Braver Than Necessary
Arthur grimaced as he examined one of the frozen corpses. "What the hell are these things?"
"I told you. Ghouls."
Arendt answered shortly, still catching his breath. His cold exhalation bloomed white in the air before slowly fading away.
"These are the things they were trying to make with Count Stadler's help... so it seems they actually finished them."
"That, they did not."
Casually dismissing Richt's remark, Arendt bent down to inspect the fragments scattered across the ground.
Pathetic.
Ghouls completed with both Count Stadler and Vincent lending their talents should never have been so easily disposed of.
In the novel, the endless regenerating horde had torn through not just the Security Department and ordinary soldiers, but had sent several knights to their graves as well.
Since the researchers had failed to finish their work, they had simply sent the incomplete product out into the world.
"Let's keep moving deeper in for now."
Arendt's gaze turned toward the deep recesses of the cave, where the darkness pooled thickest — the very spot from which the ghouls had burst forth.
Laios nodded. "There may be stragglers. Stay sharp."
Thud, thud.
The party's footsteps echoed through the cavern. Ghouls appeared in small clusters now and then, but they dispatched them without much trouble, pressing steadily deeper.
"The stench is getting worse."
"It seems to intensify the further in we go."
Arthur heartily agreed with Richt's muttered observation. The reek of rotting corpses, barely noticeable near the entrance, now saturated the air on all sides.
After some distance, they passed through the passage and came upon a wide-open space. Even the battle-hardened knights, tempered by the oppressive, sinister mana, faltered for a beat.
Arendt, whose brow had been furrowing at the incomparably worse stench, lifted his head to survey what lay before them.
"...Wow."
And a short gasp escaped him.
It was a sight he had never laid eyes on before, yet it was not entirely unfamiliar. The scene stretched out before him precisely as it had been described in the novel he had reread more times than he could count.
A massive magic crystal sat at the very center, blazing with intense light, and surrounding it, a blood-red magic circle spread across the floor in a full circle around the crystal.
It was almost laughable.
So this was it.
This was why Vincent and Blake had come all the way out to this remote land.
As Arendt strode boldly into the chamber, the knights who had been standing dazed snapped out of it and began to move as well.
Perhaps something had gone wrong in the creation process — a few ghouls that had never managed to escape could be seen sprawled haphazardly across the magic circle.
"Looks like the ghouls trapped in here were released all at once."
Laios spoke calmly, giving a motionless ghoul a light kick with his boot.
The design was simple: the moment an outsider's presence was detected nearby, or once a set amount of time had passed, all the ghouls would surge out together.
Arthur crouched to examine the crimson circle on the floor. "This is a magic circle I've never seen before. The shape is different from the ones in common use..."
"It was probably for sealing purposes."
"Huh?"
The whole party looked up at Arendt's sudden interjection.
The apprentice knight, pretending to study the magic circle, drifted closer to the magic crystal instead — the source of the unpleasant mana that saturated the entire chamber.
A enormous crystal embedded in a pillar carved from black stone radiated sinister power.
Examining the base of the pillar closely, he found several more crystals set into it where it met the magic circle — but these had long since gone dark.
"That big one was probably the power source driving the ghouls, and the magic circle spread over it was used to keep them sealed inside."
"Then the fact that he showed up here..."
"Means these crystals were his objective."
It was Richt who answered Arthur's question. Laios added briefly,
"If we had departed even a little later, the homes nearby would have been devastated."
The flashy destruction of the entrance had been a signal of sorts on their enemy's part. He would naturally have anticipated that the Imperial Knights would come hunting him.
The plan, surely, had been for the knights who rushed to the scene after the explosion report to discover the corpses of civilians torn apart by ghouls.
Had Arendt not spoken up and insisted they come here even a single day sooner...
A chill ran down his spine.
"There are more."
Arendt said abruptly. Every eye turned to him.
"What?"
"I'm telling you there are at least a few more of these scattered across the Empire."
The knights were tempted to press him — how could he possibly know that? — but one look at Arendt quietly staring at the magic circle, and they simply shut their mouths.
Because they had noticed his golden eyes cooling to the temperature of a sheet of ice.
But that, too, lasted only a moment. Whatever was bothering him — tch — Arendt clicked his tongue, let the tension go, and shrugged his shoulders.
"Let's head out for now. No reason to waste more time here. Stay any longer and the smell's going to rot my nose right off."
"Uh? Uh, right..."
"Ugh, damn it. Got myself all filthy for nothing."
Brushing the blood from his clothes with brisk slaps, Arendt turned his back on the magic crystal and sauntered out ahead of the others without so much as a backward glance.
The three men left behind exchanged glances. They had any number of questions they wanted to ask him — but it seemed this was not the time.
Laios watched Arendt's retreating figure for a moment, then spoke evenly. "Let's preserve this site as it is for now. We'll need to request a proper investigation from Count Stadler and the imperial mages later. All the ghouls have been dealt with, so there shouldn't be any trouble."
"Yes, sir."
Arthur and Richt each glanced back once — and in the end, they had no choice but to hurry their steps, following Laios and Arendt out of the cave.
Henry and Arcus, who had been waiting anxiously outside the cave, could only gape at the state the knights were in.
"Are you quite all right, Commander Laios?"
"No injuries. They were hardly a difficult opponent, so there's no cause for concern. More importantly, I'd like to pay my respects to the Lord of this territory, if we may."
Henry sent Laios a distant, disbelieving look. "Forgive me for saying so, Commander... but in that state?"
"Ah..."
Only then did Laios take stock of his own appearance.
Because he had been at the very front, cleaving the path, he was effectively soaked head to toe in rotten ghoul blood. Bits of flesh and all manner of debris clung to him in clumps — anyone who ran into him at midnight would have fainted on the spot.
The others were in scarcely better condition.
Henry struggled to keep his composure as he made his proposal. "Let us stop by the Security Department first... I will arrange somewhere for you all to wash up. I believe it would be best to call on the Lord afterward."
"Thank you."
More than a little sheepishly, Laios accepted the kindness.
Upon returning to the Security Department, the party proceeded to give the poor chief of security a second heart attack. After ordering that no one be allowed near the cave — and that none of his own men enter it — the knights made for a nearby stream to scrub off the crusted blood.
By the time they had washed up in the territory's waterway and emerged, a carriage sent by the Lord was there to greet them.
Henry had sent word ahead while the knights were tidying themselves. By the time they reached the Lord's castle, the evening hours were already well behind them.
Yet the Lord took no offense whatsoever at their late arrival, and welcomed them warmly.
"It is a great honor to receive this visit, Commander Laios de Winfried."
Countess Lilliette greeted them with a bright smile. The Countess was Henry's maternal grandmother — and the ruler of the entire surrounding territory.
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Countess Lilliette."
Laios took her outstretched hand in both of his and bowed his head with due courtesy. Whether his manner pleased her greatly or not, the smile bloomed all the wider across the Countess's wrinkled face.
"Dinner has been prepared for you. Now then — all of you, to the dining hall with me. Henry, you come along too."
"Grandmother... I can't help feeling you're happier to see Commander Laios than to see me, after all these years."
Henry's small, sulky complaint was naturally ignored.
Perhaps to make up for the hardships of the long journey, the dining hall had been laid out with a feast that bordered on a full banquet.
Yep. Definitely the protagonist.
Arendt mused absently as he chewed his food.
Laios's harsh childhood and his dramatic story of growth were exceedingly famous. It was only natural that the attention and goodwill of idle, gossip-hungry nobles would gather around him.
Certainly, envy and jealousy came his way too — but far more people found themselves drawn to his overwhelming strength and his unwavering character.
The Lord of this territory, it seemed, was one of them.
She listened earnestly and in good faith to Laios's explanation, however absurd it might have sounded at first blush.
"Ghouls... I've never heard of such a thing. I see. Understood. I shall take particular care, then."
Countess Lilliette nodded gravely, again and again.
As the dinner began to drag on, Arendt slipped quietly out of the dining hall ahead of the others.
His leisurely stroll quickened little by little, until he had put some distance between himself and the crowd.
"Damn it. Not one single easy day."
Of all the possibilities he had kept in mind, the most irritating and troublesome one had come to pass.
Who would have thought Vincent's keepsake would turn up here?
The silver lining was that it could still be stopped — and that he had the information. He could make a fair guess as to where the ghouls' nests were, and when they would surface.
But...
If I keep making noise about this, it's going to get seriously annoying. Maybe even dangerous.
The looks the knights had been giving him inside the cave floated back up in his memory. Those faces had clearly said: we have plenty we want to ask you, but we'll hold it in.
Pushing things forward on sheer 'Arendt-style' temper alone, like he had before their departure, only went so far.
What was needed now was plausibility — justification — or else someone with the power to steamroll right over the need for either.
And mercifully enough, there happened to be a man who possessed exactly that kind of power, who could be reasoned with, and who was willing to play accomplice.
Back in his assigned room, Arendt pulled out the communication crystal ball he had smuggled along. Before long, the connection went through.
What is it?
"It's me."
...
A deep sigh drifted back through the orb at Arendt's habit of barging straight into conversation without preamble. His counterpart, of course, was Cantares.
Arendt got right to the point. "You've heard the report from the Commander, haven't you?"
In broad strokes.
"Then listen carefully. Starting now, you need to mobilize everything you can — the Imperial Knights, all of it. Unless you want to watch walking corpses devouring civilians all across the Empire."
What?
Cantares made a sound of pure disbelief at the sudden declaration, but Arendt paid it no mind and simply pressed on with what he had to say.
Cantares tried to cut in and interrogate him several times, but soon seemed to realize something and fell to listening in silence. And when Arendt's list of instructions finally came to an end, Cantares asked in a somewhat subdued voice,
Understood. So Commander Kendrick and Commander Diana are to move separately, yes?
"Correct. The knights should be sufficient everywhere else. Tell Commander Laios to depart for that location the moment the sun rises tomorrow. It'll take a good while to get there even so."
This was the best he could manage for now.
From the other side of the orb came the scratch of something being written down.
I'll order the sortie immediately. I'll issue a separate search directive to the Security Departments as well. Not that I expect you to answer no matter what I ask.
"Yes."
It wasn't as if he could come out and say, I already know what's going to happen because I read it in a novel.
Another great sigh came through the connection.
Do you have any idea how enormous this is, what you're doing right now?
"Of course."
If this goes sideways, I go down with it. You do understand that.
If the operation failed even with the Imperial Knights mobilized, it would be nothing short of a catastrophic incident.
"I'd rather enjoy watching Your Highness go down, but I've no wish to sink along with you."
You shameless brat. Fine, understood. You owe me big for this.
"You're the one incurring the debt, Your Highness, not me. I'm well aware this whole thing is madness as it is."
...Let's just call it even.
And with that, the connection cut off.
That should do it.
No one in the knight orders was bold enough to second-guess a direct command from the Crown Prince. And with Cantares's particular brand of skill, he would no doubt fabricate a perfectly convincing account of how the intelligence had reached him.
All that remained now was to wait for Cantares to detonate the bomb Arendt had handed off to him.
When the Crown Prince himself was issuing the orders, that was more than enough plausibility.