Chapter 802 - The Unwavering Marcus
The gate guard's surprise was conveyed directly inside.
"His Majesty has many duties today. Please understand."
The most famous figure from among the royalist faction came out immediately to greet the party.
He was an old acquaintance of Enkrid's.
He had previously served as a battalion commander of the Border Guard and was now the man who had become Count Marcus.
"That sounds like a demand."
"If you don't understand, you can just go right in."
Marcus laughed at the light joke and returned the remark.
This man, too, was an invariably bold human.
Even after hearing that Enkrid had slaughtered all the beasts, the look he gave him was filled with reverence, but not anxiety.
If this were an act, that too would be the quality of a great statesman.
It was said that the best way to earn faith and trust is to trust the other person first.
"Shall we have some tea?"
Enkrid nodded and looked at Aishia, who had stepped forward as an escort.
She was originally from the Crimson Cloak Knight Order, but he had heard that she had somehow been incorporated into the royal guard.
All of this was content that had been included in the miscellaneous letters Krang had sent.
"If you just eat greasy food every day and pat your belly, you're bound to get some flab, Aishia."
A vein popped on Aishia's forehead at Enkrid's friendly greeting.
Shaking an opponent's composure with a first greeting was certainly in the realm of talent.
"...Is that your greeting?"
"What else?"
Though the intent to tease was plentiful, a greeting was a greeting.
Watching the two catch up, Marcus spoke.
"Let's head inside."
Upon entering the inner castle, a chamberlain approached and guided them all to their rooms.
"See you later. Seems like it'll just be a bunch of useless talk."
Rem said, wiping away his nosebleed.
"As for my room, I can find it myself if you just give me the description. I've been here before."
Ragna also said to the chamberlain, and Ropord shook his head from behind.
Audin recited a concise prayer, and Theresa also put her hands together and nodded.
"Hm, they are an unchanging bunch."
Marcus said, choosing his words.
For some reason, he was more cautious than when he was dealing with Enkrid.
For him, it was because he didn't feel even the slightest sense of control over Rem and the others.
Without Enkrid, they were people who would immediately run wild as they pleased.
"My fiancé, you know where my room is, don't you?"
Finally, Marcus's eyes widened at Shinar's words, spoken as she tapped Enkrid's arm with her finger.
'Hm?'
As the party members followed the chamberlain and retreated one by one, and after watching Ropord instruct Ragna's attendant to make sure he got to his room, Marcus opened his mouth.
"Was the elven company commander always like that?"
No.
She hadn't been that bad at first.
Though she enjoyed jokes, she had been expressionless and had not allowed others to get closer than a certain distance.
Within Marcus's mind, the mystery of the elf with otherworldly beauty crumbled a little.
"People change."
Enkrid replied as if it were nothing.
Well, even to his mind, the elf's change was sometimes surprising.
"That's true."
Marcus watched Shinar's retreating back, nodded, and turned around.
In the end, only Enkrid was having a cup of tea with Marcus.
His office, as if reflecting his personality, was neat.
The only furniture was the minimum required for storage, two swords and a shield hung on the wall, and on a desk to one side, there was not a single common document.
A handmaiden left two cups of tea on the table, along with cookies made from ground and steamed barley, wheat, and a few other grains.
When he tasted them, they had almost no sweetness and were dry.
They were cookies tailored to Marcus's palate.
"I heard there's some kind of seditious movement in the capital?"
A faint jasmine scent rose from the cup, warmed to a suitable temperature.
Enkrid asked as he took a sip, clearing the dry cookie from his mouth.
Perhaps this was the intended way to eat it, as the nutty flavor of the cookie was enhanced when met with the tea.
"We opened up logistics, started trade with the Holy City and the trade cities, and also got involved in the Stone Road that connects the West to the Border Guard. To deal with the surrounding monsters and beasts and to prevent bandit groups from forming, we opened the capital, and many people started coming and going. That's the problem that arose."
Instead of beating around the bush, Marcus organized his thoughts and said everything at once.
Not that he said it without breathing; he spoke at a moderate pace, breathing when he needed to.
Enkrid had a sharp mind, but it was difficult for him to grasp the core of the issue or make guesses in a situation where he knew nothing.
However, he thought he understood the meaning behind Marcus's words.
Marcus had spoken to convey the core problem, not to relay detailed information.
If you know the intent behind what the other person has said, then what you need to notice becomes clear.
The attitude of listening that he had acquired while learning techniques from others was still being used effectively.
He had heard him properly.
So, what did he mean by there being many people?
'There will be holes in public security.'
And unidentified individuals would be roaming Naurillia.
Did some of them show seditious movements?
It didn't seem like there were problems such as a thieves' guild running rampant.
He wouldn't call that an undercurrent, and if it were something of that level, Andrew wouldn't have bothered to point it out.
Just because he knew the cause of the problem didn't mean a solution would pop up out of nowhere.
They couldn't just close the castle gates and cut off exchange because the coming and going of people was the problem.
"A cart that has started to roll downhill cannot be stopped."
Krais had said that about the growth of the Border Guard.
Naurelia, the capital, was likely in a similar situation.
If you forcefully stop a cart rolling downhill, the things inside will tumble out.
Therefore, the best course of action would be to adjust its direction so that it doesn't fall off a cliff or crash.
Marcus did not go into more detail.
He didn't even check if Enkrid understood and continued speaking.
"Let's talk about complicated things after you've rested a bit. Rather than that, hm, how about you meet my father?"
He was suggesting they meet the king and other nobles in about three days' time.
Among them, Marcus's father referred to Marquis Baisar.
"Separately?"
Enkrid asked back.
It was a rare and unexpected request.
That's why he was asking again.
Marcus revealed a complicated expression.
After scratching behind his ear with one hand and letting out a "hmm," he opened his mouth again.
"Because it seems he will pass away soon."
A human's lifespan is finite.
Even if one is born with a healthy constitution, it is difficult to exceed a hundred years.
Of course, a knight's lifespan increases due to Will, and a magician may live even longer through some means, but as long as one is an ordinary person, they die when they get old.
The god of death is a butterfly that seeks out the sweet scent of death that emanates from old age.
That butterfly had headed for the flower that was Marquis Baisar.
When that butterfly had drunk all the sweet honey and departed, Marquis Baisar's breath would cease.
No matter how great a wielder of power one was, death from old age could not be helped.
And since he probably didn't want to be reborn as a Draugr or a ghoul because he didn't want to die, there was nothing more that could be done.
And they had probably already tried all sorts of means, including holy power.
"I understand."
There was no reason not to.
He could tell just by Marcus's tone.
This was a request.
To be precise, it sounded like a request from his father, not Count Marcus.
Enkrid readily nodded, but it wasn't that they would meet right away.
"My father's waking hours are not long, so I will send a person. Ah, and you didn't just come back from killing monsters, did you?"
"It was on the way."
"On the way?"
"The Thornbriar Fortress that was inside the Demon Realm and…"
"...Hm?"
Marcus's eyes widened.
That fortress inside the Demon Realm was a place where even the Crimson Cloak Knight Order had attempted to attack three times and retreated.
"That place?"
"It just happened."
"It's not exactly a place you go to attack 'just because'."
Marcus was surprised, but looking at what the band of mad knights had done so far, it wasn't an impossible feat.
Rather, from the perspective of conquering the Demon Realm, it could be that a new path had been opened.
He had once served as a battalion commander, brandishing the nickname 'War Maniac'.
In reality, unlike his nickname, he had adhered to slow and quiet battles, but using such a nickname to play psychological games with the enemy had been Marcus's strategy in the first place.
With this experience, he was also in a position to offer strategic advice to the king.
"What did you do?"
Marcus was surprised and amazed.
The reverence in his eyes deepened.
No matter how friendly he acted, the man before him was someone who had changed the strategic framework of the Kingdom of Naurillia.
He was also the only person who could control the madmen he had seen earlier.
Marcus thought this was the end of it, but Enkrid's mouth opened again.
"And."
"And?"
Was there something more he did?
If it was something on the level of destroying the Thornbriar Fortress, the rest wasn't even worth mentioning.
Since Enkrid wasn't the type to list every little thing he did and expect praise for it.
If it was a story about the monster slaughter, he already knew about it.
It was so loud that anyone who had their ears to the ground in the vicinity would know about it.
It wasn't even information that could be sold at an information guild.
It was surprising, but it was something he knew.
Still, he would nod his head.
If he told the story of saving the people living parasitically off the Demon Realm, he would say something to reassure him.
Marcus, out of habit, prepared a few answers in his head.
"We went to catch Beelrog in the first place."
Clatter.
Marcus didn't want to break the expensive teacup, so he replayed what he had heard and put the cup down first.
He had heard about the end of the knight Oara.
A mere fragment of the being called Beelrog was an opponent that required the full strength of a knight to fight, risking their lives.
If it was Beelrog's main body, then this was a matter for the entire nation's military force to handle.
Marcus took a moment to catch his breath, pieced together the context, came to his own conclusion, and then opened his mouth.
"So you didn't encounter it. Right, it is a being whose whereabouts are unknown."
As Marcus spoke, his palms became moist.
Sweat had beaded without him noticing.
He placed both hands on his thighs to wipe them and looked at Enkrid.
Between the black hair, the two blue eyes were upright.
Unwavering.
His voice was the same.
Upright and unwavering.
"We killed it and came back."
Marcus was unable to process the situation immediately and spouted some foolish words.
"You didn't just kill a look-alike?"
In the first place, Marcus didn't even know what Beelrog looked like, so how would he know if it was a look-alike or not?
It was truly a foolish thing to say.
It would be something only a person who had fought it face-to-face would know.
In other words, the man before him would not make such a mistake.
Marcus realized he had said something foolish and changed his words.
"So you mean you killed a fragment?"
"No."
"No?"
"The main body."
"The main body?"
Marcus repeated the words like a parrot.
That's how surprised he was.
Though he was sometimes called 'the Unwavering Marcus' by the surrounding nobles, right now he was not just wavering, he couldn't even control his expression.
Enkrid had seen a fragment of Beelrog in the city of Oara, and this time he had confirmed it was using an authority.
He recited this whole story in a calm tone.
The demon's authority, the labyrinthization, and so on.
Marcus's jaw dropped.
There was nothing to say.
Still, having somehow collected his surprised heart, Marcus spoke.
"So that's why everyone was so severely injured."
He had asked because everyone had clear signs of injury here and there, making him wonder what else they had done besides annihilating the monster horde.
It was a question he had thrown out, having estimated the military strength of the band of mad knights.
Of course, the current story far surpassed his estimations or predictions.
Marcus didn't even think to ask how they had fought.
He also decided not to tell the king all of this.
The king would be as surprised as he was.
Wouldn't even Krang, who was calm about most things and whose gaze hadn't wavered even after experiencing a special event recently, be startled to hear this?
Postponing this story for a bit couldn't be called disloyalty.
Enkrid and Krang called each other friends, so they would probably want to talk about this directly, and besides, the king was too busy right now.
'Though my desire to see his surprised face is greater.'
Marcus threw away the useless self-justification that was rummaging through his head.
This too was just a thought that had followed evasively after hearing such a shocking story.
"...Then let's see each other later. I'm so surprised my head isn't working. I need to rest a bit too."
At Marcus's words, Enkrid got up, left, and was given an empty room by a chamberlain.
He looked around the palace to see if there were any familiar faces, but there was no one he recognized.
'There are quite a few.'
However, the number of people guarding the inside of the royal palace had increased compared to before.
Soldiers armed with spears and shields were visible here and there, and there were also many others in light armor with swords.
Krang's letter had said he was reorganizing the royal guard into two forms, hadn't it?
Besides the existing Royal Guard, he had said he was cultivating talented individuals in a form similar to a knight order.
'Will Aishia be teaching them?'
It wasn't a deep thought.
Even if the fatigue from the journey hadn't piled up much, when it was time to rest, one had to rest.
All the more so since his injuries weren't completely healed.
Enkrid stopped thinking and was guided to a private bathroom, where he soaked his body.
The warm water melted the fatigue from his entire body.
He felt his aching arms healing on their own.
After he had washed away the dust from his journey, a few handmaidens came in and washed his back.
After washing up cleanly, he went to his room and slept soundly.
The bed was soft, as if filled with goose feathers.
Sinking deep into it, Enkrid met the Ferryman as soon as he closed his eyes.
Splash—
And the Ferryman opened his mouth, which was like the maw of the abyss on his skin of gray wasteland, and spoke.
***
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