The Druid Who Devoured the Great Nature

“What? That’s…”

“It’s a shame, but it doesn’t seem like we have time to think it over.”

The wheels, which had been pulled to a sharp turn, rattled roughly as if they would fly off. The throwing axes that had been aimed at the very spot we had just dodged were stuck in the ground.

The outskirts of the public district. The number of people visible on the street had decreased. Of course, it wasn’t that there were no passersby, just that the crowd had thinned. The enemies didn’t care about this and threw their weapons while riding their horses.

“Heok!”

A passerby, who had almost been hit in the leg by an axe, trembled in fear. It wasn’t that they had intentionally thrown it to avoid him, but that he had just been lucky. An attitude of just achieving the goal first, like a desperate person who doesn’t consider the consequences.

I didn’t know how such an act was tolerated in the public district. In any case, it was a situation where just running away was not the answer.

“Those guys are Frederic’s knights! No matter how much they’re just a pursuit team, you guys alone…!”

Frederic, the name of one of the families that ruled the territory of Brahms. Then was this a dispute between the two noble families of Frederic and Darian, which were directly related? It was an incident that an outsider should not get involved in.

To take Gellerg City as an example, it was a dispute between megacorps. Seeing as they were called traitors and all, the inner workings were obviously more complicated. But that was not the important problem right now.

“Heuk!”

A knight who had caught up to us right next to us swung his spear without opening his mouth. Darian quickly drew his sword and deflected the spear shaft. As if his bicep muscles were not just for show, he struck the spear shaft upwards with his sword and still had enough strength left to open up the opponent’s upper body.

As Darian struck his face with the flat of his sword, the knight fell from his horse. But no one avoided or jumped over the fallen knight. The fallen knight was trampled to a pulp by the hooves of his comrades.

They didn’t even flinch at trampling their own comrade to death. On the contrary, they were in a situation where they were catching up with even more speed with their fierce eyes.

“Think simply. It’s a win-win situation anyway. If we can take care of those guys, we live, and if we’re not helpful, we die just like that.”

No matter how skilled Darian was, he was outnumbered now. If the enemies aimed for the carriage instead of him, he would be helpless. The result was set from the beginning.

“Damn it, I have no choice! Do as you please!”

“I will.”

When I gestured to Sage, she climbed onto the roof of the carriage. Darian blinked his eyes, then grabbed my shoulder and asked.

“You said you were a contractor, but you’re not going to do it yourself?”

“My ability is too conspicuous.”

If I summoned a plant and tied their feet, this chase would end right away. But this was an ability that made it easy to identify the contractor Allen. If they investigated later, my identity would be revealed quickly.

Although things had gotten twisted, I had no intention of getting seriously involved in their dispute. The best thing would be to use this situation as a pretext to threaten Darian, get the information, and then run away…

‘That’s too shallow a method.’

I didn’t know what would happen in the future. In a situation where I had to rendezvous with the craftsman of the organization Darian belonged to, just using him and throwing him away was a short-sighted action.

“A mage?”

The knight at the head felt the vibration of mana and shouted.

“Scatter!”

The danger of magic lies in its ability to deal with a large number of enemies with its powerful force. The fact that the knight order, which had been charging in a wedge formation, scattered was an appropriate response. Even if some were sacrificed, the rest would be able to approach the mage.

The neat and orderly movement that was ingrained in their bodies through training. It was the capability of the knight order, which was praised as the pride and main force of Brahms.

“Can you handle them all by yourself?”

“If I can just hit them.”

“I’ll support you, so make it certain.”

At this distance, at this speed, even the accuracy of a gunshot would plummet. It was no different for magic. So my job was to tie the feet of the superhuman knights. There was no problem.

“They’re coming!”

The knights, who had confirmed the manifestation of magic, moved their horses to avoid it. Since they didn’t know what kind of magic it was or how powerful it was, they focused on evasion, trusting their horsemanship, rather than rashly trying to block it.

That was their mistake.

“Oops!”

The horses did not listen to the knights’ commands. They snorted breathlessly and just galloped forward like a bull that had seen a red cloth. It was an application of how the horses of the carriage had responded to me and had performed a feat.

The horses, which had prioritized my will over their masters’, refused the knights’ commands. The knights, who were flustered by the unexpected situation of the horses’ rebellion, either fell from their horses or jumped off in a hurry.

But Sage’s magic was already at their throats. In the end, they had no choice but to curl up their armored upper bodies to withstand it with their bodies.

That was Sage’s aim. Chain Pressure. A chain of mana bound the knight. The chain that covered the empty air soon bound all the chasing knights.

“This is, a disabling spell…?”

The knight at the head, as if he had realized something, raised his head sharply.

“Our target is the traitors! We will guarantee the safety of those who are not involved, so get off the carriage!”

To try to negotiate right away after seeing that she hadn’t used an attack spell. If he had noticed that we were outsiders, it was a speed of thought that deserved praise.

Although it was a wrong judgment. In the first place, this was the second time we had fought them. If it had been once, it would have been fine, but if we had clashed twice, it would be hard to say we were outsiders.

Chain Pressure was rather a means to surely defeat them. Sage swung her staff, which was sparking, instead of answering.

In an instant, my vision was covered in white, and at the same time, lightning struck. The thunder, which became a roar that shook the heavens and the earth, echoed after the lightning. The knights were bound together by a chain of mana.

The plate armor acted as a conductor and buried them in the electric shock. The power of the lightning, which had broken the paving stones and had overturned the earth’s crust, did not only affect the enemies.

The floating carriage bounced like a ball and hit the fence, stopping. Darian, who had fallen outside, grabbed his head in the dust and stood up.

“Kkeueuk! The, the enemies…?”

“As you can see.”

The middle of the road was a mess. In the acrid smoke, blackened corpses were scattered on the scorched ground.

Darian muttered with a dazed expression.

“What kind of magic power…”

Why were mages compared to mobile cannons? It was because it was difficult for them to use their abilities flexibly in an urgent situation. This was even more so in Brahms, where many old traditions remained.

The wider the range of magic, and the greater the power, the greater the burden on the mage, and the longer the preparation time. That was the common sense of the people here.

To cast a wide-range attack spell right after casting a large-scale spell that had bound the entire knight order. Moreover, Sage was still a child, judging by her appearance. They probably hadn’t expected her to attack in succession, and even if they had known, they would have thought that they wouldn’t be annihilated.

Darian had a look of utter disbelief.

‘I’m glad I gave Sage the artifact.’

It was a battle where I could get a glimpse of Sage’s talent. However, the power of the lightning magic was greatly influenced by the staff. The stake of Cliff Button, which had called down lightning. It seemed that its power had been further enhanced by modifying it into a staff.

The fact that they were wearing plate armor, which was vulnerable to electric shocks, also played a part.

“Is this the time to be dazed? The pursuit team is not all of them. The carriage is broken, so the speed has decreased, so shouldn’t we move quickly?”

“Ah! Th-that’s right!”

Darian opened the door of the carriage and pulled out his companions, whose bodies were overturned and whose limbs were entangled like a net.

***

“We have succeeded in identifying and executing some of the traitors in the public district.”

“……Some?”

At the sharp reaction of the head of the Frederic family, the man answered honestly.

“Yes, we formed a pursuit team and chased them, but it is said that we missed some.”

“The small fry don’t matter. What happened to Darian?”

“We missed him.”

“You idiots!”

The teacup he had thrown hit the floor and shattered into pieces.

“They don’t know that we have the king’s permission! It was a golden opportunity to hit them from behind while they were off guard! Why did you mess it up! Bring them all and punish them!”

“It’s impossible.”

“Why!”

“They’re all dead.”

“……”

The head of the family stopped his hand, which had been about to throw a plate.

“It seems they were hit by magic. They were annihilated in one blow.”

“……There was a mage of that skill among the traitors?”

“It was a force we had not identified. It is presumed to be an individual from an external city.”

“Again?”

The feeling of déjà vu was not a mistake. The airship attack had already failed due to a person from an external city, and the knight order had been annihilated.

“Where did you say you found the traitors?”

“A secret gambling den.”

“They were mixed in with the gamblers. It’s getting very troublesome.”

A very advantageous situation. Variables that should not have occurred kept occurring. It was a force outside of their calculations, as they were from an external city.

“They couldn’t have brought in help from an external city already, could they?”

“It hasn’t been long since we caught the circumstances that the traitors were trying to bring in outside forces. It’s physically impossible.”

“Then you’re saying that we were just unlucky and they interfered with our plans twice.”

The head of the family’s groans continued for a while.

“Identify the outsiders who came on the airship. I need to know who they are.”

“Then shall we put a tail on them?”

“No, just keep track of their movements for now. There’s no law that says what happened twice can’t happen a third time, but if a coincidence repeats, it becomes a necessity. Even if they really had no impure intentions, if they interfere again next time…”

The head of the family’s firm voice fell on the man who had bowed his head.

“There’s no choice but to take care of them.”

***

“I am Darian Morheim.”

“Morheim.”

I chewed on the word in my mouth. It was the same as Frederic. It was the name of a family that ruled a territory in Brahms. To think that the guy who had been cheating at a gambling den in the public district was really a noble.

“I’m not a direct descendant. The lineage of an illegitimate child born to the previous head of the family’s brother… just think of me as a collateral branch. Although I’m a noble, I’m only half a noble.”

“For a collateral branch, you seemed to know a lot.”

“It’s hard for me to say it myself, but since I was young, I was praised for my talent, being the most suitable to be a knight among my peers. Thanks to that, I caught the eye of the previous head of the family and enjoyed an undeserved honor.”

“You seemed to have good skills.”

“That’s very kind of you. Although I can’t compare to you.”

Darian grinned and continued.

“You must be an outsider. No matter how much I say I’m a collateral branch, the people of this city would be shocked if they heard the name Morheim. Well, it’s also because they’re not just any noble, but a prestigious noble family that has been the lord of a territory for generations.”

“……Are they that great?”

“To the people of this city, yes.”

The perception of nobles by the residents of Gellerg City and the perception of nobles by the residents of Brahms were very different. The nobles of Gellerg City were at most members of the council. Although their power and authority were great in their heads, the head of a megacorp felt more great to the skin.

On the other hand, the nobles of Brahms were the rulers who directly ruled the city. Although not all nobles were the same, the prestigious families that ruled a territory were on a different level. To the point where even a collateral branch could enjoy that power.

“I see.”

Sage quickly lost interest. It was partly because she was from another city, but her master was Colin, the head of a school of the Mage Tower and the disciple of the Mage Tower Master. Although Colin was humble, he was a very important person who could be treated as a distinguished guest in any city.

If it was just a collateral branch, Sage had nothing to be inferior to Darian.

Two days since we had annihilated the pursuit team. We were still on the move. Perhaps because the tension had not subsided, the atmosphere was still awkward. This was the first time Darian had started a conversation with us.

As the cold wind filled the sudden silence, I spoke again.

“It seems we’ll be arriving soon. Before that, shall we talk about some rough stories?”

“……Yes, you can’t say you’re unrelated now. I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

“I heard from someone I know that a war is breaking out again in each territory, is that right?”

“It’s not a war.”

Darian denied it, clenching his fists so hard that they trembled.

“It was a one-sided surprise attack.”

(End of Chapter)