“Very well. Your Majesty, my plan is to head back south. I feel like I need to meet up with the army and bring it up here to the north to attack. I was held captive with several other nobles, so I want to hear from them and create a plan that takes into account which of them might be able to help.”
“Hmm. I don’t know the nobles of this country, so if you think that’s what we should do, then that’s probably fine… You’re not going to raid other camps to liberate more prisoners?”
“Not now. Moving through territory under Jaldabaoth’s control, we’ll stick out with too many people. Plus, it’ll slow us down. I want to avoid losing more lives as a result of trying to save people.”
“…Then what about letting the people escape to the south, and we raid the camps on our own?”
“Commander Custodio, you’re the one allowing me to sit in, but we haven’t heard your opinion.” Caspond’s voice was completely different from when he was speaking to the king.
Remedios bit back her annoyance and said, “I agree with you, brother of Her Majesty—mm, Sir Caspond. But we’ve already taken out two, including this one. There might be reprisals. What do we do about that?”
“Nothing.” Caspond shrugged. “I don’t think we can retake this territory without any deaths. There could be tens, hundreds, or even thousands dead. But we have other priorities.”
Neia saw that both Remedios and Gustav were shocked at the way he was talking about abandoning the people. Neia could only coldly feel that this was about what she expected from royalty.
“Master Caspond, you’ve changed, huh? You used to be so kindhearted when it came to the people.”
“What’s that about, Commander Custodio? Are you disappointed? Feh!” Caspond’s expression warped. His lips twisted to bare his teeth. His gaze had sharpened and filled with ridicule. “If you had experienced that hell, your personality would have changed, too. You wouldn’t be able to say such pretty things anymore. I feel sick… It seems you…haven’t heard what they did to us. You should ask someone. You’ll understand what unholy evil the demons are.”
He seemed like another person. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that something dark and murky was seeping through the expression he had forced himself to wear.
“If possible, I’d like to kill all the subhumans…” He glanced at the King of Darkness, and the king shrugged.
“After we interrogate them, you can do what you like. Although I already freed the orcs.”
“Well, that can’t be helped, though it is terribly unfortunate. Then again, the orcs went through the same horrors we did… Would you have turned them over to me in exchange for a Holy Sword?”
“I’m a caster, so a sword doesn’t really do much for me…”
Caspond laughed weakly in response to the king’s joke.
Remedios’s emotionless face was in stark contrast to his pale countenance.
It had sounded so much like a joke, but Caspond must have been serious.
Neia shivered. What could possibly have been done to him that he would hate even imprisoned subhumans enough to give away a royal treasure?
“So are you going to abandon this city?”
“If possible. Still, we need to heal the liberated prisoners and send a messenger to the south first. If you could stay here for at least a week, that would be much appreciated. Once we retake this land, I’ll add what reward I can to whatever Commander Custodio promised you.”
“Wonderful. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
•
One minute after the King of Darkness left the room accompanied by Neia…
“Okay,” said Caspond. “Now that he’s gone we can move on to the main topic.”
“Yes. It will be quite a challenge to protect so many people while we travel. It would be great if we could get some sort of reinforcements from the south or some wagons or something to use.”
Caspond smiled faintly at Gustav’s suggestion. “Don’t be ridiculous. Who said we were going to talk about that?”
“The main topic isn’t how to travel south?”
“I’ll be frank. I have no intention of escaping south right away. We’re going to clash with Jaldabaoth’s army here.”
“That’s too reckless!”
Remedios continued after Gustav’s exclamation. “We may have the city walls, but if we were surrounded and ran out of food, that would be the end. Only a fool would fight a siege battle without reinforcements.”
Remedios didn’t use her head much, but she could be trusted when it came to combat. Gustav nodded in agreement with her confident assertion.
“Still, we need to fight here.”
The pair’s puzzled looks made Caspond smile even more coldly as he explained.
“I heard that the King of Darkness is conserving his mana for the fight with Jaldabaoth…” Seeing Gustav nod, Caspond continued. “But that will cause problems. He’ll defeat Jaldabaoth, take the maids, and go back to his nation. But we need him to get rid of the subhumans that have flowed into our kingdom. We need to put him in a situation that forces him to help us.”
“But that would break our promise with him…”
“If he uses his magic to kill a few subhumans, fewer Sacred Kingdom subjects will have to be sacrificed. So which are you choosing, a promise to an undead or the lives of innocent subjects?”
An agonized look appeared on Gustav’s face, while Remedios replied without changing her expression at all. “The innocent subjects of the Sacred Kingdom, of course.”
“Then there you go, Commander. So we have to get him to fight. But since we made a promise, we’ll need a good reason to break it.”
“That’s why you’re going to clash with Jaldabaoth’s army?”
“Yes. More specifically, we’ll start preparing to head south, but it’ll take too long, so the army will surround us. We’ll have no choice but to ask the King of Darkness for help. What do you think?”
Remedios and Gustav exchanged a glance that said, It’s not bad, but…
“There’s one problem. Won’t having him use his magic put us at a disadvantage when it comes time
