Point of Contact
Point of Contact
Shot out like a cannonball, I bounced once off the pile of stones forming the abandoned dungeon gate's frame, twice more off the floor, and only after tumbling end over end could I finally come to a stop.
I honestly, no fucking lie, thought I was gonna die!
"Th-those bastards, what the hell were they trying to shove through?"
A bomb? Was that seriously a bomb? When I looked back at the gate, still fighting off the ringing in my ears and dizziness from the shock, it was in the middle of a spectacular collapse, throwing off extremely unstable sparks. Maybe it was the vertigo, but the gate felt impossibly far away.
"Oh my god! Ega! Are you alright?"
Judging from the fact that she was the only one calling me by my family name, it had to be Rellie. She looked genuinely worried as my body started shaking from the delayed shock of the impact.
"Ah, I-I don't think I'm entirely alright, but it doesn't seem serious..."
"What do you mean no major issues! Do you even know your hands and feet are shaking right now?!"
"I b-bounced off the rocks three times, so th-this much is within expectations..."
"Looks like he's so out of it he doesn't even realize how far he bounced before landing."
"Is that really what's important right now?! Yekaterina! Don't lift him! He might have hit his head, so don't move him recklessly!"
In the end, it was only after Rellie's first aid that I came to my senses, by which time the gate had completely ceased functioning.
And only then did I realize I had been thrown all the way from the gate to the chapel entrance. I didn't know how massive the explosion was, but to be sent flying this far by the shockwave alone... if I hadn't reinforced myself to the limit with Magic Power, my life might genuinely have been in danger.
"Just what happened on the other side?"
Gaendal had given me one of his own potions for free, insisting on it even though I had few external injuries. That made me want to answer him honestly if I could, but I still had to decide what to say and what to leave out, starting with the strange sensation I'd experienced this time.
First, I decided to cut out everything involving Magic Power and only explain the Demonfolk on the other side, the surrounding scenery I roughly remembered, and the huge sphere I suspected was a bomb.
"I think... it was an army encampment. There were quite a lot of Demonfolk. There weren't any buildings around, it was just like somewhere deep in the woods. They'd pitched tents and set up a camp... it didn't look like they'd been there just a day or two. Still, I can't be sure."
They'd dug drainage channels and nearly finished setting up the camp's basic defenses. But considering the environment, they looked far too clean for people who'd been living there for months.
"I don't know whether they made it there or brought in something they'd already built, but their goal seemed to be using the gate to bring over whatever caused an explosion big enough to send me flying. It was a fairly large sphere, but I was too far away to know its exact size. Still, judging by how they were transporting it and the route leading to the gate, it should've been small enough to fit inside the chapel."
"Oh my god... did they plan to detonate it here?"
"I don't know. Maybe it was just a catalyst for another spell and happened to explode like that, or maybe detonating it was the whole point from the start."
Come to think of it, even the small spell that mage had been casting caused a sizable explosion the moment it failed. If the sphere's size reflected the scale of the spell... then even if it wasn't a bomb, it would've caused one hell of an explosion.
"It exploded because you threw your sword at it?"
To Rellie, the only mage among us, there was clearly something that didn't sit right about that. And for good reason. As if there'd be anyone stupid enough to leave something that dangerous able to shatter like a glass bottle just from throwing a sword at it. It must have been protected in various ways I didn't know about.
But it shattered.
And when I threw my sword, the Demonfolk didn't look at it with ridicule but with expressions full of despair. I now felt like I understood that despair hadn't come from the sword itself, but because they had sensed the Magic Power coiled around the blade.
I had put Magic Power into the sword, like the sword energy or sword aura you read about in martial-arts novels.
As far as I knew, such a technique didn't exist in this world. Maybe if a weapon's performance was exceptionally good, or if you enchanted it with magic, but using aura to reinforce a tool didn't exist. At least, not within the domain of humans.
"Well, that's what happened, apparently."
But since I was in no position to say, "I put Magic Power in my sword!" I had no choice but to give a dazed answer.
"It doesn't add up in many ways, but Ega has no reason to lie... maybe something wasn't fully prepared... or maybe by sheer luck, the barrier had just been lowered at that moment."
I felt guilty as hell, because I did have a reason to lie.
I left Rellie muttering to herself and spinning one hypothesis after another. Once I'd more or less wrapped up the discussion and got to my feet, the traces of the battle they'd fought came into view.
Only corpses that clearly showed who killed them remained, with no survivors. Gin also stroked his beard and clicked his tongue.
"A shame. I wanted to keep at least one alive."
"They were the kind I couldn't afford to go easy on. Maybe it was just a bad matchup... honestly, I was in a little danger myself. If Yekaterina hadn't stepped in when she did, I could've been badly hurt."
"Haha! Definitely! They were slippery bastards!"
Rellie probably hadn't just been twiddling her thumbs, but since there didn't seem to have been a mage among the Demonfolk, it meant three fighters had locked down four enemies. Even though those enemies had likely trained in perfect coordination, the fact that it ended with no one injured was an achievement in itself.
"As for evidence... just a few Demonfolk heads should be enough. The guild will conduct its own investigation anyway."
"Once the gate's been confirmed, there's no way they can avoid doing so."
In the end, we hadn't managed to learn any real intelligence, but just seeing the other side of the gate and getting a rough sense of how formidable the Demonfolk were was a major gain.
We grabbed everything we could, then pushed through the dark forest back to our camp. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the corpses, we would've stolen the Demonfolk's beds in the dungeon and slept there, but the place was such a goddamn mess that it wasn't an option.
"This time, I think I can ask the spirits, so if any problem arises I'll wake up and alert you all. Let's sleep without a night watch tonight."
Maybe because my body was such a wreck, the spirits were more generous toward me than usual, so I gratefully accepted their kindness this once. Thanks to that, everyone in the party—not just me—ended up happier for it.
The next morning, the campfire was still burning even though we hadn't added any firewood all night. After getting a firsthand lesson in the greatness of spirits, we ate a quick meal and returned to the capital.
◈
The guild provided many conveniences even after we returned.
After receiving our report, Engrim prepared everything from baths to meals as thanks for our hard work. While we rested, he even had guild members take care of sending our equipment out for repairs.
"You've done enough that this much is nothing. You stopped what could've become a far more serious problem than we'd expected, and you handled it splendidly. This is the kind of job that'll earn additional compensation even if we don't ask for it."
True. Nipping an incident that could've caused a massive explosion near the capital in the bud was no small feat. More importantly, an explosion that large had gone off in what was obviously Demonfolk Territory, so their losses couldn't have been light either. And the bastards making and guarding something like that were probably a fairly important unit. If we could prove the connection, an extra gold coin or two might be easy enough to claim.
We were all intelligent enough to figure that much out ourselves, so we grinned ear to ear and partied hard, truly eating and drinking to our hearts' content.
"Eldmia! I'd really love it if we could take requests together again next time! I'm not just saying that, I can't remember the last time I saw a warrior who knew how to play the scout role!"
Gaendal had proven that the alias 'Weapon Master' had nothing to do with alcohol tolerance. His whole bald head was bright red, yet he kept matching Gin's pace, knocking back drink after drink as he made the offer.
Scouts were rare. On top of fighting, they had to learn skills like tracking, and the role came with the pressure of knowing they could either make the whole party's job easier or lead everyone straight into disaster. Naturally, scouts who could truly do the job were rarer still. Most parties could only patch the role together based on each member's experience.
That meant whenever someone like Gaendal could properly handle scouting, the burden naturally concentrated on him. Parties would rely on him even if they had to pay extra for it, so it seemed he'd been under no small amount of pressure over the years.
"Because of my circumstances, I can't take big requests like this very often. I can't promise anything, but if the opportunity comes up, I'd be glad to work together again."
Even from my standpoint of revering the teaching of Great Sage Zirobo—that wherever five people gather, one is always trash—this party was perfect.
To begin with, getting adventurers in an improvised party to work together smoothly was never easy. No matter how carefully Engrim had analyzed everyone and assembled the group, there was always room for something to go wrong. But this job had ended so cleanly and with so little trouble that, even accounting for luck, I couldn't help rating the party highly.
"Don't forget about sparring either! No, let's do it right now!"
"Stop talking nonsense and eat your meat."
We laughed as Rellie shoved meat into Yekaterina's mouth. Yekaterina was plenty drunk herself, though not quite as far gone as Gaendal.
I'd worked for House Ogatorf and been an adventurer for over a year and a half, but this was the first time I'd had an experience that truly felt like being an adventurer. Yeah. Life's gotta have moments like this, doesn't it?
I'll have to tell Asilie about it next time I send a letter.