Part 3 of 8
The practiced gesture is just the same as I remember it last, but her appearance has changed drastically.
She looks…gaunt.
She used to be an impressive beauty even by the imperial capital’s standards, but now she’s a shadow of her former self.
Her skin has lost its luster, her body has grown weak and emaciated, and she has aged far beyond her years.
Having seen her in her prime, the effect is shocking.
Knowing that I have to tell her something that will only drive her deeper into despair, even I feel hesitation.
Now I understand why Tiva kept repeating himself.
He was trying to stop me for my sake, but perhaps most of all, he wanted to prevent putting these people through any further suffering.
But still, I have no choice.
This is something she must know.
“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Sir Ronandt.”
“Quite.”
Normally, I should respond that she’s looking well, but I cannot bring myself to tell such a blatant lie.
Given my uncharacteristically hard demeanor and Tiva’s glum silence, the woman has probably already guessed that we’ve come bringing bad news.
Her already pallid face grows a shade paler.
“I shall get straight to the point.”
Once we’ve finished our greetings and a lady-in-waiting has brought us tea, I cut to the chase.
“Sir Ronandt…”
“No good can come of beating around the bush, Tiva.”
Tiva is clearly signaling that I’m moving too fast, but in this case, I think it best not to hesitate.
The lady of this house is a smart woman.
No doubt she has some sense of why I requested that we meet today.
If I drag out the conversation now, I will only cause her more anxiety.
Sooner or later, I must tell her the truth.
So it’s for the best to do it as quickly as possible.
“Buirimus is dead.”
At first, she doesn’t react to my blunt words.
Or rather, I should say she can’t react.
She freezes up without so much as a blink, leaving Tiva and I to hold our collective breath in silence.
Time passes this way, until eventually the woman’s eyes begin to waver.
Then, as if the meaning of my words has finally sunk in, she undergoes a quiet but drastic change.
Looking upward, she covers her face with both her hands and begins to sob with a muffled voice.
Tiva and I sit in silence still, watching over her quietly.
As the woman weeps, I think back on my memories of Buirimus.
Truth be told, I didn’t interact with Buirimus very often.
He was a talented summoner, one of the prominent masters in the empire.
As such, we had occasion to meet a few times, but that was true of most any of the influential people in the empire.
We weren’t close enough that I could call him a friend, and while he seemed to respect me as a higher-ranked mage, I doubt Buirimus felt particularly close with me either.
One could say that we were more than acquaintances but not yet friends.
We would have had no relationship of note at all, until that incident.
The incident when we encountered that great being in the Great Elroe Labyrinth and found ourselves fighting for our lives together.
This was four years ago, when Buirimus and I led an expedition of elite troops into the Great Elroe Labyrinth in order to locate a mysterious monster that had been sighted within.
According to eyewitnesses, it emitted such a dreadful aura that it was clear at a glance that this monster was a force to be reckoned with.
At the same time, there were also rumors that its actions showed a surprising level of intelligence, so the summoner Buirimus was sent in the hopes that he might be able to tame the monster.
Of course, I was accompanying them in the event that the monster was indeed so evil that it needed to be destroyed.
But the mission ended in disaster: except for Buirimus and me, that great being wiped out the entire force.
At the time, I had too much confidence in my powers.
I was convinced that surely no monster could ever be stronger than I, even though I knew that legendary monsters existed, well known as beings too powerful for any human to face.
It was this hubris of mine that brought about that tragedy in the labyrinth.
If I had not burned that great being’s nest so rashly, perhaps the massacre could have been avoided.
I know there is no use in dwelling on such things, yet I cannot help but think of it.
Now, if events had ended there, I would still feel regret, but I doubt I would feel so indebted toward Buirimus.
Certainly, I would still feel the guilt of letting his subordinates be annihilated, but perhaps we still could have drank together as fellow survivors.
However, this was not to be.
The higher-ups of the empire decided to place all the blame for our terrible loss squarely on Buirimus.
That great being, who is now known as the Nightmare of the Labyrinth, ventured into the wider world after our encounter and began to wreak havoc.
Rumors spread that it had left the labyrinth because our party had provoked it.
I do not know if this is truly the reason that great being went outside.
But even if not, it was very unfortunate timing.
As soon as the Nightmare left the labyrinth, it destroyed an Ohts fortress, then took up residence in Sariella—Ohts’s sworn enemy—and began to help them.
Notably, Ohts is an ally of the empire.
If the empire took actions that had a negative effect on their ally, they couldn’t possibly ignore it.
Someone, somehow, had to take the blame.
And that responsibility fell to Buirimus.
He and I were the only two survivors.
And none of the higher-ranked officers were willing to step forward and shoulder the blame.
Normally, that would mean that both of us would have been held responsible, but my position prevented this.
I am the empire’s leading court mage. In other words, I am the strongest mage in the empire, and some even say I am the strongest human mage in the world.
Perhaps I, too, believed that before I met that great being, but now such an empty title brings me no joy.
But for the empire, it carries a great deal of meaning.
They can use my name and power to intimidate other nations and keep them in check.
Since the conflict with demons has quieted down, the Renxandt Empire has lost some of its prestige.
The sword-king whose skills had earned him the reputation as a god of swordsmanship suddenly disappeared, and without the threat of demons hovering over them, the government officials grew corrupt.
Dishonorable nobles began to flaunt their power, and even the better ones compared the sitting sword-king to his predecessor and found him lacking.
And of course, if there is discord within the empire, then those outside it will begin to lose their faith in its strength.
Thus, if they wanted to avoid harming their increasingly tenuous position, the officials of the empire could not afford to sacrifice me, one of their precious trump cards.
Following this logic, those in power made it the official story that I was not involved in the Great Elroe Labyrinth incident.
Thus, though the blame should have fallen on both of us, it landed on Buirimus’s shoulders alone.
I was given the sentence of house arrest, scarcely more than a slap on the wrist, while Buirimus was sent away to the Mystic Mountains in the northwest, a much crueler fate.
The Mystic Mountains is an unforgiving mountain range on the border, populated by countless powerful monsters.
It’s such a dangerous and rarely explored place that it’s on par with the Great Elroe Labyrinth, so being stationed there is essentially a death sentence.
Yet, Buirimus accepted this fate and left without voicing any protest about the decision.
Even knowing that his wife had finally given birth to their first child.
“This is quite the stroke of bad luck. I’ve just learned that my child has been born, yet I must be in this dark cavern without even seeing the child’s face.”
I remember Buirimus’s crooked smile as he said this in the Great Elroe Labyrinth.
There was bitterness in his words, but it was eclipsed by the optimism in his eyes.
The face of a father excited to meet his child.
When we faced the master’s fearsome attack, and he bought me enough time to activate Teleport, I have no doubt he was thinking that he refused to die before seeing his newborn child’s face.
And survive he did, only to be sent away to face certain death once again.
As soon as his treatment was finished, no less.
Which meant that he never got to meet his child before leaving.
On top of being denied the moment he had so looked forward to, even if he did return from his dangerous posting, he would still carry the burden of being the one officially responsible for a failed expedition.
And there was no guarantee that he would come back alive at all.
From his wife’s perspective, her husband had returned with near-fatal wounds, only to be sent away to his possible death without even the chance for a reunion first.
I can only imagine the heartache she felt.
And part of the blame lies with me, too.
I allowed the leadership to place the blame on Buirimus, and still I live free of consequences.
Of course, in deference to that guilt, I wanted to do all I could to support the wife he left behind.
“Thank you, but the thought alone is more than enough.”
When I ignored my house arrest and visited this mansion, his wife politely declined my offer.
“I have always known there was a possibility that something might happen to my husband someday. I married a soldier, after all.”
She offered me a fleeting smile.
Though she was putting on a brave face, even her makeup could not hide the redness around her eyes.
“He did everything in his power to come home, I know. And since he came back alive this time, I’m sure he’ll be back again.”
First she claimed to be resigned, but this statement of hope said otherwise.
I know not how to describe my feelings in that moment, except perhaps embarrassment.
At the time, I was fully prepared for her to curse or shout at me.
But I never imagined she wouldn’t think to blame me at all.
She had no thoughts to spare for anyone but her husband.
I didn’t occupy even a fraction of her thoughts.
I had assumed in my egotism that my existence would be a matter of great import to her, that she would blame me for what happened to Buirimus.
But in her eyes, I didn’t matter one inkling.
Somehow, between this and my fateful encounter with that great being, I was becoming painfully aware that I had thought too highly of myself.
Perhaps her concern for her husband, Buirimus, and their newborn child left no room to contemplate me at all.
Either way, it was clear that I was insignificant to her.
Though I was called humanity’s strongest mage, I was keenly aware that to her, at least, I was nothing more than a trifle.
Thus, I became aware of my own ego and felt embarrassed.
In the end, despite his wife’s refusal, I found ways to help her anyway.
I felt my mind could not be at ease if I did nothing. Perhaps it was more for my own sake than for Buirimus or his wife.
I also reached out to all my connections to find ways to help the troops in the Mystic Mountains, where Buirimus was being sent.
The rest was up to Buirimus himself.
But while he was away, another tragedy occurred.
The kidnappings.
Buirimus’s own child was among those who were being kidnapped all across the world.
Tiva led a special operation to try to track down the kidnappers, but to this day, there has been no progress.
“I apologize that you had to see me in such a state.”
Buirimus’s wife’s voice is still shaking as she pulls herself together to apologize.
Tiva and I quickly assure her that she has nothing to apologize for.
After her streak of ill fortune, there was no doubt that her heart had reached its breaking point.
And then this terrible news.
I could only imagine her feelings.
“What…happened to him?”
“We don’t yet know the details. But when I went to check in on him, I found that his entire troop had been wiped out.”
Due to certain circumstances, I have been demoted to a station at a fortress in the north.
It is relatively close to the Mystic Mountains, so I received information about Buirimus’s squadron there.
When I learned that their regular communications had suddenly ceased, I quickly went to investigate, myself, only to find utter destruction.
“Though it’s not certain, we believe that the cause was a unique ogre that appeared around the same time.”
Buirimus was highly skilled, so there were not many monsters that could wipe out his entire troop so easily.
And around that time, word had just started to spread of a powerful ogre that had killed several adventurers.
Surely this was no coincidence.
“It’s been decided that I will soon lead a special force to find and defeat this ogre. Though it may be small comfort, I will be sure to avenge your husband.”
“And I will do everything in my power to get your child back home as soon as I possibly can,” Tiva promised.
“…Thank you.”
Buirimus’s wife bowed her head weakly.
“Do you think it’ll be all right?”
As we sat in the carriage on our way back from the mansion, Tiva stared out the window.
He didn’t specify a topic, but no doubt he was referring to Buirimus’s wife.
“Who can say?”
Even I do not know the answer.
Try as I might, I cannot hope to understand the feelings of a woman who just learned her husband has died and whose child has been kidnapped.
It is not my place to carelessly say, She’ll be all right.
“That depends on your work, good Tiva.”
Some say that a mother regains her vigor if her lost child is returned, so perhaps Buirimus’s wife, too, could recover if things went well.
“You must now face this with all your strength.”
Tiva nods heavily.
Of course, it’s not as though I think he was ever handling this investigation half-heartedly.
Tiva has always been a hard worker, and he has his own reasons for taking this case especially seriously.
“I swear that I will bring those children back alive. I swear it.”
His voice contains an edge that he can’t quite disguise.
It goes beyond righteous fury toward the kidnappers to a deeper, more personal rage.
You see, Tiva has a son.
Or perhaps I should say had.
His son had a wife, and they had even given him a grandchild.
The babe was born around the same time of year as Buirimus’s own son.
It was his son’s first child and Tiva’s first grandchild.
Happiness beyond compare.
But after one fateful day, his son and his family were gone, never to return.
Their carriage had gotten into an accident.
However, in a later investigation, it was discovered that the tragedy was no accident at all but deliberately engineered by someone.
In fact, the methods strongly resembled the modus operandi of the kidnapping organization.
Had they targeted Tiva’s grandchild and accidentally killed all three?
Or did they have some other reason?
That I do not know, but it means that Tiva lost his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild all at once.
Thus, this man has a very powerful reason for hunting down the kidnapping organization.
I’m sure he feels just as strongly about it as Buirimus’s wife.
“I shall assist you to the best of my ability.”
Now that it’s come to this, I cannot simply sit by in silence.
I have a dreadful premonition about this organization.
A feeling that if they’re left alone, it might lead to something truly terrible.
“…Even after your demotion?”
Tiva looks at me blandly.
Why, you little…!
I scowl at the low blow.
For reasons entirely beyond my control, I’ve been sent to the north at present.
In fact, I did not have permission to be in the capital today, so I cannot move freely.
“Harrumph! To send me away for such a ridiculous reason!”
“No, I think it’s a natural punishment for nearly killing a hero. In fact, you should be pleased that you were not executed.”
“That was just a trifling amount of training! Nearly killing is an outright exaggeration!”
The reason for my demotion is simply that I was training Julius, my first apprentice.
He demanded that I take him under my wing, so train him I did.
However, Julius’s homeland and the so-called Word of God religion objected to my methods, and the Renxandt Empire unfortunately agreed, so I was banished to a far-off northern post for doing nothing wrong in the slightest.
I suppose even the empire couldn’t cover for me if other nations were angry with me.
But why would they get so angry about a small bit of training?!
“No, that could hardly be called training. By anyone else’s standards, that was torture, understand? You must realize, Sir Ronandt, that your idea of common sense does not match the rest of the world.”
“Hmph!”
This is ridiculous!
I just hit him with the smallest amount of magic to build up his resistance!
It makes no sense whatsoever to punish me for such a thing!
“Very well, then. I shall just do whatever I can. Starting with avenging Buirimus’s death.”
Sitting in the carriage, my thoughts were already on the ogre that killed Buirimus.
I’M STUFFED
Right now, I’m locked in a desperate battle.
Things aren’t looking good.
It’s been a long time since I faced a predicament like this.
But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give up!
I will win!
No matter what it takes!
“U…urgh!”
“Miss, you don’t need to force yourself to finish it, all right? If you’re full, it’s okay to leave some on the plate.”
That’s nice of you, lady, but there’s no way in hell!
I refuse to leave a speck of food on this plate!
That’s right. I’m eating my lunch in the inn’s mess hall right now.
And eating, and eating, and eating!
“Hurk!”
“See? You’ve clearly reached your limit, young lady! You’ve been at it for almost an hour now, but if you can’t eat it, then that’s that.”
Delicious food is right before my eyes.
As you may have guessed from the presence of those adventurer assholes from earlier, this inn is for the general public, so it’s not fancy like the kind of place nobles might stay.
And all the food definitely emphasizes quantity over quality!
Bam! Tons of bread!
Boom! Tons of veggies!
Pow! Tons of meat!
And so on.
But this lady must be a pretty good cook, because even though the food is humble, it’s also surprisingly flavorful and hearty.
That’s right. It’s delicious.
It’s delicious, but I can’t quite finish it!
“Urrrrgh!”
I groan despite myself.
How can I possibly leave this delicious food unfinished?
No! Noooo! I won’t do it!
But my stomach has reached its limit, my throat is closing up shop, and my mouth refuses to take another bite.
My body won’t listen to me. I’ve been betrayed!
What insanity is this?!
How can I allow such a terrible tragedy?
I can’t, obviously!
“Wehhh…”
“Miss?! Please don’t cry, miss! There, there, it’s all right. Okay?”
The nice lady comforts me, but that doesn’t change the reality that I can’t finish the food in front of me.
The greatest misfortune that’s befallen me since becoming a god is the fact that I can’t eat as much as I used to.
Battle power?
That’s not nearly as important as food!
Until now, with my monster body and Satiation skill, I could eat way more than you would think possible just from looking at me.
Thanks to that, it’s been ages since I last experienced the feeling of being too stuffed to eat another bite.
I just ate and drank as much as I wanted.
But now that I’m a god, the tiniest amount of food makes me totally full!
Thinking about it, it’s pretty obvious that without the Satiation skill, I’d be able to eat only the same amount as an average person.
If anything, Hiiro Wakaba’s body always had a small appetite, so I need only about half the amount of food most people might eat to feel full.
Yeah. If I remember right, cup ramen or a convenience-store bento box was enough to satisfy me.
Depending on which kind, sometimes I couldn’t even finish the whole bento box.
So since my current body is based on that, it’s no wonder I suddenly have a small appetite.
My heart wants to keep eating, but my body refuses to accept it.
Do you have any idea how awful that feels?!
Even now, no matter how much I want to finish the food in front of me, just looking at it makes my body want to puke a little bit!
Uuurgh, this is the worst.
What did I do to deserve this, God?
Okay, I know I’ve done plenty of bad stuff, but still.
Not to mention, god in this world mostly refers to that awful you-know-who…
Unreal.
Absolutely, positively unreal…
Utterly heartbroken, I push the cold food in front of me over to Sael, who’s sitting across from me.
Sael has already demolished a giant plate of her own, but like most spider monsters, she has the Satiation skill, so she can eat a lot more than you’d expect.
Even though her actual body is a palm-size spider, the skill allows her to eat several times her own body weight in no time flat.
She may have had the same meal I did, but I bet she can still finish my leftovers.
In fact, it’s been a while now since Sael finished eating, so I bet she’s already getting hungry again.
Ugh, to think that I of all people would have to relinquish my food to someone else!
Sael looks at my face, then my plate of food, then at the chef lady, then back at me and my food…
Uh, don’t get stuck in an infinite loop, okay?
Just eat it already, dammit!
Sael doesn’t seem to be able to escape the loop, so I just shove some food into her mouth.
Why are these little girls each so unique anyway?
Shouldn’t they all be more like their mom, the Demon Lord?
Since she made them with the Egg-Laying skill, they’re basically just inferior clones of her, y’know.
So why does she produce such weirdos?
Yeah, I said it. Weirdos.
They’re weird, okay?
Except for maybe Ael. Thank goodness for her.
Sometimes I feel like Ael’s the only one holding the puppet posse together.
For a second, it occurs to me that there might’ve been more individuals like Ael among the puppet spiders I killed a long time ago.
When the Demon Lord and I were still at war, I killed no less than seven puppet spiders.
The four who are around now are the only survivors from that battle.
When I think about it that way, my relationship with the idiot who’s stuffing her face mindlessly with food in front of me (also known as Sael) is actually pretty complicated.
Luckily, all three of them except for Ael are idiots, meaning they don’t really think about that kind of thing and warmed up to me pretty quickly, but I bet Ael and the Demon Lord herself had some thoughts about it when we first teamed up.
I’m guessing Ael just calculated that it was in her own best interest to accept me quickly.
In that regard, she’s definitely the talented eldest sister.
It’s entirely possible that some of the other puppet spiders I killed were just as talented as Ael or maybe even more so.
If that was the case, it might’ve been easier to keep these idiots in check.
I imagine it for a moment.
Picture this: a total of ten little girls milling about.
Each of them acts on their own, so Ael just throws in the towel and lets them do whatever they want.
What is this supposed to be, a preschool?!
…Okay.
I hate to say it, but I’m glad there are only four of them.
Since there are only three problem children, Ael can handle them just fine.
Yeah. I just gotta stay positive.
Sael looks at me in confusion as she demolishes the last of my food.
Well, since she’s a puppet spider, her face doesn’t actually change, but I can pretty much tell at this point how she’s feeling anyway.
Looking at Sael’s blank expression, I shrug and pat her on the head.
That night, the Demon Lord returns with a troubled look on her face.
The baby bloodsucker looks furious, too.
Something must have happened.
“I have two pieces of bad news,” the Demon Lord begins once we’ve all gathered together.
Unlike the baby bloodsucker, she doesn’t quite look murderous, but her brow is furrowed deeply.
The Demon Lord is usually pretty easygoing, so when she’s this serious, it usually means trouble.
“First, it looks like we’ll have to stay in this town for a few days.”
I tilt my head in confusion.
Our plan was to gather supplies for crossing the Mystic Mountains and leave right away, since this is the best time of year to make the journey.
This world does have seasons, even if they’re not as dramatically different as in Japan.
Right now, it’s technically summer.
It’s kind of chilly outside, but still.
The Mystic Mountains are so cold that they’re covered in snow all year long.
If we don’t cross while the weather is even slightly warmer than usual, it’s gonna be a rough trip.
Before my deification, we might’ve been able to push through even in winter, but now I’m way too much of a burden for something so adventurous.
Because of me, we can’t use the route we originally planned: the shortest way across that the Demon Lord took on her way here.
I mean, we’re talking hundreds of miles of mountain, y’know?
I can’t even stroll across a flat plain without passing out!
Therefore, our new plan is to wind through the gaps between the mountains, avoiding high elevations as much as we can.
It’s still gonna be tough, but it’s the best we can do.
This roundabout route is gonna take way longer, and considering the possibility of unforeseen occurrences, it’s in our best interest to leave as soon as possible.
If we miss this chance, we’ll have to hang out in this town for a whole year until summer comes around again.
So why would we be staying in town any longer than necessary?
“The road we’re supposed to take is under a blockade. Apparently some super-evil monster has appeared, see. It’s an ogre, but it’s killed a bunch of adventurers already, so they’re saying it’s too dangerous to leave town. What awful timing, right?”
That makes sense, unfortunately.
The lady who made me lunch mentioned something about a dangerous ogre, too, come to think of it.
For the safety of the townspeople, it’s only natural that they wouldn’t want anyone to go in the direction where a dangerous monster’s lurking about.
But still, considering that the Demon Lord’s strong enough to crush some stupid ogre with one finger, it’s a bit pointless to insist that she not leave town.
“So we’re stuck here until they get rid of that ogre. The imperial army’s apparently putting together a whole big squad to take care of it, so we’ll just have to wait it out till then.”
Gotcha.
So we have to chill out in this town for a few days until they take care of that ogre, huh?
And wait a sec, they’re bringing in the army?
Guess this ogre must be stronger than I thought.
I’m sure the Demon Lord could still beat it with one punch, though.
In fact, wouldn’t it be faster for her to go take care of it herself?
She’s technically got an adventurer permit, so why doesn’t she just beat the ogre as an adventurer or whatever?
“Why don’t you just defeat the ogre yourself, Miss Ariel?”
Ooh, looks like Vampy was thinking the same thing.
“Hrmmm. We don’t wanna stand out here, so I’d like to leave that as a last resort. Plus, there’s supposed to be some famous mage and swordsman in the army that’s coming, so we wouldn’t want to pick a fight with them.”
The Demon Lord doesn’t seem to want in on the whole ogre-hunting biz.
I can’t imagine that the army would be upset if the Demon Lord beat the ogre first, and even if they were, I’m sure she’s strong enough to handle them.
But it’d still be a pain for sure, and in the worst-case scenario, it could slow down our trip through the Mystic Mountains even further.
Since the imperial army’s supposedly gonna beat this ogre without her help, I guess she’d rather just wait until they take care of it for her.
We’re probably only delaying our departure by a few days, so it shouldn’t affect our journey anyway.
If it were a few weeks, that’d be another story.
“So we’re going to sit tight until the ogre gets beaten. Merazophis, be careful not to draw any attention, all right?”
“Of course.”
Mera nods.
If anyone was going to cause a problem here, it’d be Mera.
Sael and I do run the risk of being spotted as monsters, but that just means we have to stay out of sight as much as possible.
As a natural shut-in, I have no problem with staying inside, and I don’t wanna go out into the sun anyway.
And Sael wouldn’t go outside unless she was specifically told to do so.
But Mera’s situation is different.
He and the baby bloodsucker are vampires.
The little one’s a Progenitor, so her title cancels out normal vampire weaknesses, like sunlight and needing to periodically drink blood.
But Mera doesn’t have that advantage.
He takes a small amount of damage if sunlight touches him, and he has to drink blood occasionally.
The latter is the real monkey wrench. It means Mera has to attack people and drink their blood.
And not just any blood. Human blood is by far the most effective.
The blood of monsters like us gives him only enough energy to hold him over temporarily.
Since Mera used to be a human, drinking human blood is the only way to keep him going, for whatever reason.
Okay, I don’t understand the specifics, but basically it means he has to drink human blood to get the results he needs.
Which means he’s been attacking humans every night to drink their blood whenever we visit a town, but now the Demon Lord’s saying he has to cut that out.
We wouldn’t want to draw the imperial army’s attention.
“Fortunately, I have some in reserve, so I’ll be all right.”
Mera’s not talking about carrying around bottles of blood or anything like that.
Since his Vampire skill has leveled up, he gained the ability to stash the blood he drinks inside his body.
He can gradually stockpile any excess blood, so now he can go for a short while without drinking blood if he absolutely needs to.
“So yeah, that’s the first problem, but it’s not super-serious. It’s the other problem that’s kind of the big one.”
The Demon Lord crosses her arms, still looking serious.
For some reason, though, something about her expression says that she’s not quite convinced.
What in the world happened?
“To sum it up, we just got attacked by a group of elves.”
The Demon Lord is saying that our greatest enemy of all, the elves, has just come after us.
After two years of unnerving silence, Potimas has made an assassination attempt.
A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH A NEMESIS
It happened earlier this afternoon.
“Huh? The road is blocked off?”
Miss Ariel’s voice echoes through the guild.
There aren’t many people here, and it’s not particularly large, so Miss Ariel’s voice is pretty clear.
“I’m afraid so. An extremely dangerous monster has appeared near the road up ahead. Until the monster has been dealt with, the road is closed. We truly apologize for the inconvenience.”
The receptionist bows politely.
This place is an adventurers’ guild.
Adventurers are essentially professionals whose job is to defeat monsters, and this guild is where they gather.
Monsters have a tendency to aggressively attack humans, so in order to ensure the safety of the town and major roads, there have to be people to fight those monsters.
That’s where adventurers come in.
In this world, even the smallest village or town has to have adventurers, who are generally well respected by society.
This town is no exception, which is why they have this adventurers’ guild.
A single step out of town is where the realm of monsters begins.
In addition to hunting monsters, adventurers also protect ordinary civilians who have business outside town.
Which is why you can never have too many.
“Ahhh. Is that why there are so few people here?”
Ariel looks around and nods.
A town this size should have a healthy population of adventurers, yet the guild is almost entirely devoid of people.
They must all be out hunting for that monster right now.
“No, erm…”
The woman trails off vaguely.
Peering at her, Miss Ariel frowns as a thought comes to mind.
“Don’t tell me… Have this town’s adventurers been more or less wiped out?”
““Huh?”” the receptionist and I utter in unison.
I shoot a nervous look at the receptionist, but she isn’t paying me any mind, just staring at Ariel with a pale face.
Judging by her expression, it’s all too evident that Miss Ariel’s guess was correct.
I suppose the receptionist and I were surprised for different reasons: I was surprised because Miss Ariel’s words came out of nowhere, and the receptionist was surprised because she’d guessed the truth.
“I see. Well, that’s unfortunate.” Ariel sounds somewhat detached or maybe annoyed. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about the blockade, then. So are they actually going to defeat that monster?”
“Er, yes. The army is being mobilized and should be on its way.”
“An army? Not adventurers from other towns?” Ariel asks.
“Ha, not a chance. No adventurers are ever gonna beat that thing. Besides, the only adventurers left around here right now are from other towns. They were too late to join the hunting party, so lucky for them, they got to live.”
Instead of the receptionist, one of the adventurers answers Miss Ariel’s question.
One of the few adventurers in this mostly deserted guild.
“Mr. Gotou…,” the receptionist murmurs somewhat pityingly.
The man approaching us with a lopsided grin must be named Gotou.
And judging by the receptionist’s attitude and the way he speaks as if he’s seen the monster, he must be one of the few survivors of the wiped-out adventurers.
“Nice to meet you lovely ladies. The name’s Gotou. Might not look it, but I’m an A-rank adventurer. Though that title ain’t worth much after I ran away from that ogre with my tail between my legs.”
Gotou shrugs bitterly.
Looking closely, I see that his eyes are red around the edges.
He must have had close friends among the adventurers who were killed.
“Yeah? So what’s an A-rank adventurer like you doing here now?”
Rather harshly, Miss Ariel ignores his obvious plight.
Not even a word of comfort for this clearly wounded man?
Well, I suppose it might be strange to comfort a complete stranger who suddenly started talking to you.
“Oh, nothing. Just thought I’d do ya a little favor.” Gotou smiles wryly at Ariel’s cold demeanor, but then his smile fades to a serious expression. “I’m willing to bet you’re a lot stronger than you look, but if you’re thinking about going up against that ogre, I’d think again. That thing’s a beast. If you underestimate it just ’cause it’s an ogre, you’re gonna end up regretting it, just like all of us did. That thing’s a walking natural disaster, same class as any elder wyrm.”
It sounds like the dangerous monster that’s appeared is an ogre, albeit a very unusual one.
But what really catches my attention is that Gotou discerned Miss Ariel’s true strength so easily.
Miss Ariel looks like a child, not an all-powerful being, but those with sharp senses might detect a hint of the sheer intimidating aura rolling off her.
Even if she turns off the Intimidation skill, she can’t quite suppress it because of the effects of titles and such.
But with her high Stealth, she can generally hide that, too, so only people with particularly strong intuition should be able to see through it.
If he picked up on Ariel’s true nature, then this Gotou must be pretty strong himself.
I guess he’s an A-rank adventurer for a reason.
“The army that’s coming is being led by Elder Ronandt and Elder Nyudoz. Just let them take care of it. No need to try face a monster like that by yourself.”
I don’t recognize the names Gotou mentioned, but based on his tone, they must be quite strong.
Perhaps even strong enough to defeat an ogre with the strength of a full-grown wyrm.
“Hrmmm. All right, then. We’ll wait it out until that ogre’s taken care of. Not that I planned on meddling with the thing myself in the first place.”
Miss Ariel shrugs.
From her perspective, this is probably an unwelcome bit of advice.
Whether it’s an ogre, a wyrm, or even a dragon for that matter, it wouldn’t even pose a threat to Miss Ariel.
It would be a simple matter for her to defeat it, if she felt so inclined.
But she doesn’t seem to want to, so either she’s trying to be polite or just wants to avoid drawing too much attention to herself.
“Glad to hear it. What business ya got up that road anyway? It don’t lead anywhere but the Mystic Mountains, y’know.”
For a moment, Gotou’s eyes seem to glint sharply.
Could he have caught on to Miss Ariel’s true identity?
No, surely he’d have no way of knowing that she’s the Demon Lord.
But he might have picked up on the fact that she’s not human. If he sensed her power to a certain extent, he knows there’s more to her than meets the eye.
Plus, she’s traveling with a bunch of little girls in tow, including myself.
Right now, our group consists of Miss Ariel, Merazophis, Ael, Riel, Fiel, and me.
Aside from Merazophis, all of us appear to be children.
Ariel looks just barely old enough to be called a “young lady,” but the rest of us look even younger than that.
I’m sure our group looks very unusual to other onlookers.
I wonder if they assume Merazophis is our guardian?
At any rate, since Miss Ariel is our leader and he knows that she’s more powerful than she looks, I’m sure he finds us quite suspicious.
“Well then, it must be obvious that our business is in the Mystic Mountains,” Miss Ariel responds casually.
Should you really be admitting that so honestly?
“And what might that be, eh?”
“Why should I have to tell you? I wouldn’t give you any more information unless we were close enough to be sharing a bed first.”
…I wish she wouldn’t throw around such adult topics so casually.
You’ll be a bad influence for all the little girls here, y’know.
Although I guess all of us, including me, are actually older than we look.
Ael, Riel, and Fiel are monsters like Miss Ariel, so they’re hardly young.
And while my body is as young as it looks, my mind has been around for much longer.
If you include my previous life, I’m pretty grown up, no?
I do feel like I don’t fully have control over what my body does sometimes, but my mental age is quite high, I think.
If you take my age in my old life into account, I’m surely an adult by now.
I always assumed that once I reached my twenties, I’d naturally calm down and become more mature, but I never imagined that I’d actually end up back in the body of a child.
But I suppose it was unrealistic to assume that I’d turn into a proper adult based on age alone.
I suppose I hoped that the people who used to look down on me would become a little easier to deal with in adulthood, too.
But looking at myself now, I can’t help feeling like all of that was just wishful thinking.
…Wait a moment.
Does that mean that I haven’t actually done that much growing up mentally, but I’m avoiding that fact and giving up instead?
No, that can’t be.
I’m a proper lady.
I might look like a young girl, but I have to be well-balanced at least on the inside!
I’m an adult.
I’m an adult!
All right.
“Guess you got a point. Sorry to bother ya.”
While my mind was wandering in an unexpected direction, it seems like Miss Ariel settled things with Gotou.
He’s peeling away, so it looks like there won’t be any unnecessary trouble.
If he’d been too persistent, it might’ve ended badly, considering Miss Ariel’s true identity.
In the worst-case scenario, Ariel and company might have beaten him to a pulp.
Really, Miss Ariel could destroy this whole town if she was so inclined.
By wisely choosing to withdraw, Gotou might’ve just narrowly escaped death.
“Any other information worth noting?”
“Ah, no, I don’t believe so.”
Ariel abruptly turns back to the flustered receptionist.
“Oh, right. They were building a village at the foot of the Mystic Mountains, but the place is a total ghost town now.” Contrary to the receptionist’s words, Gotou provides some other news. “Rumor has it that the ogre might’ve killed ’em all. If you knew anyone there, well, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Huh. Well, I didn’t, so I guess that doesn’t make much difference to me.”
At Ariel’s response, Gotou’s eyes glitter again.
“Mr. Gotou, that information’s supposed to be top secret…”
“Oops, my bad! Totally forgot. Pretend you didn’t hear that, all right?”
Miss Ariel rolls her eyes and shrugs in response.
“Let’s go, shall we?”
Deeming it pointless to stay here any longer, Miss Ariel leads us out of the guild.
As soon as we exit, I use a certain skill.
It’s a vampire Progenitor skill that creates familiars.
I use it to make a mouse familiar and leave it at the guild house.
This gives me the ability to link my consciousness with the familiar.
In this case, I have it approach Gotou without being spotted.
Then I listen closely.
“When is the army arriving?”
Through the familiar’s ears, I hear Gotou’s voice, sounding much more serious than before.
“Oh, erm, we d-don’t know the particulars just yet…”
The receptionist stammers.
Maybe Gotou’s sudden change in demeanor is making her nervous?
“Well, shit. The hell’s going on in this place? Is this town cursed or what?”
“P-pardon?”
As Gotou mutters darkly, the receptionist stares at him in confusion.
As I watch through the familiar’s eyes, Gotou heaves a heavy sigh and speaks again.
“I’d bet anything that those folks were demons.”
“What?!”
The receptionist exclaims with shock.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down! I’m not positive yet, but no human that age would normally carry themselves like that. Demons often look younger than they actually are. Most likely, that was a group of demon spies, using their appearance to blend in and gather information about humans. Bet they’re planning to go through the Mystic Mountains and retreat into the demon realm once they’re done here, yeah?”
Wow.
That’s not exactly right but still pretty darn close.
“They are?! Oh no! Whatever shall we do?!”
“I told you to keep it down! For now, I dunno if this town’s forces would be able to deal with ’em, what with us adventurers being in this sorry state. If those guys are going to leave without causing any trouble, there’s no sense in pissing them off for no reason.”
Oh?
I thought this was going to end up being a huge pain, but it seems like Gotou is willing to just wait and watch.
“Really? Are you sure that’s all right?”
“It’s not exactly my first choice, but something about those girls gave me the feeling we wouldn’t be able to beat ’em. They must be pretty well-trained demons. I know they seem small, but they looked at me like I wasn’t worth a damn. Like they knew they’d be able to easily deal with me if it came down to a fight.”
Well, he’s not wrong.
“Ugh, maybe I should retire from being an adventurer already. My confidence is in pieces here.”
Gotou seems seriously down in the dumps, and the receptionist, unsure whether to comfort him or how to do so, simply watches him anxiously.
“Anyway. Make sure you tell the guild master about this, yeah? In fact, maybe it’d be faster if I do it myself.”
“W-wait! Shouldn’t we tell the Church, too?”
“Yeah, good point. You take care of that, then. I’ll go talk to the guild master.”
With that, Gotou heads up some stairs behind the reception desk.
The receptionist hesitates for a moment, then tells the few remaining adventurers that she’s stepping away from her desk for a little while and goes outside.
She’s probably off to tell the so-called Church about us.
That probably means the Word of God religion, right?
In that case, she’s probably wasting her time.
I’m sure the Word of God people are already well aware that we’re in this town.
During our journey, I’ve learned that the organization known as the Word of God religion is truly terrifying.
They have a church in just about every town and village, and all these churches constantly provide the organization with information in secret.
Since being reincarnated into this world, I’ve become painfully aware of the true value of information.
Here, it’s perfectly normal for something that’s common knowledge in one town to be completely unheard-of in the next.
That’s a huge adjustment from Japan, where you could look up anything online whenever you wanted.
In extreme cases, one town might be panicking on the verge of starvation while the next town over is flourishing with an overabundant harvest.
In this world, information mostly travels on foot.
So the farther away one place is from another, the longer it will take for information to arrive.
There are some special methods like teleportation, but there are precious few individuals with the skill.
You’d have to be a Spatial Magic master or powerful enough to be able to use a teleport gate.
Both of those things are completely inaccessible to the average person.
Which is why in this world, people don’t really understand the value of information.
If you don’t have any way of knowing what’s going on in other places, it might as well not be happening at all.
By establishing churches in various places around the entire world and staffing every outpost with people who have a certain skill, the Word of God religion can gather information from everywhere at once.
That skill is known as Fartalk.
It’s an advanced form of the Telepathy skill that allows you to communicate telepathically with people who are far away.
When I was a baby and still couldn’t speak properly, I relied on this skill quite a bit.
But in this society, most people consider that skill pointless.
The common view is that you might as well just communicate in person directly, and most of all, you have to use scarce skill points to acquire Telepathy.
After all, the only other way to get skills is by doing related actions until you build up enough proficiency to acquire the skill naturally, and there’s no “related action” for Telepathy.
Well, I guess there might be, but there’s certainly no way you could acquire Telepathy just by living your life normally.
That means the only sure way to acquire the Telepathy skill is to use skill points, but those are a highly limited resource.
I was born with a huge amount of skill points, maybe because I’m a reincarnation, but most people aren’t born with any at all.
The only way to get skill points is to obtain them naturally as you age or level up.
And that only earns you very small amounts, so people have to be cautious about how they spend them.
As a result, there aren’t that many people who choose to use skill points on something like Telepathy, it seems.
I do think it ends up being a useful skill if you have it, but most people won’t spend their valuable skill points on something that’s only mildly convenient.
But the Word of God religion really uses the Telepathy skill to its maximum potential.
They have their personnel train up their Telepathy until it evolves into Fartalk, allowing them to converse with people who are far away, and then they dispatch those personnel to far-off towns and villages so that they can gather information instantly.
The resulting information network is one of the Word of God’s greatest assets.
In a society where towns can’t even communicate conveniently with their neighbors, this religion can gather information from any of their churches across the world.
Frankly, there’s no organization in this world that could possibly beat the Word of God religion in an information war.
If the Word of God was so inclined, they could easily spread false rumors or cover up any inconvenient truths.
And they use that informational power to keep their influence strong.
The Pontiff’s strength is proof enough of that.
And since the Word of God has this information network, I have no doubt that they already know where we are.
We’re too important for the Pontiff to ignore, especially Miss Ariel.
In addition to their church-based information network, no doubt they have surveillance on us as well.
In the incident two years ago, the Pontiff was able to appear in front of us in no time flat, even though we were carefully avoiding the public eye.
So even if that receptionist goes running to the Church, I’m sure she’ll only be telling them what they already know.
And I don’t think the Pontiff would be stupid enough to make an enemy of Miss Ariel just because of that.
I’m sure he’ll handle the situation gracefully.
That’s the one thing he can be trusted to do.
…Even if it leaves me with complicated feelings to trust the man partly responsible for my parents’ deaths with anything at all.
At this time, even as my senses are linked with my familiar in the guild, I’m also walking along with Ariel and the others.
Not only am I focusing on the familiar, I’m thinking about unnecessary things, which I suppose means my guard is down.
“…shi!”
That’s why I react a second too late.
I hear a shout and feel someone grab my arm.
“Huh?!”
Whirling around, I see a small girl.
She looks just as young as I do—no, even younger.
And she’s reaching out from an alleyway, grabbing my arm.
Normally, I might freeze up in the face of such an unexpected event.
But this time, I react on pure instinct.
Because this girl’s ears are long and pointed.
“An elf! Don’t touch me!”
I shake off the girl’s hand and push away her small frame with all my might.
On top of that, I even cast magic at her.
My Ice Magic courses through the alleyway, freezing it over.
However, the elf girl has already disappeared before it can freeze her.
I felt something strange when I pushed her away, and I realize belatedly that she was holding hands with someone.
That person must have used Spatial Magic to teleport away with the girl.
What if her hand had still been on my arm?
I would’ve been teleported along with them.
That must have been the goal of their attack. They used a little girl to get me to let my guard down in the hopes of abducting me.
“Are you all right?”
“I think so.”
“For now, let’s just get out of here before anyone notices.”
Miss Ariel guides the others and me away from the alley.
Since I used my magic to the best of my ability, the entire alley is frozen over, which is sure to draw attention.
Considering the situation with Gotou, it might lead to some major problems if anyone finds out we were involved in this ruckus.
“Did she call you Negishi?”
Part 3 of 8