“We will have to wait and see… that is also something that Reina told us to do. In the end, we can only work while considering the merits and demerits and then accepting the jobs where we can gain something for our services. That is all.”
Zelos was satisfied with that kind of answer. They weren’t running a charity organization, after all. There was no point in trying to act like heroes when they could only do so much with their numbers. First of all, they had to defend their territory and the people that lived there. After that, they could consider others if they had enough leisure to do so.
“This area seems peaceful enough, but we will take turns to guard the place, anyway. Since the horses aren’t being pushed that much, we will take turns alone in order to rest as much as possible… I want to increase the pace from tomorrow onwards.”
Heirina said that they didn’t have to hurry up, but her decision went against that and Zelos realized that.
In the end, crossing the mountains had been pretty straightforward. They found some abandoned mines along the way and they also found some old paths that they used. That also helped a lot. In order to gain some extra time without warning anyone, Heirina decided to stop in the middle of the afternoon after finding the new mines and then resuming at midnight to be pretty close to the capital when morning comes.
That was a bit difficult for Irlan and Edea, waking up at sunrise was relatively easy for them, but going to bed a bit earlier to wake up earlier wasn’t. When the sun was rising, they were dozing off on their horses. Fortunately, the mountains were behind them already.
“Come on, you two. We should be able to reach the city in the south of the capital before nightfall at this rate, then we will be able to rest properly on real beds.”
Zelos looked around while those two were rubbing their eyes. The paths around didn’t seem well maintained. He thought that Rattay was making a killing in times like that with his ores, but maybe that guess was wrong or his mines were in other areas. Regardless, the fact that not many people used those paths recently was suspicious. The grass was even growing a lot on the path that they found.
In the end, the group reached the town in the south of the capital a bit easier since they didn’t stop to eat. They got some fruits in the mountains and stocked them up for that reason. It wasn’t enough for Zelos and Nightstorm, so he was willing to buy some food in the city as soon as possible.
Regardless, the place wasn’t different from the city in the west of the capital that they visited almost a year ago. Just like the other place, it had a lot of workshops where they processed metal and most of them were for weapons or ingots. Now that Zelos thought about it… it felt like all the raw materials that were used to wage war came from the central area of the country.
In any case, the group looked for a cheap inn to stay, but one that had food served as well since they didn’t want to be moving around that much and show themselves even at night.
Before long, the group began to eat dinner in the restaurant of the inn, but the place was weirdly empty, even though the food was pretty good and the rooms weren’t half bad. Irlan stopped eating while looking around.
“We didn’t see a lot of people coming to the city either. Is the south in a bad spot lately?”
Heirina stopped to think for a moment before considering the possibilities of that, but in the end, she decided to give a more generic answer. As usual, there was no point in thinking too much about what they didn’t know.
“Information about other areas is hard to come by when we have our own area to take care of, after all. We have to use all of our resources with that purpose in mind.”
“Captain, I can look around the city and try to learn what is going on here. It shouldn’t be hard, I have been trained to do that kind of job.”
Heirina considered Kaitrine’s offer… that was also the kind of job Kai did for Hei, but Heirina still felt a bit weird about having Kaitrine doing that kind of job. She didn’t want to force her to feel obligated to follow in the footsteps of her father. Even if that path would have made her life easier.
“All right, I will be counting on you for that, but don’t do anything reckless. Return immediately if you see anything out of the norm.”
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“Understood.”
That kind of job seemed like something Zelos would benefit from learning, but Kaitrine had the right skills for that, even the ones in combat. As for Zelos, he decided to stick to what he was currently good at. There was no point in increasing the number of things he had to learn when he still wasn’t satisfied with his current progress.
After they finished their meal, the group returned to their rooms, and then Kaitrine left hers through the window to check the city. Zelos tried to hear when she left the girls room to check his hearing skills, but he failed. She was pretty good, after all.
“What kind of person do you think the princess is?”
Zelos sighed. At that point, nothing that Irlan did or asked would surprise him, but he still couldn’t help but feel a bit baffled by his lack of professionalism. He got too invested in some matters that required no investment, and that could be a real problem in the future, particularly in that mission where Zelos wanted to remain as neutral as possible.
“Does that even matter? Do you want to risk getting into trouble that much?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that you have a mother and a sister waiting for you at home. Do you want to risk not returning to them by getting too invested in this kind of job?”
“... Keeping our distance might be the best option in the short term, but it wouldn’t be in the long term, right? If the imperial family falls apart, the country is done for. Even more so if a fake someone takes the throne.”
“I suppose so.”
Zelos didn’t get the need of people wanting to maintain the current society based on the bloodline of a certain family. Perhaps their traits could be beneficial to the country, but that was impossible to tell now. Besides, for Zelos, the imperial family was part of the problem that created his past. Maybe it would be good for them to fall.
Still, after thinking for a short while, he couldn’t help but recognize that perhaps a lot of people would suffer for that, people who didn’t deserve it. If the country falls, in the worst-case scenario, they will become slaves to the enemies, and in the best-case scenario, they will become servants and be deprived of basic rights.
“Anyway, I asked because I am also curious about what kind of person could become living in the capital as the imperial family. Considering that and the fact that Reina took a liking to her, I have a hard time picturing the princess.”
“I am more concerned about how someone would adapt to survive in this environment, where the imperial family is falling apart, and many snakes are trying to take advantage of that or even instigating it.”
“That makes sense. Well, I have good hopes since I think Reina has a good head on her shoulders.”
Zelos preferred to see for himself and decide for himself as well instead of relying on others, but he knew where Irlan was coming from. Regardless, Irlan soon went to bed while Zelos kept training. Considering how quiet things were in the other room, he imagined that Edea had fallen asleep as well. Zelos decided to stay awake for a bit longer and wait for Kaitrine, but at some point, he gave up on that since it was getting too late. She probably had returned already without any new piece of information.
Zelos confirmed that he was wrong the next morning when he saw Kaitrine and Heirina with bags under their eyes when they met each other to have breakfast. It was obvious that one worked for too long and the other waited for too long as well.
“Captain, I told you not to wait for me.”
“Tell that to my brain that kept worrying for hours and hours. Put yourself in my shoes for a bit.”
Kaitrine had a hard time doing that, she had a complicated relationship with her father, but she had the same duty that he had toward Heirina’s family. They wanted to help them as much as possible, but Heirina felt troubled by such a feeling of debt that lasted decades. Zelos decided to change the subject without hesitation.”
“Putting that aside, what did you learn?”
“... Things are pretty chaotic since people don’t think that the emperor will survive. A lot of people with influence are slowing down their business and then trying to hire as many mercenaries as possible. They are being used to guarding some families, and they don’t leave those territories no matter what. Some people believe that a civil war will start at the moment the emperor dies.”
That would explain why people were hiring mercenaries and trying to conserve their forces. Still, since that was the case, it looked like there were some factions that weren’t planning to work together… it was hard to imagine that they were doing that to stick out for the princess, though. They only wanted to make sure that they would be the ones in power.
“Since everyone is preparing for that, that would explain why things are like this… this should be common knowledge among the population as well, at least in this area. Regardless, just to be safe, we need to keep our affiliations hidden. If anyone asks anything, leave it to me. I mean it.”
Heirina looked at Zelos, but he just shrugged. It wasn’t like he opened his mouth all the time to get on everyone’s nerves. Besides, he knew how to avoid actions that would make him and the others waste a lot of time.
Once the group finished breakfast, they left the restaurant and then crossed the city. For some reason, they didn’t gather much attention, but Zelos could only imagine that those who would be recruiting mercenaries would be living in the capital.
When they crossed the entrance of the place, they soon confirmed that there was only one guard there… Even the soldiers who worked for the country had already been recruited by one of the factions seeking to gain power once the emperor died.