Chapter 958 - They'll Handle It
Krais was not a perfect human being.
No matter how brilliant his mind was, he still needed a baseline of clues, context, and information to deduce the hidden truth behind any given situation.
Up until he arrived here, Krais had known far too little, and that was due to several overlapping reasons.
'The atmosphere of the capital is entirely different from Border Guard.'
That was the first reason.
Demonic minions operating in secret?
Such a thing was fundamentally impossible in Border Guard.
'No, I was simply being complacent.'
Krais recognized his failure to spot this first reason as sheer complacency.
The overwhelming martial prowess of the Madmen Knights had shaken the entire continent to its core, and every single thing they set out to do had gone off without a hitch.
The presence of Edin Molsan and his younger sister had given him much-needed breathing room in his workload.
Nurat's comfort had put his heart at ease, and Abnaier had flawlessly covered his blind spots.
'I was complacent. Utterly complacent.'
Krais violently snapped his mind to attention.
At this very moment, lightning struck inside his head, sending a sharp jolt through his entire body.
Because there was more than one reason he had missed the signs.
The second reason was...
'He hid it perfectly.'
Krang, the King of Naurillia, had intentionally and meticulously controlled the flow of information.
Despite constantly asking Krais for advice on various matters and exchanging countless letters, he hadn't revealed a single hint about the operations or schemes being prepared within the capital.
'Why?'
Because it absolutely needed to be kept a complete secret.
Was he worried that if he nudged them even slightly, the enemy would instantly dive back into their holes and hide like frightened rabbits?
'No, that's not it.'
Because exposing it would instantly incite mass panic?
This was the correct answer.
With Krang's single statement, Krais instantly read the entire flow of the situation.
His thoughts chased each other relentlessly, locking onto a few absolute facts and charging straight toward a conclusion.
'Have these demonic minions been an ongoing issue this entire time?'
When did Krang realize it?
And what exactly went through his mind after he did?
'If it were me?'
Krais's brain spun furiously.
'First, observe them.'
What exactly are demonic minions capable of doing?
The one that had infiltrated previously had abruptly transformed into a grotesque monster right on the spot.
Hadn't it confidently strutted into Border Guard spouting absolute nonsense about granting eternal life and vast lands?
They had even encountered another one of those exact minions on their way here.
'It's too dangerous to recklessly poke them before we've identified every single one.'
The moment they are poked, mass panic erupts.
Monsters appearing and fighting right in the middle of the capital?
And what if, after managing to defeat them, the mastermind pulling the strings—an entity far more dangerous—reveals itself?
'Just thinking about it is horrifying.'
That was the inevitable conclusion.
Therefore, if it were him, he would have chosen to observe them quietly as well.
While Enkrid was busy gathering dust on a plush chair, Krais finished formulating his thoughts and opened his mouth.
"Have you located all of them?"
With that abrupt question, Krang's gaze slid past Enkrid and landed on Krais.
The corners of his eyes curved softly.
"Yeah, I found them."
It was a conversation completely devoid of a subject.
The missing subject was the 'demonic minions'.
Even without exchanging a long, meaningful glance, the two men instantly read each other's inner thoughts.
"Did you lack the manpower? No, that can't be it. Do you want to send a warning?"
By 'manpower', Krais meant the military force required to eliminate them, and by 'warning', he was asking if Krang intended to wipe out the minions all at once to prove to the demons that such pathetic tricks were meaningless.
If he knew where they were, he should have already eliminated them.
Leaving them be was like knowing a torrential downpour was coming and still leaving the house without a tarp.
Mass panic or not, if it needed to be done, it had to be done—even if blood had to be spilled.
Krais's words just now carried exactly that implication.
Naturally, implying they would be eliminated in a way that didn't incite mass panic.
"Enki, are you absolutely sure you don't want to give this guy to me?"
Krang suddenly asked.
Enkrid didn't show any particular curiosity toward the conversation Krais and Krang were having.
Once those two finished speaking their cryptic language, they would naturally summarize it for him anyway.
Plus, he could already grasp the rough gist of what they were saying.
This was the exact aspect of Enkrid that Krais admired endlessly.
Enkrid possessed an eye that could observe a situation and instantly grasp the underlying cause and effect.
You could say the very 'vessel' of his being was different.
He was a man who never viewed the world egocentrically, maintaining total objectivity while holding fast to his own unyielding, righteous stubbornness.
"If he wants to go, he'll go."
Even his current answer was an extension of that righteous stubbornness.
Even if Enkrid loathed the idea of letting someone go, if that person chose to walk a path to achieve their own long-held dreams and ambitions, he wouldn't stop them; he would actively push them forward.
That was the kind of man Enkrid was.
After that nonchalant answer, a few more words flew between Krang and Krais.
"The warning will naturally deliver itself regardless, but I do actually lack the necessary hands. Because I want to handle this at 'night'."
Handling it at night was a metaphor.
It meant he intended to quietly eliminate them without alerting the public.
What exactly is a King?
To Krais's eyes, the King of Naurillia was a fence.
He was a man who desperately desired peace for everyone within by ensuring the darkness lurking outside the fence was never allowed in, nor ever seen.
"If you deal with them during the day, it will incite mass panic, and right now is an incredibly inconvenient time to be dealing with that kind of chaos, is it not?"
The opposite of 'night' is 'day', and handling it during the day meant a public execution.
The citizens would be terrified, but if it had to be done, it had to be done.
"It would certainly be an option to drag the minions out and publicly execute them, but that is only a last resort if this plan fails. Since Enkrid actually came, I figured I could be a little greedy."
Demonic minions might be1 currently living right next door, perfectly disguised as ordinary neighbors.
If that terrifying fact were to spread, mass hysteria would ensue.
People would lose their minds.
Everyone would start inherently suspecting everyone else.
Even if they managed to barely overcome it, the vibrant energy currently pulsing through the capital would instantly vanish.
It would be entirely replaced by cold paranoia and hostility.
Of course, Krang had prepared countermeasures for exactly that scenario.
He would deliver speeches, enact new policies, and rapidly expand the city guard.
The losses would be severe, but not unmanageable.
All of these measures would be designed not to make people wary of their neighbors, but to encourage them to safely look out for one another.
However, that was still the absolute worst-case scenario.
Right now was not the time to stop and just look after each other; it was the time to aggressively digest incoming resources and rapidly expand.
Trade with the West, the extended hand of the Trade Cities, establishing diplomatic ties with the Legion, and recently, even the small kingdom of Evergart stepping forward to become an ally.
They had avoided war with Aspen, and they had violently crushed the South with sheer force.
In terms of timing, there was never a better moment to stockpile resources and amass power.
Assuming, of course, demonic minions didn't suddenly start popping out right in the middle of the capital.
Chaos?
Hysteria?
Terror?
If it was absolutely necessary, he would swallow the bitter pill, but if it wasn't, why go out of his way to drag them down a treacherous path?
There were two distinct roads before them.
One was a perfectly paved, secure highway, and the other was a brutal mountain trail littered with jagged rocks and tangled tree roots, nearly impossible for a person to traverse.
It was glaringly obvious which path they should take.
Especially now, when they desperately needed to consolidate their strength.
Why?
Because if a war truly broke out against the Demonic Realms and the Empire, it wouldn't end quickly and cleanly in a simple clash of knights like the war against the South had.
What if the war never actually happened?
Even so, Krang was in a position where he had absolutely no choice but to prepare for it.
'War consumes a staggering amount of resources.'
They had to stockpile those resources just to have the ability to fight.
They had to cultivate their strength just to have the ability to fight.
It was exactly like hoarding water in preparation for a catastrophic drought.
Krais aggressively racked his brain.
His thoughts began by comparing the capital to the city he now called home.
'If this were Border Guard, dealing with them in broad daylight wouldn't be an issue, but...'
The capital was fundamentally different from Border Guard.
Border Guard was, at its core, a military city, and whenever necessary, individuals possessing the martial prowess of fully-fledged knights casually roamed the streets.
No matter how perfectly a demonic minion concealed its identity, they had an overwhelming surplus of methods to root them out.
'Assuming we had the spare capacity, that is.'
And Border Guard had an absolute overflow of spare capacity.
Setting everything else aside, Audin alone could effortlessly distinguish demons through pure divine power.
Theresa's hymns could easily blanket an entire city district.
If a minion was caught in the reverberations of her song, they would violently shriek and involuntarily reveal their true form.
"Damn it! Stop that god-awful screeching!"
Wouldn't they pop out screaming something exactly like that?
Audin had recently mentioned that Theresa's hymns now harbored a divine power far deeper and more profound than before.
Furthermore...
'We also have Dunbakel's sense of smell.'
Even the hyper-sensitive perception inherent to all knights was more than enough to distinguish a lowly minion.
Jaxen was specifically specialized in this exact field, and even if they weren't exactly at his level, there were plenty of people he had personally trained crawling all over the city.
Because of all this, Border Guard was a natural, impregnable fortress that demonic minions found near impossible to infiltrate.
Since the primary demographic of the city consisted of soldiers and warriors, even if a fight broke out in the streets, they would simply fight back.
'Then what about the capital?'
They had their own methods here as well.
'The Legion.'
The Holy City was the absolute antithesis of the demonic energy harbored by demons.
In other words, the people best equipped to identify demons were the priests who wielded divine power.
'Receiving aid from the Legion...'
Now that he thought about it, Krang had been hosting several large-scale events dedicated to the Goddess of the Scales starting a few months ago.
From a distance, it simply looked like a King hosting festivals to maintain public stability, but...
'When you look closely at the underlying intent, it's identical to begging them to catch demons.'
Which was absolute proof that the demonic minions had rooted themselves that deeply into the capital.
'Is our side completely fine?'
He was no longer just managing a single city; he had to oversee the entire territory.
Border Guard was perfectly fine even if a fight broke out, and realistically, there was absolutely no room for minions to infiltrate in the first place.
But what about the other cities?
Were demons so utterly stupid that they only sent their minions to the capital?
What about the commercial hub of Rockfreed, or the agricultural city of Green Pearl?
'Should I write a letter?'
No, there would likely be no need for that.
Abnaier, Edin Molsan, Leona.
The faces of those three flashed sequentially through his mind.
Edin primarily handled administration and personnel management.
And the city where demonic minions were most likely to have infiltrated was undoubtedly Rockfreed.
As a massive commercial hub with a constant, overwhelming influx of people coming and going, there was no better place for a minion to quietly settle down.
A merchant city branched off from Border Guard would look incredibly appetizing to a demon.
A wave of anxiety violently churned in his chest.
'It's fine. I can leave it to them.'
But what if...?
"I suspect we will face the exact same problem in Rockfreed," Krais stated, looking directly at Enkrid.
The anxiety and the underlying intent behind his words were completely transparent.
"They'll handle it," Enkrid replied without a single second of hesitation.
The funny thing was, those simple words caused a significant chunk of Krais's anxiety to instantly evaporate.
During that brief exchange, Krang leisurely spoke up.
"Would you care for a cup of tea first? Would you believe me if I told you the very first thing Duke Marcus did after taking over his House was establish a massive tea plantation on the outskirts of the capital? And that he even set one up in Zaltekburg, the territory of another the Duke? And that he spent an utterly absurd amount of gold coins to do it?"
"It's not as if I drained the Royal Treasury to fund it," Marcus, who had been quietly watching, retorted.
This was a reception room within the royal palace, heavily guarded by the Royal Guard stationed outside.
When Marcus gestured toward the door, a servant entered moments later carrying a tray with pre-warmed teacups, boiling water, and a teapot.
The teacups were striking—high-end porcelain with a pristine white base, intricately embroidered with gold lines.
"The cups are also important."
Knowing they would inevitably stare at the cups, Marcus stated this preemptively and gave Krais a pointed look.
Krais also had a thought as he sat down.
'Is this right? Is this truly the best course of action? Shouldn't I return to Border Guard right this second?'
No, don't lose focus.
There was no panic.
His brain, which had been running entirely on overdrive trying to catch up to the conversation and piece together the cause and effect, finally cooled down.
'They'll handle it.'
Enkrid's words roughly snatched the reins of his spiraling thoughts.
That's right.
They would.
They definitely would.
"Is that anxiety you feel a symbol of your lack of faith in me?"
The words his lover, Nurat, had once thrown at him as a joke sliced through his heart like a perfectly honed blade.
It was a memory deeply seared into his mind.
'The root of anxiety must never be a lack of trust.'
Because that only ever bred destructive discord.
Krais coldly and objectively evaluated the sheer military power he had left behind in Border Guard.
Strangely, as he continued to meticulously lay out the facts in his mind, a profound sense of peace gradually settled over him.
'Worrying is for later.'
Hadn't he just thought exactly that a moment ago?
Border Guard would not be shaken by something as trivial as demonic minions.
The real problem was right here, right now.
"I honestly have no idea what goes on inside that head of yours. I only caught on so easily because I already knew all the context beforehand," Marcus said, personally pouring the tea after dismissing the servant.
His words were aimed directly at Krais.
"That's only because you, Duke, have been entirely obsessed with your tea plantations," Krang shot back, causing Marcus to snort in derision.
The dynamic between the two hadn't changed in the slightest.
Krang continued.
"Ah, by the way, there's currently a rumor circulating among the nobility that Duke Marcus has actually been possessed by a demon, so don't be too shocked if you hear it."
"Ah, so that's how you're playing it?"
Krais replied instantly.
Enkrid completely failed to catch the implication here.
To be completely honest, he only understood the broad strokes of the situation and was largely ignorant of the intricate details.
He was simply waiting for Krais to summarize this specific part for him later.
Enkrid took a sip of the tea Marcus had personally brewed.
The taste was a perfect balance of sweet and bitterly astringent.
What exactly did he put in here to create this kind of flavor?
"It's a blend of three different tea leaves. What do you think?"
Marcus asked with a deeply triumphant attitude.
He had every right to be smug.
It was a profoundly deep, rich flavor with a lingering, aromatic aftertaste.
The cookies served alongside it were equally spectacular, practically melting in the mouth.
"They were baked by the Royal Confectioner. Killer, aren't they?" Krang asked with a grin.
They were cookies filled with a vibrant, fruit-infused cream.
They had the slight drawback of crumbling easily and making a mess, but those exact crumbs mixed flawlessly with the cream inside the mouth, melting away instantly.
They felt less like standard cookies and more like a perfect hybrid between a cake and a cookie.
Krais also took a sip of tea and popped a cookie into his mouth.
Krais carefully placed his racing heart right on the edge of the line called 'relief' and slowly caught his breath.
He savored the tea and cookies, silently repeating Enkrid's words and Nurat's advice over and over in his head.
Having firmly gripped the reins of his own mind, he pinpointed exactly what needed to be done right now.
And so, Krais abruptly spoke up.
"Execution must take place within three days at the absolute latest. Furthermore, I must send a letter back to Border Guard immediately."
***
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