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Volume 2 Chapter 3 Part 4

However, although all of the heavy knights of Waldrind are Lords, none of them have their own contracted Mage, because that was one of the points of the contract that they signed with the head of the Kraische family.

「Come to think of it, there was only one female figure among the heavy knights. 」

Ion muttered to himself.

「Are there any females in the ranks of the heavy knights of Waldrind? 」

「No, I didn’t get the impression that this woman was a soldier at all. I just glanced at her, but I felt a mysterious atmosphere around her. For example… yes, it was just like the atmosphere of a witch. 」

「If there is really a Mage on the other side, then finding them might not be easy after all. 」

Irvin muttered so and suddenly turned his gaze into the distance.

「We will find them. No matter what. 」

Ion’s eyes reflected a faint amount of moonlight and shone with their own golden light.

「…May I excuse myself for a moment? 」

Irvin asked Ion.
「What is it? 」

「I want to check that place over there. 」

Irvin said while smiling gracefully.

「If that is your excuse to say that you need to go to the bathroom, then please do it far away from here. We werewolves have very good noses and our sense of smell is unmatched, so the smell of urine would only interfere with our search. 」

The Werewolf smiled back at him.

「I understand. 」

After Irvin dutifully complied, with the Werewolf’s request, he slowly retreated to a place where they could probably no longer see him, and then he started gliding through the darkness. He did not need to go to the bathroom like Ion expected, but he just needed an excuse to move away from them. He is moving pretty fast, but there are definitely signs that he is being followed by someone.

「It should probably be fine around here… 」

Irvin muttered with a sharp change in the tone of his voice, and then he paused and looked back.

Then, out of the darkness spreading out behind him, a figure popped out, and he also saw something gleaming in the dark being thrown towards him.

Irvin flicked the gleaming thing off with one of the daggers he had taken out while he was running, and he threw another dagger to block the advance of the unseen figure slipping through the darkness.

Two metallic sounds then echoed in succession.

The opponent that followed Irvin was apparently manipulating two things: a normal blade and a black blade. Then, they unleashed their two blades at him at high speed. Irvin was repelling back all the slashing blades that were attacking him, and then he dove downwards and used the momentum of his body as he was emerging back up to deliver a sharp roundhouse kick.

The opponent made a big leap to avoid Irvin’s kick. And then they swung their arms in the air. Cutting through the wind, blades of light and darkness approached Irvin again. Irvine leaned back and dodged them all by a hair’s width. When he puts his upper body back, the opponent closed the distance between them in order to try and grapple him. Irvin dodged out of the harm’s way and grabbed their arm in a counter, throwing them to the ground and wrapping himself around them to prevent them from escaping, essentially doing to them what they wanted to do to him, and then he pressed his dagger onto their throat.

「Now, let’s see who you are, exactly. 」

Irvin stripped off the black hood that his would-be assilant was wearing, and what was revealed underneath was a face of a young woman, whose short blonde hair got all disheveled as they danced around her face.

「Long time no see, Irvin. 」
The woman smiled at him.

「Layla… 」

「Oh, disappointed that it is me and not Cammy, are we? 」

「You wish. So, care to tell me what is one of Lady Marine’s maids doing in a place like this, chasing after someone like me? 」

Irvin put away the dagger and grabbed Layla’s hand to help her get back up on her feet.

Back when he was still with the Werewolves, he noticed that he was being sent signals known only to those who worked as the Chamberlains or maids, so he followed to the place that the signals indicated. Layla might have attacked him just now, but it was the kind of assault that did not have any kind of actual murderous intent behind it. If she was really intending to kill him, then she would have completely erased her presence and claimed his life in one swift blow, since she was more than capable of doing that. After all, for Chamberlains and maids, assassination was just another one of the useful skills that they could hold in their repertoire.

「There is no need for you to be so cold towards me, you know? Did we not used to work together not that long ago? 」

「That might have been the case back then, but it is not right now. Or rather, it would not be all that strange for you to want to kill me, since I know the secrets of the Kraische family. 」

Before he became Siluca’s servant after 「The Tragedy of the Grand Cathedral 」, Irvin was serving as one of the aides of Mathias Kraische, the former head of the Kraische family and the former leader of the Factory Alliance who was killed along with the Archduke Ducet by the Demon Lord. Because of that, he is naturally well-versed in the inner workings of the Kraische family, and has carried out many top-secret missions on multiple occasions.

「There’s no way I can kill you, right? After all, you are the treasured child of the previous Chamberlain, and you’ve been chosen to inherit his Arts from him. Besides, there’s no way you will ever reveal the secrets of the Kraische family, because your professional pride would not allow you to do that. No, I came here today because I have some business that I want to do with you. 」

「Business, you say? 」

「You probably already know that a number of the heavy knights that Waldrind is so proud off have gone missing. When we have investigated their disappearance, we have discovered that they have already crossed the border between Waldrind and Artuk, so I have been dispatched here to chase after them, but when I arrived here, I have learned that the borders have been closed and there were Werewolves running around everywhere, so I was beginning to feel bored with very little I could do, and that is when I have sensed your presence. 」

「Does that mean that Lady Marine is willing to forgive the transgressions of the heavy knights who left their posts in order to come to Artuk? 」

Irvin was honestly quite amazed.

The heavy knights of Waldrind were the kind of Knight Order that was known from sharing an iron-like bond with the rulers of Waldrind, so it was unthinkable that any of them would even begin to think about acting on their own, and behind their Lord’s back at that. For them it was a serious violation of discipline and a breach of trust, so it would not be at all surprising if all of the heavy knights who left Waldrind had their Crests taken away from them and had the connection to their Lord severed.

「The one who leads the heavy knights who came here to Artuk is the captain of the heavy knights, Lord Elmer. From what we managed to discover, it would seem that he only took his most trusted companions and closest friends with him. 」

「Lord Elmer, huh? 」

Irvin, of course, knew the person that Layla was talking about.

「The heavy knights of Waldrind started killing Werewolves in this land. What is their purpose in doing so? 」

「That is precisely what we want to know as well. Right now, the only thing that we know for sure is that Lord Elmer has not betrayed Waldrind, because if he did so, then the spiritual connection that he had with Lady Marine would have been severed immediately. 」

「So even if it is arbitrary at this point, you think that whatever he is doing here, he is doing it for Waldrind and Lady Marine’s sake, right? 」
Irvine pondered this matter for a moment.

Of course, destroying the Werewolf people would greatly weaken Artuk’s defenses. However, so far the information that they managed to gather indicated that the heavy knights of Waldrind have only killed a few Werewolves, which got them into their current position where they went from the hunters to the ones being hunted instead.