CH 131

Chapter 131

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : A Name That Calls Death, Part 3 — Invasion

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

「Because I think Nia always used to brag about Gruzald a lot.」

「Yes, I am certainly proud of my country, but I don’t think I was personally proud of it. When I think about it—— I have always been fascinated with the military because my parents were in the military. I thought that one day I would like to join the military and play an active role like my parents and serve my country. I’m not faking that feeling. But I thought I’d join the military much later, but now that my father has remarried, it’s kind of hard to stay home.」

「Were you and your stepmother on bad terms?」

「No, we were rather close. My stepmother was the older sister in neighboring house, and she played with me a lot when I was a little girl, and I think I rather liked her. But I don’t know why… I wasn’t happy with my father who remarried soon after my mother died. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had already forgotten about Mom, or if they had such feelings for each other since she was alive. So I couldn’t stay at home, so I ran away from home and joined the army.」

It’s an emotion that Alfiris has never had. Alfiris can’t imagine what Nia’s thoughts were to her, but she could imagine that she might have mixed feelings about it. Next to the silent Alfiris, Nia continues further.

「I didn’t question it at first, and I was fine with that. But now that I’m traveling with Alfie and others, I wonder what it would be like to have friends, what I’ve been doing without making friends, what I really want to do… I’m beginning to think that maybe being in the army was a wrong choice.」

「I see…」

Nia is holding her knees and becoming smaller. She herself is probably confused by her own feelings, which she has never had before.

「Then, what do you want to do, Nia?」

「I don’t know… but I don’t think it’s right to go back into the military like this.」

「Then why don’t you quit? Then you can try traveling with me, or you can try living with the Kazas.」

「If I said I wanted to, would you welcome me, Alfie?」

When Nia fearfully asked, Alfiris nodded her head with a glowing face.

「Of course I am! I was a little sad too, thinking about Fenna, Aerial, and Euthy leaving. If Nia did the same… I would hate that.」

「Alfie is surprisingly lonely.」

「Ah, what do you think I am?」

Nia smiled at Alfiris’ swollen face.

「Fufu, my bad. But wouldn’t Kazas be annoyed if I barged in…?」

「I think you’ll be fine in that area. I think the Kazas have deeper pockets than you’d expect.」

「Indeed… I wondered about it when he first confessed to you, but when I talked to him, he was surprisingly easy to talk to. He’s moderately interesting to talk to and listens to us very well. He’s not unnecessarily overbearing.」

「Indeed. I thought he was a jerk because it was the first time, but once you get to know him, you can talk to him pretty well. It’s just that Kazas was very rational and logical, not bad people. Well, I guess it’s hard to tell because he’s so eccentric.」

「And he’s surprisingly nice, you know? You see, the other day…」

「Oh, don’t fall in love with him.」

「I–I’m not!」

Nia’s face turned red and she hurriedly denied it, which was so funny that Alfiris burst out laughing. Nia laughed as well.

「Fufufu…」

「Puh, haha…」

They burst out laughing, but Nia still felt a tug on her heart. It certainly felt different to go back to Gruzald, but it also felt different to follow Alfiris and Kazas as they are now. Then it is very difficult to say what I want to do, but I couldn’t explain it to Nia in any way. Nia herself had no idea that she was a creature with such complicated feelings.

It was surely a conflict between Nia’s life as a soldier, the friendship she felt for the first time, and the faint love that grew in her heart, but she was not skilled enough in her dialect or experienced enough to explain her feelings well, even for Nia for the first time.

While Nia is still puzzled by these hazy feelings, Alfiris suddenly looks grim. She seems to be focusing her attention outside, as if she has noticed something.

「What’s wrong, Alfie?」

「You don’t feel… anything?」

「No, I feel nothing…」

「………It’s still weird. Nia, stay here.」

Saying this, Alfiris walks outside. Nia looks behind her anxiously, but Alfiris pays attention and goes outside anyway.

「（I don’t know… but my chest rumbles.）」

However, only a few tornadoes are visible outside. None of them are far away and have no impact. There are few clouds in the sky, but not many stars visible either.

「I can’t see many stars… eh, I can’t see them!?」

It’s strange to not be able to see the stars on an unlit prairie. When they were always with Phalanx, they could see them quite clearly. Thinking about it, isn’t it rather bright outside?

Alfiris jumped out of the cave they had dug in the ground and looked in the direction of her back. Her face turned pale.

「What’s wrong Alfie, what happened?」

Nia, worried from the back, calls out to her.

「Nia! Wake everyone up!!」

「What, what happened!?」

「The forest is on fire!」

The scene in Alfiris’s vision. It was a scene of a forest in the direction of the Seeker settlement where they were supposed to be heading.

＊＊＊

Just about the same time. The Seeker settlement was filled with screams and exclamations. The community of Seekers, or Mutrio as its residents call it, was peaceful until just a few moments ago.

There had been no attacks by magical beasts in recent months, relations with the humans on the prairie remained good, and, unusually for Seekers, new life was being born every month. This was a good omen, and just as the entire community was getting excited.

Suddenly, someone attacked the village from all directions. At first the Seekers thought they were humans, but they’re attacked by a number of things that didn’t stop advancing even when their arms were blown off, that were completely ineffective with magic, that couldn’t be described as giant creatures or anything else, and even orcs and goblins, all of whom were ineffective with the tactics for foreign enemies that the Seekers had constructed up to now. The village had now turned into a complete melting pot of confusion.

「Uwaahh! What the hell are these guys!?」

「Neither our sorcery nor bows will work!?」

「Somebody, somebody! My little boy is still inside.」

「Somebody help me over here! There’s a guy underneath me!!」

「North side is blocked! Find a way out!!」

「West is no good too!」

「What is that huge monster!? I’ve never seen anything like that!」

「Someone contact the king!」

「Calm down, everybody!」

A dignified voice echoes around the village in the midst of the screams. A high-status Seeker emerged with several strong young men in tow. He is dressed in colorful clothes and wears a sword at his waist. He was one of the royalty who ruled the land and commanded those who fought.

「It’s Cesari-sama!」

「No need to salute or say greetings! Report the situation. What is the size of the enemy, and in what direction are they attacking?」

「I don’t know. All I know is that there are a lot of them and they are coming at us from all directions.」

「Ridiculous, where did they come from?」

「…I carried them in a transfer…」

All were startled by the voice. The Seekers were surprised again when they identified the owner of the voice. For it was a young boy standing behind a house in flames. I wondered how long he had been there, and the eeriness of his appearance took Cesari’s breath away.

「That’s ludicrous, transition? With so many of them?」

「…Well, it took a lot of strength to carry this many… I had needed some assistance… But I can save magic by transferring from nearby… so I’ve used shifting a few times… and this is one way to do it…」

【Summon】

With that utter, the boy—— Lifeless, of course—— Numerous magic circles were deployed around the Seekers and a number of huge creatures appeared from them. Seekers prepare their weapons and magic before the sight of these creatures.

「Who are you!」

「…But first, I have one question…」

「?」

「…Do you… do you identify your livestock… your pigs and sheep, for example, when you kill them…?」

Instantly, the faces of the Seekers turn angry. But the Lifeless are unconcerned, or rather, their faces contort into a look of amusement, which is rare for the Lifeless.

「Don’t think of him as a child! Kill him!」

「…Try it…」

That voice from each other triggered a fierce battle to begin. Mutrio was dyed red with flames, with blood.

＊＊＊

「Hurry, everyone!」

「Wait, Alfie. It’s not safe to rush too fast!」

「Aery, this isn’t the time to argue! If we don’t go soon, it will be too late for everything!」

「Aery, please understand the sentiment!」

A bright blue Fenna pleads with Aerial. For Fenna, once again the place that should be her home is about to be burned. Fenna didn’t have the confidence to endure any more treatment. What if everyone had died when she arrived at the village? All she could think of was how bad it would be.

Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is on the mind of the relatively calm Aerial. Not that there are no fire-using magical beasts on the prairie, but no beast would be foolish enough to use fire in the woods unless it was too much of a problem. There are no wild beasts that would burn their own dwellings. Aerial thought that only humans would do such a foolish thing, but he did not think that some tribe was attacking Seeker villages, but it was reckless to think that they would attack a Seeker village.

The intensity and size of the fire is not normal.

「（Is it magic? But the Seekers would never have gone this far on their own, so who on earth would have done it?）」

Aerial had no clear answer, only unexplained questions and anxiety.

Soon after, Alfiris and ther group arrived near the village. Strangely enough, we didn’t run into any fleeing animals, magical beasts, or even Seekers. What is even more puzzling is that they approached the village from the southwest direction, but there was not much fire to the south, and the fire was stronger to the north and west. If there is a foreign enemy approaching the settlement from the outside, the southwest, closest to the prairie, is usually on fire. Nevertheless, the fire was still there, and Alfiris and others tried to go around from south to east to avoid the fire.

「Fenna, where’s the entrance?」

「As long as there are no wards, we should be able to get in from anywhere!」

「But the wards are working just fine!?」

「Eh?」

Fenna is surprised at Alfiris’ words. The wards of Mutrio are protected by wards ten times stronger than those of Fenna’s village. Also, if one disappears, the other wards will repair it, so the effect is semi-permanent. In fact, since the completion of this ward, Mutrio has never allowed the progress of outside enemies. Perhaps that is why Seekers feel safe and secluded, but there is no point in blaming them for that now. But Fenna had assumed that the wards were gone because Mutrio was on fire, but if the wards are not gone, the possible possibilities are——

「Could this be… possibly?」

「Sounds a lot like the situation in Fenna’s village…」

「Let’s get inside!」

「Ah, wait! Fenna!」

Fenna was quick to shout and ran to the ward as if she were rolling off her horse. There was no time to stop her, so everyone unavoidably followed Fenna. Then Fenna mutters something near the wards, and the wards partially open.

「Everybody, quick!」

「No, we’ll wait and see how things go…」

「Then I’ll go by myself!」

「Ah! …Fine, let’s move!」

Before they could stop Fenna’s courageous leap into the ward, everyone was rushing into Mutrio.