Something Other Than Ghouls
The next day, the promised commotion arrived.
It came in the form of orders from Cantares, delivered before Laios had even finished waking at dawn. Before the sun had fully risen, he had gathered the knights and relayed the Crown Prince's command.
"His Highness informs us that structures similar to what we discovered yesterday have been found across the Empire. Which means we move out from here directly to the scene."
"I'm sorry—what?"
It had been less than twenty-four hours since they'd found the cave. Even if a search had begun the moment they reported it, this was far too fast.
But an order from the Crown Prince was not something one could argue with. There were corners of it that smelled suspicious, of course.
Arthur's and Richt's eyes flicked briefly toward Arendt, then away again.
"We'd better hurry, hadn't we? Doesn't look like there's time to dawdle."
"……"
Even now, the man was popping some unidentifiable biscuits into his mouth, one after another—where he'd gotten them, nobody knew.
"……Are those any good?"
"Yes."
"Right."
Faced with that shameless answer, Arthur simply gave up on everything.
Then—
Knock, knock.
A short knock announced the arrival of uninvited guests.
"You seem to be rather busy."
Henry stood smiling pleasantly, with Arcus beside him.
"You're leaving at once, then?"
"Yes, and I'm sorry to say we won't be able to escort you back to the capital."
"Think nothing of it. That's hardly something you need to apologize for, Commander Laios."
Henry waved a hand with an easy, good-natured smile.
"I wish you good fortune, Sir Laios. All of you as well. And Sir Arendt—shall we meet again at the palace sometime?"
"No, thank you. That man will probably tag along."
Arendt answered flatly, jerking his chin toward Arcus.
Henry's smile stiffened in an instant.
"Ahaha. Then we'll meet without Arcus, just the two of us."
"That doesn't particularly appeal to me either."
"……"
Arthur, who had been quietly holding his tongue, swung a fist at the back of Arendt's head—but Arendt, as if he'd anticipated it all along, ducked aside with room to spare and drove his elbow into his senior's exposed flank.
"Aargh!"
Swallowing the sigh that threatened to spill over, Arcus bowed his head to Laios.
"……Forgive us for the disturbance, Commander Laios. Until next time."
"Yes. Until next time, Your Highness."
Even as he returned Laios's parting words, Arcus's gaze refused to leave Arendt.
When their eyes met, Arendt shot back a look of pure mischief.
"Anyway, go home or do whatever you like. It's none of my business."
"I'll look for work in the capital. And I intend to apologize to my father as well."
"Not interested."
Apparently he'd built up some immunity to rudeness by now—Arcus simply nodded, unperturbed.
"Stay safe."
After exchanging farewells with the lord of the estate as well, the knights rode out from the castle.
"Where to, sir?"
"East. We move as fast as possible. We'll be crossing the wasteland."
Laios answered Arthur's question, and they hurried out of the city, galloping toward the open plain.
The horses tore ahead in urgent strides, thick clouds of pale dust rising in their wake.
"Arthur, how's your ribs?"
"……F-fine."
"Your Highness."
Zereon set a teacup down before Cantares and began carefully.
"I apologize for raising this only now…… but isn't this a little dangerous?"
"What is?"
"This whole affair."
At the Crown Prince's unruffled echo of the question, Zereon gave him a slightly exasperated look. Only then did Cantares lift his eyes from the map he'd been poring over.
"I know. I know full well how reckless it is to mobilize an entire force on the word of a single apprentice knight."
"And yet……"
"Which is exactly why I'm racking my brain like this. Trying to scrape together some plausible pretext."
The map was marked with the regions Arendt had named. No word had yet come from the commanders who had departed the night before.
Zereon let out a short sigh.
"So even if things go wrong, you intend to shield Sir Arendt."
"What else would I do? I misjudged a man—the burden of that falls on me."
"Normally, in such cases, cutting off the tail before it drags you down is considered common sense."
"True enough. But I'm hardly such a grand figure of a man."
"You are a grand figure, Your Highness. The one and only legitimate heir of His Majesty the Emperor. One day the Empire will rest on your shoulders."
"You mean to say you find it distasteful that such a grand bloodline gets jerked around by some nameless apprentice knight."
Cantares sank deep into his chair.
"And yet you've grown rather fond of the brat yourself, haven't you?"
"That is an entirely separate matter from fondness."
"He's no idle blowhard, that much is certain. He's proven it this time, too."
"That may be so, but……"
Zereon let his words trail off and gave an awkward smile.
"Might I ask the reason in a little more detail?"
"The fact that he contacted me directly means he trusts me, at least for now. The fact that he didn't tell my own commanders means he doesn't want them needlessly suspicious of their comrades."
It was a brazen notion, audacious enough to use the Crown Prince himself as a shield—but either way, it meant the man trusted them.
His aide, who had been listening in silence, spoke again.
"Your Highness."
"What now."
"You may choose to see it as Sir Arendt placing his trust in you, but in my view……"
Zereon hesitated for such a long while that Cantares began to look at him strangely. At last, he spoke with great care.
"……Well, I wonder if he isn't simply treating you as…… a convenient person to use."
"……"
He'd dressed it up in polite language, but it boiled down to the same thing: he's taking you for a fool.
Cantares, who had just accurately recalled the cruder word his aide had been too delicate to say aloud, shut his mouth entirely.
Because he couldn't bring himself to deny it.
An awkward silence settled over the office.
Just then, the communication crystal ball on the desk stirred to life. Cantares spared a needless glance at Zereon before connecting the transmission.
"Your Highness, this is Diana de Barac."
"You're late reporting in. Something happen?"
"Yes. We discovered an underground cavern and were attacked by the unidentified creatures Your Highness described. The report was delayed because we were purging the remnants as well. My apologies."
Diana's crisp reply came through.
"I will now withdraw from this site and proceed to the coordinates Your Highness specified. I have ordered my subordinates to split up and purge their assigned regions, but one matter concerns me, so I report it in advance."
"Speak."
"We found an entity on-site that differs somewhat from the ghouls Your Highness described."
"A different entity?"
The Crown Prince's brow furrowed.
"Yes. In outward appearance there is little difference, but it bore a form far closer to human than the others. It wore clothing, and it appeared to possess intelligence."
"Intelligence……"
That was something ghouls could not claim.
"Was it strong?"
"Stronger than the other ghouls. It held its own against one of my knights, if only briefly…… and this is my personal opinion, but it looked like something between a ghoul and a human."
"Hmm……"
It didn't match what Arendt had described, either.
The enemy researchers had targeted Count Stadler in pursuit of creating a perfect ghoul. But Arendt had foiled that plan, and Vincent—the one who appeared to have played the central role—had long since died.
Which meant…
"So someone else is playing games of their own……"
It didn't particularly matter. He had never assumed the enemy would simply sit back and take their lumps.
"Understood. Have the local Security Department preserve the scene, and get your knights moving."
"Understood, Your Highness."
The transmission ended, and Cantares turned to Zereon.
"You know, being made a fool of had its rewards after all."
"Ahem. That is a relief, then. I will send word to Count Stadler."
"Tell him to get to the palace as quickly as he can. I want him ready to investigate the moment this situation wraps up."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Bowing his head, Zereon hurried out of the office.
Cantares turned his gaze back to the map, recalling his conversation with Arendt.
"Something absurd is going to show up. You must send the commanders to that side."
The man's tone had been remarkably serious when he said it.
Absurd things had already piled up past counting. The ghouls alone were enough to leave him speechless—and now something even worse was supposed to appear?
How does that brat know about things like this?
Most of the dealings between Arendt and Cantares took the form of 'transactions.' The price for this information would no doubt be never asking where it came from.
Even so, curiosity was hard to suppress…… but Cantares simply decided to forget about it.
Certainty in the ledger was better for both of them.
Now, and always.
"Ghouls with intelligence?"
When they were nearly at their destination, word arrived from the palace.
At Arthur's startled exclamation, Laios picked up the thread.
"Both Commander Diana and Commander Kendrick found them, apparently. Even in the territories they're purging now, at least five have shown up at each site."
They were unmistakably different from the other ghouls.
Ordinary ghouls threw themselves at anything that gave off the warmth of life—but these fought the knights with tactics of their own.
"What's more, destroying the core didn't seem to affect them at all."
"By core, you mean the magic crystals in those pillars?"
Laios nodded. When those shattered, the ghouls had stopped moving. But these newcomers hadn't been affected in the slightest.
Ghouls could only move so long as they drew power from the magic crystals.
In other words, they were merely walking corpses animated by an external power source.
And if these new things fell outside that rule—
"Then that means they're alive. Those things."
Arendt said it flatly.
It was a development completely unlike the novel.
The ghouls in The Blue Knight of the Sacred Sword had been overwhelmingly powerful—endlessly regenerating, biting and clinging to the knights without pause.
But the ghouls appearing now had no such ability. They were nothing more than walking corpses made somewhat stronger.
Which was presumably why the enemy had found another method.
"They're making ghouls out of living creatures. Anything with a beating heart and breath can hold mana within it—unlike a corpse."
"……"
"……"
At Arendt's matter-of-fact explanation, Richt and Arthur seemed to lose their words for a moment.
After a brief pause, Arthur murmured dazedly.
"So when they said it looked human at a glance…… don't tell me—"
"They made them out of people, obviously."
Richt replied, his voice heavy with conflict.
They rode on for a long while before the destination finally came into view in the distance: a temple on the city's outskirts, abandoned and long out of use.
Untended for ages, the temple remained only as a ruin.
Another hour of travel would have brought them to a fairly large city, yet for some reason this place had escaped human hands for an immense stretch of time.
As the distance closed, the knights came to understand why the temple had been left to rot.
The horses began to slow their pace, as though refusing outright to go any farther.
Gripping his reins, Richt called out quietly to Laios.
"Commander."
"I know."
A presence both overwhelming and deeply ominous was closing in around them. Even ordinary people, unable to sense mana at all, would have instinctively shrunk away from approaching.
Something was here. Undoubtedly.
The knights tensed without meaning to.
Laios opened his mouth, resolute.
"Everyone, stay on your guard. Do not let your attention slip."
"Whatever's out there, we just cut its throat. What's the problem?"
But the mischievous voice that cut across the commander's words drained all the tension right out of them.
"Save the speeches. Let's go."
The sight of Arendt's back—dismounting from a horse that wanted no part of going further and strolling casually ahead on foot—was almost too absurd to bear.
That lunatic is brave in exactly the wrong amounts.
The same thought ran through all three of their heads.
In the end, they had no choice but to dismount as well and follow in his wake.