The Day the Moonlight Whispers (1)

“Lord Staufen. The plan to sow discord has failed. It’s reported that the Black Society assassin Parsus and the former demon realm sword instructor Itar have been killed.”

“Ah, I heard.”

Staufen nodded with an indifferent voice. He was staring blankly at the ceiling while holding wine in his mouth. He knew even the news that his subordinate hadn’t yet reported. That the nun had escaped with humans who had converted to demons. That they had been reconverted and acknowledged the church’s sins.

So the kingdom was in an uproar, but it hadn’t suffered any significant damage.

“And…”

“That’s enough. I know the rest of the news too. You may go.”

At Staufen’s gesture, the soldier hurriedly disappeared. Seeing the commander, who usually moved leisurely, move his hand roughly, he instinctively left the place. Staufen looked at the wine still left in his glass and fell into thought.

It was a story from over a hundred years ago.

The story of a noble who committed a crime and fled in fear of his sin, then proved his abilities by joining the demons. Everyone in the country called him a traitor and insulted him, but soon after, it was a barbaric story that even silenced the voices cursing him.

There’s no point in rewarding merits on a sinking ship. What’s important is who has a boat to escape and where to escape to survive.

These were the only two things that mattered.

Staufen couldn’t even remember the crime he had committed anymore. That trivial issue buried in the back of his memories was rolling around in the ruins of the past along with the insulting words of the king and crown prince.

He thought it was natural for everyone to make such choices. Because all the people he had faced over the past 100 years were such beings.

People always wanted a way to overcome difficult situations.

“Why didn’t they betray?”

Staufen asked.

But there was no one here to answer his question. Lena, whom he was questioning, was far away in the kingdom’s capital. But Staufen continued his questions. As if the hero’s party was right in front of him.

While swirling his wine glass.

“There must have been plenty of reasons to betray, so why didn’t they betray?”

There were many reasons to betray. People who were like family were here. Family members died due to the dirty corruption of the royal palace. Even a member of the same party was a person who had committed equally dirty deeds.

But Lena returned as if those reasons were nothing.

The nun who should have denied the sins and massacred the converts was, as if it were natural, admitting her own sins and stirring up the royal palace by bringing along humans who had become demons.

Those staying far away in the royal palace couldn’t answer Staufen’s questions. Staufen repeated the unanswered questions several times before gulping down his wine again.

“You are fools.”

The forgotten face of the king was vivid before his eyes. The memories that occasionally surfaced were particularly clear today. They were kneeling, covering themselves with tattered cloaks, and wailing. Staufen remembered what kind of feats he had accomplished at that time.

He had revealed the secret passage of the besieged royal castle and led the vanguard to directly invade the audience chamber. He was originally a knight of outstanding skill, and no soldier could defeat him after his body was modified by demons. In that way, he cut down the royal guards and knight commanders like mowing grass and met the king, who could only scream and roll on the floor.

With a face full of tears, the king shouted at Staufen:

[How can you betray the country, you traitor!]

[Blinded by money and power, committing such acts, do you think you’ll survive unscathed! We will curse you even after we die!]

[You ungrateful bastard!]

Staufen shook his head. He was confident that he had never made a wrong choice. But the face of the king and the face of the crown prince remained in his memory even after 100 years. Even the situations when he betrayed them.

“You were wrong.”

Staufen shook his head and poured wine again. Although the war situation was stagnant, Staufen wasn’t in the mood for a strategy meeting today. It wasn’t a high-proof wine, but his face was flushed with intoxication.

The wine glass blocked his view like a sunrise, and revealed the inside of the tent as if removing an eye patch.

In the tent that had been empty, there was a man in armor standing crookedly. He had silver hair, slicked back. He called Staufen’s name while fiddling with the sword at his waist.

“Staufen.”

Staufen poured wine again without changing his expression even at the rude behavior of calling the commander’s name. The man in armor stared at Staufen’s appearance, waiting for him to answer. Staufen sipped his wine again and asked:

“What’s the matter?”

“The Demon King is expecting results from you.”

“Tell him it’s taking a while. The operation failed.”

The man snorted at Staufen’s words. Suddenly, the sword was drawn from its scabbard. When Staufen blinked, the wine bottle in his hand was cut in half and fell with a thud. As it rolled, red wine soaked the desk and floor, and Staufen licked the wine on his hand.

The man laughed and said:

“It means don’t waste time using petty tricks. Lead the army and produce results. If you’re not going to do that, quit and go back to the capital. You stupid fool. I don’t understand why you volunteered to be the commander when you can’t use the power you’ve gained.”

Staufen’s expression didn’t change even at the provocation. He wiped the wine off his clothes with a handkerchief and asked:

“If I go back, will you take over as the next commander?”

The man nodded, smiling.

“Yes. ‘We’ will take over.”

Hearing the word ‘we’, Staufen turned his head. There was no one at the entrance of the tent. The sound of the man laughing could be heard. He laughed loudly and put his sword back, then turned and left. Staufen muttered, looking at the wine flowing on the desk:

“Unlucky bastard.”

Staufen shouted towards the outside to call someone to clean the tent. Hearing the shout, the door inside the lounge opened and soldiers came running out.

---

Clang!

The sound of the prison door closing doesn’t become familiar. It was because the iron hinges interlocked, creating a grotesquely loud collision sound as if warning both released prisoners and potential criminals. Due to the firmly closed iron door, Ashuria’s figure couldn’t be seen, but I knew she would return.

We had promised to do so.

Thanks to that, my returning steps could be a little lighter. The way from the lodging to the prison was long, but the way back from the prison was particularly short.

“Old man.”

And when I opened the door to the lodging, unlike Lena and Mille who were still sprawled out, the hero was there, unable to hide her anxious light. She had been pacing back and forth repeatedly, and as soon as I arrived, she rushed over and called me urgently.

Lena asked while lying on the sofa:

“Old man. Did you promise to buy a gift for the hero? She’s been whining like a puppy and pacing around since earlier.”

“Huh? Ah, that’s… I-I just have something to talk about. I’ll tell you later.”

The hero fumbled her words, flustered by Lena’s question, and although Lena found the hero’s reaction strange, she just shrugged without showing any particular reaction. She seemed to have lost motivation since Ashuria ran out, and was just skimming through newspapers while rolling on the sofa.

Looking to the side, Mille was in a similar situation. She had stacked several chairs next to the table and was using them as her bed, rolling around.

She hadn’t fallen asleep yet, as she waved her hand from under the table to greet me when she saw I had arrived.

“The porter’s back. Hello~”

The hero quickly took me out of the powerless and gloomy room. I greeted Mille as I was pushed out of the room, and the hero looked around before asking me:

“H-how did it go?”

“The conversation went well.”

The hero’s face changed to a bright smile. She stomped her feet and said:

“W-what should we do? Should we go back and tell them now?”

With this news, the listless members would surely regain their spirits. I felt pleased seeing that the hero seemed to want the party members to cheer up quickly.

“We made a promise, but we don’t know how things will turn out. I think it’s better to listen to the official story that comes out tomorrow and then talk about it.”

Ashuria and I wouldn’t have made a false promise.

But it was also true that people’s hearts change from moment to moment.

At my words to handle it carefully, the hero nodded, although with a regretful expression.

“…You’re right, old man. Still, we’ll need time to organize our thoughts and prepare. I’ll just tell the others that we’re discussing her treatment.”

“Yes, that would be good. We’ll know for sure tomorrow.”

The hero said with sparkling eyes:

“Thank you, old man.”

“It’s nothing. I should do anything for the party.”

I nodded at the hero’s appearance and said while patting my chest. The hero smiled at those words, and we entered the room in a slightly more cheerful atmosphere than before.

Lena saw us smiling and smirked as she got up from her seat. She was too quick to catch on.

Ashuria would return the next day.

Thinking that, I went to bed with a comfortable mind for the first time in a long while.

---

“What?”

And the next day.

“Well, Sister Ashuria said of her own will that she wanted to settle the matter of assaulting the priest here definitively. The act of assaulting a priest is punishable by 50 lashes.”

A whip was in my hand.

I was looking around, sweating coldly, and both Lena and the hero avoided my gaze. Mille’s eyes were sparkling as she looked at the whip. I said to the soldier standing in front of me:

“B-but why am I the one whipping?”

“…All the executioners refused, saying they were uncomfortable whipping a hero party member who is well-regarded… And we were also uncomfortable punishing her severely. So… We thought we’d entrust it to the party members as a form of ‘love punishment’ and let it pass moderately…”

I looked at the whip.

The hero was smiling with a troubled face. She avoided my gaze and said:

“Well… You said you’d do anything… right?”

I had said that not knowing it would come to this.