To save Diogres Kolon, Karnak had once again decided to head for the Lacania Empire. And the very first problem he faced was this.

"What excuse am I going to use?"

Let’s say he put it plainly like this.

—There was a huge clash between two archmages. Diogres lost and disappeared. So we’re going to the empire to save him!

The answer he’d get was obvious.

—Why would you do that?

It made no sense. Karnak and his group lived in the western continent, in the Seven Kingdoms Alliance. Why, then, were they getting involved in a fight between two archmages on the far opposite end of the continent?

He could technically manufacture a reason. Elezar had branded Diogres as the leader of a heretical cult. But from Karnak’s investigations so far, it seemed far more likely that Elezar herself was the heretic.

In other words, if they could rescue Diogres and recruit him, he’d be an invaluable ally in the fight against the cult.

"That said, it still sounds awkward no matter how I spin it," admitted Karnak.

Karnak had indeed become a big name lately, but he still wasn’t at the level where he could claim he was going to rescue an archmage. It’d be like a fox saying it was going to go save a tiger. Granted, this fox was hiding venomous fangs even tigers would hesitate to mess with, but on the surface, no one was going to buy it.

Serati was puzzled. "Why don’t we just go without saying anything?"

She couldn’t understand why he was suddenly worrying about appearances when he normally did whatever he wanted anyway.

But Varos shook his head seriously. "That would be problematic."

"Why?" Serati asked him.

"Because the empire is far," he answered her.

She was still puzzled. "So what if it’s far?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"We’ll suffer," said Varos.

"Huh?"

She thought it was nonsense at first, but it made some sense once Varos explained. If it was just their group traveling, they’d have to prepare like they did when they went after Jedex. They would have to load up a carriage with supplies, handle food, sleeping arrangements, and take turns standing guard all on their own. But if they had the support of King’s Order?

"Remember when we went to the empire the second time? When we went to the Governor’s Vault," said Varos.

Back then, they had traveled under the guise of merchants with the Altas merchant guild. Thanks to that, they offloaded all the chores—cooking, bedding, laundry, night watch—onto others.

Varos continued. "If it’s just us again, we can’t expect that kind of comfort."

Harthol City, Jedex’s hideout, wasn’t very far. The hassle was bearable. But this time they’d be traveling deep into the empire, all the way to the Tower of Dawn. It was too far to go in secret without any support.

Serati nodded, convinced. "That’s true. And using the Altas merchant guild again would require King’s Order’s approval..."

Even though the merchant guild was now more or less Karnak’s, they would need permission from the kingdom to travel to the empire. If they ignored that and crossed the border secretly? They would be entering illegally.

Sure, they could do it, but why stir up trouble when all they needed was a simple excuse? Serati recalled the comfort of that last journey. There were others to take care of the food. Someone else had prepared the beds, and someone else had handled the laundry and night shifts.It had been a truly luxurious trip.

Serati’s expression changed. "Well then, let’s hurry up and come up with an excuse, Lord Karnak."

"You really did enjoy that trip, didn’t you?" Karnak gave her an exasperated look as her tone did a complete shift, then sank back into thought. "Let’s see... what lie do I tell this time?"

***

Coming up with a reason to head for the empire wasn’t all that difficult. After all, Karnak had spent his life lying. It came to him as naturally as breathing. All things considered, it was very possible that he had lied more than he breathed, especially considering he hadn’t needed to breathe since becoming Astra Shunaph.

It didn’t take long for him to find a fitting excuse. He immediately went to see Commander Erantel, and the conversation went something like this.

—You remember Hudel, don’t you? The one suspected of working under Elezar.

—What about him?

—I found intel pointing to Hudel’s successor!

—What? That can’t be!

—So we’ll return to the empire, root out the cult’s schemes, and stop them from sinking their fangs into Eustil and the Seven Kingdoms Alliance!

—Of course. You have my full support.

—Great. Then for our expenses, I’ll need about this much...

—Hold on. You’re not saying you want to use state funds to mobilize the Altas merchant guild, are you?

As he exited the King’s Order headquarters, Karnak clicked his tongue. "Ugh, Erantel’s too stingy."

"He didn’t approve the budget?" Varos asked.

Karnak shrugged. "He only gave us the bare minimum in personal expenses."

Varos checked the pouch of gold coins and grinned. "Still, this is pretty generous."

"I could’ve squeezed out more, damn it," Karnak grumbled.

Serati voiced her confusion. "But don’t you already have plenty of money?"

There were profits from the copper mine, investments in the Altas merchant guild, his salary and operating funds from the King’s Order, and probably more. With finances that solid, why was he so hung up on getting more?

"No matter how much money you have, food tastes better when someone else is paying," Karnak responded.

Karnak seemed proud of what he was saying, and Serati saw him in a new light. How could someone with that much power, wealth, and fame manage to come off so petty?

"That’s a talent too, I guess," she commented.

"Wouldn’t be our young master otherwise," Varos added.

"Huh? What did I do now?" Karnak asked, puzzled.

"You’re just being very you, that’s all, young master," said Varos.

"Why does that feel like an insult?" Karnak grumbled.

In any case, that settled the matter. With an appropriate excuse, they had secured approval to use the Altas merchant guild and head for the empire. Now all that remained was adjusting the party’s schedule.

"Come to think of it, what about Leven? Did your family approve you going?" Karnak asked.

Leven was no longer a disowned child. He was the rightful head of the Strauss family now. Would the family really let him take a dangerous trip to the empire so easily?

Turns out, Leven had solved the problem with surprising ease. "I didn’t tell them I’m going to the empire."

"Then what did you tell them?" Karnak replied.

"I just said it was a mission from the King’s Order, but the details were classified," Leven said.

Karnak was surprised. "And they let you go just like that?"

Leven shrugged. "I said I was getting a feel for the realm of the silver knight, so I’d be doing a bit of training."

The Strauss family’s top priority at the moment was producing the next martial king. After the tragic loss of Gellard, even a hint that Leven might break through to the next realm was enough for them to throw full support behind him, no questions asked.

Karnak let out a dry laugh. "So next time something comes up, you’ll just use that again, huh?"

"It’s a universal key," Leven said with a smirk.

"As expected of the man who unlocks every door," Varos added.

Of course, that didn’t mean the Strauss family wasn’t worried about his safety. They were terrified of losing him too, and tried to take measures.

"But they said they’d assign one of the stronger knights to escort me," continued Leven.

Karnak frowned. "That’s a problem."

"I turned them down. It was easy," said Leven.

"How?" Karnak asked.

"I said only those who can beat Lapicel could accompany me," said Leven.

Karnak stared, incredulous. "Isn’t that kind of unfair? Lapicel’s purple-tier now."

"Well, they don’t know that," said Leven.

The public only knew that Leven had reached purple-tier. Varos’s achievement of the silver-tier, and Lapicel’s own advancement, had been deliberately kept secret. It was to keep the Cult of the Black God off guard.

Thanks to that, a bunch of Strauss knights at the blue-tier had challenged Lapicel and been thoroughly crushed by a teenager.

"As a result, no one’s coming. It’s been nice and peaceful," Leven said with a laugh.

"Don’t you think Sir Leven’s getting a bit cheekier these days?" Serati whispered.

Varos responded, "Yeah. He wasn’t like this before..."

***

Preparations to depart for the empire continued without a hitch. Well, continued might have been an overstatement. There wasn’t much for Karnak’s group to actually do. All they had to do was stop by the Altas merchant guild.

—We’ll be heading to the northern region of the empire, the Kabrat Region. Prepare a caravan.

Kabrat Region was where Diogres’s Tower of Dawn was located. The plan was to travel with the caravan until they reached a location nearby, then proceed covertly from there.

Altas’s merchant guild’s head, Edia, immediately set things in motion. She was already imprinted with an excessive level of loyalty toward Karnak. Thus, she was prepared to carry out any order to perfection, no matter the condition.

Normally, blind loyalty like that could lead to unforeseen accidents. But there was little risk of that with her. Her sense of financial prudence was rooted just as deeply in her soul as her loyalty. Thanks to that balance, she managed to organize both schedule and budget with satisfying efficiency.

"All right, looks like we’re all set to head for the empire," Varos said.

"There’s still one thing left," Karnak replied, shaking his head. "We need a priest."

Of course, traveling with an outsider in the group came with a host of inconveniences. Using necromancy became a hassle, and there was always the risk of secrets getting out. Even so, divine magic was simply too useful to pass up.

"It’s too good to give up just because we’re worried about exposure," said Karnak.

In other words, Karnak’s philosophy was to keep the priest around for the occasional healing and protection. And if they ever found out too much, he’d deal with them by sticking a needle in their head.

It was a downright vile statement, but everyone let it pass without much reaction. After everything they’d seen, that sort of talk was now just part of everyday conversation.

"Are we going with Alius again?" Serati asked.

Karnak responded with a sly grin. "He’ll come running if he thinks I want him, don’t you think?"

***

Alius was, indeed, delighted. But he couldn’t come running.

"He says he can’t make it," Varos declared.

"Why not?" Karnak asked.

"He couldn’t get permission from the order," responded Varos.

Alius had recently risen through the ranks like wildfire and now oversaw the inquisitors of Eustil. Though he still acted casual with them, he held quite a high position within the Hatoba Order.

The problem was, he’d spent too much time slacking off. Now, all the work he’d put off had piled up to the point that he couldn’t dig himself out.

"See? This is why you don’t keep procrastinating and fooling around," Karnak said while clicking his tongue.

Varos gave a gentle smile from his side. "He did seem like he was hoping, just a little, that you’d pull some strings to help him out."

"Hmm..." Karnak thought for a moment, then made up his mind. "Let’s call someone else."

"You’re just ditching Alius?" Varos asked with a surprised expression.

Karnak answered him. "Ditching? Don’t be dramatic. I’m saving him for later."

If he kept dragging Alius out of church duties now, he might be unavailable when it really mattered. That would be the bigger loss. This time, Karnak would let him stay and take care of the issues he had pushed back.

"Let’s keep Alius in reserve for now," declared Karnak.

"You’re talking about him like a half-finished bottle of wine," Serati said with a click of her tongue. "So who are we calling instead?"

"Isn’t it obvious? It’s not like we know that many priests." Karnak gave a confident nod. "We’re calling Milia."