Convincing him that disguising as a merchant caravan and traveling discreetly would be better than openly revealing himself, Count Randerk eventually agreed with Cain’s opinion.
If they left Granada drawing attention as Randerk suggested, Cain’s escort would indeed be solid, but those lying in wait might move assassins again.
But if disguised as a caravan as Cain proposed, they could come and go quietly without attracting attention in the first place.
In the end, it was all a matter of choice.
But in politics, gaining one thing means conceding another.
Instead of accompanying large-scale imperial or capital guard forces, Cain had to accept Count Randerk’s opinion on the caravan’s scale to some extent.
“I shall follow His Majesty’s will. However, even if disguised as a trade caravan, please allow a certain scale of escort.”
As expected, Count Randerk conceded the option of moving noisily with imperial or capital guard forces but proposed a compromise that a ‘certain scale or more of escort’ must be taken.
Cain, who hadn’t paid much attention to what ‘certain scale or more’ meant, soon regretted not interfering in detail with the escort size.
Under the leadership of Count Steiner Randerk, who prioritized the emperor’s safety above all, the formation of the escort disguised as a caravan to protect Cain was completed very quickly.
The escort consisted of about 300 people: around 50 Imperial Guard Knights commanded by Viscount Heinrich Denver, about 50 paladins from the Imperial Church including Aren Valerian, around 10 high mages from the imperial army including Viscount Philips Grey, over 200 elite knights drawn from the imperial and capital guard forces, and finally Rachel accompanying as the liaison with Nightmare.
Originally, Marquis Damien Pavel was scheduled to join, but a problem arose with the magic circle preserving the demonized Baron Hog Melros’s body, forcing him to stay in the capital for inspection.
Count Randerk visibly desperately wanted Marquis Pavel in the escort, but Cain deemed it no issue and overruled it.
But that didn’t mean he completely let down his guard.
Cain had instructed Count Randerk to have forces on standby that could immediately intervene if any problem arose north of Granada.
The escort disguised as a caravan, and Cain dressed like the immature youngest son of a merchant lord, boarded a carriage in the center of the procession.
Though not comparable to those in the imperial palace, the carriage—engraved with numerous powerful defensive magic circles—became the center as the escort knights formed a formation for swift movement.
“Depart.”
Cain instructed in a gentle voice, and Aren Valerian, guarding the right side of the carriage, raised his voice powerfully.
“Depart!”
With the vigorous shout, the emperor’s escort procession—pretending to be a caravan—began moving north.
At the moment the emperor’s procession departed from the capital Granada, Count Randerk was meeting with the commander of the visiting 4th Capital Guard Legion, Count Lupen.
“Count Lupen. Send a magic transmission to the 4th Capital Guard Legion’s staff to strengthen the alert posture north of the capital.”
“Since the founding festival, the capital guard legions have maintained continuous high-intensity alerts. Raising it further will burden the soldiers.”
“Just maintain it for three days. Is that difficult too?”
“If it’s three days, there shouldn’t be a big issue… but may I ask the reason?”
To Count Lupen’s question, Count Randerk slowly opened his mouth after brief contemplation.
“His Majesty the Emperor is currently north of the capital.”
Visiting north of the capital Granada instead of the imperial castle in these times.
At Count Randerk’s words, Count Lupen’s expression hardened as if startled.
But the surprise was brief.
He soon realized what he had to do.
“I will contact them immediately.”
The abandoned ancient castle area north of Granada.
There, opening the secret door under the fifth pillar of the ruined Imperial Church temple revealed a hidden passage.
The place Cain had investigated earlier.
It was the underground ruins where he could obtain the sacred traces of the Evil-Slaying Paladin, Onisia.
But precisely speaking, he couldn’t just get her ‘sacred traces’ for free.
To obtain her sacred traces, he first had to awaken the fragment of the Evil-Slaying Paladin Onisia’s power sealed in the underground ruins.
Due to the curse by ‘Ancient Oblivion,’ this underground ruin had seen no one’s footsteps for over thousands of years.
Yet, despite bringing a small elite escort for contingencies, Cain set out on this short journey with a light heart.
There were no powerful guardians commonly found in underground ruins, nor vicious traps targeting intruders.
Moreover, originally, to lift Onisia’s seal, one needed to acquire the ‘Evil-Exterminating Oath’ trait passed down through specific religions, but Cain possessed an artifact that skipped this troublesome process.
It was the relic-grade artifact he had acquired earlier, ‘Guardian of the Oath.’
‘Guardian of the Oath.’
A one-time artifact that made the magic circle or system recognize the user as the ‘subject of the oath’ when a seal, magic, or awakening condition required a specific ‘oath.’
Naturally, the ‘Evil-Exterminating Oath’ needed to awaken Onisia’s power sleeping deep underground also fell under the category of ‘oath.’
Though ‘Guardian of the Oath’ was one-time use, once the seal was lifted, he could obtain ‘Onisia’s sacred traces.’
Perfect. So far, everything is going according to plan.
Even in the carriage, Cain didn’t rest comfortably but mobilized the developer’s knowledge who created this world to review future plans.
“You seem deep in thought.”
Then.
Rachel spoke to Cain, whose complex feelings were fully evident.
Currently temporarily holding the position of head maid, she spent most of her day guarding Cain’s side as the Nightmare liaison.
She was also the only person riding in the same carriage as Cain on this journey.
“Does it look that way?”
“Yes, it does.”
At Rachel’s prompt answer, Cain smirked.
“May I ask what you’re thinking about?”
“Worries about an uncertain future.”
To Rachel’s cautious question, Cain gave a concise answer and quietly withdrew his gaze from the window, turning his head toward where she sat.
Rachel, a genius assassin at Grand Chevalier level and close confidant of Isabella Daywalker, who led the notorious assassination cell ‘Nightmare.’
Like Isabella, she was also a character whose setting book Cain couldn’t view with the ‘Wanderer privilege.’
Yet, though the Wanderer privilege stage was low… he could at least limitedly view the setting book of the high-ranked sacred-blood vampire Isabella Daywalker, but it was clearly strange that viewing Rachel’s—who was in a much lower position—was impossible.
It means something is hidden.
It would be good if he remembered all settings of the Imperial Hero Legend world, but unfortunately, that was impossible.
Of course, the 32-year-old Kang Ji-hoon possessed into Cain’s body was the lead developer who had touched large and small parts of the world’s birth.
But human memory has limits, there were quite a few areas touched by other planners and outsourced staff, and above all, the world of Imperial Hero Legend was excessively vast.
No matter how passionately the vigorous developer created the world and settings, remembering everything was naturally impossible.
Until now, he had coped by cross-referencing information from other characters’ setting books opened with the ‘Wanderer privilege’ help against fragmentary memories remaining in his head.
What secret was hidden in Rachel after all?
“You?”
“Yes?”
“What are you thinking about right now?”
An impulsive question mixed with strong curiosity and faint wariness toward a being whose setting book couldn’t be viewed.
He couldn’t open her setting book with Wanderer privilege, and in his old memories, there was nothing about the character ‘Rachel.’
Thus, to know more about her, he needed more information, whatever it was.
“I was thinking how boring traveling by carriage is.”
At Rachel’s light-toned answer, a satisfied smile spread on Cain’s lips.
“You don’t like carriage travels? I quite like this kind of thing.”
“For someone like me, such leisure and romance are luxuries.”
“Is that so?”
At Rachel’s answer, Cain smirked once more and leaned back against the seat, quietly closing his eyes.
Someone like me.
Then, is such leisure permitted to the possessor Cain?
Or to the last emperor of the Felberg imperial family, whose fate is like a lamp in the wind?
Since ascending the throne, Cain had been rolling among those bowing and praising the emperor, unable to even have proper casual conversation.
Thus, this light, meaningless conversation in a relaxed atmosphere felt rather welcome.
However, she wasn’t a great conversationalist, so silence lingered in the carriage carrying Cain and Rachel.
Some time after noon passed.
The disguised caravan procession that departed Granada arrived at the abandoned ancient castle area north of the capital only in the late afternoon.
“Shall we prepare to camp?”
The Imperial Guard commander, Viscount Denver, approached and asked.
He judged it too late to explore the underground ruins and asked about camping, but Cain slowly shook his head.
“No. Rest for one hour and proceed to the next stage immediately.”
Though disguised as a caravan to avoid unnecessary attention, the current Felberg Empire was on the verge of civil war.
To ease Count Randerk’s worries as well, it was appropriate to quickly handle the business and return without dragging time.
As soon as the one-hour rest ended, Cain wandered the abandoned ancient castle area to find the ruined Imperial Church temple.
Thanks to Isabella providing very specific location information, Cain quickly found the secret passage leading to the underground ruins.
“Go in immediately.”
At Cain’s urging, Viscount Denver left about 200 knights on the surface for perimeter security.
Excluding the 200 knights left on the surface, the other escorts descended into the underground ruins with Cain.
The underground space was vast and wide enough for nearly 100 people to move without difficulty.