Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight Volume 4

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3106-8
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 350 Seiten

Reihe: Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight

With the eight southern cities joining forces with the demon army to create the new Meraldian Commonwealth, Veight's dream of creating a nation where humans and demons can live in harmony is almost within his grasp. Upon discovering the sword recovered from the battle at Zaria is an heirloom belonging to the viceroy of Krauhen, Veight sets off to return it as both a gesture of goodwill, and as a way of putting Krauhen in his debt. On his arrival, he meets not only Krauhen's viceroy, but also a dangerous foreigner, the imperial princess Eleora. This meeting sparks a chain of events that culminate into one epic battle between the north and south, deciding Meraldia's fate once and for all!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hyougetsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Nishi(E)da

Ningen

Leseproben

“But I’ll do it. I’ll betray them all.”

“Know that you’re making a deal with the devil here. If you become my spy, I’ll work you to the bone. Are you prepared?”

Kite’s smile grew bigger.

“Oh yes. I’ll give you my life if I have to. But in return, lend me your strength. Help me break free from this worthless existence.”

I smelled no falsehood from his sweat. Though he seemed a little mentally unstable, he’d definitely be a great help. I returned to my human form and declared, “Very well. As you wish, I’ll destroy the Senate. So tell me everything you know. And once the Senate is no more...”

Kite stiffened up nervously.

“You’ll... kill me?”

I shook my head and tried to smile as reassuringly as possible.

“We’ll go out for dinner. My treat. There’s a restaurant that’s opened in Ryunheit recently that serves Beluzan cuisine. It’s a rather strange restaurant, but the food’s delicious.”

Kite looked at me blankly for a few seconds, then collapsed onto the ground and started sobbing.

“Oi, what’s wrong?”

“It’s... nothing... D-Don’t worry about it...”

Kite rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, but the tears didn’t stop. He must have been holding in a lot of stress if the relief of quitting brought him to tears. I wonder who asked such an emotional man to be a diplomat.

Thanks to Kite, I was able to learn a lot more detailed information on the Senate.

“Wow, those guys really are awful...”

According to him, the first mission he’d been tasked with was recovering the sword of Sir Volsaav, who’d died in battle. And while he was at it, scope out the current state of Zaria. Meraldian custom dictated that warriors who died in single combat be afforded the highest honors. Which was why the Senate had thought there would be a good chance I’d return the sword to honor him.

Either way, his mission had been to get back the sword and to gather as much information about Zaria as he could. However, the mission had been a trap meant to get him killed.

The sword Volsaav had used was a family heirloom of Krauhen’s viceroy. The Senate had gone through great trouble to convince Krauhen to let them borrow it, and they would be in hot water if they couldn’t return it. So they’d panicked, and sent Kite over to get it back no matter the cost.

But some of the Senators had actually found the current situation fortuitous. The ones who’d argued against borrowing Krauhen’s sword saw this as an opportunity to increase their influence. Those Senators had told Kite, “It doesn’t matter if you get the sword back or not, but gather as much information as you can about Zaria’s situation.” This was just conjecture, but it seemed to me that those Senators were the part of the faction that had been against assassinating the viceroy.

There was also a third faction within the Senate. This faction wanted to dispatch another coalition army and destroy the demon army once and for all. And they were the ones who’d convinced the others to send Kite to negotiate instead of a trained diplomat. Their goal had been to get the negotiations to fall apart. As far as they were concerned, the return of a single sword wasn’t worth owing the Southern Commonwealth a debt. Furthermore, if I’d killed their messenger, they would have been able to showcase that incident as proof of my brutality and drum up popular support to raise another army.

So in the end, the plan had looked something like “Negotiate for the return of Volsaav’s sword and investigate the state of affairs in Zaria, but make sure not to send an actual diplomat to do so.” While that seemed like a rather odd plan, it was the one the Senate officially passed. I could see why the people working for the Senate had little respect for it.

Negotiations with enemy powers required charisma, knowledge, and extensive diplomatic training. But since the Senate had decided not to use a diplomat, they couldn’t send anyone meeting those criteria. So instead, they’d decided to send someone specializing in investigation. Magic required knowledge and intelligence to master, so the Senators had figured a mage would be the next best choice to send as their negotiator. Of the investigative mages working for the Senate, Kite had possessed the least number of connections, so he’d drawn the short straw. It hadn’t helped that he was the most accomplished epoch mage of the bunch.

While a lot of those conclusions had been guesswork, the information Kite gave me, combined with the information coming in from religious pilgrims, seemed to support my hypotheses.

“I never knew the Senate was such a disorganized group,” I said sardonically to Kite as he sipped some tea. He flopped onto the table and groaned, “Tell me about it. They only manage to survive because they have so much money and authority.”

The system Meraldia’s ancestors had come up with was built on solid foundations, so all their descendants needed to do was put in the bare minimum effort to keep the system running and their rule was secure. Of course, their laxness had caused the south no end of grief.

The state of the Senate wasn’t the only interesting information Kite gave me. Because things like the internet and television didn’t exist in this world, the Senate could control the flow of information quite well. So long as they put their official seal on any proclamation, people believed it regardless of whether it was true or not. The Senate could obfuscate the truth and spread lies with ease. And they seemed to be spreading all sorts of propaganda about how horrible the demon army was.

For example, this was how they’d rendered the incident with Lacy: “The crafty, vicious, Black Werewolf King Veight kidnapped the Holy Priestess Mildine and subjected her to unspeakable atrocities. As a result, the poor priestess went mad and committed suicide.”

From the looks of it, I was the main focus of the Senate’s smear campaign. Though the nickname “Black Werewolf King” did sound rather cool. It’d be nice if I could make that my official title. After Kite finished telling me that story he asked hesitantly, “Miss Lacy is alright, isn’t she?”

“Of course she is. She’s alive and well, and currently studying under the Demon Lord Gomoviroa. She spends her days absorbed in her research. Her illusion magic has grown to a formidable level.”

“I wish I could do that...” Kite sighed, then added, “Though that woman always did get on my nerves a little.”

“At any rate, Kite, how much of your investigation have you reported back to the Senate?”

“All I’ve told them is that Zaria’s garrison seems to be keeping a close eye on the city, and that I haven’t been able to do much investigating. Mostly I’ve just corroborated the report the army gave the Senate a while back.”

“Kite, I want you to tell the Senate that the werewolf-slaying sword has been destroyed.”

“You do?”

“Yes. Tell them that the demon army recovered the sword after the battle, but it was too damaged to use so it was smelted down.”

This wasn’t just to cover up my little accident earlier.

“If you tell them that, they’ll give up on recovering the sword. And that’ll make Krauhen furious.”

“I see, you want to drive a rift between Krauhen and the Senate.”

“That’s part of the reason.”

The main reason was something else.

“Kite, can you travel freely to Krauhen?”

“Huh? I suppose I can. As an investigator I have to travel frequently, so once this job is over I could probably come up with an excuse to officially visit Krauhen.”

Smiling, I said to Kite, “Then I have a request for you.”

“What is it, Veight?”

“I want you to guide to me to Krauhen in a few days.”

Kite spit out his tea.

“Bwuh!?”

“Hey, watch it!”

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and shouted, “What on earth are you thinking!? You have a hundred twenty thousand silver coin bounty on your head, you know that!?”

Of course, having a bounty didn’t bother me.

“That’s why I’m asking for your help. I can pretend to be your guard or something on the way to Krauhen. Anyway, make all the necessary preparations.”

“Krauhen’s the northernmost city in Meraldia! What do you even plan to do there!?”

I took the broken werewolf-slayer out of my drawer and sighed.

“I’ll return this to Krauhen personally. And apologize for ruining it.”

“That’s it!? Are you insane!?”

I...