Chapter 68

After riding for about an hour from the town of Chedas, I finally caught sight of the capital city.

Although I had visited the royal castle in the center of the city several times, this was the first time I had seen the surrounding town.

Outside the city, there were many small houses with orange or red tiled roofs and white walls, but in the center, there were also grand mansions visible.

The overall impression of the city was that it was both vibrant and sophisticated.

The men in black immediately split into two groups upon entering the city.

"According to the plan."

"Yeah."

The sharp-featured man said, and the man with a big nose and the man with bags under his eyes rode their horses down the large street where carriages were running.

On the other hand, the three who remained dismounted and led their horses into a side street.

This area was lined with old brick apartment buildings, so it was dim due to the lack of sunlight.

It had the feel of a back alley, with a rather unpleasant atmosphere, a place you wouldn't want to enter alone at night.

The men in black, however, advanced boldly into the depths without hesitation, and eventually stopped in front of a dilapidated, abandoned house that had once been a shop.

Leaving the horses outside, the sharp-featured man opened the broken door and went in first.

Kugalg and I, who had been on the horses, were let down by the hooded man.

"Follow me. There's something good inside."

Excited about what the "something good" might be, I followed the hooded man.

Kugalg didn't seem interested in the "something good," but he came in with me because I was going.

The sharp-featured man had apparently lit a light—though it was still daytime, the inside of the building was dim—and the scattered trash on the floor was illuminated by the candlelight.

There was cotton dust, dried leaves that had blown in through broken windows, and small glass shards...

As I imagined the glass piercing my paw pads, I made a grimace, and the three men in black, seeing the dirty floor, said:

"This is dangerous as it is."

"There was a broom in the back..."

While Kugalg and I stood at the entrance, the three men started sweeping the floor diligently.

It was a new experience to see villains working so hard to clean.

They seemed to be used to cleaning, as they quickly gathered and disposed of the trash on the floor.

"Once you start cleaning, you want to clean everything."

"I agree, but let's stop with the floor."

The gentle-looking man said to the sharp-featured man.

They all seemed to be neat freaks.

By the way, where was the "something good"?

Looking up at the hooded man as if urging him, he said, "Wait a moment," and went into the back room.

While waiting for him to return, I looked around the room again.

There was a sooty fireplace, but no furniture like tables or chairs, so it was quite empty.

I scratched my head with my hind legs while looking at the ceiling, where some boards were peeling off.

My ears were itchy from wearing the hood for so long, but I couldn't scratch them properly with the hood on.

Scratching and scratching, the sharp-featured man noticed and took off my hood, then scratched my head for me, asking, "Are you itchy?" However, his scratching was a bit off, making me even more itchy.

I rubbed my head against the floor to get rid of the itch, and was told, "You'll get dirty."

He then took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the fur. The handkerchief was perfectly smooth, and he really did seem to be a neat freak.

Unlike the people at the northern fortress, who, except for the leader and Tina, usually didn't carry handkerchiefs and wiped most dirt on their uniform sleeves, as if they thought the sleeves were all-purpose rags.

While thinking about such things, the hooded man returned from the back with a small paper package.

Noticing the smell coming from the package, I immediately wagged my tail and stood up.

It was food!

"The children of the Snow Sprite are said to love sweets, I heard."

We were probably given this rumor because we always enjoyed the sweets the kings provided.

They had prepared the sweets in advance to keep us quiet here.

Inside the package were several round biscuits.

I took a bite of the one offered to me, but it was quite large and didn't fit in my mouth in one go.

As a result, pieces and crumbs of the biscuit fell to the floor. Each time I ate a new one, the floor, which had just been cleaned, got scattered with crumbs.

Looking up at the three neat freaks with a sidelong glance,

"Why did you choose biscuits of this size? Biscuits and cookies that can't be eaten in one bite are our enemies."

"Sorry."

They were talking like that.

Kugalg didn't eat the biscuits, so I ended up eating all of them, scattering crumbs on the floor.

On the other hand, the three men in black, after confirming that I was engrossed in the biscuits, disappeared into the back room, but returned when I finished eating.

However, by then, all three had changed their clothes.

It seemed they had changed in the back, transforming from suspicious men in black to grand knights.

The knight's uniform was the same design as the one-eyed knights, but the color was different. It was white, not navy blue. I remember the leader also wore a white knight's uniform.

The three of them looked very similar to the royal guards in the castle.

They weren't as shiny, but they had a clean look and wore their uniforms neatly.

Also, compared to the people at the northern fortress, the three of them seemed to be more slender.

They weren't particularly tall, and the gentle-looking man was quite short for a man.

"Follow us."

The sharp-featured man said, brushing the mohair that had come out of my sheep costume from my chest.

There was a lot of biscuit powder on it.

"Is it time?"

"Yeah."

The gentle-looking man and the hooded man exchanged these words and looked at the door.

I also turned to look in that direction when,

"Here we are!"

A voice came from outside, and noisy footsteps approached.

The door of the building was then opened forcefully, and three men in white knight's uniforms, out of breath, entered.

Two of them seemed to be the men in black who had separated from us when we entered the capital. They now looked completely like clean knights, with one having bags under his eyes and the other a big nose.

The last one to enter was a thin man, like a bean sprout, with round glasses and black hair parted 70-30 to the right.

He was in his late thirties. His eyes behind the glasses were single-lidded, and he had a permanent frown, giving off a somewhat malicious aura.

(This must be Captain Sarell...)