by Hiro Ainana
“I hate to say it, but this is the real thing.”
“All right, then. Let’s burn it to the ground.”
Once the other two finished checking the field, the guildmaster began a Fire Magic chant.
She wasn’t using a forbidden spell that would affect the labyrinth, but I thought upper Fire Magic was a bit of overkill, even in an open space like this.
I prepared a fireproof hydra-hide cloak and the Earth Magic spell Wall, just in case the flames got too close.
Sebelkeya started an Earth Magic chant, too, probably thinking the same thing.
“…… Inferno Kaen Jigoku!”
Crimson flames burst forth from the guildmaster’s staff, torching the field in seconds and quickly spreading to the surrounding area.
Exactly as I feared, the heat and flames started to come toward us, but Sebelkeya used a powerful Stone Wall spell to protect us before I had to do anything.
“Did the plunderers here run away?”
“I’ll drop them off at the guild soon.”
“Sure. I’m not holding my breath.”
The guildmaster seemed convinced that the plunderers had gotten away from me.
Once I’d ensured that her flames had burned up the field and the fake remains, I called the three of them over.
This will be the hardest part.
“There’s something else I wanted to show you.”
With that, I led them to the foreboding magic circle in the torture room.
“Th-this is…”
“Do you recognize it, Sebelkeya?”
“I don’t know what it is exactly. But I can tell it’s truly evil.”
I was hopeful that I might get some new information, but the three of them didn’t seem to know anything about it.
Oh well. That’s fine.
In fact, it might even work in my favor.
“Hmph. How little you know.”
“You’re saying you know what this is?”
“Of course.”
I looked down at the guildmaster with an annoyingly haughty expression.
Normally, I would never be able to act like this, but my trusty “Poker Face” skill helped me get through it.
“Well, spit it out, then.”
I snorted. “It’s a magic circle that absorbs and amplifies miasma. Do you know why?”
“It must be for that field…”
Yes! Perfect.
Inwardly celebrating the response I’d hoped for, I continued speaking calmly.
“What, the field? That was hardly more than a by-product.”
“A by-product?”
The guildmaster repeated my words incredulously, taking the bait. I scowled to silence her.
“You really don’t know? This magic circle is what demon lord worshippers use to make a foundation with which to resurrect a demon lord.”
I made up a truly ridiculous story with my “Fabrication” skill.
My aim was to give the guildmaster the impression that growing the demonic-potion ingredients was only a secondary goal, as well as a reason to talk to Ludaman again.
“A demon lord…?!”
“It can’t be!”
The guildmaster and Ushana both exclaimed in surprise.
“Do you have a basis for that conclusion?”
I told Sebelkeya that there was a similar magic circle in the papers I’d taken from the demon lord cult the Wings of Freedom and that the yellow demon had given that information to them.
She didn’t seem convinced at first but believed me once I showed her the real documents.
“The yellow-skinned greater demon… Perhaps he was the yellow-robed mage Ludaman spoke of.”
“There are several stories of demons possessing or impersonating humans in the tales of the ancestral king, too.”
The guildmaster reached a similar conclusion to mine, and Secretary Ushana agreed.
So far, this was going precisely as I’d hoped.
“Ludaman is the plunderer you mentioned being in the guild dungeon, yes? Let me interrogate him. I need more information on this yellow-robed mage.”
“…Hmph. Very well—I’ll allow it. However, I will be accompanying you.”
“Do as you wish.”
Awesome! It worked!
Henceforth, I could legally obtain information from Ludaman.
As a bonus, they were now convinced that the cultivation was actually a front for an even bigger, darker scheme.
My hope was to find a way to help the women who’d been involved with the cultivation while the Shiga Kingdom people were focused on the magic-circle connection.
“Now, you weren’t just trying to use all this to get to Ludaman, were you?”
“I have better things to do. There are probably demon lord worshippers who were secretly backing these plunderers.”
I countered the guildmaster’s all-too-accurate suspicion with a new piece of information.
I had no actual evidence of this, but the person who gave them the yellow demon’s magic circle was very likely a demon lord worshipper, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“‘Demon lord worshippers’? You mean some silly club like the Wind of Freedom in the royal capital?” The guildmaster furrowed her brow.
The demon lord cult I’d encountered in the old capital was called the Wings of Freedom, so this Wind of Freedom group must be of a similar nature.
The phrase “silly club” seemed a little out of place, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
“Never heard of them. But I do know the cult called the Wings of Freedom who revived the Golden Boar Lord.” I looked the grave-faced guildmaster directly in the eyes as I continued. “They were probably planning to revive a demon lord here.”
“That would explain the human sacrifices and the torture room… I suppose the demonic potions were to enhance the demon lord’s followers, then.”
Yeah, that sounds pretty plausible… Wait, I’m not supposed to fall for this story.
If this were a game, that would be the cue for a demon lord revival, but the current Season of the Demon Lord had presumably ended when I defeated the Golden Boar Lord who was revived beneath the old capital, so we should be fine for another sixty-six years.
The demon lord revival was prophesized in seven different places.
Those words rose unbidden in the back of my mind.
Come to think of it, one of the prophesied locations the head priestess of the old capital Tenion Temple had told me about was right here, Labyrinth City Celivera.
Now I felt like I was raising a demon-lord-revival flag myself, but I dismissed those worries by telling myself: If another one really does get revived, I’ll just defeat it.
The Golden Boar Lord I’d defeated was supposed to be one of the strongest demon lords ever, and I had more powerful attacks and equipment now than I had at the time, so it probably wouldn’t be a life-and-death struggle like last time.
As long as my opponent wasn’t some kind of god or something, anyway.
“Well, now that we’ve got that information, shall we finish up here?”
“Let me. I’ll destroy the runes that make up the magic circle.”
The guildmaster’s magic burned up the torture chamber, and Miss Sebelkeya used Earth Magic to demolish the plunderer hideout until it was in a physically unusable state.
“So cultists who are trying to revive a demon lord… That sounds like quite the headache.”
“More importantly, guildmaster, if what this man says is true, then wouldn’t it be impossible to cultivate the plants without that magic circle?”
Luckily, Ushana remembered my comment about a “by-product” and connected the dots.
“They can likely still be grown without the magic circle, but it would be far less effective.”
That was the truth.
Just like most gases, miasma diffused if left to its own devices.
“Then perhaps we won’t need to make any unnecessary sacrifices.”
I looked
at the guildmaster indifferently as she spoke, but on the inside, I was pumping my fists in triumph.
Mission accomplished.
Now I could release all the girls who didn’t know anything about the cultivation.
“You’ll take us back home now, yes?”
The guildmaster turned to me as Sebelkeya finished her work.
“What are you talking about?”
“You weren’t planning on leaving us here in the labyrinth, were you?”
The guildmaster grew angry, misunderstanding my words.
“What I mean is, why are you talking as if we’re finished here?”
“Excuse me?” The guildmaster gaped.
“There are still three more fields I need you to burn.”
We had a long night’s work ahead of us.
I needed them to see the fields without the magic circles to confirm that the information I’d given them before was correct.
“We don’t have enough magic to—”
“Transfer.”
Before the guildmaster could finish her statement, I used Mana Transfer.
“…My magic’s restored?”
“That’ll work, right?”
“Oh yes.” The guildmaster grinned. “It certainly will. Let’s destroy every last trace of those demonic-potion plants.”
I brought the reliable guildmaster around to the other fields with me, and we turned every last one to ash by the end of the day.
Once I’d brought the guildmaster and company home, I could just come back and use my spirit light and Holy Stones to purge the clouds of miasma.
“Wake up.”
Once we returned from the labyrinth, I pressed the exhausted-looking guildmaster into taking me to see Ludaman in the dungeon.
Sebelkeya was already sound asleep, but Secretary Ushana came along without the slightest sign of tiredness.
Ludaman growled and glared at me.
The other plunderer leaders in their nearby cells howled like wrathful animals.
“Your throat’s crushed, is it? Heal.”
With that, I selected a healing spell from my magic menu.
“What’s this about? Planning to off me in the dead of night, are ye?”
Ludaman bared his fang-like teeth defiantly.
“I have some questions for you.”
“Think I’m gonna answer?”
I pulled a small bottle of Shigan sake from my Item Box.
When I took out the cork, the aroma of sake filled the room.
Since the stench of the dungeon might have drowned it out, I had already cleaned the air with Deodorant beforehand.
“Sake? Ye be takin’ me too lightly if ye think that’ll buy the great Ludaman.”
Ludaman spat scornfully.
Maybe he doesn’t drink?
“Oh, so you don’t want one last taste of sake?”
I started to put the bottle back into the Item Box, and the other plunderers wailed loudly.
Ludaman glowered at his subordinates, then clicked his tongue.
“Fine. I’ll take it.”
Corking the bottle, I tossed it through the bars to Ludaman.
“Now, that’s some fine booze.”
Ludaman took a drink, then tossed it around to his subordinates before jerking his chin toward me.
“What do ye wanna know? About the mastermind who had us makin’ demonic potion?”
I shook my head. “I don’t need to know about Sokell.”
I knew Sokell wasn’t the real mastermind, but I didn’t particularly care to hear the name of the high-ranking noble behind it.
“Sokell? Ha! No, he’s just the scapegoat. It was a much bigger—”
Ludaman started to say the noble’s name, but I cut him off.
“No, what I want to know is more about this yellow-robed mage who taught you how to make demonic potion.”
If the mastermind really was a highly important noble, I doubted he would have truthfully revealed his lineage to a plunderer he was using anyway.
“Well, there ain’t much to tell.”
“Did he teach you that magic circle in the torture room, too?”
“Oh, he made that himself some five years back.”
Ludaman was answering my questions readily, probably thanks to my maxed-out “Interrogation” and “Negotiation” skills.
“Do you know why he made it?”
“Hunh? Well…”
Just as he was about to answer, the sake bottle made its way back to him. “Tch, empty.” Holding it out to me, he waggled it around meaningfully.
It was a brazen request but one well within my means to fulfill.
“Don’t get carried away, you ass.”
The guildmaster, who’d been watching in silence, snapped at him, so I gestured for her to stay back.
“It’s fine.”
I tossed him another bottle and some jerky.
“Heh-heh. Ye drive a hard bargain.”
Ludaman gnawed on the meat and took a swig of sake, looking satisfied.
“Well?”
“So he said that circle thing was for makin’ the demonic-potion stuff, but I reckon it was somethin’ else.”
Ludaman’s eyes glinted.
“Oh? And what makes you think that?”
“The jar.”
“Jar”?
That was an unexpected key word.
“Half a year ago, ol’ Yellow Robes brought some kinda strange jar, sayin’ it would enhance the circle. But after that, them ruination weeds and destruction stalks didn’t grow like normal.”
Right—the demonic-potion ingredients they were cultivating.
“So you think Yellow Robes actually needed the jar?”
“Yeah, for sure. At first he came to collect some of the plants once in a while, but then he didn’t seem to care no more. And after he left with the jar, he never showed his face again, so there’s yer answer.”
I suddenly thought of a different jar.
“Did it look something like this one?”
“Why the hell d’you have that?”
Ludaman looked surprised at the jar I’d produced.
It was the chaos jar that the demon manipulating the Muno Barony had been using to collect miasma for reviving the demon lord.
I’d found several similar jars and urns when I raided the cult’s hideout after defeating the demon lord beneath the old capital.
“Wh-what is that?” the guildmaster asked.
“A chaos jar. It’s an evil tool for reviving a demon lord.”
The plunderers seemed as shocked as the guildmaster at my reply.
“Have you ever seen an urn like this?”
“Sure have.” Ludaman nodded. “Yellow Robes sent a familiar to switch them out every half a year or so.”
Like the chaos jar, this malice urn was a tool for collecting miasma to revive a demon lord.
“One more question. When did Yellow Robes last show up?”
“When he picked up the jar ’bout six months ago. He took all the urns, too, so we never saw the familiar again, either.”
Hmm. Half a year ago would be before I defeated the demon lord and the yellow demon in the old capital.
Thinking chronologically, it was highly likely that those chaos jars and malice urns were used to revive the demon lord in the old capital.
“Hey, White Hair. Yer more important than the old hag, right? Can’t ye send me to Violet instead? If ye do, I’ll tell ye who Yellow Robes really was.”
So that was why he’d shared so much information just for some sake: to set up for this request.
I was certainly interested in that information, but I didn’t have the authority to grant that request, so I turned to the guildmaster behind me.
She grimaced unwillingly but gave a curt nod.
I guess information on a mage trying to revive a demon lord was more important than preventing the spread of demonic potion.
“Go on.”
“Yellow Robes was really…a demo
n. Not some lesser kind, either. Intermediate at least, or maybe even one o’ them greater demons.”
As I’d suspected, the “yellow-robed mage” was most likely the “yellow-skinned demon” in disguise.
“Interesting theory. And why do you think that?”
“I tried to punch ’im while I was on demonic potion, but he stopped me with one hand like it was nothin’.”
“Is that all?”
That seemed like pretty weak proof.
“That and the eyes.”
“The eyes?”
“He had the eyes of someone real powerful. Even surrounded by dozens o’ violent, demonic-potion-enhanced plunderers, he looked at us like we was a buncha ants.”
Ludaman shivered, as if the memory alone was enough to disturb him.
“Did he have any other distinguishing traits?”
“His face was as plain as they come. ’Cept the yellowish skin and yellow horns anyway.”
Ludaman looked to his fellow plunderers for opinions.
“He spoke kinda weird, too.”
“Yeah, loud and creepy, LIKE THIS.”
That sounded like the yellow demon, all right.
“I didn’t see any information about that Yellow Robes, even when I used ‘Analyze.’”
“Yeah, and didn’t he have a demon familiar?”
Seriously?
I didn’t know where to start with the plunderers’ conversation.
“He had a demon as a familiar? Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I analyzed it. It was a lesser demon, round level thirty.”
The older plunderer with the “Analyze” skill spoke with confidence.
That probably meant my theory was confirmed, then.
“So a greater demon is trying to revive a demon lord right here in Celivera, then…”
As we went back up from the dungeon, the guildmaster looked pale, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“Nothing to fear. If the demon lord is revived, my leader will destroy him. And more than likely, he won’t be.”
“You seem pretty confident.”
“Have you forgotten? My leader already destroyed the yellow demon in the old capital. And Ludaman said this Yellow Robes figure last appeared more than half a year ago, didn’t he? The miasma they were collecting was used to revive the demon lord below the old capital.”
This case was already closed.
It had all been much ado about nothing—or next to nothing anyway.
“I’ll leave the plunderers to you. I won’t insist you put them in Violet, but ask about it, at least.”