CH 48

４８． The Skill of The Spy

Though it was called a rehearsal of a march, it wasn’t on the level of forced march.

That’s why we could prepare our camp before dawn.

And despite calling it “Prepare”, I basically did absolutely nothing. If there was one thing I like about this current life, it was the fact that I, a prince, could boss around everyone… While resting inside my carriage. Man, being a prince was awesome.

Meanwhile, the employees were preparing the tent and my pavilion. Since there were several carriages, we could make a blockade around our campground too.

Naturally, there was a town and hamlet along the way but, staying in those places was a pain in the a*ss. Outdoor camping was the best option, less hassle.

Nevertheless, or should I say that it’s kinda like instinctive behavior, the darkling would take a break during the day. The night elf was best used during the night since they could literally snipe a monster from afar, thus we had no problem with our night travel.

「Hey, can you answer some of my questions?」

I tried to dig some information from the spy person while the employees prepared our meal.

「As long as it’s within my knowledge, Your Highness.」

The male night elf bowed silently as he replied to me.

""

His name was 『Verossa』. He seems to be a famous spy among his family, he had been in active duty for 130 years. Even the other night elves were obviously looking at him with respect.

Just like a typical night elf, he was quite good looking. He wore black leather armor which didn’t leave any sound behind when he was moving, he was also armed with a slender sword and bow. Yes, it wasn’t your typical short sword or dagger carried by the other night elf, it was a sword. A rarity among the night elf.

He had no gap in his gait and his presence was really thin, as if he would vanish as soon as I looked away.

「How did you do that? It seems to be fairly different from a concealment spell.」

Though I felt that his magical power was comparable to the average demon race during the treatment, his presence was so thin.

If he used a concealment spell, it would normally created a “void” around him, thus making it easier for a race who were sensitive with magical power to detect him――

「I simply am scattering it in the surrounding.」

Verossa smiled wryly as he replied to me, and then, his presence suddenly returned back to normal. As a comparison, it felt like I saw him through blurred glass before he did this, and now I could feel his real presence and appearance as if the blurred glass was replaced with clear glass.

「… That’s awesome.」

I touched my horn in reflex. He could literally fool the demon race with their extremely keen sense of magical power with such a simple method.

「It’s a skill that I mastered after many long years of training.」

「Can I master that skill too?」

Verossa blinked his eyes in surprise after hearing my remark.

「Are you… Interested in learning this skill? This is actually a skill that is only useful in shaking off pursuers or ambushes… I mean, the demon race are usually unwilling to learn this skill.」

This was an infamous skill eh.

「I’m always wondering about that matter but eventually―― Winners are those who have killed their foes no matter what kind of method they used, right?」

Honestly speaking, I would even go as far as spiking the demon king’s tea with poison if it was possible. But it wasn’t possible due to his enchanted ring and necklace.

「… You Highness really has a keen insight.」

Verossa smiled lightly as he spoke. He obviously agreed with me.

「Useful or not aside, or whether I’m allowed to use it or not aside. Your tribe’s skill did piqued my curiosity. Though I know that I can’t learn all of them in one day, I should be able to master it with enough time. God knows when those skill will save my life after all, better safe than sorry.」

I knew a little bit from the mouth of the captured night elf during my active year as a hero though. So as long as I know their principles―― Dealing with them would be much easier next time.

「I agree with you, Your Highness. I’m more than willing to have the honor to teach you.」

Thus, I who sat with Verossa after a bit of a heart-to-heart conversation with the latter could ask various things such as the real situation of the night elf’s information network while pretending to be a good demon prince.

「My main job is infiltrating into the countries who are supporting the alliance from the front――」

――What kind of method are you using for slipping past the national border?

「I can’t do anything against those spirit users of the forest elf. I used the underground tunnel dug up by the goblin. In many cases, I simply went with the air-raid squad of the dragons to let them drop me to the ground. Taking a long detour via sea route and land directly on the coast of the southern side of the continent――」

――What kind of method are you using to get the locals to work with you?

「Money… Your Highness, you surely learnt about 『Economy』, right? Ooh, since that’s the case, it’ll be easier to explain. We have a few puppet companies in the alliance since their economy is really developed but fundamentally, we’re using bribe――」

――Can you tell me the details about that process?

「We will pretend to be the company who wants to provide the supply, we’re also bribing the priest of the commander rank of the Holy religion to obtain the military affairs plan beforehand. Since the plan for the fortress in the frontline had already been put in the progress, we burn the warehouse where they keep their provision, or destroy the bridge used for the march――」

My blood ran cold as I heard his replies.

The demon race was a savage tribe. The fact that they knew about money was already strange enough. And yet, their subordinate, the night elf, had profound knowledge about the working of human society!

I had never expected that the claw of intelligence network had reached so deep in the Holy Religion. Not to mention that I had never expected for them to have the locals cooperating with them too!

I tried desperately to commit the name of the company and the countries in which Verossa mentioned in his story into my brain. I had to let this precious information reach the alliance no matter what――

「Come to think of it, I heard that the heroes launched an assault tactic on the demon king castle before I was born. Do you happen to know about that information too?」

When I asked that question, Verossa’s expression turned into that of a frown.

""

「… We failed to predict that situation beforehand. We got the information about one of the white dragon who hid their whereabout from the demon kingdom, the fact that several hero squads were summoned to go to the Holy Country, the increase of the exchange between the Holy Country and various nation, and the increase of the traffic of the delegation but ――」

Oioioi, are you kidding me? That’s literally leaked information ain’t cha!?

「We have never expected that everything is to launch a suicide attack at the demon king castle――」

Meaning that even though they literally had every single piece of the information, they had never expected that surprise attack.

Humph, that was only natural since that assault mission was top secret among top secrets that were only known by the performer, and the king of each country themselves. It seems the fact that the participants were limited to those without any family left like me played a vital part in our success to fool the night elves’ intelligence network.

In other words, it means that the night elf’s intelligence network had yet to reach the royalties… Considering the fact that some information was still leaked, even that didn’t ease my worries though…

「But then, you did a really good job to avoid the detection of the alliance.」

I feign my admiration.

「――Are you wearing a disguise?」

「Changing my skin’s color with cosmetics is the basic but, the real problem is the color of eyes.」

Verossa pointed to his dark red eyes, typical of a night elf.

「It’s possible to change the color with magic but it isn’t feasible since it’s related to magical power. In that situation, we use special lenses for our eyes which are made with a certain corn which secretes special pigment and soft shell of transparent crab which lives in the underground lake. We called it corn shell.」

「Hohou…」

「But since the original color is red, we can’t change the color to blue. We usually use black or brown colour.」

So there was a low chance for people with blue eyes to be the spy of the night elf――

「And to protect our skin from sunlight, we plastered special salve made from special medicinal plants on our skin.」

Yup, already know that one. Since that medicinal plant had a unique smell, a dog who received special training could easily find the night elf’s spy who wore that salve.

「But we used another medicinal plant as of late since the dog can sniff the smell of this salve to find our location. The previous salve is used as a diversion. Since we prepared various salves with different smells but similar effect, we’re always ready to update our equipment.」

Say… What…

I was really surprised but managed to keep my calm facade at the last moment since I needed to know what kind of medicinal plant they used. And though Verossa readily told me about it, I got even more confused due to the sheer amount of information, but there was a low chance for him to suspect me..

He really was a professional spy. But then, that was the last of my worries since it was even stranger if he suspected me, the demon prince and the one who saved his life.

「… Most spies using cosmetic to disguise himself but, those with strong magical power use 【Magic of Human Transformation】 to pose as human.」

When I asked for an explanation, the answer Verossa gave me was simply beyond my imagination.

「Magic of human transformation?」

「Yes. It’s originally the dragon race’s magic. That’s the reason why they can assume human form whenever they like.」

I knew about that particular dragon magic. Though I didn’t hear it directly from them, the white dragons who attended the meeting back then appeared in human form.

Err, are there other races who can use that magic?

「Is there any other race who can use that magic aside from dragon race?」

Since the dawn of history, the dragon race and the human race always had hostile relationship with each other―― The dragon race attacked human settlements since the human had a lot of shiny things, and the humans also hunted down the dragon race for their accumulated treasure and corpse―― When magic had yet to fully develop.

「Yes. One just needs to drink the dragon’s blood to learn this skill, the person themselves must have an appropriate level of magical power. They need to offer appropriate compensation to the dragon to drink their blood, so not everyone can learn this magic.」

「Hohou… And since you say this, you must be one of the people who managed to learn this magic, right?」

Seeing me frown as I asked that question, Verossa revealed a wide grin.

His figure suddenly warped.

The next moment, his figure was replaced with a middle-aged man.

Different from the youthful night elf figure from before, it was the figure of an old man. Upon a closer look, he did bear resemblance with Verossa but he looked exactly like a human thanks to the addition of his stubble. His ears rounded, the color of his hair and eyes were also changed to brown.

「W-Wow…」

""

I was completely at a loss for words.

This was… A freaking, perfect disguise…!

「What about your resistance toward holy attribute or sunlight?」

「There’s no problem with sunlight. At most, it only causes a sunburn.」

Verossa replied with a deeper and hoarse voice more than his real self.

「But if I return to my original self with those sunburns, it’s going to be hell. But still, I can stay active even during the day. As for holy attribute, it’s still impossible to escape from it.」

That was a relief. Meaning that the holy attribute could be used as a detector…

「And then, Your Highness might have noticed too but, when I took this form, both my presence and magical power weakened to human level.」

… Now that he said it.

I mean, his presence and magical power literally took a nosedive compared to before――

「――It looks much weaker right?」

Verossa(In human form), was grinning as if he read my train of thought.

「Yeah.」

「Nevertheless, I can’t let my guard down even in this human form. Shall I show a cheap trick of mine?」

Verossa stood up and then unsheathed a slender sword from its scabbard.

――An extremely sharp sword.

The sword’s blade cast a dangerous light under the pale sunlight before dawn.

And then, he suddenly lopped off the tree beside him without even making a prior movement.

His sword―― Slid so effortlessly through the trunk of the tree.

The cross-section was terrifyingly smooth akin to that of a mirror, and fell just like that.

――That slash sent a shiver down my spine.

The clarity of the sword felt like it disregarded natural law.

No way.

This guy was a fricking night elf!!

「You are――」

I spoke as if it was natural.

「A 『Sword Saint』?」

Verossa looked from his shoulder as he returned his sword to its sheath―― And was grinning for a second time at me.

===

Elven sword saint… Verossa