Kreuz—the commander of the second division of the kingdom’s inspection force, the 『Phoenix’s Eyes』—was leading ten of his subordinates, heading toward the area around the mine in Viscount Le Gael’s territory.
「Kreuz-sama, are we… really going to that place?」
Kreuz’s subordinate, a black-haired swordswoman named Frey, asked this with a doubtful look on her face.
「Y-Yeah, it should be okay. At the very least, I know that he’s not our enemy. That man is the one who asked me to take care of the child. Moreover… I also saw with my eyes how easily he slayed the underlings of 『Devil’s Piper』.」
Kreuz replied this, albeit while chewing his lips in frustration.
The trace of chewed lips could be seen from the gaps in his mithril.
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「Uh, the thing that I want to ask isn’t that… I mean, you realized too, right, Kreuz-sama? I’m prepared to give my life for the kingdom. But this… don’t you think that fighting against those people is… way too reckless?」
「It’s not reckless… killing even one of those lunatics can save hundreds of innocent citizens… Yes, this is by no means dying in vain. Ryuk alone is enough to act as our messenger.」
Kreuz spoke as if he came to terms with that.
「Since Kreuz-sama is really serious about this matter, allow me, your attendant, to accompany you till death do us part. But, but… are you sure that we aren’t jumping in recklessly?」
Kreuz didn’t deign a reply.
「Uh? Just when I think it’s another watchman, it’s you guys, eh. Well, this is a nice coincidence.」
Calling out, a tall man in full-plate armor approached Kreuz and Co. There were traces of blood on Lambert’s greatsword.
―Things went back to a few hours ago.
Kreuz, whose arms were injured after a duel with Lambert, found the parent of the child who was forced on him. Later, he asked Frey, who was in charge of 『Phoenix’s Eyes』’s white wizards, and received emergency treatment on his arms.
He went with the assumption that they were always under their enemy’s watch in this land. This kind of emergency treatment might save his life.
Normally speaking, letting it heal on its own was ideal, but he didn’t have such a luxury.
Although there was no comparison on the physical strength of a swordsman and a sorcerer, Gilldoum the alchemist was clearly leagues ahead of Kreuz.
And although it didn’t mean that all of their enemies were of Gilldoum’s league, there was no doubt that all of them were unreasonably strong men who hid their strength.
Moreover, the Eight Wise Men who lurked in this territory were definitely a few leagues above that already monstrously powerful Gilldoum.
「Kreuz-sama… I wonder what kind of enemy you were fighting against for you to have such injuries on your arms?! Your muscles were snapping apart… it was as if you were meticulously tortured.」
Frey raised such a question as she looked at Kreuz’s arms with a worried look on her face.
「About that, it’s just a little… Uhm. Well, actually, I thought I was going to win, but no, he turned out to be an extremely terrifying fella…」
In the end, Kreuz couldn’t bring himself to tell his subordinate that the injury was the result of his own recklessness in using a technique that put too much burden on his arms, aiming for a reversal against an innocent swordsman.
「We’re right on the money, or should I say that we’re a bit too late. I mean, this territory was already under the control of 『Devil’s Piper』. They’re not the kind of opponents that scouts like us can deal with. I should order every member of 『Phoenix’s Eyes』 to raid this territory, but… I’m afraid that they were already gone by the time we arrived.」
「And the traitor is Viscount Le Gael, right…? Although not the most prominent noble, I never expected that he was willing to go that far.」
Originally, their duty was to confirm the rumor from the peddler merchant.
Yet, never in their wildest dream did they expect that they would face a large number of 『Devil’s Piper』 sorcerers.
They decided to have an emergency retreat, even if it meant they had to give their enemies a chance to flee from this territory.
「…But then, a chance of meeting with that man change everything.」
In his head, Kreuz recalled the figure of a man in full-plate armor, who declared that he would march into Viscount Le Gael’s mansion by himself.
At first, he thought that man was joking, but after he calmed down, he realized that the man in full-plate armor might really have marched into Viscount Le Gael’s mansion by himself.
And now, he imagined what kind of development was going to unfold if the man in full-plate armor truly did what he said.
In addition, he considered that it was already too late to retreat at this point.
「We must meet up with that tall man in full-plate armor. That man… will surely lend his hand if I tell him that I want to destroy those guys. And we definitely will not become a hindrance for him.」
Seeing that he had to keep his dignity as the captain in front of his subordinates, he couldn’t bring himself to tell the truth.
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There was no way he could tell his subordinates—who polished their skills day-in and day-out to protect the kingdom—that their skills were far behind those of the man in full-plate armour.
He swallowed his embarrassment. He had to do that to keep the morale of his subordinates.
Kreuz’s own dignity was also mixed in it.
「A swordsman… on par with Kreuz-sama! That’s even more reason for I, Kreuz-sama’s right-hand, to ascertain it with my own eyes.」
「Uhm, a, yeah. You’re right.」
Kreuz could only give an ambiguous reply to Frey who looked like she was filled with a sense of mission.
And then, they heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching their position.
When Kreuz and Frey turned around, they saw the figure of a tall man in full-plate armour standing right there.
Kreuz recognized the identity of the other party at first sight. The other party was the one who saved his life, after all.
「W-who are you!」
Frey had guessed that Lambert wasn’t ordinary. A scabbard appeared in front of her and stopped her from drawing her sword.
「H-he’s the one who I was talking to a while ago! Frey, let go of your hilt. He’s not our enemy!」
Part of it was because he had no idea what the other party would do if he didn’t stop his subordinate.
Thus, Kreuz tried to stop Frey from acting recklessly like he did when he met Lambert for the first time.
「So it’s you. My apologies for the discourtesy…」
Looking at Kreuz’s state, Frey decided to step back to give some face to her superior.
Seeing that, Kreuz heaved a sigh of relief.
「Thank you for saving my life back then. But as expected, rushing into Viscount Le Gael’s mansion by yourself is too reckless. To be honest, I’m really glad to see that you’re not doing that. Your sense of justice is something praiseworthy, even in my eyes. But you must stop such reckless actions that will only result in your death.」
A few hours had already passed since Lambert parted ways with Kreuz.
Thus, it was normal for Kreuz to think that Lambert had canceled his plan to raid Viscount Le Gael’s mansion.
And then, Kreuz continued on.
「…Armored swordsman, do you want to work together with us? With your strength, the second division will be…」
「I failed. Or should I say that they beat me by one step. Viscount Le Gael had already died due to those people’s curse. One of the Eight Wise Men had escaped too. I became overconfident and lost this precious chance. Even if just to secure the Eight Wise Men, I should prioritize one of them. Being too greedy and chasing both resulted in me losing both of them.」
「…Uhm?」
Kreuz’s lips crooked as he looked like he had no idea what Lambert was talking about.
「P-please wait a minute. It might just be my imagination, but the way you spoke, it’s as if you just returned after raiding Viscount Le Gael’s mansion.」
Kreuz raised his hand, interrupting Lambert.
But Lambert had no intention to stop, just continuing to speak.
「But I managed to secure some information. First is their base; it’s a small town right beside the mine, Tetomburgh. It’s the den of dozens of『Devil’s Piper』’s sorcerers. We should be able to deal great damage to 『Devil’s Piper』’s war potential by killing them.」
「DOZENS?!」
「The numbers aren’t the problem. Most of them might be slightly weaker than Gilldoum.」
「THAT’S THE SAME AS DOZENS OF GILLDOUM, RIGHT?!」
At this moment, Kreuz imagined the scene in which dozens of Gilldoum unleashed heat balls and summoned numerous terrifying plasma beasts.
At that moment, he realized that the hell that he went through until now was child’s play compared to this.
「They’re a bit troublesome, but we have no other choice. You can leave them to me, so are you willing to lend me a hand to finish this job?」
Kreuz stepped back, mouth wide open as he looked at Lambert with a dumbfounded expression on his face.
Just like Kreuz, Frey—who had no idea what they were talking about—was looking at Lambert as if wanting more explanation.
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