"The commander and Rem will have to start working tonight. The servants know we've arrived too, but they won't expect us to move this very night. More likely, they'll assume we're still thinking and turning things over in our heads. So we act immediately. I heard Andrew Gardner is managing most of this operation, but we won't make contact with him. We leave that side as it is and move separately. Then the servants will be thrown off too. If we use that gap in their awareness, they won't even realize what's happening. The key is deceiving allies and enemies alike. Especially Andrew. Ah, and the operation's codename is Capital Murderer. If there's something hiding behind the enemy, drawing it out is what we're after."
That was the flood of words Kraiss rattled off in one burst. Even Enkrid had not understood it.
"Say it so people can understand, damn it."
Rem scolded him.
No matter what anyone said, Esther quietly looked at the teacup and cookies. Enkrid picked up a cookie and handed it to her.
The way she bit into it with a crunch looked like a painting. When crumbs clung to the corner of her mouth, Enkrid brushed them away for her.
The two were comrades-in-arms, companions moving toward the same goal. Small acts of care like that came naturally.
"So did you dump the fairy? Is the Black Flower the only lover you've got left now?"
Crang asked while staring. It was obviously a joke, but Enkrid answered faithfully. He was afraid of the aftermath if Shinar ever heard something like that.
Wouldn't that be more than enough to turn into teasing that lasted for days, maybe months?
"No. Shinar is training in the city."
At Enkrid's answer, Crang's gaze shifted to Esther.
"Man or woman, anyone ordinary would be enchanted."
Though of course, Crang and Marcus, the ones who said it, were not enchanted by Esther.
Because those two were not ordinary people.
Esther did not show any ill will toward their looks either.
Naturally, the commander of the Royal Guard and the two soldiers guarding the front of the reception room were the same.
They glanced at Esther, but immediately turned their eyes away. Their minds were tempered too. The ones who became Royal Guards had unusual strength of Will.
Lately Esther, through training her spells, had begun giving off an even more bewitching charm. You could say it suited her title of Black Flower even better now.
The few pointless words exchanged between Enkrid and Crang slowed the pace of the conversation.
"Right, start talking again."
Only then did Enkrid say it.
At that, Crang muttered that Enkrid would have done well as a politician too.
Kraiss changed his method of explanation and made it a little easier to take in.
"We fight for a few days the way Jaxon would. Only we don't tell anyone, and we act like a murderer who enjoys the thrill of killing."
In his head, he had already fixed both the beginning and the end of the strategy. As he spoke, he wrote a few lines on a sheet of letter paper—Enkrid didn't know when he had taken it out—then folded it neatly, slipped it into an envelope, took out a seal from inside his coat, set it beside the candlestick, let about ten drops of wax fall from the candle, and sealed it.
"Well now, a pretty annoying name just came up, but you're saying something like that is necessary?"
Rem said it while grabbing a few cookies and eating them.
"Smart."
Esther said it with admiration, and Kraiss nodded.
"Yes."
The sun had not gone down yet, so there was still plenty of time to rest today. To be honest, it had not even been a journey exhausting enough to feel truly tired from.
Watching them, Marcus found himself thinking again that these bastards really were not normal.
The king and he himself had handled this calmly too, but these people had a ridiculous amount of room to spare.
He had told them to kill, and they moved as if it were nothing at all.
In the end, it came down to this. They regarded facing demon servants as no great matter.
Naturally, the royal house could deal with those servant bastards too, but it was hard to maintain this much composure the way these people did.
Why? It was not about a difference in raw strength.
Enkrid and the Mad Order of Knights had deep experience fighting the Demon lands, monsters, and demons. That was what gave them their ease.
"Then get some rest from here on."
Crang looked over the list he had just received from Marcus, memorized it, then burned it in the candle flame. Gray ash remained on the table at the end of the paper's brief flare.
That was the end of the meeting.
They returned, were assigned rooms, and rested. Kraiss told them the names and appearances of the people who needed to die.
Crang and Marcus had already finished a detailed investigation. The center of it all was Andrew, who had been appointed head of public order.
"This is reeaaally annoying."
Partway through, Rem voiced a complaint. He did not mind killing as much as needed, but he did not like the idea of fighting like Jaxon.
Enkrid gave him exactly the words he needed.
"Ah, not confident?"
Crack.
A blood vessel popped out on Rem's forehead.
"You asking if I can't do what that sneaky wildcat does? I know this is a provocation, and I know you're trying to force your way under my skin, but it still pisses me off."
Right. Even if you knew, it only counted as a provocation if it still made you angry.
Rem leaned forward on the bed, eyes gleaming. A savage gray light filled them.
"You think I can't do it? Me? I'm Rem, the greatest hunter in the West."
He probably would do well at it. Honestly, it suited Rem even better than Enkrid himself. And those were demon servants on the inside, but on the outside they were nobles.
From noble killer to noble hunter to noble butcher—that was the history of Rem's changing nicknames.
There was no one better suited to this job. Assassination was the foundation of it, but the person best fit for it was a barbarian who treated killing nobles as a hobby.
"I don't plan on sitting around either."
Esther cut in here.
It was hard to guess what was in her heart. Well, she said she wanted to do it, and no one intended to stop her.
"If you kill them with spells, that'll leave traces."
Kraiss dragged over a chair set in the bedroom, sat down, and said. Esther answered at once.
"I'll tear them to death."
And this was not a joke.
Esther leaned against the window and looked outside. It was just before deep black darkness settled over everything. The last fading sunlight seeped in through the window.
It was a warm, mild day.
That made it all the more ironic that what they were discussing, gathered together in a room on such a day, was a plan for killing.
The bedroom was spacious.
It was Enkrid's room.
"Then."
Kraiss spoke and stood. They each washed, ate, and shook off the fatigue of travel. Enkrid too had several maids attend to him and clean his body.
"You have many scars."
Humans were not Frogs. Frogs only failed to regenerate and developed scars if they suffered mental shock, but humans were different.
Becoming a knight did not mean transcending the traits of one's race, so it was only natural for the body to bear many scars.
And Enkrid was someone who had clawed his way up from the very bottom. The scars left on his body were far more numerous than those on any ordinary fighter.
The maid scrubbing his back was not young. She was one of those who had served the palace for a long time.
"Thank you."
That was what she said.
Enkrid did not know it, but her son was one of the soldiers who had gone out to the southern battlefield.
Someone had to fight for the people standing behind them to live in peace. Even knowing that, the middle-aged maid had spent several nights in tears. Her anxiety had kept her from sleeping properly.
She had lost her husband in her youth and raised her nursing child all the way to adulthood.
A bit of noble blood from an earlier generation had barely allowed her to become a maid in the royal palace, and because of that, she had been able to raise that child.
What must a mother's heart have felt when the child she had raised alone without a husband was told he was going off to war?
"I wish all war would disappear."
The maid said.
It was her dream.
War existed for nothing but killing and being killed. Shouldn't something like that vanish?
For her son's sake, and for everyone's sake.
That was her wish.
Enkrid hummed "Knight of the Armistice" under his breath.
"It's a good song."
That was what she said while finishing cleaning him and stepping back, then continued,
"Because of you, my son came back alive."
That was the maid's final greeting.
Enkrid tilted his head once, then returned to the room and slept. There was no Ferryman, and no dream at all—just deep, solid sleep. He could not sleep long, but it was enough to wash away every last bit of lingering fatigue.
As soon as night fell, Enkrid opened his eyes and, by habit, began preparing his gear. He took off the horn-bugle dagger and the War God's leather armor. He also removed the fairy's cloak and hung it neatly to one side.
'Take off anything distinctive.'
Instead, he put on thick black clothes and a black cloak.
Only after finishing his preparations did he open the window and step outside.
He had deliberately taken a room with a large window. It was attached to a tower, so the height was dizzying, but did that matter?
Of course not.
Enkrid casually poured Will into the cloak and jumped. It was not as comfortable as using the fairy's cloak, but now it was a trick that was no trouble at all. The cloak spread wide with a flap and swelled with the wind.
He descended to the ground as if gliding.
He had dropped from a height tall enough for three giants standing on each other's shoulders, but the sound when he touched the earth was no more than a soft tap.
Rem and Esther had taken the rooms to either side.
Almost at the same moment Enkrid landed, Rem and Esther came out the windows of the adjacent rooms too.
Rem, using the soul of an eagle in his cloak, came down in much the same way as Enkrid, but he made not even the slightest sound. It was no different from a cat's landing. Esther slowly came down leaning against the wall. Her body slid down the wall at a steady speed.
All three of them were people to whom a height like this meant nothing.
And moving secretly while sensing the presences around them was no problem either.
They were knights.
That meant sensing the presence of nearby people was effortless for them.
Enkrid immediately set off.
The very first target Kraiss had pointed out was one of the peace faction.
A member of a noble house opposed to war.
Wasn't he one of the bastards Andrew was watching?
If they ran into each other, they ought to at least exchange a greeting with their eyes.
Thinking that, Enkrid blended into his surroundings with Assimilation and erased his presence. As he walked, no one noticed him.
The Assimilation was extremely natural.
It was several times cleaner than what one of the Aspen knights had used before.
Not right up close, perhaps, but if he crouched in the bushes beside a path people passed through, even a patrolling Royal Guard would fail to notice him.
A patrolman had just passed by up ahead.
'This way.'
Rem signaled with his hand. He spread the index and middle fingers of his left hand and pointed to one side.
Enkrid and Esther quietly followed behind him.
As they kept moving, the number of patrolmen clearly decreased.
Rem cloaked his presence with sorcery, and Esther did the same by chanting a spell.
Enkrid walked through the darkness with flawless ease.
At one point, a soldier with especially sharp senses gave their direction a quick glance, but even he failed to spot the three of them moving while using the shadows cast by moonlight.
'Assimilation.'
Enkrid moved Will and blended his body into the nearby bushes and the chill night air.
He had not prepared for moments like this specifically, but it was stealth good enough to earn praise from Jaxon. It came from Assimilation.
Assimilation too was one of a knight's arts, so naturally he had trained it. And after all, there was everything he had gone through at Jaxon's hands.
Imitating this much was not difficult.
That was how the three of them made their way out of the royal palace. One of the Royal Guards watching the gate had cracked the gate open slightly and stepped away for a moment, and so the three passed without showing themselves to anyone.
A Royal Guard leaving the gate unattended?
Normally that would have been unthinkable, but today the commander of the Royal Guard had specially entrusted the job to a few subordinates he could rely on.
"Doesn't the night air feel nice?"
Rem said with his usual snickering laugh. There was no tension in him.
The three of them had far better night vision than ordinary people.
Avoiding the night watchmen carrying lanterns was no effort at all. They chose rooftops and alley walls as they moved, and not a single person saw even their shadows.
Partway through, Esther changed into a leopard and ran.
That was how Enkrid, Rem, and Esther came upon a certain estate.
It was the estate the Duke of Octo used when staying in the royal palace.
Naturally, the person living there now was the Duke of Octo.
Enkrid was just about to go over the wall of the ducal estate when Esther, now changed back from a leopard into a person, spoke.
"A spell."
At those words, Enkrid narrowed his eyes and looked at the top of the wall.
'A line.'
You could call it a thin cord.
A cord painted black.
It was one of the spell objects.
This was the estate of a high-ranking noble.
Security on this level was only natural.