Chapter 94: CH 88

Translator: Nisarah     Editor: Fleeting

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In the end, after I returned to the Zeavert army’s camp, I gave Laura’s letter to Schunzel, who in turn submitted it to the Duke.

I was finally granted a meeting with Duke. Laura could have just told the Duke in person, but if she did that, it would have put the Supreme Priest in a bad position. Laura did tell the Duke about me wanting a meeting via the Supreme Priest, though. Thanks to Laura, I got to meet the Duke today, not tomorrow.

“Princess Laura Louise Weinzierl, Welner von Zeavert, and Mazell Hearthing have arrived.” (Welner)

“Please wait a moment.” (Guard)

I became the one who reported our arrival to the guard. Laura was a princess, so unless she was the one who was being summoned, she would never report her arrival herself. She would have an orderly or someone in that class report her arrival for her.

As for Mazell, although he had the support of the royal family, he was still just a commoner. Therefore, unless it was some emergency or Mazell was the one being summoned, he would not have the authority to report our arrival.

That was why I ended up becoming the one who reported our arrival. By the way, even though we were going to meet a Duke, Laura as a princess had a higher rank than the Duke, so that was why when I reported our arrival I called her ‘Princess’. Since my rank was lower than the Duke, I just stated my name while I said Mazell’s name the last since he was a commoner.

This kind of etiquette was really annoying.

“I apologize for making you wait. Please, come in.”

The guard was being respectful because Laura, the princess, and me, the viscount, were here. If it was only Mazell, he probably would straight up say, ‘Come in!’. Being a guard could be pretty troublesome too, huh?

I entered and gave a bow. Whoah. Even Laura seemed to be surprised. Other than Duke Grunding, there were also Grand Duke Seyfart, the 1st and 2nd division knights’ captains, the Supreme Priest, the captain of Mage Unit, Marquis Norporth, and Marquis Schramm present.

It was a full gathering of army commanding officers! This was better for me. Actually, they were all accompanied by their own adjutants and guards, but here, their adjutants and guards would probably be treated as thin air. That was just how a noble meeting was.

“Your Excellency and all honorable personnels, thank you very much for your willingness to spare some of your precious time to come here.” (Laura)

“It was a perfect time since we were also in the middle of a talk.” (Duke)

It was Laura who opened the conversation. In this kind of setting, the speaking turn was important. In private, they were grandfather and granddaughter, but in public, they were a princess and a Duke, so Laura, who had a higher position, talked first. The Duke answered next despite his position being lower than the Supreme Priest and the Grand Duke because he was actually the one we asked for a meeting.

Huft.. The etiquette was really annoying.

“A talk?”

“Let us talk about that later. I heard that there was something urgent you need to talk to me about?”

“Yes. The Viscount will explain the details.”

“Yes. Do allow me to explain.”

It was finally my turn. I bowed once and started my explanation. Because it was urgent, I jumped right to the core of the issue and skipped the flamboyant words needed for etiquette.

“I don’t have any tangible proof, but I think that the capital is currently in great danger. As such, I would like to investigate the situation in the capital as soon as possible.”

For a moment, everyone became silent. A while later, the Duke finally spoke out.

“Why?”

“I will explain it step by step. As you may already know, demons managed to infiltrate the Great Temple by disguising themselves as humans.”

“Yes, I am aware of that.”

The Supreme Priest replied in a hurry. No, I didn’t mean to blame you or anything.

“We cannot simply assume that other demons will not be capable of doing the same thing. No, it would be better for us to assume they can do it.”

Since a demon disguised as a human had actually appeared in the game.

“Continue.”

“Do all of you sirs know about the incident where Viscount Goslich Knap brought several of his people to attack the Veritza Fortress?”

I asked this since I thought that the Supreme Priest might not know about it, but it looked like I was worried for nothing since the Supreme Priest nodded.

“I had launched an investigation into it before and found that there was a witness who saw Sir Mangold leading tens of people outside of the capital’s wall.”

“I had also heard about that. From the information I had gotten, the wall’s guard witnessed the scene when he was patrolling.”

The 1st division captain, Vilsmaier, said so. So that was how the witness saw Mangold. I wanted more detailed information, but for now, let’s put that off for later.

“However, I had heard no story about many soldiers, adventurers, or mercenaries disappearing. I tried to investigate it in more detail, but the result was the same. There were also no witnesses who saw Sir Mangold and his people leave the capital. Therefore, who exactly were the people being led by Sir Mangold outside of the capital was still a mystery.”

Everyone’s expression changed immediately. As expected, no one here was stupid. When I told Mazell and his companions about this possibility, they were also shocked.

With the tone of wanting confirmation, Grand Duke Seyfart asked, “So you want to say that they can be demons?”

“Yes, or rather, I believe demons had replaced them.”

How Mangold got so many people to follow him wasn’t important. The problem here was that many people had disappeared, but the adventurer guild, mercenary guild, and even the capital’s census officer noticed nothing.

There was one plausible explanation for this. The second they left the capital, the demons disguised as them replaced them. If that was what happened, then the fact that no one noticed their disappearance made sense.

In the first place, there were many people who went in and out of the capital. If some people left the capital saying that they wanted to go on a trip, meet an old friend, or take a long vacation, no one would bother searching for them. Heck, no one would probably even think that they had, in fact, went missing.

If my guess was right, that would mean that there were currently tens of demons freely roaming in the capital with weapons. This was dangerous. Adding to that…

“Previously, Sir Mangold had borrowed soldiers from the nobles of Marquis Knap’s faction. There is a possibility that these soldiers have been replaced by demons disguised as humans. That would mean that there is a possibility that demons are roaming freely among nobles.”

In the worst-case scenario, these demons might enter the palace as a noble’s guard. Of course, there was also a possibility that the demons could only copy the appearance, not the memory so a simple test would make them get caught and there was also the possibility that the palace had a barrier so the demon wouldn’t be able to get in, but here, we need to assume the worst-case scenario.

“But I heard that the capital’s gatekeepers didn’t see Sir Mangold or his group,” said Marquis Schramm.

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“We can trust the gatekeepers’ word if they are humans.”

My tone might be a little too rude but it was possible. Eliminating the witnesses was a basic course of action. If after killing the gatekeepers, they were then replaced by demons… We couldn’t trust them anymore.

“So you are saying that Sir Mangold and his group were used by our enemy?”

“Yes. That was a guess I made based on my impression of Sir Mangold.”

Based on how arrogant Mangold was, he would feel that their identity, aim, and such didn’t matter as long as they were obedient. That bastard was the type of person who thought people following his order was the most obvious thing in this world.

There was also a possibility that Mangold himself had also been replaced by demons, but it was impossible for me to know the exact details now. Come to think of it, Mangold met up with an unknown person several times before, right? This unknown person was also suspicious.

In any case, I doubt Mangold was still alive, so let’s offer a prayer for him.

The fate of the people who followed Mangold was also a mystery. If the demons gathered them, using some random excuses and then drugged them or used magic to make them lose their consciousness, the demons would be able to easily bring them outside of the capital.

The incident with Lily-san was a good example. The demons used debuff magic on her, which rendered her helpless. Maybe demons did similar things to the people who followed Mangold.

In the game, magic which gave a confusion debuff causing our enemies to attack their allies existed. Come to think of it, equipment with a confusion curse also existed in the game. The value of the equipment was higher than the magic, I think.

In any case, the demons suffered an unexpected defeat in the demon outbreak. Maybe that was why this time they wanted to carefully plan their moves and that was how they came up with a plan to send some demons disguised as humans to the capital.

Surprisingly, there were many humans who barely knew anything about the surrounding people, causing them to not notice any abnormalities. Even in my past life, stuff like ‘enemy soldiers infiltrated your camp’ existed.

Plus, the capital’s guards didn’t know that our enemies could disguise themselves as humans. Even if they noticed that a person had become unsociable recently, the thought that he was a demon disguised as a human would never cross their mind.

By the way, this world didn’t have a tradition to pray for the souls of the dead. People of this world believed that once a person died, they would enter God’s trial. If they got a verdict of being a “good” person, they would enter the divine world. If they got a verdict of being an “evil” person, they would become the demon’s food in the demon world. I didn’t know if this would actually happen, though.

The difference between this world and my previous world was that the usage of ‘sacred magic’ by the Shinto priest was a clear evidence that God did exist in this world.

“I see. So you meant to say that they have become someone’s doll for a long time now. It’s true that such a possibility existed.” 

“It’s really an emergency. Good job for noticing it, Sir Welner.”

“I just hope everything is just me overthinking it.”

The Duke and Grand Duke glanced at each other and nodded. Then, they both turned to the two knight captains.

“Under the name of Duke Grunding, I order the captains of the 1st and 2nd division to select 10 people under your command to send a letter to His Majesty.”

“Understood.”

“The messengers from the 1st division will use the main road, and the messengers of the 2nd division will use an alternative road. Make sure the letter reaches His Majesty!”

“Yes!”

“Duke, please wait a moment.”

The Mage Unit captain interrupted the Duke. He glanced at Mazell for a moment, then redirected his gaze to his back. After that, a person who was probably his adjutant placed a box on the table. There seemed to be a paper stuck on it. Was it a seal or something?

“We should check this as well.”

The Mage Unit captain opened the box and there were two black gems laying inside it. One of them looked like the one I picked up at Alea Village. Was the other one the gem that Mazell found after killing Beliulace?

I remembered I got an ominous feeling when I picked up the gem at Alea Village, but now that there were two of them, I got an even worse feeling. This strange, anxious feeling I got when looking at them was hard to explain.

Duke Grunding and the rest also had the same expression as me… except for Mazell. He had a complicated expression on his face. I rarely saw him with that kind of expression.

“As I had explained before, there were several people who lost their minds after they examined these two gems.”

“Lose their mind?”

The Duke’s words felt more like a confirmation than a question. The reason he asked that question was probably so that the captain would explain the details to us.

“Among the people who had explained these gems, several of them showed behavior as if they had lost their rationality.”

“They didn’t just show disgust or discomfort?”

“Their behavior was closer to a fascination or possessiveness toward these gems.”

The Mage captain answered Grand Duke Seyfart’s question. Since the Supreme Priest also nodded, did that mean the priest who examined these gems also showed the same behavior? I couldn’t understand how someone could become fascinated with these ominous things.

“Sir Welner, you were the one who picked up one of these two gems. Did you or any of your people who had seen the gem show a similar behavior?”

“No. Well, I did not stare at the gem for a long time or carefully examine it, so that might be the reason.”

Maybe because I felt the gem was ominous, and I was also physically and mentally tired, so after I got the gem, I just left it alone in its bag.

Neurath and Schunzel also didn’t show any strange behavior.

“Is that so? How about you, Sir Mazell?”

“Before I answer, may I ask another question?”

Usually, you would get scolded as being rude if you answer a question with another question, but the Mage Unit captain nodded, perhaps because of Mazell’s grim expression.

But Mazell’s next question left us all in a further confusion

“Why is that here?”

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T/N: A rare cliffhanger! Anyway, I remember someone was wondering in the comment why Mangold’s name kept popping out so here is your answer!

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