Welcome to Hell! - Chapter 243: Farewell Royal Capital Gaelia

The eight wagons loaded with our luggage and the one carriage carrying Liselotte slowly proceeded through the royal capital. Having completed the official procedures, we exited through the castle gates. Among the eight wagons, five were driven by sand figures dressed in clothing and posing as coachmen, yet no one seemed to object to this. Being the escort of a noble, especially a foreign one, seemed to considerably relax the usual vigilance.

Outside the gates, the refugee camp sprawled expansively, but the atmosphere there hadn’t changed much since our initial visit to the capital. The refugees’ complexions were as poor as when we first arrived in Gaelia, and they appeared thin, likely due to insufficient food supplies. It was the daily life of a refugee struggling to survive in a filthy and poor camp.

However, this did not seem to reflect the severity of the damage they had suffered from the fire. It wasn’t just the efforts of the vigilante group that had mitigated the damage. The resilience and determination to survive were inherent qualities of the refugees themselves. It was this will to live that had enabled them to endure their poverty-stricken existence up to this point.

Glancing through a gap in the tents, I noticed the tavern we had once visited. By chance, I saw Nord, the man who had informed us about Chirik, staggering out. I felt a slight relief seeing him safe, as I owed him thanks for his information. I hoped he would take care of his drinking habit.

There were still beggars along the main road, but their numbers were sparse and they didn’t show any signs of approaching us. Perhaps this was due to the absence of the vigilante group members who used to mingle with the beggars to keep them in check.

It seemed that Crane did not come to see us off and that was because I had rejected him. Well, if he had come, I might have actually killed him, so it was just as well. It was for the best.

“Big brother, look.”

“Aah, I see it.”

After leaving the refugee camp and traveling a short distance along the highway, we came across ten children standing by the roadside. Each one of them carried a bulging sack, making it immediately clear what conclusion they had reached.

Seemingly understanding my intentions, Apao steered the carriage to stop beside the place where the children were gathered. Before I could say anything, Magna who was looking straight at me began to speak.

“Mr. Antares, we are just powerless kids. When you said you would take us with you, we were happy, even knowing that we were just extras for Chirik. That’s why we want to do this properly.”

Then Magna put down his bag and knelt down with his head lowered. Following his lead, the other children did the same. Rubbing their foreheads against the ground, Magna yelled with all his might.

“We’ll do any work, no matter how hard it is! Please, take us with you! We beg you!”

“””Please!”””

When we first met, Magna and the children harbored feelings of wariness and dislike towards adults. That sentiment hadn’t changed. Yet, they were casting aside their pride and everything else to plead for my help.

They weren’t just taking advantage of my kindness; they were bowing their heads to make things right. I didn’t see their current actions as pitiful. Instead, I felt respect for their decision, made in consideration of their and their companions’ futures.

Among those bowing their heads was Chirik, the son of someone I owe a great debt to. It was precisely because Chirik was there, identifying himself as the son of my benefactor, that a connection with them was formed. It was because of him that I decided to help them. Everyone probably knew that Chirik was more special to me than the other children.

However, Chirik was not my disciple right now; he was bowing his head to me as one of the children. They were demonstrating the strength of their unity.

“Please, we beg of you!”

“Hurry up and get on. Oh, and brush off the sand on your foreheads and knees before you climb aboard.”

“Thank you! We will work very hard!”

“I’m counting on it.”

Magna and the others, holding their ragged bags, quickly climbed into the cargo bed of the wagon I was leading by the reins. Judging by the sound, it seemed they sat in the space I had kept vacant for them.

After confirming that their movement had stopped, Apao started moving again. Now that we had more cattle, horses, wagons, and people than when we arrived, we headed for the campsite in the forest to meet up with our comrades.

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“…What is this content? This tells me nothing.”

“I apologize. Many records were destroyed in the war, and we could hardly trace anything.”

Several days after Antares and his party left the royal capital of Gaelia, Koltos who had once been a subordinate of Bolts’s father was reading a report in his study. It had been written after he reunited with Bolts and had an actual conversation with him.

The one who had been tasked to investigate was a subordinate of Koltos, originally from the empire, with friends in the Imperial military, specifically in the “Imperial Sword Knights”. The “Imperial Sword Knights” the elite unit of Emperor Remus of the Northern Rakil Empire, which controls the imperial capital, were so influential that saying they had the entire capital in their grasp wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Koltos had been confident that tracking down a single child would be a simple task for them.

However, the report contained only Bolts’s personal information and virtually nothing about what happened after his father’s merchant guild went bankrupt. Koltos, who only knew the situation in his homeland through hearsay, didn’t fully grasp the extent of the devastation in the imperial capital which was now a battlefield.

The chaos in the imperial capital turned battlefield, was severe. If not for Emperor Remus’s military power, it likely would have descended into anarchy due to riots. Ironically, while Remus was the instigator of the capital’s destruction, he had also become an indispensable figure in maintaining the current order in the capital.

Returning to the matter at hand, reading the report seemed pointless. Koltos’s intentions were clear. Perhaps understanding this, his subordinate presented another document.

“…What is this?”

“I felt something was amiss with the lack of information, so I looked into the impoverished areas where people might have ended up.”

“The number of residents suddenly decreased… Was there a large-scale manhunt?”

“It seems highly likely. Additionally, there’s one concerning point. Around the time the residents of the slums disappeared, a particular unit in the imperial army was reinforced.”

The mention of the imperial army sharply piqued Koltos’s interest. He felt an intuition as if connecting dots within him to form a clear singular line. He focused intently, determined not to miss a single word from his subordinate.

“The imperial army’s unit? Which one?”

“The demon unit. You’re aware of them, right?”

“Yes. They’re a kind of synthetic beast, a combination of other species with humans, right? Soldiers with the strength of beasts and the intelligence of humans, who played a significant role in the war. I’ve heard some even refer to the current conflict as the Demon War due to their involvement. Essentially, they are artificially created monster soldiers… I see. That’s what it is.”

Koltos pulled information about the demons from his memory and verbalized his thoughts. At that moment, the dots in his mind connected into a clear and thick line.

Bolts who was not adept at physical activities had become a member of a mercenary group; the disappearance of people from the slums where Bolts likely went; and then the immediate reinforcement of the demon unit. It all pointed to a singular truth.

“So that’s it. What a strange life you are leading, ‘young master’! Fuhahaha!”

Koltos became convinced that Bolts had become a demon and laughed heartily without any regard for his subordinates’ gazes. His laughter was filled with both envy for the extraordinary experiences Bolts must have had and disdain for the fact that despite overcoming such experiences, Bolts remained a mere pawn in his hands.

In the days leading up to his departure, Bolts had been visiting Koltos daily and sweet-talking him for treats. The smell that Antares had detected was a result of Koltos’s indulgence.

Although he internally clicked his tongue, he acted friendly and extracted various information from Bolts. He gathered as much information as he could, interweaving it into casual conversations, like the number of visitors and the contents of their shopping.

There was no doubt that Bolts, who was sent to war, must have had experiences that were unimaginable for Koltos, who was just a merchant. Despite this, his old arrogance remained the same, and his sense of caution was surprisingly low. He was easily fooled by Koltos’s fawning style.

Perhaps the depth of one’s experiences doesn’t necessarily translate to personal growth. Koltos, deep down, mocked Bolts as nothing more than a foolish child.

“Hearing that pointless rant turned out to be worthwhile after all. Now, the question is… who and where is the highest bidder for this information?”

After he laughed for a while, Koltos began to think. The news that several demons had escaped from the empire would be interpreted differently by various listeners. Some might see them as potential additions to their own military strength, while others would likely mobilize to eliminate them.

At this moment, Koltos did not believe Bolts had fled alone. He knew that Bolts was not shrewd or skilled enough to hide his identity and infiltrate a normal mercenary group. It was almost certain that Bolts had escaped as part of a group of demons and was now attempting to break away from them. Koltos’s prediction was accurate.

Should I sell this information somewhere right away, or should I wait a little longer? And who wants information about demons? Identifying who would be interested in information about the demons was important, and it was necessary to keep up-to-date on the latest developments in the situation.

“I’ll need to seek master’s opinion on this. If played right, it could turn into a great deal.”

Koltos hastily wrote several letters and ordered his subordinates to deliver them far and wide. Unbeknownst to Antares and the others, information about them was being circulated among a select few.