Chapter 696 – Joro Merchant Group Omake 1

My name is Samos.

Samos Touchphone.

That’s my real name.

Not an alias.

Yeah, everyone else is using an alias but I use my real name.

There’s a reason for that.

A troublesome reason.

A really troublesome reason.

-0-

One day, boss gave me a mission.

The mission is to infiltrate the demon king’s kingdom and investigate.

Infiltration sounds difficult but the demon king’s kingdom is surprisingly tolerant to outside visitors.

You can enter the kingdom even if you proclaim yourself as a knight.

Your action will not be restricted either.

In fact, I’ve already previously sneaked into the demon king’s kingdom without hiding my identity as a knight and returned safely, twice.

So I thought this should be a pretty easy mission.

But I was wrong.

There will be others who’ll infiltrate the kingdom with me and we are more than 60.

…….

I think this is a stupid idea.

Sixty people are not a bit of a force.

It can already be called war potential.

If it’s a small battlefield, that number can already influence the overall situation.

If the number of bandits has already reached 60, an army will be dispatched to deal with them.

Even if the demon king’s kingdom is tolerant of foreign visitors, they will not miss this number.

I protested to my boss.

If you want the mission to succeed, you need to reduce the number.

If the goal is only to investigate, three people, me included, is enough.

My boss also knows that 60 is too many.

However, my protest did not go through.

On the contrary, my boss persuaded me.

It seems like factions are involved in this matter.

Faction?

I looked at the list of those who’ll leave with me and saw that many factions are indeed involved.

The royal knights, the first knight order, the second knight order, the central staff, the southern guard….

Our purpose is the same, protecting the country. However, it is normal for factions to be born.

As a military man, I know that faction problems are inevitable.

If we have to reduce the number of participants, the only thing we can do is to remove everyone else and leave the mission to one faction.

If that is impossible, they should leave it to the royal knights….or not?

We’re not talking about those kinds of factions?

Eh?

Then, which faction are we talking about?

No way, nobles?

No?

Then that means…..

「The factions related to the demon king’s kingdom」

When boss said that, I fell silent.

Factions related to the demon king’s kingdom.

To put it simply, the factions are divided to engage in war or not with the demon king’s kingdom.

-0-

In fact, even though our country and the demon king’s kingdom are not connected with each other, we are at war.

If you’re going to ask why, it’s because of our present king. He has sworn to absolutely destroy the demon king’s kingdom as soon as he becomes the king.

Since no nobles opposed him, our country is unified in being hostile against the demon king’s kingdom.

So, there shouldn’t be any faction regarding that aspect.

Everyone’s hostile against the demon king’s kingdom.

That’s all.

However, recently….starting from eight to nine years ago?

The king’s policy broke.

「…..areh? Does our kingdom hate the demon king’s kingdom that much? Do I hate demons? That’s not true. Even in our country, demi-humans live.」

The king, as if hit by some sort of spell, stopped being hostile against the demon king’s kingdom.

Anyway, when the king’s aggressiveness lightens, the atmosphere of the whole county being hostile against the demon king’s kingdom fades.

To be honest, we don’t need to fight against the demon king’s kingdom.

The king seems to think so too.

Since that is the case, I thought the war would even stop but it’s not that easy.

Anyway, the hostile attitude of our kingdom against the demon king’s kingdom has been a long-standing policy of our country and even our economic plan is moving in that direction.

A sudden change of that direction might cause our kingdom to perish.

And what’s even more troublesome is that when we took a hostile stance against the demon king’s kingdom, we joined hands with our neighboring countries.

And our alliance is not with just one or two countries.

We are allied with almost all countries around with the exception of the demon king’s kingdom.

Given that, we can’t say that our country is no longer going to wage war against the demon king’s kingdom.

We can never say that.

Once it is publicized, we will be attacked by our neighboring countries.

However, we can’t continue being hostile.

Even if we are not connected with the demon king’s kingdom by land, we are connected by the sea.

The reason why we can’t organize a large-scale expeditionary force is because there’s a possibility of being invaded from the sea.

It can’t be helped.

We don’t want to be hostile to the demon king’s kingdom but we can’t show other countries that we are no longer hostile. We can’t move.

That’s the current state of our country.

Because of such status quo, factions were born.

We have to maintain the status quo but those factions are on the move.

Let’s form an alliance with the demon king’s kingdom and everything will be solved.

Let’s keep fighting against the demon king’s kingdom and keep the words of our ancestors.

Let’s abandon the country and flee.

There are many others.

The king was somehow able to do something to maintain the status quo by not doing anything.

So, what’s with this all of a sudden?

There can only be one reason.

The age of the king.

The current king is over 70 and though this might sound presumptuous, it shouldn’t be a surprise if he’ll retire soon.

There’s no problem with the successor.

The crown prince is healthy and excellent.

At least not incompetent enough to take the fueling words of those around him seriously.

The question is, when the crown prince becomes king, will he or will he not swear to absolutely destroy the demon king’s kingdom?

It might be strange to think about it since he already declared it…

He swore to take hostile actions.

Since he already has sworn, it is no longer possible to negotiate with the demon king’s kingdom for now.

Even if it is the demon king’s kingdom, there’s no way they’ll trust someone, who swore to absolutely destroy them, saying they are good friends.

If he wanted to form an alliance with the demon king’s kingdom, he shouldn’t have taken that oath.

However, if he did not swear, he’ll be suspected by the neighboring countries.

The faction that wants to maintain the status quo is facing that problem.

-0-

Now, it is my turn.

Infiltration and investigation of the demon king’s kingdom is only my nominal mission.

My real mission is to find a negotiation contact with the demon king’s kingdom.

If possible…..

Even if our kingdom swore to absolutely destroy the demon king’s kingdom, my mission is to tell the demon king’s kingdom that we won’t actually take any hostile action and will only pose.

Good.

A very troublesome mission.

Therefore, I would like to confirm again.

Why did the number of companions exceed sixty with such a troublesome mission?

-0-

This dispatch was led by a faction that maintains the status quo but other factions sniffed it and put their people to watch and not to negotiate.

………

In short, most of my companions are there to interfere with my real mission, right?

However, the boss said that they are not there to sabotage, they’ll just watch.

But only half of them so it’s good that it’s not most.

That’s not comforting at all.

Maa, given our great number, the only possible way we could infiltrate is to disguise ourselves as traveling merchants and it is conspicuous to directly go to the royal capital so we were told to go a detour.

That’s easy to say.

First of all, given that there are sixty of us, are we supposed to use that to stand out at the demon king’s kingdom in order for them to find us?

No?

We can’t stand out to avoid the spies of other countries?

Other countries….?

The other countries don’t know our mission and they should think that we are only doing some spy work, why should we avoid them?

Ah, we should act as if they’re also there to interfere with the mission.

-0-

I gave out a big sigh.

But this is also work.

I have no choice but to do it.

I’ll give it my all.

First thing first. I have to find merchant companies that we can cooperate with.

I asked several merchants to cooperate with us.

But they refused.

They said that the demon king’s kingdom is scary.

Since we have been hostile with them for many years, they see the demon king’s kingdom as nothing but a den of evil.

……..

Merchant companies who trade with the demon king’s kingdom know that the demon king kingdom is not like that.

「We are trading with them so there’s no way we’re going to get involved in something that troublesome. What are we going to do if we were banned from trading with them?」

Merchants.

You can’t argue with them.

If you do, it will be a fight.

-0-

I had no choice but to ask for the cooperation of a peddler.

He’s a lifesaver since he’s so easy to talk to.

Then, we got on the ship belonging to the demon king’s kingdom and departed for the demon king’s kingdom.

My name is Samos.

Samos Touchphone.

I don’t use an alias because I’m a messenger.

Haa.

All I need to do is find a contact person in the demon king’s kingdom…..

That’s easy to say.

After a year’s journey, we finally arrived in Shashaato City and stayed there for twenty days.

However, I can’t find anyone that can become our point of contact.

Even if we are known as merchants in Shashaato City, I still can’t find one.

I would like to find one before going to the royal capital.

「Samos, what’s up? Are you not going to eat?」

I’ll eat.

Chicken curry is the best.

Hnn?

At a slightly distant table, my companions, Dan and Mick, are eating with strangers.

They are eating with adults and children….ah, they are their baseball buddies.

If I don’t have a mission, I’ll play like them too.

Ah, no no no.

Dan and Mick are not just playing.

They are gathering information.

Though it seems like they are playing with a young maid, that’s also part of gathering information.

I should do my best on my task too.