The Large-Scale Subjugation
The day of the large-scale subjugation arrived.
I rose early that morning and collected the Ice Horn leather cloak I had commissioned. It felt a little heavy once I put it on, but its toughness and cold resistance exceeded every expectation.
My condition was excellent, and every preparation for the subjugation had been finished the day before. Shouldering a fairly heavy pack, I set out for the Adventurers’ Guild.
Even at that early hour, a massive crowd thronged the guild entrance. Some rough-faced men were finishing their breakfast; others milled about in groups, calling out to strangers in search of teammates for the coming fight.
Yet something else drew the eye more sharply still: soldiers clad in expensive iron armor, a stark contrast to the adventurers. These had to be the mayor’s private troops the receptionist had mentioned. Their crisp discipline stirred old memories from my previous life.
A guild receptionist was checking participants’ identities. I approached and handed over my wooden plaque.
“Ceris… participation confirmed…”
He took the plaque, entered my details into a thick ledger, then nodded as if finished and moved on. Adventurers’ gazes began to gather on me—no surprise, since I was clearly the youngest among them. Most looks were merely curious, though a few carried open disapproval. Still, no one picked a fight. The mayor’s soldiers standing nearby saw to that.
“Attention, everyone!”
While I was letting time drift by, a middle-aged man stepped forward with the guild receptionist at his side. One glance and the image of a knight filled my mind: full plate mail covering him without a single gap, a long dark-crimson cape trailing behind, and an elegant sword at his hip—exactly the knight of my imagination.
“I am Knight Lycan. I will command this subjugation. From the moment we leave the city, you will follow my orders.”
The moment he finished, the adventurers began to murmur. Men who had lived free their entire lives found the idea of someone controlling them hard to swallow. One of them, face twisted with discontent, stepped out.
“Who decided that on their own?”
“It is the mayor’s will.”
The mayor’s will—in other words, the client’s. The complaining adventurer shut his mouth and nodded. Lycan’s answer quenched the rest of the discontent just as quickly. No adventurer was willing to defy the man who would be paying them.
“How far does that control go?”
“Meals, movement, and monster subjugation. Beyond that I will not interfere at all.”
Lycan handled the exchange with practiced ease. Adventurers occasionally threw rude questions, yet he seemed thoroughly accustomed to speaking with their kind.
“Anyone with complaints, step forward. I will hand command of the subjugation force to whoever defeats me.”
A bold challenge—yet no one came forward with confidence. The title of knight carried more weight than I had expected. Lycan swept his gaze across the crowd as if asking whether anyone truly dared. In that instant our eyes met across the open air.
“…”
A flicker of puzzlement crossed his face as he looked at me. He tilted his head slightly, clearly unable to understand why I was here. I thrust my chest forward and rested a hand on the sword at my back, a silent declaration that I, too, stood among them as an adventurer.
Noticing Lycan’s stare, the receptionist hurried over and whispered something in his ear. Lycan’s brow furrowed. He snatched the documents from the receptionist’s hands and scanned the writing at speed.
“When are we leaving?”
The appointed time had already passed and Lycan still showed no sign of departure; discontented voices rose among the adventurers and quickly spread.
“Ahem…”
Lycan cleared his throat and nodded.
“My apologies. There was something I needed to confirm… We depart at once!”
One knight, two hundred fifty adventurers, and fifty private soldiers—the large-scale subjugation force left the city and headed for the Karum Mountains. Throughout the march Lycan explained the planned route, though few adventurers bothered to listen.
Snow still blanketed the Karum Mountains, and a bitter wind howled without pause. I pulled the wolf-head hood deep over my ears to keep them from freezing.
Halfway up the slope a brief rest was called. I found a suitable spot, brushed thick snow from a rock with my hand, and sat, slowly exhaling.
“Haa…”
For the past week I had pondered and researched without end. How could I trap the mana drifting through the air inside my body? The answer had been surprisingly close at hand.
When I tried to weave sword techniques with mana the way I had in the Karum Mountains before, I realized the mana of the city and the mana of the mountains were different. The mana at the city’s heart was noisy and turbid. Near the sea it felt as vast as the ocean itself and carried a chill like winter’s cold. Mana changed its nature to match its surroundings.
There I found my solution. First I reshaped my inner world—rolling the endless expanse into a small sphere that now encircled my heart. The next problem was that external mana refused to mix with my own; that was why absorbed mana kept slipping away. So I formed a thin band around the sphere—a blue ring made solely of outside mana. It spun endlessly, gradually taking on a form closer to my own.
Thus the Mana Circle was born. In time the band would naturally blend and merge with my mana. The one I had created in the city already glimmered with faint starlight, so the process would not take long. Above it I formed a new band—a circle of Karum Mountains mana, cold and fierce as ice itself.
“Move out!”
The short rest ended. Adventurers dragged their weary bodies deeper into the Karum Mountains. I had expected endless battle in a large-scale subjugation, yet we met no monsters at all. Three hundred people moving as one clearly made every creature give us a wide berth. The first day of the subjugation ended without a single gain.
Dawn of the second day. After breakfast the force followed Lycan’s orders farther into the mountains. We had walked roughly half a day when it happened.
“Everyone, halt…”
Lycan, walking at the front, raised a hand and stopped the column. Sensing the gravity on his face, adventurers drew their weapons. I unsheathed my sword as well and fixed my eyes ahead.
In the next instant the pure-white snowfield heaved, and a vast swarm of goblins came pouring out.
—Kieeeek!
—Kieeek!
—Kyaaaak!
At a glance there were well over a hundred. They kept spilling down from the high ridge.
“Attack!”
The moment Lycan’s roar ended, excited adventurers charged forward in a scramble. One silver per head had been promised; every man was a rival. I sprinted ahead and swung my blade. My leading foot slammed into the ground; the sword that had been drawn back shot forward. Pale moonlight, wrapped in faint starlight, pierced a goblin’s skull.
Crack!
—Kieeeeek!
After dropping one, I could not help frowning. The goblins’ movements were not aggressive. Rather than charging to ambush us, they felt far more like they were fleeing something that pursued them. When I looked around I saw several other adventurers who had also stopped, sensing the same thing. Most, however, blinded by the prospect of rewards, kept pressing onward.
Then it came—a faint sound beneath the goblins’ frantic screams. The ground beneath my feet trembled. It took only a moment to recognize the vibration traveling up through my legs.
An earthquake?
Thud—!
A clear, heavy boom. Something enormous was moving beyond the ridge.
“All of you, stop!”
Lycan, too, judged the situation ominous and shouted for the adventurers to fall back. But bloodlust had already seized them; his voice never reached their ears.
Thud—!
Again—closer this time—a colossal impact. Whooosh—! The shock was so great that snow piled on the branches cascaded down in a white curtain. The moment the falling flakes veiled my sight, a gigantic shadow appeared atop the ridge.
The shadow approached without a sound. Then, just as it seemed to move, five adventurers who had been slaughtering goblins on the hillside were hurled into the sky.
Thud—!
The dull impact brought death. Bodies torn apart midair scattered in every direction, spraying crimson blood. The blood met the falling snow and created a bizarre weather of red snowflakes.
“O-Ogre…”
A voice trembling with terror named the shadow. In that instant a pair of bright yellow eyes cut through the red snow drifting from the sky. Its body was immense, thick beyond measure.
Thud—!
The distant booming finally revealed its source: the ogre’s footsteps.
[KRAAAAAAAH!]
Having blasted five adventurers away with a single blow, the ogre looked down the slope and unleashed a tremendous roar. At that horrific sound adventurers began to collapse where they stood. My own legs gave out and I sank to the ground as well. The only one still standing was the knight Lycan.