It was noon, about five days after leaving Solace, when Duran and his team arrived at Rhinesel, the capital of the religious state of Klaris.

The solid white exterior walls of the building are easily visible even from a distance. Naturally, there was a checkpoint there to monitor entry.

Before reaching such a checkpoint, Lesia softly spoke out.

\'\'Then, as arranged, I\'ll be leaving separately, so you all can relax and enjoy your time at the Shoukai.

Only the voice that said that is left behind, and before you know it, Lesia disappears.

As expected of Minalia\'s one arm. Even Duran was extremely difficult to catch Lesia, who was seriously hiding and lurking.

\'\'Listen, please be quiet, you guys.

Duran flies a warning to Claudia, who dresses like an aristocrat, and Nero, who is dressed in a maid\'s uniform that doubles as a disguise, for what seems like the umpteenth time.

Clarice is a country that strongly believes in an elective religion of human supremacy. As a beastman, Nero\'s ears and tail need to be hidden, and Duran is dressed inconspicuously as a bodyguard.

While Duran\'s name is famous in its own right, only a few people know exactly what he looks like. After all, one should be more worried about Nero, the beastman, and Claudia, the former princess.

\'\'There\'s no problem, I was still a full-fledged princess, pretending to be a daughter is no problem at all.

Buchou, you\'re paying too much attention. Even Nero is a thief.　I\'m a master at acting and acting.

The two of them say such things, but honestly, based on their normal behavior, they have no trust in each other.

This time, the title Duran and the others were using in entering Clarice was merchant.

However, it wasn\'t an instant creation, but rather a title of a merchant association that can be called long-established, which originated more than seventy years ago already. Duran and the others had proof that they were part of the Hylia Chamber of Commerce, which was based in Sidonis and did business in places close to the western camp, such as Klaris, Elysia, and Solace.

Lesia said.

There is no place in the Seven Kingdoms that the princess can\'t hear. Unlike humans, we lurk in the shadows for hundreds, even thousands of years.

That\'s right.

The scale of the idea was different.

It\'s not just a matter of time before you find yourself in the same boat as the family members of the Princess Shama, the elven wise man who lives seven hundred years and is known as the wise man of the Gakushu Chukokko family. There are many others, too.　There are residents who have been residing in the area for several generations, and if you\'re only in the seventh country, some of the electors are also in the hands of the Princess Shama.

The story is horrifying to hear.

The assassination state continued to reach out to them from behind the scenes and from the front.

The home country of the electorate does not pay much attention to such a remote place. Those who are involved in finance and weapons development who are eager to make money, and some important people who are obsessed with slaves, may not be able to let go of this place.

That\'s why the electorate doesn\'t try to intervene militarily overtly.

No one cares anymore about the ostensible reason for the conflict.

This is the current situation where chaos is allowed to exist without being destroyed or governed.

It\'s the end of the world, sir. So go ahead and smile while you can.

Lesia\'s eyes were terribly cold as she said that.

(Well, please stay quiet........)

With Duran\'s concern in mind, a voice called out to him.

\'Stop!\'

The Sword of God, the emblem of the Electorate. The silvery white blade that is said to have divided the world points the way of man, and the guards wearing equipment with such an emblem engraved on them pulled Duran and the others to a halt.

The carriage stops moving with a lurch and the guards come to the proceedings.

But that doesn\'t mean Duran and his friends will be there to help. It\'s a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you\'re looking for.

\'\'We\'ll have to reform our cargo, and we\'ll check your lady\'s carriage, just in case.

With that, the guard who inspected the cargo looked into the carriage where Nero and the others were.

When the guards entered the carriage, Claudia unintentionally gave a small bail with a smile that made me admire her.

Following that, the guards also bowed their heads quietly.

On the other hand, Nero, standing quietly, faintly turns his gaze to the guards.

The way he looks is just like a squire who is worried about his master.

It\'s a good idea to be able to have a good idea of what you\'re looking for.

\'\'When you stare at me that much I get embarrassed........\'\'

Dyeing her cheeks, slightly averting her gaze, and shyly saying so, Claudia was truly a young lady who lived in another world.

(No, who are you, you........)

It\'s a good thing that you\'re a maid of honor,\'\' said Nero to the guards, who were too busy admiring Claudia to make any progress with their work.

\'\'Knight-dono, it\'s very nice of you to be faithful to your duties--the young lady can\'t help but get nervous when an unfamiliar man is around, so please be quick about it.

And so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.

The words, the appearance is no doubt that of an educated samurai.

(No, so who are you, you..........)

Yes, I see that.

Contrary to Duran\'s expectations, nothing went wrong and they managed to break into the line cell easily.

The carriage slowly made its way across the cobblestone streets and into the center of the city.

\'It worked,\'

It\'s working!

"...it\'s going to work, so...

In contrast to Nero and Claudia, who were smiling a joyful smile, Duran had muttered in dismay.

Honestly, he had thought that he would definitely do something. At the very least, Duran was prepared to the extent that he was prepared to engage in a fight.

\'\'Mmmm, uncle, that\'s rude!　We should reward Nero for his hard work.

\'Sir Knight, I\'m behaving as I should, aside from the flats over there!

You\'re selling fights?　I\'ll buy it!

Good grit. Come on, call me from wherever you are, sir.

Quiet!

Whew...! Sigh...!

As the two idiots held their heads down and cowered, Duran\'s reputation for them, which had been raised at the time, dropped again.

◇

In Clarice, there is an even more elegant and brilliant structure than the castle where the king resides.

The pure white walls are elaborately designed to resemble a heavenly world, and the light from the magical stones that decorate the walls everywhere makes the existence of the building seem more fantastic. The vivid stained glass windows depicted myths, and even the light that shone in made the building look somewhat divine.

This is the heart of the city, the Rhine Cathedral, which is open to the public.

In the cathedral, which is open to the public, many people pray to the altar of the apostles who are believed to have delivered the teachings of God.

People went about their daily lives asking for teachings, praying and clinging to God.

On the other side of such a world, a man exhales.

(-- reckless, I suppose.)

His exhaled breath is awfully heavy.

Rudwald Carrol is aware of this.

He is firmly aware of the fact that he is only an ordinary fool except for his business acumen, and is extremely mediocre even among the Seven Saints.

That is why I believe that the extermination of the demon tribe that will live in the Seven Kingdoms, as handed down this time, is almost never going to succeed.

In the first place, half of the Seven Saints don\'t care about the situation in the Seven Kingdoms. The only people who care about them are Irene, who is in charge of foreign affairs, myself, who is in charge of finance, and that crazy researcher.

Is it only barely of interest to the blue, who has had a hand in the Sacred Knights (Sacred Knights), and the black, who for some reason has stuck his neck out,?

(-- The earlier demon dragon conflict, the clash between the kingdom and Estor, the shadow of the demon race that would be behind the two mutations -- His Holiness the Pope\'s decision is probably due to his caution about the disturbing movement, but it\'s clearly reckless.)

No doubt he was drawn out of the lot.

I was chosen as an upstart, a newcomer, and one who knows the Seven Kingdoms inside and out, but I was chosen as if I were the only one.

If it\'s a fighting force, you can compete with them.

After all, a group of the Sacred Knights led by the Black Knight has already infiltrated the Seven Kingdoms.

Even if we were to consider the Seven Nations as one nation, the presence of the Black Knights would even seem to be a trifle excessive force.

But that\'s not the problem.

The abnormality of the Seven Kingdoms lies in the information that is controlled and kept secret to the extent that it is alien to them.

The electorate, with its religion, is as incompetent in information warfare as it can be. We have as many ears as there are believers, and yet if we want to know anything in the Seven Kingdoms, we would be quicker to turn to the shadows of the assassin state.

It\'s a joke.

But the very reality was right in front of us.

Rudwald, too, had relied exclusively on the assassination state for his business in the Seven Kingdoms. The information they purchased during the coup d\'état in Sidonis was also provided by them.

(A disadvantage was averted beforehand, but I suspect they were induced to do the same.

The current state of affairs, where the crooked multiracial nation is not drawing its last breath despite the continued intervention of the Election, must be because someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes.

(What kind of a monster is this?)

The Darkness of the Seven Kingdoms, whose name is the only thing that walks by itself.

First of all, which one has the advantage compared to the Black Knight, who is undoubtedly one of the biggest forces of the Elective God Sect?

At least martial arts are not something that the clueless Ludwald can guess.

When it comes to what he can do, it is commerce, finance and internal affairs.

(Will he engage in blatant provocations or will the Black Knight find his footing, or is there no point in bothering with a temporary command in any case?

We are in a confused war zone.

The only thing to do is to make money.

After dismissing these thoughts, the man simply processed the pile of papers in silence.