A little while later, three carriages and five hundred fully armed soldiers stood in formation before Dontrel City Hall.
It was the procession of an escort unit meant to transport the captured dark mage to the capital.
Because the prisoner was a mage, travel by warp had been ruled out. A dark mage of that level could interfere with spatial movement magic without much difficulty, so although it would take time, they had chosen the safer overland route instead.
Vertek believed the captured dark mage to be around the 7th Circle. Approaching Wilkerson, who was inspecting the lined-up soldiers, Vertek spoke in a low voice.
“He is likely about a 7th Circle Expert. It seems he has not reached Master level.”
“It makes no difference. The anti-magic defensive armor I am wearing can block magic up to the 7th Circle.”
At Wilkerson’s confident reply, Vertek’s eyes widened. Of course, he knew very well that a Sword Master’s resistance to magic surpassed imagination, but to think he could withstand even 7th Circle magic…
In that case, even if Vertek died and came back to life a hundred times, he would not be able to touch so much as a hair on Wilkerson’s body.
‘Amazing.’
Calming his startled heart, Vertek turned his head and looked at the carriages. The wicked dark mage and his companions had already been securely loaded into them.
The dark mage was imprisoned in the large carriage positioned in the middle. It was the biggest of the three carriages, yet only one person was inside. In one of the remaining two carriages were the mercenary, Princess Karsel, and her escort knight. The last carriage was for Vertek and Wilkerson. It was the carriage placed at the very front.
Vertek turned to Wilkerson.
“Please ride in that carriage. It will be quite a long journey, so it should be better than going on horseback.”
But Wilkerson’s reaction was somewhat unexpected. As though there were no need to even consider it, he shook his head.
“My mission is to keep strict watch so that he cannot escape. So I will ride on the roof of the carriage carrying him, together with my men.”
“I-if that is what you wish…”
It was truly something Vertek had longed for but had not dared ask. Though he had desperately wanted it, he had not been able to say it aloud, so how could he not be pleased when the other party asked first? Fearing that Wilkerson might change his mind, Vertek hurriedly gave the order to depart.
“We move out.”
At the command, the escort unit quickly took their positions. The five hundred soldiers hurriedly formed ranks and surrounded the carriages, while the paladins belonging to Dontrel also firmly stationed themselves around them. Of course, the one they had to guard most carefully, no matter what anyone said, was the carriage in which the dark mage was confined.
As befitting soldiers of Terbia, one of the five strongest nations on the continent, they completed their deployment in an instant and began to move.
Having boarded the leading carriage with two paladins, Vertek looked over the escort unit with a triumphant expression. Because the bright future spread out before him felt so vivid, he could not help but feel his spirits swell.
‘Considering my achievements, becoming a court mage isn’t entirely impossible. Hehehe. This is magnificent.’
Exulting inwardly, Vertek settled himself into the carriage and headed for the capital.
However, among the people watching the escort procession, there was one pair of eyes that shone with unusual intensity.
Hair as black as the deepest night. A young man with a bloodless white face and a coldness about him like ice. It was none other than Russellant. He had finally found his target.
“You bastard. Even if you try to run, you are a rat in a jar now.”
The detestable target he had been searching for all this time was inside that carriage. But Russellant thought there was no need to hurry. A dry voice slipped through his lips.
“In a little while, they will enter a sparsely traveled official road. It would be better to strike then.”
He was an Ancient-class Black Dragon. There was no reason he could not aim for his target just because many people were gathered around. No matter how many antlike humans gathered together, they could never become an obstacle to Russellant. However, the reason he hesitated to charge in was because of the attention of the humans.
The all-out invasion by the dragons that would soon be launched. To prepare for that, there was no need to raise the humans’ vigilance.
In order to seize Arcadia, they had to strike when the humans here were utterly unprepared. Reminding himself of that, Russellant recalled what had happened moments ago, when he had been able to locate the bastard’s trail.
It had been only a little while ago that Russellant, who had spread a wide-range detection spell over all of Dontrel and was waiting for his target to be caught in it, sensed a faint trace of magic. Because his detection magic covered the entire city of Dontrel, no matter how trivial the magic, it could not escape his attention. And then a magical signal had been caught by his senses. He did not know to whom it had been sent. What was surprising was that it was a magical signal that had completed its eighth rearrangement—in other words, one realized through the 8th Circle.
“It’s him.”
The moment Russellant realized that, he instinctively knew that the one who had sent the signal was his target. He had no idea to whom it had been sent, but in Arcadia, the only mage above the 8th Circle should have been that bastard.
Thinking that he had finally caught his tail, Russellant immediately traced the signal back to its source, and at last discovered the carriage in which the bastard was imprisoned. The moment he saw the carriage, Russellant understood why the signal had been deployed at the 8th Circle.
“A magic circle that interferes with the convergence of mana. Foolish wretch. To think you were captured by your own kind—how pathetic…”
A magic circle that interfered with the convergence of mana. In any place where the power of that magic circle was active, the distribution of mana became extremely sparse. Because of that, ordinary magic could not even be deployed, and even if one did cast it, the spell had to be forced into a higher Circle for the magic to properly manifest. Since the mana was so sparse, the efficiency had to be raised drastically. But there was one question Russellant could not resolve.
“Strange. They said he was a 9th Circle Master. There is no way someone like that would be restrained by such a low-level magic circle.”
That would remain true even if he were wearing another magical implement that restricted the convergence of mana.
The 9th Circle was not something that could ever be taken lightly. Though it could not compare to a dragon, a 9th Circle Master was an incredible being, one capable of easily influencing the rise and fall of an entire kingdom. For such a being to be restrained by a mere magic circle… There was something suspicious about it, but Russellant decided to think of it simply.
“If this is a trick meant to lure me in, then he has clearly made a mistake. You wretch. I will make you feel in your bones why dragons are called the progenitors of magic.”
Even if he was not merely 9th Circle but the grandfather of the 9th Circle, it would not work against a dragon. Magic was always suppressed by a higher Circle. That was an unchanging truth, from ancient times to the present. Therefore, Russellant decided not to worry about anything.
“Judging from the situation, the only one who could pose even the slightest threat to me is that one Sword Master.”
The rest were not worth paying attention to. Only the Sword Master could pierce his scales, which were harder than steel. It was the same as a person dying after a single bee stung him in a vital spot. To a dragon, a Sword Master was a being that could be compared to a venomous bee. But even that was not much of a problem. There was only one of him, so Russellant merely had to subdue him beforehand with mind-type magic before beginning.
Mind-type magic. Any dragon of roughly Wyrm-class or higher could cast it sufficiently. Of course, its power differed depending on the caster’s level of mastery, but if the target was a single human, it was more than enough to subdue him.
A human afflicted by mind-type magic had to move according to the dragon’s will for a certain period of time. The problem was that it could only be applied to one human at a time. That weakness existed, but in the current situation, there seemed to be nothing to worry about. There was only one human who could pose even the slightest threat to him.
Of course, there was the detestable mage who was his target, but there was no need to pay him any mind. Even if he was a 9th Circle Master, as long as he was a mage, he could not pose even the slightest threat to Russellant…
Having organized his thoughts, Russellant bared his white teeth and smiled broadly. His gaze was fixed firmly on the carriage growing distant along the official road.
“You are dead either way. Since you will not survive today, consider yourself fortunate that you have been allowed to live a little longer.”
Muttering softly, Russellant quietly disappeared into the shadows between the buildings. He had already cast tracking magic on the carriage, so there was no concern that he would lose it.
After leaving Dontrel’s city gate, the escort unit began its long journey toward the capital. Because five hundred infantrymen were mixed in, their speed was unbearably slow, but no one grew impatient. There was no need to hurry anyway, so Vertek decided to sink comfortably into his seat and enjoy the trip.
The road they traveled was an official road connected directly to the capital. Since Terbia’s territory was renowned for maintaining good public order, there were no bandits likely to appear, and even if they did, it would not be a problem. Leaving aside the five hundred soldiers, with the escort of one Sword Master and seven paladins, no bandit group in all of Arcadia would dare even think of attacking them.
For that reason, most of the escort unit moved leisurely along the official road. But it was not long before an uninvited person blocked their path.
“Hmm?”
Wilkerson’s eyes widened when he saw a lone figure planted squarely in the middle of the vast official road. As an outstanding Sword Master, his eyesight far exceeded that of an ordinary person. Yet someone was standing right in the center of the official road as if it were his own living room. Wrinkles formed on Wilkerson’s aged face.
“What is he plotting?”
The possibility that it was a bandit group was slim. Ordinarily, bandits hid a large number of forces in the roadside grass and showed only a small number to put their targets at ease before striking. But this place was an open plain with nowhere at all to hide, and no matter how hard one looked, there was no concealed space beside the official road. Yet someone was blocking the road as if he had been waiting for them…
While Wilkerson was sunk in thought, the carriages continued steadily forward, and at last the unidentified person approached close enough for most of the escort soldiers to see him with the naked eye.
“What is that?”
“Is he out of his mind?”
The soldiers were just as puzzled. The carriages they were escorting bore the emblem of the Kingdom of Terbia clearly upon them, so anyone with even a normal sense of caution would not dare block their path. And yet there was a bold fellow standing alone in the road. Vertek, too, examined the other party from head to toe with suspicion in his eyes.
The one blocking the road was a young man. His appearance was so handsome that he could be called an unparalleled beauty. With his deep black hair hanging long, he was more than enough to shake the hearts of ordinary maidens. Unfortunately, however, there were no women among the escort unit, so no one would be taken in by the young man’s looks. Since he showed no sign of stepping aside, Vertek had no choice but to halt the procession.
“Halt.”
When the carriage stopped, one paladin quickly jumped down. He intended to approach the young man and ask why he was blocking the road.
“What is the matter? We are an escort unit dispatched by the Terbian royal family. If you do not clear the road, you will be severely punished according to the law, so stop your foolishness and move aside.”
But the young man paid no attention to the paladin’s threat.
Step, step.
He walked slowly toward the carriage, and the soldiers at the front tensed, placing their hands on the hilts of their swords. Of course, since it was certain he was alone, the soldiers and knights at the rear only continued to stare fixedly at what he was doing. Having approached close to the leading carriage, the young man looked up at Vertek.
“Are you the one in charge of this line?”
‘You?’
Vertek was dumbfounded. Some greenhorn who had appeared from who knew where was speaking down to him without hesitation. On top of that, he was a youngster who looked barely twenty. Though his clothing was rather neat, he did not appear to be of particularly high status.
‘This bastard…’
Vertek instinctively felt anger surge up within him. His pride, inflated by the thought that he might soon rise to the position of court mage thanks to his achievement in arresting the dark mage, only fanned that anger further. He deliberately put on a solemn expression.
“Who are you?”
“……”
“I do not know why you have blocked the front of our procession, but move aside at once. Unless you wish to be punished severely, that is. We are in the middle of transporting a very important criminal.”
At those words, a light rose in the young man’s eyes.