-Gulp, gulp.
“Pah!”
Danil wiped his mouth after downing the mana potion.
The mana he had expended during the magic demonstration began recovering at a rapid pace.
Rude patted him on the shoulder.
“You went through a lot to indulge this old man’s stubbornness.”
“Not at all. It wasn’t that difficult.”
“I’m grateful to hear you say that.”
Rude gave his impression.
“Your magic was fine as well, but the imps truly stood out. If those imps were to fire a volley all at once, any unit short of a truly exceptional one would be unable to avoid taking heavy damage.”
“I’m honored by your praise.”
“Praise? I’m merely stating the truth.”
Rude chuckled.
“If I were to be greedy, their firepower is a little lacking. It would have been even better if it were enough to work on a wyvern. Ah, of course, I don’t mean that as a complaint.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I can cover that part myself.”
“Well now. I’d forgotten. You’re a black mage, after all.”
He had been so soldierly(?) and knightly(?) that it had slipped his mind, but Danil’s essence was that of a black mage through and through—and a mage standing right before the wall of becoming a 5th Circle Master, at that.
Rude’s eyes gleamed.
“A secret art capable of killing a wyvern, is it? I’m curious. Could you show me once?”
“Hmm. That would be a little difficult.”
“Why? Do you need more mana potions, perhaps?”
“No. That’s not it.”
Rude looked disappointed, but Danil had his reasons.
“First of all, there are two things that could be called secret arts. But the penalties are so severe that they’re not something I can use just to confirm whether they work.”
“Penalties? Just how severe are they for you to be so reluctant?”
“One makes me unable to use magic for two days. The other makes me unable to summon imps for a week.”
“What?”
Rude was startled.
“No, just what sort of secret art has penalties like that?”
“Because it’s black magic?”
“…It’s absurd that that actually makes sense.”
It was an undeniably persuasive statement.
Danil shrugged.
“Well, you’ll probably get to see them someday. Personally, I hope that day never comes, but I suppose that’s up to luck.”
“…I suppose so.”
Rude was silent for a moment.
He was not foolish enough to fail to understand what Danil meant.
The Steel-Scale Tribe!
The irreconcilable enemies and worst barbarians hated by everyone in the North!
They were also the direct cause behind the Northern Grand Duke hiring 5th Circle mages like Danil in large numbers.
Just recalling that cursed name made Rude’s chest tighten.
Whenever the Steel-Scale Tribe appeared, casualties numbered at least in the hundreds.
And that was to say nothing of the tremendous property damage caused by their plundering and destruction.
At least this year, there was a reliable ally right before his eyes, so he felt more at ease than last year, but he could not help feeling anxious and worried all the same.
‘Hoo. The way to reduce the damage would be to detect their raids in advance, but that’s impossible. If only we had an air force like theirs, I’d have no more wishes… Hm?’
Something occurred to Rude, and his eyes grew as wide as saucers.
“Listen here, Sir Danil.”
Rude called out to Danil.
His gaze was sharp.
“Those imps. Can they scout as well?”
“Yes. They can.”
“Distance? How far can they go?”
“More than 200 meters, less than 300? I’m not sure exactly. I’ve never sent them farther than that.”
“Then why don’t we confirm that limit right now?”
“What?”
Rude was utterly serious.
If this succeeded...
‘The North will enter a new era!’
Danil stared at Rude for a moment, then scratched his head.
Judging by his expression, he had already decided the answer and would refuse any refusal.
If Danil refused, things would clearly become troublesome in all sorts of ways.
‘Sigh. It’s annoying, but I don’t have a choice. What can a subcontractor do? I have to do what I’m told.’
“All right. What do you want me to do?”
The indefinite-term contract worker, with the slave mentality of modern society rooted deep within him, awaited orders.
*
As usual, Reiner and Cyril arrived at the appointed time.
The soldiers waiting there saluted, and the knights bowed at the waist.
“It’s very cold today as well. Have a cup of tea each.”
“Thank you.”
After handing snacks to the soldiers as usual, Reiner moved up onto the wall under the knights’ guidance and escort.
In the distance, he saw the back of Danil, whom he had been so eager to see.
“Huh?”
“Sir Danil?”
Reiner and Cyril tilted their heads.
Something seemed a little strange.
Danil had his eyes closed and was looking up at the sky.
Around him, knights stood guard like an iron wall, weapons in hand.
Rude approached the two of them as they looked puzzled.
“You’ve arrived, Young Lord. Please wait a moment. It will be over soon.”
“Sir Rude. What is Sir Danil doing right now?”
“It’s nothing much. He’s scouting using an imp.”
“Scouting?”
Reiner turned his head outside the wall.
A plain and forest softly illuminated by moonlight came into view.
“Where did he send it to scout?”
“The entire world.”
“Hm?”
“What?”
Rude smiled at Reiner and Cyril, whose reactions were exactly as expected.
“There’s no need to be so surprised.”
His finger pointed to the sky.
“You know, don’t you? If you climb to a high place, you can see the entire world.”
“……!”
“Right now, Sir Danil is looking at the entire world.”
*
With his eyes closed, Danil was currently seeing the same thing as the imp he was synchronized with.
‘Is 400 meters the limit?’
Four hundred meters above the ground. A magnificent sight unfolded in the eyes of the imp flying through the night sky.
From the summit of a mountain, one could see everything below one’s feet.
It was the same now.
Within the flying imp’s field of vision, Kazan and the surrounding plains, forests, roads, and everything else entered his sight at once.
‘I’m really glad I trained hard. In the past, 300 meters would’ve been the limit.’
The duration of a summoned demon was proportional to the amount of magic power supplied and the distance.
Imps were lower-rank demons. Compared to other demons, the amount of magic power they required was overwhelmingly small, and thus they could be sent much farther away.
If the demon Danil had summoned were a mid-rank demon, the limit would probably have been 20 to 30 meters at most.
‘As expected, it’s hard to see at night.’
An imp’s eyesight was better than a human’s, but it was not so excellent that it could clearly see the ground at night from 400 meters in the air.
But that was not much of a problem.
‘If your own power isn’t enough, you just borrow it from somewhere else.’
In accordance with Danil’s will, the imp took a telescope from its back.
The military telescope he had received from Rude pierced through the darkness.
‘Wow. This is insane.’
Kazan’s buildings, roads, guard posts, a soldier urinating in the street, the snow-covered fields, even an owl perched on a bare tree in the forest.
Everything was as clear as if it were sitting in the palm of his hand.
A whistle escaped him on its own.
He was simply using a telescope from a high place.
The idea was simple, but as could be seen, the effect was tremendous.
‘It’s like someone dropped scan dust.’
He understood why Rude had suggested testing this for scouting.
‘There’ll be quite a few black mages in the North next year, won’t there?’
He recalled something he had once read on the internet.
During World War I, the main mission of the air force flying around in biplanes had been reconnaissance rather than combat, hadn’t it?
Now that he was seeing this, he understood why an air force raised at great expense would be used for scouting.
‘That aside, this telescope’s performance is killer. With this, I could probably see the craters on the moon.’
It was not particularly intentional.
Out of curiosity, he had merely raised the telescope on impulse and turned it toward the moon.
‘Huh?’
Instead of the lunar craters he had expected, he saw something else.
‘Wait! No way?!’
-Thwack!
“Guh!”
The imp’s vision was severed.
A headache assaulted him from the backlash of the forced reverse summoning.
Danil dropped to one knee on the spot.
*
“Sir Danil?!”
“Are you all right?”
“Healer! Call a healer!”
Danil had suddenly collapsed.
The knights were horrified as they supported him.
“Sir Danil?!”
“No, why did you suddenly—”
Rude, Reiner, and Cyril rushed over.
Amid everyone’s concern, Danil gasped for breath and lifted his head.
“Em…”
“Hm?”
“Emergeeeency!!!”
“Guh?!”
People covered their ears.
His voice, amplified by reinforcement magic, rang across the entire wall like cannon fire.
“Wyvern attack! Wyvern attack! It’s the Steel-Scale Tribe! The Steel-Scale Tribe is here!!!”
“……!!!”
In that instant, the air of Kazan froze.
People doubted their ears.
Those close by were no exception, and neither were those farther away.
“Impossible?!”
The first to shake off his doubt was Rude.
He hurriedly took out his telescope and looked up at the sky.
“Damn it all!”
A massive shadow revealed itself beneath the moonlight.
Long wings, scales reflecting the moonlight, and even the face of a person.
There was no mistake.
The enemy they had been waiting for, yet had hoped never to meet, had arrived.
“All personnel, Level One alert! Emergency bell! Ring the emergency bell!!!”
“Kyaoooooo!!!!!”
At the same time as Rude’s shout, the roar of a cursed monster burst from the sky.
“The Steel-Scale Tribe has invaded!!!”
*
-Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
“Kyaoooooo!!!!!”
The sound of the emergency bell and the roar of the wyverns echoed through Kazan.
Those who had been awake froze, and those who had been sleeping sprang up from their beds.
The worst possible night visitors had come to Kazan.
“It’s the Steel-Scale Tribe!”
“To the underground! Evacuate underground!”
“Hurry and bring the children!”
People moved swiftly.
Women held children in their arms and ran toward the underground shelters.
Men opened the communal armories, pulled out old armor and weapons, and armed themselves.
No sooner had the emergency bell begun to ring than torches flared up all across Kazan.
The light drove away the darkness, illuminating the walls and streets.
In place of cold came tension, and in place of darkness came fear.
Five hundred meters above Kazan, the warriors of the Black-Fur Tribe watched all of this and smiled.
“The cowards who were sleeping so soundly have finally woken up.”
Kudan was relaxed.
This was a hunt.
And a hunt, by nature, had to have the pleasure of chasing and being chased.
He had given the prey enough time to prepare.
Now it was the hunters’ turn to move.
“Take out your spears!”
“Yes!!!”
At Kudan’s command, the wyvern riders gripped their throwing spears.
The spearhead of the harpoon that had just pierced the monsterling loitering about in the sky gleamed bewitchingly beneath the moonlight.
“We begin the dive! Trample them. Warriors! It is a festival of blood!!!”
“Uwaaaaaaaa!!!”
“Kyaooooooo!!!”
The warriors roared.
At their masters’ command, the wyverns folded their wings.
Huge shadows began falling from the sky at terrifying speed.
-Bwoooooong!!!!
The horn trumpets hanging from the wyverns’ bellies swallowed the cold northern air and blared loudly.
“It’s the wyvern horns!!!”
“Damn it!”
Regardless of time or place, armies blew horns, drums, or flutes before battle.
The reason was simple.
To raise the morale of allies.
To instill fear in enemies.
The Black-Fur Tribe was no different.
They firmly believed that when these horn trumpets sounded, the hunters received the blessing of courage and the prey received the curse of fear.
“Aaah! The Black-Fur Tribe bastards are coming!”
“Hurry, get to the shelter!”
“Waaaaaah!!!”
Women hugged their crying children.
Men, their faces pale, struggled desperately not to fall into panic.
The people of Kazan realized that the barbarians falling from the sky right now were the Black-Fur Tribe.
Despite reducing the advantage of surprise, the only mad tribe that still insisted on using wyvern horns in the name of tradition was them.
Fear descended.
The terrifying and cruel reality that a horde of berserkers drunk on blood and madness was invading Kazan!
Every single person wished for the same thing.
That they might survive this night and see the sun rise tomorrow morning.
“Damn it! It’s a wyvern dive-bombing! Everyone brace for impact! Soldiers, hurry and load the anti-dragon ballistae! Archers, form ranks! Form ranks!”
Rude shouted at the top of his lungs.
Wyvern dive-bombing. It was truly a nightmare of a tactic.
A unique tactic of the Steel-Scale Tribe, in which they plunged down at a speed no one but knights could react to, crushing the enemies below and snatching away their targets!
Unless one was a fool, it was obvious what target they were aiming for.
“Knights and soldiers, protect the grand duke’s heir! Now!!!”
Rude bit his lip.
The distance had closed enough that the wyverns could now be seen even without a telescope.
At that speed, it was too late to dodge.
Rather, trying to flee would only result in being stabbed in the back.
There was only one method left now.
“We hold here! Kill the Steel-Scale Tribe! For Kazan!”
“For Kazan!”
The soldiers formed a dense formation.
The knights stuck close to Reiner’s side.
Reiner and Cyril’s faces turned pale, but they knew as well.
That this was the only way.
All or nothing.
Suddenly forced into a gamble with low odds of victory, Reiner gritted his teeth.
“Prepare to fire as soon as you’re ready!”
The ballista operators and archers lifted their heads toward the sky.
The moment Rude’s order fell, they would launch the first attack, signaling the beginning of war.
“Archers! Fi—”
“Stop, Sir Rude.”
Danil cut off Rude’s words and rose unsteadily to his feet.
“I’ll launch the first attack.”
“What? What are you talking ab…”
Rude could not finish speaking.
At Danil’s gesture, 107 imps were summoned.
Danil lifted his head.
He saw the one who had just killed his “eye.”
‘These bastards threw the first punch?’
Even if someone had suddenly slapped him while he was walking down the street, he would not have felt this foul.
That was right. In short, Danil had completely lost his temper.
That was why he decided.
Who gave a damn about penalties?
He was going to do it!
“Lunatic Flame!”
“Kiiiiiieeee!!!”
“Hurk?!”
“What the?!”
The moonlight distorted.
Blue flames that had absorbed the moonlight wrapped around the imps.
As the imps’ entire bodies burned and their eyes rolled back, Danil gave them a cold command.
“Go kill them.”
“Kyaooooooo!!!”
The demons consumed by madness shot into the sky.
Their trajectories cleaved through the moonlight and flew toward the enemy.
Fire and scales collided in the sky.