Silver Bullet (1)
The streets of Koyard, soaked in sunlight, were alive and bustling, as if they knew nothing of the slaughter that had taken place beneath the ground the night before.
Raul walked them in silence.
What he was looking for were traces of miasma other than the spider's.
This was the village where one of the Abyss Archduke's followers, the ones known as Exceed, had been staying.
He couldn't simply assume that the spider was the only one tied to them.
So Raul circled all of Koyard from the east and did not stop until the sun had climbed high overhead.
Six in all.
Besides the spider, they had planted a general store and even a little errand service. They really had spread themselves around.
Raul checked the six marks on the map one more time, then snapped the notebook shut and tucked it into his coat.
"Huuuu."
Since yesterday morning, he had gone more than thirty hours without resting.
That he still had no shadows under his eyes, of course, was thanks to the power of abundance, but something else surprised him even more.
No fatigue at all.
It was more than just feeling light on his feet or brimming with energy. Even after staying active for so long, his mind was clear and perfectly sharp.
The cause of that dramatic change was not hard to guess.
Five percent higher divine power from the Sun King's set bonus...
Just as mana mattered most to a mage and strength to a knight, divine power mattered most to Raul, the very founder of the priesthood. So the increase there was far more noticeable to him than any other stat.
If a mere 5 percent changes things this much...
How big a difference would there be if the foundation itself rose by twenty points?
The quest had only just begun, but Raul was already moving with a faint thrill in his step.
And the place he was heading, naturally, was the Adventurer Guild.
Jingle-jingle.
When he opened the wooden door, ornate even from the handle upward, the doorbell announced his arrival.
The Adventurer Guild's atmosphere, in truth, wasn't all that different from a mercenary tavern at first glance.
Silent gazes followed him.
But adventurers, unlike mercenaries, did not fling reckless insults at strangers.
Being able to talk at all—that was what people meant when they said this world was still, in some small way, civilized.
Raul headed straight for the reception desk to get to the point as quickly as possible.
"How can I help you?"
A receptionist with navy hair greeted him.
Raul took his identity token from inside his coat and said, "I'm here to arrange a meeting with the branch chief."
"A meeeting? With our branch chief?"
"Yes."
"As you probably know, our branch chief isn't someone you can just meet because a newcomer walked in and asked for it."
The receptionist looked at Raul as though he were some impossible customer making a ridiculous complaint.
"If you insist, you'll need to spend at least a week taking on Koyard's requests..."
She stopped.
Because the identity token Raul had taken out of his coat caught her eye, and she froze like a wind-up doll with its spring gone slack.
Then she opened her eyes wide and said in a trembling voice, "S-Silver Bullet?"
At the same time, exclamations of shock broke out from the adventurers watching him.
"What?"
"Silver Bullet?!"
"No way."
"The rumor was true?"
Under the astonished gazes of most of the room and the openly excited looks of a few others, Raul rested an arm on the counter and lowered his voice.
"Please tell Whirlwind that Raul of Silver Bullet is requesting an audience."
"Y-Yes! Right away!"
The navy-haired receptionist flushed, then sprang to her feet and ran up to the guild's second floor.
Silver Bullet.
Since there was now a reason he had to meet Celia anyway, Raul saw no need to hide a name with real reputation behind it.
"Y-you can go up right away!"
Then the receptionist leaned out from the stair landing and called for him.
As expected, it was a free pass.
Whirlwind.
In all of Exeria, very few people did not know that epithet.
Roughly two hundred years ago, he had been one of the ten strongest people on the continent, holding the lowest seat among the 10 Great Powers.
How could a lawless place like these Koyard Plains have become a proper village, and how could order have been maintained there at all?
It was all possible because of one absolute powerhouse who accepted hunters of every kind without discrimination. It was possible because Whirlwind was here.
Knock, knock.
Raul had barely raised his hand to knock when the answer came at once.
"Come in."
When he opened the door at the voice, edged with the slightest metallic rasp, he found an old man seated with his arms resting on a broad table.
The elf pricked up his long ears and regarded Raul with eyes that held all the calm of hard-earned experience.
"Well now. Never thought I'd live long enough to meet the legendary adventurer once known as the Eastern Supernova. Silver Bullet."
Whirlwind smiled without the least bit of ceremony, and he seemed genuinely delighted.
"I'm the one honored to meet you, Whirlwind."
At that, Whirlwind waved a hand dismissively.
"Nonsense. Compared to this worn-out old man in his back room, a young fellow like you, one who'll lead the future, is the more noble of the two. To meet you in winter like this—I'm truly glad you came by."
"You're too kind."
"Hohoho. So, you said you had something to discuss with me?"
"Yes."
Apparently pleased by Raul's spirited answer, Whirlwind gave a small smile and moved his wrinkled hand.
The warm tea inside the pot rose into the air on a current of wind.
Then, with a sweep of the old man's fingers like a conductor guiding an orchestra, the tea poured neatly into the cup without spilling a single drop, and the cup was gently placed before Raul.
This was neither magic nor the spirit arts favored by elves.
Whirlwind's class was archer.
The invisible, colorless energy that moved the teapot and cup was nothing less than aura.
"...That's an insanely precise use of aura."
"This old man still has some use in him, then? Hoho. Drink up first. You look like you've come a long way, and even a moment of leisure matters."
Elves, they said, became more like living spirits than living people once they passed five hundred and neared the day of death. The man before him, Whirlwind, seemed to be exactly that sort of being.
"Thank you."
Raul raised the steaming tea to his lips.
The moment it touched his mouth, a rich floral fragrance filled his senses, and the sweetness of honey wrapped artfully around the tip of his tongue.
It was truly excellent tea.
Raul's expression relaxed a little as he spoke.
"I'd like the whereabouts of Dirk, the master lockpicker and cryptography expert."
A direct question, almost blunt enough to be rude.
Yet Whirlwind's face didn't change.
"That fellow?"
"I found a coded document so nasty that an ordinary expert wouldn't have had a prayer of cracking it."
"So you came to the guild to have it deciphered?"
"Yes."
Raul nodded without hesitation even as he watched Whirlwind's smile fade.
It might have seemed impertinent, an arrogant demand made so openly, but Raul knew very well what kind of man Whirlwind was.
And, as Raul expected, his guess was dead on.
"Hahaha! That's right. An adventurer with that much spirit ought to be this bold."
Whirlwind's expression, which had gone plain, suddenly bloomed into a broad grin, and he let out a hearty laugh.
He couldn't help it.
He had already declared his retirement and gone into seclusion more than a century ago, but beneath that, he was still an elf who had once been mad for battle, just as the name Whirlwind suggested.
The gentle manner he wore now was a kind of persona. Even now, he was still an elf starved for combat.
Raul intended to use every scrap of information only someone who had played Devil Hunter of Exeria could know and push this quest forward in one clean stroke.
"As expected of the legendary Silver Bullet. It reminds me of my younger days."
"You're too kind, elder."
"No, no. Enough with the pleasantries. After being treated like a senior for so many centuries, a friend like you is refreshing. Hohoho."
After revealing that simple, unadorned honesty, Whirlwind let out another round of laughter, then suddenly widened his luminous emerald eyes and said,
"So. If an adventurer asks another adventurer for something, that means you have something I don't, doesn't it?"
"Of course."
"Then tell me. I'll judge for myself whether the information is worth trading for my friend Dirk's whereabouts."
At the long-awaited cue from Whirlwind, Raul promptly took a notebook from inside his coat.
"Here."
It was the map he had drawn himself this morning after circling all of Koyard.
"That?"
"I found demons underground. Parasites. And the one that had grown into a special specimen was the spider queen."
"So the little ruckus last night was your doing after all?"
"Surely you're not going to pretend you didn't know those monsters were there. In the distant past, weren't you the hunter who cooperated with those vile demon slayers and butchered demons by the thousands?"
As if telling him not to play dumb, Raul spoke sharply. Whirlwind's brow twitched once, and then he answered.
"...I won't deny it. I was well aware of the things playing house underground."
"Maybe it was child’s play to you, but for ordinary residents of Exeria, that demon legion is a calamity."
"Well, yes."
That was all Whirlwind said.
If another priest had been sitting here instead of Raul, they would have exploded in fury. They would have shouted that a man who had built and maintained this village with his own hands had no right to sound so irresponsible.
But Raul understood.
The battle-crazed elf in front of him only wanted an enemy he could truly cross blades with, even if it took this much to lure one out.
Whirlwind of Legolai was that sort of elf.
According to the setting, he would live exactly that way until the day he died.
Which meant persuading him was not difficult at all.
Raul spoke with utter confidence.
"The places marked on that notebook map are the nests of the demons and demon contractors stationed in Koyard."
"So you're telling me you want to prevent them from moving before that happens?"
Though this would clearly benefit Koyard, Whirlwind looked distinctly disappointed.
But Raul simply continued with the words he had prepared.
"The opposite, elder."
"...The opposite?"
Only then did Whirlwind's emerald eyes brighten with renewed interest.
So the old geezer really was insane.
"Last night, I killed one of the officers in the secret organization called Exceed. Their scale is far greater than I first thought, and another officer will definitely notice his absence."
"Oh? And then?"
"If you keep watching those six nests that served the spider queen, you're certain to meet one. Another Exceed officer, come to confirm the queen's death."
An officer of Exceed.
At that, a faint smile finally appeared on Whirlwind's lips.
Raul was certain the trade had been sealed, and he said in a calm, measured voice,
"The information I'm offering you is the whereabouts of one Exceed officer."
He lived his remaining years only for battles with the strong, yet the old elf could not leave the western region because of a covenant with the church of Repentance.
Was there likely to be a bigger event in Whirlwind's remaining life than this?
More than that, it was good for Raul too.
If Whirlwind moved here, Raul could eliminate one of the Exceed officers—the very target of the quest—without lifting a finger.
"What will you do?"
Raul smiled faintly and watched Whirlwind, whose mouth had already curved into a knowing arc as well.
The result was exactly as expected.
"So it really was Fateal, huh..."
Lying on the bed in the inn room, Raul let out a sigh that drifted into the air like a plume of pale mist.
Now that he thought about it, from Jade, the drunkard Jet's father, to Dirk the lockpicker—both of them were in Fateal.
And though he couldn't be certain, one of the visions of the officer he had seen in the spider queen's chamber had looked, at first glance, as though it stood in a place much like Fateal...
This...
Whether I like it or not, something's going to happen.
When important NPCs and villains gathered in the same village at the same time in Devil Hunter of Exeria, it was a kind of omen.
Whether good or bad, it was the sign of an event about to break loose and disaster about to follow.
Hmph.
Even though he was heading toward that headache of a disaster, Raul's mouth curved with perfect calm.
Because he had Celia.
There was no doubt that this meeting between Whirlwind and Raul would reach her ears.
And once she heard the name Silver Bullet, there was no way she wouldn't come to Fateal.
Something would surely happen there.
But Raul planned to stand at the center of that chaos, take only what he needed, and vanish before anyone could grab his sleeve.
He intended to dump the cleanup on her and the Holy Knights anyway.
As always.
Snick. Raul let out a laugh with no real meaning behind it and immediately got to his feet.
Once the plan was set, there was no reason to delay.
"Hah."
He slung the large backpack onto his shoulder with ease and blew out the room's last candle.
It was deep night, with the silence of the dark settling over the streets and the stillness of midnight wrapped around everything.
Walking through the city washed in gray-white moonlight, Raul scaled a tall wall in one breath, straight up.
Under the sparsely spaced streetlamps and the pale moonlight, pure white snowflakes drifted down on the wind.
"The first snow."
Thanks to it, the air was cold, but in a strangely gentle way.
He set off at once on the road.
Clop-clop!
With the heavy beat of hooves striking the ground, the man holding the reins bit down hard.
"Just a little longer, just a little longer, please hold on!"
As if praying, he shouted the words again and again to the woman cradled in his arms.
But the woman in his embrace was already deathly pale.
"Just a little farther and we'll reach Fateal. If we can only get to Fateal, there'll be priests, there'll be healers..."
The man searched for the road with bloodshot eyes, trying to guide them forward.
But heaven itself was merciless. The blizzard was falling so hard that every marker along the mountain road had been buried under the snow.
Swish—!
And as if things weren't bad enough, a black dagger that flew in at just that moment pierced the hind leg of the prized horse, a mount strong enough to endure the trails of Tetra Mountain.
Neighhh!
With a scream that was almost a human shriek, the horse pitched forward.
The man, drained of strength, still curled around the woman in his arms to protect her, but...
"Ghk!"
The impact was so violent that his vision spun.
He couldn't hold back the coppery blood rising into his mouth, and he collapsed where he stood, vomiting it out into the snow.
"B-bleurgh!"
In the meantime, dozens of silhouettes came toward them across Tetra Mountain, buried under pure white snow.
"Hey, Walter. Tag's over."
One of them stepped beside the man still trembling and vomiting blood, Walter.
Walter reflexively tightened his hold on the woman and lifted a hand.
Fwoosh, whoooosh!
Flames of incredible heat bloomed from his fingertips.
But—
"Cut the crap!"
A sharp flash from one of the assassins pierced his hand.
"Aaaagh!"
The flames vanished without a trace, and a dozen or so assassins closed in around him.
"Enough with the struggling. Hand over the princess quietly, Walter. You know damn well we have to take Her Highness alive."
"You goddamn bastards! You still call yourselves the kingdom's sword after this? You think I don't know you're planning to turn Her Highness into a shell with nothing left inside?"
Even while coughing blood, even though he could no longer gather mana, Walter, the palace mage, roared like a lion.
"Jesus, that scared the hell out of me."
"Then I guess there's no helping it. We'll just have to kill you."
"As expected of the genius from the magic tower, Walter. You're taking this all the way to the end, artistically."
"Does that matter to a dead man?"
"Puhahaha! Like hell it does."
Even so, the assassins only sneered, each spitting out his own filthy taunt and contempt.
Walter took in every one of those sewage-like insults and still clutched the princess's shoulder tightly, curling his body even more protectively around her.
The blade, shining even paler in the moonlight, seemed ready to deliver the palace mage his end.
Shhk—
But the terrifying sound of flesh being ripped apart did not come from there.
It came much farther back.
"Wh-who's there?"
"Who the hell is that?"
"K-kill him! Move, you idiots, fight already!"
Suddenly, screams and the clash of steel rang out.
But they did not last long.
[ ᚥ ᚨ ᚸ ᚡ ᚯ ]
A line of mysterious letters was written across the sky.
In an instant, they transformed into a blazing serpent of fire, then swept down over the ground.
Fwoooosh!
An overwhelming blaze of unimaginable size wiped out the snow in the area at once and literally scoured the earth clean.
Before long, a man had carved through the throat of the knight who had led the assassins and was walking forward.
Raul stopped in front of Walter and asked, "You were saying something about a princess just now. What's going on?"
Walter tried to say something to Raul, but at that moment his vision went black.
Thud.
Looking at the unconscious palace mage and the woman still held in his arms, Raul muttered quietly, "What in the world is this now?"