126. Do Well.
"It is His Majesty's solemn command."
"...I receive the command."
The connection cut off. Hillun Kargil let out a deep sigh.
Mountain after mountain.
Balancing between the Demon King and the empire was already enough to make his head explode, and now Hildean was getting involved too.
From a general perspective, Hildean's involvement wasn't a bad thing.
Hildean was a powerful kingdom as well, and the aid they'd provide to retrieve their kidnapped crown princess wouldn't be insignificant.
Their joining would clearly increase the chances of subjugating the Demon King.
But.
From the position of Hillun Kargil, a subordinate of the Demon King, the cons far outweighed the pros.
They could've just sent an envoy directly, but they're insisting on going through me.
There was likely intent to leverage his friendship with the third prince for smoother negotiations, but at the same time, it was a shallow ploy to nail him down as Hildean's hero.
It wasn't a situation Hillun particularly wanted, but he couldn't outright refuse without completely burning bridges with Hildean.
And if Hildean joins and they actually succeed...
If things fell neatly into place, that might be one thing, but the Berze he knew wasn't the type of Demon King to go down cleanly.
If the hero ploy succeeded and he faced mortal danger, would Berze let him go unscathed?
Honestly, he wasn't sure.
The best scenario would be...
The hero ploy succeeds, and before the Demon King can do anything to Hillun Kargil, his head gets lopped off. But the odds of that were exceedingly slim.
For now, I should talk to the third prince.
In the end, he had no choice but to go with the flow for now, and consulting the third prince—someone he was close to—seemed better than heading straight to the emperor.
I'm a hero who slew two Demon Kings, and yet I can't do a single thing my way.
He wiped the complicated expression from his face and stepped outside.
As the ever-steady Hillun Kargil.
In just over two weeks, the empire demonstrated astonishing momentum, swiftly assembling the search parties.
They secured cooperation from Dormunt, Korzen, and Hotenwork, and under the leadership of imperial royals, search parties dispatched from the empire headed to each kingdom.
It was an incredible speed.
"The empire's drive is impressive."
"It's only natural. His Majesty the Emperor is personally interested in this matter—not for succession, but for other reasons."
When Hillun gave him a puzzled look, Martin whispered softly.
"Surely you've guessed it too? The likelihood that the Flame Demon King isn't the culprit here."
"...You think so?"
"Of course. What black mage spills details about the Demon King they've contracted with? It's no secret anymore that they pawn their souls."
"Then why...?"
"Because that's not the important part. Whoever this Demon King is that's daring to manipulate the empire, His Majesty finds the one still hiding their tower more outrageous than the one whose tower is exposed and scheming."
"...!"
"It worked out well, didn't it? Using this as a pretext to draw aid from the three kingdoms and the Hero Guild. The empire will definitely find the Flame Tower."
It stemmed from confidence—no, arrogance—that once the tower was found, they could deal with it anytime.
Yet no one could call it wrong.
And Hillun's heart pounded.
Because it felt like they really might find the tower.
"Finding the Flame Tower is the top priority; we'll uncover the real culprit after."
Amid all this, the search party pressed on toward Korzen Kingdom. Daphne Philian joined midway.
"How did you convince Daphne Philian?"
"I didn't convince Daphne; my brother Florian did."
A search was different from a hero ploy.
It had no guarantee of success or failure, focused more on scouting than combat, so its forces were far inferior to a hero party's.
Especially since the target was the Flame Tower, which had already foiled Hillun Kargil and Akan Kingdom twice, located in the Erjest Mountains—deemed the continent's most perilous.
Failure was more likely than success. Thus, most royals avoided the risk.
Better to join once results emerged. After all, it boiled down to who claimed the Demon King's head.
Yet the third prince showed enthusiasm because he was desperate enough to shoulder the risk, knowing the potential gains if they succeeded.
And the second prince, doubting success from the start, sweetened the deal by attaching Daphne Philian and other heroes.
The third prince had no reason to refuse. Sharing credit was fine, but in uncertainty, the top ranger Daphne was a must.
"I see."
Hillun nodded, approaching Daphne. Since they'd travel together for a while, building rapport wasn't a bad idea.
"We meet again."
"Good to see you. But where is that person?"
"That person?"
"Name was... Fail, I think. Red hair..."
"You mean Lord Fail?"
"Yes, him. Isn't he from the Red Eagles too?"
"No. He's just someone assisting me separately."
"I see."
Hillun steered the conversation away to prevent it drifting toward Berze.
"Come to think of it, back then, I only talked about myself. I didn't know you were searching the tower too. If I had, I'd have asked you a lot."
In the past, after his own tower search failed, Daphne Philian had sought out Hillun Kargil, another failure.
Hillun had cooperated fully then, but hadn't heard Daphne's side properly.
"If you want, I can tell you even now."
"Please do."
At Hillun's consent, Daphne pulled a map from his bosom. It was his personally surveyed panorama of the Erjest Mountains.
"I pride myself on having scouted nearly every part, starting here."
He pointed to sections of the range. Hillun suppressed his crumbling facade with superhuman endurance.
...He confirmed the tower's location?
Daphne's finger had precisely grazed the tower's site and moved on.
"You didn't find the tower in these places?"
"Not yet."
The tower is definitely there. But he couldn't find it?
It made no sense. For that to hold...
The Demon King has something hiding it.
Could a tower be concealed?
Hillun had never heard of such a thing.
Empire and Demon King.
Torn between them, Hillun's scales tipped slightly toward the Demon King.
Their conversation continued.
Round and round, they ended up back at Hotenwork.
Among Korzen Kingdom's cities, it was the closest to Erjest. Naturally, anyone climbing the mountains had to gather here.
"Pleased to meet you. I am Belrov Korzen, captain of the White Ermine Company and Korzen Kingdom's liaison."
The White Ermine was one of Korzen's famed ranger units.
Based in Hotenwork and other northern cities, they explored Erjest or repelled monsters—scouts par excellence.
Korzen had assembled their best for finding the tower.
"I didn't expect to see Korzen's second prince here."
"Finding the Demon King's tower is a must. Of course I had to step up."
That wasn't all. One knight order, two mage corps, and two more ranger units besides the Brown Ermine.
The 300 elite troops made clear how badly they wanted the Flame Tower.
And their resolve soon turned to action.
In just three days.
The allied search party, briefly resting in Hotenwork, plunged straight into Erjest.
Simultaneous search operations launched from the three kingdoms.
Berze couldn't monitor all three. But Hotenwork was an exception.
Because it included his limbs: Hillun Kargil and the Red Eagles.
And Berze decided to focus hardest on Hotenwork's party.
It was closest to the tower, and held his target, Martin Jespain.
"The third prince has arrived at Hotenwork."
The scale was no joke.
Three hundred from Korzen's army, three hundred more from the empire. Plus fifty heroes among them, including Daphne Philian.
Considering they were all special forces—knights, rangers, mages—it was more dangerous than Cain's Akan search party.
"Isn't Daphne a good thing for us? He already came here, confirmed nothing, and left."
"That'd be the best case."
Retreading searched areas was rare. But complacency was forbidden.
"We have two tasks."
One: Hinder the search party from approaching the tower.
Two: Isolate the third prince to meet Kaede.
"Simple."
The dwarf snorted.
"Blast 'em all with mana cannons, and they'll scatter in panic. Prince? Nobles? In a barrage, status means nothing! Everyone scrambles for their lives! Human nature kicks in—they'll disperse!"
"Rejected."
The third prince wasn't weak, but not overwhelmingly strong. Against hundreds of mana cannon blasts, he'd be more likely to have his guts spill out than slip away.
"Avalanche! Trigger an avalanche!"
Ernan shouted.
"We've done plenty already. Unless they're idiots, they'll have countermeasures."
Akan had blocked them admirably, in fact.
"So make it bigger and flashier—they won't prepare for that."
She crossed her arms, and four elves stood behind her. The water spirits they'd summoned mimicked the pose.
"Behold the power of a Dark Spirit Sorcerer."
"Too big an avalanche is no different from mana cannons."
"Spirits can locate the buried third prince faster."
"Not bad."
Berze tabled Ernan's idea.
Then another princess raised her hand.
"Chimera. Destroy. Annihilate."
"I said no massacres."
"Not prince."
"Kill everyone except the prince?"
Ravinia nodded.
"Big flaw there."
"?"
"You haven't even made proper chimeras."
"...!"
Even golems weren't finished. Chimeras, lower priority, naturally weren't either.
"And let me say upfront: We can't inflict heavy casualties."
It might be overconfidence, but he had to consider convincing the third prince later.
A bigger failure would undermine his position.
"Monsters."
"We'll use monsters to attack, yes."
Even now, Krutoo and Frost Orcs were scouting monster nests and territories outside.
"Cher?"
"Grab with Cher?"
"Yeah. Fast."
"Even worse."
Cher was Ravinia's signature chimera. Its appearance would expose her presence.
Then Akan might escalate from runaway princess hunt to joining the hero ploy—worst case.
Jespain and Akan relations were poor, but humans united against external Demon King threats.
"Minimal damage, isolate just the third prince. Tricky."
Ernan groaned.
"Demon King."
Elena, who'd been quietly listening, raised her hand timidly.
"...Um."
"What?"
"Can't the Demon King just step in?"
"Me?"
"He's an imperial prince anyway. Kidnapping him wouldn't be weird, right?"
"Sadly, not this time."
Normally, maybe.
But Daphne Philian was there now—the hero most sensitive to mana. He'd detected even a trace from Berze before.
"Plus, he's met me as Fail. He knows my aura."
Infiltrating as Fail or Demon King—both problematic.
"Bigger issue: Hillun must recognize me too."
No one spotted Byrif in Hamstline Gorge. Hillun hadn't either, but as a two-Demon-King slayer, he claimed superior senses over other heroes.
That justification then was a noose now.
"What about magic?"
"You haven't learned proper spells yet."
"Not me—Teacher Sharlot. Six engravings."
"Impossible."
Kaede objected.
"The empire reveres knights over mages, but their mage forces aren't weak. The corps with my brother is the Platinum Shield Mage Corps—specialized in defense above all."
All with four engravings; captain had six.
Power befitting the empire.
"Too tough."
Ravinia spoke again.
"Just all."
"Avalanche first, then monsters, kidnap prince? All at once, not separate?"
"No."
"Mana cannons too? They'll protect the prince, like Kaede said?"
"Yeah."
Ravinia nodded vigorously.
"...How do you even understand her short words?"
"Can't get this? Simple."
"Not simple at all."
"Dark elf lacking language interpretation? Pathetic."
"The fact we need interpretation skills proves it's weird—didn't you notice?"
Berze ignored Gordon's grumbling.
Not bad.
Separate, no answers; but a storm assault might crack them.
And if no gap even then, I just step in...
Good.
"We'll do that."
"Good?"
"Yes, good idea. Well done."
Ravinia extended her hand.
"Demon King."
"Think Demon King byproducts come easy?"
Ravinia stared intently at Berze.
He barely suppressed a gag.
Small bribes to keep using her? Profitable.
Her utility was immense.
"Succeed, and you get one scale."
"Scale?"
Berze emitted mana. Black scales erupted on his human-like skin.
"Whoa...!"
She reached out. The scales reverted to skin.
"Give."
Like a goblin losing treasure, she pouted.
"Said if this succeeds."
Ravinia's gaze swept the room.
Arms crossed, stern face.
"Do. Well."
Each word deliberate.
Finger to her eye, then pointing at the group.
I'm watching.