The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

There was an underground spring in one corner of the cave, and while the ceiling was not very high, it was very spacious, enough for a horse and carriage to enter. In addition, mushrooms, which emitted bluish-white light sprouted all around — around half the height of a man — so they did not need other sources of light.

The reason why they knew of this place was because the paladins had once been sent here to exterminate a monster which had made this location its lair.

After they fled here, they refurbished the place and divided it into several sectors, each serving a different purpose. They had even managed to make their sleeping quarters look like proper rooms. They cut down the trees around the mountain — each of them around one hundred meters tall, and made simple furnishings and furniture from them.

But ultimately, it was just a cave.

There were a total of 347 people here: 189 paladins, 71 priests — including trainees and other such personnel — as well as 87 commoners with nowhere else to go. Naturally, hoping for a private room was out of the question.

Even so, they could not let the king of another country stay with everyone else.

Of course, there was the wish to minimize contact between the undead Sorcerer King and the citizenry of the Holy Kingdom, as well as the desire to keep him from coming into contact with the secret information within their base, and other considerations on the part of the Holy Kingdom.

However, they could not say that they would like him to use teleportation magic so he could take his rest in the Sorcerous Kingdom instead.

In the end, they had to forcibly move others’ things away and create a private room for the Sorcerer King.

Under normal circumstances, they would have sent messengers to report the arrival of the Sorcerer King’s arrival and have the others make preparations to receive him, but the Holy Kingdom was now in the thrall of demihumans. They could not send out paladins, who had poor enemy detection abilities, as outriders. In addition, Neia was now in the Sorcerer King’s carriage and waiting outside the cave. The people in the cave were frantically moving personal effects and transferring beds and cabinets and the like. In addition, they had already hung up a borrowed flag of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

“...Hm.”

“What is the matter, Your Majesty?”

“...While I do not intend to insult you, I have a few questions about all of this which I hope you can answer to the best of your ability. It would seem you are not hiding your tracks; is that not a problem? Or will someone else take care of that?”

The Sorcerer King delivered his question in a flat — as though he was reading off something — tone of voice, and then Neia’s eyes went wide.

He was correct.

They would leave tracks in the process of climbing this mountain, which was untouched by human hands.

When one added the hoofprints of the paladins’ mounts to them, it would be immediately obvious. In that case, the fact that they had not yet been discovered was pure coincidence. Or was it?

“Your, Your Majesty. We have not performed any concealment work until today; could it be they’ve deliberately let us off? ...But why?”

Neia’s voice trembled as she asked the Sorcerer King her question.

Along this journey, Neia had become fully aware that the Sorcerer King before her was an extremely wise individual. Therefore, she thought that he might immediately supply her the answer, and her thoughts were not mistaken.

“...There are many possibilities for that, but under normal circumstances, that would be the most likely one…”

For a moment, Neia thought that she should not be listening to the Sorcerer King’s answer alone, but in the presence of the Captain. However, she could not control the curiosity welling up inside her.

“Could it be because they do not wish to lose track of you — or rather, the Liberation Army?”

“Lose track of the Liberation Army?”

“Hm— well, I apologize for this comparison, but say you’ve found a nest of rats causing trouble, letting them run hither and yon would be very troublesome, no? The best thing to do would be to wait for all the rats to gather and then eliminate them all in one fell swoop.”

He’s right! It’s just as His Majesty says. I find it hard to imagine any other possibility. He’s already thought this much in just a few minutes after coming to this place… it’s as though he knows exactly what the enemy is thinking, he’s amazing...

“Well, as long as the situation stays the same, there will be nothing to worry about. However, I’m not just talking about the situation here. Changes on the enemy’s side might lead to a very high chance of being attacked, which would be troublesome.”