“Tsss…….”
Railly felt the seeping hostility from not far away.
Killing intent clung thickly to her skin. Emitting an overt aura as if they had no intention of hiding, the unidentified unwelcome guests slowly approached as though encircling them.
“Lady Knight.”
Railly looked at Yulri. However, she had already fainted, making it impossible to continue the battle.
From the start, the opponent they had just fought was a tiger. Even for Yulri, rest would be essential for such severe wounds to heal.
“…….”
So this meant, in the end, that she was alone right now…….
Just then, a group of assailants appeared from the shadows of the snowy field.
Those bastards scattering inexplicable killing intent. Railly examined their faces, but they were all covered in robes. Not a single one revealed their face. Even their lower faces were covered with masks.
“Whew.”
Railly let out a sigh and warmed up her mana. She checked her circuits and prepared her magic.
That moment, a bombardment poured down.
Kwagwagwagwagwagwa────!
An eruption of mana that shook the earth. The flames the assailants fired swept through the area and shot up.
Railly protected Yulri and herself with 「Two-Layer Barrier」, but the blackish-red inferno battered the barrier incessantly. Her mana was depleting at an enormous rate.
Keudeudeudeudeuk…….
The ground, after the magic screamed its fill, transformed into a scene of carnage. The surface was roughly dented, and thick smoke rose from burning spots here and there.
Inside the barrier, Railly glared at them, her eyes wide.
“Ah, there’s no honor at all! You bastards! Say something before you shoot!”
There was no response. Only her voice echoed like a reverberation.
They prepared a second spell. It was a similar kind again.
“……No answer.”
She bit her lip and muttered softly.
There was no visible way to survive. A so-called ‘unguardable situation.’
If she dismantled the barrier and attacked them, Yulri would be in danger. Moreover, even if she attacked, she couldn’t kill that many of them in an instant.
And if she maintained the barrier, there was no way a mere barrier could continuously block their group magic. Unless her mana was infinite, the barrier would inevitably break.
“……Surely not.”
Suddenly, a certain piece of information surfaced in Railly’s mind.
Dekyulrein, who had come to the North on a business trip. Although it was part of a mission assigned by the Chairman…… it was strange.
There must have been some reason for Dekyulrein to obediently come down to the North.
“Hey, you punks! Don’t tell me Dekyulrein sent you?!”
Railly asked honestly. They didn’t answer. They merely prepared a second destructive spell.
“He sent you! That crazy bastard! Wasn’t that enough?!”
Railly’s shout echoed through the forest. The curses repeated twice, thrice, and faded away.
Inside the empty forest.
Soon, a bland answer to that suspicion returned.
“Stop your vulgar thoughts.”
“……?”
Booooong──! A loud engine noise. A snowmobile rushed through, scattering the snow on the ground, broke through the robed group, and stopped near Railly.
Railly looked up at the face riding that vehicle and opened her mouth wide.
A visage devoid of blood or tears. A face that advertised ‘I am a villain’ from the moment he was born. The sworn enemy of Yulri and Railly, and the Lord of Yukraine who was currently slaughtering hundreds and thousands of Demonic Vessels.
Dekyulrein.
“……Ahem. Sorry. I somehow misunderstood a bit…….”
He looked at Railly, no, at Yulri sleeping beside her.
A pale complexion that looked like a corpse at first glance. A faint breath continuing precariously as if it might break.
“……Excuse me?”
Railly was confused by the light in Dekyulrein’s pupils. She found it strange that pain rippled across those ice-transparent eyes.
“Take Yulri and go.”
“……Really?”
Dekyulrein silently activated Mokgangcheol.
Shrrrrk── sequential, neat metallic sounds. The nineteen steels aimed at the robed group beyond.
“I’ll handle the vermin.”
Railly was curious about the source of that confidence. No, she was curious why he was trying to help. And where he had suddenly popped out from.
She had many questions, but……
She lost her words.
It was because of the movement of the steel.
Just nineteen bladed weapons shaped like geometric figures. All of them shot into the sky and then fell toward the robed group.
Shhhwoooo──
Their plummet, distorting the air currents, was truly like a meteor. They hurriedly emitted barriers, but they were dismantled by Dekyulrein’s swift ‘interference.’
What followed was obvious.
Kugugugugugugugu───!
The nineteen steels embedded themselves into the ground, causing countless shockwaves and clouds of dust. That carpet bombing shook the entire forest, and the enemies didn’t even have their forms left.
Literally, they had been ‘crushed flat.’
“…….”
Railly blankly watched the remaining result. Though her head performed a magical analysis. It was an occupational disease.
The way Dekyulrein dispatched the mages was overwhelming violence. There were no special magical devices either.
Simply lifting steel fragments via 「Telekinesis」, and bombarding them using kinetic energy and magical energy.
At a glance, it seemed like far too simple an application, but if the opponent was a ‘mage’, it was nearly impossible to counter.
This stemmed from Dekyulrein’s intellectual ability. It derived from overwhelming theory.
He had dismantled all of the opponents’ barriers just before the Mokgangcheol fell. With merely a sidelong glance, he had grasped and interfered with the structure of their magic…….
“……Hmm.”
Then, Dekyulrein looked back. Railly faltered and stepped back. But his gaze was focused on Yulri.
A patient already exhausted to the point of showing no signs of waking. Looking at her, Dekyulrein muttered in a low voice.
“Still pathetic.”
Words directed at Yulri. A vein bulged at Railly’s temple.
“Excuse me. This is all because of you?!”
Dekyulrein looked at Railly. His drooping eye corners seemed to say:
—You’re even more pathetic.
“Go. We’ll handle the cleanup.”
“……We?”
Just then, the assistant professor popped out from beneath the snowmobile with a poof. Allen smiled brightly and bowed.
“Hello. I’m Assistant Professor All—”
“And.”
Cutting off Allen, Dekyulrein said.
“Do not speak of this to Yulri.”
“…….”
Railly looked around. The area created by the collective destructive magic and Dekyulrein’s steel was a living hell.
However, if Dekyulrein hadn’t been there, the ones crushed flat would probably have been them.
Railly nodded.
“Will do. And, thanks for saving us. Honestly, I don’t know why you helped us, but…….”
* * *
I cleaned up the remains of those bastards with Allen.
Robe fragments, shattered bones, crushed flesh, etc. The investigation results were, as expected, ‘the Altar.’
[Main Quest: Named Hunt]
Main quest. Literally, it was the quest where the Altar began sequentially ambushing Nameds.
Selecting virtuous Nameds who would interfere with their goals and launching surprise attacks; the Player was no exception.
In professional terms, a ‘random encounter.’
Since quite a few Nameds die in this quest, from now on, I too had to move in earnest.
“The Altar?”
Allen asked with widened eyes. I looked back at him.
He probably knew about the Altar too.
I could now somewhat distinguish between when he genuinely didn’t know and when he was pretending not to know.
“A fanatic group that has nestled in the uncharted lands of the North.”
“Ah…… Yes? Can people survive in uncharted lands?”
Allen’s eyes evolved from ping-pong balls to baseballs. Still the same acting skills.
“Uncharted lands are dead soil where agriculture and livestock are impossible, and monstrous beasts swarm everywhere, but it is still part of the continent. One doesn’t die immediately upon entering, so it’s possible to live there. Sustainability is the issue.”
The Altar’s sanctuary is there.
A dark group that believes in the resurrection of a god and is trying to manifest a god by any means. However, the god they are trying to revive is not a god. Even their god is ultimately nothing more than a fanatic.
The full story would be revealed as the Main Quest progressed.
“I see…… But how did you know these…… corpses are from the Altar?”
“There’s demonic energy flowing in their bodies. There are also traces of artificially transplanted blood vessels.”
“Huek?! Blood vessel transplantation?!”
I looked beyond the forest, at the horizon stretching far into the distance.
That place was the ‘uncharted land.’ And it wasn’t far. There was no special boundary.
“Yes. Blood vessel transplantation. This is also proof that these guys are Demonic Vessels.”
“……Demonic Vessels?”
Allen’s voice trembled slightly as he asked back.
“Compatibility is important for transplanting blood vessels. If you transplant blood vessels flowing with demonic energy into a normal human body, they’ll die within days.”
Even organ transplants suffer from immune issues, so transplanting blood vessels from a non-human being is only possible for Demonic Vessels.
Because Demonic Vessel bodies flow with a tiny amount of demonic energy, they can endure the transplantation of magical beast or demon blood vessels for about six months.
“Of course, the lifespan of a Demonic Vessel turned into this state isn’t long either. Six months at most. During that time, they’re used as consumables for the Altar.”
“…….”
“Whether they were brainwashed or volunteered because they were deceived. Either way, they’re already like this, so dying now would be a kinder life. The pain only worsens with time.”
Allen had no answer. There were no common exclamations like ‘As expected of the Professor, you know everything~’ either.
Perhaps even he hadn’t known up to this point.
Well, human modification including blood vessel transplantation was a fact revealed in the latter half of the Main Quest, after all.
“Is that…… so? That’s rather cruel…….”
I looked at Allen.
He had his head lowered with a rather sorrowful face. A cold snowflake landed on that small crown of his head.
“Let’s go. There’s still much to do.”
I placed my hand on Allen’s small head. Then the gloomy fellow looked up at me with a vigorous smile, as if nothing had happened.
“……Yes!”
I climbed back onto the snowmobile and gripped the handle. I suddenly looked in the direction where Railly had carried Yulri and left.
“…….”
Yulri. The woman who made Dekyulrein’s heart tremble just by looking at her.
“Truly.”
I wished for her to love me. At the same time, I wished for her not to forgive me. I wished for her not to look back. To hate me and curse me, and stubbornly survive…… and after surviving.
I wished for her to return to me once more.
“A troublesome woman.”
It seemed this selfish heart couldn’t be helped.
The wish for her to hate me yet definitely survive was not a common one. The wish for her to be happy even if it wasn’t with me was not something just anyone could have.
Because I love her too much, it is no longer distinguishable whether Dekyulrein is the one who loves, or whether I am the one who loves.
“……Professor?”
Allen spoke to me, who had been staring into empty air.
“It’s nothing.”
I stepped on the accelerator belatedly.
Kwagwagwaga──! The performance-enhanced snowmobile advanced, tearing through the snow.
* * *
……More than a week had passed since coming to the North. During that time, Ifrin had grown accustomed to this pure white world.
It had been fun in its own way. Snowball fights, boar hunting, camping and field exercises, etc.—there were many things to enjoy as hobbies.
“Whew.”
And.
More than anything.
The ‘second time’ was approaching.
The time the second shooting star would come. The time to go see Dekyulrein.
“Ifrin. Can you not even do simple calculations?”
“……Yes?”
Right then, Dekyulrein spoke. Having been reviewing the report Ifrin submitted, he scattered the papers with a shrrt sound.
“See for yourself.”
As the documents fluttered down lazily like rain, Ifrin narrowed her eyes.
“Was your mind elsewhere? If such a mistake happens again, you’re expelled.”
“I’m sorry.”
What mistake could it have been?
Ifrin quickly picked up the documents.
“……Ah.”
A quick glance revealed that the demonic energy concentration in the area’s soil had been miscalculated.
Ifrin’s measured result was 0.0004%. However, she hadn’t added the correction value for depth, so when corrected, it was around 0.00056%.
“0.00056…… Even 0.0004% is severe enough to be alarming. Isn’t this too high?”
“If the figures come out that way, then no matter how hard it is to believe, it’s the truth. We’ll need to inform the Center and strengthen Northern policy.”
“……Yes. I’ll send a telegram right away.”
Ifrin hugged those reports and went upstairs.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Just as she reached the fifth floor, where the correspondence paper connected to the Magic Tower—made by Professor Deculein himself—was located, and picked up a pen to report the mana concentration.
“A document recording celestial activity that has yet to occur…”
“!”
A lofty voice suddenly drifted in.
Epherene straightened her back. Then she rolled her eyes and glanced behind her.
In the darkness the electric lights had failed to illuminate, red hair was blazing.
“How mysterious.”
Epherene creakily turned her neck to look at her.
Empress Sophien.
She had thought she had left yesterday. Why had she come back?
And she had thought the Empress hadn’t even read that document properly, but had she actually read it?
“As I… as I told you before, it’s a prediction. A prediction. It’s absolutely not fact…”
“You are lying.”
“…”
“To speak falsehood before Us… What a grave crime.”
“N-no, nooo, it isn’t—!”
Struck with sudden terror, Epherene dropped to her knees. Sophien gave a faint laugh.
“It is fine. We are merely curious. To have stirred Our curiosity is, if anything, worthy of praise.”
“…”
Epherene remained with her head bowed, breathing hard. Sophien asked again in a mischievous tone.
“Now then, Epherene. When a shooting star falls, do you go to the future?”
Her deduction was accurate. No—truthfully, she had simply been probing.
“H-hup!”
But Epherene’s dramatic reaction gave her certainty. When one only had to hit the mark for her to go Huuuuuuh—! there was no need to wonder whether one knew or not.
“How fascinating. Though, considering the scale of your talent, it is not so strange.”
“I-I am immeasurably honored…”
“Enough. Do not use words you merely picked up somewhere.”
“Y-yes…”
Sophien lowered herself to one knee and lifted Epherene’s head. Looking into her trembling eyes, she said,
“Then, can We go there as well?”
…Gulp.
The saliva pooled in her mouth swallowed itself. Epherene was far too flustered by the present situation, but the answer to this question was clear.
“I do not know either, Your Majesty. It’s just… I only ended up going there somehow myself…”
“Good. Then. This shooting star is two days from now, yes?”
“…Yes.”
Sophien smiled deeply. A captivating smile, the corners of her lips stretching wide.
Epherene grew tense as she looked at that flawless face.
“We shall go with you. If We can go, We shall go; if We cannot, then We cannot. Yet for some reason, I feel certain.”
Time.
Sophien had confidence. Confidence that this capricious and stubborn thing called “time” would surely be on her side.
“…Yes.”
Epherene had no choice but to bend at the waist. Sophien stopped the motion as she tried to bob up and down like she was bowing.
“Stop. You need not do that. For some reason, you feel familiar and endearing, so I wish to leave you as you are.”
At the Emperor’s praise, Epherene replied in a single, world-shaking sentence.
“I am overwhelmed by Your Majesty’s grace…”