“We don’t have long before the armies of the principality strike,” I added. “Should we issue a royal order to encourage them to evacuate?”
When I asked that, Hakuya shook his head silently. “Please, refrain. If we show we are aware of the principality’s intentions, their armies will be on alert. It could make all our preparations for naught.”
“…You’re telling me to abandon them?”
“I believe we have no other choice,” Hakuya said firmly, his eyes never wavering from my glare. “Now that you have made the decision to fight, sire, you must be aware that that means the blood of your people will be shed. As king, sometimes you must swallow your tears and be prepared to make sacrifices to save a greater number of people.”
Hakuya said this with a serious look on his face. It might have sounded cold, but he was taking it upon himself to say the things he knew would hurt for me to hear. So that I couldn’t run away from making those choices.
“…Yeah,” I said. “I get what you’re saying. That’s probably the more guaranteed, safer way. But… is it really the only option?”
He said nothing.
“On this occasion, I don’t mind if the method is a little bit rough, or dangerous,” I added.
With a war coming, there was going to be some number of people sacrificed no matter what I did. Even so, if I didn’t work to lower those numbers to the absolute minimum, that wasn’t being safe, it was being negligent.
“I’ll take whatever you’ve got,” I said in a strained voice. “Is there something, anything we could do?”
Hakuya paused for a moment to think. Then… he let out a sigh, shrugging his shoulders in exasperation. “And here I had thought you had been acting quite kingly of late, sire.”
“I’ve still got a long way to go if I let compassion get the better of me, is that it?” I asked.
“If you are aware of that, then very well. Good grief… It seems I have no choice.”
For all his complaining, this was the closest I had seen to a smile on Hakuya’s face in some time. It seemed that even Hakuya had some reservations about abandoning the people along the highway to their fates.
“I do have one idea,” he said. “However, this is a rather rough method…”
The plan he proposed was definitely very rough. For the people along the highway, it was sure to be a real nuisance. Still… it was far better than abandoning them.
“Let’s go with that plan,” I said. “There’s little time. Contact the adventurers’ guild at once.”
“By your will.”
Unidentified monsters had appeared in the southeast of the Elfrieden Kingdom.
The monsters were bipedal and humanoid, had patchwork, clown-like bodies, and their heads were on fire. These were monsters that had never been discovered before.
From their appearance, the monsters came to be known as flame pierrots.
Flame pierrots would appear in groups, attack a village, then use the flames on their heads to set houses aflame. While it wasn’t common for a new species of monster to appear like this, in a world where there were dungeons everywhere, it was far from unheard of. These flame pierrots had no doubt been born in some dungeon or another.
Dealing with new monsters like these was mainly a job for adventurers. So, soon after reports of the flame pierrots came in, a quest was issued by the adventurers’ guild. “Protect the refugees displaced by flame pierrot attacks,” it said.
This quest had been issued by a kingdom under the king’s own name. It seemed that the king’s first thought had been to evacuate people from the villages near where the flame pierrots were appearing. However, the current king, King Souma, and the General of the Army, Georg, were currently in a state of conflict, so he couldn’t afford to dispatch troops.
By having the guild issue a quest, he had probably hoped to have adventurers protect the refugees. As a quest issued by a country, it seemed like there would be a good payout for it, so all of the adventurers accepted the quest and worked to protect the refugees.
Here, too, there was another party that had accepted that quest.
There was their leader, the young and muscular swordsman, Dece, the baby-faced, female thief, Juno, the quiet, affable priest, Febral, and the shapely, quiet beauty, Julia. This was the party that had once gone on a quest with Little Musashibo.
This time, in addition to those four, there was the brawny, macho brawler, Augus. The reason Little Musashibo had joined their party last time was that Augus had been unavailable and they had been looking for someone to fill in for him.
They, too, had taken on the quest issued by the kingdom.
The closer a village was to the capital, the sooner a group of adventurers had claimed it, and so, having gotten a late start, their group accepted a mountain village near the southeastern border. They were now pushing on towards the east through the dense forest, protecting thirty or so villagers.
So far… All clear. The party scout, Juno, was surveying the area from up in the treetops.
In the process of protecting the villagers, they had to be on alert for more than just flame pierrots. There were vicious wild animals, and, in areas where public order was poor, they also had to watch out for brigands during an escort mission. Because of that, Juno was jumping from tree to tree like a monkey, surveying the area.
For pay this good, there haven’t been many problems… I’m kind of disappointed, Juno thought to herself while leaping through the air.
Most of the time, if a quest paid well, it was going to be highly difficult. Even for quests that appeared to not be so difficult at first glance, if there was a good reward, you could count on there being something more to it. “Beware anything that seems too good to be true” was an iron rule among adventurers. Even if the quest came from a trustworthy kingdom.
However, once they had accepted it, no flame pierrots had appeared, and it was turning out to be a simple quest where they just went for a walk with some villagers.
When Juno finished her patrol mission and returned, Dece and Febral were talking.
“I think this quest really is too easy,” Febral said.
“Hey, what’s wrong with easy?” Dece replied to the more pensive Febral, swinging his arms in a circle as he did.
Febral was the party analyst and also served as advisor to Dece, the party leader.
“For starters, we haven’t even seen the flame pierrots that were supposed to be the reason for this quest,” said Febral. “There’s been a lot of talk about how dangerous they are, but… I can’t help but feel it’s exaggerated.”
“Ah, I’ve been thinking that, too.” Juno said, joining their conversation.
Dece looked to Juno. “What’s the situation?”
“All clear. The forest was quiet.”
“I see… So, what is it you were thinking, too, Juno?”
“This is an escort quest where we protect people from the flame pierrots, yeah? I was wondering why it wasn’t a subjugation quest against the flame pierrots. From what I’ve heard, there aren’t many of them. Rather than make all these villagers move, wouldn’t it be faster to wipe out those flame pierrots?”
“I think that’s a reasonable opinion,” Febral said with a nod, but Dece still seemed doubtful.
“Doesn’t that just mean they’re too dangerous to put out a subjugation quest for them?” he asked.