Countless corpses were strewn beyond the city walls.
Most belonged to the Lamakria People, who had served as Dark Knights.
Though the war seemed destined to drag on, the coalition’s victory came more easily than expected.
So now, all the remnants were being cleared away, and the collapsed walls were being repaired.
Restoration work had begun in earnest.
The Order’s forces remained to assist,
while the royal army and the regular troops of other lords had decided to withdraw.
‘Was this battle supposed to end so quickly?’
Delian still seemed unable to believe it.
He had followed Evan, striking down their enemies one by one.
Yet unlike before, the Dark Knights did not rise again after being felled.
Thanks to that, they gained momentum and swept through the battlefield at a rapid pace.
‘Did my brother know this would happen?’
Delian thought Evan had precisely identified the timing of their enemies’ weakness.
Thinking that everything had been strategically calculated, Delian found Evan to be truly remarkable.
Delian approached Evan and asked,
“Did you know everything all along?”
Evan answered firmly,
“No. I just got lucky.”
“What…?”
Delian was dumbfounded by the unexpected answer.
He couldn’t tell if Evan was joking or sincere, but if he truly meant it, then Delian had been risking his life.
“No, next time, don’t do something so reckless—”
“That’s enough. I have somewhere to be, so I’ll go ahead. Explain things to Father for me.”
Evan cut off Delian and, waving his hand, turned to leave.
‘I don’t have time to stand around like this.’
There were people Evan needed to meet right away. He would have to act before everyone dispersed.
‘Everything may seem to be settling down smoothly,’
but there was no retraction of the King’s Mobilization Order on the truly critical front.
It seemed a large-scale purge of the Lamakria People was going to take place.
Of course, it wouldn’t begin immediately, but it was a warning that a bloodbath was coming.
‘That one’s aim is to harvest souls, so they’ll try to cause as many sacrifices as possible whenever they can.’
Evan suspected that the fiend would do anything to regain its strength.
Therefore, what was needed now was to monitor its movements—and allies who could help keep it in check.
‘It’s still hiding its true power. Considering its level of chaos, it’s shown almost nothing so far.’
He needed to force it to reveal more of its cards.
‘There they are.’
Evan soon spotted Reveshu and Rozi together.
Perhaps they were deep in thought over what had happened in the audience chamber, as they seemed engrossed in conversation.
The Four Founding Retainers had gathered in one place.
Such occasions were rare indeed. He decided to seize the opportunity.
In the slums on the outskirts of the Kingdom Capital.
In a shabby tavern on the verge of collapse, some had gathered in secret.
“You’ve seen the King in person. If he keeps consolidating power like this, there’ll be no answer left. It’s only a matter of time before things spiral out of control.”
Evan looked each person in the eye as he spoke.
Present were Adman, Reveshu, and Rozi—in other words, all of the kingdom’s Four Founding Retainers except for Klyde.
Everyone agreed to convene this emergency meeting.
To remain idle after suffering such indignity at the hands of the King would have been abnormal.
They needed measures to keep the King’s tyranny in check.
They worried for the future of the kingdom.
If the kingdom fell, their own fates would end just the same.
At first, when Evan came to them, his warning seemed vague.
But now that the King had shown his true colors and changed so completely, that notion had vanished.
Adman nodded.
“The young lord is right. Normally I wouldn’t step forward, but this time he’s crossed the line. This is outright tyranny.”
“He wasn’t like that before… He’s become a completely different person.”
Reveshu clicked his tongue with a bitter look.
For a moment, everyone turned their gaze to Reveshu.
“Duke Rohim Reveshu, what do you mean?”
Rozi asked at once, unable to hold back his curiosity.
“It’s something only those who stayed at the palace would know. Outsiders wouldn’t be aware.”
As he traced back his memories, Reveshu began to speak.
“It was all different back then. The brothers were close and got along well. Especially the King—he was diligent. Anyone could see he’d become a great monarch.”
His face brightened a little at the memory, but soon darkened again.
“I believe my brother began to change after he inherited the throne and then, some time later, developed a Contagious Incurable Disease.”
They’d learned when Alpherion began to change.
Hearing this, Evan realized he needed to gather more information about the King.
He already knew, through the status window, that the King had been taken over.
But if he could learn about the circumstances before Elresel struck, he might find an important clue.
“My brother suffered from a mysterious, incurable disease that no one on the Continent could cure, so we eventually gave up hope. Watching him wither away in pain every day tormented me as well. But then, someone called Baron Rahel suddenly claimed he could cure the disease.”
Adman, as if recalling something, spoke up.
“Baron Rahel? Wasn’t he the up-and-coming steward at the palace? I heard he was poisoned and killed.”
“That’s right. He was extremely knowledgeable—knew everything about everything. An outstanding talent. But unfortunately, the day my brother recovered, Baron Rahel was poisoned to death. What a shame.”
He clicked his tongue and continued.
“In any case, my brother was desperate to believe anything, so he entrusted himself to the Baron—and truly was cured. But perhaps because he’d been sick for so long, or perhaps he’d suffered some injury to his mind, he started to change from that point on. The royal family’s bloodshed probably started right then.”
Evan began to feel a sense of unease from that moment on.
It was suspicious that the King had contracted such a mysterious, incurable disease, and even more suspicious that someone had appeared to cure it.
Evan pointed this out and asked,
“Baron Rahel sounds suspicious. Being able to cure such a disease, and then dying right after, is strange. Wasn’t this investigated?”
“Hm? Well, I suppose you could see it that way, but Baron Rahel was always upright and pure. Exemplary—a model citizen. There was no one more trustworthy. And the King recovered, but the Baron died. By the time we questioned anything, it was already too late.”
After hearing Reveshu’s account, Evan felt even more suspicious.
‘He must have gained quite a lot of trust from everyone.’
At the time the King recovered, Baron Rahel was suddenly poisoned to death.
From this, Evan could make a guess.
‘There’s a high chance Baron Rahel was Elresel. And it’s quite plausible he died in order to transfer from his original body into the King’s.’
Being able to view the target’s status window made all the difference.
If he hadn’t seen the King’s status window, he’d never have reached this conclusion.
No, he wouldn’t even have thought it possible for the King to be replaced by something else.
“I’m still bothered by Baron Rahel. Could we search the mansion where he stayed for clues?”
Reveshu looked regretful as he replied to Evan’s suggestion.
“It’s as you see—the palace is off-limits now. But as for Baron Rahel’s Mansion, I believe it was in Kerthen County…”
“What? The Baron’s mansion is in our territory?”
“Hmm. He wasn’t granted land, and was probably a fallen noble. I’ll let you know the location later. I’ve been there a few times, so I know it well.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“In any case, let’s leave that for now. What’s important is preparing for the King’s next move.”
“Ah, on that note, there’s something I’d like to propose regarding forming our alliance.”
Evan began sharing with them all he could about Elresel’s expected actions.
From the King’s desire for a great sacrifice to his plotting with the Lamakria People—Evan laid out the intelligence he’d gathered.
“Then this is truly dire!”
“That’s why I’d like us to form a joint guild to monitor the King’s movements. A merchant guild, at that.”
Adman’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What? A merchant guild? Where did that come from?”
“It’s simple. Merchant guilds have the freedom to move around. It’s easy to build an information network as well. And merchants always have a natural reason to travel and trade—if they’re sharing information amongst themselves, it would make for an excellent surveillance system.”
Reveshu nodded in agreement at this idea.
“That sounds good to me as well. No one is better with sensitive information than a merchant guild. If our guild grows large enough to trade with the palace, that’ll be the perfect surveillance net.”
Just then, Rozi’s eyes lit up and he asked Evan,
“If that’s the plan, leave it to me. I have a connection in the Adela Union, so getting guild approval and issuing Guild Currency will be a breeze. If we register with the Adela Union, the guild will grow in no time!”
He seemed strangely excited by the prospect.
“Very well, Count Rozi. I’ll leave that in your hands.”
Evan had been interested in Guild Currency to some extent, so he was positive about this.
Evan continued,
“Once we establish the joint guild, we can use it as a base. There are other forces to consider as well. On that point, Duke Reveshu, I’d like to speak with you separately.”
The Aestia Guild and the Southern Order Union—both major powers.
There was no issue with Aestia, as they were the continent’s public enemy, but the Order’s influence was sensitive and complicated.
Whether Reveshu, a devout follower of the goddess, would join their cause would depend on his own decisions.
He was their only link to the Order’s power, but if he felt negatively about it, they couldn’t force the kingdom’s matters onto him.
They already had contractual safeguards in place, but that was only a minimal protection.
“While we’re at it, I’d like to know your thoughts.”
Evan decided to use the Eye of the Spirit to read their memories.
He wanted to investigate their lives in detail and see if they could be trusted.
Kerthen County, a small border village.
Here, every villager lay cold and dead, scattered throughout the area.
At the center stood Beron, holding his sword.
He’d been singlehandedly smashing Aestia Guild strongholds wherever he found them.
Eventually, he had reached what appeared to be one of their key strategic sites.
Unusually, every villager here had been a member of the Aestia Guild; the entire village was a front.
At the village center, there were traces left behind for some unknown purpose.
Even Beron, obsessed with vengeance, could not easily overlook this time.
Whatever bizarre rites were being conducted here, they had crossed the line into inhumanity.
It felt like this was a place for dangerous experiments.
‘The New Humanity…?’
“So you finally made it here.”
At that moment, an eerily clear young voice rang out from behind him.
Perhaps because the village was deathly silent, it echoed even more.
When Beron turned, he saw a silver-haired, red-eyed girl smiling sweetly at him.
“I’ve been watching you the whole time. I was going to let it go, but now you’ve crossed the line.”
“It’s too soon. This place isn’t supposed to be found yet. So…”
Her eyes, which had been smiling, suddenly opened wide.
Her murderous intent was so strong that Beron instinctively tensed up.