The day after our strategy meeting, the former prince set off for the imperial capital with his resistance troops. I wondered to what extent Bazack could keep him in check. That would most likely play a significant part in the outcome of this mission. The population of Ebiza had drastically decreased now that the resistance had left, which confirmed to me that the prince’s troops could pose a threat to us in the future.
The previous night, I’d contacted the pope with my arclink crystal to apologize for leaving without a word, and she’d told me that the knights had started doing much better after our departure. A bitter smile curled on my lips at her words.
I then explained to her how dire things were in Ebiza, but she replied that the Church unfortunately couldn’t afford to help until the situation with Dongahar was resolved for good. I hadn’t been expecting it to act immediately, anyway; I’d simply wanted to report the town’s current state of affairs to her. As for the matter of the empire, she’d agreed to let me handle it, so I promised we’d try to achieve our objectives without causing any trouble for Saint Shurule.
After my conversation with the pope, Estia and the others shared the information they’d gathered from the townsfolk and the demons they’d interrogated, and their findings left me in shock. It was about Cloud, aka the fake Lion of War, and the man Lionel wanted to take his revenge on. As it turned out, he might have once been a slave from Blanche. Galba had done some investigating into the man while I was in Neldahl, and he’d said that he used to be an adventurer in Grandol who specialized in transformation magic—just like the slave from Blanche mentioned by the people my friends had interrogated.
However, when I raised this possibility, Brod and Lionel pointed out that by the time the fake Lionel had reached Illumasia, he might no longer have been a slave of Blanche. Their reasoning was that if he had still been a slave, it would have caused a significant uproar in the empire. Most slave crests were designed simply to prevent the slave from harming their master, but those assigned as spies in other countries had different conditions. They were required to stay within a specific distance from their master and needed to have their crests regularly renewed. Some even included built-in punishments in case the slave disobeyed orders. And if they were to betray their master, their crest would detonate, killing the slave instantly.
If he’d been sent as a spy, Cloud wouldn’t have been able to stay in Illumasia for long before needing to renew his crest or he would have died. Only slave merchants could renew crests, and the empire considered any slave without a master to be a fugitive and would imprison them on the spot. Moreover, crests were different in each nation, so any slave sporting a foreign crest with a short renewal period would be flagged by the empire’s slave merchants, who were slaves themselves, which meant they couldn’t betray the empire.
Back to the topic of Cloud: According to my companions, if he’d been going around the empire pretending to be Lionel for years without incident, then it was likely he wasn’t a slave anymore. Their logic was sound, but I couldn’t help but wonder how he’d gotten rid of his slave crest. Of course, a powerful holy magic spell like Dispel would easily do the trick, but since slavery was authorized in the empire, the cost of getting one’s crest removed must have been insanely high, and I couldn’t imagine Cloud having the money to afford such a service. But then, how could he have removed the crest—the chain that bound him to Blanche—on his own?
An idea crossed my mind. “Do slave crests disappear when one gets demonized?” I muttered.
“That sounds possible. If demonization turns one’s mana into demonic mana, it wouldn’t be surprising if it also affected the slave crests,” Lionel, who was walking in front of me, replied.
Demonization was still being researched, so it made sense that most people wouldn’t know that yet.
But if demonization really does modify one’s mana, would they lose the ability to use their Adventurer’s Guild card and other similar identifications? I wondered.
Next, I decided to ask Lionel what he thought Cloud’s worth was to Blanche. “Cloud’s transformation magic must be incredibly useful for intelligence gathering, but did Blanche not see much value in it?”
“Their research on demonization probably wasn’t that advanced at the time, so they didn’t know he’d lose his slave crest. Or maybe they didn’t think that demonized people could keep their free will. I believe it’s safe to assume they simply didn’t have time to investigate the matter.”
“Either way, we don’t know if he’s undergone demonization or not. Still, I’m glad we managed to learn in advance that Bazack and the others were hiding over fifty—perhaps even over a hundred—demonized soldiers.”
“No demon can hide from your magic,” Lionel quipped. He seemed to be in a much better mood than the previous day.
When we’d learned after our meeting with the prince that Illumasia’s emperor had approved the research on demonization, his expression had turned into something terrifying—like a devil preparing for battle.
“Sir, please kill the people who became demons of their own volition and cure those who were forced into it. I’m sure some of them can be saved even if the damage can’t be fully undone.”
I could sense kindness in his tone. Perhaps it showed that he still found me reckless and thought he had to guide me.
“I’ll save everyone I can,” I assured him, and Lionel nodded in satisfaction.
Oh right, there was something I’d meant to ask my companions but hadn’t been able to with Bazack around. “I’m surprised you guys managed to get so much information out of the people you captured, and good details at that,” I said to Ketty, Kefin, and Estia, who were walking ahead of me. “I hear the soldiers talked almost right away too. What methods did you use?”
Kefin paused his meal and looked at me. “We simply made them drink three cups of Substance X, as Mister Galba taught me,” he said. “We were just as surprised as you by how quickly they confessed. Thanks to that, we managed to finish without losing our sense of smell.”
“You’re really a weird one for being able to drink that stuff undiluted, chief,” Ketty added teasingly.
Estia, on the other hand, praised me. “I believe the fact that you cured the prince also made them more cooperative.”
The three of them got along unexpectedly well. I decided to leave any interrogations and information gathering to them from now on.
“I don’t know if I should say thank you or be insulted.” I sighed. “Back to the topic of the empire... In the end, we gave Bazack and the others a week to get there. I wonder how that’ll impact our plan.”
Lionel nodded gravely. “It’s not easy to stay motivated when we have to wait for that long.”
“You worry too much,” Brod chimed in. “You just need to assume we’ll be fighting the empire’s army and stop overthinking it. Still, you’re losing your motivation just ’cause you’ve gotta wait one week? Didn’t think you were so impatient, Lion.”
As always, my master was there to remind me to stop overthinking things.
“Then you can act as Luciel’s bodyguard, Whirlwind.”
“Oh, shut up!”
The two of them started bickering as we continued our trek.
I addressed my other companions. “Since we have a week off, I was thinking of taking Rina and Nanya back to the Holy City, but...”
“It seems to me that they would rather not leave Mister Dhoran’s side, despite how much they have been complaining,” Kefin said.
“Yup, it’s just like Kefin says. You know how craftspeople are. Once they start focusing on something, they lose track of everything else,” Ketty added.
“Mister Dhoran was happy to have more people helping him work on the ship as well,” Estia said.
They had a point. When I’d told Rina and Nanya that I could take them back to the Holy City the previous evening, they’d told me that they would prefer to stay in Ebiza to study under Dhoran. All of them seemed to be having a lot of fun, including Pola and Lycian.