"I'm sorry, but I'm rather good at jokes. If that had been one, you would have known."

Pumpkin gave a quiet cough. "First! First!"

"Ah, Hurst, wasn't it? You've changed so much I didn't recognize you. Have you grown a little taller?"

"It's First, not Hurst."

"Ah, yes. That was the name."

"Will you stop pretending you don't remember? Your memory is better than anyone's."

"My memory is quite good, but it isn't infinite. So I categorize things by importance when committing them to memory."

"Ah, that certainly sounds efficient."

Pumpkin nodded. First's face crumpled again.

"So you're saying my agent name isn't important? Ha. What a clumsy attempt to unsettle me."

"Oh, he's always like this."

Galahad nodded at Pumpkin's explanation. Yes, he had always been that sort.

"Haha, marrying the Grand Duke of the North's daughter out of nowhere? I was surprised to hear the news."

Pumpkin changed the subject, perhaps hoping to ease the tension.

"Isn't that how life goes? Just as you two became lovers."

"We're not lovers."

"Pumpkin!"

"Oh, we are lovers. Don't put your arm around my shoulders. Seriously—"

"Haha, Pumpkin is still rather shy, you see."

"It looks closer to disgust than shyness to me."

Pumpkin promptly knocked First's arm away under the pretense of coughing. As though nothing had happened, he asked another question.

"Won't there be trouble if she finds out?"

"She?"

At that respectful reference, Galahad scratched his neck for no particular reason. Had that somehow gotten out? Surely not—

"Her Highness the Imperial Princess."

'Ah, there was that.'

Pumpkin's explanation put Galahad at ease. Still, the Imperial Princess wasn't a particularly welcome subject either.

"My relationship with the Imperial Princess was strictly professional."

"Wasn't it you who turned her into a leading contender for the succession when she had been facing death, never mind even being mentioned as a candidate? It's already well known how deeply she treasures you because of that. Don't try to deny it."

Galahad narrowed his eyes at First's grilling. Those weren't particularly pleasant memories.

He had made all sorts of efforts to stop the Demon King. The Imperial Princess had been one of them. It had actually been quite effective.

["You're in danger. This is the best we can do."]

Until she made that stupid choice—

Her choice had ended their relationship.

"That was merely because I was competent. There was nothing else to it. Besides, isn't she about to be married? Don't say anything irreverent."

Galahad spoke firmly. He had been entangled with her quite extensively, but that was all in the past.

["So you dare tell me you're leaving me?"]

The ending had been a little messy, but endings were always like that.

"Ah."

Pumpkin looked uncomfortable. First gave an irritating little chuckle. Galahad narrowed his eyes at the strange atmosphere.

"You haven't heard."

"Heard what?"

"Hmm..."

First put a cigar between his lips. The smell of wet wood filled the air.

"That prince she was supposed to marry."

His lips curved upward around the cigar. A brief silence followed.

Then—

"He's dead."

First spoke with a broad smile.

"Dead? But he was a healthy man."

Galahad frowned as he asked. He knew better than anyone just how healthy the foreign prince she was to marry had been. After all, Galahad had procured that list of marriage prospects himself.

And now the prince was dead?

"Apparently, he died suddenly. The imperial family is keeping it quiet."

"Suddenly?"

"Yes. We know the details because it was one of our recent assignments."

Pumpkin added the explanation. If they had handled the assignment, it was a confirmed fact. Galahad's thoughts suddenly grew complicated.

Just then, First's lips twitched as though he couldn't wait to speak.

"... But there's a very interesting rumor."

"An interesting rumor—?"

"That he was poisoned."

First's lips curled as though he were savoring the words.

'... Poisoned?'

Galahad narrowed his eyes at the ominous word.

'Surely not—'

He shook his head.

Her intended husband had been the legitimate son of the ruler of the largest kingdom in the Alliance of Kingdoms. She was mad, but she was still an intelligent woman. There was no way she wouldn't know what would happen if she killed him.

["I'll put my mistake right. Just wait a little longer."]

He remembered her whisper. His mouth went dry.

'That can't be it.'

That wasn't putting a mistake right. It was tearing the mistake to shreds and rubbing salt into it.

He knew she was mad, but—

'However mad she is, she wouldn't go that far.'

Galahad shook his head. Yet the more he did, the more his unease grew.

What if she really had done something so stupid and insane?

Galahad snapped his fingers twice. He quickly redid his calculations. The result was the same.

From the moment she had made that bad move, she had had no chance of becoming Emperor. It wasn't an option worth reconsidering.

"What does that have to do with me?"

Galahad asked, sweeping his hair back. Pumpkin screwed up her eyes, and First grinned.

"Now that's the Galahad I know. Ah, in that case, she—"

"That's enough. She's a forbidden subject in the Intelligence Bureau. I'd rather not kill you."

Galahad flexed his fingers as he issued the warning. First's smile vanished.

Watching First freeze, Pumpkin murmured under her breath.

"Scared, huh."

* * *

'He's grown stronger.'

First instinctively sensed that Galahad had reached an even higher level. He had already been a monster. And now he had grown stronger still.

'That's more like my rival.'

First smiled in satisfaction. Out of respect for his rival, he changed the subject.

"So why did you come to the North?"

"Why? They told me to get my ass up here, so I did."

First coughed out a laugh at Galahad's calm answer. Smoke puffed from his lips in broken bursts.

According to Jamit, an imperial command had sent Galahad north. It probably hadn't come from the Emperor, though. There had been no word that the Emperor had awakened.

Most likely, someone of comparable standing had issued the order, and it had been dressed up as an imperial command.

Even so, an imperial command was an imperial command. Naturally, one couldn't avoid it.

But Galahad wasn't someone who would bow his head simply because an order was imperial. He wasn't the sort of man anyone could force to act. If he disliked the option, he would have faked his own death to escape it.

For Galahad to have come north, he must have had a reason.

The likeliest possibility was, of course—

"Are you still looking for the Demon King?"

Galahad's fingers stopped dead as he tapped the ash from his cigarette.

'Right on the mark.'

The Demon King was something Galahad had once spoken of constantly.

In truth, Demons weren't much of a threat to the Empire at present. They rarely appeared in the central regions to begin with, and even when they did, they weren't particularly dangerous. So much so that missions targeting Demons were called "easy pickings."

The Empire currently found the Alliance of Kingdoms more troublesome than the Demons. Under those circumstances, no one was going to listen to warnings that a Demon King would appear.

Fundamentally, the Intelligence Bureau operated according to the Empire's interests and calculations.

"As I've said before, the Demon King is inevitable. Unless we prepare for him, he will one day reduce the entire continent to ashes."

Galahad's voice was filled with conviction. Just as it had been the first time he spoke of it—no, even more so than back then.

Everyone in the Intelligence Bureau denied the Demon King's existence. How could he have grown even more certain?

First was about to speak when Galahad raised a hand. Galahad hated being interrupted. First closed his mouth. Pumpkin clicked her tongue quietly at the sight.

"Did you get a briefing on the North?"

First's expression hardened at the question. He had obtained information on the North before coming to see Galahad. Gathering information relevant to a mission was basic procedure for an agent.

"I did."

"What did you think?"

"It was garbage."

First answered honestly.

"I agree. Even allowing for the Bureau's limited influence in the North, it's appalling. I was surprised when I first saw it myself. It doesn't even cover things that are common knowledge here."

"Common knowledge?"

Galahad fixed First with a sober gaze.

"A Demon's strength changes with the mana concentration. Just like magic."

First let out a low hum at the explanation. He hadn't measured it precisely, but the North's mana concentration was several times higher than the capital's.

In other words, if Demons were affected by mana concentration—

"You're saying Demons in the capital are several times weaker than they are here?"

"And powerful Demons don't leave their own territory."

That meant every Demon they had encountered in the central regions had been small fry.

Still, even if that was true, it wasn't much of a threat unless the capital's mana concentration changed.

"Recently, Black Mages opened something called a Demon Realm here. A place that constitutes Demon territory."

Galahad added the explanation as though he had read First's thoughts.

"... A Demon Realm?"

Just then, the door burst open. A man who looked like a knight entered.

"Commander! I heard some strange fellows showed up! Who are they?"

Galahad's expression changed. It was very subtle, but a sense of ease crept into it.

"Excellent timing, Sir Gilberton. These are some provisional recruits. Take them along and show them around the Demon Realm."

"How many people do we even have to be taking on provisional recruits?"

"Just take them, would you?"

"Yes, sir. Hey! What are you staring at? Get moving!"

At the bellow from the man called Gilberton, First and Pumpkin rose from their seats. They were already wearing the blank, awkward expressions of new recruits.

For Intelligence Bureau agents, playing a role was the most basic of skills.

Galahad watched the pair briefly as Gilberton dragged them away. Then he spotted a familiar face through the open door.

"Ah..."

It was Adrianna, her brows lowered slightly.

"Why didn't you knock when you arrived?"

At Galahad's mild rebuke, Adrianna opened her mouth, then closed it again.

* * *

'... Fuck, why is this training so brutal?!'

Pumpkin desperately swallowed the curses threatening to burst out.

She hadn't liked the bizarre environment of the Demon Realm from the start. Still, she could put up with that much. She might not compare to Galahad or First, but she was a capable agent herself.

The problem was Gilberton's mindlessly brutal training. Combined with the Demon Realm, where simply standing still left her breathless, it was difficult even for Pumpkin to endure. But she couldn't collapse.

"You can't even endure this little bit of training?!"

Not after she had seen that bastard Gilberton kicking a soldier who had collapsed, frothing at the mouth.

"So it was true."

First spoke in a low voice. His face looked utterly exhausted, but Pumpkin knew it was an act. If he were truly struggling, his voice couldn't have been that steady.

"W-what... was...?"

"That the mana concentration is incomparably higher, and that Demons grow stronger in proportion to it."

First caught Pumpkin as she swayed. She leaned on his hand and caught her breath.

"The Bureau's main targets are the Alliance of Kingdoms, high-ranking officials, and those anti-imperialist bastards. It was never interested in the North in the first place."

"True. But although it was a little lacking, the safe house had a fair amount of information. Yet headquarters had very little on the North."

"Are you saying someone at headquarters is tampering with the information on the North?"

"We don't know yet."

"You there! Put some effort into it!"

At Gilberton's shout, First let go. Pumpkin gritted her teeth, tensed her body, and held on.

"One of Galahad's assignments was an infiltration operation. The aim was to destabilize the increasingly powerful Alliance of Kingdoms. Do you know how he did it?"

Pumpkin screwed up her eyes at First's question. Why the hell are you memorizing other people's assignments? She was too out of breath to say it aloud.

"Normally, you'd infiltrate the strongest kingdom. Shake the strongest one, and the rest will shake with it."

Oblivious to Pumpkin's feelings, First began chattering excitedly. Pumpkin tried to curse, but only spat.

"But Galahad chose the weakest kingdom. Then he began building it up. The exact opposite of what anyone else would do."

Not interested—Pumpkin let out a ragged breath.

"As a result, what had been the smallest kingdom grew too large to ignore. The balance of power shifted, destabilizing the Alliance. I asked him why he'd gone out of his way to choose such a difficult path. Do you know what he said?"

I don't know, fuck—All Pumpkin managed was, "Dun—hagh!"

"'Because that makes the reward bigger.' That's what he said. Isn't it funny? While everyone else was thinking about succeeding in the mission, he was considering the size of the reward that would follow."

So fucking what! Pumpkin choked. Her breath caught in her throat. First patted her back, and only then could she breathe again.

"I think his latest actions are much the same."

"... What is?"

"He..."

First's eyes gleamed. Here comes something completely brain-dead. Pumpkin spat.

"This time, he's chosen the North."

'Chosen the North? Then its opponent would be the Empire?'

Pumpkin narrowed her eyes at that staggeringly presumptuous statement.

She knew Galahad was the best of all the agents. But still—

"He's only one man, isn't he?"

Pumpkin's answer was unenthusiastic. However remarkable Galahad might be, he was alone. What difference did it make if he chose the North?

"Quite right. He's alone."

First's nostrils twitched. It was time for the bullshit. Pumpkin muttered a curse in advance.

"For now..."

First even paused for dramatic effect. After working his lips for a moment, he continued.

"But what if I, First, Galahad's eternal nemesis and rival, were to join him? Whew..."

He let out a heated breath.

"Frightening."

Pumpkin, too, was genuinely frightened.

* * *

"So you're saying Galahad sent you?"

Crow narrowed their eyes at the man looking up at them.

His greasy eyes and obsequiously bent back made him the very picture of an incompetent opportunist. The sort of person Crow despised most.

Why on earth had that esteemed man gotten involved with someone like this?

"That's right. Are you Corton?"

"Y-yes! That's me! Oh dear! An executive has come to visit, and I haven't prepared a thing! My apologies!"

Crow fought back the urge to retch at his groveling.

"Send word to the higher-ups. Tell them I've brought the demon-beast tamer's magic circle."

"The higher-ups? Yes! Understood!"

Crow clicked their tongue at the man, who had repeated the question only to start in alarm. Crow disliked him.

Still, a report from someone like him was certain to be believed by the Society's president.

The president liked incompetent people best.