Pen and Paper Translations

Reinhild urged the horse on, running and running until he had fled far from Root.

When the horse tired and its pace began to flag, he stroked its neck and soothed it.

“Just a little more.”

The horse trusted only Reinhild’s words and pushed on.

“Give me ten more minutes, Brownie.”

He even gave it a name.

It was because its coat was the exact same color as the brownies Xion had once made.

Ah, thinking of Xion made him miss him.

He shouldn’t have thought of him.

Neigh!

“There, there.”

It was already the tenth time Reinhild had said “just ten more minutes” as he patted Brownie.

After fleeing Root, Brownie had run without stopping from one sunrise to the next sunset.

By now Brownie must have realized he was being tricked.

And yet he kept running. He really was a good boy.

“Thanks, Brownie.”

A city wall came into view in the distance.

A wall meant this wasn’t a village, but a city.

Reinhild had reached the center of Audrit.

Xion would make the same round trip in only a few hours, but Reinhild, who had gone the long way around, had needed a full day to arrive. If he’d known that, he wouldn’t have been quite so pleased, but not knowing it, he was simply satisfied with having fled far.

‘At this distance, even Xion won’t be able to find me.’

Thinking of Xion made him heartsick again.

Was he going to feel sad every time he thought of Xion from now on?

If so, it couldn’t be helped.

He wouldn’t be able to stop thinking of Xion, so he’d just have to be sad every day.

“Brownie, you’re all I have left now.”

Reinhild, without hesitation, said something that would have shaved years off Brownie’s life if Xion had heard it, and loitered before the city.

‘What do I do now?’

Soldiers were guarding the gate.

He was, to anyone’s eyes, a suspicious Demon King.

If the soldiers noticed him, there would be a fierce fight.

‘Even so, I can’t run. I have to get inside somehow.’

Going somewhere else, soldiers would be guarding the gate there too.

This wasn’t as big a city as Reinhild had hoped, but it didn’t look bad for spreading rumors.

‘I have to get the rumor out as quickly as possible.’

By now, the knights of the West ducal house would be harassing the people of Root.

He had to spread the rumor before Xion got swept up in it.

According to plan, he should have finished this by morning, but he hadn’t known the next city was so far from Root.

Impatient, Reinhild led Brownie and carefully approached the gate.

The soldiers were so busy they didn’t even notice him drawing near.

When he looked to see why, they were blocking other humans from going out of the city.

‘What’s going on?’

The people were trying to force the gate to get out, and the soldiers were struggling to control them.

A few of the humans, angry and making a scene, slipped through and ran.

“Catch them, catch them!”

While the soldiers chased the runners, the people inside the gate seized the moment and surged out in a mass.

Chaos erupted before the gate.

From far off, every armored man, soldier or knight alike, came running, rounded up all the fleeing people, and dragged them back inside the gate.

One soldier, busy hauling people off, grabbed Reinhild where he stood, dazed.

“Let’s go.”

“No, I…”

“Be good and come along quietly, yeah?”

“No, I… fine.”

By sheer accident, Reinhild succeeded in getting into the city.

‘Good. Seems they haven’t realized I’m the Demon King.’

He’d thought Root’s villagers were simply naïve for not noticing his true identity—but perhaps humans, in general, had a remarkably poor ability to distinguish demons from humans.

While Reinhild was thinking that, the soldier looked him up and down.

His “baggage” amounted to a single horse and a single book.

Nothing about him looked threatening in the least.

Someone dressed like a tenant farmer or a servant leading a stout horse?

Obvious.

A servant from some rich household, worn down by constant beatings, had stolen a horse and run.

A bit shabby, yes, but beautiful enough to make your eyes roll back.

Maybe he’d fled because he couldn’t stand the harassment anymore.

He ought to be charged for stealing a horse, but there was too much to do right now. Besides, these types always wandered the city a while and then slunk back to their master’s house; he decided to let it slide just this once.

The soldier shoved Reinhild inside the gate, then, as if his work were done, dashed back out to chase someone else.

‘What exactly is happening?’

He’d made it into the city, just as he’d wanted…

But he had no feel for what was going on.

“Let me out! I’ve got an urgent contract to finish!”

“How can they lock down entry and exit like this?”

“At this rate our whole trading company’s finished!”

Dozens of people were begging to get out of the city somehow, but the soldiers didn’t budge.

Reinhild stood still and looked around.

He was searching for people who were talking about what had happened.

Like the ones who had, when he’d gone out with Xion the other day, provided the information that Xion might lose his fields.

Ah, thinking of Xion again made him miss him.

Anyway, if he eavesdropped on the right people, he could gather information quickly.

Trying to banish thoughts of Xion from his mind, Reinhild started checking groups of two or more people one by one.

“Good grief, what a mess since yesterday.”

“Tell me about it. The security’s gotten scary, too.”

There you go.

Even at an hour when they’d normally be asleep, there were people who just had to come outside and watch the situation while whispering about it.

Reinhild pricked up his ears and diligently gathered information.

“Still, how can they shut down the city’s gates?”

“I hear it’s not just the city. They’ve locked down every last village and town in the Audrit domain.”

“Really? Huh. What’s the world coming to.”

This morning, while Reinhild, having left Root, was wandering in circles around the mountains near Audrit, the lord here had restricted entry and exit to all the towns and villages within Audrit.

Merchants who needed to travel to other regions could no longer go to work.

Those holding large stores of perishables or goods that dropped in value over time were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

Someone who’d come from the next village to get medicine for a gravely ill younger sibling finally got the medicine—only to be unable to return.

A couple who had to set out today to make it to their daughter’s wedding in the capital were stuck and couldn’t depart.

Merchants and mercenaries from other regions couldn’t get home either, so the complaints never stopped.

Desperate people clung to the gate, trying to escape the city at any cost, so even knights had been mobilized along with soldiers to guard the gate.

He had gathered a lot of information in a short time.

Humans were indeed perfect for spreading rumors.

‘I shouldn’t be standing around listening.’

He shouldn’t be listening to rumors; he should be spreading them.

First, he’d fill his stomach, empty since morning, and then put his plan into action.

“They say it’s all because of the West ducal house.”

Reinhild, who had started to walk, stopped again.

‘The West ducal house?’

The people, glancing around nervously, kept whispering.

“I heard the Hero is using the West ducal house’s name to persecute us residents of Audrit.”

“What did we do wrong! Why us?”

‘How do humans know that?’

And after all Brownie’s hard work, were they still in Audrit?

How big was this place that it took this long to travel even within a single domain?

“There were so ~ many complaints that the Hero ruined people’s lives, the lord made a big decision.”

“But how could our lord possibly stand up to a ducal house?”

“Since he doesn’t have the strength to fight them head-on, he shut the borders. It’s a way of saying, ‘If you bully us, we’ll just hide.’”

“What good will that do? We’re the only ones suffering, trapped in here.”

“Not just that. Audrit isn’t called the Land of Plenty for nothing, you know? Think how much produce we export to other domains. If our merchants can’t go out, there’ll be people in other regions who have money but still starve.”

“I hadn’t thought of that. This is bigger than I realized!”

“Don’t even get me started. With all the mountains and forests around here, monsters need to be culled regularly, but if mercenaries can’t go out, the longer the lockdown lasts, the quicker the monster numbers will spike.”

“Isn’t that a disaster?”

“It’s worse for the neighboring domain. When the weather turns cold, the monsters all head down that way.”

“So all of this is because of the West ducal house?”

“Yes and because of the Hero, too.”

“Don’t you ‘sir’ the Hero. Ptooh!”

“Shh, shh. Careful. If someone hears, you’ll get dragged off.”

Worried someone might overhear them badmouthing nobles, the people went back inside their homes.

And Reinhild, who had been listening to all of it, fell into even deeper confusion.

‘What on earth happened?’