CH 5

3-5 To the Exiled Country

“I am the Demon King!!”

The fourth day of the Holy Knight Qualification Examination.

Under the cloudless sky of the vast examination hall, Marie said in a sharp tone. It was Marie’s improvised sense of humor that made her cover half of her face with one hand and adopt a flushed-eyed stance, but it was strangely dignified.

At least, more so than I was at the time.

“It’s similar. Just by listening to the dialogue, you recreated it beautifully.” (Chris)

“I’m well aware of Sage’s disappointing sense of humor. The only things he’s good at are swords and magic and he’s basically clumsy.”

“I know what you mean…….”

Even I know that, there’s nothing I can do about it.

“No, in the end it was your decision. It was after monsters of that level showed up in that number.” (Sage)

“If you didn’t go that far, I’ have been disappointed.”

“The only thing that was sacrificed was Sage’s sense of shame.”

“You’ve been strangely cruel lately…..”

In terms of ability, every examinee had something to repel the monsters last night. However, It’s not always the case that they’ll attack individually. This is especially true with yesterday’s precedent of them attacking “suddenly” and ‘collectively’ which they had never seen before.

That’s why I made a move

“It’s been quiet so far, hasn’t it?”

“It’s a good thing, though I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to get it working.”

I looked down at the pebble-like magical object that I’d been playing with in my fingers.

The pattern drawn to trace the edge is painted black. When it changes, that’s the signal for the work to begin.

“I use it when Marie and I go our separate ways, but it’s something to hold on to.”

I’ve distributed the same one to all the examinees. Whenever they feel their life is in danger, they can inject their magic power and it will cast a spell to warn me of their location and predicament.

“The color change and the vibrations will alert you that something is wrong with the owner, correct?”

“Yes. Hopefully, they won’t have to use it……”

“It’s hard to say. It’s not up to us to know what the monsters are up to.”

“…………”

Chris said that, but there was something I still didn’t understand.

They may be monsters, but they have intelligence and fear. If they had sensed our strength in advance last night, they wouldn’t have engaged us in the first place and even more so, they wouldn’t have jumped at us with courage and joy…

“You’re thinking to yourself again, aren’t you?”

“Whoa!”

Marie’s face which was upside down, hung down in front of my slightly lowered line of sight. When I regained my composure in the air, I spoke up again with a damp look.

“…I was just trying to figure out why the monsters came. It’s not something to worry about.”

“You mean the monsters that attacked last night? It’s definitely strange, but…”

While muttering, Marie leaned down with her index finger on her chin. When she’s thinking, she often adopts this posture, which makes me smile, as if she’s a child imitating an adult. Of course, she’d be in a bad mood if I said anything about it, so I watched her silently.

“I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but I saw something strange near the border of Raphia.”

“Strange? In what way?”

“It’s a place where there are traces of a battle, but it doesn’t look natural. Would you like me to show you?”

Chris and I looked at each other and gave each other a curt nod. Marie received the affirmation and twisted her body in the northeast direction.

The shimmering flames rising up in the direction we were heading were probably the magical mist rising up from the water-infested earth of the borderline. The way it blocks all interference from the outside world, beginning with our vision, is just like the borderline.

It took me a few minutes to follow behind and fly through the sky. I followed Marie, who glanced at me and then lowered her altitude and I lowered myself to the edge of the forest near the border.

“It’s around here.”

There was a tremendous amount of blood and the corpses of what appeared to be monsters. The trees had been cut in half from the middle of their trunks, indicating that they’d been in the scene of a fierce slashing battle.

“It’s not a battle, it’s a massacre.”

“It is … isn’t it?”

Marie turned in reaction to Chris’s bitter words.

“I don’t see anything unusual, just a lot of monsters.”

“The direction in which the monsters fell. They all have their backs to the northeast and there are scars on their backs where they fell.”

“The trees have all been felled from the other side.”

In Marie’s case, she probably had a different point of view or intuition, but Chris’s intuition was so sharp that it was hard to believe she was royalty. An electric current ran through my nerves, which had started to relax as I tried to watch the two of them nonchalantly search for physical evidence.

My body, which was facing away from Raphia, flipped as if whipped. As if to let out the disgust that had risen, magic power overflowed from my outstretched palm.

“Marie! Chris!”

The crescent-shaped blade that came at them with a sense of pressure bit into the magical wall that had risen from the ground, causing sparks in a fierce clash and fell to the ground. As soon as the two of them noticed the change and came back to the ground, a monster that was spewing fresh blood came flying after them with a dull sound. By the time it hit the magic wall that was put up and fell, it was already dead.

…Someone is on the other side of the border. No one said anything anymore that could have been known without saying it.

“Your Highness, what happens next…”

“I don’t like it!”

Chris’s shouting voice stopped Sage’s words and movements. In Sage’s eyes, she looked like a young girl as she raised her voice to complain.

“Please let me accompany you. I won’t be a burden on you.”

“But ……”

Wizards are good at measuring each other’s abilities. Even if you throw only one fireball, there’re many opportunities to assess the other party even in the midst of killing each other, such as the speed at which flames are produced, the accuracy of throwing and the scale of the fireball. A magician of Chris’s caliber should have been able to sense the residue of the magic that had just arrived.

“Sage.”

Marie pushed Sage’s back lightly, as if to push out the second phrase that was stuck in his throat.

“It’s not always easy to tell if you don’t speak up.”

“…… Your Highness, the opponent ahead of us has a magical power that surpasses yours. If you can’t tell who is friend or foe, it’s frankly dangerous.”

As I said this, I clucked my tongue in my heart at my decision to hand over the sword last night. It was natural for her to come forward if she had a chance to fight just as she had a new weapon in her hand, a great sword.

However, Chris’s feelings weren’t even close to what Sage had expected.

“…… You’re going away again, aren’t you?”

The leaves on the trees rustled and a chilly wind blew through the quiet space. Chris’s long hair swept in the wind and an expression of sadness peeked out from behind her swaying long hair.

While Sage was asking himself the meaning of her words, Chris continued to speak.

“When you left for his land, I grieved over my own weakness and regretted it. I believed that if I became a holy knight, I would be able to follow in your footsteps, so I continued to swing my sword. ……!”

The end of her words, which seems to have cut a weir or a plea for something, faded weakly. Marie, who was standing behind the two opponents, looked in Raphia’s direction and suddenly raised her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. Please understand…”

Sage waited slowly for Chris to finish and then opened his mouth curiously. But when he looked up and saw Marie standing there, protecting Chris, he opened his mouth and stiffened.

“…… What are you doing Marie?”

“I retract my previous statement. I’ll escort her, so please authorize Chris to accompany you.”

“No, you said earlier that ……”

“The presence of magic on the other side is probably human.”

A single word, spoken in a quiet tone, dominated the space. Marie glanced at me and then quickly looked back.

“If there’re survivors in the depths of this place, there’s no way we can afford not to have a healing magician with us. Please make your decision.”

Sage stretched the corners of his mouth into a straight line and scratched his hair into a crumpled mess.

“…… Are you sure?”

“Yes, it’s a faint hint, but I’m sure.”

It’s hard to believe that there are survivors in a nation that was swallowed up by magic, earth and all. But it’s not possible for a human being with the talent to manipulate magic to be cut off and thrown away.

Marie didn’t even pretend to reply to the confirmation of the escort request. It wasn’t that she was overconfident, but that she had evidence based on her ability and trust in Chris. The light in her eyes, which was more piercing than her words, pushed Sage’s reference back into his throat.

Eventually, a long, loud sigh of defeat spilled out of Sage’s mouth, who had been hoping that today would be the day.

“Okay. However, when danger is imminent, you must flee without regard to us. Please promise me that.”

“…… Yes! Thank you very much!”

Chris’s face lit up and she clenched her fists tightly. The lifted gaze overlapped with that of Marie and the smiles of the two girls burst.