Chapter 107
Chapter 107
In the Right Place (3)
Looking at the tightly sealed barrier, our allies hurriedly cleaned up the battlefield. They gathered the casualties and returned to the makeshift encampment.
Parts of the battlefield were still blazing from the Lightning Spike I had thrown.
“You came.”
“Yeah.”
A small sense of relief showed on Rama’s normally indifferent face as he welcomed me. Soloven, who had just entered the command tent, looked genuinely glad to see me.
“Thanks for coming.”
“Well, it’s all work I’m being paid for anyway.”
The assassin’s lips twitched. It looked like he was about to habitually make a snide remark, but because Rama spoke first, he couldn’t open his mouth.
“Did you see the Fiendbeast?”
“Yeah. I saw it.”
I nodded at Soloven’s words. This Fiendbeast was especially large, so it was visible even from far away.
If the Fiendbeast at the Academy had possessed the body of a gorilla and the head of a lizard, this one had the body of a tower with spider legs attached to it.
“Hm? Are you raising a fox?”
Soloven tilted his head while looking at Aro, who was glaring at him. He reached out toward Aro, who was sitting on my shoulder.
Aro irritably smacked his hand away. Soloven seemed to think it was playful and smiled as if she were cute.
“Shall I hear the report on the battle situation?”
After handing Aro over to Winter, I approached Rama and asked. Rama pointed at the map behind him.
“That’s quite the shabby map.”
“The battlefield isn’t that big.”
At my words, Rama chuckled. Naturally, Soloven also stepped closer.
“It seems my older brother finally caused a disaster.”
“Looks that way.”
“According to Soloven, there’s something called a Fiendbeast. It appears they allied themselves with the organization that created it. If they’re capable of making something like that, then they’re undoubtedly a wicked organization.”
Rama’s guess was correct. The very existence of a Fiendbeast caused discomfort to all other living creatures.
To begin with, the Empire classified chimeras as evil creatures, and creating them was treated as a crime equivalent to imperial terrorism.
“So these Fiendbeasts are chimeras?”
“Yeah. They’re chimeras.”
At Rama’s question, I answered decisively without hesitation. Silence fell over the group. Winter and Soloven, who had seen Fiendbeasts before at the Academy, looked even more shocked.
“I thought they were creatures evil by nature, but to think they’re chimeras.”
“The Imperial House is probably conducting its own investigation too. If we kill the Fiendbeast, they’ll likely lend some support on their side.”
Chimeras were an extremely sensitive issue. Especially the Imperial Princess, who would inherit the throne, would actively move against Fiendbeasts.
After hearing my words, Rama let out a sigh of relief. In a sense, this battle could be viewed as an internal conflict within the Kargula Family.
Even if they won the battle, there was a high chance it would be a hollow victory filled only with scars. In that situation, receiving aid from the Imperial House would have been ideal.
“What’s the barrier’s level?”
“There aren’t any magicians on our side, so we couldn’t analyze it in detail.”
I wasn’t curious about why the battle had started. I already roughly knew what kind of purpose the Fiendbeast had, so there was no need to ask.
If there was a problem, it was exactly as Rama said: there were no magicians. A magician’s job belonged to a magician. Just in case, I looked toward Aro.
“That’s unfortunate.”
Aro shook her head. Although she belonged to the Magic Department, Aro was not exactly a magician but a shaman.
It wasn’t that she could do absolutely nothing, but breaking a barrier was not something a single shaman could easily resolve.
“Hm?”
While I was worrying about how to deal with the barrier, the largest headache before us, someone entered the command tent.
It was a woman with a notably sharp nose and intense eyes. Her face seemed strangely familiar, making me tilt my head.
“Do you know her?”
I couldn’t answer Rama’s question. I was certain I had never seen her before, yet for some reason she didn’t feel unfamiliar. The woman with the indifferent eyes abruptly showed me her wrist.
A crystal bracelet hung from it. The moment I saw the extremely familiar shape of the crystal, I finally understood.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve met her before.”
The person who had been traveling with an Earth Dragon on the train. It was the desert tribe member who had ultimately taken Canis’s crystal.
“I am Davide of the Anaye Order.”
“I am Talman, Chief of the Ulla Desert Tribe.”
We exchanged introductions and greetings.
Seeing me give a perfectly proper greeting, Rama’s jaw dropped open.
“So you actually know how to greet people properly.”
“Sounds like you want another hole in your stomach.”
At Rama’s joking remark, I gave a joking answer of my own. It sounded a little violent, but rather than recoiling, Rama’s eyes gleamed.
“This time will be different.”
“Oh?”
Rama’s face was filled with confidence. Having fully shaken off his illness, he looked like he feared nothing.
Of course, from my perspective, it was laughable. Rama was a fairly decent named character, but he still wasn’t at a level where he could rival me.
—Ding.
The sound of Silent Bell rang in my ears just as my fighting spirit rapidly rose. I glanced back toward Winter.
Winter looked restless as she nervously watched the situation, while Aro was silently cheering me on with exaggerated gestures.
“More importantly, Davide. Do you know the Fiendbeast’s objective?”
Soloven quickly cut in between us. The heated atmosphere immediately cooled once Soloven stepped in.
“It’s probably after the desert’s energy.”
“The desert’s energy?”
The one who reacted to that was Talman. She clearly looked displeased.
“It’s not like the desert will collapse or become barren because of that thing. The desert isn’t small enough to be ruined by something like that in the first place.”
Talman proudly nodded her head. I wasn’t really sure what part of that she considered praise-worthy.
“Still, the damage will be considerable.”
“To the desert?”
“No. I mean it won’t be limited to just the desert.”
At Soloven’s question, I shook my head. It wasn’t merely a matter of the desert becoming even more desolate.
“Mirage.”
At the single word I uttered, everyone gathered in the tent looked puzzled.
“Those bastards are trying to create that mirage.”
“……Through the desert’s energy?”
Rama, wearing a grave expression, asked as if hoping it wasn’t true. I nodded in affirmation.
“Is that even possible? A mirage is a magical natural phenomenon.”
Talman’s question was reasonable. Common sense dictated that controlling a natural phenomenon made no sense.
However, the mastermind was never someone bound by ordinary common sense to begin with.
“The birth of life is also something humans cannot control.”
“I see. So the ones who created the chimeras are the problem.”
“Right. Chimera creation is an ancient alchemy sorcery. It’s one of the very few ancient magics whose lineage still survives today.”
Ancient magic existed beyond the bounds of common sense. Canis, who could be considered something of an expert in ancient magic, was proof enough of that.
A ridiculous sorcery capable of separating emotions and materializing them. Beyond that, there was even movement sorcery that allowed instantaneous appearances without the slightest trace of presence. Manipulating natural phenomena was not impossible.
“Chimera creation is a crime equal to terrorism. Their objective is probably similar as well.”
“So we should view them as a terrorist organization. In that case, if they seize the energy like this, that terrorist group will use the mirage.”
Talman’s anger was the greatest of all. Her face had reddened from rage.
Rama approached and began calming Talman down. I glanced toward Soloven. Soloven shrugged.
“She hasn’t been chief for very long.”
“I see.”
I had thought she seemed oddly inexperienced, and now I understood why.
I clapped my hands, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Rama. Do you have any good strategies?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let me suggest one.”
After hearing Rama’s answer, I immediately walked over to the map. Pointing at the villa marked on it, I began speaking.
“The villa’s only means of protection is the barrier. There aren’t even thick fortress walls. Just a crude barricade.”
After saying that much, I looked around at the group. Everyone was listening attentively.
“It’s simple. We smash through the barrier with firepower and charge straight in. Our Order will handle the Fiendbeast, and the rest will deal with the enemy forces. That’s it.”
“……That’s it?”
Rama let out a sigh, deflated by the absurdly crude and simplistic strategy.
It was certainly the easiest and most effective plan, but it wasn’t as though they had avoided using it because they hadn’t thought of it.
“Do we even have enough firepower to break through the barrier? Your lightning is certainly powerful, but even my flames couldn’t leave a single scratch on the enemy’s barrier.”
Soloven raised a perfectly reasonable objection. I shrugged.
“We can use my Lightning Spike along with that powerful technique you possess.”
“……You really know all kinds of things. But do you understand? If I use that, I won’t be able to participate in the battle afterward.”
The finishing move Soloven used in the game. A superheated flaming sword that melted everything it touched. It was a skill with tremendous destructive power, but its drawbacks were equally severe.
The longer Soloven remained on the frontlines, the greater his value became. Partly because he mainly used a shield, and partly because of the wide-area flames surrounding him that continuously dealt damage.
But once he used his finishing move, Soloven would immediately become incapacitated.
“We only need to break through the barrier. We’ll handle the rest ourselves.”
“So you’re confident you can subdue the Fiendbeast without that massive lightning strike.”
I nodded confidently.
As we gradually refined the operation details, a sudden deafening sound rang out.
“What the hell?”
Startled, everyone rushed out of the tent.
And then we witnessed an unbelievable sight.
“……A wall?”
The enemy encampment. A fortress wall was rising from the ground around the Kargula Family’s villa.
“You fucking bastard mage assholes.”
Looking at the fortress wall covered in strange fabric, I spat out a vulgar curse. Even Soloven had nothing to say.
“At a glance, it looks like Fiendbeast skin.”
“We should assume it has similar durability.”
The strategy of breaking through with firepower was discarded.
Even with my Lightning Spike and Soloven’s finishing move, we couldn’t completely break through something like that.
It would have been different if we could strike it repeatedly, but Soloven would lose an entire day after using his technique once, and I needed a one-hour cooldown.
“This is our last resort.”
After returning to the tent, I spoke heavily. Everyone’s eyes gathered on me.
“Canis.”
“Cut it out.”
At the single word I uttered, Rama openly showed his displeasure. His eyes sharpened, seemingly thinking I was fooling around.
But I didn’t care in the slightest. At minimum, it would take someone on Astral’s level to make me flinch.
“Canis. Canis.”
I repeated the name I had treasured so carefully. Even after calling it three times, nothing unusual happened.
I flashed a savage grin.
“Canis. Canis. Canis. Canis. Canis. At this rate. Canis. Is gonna die. Canis.”
The gazes of the group turned cold as they watched my bizarre behavior. Winter eventually buried her face in both hands.
“Mmm~ Why are you calling me so desperately~”
An adorably irritating voice rang out.
The assassin was the first to react to Canis’s sudden appearance, the woman who stood at the absolute peak of being unlikeable.
“She’s an ally.”
“……That’s an insane stealth technique. It far surpasses the realm of assassins.”
The attack he instinctively tried to launch was stopped when I stepped in between them. After putting away his weapon at my words that she was an ally, the assassin muttered a comment.
I wholeheartedly agreed with his opinion.
“Hm~ Even though I’m actually a magician~ More importantly~ What’s going on here~”
Only after Canis spoke in her unnecessarily cheerful tone did the frozen group finally begin moving again.
“A valuable magician has arrived. We’re revising the operation. I just happened to think of a strategy. You’ll cooperate, naturally?”
“Uuugh~ Dabi~ I’m dizzy~”
I grabbed Canis by the head and shook her around while speaking. The entire group looked at me with conflicted expressions.