Janus, leader of the heresy inquisitors, and current commander of the 'Paddle of God', took the steel gauntlet off his hand and scratched inside his ear. The itch was deep, and he frowned when he was unable to reach it.
"Still doesn't feel good. This… it feels like somebody's spying on me. It's very unpleasant!"
He looked to his side. In between the trees of the forest, he saw something move. From atop his horse-drawn palanquin, Janus mumbled,
"… Archers."
200 archers moved in unison at his words. They approached the palanquin Janus was on. Their commander looked to Janus, reading his countenance.
"Fire."
Janus pointed at the forest and the archers lifted their longbows, pulled back the bowstrings, and released. Hundreds of arrows flew between the trees. Grass blades tore and the arrows struck, piercing every tree. Then he heard a scream.
A scout tumbled down and let out a whimper. His arms, legs, and shoulders had been pierced by arrows, and his body twitched while he bled. Janus, who saw the letter orb he was holding fall, looked down at the scout with disgust, as if looking at a bug.
"What the hell? The one watching me… was a heretic of the Aylans Kingdom?"
One of the Holy Knights present approached Janus's side and asked,
"What are you going to do?"
"… As an inquisitor, I'll judge this heretic for his crimes! He's a heretic who dared to oppose the Holy Kingdom, and Pope Salem! I command you to burn him at the stake. Cleanse the dirty trash with graceful flame!"
As Janus spoke, the scout was hung on a hastily constructed cross-shaped pole. Oil was poured all over his body, and then he was set ablaze.
His scream echoed through the forest, but nobody cared. The soldiers only looked on while praying, their hands clasped together, and heads bowed.
"Very nice! I can't believe we can offer a sacrifice to Artarrk before the war…! His grace would protect us all!"
Janus burst into laughter, the corners of his lips curling. Then, his gaze once again returned to the forest ahead.
"My ears… are still itchy. There's someone else in the forest! Find them!"
The soldiers ran into the forest at Janus's words. They were left confused after searching the place their arrows dropped; nobody was there. But, a single strand of long, silver hair was there, alongside the bloodstains.
"… Was it a mountain beast?"
The Werewolves who were in the forest ran away quickly. One of them plucked the arrow from his shoulder and recalled the enemies who had just shot him, growling in anger.
***
"Let's take a look… so, roughly, the number of Dwarves you want is around 200 to 300, right? It would cost a lot though… Is that okay? They're amazingly expensive slaves, a Swarf costs at least 1.875 kilograms of gold. It would cost way more than a year's worth of funds for running a big city if you want to buy more than 200 of them."
Halsem let out a whimper and groaned. He had been excitedly riding his wagon around Canibar a little while ago, but he felt a headache at the number of Dwarves Tom proposed. He had previously expected around 30 to 50 Dwarves at most, but more than 200? This meant he would have to help Tom buy every Dwarf he saw while traveling all over the kingdom.
"Is it really that difficult?"
Ellin, who was sitting on the wagon, asked Halsem, who was leading the horses on the box seat.
"Of course it is. Dwarves are rare. Most professional slave traders can only dream of selling a single Dwarf in their entire life. Dwarves are one of the best products they could ever hope to have; 2nd place, at the very least."
Ellin frowned, bothered by the word 'product'.
"If Dwarves are 2nd, what's the 1st?"
"Elves. Dwarves are used for labor, but Elves are, how do I put it… is it because of their beautiful appearance? As their slaves, those bastards…"
Halsem glanced at Ellin. Ellin tilted her head, puzzled, and looked at him with an innocent gaze.
"… Well, there's such a thing. But… hey, are you listening?"
Halsem looked to Tom who was sitting silently in the back beside the luggage. Ellin approached him, curious as to what he was doing. Tom sat with his arms crossed and a crow in front of him.
"What's wrong…?"
As Ellin spoke to him, Tom was startled and smiled awkwardly.
"No. Nothing. My plan just went a little… a little wrong…"
"What do you mean it went wrong…?"
Ellin looked at the crow anxiously. She had never figured out what he was always using them for. Tom went back to frowning. He had received a message a little while ago. It was from the Werewolf, Wolf.
One of the Werewolf units he commanded was attacked at the border area of the Holy Kingdom. It sounded like the attackers were part of a large-scale troop of well-trained, elite soldiers.
'It was something I requested just in case…I didn't expect the Holy Kingdom to really make a move.'
Whatever he planned, the important thing was the collection and transmission of information. Tom's crow could transmit what his crows saw and heard, but that didn't mean it was 'all' transmitted. His crows were, as expected, not well-rounded. At best, he could only summon a few dozen crows at a time, and since he couldn't always use them all the time, he had mainly been using them as a communication network.
To make up for the crows' shortcomings, Tom had the Werewolves monitor Canibar the border area with the Holy Kingdom. Now, he had received a message of an army crossing that border. It would take around a week to cover the distance to this place.
'… Crazy.'
Tom also knew, to a certain degree, about the Continent Law. At least 6 months had to pass after the opponent country declared war before the war could start. Since that rule had been kept for thousands of years, the moment it was broken, The Holy Kingdom would be criticized by the other countries, and it would end up providing a cause for war. It was as if the Holy Kingdom expressed their intention to go against the whole continent.
'… it seems like they've completely lost their minds. Salem. I can't believe he's turning the whole continent into enemies only to crush Aylans Kingdom. Does that mean he's that confident?'
A smile crept onto Tom's face.
"… But it's still not enough. Yet…" Tom narrowed his eyes. "The madness is not enough."
"… What?"
Ellin tilted her head at what Tom said. Ignoring her, Tom looked to Halsem.
"Halsem."
"Hmm? What is it?"
"I will pay all the fees needed to buy and bring the Dwarves. How long would it take?"
"… There's no Dwarf in Canibar. It would be better to go to big cities to find them. Even if I buy you the Dwarves as soon as I find them, to gather around 200 of them… maybe 2 to 3 months?"
"It takes that long?"
Halsem pressed his forehead at Ellin's question.
"That's why I said they're troublesome. Since Dwarves are rare they're hard to get, even in the big cities. On top of that, I think even famous slave traders can only catch and sell a maximum of around 30 dwarfs? If someone like me buys more than 200 Dwarves as a slaver. I would attract attention! The kingdom would be suspicious of me and might monitor me!"
"I see."
Tom caressed his chin.
'You could get monitored for buying Dwarves in large quantities?'
Tom hadn't considered that. Since he had no knowledge of slave trading, he didn't know how that field worked. On top of that 2 to 3 months was quite a long time to take. There was no way the Holy Kingdom would stay quiet until then. He didn't know how the coming war would interfere with his plans
.
Tom pondered for a while before grinning.
"Now that it has come to this… negotiation with the upper level would be good."
"…What does that mean? Upper level…?"
Tom smiled slyly and sent his crow away.
"Yes, the upper level! The ruler of Aylans, the king."
***