Carla and Jackal were troublesome named enemies. Not only because of their martial strength, but because of their unique traits as well.
Carla, at least, was not a bad matchup. Her trait, “Authority,” functioned like a prison, but with my mental strength I could resist it.
The problem was Jackal. There was no one on this team capable of contending with Jackal’s might.
Officially.
“······.”
I silently looked back at Allen. He was listening to Hesrock’s briefing with a grave expression.
“As a result of our exploration, we have determined that the magic stone mine is this castle itself. However, there are many problems with mining it. Not only the mana that induces somnolence and nightmares, but also the bandits we just encountered, Carla and Jackal······.”
Hesrock continued calmly. Beside him, team members such as West, Luhan, and Seleni assisted.
“Please wear this bracelet in preparation for any possible mass somnolence. From time to time, a sleep-inducing fog settles thickly over the entire castle.”
Hesrock handed us bracelets. They were simple devices that administered an electric shock once every three hours.
“We will proceed with the next exploration tomorrow at 18:06.”
“Is there a reason you set the time so specifically?”
Hesrock answered Ihelm’s question.
“Because of a passage we discovered. On the 6th, 16th, 26th, and 36th days, at 18:06, the most normal passage opens.”
“And the entrance is that small door?”
“Yes. Also—”
“Before that.”
I cut them off. Then I used “Telekinesis” to lift the wood steel.
Since I had experienced it with my own body, it was now time to use tools.
“I will circulate this steel through the castle.”
Whiririririk─! The wood steel flew in all directions, toward the castle’s stairs, the right and left corridors, diagonally upward, and everywhere else.
Hesrock, who had been following the movement of the steel with his eyes, asked.
“Please explain, Professor Deculein.”
“Those steels resonate with me.”
This realm of “resonance” was practically like my own limbs. The twenty blades of wood steel were no mere pieces of metal. Rather, they were fit to be called “fellows,” reading and sympathizing with my thoughts, will, and instincts, and making their own judgments accordingly.
“These steels emit waves to determine the size of spaces and the concentration of mana. They also relay all that information to me. If the ‘discontinuity of space’ applies to objects as well, then I should be able to draw a map while sitting still.”
“Waaah~ As expected of Professor Deculein!”
“······Hmph.”
Allen smiled brightly and gave a double thumbs-up, while Ihelm, looking thoroughly unimpressed, shifted into a crooked sitting posture.
Hesrock said,
“Yes. That is a good method. Then we will wait.”
* * *
The morning on Goreci Island seemed to last only a couple of hours.
The clear noon passed briefly. Before long, the sky was dyed pitch-black, and dense dark clouds poured out endless wind and rain.
“All four elements are used······.”
Kwa-rururung─!
“Mom! ······Ah, seriously.”
In that chilling scenery, where lightning sometimes growled, Epherene studied the paper.
“A new pure element manifested through the harmonious fusion of all four elements······.”
Luna·Deculein’s paper required an understanding of extremely difficult formulas and original concepts, as well as magical talent and technique beyond that.
Therefore, for practical application of the magic, not only perfect mastery of the paper, but also the caster’s own talent was essential.
“······To grant nearly infinite elasticity to any magic. This is called the property of ‘carbon.’”
At some point while analyzing the paper like that.
Epherene felt goosebumps rise along her back.
“······.”
She moved only her eyes and looked at the window. In the glass reflecting behind her, there was some grotesque being.
A thing waving its abnormally long limbs as though dancing.
Epherene whipped her head around and glared at it.
A human body stretched out like rubber, and West’s face dangling from its neck.
He smiled brightly. His long limbs were still performing their dance.
“Miss Epherene. Did you enjoy the fish?”
It was quite creepy, but there was no need to worry. Epherene hurriedly searched for someone in the room.
Deculein.
In the chair where Deculein had been sitting just moments ago, Deculein was gone.
Which meant this was a dream.
“A dream!”
Epherene opened her eyes.
······.
“Uu— bu— bubububu——! Bubububububebup──!”
A strange groan resounded. Epherene, who had fallen asleep before anyone knew it, was stretching her limbs toward the ceiling and trembling as if in convulsions.
“Uh, Miss Epherene!”
Startled, Allen looked back at her.
“Bububup——”
“Wake up!”
Allen hurriedly ran over and shook her awake.
“Ugeh—!”
The moment she opened her eyes, she flinched violently. Cold sweat dripped from her entire body.
I said lightly,
“This is reality.”
“······Ah.”
Only then did Epherene let out a sigh of relief.
“Are you all right?”
Allen patted Epherene’s back with a genuinely worried expression. Epherene muttered in a dazed tone for a moment.
“Yes, yes, yes. But why do I have so many nightmares······.”
“It is proof that your mana sensitivity is exceptional. You are receiving this castle’s mana more keenly. Compared to that, your mental strength is lacking.”
I looked around.
For some reason, the feeling of this first floor was not good. Of course, Hesrock and the other team members seemed to have adapted to it in their own way, but for Epherene, whose senses were developed, it would be a difficult space to endure.
“It cannot be helped. You two will also stay on the second floor.”
“······Eh?”
“Pardon?”
Epherene and Allen tilted their heads at the same time. I pressed down the torment rising inside me.
“I will give you one bed. Use it together.”
Living communally with twenty people was hard to endure—no, utterly unbearable—and even as I spoke, my whole body itched as though my allergies were flaring up.
But I should be able to tolerate making a separate space in my room and letting two more people sleep there······.
* * *
“······Is it good?”
“Yeah! Lia, you eat too!”
Meanwhile, Lia, who had luckily escaped, set up a base camp in a small bedroom of the castle. She made soup with the fish she had caught last night and fed Leo first.
“How’s your body? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. But······.”
Leo looked at Carlos, who still had not awakened. Carlos’s veins were blinking blue. That small body was responding to the castle’s ghostly energy.
Lia placed a towel she had frozen with magic on Carlos’s forehead.
“It’s okay. We’ll make him okay. Right?”
“Yeah! Of course~ But Lia. Who was that just now?”
“······.”
Lia closed her mouth.
The sudden attack by Carla and Jackal. Ganesha had been trapped by Carla’s “Authority,” and just before Jackal’s sword bent toward them—
A person had appeared as if by coincidence.
Lia knew that man.
A most important villain, practically a branching point of the story: Professor Deculein.
“······You don’t need to know.”
Answering only that, Lia looked at her own hand. Her finger joints were a mess.
She had resolved quite a number of side quests in her own way, and her rate of growth had been so steep that she could almost be called a blessed character, but blocking just “one exchange” from Jackal had shattered her hand.
“Lia. He was strong, that person.”
Leo, who had been watching Lia, said. Lia smiled brightly.
“Yeah. He was strong.”
The reply that came back was absurd.
“I want to fight him one more time. I probably can’t win. Still.”
“······.”
Lia stared blankly, then let out a hollow laugh.
Well, Leo was a child born with the blood of the Martial Tiger, after all. This one wasn’t normal either.
“Don’t think about that. For now, just rest comfortably. Until Ganesha comes. Got it?”
“Yeah~”
The possibility of Ganesha losing was never even assumed. Lia had prepared the progress of the quest with that much precision.
She had put effort not only into her own growth, but into Ganesha’s growth as well.
Of course, all she had done was tell her information like there’s supposedly a treasure here or there, but thanks to that, Ganesha’s equipment was now covered in hidden pieces.
Maybe she could even contend with that tremendous “Zeit.”
“Haaaaaam~ Lia. You sleep first. I slept a lot, so I’m not sleepy.”
Leo said with half-lidded eyes. Lia grinned.
“It’s not convincing when you say that while yawning, you know?”
“Come on~ Lia, you haven’t slept long. If you have a nightmare this time, I’ll wake you······”
At the same time as those words, Leo fell asleep.
“Pfft.”
This was why they were young. Children who easily lost to their instincts.
But why was my own mouth opening wide too?
“Haaaaaam······.”
Lia tried not to fall asleep. But because she had stayed awake for nearly seventy-two hours, yawns came out on their own, her thoughts broke into fragments, and in the end her brain fell asleep first, almost like fainting······.
“······Zzz.”
The soft sound of snoring. An atmosphere settled so peacefully that a lullaby might have been playing. Into the room where three children were sleeping soundly on the bed—
A piece of wood steel approached.
The fellow, which had been flying about like a bird and grasping the mana of the space, soon discovered three unidentified living beings.
Among the three, the wood steel stared at one child as if to pierce him through.
Carlos.
Veins burning around the neck. Blood vessels blinking blue.
And most decisively─ breath mingled with heat and demonic energy.
Having perceived that ominous being, the wood steel trembled— and relayed it to Deculein.
* * *
······I quietly opened my eyes.
The wood steel’s perception and recognition flowed into my body. I looked at my wrist.
Swollen veins. Blue-tinted blood. A boiling heart.
It was clear proof. The bloodline was reacting.
“Haa······.”
I exhaled a hot breath. My blood flow accelerated violently, and I had the illusion that the world had slowed.
“······A demon.”
The wood steel spoke. It said that within this castle was one who had inherited more than enough demonic energy to be called a demon.
This body also felt that “being.” Very clearly, as though it were burning.
“If there is a demon.”
The glass window reflected my face. My blue gaze flashed like crystal, and my sharply risen irises were ferocious like a beast’s.
“Then it must be killed.”
I moved my body. There were no other thoughts beyond that. It was simply duty, and inevitability.
The blood of Yukline. This instinct transcended the act of detecting and killing beings of demonic nature. It simply meant a relationship that could not live together in the same world, a relationship in which coexistence was impossible.
The mana contained in this blood always pursued demons.
Because a demon was there, it killed.
Step─
The method of approaching him was simple.
I would use the twenty blades of wood steel like threads.
Of course, as the castle was vast, it would take a certain amount of time······.
Step─
I would not miss him.
I would surely find and kill him.
Step─
That breed of demonkind that dared stand in the same space as me.
That cursed demonic creature I would not be satisfied even after chewing up and devouring.
Step—
I would tear him to death.
Step—
As I went out into the corridor and climbed the stairs, the bloodline of Yukline spoke. It recited the hatred passed down through generations.
“······Fear demons.”
* * *
“——Agh!”
Lia woke to the electric shock on her wrist. She looked around with sleep-filled eyes.
Fortunately, it seemed the current magic she had placed on her robe had activated.
“Phew······”
She had had a nightmare, but this much was fine. This one hadn’t been very scary either.
“Leo! Wake up.”
Lia shook Leo. The boy woke up calmly, as though he hadn’t even had a nightmare.
“Haaam······ Why? Is Ganesha here?”
“No. We need to start moving soon.”
Leo nodded blankly and carried Carlos on his back, while Lia was putting various tools into her bag.
Bang─!
The door suddenly opened.
“Who is it!”
“······Hm?”
The uninvited guest who appeared beyond it was a vicious bald man covered in tattoos.
The man, who had an axe slung over his shoulder, looked this way and grinned.
“Oh, they’re here! Kids here!”
It was those bandits. Lia pulled her robe’s hood low and drew her dagger. One of them was manageable.
“Hey! These are the three Jackal talked about, right?!”
—Where? Where!”
When the bald man shouted thunderously, their numbers quickly increased. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight······ a full thirteen.
“Oh, yeah! It’s these brats!”
“Found ’em! We just have to take them!”
“Khehehe. Come here! Come here!”
Since the only door was occupied by those bandits, they were completely surrounded. Lia clenched her teeth.
There were too many enemies to fight while protecting Carlos.
“It’s easier if you give up~ Hey, hey~”
“······Leo.”
As the group of bandits approached, dripping with greed, Lia spoke to Leo beside her.
“Ready?”
“Of course!”
“Good. One, two.”
Just as she was about to shout three.
The instant Leo and Lia lifted their feet from the ground.
Lia’s “Intuition” activated, and the flow of time slowed.
Kwa──aa──aa──aa──!
Immediately after came a destructive detonation. The right wall was blown to pieces.
As if a grenade had exploded, a shockwave surged up, and thick smoke rose inside the room.
────!
An immense roar pounded without pause. Her body tilted from the reverberation striking her eardrums.
“Ah······ngh.”
Even after falling like that, she looked beyond.
Who──!
At the sudden act of terror, the bandits thrust out their weapons, but as if mocking them, dozens of fragments of steel came rushing in.
Swaaaaaaa───
Countless shots pierced through the thick smoke. Their speed lightly surpassed common sense, punching through the bandits’ bodies.
No, they spun while lodged inside their bodies. Their flesh—muscles, bones, organs and all—was dismantled in disarray and scattered into the air.
“······.”
The thirteen bandits had turned into pieces of corpses in an instant.
Lia shifted her eyes away from that horrific sight and stared at someone walking out from beyond the fog.
Step──
Step──
Clear footsteps dug into her ears. A regular stride, and a posture with one hand behind his back holding a cane.
From his feet upward, the figure of a lofty noble slowly revealed itself······.
“Uh······.”
Lia was shocked. He was that unexpected a person.
“······.”
Deculein.
Lia looked at him. His gaze, however, was not on her, but elsewhere.
“Ah······.”
At first she mistook him for reinforcements, but what filled those blue eyes was not salvation. It was not.
Within those chillingly brilliant retinas there was only— killing intent.
“······.”
Deculein’s perfect noble lips twisted. Killing intent rose from him like an aura, and eyes sharp as weapons stared at only one child.
Carlos.
“Leo?”
“······Yeah. I know.”
Lia had no difficulty realizing the source of that piercing hostility.
The annihilation of demons was Yukline’s instinct itself, and Carlos’s bloodline was······ that of a half-human, half-demon.