Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 24 - Chapter 1

"Some men achieve great things."

-Genius isn't real, as a concept.

     AUTHOR: RUDEUS GREYRAT

TRANSLATION: JEAN RF MAGOTT

Chapter 1:

A Strategy Meeting

I SAT IN THE MEETING ROOM at the offices of the Orsted Corporation, directly opposite Orsted himself. Sitting on either side of me were Eris, Roxy, Sylphie, and Zanoba. Roxy was in charge of taking minutes.

“And that about sums it up,” I said. In my report, I’d summarized our chain of discoveries. First, there’d been Geese and North God Kalman the Third. It put Orsted in a good mood when I told him that we’d found them in the Biheiril Kingdom. He didn’t actually say anything, but I sensed he wanted to tell me, “Way to go!” Those high spirits buoyed the rest of my report.

But the moment I said, “We found Ruijerd,” his face became a thunderstorm.

“Um, if it was something I said…” I added. I couldn’t work out whether he was angry or not. He was glaring at me. The vibes were so bad that I shivered. I got ahold of myself quickly, but I couldn’t totally shake the anxiety since I had no idea what Orsted was gloomy about.

After a long pause, he said, “The Ogre God is also in the Biheiril Kingdom.” 

The Ogre God lived on Ogre Island in the east of the kingdom. 

“You said the Ogre God could easily be turned against us, right?”

I hadn’t forgotten. I was just checking.

“In one of the past loops, this generation’s Ogre God became a disciple.”

Hmm. Maybe that meant Geese’s location was a trap… It was also possible that Geese was trying to recruit the Ogre God. I wouldn’t get answers to those sorts of questions in a meeting room. I’d have to go there and find out. Since we were already in a meeting, I decided I ought to use the time to get everyone on the same page.

“With all that in mind,” I said, “I’d like to discuss our strategy going forward.”

“All right.”

“We have all the pieces we need for now. I don’t think we can avoid or put off going to the Biheiril Kingdom any longer,” I said, launching into my strategy presentation. “I can’t say for sure that this isn’t Geese’s—and by extension the Man-God’s—trap. But with Geese constantly giving us the slip, who knows when we’ll get another chance to catch him? There might not be a better opportunity. While it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t locate the former Sword God Gall Falion or the second North God, I’d still like to go to the Biheiril Kingdom. What do you think?”

“I have no objections,” Orsted replied.

Atofe would already be acting on the information of Geese’s whereabouts regardless of what I did. I hadn’t asked her how she planned on getting to the Biheiril Kingdom, but she’d take a while to make it there. A month or two, maybe more. I needed to get to the Biheiril Kingdom not just to rendezvous with her, but also to make sure the locals had time to brace themselves for her arrival.

“I have four objectives,” I went on. “Find Geese and take him out. Find North God Kalman the Third and recruit him. Find Ruijerd and recruit him. Find the Ogre God and either recruit him or take him out. I’ll handle them…er, in that order. Is that okay, sir?”

“…I suppose.”

If it were up to me, I’d have gone to see Ruijerd ASAP, but I supposed the North God had to come first. As for the Ogre God, it might be easier to just put him in Atofe’s path as she cut across the ocean. It would probably happen anyway if I left them to their own devices. I didn’t even know how to get in touch with Atofe, now that I thought of it. I’d set up a contact tablet at Fort Necross as a means of communication, but that was it. Maybe it was all right to put off worrying about that until after Atofe showed up. I might not have a choice anyway. It’d be a real hassle not being able to get hold of her if there were an emergency, though…

“If it looks like Geese’s forces outnumber ours, I’ll call for backup.”

My enemy awaited me in the Biheiril Kingdom. It might be a trap. If we showed up and Geese’s forces were all there but the man himself was gone, I’d be the boy who cried goose. It was one of those things that was bound to happen occasionally, but it could damage the trust all those countries placed in us.

“I don’t think it’ll be too late to call for backup if I wait till after we find him,” I said.

I’d check first: Enemy? Present. Battle? On. Then I’d call in my allies. That way was safer.

If we ended up repeatedly cycling through the same process—we find Geese, my allies assemble, Geese escapes, everyone goes home—my allies would eventually stop showing up. All this would have been for nothing.

“I’d like to set up teleportation circles for when I need to summon my allies.”

The Biheiril Kingdom was only a minor nation, but it still had three large cities. The capital of Biheiril, the second city of Irelil, and the third city of Heirulil.

“I’ll put one in the vicinity of each of the cities.” I glanced at Roxy. “There aren’t many people who can accurately draw magic circles, but my magnificent teacher, with her incredible foresight, has drawn up a number of teleportation circle scrolls for just this purpose. A round of applause, please.” A thunderous ovation broke out. A rain of confetti fluttered over the stage where Roxy stood, mic in hand. When she waved to her fans, assembled in the hall from all over the world, scores of them collapsed in a swoon. At least, that’s how it played out in my brain.

“I’m sending people to the Biheiril Kingdom’s neighbors to watch the main roads. We’ll use the Ruquag Mercenary Band in Sharia.”

Linia and Pursena would do that, with Aisha helping too. 

“After plugging potential escape routes, I’ll hunt Geese down. Then, as soon as I find him, I’ll call for backup. We’ll defeat him.”

The main thing was confirming he was there. After that, it would be just a matter of stopping him from getting away until our forces arrived. Fortunately, the Biheiril Kingdom was surrounded by forests, mountains, and oceans. It didn’t share borders with too many other countries. When Kishirika used the Demon Eye to find Geese, she’d also sensed the Man-God. That meant the Man-God had likely sensed her too, and so it was possible Geese had already run. Like he’d said in his letter, he could even make a getaway through the forests as long as he had a companion. Blocking off the main roads was mostly for my own comfort. 

“I see,” Orsted said. “Then who will handle the magic circles?”

“We should split the task up. One person for each circle.”

“Isn’t that too risky?” Sylphie objected. “I mean, they’ll go after you, right, Rudy?”

“Yeah,” I replied with a nod.

Assuming for the moment that Geese’s letter was trustworthy, he’d said he was after me. It wasn’t hard to imagine myself running straight into the jaws of a trap if I went out alone. Or he could play divide and conquer.

“Thanks to Sir Orsted’s bracelet, I can avoid the Man-God’s surveillance. Geese and the Man-God can’t detect me, Sir Orsted, or anyone near us. Geese will probably turn to analog methods to try and locate me—plain old information gathering. That’s why I’m going to disguise myself and get the magic circle in place quickly before he catches me.”

Trap or not, it was better I didn’t go advertising my presence—hence a disguise. It would only be a matter of time before I was exposed if Geese looked for me, but I could at least avoid being surrounded and taken out the moment I arrived in the country. Provided luck was on my side and things went smoothly, I’d be the one getting the jump on Geese. 

If there was no trap, that meant neither Geese nor the Man-God had predicted being seen by Kishirika’s Demon Eye. If that wasn’t part of their plan, Geese would probably run unless his business in the Biheiril Kingdom couldn’t wait. He might stay until the last possible moment to try and finish whatever it was before I arrived. If he disguised himself to delay me finding him, he’d buy some time before he had to make a run for it. There’d be no downside for him.

“It might be worth staging a diversion if you want to stay hidden, Rudy,” Roxy suggested.

A diversion. In other words, I’d make them think I’d suspected a trap and decided against going to the Biheiril Kingdom. It’d throw them if they laid out the bait and only caught small fry instead of the big fish they expected.

“A diversion? Do you have a specific plan in mind?”

Roxy nodded. “I do. Why not have one of us go to the Sword Sanctum? Queen Ariel said she’d deploy reinforcements whenever you need them. That’d include Ghislaine and Isolde, right? Those two know the people at the Sanctum well and should be able to hold their own in a fight. The current Sword God doesn’t serve the Man-God, if what you told us is correct. I think finding someone there who can help us and bringing them back could work. Sword King Nina, for example.”

Nina. Eris had personally tried to bring her over to our side. She was no substitute for the Sword God, but given she could go toe to toe with Eris, she’d be an asset. She’d seemed really engrossed in something when we last visited her, though. It was hard to say if she’d come. 

“Oh! Okay, I’ll go, then.” A hand went up—Sylphie’s. I did trust Sylphie to handle those negotiations. She was acquainted, in a manner of speaking, with Nina, Isolde, and Ghislaine. Plus, if Sylphie went, that in and of itself would serve as a diversion. She’d already had the baby, so there wasn’t much value in killing her, but she might still be a target. The Man-God knew all too well who I most wanted to keep safe. If my wives split up, that might make it harder to work out my location. Only one thing worried me.

“Are you worried about the danger?” I asked.

“It’s a risk,” Roxy acknowledged. “But given we know where Geese is, I think it should be minimal.”

She had a point. And surely, after going to the trouble of recruiting his allies, Geese wasn’t about to let them get picked off one by one. We could assume they were wherever Geese was.

Unless…that was what they wanted me to think.

“The Man-God knows what you hold dearest, Rudy. If we go, it should serve as a diversion,” said Roxy, as if she’d read my mind. 

Hold on a second. Didn’t that make my plan kind of insane? I was going to set up teleportation circles in the Biheiril Kingdom, then call in my forces. Getting to each of those locations would take half a day, if not a full one. Wouldn’t that make it easy to pick me off? This felt like the beginning of an all-out war. Was this the part of the story where the divided allies start getting picked off? Since coming to this world, I had learned that things didn’t play out like in light novels. I still didn’t like it.

“Actually, I’m starting to rethink this…” I backpedaled. “Maybe this strategy was a mistake…”

“Oh, Rudy,” Roxy sighed. She could see I’d lost my nerve. “Listen. When adventurers go into a labyrinth, they plan it so they have no casualties. Everyone does the best they can, and that raises the probability of them coming home alive. Up until now, all we’ve been able to contribute is to stay home and look after the children. Sylphie and I certainly can’t hold a candle to you and Eris in a fight. Now, I think using us out in the field will raise the probability of everyone coming home alive.”

Probability…? She was right, it was all probability. Nothing is ever one hundred percent certain. Even when you try to stay safe and secure, things happen that you weren’t expecting. Plans can fail because of circumstances you never dreamed of.

“I know you want to keep us shut up at home, Rudy,” Roxy went on, “but if you lose, it won’t matter how tightly you seal us away. It’ll be over for all of us. Yes, each choice comes with risk, but let’s be brave. Then we can laugh about it together when this is all over.”

How could I ever be happy again if I lost any of them? If I came home from the Biheiril Kingdom and found Roxy or Sylphie or Eris gone, would I be able to laugh then? Not a chance.

“Rudy, we’re all parents now. We have to think about the future.”

I saw Paul’s face in my mind’s eye. If Paul were still alive, what would he have done right then? When he went into the Teleportation Labyrinth, he took me with him. When the displacement incident happened… Well, he lost it. Best to put that out of mind. 

Before that, when we were living in Buena, he never shut me up in the house. I do think he tried to protect me, but he also let me wander around a village where you didn’t have to go far to run into danger. Zenith, when she wasn’t pregnant, worked at the local healing center. Even after she got pregnant, I had the feeling she’d been out and about pretty frequently once she was stable. Paul wasn’t a perfect dad. He also didn’t have enemies who wanted him dead. Nevertheless, I was still alive today, so maybe saying “no” to everything was a sign I was getting overprotective. On the other hand, this was a totally different situation…

“Yeah, Roxy’s right,” Sylphie agreed. “We’ll take the risk. So long as someone survives to look after the kids after our enemies are defeated, we’ll get by.”

“Yeah!” Eris said after a beat. I couldn’t tell if she’d actually been following the conversation up until then, but she agreed with Sylphie. 

Zanoba and Orsted stayed silent while we discussed family, but I was sure they would pipe up if any part of the conversation struck them as outrageous. 

“Right, let’s go with that, then,” I said. “Any objections?”

None. We had our plan. 

I’d conceal my true identity, then we’d split up to search for Geese. Once we had him, we’d cut off his escape routes to stop him from getting away, wait for our backup, and then eliminate him.

“All right, then. Next on the agenda…”

We hammered out the details of the plan.

***

After the discussion, we settled on splitting into the following teams:

Team Stop Geese Escaping into a Neighboring Country: Aisha, Linia, Pursena, the rest of the Mercenary Company.

Team Create a Diversion by Getting Nina from the Sword Sanctum: Sylphie (Ghislaine, Isolde)

Team Capital City: Zanoba, Julie, Ginger

Team Second City: Rudeus

Team Third City: Eris, Roxy

We’d each set up a teleportation circle, then move on to searching for Geese and the North God. Sylphie would follow the plan we’d discussed. Zanoba would focus on getting information. Eris and Roxy would handle the Ogre God. I was sure Aisha would do me proud heading up the team in charge of cutting off Geese’s escape routes.

My own task would involve Ruijerd. 

I’d heard he and the Ogre God shared a long history. Then there was the Third North God Kalman, who’d set off for the Biheiril Kingdom with such perfect timing. 

The bond between Ruijerd and me ran deep.

I had no choice but to split my forces, since I had no idea what Geese was up to. It would be best to keep communication going between all of us and let the plan stay flexible. Those of us heading for the Biheiril Kingdom would get going at once. The longer we sat around here, the likelier it was that Geese might cover his tracks. I’d already hunted down Kishirika to get her to locate Geese; I wasn’t going through that again. 

Sylphie would set off a bit later. Ariel had said she’d send me reinforcements right away, but she had her own things to take care of. It wasn’t like Ghislaine and Isolde would arrive the instant after we called. 

Julie, Ginger, Linia and Pursena, and the mercenaries each had their own jobs. I was tearing them away from their lives, but this confrontation would decide everything. It had to be done, no matter the cost.

Was this an opportunity, or a trap? Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I was going to act as if it was the former.

I related the plan to Ariel and Cliff via contact tablet. Ariel’s reply came at once, saying “I’m sending backup with all possible speed,” but there was still nothing from Cliff. Unlike Ariel, who kept her tablet in her chambers, all communications to Cliff went through the Millis branch of the Mercenary Band. I could expect delays.

“Any questions?” I asked, looking around. No one raised their hand.

I was a little worried about Zanoba. Based on the information we had, I was prioritizing the third city for its proximity to Ogre Island and the second city because it was near the spot where Ruijerd had been sighted. The capital had the most people; it could easily be the most dangerous. Ginger was an accomplished intelligence agent and Zanoba a formidable warrior, but he was weak to fire magic.

“Be careful, Zanoba,” I said.

“I shall be on my guard. But for my own part, I am more concerned about the Store.”

“Oh, now that you mention it…”

In theory, the store and factory could function without a boss. But with Zanoba and Julie both gone, who knew what would happen if something major went wrong?

“I did want to leave Julie behind…” I said.

“Hahaha. I promised her we’d never be separated again.”

Julie really did love Zanoba. I had to wonder how Zanoba felt—maybe it was mutual. I couldn’t exactly ask such a personal question. Zanoba had this way about him when it came to women, like he kept them at arm’s length.

If they ever had a kid, I’d never let him hear the end of it. You filthy lolicon, you! It wasn’t my place to comment from the sidelines before anything happened, though.

“Eris, you all good?”

“…Yeah.” Eris didn’t look happy. I think she wanted to go with me. Unfortunately, if she did that, there’d be no one to protect Roxy. Also, when Eris and I were together we stood out. Eris did not do covert operations. 

That’s why I’d placed her with Roxy, the second most noticeable. They’d be like Team Diversion.

“I don’t like this, you going alone,” Eris said. 

Fair enough. I was worried about me too. I wasn’t sure I could both perfectly avoid Geese’s notice and collect information. Geese was a master of intelligence. Unless I played this carefully, he’d have me the moment he heard there was someone looking for Ruijerd and North God Kalman. If that happened, he’d be gone before I could reach him. 

Besides, nothing good ever came of my working alone.

“I’ve got something planned,” I told her. “You’ll see.”

Maybe I should’ve been finding us a couple more guys who could help with intelligence over the last six months. Oh well. Hindsight and all. Wasn’t worth stewing over it.

“What about you, Sir Orsted? If possible, I’d appreciate it if you could stay here and manage the contact tablets, protect my family. That sort of thing.”

After a pause, Orsted said, “Very well.”

“Thank you very much.”

Orsted would be house-sitting, then. He stood out too much to make a good spy. I might need him at some point, but it was still infinitely preferable to have him stay here until the battle started. Then he could join the fighting. There was still the thing with his magic, so I couldn’t expect him to carry a battle or anything. He was more of a final trump card. I mean, that’s what his follower—i.e., me—was good for: allowing him to conserve his magical energy. If Orsted joined the fighting at this point, that meant we’d already lost.

Orsted stayed silent. I had the feeling he had something he wanted to say, but I couldn’t read his expression through his helmet. Maybe he was worried. Heck, we were about to kick off a major strategic play—he was probably nervous like the rest of us.

Finally, he said to me, “Rudeus, keep that ring on. Just in case.”

“What ring?”

“The Death God’s ring.”

I looked at my hand. There, on my finger, was the skull ring. My gift from the Death God was a flesh-crawling thing to behold. For whatever reason, even after meeting with Kishirika, I hadn’t taken it off.

“May I ask why?”

“Just in case. You only have to wear it for it to be effective.”

“…All right, I will.” I didn’t get it, but such is life. All I had to do for it to work was wear it. It’d all make sense when the time came. Hopefully.

“There’s also something I wanted to apo—” Orsted began, but then someone said, “Excuse me,” and he shut his mouth again.

Who was that? What fool employee dares interrupt the boss when he’s talking?

I looked around, but no one had spoken. No one even had their hand up.

It had been a woman’s voice. Who’d said it?

“Chairman…” 

She called me “Chairman,” which could only mean… Huh? She wasn’t even in the room.

“We have visitors!” said the voice, a little more urgently.

Aha, it’s coming through the door! Mystery solved. It’s Little Miss Elf from the reception desk… What’s her name again?

“Sorry, I’ll go see what it is,” I said. I’d told her not to disturb us while we were in our meeting. It could be an emergency.

***

“…Whoa!”

When I stepped into the lobby, the first thing my eyes registered was gold. Head-to-toe gold. A guy in gold armor stood glinting before me.

“Wha—?!”

“Hey.” The humanoid gold nugget raised a hand. 

That voice. That gesture. A vision of a certain person came to mind. Golden knights. I’d heard the Fighting God Armor had been gold. Back in the day, Badigadi, as a disciple, had fought Laplace in golden armor.

It all clicked. They were here to attack me!

Geese was a decoy all along! The Man-God salvaged the Fighting God Armor and sent an advance guard to get me—

“These gentlemen say they came here by teleportation circle on the orders of Queen Ariel,” supplied the elf girl.

—aaand that’s not what’s up at all. 

Now that I got a better look at it and took into account the dim light, the armor was more of a dull ocher.

“Glad to have you,” I said.

The man took off his helmet. Underneath, he had a head of black hair—relatively rare in this world. He looked around fifty or so. Deep lines sectioned his face, and he carried himself like a veteran warrior. I’d met this guy once before, at the Asuran palace outside Ariel’s chambers.

“It’s been a while,” I said. Last time, if I recalled correctly, he’d made a speech worthy of an edgelord teenager, then refused to tell me his name. I knew it, though. The other man there with him, Sylvester, had told me.

“Good to see you. Will I have the pleasure of learning your name this time?” I asked. 

He let out a ha of laughter that seemed to imply now wasn’t the right time, but he’d humor me. “I am Chandle von Grandour, knight in service to Queen Ariel.”

“My pleasure, much obliged. I’m Rudeus Greyrat.” He bowed to me, so I bowed back. Thinking about it, I’d never heard of the Grandour family. I’d forgotten to ask Orsted about them last time. Chandle hadn’t seemed all that important.

“I am here on urgent, top-secret orders from Her Majesty,” Chandle said. He held out the box he carried under one arm.

Urgent? That must have meant he’d just gotten them. I’d only sent Ariel the details of the plan during the meeting. That woman moved fast.

“Thank you,” I said. “What’s this?”

“There is a magical implement inside that can change your appearance. Her Majesty said you’d need it.”

Oh ho. There had been a device like that in the Asura Kingdom, hadn’t there? But even then, it was impressive that she’d had it ready to hand over. Maybe she’d already suspected I’d need it and had it ready to go.

“Please confirm the contents,” Chandle prompted me.

“Okay.” I cracked open the box and, sure enough, there was a set of matching rings: one red, one green. The wearer of the green ring would take on the appearance of the wearer of the red ring. With these, I could make myself look like a totally ordinary villager.

“In addition, this is the royal insignia of Asura,” he said, holding out another box. “Her Majesty gives you leave to use it should you find yourself in trouble, along with her name.”

I took the box and opened it up to find a medal. It bore the coat of arms of the royal family of Asura. Ariel must have had it made fresh. It looked brand new, and writing letters for me every single time had to be a pain. I owed Ariel yet another favor now.

“We also have instructions to assist you, Master Rudeus.”

To assist me? They must have been filling in until the backup got there. Naturally, Ariel couldn’t just send a Sword King and a Water Emperor away without notice, so she’d sent us some knights with nothing better to do. Strike that. It wasn’t fair to him to call it “filling in.” He’d do fine as a backup in his own right. And this was Ariel—I knew she wouldn’t send me an amateur incapable of carrying out top-secret operations.

“Wait,” I cut in, realizing what he’d said. “‘We’?”

“Indeed. Come on, say hello!” Chandle called, gesturing with his head. 

It was like a section of wall had sprung to life. In a corner of the lobby, looking like part of the furniture, was a huge suit of armor. Somehow I hadn’t noticed it, even though it’d never been there before. It didn’t have much presence.

Once you noticed, though, you couldn’t ignore him. He was a hulking figure in gray armor and had an absolutely massive battle axe strapped to his back.

“I’m, uh, Dohga,” he grunted.

“My…my pleasure. I’m Rudeus Greyrat.”

Dohga. I’d met this guy once before, too. He’d been guarding Ariel’s chambers and wasn’t exactly…the sharpest tool in the box, let’s say.

He was a knight and not just an axe guy, then. Even though his name and his physique were tough, there was an innocence to his face. I read him as the strong, kind, silent type. He was maybe in his twenties—or even still a teenager. 

Chandle, in his ocher armor, had a silver fox thing going on. He was pretty broad himself, but next to Dohga, he looked like a reed. They looked like two parts of a tag-team boss battle.

“Well, your wish is our command. I can do anything you need.”

“Um, right…” Now that they were here, what the heck would I do with them? Was the sensible option to put them on the mercenary team? Maybe I could stick them with Zanoba. I couldn’t see them all getting along.

“…Chandle, you’re a fighter?”

“Of course. I’m rated the strongest of the Royal Asuran Knights.”

The strongest, huh? I guessed Ghislaine and Isolde probably didn’t count as members of the knight order.

To be honest, he didn’t look like he’d hold up in a fight. But he was genial and, from what I’d seen of him at the Asuran palace, quite funny. I’d probably like him as a friend.

“We’ll likely be fighting the Great Powers. Do you think you can handle that?”

“Without question. I’ve been prepared to die ever since I pledged myself to serve Queen Ariel.”

Hmmm. Okay, fine. For all I knew, Ariel had sent him because he was disposable. I’d put him with Zanoba—but hold up. This was a bit weird, right? I’d literally just sent that message to Ariel. She worked fast, but this fast? The timing was too perfect. What if the Man-God—

“You,” said a voice. I turned to find Orsted behind me. 

Chandle bowed. “Good day, Dragon God Orsted. It’s a pleasure to see you, and I’m delighted to see that your curse is better under control than Queen Ariel indicated.”

I shot a glance at Elf Girl. She had her arms crossed over her torso, gazing at Orsted with an expression of fervent emotion. What was that about? It couldn’t be the first time she’d seen him, surely. He did have the helmet on, but maybe the curse was affecting her less than she’d expected.

But never mind that. I was focused on Chandle.

“You serve Ariel now?” Orsted said.

“I do. I have the certification here.” He pulled a piece of paper out of a pocket to show Orsted. 

It did in fact read I appoint Chandle von Grandour as Captain of the Golden Asuran Knights. It had Ariel’s own signature, as well as the Asura coat of arms. He’d brought it with him. Something about that felt sketchy, but it was probably something I carried from my prior suspicions of him.

“You two will go with Rudeus. Geese won’t know your faces.”

“As you command.”

“That works for you, Rudeus?”

“Huh? Oh, um, sure.” Just like that, Orsted had appeared and the decision was made for me. If that was Orsted’s command, I guessed we’d go with it…

“Wait, actually, that doesn’t work for me. Can we back up a bit? We can’t decide just like that. Who even is this guy? You seem to know him, Sir Orsted.”

“Yes, he’s—” Orsted fell silent. I looked over at Chandle and saw he had a finger to his lips.

“If he doesn’t know, perhaps we’d be better off keeping it that way?” he suggested. “Right now, I am Queen Ariel’s knight. From here on out, I shall be Master Rudeus’s servant.”

It sounded like Chandle was famous. Who could he be? He didn’t seem like a great power. If anything, he kind of had pushover vibes. What famous people would Orsted know? Maybe he was related to the Dragon Clan—Holy Dragon Emperor Shirad, or Abyssal Dragon King Maxwell. But he didn’t have the silver hair. Maybe he could have dyed it.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked Orsted.

“He will serve you well. I myself was uneasy about sending you alone, and he is well suited to the task. He is unlikely to be a disciple, and I expect he will be good at gathering information.”

Orsted sounded confident. I had to trust him. Ariel wouldn’t appoint some weirdo to be captain of her knights just because of his connections, so he surely had some fighting chops.

“I won’t let you down,” Chandle said. 

Let’s think. Orsted said he’s good at intelligence gathering, so maybe that’s his specialty.

Orsted acted like it was a given that he knew about Chandle, and Chandle seemed to take it as a given that Orsted knew him—it checked out. I was nervous about working alone. On the other hand, I was also nervous about working with people I didn’t know. With Orsted vouching for him, there was no need to be wary. Right? And Ariel herself had sent him. 

Orsted had jumped on sending this guy—that meant he had to be both good at what he did and a safe choice. That’s how Orsted must have judged it. If nothing else, Ariel trusted him enough to let him use the teleportation circles. That had to count for something.

Maybe I should trust Orsted and Ariel’s assessment of him.

“All right,” I said. “Please, come and join the meeting, though I’m afraid it’s already wrapping up.”

“Very well,” Chandle replied.

I’ll recap the whole strategy with them both, then I’ll see what Ariel has to say about them, I thought, ushering the two mysterious knights into the meeting room.