Chapter 505: The Frantz Kingdom and Loroon Town (1/2)

On the other side of the stone gate, there was another checkpoint, where some border guards of the Frantz Kingdom were stationed.

“Halt!”

The guards stared at the carriage as it came to a stop.

Jin was thinking about getting off the carriage, but Elsa stopped him and had Edgar present the exit permit given by the border guards of the Klein Kingdom to the soldiers.

“I’ll confirm this. Please wait a moment.”

After one of the guards in charge received the permit, they were led to a small building in the back of the checkpoint.

Steward was instructed to park the carriage on a designated spot.

“Huh? These horses… are golems?”

“I’ve never seen a carriage like this before.”

The soldiers there were rudely touching the carriage with their hands. Reiko seemed angered by this, but Jin gently tapped her shoulder to calm her down.

“Don’t worry.”

“…Okay.”

Three or four minutes later, an official who seemed to be in charge arrived, and checked the carriage and crew.

“Hm, So, Knight of the Shouro Empire, Jin Nidou, his sister Elsa Nidou, and his friends Shion and Lucas. The Automatas Reiko and Edgar. And the coachman Steward. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, Elsa handed something small to the official.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

The official tried to see what Elsa had given him, but…

“Okay, you may pass.”

…He quickly gave them his permission instead.

Soon after, the carriage was already speeding up on the highway after leaving the checkpoint.

“What did you do, Elsa?”

Jin had a hunch, but he still asked Elsa directly just to be sure.

“I slipped 2 gold coins into his hand.”

In short, she had bribed the guard. Jin was slightly surprised that Elsa was aware of -and willing to do- such a trick.

“…I learned that from Brother Rei.”

Since they were going to the Frantz Kingdom, Reinhardt had given her all sorts of pointers for the trip the night before.

“He also told me it would be better if I didn’t have to resort to such tactics. He was probably right. That was not knightly of us at all.”

“Yeah, you’re right. He told me to be careful as well.”

After hearing their conversation, Shion looked at them with an apologetic expression on her face.

“I’m sorry. It seems that you two ended up doing something risky for my sake.”

But Jin turned towards her and smiled.

“Don’t worry about it. Actually, I’ve been meaning to come to the Frantz Kingdom at some point, so we probably would have had to do that either way. But if you’re really feeling bad about this, why don’t you repay me by telling me more about you guys?”

“…What do you want to know about?”

“Well, things like why did your sister come all the way to the Frantz Kingdom, and why were those Hecatoncheires chasing you…”

“Did you say Hecatoncheires?”

Jin told them what he had learned from Laojun.

And it seemed to have been quite effective.

“The Hecatoncheires were probably sent by the Puppeteer clan to chase after us.”

“Ah, so there was an entire clan with that ability after all.”

“…Right. The Puppeteer clan specializes in Enslavement Magic. They can turn most monsters into their servants.

Jin nodded. This was consistent with Laojun’s hypothesis about Alciel. Then, he asked about something he had been curious about for some time.

“Does that ability work on other demons or humans?”

“No, normally Enslavement Magic wouldn’t work on Lucas or me. Most demons are naturally resilient to mental attacks. As for humans… I don’t know. I haven’t seen anyone trying to use it on a human.”

Upon hearing that, it occurred to Jin that the reason why “Transinfo” hadn’t worked with them was because of their innate resistance to mental attacks. And thinking back on Marchosias’ case, it was possible that Enslavement Magic did work against humans after all.

“I didn’t even know that my sister had come here. She might have been dispatched separately shortly after we left.”

“Hmm, so it seems that they sent them here just in case you failed?”

It seemed that they had not only sent people to the Klein Kingdom to negotiate food aid, but to the Frantz Kingdom as well. It was an understandable choice from a topographic perspective.

Seen from the Great Isthmus of Pazdext, the Kingdom of Klein was a little closer, but there was a steep mountain range on the way. On the other hand, although the Frantz Kingdom of Franz was a little farther away and there were still some mountains on the way, they weren’t nearly as high.

“I see. Your sister was really unlucky…”

“…Yeah.”

Shion cast her eyes downward, perhaps plagued with concern for her sister.

However, Jin thought that either Shion or her sister had been sent as a decoy against the radical demons so that the other one could escape safely. And considering that the Hecatoncheires were chasing Shion and Lucas, it was clear who were the decoys.