276

Chapter 276: Tell Me (6)

“We have to… report this immediately.”

The soldier who had awakened was the one with the injured shoulder.

In other words, the soldier who knew “Atya.”

“How do you intend to go in that condition?”

“My task is reconnaissance and reporting the results. As long as I cannot be certain whether what we discovered has already been conveyed to the city, delivering that information must take priority.”

“At least wait until daylight.”

“No. The more time we waste, the more dangerous things will become.”

The man who introduced himself as Richa repeatedly clenched and unclenched a fist, his face still pale from blood loss.

It did nothing to return any color to his bloodless complexion.

“This concerns your village as well, so I'll tell you in advance, Village Chief. The demons' attack on us wasn't merely a matter of striking at passing humans. It was carried out according to an extremely thorough plan.”

“That… what exactly do you mean……?”

“Yes. They're forming an encirclement. And they're doing it very quickly.”

But was his pallor really only because he had lost so much blood?

Or was it because what he'd discovered while doing his job was simply too enormous?

“…This village will probably fall within the radius of that encirclement soon as well. Until further word arrives, prevent anyone from leaving the village and begin controlling your food supplies immediately.”

The soldier slowly raised himself despite wincing at the pain in his shoulder.

“Increase the number of people stationed on the walls, but patrol inside the village regularly as well. As you already know, Goblins may tunnel their way inside.”

“Understood. Good heavens… it has been thirty years since something like this happened.”

“It may be worse than it was then. Prepare yourselves.”

“I see…….”

After saying that much, the soldier met my eyes.

His gray eyes wavered once.

“…Furthermore, in case I fail, I would like volunteers to carry the message to other cities. There is a possibility I may be caught in the demons' encirclement before reaching Münmund.”

But the voice delivering the proposal never wavered.

At the suggestion of creating several safeguards in case of failure, the Village Chief's eyebrows bent.

“I'll go.”

“Leksha!”

“If the encirclement is completed, we'll be in danger too. You know that, Father.”

“Urgh.”

“Thank you for your cooperation. Tell them that the demons are forming an encirclement around Münmund, that the encirclement is forming extremely quickly, and that their movements are far more organized than usual.”

“All right.”

Regardless of the Village Chief's twisted expression toward a son who was brave to a fault, the soldier explained what the Village Chief's son needed to report.

The son's eyes were clear and intelligent as he listened.

Barring some unexpected variable, the mission seemed likely to succeed.

Meaning, as long as the Village Chief's son didn't run into demons on the way.

“Then I'll leave for Münmund…….”

“Excuse me for interrupting.”

But the Village Chief's son wasn't important to me right now.

I stepped forward toward the soldier who was preparing to leave.

“I'll come with you.”

I still couldn't allow him to die.

Yes.

Not yet.

“I can use a little magic, so I'm certain I'll be of help.”

“…This is not a game. It is truly dangerous.”

“I know. I went outside earlier, and there were quite a lot of demons.”

“…What? You went outside?”

The soldier's eyes widened.

The Village Chief let out an “Ah,” then explained on my behalf.

Apparently the Village Chief's Favorability toward me had grown fairly high, because my actions were packaged as though I'd performed some heroic feat.

And that was only the summarized version.

I dreaded imagining what would've been said if we'd had more time.

I awkwardly rubbed my burning face and smiled.

“…That was reckless.”

“If you put it that way, what you're about to do isn't exactly safe either.”

“This is the duty entrusted to me. Something I am obligated to do.”

“I see. But the same is true for me. Helping others with the power I possess is, to me, also a duty I am naturally obligated to perform.”

The soldier's eyes narrowed at my words.

It looked more like a grimace of pain than displeasure.

The gray eyes gleamed with a depth greater than a well.

“…You may regret it.”

“That would be mine to bear, not something you need to consider, I think…….”

“Hah… trying to defeat a mage in an argument was foolish of me. Very well. Come with me.”

“Yes.”

“…Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Still, I succeeded in securing a place at his side.

That was enough.

No matter how many demons were waiting along the route, no matter what lay ahead, he would no longer die.

“The shortcut to Münmund is through this gate.”

“Just in case, don't open it. I think it would be better to lower us using the thing you made earlier.”

“Understood.”

There was nothing within the radius illuminated by the torches.

But the presences beyond the forest were another matter.

I narrowed my eyes at several swarming presences.

“And I don't think you should send your son out.”

“What?”

“It's already too late. The forest is covered in demons. They've spread all the way around the back.”

“…Did you discover that through magic?”

“Yes.”

“Magic can do something like that too…….”

Wow.

Thank goodness there are no mages here and everyone belongs to a social class that never has occasion to interact with one.

I can lie and call anything magic, and not a single person here can tell that it's bullshit!

Relieved by that fact, I closed my eyes and pretended to mutter an incantation.

Taking advantage of the pitch-black night, Mana spears shot outward and turned every demon peeking around nearby into skewered meat.

The demons' screams shattered the silence of the night all at once.

“I've dealt with the nearby demons for now, but please be careful.”

“…Thank you, Mage.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Uh.

Was killing dozens of them at once a little too impressive?

I scratched the back of my head when the Village Chief, who had spoken so casually to me only moments earlier, immediately switched to formal speech.

Well, hearing that someone is a mage and actually seeing them use magic—even if the magic is fake—must feel completely different.

“Let's go.”

“Yes.”

Still, I probably wouldn't ever come back here.

It should be fine.

Praying that their memory of me would fade as quickly as possible, I descended the wall with the soldier.

Not even the sound of an insect could be heard in the night forest, which only made it more ominous.

“I'll continuously search the surrounding area with magic and find directions without demons. Within those routes, please guide us toward Münmund.”

“Understood.”

But I'd already experienced plenty of atmospheres that felt like the opening area of a horror game.

What actually worried me was whether I could simultaneously sense presences, kill them before they reached us, and walk while following the soldier.

And when I considered that I'd also need to change direction from time to time so no one would find the corpses, my head was already starting to hurt.

Gulp.

My throat swallowed tension of a different kind.

“…Let's go.”

Rescuing those two soldiers earlier had already been incredibly difficult.

Could I succeed this time too?

I was a little worried.

Read only on MUGEX

* * *

“Well, this almost makes all that determination feel foolish.”

Richa—or, by his proper name, Erich.

He had spent twenty-six years working as a scout and believed he'd experienced just about everything there was to experience.

Yet even he couldn't help swallowing a hollow laugh at the current situation.

“…I never imagined it would be this smooth.”

After all, he was currently passing through a forest infested with demons without encountering danger even once.

And this was happening without companions volunteering themselves as bait at the cost of their lives, or traps prepared to draw the demons' attention away.

“Is that so… ah.”

Even veteran soldiers who had done this work for twenty years couldn't manage such a thing.

The same would probably be true even if one brought out the chief knights recorded in Münmund's historical texts.

To avoid being detected by demons with instincts as sharp as beasts and senses equally keen—

even while those very demons were actively forming an encirclement—

was impossible unless luck itself descended upon the world.

“That makes four times now. Please be careful.”

“…My apologies. I can't see anything, so I keep catching my feet.”

“It happens.”

And yet it was happening.

Because of none other than this young mage who occasionally caught a foot on a tree root and stumbled.

“As long as you don't get caught, it's fine.”

“…Yes. Ah, there's a demon ahead. I think we need to go around to the left. About… ten meters.”

“Understood.”

So Erich remained gentle even toward things that would ordinarily have made him angry.

The results provided by this mage's search magic were simply too overwhelming to complain about the noise made by the occasional stumble.

Besides…

It was fundamentally impossible for an ordinary person to walk through a forest at night without a light and never trip.

He should instead be grateful that a mage with no relevant training was keeping up this well.

Erich held the mage's hand firmly and continued forward.

“There's another one ahead…….”

But even that gradually became more difficult.

The sounds of demons came from every direction with increasing frequency, and the mage began telling him to detour more and more often.

“Haa.”

Still, he'd expected this much.

From the moment their scouting party had been wiped out without being able to do anything, there had been no possibility that this encirclement was ordinary.

“…Come to think of it, there is something I failed to say.”

“……?”

“Thank you… for risking danger to save my comrades.”

After all, their scouting party hadn't simply been dispatched to determine the demons' numbers and species.

They had been sent to discover whether the merchant caravan's disappearance had truly been caused by demons, and if so, whether it had happened by chance or while the demons were in the process of forming an encirclement.

“I was only able to save two.”

“…You saved two people.”

In other words, they had been dispatched from the very beginning under the assumption that an encirclement might already be forming.

Their unit had been arranged so that even if several died, at least one person could escape to Münmund and report what was happening.

“Those things were truly… persistent in chasing us.”

And even with those preparations, they had still been helplessly defeated.

Unfortunately, Erich was not foolish enough to fail to understand what that meant.

“More accurately, they prioritized chasing anyone trying to reach Münmund…….”

The demons did not want anyone to reveal that the encirclement was nearly complete.

That was why they had prioritized killing soldiers who fled toward Münmund.

That was also the reason Erich and his two comrades had survived.

He had noticed the pattern early and run in the opposite direction, escaping their list of priorities.

Under the justification that he couldn't complete the mission if he died.

Or perhaps because, somewhere beneath that excuse, his instinctive struggle to preserve his own life had outweighed the mission.

“…A stretch of fallen leaves. We'll make too much noise here. Let's go around.”

“All right.”

Still, he was now carrying out his mission.

And doing so safely enough that they could even exchange whispers without being discovered.

That gave him some comfort.

“…I'm thirsty. Do you have any water left?”

“Not much… give me a moment.”

But perhaps that comfort was still insufficient to completely release the tension.

As time passed, his throat grew steadily drier.

It felt as though he'd endured half a day beneath a blazing sun without drinking a single cup of water.

“This is the last of it.”

“My apologies. I've ended up drinking all your water by myself.”

“It happens.”

The problem came after he drank.

No matter how much water he swallowed, the burning thirst in his throat refused to disappear.

Only after draining half of the final waterskin did Erich finally recognize the strange sensation and narrow his eyes.

“…No. This is clearly abnormal.”

“……?”

Erich pulled the mage closer.

In the dim predawn darkness, where colors had become indistinct, the person before him had finally stopped looking like his nephew.

“I am trained. Trained to endure for as long as possible without water. Yet how many bottles have I drunk now?”

“…Two and a half?”

“And you, Mage, have barely drunk anything at all. Do you truly believe this is a coincidence?”

No.

The mage still resembled someone.

Only the person had changed.

“Mage.”

“…Mr. Richa, how far is Münmund from here?”

“About one-third of the journey remains.”

“In terms of time?”

“…Three hours. Is something wrong?”

The face barely visible beneath the faint moonlight hardened.

It took on a form remarkably similar to someone who had once come to steal away his younger sister.

Please give me permission to marry her.

“This is troublesome.”

“What—”

“Don't open your mouth. You might bite your tongue.”

Before Erich could finish the thought, the mage's hand lifted him bodily.

His vision flipped upside down.

What in the—

Erich barely swallowed the words that reflexively tried to escape him.

Making any sound louder than a whisper in the silent night was unacceptable.

That had nothing to do with pride.

It was survival instinct existing long before pride ever entered the equation.

“And you'll probably get a little dizzy… I apologize in advance.”

“……!”

But when his body suddenly felt weightless and the faint outlines of trees and earth vanished from sight—

for the first time, he wanted to scream.

Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaash.

Whether it was wind or branches, a noise like everything in their path being ground apart erupted around them as his entire body began violently jolting.