“Mm, of course.”
Eight Fingers had been the ones who spread the news. Of course, it went without saying that they had used unrelated merchants to spread the news through the Kingdom.
“What do you think he said after hearing about it!?”
Well, he was an idiot, after all. He had to consider that point before answering. However, all he could think of were ordinary answers. Still, there was no telling what an idiot thought, so he gave up in the end and said something normal.
“…He said something about the burial?”
“If that were all, my stomach wouldn’t hurt like this! He, he said that if he married Albedo-sama, he would be able to inherit the Sorcerous Kingdom!”
“Aiiieeee!”
The man squeaked and looked around himself.
The man could not sense them but there ought to have been watchers from the Sorcerous Kingdom here. After making sure that they had not made their move, the man sighed in relief.
They had been ordered to prepare an idiot, but he would much rather not be pushed into that hell because he was an idiot that defied all comparison.
“Oi oi oi! We were ordered to prepare an idiot, but why don’t we just kill him off? Wouldn’t it be better to prepare a more suitable idiot!?”
“Can we prepare anyone else at this point?”
The man’s answer made Hilma roll around while screaming “Ahhhhhhhh!” The hem of her dress rode up her leg and above her thigh.
She had originally been a high class whore and was still as beautiful as one, but all the man could feel for her charmless, disgraceful state now was sympathy.
After all, he knew very well that if he had been assigned to the same task, he would have been rolling around on the floor instead of Hilma.
“Come on Hilma, give it your best.”
She suddenly stopped and glared at the man before speaking.
“Wouldn’t it be alright if you manipulated that man… or made sure he didn’t do anything excessive?”
“Idiots like that ought to be controlled by women. Am I right?”
After hearing that question, Hilma went “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” again and continued rolling around on the ground.
“I think it won’t last much longer. We’ll move in earnest after another two or three years. Get more idiots together before that. We’ll do our best to help if you need to form a faction of idiots.”
“Two years is too long ahhhhhhhhh!”
“Still, those are our orders. Control the information they receive, and make a faction that will do even more foolish things.”
“That’s true ahhhhhhhh!”
Hilma suddenly stopped, and then she bolted upright.
“You’ve got it easy. All you need to do is mobilize the traders and spread the news of the Sorcerer King — His Majesty’s! — death to the Second Prince.”
You make it sound so easy, he thought,
In the past, he did not think that prince was very bright. However, he had slowly come to realize that this was because of the First Prince, which had made him disguise himself.
It was because the Second Prince was intelligent that getting the news to him required extremely careful and complicated maneuvering.
This was to keep him from realizing that he worked for the Sorcerous Kingdom.
“…It’s not as easy as you say it is.”
“…Ahh, my apologies. It’s given you a lot of work too, right… how about tonight, coming?”
Hilma mimed the action of drinking a big mouthful of wine.
“Sounds good. I need to make sure I don’t leak anything even when I’m stinking drunk.”
They may not been able to eat solid foods, but drinking was a different matter.
“Haha,” a withered smile appeared on Hilma’s face. “It’ll be fine. Our watchers will help us take care of it.”
“Haha,” a similar look appeared on his face. “That… is true…”
“But now that you mention it, where’s that lucky fellow now…”
There was only one person among them who could be considered a lucky fellow.
“Coccodol, huh? He’s still in jail because he lost his power during that struggle… lucky him.”
“You’re right… he really is…”
Chapter 6: Gunner and Archer
Part 1
After leaving Caspond’s room, the first place Neia went was the archery range. Neia’s subordinates had been waiting there and they immediately flocked to her.
As her friends went, “How did the meeting turn out, Miss Baraja?” “We’re always ready to go,” and other such things, Neia told them about the meeting.
She told them everything ― what had happened, what had been said, and the conclusions they had reached.
Most of them hunted for a living, and they were all excellent outdoorsmen. Even they could not help but nod grimly at Caspond’s conclusion. There was no doubt that searching the Hills would be extremely difficult.
That being the case, an early dispatch of a search party seemed impossible. However, they could conduct a simple search within the Holy Kingdom ― heading east from this place to the fortress line. Since it was unclear where the Sorcerer King had landed, he might be within the Holy Kingdom’s borders.
Several people skilled in ranger techniques stepped forward.
Neia wanted to take part as well, but she had practically no ranger skills, so she would only get in the way if she accompanied them.
This was an operation to rescue a righteous king who had reached a helping hand out to save the people of another country. As his squire, not being able to go felt like disloyalty, and it gnawed at Neia’s heart.
She felt like screaming the way she had done at Remedios, but nothing would come of it even if she did so.
Neia told everyone that they had received Caspond’s permission to search within the Holy Kingdom’s borders, but she could not take part herself.
“Leave it to us, Miss Baraja.”
“Ahhh. We’ll keep our eyes open while searching for His Majesty. We won’t miss a single clue about our great benefactor!”
“Alright, everyone. Once the Prince gives his permission, I, I’ll be counting on all of you!”
Neia bowed deeply to them.
“Miss Baraja, what will the rest of us do? How can we be useful to the Sorcerer King?”
As everyone looked at her with zeal in their eyes, Neia was filled with delight.
They did not think that the Sorcerer King was dead, even after witnessing that scene.
That’s right! How could His Majesty be dead! I’m sure, I’m sure he must be waiting for us to rescue him… I think.
Neia could not imagine a scenario where that supreme being would wait for these people to rescue him. For all she knew, they would probably find him elegantly sipping a glass of fine wine in front of a pile of demihuman and demon corpses.
“Alright! Then everyone who’s left will start training, because weakness is a sin!”
Indeed, that was all Neia could do now. She had to become strong enough to be of some small use next time. If she and her people had been strong enough, the righteous Sorcerer King would not have ended up like this.
“Ohhhh!”
She received a spirited answer. That was because everyone understood what Neia meant when she said, “The Sorcerer King is justice and weakness is a sin.” Not many people had agreed with those words when this unit had first been formed, but after mingling with them, more people had come around to her point of view.
“Then I’ll go see the Prince!”
After speaking directly with Caspond, the search party was quickly granted permission to move out. They had left on the day itself, and three days had passed since then.
While things might have gotten troublesome if the members of the search party had not been of one mind, the fact was that all of them had been chosen because they agreed with Neia’s proposal, and so they had left without delay.