Kraiss was not perfect either. No matter how fast his mind worked, he still needed information—clues, background, context—before he could infer the story hidden underneath.
Until he arrived here, Kraiss had known far too little, and that was because several reasons had overlapped.
'The capital and Border Guard feel different.'
That was the first.
A demon's servant hiding itself and operating inside the city? In Border Guard, that was out of the question.
'No, I was careless.'
Kraiss recognized his failure to notice the first reason as nothing less than his own complacency. The military strength of the Mad Order of Knights shook the whole continent, and everything they did kept going well.
Because of Edin Molsen and her younger sister, work had become easier to manage. Nurat's comfort had put his heart at ease, and Abnaier had covered the gaps he left behind.
'Careless. I was careless.'
Kraiss snapped himself back to attention. In that moment, lightning struck inside his head, and the current ran through his whole body. There was more than one reason.
The second was—
'They hid it well.'
Crang, king of Naurillia, had deliberately controlled the flow of information. He had asked Kraiss for all kinds of advice and sent countless letters, yet he had not revealed even a little of the operation or scheme he had been preparing inside the capital.
'Why?'
Because there had been a need to hide it thoroughly. Was he worried that if he poked at it too soon, the other side would dive into its burrow and hide like a frightened rabbit?
'No, not that.'
Because exposing it would stir up chaos? Yes, that seemed closer.
With just one sentence from Crang, Kraiss read the whole flow of this affair at once. Thoughts followed thoughts, one after another, confirming several facts and racing toward a conclusion.
'Had the demon's servants been a continuing problem all this time?'
When had Crang noticed? And once he had, what had he thought?
'If it were me?'
Kraiss's mind spun at full speed.
'I'd watch first.'
What could a demon's servant do?
The one that had come before had turned into a monster right on the spot. Hadn't one come all the way to Border Guard and shamelessly start spewing nonsense about granting immortality and land?
And they had run into such a servant again on the way here.
'Until you find all of them, it's hard to touch them carelessly.'
The moment you touched them, chaos would follow. A monster appearing and a fight breaking out in the middle of the capital?
Winning that fight, only for the power behind it to show itself afterward and be even more dangerous?
'Just thinking about it is awful.'
That was the conclusion. So if it were him, he would watch. While Enkrid sat there getting dust on the soft chair, Kraiss finished his thinking and opened his mouth.
"Did you find them all?"
At the abrupt question, Crang's gaze passed over Enkrid and landed on Kraiss. The corners of his eyes curved gently.
"Yes. We found them."
It was a conversation with the subject omitted. The missing subject was the demon's servants. Without any need for long stares, the two quickly read one another's intentions.
"Were you short on hands? I doubt that. Or did you want to send a warning?"
Hands meant the force needed to deal with them, and warning meant asking whether he intended to wipe out the servants all at once to show the demons that tricks like this were meaningless.
If you knew, you should have dealt with it. This was like knowing rain was coming and still setting out on the road without bringing a rain tarp.
Chaos or not, if it was necessary, then you did it even if blood had to be spilled. That was the intent in what Kraiss had just said. Of course, the point was to deal with it without letting chaos break out.
"Enki, you really don't plan to send that one to me?"
Crang said suddenly.
Enkrid did not show much curiosity toward the conversation between the two of them. Once those two finished talking like this, they would explain it on their own soon enough.
Besides, he could more or less follow the gist of it anyway.
That was one of the things Kraiss admired. Enkrid had an eye for looking at a situation and grasping cause and effect. You could say the man was made of a different material.
He did not look at the world in a self-centered way. He saw with objectivity and held to a righteous stubbornness.
"If he wants to go, he'll go."
That answer too was one of those examples of righteous stubbornness. Even if he did not want to let someone go, if that person was walking toward a long-held wish and dream, he would not stop them. He would push them onward instead. That was the kind of person Enkrid was.
After that casual answer, a few more words passed between Crang and Kraiss.
"The warning will get through on its own, but yes, I'm short on hands too. I want to handle this at night."
He wanted to handle it at night. It was a metaphor. It meant he wanted them erased without letting the people know.
What kind of man was the king?
To Kraiss's eyes, the king of Naurillia was a fence. He wanted peace for everyone within by not letting the darkness outside the fence come in, and by not showing it to them.
"So if you handle it by day, it'll cause chaos, and right now it would be troublesome in all kinds of ways to deal with that kind of uproar."
The opposite of night was day, and handling it by day meant a public execution. People would be shocked, but if it was necessary, then it was something that had to be done.
"It'd be fine to reveal the demon's servants and destroy them openly, but that's when this move doesn't work. Since Enkrid came, I'm trying to be a little greedy."
A demon's servant lived next door disguised as your neighbor.
If that fact spread, panic would follow. People would lose their minds. Everyone would start suspecting everyone else.
Even if they barely managed to overcome it, the liveliness flowing through the capital right now would vanish. In its place would come coldness.
Of course, even if it came to that, Crang had measures prepared to deal with it.
He would give speeches, put policies in place, and increase the city watch. The losses would be great, but not unbearable.
All of that would become a way of making people safely look after each other rather than suspecting those around them.
But that was the inferior option. Right now was not the time to stop and cling to one another. It was the time to absorb the resources flowing in and keep growing.
Trade with the West, the hand extended by the trade city, diplomatic ties with Legion, and now even the small kingdom of Evergart had come forward saying it wanted to stand on the same side.
They were no longer fighting Aspen, and the south had been crushed by force. Timing-wise, it was the perfect moment to build strength and stockpile.
That was, if demon servants did not start popping out in the middle of the city.
Chaos? Panic? Shock? If it was necessary, then he would endure it. But if it was not necessary, why choose the harsher road on purpose?
There were two roads. One was a well-paved highway. The other was a mountain trail tangled with tree roots and rocks, hard for people to travel.
Which road they should take was obvious. All the more so because now was the time to gather strength.
Why? Because if war broke out against the Demon lands or the Empire, it would not end neatly with a knight battle the way the recent southern war had.
Could it be that war might not happen at all? Even so, Crang was in a position where he had to prepare.
'War consumes an enormous amount of supplies.'
You had to stockpile those supplies to fight. You had to build strength to fight. It was like storing water in case the fields got no rain.
Kraiss turned his mind over too. His thoughts began with comparing the capital and the city where he lived.
'If it were Border Guard, handling it in broad daylight would be fine.'
But the capital was different from Border Guard. Border Guard was a military city from the start, and if necessary, knight-class forces could move through the city openly without anyone thinking much of it.
No matter how well a demon's servant hid its identity, there were more than enough ways to detect it.
'That's only if you have room to spare.'
And Border Guard had room to spare.
Leaving all else aside, Audin alone could distinguish demons through holiness. Teresa's sacred song could fill an entire district of the city.
If a servant got caught in that singing, it would probably blow up and reveal itself while shouting something like:
"Damn it! Stop screeching already!"
Wouldn't it come bursting out like that? Audin had recently said Teresa's sacred song held deeper holiness than before.
And on top of that—
'There's Dunbakel's sense of smell too.'
Even a knight's sharpened senses could distinguish a servant. Jaxon was particularly specialized in that area, and while others were not his equal, many in the city had learned from him.
That was why Border Guard was a natural fortress where demon servants had difficulty approaching in the first place. Most of the people in the city were soldiers and warriors, so even if fighting broke out, they would simply fight.
'Then what about the capital?'
These people had methods too.
'Legion.'
The holy city was the natural opposite of demonic energy. In other words, the people best able to distinguish demons were priests who carried holiness.
'With help from Legion and support from the state religion.'
Come to think of it, Crang had held several more events for the Goddess of the Scales starting a few months ago.
From a distance, they had simply looked like events for a stable city.
'But if you looked inside them, they were basically requests to catch demons.'
Which in turn proved just how deeply demon servants had rooted themselves here.
'Is our side really all right?'
Now he had to look after not just one city, but the entire territory.
Border Guard could fight without issue, and before that, there was hardly any opening for servants to enter in the first place.
But what about the other cities? Were demons such brainless idiots that they had only sent servants to the capital?
What about the trade city of Lockfried and the farming city of Greenpearl?
'Should I write a letter?'
No, there was probably no need.
Abnaier, Edin Molsen, Leona.
The faces of those three passed through his mind in order.
Edin mainly handled administration and people.
And the city demon servants would most likely have entered was Lockfried.
It was a trade city, with all kinds of people coming and going. There was probably no better place for servants to settle in.
A merchants' city split off from Border Guard would have looked delicious to demons. Anxiety stirred in his heart.
'It's fine. Leave it alone.'
Still... what if?
"I expect Lockfried has the same problem."
Kraiss said it while looking at Enkrid. The anxiety and intention in those words were transparent.
"They'll handle it."
Enkrid answered without a second thought. The funny thing was, with just that one sentence, some of the anxiety ebbed away.
In the space left by that short exchange, Crang slowly opened his mouth.
"Will you have some tea first? Would you believe me if I told you the very first thing Duke Marcus did after taking over his house was build tea fields outside the capital? Or that he even set up tea fields in Zaltecbuk, the Duchy of Octo? And that he spent an absurd amount of gold on it?"
"It wasn't from the royal treasury."
Marcus, who had been watching, spoke up as well. This was a reception room in the palace guarded outside by the Royal Guard. Marcus signaled toward the door, and before long, a servant came in carrying a tray with warmed teacups on it, along with boiled water and a teapot.
The cups stood out. They were high-end pieces, white porcelain embroidered with golden lines.
"The cup matters too."
Since it was obvious their attention would go to the cup, Marcus said that first and gestured to Kraiss. Sitting down, Kraiss thought,
'Is this right? Is this the best way? Should I be heading back right now?'
No. Don't let your mind scatter.
There was no excitement left in him. His mind that had been running wild as it chased the story and its cause and effect had calmed down.
'They'll handle it.'
Enkrid's words had grabbed the reins of his thoughts. Right. That was true. They would.
"Is that anxiety a sign that you don't trust me?"
Those words Nurat, his lover, had once tossed out like a joke pressed against his heart like a blade. It was a memory carved into his mind.
'The reason for anxiety can't be a lack of trust.'
That would only create discord.
Kraiss calmly recalled the forces left behind in Border Guard.
Strangely enough, the more he thought it through, the more peace came over him.
'Worry is for later.'
Hadn't he just been thinking something similar? Border Guard would not be shaken by mere demon servants. The problem was here, now.
"I really have no idea what's inside your head. I knew the circumstances from start to finish, so I accepted it easily enough."
After sending the servant away, Marcus poured the tea himself and spoke. It was directed at Kraiss.
"That's because your head was full of tea fields, Duke."
Crang took the words and Marcus snorted. Their relationship had not changed. Crang continued,
"Ah, and don't be surprised to hear that among the nobles, rumors are already spreading that Duke Marcus has fallen under a demon's spell."
"Ah, so that's how you're doing it."
Kraiss answered.
Enkrid had not fully caught up to this part either. To be honest, he understood the broad outline, but not the finer details.
He was simply waiting for Kraiss to explain that part later.
Enkrid drank the tea Marcus had brewed himself. It tasted sweet and bitter at the same time.
What the hell did you even have to put in it to get a taste like this?
"It's a blend of three tea leaves. What do you think?"
Marcus asked in a self-satisfied tone. Fair enough. It was deep, rich, and left a lingering fragrance. The cookies served with it clung pleasantly to the mouth too.
"They were made by the royal baker. Killer, right?"
Crang said with a grin. They were cookies filled with cream scented with fruit. Their weakness was that they crumbled too easily, but those crumbs mixed with the cream in the mouth and melted away softly.
They felt like something halfway between a cookie and a cake.
Kraiss too drank the tea and put a cookie into his mouth.
Kraiss carefully kept his heart just inside the line called relief and steadily calmed his breathing.
He savored the tea and the cookies, and at the same time repeated both Enkrid's words and what Nurat had once told him. He tightened his hold on his own mind and searched for what needed to be done right now.
Then Kraiss suddenly said,
"The operation should be carried out within three days at the latest. And we should send a letter to the Border Guard's side."