Chapter 53. Divided.

After visiting the Sword Saint, we returned to Simon's mansion for the time being.

This was because we had left the Arachne Queen at the mansion.

“You’re back?”

The Queen waved her hand as if she had been waiting for our return.

She was in a steel cage designed to hold monsters, just as she had been when we left.

I didn't know why such a thing was in a mansion, but thanks to it, we were able to go for the visitation with peace of mind.

“Were you well-behaved?”

“Of course! Didn’t you threaten to hunt me to the ends of the earth and kill me if I ran away! I haven’t taken a single step out of this cage!”

She spoke so confidently about being scared by a threat.

“...Wait a moment. You have some crumbs around you. If you didn't go outside, what are those?”

“Ah! Th-This is...! Th-The humans offered it to me of their own accord!”

At the Queen's words, I immediately looked around.

It seemed the servants had fed the Queen while we were away.

Well, if you didn't look closely at her legs, she just looked like a small doll.

It wouldn't have been strange if they had tried giving her food out of curiosity.

“Is that so?”

Simon tilted his head, then took out a small bell and shook it.

Servants rushed in and lined up in an instant.

The tension on all of them was palpable.

“It seems someone fed ‘that thing’ while we were away, didn’t they?”

Simon asked with a bright smile.

The servants' faces turned deathly pale.

Well, even I, who was not directly involved, was tense, so.

“B-Brother. Shouldn’t we stop him?”

“Stop him? How?”

I was not Simon's superior, nor was I in a position to stand up for the servants.

The servants were employed by Simon, and Simon, as the employer, had every right to reprimand a servant's wrongdoing.

‘Though it's a bit ambiguous to call it a big mistake.’

It wasn't as if there was a warning sign saying [Do not feed], nor did a few cookies cause any major problems.

However, the part about touching it without permission was indeed a mistake.

Just like thoughtlessly giving chocolate to a dog, a seemingly trivial act could lead to the worst outcome.

It didn't seem likely that the Queen, who had invested everything in her survivability, would be harmed by eating something a little wrong, but anyway.

“I-I did it.”

A young girl stepped forward, stammering.

“Why did you do it?”

“W-Well. It was making such a fuss, demanding I bring cookies right away……”

The girl trembled as she barely managed to answer.

She demanded cookies?

The only time the Queen had eaten cookies was the cookie mush Simon had made.

For something she was forced to eat, it seemed to have suited her palate.

I could vividly picture her rampaging while we were gone, yelling something like ‘Give me cookies, human!!’

“You said they offered it to you of their own accord?”

“……”

The Queen averted her gaze at my pointing it out.

Shameless.

Well, she was a creature far from sincerity in the first place.

Perhaps because Simon also knew that fact, he didn't seem to care much.

“Did that creature seem pitiful to you?”

“Well, I-I did feel a tiny bit of pity……”

The other servants who were watching the girl struggling to answer stepped forward.

“We will make sure this does not happen again!”

“Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness! Quickly!”

It was a tear-jerking scene, but I doubted if the twisted-minded Simon would even bat an eye at something like this.

As expected, Simon's expression did not change.

Simon, who was watching the flustered girl and the other servants with a faint smile on his lips, said in a light tone.

“Then, from now on, you shall be in charge of that thing’s meals.”

“...What?”

The girl asked blankly, as if she couldn't understand what she had just heard.

The servants who were trying to push the girl's head down to make her kneel all stopped their movements in unison.

“Since it’s a job someone has to do anyway, wouldn’t it be better for the one whose heart is moved to do it?”

Simon waved his hand as if the matter was concluded.

“Understood!”

“I will work very, very hard!”

“You, hurry up and move!”

The servants hurriedly left the room, as if afraid Simon would change his mind.

“……”

“……”

Silence fell upon the drawing-room.

Even the Queen, the culprit of this situation, was keeping her mouth shut out of tact.

“Why such a reaction? Did you think I was going to get angry or something?”

“Uh.... A little?”

“Ahaha. That’s no fun.”

Well, Simon might have tormented them insidiously, but openly yelling or punishing them in front of others didn't suit him.

His preference was to watch his opponent lose their composure out of fear or anger.

Exactly, like just now.

“...You did that on purpose, didn’t you.”

To see the servants get scared and flustered.

He had omitted the explanation and shown a misleading attitude.

Even though I didn't hide my feeling of being fed up, Simon just smiled.

Truly, a chilling person.

“By the way, the servants seemed to be very afraid of you, Sir Liatro……”

“I know, right. Why is that? I don't think I've ever treated the servants badly. But it seems the servants think a little differently.”

He had never treated them badly?

Right, directly, that would be the case.

The problem was just that his indirect torment was on a serious level.

“What kind of punishment do you usually give to servants who make a mistake?”

“I tend to give them more opportunities. To work closest to me.”

There was a reason the servants were scared.

What should one call a human who accumulates karmic debt with every breath they take.

“If you keep living like that, you’ll get stabbed one day.”

“Do you think I would just stand by and let that happen?”

…….

There was nothing I could say since he was acting like that out of confidence in his skills.

Wasn't Luke the only person who could bring down the hammer of justice on this man?

“Let's put aside the useless talk and start the discussion on the division of roles from now on.”

Simon placed the cage containing the Queen on the table and wrapped up the conversation.

“The new emperor's coronation is in a week. The streets were already in the mood to start preparing for the festival. It’s heating up. Heating up.”

“It means we have to figure out their scheme and prepare countermeasures within a week.”

As the coronation approached, people would flock to the Imperial Capital, making it harder for us to move.

The sooner we moved, the better.

“Pol, how’s the feeling? Do you think this will go well?”

The danger detector Pol closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before answering.

“It's ambiguous. It's vague, and it's still a long way off. I'm not sure yet.”

“As long as it’s not bad, that’s fine.”

If an ominous feeling was already creeping up, it would mean we had reached a situation that couldn't be stopped no matter what.

“Hmm? What did you ask Pol?”

“Pol has a special intuition. I don't know the principle, but he can grasp good and bad luck.”

I had benefited from it several times, and now I had sufficient trust in it.

The Queen detects devils, and Pol feels ominousness.

The Queen's accuracy would be higher, but unlike the Queen who could only find devils, Pol could pick up on various things, so there were pros and cons.

“Then we can take this and Pol with us separately. If it had just been Pol, our efficiency would have plummeted.”

If the Queen had been the only one with detection abilities, we would have had to move as one group.

The fact that we could split into teams was a relief in itself.

“The problem is how we split up and move.”

“That’s right. There are limits to me moving directly.”

Simon, who had to return to work starting tomorrow.

It wouldn't be easy to simultaneously carry on his activities as a member of the Imperial Central Knight Order and track the conspiracy unfolding in the Imperial Capital.

“Since I am a conspicuous figure, it would be difficult to have Pol by my side. I will take this with me and look for devils.”

“Hik-!”

The Queen trembled at Simon's words.

The Queen looked at me as if asking for help.

I quietly shook my head.

The only thing the Queen could find was a devil.

And a devil was a higher-level monster than even the Arachne Queen.

Even if it was in a weakened state after being captured by humans as she had testified, it wasn't certain if I, who couldn't even handle the Arachne Queen, could manage it.

“Then we will go around the entire Imperial Capital and look for anything suspicious.”

“Leave it to us!”

Pol answered enthusiastically.

“Don’t overdo it. If you think it's dangerous-”

“Pol will be the first to sense danger. You don’t need to worry.”

Pol might not be good at other things, but his ability to avoid crises was overwhelming.

“Brother! To think you trust me so much-!”

Pol sniffled as if he were moved.

How much had I seen and experienced until now.

Continuing to doubt was a waste in many ways.

“Very well. As for exchanging information—I will come and find you.”

“How should we let you know where we are?”

“Don't worry about that part. No matter where you are in the Imperial Capital, you won't be able to escape my eyes. Just do something a little conspicuous, and I will rush over immediately.”

Hmm…….

The anxiety about not being able to contact him disappeared, but in its place, the fear of being watched rose up.

I should avoid making this man an enemy as much as possible.

“I'll be in your care.”

Simon said, bringing his face close to the Queen.

The Queen was huddled in a corner of the cage, trembling.

A complete natural enemy.

Simon would probably be able to control the Queen better than I could.

The only very small remaining element of anxiety was—

“...I'm just saying this in case, but you won't be slacking off just because you want to see chaos in the Imperial Capital, right?”

“Puhup. Did I look like that kind of person to you?”

Honestly?

Yes.

If he hadn't looked like that, I wouldn't have even asked.

As if my expression had been the answer, Simon continued, savoring his words.

“The sight of the Imperial Capital falling into chaos would of course be interesting—but it can't be compared to the anger and despair those guys will feel when their meticulously prepared plan goes awry.”

Ah, I see.

Simon was a twisted human, but because of that, he was very reassuring for this matter.

* * *

Leaving Simon's mansion, the air felt thick.

It was because today, going back and forth between Simon's mansion and the Imperial Palace, my eyes had only been filled with magnificent buildings.

Countless people came and went between the shabby buildings.

It was slowly simmering in anticipation of the festival that was the emperor's coronation.

“...Brother, can I really become as strong as Sir Liatro?”

“You looked dazed the whole time, were you thinking about that?”

I knew Pol was weak to compliments, but to think he would be lost in the afterglow for a whole day from just one word.

“It’s possible. The Sword Saint didn’t seem like the type to make empty remarks.”

If his blunt way of speaking was a problem, that was more of a problem; at least the problem of unsettling people with undue praise was a story far from the Sword Saint.

“Hehe, heh. It’s troublesome if you overrate me so much, you know.”

I wonder.

Considering the context back then, it seemed the intention was more to belittle Simon than to praise Pol.

If he himself was satisfied, I guess that was all that mattered.

“That’s a story for when you’ve learned properly and grown. For now, do your best with the task at hand.”

I smacked the back of Pol's head.

A possibility was just a possibility.

Now was not the time to even think of comparing himself to Simon.

“If you feel anything, tell me right away. It's meaningless if you tell me after we've already been hit, like yesterday.”

“Understood.”

Pol nodded and then closed his eyes.

It wasn't that I was telling him to look for something right now.

“Hmm! This way!”

Pol's eyes snapped open.

What, was there something that caught his attention right away?

“I have a good feeling!”

And it was even a good one?

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