Chapter 25
The Ert-ta Gorge lay about eight days south of the junction in the Mayurian Plains, the capital’s granary.
The Ert-ta Gorge, famous for its dizzyingly sheer cliffs, as though a giant had cleaved them apart with an axe in a single stroke, was the only passage into Contium, the great city connecting the southern and central regions.
The procession, which had been traveling since early morning, had stopped at the entrance to the Ert-ta Gorge to rest.
On a steep cliff that no ordinary person would dare climb, the golden eyes of a yellow cat moved ceaselessly, surveying its prey.
“As expected, they’ve grown quite lax.”
Chichi smiled in satisfaction.
He had chosen the fourth night for the operation not simply because it was the night the moon would disappear.
Based on his long experience as a tracker, the fourth night was when prey was most defenseless.
Just as he had predicted, the first day’s tension had long since vanished: soldiers yawned languidly, while knights and mages sat down wherever they pleased to chat.
“Take a bottle of holy water each!”
“They say beer brought in from Contium will even be specially supplied this evening. So hang in there just a little longer, everyone.”
A smile blossomed once more across Chichi’s face as he eavesdropped on the conversations drifting out from the procession.
With more and more people complaining of pain, it seemed that the prince’s faction could no longer remain idle.
Still, he had never imagined that the prince would come up with such a foolish solution as holy water and beer.
The eggs had little power to emit demonic energy, but their defenses were high. Holy water alone could delay their hatching or alleviate the pain, but unfortunately, it could not pierce a magical-beast egg.
And beer, too! The prince was presumably supplying it to lift everyone’s flagging spirits, but from an assassin’s perspective, there was no easier target to eliminate than someone drunk.
“Hang in there just a little longer. We’ll be able to enter Contium tomorrow.”
Chichi’s eyes turned toward Prince Loen.
The prince was moving among the people, struggling to lift the mood somehow.
Having nothing but the Emperor’s Eye and no skill in swordsmanship or magic, the prince looked as fragile as a newborn fawn.
What sort of scream would the prince let out when that tender flesh was sliced apart?
The more he thought about it, the more enjoyable it became.
As he gazed at the prince and imagined the banquet that would take place tonight, a large crow landed on a rock with a caw.
“Giselle.”
Chichi twitched his whiskers. The crow hopped down from the rock and took human form. Pointed ears emerged from beneath the dust-covered black hood.
“How are the eggs?”
Giselle was one of the few high elves remaining on the continent and a top-tier ability user capable of controlling magical beasts.
Chichi could control magical beasts as well, but he was nowhere near as skilled as Giselle.
“Everything is proceeding smoothly. At this rate, they will all hatch at around midnight. Once the newly planted eggs are filled with demonic energy when the original eggs hatch, they will awaken one after another as well.”
The black smoke rising from her pale palm gathered into the shape of a three-pronged leaf, then scattered in an instant.
“Lord Noe.”
Seeing Chichi’s satisfied smile, Giselle spoke.
“That won’t do.”
Despite Giselle’s tearful, pleading voice, Noe—in the form of the cat Chichi—cut her off without mercy.
“Please, won’t you give me a chance?”
Noe irritably thumped his tail against the ground, displeased that his subordinate kept defying him.
“Your role is sufficient simply by controlling the magical beasts. I will be the one to take the prince’s life.”
“But….”
Giselle hunched her shoulders, yet she did not back down.
“Wasn’t your true target the Hero and the Emperor? Besides, that fool Prince Charles is still around. Why are you being so greedy?”
Fearing the quarrel might drag on, Noe changed tactics and tried to reason with Giselle.
“Hasn’t the Hero already gone mad? I have no desire to take the life of such a woman.”
“…Giselle, please don’t let revenge blind you and ruin everything.”
Despite Noe’s attempts to persuade her, Giselle was seething with fury.
Giselle was exceptionally talented, but she was a truly difficult subordinate to handle. Ever since the World Tree burned following the pact between the Empire and the elves, Giselle had rushed headlong into anything related to the Imperial family, heedless of the consequences.
“I haven’t slept peacefully for a single day since the World Tree burned.”
“Whatever your past may be, we are assassins. As assassins, we must focus solely on our missions. That is why we have survived this long.”
Noe spoke each word with force.
“…I understand.”
Giselle hesitated as though she had something to say, then transformed into a crow and flew into the sky.
***
With snores rumbling, people with flushed faces began sprawling wherever they pleased.
They had expected to drink no more than a single glass, but as barrel after barrel of beer arrived, the people’s expressions gradually filled with anticipation.
The faces of the mages who had transported the beer had gone deathly pale, but with alcohol right in front of them, that hardly mattered.
Taking advantage of everyone being engrossed in their drinking, Vieta went to find Fulcare.
The moment she entered the tent, pointed mana crystals jutting from the ceiling and floor greeted her.
Beyond the densely packed golden crystals, the mage sat alone atop an impossibly complex magic circle, clutching countless threads in both hands.
“Are you all right?”
“…Probably.”
Vieta gently wiped Fulcare’s face, which was covered in a constant sheen of cold sweat, with the fresh wet towel she had brought.
Everything supplied that day had been infused with the archmage’s mana, and Fulcare was controlling the mana that had flowed into more than several hundred people.
This was also his first time manipulating so delicately among so many people at once, and by the afternoon, he had become barely able to move.
If Blanc hadn’t drawn attention to himself, someone would have noticed Fulcare’s absence and grown suspicious.
“More importantly, are you really going to be all right on your own, Captain?”
“Who’s worrying about whom?”
While Fulcare dealt with the magical beasts, Vieta had to wait for the assassin who would come to slit Blanc’s throat.
Not only that, she alone had to handle everything else that happened.
Blanc’s shadows and the knights were there as well, but it was a situation in which they could hardly be expected to provide much help.
“I hear there’s a delicious pastry shop in Contium, too.”
Vieta took another damp cloth and moistened Fulcare’s lips.
“…Even after seeing me in this state, you still want dessert?”
“It’s a limited edition, so of course I have to eat it. This time, you have to eat some, too.”
Fulcare gave a faint smile at Vieta’s playful threat.
“Do you really think they’ll attack tonight?”
Vieta murmured as she tidied Fulcare’s hair.
“Captain, don’t you trust me?”
“I do. That’s why I’m trusting you and waiting.”
Fulcare gave a faint smile at his captain’s expression of trust.
“Yes. That’s enough.”
Strategy is deception.
Fulcare always acted according to this principle.
Factors beyond human control, such as the weather and terrain, could affect victory and defeat, but the most important thing was deceiving the enemy.
No enemy would charge into a thoroughly prepared castle; a true strategist had to deceive the enemy by making his own side appear helpless.
Only then would enemies, lulled into complacency, charge in without a care.
Judging from the magical beasts’ hatching time, tonight was ideal.
He used holy water to put the enemy at ease while secretly infusing it with his own mana as well. Furthermore, he distributed alcohol to expose a weakness in the guards.
Considering the geographical advantage of the gorge as well, it was the perfect opportunity—one that an assassin could not resist taking.
Finally, at the end of this operation, there was Vieta.
If Blanc was a tempting king on this board, Vieta was the queen who would lead the operation to victory.
She was the queen who had overcome every disadvantage and always led them to victory.
Only a knight could stop an undefeated queen; he had to become the knight who would stop the enemy’s knight.
After Vieta left, Fulcare stared into empty space. His eyes glinted strangely, and an image took shape in his mind.
‘At this point, I can pull it a little tighter.’
Countless golden needles surrounded the black, grain-like egg.
Fulcare’s index finger moved ever so slightly, and the needles shifted a little closer to the egg.
This sharp mana was the weapon of the knight who would kill the magical beast in a single stroke just before it hatched.
Then it would be Vieta’s turn.
***
A yellow cat appeared near Blanc’s tent, and a giant crow landed on the cliff.
Caw—.
Giselle, sitting on a rock jutting out from the cliff, returned to her original form.
Giselle moved the pendant hanging around her neck.
One, two, three.
The pendant glittered in the moonlight.
A yellow cat leaped into the tent, and black smoke billowed fiercely from her palm.
*
‘They’re here.’
Hidden beneath Blanc’s bed, Vieta drew the dagger from her waist.