"All of them... members of the Brotherhood?"
They turned a street corner, and Kohn looked suspiciously at both sides of the street.
"Are they all over the place?"
Morris only smiled.
"Of course not."
Tales quickened his pace and walked up beside them, saying coldly:
"If things had reached that point, the Brotherhood would have been wiped out long ago."
At that moment, Tales and Morris's gazes met in midair—the former cold, the latter grinning—as a game known only to the two of them began.
But Tales's tone changed at once.
"Without a doubt, however, the moment we appeared in these people's sight, the Brotherhood had already set its eyes on us."
Kohn frowned. Gollor instinctively placed a hand on his weapon and warily observed every passerby on the street.
"Exactly." Morris burst out laughing. "From the moment you stepped onto the first brick of the Lower City District, every craftsman's shop, peddler, beggar, merchant, and passerby along the way had already seen you perfectly clearly."
Kohn raised his head and spat harshly.
"Bah. Who doesn't know that every shop on this street has to pay protection money to the Brotherhood? They're all acting under your threats..."
But this time, Tales interrupted him.
"But he isn't wrong." The Prince looked toward a shop where several laborers, drenched in sweat, were struggling to unload cargo. "These people really are members of the Brotherhood."
Kohn was utterly bewildered.
One moment they weren't members of the Brotherhood, and the next they were...
Were they members of the Brotherhood or not?
Morris, however, seemed thoughtful.
"Oh, Your Highness, you know?"
"I don't." Tales's expression did not change. "I only know that you're taking this opportunity to show off your strength to me and demonstrate the Brotherhood's foundations."
Morris turned away awkwardly, his thoughts exposed.