Danil was an indefinite-term contract mage of the Magic Tower.
The Foreign Legion he belonged to was usually dispatched wherever the power of a mage was needed.
Mages were rare beings.
One had to be born with the innate talent known as mana, possess the talent to control it, and be in an environment where that talent could blossom in order to become a proper mage.
A mage who grew up without such an environment?
Unless they were a dragon-class genius, they were no more than half-baked.
That was why mages who came from adventurer or mercenary backgrounds fell short in power compared to formal mages.
And so, when people needed a mage, they sought out the Magic Tower. It was expensive, but it was guaranteed to be worth the money.
All the more so in cases like now, when magical fire support was needed.
“Time to work. Hurry up and get out here.”
A magic circle unfolded, and in accordance with the contract, beings from the Demon Realm appeared.
“Kiiiiik!!!”
Imps. The lowest-class demons, also called minor demons.
If there had been another mage nearby, they would have laughed. After putting on airs and summoning something, all he called were minor demons?
It would have been a natural reaction.
Imps were not demons one could call particularly strong.
Even a novice adventurer, so long as they had learned basic martial arts and were properly equipped with a shield and armor, could take one down without too much difficulty.
In short, imps were weak demons.
But what if there were not one such demon, but dozens or more? Then the story changed completely.
—Wooooong!
“Kieeeeh!!!”
Dozens of magic circles unfolded in midair, and imps were summoned one after another, forming a swarm.
Danil was no longer an individual.
He was a member of a legion commanding 108 imps, and the commander who led that legion.
At his gesture, over a hundred imps took to the sky all at once.
“Target: goblin riders on the left ridge. Dark Bolt, full volley.”
“Kieeeeeek!!!”
The imps obeyed his command.
Black mana fired from their mouths, cutting through the air.
Hundreds upon hundreds of Dark Bolts poured down from the sky like a rain of arrows.
—Bang bang bang bang bang!
“Kueeeeeek!”
Even if it was low-grade magic, when it was pushed forward with this much quantity, it became firepower that could not be ignored.
Screams burst from the mouths of the goblin riders exposed to that firepower.
The wolves shrieked and tumbled, while goblins who fell to the ground with broken bones wailed before being struck by Dark Bolts and dying.
The sight of a hundred wolf cavalry being struck with a blow close to annihilation in a single move was truly spectacular.
Exclamations of admiration burst from the knights guarding Danil.
Danil, on the other hand, clicked his tongue.
‘To let goblin riders grow that much. That’s a talent in its own right, I suppose. The problem is, it’s the kind of talent that calls for the executioner’s blade.’
While working as an indefinite-term contract mage of the Magic Tower, he had seen his fair share of goblin hazards, but even for him, this was the first time facing a large-scale incident of over a thousand like this.
The cause of this incident was simple and clear.
It was because of an idiot who had ignored a noble’s duty to manage his territory and protect his people.
A once-in-an-era lunatic who had taken tax money and spent it all in extravagant revelry.
As if that were not enough, the foolish lord, drowned in wine and women, had read reports of goblin sightings coming up from below and still ignored them instead of responding, all because it would cost money.
The result was惨惨.
Three villages were devastated.
Dozens of homes were burned down, and hundreds of residents were wiped out.
The goblin horde that grew by feeding on that had swelled to over a thousand, spreading into one of the largest biological disasters in the history of the Empire.
‘The real joke is that the ones who grasped the situation first weren’t that idiot lord, but the neighboring lords nearby.’
Fortunately, they were not idiots.
They formed a militia, established a defensive line, and pooled money to call for reinforcements.
The mages of the Magic Tower. The Foreign Legion.
Thanks to that, there had been the minor mishap of their bank accounts becoming empty accounts, but there was no problem.
Because Danil, the indefinite-term contract mage dispatched from the Magic Tower, was certainly a man who earned his keep.
No one had expected that he would stop the goblin wolf cavalry all by himself.
“The goblin riders have been annihilated!”
“Now! All forces, charge!”
The enemy cavalry had been annihilated by tactical-weapon-grade firepower.
For the allies, it was something that sent morale soaring; for the goblins, it was a major event that sent their morale crashing to the bottom.
At the commander-in-chief’s shout, the knights rode out on horseback. The militia followed behind them.
The earth trembled, and battle cries echoed across the battlefield.
—Boom! Crunch!
“Gobuuuuh!!!”
The cavalry, armed in shining armor and with spears and swords, pierced through the front ranks of the goblin forces.
Infantry followed behind them as they drove in with unstoppable momentum.
Goblins pierced by spears and blades collapsed to the ground, bleeding.
Against the charge of humans moving as one body, the goblins could not even hold them back and were busy retreating.
The tide of battle began to tilt sharply to one side.
“We’ve won.”
“It is all thanks to you, Mage.”
“If the goblins had attacked the flank and our line had collapsed, we would have been in serious trouble. To stop that alone—truly remarkable.”
“No matter what anyone says, the greatest contributor to this battle is you, Mage.”
“You flatter me. I was merely lucky.”
Danil spoke as if it were nothing, but from the perspective of the knights escorting him, they could not see it that way.
Goblin riders. An upper species of goblin with the characteristics of cavalry.
It went without saying, but to deal with them properly, one had to respond with cavalry.
Deploy only infantry?
If they were professional adventurers hardened by monster hunting, that would be one thing, but if one tried that with a militia hastily formed by conscripting ordinary residents, the result was obvious.
Far from responding, the soldiers would be too busy trying to avoid them, their formation would collapse, and the goblin army would seize that opening to attempt an all-out decisive clash.
If that had happened, the scene before them now would have been the complete opposite.
‘As expected of a mage of the Magic Tower. His reputation is well deserved.’
‘They said he was a black mage officially recognized by the Magic Tower. And a magus who is a 5th Circle Expert at that.’
‘I was worried about his skills because Foreign Legion mages are non-regular workers, but that was needless concern.’
‘Damn it. Our lord openly gave him the brush-off, asking why only one came. How am I supposed to cover for that?’
The knights, each harboring countless thoughts, tried to score points by praising Danil’s heroic achievements, but Danil himself had no awareness that he had accomplished anything.
The reason was simple.
‘What’s all the fuss about? I just clicked a spell.’
All he had done was pull the trigger of a machine gun.
That was the extent of Danil’s perception.
A simple task that anyone with a machine gun could do.
To be praised for something like that?
For Danil, all he felt was embarrassment.
“Hmm.”
The mage, who had no awareness that the machine gun he fired was an [ability] not just anyone could possess, shifted his gaze from the battlefield to the knights.
“Let’s move. I’ll go provide support.”
“Pardon? Will you be all right?”
“If I came here to work, then I ought to work. Isn’t that the contract?”
At his tone, as if it were only natural, the knights were once again impressed.
‘Remember that adventurer mage we hired last time?’
‘Of course I remember. He swaggered around like crazy, saying he was a mage.’
‘And then he collapsed after casting two Fireballs.’
‘So this is a real mage? He’s on a completely different level from those half-baked ones.’
Danil entered the front line together with the knights and used summoning magic again.
The army of imps appeared once more.
“Kieek!”
A concentrated barrage from artillerymen wearing the masks of low-grade demons.
Black bolts of flame poured down over the goblins’ heads once again.
Screams, screams, and more screams. The goblins howled and fled.
Cheers, then exultant cries. The knights praised the Magic Tower and Danil, then charged forward once more.
Danil’s support attack was no different from the finishing blow.
The biological disaster horde, drunk on slaughter and ignorant of fear, degenerated into a rabble too busy fleeing.
The knights, calling it a chance to earn merit, struck down the goblins like enraged lions leaping into a flock of sheep. The militia followed behind them.
The battlefield began to be cleared.
Cavalry pursued the goblins fleeing in all directions, while knights and soldiers dealt with the remnants.
It was the moment when the biological disaster that had thrown the eastern Empire into terror until only a few days ago was resolved.
‘Looks like I’ll get to tear into some meat today instead of mess rations.’
Amid the soldiers rejoicing with their arms around one another’s shoulders, Danil alone was lost in a different thought.
It was not that he was particularly a sociopath or psychopath.
It was simply that, having often seen situations like this while working as an indefinite-term contract mage, he felt little moved by them.
Even a masterpiece that wrings tears from one’s eyes becomes plain after watching it dozens of times.
‘I hope the lords spend some money. Meat’s better grilled than smoked, after all.’
Praying that the lords were not cheapskates, he left behind the battlefield where black smoke and the stench of blood mingled.
His name was Danil.
A tenth-year indefinite-term contract mage of the Magic Tower.
Having faithfully completed his work today as well, he set out on the road back.
Holding a modest wish utterly unlike that of a tactical weapon that had shaken the battlefield—one more like that of an exceedingly ordinary office worker.
*
A festival was held beneath the night sky lit by the full moon.
With one cup of wine, the people celebrated their victory.
With the next, they consoled the souls of those who had died in this disaster, and with the next, they cursed the idiot lord who could be called the culprit behind the biological disaster.
Ordinarily, that would have been something that would bring punishment down on their heads.
Even if knights and soldiers had heard it and swarmed over to beat them with clubs, they would have had to accept it as only natural and move on.
But this time, there was no need to worry about that.
Because the idiot lord was no longer a noble.
“I hear that bastard was registered as a traitor?”
“They say he’s being tortured right now.”
“He’s scheduled for execution next month.”
“Serves him right. Son of a bitch.”
A biological disaster was a calamity that could, if mishandled, topple even a nation.
A brief look through history revealed plenty of cases where groups of black mages or heretics had artificially caused them in attempts to overthrow states.
For that reason, every existing nation treated the clause among a noble’s duties—【to subjugate monsters and protect the stability of the territory and its people】—with particular strictness.
In the case of the Empire, violating it naturally brought severe punishment, and if a biological disaster occurred as a result, the responsible party would be branded a traitor and his three clans exterminated.
It was only pitiful for the victims whose heads were about to roll simply because they had the wrong family member, but what could be done? The law of the nation was supreme.
The common folk, who had no way of knowing such circumstances, simply treated the idiot lord and his family as being all of a piece, chewing them over like side dishes and relieving their stress.
Of course, not every part of the festival was only full of curses like that.
“Mage, please accept a cup.”
“My apologies. I cannot drink alcohol. I’ll have soda water, if you please.”
“Oh my, of course. Here, here, please have plenty.”
Inside a military tent set up in one corner of the village was what one might call a banquet for the high and mighty.
Ordinarily, it was a truth that the protagonist of such a gathering would be the one with the highest position and greatest power, but today was different.
Even when they had allied and fought as a coalition army, the lords had been busy competing to seize future leadership, but for today alone, they had united as one team with one heart and one will, devoting themselves to entertaining an outsider.
‘We must win points with this mage!’
As stated before, these were normal people to whom even comparing them with the idiot lord would be an insult.
In other words, they were not fools who would treat Danil as a mere dispatched employee.
‘That firepower was astounding. To think he could shake the battlefield alone.’
‘I thought all the rumors about the mages of the Magic Tower were exaggerated nonsense, but they weren’t.’
‘What if we met him as an enemy? Just imagining it is horrifying. Thank goodness he is an ally.’
Everyone had seen it clearly with their own eyes.
The sight of a lone mage becoming a legion of over a hundred with a single spell and sweeping away monsters.
That power was on an entirely different level from the self-proclaimed [mages] they had seen until now.
No, let that be corrected.
This was surely the power of a true mage.
Only a fool whose liver had swollen beyond his body would make an enemy of such a person.
Of course, that was not the only reason they were entertaining him.
‘I want him!’
Power was like treasure. Once seen, it was only natural to covet and desire it.
Of course, they were not idiots foolish enough to attempt headhunting against the Magic Tower.
What they wanted was simple.
“Sir Danil. There is something I would like to ask.”
“Please, go ahead.”
“It is nothing else, but my son also has talent in magic. He reached the 2nd Circle this year.”
“Oh. Congratulations. Are you considering sending him to the Imperial Academy? Shall I write you a letter of recommendation?”
“Haha. I am grateful for the offer, but I must decline. I may be a noble, but I do not live so wealthily that I could send him to the Imperial Academy.”
“Ah. My apologies. I was discourteous.”
“Please don’t mind it. What I wished to ask is something else. If I may... could I ask about your experiences, and how you came to reach your current position?”
“Pardon?”
The eyes of the lords coveting power gleamed.