“But you know I’m being targeted.”
“Yup.”
“Then...”
Then... What? Did she expect him to say that she deserved to be left on her own? Suimei scowled at the accusations that had been hanging over her and tormenting her, and spoke to her bluntly.
“Are you saying that it’d be better for me to go along with the trade corps and leave you alone?”
“That’s...”
Having lost her escape route, Lefille hesitated to speak any further while Suimei decided to redirect the conversation. Looking up through the gaps in the trees, he spoke quietly as if he were talking to the gloomy sky above.
“Hey, Lefille, honestly speaking, which would you prefer?”
“Which...?”
“Between me staying with you or following along with them, which would you prefer?”
“I-Isn’t that obvious?! It’d be better for you to follow the trade corps! That’s what you should do!”
“Really?”
“R-Really.”
Lefille didn’t look happy as she replied to Suimei’s repeated question. Was she in a bad mood because he wouldn’t believe her, or was she just trying to put on a brave front? Suimei thrust out his index finger in her direction and crushed the last of her resistance with a single sentence.
“Then can you swear to Alshuna or whoever that you’re not lying?”
“Wha?! That’s...”
“That’s?”
“You’re... quite the bully, aren’t you?”
After Lefille let out a defeated sigh, Suimei questioned her once more.
“So, how ’bout it?”
“It... would be helpful if you came along. But―”
“You know, there’s no real reason to box ourselves in by saying whether or not what I’m doing is wise. If you’re fine with it, we’ll just leave it at that. That would make things nice and simple, right?”
“Ah...”
Lefille was at a complete loss for words. If they kept talking about it and drove the matter into the ground, what would come from that? It wasn’t like they had to come up with a perfect solution. He gave an answer, and she listened. That was all there was to it. That was all it really took to dispel the knots of pain and sorrow within her heart. That’s why he didn’t want her to say any more. No matter where the conversation went on from there, it wasn’t going to help anything. There was no need to drag it on any further, so Suimei stopped her from trying again.
“What’s wrong? You still got a complaint?”
“No, you’re right... It may just be as you say.”
In contrast to before, she sounded a bit relieved. Like part of her heart had been unburdened. She wasn’t being totally honest with herself, but at the moment, she was at ease. While scratching his head, Suimei let out a sigh. Looking at it from an outsider’s perspective, he certainly hadn’t made the right choice. But sometimes right and wrong are in the eye of the beholder. Suimei believed that no matter the outcome, the best choice was the one he made for himself.
Also, honestly speaking, it was somewhat embarrassing to be moved by cheap emotions.
“Sorry, Suimei-kun.”
“Why’re you apologizing now?”
“The reason the demons appeared is likely my fault. That’s why...”
“Ah, the idle gossip of that burly demon, huh? It sounded like he didn’t recognize you until he ran into you, though. It really didn’t seem like was targeting you from the outset, no matter how I look at it.”
Suimei raised an objection to Lefille’s apology. She was just overly anxious after the accusations that had been hurled at her. The things Rajas had said were somewhat fragmented, and there were portions of it that didn’t quite make sense to pin on Lefille. The adventurers had been all too ready to put the blame on her, but thinking about it rationally, it made far more sense that the demons were looking for something else and had just happened upon her in the process.
What had happened was really the fault of panic. They hadn’t been able to rally in the face of the demon force, and it was just easier to cast fault on an easy target. In that sense, she was just unlucky. No one there was calm or in their right mind after being attacked like that, and the world was full of people who were less than magnanimous in the first place. People often created scapegoats in dire situations like that. That’s all it was, but Lefille didn’t seem entirely convinced.
“No, those guys still should have been skirmishing with Thoria and the various nations to the west. But they cut through the region and sent a force all the way into Astel. I can’t think of any other possibility...”
“What’s that? You think they came here just for you? You really must think you’re that special, huh?”
“I-I’m being serious here, you know! Don’t poke fun at me!”
“Hahaha, my bad, sorry. I mean, you are pretty special.”
After apologizing for joking around, Suimei spun it into a compliment. But for some reason, what he received in return was dissatisfied grimace and a stern voice.
“When you say it like that, I feel like you’re making fun of me.”
“Not a chance. Just think about how strong you are. Think about how many dudes you cut down in the time it took me to handle one of them.”
That was honestly what Suimei thought after their battle. But Lefille still seemed discontent about something. She was making quite the frown like she still had a thing or two to say. Setting that aside, Suimei moved the conversation on.
“So, let’s see... That burly guy said you were a survivor from Noshias. If I remember right, Noshias was...”
“Despite being so unfamiliar with this region, you know about that, huh?”
“Ah, yeah, well, yeah...”
Suimei gave a vague reply, feeling like a dunce as he recalled his situation. He was unfamiliar with the common knowledge of this world, so knowing the details of current events and things like that came across as a little strange. Suimei groaned to himself, and Lefille started to grumble out the details.
“Yeah, that’s right. Just like he said, I’m a survivor from Noshias.”
Lefille confessed in a quiet voice. Perhaps that was the identity that she was trying to cover up. She was the survivor of a country annihilated by the demons. It was a pitiable position to be in.
“If I remember right, it’s the country that sits on the boundary between the human and demon territories. The first one attacked, right?”
“I’m surprised you know.”
“It was big news.”
The fall of Noshias was one of the triggers that brought Suimei to this world. There was no way he would forget it. Getting back to the topic at hand, Lefille confirmed what he said in a lonesome voice.
“Yeah. Noshias was what held back the demons for quite some time. But even then, it completely capitulated within a single month.”
“I heard the army that attacked it numbered over a million strong, though.”
“A million, huh? I don’t know where that came from, but I wonder about that. I’ve never seen that many of anything before, so I can’t say for sure.”
Her words were cold and blunt, but she almost sounded like she was complaining. Unable to read into what she was saying, Suimei knit his brow. Lefille narrowed her eyes and looked off into the distance, her eyes clouded over like the light in them had dulled.
“They were like the sea. They covered the ground as far as the eye could see. They were uncountable, and they poured over the national border like a wave as they attacked.”
Lefille recalled the sight of it all. And as Suimei faintly imagined the scene, he heard himself gulp. The mental image of a tsunami of living beings descending on you wasn’t a pleasant picture. They swarmed the ground and obscured the horizon in their sweeping, deadly approach.
“So... that’s when you met that big guy?”
“You mean Rajas, right? I ended up having to fight him back then. Just as you heard before, he seems to be one
of seven demon generals.”
“Now that you mention it, he did say something about that.”
Suimei recalled Rajas’s self-introduction. He was one of a select few entrusted with an army by Demon Lord Nakshatra, or so he’d boldly declared.
“There are seven of them, huh?”
“Yeah, I remember hearing that back then as well. I don’t know the full details, but he was boasting about leading three of the seven armies.”
“Three of them? And you’re saying there’s a possibility that it was over a million... Then that means, in total...”
The reality seemed to be getting grimmer and grimmer the more they talked about it. It wasn’t like Suimei ever made light of the situation, but this left a bad taste in his mouth. If three armies constituted a million or more demons, then their entire force was at least twice that. And based on what he’d heard from Lefille just now, the numbers weren’t even enough to do it justice. Their opponents weren’t human. The thought that fighting all of them was going to be placed on the shoulders of only a few summoned heroes was simply unreasonable. That applied to Suimei who’d been summoned here too, but more than for himself, he was concerned for Reiji and Mizuki who’d actually accepted the job.
“When I fought against Rajas back then, I was unable to do anything at all before his power. Our unit was routed, and after that, that female demon...”
“Female... demon? Did something happen?”
“No... It’s nothing. But... it’s likely that there was more to Noshias being targeted first than just its location on the border.”
That was likely her reason for saying the demons had cut through human territory to chase her down. And Suimei had a clue as to what they were after.
“The telesma?”
“‘Telesma?’”
“Ah, sorry, I mean your power. Back where I come from, that’s what we call it. ‘Telesma.’”
“There are people who hold power like mine even in the east?”
“No, nobody has power like yours, but, well... We had something close enough to have a name for it.”
Suimei tilted his head to the side like he himself was unsure of what he was saying. That seemed to confuse Lefille even further, and she tilted her head as well with a baffled expression. It was only natural. It was likely that in this world, the definition of telesma was different from that of Suimei’s world. Here they didn’t have the influence of nature and science pushing against the mystical, and they didn’t even have the knowledge gained from diverse studies in magicka. They couldn’t possibly have much information regarding telesma, and they certainly weren’t familiar with the details.
Lefille spent a short while trying to glean Suimei’s meaning, but came up emptyhanded.
“I don’t know that word, but it’s just as you say. We call it the power of spirits. In our country, it’s said to be a power that was used to oppose the demons in ages long past.”
“Now that you mention it, you said that your sword techniques were something passed down from generation to generation. Is that the same?”
“Yeah. My ancestors were born from a mix of humans and spirits, you see. So that humans would have a way to stand against the demons, it seems it was something arranged by Goddess Alshuna. My sword techniques were also born around that time, and it seems that long ago, this sword and power also helped a summoned hero.”
“A hero? What, seriously?”
Hearing that unexpected word from Lefille, Suimei quietly, quietly muttered to himself. He didn’t think that Lefille’s ancestors would have aided a summoned hero in the past. Now their descendant was traveling together with someone who’d refused to accompany the hero. That was some truly ironic karma. Lefille then made a pained and lonely expression as she continued to speak.
“I also wanted to use this power to protect people. To save them, That’s what I thought, but in the end, that was just an out of reach dream. And now... here I am.”
As she spoke, Lefille dejectedly cast her eyes downward. She’d run away from her homeland, become an adventurer, been scorned by baseless slander, and finally forced into exile and isolation. Surely that only made her feel even more helpless.
She had the face of a woman who’d had her dreams crushed under the cruel weight of reality. Suimei could see it. She had the desire to protect people. That was her pure, earnest wish. Her pure, earnest wish that was denied unjustly by the malice of others. Her face said it all. That she’d suffered through everything and nothing could be done about it. She felt like she was being punished.
“Hey, Lefille, just what are the demons?”
“Those things? Honestly speaking, I don’t really know myself. But it seems that no one in the entire world knows in great detail. There are stories and things that have been passed down, but it’s not like there are ways to go and learn about demons.”
“And what about the little that was passed down?”
“Long ago, there was the Evil God who quarreled with Alshuna... the one we talked about before... That Evil God apparently boasted of enormous power, and in the end, it was beaten before Alshuna, the Elements, and the spirits, and was driven away to the valley between worlds.”
Suimei nodded as he thought. Back during the earlier part of their trip, Lefille had talked about these things. He mostly remembered what she’d said. And when she talked about the valley between worlds, he assumed she likely meant the space between this world and the one outside of it, or in short, the small space in the heavens called the astral plane.
“The demons seem to be the servants of the Evil God. They receive divine protection from it, and look to fill the world with nothing but chaos and death.”
Chaos was a grand way of putting it. But just based on the fact that they were influenced by an Evil God, it seemed only obvious that the scale of their affairs was quite large. Perhaps they weren’t much different from devil worshipers. In that case...
“You said divine protection, so is the source of their power this Evil God?”
“Yeah, now that you mention it, I think there’s a theory about something like that. I don’t really remember it though...”
“Hmph...”
“What’s wrong? Suimei-kun.”
“Hmm? Nothing. I’m just nursing my own theory on what the demons really are.”
“Oh? A theory? Sounds interesting.”
“Do you wanna hear it?”
“You’ve piqued my curiosity.”
So she said, but giggled at the thought of how seriously he was taking this. But at the same time, she thought it was commendable. She did expect to hear something interesting, but she didn’t really seem to be expecting him to be able to figure anything out.
“Alright. Well, to start with, I’ll have to follow up on this Evil God thing...”
Suimei thought of the devils and angels of his world when he thought of spirits, but fundamentally, spirits were just figments of the astral plane that transmitted powers, similar to gods. They were given names when summoned, and only then did they actually manifest as devils and the like.
In the other worlds, spirits were generally sorts of vague existences with power, but no real form or figure. But gods, including the gods of this world, were likely of a higher order than spirits. They weren’t vague or abstract existences like spirits, but genuine beings with clear directionality in their will and immense power. In other words, the existence known as the Evil God would be―
“The Evil God in the valley between the worlds—in other words, the astral plane—desires to fill this world with chaos. Even now, it’s watching vigilantly for an opportunity to do so from the astral plane. However, since its existence is anchored there, unlike back when it quarreled with your goddess long ago, it can’t interfere directly with this world. That’s why, in its stead, the demons who act as its servants are moved by its will. They’re loaned power for their faith and are now trying to drive the world into chaos.”
“Huh...”
“W
ell, it’s a little cliché, but from what I’ve heard, it’s probably something like that. Based on that story, it seems like they’re trying to ruin the world rather than take it back, but―Oops.”
Suimei wasn’t sure whether that applied to all demons, so the moment he mentioned it, he realized he was starting to derail himself and got himself back on track.
“Well, enough of the details behind it. Those demons acting as puppets are... Let’s see. Let’s start with their specs... The physical strength of their bodies is superhuman, so they’re either beings that have followed a different evolutionary path, or perhaps that Evil God or whatever designed them to be that way. I don’t have enough to say one way or the other, but that’s the impression I get.”
“That is indeed an interesting theory.”
“Thanks. Anyways, since you mentioned divine protection, I’m guessing a large portion of the power they use comes from this Evil God dude. That’s what that pitch black aura that pours out of them is.”
“...Is that not just a characteristic power of the demons?”
“That’s what it seems like, but that isn’t a kind of power living beings should ordinarily have. There’s kind of a law that stipulates power that inherently opposes the world doesn’t naturally occur within the world. Thinking about it practically, nobody would consciously create something that would destroy themselves, right? Worlds are the same way. That’s how you know a power like that is unnatural, so to speak. That means they couldn’t have it unless they got it from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is...”
“The Evil God, huh?”
“In a nutshell. The very fact that the demons use that power proves the existence of the Evil God. It’s quite the tiresome story, though.”
In the end, the demons were a consequence of the Evil God. That was the part that was the most troublesome.
“And so Alshuna or whatever is an existence which counteracts the Evil God, so it’s likely that she’s rooted in the faith of the humans and demi-humans of this world, which marks her as an enemy of the demons.”
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! Volume 2 Page 18