Chapter 30

“I see. Nagi is with one of my subordinates…”

“Is it alright to just leave them be?”

Mayor Ricky’s concern was understandable, but Garmon didn’t feel particularly uneasy upon hearing the news. Though he had a tendency to be a bit too serious, Varna was a resilient and adaptable young man. Unlike himself, who was constantly disliked by his brother, Varna would likely get along fine with Nagi.

“There shouldn’t be any issues if it’s Varna-kun. Besides, he’s moving under the Vice Commander’s direct orders, so it’s outside my jurisdiction.”

“A mission? What kind?”

“A mission to mediate the delicate relationship between the militia and the Knights, apparently.”

Hearing this, Mayor Ricky made a slightly troubled face.

“Well… couldn’t you be the one to persuade them? No matter how Nagi acts, the town is in a state of emergency. If it came from you, I’m sure people other than Nagi would be convinced to some extent…”

“That is Nagi’s job. Not to parrot his words, but I’ve been away for too long. Besides, the members of the militia look to Nagi as their leader for instructions, not me. Nagi surely understands the situation… Since he’s flatly rejecting our offers, he must have an intention behind it.”

“You overevaluate your brother. Honestly, that part of you hasn’t changed at all. Has the relationship been this strained ever since you joined the Knights…?”

Wielding a spear and serving the Kingdom through martial prowess had been Garmon’s dream.

Leaving his family had been painful, of course, and he still had lingering thoughts about the brothers being separated after their grandparents passed away, leaving only the two of them. However, there were reliable adults around Nagi, and they had the house and money their grandparents left behind. Even those parents who didn’t even show their faces at the funeral had sent money, so the worst-case scenario had likely been avoided.

‘When I told him I was becoming a Knight, he wouldn’t listen, shouting ‘Don’t leave me behind,’ and we had quite a row. Ricky-san mediated for us back then, too…’

He had agonized over leaving his brother alone, but it was financially impossible to support Nagi in the Royal Capital while he was in the military academy. Without the allowance from their parents—which Garmon treated as a loan—he didn’t know what would have happened to Nagi. The academy provided the bare essentials for study and living, but since it was an institution that prioritized the privileged classes, the smaller details cost money.

He wondered what his brother would say if he knew Garmon had touched the money from the parents he hated so much he didn’t even want to remember their faces—parents who used flighty words like “I love you” in the letters they sent. Regardless, he had eventually paid back every cent of the borrowed money with his salary.

‘Since those two weren’t around, I did what I could for Nagi as his family, giving him what he wanted. His reaction… was subtle, though.’

After Garmon became a Knight, Nagi had lost all interest in souvenirs or money. Garmon assumed that was just how he was maturing—that he had simply moved past the age of getting excited over such things.

Consequently, instead of staying close, he had increased the habit of keeping a moderate distance.

‘If he makes such a disgusted face, maybe it means he’s a grown man now and doesn’t want me acting like his big brother…’

Being pushed away was a little lonely, but if Nagi said he hated being together, Garmon would stay away.

It was sad not to be able to talk, but if Nagi said he didn’t want to hear about the Knights anymore, he would stop.

Not doing things that the other person dislikes is a basic rule of being human.

Seeing Garmon like this, Ricky’s expression turned somber.

It was a sentiment akin to parental love, born from having known the brothers since they were children.

“You’ve changed, Garmon-kun. You started using formal pronouns in front of your elders, you don’t fight with your brother anymore, and you smile even when nothing interesting is happening. It sounds nice to say you’ve lost your sharp edges, but… how should I put it? You’ve become a city adult.”

“Is that not what it means to grow? I’m sure Nagi is the same. A relationship that benefits both parties is best, and even if he hates me, I still care for Nagi.”

“Is that truly a good thing? It’s better to have a fight and spit out your true feelings like you used to while you still can. When you fight after you’ve grown old, you have much more to lose.”

“I don’t really want to meddle in my brother’s business too much… but since it’s your advice, Ricky-san, I’ll keep it in mind.”

With a polite smile and a bow, Garmon left the report from the Knights on the desk and headed back toward the Motive Carriage.

Thinking to himself that Nagi probably wasn’t that much of a child anymore.

The Mayor’s expression as he watched Garmon’s back didn’t hide his sorrow.

‘You might not realize it, Garmon-kun. But that attitude of yours is exactly like your parents… the very parents you said you hated.’

Swallowing the words he ultimately couldn’t say, Ricky let out a long sigh. The friction between the brothers, the stalled Orc investigation, and the deficit growing from the quarry closure. There had been no good news lately.

“I’m not asking for everything, but please, solve at least one of these problems. Garmon-kun’s subordinate…”

At this point, he didn’t care who it was; he just wanted someone to break this deadlock.

Ricky directed that irresponsible wish toward the Knight caught between the two brothers, unknown to anyone else.

Unbeknownst to me, while a small commotion was occurring at the Motive Carriage, I was continuing the investigation of the town with Nagi, based on the promise we had made yesterday.

“…Hey, Varna. About the thing we discussed yesterday… are we really doing it?”

“If we don’t, the relationship between you and your brother is going to stay like this forever. Whether you end up parting ways or reconciling, I think now is the only time we’ll get to pull the truth out of that senior.”

“You’re certainly bold… Fine. Either way, if we don’t find a lead on the Orc extermination, it’s all just pie in the sky anyway.”

Our interests aligned—specifically, the agreement to cooperate to solve the problem.

As long as it took the form of Nagi cooperating with me personally, the hostility from the militia would settle down a bit, and we could conduct a decent investigation. Furthermore, if orders were passed down through Nagi when manpower was needed in town, it would provide a legitimate excuse for them to brag, “We were the ones who solved it!” after the problem was resolved.

…Putting it that way made it feel like I was feeding animals, which I didn’t like. This kind of delicate balancing act was something meant for higher-ups, not a low-ranker like me. I felt like it could be called “Bread and Circuses”, but I decided not to think about it for now.

“Nothing suspicious around here either, huh…”

I looked around the surroundings, but no conspicuous abnormalities were visible. I occasionally asked Nagi about things that caught my eye, but the results were limited to learning about the local lifestyle. Perhaps out of boredom or anxiety from the tedious, fruitless work, Nagi was somewhat restless.

“Hey, Varna. I know you’re not an amateur and I’m counting on you, but is there really a passage Orcs could use inside the town?”

“I’d prefer it to be some other possibility myself, but we simply don’t have enough data to judge. Even if I try to find another possibility, I need a clue… At the very least, it’s certain that an Orc appeared in the space between the fields and the town once. We have no choice but to investigate and speculate based on that.”

From Nagi’s perspective, it might have felt like a meaningless action, but for a Knight, legwork was the foundation. Sometimes mysteries were solved through this kind of steady effort, and seventy percent of the time, it amounted to nothing. You might think “then it’s useless,” but the painful part of an investigation is that you can’t afford to ignore that thirty percent chance of a lead.

For the record, I had considered possibilities other than a passage.

For instance, a method where Orcs used incredible jumping power to move across the rooftops of houses—however, that would still mean the Orcs were slipping through the perimeter to enter the town, and if an Orc weighing over two hundred kilograms moved across a roof, the residents would surely notice. So, that theory was out.

“Weren’t you monitoring the town or the fields?”

“We don’t run patrols. The Kliffia Militia only moves when there’s trouble. We were holding the entrances and exits of the town, but… even if you just say ‘fields,’ they cover a fair amount of area, so covering everything is impossible. There are only seventeen members in the militia. When you consider monitoring the cliffs, the town entrances, and then adding rotation staff and people on standby for town trouble…”

“You don’t have enough people.”

“Unlike the Knights. We figured they’d show up in the north where the damage occurred and managed to divert people there, but this time, they caught us off guard.”

Nagi scratched the back of his head in frustration.

By the Knights’ standards, it was common practice to use a large number of colleagues to seal any gaps during Orc-related incidents, but come to think of it, the Kliffia Militia was just a collection of locals proud of their strength in a town that wasn’t even that big. It was no wonder they couldn’t conduct large-scale operations.

“I thought about pulling people from surveillance to move them elsewhere, but… a person or two without training would be easy prey if they were attacked by Orcs in the middle of the night.”

“True. Those things have night vision, and even if they aren’t soldier-class, they have enough strength to kill a human with their bare hands.”

Nagi really wasn’t stupid. At the very least, he seemed to have a good grasp of the combat potential of Orcs themselves. Even in the Knights, we never let a Knight go alone to a place where Orcs might appear. If he were this capable, he could probably make it in the Knights, but he’d likely refuse.

Now then, that narrowed the conversation down…

“Is it possible for the Knights to monitor the town?”

“…Yeah, I figured it would come to that.”

If it were the militia, I’d be filled with nothing but anxiety that someone would end up dead, but as Knights accustomed to these scenes, we had the confidence to track down an Orc without fail. The problem was what kind of faces the militia and the townspeople would make about it.

“I won’t borrow my brother’s help! …If it were just a matter of my own pride, I might have swallowed it. But as a leader, I can’t agree to that.”

Setting aside his bravado, Nagi’s expression turned serious.

I had a vague idea why he couldn’t give the nod.

When I imagined whether those guys—who wore their hostility and rivalry toward the Knights on their sleeves—would quietly accept it, the answer came naturally.

“Backlash from within the militia, or perhaps they’d go rogue… is that it?”

“You catch on to everything, don’t you? Yeah. More than half the militia neither rely on nor trust the Knights. In fact, our surveillance points almost completely overlap with yours. At this point, it’s like we’re watching the Knights more than the Orcs.”

This was the most troublesome issue. People tend to act on emotion rather than logic, so even the most optimal plan can be sabotaged. Even if it were easy to recall the militia members from their posts, the problem was whether they’d be satisfied once they heard the reason.

Thinking that a repeat of the tragic end Senior Rock mentioned—the one I didn’t even want to remember—might occur made me feel truly weary. I had no desire to handle human corpses.

“If the Knights enter the town, backlash is inevitable regardless of the result. At worst, they’ll become uncontrollable and launch a reckless attack on the Orcs—”

“Don’t say another word!”

Nagi suddenly shouted. To be honest, it startled me, but his intense sense of responsibility—his desperate desire not to let things end that way—came through loud and clear. Honestly, it was a pain that he could withstand this much pressure yet still maintain that attitude toward Senior Garmon.

‘For someone who says he trusts him, the Senior keeps his distance, too. I wonder what he’s thinking…’

When we talked yesterday, I honestly thought both brothers were at fault for this twisted relationship. But spending time with Nagi like this, it felt like Senior Garmon was either too hands-off or, for better or worse, irresponsible toward his younger brother. That man is a “good person,” but he’s self-centered in strange ways. It’s the lack of self-awareness that makes it toxic.

That was why I’d hatched a plan to have the Senior experience a bit of a rough time to fix the discrepancy, but well… we’d see. Ideally, I wanted bait that the Senior would be more likely to snap at—as I walked and pondered, a clumsy yelp of “Owah!!” came from behind me. If I said out loud that I wondered which idiot it was only to find it was the “Idiot Militia Leader,” Nagi would probably punch me. Lips zipped.

“Whoa!? Again? Good grief, I don’t know who’s doing it, but what a pain of a prank.”

Nagi stumbled and irritably gave a large stone at his feet a light kick with his toe. It seemed he’d missed seeing it sitting boldly at the edge of the path and tripped. Since the waterway next to it was wide open, this stone must have been the lid.

Even so, it was huge. It looked like a monolithic lid made without a drop of mortar, but lining the waterways with stones like that was exactly what you’d expect from a town of stone.

Thinking such idle thoughts, my eyes suddenly fell on the waterway.

It wasn’t quite a massive agricultural canal, but for a domestic waterway, it was remarkably wide and deep.

“What if a kid fell in! It’s a nuisance of a prank!”

“It certainly is. The current isn’t that fast, but a kid would have a hard time getting out. Though, in the summer, you could probably climb in here and play ‘explore the secret passage.’”

“Your imagination is like a child’s, hey…”

“If you lose your inner child, you’ll end up an adult like Senior Garmon.”

“The fact that that sounds slightly true is infuriating!? Besides, you’re not supposed to badmouth my brother!”

“I seriously don’t get you!” Nagi groaned, clutching his head. He reminded me of myself back when I’d just joined the Knights and was struggling with the overwhelming personalities around me; I felt like giving him a warm, pitying gaze.

‘But really, it’s easily big enough for a person to pass through… If the childhood version of me saw this, I definitely would have explored to the very end of this waterway as a ‘passage.’’

The stupid version of me would have done it without a doubt. I could practically see the image of my younger self being rescued while on the verge of hypothermia. While I was glad I wasn’t adding to my personal history of idiocy, I felt like I was just replenishing it with a different kind of stupidity, so it was probably a wash.

The only ones who would pass through a “passage” like this would be those with plenty of physical strength and not much going on upstairs. In other words, Orcs.

‘…Hm? If it’s an Orc, they might actually do it…? I mean, it works as a passage, and since the lids stay on, you can hardly see inside…!?’

In my mind, something clicked into place.

“Hey Nagi, what did you mean by ‘again’? Have the waterway lids been left off like this before?”

“Yeah, remember how I said I fell in the waterway yesterday? The stone lid had been moved then, too—? Varna?”

I took off my shoes, tucked up my trousers, and stepped into the water. The piercing cold soaked into my feet, making me regret not bringing boots, but it wouldn’t be a problem if I investigated quickly.

“The water depth is about twenty centimeters… the current isn’t that fast. Height is about a meter and a half, width is about a meter. You could go through by crouching or crawling. Nagi, how heavy is this lid?”

“Eh? Ah, it might be around a hundred kilograms. It takes two grown men to move it, and to get it off, you have to shove an iron bar into the small gap and lift it using leverage. Though, there’s almost never a reason to open them.”

“Meaning if a human were to do it, this ‘prank’ would require at least two people.”

“…Now that you mention it, yeah.”

Nagi seemed to realize the abnormality of the situation as well. Who would be stupid enough to waste that much physical strength on a meaningless prank during such a busy time? Conversely, the theory emerged that these open lids weren’t actually pranks at all.

“If a partially grown Orc pushed it up from inside the waterway, it might actually open quite easily.”

“…Huh? What on earth are you—”

“I’m saying that if the Orcs are infiltrating the town through these waterways, they’d have to move the lids to get out.”

A hundred kilograms was the kind of weight an Orc could lift with ease—the kind of thing they’d yawn while doing. A male Orc, provided he’d grown to a certain extent, could manage it even if he wasn’t a full adult. And Orcs certainly wouldn’t have the polite manners to put the lid back where it belonged.

I finally found it—the infiltration route of those damn pigs.

“We’ve got more work to do! Nagi, find me documents on these waterways, or if there aren’t any, let’s talk to the people who built them! We’re questioning the residents near the waterways, too! Also, look for eyewitness accounts of when and where these lids were found open! It’s still just a theory, but… this might just be it!?”

When the Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights decide to hunt an Orc, they always, without fail, hunt them to extinction.

This time, it seemed those creatures had once again failed to escape our eyes.