#117 Omen (2)
“I apologize. Freesia happened to be away. If she had been here, you could have come straight in without the trouble.”
“Hm—? You needn’t worry about that. It’s nothing.”
Mulo guided Briki to the sofa set to one side of the office and leisurely began brewing the black tea she liked.
Of course, that attitude was only on the surface. His mind was in a more complicated state than ever. ‘There should have been at least twenty years left until the scheduled visit, and yet she came so suddenly.’ On top of that, Heinz just so happened to be away as well, so he could not get a grasp on how he ought to respond.
To begin with, the option of fighting did not even exist.
Even if they were inside a barrier that was practically his own home ground, there was no way he could face her alone. ‘In truth, I don’t want to fight her either.’ He might now be bound to Heinz, but was she not the being he had served for long ages?
Even if the time they had actually spent face-to-face was not that long, the fact that she was the progenitor of the bloodline he had inherited did not change.
Whether or not she knew of Mulo’s confused state of mind, she was looking around at the blood magic barrier covering all directions with a calm expression.
And when he set the carefully brewed black tea in front of Briki.
Slurp.
—She accepted the tea as if she had been waiting for it, took a sip, and gazed steadily at Mulo.
“As expected, you are the same.”
He could tell at once what those words meant.
Naturally, she must have been referring to his altered… no, further evolved blood.
For “Brokoslak,” the progenitor of the bloodline, discerning the nature of blood was no difficult feat.
“I cannot understand it. It is certainly true that you carry my blood, and yet that it could change to this extent. I had thought a bloodline was complete simply by existing as itself…”
She had believed that to be common sense, passed down over hundreds and thousands of years.
Yet evidence refuting it had suddenly been thrust right before her eyes.
“Lord Brokoslak, that is…”
“How many times must I tell you to call me Briki before you understand? I told you, I do not much like that name.”
“Ah, yes. Lady Briki.”
“Yes, that’s much cuter. I really do think I named myself wrong from the start. I should have chosen something more adorable.”
At Briki’s sudden change of topic and her solitary grumbling, Mulo gave an awkward laugh to himself.
Had things gone slightly differently, he might have ended up with an adorable surname.
He liked his current surname much better.
“So, where is he?”
After grumbling to herself, she asked Mulo again in a carefree tone.
Her way of speaking was as disjointed as ever, but Mulo, already accustomed to it, immediately knew what she meant.
“He is away for the moment.”
“Hmmm—.”
At his answer, Briki merely gave a slight nod without saying much and took another sip of black tea. ‘I’m curious. Just what sort of child could have done such a thing?’ At first, she had thought her curiosity would be resolved if she came to see the clan lord, Mulo, but once she faced him, he too was merely in a state of subordination to someone else. ‘He even seized control over me, a trueblood. I never imagined such a thing could be possible.’ Since she had never been the sort to cling to authority in the first place, she felt no displeasure at having her sovereignty usurped.
Rather, her curiosity toward the mastermind behind this matter only grew stronger. ‘The strengthening of a bloodline through evolution, the transmission of more superior blood. This will greatly help in laying the foundation for vampires to step into the light.’ That was precisely the reason she had endured through long ages in order to leave behind an heir by any means.
And now, while she had slept, that possibility had suddenly drawn close.
“It feels good to drink the black tea you brewed after so long, Mulo.”
“Thank you, Lady Briki.”
“Oh, right. I have nowhere to stay. May I impose on you here for a while?”
“…Of course. I will prepare a room where you may stay comfortably.”
Mulo inwardly sighed and nursed a headache.
Judging from her attitude, it was fortunate that she did not seem likely to take any hostile action, but he had no idea what would happen when Heinz returned.
He had not received any policy regarding this from him, nor did he have any means of contacting him first… ‘I don’t know. But this matter is too great for me to judge on my own.’
In the end, he had no choice but to simply wait until Heinz returned.
And so, the former owner who had come to the house that had been taken from her settled in as calmly as could be.
***
The Steel Fortress, located at the northernmost edge of the Tulk Kingdom, was today once again suffering from the monsters that had been attacking day after day.
The army of Count Aonia’s domain had long since been drawn in as much as it could be, and reinforcements were arriving one after another from other nearby territories as well.
If this place were pushed back even by chance, the entire northern region of the kingdom would be laid waste, so they had no other choice.
Troops dispatched from each territory, mercenaries who had come seeking enormous rewards, priests of the Order of the Chief God who had joined to support them, and mages from the Magic Tower.
“My word… Does that even make sense?”
“…It seems it does.”
However, the one who had captured the eyes of everyone gathered here was neither a mage firing off flashy spells nor a priest manifesting the mercy of God.
“I heard he was famous in Taraq, but to think it was to that extent.”
“…Our captain was once determined to smash that man one day. Good thing he still hasn’t challenged him. He wouldn’t have come out alive.”
The one in question was a single warrior who had plunged into the midst of the monster horde and was fighting there.
However, to simply dismiss him as a warrior, his appearance as he swept across the battlefield was far from ordinary…
A body and muscles that overwhelmed even an orc’s, his upper body bare, and instead of a helmet, he wore a beast’s head over his own.
All sorts of tattoos covering his entire body glowed faintly, and red and green light streamed from his eyes.
“Kahahaha—!”
Above all, the sight of him drenched in blood from head to toe, bursting into laughter at every moment as he carried out slaughter, made him seem even more consumed by madness than the monsters charging at him from all directions.
“When he climbed down from the wall and charged straight into that, I thought he was some kind of suicide seeker…”
He did not care how many enemies rushed at him head-on, nor what kind of giant species blocked his path.
He simply used his entire body to smash his enemies apart.
The huge axe in one hand looked as though it were nothing but an ornament.
Kwaaang—!
“Kuweek!”
“Kkiik—!”
His strength was so immense that monsters were sent flying like dolls struck by a carriage just from him crashing into them.
When he kicked away the ones clinging to him annoyingly, they flew through the air as if he had kicked a ball, collided with others, and toppled in a heap.
He tore through tough hides with his bare hands, and his fists crushed their skulls as if it were nothing.
“I can’t tell who the monster is anymore…”
“…Right. Is that really the way a human fights?”
The one those resisting on the wall could not help but glance at was Harley, and even in the midst of battle, he was diligently scanning the battlefield.
Of course, he had not leapt into this place simply to draw attention. ‘Found it! This time, it’s a mutant minotaur.’ A bull-headed monster with metallic hide shining with a black luster and two sharp pairs of horns.
As if flaunting that it had taken in madness beyond a normal degree, its two eyes flickered with a ferocious red light.
The moment Harley discovered it, he immediately dashed in that direction.
Crunch! Bang! Cr-rack—!
“Kiik!”
“Keheuk!”
Countless traffic accidents occurred in the process, but he paid them no mind, committing hit-and-runs as he increased his speed even further.
“Wahahaha! Come here, you bastard!”
Among the monsters of the northern mountain range, the higher they stood on the food chain, the greater the amount of madness they had accumulated.
And when that finally surpassed a certain critical point, their excessively activated vitality underwent mutation…
And what was born from that was a mutant monster stained with madness. ‘In other words, every one of those bastards is a nutritious meal full of rich madness! On top of that, each of them has genetic traits that evolved in some exceptional way.’
Of course, he did have the dragon factor, which was evenly developed in all aspects, but genes specialized in individual fields each had their own uses.
That was why Harley personally roamed the battlefield to hunt them.
“Kuworrr—!”
When he finally reached the minotaur after smashing, shoving, and kicking monsters aside with his body.
The creature, too, happened to be looking this way with blazing eyes.
It seemed wary after seeing Harley’s might, but as a creature that had reigned as a predator in the mountains until now, it showed no sign of shrinking back.
“Grrrr…”
Kwaaang—!
It merely kicked off the ground at once, thrusting its four horns toward him as it charged.
The minotaur, over four meters tall, closed the distance in an instant at a speed unfitting for its size.
Of course, with his reaction speed, he could have easily evaded it.
“Good! Let’s see what you’ve got!”
But the manly Harley did not do things like evade!
Cr-r-rack.
—Kwaaang!
His thigh muscles swelled in an instant, planting his feet even more heavily on the ground as he pushed his body forward.
Since both sides were charging toward each other, the distance between them narrowed at tremendous speed.
“Huuup—.”
Right before the collision, Harley inhaled deeply and clenched his right hand.
His right fist drew back slightly like a loaded arrow.
And from his muscles, compressed to an ultra-high density…
Creak.
—Creeeak!
A sound that should no longer have come from a human body rang out.
Rather than something from a living creature’s body, a metallic noise echoed as if from heavy construction equipment at a worksite.
At the same time, black-red scales covered his arm.
Immediately after.
“Kahahaha—!”
“Kuworrr—!”
Kwaaaang——!
The minotaur’s thick skull and Harley’s right hand collided head-on.
Wooooong—!
The shockwave that erupted in an instant made the monsters surrounding them stagger.
And in the thick cloud of dust that rose, Harley’s figure was revealed, pushed back from the point of impact while leaving a deep furrow in the ground.
Along with the minotaur that had stopped in front of him, its head still thrust forward.
And the creature…
Thud!
Collapsed onto the ground in that very posture and did not move.
“Phew—
Well now. I was pushed back more than I expected.”
No matter how much Harley weighed, there was no helping the difference in mass against a monster over four meters tall.
When something heavy came charging quickly, being pushed back in a head-on collision was inevitable.
Of course, in exchange, the creature had died instantly with its head smashed apart.
Harley lightly shook off his right arm, covered in black-red scales, then drove that arm straight into the creature’s chest.
Its hard and tough hide protected its body, but it could not block the energies of “Bio Aura,” madness, and the like.
As if performing a victory ritual, he pulled out the minotaur’s magic stone and devoured it. ‘As expected, this method is effective.’ “Madness Control” seized the energy that had entered his body and brought it under control in an instant.
Its efficiency was incomparable to slowly absorbing the madness in the surroundings.
And the newly acquired genes had quite a few usable aspects as well.
Some of the lower-body muscles specialized for charging could be grafted in and used immediately.
“Wahah! Then, let’s keep going!”
Through “Avatar Cloud,” he instantly sent the four horns he had pulled from the mutant minotaur to Hubert, then charged across the battlefield once more.
Given the situation, he could not take his time farming, but he was still making sure to pick up the core materials that looked useful whenever he could. ‘Howard may be able to make equipment with this later.’
Because of that, the merchant Hubert, who was in charge of warehouse management, had been tied down for a while, but since he had no particularly urgent business lately aside from the matter of opening the workshop, it did not matter.
As Harley continued to hunt dangerous high-ranking monsters, those in charge of defending the fortress were able to continue fighting much more comfortably.
On top of that, unlike the other strong individuals, he was constantly deploying without rest, as though he had infinite stamina.
Naturally, his influence could only grow larger and larger.
As proof of that, when the battle entered a lull and Harley returned to the fortress…
The gazes of the people inside, filled with admiration, fear, and reverence, poured toward him.
Because the battle had only just ended, the aftereffects of madness remained in his ominous eyes, and no one could approach him.
Even if that had not been the case, few would have been able to easily draw near to the sight of him covered entirely in blood and steaming.
“Oh! Harley! You did it again this time! Good work!”
Of course, the companions who had already grown accustomed to that appearance were an exception.
The dwarf who had become friendly with him while leaving the northern mountain range approached him with a wave.
The request had ended when they made contact with the Aonia Count family stationed at the Steel Fortress.
After that, Harley had naturally joined in stopping the monsters, and he had heard that Zaonic had gone to the side handling the maintenance of arms and equipment…
“Ah, this time I came because I have something to pass on! They said they’d prefer someone acquainted with you to deliver the message.”
The dwarf scratched the back of his head and spoke as though it were no big deal. The matter was a message that someone wanted to meet Harley.
“They said you should rest for now, since you’ve only just finished battle, and come see them later when it’s convenient.”
Of course, anyone for whom he would personally come on an errand could not possibly be some insignificant figure.
Tarmin Aonia.
He was the lord of the Aonia County, the one who had first commissioned Zaonic’s rescue.