Chapter 956 - Courtship
"King Luger was a bit strange, wasn't he?" Krais remarked.
Enkrid glanced at the large-eyed bastard sitting across from him in the carriage.
He wondered what exactly Krais was getting at.
"He has absolutely no reason to go out of his way to fight demons and eradicate Demonic Realms."
Krais was right.
The small kingdom of Evergart was exactly that—small.
A nation consisting of just one trade city and one small agricultural town, and that was it.
Under the protection of their Guardian Knight, Bartolo, it was an incredibly peaceful nation.
'Not an isolated life, but a stable one.'
Even to Enkrid's eyes, the people living in Evergart were incredibly fortunate.
If the continent was completely free of danger and Demonic Realms didn't exist, it would be a different story.
But with external threats so glaringly obvious, there was zero logical reason for them to abandon their hard-earned peace and step into the fire.
At least, that was the case if you possessed an ordinary mindset.
But Krais quickly countered his own point.
He had likely intended to lead the conversation exactly this way from the very start.
"Though I do have a rough idea of why he's stepping up now. That King has looked toward tomorrow."
It was exactly the kind of analysis you'd expect from a pessimistic optimist.
To summarize, his logic was this: Luger had concluded that if he remained complacent in the present, Evergart would inevitably be swept away and left behind by the coming changes.
He had judged that the winds of change currently blowing across the continent were the most violent they had ever been.
Even if they couldn't eradicate every single Demonic Realm, starting with the establishment of the secure highways, the entire political landscape of the continent had fundamentally shifted.
'A demon ruling a Demonic Realm has been killed.'
Anyone who understood the true weight of that single sentence would naturally recognize the shifting tides.
On top of that, Beelrog had been slain, and several massive bandit groups and heretical cults had been completely crushed and scattered.
Bandits hadn't gone extinct, of course.
There were still petty thieves and thugs stealing and pillaging here and there.
And though their numbers were small, remnants of the heretical cults were still scattered about, causing endless headaches.
However, they no longer possessed the power to operate freely as they pleased.
They had literally been reduced to mere crumbs.
Along with the eradication of the cults and major bandit groups, Naurillia had drastically reduced its number of enemies by establishing diplomatic ties with its long-standing rival, Aspen.
Most notably, the moment they secured victory in the recent war with the South, Naurillia officially became the absolute hegemon of the central continent.
Because Krang dedicated himself to stabilizing the continent regardless of the war, even those ignorant of politics hailed him as a great king.
The moniker 'The Unification King' was already circulating among the masses.
And naturally, the infamy of the Madmen Knights—the King's personal sword—skyrocketed alongside him.
"They say Sir Enkrid steals a woman's soul just by looking at her."
Rumors like that floated around, solidifying his title as the 'Demonic Knight'.
"A barbarian who will sever your neck just for making eye contact."
That was what they said about Rem.
The wielder of the greatsword who swung his blade even in his sleep—that was Ragna.
An Apostle of the War God, born as a bear beastkin but transformed into a human through a miracle spell—that was Audin.
"Ho ho, the Lord told me he wishes to personally meet the man who came up with these monikers," Audin had muttered upon hearing his rumors.
Beyond that, there were rumors that they had hired the entirety of Geogr's Dagger, the continent's greatest assassin syndicate.
They were a crew consisting of a beastkin reeking of sweat, a defector who had abandoned the Crimson Cloaks, an abandoned shepherd from the Wilderness, a giant birthed by the War God, and so on.
Looking at the state of these titles, it was obvious that most of these exaggerated rumors had originated right inside Border Guard.
"But if you ask me whether we've grown larger than the Empire, the answer is still no," Krais continued.
Through sheer conquest, the Empire had unified the currency and language of the entire continent.
It was easy to say, but almost impossible to fathom how they had actually achieved it.
King Luger surely wasn't ignorant of the Empire's might either.
Yet, he still chose to step outside his perfectly safe fence.
Setting aside the looming threat of the Empire and the existence of demons and Demonic Realms, if he didn't step forward now, there would never be another opportunity for him to do so.
Therefore...
"You could call it a necessary step to avoid being entirely left behind."
If Evergart stayed exactly as they were, they would eventually be buried in the sands of history and forgotten entirely.
Because their trade city had recognized this early on, they had already established deep ties with Border Guard and shifted their entire operational strategy to rely heavily on Naurillia.
"Of course, I also know that King didn't look like that kind of coldly calculating man."
Just as Enkrid was about to say exactly that, Krais beat him to the punch.
It made the bastard look incredibly smug.
He was a truly frustrating man to try and beat in an argument.
He knew exactly how to cut off the flow of a conversation and steer the narrative exactly where he wanted it.
Furthermore, Enkrid also understood the real reason Krais had brought this up.
Before talking about hope, Krais wanted to burn away the lingering dregs of his own anxiety.
"For those reasons, if the ministers of Evergart have even half a brain, they won't try to block King Luger's decision."
"So, did you not like King Luger's little tantrum?"
Enkrid asked, playing along.
The carriage jolted—thump—likely rolling over a rock, but exactly as Leona had boasted, their rears didn't leave the seats.
The shock absorbers installed on the carriage were working perfectly.
Had she mentioned they were crafted from highly elastic, bent steel layered with thick leather?
"No, it's a very good thing. But, how should I put it... it feels exactly like standing on the absolute edge of a cliff and desperately praying the wind doesn't blow."
One wrong step meant a fatal plummet.
Humans do not have wings.
If they fall, they die.
That's the end of it.
Krais's anxiety had grown significantly larger than before.
The reason he was currently rambling on about obvious things they both already knew was exactly that.
"We're going to win, right? We will win, won't we?"
Krais asked, sliding open the small window on his side of the carriage.
Clop-clop, clop-clop—
The leisurely rhythm of hooves echoed outside.
The wind blew through the open window, but the faint dust kicked up from the paved highway didn't make it inside.
The carriage was moving at a comfortable, moderate pace.
"What do you think?"
Enkrid asked back.
Krais, who had been blankly staring out the window, turned his gaze back to Enkrid, blinked his large eyes, and spoke.
"We have to win."
Yes, exactly.
You pessimistic optimist bastard, stating the absolute obvious.
"We will."
Krais heard exactly what he wanted to hear and nodded in satisfaction.
The fact that an envoy from the Empire was arriving in the capital was the catalyst for this entire conversation.
Whatever it was the Empire wanted, it was finally time to gauge exactly what kind of entity they were dealing with.
Therefore, it was time to sharpen their focus and stay alert.
He couldn't shake off all his anxiety, but this was his process of letting some of it wash away and replacing it with faith.
After giving his answer, Enkrid turned his gaze out the window.
He locked eyes with Esther, who had chosen to ride on horseback, claiming the carriage was too stuffy.
"Do you require the counsel of a witch?"
"No."
Enkrid shook his head and reiterated his stance.
"Because I will fight until I win."
In some ways, it was an incredibly ignorant, painfully simple statement, but there was not a single shred of doubt in the sheer Will backing those words.
Enkrid would simply do what he always did, moving forward in exactly what he believed.
His resolve and Will hadn't faded in the slightest.
"We have a guest," Esther announced from atop her pitch-black horse.
She pointed forward, and a grotesque, muddy shadow came into view.
'Muddy' was the only way to describe its texture and form.
It was a shadow literally rising from the dirt.
It looked as if someone had mixed thick mud into it.
A thin crack appeared down the center of it and peeled open, revealing pale skin underneath.
Starting with long, spindly fingers, an arm slithered out.
Krais poked his head out the window.
The Border Guard soldier acting as their driver next to Rem tilted his head in confusion, but casually slowed the carriage down.
The pale hand fully emerged from the shadow, and then, the creature's mouth opened.
"I am a messe—"
THWACK!
The creature didn't even get to finish its sentence.
A throwing axe cleaved through the emerging hand, tearing straight through the flesh hidden inside the shadowy husk.
Rem casually performed acrobatics from the driver's seat.
He dangled his right leg off the side, leaned his body halfway out, pulled his right arm as far back as it would go, and launched the axe.
As Rem hopped down from the carriage and casually raised his left hand, the disk-shaped axe that had split the monster blocking their path arced high into the sky and boomeranged perfectly back into his grip.
Catch.
Lightly snatching the throwing axe out of the air, Rem asked.
"What the hell are you?"
Enkrid had also stepped out of the carriage at some point.
Listening to Rem's words, he thought to himself.
Don't people usually ask that before they throw an axe?
Well, considering it was so blatantly an enemy, he supposed this method wasn't terrible either.
The shredded chunks of flesh, along with thick black blood, squirmed obscenely on the ground before slithering back into the main shadow.
"You have collapsed the boundary between the superficial world and the inner world."
When had she moved?
Esther, now off her horse, had closed the distance to within five paces of the shadow monster.
She quietly observed the creature with her deep, lake-blue eyes.
Danger?
She felt absolutely none.
Esther was overflowing with relaxed confidence.
"I am a messe—"
The monster hidden within the shadow thrust its pale arm out once more, desperately trying to convey its intent.
Its voice leaked out from the gaping crack.
BAM!
With a casual flick of her hand, Esther crushed it right in front of her.
Enkrid instantly recognized that Esther had compressed the wind and used it like a solid boulder to smash it.
"Oh," Rem marveled.
Having just pulverized the monster with sheer wind pressure, Esther spoke casually.
"So it doesn't die. What a bizarre spell."
It was clearly a type of forbidden magic, but it was difficult to fully decipher at a single glance.
Her blue eyes sparkled with intense light.
Curiosity reared its head.
To her, dissecting and unraveling spells was the ultimate exploration of the unknown.
The sheer act of learning something new brought her immense joy.
That was exactly why she was reacting like this.
Krais and the soldier driver merely watched the spectacle unfold.
"This—"
A voice leaked out from the writhing mass of shadows yet again.
It was the exact moment its head abruptly popped out from the pale crack.
Enkrid, who had closed the distance without a sound, gently dragged his angled blade right across the monster.
Sliiiice.
A casually swung sword cleanly bisected the entire mass of shadows.
The deep blue light of Will clinging to the blade left a lingering afterimage in the air.
From the severed shadow, black blood and chunky gore spilled out.
The pale arm, chunks of a torso, and blackened organs scattered messily across the dirt.
"...I was trying to help you, you ignorant fools. Come find me before the war truly begins. I will be waiting in the Demonic Realm."
The pure white monster muttered, surviving solely through its severed mouth.
The snout-like shape that had spilled out of the shadow muttered those final words before dissolving into a shower of dull, white ash.
Ultimately, the only thing the monster left behind was a small pile of white ash.
"Bone Head."
Esther summoned her Flesh Golem to scrape up the remnants the monster had left behind.
She examined it closely before speaking.
"It's a type of summoning spell. They prepared it in advance and laid it like a trap here."
Though the spell itself wasn't particularly complex.
"Are you saying they knew exactly when and where we would be traveling?" Krais asked.
His brow furrowed deeply.
It was the exact expression he made whenever something incredibly displeasing occurred.
"Because they're demons, did they just inherently know we were coming and waited for us?" the soldier muttered from the driver's seat.
"You really think that's the case?"
Rem immediately shot back.
There wasn't a single slow-witted person here.
Rem had instantly grasped the core implication behind Krais's furrowed brow and his question.
"Indeed. The preparation time for this spell couldn't have been long. Two days at the absolute maximum; it's not a spell designed to be maintained any longer than that," Esther added.
Krais sucked air through his teeth, turned to Enkrid, and asked.
"It wouldn't be okay if I just headed back to Border Guard right now, would it?"
"Yeah, no," Enkrid answered instantly.
Just as Rem had caught on, Enkrid had figured it out as well.
'A spell, two days, an ambush.'
To be precise, it seemed less like an ambush and more like a deliberate attempt to deliver a message, but to Enkrid, it was exactly the same thing.
The conclusion was this:
'Someone figured out our exact travel route and tipped them off to the exact timing.'
There was no need to ask who the master of that summoning spell was.
It belonged to a demon.
And judging by the contents of the message, it sounded like yet another pathetic, arrogant trick.
"The letter was sealed with the official Royal crest, and the Empire's envoy arriving is heavily restricted information known only to a select few," Krais stated.
Are demons omnipotent and omniscient?
The answer is 'No'.
According to what Esther had explained previously, they were nothing more than beings desperately clawing and thrashing to achieve Ascension and become gods.
"If they didn't just inherently know and prepare for it, there is only one logical conclusion left," Krais reiterated, staring directly at Enkrid.
"Because they're demons?"
The soldier—who genuinely loathed using his brain—chimed in again from the side.
"Someone tipped them off. Just because they're demons doesn't mean they know absolutely everything," Enkrid answered, shattering the soldier's biased assumption.
He didn't know exactly what the demons were fully capable of, but one thing was absolutely certain: if you blindly feared them or treated them like omnipotent gods, you would never be able to fight them.
The soldier simply muttered, "Is that so?" and nodded.
What was interesting was that the soldier wasn't paralyzed by fear.
However, he still wore a thoroughly dumbfounded expression.
"We'll find out when we get there," Rem stated.
That was the correct answer.
Esther, declaring she was sick of riding a horse, climbed into the carriage, and Enkrid took the horse instead.
They sent the soldier driver back to Border Guard with one of the spare horses.
Not even half a day later, their path was blocked once again.
This time, it was a pitch-black goat with glowing crimson eyes.
"I am a messe—"
Just because it could speak didn't mean there was any reason to listen.
Sliiiice.
Enkrid launched himself off his horse in a dead sprint and vertically cleaved the bastard in half.
The goat monster, whose tongue had mutated into a thrashing snake, couldn't utter another syllable.
This one didn't leave behind any white ash.
It died exactly like a normal monster, spilling its guts and flesh everywhere and leaving a bloody corpse behind.
"This seems to be a different demon entirely," Krais observed from the driver's seat.
When you look at the sequence of events, certain things become glaringly obvious.
Just as they had before, it seemed the demons—the Lords of the Demonic Realms—were aggressively courting Enkrid once again.
Caw! Caw!
High above them in the sky, a single crow shrieked loudly.
***
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