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Even if the guy wanted to hire them, there was no doubt that he was not the kind of person they could offer their services to, and Loren was at a loss for a response.

After all, they had been enemies until just a few days ago.

Regardless of whether the other party knew about them or not, it was natural to be cautious. But considering the current situation in the Kingdom, Loren wondered if they should refuse the offer out of hand, so he decided to ask for more details from Storm.

However, Storm decided that they would need a more relaxed place to talk, so he led them to the fortress where the Imperial Guards Order was currently based.

“Everything has gone wrong since that man arrived.”

Inviting Loren’s group into a room in the fortress, Storm began.

Their team and Storm were the only ones inside the room, but there were knights and others outside, making it a bit difficult to escape in case something happened. Loren thought as he sat down on a chair.

Perhaps reading Loren’s mind, Lapis tapped him on the shoulder and lightly pointed at a wall, which Gula lightly tapped with her fist and nodded as if to say there was no problem. Loren immediately understood that in case of emergency, they were going to smash through the wall and escape.

“At first I thought he was just an ostentatious man. But somehow, through some kind of trick, the man had won the favour of the King and became deeply involved in the inner workings of the country.”

“What was this man’s name?”

Lapis asked Storm, who was talking in a rather evasive manner.

If the guy were to find out about Loren’s relationship with said man, it could become troublesome. So, Loren decided to have Lapis stand in the forefront of the conversation and keep his mouth shut.

“He called himself Magna. He was a swordsman in black armor.”

“Was he alone?”

“No, he had several followers.”

Loren had thought that by ‘followers’, Storm meant the dark elf, but the numbers didn’t add up. 

If Storm was talking about Noel, the girl who followed Magna and transformed herself into an Evil God, then it was strange to use the word ‘several’. This meant that there were others who followed Magna besides Noel.

Loren grimaced. Just one follower was troublesome enough; hearing that there were several of them was not good news. Lapis glanced at him and rebuked him for making such a face, then asked Storm to continue his story.

Magna, after taking up the King’s favour, gained his full trust before long and started doing whatever he pleased, including raising the country’s tax rate and taking away many of the citizens who could not pay their taxes.

The ministers and nobles who tried to stop him kept disappearing for unknown reasons, and eventually the Kingdom began to reach for the neighbouring Empire.

“I am a servant of my country. If the King makes a decision, I have no choice but to follow it. But this war was so senseless and ill-advised.”

“Is that why you defected?”

If the Imperial Guards led by Storm had continued to follow the King’s orders, they would have been destroyed by now because of the war, or because of the mass disappearance of the Kingdom’s citizens, something Magna had apparently done. However, the number of Knights in the fortress was quite large; if they had suffered any damage, it seemed to be very slight.

“We have not defected. Our allegiance is still to the Kingdom.”

Storm responded in a low voice, as if somewhat offended by Lapis’ words, and she immediately apologized to him for her slip.

“I know it can’t be helped if you take it that way. If you look at the Kingdom as it is now, it is impossible for us to remain almost unscathed.”

“And what is the reason for that?”

“I have withdrawn my troops and fled here on my own initiative during the war with the Empire. If you call that defection, then I acquiesce.”

Loren understood that Storm had judged that the situation was not good and had withdrawn from the war before it became fatal. It was a reasonable decision for a mercenary, but even though he didn’t know how it would be taken for a knight, he reckoned it would not be with praise. 

“It was a mistake to not remove this Magna from the King’s circle before this happened, but it is not too late yet.”

“Are you sure?” 

Gula, who seemed to have interrupted him unintentionally, hurriedly put her hand over her mouth when she saw Storm’s steely gaze, but Loren agreed with her. He didn’t think they could come back as a country when so many of their people had disappeared and mysterious golems were roaming around their land, but Storm seemed to have a different idea.

“As long as the King is alive and well, we will remain. We want to get rid of Magna and his clique and rebuild the country. Of course, now that we have stirred up troubles with the Empire, it will not be the same as before, but without that man, we should still be able to manage.”

Loren inwardly tilted his head, wondering if that was really the case.

Maybe Storm just wanted to think so.

It would be fine with Loren if Storm and his men were to walk down the road to destruction with their own ideas, but it was not very amusing to be asked to play a part in it.

Normally, he would have wanted to quickly stop the conversation and get away, but if Magna was involved, and they were talking about eliminating him, then it needed to be considered to some extent, even if the request was a bit unreasonable. Loren slowly opened his mouth.

“If only that man weren’t here, you say. Is there any way to get rid of him?”

“Of course. If not, I wouldn’t be asking for your help.”

After saying all that, Storm stared at Loren as if he was waiting for him.

Loren, taking it as a sign that Storm was probably going to decide whether or not to tell them about it depending on whether or not they would accept his request, looked at Gula and Lapis.

Gula cast down her eyes as if she was not very interested, and Lapis shrugged as if to say ‘As you wish’. Loren, seeing that there seemed to be no opposition, told Storm.

“We’ll accept your request. Let me hear what you have to say.”

Whatever they were going to do with Magna, they had to meet him first. And in order to meet Magna, they would have to deal with the large number of golems, as well as Noel and his other cronies, who were probably surrounding Magna himself. Loren thought it would be a bit difficult for them to do this on their own.

If there really was a way to get rid of Magna, it would be the simplest solution. 

“You are not allowed to cancel the deal after you’ve heard what I have to say.”

“I’m a former mercenary. I’m not going to back down from a deal I have accepted. Do you want to make a contract?”

Loren said in a joking manner, and Storm stared at him for a while before opening his mouth.

“Let’s continue then. To get rid of this Magna guy, we need to get to him. But if we go head-on, we will be blocked by a large number of those golem-like creatures.”

The Imperial Guards Order, commanded by Storm, had retreated into the fort almost unscathed, but their forces were not large enough to break through the large number of golems that Loren’s team had encountered and reach the royal castle, it seemed.

“It’s unfortunate, but you can’t ask for what you don’t have. We have to find a way to make do with what we have, and I have a way to do that.”

“I heard that earlier. What is this magical method?”

“A secret path. I know a path that leads from the outer suburbs of the Royal Capital to the Royal Castle. This is a path that probably no one but me knows.”

Storm seemed very confident, but Loren, on the contrary, felt uneasy. He wondered if there really was a secret path to the Royal Castle that even the King didn’t know about, but Lapis took it differently.

“Excuse me, but are you of royalty, Sir Storm?”

Lapis’ words reminded Loren of Storm’s name. Indeed, he had the same name as the name of his country, something only royalty could have.

“I have relinquished my right of succession, and I am now in charge of the Order.”

“I see. So, it’s an escape route in case of emergency.”

Loren had no idea what was going on, though Lapis seemed to be convinced. When he lightly tapped her on the shoulder to ask for an explanation, Lapis looked at him to see what was going on, and then clapped her hands as if she had just realized something.

“In a place like the Royal Castle, there are secret paths that even the King doesn’t know about. Only people close to the King know about them. You see, there are often infightings in the royal family, and it would be difficult if all escape routes were blocked in the event of a usurpation.”

“That’s a bloody story.”

“It is nothing rare. If you turn over the history of any royal family, you will find similar stories of blood and corpses.”

Lapis said this with a know-it-all air, but Loren’s expression turned sour as he was not interested in this story, nor did he want to imagine it.

“Whatever. So, we’re going to sneak into the Royal Castle through that secret path, right?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, that’s right.”

Storm nodded his head, at a loss for words. He seemed to be slightly taken aback that Lapis, while looking like a sweet girl, talked about something so disturbing with such a nonchalant expression on her face. Since Lapis even dressed as a priest, Loren found his reaction understandable.

If there really was a secret path that even the King did not know about, then it could be assumed that Magna, who was in some way winning the King over, did not know of its existence. If they could plan a surprise attack at the Royal Castle through this secret path, the success rate of the operation to eliminate Magna might not be so bad.

“As a strategy, the majority of the knights will set up a diversion to fight in the Royal Capital’s outer suburbs. While their attention is focused on that side, a selected group will take the Royal Castle by surprise through the secret path, eliminate Magna, and secure the King.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“We have already selected the best men from the knights, and we’ll do it tonight. We had originally planned to go through with it on our own, but after the way the battle went, we think the operation will have a better chance of success if you join us.”

The longer it took to execute such an operation, the more likely it was that information would leak out, or the operation would fail for some other reason. Once the decision to do something was made, it should be done quickly, and Loren believed that Storm’s judgment was the right one.

Loren opened his mouth to say one last thing that needed to be asked.

“What is our reward?”

“If we can get the King back, I will pay you as much as I can afford. If you can wait until the country is rebuilt, I promise to pay you as much as you want.”

Loren thought this was very generous, but at the same time he understood that it was almost an empty promise. Unless the operation was a success, they would not be paid. ‘Until the country is rebuilt’, that was a condition that mercenaries would not even consider. 

But in this case, the most important thing was to be allowed to take advantage of the secret path Storm mentioned, rather than to be rewarded.

“All right. I’ll work for you on those terms.”

“I’m looking forward to working with you. I’ll treat you as knights if that is alright with you…”

Storm said, as he offered his hand, but Loren immediately rejected him.

“Excuse me, but I’m more comfortable in the easy business of making money.”

Loren, wondering what kind of joke it was, to be considered a knight, grasped the offered hand.

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