130 3.42 A plan - Part 2

When the two of us entered, there were only five people inside the tent. Other than Markus and the Duke himself, there were also Viscountess Sara, Lady Hina, and Captain Garo.

It was somewhat odd to see Duke without his old butler, but I could understand that he might be busy somewhere in these difficult times.

Everyone inside turned towards me when they noticed me enter. It looked like they had been waiting for us the whole time.

"Good afternoon, everyone."

Normally, it would have been a good idea to greet everyone individually, but wasting more time wasn't wise since I was already late.

This tent was more spacious than the other tents. There was enough space for everyone inside to walk around. Duke was seated at what appeared to be a desk, while the rest of us were just standing.

There were some papers on Duke's desk, probably the report Markus and Garo brought with them.

"Thank you for all the help, Nara. Father told me everything that you did after returning."

Markus came forwards and gave me a pat on the back. It looked like he was trying to lighten the mood inside because everyone other than him looked gloomy.

"I just did what I could at times like this… Although, everyone here looks worried. What happened?"

"I am not sure if it would be a good idea to involve you in our mess"—the Duke looked straight at me—"And there is a lot more that we need to discuss."

I wanted to avoid asking anything since it sounded like it was something concerning nobles. But I was curious about what it might be. So, instead of making a wild guess, I decided to insist on the matter.

"I understand your position, but if that matter concerns all the people here, it might be a good idea to let me in. Who knows, I might be able to help you with that."

I chose the words carefully to make it sound like I was asking for people's sake, but my main reason was still my curiocity.

"You are right." The duke took a long breath and continued. "It looks like a faction of nobles has decided to move to a different province. Without them resolving this whole situation would be troublesome. Hayden and his men already left, and the few left will depart by the evening."

That wasn't surprising. Most of them were serving under the duke for their own selfish gain, and now that the Duke was no longer powerful, they decided to leave his side and find somewhere else.

"Those nobles were just leeches. I think we will be better off without them," Viscountess Sara said.

It looked like she was frustrated because of everything. However, I couldn't blame her since I felt the same.

"I am glad that father decided to create the network of knights back then. We can now request help from the towns and villages."

"But that won't be enough. We will need to visit the capital and ask for assistance, though…"

"...It looks like we are going off-topic here. Let's get back to the issue. Before we move to the reconstruction, Nara, tell everyone what you know about the demons you faced. I only heard a few details from my informer, so I myself am ill-informed on the matter."

"I am not sure where to begin, but I guess I should start with his name. My familiar, who died in the battle fighting him, called him Satan, the strongest demon after the demon lord."

"Satan, you say?!"

Duke stood up from his chair in surprise. It looked like he was aware of who that was.

"There was a clown with him who claimed that he can revive the demon lord. I think the two of them are working together now. Other than that, there were 13 vampires who were responsible for summoning demons. Even though we killed all of them, it seems like they were just disposable pawns."

There was a moment of silence as I gave them some time to analyze the information. After a few seconds, it looked like Lady Hina wanted to ask something, so I turned towards her.

"Won't the reconstruction of the city now be risky? How can we be assured that they aren't waiting to attack us again?"

"I think they will try attacking some other big cities instead. There will need a lot more souls and miasma if they want to revive the demon lord. It will probably take them a while to prepare everything."

No matter how efficient they were, they would obviously need time to prepare. However, I was still wondering why the dragons weren't acting yet.

The black dragon king said he was keeping an eye on me, so he must have realized that we were under attack unless...

"It looked like they were doing something to hide Satan's presence. There is a possibility that some kind of barrier was covering the whole city."

Till now, it was just a guess, but that was the only logical explanation that I could come up with.

'I am sure it was the handy work of those vampires.'

"Does this mean they are afraid of something?" Garo asked.

That was an obvious assumption. One would only need to hide their presence if they are fearful of something or when they don't want any attention.

In this case, it wasn't the second one, so they were definitely afraid of something. And my inner instincts were telling me what that thing was.

"Dragons, I think they were afraid that the dragons might notice them."

Duke hummed after hearing my response, so all of us turned towards him.

"Then I think it will be safe to assume that they won't try anything anytime soon. Although we can't ignore the possibility that we might be attacked in the future, so we need to be prepared."

He paused and stroked his beard. He then turned towards me and continued.

"My boy, as soon as we are a little stable here, I want you to leave for the capital with Markus. Take princesses with you, and discuss the issue with the king."

: A plan - Part 3