271

Chapter 271: Tell Me (1)

Sometimes I have thoughts like this.

If, after giving directions to a tourist who asked me the way, instead of thinking ten minutes later, an hour later, Ah, I wonder if they got there all right. Maybe I should've explained it in more detail, I could simply relax and assume they must have made it there just fine.

If, when I saw an elderly person stamping their feet in frustration, asking what online reservations were and why even a train leaving five hours later had no tickets left, I could just click my tongue and move on, thinking, That's unfortunate, but there's nothing I can do.

If I were the kind of person who could turn away from a crying child because it had nothing to do with me and getting involved would only bring trouble.

Would my life have been a little easier?

Could I have lived a better life than I did?

Could I have been a little happier……?

* * *

“Strange…….”

Emerald cut down the beast lunging at her with Bernstein's blade.

Slash.

The spray of blood splattered across the packed highway.

“Why does it keep feeling like it's nearby?”

“Knight?”

But her attention was not on something as trivial as spilled blood.

Behind the smile she wore like a mask, she pursued the lingering trace of Demonic Energy she had just sensed.

This way.

Her sharpened senses pointed out the direction.

“Jardin.”

She called to the squire who was calming the horses and gave her sword a single swing.

The blade, as heavy as its considerable size suggested, spun once, and every drop of blood clinging to its amber-colored body flew free.

“Yes?”

“Keep up on your own.”

Immediately afterward, she kicked off the ground.

Boom!

Blue Mana, manifested strongly enough to be faintly visible to the eye, reinforced the strength in her legs and allowed her to leap farther.

Bang, bang, bang.

With every step, her body shot forward several meters.

“……?”

And at the end of it, the lingering trace of Demonic Energy she had been pursuing vanished.

It disappeared as completely as a glass of water left in the desert emptying in an instant, leaving her with no idea where even to begin searching.

“…It's you again.”

“…Oh, you're that knight from before?”

Instead, she found a man blinking green eyes at her.

This was their third meeting.

“…It's you again.”

Startled by the presence suddenly approaching me, I hurriedly activated my disguise skill and backed away as far as I could.

Not long afterward, someone reached me.

Coincidentally, it was a face I knew.

Though I had never heard her name, so I had no idea what it was.

“Um, hello……?”

Still, I owed her far too much to regard this coincidence as nothing but uncomfortable.

The first time we'd met, she'd driven away the Adventurers who had been harassing me simply because they annoyed her.

The second time, when I'd nearly been discovered by a subjugation force on an alleyway leading toward Manhafelt, she'd effectively vouched for me with a single, “We meet again?”

Of course, in the latter case, it wasn't as though she'd openly defended me. It was more that the people around us had gone, Oh, someone the knight knows, and more or less let the matter slide…….

“We keep running into each other.”

Either way, intentional or not, she was someone who had helped me.

So I bowed awkwardly, like some inexperienced young man bewildered by the coincidence, wearing an expression of delight that was half genuine and half acting.

“How strange.”

But even when I greeted her like that, she showed little reaction.

No matter what I did, she simply stared intently at my face, to the point that it was starting to feel uncomfortable.

“…Um, is something wrong?”

Wait.

Did she catch me?

Had she seen the entire process of my Demonic Energy being concealed when I activated the disguise skill?

“…There's no way a demon could have such an absurdly harmless face.”

Holy shit, I really almost got caught.

“I have a question.”

Feeling cold sweat stream down my back, I forced myself to meet her refined face.

Looking away awkwardly would only make me look like someone with something to hide, so that was the choice I made.

“Have you seen a demon anywhere around here?”

Yet there was something frightening about having a face so neat it seemed sculpted, yet somehow artificial like a doll's, staring directly at me.

And since I was currently in a position where the secret I was desperately hiding could be exposed at any moment, that fear grew even stronger.

Like a mouse before a cat, I trembled only on the inside.

“I'm, um, sorry that I seem to be giving you exactly the same answer as last time, but… I haven't really seen anything…….”

“…Is that so?”

Wow.

When I was staying in character, I was too busy worrying about my persona's temper to notice, but from an ordinary person's point of view, knights in this world were terrifying people…….

Especially when you were the one with something to hide. Then they felt even more terrifying…….

Realizing all over again just how intimidating a knight's status must be to an ordinary person, I fidgeted with my fingers.

Even that had to stop when her gaze dropped toward my hands.

“…Very well. I'll believe you.”

At least one fortunate thing was that she didn't seem to suspect me of being a demon.

Human-form demons—not demons that merely had a vaguely humanoid shape, but demons that genuinely looked human—were extremely rare, and a demon would have to be around the level of a Great Demon to conceal its Demonic Energy.

That was probably why.

I really, really had been unbelievably lucky…….

“…….”

“…….”

The fact that the knight, for some reason, showed no intention of leaving was decidedly less fortunate.

The knight stood there in silence, while I couldn't exactly move either, and the awkward atmosphere continued.

Unable to bear it, I was reduced to rolling my eyes around when I spotted someone in the distance running toward us while leading a horse.

That was another familiar face.

Probably this knight's page? Squire?

Something along those lines.

“Kniiight! Hah, huff.”

“Wh-why did you come so far away……?”

So that was why I hadn't seen her companion.

She'd just left him behind and run off?

I looked pityingly at the young man gasping for breath.

The horse wasn't one meant for riding but a packhorse, and one already loaded down with heavy baggage at that, so it seemed he hadn't even been able to ride it here.

I simply felt sorry for him.

“Um, would you like some water……?”

“Th-thank you…….”

He probably had water of his own, but in his current condition, even rummaging through his luggage to find it would be a chore.

With that thought, I searched through my belongings and handed him my waterskin.

He looked at me as though I were an angel.

All the while, his hands had already accepted the waterskin and popped open the cap.

Gulp, gulp.

“Khaa.”

Water trickled steadily into his mouth.

“Haa, I'm alive.”

“Then I suppose we can leave now.”

“…….”

Still, he didn't drink as much as I'd expected…

Is she human?

My eyes trembled for a moment as I looked at the knight mercilessly urging him onward while her own breathing hadn't been disturbed in the slightest.

Was she seriously human?

“Y-yes!”

Apparently, though, this was far from the first time the knight had behaved this way.

He hurriedly returned the capped waterskin to me and adjusted the small pack on his back.

Perhaps he wasn't a knight's squire for nothing, because in that brief interval his breathing had already stabilized.

“Let's go.”

The person who had stormed in like a tempest departed like one as well.

“…That seriously startled me.”

Maybe I should keep the disguise skill active for just one more day, just in case…….

Read only on MUGEX

Watching the knight, her squire, and their packhorse grow steadily more distant, I slowly started walking again.

I didn't want to travel alongside them, so my pace wasn't even a quarter of what it had been earlier.

Five weeks had passed since I left Manhafelt.

There were two weeks left until Münmund.

* * *

The Rheinfeld Plateau, on the border between the Quinrhen and Derma regions.

And at the western edge of that Rheinfeld Plateau stood Duvanzig, the gatekeeper city of the Quebec Highway, which allowed travelers to escape toward the northwestern plains instead of heading north, where the mountains blocked the way.

There, the Archmage pressed firmly at her temples.

The information that had poured in the moment they arrived in the city was truly grave.

“It seems the incident in Bemurchen may have acted as a catalyst…….”

Official notices had arrived from practically every city responsible for the Eastern Front.

Demons were gathering at the front.

There was no way to predict when fighting would break out.

Reinforcements would likely be needed.

Though the wording differed, the contents were so remarkably similar that one might have thought they had all been issued repeatedly from the same place.

It was almost unfortunate that they hadn't been.

“Well, it's understandable. Look at the number of item orders Bemurchen used to handle, and how many troops were pulled away from the front under the name of reinforcements. If I were a demon, I'd probably attack right about now too.”

The even more unfortunate fact was that they could not simply respond to all these mutually consistent reports with a single, How regrettable, and move on.

“Um, Meister. I don't think that was a particularly appropriate choice of words…….”

“It's not like dressing it up nicely is going to improve the situation. Do we really need to fuss over every little thing like this, Inquisitor? No matter how I phrase it, the Eastern Front is still about to get fucked.”

“That is…….”

“Wow… the more I see of you, the more amazed I am by your personality. How does a person even end up like that?”

“What, punk?”

One only had to look at those three men bickering right now.

The malice hidden behind these documents was truly deep and dense.

If they handled this carelessly, what returned to their hands would probably be nothing but blood and death.

“Quiet.”

“…….”

“…….”

But even if they did not handle it carelessly, would a good outcome really follow?

Could they find the correct answer that would allow them to overcome this malice?

…Could they do it?

“Archmage, do you have any sense of where their main attack will fall?”

“…I'm sorry.”

The Hero, who had silenced everyone with a single word, asked the question in a quiet, measured voice.

Naturally, the Archmage had no answer to give.

“You don't need to apologize to me. But if anything comes to mind, tell us even that much for now. The same goes for all of you.”

Still, the fact that they had no immediate answer was no reason to give up early.

Giving up might close off even a path that could otherwise have existed.

Before that dry voice, the Archmage closed her eyes and voiced what few ideas came to mind.

The others indicated with gestures that nothing occurred to them, so she was the only one to speak.

“God commanded us to go north.”

“You mean we should go north while turning our backs on the front?”

“God does not prophesy.”

It was impossible to look into the future.

Therefore, the divine oracle God had given them could not have been issued with this incident in mind.

“God merely tells us what the most correct choice is at that particular moment.”

But… if such explicit instructions had been given, then surely something of equal significance might be waiting at the end of them.

“…Do you believe something will change if we go north?”

“Perhaps. Wouldn't it?”

“If something does change, will whatever changes be worth more than abandoning this front?”

“…That, I do not know either.”

Amid those speculations, the Inquisitor cast a stone into the discussion without any change in expression.

Comparison of value.

Priority.

Opportunity cost.

Things that forever tested people.

The Archmage fell silent, and the Inquisitor tapped the table with a rigid expression.

The table, covered with all the official notices despite a little overlap among them, made a soft tap, tap.

Only that sound filled the room.

“We will postpone going north. We're heading to the front.”

“…Understood.”

Fortunately—or perhaps it felt strange to attach such a word to this situation—the silence did not last long.

The Inquisitor had finally made her decision.

“Additionally, we will prioritize destinations that reinforcements will have difficulty reaching.”

“I see…….”

“Does anyone object?”

The atmosphere had merely become stricter and more severe.

As always, before making the decision final, the Inquisitor asked for everyone's last opinion.

Her green eyes, wary of becoming dogmatic, swept across the room.

“I will follow the Representative's judgment.”

Daniel was the first to state his position.

He was originally someone accustomed to carrying out orders, and from the beginning he had said that strategy was not his strength and that he would step back from such matters, so there was nothing particularly surprising about his response.

“Same here, I suppose…….”

Deathbringer was much the same.

Apparently seeing nothing worth objecting to, he shrugged and accepted the decision.

“Whatever.”

Finally, Meister also agreed… though rather than deciding based on right or wrong, they seemed to be agreeing because they couldn't be bothered with the alternative.

Regardless, Meister complied.

The decision was made.

They would change course for an area where reinforcements could not arrive quickly.

“…In that case, I believe a city relatively farther north would be better.”

But was this party truly going to be all right?

The Archmage once again turned over the thought that had followed her ever since leaving Bemurchen.

Even amid all this, her tongue faithfully performed the role of adviser that had been entrusted to her.

“Do you have grounds for that?”

“The point when the Eastern Front began expressing pressure and the point when the frequency of demon sightings along the Southern Front began decreasing are almost identical. They likely redirected forces that had been deployed in the south toward the east. If so… we should be able to bring manpower from the south up to the Eastern Front as well.”

Her hands performed their duty just as faithfully.

The Archmage pulled over several official notices and reports that could serve as support for her hypothesis.

“However, it will still take time for reinforcements from the south to be assigned to the Eastern Front…….”

“…So cities relatively farther south will receive reinforcements first.”

“Yes. That's why.”

“Would it be difficult to receive reinforcements from the Northern Front?”

“…They won't send very many. The north has always been a place of relentless fighting.”

If they stubbornly held their positions to protect the north only for the Eastern Front to collapse, they would only hurt themselves, so they would send support.

However, with two Great Demons holding the line on the Northern Front, the nature of the region meant there simply wouldn't be that many troops they could spare.

Münmund, the northernmost city in the Derma region, and perhaps Brisden directly below it were the only places likely to receive significant support.

The Archmage explained as much based on her knowledge.

The Inquisitor's eyes looked dryly down at the map.

“I see.”

And finally, her finger came down on one location.

“Then we will go to Hirsenzig.”

“Understood.”

Hirsenzig, a city located slightly south of Brisden, was pressed firmly beneath her index finger.