Episode 77. There’s No One Else Like Me
Color began to return to the wound that had been festering black.
For a wound to regain color—though the expression was strange, it was the most accurate description.
The injured soldier’s face gradually relaxed as well.
His body had been resisting both the pain of his long lacerations and demonic energy, so once the demonic energy drained away, his face became peaceful from that alone.
“Are you a priest…?”
Gustav spat out the words without realizing it, looking at Binaeril’s profile.
Binaeril, who had been concentrating on Eden, let out a snort of laughter upon hearing the question.
“I’m a mage. As I introduced myself earlier.”
The injured soldier could also lift his head and examine his wound.
Emotions of respect welled up in his gaze as well.
“Are you a god?”
“No. I’m just a mage.”
“A mere mage could not do such a thing, Sir Binaeril.”
Duke Dux placed a hand on Binaeril’s shoulder and spoke for everyone’s feelings.
“I believe the remaining wound will be fine if you disinfect it well and stop the bleeding.”
The soldier endured the pain, grasped Binaeril’s hand, and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.
“Are there any other injured?”
Binaeril went around the forward base examining wounds.
By the time he returned after making a full round, Eden was exhausted and worn out.
[Binaeril, I’m so tired…]
‘Good work.’
Eden returned inside the ring and fell asleep just like that.
He would have to leave her be until she got enough rest.
‘Veritas. Can you tell the exact location of the page?’
He couldn’t know the exact cause of the undead appearances, but he had to assume someone was abusing the page’s mana.
‘It’s probably him.’
The most likely candidate was the Lich he had met at Paguin Castle.
-I can tell the general direction, but not the exact spot. I need a bit more time. If possible, it would be good to go further inside.
That was a matter requiring the Duke’s permission.
For now, Binaeril had come here as the Duke’s assistant.
He received the Duke’s invitation and entered the strategy meeting tent.
“You’re here?”
Inside a tent at Ulm, there were the Duke, Beron, Sir Asdal, and Sir Gustav, the commander here.
“I called you because I wanted to ask your opinion. Come here.”
Gustav’s long report on the frontline situation followed.
“Are there any other unusual reports?”
“Well… that is…”
Gustav opened his mouth hesitantly.
“Speak freely, Gustav.”
“There was a report of people seen inside the front lines.”
“All the territory residents inside the control line should have been evacuated, no?”
“Yes. It was uncertain, so I was hesitant to report it…”
The Duke scratched his chin and asked again.
“Just tell me what you know. I’ll be the one to judge.”
“A soldier on night watch recently sensed a presence. He said it seemed to be a person, seeing that they wore a hood.”
“A hood?”
“Yes. They say it was a pitch-black hood. And there were several of them. When the soldier called out, they disappeared somewhere, but when scouts went to the spotted location, they found this item.”
“What is this?”
The item Gustav held out was a straw doll.
Among those gathered, only Binaeril knew the true nature of the item.
“Dark mages.”
“It’s an item belonging to dark mages.”
At Binaeril’s words, the atmosphere in the meeting tent turned icy.
“Is that true, Sir Binaeril?”
“Yes. I met a dark mage using the same item at Paguin Castle. He died, though.”
Dark mages used various mediums. Drugs, blood, straw dolls, and so on.
Binaeril could be certain that what the soldier had seen were dark mages. His senses clearly felt the ominous energy wafting from the doll.
“They are highly likely to be the culprits raising the undead in this area. Do you know where they went?”
“I don’t know. The soldier’s report only said they disappeared in an instant…”
The Duke sighed, greatly regretful.
“If we had caught them, we could have at least stopped the undead from appearing around here!”
“But it’s fine. At least we know they are active nearby.”
“Those words sound as though you have a way, Sir.”
Binaeril didn’t answer and shook the straw doll in his hand.
Puzzled gazes poured in from the people inside the tent.
To mages who use specific items as mediums, their cherished items are special.
That is why they are called ‘cherished.’ Just as a knight values his sword, or a mason his tools.
It was the same with Priya obsessively cherishing her pipe.
The dark mages were no exception to this.
No, rather, the more twisted they were, the stronger their attachment to their items.
The one-eyed Pellemos recognized the lost straw doll at a glance when he found it.
He cheered, holding his cherished straw doll. I’ve missed you, my friend!
His efforts to search around every day for the lost straw doll had paid off.
He embraced the worn-out straw doll to his chest, moved. I shall never lose you again….
Pellemos, hugging his cherished item with eyes closed, heard a chilling sound from behind.
A clear wave of mana that even his meager senses could feel.
“Don’t scream, if you value your life. Answer my words with only ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Answer by nodding or shaking your head. Understood?”
“W-what?”
Pellemos’s scrawny shoulder was pierced.
Pellemos swallowed the pain internally.
His frozen-shut mouth prevented him from making any sound.
‘A mage…?’
“Must I explain again? Or do you understand now?”
He desperately nodded his head.
Though he realized late, paralyzed with fear, the attacker’s voice sounded quite young.
But that fact alone did not calm Pellemos’s heart. He had to be able to chant to resist or do anything, didn’t he?
“Are you a dark mage?”
“Were you raising undead near Rotpalen?”
…Nod.
“Was the one who hired you a skeleton-like Lich?”
Nod nod!
“Guide me to you dark mages’ hideout. If you lie, your head will explode immediately.”
The dark mages’ hideout was hidden behind a secret passage leading underground, amidst a devastated forest.
Its entrance was concealed by a magical field that disoriented sight.
It likely wouldn’t be caught by the Duke’s army patrols. It would have been hard to find without knowing the exact location.
Binaeril advanced into the dark mages’ hideout with Pellemos leading the way.
“Pellemos? Where have you been! Because you slacked off, our workload increased!”
Starting with one bastard’s complaint, curses from several people could be heard from inside the hideout.
Binaeril pressed his body against the side of the hideout entrance.
The magic bullet he had cast was still aimed at Pellemos’s head.
‘One, two, three… including this bastard, five in total?’
‘The important thing is the first strike. I have to take them all out at once before they can display their individual abilities.’
Drug users, blood users, curse users, etc… The dark mages’ abilities varied, but they had a common point.
It was that they needed time to exert their abilities.
The dark mages’ magical skills were shoddy. Binaeril’s plan was to deal with them in an instant.
“Come here. I’ve let you off for a while, but no more. Let’s have a beating today.”
“Ah, no! Sorry!”
One of the bastards approached the entrance where Pellemos was.
Judging by the heavy footsteps, it seemed to be a bulky one.
“…Who are you?”
The bulky one discovered Binaeril hiding behind the entrance and furrowed his brow.
He had no memory of inviting such a guest….
And so the fight began.
The bulky giant with a hole between his eyes slowly fell backward.
Come to think of it, this was already his third battle with dark mages.
Goblins, the dark mages of Paguin Castle, and now these guys.
They didn’t know who Binaeril was, but Binaeril roughly knew their abilities.
As the bulky one fell, the bastard at the front visible in his line of sight quickly scratched his forearm with long fingernails.
This one was a dark mage who used blood as a medium.
“Freeze.”
The blood user’s arms froze with a cracking sound. With that, one was rendered combat-incapable.
The next bastard had red tattoos all over his body.
This one was a drug user.
Binaeril clapped his palms and chanted.
“Be crushed and burst!”
Binaeril’s intense will manifested through the wind.
The violently rising air pressure constricted the tattooed man’s entire body.
But it was insufficient to take his life.
“Tat!”
The drug user raised his mana and pushed away the wind.
Water was dripping from his pants below his waist.
“Damn it!”
All the potion bottles he had stashed inside his hood had broken and were spilling.
“Who the hell are you!”
The last dark mage neither took out a potion, scratched his skin to draw blood, nor pulled out a straw doll.
He was a new type of dark mage.
“Go, Red Fang!”
The bastard shouted, opening the entrance to a cage placed in the corner.
The identity of the savage magical beast that leaped in was….
“Squeeeak!”
The goblin, given a name too extravagant for its birth, left the world with a single blow from Binaeril.
“No! Red Fang!”
Incongruously, the dark mage hugged the goblin’s corpse and wailed.
“…Now it looks like I did something terrible.”
The dark mages were a ragtag group.
Once their abilities were sealed, all they could do were meager basic spells at best.
Before five minutes had passed, only Binaeril and Pellemos survived in the hideout.
“Y-you’ll spare me, right?”
Pellemos looked at Binaeril with a fawning smile.
Binaeril ignored his words for now and advanced to the center of the hideout.
There was a large altar there.
On one wall of the hideout were organs displayed by body part. Eyes, hearts, lungs, and the like.
In a small room connected to the hideout, bars hung, and traces of people having been there remained.
They must have dragged territory residents here and killed them.
They must have extracted their vitality and created undead.
Curse words welled up in Binaeril’s throat.
When he came back out to the hideout, Pellemos was rummaging through his comrades’ corpses.
Their eyes met, and he gave an awkward smile.
“They’re materials too good to leave behind….”
Binaeril made Pellemos the same shape as his friends.
“Did you think you could survive after doing such things?”
There was no longer anyone to hear his rhetorical question, but he felt something unpleasant lodged in his mouth that wouldn’t go away unless he spat out some words.
The altar connected to the center of the room.
“Did they make the undead with this?”
-It’s connected to somewhere.
“Could that somewhere be where the page is?”
-The probability of that is high.
“Can we pinpoint the location by backtracking the altar’s mana?”
-I tried, but it’s difficult. They’re interfering from the other side. It seems this page is more special than the others.
“Special?”
-It seems the fragment remained while possessing an ego, like me.
Binaeril was at a loss for words for a moment.
“…There’s another bastard like you?”
-What do you mean by that, Binaeril?
“That’s rather creepy news.”
-…Anyway, if I devour it, its ego will be annihilated, so it doesn’t matter. But I agree that it’s creepy.
“Right? Even you think you’re creepy, don’t you?”
-No, that’s not what I meant. There’s no telling how twisted an ego that has been dormant for a long time might be. It’s actually unusual to be in a perfect and intact mental state like me.
“Perfect and intact?”
-Don’t latch onto my words. I’m saying that perhaps the page on that side planned all of this undead incident.
That was even creepier.
-At any rate, destroy this. I doubt leaving it intact will lead to any good.
Binaeril unleashed his mana explosively toward the altar.
And that fact,
the dark mage Ballam noticed.