Eric’s Concerns

I asked Eric,

“What concerns are you talking about?”

“Before we get into that, I would like to move to someplace different…”

“Alright.”

Eric would only say that if it was very important confidential information.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Shia, Philly, and Serulis.

But just knowing things could put them in danger.

So he was being considerate.

Just as we got up to leave…

“Mister Goran is still eating. We’ll leave the room instead.”

“Sorry. That might be better.”

Philly, Tama, Shia, Serulis and my apprentices all left the dining room.

“Cluck.”

Lord Gerberga stayed in the dining room. He boldly poked his head out from my shirt.

“Groof?”

Grulf looked like he couldn’t decide whether he should follow Serulis and the others or stay.

“You can do whatever you like, Grulf.”

“Groof!”

He wagged his tail happily and put his chin on my knee.

Once Eric saw that the others were gone, he began to talk.

“What I am most wary of is the timing of the enemy’s attacks.”

Not much time had really passed between making the decision to attack their main base and actually attacking it.

However, the enemy had countered with a savage attack on the water dragon settlement.

If that was all, then they could surmise that the enemy had their forces hiding somewhere near the settlement.

After all, the water dragon settlement had been their goal all along.

So that would not have been strange.

“The problem is that they attacked the royal capital at the same time.”

“That’s true, but… It was just a Vampire Lord leading a team of archs and lessers, right?”

Goran said cautiously.

“As there weren’t any High Lords, evil dragons or magic machines, it clearly wasn’t their main fighting force.”

“Yes, you are right, Goran. They would only need one communication bracelet to be able to do it.”

Like Goran, I did not think it was so serious.

It didn’t seem that strange that they would have had some dark ones stationed near the city.

Of course, I and Eric and Goran were all thinking that the enemy had kept some of their fighting force nearby.

An ambush would have been possible if they had something to communicate with.

After all, these enemies had magic items that could break through the divine barrier. Those were among the rarest of items.

It would not be hard to acquire a communication bracelet since they were even sold in stores.

“It’s normal for you two to think like that. However, you are both wrong.”

Goran and I waited in silence for Eric to continue.

“At first, I thought just the same as you two. However, the timing was different. The attack on the royal capital began before you did the Meteor Strike, Locke.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

Goran looked confused. And so I explained it to him.

“It means that the dark ones knew that we were going to attack them.”

“What? But surely there was not enough time for them to find out beforehand?”

We were all aware that there was an informer within the palace.

The privy council was investigating it, but nothing had become certain yet.

And so, we had decided that it would be best to act quickly.

“Let’s think back on the moment we started to plan to attack the actual attack.”

“Yes.”

We tried our hardest to think back.

First, Serulis and the others had brought back information about the main base.

And then Dorgo and Eric were alerted with the communication bracelets and we gathered together at the water dragon settlement.

We prepared in a hurry and then went out to attack.

“I don’t know when the information could have leaked.”

“…Maybe it was the beastkin wolves?”

Eric immediately shook his head at this suggestion from Goran.

“No, it couldn’t be. Vampires are their mortal enemies. It would be impossible for one of them to leak information to the vampires.”

They would probably rather die than help vampires. That’s how they were like.

Not only that, but the beastkin wolves were immune to Charm and Hypnosis.

“Of course, I know that. Informants, Hypnosis, Charm. It’s all impossible. But informants aren’t the only way that information can leak.”

“Are you suggesting that they’ve been spied upon?”

“Aye, I am.”

“Indeed, vampires above arch vampires are able to turn invisible… Locke, do you think it’s possible that they were watching the beastkin wolves like that?”

“It’s hard to believe. The beastkin wolves have a sharp sense of smell. Besides, those kinds of vampire illusions usually don’t work on them.”

But Goran shook his head.

“That’s not what I mean. The beastkin wolves can tell who is a thrall, but they cannot tell if someone has been charmed.”

“…That’s true.”

“And it’s not as if the beastkin live completely independently, right? They have to trade with outsiders, such as merchants.”

Goran seemed to think there was a possibility that a merchant from the outside had been charmed.

“But could some merchant from the outside really get information about the attack?”

“It does not seem very likely. But it’s not impossible, either.”

Goran was right. It wasn’t impossible.

Eric said,

“Locke. Why don’t you go to the beastkin settlement and investigate? I know it’s a lot of trouble… But I hope you can do it.”

It really, really was a troublesome job that I didn’t want to do. That’s what I thought.