Having established the pecking order, Lion mask reassigned several of the officers. A few mid-ranking officers would now take over some of the duties previously handled by the highest-ranking members.

The more perceptive among them realized that their newly promoted superiors had belonged to the fringes of the old organization. Some were unhappy about this, but none dared show it openly. Horse mask was still standing right beside them, watching with a blood-dripping sword in hand.

Then Lion mask delivered another shock to the officers. Citing the results of a recent “inspection,” he exposed several officers’ corrupt dealings. As the men who had secretly pocketed money meant for the upper ranks went pale, he issued a solemn warning.

"Restore what you took of your own accord, and I will let it pass this once. But remember, there will be no second chance."

After the first shock of his force and the second shock of his intelligence-gathering capabilities, they could no longer muster even the courage to resist. Finally, he announced that instructions concerning future operations would be delivered individually, as before. Then the two masked men strode out of the theater.

* * *

After leaving the Golden Theater, Lion mask and Horse mask passed through several deserted alleys, evading watchful eyes before removing their masks in a secluded spot.

"To the eternal prosperity of the Altoan people!"

"Hey, don't imitate me. That was embarrassing enough already..."

As Shan teased him after taking off his horse mask, Roden grumbled quietly beside him, removing his lion mask.

"No, you were really good! You genuinely sounded like someone sent by the Brotherhood's leader."

"Should've joined a theater troupe and become an actor."

Despite his self-deprecating remark, Roden's acting was truly remarkable for someone without formal training. Hadn't Shan himself once firmly believed he was a powerful knight, right up until Roden fell flat on his face all on his own?

Their masks were simple magical devices Princess Sherin had made in what little time she could spare. Each contained a tiny fragment of magic stone that altered the wearer's voice. In addition, the eyeholes of Shan's mask were covered with amethyst enchanted to swallow light, preventing the glow of his eyes from escaping.

Shan took off his coat and bundled it together with the mask, then removed his long trousers and collected the two wooden rods he had been wearing beneath his feet. Watching him, Roden asked with an incredulous expression,

"Forget my acting—that's what amazes me! How the hell do you run around with those things strapped to your feet?"

If Roden tried to move with wooden rods over twenty centimeters long beneath his feet to make himself taller, he would at best manage a few tottering steps before falling over. Yet Shan had leaped between the rows of seats and cut down thugs while using those very things to increase his height. Granted, they had made his gait somewhat bizarre.

In any case, even the keenest observer would never realize that Horse mask was Shan. With an obvious difference in height of over twenty centimeters, it would be difficult to imagine they were the same person.

Of course, gaining the upper hand through intimidation hardly meant their takeover of the Brotherhood was complete. They still had to devise a way to send anonymous orders to the newly appointed senior officers and improve the organization's internal structure.

Princess Sherin lent them a little help with the former. Using her connections, Roden established a system for exchanging letters with the senior officers through mages of the Magic Society. This did provide a clue that the leader's representative, Lion mask, had ties to the Magic Society, but it left almost no way to trace him beyond that. Mages might be regarded with some aversion, but they were still a class of specialists backed by the royal family. Mere criminals would not dare target them.

Next, he abolished every existing method of communication and ordered that any contact made through those channels be reported immediately. The stated purpose was to prevent confusion caused by surviving traitors, but the real goal was to keep the original leader from reclaiming control.

The final task was reforming the system that allowed the middle ranks and above to prosper by exploiting Altoans at the very bottom of society. This was, in fact, the most difficult part. No one in the world wanted to surrender privileges they already possessed.

They could attempt it at all for two reasons. First, the men Roden had promoted to senior officers were among the few in the Brotherhood who retained something resembling a conscience. Second, they had a way to cover at least some of the lost revenue.

"Where's the money coming from?"

"The hidden assets of the officers we killed."

As the Brotherhood's highest-ranking members, those men had jointly controlled a substantial portion of the organization's wealth. Naturally, all of it now belonged to Shan and Roden. Roden used those assets to cover the shortfall left when the Brotherhood stopped exploiting Altoans.

"Of course, we can't keep covering the losses with this money forever. In the long run, the organization needs to earn its own income."

"How?"

"Through honest work."

Roden's goal was to transform the Brotherhood into an organization that protected persecuted Altoans, as it had originally been intended to do, and sustain it through donations from those under its protection who could afford to contribute. In short, he wanted to build a self-sustaining community.

Naturally, not every Brotherhood officer agreed with that vision. If they were paid even without doing anything crooked, then surely they could make twice as much by taking the money and carrying on with their crimes.

To crack down on men who thought that way, Roden spent his days cross-checking the ledgers he had been given against intelligence gathered from various sources, working to uncover corruption. When necessary, he even sought Sherin's help. And every time he uncovered a case, the Brotherhood's “executioner” appeared: a swordsman in a horse mask with grotesquely long legs.

"I-I'm sorry! Please, forgive me just this on—"

CRUNCH!

The pleading Altoan man's head went flying. Such was the end of a piece of trash who had lured women to him and tried to sell them to a brothel after they came to the capital hoping to work hard and make something of their lives.

Shan gazed silently at the terrified Altoan women huddled behind the man, then tossed them a cloak to cover themselves and left. He had made an example of their boss; if the dead man's subordinates wanted to live, they would see to the aftermath properly.

"Th-thank you!"

One of the women bowed to his retreating back.

After several such incidents, the horse-masked swordsman became a symbol of protection among impoverished Altoans—a guardian who shielded them from their own vicious countrymen. Finally, after twenty men who declared they had endured enough and attempted a rebellion were slaughtered, the old exploiters either adapted or fled under cover of night. Either way, the internal reform was a success.

Naturally, these changes in the Brotherhood attracted the Council's attention. After all, the Brotherhood was nominally one of the criminal organizations that made up the Council. When summoned, Roden sent one of his newly appointed senior officers rather than attending himself.

"An internal matter, you say?"

"That's right."

As the Council's representative frowned, Mung, the Brotherhood's new senior officer and Council liaison, swallowed hard. Until recently, he had been nothing more than a mid-ranking officer overseeing pickpockets. He could hardly help being nervous in front of such an underworld heavyweight.

"Well, if that's the case... The Council only wishes to confirm one thing. Is the Brotherhood still a member of the Council?"

"Of course."

Apparently satisfied with that answer, the representative's persistently sour expression softened into a pleased smile.

After a few more minor questions, as the negotiations drew to a close, Mung conveyed the instructions he had received from his leader.

"You want the Council to leave Shan Barendil alone?"

"As a fellow Altoan, he's the target of a long-term operation to recruit him into the Brotherhood. It would be troublesome if fellow Council members worked at cross-purposes and clashed, wouldn't it?"

"The mosquitoes will raise hell. They've been itching to get him for killing their own kind."

The Council representative muttered as though anticipating a headache. Mung forced himself to muster his courage and replied,

"Honestly, is it a crime for a knight to kill a few of those mosquitoes? Let's not do this to a fellow human. A stronger Brotherhood means a more influential Council. Surely that's no bad thing."

As he spoke, Mung used the nimble fingers of a pickpocket to slip a bribe into the representative's sleeve. Realizing it was a necklace set with a sizable gemstone, the representative smiled with his thin lips.

"Well, I'll pass that on to my superiors for now."

Mung sighed in relief as he realized the bribe had worked.

Then the representative casually added,

"Oh, if the recruitment fails, he'll have to be eliminated. Keep in mind that the Council may commission your executioner for the job."

Looking deeply intrigued, he explained that the man was already well known within the Council.

A swordsman with the peculiar Altoan physique: grotesquely long legs that bent at multiple joints. He was skilled enough to cut down more than a dozen capable fighters single-handedly. Even in an underworld with no shortage of hidden masters, fighters of that caliber were rare. Unless they had committed something as serious as high treason, nobles generally found truly exceptional warriors through their connections and took them into service.

"I hear quite a few people are looking forward to finding out who would win between the Green-Eyed Knight and the Brotherhood's executioner."

The representative chuckled, admitting he was one of them. And so Shan's other identity spread quietly through unseen channels.

Shortly after the negotiations ended, the Council sent the expected reply: “Inform us if recruitment fails, and we will attempt to eliminate him.” Roden nodded in satisfaction at the report. Whether this “recruitment” took years or decades was entirely up to him, the Brotherhood's new leader. Securing that one safeguard was enough to make the whole undertaking worthwhile.

* * *

Some two months passed as they worked tirelessly to take control of the underworld. The sweltering summer had given way to fallen leaves carpeting the ground. With the cool autumn breeze, Shan and Roden's busy lives eased a little as well. The Brotherhood was gradually adapting to the changes, reducing the need for close surveillance and harsh punishment. It had always been a cell-based organization controlled by its leader through a handful of letters. Once they established a working system, managing it should not prove difficult.

Gazing up at the deep blue autumn sky, Shan suddenly spoke.

"Maybe it's time we made a trip to the Demonlands."

"To collect the artifacts?"

"Yeah."

He had originally intended to leave them for about six months before selling them, so now seemed like a good time. Though he had hidden them quite well, he was also beginning to worry that someone might have taken them.

"The Brotherhood will be all right if we're away for a little while, won't it?"

"Sure. The old leader didn't contact them that often either. The whole organization is structured to run on its own."

Had that not been the case, they would simply have smashed it apart rather than taking it over through such a cumbersome process.

After his easy reply, Roden scratched his beard with his thumb.

"It's the princess I'm worried about. Things at court have been pretty bad lately, haven't they?"

"Yeah. She seems really busy."

Princess Sherin, who had actively helped them in the early stages of the takeover, had lately become almost impossible to contact. In fact, the atmosphere had grown so ominous that even people without eyes and ears at court could sense something was wrong. Recently, knights serving Princes Conrad and Elvin had started quarrels that escalated into fights, cutting off one another's arms and stabbing each other in the belly. Even ordinary citizens passing through the streets wore anxious expressions.

"If something happens, Her Highness might need our help. I'd rather stay in the capital if we can, but we can't sit around forever either."

Shan was, needless to say, an unparalleled warrior, and now they also had the Brotherhood's fighting strength to call upon in an emergency. A few secretly trained Altoan knights and some fifty young men who could be armed when needed might not be enough to defeat one of the princes, but they could certainly tip the balance toward one side.

While they were keeping a close watch on developments at court, trouble arrived from an entirely unexpected direction: the east.

"Shedil is in danger!"

"Hordes of monsters are invading from the east!"

The bearers of this news were the troops the two princes had sent into the Demonlands several months earlier, supposedly to save their father—or, more accurately, to pretend they were trying. The force had originally consisted of more than a dozen knights, thirty squires attending them, two hundred mercenaries, and forty priests. Now fewer than a third remained. Most of those survivors were gravely wounded, the very picture of a routed army.

The news that rocked Hasra, and would probably soon spread throughout Pendia, quickly reached the Wievers mansion.

"An army of monsters?"

"Apparently. It looks like the expedition disturbed something strange out there..."

Roden, who had gathered the news through his various contacts, spoke with a troubled expression.

Several months earlier, the two princes' troops had advanced into the Demonlands, pushing east as though competing with one another. Every man had been brimming with enthusiasm, for whoever found a magical device capable of restoring the king's health had been promised a count's title and a corresponding domain.

When enthusiasm outran the knowledge and ability needed to support it, disaster was inevitable. Having charged headlong into the Demonlands, the two princes' forces began to dwindle almost at once under the onslaught of monsters from every direction and the region's uniquely vicious environmental changes. It was hardly surprising. Unlike the crusaders of the Kingdom of Ajun, they had no experience leading large forces through the Demonlands, and they had split into two groups without even a competent commander. Shedil's explorers did not travel in parties of a dozen or so at most, rather than mounting great expeditions, because they were fools.

Within weeks, the army had collapsed in the heart of the Demonlands, and only a portion of its men survived to return to Shedil. That was exactly what the two princes had anticipated when they sent those disposable pawns, and ordinarily the story should have ended there. The problem was that, not long after the survivors returned, an enormous army of monsters emerged from the Demonlands in pursuit and began marching west. Some of the routed soldiers scattered across the Demonlands had clearly provoked them and drawn them back into the country's heartland.

"What's more, they aren't just rampaging at random. They seem to be under some degree of control, despite being a mix of all kinds of monsters."

"A horde lord..."

"Exactly."

Shan murmured as he recalled something he had learned during his general lessons.

Normally, monsters avoided other species or even treated them as enemies, but sometimes they transcended those instincts. They would recognize a single monster with powerful innate charisma as their protector and gather beneath it. Such a creature was called a horde lord. Indeed, the ancient Arman Empire itself had fallen to an invasion led by one. The mighty demonic dragon later known as Lagrissa of the Scarlet Wings had gathered monsters beneath its command and crushed the main strength of the imperial army.

Since then, horde lords had continued to emerge and invade every so often, just as the memory of the last one faded. This time, the large force that had stirred up the Demonlands had even swelled the ranks of the horde lord's army.

"This horde lord is apparently an ogre. As for the monsters under it... They say there are more than a dozen large ones, with the lesser ones numbering in the hundreds. There really won't be anything left wherever they go."

Ogres ranked among the most powerful large monsters. Individual differences made precise comparisons difficult, but they were generally considered on par with, or slightly above, the cockatrice Shan had faced. With a host of guards accompanying such a creature, the combined forces of a few ordinary nobles would stand no chance. This was a war against monsters that demanded a national response.

Soon after the news spread, the royal family began recruiting warriors to oppose the great monster offensive. At the same time, a visitor arrived at the Wievers mansion. Contrary to their expectations, it was not Princess Sherin herself, but Aran, the knight who guarded her.

"Her Highness is unable to get away at present," Aran said stiffly.

According to her, tensions at court had recently reached such extremes that Sherin could no longer come and go as freely as before. The slightest suspicious movement reportedly sent both princes into something approaching a fit, each accusing her of siding with the other and plotting some scheme.

"Neither prince will want to commit his elite knights. If one sends his knights to hunt the ogre, it will give the other far too great an advantage."

Nor did they trust each other enough to agree to send out most of their knights together. The force assembled to kill the ogre would therefore most likely be a motley collection of lesser fighters. Naturally, taking part in a campaign so likely to fail meant risking one's life.

"It'll be difficult to stay out of the ogre hunt, won't it?"

"Yes."

Several months had already passed since Shan defeated the vampire of Kastaman Castle. If a knight famed for slaying a cockatrice refused to join the ogre hunt after having had ample time to rest, the condemnation would be almost unimaginable. Unlike other knights, who could plead that their lieges' orders prevented them from participating, he was a free knight-errant.

Of course, even without the prospect of his hard-earned reputation being dumped into a cesspit, Shan wanted to join the fight. Facing an ogre would let him experience once more the exhilaration he had felt battling the cockatrice. It was a thrill ordinary human opponents could never provide: confronting an enemy that could crush him the instant he let his guard slip. The pleasure, as though the substances released by his brain were melting his entire head, was truly addictive.

"Yes, Her Highness expected as much... Here."

Answering in a resigned tone, Aran took something from inside her clothing and held it out. Shan stared at the glass vial filled with a liquid as red as blood, and she explained.

"A gift from Her Highness, and payment for a commission. It's an elixir that will keep you alive even through horrific injuries. The price... is for you to return safely, she said."

Shan gazed quietly at the medicine Aran offered, then accepted it respectfully with both hands and bowed his head. The gesture was meant not for Aran, but for the person who had made it for him.

"Please tell her I gratefully accept, and that I'll come back alive."