And at that moment, Karl happened to appear from behind them.
He wore ordinary coarse cloth clothes, and a bulging sack was slung over his shoulder.
He had just stepped out of the teleportation array and hadn't even had a chance to speak when he heard Chief Morg's anger-filled words.
Karl: “...”
He looked at Chief Morg, who was currently talking to the demons and even badmouthing the First Prince, and then at Mrs. Nashi standing in front of Morg.
Then he glanced at the crowd of demons behind her.
And then at the sack of supplies on his own shoulder.
The atmosphere felt rather awkward.
After that, he said nothing, silently setting down the supplies he had brought on the ground.
The cloth bag hit the ground with a soft thud.
Inside were bread, dry rations, medicine, and several packages of healing salve wrapped in coarse cloth.
Watching this strange man who had suddenly appeared and put down his things, both sides fell into a bizarre silence.
Lin Ling also blinked from within the crowd.
She was still wearing her rabbit beastkin disguise, so he shouldn't have recognized her.
But this older man who had suddenly appeared... why did she feel like she had seen him somewhere before?
At the back of the demon crowd, Leticia's pupils shrank suddenly when she saw the man in coarse clothes.
Even though he had changed out of his bishop's robes and currently looked like an ordinary border merchant,
Leticia could not possibly mistake one of the Holy See's bishops.
“B-Bishop Karl?”
She muttered under her breath instinctively.
Her voice was very soft.
But she had still underestimated the elven hearing of Phelan, who stood beside her.
Phelan's fingers hanging at his side twitched slightly, and magic began to silently circulate at his fingertips.
If Leticia made any out-of-line moves, he would not hesitate to restrain her first.
Regardless of whether she showed signs of change now,
she was still the Saintess of the Holy See after all.
And the man before them was a bishop of the Holy See.
However, Leticia did not step forward.
She merely shrank back into the crowd, as if trying her best to avoid Karl's gaze.
She did not want to be discovered by the Holy See right now.
Seeing both sides looking somewhat at a loss, Karl finally sighed.
“Alright.”
He raised his hand and waved it as if shooing away flies.
“My demon friends, I am merely a passing merchant.”
“Seeing how desolate this place is, I simply decided to lend a hand.”
As he spoke, he glanced at Mrs. Nashi, then at the demon supplies sitting on the ground.
“You should leave quickly.”
“I'll pretend I know nothing about this.”
Mrs. Nashi was slightly taken aback.
She looked at the human man before her, who was clearly out of the ordinary.
Though he claimed to be a merchant, neither his tone nor his gaze resembled those of a common trader.
However, he did not call for the soldiers.
Nor did he show any hostility.
He had even actively told them to leave.
After a brief silence, Mrs. Nashi took out a portion of the Magic Crystals from her bag and offered them to Karl.
“Our thanks to you, merchant.”
Karl looked down at the Magic Crystals.
Then, he naturally reached out and took them.
“Hmph.”
“At least you have some manners.”
He tucked the Magic Crystals away and waved his hand again.
“Go on, go on.”
“If you don't leave now and the patrol soldiers spot you later, I won't speak up for you again.”
The demons looked at one another.
After confirming that he truly had no intention of stopping them, Mrs. Nashi nodded to Chief Morg.
“Then we shall take our leave.”
Chief Morg looked at her, his expression still filled with worry.
“Be careful on the road.”
Mrs. Nashi led the demons as they retreated toward the border.
After they had walked a certain distance, the teleportation array lit up once more.
With a flash of dark blue light, the demons quickly vanished from the spot.
Chief Morg and the other villagers also returned to the village one after another.
Only Karl was left, sitting alone in the open space.
He stared in the direction the demons had gone, then looked down at the Magic Crystals in his hand, his expression unreadable.
After a moment, a lazy voice drifted over from the side.
“Wow.”
“Bishop Karl actually had nothing to say after witnessing such a scene?”
Furni walked out from who knows where.
She still looked half-asleep, though she wore a coarse cloth cloak over her bishop's robes to conceal her overly conspicuous identity.
She looked toward where the demons had vanished, then at Karl sitting on the ground.
“This doesn't seem like the reaction a bishop of the Holy See should have.”
Karl looked up at her.
“Otherwise, what should I have done?”
He let out a helpless sigh.
“Reveal my identity?”
“And then purge all the villagers here as Filthy Ones for associating with demons?”
Furni narrowed her eyes.
“Don't you always say we must maintain the Holy See's dignity?”
“Dignity isn't meant for drawing swords against starving people.”
Karl patted the dust off his hands and stood up.
“Furni, you know the source of Magic Crystals better than anyone, don't you?”
Furni did not answer immediately.
She simply stared at the spot where the demons had just been standing.
A faint glint flashed in her golden slit pupils.
As if she had spotted something that caught her interest.
Karl did not notice the change in her eyes.
Or rather, even if he had, he had no intention of pressing the issue right now.
“Alright.”
“It seems today is not our lucky day.”
“Let's head back first.”
With that, he turned to look at the nearby village.
A few villagers were hiding by their windows, peeking at him.
Karl did not call them out.
He simply pulled a slip of paper from his sleeve and pressed it under the supplies he had brought.
On the note was written a very simple sentence:
“Take the goods. Keep quiet about this.”
Only after doing this did Karl lead Furni away from the village.
As they walked out of the village, Furni suddenly spoke up:
“Hey, hey.”
“Why did you accept that demon woman's Magic Crystals?”
She tilted her head.
“Is the Hero Summoning really that short on Magic Crystals?”
He glanced at Furni, whose tail had slipped out from under her cloak again, and spoke with a chuckle.
“Hmph, Furni.”
“You are so much older than me, yet you still don't quite understand humans.”
Furni's tail paused.
“Karl.”
“Yes?”
“Do you want me to kick you?”
Karl pretended not to hear.
He looked at the portal opening before him and spoke as he walked:
“Like I said, I am merely a passing merchant.”
“If a merchant doesn't even accept a fortune delivered right to him, it would prove he stands to gain an even greater benefit from this affair.”
“That would only arouse suspicion instead.”
“Verbal promises are no different from empty boasts.”
“By accepting the Magic Crystals, they will believe that I will truly play by a merchant's rules.”
As she listened to his long-winded explanation, the sleepy look on Furni's face grew heavier.
Karl continued:
“Furthermore, the fact that the demons are now willing to provide food to supply the people on the border shows that their food crisis has indeed been alleviated.”
“This in itself is highly noteworthy.”
“If we can figure out exactly how they managed to do it in such a short time...”
Before he could finish, Karl suddenly felt a powerful force from behind.
Furni raised her foot and kicked him directly into the portal.
“Fur— Ma—”
Karl only had time to blurt out those incoherent syllables before he was kicked straight into the portal.
In the next second, Furni casually shut the portal.
Silence returned to the surroundings.
Furni stood where she was, lazily pulling her foot back.
“Oh, Karl.”
“That kind of logic is far too troublesome.”
“Leave it for you humans to figure out on your own.”
She turned her head to look in the direction where the demons had just vanished.
In that fleeting moment just now,
she had definitely felt it.
Among that group of demons, there was a very familiar Hero's aura.
Though it was extremely faint and covered by some disguise and other magic,
she would not mistake it.
Furni's golden slit pupils glowed faintly, a hint of curiosity leaking through.
“Now, there are a few things I need to confirm.”
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