How a Wizard Survives (32)
How a Wizard Survives (32)
While the Heretic Inquisitors scrambled after the night raid, I belatedly started worrying about something else.
'What if it doesn't fit?'
It'd be pretty ridiculous to go through all that trouble picking a Holy Relic only to find out it's the wrong size.
Fortunately, the one I'd chosen fit my foot perfectly.
It seemed to be a standard size.
"You're going with that one?"
"Yes. I'll head out first!"
I kicked the closed door open and hurled myself toward the opposite door.
Arrows and magic poured toward the first door I'd opened.
They were firing blind, which told me these enemies weren't that skilled.
That did not mean I could let my guard down.
The enemy had already encircled the inn.
Even a rabble could fight calmly from a fortified position.
An arrow doesn't hurt any less just because a halfwit looses it.
'Here I go.'
I focused and activated the Holy Relic.
What I'd chosen was none other than the Spider Boots.
A shoe-type Holy Relic imbued with Gravity Magic.
I'd been tempted by the other options, but...
I could handle offense and defense with an Adamantite sword.
But supplementing my mobility was a different matter entirely.
Fwoosh!
Just before I burst out of the inn, I kicked off the floor hard and my body shot forward like an arrow.
The sensation was similar to when I'd used Gravity Magic directly.
I could put this to good use.
Most of the arrows and spells aimed at me belatedly went wide.
Having slipped into the enemy lines with ease, I swung my Adamantite sword.
Shnick!
"Agh, you bastard..."
"They're using Holy Relics!"
"You should've figured that out when they put out the fire earlier!"
Their skill was so pathetic I couldn't resist giving tactical advice as I threw myself fully into the fight.
The enemy, surprisingly unfazed, launched ranged attacks methodically.
They had received some kind of training.
"That's the Adamantite brat!"
"Don't fire directly at him! It won't work anyway!"
The mages, aware their magic wouldn't penetrate, resorted to indirect attacks.
One Earth Mage in particular kept flipping the ground under my feet, which was a real nuisance.
Against a swordsman like me, it was practically a cheat.
But things were a little different now.
I used the Spider Boots to leap from tree to tree.
With the woods right next to the inn, I had more than enough footholds.
'Ah, it's so refreshing to use magic openly.'
I don't know how I managed to live without this, honestly. It was suffocating.
I closed in on the Earth Mage first, then drew up my mana without hesitation.
There was something I wanted to try out quickly while the other Inquisitors' eyes weren't on me.
'Ultimate Mimicry!'
I pushed my heart rate to its final stage in one breath and triggered Ulysses's technique.
The moment my hand touched the target, his mana distorted violently.
But the result was failure.
The contact was too brief, and my timing was premature.
"Huh? What's this bastard..."
Crunch!
I clicked my tongue softly and crushed his head.
This was the first time I'd failed to copy a spell after seeing it used once.
And I'd even managed magic I'd never seen at all without much trouble...
When it came to my teacher's ultimate technique, it really was on another level of difficulty.
"Jaeger!"
As I was fighting hard in the thick of the enemy, Katrina, the Holy Knights, and even the Einhold Family mages joined in.
The Holy Relic Katrina had chosen was the Silver Blade.
An S-rank greatsword enchanted with Enhancement Magic.
It looked large and heavy for her, but its strength-enhancing effect should compensate.
Looking again, the pure white blade suited her remarkably well.
Whap!
While I was busy swinging my sword through the enemy ranks, I stretched out my leg and kicked a mage in the side.
The kick, laced with Gravity Magic, caved in his side with a sickening crunch.
Truthfully, I'd added my own magic to that one.
"Whoa, what the..."
"That Jaeger bastard. He's practically flying around now."
"You're already using it like that?"
'As expected, they can't tell.'
The Inquisitors and even the Einhold Family clearly didn't notice a thing.
I cheered inwardly and finished off the fight.
The second reason I'd chosen the Spider Boots:
By choosing them, I could slip in my Gravity Magic during combat.
Any other Inquisitor watching would just assume it was the relic's effect.
No matter how I looked at it, this had been the right choice.
"You bastards, is that it already!"
"For a night raid, it wasn't much."
"There were originally far more of them, but they fled. Reinforcements might be coming, so we should withdraw immediately."
"Right. Everyone mount up and move out!"
By great fortune, the stables were relatively unscathed.
We hurriedly retrieved the horses and left the inn behind.
The innkeeper and his son, who'd been shivering inside the building, came with us.
We rode hard without pause and only rested once the sun was high in the sky.
My body and mind were still exhausted, but there was no helping it.
"Ah, good heavens... my inn!"
"If you go back now, the heretics will kill you. We'll help you settle in Reshutal, so let it go."
"Tch... Th-thank you, Sir."
While Katrina was busy persuading the innkeeper, Angelica approached me with a strangely smug expression.
Her gaze was fixed on the Spider Boots.
"So you were jealous of Einhold Gravity Magic after all? To just snatch it up like that."
"Ah, Angelica..."
Whether her relatives had warned her or not, I chuckled at how much warmer and more natural her tone had become.
"Are you not using formal speech anymore?"
"Ah, oh... No. That's not what I..."
"I'd prefer if you kept talking like that, honestly. Casual speech is more familiar and easier on the ears."
"I-is that so? Well, suits me fine then. Understood! If you say it's all right?"
"...Everyone, pick up the pace. Reshutal is right ahead!"
Katrina, who had been staring this way, urged everyone on.
There didn't seem to be any pursuit, but no Inquisitor was returning their Holy Relic to the supply cart either.
Now that we'd actually used them, the relics were simply too convenient and satisfying to give up.
How long had we ridden?
The guards protecting Reshutal were horrified when they saw us, covered in blood as we were.
Even so, we couldn't just ride through looking like that, so Katrina began explaining the general situation.
I spotted a group of men gathered in the middle of the square.
They looked mostly like the poor, and most of their faces were ashen.
I'd only been away for ten days or so, but it was clear something had happened in that time.
"Who are those people?"
"Conscripts being sent to the Front Lines. This year was supposed to be skipped originally, but the war situation has gotten much worse, they say..."
"I see."
Were they really sending them up without even proper arms?
Well, if they gave them weapons, they might desert before they even arrived.
If I hadn't met Ulysses, I'd probably be stuck among them.
'There's no way the guys from my hometown are in there, right?'
Not that it mattered if they were.
They wouldn't recognize me anyway.
Thanks to Ulysses feeding me well and raising me properly, I looked nothing like I had back then.
As I mourned those poor souls, the city gate captain raised an objection from an unexpected quarter.
"Uh, Inquisitor. It looks to me like that young fellow there is also eligible for conscription..."
"What?"
The gate captain was pointing at none other than the innkeeper's son.
The father and son, who'd thought they'd barely escaped with their lives, protested desperately with tears in their eyes.
"Th-this lad has only just turned fourteen!"
"Now, now, there's a limit to how much you can lie."
"Looking at that weathered face, he's clearly past twenty. Get over there, now!"
"Hold on. These people have just arrived in Reshutal. He'll need to help his father at least until the man gets settled."
When Katrina defended them, the gate captain's expression grew troubled.
"B-but..."
"What? But?"
"Wh-at? B-ut? This bastard, talking back? Are you a heretic?"
The moment he opened his mouth, the Holy Knights to either side scowled fiercely and took a step forward.
Heretic Inquisitors are powerful even against mages, but when dealing with powerless citizens, they become even stronger.
They clearly couldn't tolerate a mere gate captain defying their superior.
'Total thugs... but at times like this, they're very reassuring.'
The gate captain waved his hands frantically and spoke, sounding wronged.
"No! But the Front Lines are short on manpower, so we've been ordered to conscript as many as possible... Even if he isn't conscripted now, he'll be conscripted next year."
"If manpower is that short, then you should go first. Don't you think?"
"How much longer do you plan on blocking the road? Move aside, now!"
The Holy Knights eventually bullied the guards into clearing the path.
I snickered along with the other Inquisitors.
"Wow, you all just looked like absolute paragons of justice."
"Well, we are pretty just originally."
"Blocking the road when we're dead tired. Should we string him up later?"
The innkeeper and his son ultimately found work at the temple through Katrina's introduction.
We parted ways with the two of them, who bowed their heads repeatedly, and finally returned to the Inquisition branch.
All Holy Relics, including the Winter Fragment, had been safely escorted.
Reinhardt, who had come out to the training yard personally to verify the relics, gave a satisfied nod.
"Well done, no mistakes. You all only took one each, I trust?"
"That's correct."
"Good. Go to Wikia and formally register the Holy Relic you chose."
The personnel who took part in this escort were among the finest elites in the Inquisition branch.
Thanks to that, possession of the Holy Relics was approved surprisingly easily.
Reinhardt glanced at my boots and smirked, then picked up the Winter Fragment without hesitation.
"I'll take this one."
'He's managing it personally after all... I'm sorry, Teacher.'
This meant stealing the Winter Fragment had become difficult.
When we moved to the archives to register the relics, Wikia showed a faint smile as if to say we'd chosen well.
Having been away on assignment for over ten days, we were given a whole two days' leave this time... or so they said, but since we'd marched all through the night, I wasn't particularly grateful.
To put it bluntly, they only let us rest just enough to barely catch our breath.
'The pay's good, but the work is brutal... Should I have broken a bone somewhere?'
Still, I endured it for Katrina's sake.
What if she got hurt while I was away?
After escorting her to her quarters, I went back to the smithy and went straight to bed.
The next morning, Ulysses, who'd only just received a proper report, shrugged and stoked the fire in the forge.
"You did well. No need to push yourself unnecessarily. Still, the war situation on the Front Lines worsening is worrying."
"Still, they'll manage to hold out, won't they? The war with the demons isn't a one-or-two-day affair..."
"No. That place gets breached fairly often. And when it's breached, they pour in troops indefinitely until it's retaken."
"Th-then, what if they can't retake it?"
"Then humanity is finished. Now do you see why your teacher here acts the way he does?"
I was stunned.
Humanity was fighting far more haphazardly than I'd ever imagined.
After we finished our pleasant breakfast, I decided to go out for a walk for the first time in a while.
After more than ten days away, I had even begun to miss Reshutal's uniquely filthy air.
Besides, it's not good to let your body stiffen up during rest.
As I made my rounds along the market streets, I spotted Angelica in familiar attire at one side of the square.
Other members of the Einhold Family were lined up as well; it looked like they were waiting for someone.
'What's this?'
"Hm? Jaeger! What brings you here?"
"I was just loosening up... But what brings the Einholds here?"
Angelica greeted me so warmly it was almost embarrassing.
Pretending not to notice her relatives snickering to themselves, I asked carefully.
It did not seem particularly secret, because an answer came readily.
"One of the Eight Swords is coming to escort the new conscripts today."
"Escort? Ah..."
She meant the soldiers heading to the Front Lines.
The faces of the men lined up in the square were the color of dirt.
They were ostensibly on their way to protect humanity.
But since the conscription centered on criminals and the poor, there was hardly anyone there to see them off.
I decided to watch and loitered nearby; before long, a carriage appeared.
Angelica's relative, who was said to be one of the Eight Swords, was a fairly young man.
He couldn't have been more than ten years older than me, by the look of it.
Apart from that, his eyes were utterly lifeless.
The eyeballs on the fish sold down at the docks had more life in them than that.
"Uncle Luft. It's good to see you."
"Ah, right. Thank you all for your efforts."
Barely acknowledging the relatives who'd come to greet him, the member of the Eight Swords moved toward the conscription officer.
Did he prioritize work over family?
Angelica, looking a little awkward, followed after him.
After speaking briefly with the officer, he headed toward the gathered conscripts and called out in a loud voice.
"About six days southeast of here, there's a nameless farming village! Are there any conscripts from that place!"
"Hmm?"
Angelica looked puzzled.
My heart nearly dropped.
The place he'd mentioned sounded eerily familiar.
'No way...'
"It's a small village, so there shouldn't be more than five conscripts from there this year. Does no one know anyone?"
Just as I was deeply shaken, the member of the Eight Swords delivered the finishing blow.
Thanks to that, my suspicion hardened into certainty.
That man was looking for me right now!
'What the hell, you dumped me in some backwater village way back when, and now...'
But... no matter how I looked at him, he didn't seem old enough to be my father?
I was puzzling over that when a thin arm slowly rose among the conscripts.
I watched it happen with my molars clamped tight.