by Fuse
“Gabil, you guys guard the cave. Keep Vester and the dwarven potion staff safe! If any intruders come in, try your best to capture them alive.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Sir Rimuru, what should we do about contacting King Gazel?”
“Ah… Wait until I get a grasp of the situation. Right now, all we’d do is worry him further.”
“Very true. All right. Be safe!”
I could understand Vester’s concern, but there wasn’t much I could say to the king yet. He already had his preliminary report; he would have to wait a bit for more.
“I’ll go on ahead.”
“Yes, sir! We will follow soon behind.”
I attempted to use Shadow Motion to head for town, only to remember the skill had evolved into Spatial Motion.
“Hold on, Soei. Let’s go together, actually. All of you!”
“Huh?”
I launched Spatial Motion without further explanation, connecting our current location with a point just outside the barrier. There was a hole in the air, just large enough for a person to shimmy through, and our target point was on the other side. Talk about convenient.
“The cave’s in your hands, Gabil!”
“Yes, my lord! I will await further orders!”
He and his men nodded at me as I stepped through the portal. In another moment, we were outside of town, Soei and his team behind me. Soei seemed calm, but Soka and the others were pretty wary of traveling this way. I guess I couldn’t blame them. Wish I’d had the time to explain things in detail, but…you know.
Now I had an ominous-looking barrier in front of me. If someone as powerful and talented as Soei couldn’t bust through it, it must be a pretty damn strong one, too. I brought my left hand up to it, absorbing part of its surface, and ran Analyze and Assess.
Understood. The effects of Great Magic: Anti-Magic Area are detected, albeit with a reduction in magicule density. It runs on the same principle as Holy Field but is not uniform in composure, some areas being less dense than others. It is impure, likely an inferior version. Anyone inside it will be affected, but the effects can be resisted with Multilayer Barrier.
Well, if it’s inferior, then no worries. Let’s head on in. I had Benimaru and everyone else to worry about right now. Plus, the way the Great Sage put it, any “great magic” needed to have its caster in the middle of it, but this barrier was activated from the outside. It was a large-scale casting, likely requiring several people—more than one or two—taking care of it.
“Soei, track down the guys casting this barrier so I can take them out. Do not engage in combat with them. Just bring all your men to them and gauge their strength.”
“Yes, sir. How should we contact you?”
I produced a string of Sticky Steel Thread and wrapped it around his neck. “How about this? Run it through this strand, and we should be able to pick up on each other.”
“I see. That should work…”
Upon testing it out, we found that Thought Communication worked as long as you cast it through the Thread, inside and outside the barrier.
“Right. Get going! I’ll head over if you run into trouble. If you think you can beat them, neutralize them, but don’t kill anyone.”
“Yes, sir!”
Then all five of them—Soei, Soka, and their three trainees—disappeared without a sound. Man, they really were like ninjas. They’d easily hold their own against a high-level magic-born, no doubt, if Soei was leading them.
But right now, we had to be careful. A single mistake could kill us. Every possibility had to be addressed. Along those lines, I had the Sage continue its analysis, hoping it’d find a way to remove the barrier from the inside. Soei had his orders, and I had mine. It was time to break in.
There were magicules left in the air around town, although not as much as before. If it wasn’t for the Anti-Magic Area over it, you’d be able to cast magic to some extent. The Sage was right; my Multilayer Barrier made me feel no ill effects at all. This was far weaker than the Holy Field, which was a relief.
Running through town, I headed toward our main office off the central plaza. The space was filled with people, the atmosphere tense and panicked. Something definitely did happen. It worried me.
Realizing I was there, the crowd opened a path for me and fell to their knees. A few of them ran toward me. There was Rigurd, sprinting at top speed, with Rigur, Lilina, and the hobgoblin elders following behind.
“Sir Rimuru! It is wonderful to see you back. I am so glad you’re safe…”
He kneeled, practically clinging to my legs, looking about ready to burst into tears.
“Yeah. Sorry I made you worry.”
“Oh, not at all!!” he said in abject relief, before he did indeed burst into tears. The rest of them also knelt, keeping a polite distance away from Rigurd and me as they celebrated my return. I guess losing contact with me worried people a lot more than I thought it would.
Not everyone there was bawling over me, though.
“Nice to see you back, boss,” Kaijin said, his voice taut. It sounded like he was painfully trying to keep the worry from showing. I could feel emotions a lot more instinctively from the monsters, but I had a feeling he was hiding his at the moment as well. Garm and his two dwarven brothers were there, too, blocking the way to the plaza as if trying to prevent me from going there.
“Follow me to our meeting room, if you could,” Rigurd said as he calmed down from his crying jag and stood up. “There are things I wish to report and discuss with you.” Now he was back to his usual bold self—no time for sobbing here—and his voice was firm and unyielding. He was ready to do what needed to be done. The building he led me to was away from the plaza; I guess he didn’t want me in there, either. What was going on? It worried me a little.
“Here, Rigurd, you and Kaijin get out of the way. What’s going on?”
“Oh, um, just a small hiccup…”
“No talking your way out of it. Let me through.”
The Coercion skill I interlaced with my words made them all give up, opening the way for me. Just as they did, an explosion rumbled a little distance from the plaza. Even with the lowered magicule density, I could recognize the aura as Benimaru’s—and judging by the sounds of things, he was in battle.
“Is he fighting someone? Let’s go!”
I ran for the area. Rigurd and the others followed behind me, expressions of relief on their faces (not that they noticed).
As I expected, Benimaru was in battle—well, not a battle so much as him heaping one-sided torment upon his opponent. There was a team of high orcs surrounding him, all clad in black armor, led by Geld and watching the proceedings instead of helping Benimaru out. Geld was usually cool as a cucumber, but just like Benimaru, he was fired up right now.
His opponent was the beastman Gruecith. I wondered why someone serving Carillon was drawing Benimaru’s ire like that, but then I noticed Yohm behind him, lying limply on the ground, and a beautiful woman I had never seen before cradling him. It seemed like Gruecith was trying to protect them. Benimaru had yet to draw his sword, but his aura was practically gushing from his body, making it clear he was struggling to hold back his anger.
“You seek to protect this woman, too?” he asked. “We don’t have time for this right now. Get out of here at once.”
“Heh-heh! Can’t do that. No way I’d hand her over when all of you are so worked up like this!”
“Oh, ‘worked up,’ you say? If I was ‘worked up,’ I would have turned you into a pile of ash long ago, trust me. Just give it up and—”
“Not gonna happen! I’m on her side, no matter what!”
Then Gruecith sprang into action, zooming toward the still-unarmed Benimaru. He transformed in an instant, turning into what looked like a gray-furred werewolf. His speed was far beyond what he showed in the fight with Yohm as he rushed ahead, confronting him with a dagger in each hand.
“I told you to give it up!”
The daggers instantly vaporized the moment they made contact with the aura protecting Benimaru. It made Gruecith freeze in his tracks, just enough to let Benimaru catch him, pick him up with a single left hand, and hurl him against the ground. There was a dull thudding sound as cracks appeared in the earth. Blood flowed from his head.
It was the first demonstration of Benimaru’s force I had seen in a while, and it was on a completely different level from his opponent. Without even really trying, he had victory in hand from the start. But Gruecith refused to give up, springing right back to his feet.
“Ngh… But I’m still…”
“Pfft. Enough of this nonsense. If you continue to resist me, I will be forced to kill you, you understand?”
He tried lifting Gruecith again, a look of resignation on his face.
“Benimaru, stop!”
It was then that I finally shouted and put an end to this.
Noticing me, Benimaru promptly let Gruecith go, and he fell to his knees, the aura flowing out of him coming to an instant stop, and the intensity in the air faded. Geld and the rest of the audience did the same, celebrating my return—but Yohm and Gruecith needed attending to first.
“Benimaru, what is going on here?”
“Well, my lord…”
He ran down the story for me as I had the two injured drink some potion. As he put it, a group of people disguised as merchants attempted to attack the town. They were quite a bit more powerful than expected, creating some serious chaos. “Then,” he said, “we were no longer able to use magic, and we could feel the strength ebb from us. Thanks to that, the people in town were—”
“Sir Benimaru!”
Rigurd shouted down Benimaru before he could finish. They exchanged glances with each other as Benimaru awkwardly nodded.
“Let us discuss that later… Regardless, however, we were weakened thanks to whatever magic that woman over there cast.”
Geld nodded deeply at this, telling me about how he tracked down this caster and attempted to capture her. Yohm got in his way, and they were forced to fight it out. The rest of Yohm’s force was not involved; they were still confined in their barracks for the time being. Things had definitely gotten a lot sourer than I thought.
Just then, a rejuvenated Yohm threw himself down at my feet.
“Rimuru, man, I’m sorry! I had no intention whatsoever of betraying you. All I wanted to do was protect Mjurran’s life!”
Mjurran, the mystery woman who had simply looked on dejectedly so far, stepped forward. “Enough, Yohm,” she said, looking a bit sad—somber and perhaps afraid of losing something dear to her. “Just go ahead and abandon me. There’s no need for you to be involved, too.”
“Please, Sir Rimuru,” Gruecith added, similarly prostrating himself before me. “I fully understand that, as your guest, I have no right to speak about this. But still… Please, could you at least hear her out?”
Benimaru and the others looked disgusted at this, but my return had at least calmed them somewhat. Geld was normally coolheaded; as freaked out he was, it must have been something pretty deep… But I couldn’t make any decisions on this until I heard the whole story. Best to get both sides of this, I thought as Mjurran quietly spoke once more.
“No, Yohm. No, Gruecith. I have no right to be protected by you. Who can say how much this town has lost, thanks to me…? I was the one who engineered this tragedy…”
Rigurd winced at this. Benimaru averted his eyes. Kaijin just closed his and stood there awkwardly. This tragedy…? It did seem like something was being hidden from me, yes…
“Um, what do you mean by ‘tragedy’?”
The silence my question conjured hung heavy until Mjurran stepped forward. Geld warily sized her up, requiring me to stop him.
“…Follow me,” she said as she boldly walked off, apparently ready to accept all responsibility for the crime she committed. There was something beautiful about it, in a way. She was headed for the plaza in the middle of town, the place they’d tried to keep me from reaching earlier.
There, before my eyes, was an untold number of monsters on the ground—men, women, even children. I approached them. Every single one of them laid down there—
—was dead.
…How the hell did this happen?!
I felt my legs go weak. What’s going on here? Damn, my mind’s racing on me. There was about a hundred of them on the ground. Huh…? And they’re all dead…?
You’re kidding me!!
I heard one of the hobgoblin elders speak as I tried to take it all in.
“We followed your wishes, Sir Rimuru, and treated the merchants with kindness and civility. We had no idea there was evil among their ranks—”
“S-silence!” Rigurd shouted. “You make it sound as if Sir Rimuru is at fault!”
It was too late. The words battered harshly against my mind.
“I—I apologize. I had no intention of that…”
I could hear the apology from afar, but my heart wasn’t open to it.
He was right. My orders, my words, were the cause.
I may be a monster…but I used to be a human being. I just wanted to be nice to people. Now, reality’s setting in.
So what the hell’s the right thing to do, then?!
…Who knows? That’s what I’m supposed to figure out.
My irresponsible mind attacked me incessantly, but I couldn’t let it dictate my actions. This was my fault, and it was up to me to shoulder the consequences. It felt like a torrent of regret, a wellspring of anger with no place to go, was gushing out of me. It was hard to think. I felt like I was breathing more rapidly, even though I didn’t need to breathe in the first place. I had no physical heart, but I could still sense it racing.
It just didn’t seem like reality. I almost splattered against the ground, unable to retain my human form. But that wasn’t allowed. All I could do was grasp the situation and make sure I didn’t pile mistake on top of mistake.
“What is…? What happened here?”
My voice was far away, cold and remote. It felt like all emotion in my mind had frozen.
“If I hadn’t cast a great magic,” Mjurran said as I attempted to stay on my feet, “I’m not sure any of this would have happened.”
So this woman’s…the cause of it? And that’s why Benimaru was so riled up…?
…I’ve got to clear my head!!
Report. Great Magic: Anti-Magic Area does not weaken its targets in and of itself. In terms of a cause, it is believed the people who the individual Soei was investigating are more relevant.
My mind echoed with the voice of my partner, someone never swayed by emotion.
No, but… Right. Calm down. This woman Mjurran was attempting to rile me up to the point that I’d kill her—and only her. She was diverting blame away from Yohm and Gruecith. I knew that, as long as I could keep my head cool…
Giving in to my rage and killing Mjurran wouldn’t solve anything. It’d just be venting my anger.
It was only thanks to the Great Sage that I didn’t make another mistake.
Thus we decided to get ourselves together and discuss matters somewhere else. On the way, I asked Rigurd if there were any other victims.
“No, my lord,” he said, “we assembled all of them here. There are other injured, but Lady Shuna is taking care of them.”
I was wondering why Shuna wasn’t around, actually. That explained it. Our potion storage was all concentrated in the cave, so she was probably using her own healing magic for the job.
“Should I give them some potion, then?”
“N-no, I don’t think that’s necessary. I hate to put it like this, but our attackers were rather formidable… And surprisingly few people emerged only with injuries.”
In other words, they were all killed off in one shot. I could feel my anger coming back. Can’t have that. I need to stay calm.
“All right. Let’s talk this over first.”
………
……
>
…
Once we were all in the meeting hall and a bit more relaxed, I received my briefing. I put my mind to work, even as the shock made the whole thing feel like an out-of-body experience.
The first attackers were a trio who targeted Gobzo and got him into a conflict. That dopey face of his definitely made him look like an easy mark, and I bet it didn’t take much to shout him into submission. Not that it was his fault, but he sure was unlucky to have this riffraff notice him.
The conflict seemed to make Gobzo look like the bad guy, but Gobta stepped in to resolve it quickly. What happened next was the problem—that was when the attackers revealed their full strength and conflict began in earnest. They were astonishingly strong, it seems, enough so to even give Hakuro a run for his money when he stepped into the fray. From how it was described to me, at least, they were the real deal.
“…If he hadn’t been weakened,” grumbled Benimaru, “Hakuro would never have been defeated.”
He and Gobta were injured in the midst of all this, and now that made sense to me. They avoided death only because they gave their all in the fight. I’m sure neither of them was a fan of being told they lost, but if they survived, that was all that mattered. I was having Soei check out the energy-sapping barrier. He’d provide a report before long, no doubt, and all we’d have to do then was deal with that and take on the next fight fully prepared.
“After that,” Rigurd continued, “a group of one hundred regular knights from the Kingdom of Farmus visited town. The attackers requested help from them, and the knights agreed, stating they would take on the task under the laws of humanity and the name of divinity. They refused to listen to our words. It was all too one-sided.”
As he put it, the head of the knights shouted, “We came here to investigate reports of a nation of monsters, and what manner of chaos do I find?! In the name of humanity, we promise to provide aid to our defenseless comrades!” Then they all drew their swords and joined in the fracas, attacking both the monster soldiers and the residents looking on. This included children, indicating that they saw us as little more than animals.