Chapter 215: A Brief Flash of Lightning
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 215: A Brief Flash of Lightning
Esther knew exactly what trick the five enemy mages had pulled and precisely what they intended.
She was, after all, a wanderer who had immersed herself in the world of spells. More importantly, the opposing group consisted entirely of mages of a lower tier than her.
Illusion and mind magic.
It was a combination of the two. Even if she didn't know the exact name of the spell, she understood its mechanics perfectly.
This was the reality of the spell known as 'Dream of the Abyss.'
It cast an illusion to create an atmosphere of absolute comfort, then granted a profound tranquility in its wake. It was a clever concept. While driving an opponent mad was difficult, offering comfort to those under severe mental pressure was incredibly easy.
The targets would naturally yearn for peace—that was the fundamental nature of mind spells. The more the target desired it, the more easily the magic was accepted.
Breaking it was even easier. All she had to do was disperse the mana. But Esther chose not to. She intended to let those who were already asleep rest peacefully. Furthermore, she had no desire to reveal her human form to them.
Of course, she wasn't about to go so far as to kill her allies just to silence them.
Even if they knew I was originally human, nothing would change.
She was an indulger of the spell world—a being who had resolved to walk a path different from ordinary humans. So, even if others discovered the panther was actually a woman, she would still curl up in Encrid's arms just the same. She had no intention of stopping.
It is quite ridiculous of me to be worrying about this at a moment like this, though.
But there was no reason to give up the power that faded her curse. She couldn't help but be bothered by the growing number of women around him. Ordinary humans were bound to feel jealousy and envy; if other women appeared by his side, they might try to shun her.
If that happened, she would simply have to force her way into his arms. It was only right to nip such problems in the bud.
If all else fails, I can just subdue him by force.
She even considered the option of beating Encrid to a pulp before climbing into his embrace. All sorts of thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant as Esther finished her rationalization.
The conclusion was simple: it didn't matter who knew.
Her deep blue eyes—similar to a panther's, yet distinctly different—turned toward the owner of the voice.
"I knew you'd be a beauty."
Rem was there, wearing a sly smirk. He was a man of delicate features with gray hair. Though he was on the shorter side, his abilities were not to be underestimated.
"Is that so?" Esther replied nonchalantly.
At the same time, she understood why he had resisted the spell.
He has mastered a Mystery.
It wasn't magic, but a different system entirely. She didn't bother to let on that she knew. And he wasn't the only one awake.
"Some interesting brothers have come to visit."
Audin spoke. He was a humanoid monster whose massive build didn't pale even when compared to a bear-type demonic beast. He possessed pale yellow eyes and was exceptionally handsome in his own right. Looking at his well-proportioned body, Esther wondered what it would be like to have a golem like him right now.
I didn't even have time to bring out Bonehead.
The flesh golem she had previously obtained through Encrid was sleeping peacefully inside her sub-space. It was an object that still needed modification and a great deal of work, so it wasn't time to use it yet.
Regardless, she also had a rough idea of why Audin was awake.
Divinity.
It was a power she shunned—something originating from a god.
Next, Sachsen and Ragna were also wide awake, as if the concept of fainting was entirely foreign to them.
"Going back to sleep," Ragna muttered. He seemed to have awakened a portion of his willpower.
As for Sachsen? He was a true enigma. It felt as though he had surpassed his limits through training pushed to the absolute extreme.
While she was taking them all in with a glance—
"Mmm."
Encrid let out a groan in his sleep.
"He sure is sleeping soundly."
"To be this dull... his training is lacking."
"There's no need to bother a sleeping man. As long as he fights well when he's awake, that's all that matters."
"Haha, it seems our Company Commander brother was quite tired. This is all because his physical body lacks strength."
Starting with Rem, then Sachsen, Ragna, and Audin, each tossed in a comment as they looked down at their sleeping commander. In the midst of this, Rem looked at the sleeping beastman woman and added another remark.
"Leaving her like that is just going to be a nuisance."
He respected Finn's capabilities as a ranger, but didn't the beastman woman only have a talent for fighting? Yet she was fast asleep at a time like this, even though beastmen naturally possessed high magic resistance?
In truth, this couldn't be helped. Dunchabel had incredibly low self-esteem, and to her, spells of rest and peace were like a fatal poison. Of course, Rem didn't care about such details. He only thought about how he had to deal with her somehow.
Esther had no intention of showing off her spells, but she also had no desire to sleep with corpses lying around. She waved her hand in the air. Using an invisible force—a basic telekinesis spell—she rolled the five corpses toward the entrance of the tent.
"The Perception Disruption Spell will break soon," she spoke to the remaining men.
Rem said something in response, but the other three didn't pay her presence any mind. Was it because they had noticed her true nature beforehand? That was part of it, but...
"I'm sleeping."
There were bound to be men like Ragna—the type of person who wouldn't care whether she turned into a human, a panther, or a hairy giant.
It's strange.
Esther felt a truly bizarre sensation. She had expected them to show at least some surprise, if not outright shock. Or perhaps, deep down, this was exactly what she had hoped for. These were people bound together within the same circle.
And at the center of that circle was the black-haired man, sleeping soundly even in a situation like this.
The time limit expired. Esther became a panther once more and curled into Encrid's embrace. The black robe wrapping her body dispersed like smoke, vanishing as if sinking into the ground.
This was immediately after she had returned to her panther form and the Perception Disruption Spell had faded.
"What is this?"
Vengeance, who was on patrol duty, entered the barracks and froze in surprise. He was left speechless by the stench of blood and the sight of the corpses.
"Hey, since you're here, clean that up, will you?" Rem called out.
A commander who loses a battle can be forgiven, but a commander who fails to maintain vigilance cannot. Vengeance couldn't comprehend how these intruders had made it this far, as there was no way for him to know that mages had been involved.
"Huh? Oh, right."
He simply assumed that assassins had targeted them. However, as he examined the dead, they didn't look like highly trained killers. It was simply an absurd night.
If he reported this, Battalion Commander Marcus would likely fly into a furious rage. Yet, he couldn't just ignore it. Vengeance sent word through the commander's guard during the night.
When Marcus woke up in the morning and heard the report...
"Leave it. No matter what kind of assassin comes, that place is an antlion's pit anyway."
He brushed it off nonchalantly. In fact, Marcus had intentionally set up the Encrid Company's barracks on the outskirts because he thought Olf of Martai might send assassins as a final, desperate struggle. At the same time, he knew it was a futile attempt.
They even caught a half-elf before.
That assassin was supposedly quite famous, wasn't he? Marcus was the type to put a lot of effort into gathering intelligence. He believed that such small details accumulated to bring victory on the battlefield.
"Tell them to send more. Some people just have to touch the stove to know it's hot," Marcus spoke with a chuckle.
He didn't know mages had been involved either, but a sort of groundless, absolute faith had begun to take root in him—a belief that Encrid would somehow survive and overcome whatever came his way.
At the same time, another thought occurred to him.
"A knight, huh."
It was the dream Encrid had spoken of. At the time, he honestly thought it sounded absurd, but looking at the man now, it felt like it might actually happen. If so, what should he do for him? If he became a knight, if he truly joined an order...
Under Cypress?
That didn't seem like a fitting picture. Who knew? It was a matter for the future; he would find out when the time came. Until then, Marcus would do what he had to do. After all, he might die before he ever got to see Encrid become a knight. In fact, he was right on the verge of stepping into just such a dangerous affair.
"So, let's all look out for our own lives."
Marcus was doing exactly that.
*
Pitch-black darkness—a canvas painted in ink. There was no light, neither starlight nor moonlight. There was only the swaying river water, a boat, and the ferryman sitting upon it.
If there was one thing that had changed...
I can see his eyes.
Encrid saw something resembling an eye on the ferryman's face. Though there was only one. If anyone asked if it looked like a human eye, he wouldn't know how to answer. He simply knew it was an eye the moment he saw it.
It was a dream. The ferryman stared intently at him. That was why he felt the gaze. For him to perceive that intense pressure, an eye had to exist.
"You are a truly strange fellow," the ferryman spoke.
Encrid found it difficult to part his lips, as if someone had sewn his mouth shut with thread. So, he forced his mouth open. If there was thread sewing it shut, he would simply rip it apart with sheer strength.
"So, when is the wall appearing again?" he asked abruptly.
The wall was a curse, meant to bring suffering to humans, cornering and tormenting them. That was the nature of the wall. The ferryman knew this all too well. Yet, the opponent before him was actually asking for it.
What a crazy bastard.
The ferryman muttered to himself, then looked at Encrid with his single eye.
"Crazy bastard."
With that familiar title as the final word, Encrid opened his eyes. The dream faded. The river, the ferryman, and the pitch-black darkness vanished.
Purr.
The moment he opened his eyes, he felt warmth in his arms. It was Esther. As he woke, the panther opened her eyes as well. Somehow, her gaze seemed more human than it had yesterday.
"Did you sleep well?"
He greeted her, got up, and began his morning training. Just because they had surrounded enemy territory didn't mean there was any reason to skip his routine.
"Sleep well?"
In a rare move, Rem asked about his rest.
Encrid had lain down, fallen asleep, and woken up on time. Therefore, he had slept well. As for dreams, even if he had a nightmare, all he had to do was shake it off and stand up.
"Is there any reason I wouldn't?"
"...You're subtly annoying."
What was he talking about now?
"Your sensory training is lacking."
This was also a rare occurrence. Sachsen poured out a lecture akin to nagging from early morning, and Audin was overflowing with even more enthusiasm than usual.
"One more! You can do it, brother!"
Did this bastard forget we're on a battlefield? Is he really suggesting we abuse our bodies to this extent?
It was a repetition of squats while carrying a massive boulder on his back. It felt as though his thigh muscles were tearing, but just as Audin said, he could do it.
"Did you feel anything last night?" Rem approached again for no apparent reason.
"The weather was good."
It was neither too hot nor too cold—a night of deep sleep. When he woke up, there was a faint smell of blood in the barracks, but he had assumed it was just the lingering scent of the battlefield.
It was past lunchtime when Encrid finally heard the news about the assassins. It was thanks to Vengeance coming over to fill him in.
"I didn't even wake up?"
"They were mages, mages."
Only then did Rem start running his mouth, teasing him all day about what on earth was wrong with his nervous system for him to sleep through an assassination attempt.
Encrid couldn't help but be bothered by that.
Why didn't I wake up?
A spell? Some kind of sleeping incense? Then what about the others? Why were his squad members awake? It meant there was something lacking in him—something different from them.
He already knew what it was.
Will.
The thing they called willpower.
Though he was in a rush, he still desired it. He also knew what he had to do to achieve it: to swing his sword every single day.
He threw himself into training and conditioning right in the middle of the battlefield. No one frowned upon seeing that. To know one's deficiencies meant wanting to move further forward.
Zeal and passion flared up once more. A certain heat surged up, pounding against his heart, filling Encrid from within.
"When are we going to battle?"
It was this very heat that prompted Encrid to abruptly ask the visiting elf company commander.
"We march this afternoon."
"Are there no ladders? What about the castle gate?"
"I was only told to deliver the message. Will you take the lead?"
Encrid nodded. He didn't know what Olf was doing inside Martai, but since things had turned out this way, he wondered about the strategy to break down the gate.
Contrary to his expectations, the battle was quite anticlimactic.
"Raise your shields!"
Encrid, Rem, Audin, and the others raised their shields and advanced. They were large rectangular shields. Though they looked hastily made, they were sufficient to block a few arrows.
And then, the charge.
There was only one reason the battle was so anticlimactic.
Rumble, clack-clack-clack!
As they approached, the castle gate swung open with the sound of spinning pulleys. The rain of arrows shot from the watchtowers and the galleries atop the walls became meaningless once they pressed themselves tightly against the gate. By sticking to the wall, they escaped the range of fire.
"Why is this opening?" Rem muttered.
Encrid was also puzzled. A portion of the troops split to the left and right of the gate. The 1st Company Commander, who followed behind, spoke to Encrid.
"It's the Battalion Commander's magic."
This did indeed seem like magic. Encrid could also roughly guess the reason.
He planted spies.
And not just any spies, but those with enough influence to open the castle gates had been placed inside Martai. It was a clever trick.
No, it didn't end there. As Encrid stepped through the castle gate, he gained a brief realization.
He had learned from the swords of his allies and the swords of his enemies, but there was also something to be learned from Marcus's strategy. A brief but thrilling bolt of lightning struck his mind.