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Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 3

「Hou? Well would you look at that. You even know about such things, huh? 」

Eugen’s expression relaxes unintentionally.

「Since I am now a knight of the Royal Guard who is subordinate to Lord Vilar, I have learned a lot about this country in order to better understand and protect its people. 」

Studying the history of Artuk together with Siluca was without a doubt helpful towards that goal.

「That is certainly an admirable thought.」

Eugen gave Theo a cool yet approving nod. It seems that his mood has improved and his wariness towards Theo has disappeared for now.

「Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. 」

After bowing once, Theo decided to start explaining the current situation to Eugen.

The incident happened the night before. Then he rode around announcing the border blockades and highway patrols to every village and fort that was situated around the border between Waldrind and Artuk. They were also trying to gather as many information about the sightings of the heavy knights of Waldrind in the area, but so far there was no news of any sort of discoveries just yet, but the leader of every fort and village has been informed that should they happen to locate their targets, they should bring these information back to them as soon as possible.

That approach is different from the usual one where they would have Siluca stay in the Werewolf village so that she could then report any changes in the situation to Margaret and Vilar.

Instead, the werewolves will bring back the information they have gathered back to them, so that none of the people who are currently travelling around the border would have their hands tied.

If you were going to entrust me with the leadership of the spearhead from the beginning, it would be natural for you to be based here, so there would be no problems with communication and the passing of indormation. So it was not a coincidence after all. And moreover, since it has already been two days since the incident first started, then can I assume that you have already travelled around the entirety of the northern part of Artuk as well? 」

Eugen stands up from the throne and asked them while sounding surprised.

「Not all of it, unfortunately. I asked some of the local Lords to pass the orders on to the neighboring Lords though. 」

「Even so… 」

Looking at him from head to toe, Eugen observed Theo as if he was attempting to judge him.

「Well, you must be tired. I’ll prepare a room for you, so you should rest for now. 」

「Then, I will gratefully accept your gracious offer. 」

After a moment of hesitation, Theo accepted the offer that Eugen presented to him obediently.

In fact, he could really use a moment to rest, since he did not have much chances to catch any sleep in the past two and a half days. He changed horses many times and took breaks, but other than that, he was trying to remain on the move as much as possible.

「That is a response that I can get behind. 」

Eugen nodded in relief. Then he summoned a servant and gave them the order to prepare the quarters for Theo.

「Your quarters are going to be prepared soon. In the meantime though, I have one piece of information I would like to share with you. 」

「And what would that piece of information be? 」

「Actually, after the previous battle in Selvis, a set of armor that lloked like the one worn by the heavy knights of Waldrind has been discovered in a forest located not too far away from my territory. It would seem that the heavy knights of Waldrind have really entered Artuk’s territory, and they have discarded their armor to make themselves that much harder to track down. Upon further inspection, a corpse of a horse wearing armor that matched the one that we found has also been discovered nearby. If I were to hazard a guess, then I would say that they must have belonged to one of the heavy knights who was fleeing Selvis after the last battle, and they must have wandered into Artuk’s territory by accident while on their way to Waldrind. 」

「And what about the heavy knight in question? Did you manage to find him? 」

「No. Unfortunately, no matter where or how hard we were looking for him, we could not find him anywhere. However, if you were to continue going down the road where the armor of that heavy knight was initially found, then you would soon arrive at the Forest of Eternal Darkness, and it is said that whoever walks into that forest will not come out alive. 」

「The Forest of Eternal Darkness… that place is a part of the Vampire territory, right? 」

Theo inquired further.

「Yes, my creepy neighbors. 」

Eugen chuckled.

「Who knows, maybe it is going to turn out that they do have something to do with this incident after all? After resting for a bit, I will leave and inform my contracted Mage about what I have learned from you just now. If we’re lucky, then she should be able to come up with a plan for how we should proceed. 」

「Are you talking about the female Mage for whom you have decided to throw away your court rank and status? 」

「Yes. Her name is Siluca, and it is entirely thanks to her help that I was able to become a Baron as quickly as I did. Before I met her, I was little more than a wandering Lord who could barely hold onto his status as a Knight. 」

「Is that so…? 」

Eugen seemed surprised by Theo’s words. After thinking about it for a while, for some reason, he wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the female magician who was standing beside him and hugged her.

「Actually, I am thinking of taking this Mage here, Deadri, as my second wife. It’s been three years since the Earl made a contract with her and dispatched her to me, and she will be turning 25 soon, which means that the term of her contract with the Earl is going to be over. I have already brought this matter to his attention, and thankfully, he has agreed to my proposal. 」

「Congratulations on that for the both of you. 」

Theo smiled and congratulated them.

「Thank you very much. 」

The mage, who had been silent until then, blushed and bowed. She did not seem to be of the outgoing type, but thankfully she did not have to engage in much more of the conversation, because just then the servant responsible for the preparation of Theo’s quarters has returned, announcing that his room was ready.

Theo was then rushed into the room by Eugen, and once he was finally alone he felt too lazy to take all of his clothes off, so he just removed his shoes and fell onto the bed and covered himself up with the warm blanket.

After he did that, the blissful sleep has come to him relatively quickly.

* * *.
Now that the Werewolves banded together in order to find the enemies responsible for the attacks on their brethren, they formed a pack and ran from one corner of the forest to another while carefully checking every smell that caught their attention and following every footprint that seemed even the least bit suspicious to them.

Those were the methods employed by the Werewolves that Irvin was currently cooperating with. Of course, ther is no way that he was ever going to be a hindrance to them, since high-speed movement and long-distance movement are his specialties as a shadow.

「Damn it, we lost the trail again. 」

Ion, who leads the group of Werewolves begrudgingly spat those words out of his mouth.

It was night now, and the forest was almost pitch black, with only the light of the moon shining through the trees. But for Werewolves, the darkness of night is no obstacle at all, since they possessed night vision. It was the same with Irvin.

When Ion was chasing the criminals who were murdering the members of the werewolf tribe, he was ambushed and almost lost his life. However, he managed to escape with his life only at the expense of his hand, which was now slowly regenerating, but as a result he discovered that the culprit that they were looking for was a member of the heavy knights of Waldrind.

「The traces have been completely erased… 」

Irvin also checked the ground and nodded.

「The heavy knights of Waldrind would never be able to do something like that. Either the were accompanied by a Shadow like me, or magic was used to erase all of their tracks to prevent them from being found out. 」