Chapter 985: Honorary Member

“Riley?”

There were names one never forgot, no matter how many times today repeated. The name of the man blocking the road came from Enkrid’s mouth. Valmung knew the face too. He had dealings with the Zaun family himself, after all.

One of the easier routes out of Imperial territory passed near the Zaun family, but wasn’t this a little far from there? What brought you all the way out here?

Valmung looked at him with several questions in his eyes.

“It has been a long time, sir.”

Toward Valmung, an Imperial, he showed wariness and hostility. Toward Enkrid, he bowed his head with proper courtesy.

“That’s some harsh discrimination.”

Valmung muttered.

“We are watching you, Valphir.”

The middle-aged man was Lynox, the swordsman who lived with cheer in his bones. As ever, he had plenty of swords hanging from him. No, fewer than before?

Now, three weapons seemed to be his main ones. One thin sword, one longsword, and one short sword. Of the three, the short sword looked the most precious. Anyone could tell at a glance that it was a relic.

With his arms hanging loose, Lynox’s fingertips looked ready to reach the three weapons on his sword belt at any moment.

So he intends to fight if this goes wrong.

The remaining one of the three was Grida Zaun.

“Right, hm, Enkrid, did your hair color change? Wasn’t it black?”

Standing a step to the side, she said that while looking at Jaxon. If Ragna could not find his way, she could not tell faces apart. She remembered people roughly as “handsome enough,” and had spoken to Jaxon by mistake.

“The captain is over there.”

Jaxon pointed at Enkrid without the slightest reaction.

“Ah, right. I knew it was you.”

Temares nodded in satisfaction when he saw her.

“Unusual eyes. But beautiful.”

Dragonkin saw the inner purity a being possessed. In that sense, every person who came out of the Zaun family pleased him.

Because every one of them was pure in how mad they were for swordsmanship.

Riley Zaun did not lower his guard. He only kept glaring at Valmung.

What was interesting was that among the three who had come from Zaun, the one in charge was neither Grida nor Lynox.

That was what Enkrid found most interesting. The man with one bad leg, Riley Zaun, had improved beyond recognition, and now he stood here in the position of responsibility.

Lynox seemed to be serving as watcher or adviser, while Grida Zaun appeared to be pure combat strength.

With calm posture and calm eyes, Riley finished saying what he had come to say.

“I speak on behalf of the Zaun family. This is the will of the family head, and the will of us all. We are watching. The side chosen by those you tried to use as gatekeepers by attaching names such as Shield Duke or Guardian Duke is clear. Should anything happen to our benefactor, every one of those you attempted to turn into gatekeepers will take up the sword with death in mind.”

It was a considerably active threat, and at the same time, a firm declaration of will.

Valphir Valmung thought that nothing he encountered on this road was ever easy. And how did they even know to come here?

“That big-eyed bastard.”

Meanwhile, Rem muttered. Along with that mutter, Enkrid’s eyes met Seriana’s.

It was easy enough to guess who had arranged things so they would turn out this way, and the two of them realized it at the same moment.

“No eye contact.”

Shinar’s leaf-blade blocked the path between their gazes. Looking at the blade face with its leaf pattern, so subtle that it was hard to notice without looking closely, Enkrid turned his head. Seriana did the same.

“As expected.”

Esther admired her again.

Once more, they were faced with another mess, but Crang only smiled. Wasn’t this better than a mob of monsters or demon servants rushing at them?

Though, in truth, the people here would have been fine even if Astrail or demon servants had rushed them.

As he thought that, he understood as well.

‘Kraiss’s work.’

How had the Zaun people waited for them here?

‘He predicted the route.’

Before they had left, while sending letters to Border Guard, he had contacted the Zaun family as well.

That was before the route or schedule had been decided.

‘He predicted one of the roads that reaches Imperial territory without stopping by Border Guard, and he got it right.’

If this was not prophecy, then what was it?

He sat in place and predicted a decision they would make in the future, preparing for it in advance. In a way, this was obvious to those who knew Kraiss, but to anyone who did not, it was deeply startling.

That was why Crang remained calm and Enkrid nodded, while Seriana’s expression turned to stone.

‘They knew we would pass through here and waited?’

How? Because this route was the most reasonable and fastest.

It was only possible if one looked at a map, traced the nearby terrain inside one’s head, and predicted the behavioral patterns of the person guiding the road.

‘Sir Valmung was the one who chose the route.’

Valphir Valmung had been the center of it, yet someone who had only seen him for the first time had predicted the road he would choose. Was that all?

‘No.’

Because of her and her party, it would have been easier. Even if Sir Valmung or Mol carried her, the roads they could take with her along were limited.

“Zaun is watching.”

That was what the man named Riley Zaun said. His gaze was upright and free of doubt.

‘The intent is clear.’

She could almost hear the man standing behind this matter speaking.

“We are always watching, so I would appreciate it if you minded your conduct.”

He would say it with one large light-brown eye hidden in shadow. Sinister and meticulous.

He was the hidden hand in the shadows, the black curtain behind all of this. A monster who had predicted and prepared for everything.

‘Frightening.’

There were many extraordinary people in the Empire, but she had never seen someone this meticulous.

If His Imperial Majesty saw him, would she covet him? Or cast him aside as dangerous?

Among the Mad Order of Knights, Seriana considered Kraiss the most dangerous.

The knight called a calamity could cut down a thousand, but the one who saw the future while seated in place could kill ten thousand. If they lived that kind of life.

While Seriana faced Kraiss’s preparations, was startled by them, and imagined him with shadows of her own making, Kraiss himself was actually jiggling his leg in anxiety.

“I miss Nurat.”

He was looking for his lover. That was what happened when his anxiety reached its peak. He wanted to be with his lover, with someone comfortable, someone who brought him stability.

Of course he was not hiding his face in shadow. Instead, he kept seeking out sunlight and going on walks, doing his utmost to reduce the anxiety inside him.

And as he did, he once again doubted himself, wondering if sending away the king and the captain had been a mistake.

As always, he thought it might have been better to throw all this away and open a salon instead.

Separate from those thoughts, he had no time to picture a future where he opened a salon to forget his anxiety, so Kraiss simply used even that anxiety to prepare for what lay ahead, and then prepare again.

Whatever Seriana thought, Kraiss was merely living his own life. So in truth, there was no hidden mastermind or anything of the sort, but misunderstandings always began with mistaken impressions.

Seriana had realized who was behind what had happened, but that did not change what she had to do.

“Is this a welcome? We are grateful.”

She answered their words as if nothing were wrong. Valphir Valmung frowned, then loosened his expression.

He knew that not everything in the world went as one wanted. The Empire had put effort into the Zaun family, but things had not gone as desired. That was the truth.

Mol and Seriana revered the emperor like a god, but she was not a god. That was why even the emperor could not take everything she wanted.

‘Though I hope this matter goes somewhat according to plan.’

If the emperor was a god to Seriana and Mol, then to Valphir Valmung, she was like a mother or an elder sister.

In truth, mother or elder sister felt similar to him. Something like someone who held him close.

If asked whether that became the reason for his loyalty, the answer was somewhat vague, but if asked whether he would risk his life and fight for the emperor, he would nod without hesitation.

That was why Zaun’s current threat, or proposal, or welcome, meant nothing to him.

If you mean to stand against the emperor, then do it. Then we fight. The reason he had gained the name Beast Knight began to boil within Valmung. He merely controlled the wildness sleeping inside him. He had not forgotten it.

Just as that force began to creep upward—

“Tell him there’s no need to worry too much.”

Enkrid said that to Riley. If Kraiss had arranged this, then the one who had accepted it was the Zaun family head.

“Odinkar has inherited the position of family head, and until you return, Zaun will likely remain in wartime posture.”

Quick-witted Riley said that. It meant they had the family head’s permission, and that they had not come here on their own.

Well, this was something. Should he say he hardly knew what to do with himself?

Still, it did not feel bad. No, it felt good. He had fought for someone, and now they were willing to fight for him too. In the end, if they were to fight the Demon-lands, perhaps they needed more people like this. That thought came to him as well.

“I feel left out.”

Crang said. He was the king, and yet they were saying they would fight only for Enkrid.

Naturally, it was a joke. They had no connection to him. And right now, they were stepping forward for his friend.

He showed a broad smile. Among the five Royal Guards, three had shown caution at the appearance of the new arrivals, but after listening to the conversation, they lowered their guard somewhat.

“No. We do not lower our vigilance until we return from the Empire.”

Sensing that, the captain of the Royal Guards said so. Riervan thought the same. Every one of them was truly faithful to the work they had been given. That was how it looked to Enkrid. The Royal Guards, and the people who had come from the Zaun family.

‘Valmung and Lady Seriana too.’

No one was tense over the situation. It had merely been a small commotion.

The reason there had been no monsters or demonic beasts after they entered the Pen-Hanil Range was also the Zaun family’s work.

“We cleared the road.”

Riley said. His leg was bad, but his steps carried more strength than before. It was clear he had gone through considerable training and desperately adjusted the balance of his body.

‘And he seems to have realized a great deal in the process.’

Seeing things like that made the difference in talent feel certain. The Zaun family had several people called geniuses, but among them, Riley was one of the fiercest.

Why? There were several reasons.

‘Deficiency.’

The limit created by one bad leg. The things Heskal Zaun, the man who had been like a father to him, had done.

If the absence of his leg was something he had originally possessed, then the absence of his father was something he had newly lost.

What would he fill that space with? Choosing that was his own task. He had chosen, filled it, and now stood here.

“Did your skills improve at all?”

Grida asked, sticking close to Enkrid’s side. Shinar showed no wariness toward her.

Seriana almost asked why she was leaving that woman alone, then stopped herself. She kept her dignity and refinement.

“I’m still floundering forward one step at a time.”

Enkrid answered as he walked. If they were not going to waste any more time here, they had to keep moving.

With that as the start, they all began moving again. When the Zaun family said they had cleared the road, it did not simply mean they had cut away protruding branches and made an easy path to walk.

They had pitched tents at a place suitable for camp. There was a reason they lived by forming villages inside the mountain range.

Aside from training in swordsmanship, they were half rangers of the mountains. Those particularly used to roaming outside were masters of how to live in the range.

People who lived in dangerous places and did nothing but temper their swordsmanship.

That was what the Zaun were, and as things stood, every one of them had stepped forward for a man named Enkrid.

“His Majesty would click her tongue if she saw this.”

Valmung had softened his force somewhat, but in the end, he could not hold back and threw out those words. No one answered. Instead of asking Lynox how they had come this far, Enkrid asked a more direct question.

“What did the letter say?”

Lynox answered while pouring a waterskin full of water into a pot.

“It said people from the Empire had come and you were on your way, and this might be the last time, so we should at least see you off. Now that I think about it, the contents were ridiculous. What is that bastard?”

Halfway through pouring the water, Lynox lifted his head. Didn’t it feel like they had been manipulated? It did not feel bad, but it was absurd.

‘That’s Kraiss, all right.’

Enkrid merely nodded and helped prepare the meal. Rem chuckled and joined in.

Temares, Shinar, and Esther trailed after Enkrid.

“Those three behind you are a little unusual. Are they all in your order?”

Lynox asked.

“That is correct.”

Before Shinar or Esther could speak, Temares stepped forward. He naturally wore a dark-green cloak. When Enkrid looked at Shinar, she answered.

“He asked for one.”

It was a precious item produced only in small quantities, but considering the scale of the Fairy City, it made sense that making a few would be easy enough.

What was rare was a dragonkin wearing one of the order’s formal uniform cloaks, complete with its stepped pattern.

That object itself coming from the Fairy City was something one could simply nod at.

But the dragonkin had asked for it first?

It had been a long time since Enkrid had seen Temares, and he had indeed changed. He was clearly far more proactive than before.

“Are you joining the order?”

Enkrid asked.

“Yes. I will join.”

Temares answered.

“I see.”

And that was the end of it.

Lynox merely nodded, thinking that since these bastards were madmen, of course that was how it went. But Valmung, who had been looking around here and there before coming over, was dumbfounded.

He himself disliked empty formalities, but this was a truly strange sight.

“Joining is easy, huh. Why don’t you accept me too?”

Valmung said it as a joke, and Enkrid thought for a moment before answering.

“How about honorary member?”

Since they would be fighting the Demon-lands later anyway, the more decent swordsmen they had, the better.

Crang, who had been listening from the side, burst into a hearty laugh. Nothing he saw was unpleasant at all. What they were doing simply looked amusing.

“Huh? What?”

Valmung was flustered, not having expected such an answer.

“Then, honorary member Valmung, grill some jerky.”

Enkrid, a skilled mocker, teased him properly once again.

“Are you insane?”

Valmung reacted to his joke, and everyone laughed. Even Seriana let out a laugh. It was a moment when the stiff atmosphere softened like toasted bread.

Thanks to Zaun setting up the tents and clearing the road, camp was easy. The monsters and demonic beasts had been cleared away long ago, and with campfires lit between cozy tents and even liquor brought out, it could almost feel like they had come out to play.

But no one let down their guard. Jaxon especially did not.

Had Kraiss not repeatedly stressed it?

The king’s safety would become the reason for war.

He had also added that the Empire would protect them, but not everyone there would want to protect them.

Most of Kraiss’s anxieties did not become reality.

This matter was different.

One of his anxieties burst.

And Jaxon reacted to it.