After chatting to them for a bit, I was able to learn quite a bit about the demon order.
It seemed that they didn't have any sense of secrecy, or at least in this place. When facing people who were in the demon order like them, they just talked without any filters.
I could see that there had to be a certain level of trust in the demon order in these people that they were able to act this way.
But just what kind of trust was it?
Was it worship in the demons or was it something else?
If it was something else, then would I be able to escape when it came for me?
But that did help me since I got a lot of information.
The demon order was actually founded by the Lord Baron when he met one of the demons during one of the monster extermination missions.
The Lord Baron had brought a bunch of his knights and his soldiers to exterminate a group of monsters. But this had caused a disaster as only a few of the knights and less than half of the soldiers returned.
I had also heard some things about this during my time in the manor, but I never thought that it would be related.
According to these demon order members, it turned out that the Lord Baron and his troops had been ambushed by the demons. It only took a single demon to wipe out all of the Lord Baron's troops and suppress all of his knights.
In the face of this power, they had no choice but to beg for their lives.
The soldiers were scattered, so only the Lord Baron and his knights were left standing in front of the demon.
It was then that the demon gave the Lord Baron and his knights a choice.
The demon could spare the Lord Baron and the knights, but they had to swear loyalty to the demon.
It was their lives or being degraded into dogs.
And their lives were naturally the most important things, so they swore their loyalty to the demon.
When they returned, they were linked to the demon order through the demon and they started establishing a demon order branch in this area. Over the years, they gathered many different people until it became what it was today.
I really couldn't help being surprised by the fact that I was able to get all of this information.
There was the chance that this was all fake, but with the facts that I already knew and the way that they said it, it didn't seem like it was fake.
But why would these random inductees to the demon order know all of this?
It didn't seem to make sense.
As we chatted, I was able to get some even more shocking information.
The Lord Baron's plan, or rather the plan of this demon order branch.
It was to use the monster wave to sacrifice human lives to the demon and then pin it all on Madame Rose, the Lord Baron's wife.
I forced my face to be calm when I learned this, but I was completely shocked deep down.
That was because even these newest members knew the plan of the entire demon order branch.
My first thing was, "Doesn't the person who Madame Rose got this cloak and mask from also know the plan then?"
If that was the case, they should have told Madame Rose everything…But she didn't tell me a single thing.
So did that mean that the person that Madame Rose trusted was actually betraying her or was it that she knew and…she didn't tell me?
Regardless of what it was, it was dangerous for me either way.
I needed to think of a way to deal with this.
However, that was for after this meeting.
Since they had the information that I wanted, I took this chance to get them drunk and got them to talk.
I used my special ability of pretending to drink to make sure that I didn't get drunk.
This was a trick that I had developed over many college drinking parties, so it wouldn't fail here. It didn't take long before they became more and more drunk.
Of course that couldn't be blamed on them.
I did take a tiny sip of the wine and I had to admit that it was delicious. It was better than any wine that I had had before.
As expected of wine prepared by a noble.
As they became more drunk, the looser their lips became.
I was able to easily guide the conversation the way that I wanted it to go and I got the information that I wanted.
I learned the real reason behind the Lord Baron's marriage to Madame Rose.
From the very beginning, it had been a marriage of convenience and he had planned on using her.
Madame Rose's father was a count, someone with a much higher status than the Lord Baron. This was what the Lord Baron was aiming for.
By having Madame Rose, the daughter of a count take the fall for colluding with the demons and starting the monster wave, he would be able to force the hand of hand of the count.
Even if Madame Rose had gotten married and left the count's family, she was still considered a member of the count's family.
If it was known that a member of the count's family was involved with the demons and had even started a monster wave to hurt the humans, there would be no doubt that the count would suffer a backlash.
The count would never allow that to happen.
So without a doubt, the count would suppress the news of this matter as much as he could.
He wouldn't be able to completely suppress it, but it would be suppressed to the level that none of the other great nobles would learn of this.
This was exactly what the Lord Baron wanted.
The reputation of Madame Rose being a traitor would be established in his territory while he minimized the damage from it with the influence of the count. At the same time, he would be able to use the monster wave to sacrifice his citizens to his demon masters.
It was a perfect way of killing two birds with one stone.
Even I couldn't help praising the Lord Baron for his plan even though I was on the opposing side. This Lord Baron was certainly much more intelligent than I thought.
Which brokered the question…how did he get sloppy enough that Madame Rose was able to find evidence against him?
Was it intentional or was it…?
I really couldn't help feeling unsettled when this thought passed through my mind. Then adding in the other thoughts that I had, I couldn't stop myself from reaching a single conclusion that would explain everything.
That I had been led into a trap…
As I was contemplating whether I should make a break for it, that opportunity was cut off by a voice that boomed through the hall.
"Let the meeting begin!"