Demon Prince 48.2

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Chapter 48.2. Enemy

The two older sisters of Hati say things like this, making Hati angry again.

"Grr, grr!"

"Come on, just this once~"

"Hati, you spoil-sport~"

I don’t think that’s really the problem.

"Everyone, I have returned."

After Fenrir and the others returned, Sebasun came back, leaving the cleanup to his subordinates and bringing Modef along. Sebast and Noela are still acting separately, leading the units assigned to monitor other targets.

"W-what do you plan to do with me?"

"That depends on you. I’ll be asking questions, and I want you to answer. Tell us everything you know. Don't make this harder than it has to be; I’m not very skilled at torture, tend to overdo it and end up killing the target."

Father says this, purposely adopting a menacing tone. Standing beside him, Gaul has a ferocious smile, and Mother Eliza is pulling out torture tools within Modef’s view. Wait, didn’t Mom use those on Dad before?

"O-okay! I’ll tell you everything. Just spare me."

It seems the act worked perfectly. Modef is completely cowed.

"First, who are those people in black? What’s their identity?"

"I-I don’t know. I don’t even know their names. I know nothing."

"Looks like torture is needed after all."

"Wait! I swear, I’m telling the truth! They just suddenly appeared at the auction and asked me to gather information on you guys. They even gave me an advance of two hundred gold coins! Who wouldn’t accept that kind of money?"

Two hundred gold coins as an advance? Quite a sum. Greed must have clouded his judgment.

"Then, explain the specifics of their request."

"Y-yeah. They wanted me to find out if the dragon at the auction was the same dragon they’d cornered before. Also, to confirm if it had the emblem."

So they’re after the Dragon King's emblem after all. If they obtain it, it’ll surely spell trouble.

"Anything else?"

"T-that’s all."

"Aren’t you the head of a trading company? And you still took a job from such shady people?"

"I was just supposed to gather information and report back. What they wanted wasn't state secrets or anything. I thought there’d be no problem even if it was discovered."

"Your judgment was naive."

"Grr."

Modef lowers his head in frustration. He was just used and even lost some of his men. Seems like he had a really bad time.

"Anything else we should ask?"

"We still don’t know who they are, huh."

Yeah, that's the main question I want answered too. There's something I’m curious about as well.

"Modef-san, why did they specifically ask you?"

"Huh?"

"There were plenty of other people attending the auction, right? Plenty of merchants, too. Why were you chosen out of all of them? Any idea why?"

"Oh, yes! I remember now! They were probably followers of the Elminea faith!"

"Oh? Now that sounds promising."

The Elminea faith, huh. So religion is involved here. In my past life, there were incidents, coups, and terrorism tied to religion. Having seen those reports, I’ve never had a good impression of it. I know it's biased, but still.

"Why do you think that?"

"At first, they came to meet me without any disguises, since we met at my company. One of them had a face I recognized."

"Go on."

"I'm also a follower of the Elminea faith. I’d seen one of them at one of our religious gatherings."

"So that’s why they chose you?"

Many followers of the Elminea faith harbor a deep resentment toward demons. They likely chose another follower of the same faith to gather intelligence from the demons. But then they tried to kill a fellow believer to prevent information leaks. Seems contradictory.

"Yet I hear your company trades fairly with demons. You don’t even have any demon employees. Doesn’t seem very typical of a follower."

"I’m not a devout follower. I’m a merchant before anything else. Trade should be impartial. And Elminea doesn’t explicitly teach to hate or shun demons. It’s more about caution, really. Many followers have personal reasons to resent demons, which gave rise to that image."

I see. But extremists like those people must arise among them. Turns out, this guy’s actually reasonable.

"I understand. We’re done here. We’ll have your belongings and carriage retrieved. We’ll release you in the morning. Hire some adventurers for protection on your way back. Until then, we’ll keep you in a room here with guards. Understand?"

"I do. Thank you."

"Sebasun, take him away."

"As you command."

Modef is led away by Sebasun. He seems to lack combat abilities himself, so he’ll probably stay quiet.

"So, what do you think? Think there’s a nation involved?"

We consider the possible identity of our foes based on the information we’ve gathered. And when Father Aslad says "nation," he means…

"The Holy Elminea Theocracy, huh? It would make sense, given what we’ve heard, but there’s no proof."

The Elminea faith has followers outside the Holy Theocracy as well. You’ll find them in other human nations. It’s possible that followers living outside the Theocracy formed their own organization. However...

"An organization that would go after a sacred beast without state backing seems unlikely. The reasonable assumption is state involvement, but lacking evidence, confrontation is pointless. If they deny it, that’s the end of it."

Accusing them recklessly could easily restart a war. We have to be careful.

"And if those in black are Elminea believers, it explains why they tried to assassinate Jun before."

"Yeah. One of the advantages humans had over demons has disappeared, after all."

Actually, it’s safe to say that advantage has been reversed. The school, hospitals, and training facilities are running smoothly, and there are plans to build more throughout the land. At this point, there’s no reason to assassinate me or other high-level healing magic users. For those who resent demons, it would have been ideal to prevent this from happening. But we’re the ones they targeted.

"Well, getting closer to the enemy’s identity is progress. We’ll need to keep Elmbern, Darmdatt, and Fremlira working together on this."

"Understood, Aslad. It’s not just your problem, after all."

"Of course, Aslad."

As the enemy’s identity becomes clearer, the alliance among Elmbarn, Darmdatt, and Fremlira strengthens. A common enemy tends to foster unity.