12
Chapter 12 The Extermination Unit.
The Extermination Unit crossed the plains all day long. The dense forest that had begun to slowly appear on the left side around noon had crept right up to their noses by evening. The unit made camp at the entrance to the forest. Whether this was a shared campsite commonly used by merchant caravans or mercenary groups, a stone wall and a makeshift latrine of sorts had been set up, however roughly.
The workers, as soon as they arrived at the campsite, unloaded the luggage from the wagons and began preparing dinner. The mercenaries, too, tidied their sleeping spots or dug out latrine pits.
Court Mage Dunmer, accompanied by three mages and four knights, crossed a narrow stream and approached the path leading into the forest. The purpose was to check whether there were any suspicious signs nearby.
"For now, this area seems clean."
In a place with so many obstructions, fine mana detection was difficult, but detecting large life-forms such as monsters or demonic beasts was not particularly hard.
Having finished scouting the surrounding area, they returned to the campsite. The pot already had a fire going, and warm soup was bubbling away. The workers handed the mages and knight lords each a bowl of soup, half a loaf of bread, and a few thin slices of salted meat.
Yurik took his food and went to sit with the mercenary group that had ridden in the same wagon. They asked the handsome mage who had just returned from scouting whether he had found anything.
"No reaction from monsters or demonic beasts just yet. Well, who knows how the night might unfold."
"They probably won't come out this far."
"Even so, the enemy is a demonic beast. Don't expect common sense to apply… Have you ever imagined a monster clad in iron armor? Apparently there are plenty of those on the southern front."
The mercenaries were in full bloom trading stories of the demon tribes and demonic beasts on the southern front. Perhaps because they felt it had nothing to do with them, they were filled with curiosity and interest rather than fear or dread.
After a dinner that was neither too long nor too short, they prepared for sleep. Of course, with a forest teeming with monsters nearby, keeping a night watch was only natural.
The knights and mages were exempt from watch duty, and the mercenaries agreed to take turns standing guard in pairs.
Yurik settled in next to a buck-toothed female mercenary who had even packed down the ground for him to sleep beside her. However, he did not go to sleep right away, and instead read the compiled notes that Grand Witch Adrian had passed along to him. It had become a habit to read a page or two before bed.
Instead of turning on a mana orb, he caught a few fireflies from the stream and placed them in a jar to use as light. The starlight was generous enough anyway, so it was not particularly dark.
The sound of snoring. The sound of wind. The cries of animals.
The mage closed his book and looked up at the sky.
A shooting star streaked across it, trailing a long tail as it fell.
Having stared at the sky for a long while, Yurik put the book in his bag and slipped into his sleeping roll.
He closed his eyes inside the soft wool.
As expected, nothing eventful happened through the night. But whether it was due to the eerie energy drifting faintly out of the forest, everyone seemed to have had disturbing dreams.
People rose with exhaustion caked on their faces and tidied up around them. Yurik went to the stream and washed his face with cold water. The dawn forest, thick with hazy mist, was as if showing a cross-section of the afterlife.
After finishing an early breakfast and completing their packing, the unit climbed back into the wagons. Extermination Unit Commander Thomas did a final check to make sure no one had been left behind, then gave the signal to depart.
"Move out!"
The wagons crossed a wide arched stone bridge over the stream and headed into the forest. In truth, it was not an overstatement to say that from the moment they entered the forest, the extermination commission had begun in earnest.
The mist, spread thin by the brightening dawn, scattered rosy light like pastels. Yurik etched the sight into his mind. So that after the next commission was complete, he could capture this scene in a painting.
The thick mist crept away bit by bit. The sides of the forest road — just barely wide enough for two wagons to pass — were more still than lively. Even in the light of day, the forest felt oppressively yin in nature. If possible, it would be best to avoid such roads, but any other route still shared the common trait of having to cut through this forest.
"No matter when you pass through here, it never sits right. There's something strange about this forest."
"Oh ho, look who thinks they're a fortune teller. Why not just set up a stall."
Yurik spread his mana periodically to read the surrounding situation.
The enemy to watch out for most was, of course, a flying demonic beast. One never knew when it might come swooping in and slam into a wagon. Or it might lift one up entirely and drop it from a height.
In the past, Yurik had once been grabbed by a strange bird while training with Grand Witch Yelni and had fallen from a great height. Fortunately, he had escaped without major injury — it ended with one arm and one leg broken apiece.
— When attacked, they drop their prey immediately. If you're ever caught, don't hesitate — attack first.
Even if it was a demonic beast rather than an ordinary strange bird, its characteristics would likely not differ greatly.
The unit's wagons continued along the forest road until noon, with several short rests along the way. And then — they found something.
The lead wagon swung a red flag widely and gave the signal to halt. The line of wagons slowed and then stopped.
Didn't we just rest?— the mercenaries thought, poking their heads outside, only to find that the middle of the forest road had been turned into an absolute wreck.
The unit got down from the wagons and approached the scene of the incident slowly, maintaining strict vigilance all around. Anyone could see it had been a raid.
"No survivors!"
The mercenaries and knights searched every corner, but not so much as the corpse of the horses that had pulled the wagons and carts could be found, let alone any people. The demonic beast had likely devoured them all — or if any had barely survived, the monsters living in the forest would have taken them.
Judging by the wagons and carts, the size of the group that had been crossing the forest road seemed not to have been very large. Six or seven at most. They might have been able to fend off a monster, but that was nowhere near enough to deal with a flying demonic beast.
"The casualties keep mounting."
"It seems we must deal with it swiftly."
Still, at least it had become certain that the demonic beast was somewhere in this vicinity.
However, if there were too many of them, the demonic beast might not show itself. And so the unit commander planned to order some of the personnel to hide inside the wagons once the hour arrived when the demonic beast was known to be active.
"First, clear the wreckage!"
The unit moved to the chaotic scene and cleared the debris. Several mercenaries combed carefully through the wreckage, checking in case there were any valuables to be found.
Of course, mercenaries also tended to be superstitious, and there were many who would not touch the belongings of the dead for fear of being cursed.
"Touch a dead bastard's stuff, and you'll be joining them in the afterlife, you idiot."
"Me, I'm gonna eat well and then die."
The unit commander saw no particular need to interfere with even that. It was not as if he had only just learned the ways of mercenaries, and after all, these were ownerless belongings by now…
The unit, having cleared the road of debris, soon set off again. They arrived at a clearing that had been laid out quite spaciously in the middle of the forest road.
There was, of course, no small amount of the same sort of wreckage here as well. Some of it was very old, and some of it was comparatively recent. It was the trace of groups that had been annihilated by monster attacks long before this, not just demonic beasts. It was gathered in one corner, like a massive communal graveyard.
"We wait here."
The wider space seemed like it would be more manageable for dealing with a demonic beast than the narrow forest road.
Unit Commander Thomas moved here and there, issuing instructions meticulously. There was a very high likelihood that the demonic beast would appear this very night, so every precaution had to be taken.
He told Court Mage Dunmer, who had returned from scouting the surroundings, to please handle things well should the demonic beast appear.
"Heh heh, that young man over there is more important than I am."
Dunmer tilted his chin toward Yurik, who was sitting calmly at rest among the mercenaries in the distance.
"…That fellow, you mean?"
Thomas asked back with a look of confusion, and Dunmer stroked his beard and spoke in a tone full of conviction.
"He outranks me. He is no ordinary person."
The other two mages had not noticed, but Dunmer — who was quite well regarded even within the Magic Tower — had immediately recognized Yurik's strength.
Anyone who had studied Mana Circuit Theory in depth could not fail to see just how extraordinary the flow of mana coursing through his entire body truly was.
'The circulating mana is being refined at every moment. …The depth of understanding and mastery of the circuit is absurdly beyond measure.'
The first time Dunmer had laid eyes on him, he had found it difficult to believe what he was seeing. At a glance, it looked simply as though mana was circulating — but this was no mere simple flow. It was moving along a circuit so fine and long that it was invisible to the naked eye.
Of course, if forced to do it deliberately, it was not impossible — but maintaining this uninterrupted circuit running every single moment was, even for someone like him, out of the question. …Just what kind of training had he undergone, that he was able to do something in practice that existed only in theory?
'I don't know who his teacher is, but they've taken a monster and taught them monstrous methods.'
At first, he had been deeply astonished, wondering if the skills of the Magic Tower mages had risen this high during his time away in the provinces — but no matter how he looked at it, this could only be explained as the achievement of an individual, not a collective.
'Where on earth did a person like this fall from….'
If someone this monstrous existed, word would already have spread across the continent and naturally reached Dunmer's ears. Yet he had never heard of such a talent in recent times.
"…It seems he is a more outstanding talent than he appears."
The court mage had no intention of forcing his opinion on the unit commander, who was not quick to believe him.
In any case, it would reveal itself naturally in the coming battle against the demonic beast.