Cadel thought of quite a few things to say that would be helpful in the process of recruiting Garuel. He had to entice him with plausible words. He needed to package the nonsense well.

He wanted Garuel so much that he wanted to bring him back by any means possible. He imagined so many things that it was funny.

But when Cadel came face-to-face with his reversed eye, all his imagination went out the window. His jaw dropped. It would be more accurate to say that he did not have the courage to speak of the abomination.

It was a moment of hollow, precarious emotion that felt like it could shatter at any moment. Cadel’s mind was consumed with the thought that he ‘must not touch Garuel’s wounds’.

At the very least, Cadel knew instinctively that he should not try to take advantage of Garuel with blatant lies in front of him who revealed everything.

“Did you try to exploit this weakness?”

Garuel released his grip on Cadel’s wrist and slowly pushed himself to his feet. His gaze was as cold as ever.

“Did you think that if you held it, it would come in handy someday? No, you were going to bring up my weakness from the beginning, but you saved it because I handled the matter without you having to? Hey.”

The upturned corners of Garuel’s mouth made his expression even more ferocious. His face, when fully exposed, was unchanged, but the mere fact that the sclera of one eye was black instead of white gave it an eerie quality.

Garuel crumpled his face, not bothering to hide his murderous aura.

“It won’t help. I have been practicing letting go of everything for a very long time. No matter what you say, you can’t get anything from me.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I just did it because your secret doesn’t matter to me.”

“……Doesn’t matter to you?”

Cadel put down the flask he was holding and stood up to face Garuel. Without taking his eyes off the reversed eye that instinctively repulsed him, he approached Garuel step by step.

“Whether it was this eye, birth, or the past that Sir wanted to cover. I didn’t want to judge Sir based on those things. It didn’t matter, because I only saw what Sir allowed me to see, and I liked the way it looked, even if it was weird.”

“…….”

“I knew it from the first time I saw it. About that eye.”

Cautiously, Cadel reached out and touched the corner of Garuel’s left eye. He flinched but didn’t move away, so he stroked it as if to caress the wound.

Garuel’s eyes were filled with confusion at the sight of Cadel. It wasn’t the reaction he’d expected, and he stiffened, unable to crack one of his familiar jokes.

“I had no intention of finding your weakness or exploiting it. Because I didn’t want to do that. You asked why I was next to you even though I knew everything?”

He knew he should be careful, but he couldn’t stop the words from coming out. Maybe it was the urgency. If Cadel didn’t catch Garuel now, as he backed away with thorns raised, he’d run away somewhere unseen.

“I’ll be honest. I did it because I wanted you, Sir.”

“What do you mea…….”

“I coveted Sir. You, who is a holy knight, wield the power of demons and choose to protect humans with that power. You, the commander, who was leading the Knight Order just fine, were suddenly behaving like an *sshole, so I assumed that you might be getting ready to leave because you were despondent about your power. Then don’t I have a chance too? That glamorous bird could fall into my hands.”

A shadow appeared between Garuel’s eyebrows. He didn’t really understand what he was hearing, and Cadel didn’t help him understand. Cadel couldn’t afford that.

“That’s why I was next to you. Because I want you.”

It was the most sincerity Cadel could muster. If he couldn’t win Garuel’s trust, at least he didn’t want to lie to him.

Garuel clutched the back of Cadel’s hand over his left eye, and slowly pulled it away. His eyes were cloudy as he stared at the white fingers.

“……I can’t believe it.”

“I wasn’t planning on mentioning it until Sir spoke up first.”

“You want this power. Just how weird are your tastes?”

“I want you with that power.”

Garuel let go of Cadel’s hand with a grunt and stooped to pick up the fallen eye patch, his expression twisting into a dark mockery.

“I have never had this foul power before. I never wanted it. So what you want is the power of the demons, not me.”

“Sir Garuel.”

Garuel took a deep breath and fastened the eye patch again. Only one eye was covered. Instead of being a half-demon with a secret about his birth, he had returned to being the competent and tall knight commander that everyone knew.

“Please go back. I will assume that I have received the payment.”

“No, I don’t want to go on like this.”

“No, go ahead. I think we’re better off without Sir……for now.”

Cadel tried to hold on a little longer, but Garuel firmly pushed him on the back and kicked him out in front of the door. As Cadel, pushed by force, slipped through the open door, Garuel tried to close the door without hesitation. However, he was unable to do so because he was blocked by Cadel’s foot, which had been thrust through the crack.

“You’re handling your already fragile body very poorly.”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“That doesn’t sound too appealing to me.”

“I’m not leaving until we set a date to meet again.”

“You should be this aggressive when you’re trying to attack someone.”

Cadel’s eyes never left Garuel’s as he endured the screaming pain, and he wondered grimly if this was how he would end up with one foot broken into two pieces. Along with a low sigh, he heard Garuel’s soothing voice.

“……Three days later. Please come here.”

“What about the time?”

“Whenever I feel like it that day.”

That was enough. Unable to endure the pain of his foot stuck in the door any longer, Cadel jerked away, and the door slammed shut with a loud bang.

Cadel gritted his teeth, barely balancing on his other foot. His gaze, twisted with pain, was directed at the tightly closed door.

“……I’ve really screwed it up.”

It was all messed up from the start. Would he be able to properly resolve this tangled relationship? As the night deepened, Cadel’s worries grew stronger.

* * *

As the promised three days approached, the ambassadors staying in the Empire expressed each country’s intention to uphold its obligations under the ‘Sealing Protection Convention’.

They provided troops to uphold a treaty to 「jointly manage the Demon Realm’s seals scattered around the world and prioritize the Empire’s ‘12 Seals’ in the event of an anomaly」.

Thus, the ‘Blue Blooded Knight Order’ of the Mainue Kingdom, the ‘Twilight Knight Order’ of the White Kingdom, the ‘Wilderness Knight Order’ of the Mystic Principality, the ‘Shadow Knight Order’ of the Dunkelhai Kingdom, the ‘Rock Iron Knight Order’ of the Devon Kingdom Devon, and the Sniveck Principality ‘Hoth Knight Order’ were dispatched.

The Osma Empire deployed the ‘Guardian Knight Order’, the ‘Thousands Arrows Knight Order’, and the ‘Scarlet Scales Knight Order’.

“It is His Majesty the Emperor’s decree that the Guardian Knight Order divides into three battalions to verify the seals of Areas 8, 9, and 10, and the Thousands Arrows Knight Order divides into two battalions to verify the seals of Areas 11 and 12. The Scarlet Scales Knight Order is to join Area 10, the largest.”

At the call of the Imperial Guard’s Captain Insel, the commanders and battalion captains of each of the knight orders responded with a bowed salute. Cadel lowered his eyes slightly, mimicking the movements of his companion.

‘Does this mean we’re additional manpower? He’s not letting us operate on our own. Maybe he doesn’t trust me yet, so he’s keeping an eye on me.’

He had no intention of betraying the Empire anyway. It would be better to gauge the situation with an ally than to be given a difficult solo mission to begin with. Cadel decided to think positively.

“Departure date is two days later. Troops from other countries will also move at the same time, so I hope to show off the might of the Imperial Knight Order.”

The message was to fix the problem and get back before the foreigners did. With a cheerful reply, the captain of the guard, who had gotten the message across, left.

In the large-scale Guardian Knight Order or Thousands Arrows Knight Order, the commanders and battalion captains of each knight order gathered together and immediately began discussions to divide the knight order into battalions. However, this did not apply to Cadel. He had no authority to select allies to join Area 10. Because of this, Cadel tried to leave the place.

“Oy.”

An ambiguous figure, neither welcome nor unwelcome, stood in Cadel’s way.

“Ah, Sir Dreyfe. Long time no see.”

Dreyfe Enty, the battalion captain of the 5th Battalion of the Guardian Knight Order. He still had a bad-tempered expression on his face and sent a disapproving look towards Cadel.

“I feel energized every time I see you.”

“Because you are glad to see me?”

“That is ridiculous!”

“Why are you screaming like that?”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re up to, but you’d better play it straight because there’s a lot of people out to get you.”

It was meant to frighten him, and Dreyfe spat out a series of hollow snorts as if he didn’t like Cadel’s reaction.

“It’s not like they know who I am and hate me. If they don’t like a former mercenary knight who suddenly stepped in, I can always use my skills to suppress them.”

“Hmph, that’s just going to get you more hate.”

“Let’s suppress them hard so that they don’t even feel hateful.”

Dreyfe, who had been glaring at Cadel for a while, obviously uncomfortable with his nonchalance, sighed heavily.

“It looks like I’m going to be assigned to Area 10, so don’t cause any accidents. As someone who knows your identity, I am very scared.”

“Hmm, I guess my watchdog role will be taken over by Sir Dreyfe?”

“What watchdog! I have no time to worry about you. Do your own thing.”

At the sound of a voice calling him, Dreyfe stopped grunting and walked past Cadel. Cadel just shrugged his shoulders without even looking at him.

“It’s not easy for behaviors and thoughts on the outside to be that different from what is inside.”