"The captain of Squad One. One of the former top-ranking men in the Northern Empire's shadow corps, and a seriously nasty piece of work. On a night with no moon, I wouldn't stand a chance against him."
Timmy knew the demon-hunting organization had four squads in all, operating mainly in the Central Lands, where the Kingdom of Ert lay, and along the Northern border regions. On the surface they were a private outfit run by civilians. In truth they were backed by the Kingdom of Ert's government, along with funding from various nobles in the North and the Central Lands.
Hunting the Demon Race and nothing else didn't pay. Do only that, and you'd starve sooner or later.
So they cleared monsters out of noble estates, elbowed mercenaries and adventurers aside for contracts, and took on the murkier jobs that touched on demons. If the Demon Race was involved in any way, the demon-hunting organization had a hand in it.
Squads Three and Four handled Central Lands business. Squads One and Two covered the North.
Since each of the four squads answered to a different set of backers, they shared intelligence and little else, and rarely worked together unless the situation demanded it. In practice, the Demon Hunters were a very loose association indeed.
"So the Empire got to him?"
"No. He died in a place called Gaderia. His last contract was the assassination of Gaderia's lord. Funny thing, that. Thirty years ago Gaderia was a nothing little fief that any neighboring noble could have swallowed whole at any moment. Now it's an immovable free city."
Rolwen rubbed his chin. "And here's the funnier part. Gaderia has a policy of coexistence between Humans and the Demon Race."
"Coexistence... There's got to be a demon pulling the strings behind that."
As Squad Three's vice-captain, Timmy had met the other captains. As he remembered it, the captain of Squad One hated the Demon Race more bitterly than any of them, and was the cruelest of them all when it came to killing. Now he understood why the man had taken that contract.
"From where the demon-hunting organization stands, that city is the enemy, plain and simple. Whether they've bowed to the Demon Race or they're using it, demons are supposed to be dead, not alive."
Rolwen's words stirred something in Timmy. A memory surfaced from his childhood: the demon who had saved his village, and whom the village had driven out.
"But if that city has Humans and the Demon Race living side by side, maybe there really are demons who mean us no harm?"
"That's exactly why I say you don't belong in the organization. My ancestor said it long ago: Humans aren't food to demons. It's simply their nature. They use our feelings and our habits to confuse us, and then they kill us. That's all a demon is. Same as how Demon Hunters will try every trick in the book to hunt them down."
"So. The job?"
Timmy had already guessed. Losses that heavy in Squad One meant the Kingdom of Ert, the birthplace of the Demon Hunters, could no longer sit still.
"Infiltrate Gaderia and investigate. Quietly wipe out the demons there and wreck the order they've built. The pay is generous, and for good reason, because I think this one is genuinely dangerous. Haven't you been meaning to visit your old man for ages? Leave this job to me. One man slips in easier than two. Besides, I'll have help."
Rolwen was telling him, in his roundabout way, not to come.
"Help?"
"The captain of Squad Two. She's the one who dug up the news of Squad One's captain dying. Squad Two works out of the North, and they've already gone in ahead of us."
"That madwoman?! She's deadweight, isn't she?"
It came back to Timmy then. The captain of Squad One hunted demons out of hatred. The captain of Squad Two was simply insane. Her reason for hunting the Demon Race was that demons were strong, and that it was fun.
"When she's calm, you can hold a conversation with her. And she's every bit as strong as I am."
"Captain, take me along on this one. I want to see that city for myself."
"No. Absolutely not. I won't allow it. I'm damn well pocketing the whole reward myself!"
He played the greedy bastard well enough, but after all their time together Timmy could see through it. Rolwen was afraid. Something had rattled a man who wouldn't flinch facing down a Red Mirror Dragon, badly enough that even his habitual swearing had thinned out over the course of this conversation.
"Count me in. That mouth of yours will ruin everything. Someone has to watch it for you."
...
Unable to argue him down, Rolwen agreed in the end.
Half a month on the road later, the two of them arrived at the lands of Gaderia, disguised as small-time peddlers.
The moment Gaderia's walls came into view, Rolwen shivered.
"Captain, the Northern weather's turning cold. Wrap up warm. And when we go through the gate, best to bury your mouth in a scarf and say nothing."
"Damn it, wouldn't that look even more suspicious? I'm not shaking because of the cold. Something just feels wrong. Like I'm being watched."
"Magic, maybe? There's something out of the ordinary about this place, I feel it too."
"Watch yourself going in. Don't let anything damn well slip. Stick to the lines we worked out."
"You're the one with the mouth to worry about, Cap— no. Big brother."
"Little brother, whether we make a killing on this one is down to the two of us."
Trading idle remarks, their wagon rolled up to Gaderia's gate.
The guards looked over the "goods" they had loaded in advance and asked their business. After that, the two of them slipped into the outermost ring of the city without the slightest trouble.
Just before they passed through, out of the corner of his eye, Timmy caught sight of armored members of the Demon Race standing among the gate guards.
"That was easy."
Timmy marveled at it. The wall guards hadn't even shaken them down for a toll.
"It's a damn free city, after all."
"What's the next step?"
"First we find an inn and eat ourselves stupid. Pick up whatever talk is going around while we're at it."
The wagon rolled along the main road, Rolwen at the reins while Timmy watched the streets from beside him.
As they passed a patch of greenery, a child's wail rose up.
"Waaaah, my balloon..."
The little girl was still staring up at the balloon snagged in the treetop, tears rolling down her face, when one of the Demon Race who had been walking among the crowd heard her and stepped out.
Linie, a sack of groceries cradled in her arms, tilted her head at the crying girl. She followed the direction the girl pointed, and her eyes brightened a little.
Setting the sack gently on the ground, Linie fixed her gaze on the balloon and leapt, carrying herself into the air on nothing but raw physical strength.
There was a sharp crack as the branch snapped. Linie landed and held out the twig with the balloon tangled around it.
"Hic... hnn... thank you, miss."
"Don't lose it next time."
With that, Linie picked up her groceries and walked on without another glance.
The wagon swung out past her from behind and rattled on, deeper into Gaderia's outer city.
Up on the driver's seat, Rolwen, who had watched the whole thing, let a smile spread across his handsome face.
"Interesting."
High on a tall clock tower, the puppet Böse looked down over Gaderia, eyes vacant and dull.
____
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