But there was still time left before night fell.

General Mol spoke up as if tossing the words out carelessly.

“So. I thought something was off.”

He set his fork down with a light clink and leaned back into his chair. There was not a trace left of the rookie knight.

Instead, he felt like a mercenary to the bone—easy, loose, and dangerous.

“If this was only a detachment from the Order of the God of Chaos, the castle’s defenses are far too tight.”

Mol had moved around to inspect Moraka Castle, and he had realized a few things.

None of the Order of the God of Chaos’s clergy were visible.

There were troops stationed all around the annex and near the main castle, but the visible forces were only mid-level fighters.

And yet the eyes tracking him were on an entirely different level. Some of them felt like they belonged to high-ranking holy knights.

“They were more on guard against me than against your side.”

That was why Mol had not been able to move recklessly. If he put his mind to it, he could hide himself and inspect every corner of the castle as much as he pleased.

But if he did that, it felt as though the whole place would shift straight into combat.

It’s instinct.

There were people inside this castle who were too strong for him to handle alone.

Mol moved according to the instincts he had forged over a very long time.

“I already knew the Order of the God of Chaos had stabbed the hunter families in the back. But I didn’t know they were planning to stab us in the back too.”

They were really going to try to stab the Demon King in the back?

Mol was smiling, but he did not hide his anger.

If anything, he stared straight at Kase.

“But then again. Your side was trying to stab me in the back too, wasn’t it?”

A crooked smile curled up at the corner of his mouth, sharp with ridicule.

“That urban legend. The gray sickness. You brought that up on purpose, didn’t you?”

The more Mol sat there unable to move and thought it over, the stranger the déjà vu became.

The Second Brother, who was still cowering and shrinking into himself even now. Was a man like that really going to bring up some urban legend first to a knight he had never met before?

That makes no sense.

A person’s actions had consistency. They had reasons.

But what if Kase, the eldest brother, had ordered his younger brother to act that way, and the Second Brother had forced himself past his timidity just to throw Mol that bait?

That makes much more sense.

A spiderweb.

It felt as if he had been caught in a spiderweb designed by someone else and turned into a puppet being pulled in a single direction.

“You built this board, didn’t you?”

Everything had started the moment the man called Kase appeared in front of Terosa.

Clopeh silently lifted his wineglass and took a leisurely sip.

Watching him, Mol continued. No—he sorted through his thoughts out loud.

“If you knew we were the ones who killed Count Lupe, then of course you’d be furious. Of course you’d want revenge.”

“Mm.”

The New Business Department manager let out a low sound.

What Mol had just said was practically an admission that Count Lupe’s death had indeed been the Demon King’s side’s doing.

“Sir Mol—”

“Why? Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”

He snorted and pointed toward Clopeh.

“This man already started all this because he’s certain it was us. If we try some half-baked denial now, all we’ll do is make fools of ourselves.”

Mol spoke with complete ease.

“Yes. We killed Count Lupe because he did not support the Demon King. And because the wealth he held bothered us. And tempted us.”

The New Business Department manager squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again and stole a glance at Clopeh.

But neither Clopeh nor Mol reacted at all.

How can they both be like this?

That thought flashed through the manager’s mind, but Mol took Clopeh’s reaction as only natural.

A man who had staged a board like this would not reveal his emotions so easily.

“If it was Count Lupe, he might well have prepared for his own death. Especially if he was meticulous enough to hide away his only blood descendant.”

Mol understood it now.

He understood Kase’s actions—Kase, who had concluded that Count Lupe’s death was the Demon King’s side’s doing and decided on revenge.

“But this part is strange.”

Really, too many things about this were strange.

He spoke lightly.

“How did Count Lupe know about the Order of the God of Chaos? No. That’s not it.”

Mol corrected himself the moment he saw Clopeh’s expression.

“How did you know about the Order of the God of Chaos? And about the gray sickness?”

How could a mere individual know about something being carried out so secretly that even the Demon King’s enormous power had not noticed it?

“You—or no, who’s behind you?”

Mol asked the question even though he already knew the answer.

Aurora.

Count Lupe had long been suspected not only of refusing to support the current Demon King, but of helping Aurora, the bloodline of the previous Demon King.

It had been an assumption very close to certainty, and that was why Count Lupe’s death had been brought forward.

Aurora.

If it was that woman, then she might have discovered the gray sickness in the Demon World—a thing even the Demon King did not know about—and traced it back to the Order of the God of Chaos.

Hadn’t information on Dark, the Order of the God of Chaos’s secret group, already made its way into the Demon King’s castle?

Mol could not be certain Aurora knew nothing about that.

He gave Clopeh an order.

“Answer me.”

Sssss—

A shallow wind stirred around him.

A wind that felt eerie and strange.

—Sniff, sniff!

Pretending to be too frightened to do anything but watch, Cale felt the sound of the wind react.

—The smell of a divine relic’s even stronger! Whose god is it from?

He could feel the thief growing wildly excited.

Then Clopeh opened his mouth.

Mol had already decided that if the word that came out was not “Aurora,” he would kill Clopeh first.

And Clopeh said a single word.

“Hunters.”

......!

For a moment, Mol froze without being able to show any reaction at all.

A grin tugged at Cale’s lips.

—Human, even with your head down I can still see that scammer smile. Be careful!

Cale hurriedly hid the smile that had slipped out without his noticing.

Choi Jung Gun.

To capture Choi Han’s ancestor, the Five Colored Blood hunters—the Wanderers called the Three Emperors—would definitely come chasing into the Demon World.

Because Choi Jung Gun knew about the Transcendent, the goal that only Five Colored Blood dreamed of.

They’re definitely in the Demon World already.

How should he deal with them?

How could he keep them from finding Choi Jung Gun?

The answer is the Order of the God of Chaos and the Demon King.

He had already pretended to be a Wanderer in front of the Order of the God of Chaos.

So now, shouldn’t he tell the Demon King’s side—the ruling force of the Demon World—about the Wanderers?

Once that happened, the Demon King’s side would deal with the Wanderers on its own.

Then the Wanderers won’t have time to look for Choi Jung Gun.

The Demon King’s army would chase them until they escaped the Demon World.

“...Hunters?”

“That is correct. People calling themselves hunters came to me and gave me evidence and information proving that my father, Count Lupe, was killed because of the Demon King. They also told me what the Order of the God of Chaos was doing.”

Mol did not take his eyes off Clopeh as the man spoke calmly.

“They also guaranteed that I would inherit Count Lupe’s position and become lord.”

Revenge and power as well.

That was what the hunters had promised Kase.

To General Mol, it was far more convincing than a mine purchase.

“And they wanted only one thing from me.”

Clopeh continued with a gentle smile.

“Take your revenge as you please. Just use the Order of the God of Chaos to do it.”

He shrugged.

“Why would I have any reason to refuse?”

With that, Clopeh returned to savoring his wine.

The New Business Department manager and the middle-aged knight glared at him, but neither dared move.

“Ha!”

Mol’s presence had turned ominous.

“There’s not a single trustworthy bastard here.”

He tossed the words out in a light tone, but his eyes sank deeper and deeper.

Mol was called the Hand Behind the Back because he was so good at stabbing people in the back.

For him, betrayal was a form of play.

But this—

They’re trying to betray me? Betray the Demon King? From every direction?

He had known from the beginning that neither the Order of the God of Chaos nor the hunter bastards were worth trusting.

They had joined hands only to deal with the heavenly realm and the divine realm.

And yet—

In the Demon World of all places, they’re trying to hit us from behind?

His gaze swung toward Clopeh.

“Do you have a death wish?”

And Clopeh answered him.

“You’re thinking too shallowly.”

The New Business Department manager and the middle-aged knight both flinched and looked toward Mol.

Mol, however, remained calm.

“Then again. The reason you’re confessing all this so openly is because you don’t want to die.”

Mol voiced the answer he had arrived at.

“It seems the Order of the God of Chaos has decided to wipe out not just us, but your side too.”

“Yes.”

Clopeh answered with a smile.

“General Mol, I believe you’ll have to protect us a little.”

“Why?”

At that question, Clopeh looked to the side.

Mol’s eyes followed his, and there stood the Second Brother, rising hesitantly to his feet.

Cale slipped a piece of parchment from inside his clothes and laid it on the dining table.

—Human, you’re really good at acting!

Mol stared at the parchment in silence, then flicked his eyes at the middle-aged knight. The knight picked it up and handed it over.

Fwrip—

Mol opened the parchment without hesitation.

“......!”

He could not hide his surprise when he saw the map of Moraka Castle spread out before him—with even the Pope’s location marked # Nоvеlight # on it.

“You were wondering what we talked about when we met Young Master Jimon, weren’t you?”

Clopeh’s calm voice rang in his ears.

“Young Master Jimon and the people living in this castle are on our side.”

“...Our side?”

“Yes. Your side, and us here too. Together, that makes our side.”

Looking at Clopeh then, General Mol was reminded of the high officials in the Demon King’s castle and the nobles who drove politics.

A man who could set revenge and power aside and change his posture at any time according to priority.

“Shouldn’t we survive together?”

Clopeh said he was willing to join hands in order to live.

But Mol had to scoff at that.

“In the end, I’ll be the one fighting the Order of the God of Chaos alone, even with the Pope here. And the moment I send all this information to the Demon King’s castle and to Dioriel’s lord’s castle, war will break out between the Order of the God of Chaos and the Demon King’s castle.”

“......”

“And once that happens, you’ll get everything you wanted.”

“So you dislike that?”

Even faced with Clopeh’s smiling question, Mol shook his head.

“No.”

In the situation now before him—

Mol thought of the best move available to him.

“It’s my turn to move now.”

He gave an order to the New Business Department manager, the mage.

“Tell Terosa to send every soldier she has here. As fast as possible. Before midnight.”

“...Yes!”

At present, Dioriel had a great number of security forces gathered there already, since the city was just on the verge of selecting its new lord.

“And send a request to the Demon King’s castle too. Tell the Third Army to teleport here.”

A large-scale long-distance teleportation.

It would cost a great deal and require enormous effort, but General Mol of the Third Army made the decision without hesitation.

Now that he had dragged even the Demon King’s castle into the board, there was no room left for him to worry about front or back.

He placed the map on the table and said to Clopeh,

“If they’re planning to stab us in the back, then it’ll be tonight.”

Then I’ll kill them tonight.

“If the enemy wants to stab us in the back, then we’ll stab them in the back first.”

Mol flashed Clopeh a confident smile.

“You stay quiet and wait. I’ll let you live through tonight.”

After tonight, who knew what would happen.

A cruel smile spread across Mol’s lips.

Clopeh, still smiling, said,

“Are you planning to go after the Pope?”

“.......”

The smile vanished from Mol’s mouth.

“The Hand Behind the Back isn’t the sort to fight merely to survive an enemy’s attack, is he?”

Clopeh spoke as if stating an obvious fact.

“If it were you, you would strike for the enemy’s back. Without question.”

Ha!

Mol let out a short exclamation.

“This little—”

In the end, he admitted it.

“You really do know me pretty well, don’t you?”

The Demon King’s eight blades.

Mol, commander of the Third Army among the eight armies.

In a situation like this, he had no intention of merely defending.

The Order of the God of Chaos had dared to try to stab him in the back. He intended to crush them.

Gray sickness.

If that was the truth, then he had even more reason to destroy the Order of the God of Chaos, and the best move for that was to target the head of the snake—the Pope.

The moment he received the map with the Pope’s location marked on it, the conclusion had been obvious to Mol.

Clopeh dipped his head slightly toward the smiling Mol.

“Then I leave it to you.”

“Mm.”

Mol gave a light nod and accepted the request with ease.

—Human, human, how did all of this get tangled together like this?

Raon sounded genuinely amazed as he spoke to Cale.

—It’s all gotten tied up in such a weird way! But human, this is good for us, isn’t it?

That was right.

Tonight—

The Order of the God of Chaos still had no idea that their enemies knew about the gray sickness, or that they had joined hands with Young Master Jimon.

So they would come rushing in while underestimating the enemy’s strength.

And the Demon King’s side would try to tear this castle down with forces they had thrown together in a hurry, without enough time to prepare.

Find Choi Jung Soo, find a way to treat Team Leader’s wound, stop the gray sickness.

Then all they had to do was watch the Demon King’s army and the Order of the God of Chaos beat each other bloody and slip away in the middle of it.

Easy.

Compared to everything he had done so far, what was going to happen tonight was absurdly easy.

—Human, but if the troops leave the lord’s castle, doesn’t that mean nobody will be guarding it?

Raon said it brightly.

—Later, it’ll be super easy to sneak into the lord’s castle and steal the secret vault!

As expected, Raon really was a smart little kid.

Worthy of a great dragon.

*****

And then night came.

Moraka Castle was quieter than it had ever been.

The silence was unnaturally deep.

But deep inside the main castle of Moraka—

“I trust you.”

“Yes, Your Holiness.”

The highest-ranking holy knight rose to his feet to carry out the order: kill the enemy.

At that same time—

“General Mol, they say the troops will be entering through the forest shortly.”

Mol was putting on his armor for the first time in a long while, weapon already in hand.

As he rolled his neck and stretched, he said flatly,

“The moment the troops attack Moraka Castle, I go straight for the Pope.”

The Demon King’s blade had sharpened itself to kill the Pope.

And finally—

“Human, it’s that outfit again! It’s been a while!”

Dressed in the crude Dark uniform, Cale stepped toward the window with the average ten-year-olds.

“Have a safe trip.”

Clopeh saw them off.

“It’s been a while.”

Cale turned at the voice beside him.

Team Leader Sui Khan was smiling lazily.

“It really has.”

It had been a very long time since he had moved together with Team Leader Sui Khan to search for Choi Jung Soo.

And then—

Rustle.

“Choi Han. The atmosphere’s strange.”

At the Heavenly Demon’s words as he looked up at Moraka Castle, Choi Han silently nodded.