How a Wizard Survives (70)
It was a dark night.
I had never been on a ship before in my life, and I could barely contain my excitement.
The vessel we were boarding was one of the largest sailing ships in Reshutal Harbor—and a warship, at that.
Thanks to several recent events, our standing with the Reshutal royal family had improved considerably.
"Welcome aboard, Inquisitors."
"We appreciate the hospitality, Captain."
The moment we boarded, we headed below deck.
I would have liked to look around a bit more, but since we were sailing at night, there wasn't much choice. They'd said we could come back up once we reached the open sea.
"A sudden deployment to Kshanti..."
"Everyone, stick close to Sir Jaeger."
Unlike me, buzzing with excitement, the other Inquisitors looked deeply uneasy.
And with good reason.
City-based Inquisitors enjoy a decent working environment but suffer from chronic manpower shortages, so being dispatched as reinforcements like this is rare.
Being sent out meant the situation was that serious.
Then Katrina announced the objective of our operation, and despair swept through them all.
"We will cooperate with local Inquisitors to apprehend the Time Mage, Molan."
"Wait, why is that bastard still alive?"
"We're screwed."
While they grumbled, the ship cast off.
The neighboring kingdoms were supposedly just a short boat ride away.
Once the captain gave permission, I went up on deck.
I had worried about seasickness, but felt no trace of it so far.
As I stood beside Katrina, looking out at the sea, I quietly took her hand.
It was honestly too dark to see much, but the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves were more than satisfying.
Katrina flinched, and Shui popped her head out of my pocket.
"So this is the sea... it's a similar color to the Glass Sword."
"I'm so glad I followed you, Master."
"We'll get to see other kingdoms soon, too," I added.
At that, Katrina looked oddly guilty and gave me a quiet warning.
"Ah, Jaeger. You probably shouldn't get your hopes up too high..."
"What? Why?"
"..."
Unable to bring herself to say more, Katrina turned her hand over and laced her fingers with mine.
Having spent a long time with her, I could guess the reason easily enough.
Katrina wasn't one to speak ill of others.
I would see for myself soon enough.
With that thought, I headed back down to the cabin.
The ship sailed for two full days and nights before reaching Kshanti.
The city looked far more barren than I had expected.
On the distant coastal cliffs, there was hardly a trace of green vegetation.
"Hmm?"
As I began to sense something wrong, a crowd surged onto the pier.
I thought maybe the local Inquisitors had come out to greet us...
But the crowd scattered as quickly as it had gathered once they saw who we were.
The ones I glimpsed looked severely starved.
"Something's not right."
"If we'd been on a merchant ship, they might have tried to pillage us..."
"It was a good call to come on a warship."
We parted from the captain, disembarked, and set out for the Inquisition Branch.
Kshanti was a deeply ravaged city.
Garbage lay strewn across the streets as if it were pavement, and a stench hung in the air no matter the time of day.
Everywhere we went, sullen eyes glared at us from the shadows.
If we hadn't been Inquisitors, we would have been attacked long ago.
"The city planning is incredibly strange. Who puts a dock right next to a slum?"
"Sir Jaeger, this isn't the slum."
"Excuse me?"
Had some kind of war broken out here?
When we reached the square, the city's condition became clear.
A plaza that should have been wide and clean was buried under all manner of refuse and piles of corpses.
Rats as big as a man's fist strutted openly through the square, not even flinching when people approached.
The whole city reeked of poverty.
The long war against the demons had created this devastation.
'This... is a city? Reshutal was really well-off, then.'
"It's so fascinating that people still live in a place like this!"
Shui chattered excitedly from my pocket before my finger poked her into silence.
With some difficulty, we located the temple and the Inquisition Branch.
The temple, situated on a prime spot of high ground in the city, had been fortified with barricades.
Pitch-black smoke rose from inside—an ominous sign.
"Who goes there!"
"Brothers and sisters! We are from the Reshutal Inquisition Branch!"
"...Come in, quickly."
A gaunt guard hurriedly let us inside.
The temple interior wasn't much better.
Sick and destitute people groaned everywhere.
Even those who looked like nobles lay dying among them.
"What on earth... Is there a plague spreading in Kshanti?"
"If poverty is a plague, then yes, it's a plague. But that's not the only cause."
A Holy Knight who had rushed out to meet us greeted us and answered.
I suspected someone from the Wizardvein family held command here as well...
Sure enough, a silver-haired woman soon appeared.
She shared Katrina's dignified air but looked frailer and stood slightly taller.
"Aunt Petra."
"Welcome, Katrina. I am sorry to drag you here in such difficult times."
"Not at all. It's a fellow Inquisitor's duty to help."
I bowed along with Katrina, and to my surprise, she recognized me.
"Could it be that this gentleman is..."
"Yes, this is Sir Jaeger of Reshutal."
"Ohh, from the Adamantite Mine?"
"This is a relief. Things will get easier now."
The unexpected cheer came from the line of Holy Knights behind her.
They had already been issued adamantite weapons...
But their armor was in poor condition, and they bore wounds of all sizes.
Katrina noticed at once. "Have you already engaged Molan?"
"I don't know if I'd call it an engagement... We were ambushed."
"Ambushed? He attacked you first?"
Katrina's shock was understandable.
For a heretic mage like Molan to go after Inquisitors first...
He was clearly determined to cause serious trouble here.
"That is dangerous. Do we know his location? My unit is ready to deploy."
"You must all be exhausted from the journey; some rest would be... Finding him is not difficult."
"Then we'll rest until evening."
At Katrina's statement, the unit members breathed a sigh of relief.
I would have loved to get help from the city guard before facing him, but judging by the state of this city, it was best not to expect any.
While I was stretching my legs and looking around the branch office, I got the chance to talk with the local Inquisitors.
"What's with all these barricades?"
"Thieves have been multiplying lately. Not long ago, a priest who went out was even attacked."
"That's terrible..."
"By the way, Sir Jaeger, are the rumors about you true?"
"I haven't exactly heard what the rumors about me are... but let's just say they're probably close enough."
I tried not to sound too smug as I waited for nightfall with everyone else.
The Kshanti Inquisition Branch didn't seem like a nice place to work, but they said even this was paradise compared to the Front Lines.
Most city Inquisitors are recruited from the local population.
"This city was better when I was a child... but the war with the demons has dragged on too long."
"And we can't just go to the Front Lines."
"I heard they actually work two shifts over there."
"That 'two-shift' system means you just rest in a nearby village. And if you're summoned, you have to run right back in."
Many of Kshanti's Inquisitors had served at the Front Lines.
It looked like they ran some kind of rotation.
We ate lightly while waiting for night, then deployed under cover of darkness.
A bit underhanded, but our opponent was not to be taken lightly, so we had no choice.
I had skipped dinner, so my body felt reasonably light as I crossed the city.
It hadn't been all that noisy even in the daytime, but the night in Kshanti was eerily silent.
Only the occasional terrible scream or moan broke the quiet.
Whether fortune or misfortune, finding Molan was very easy.
Even the poor, who had nothing to lose and nothing to fear, were quietly steering clear of the Time Mage.
The bastard was, unbelievably, camped right in the middle of a ruined street.
It was the only building nearby with its lights on.
"How brazen. He must think he's safe after landing one hit on us earlier," Petra said.
"Aunt Petra. May I use the Reshutal Inquisition Branch's tactics here?"
"Of course. Our own forces are in poor condition at the moment... so I leave it to you."
Petra readily handed over command to Katrina.
I looked at her and asked quietly, "Shall we go with the usual plan?"
"Yes. Jaeger, charge!"
"Hah!"
I drew the Lion's Sword and charged.
The Kshanti Holy Knights moved to follow on instinct... but Katrina held them back.
This was exactly the Reshutal way.
I hacked through the heretic mages, frozen in shock, like they were firewood.
"Molan! Come out!"
"Wha...? This little shit?"
The mages who looked like his minions were belatedly snapping out of it.
From behind me, a volley of arrows flew in.
After firing her crossbow in unison with her troops, Katrina began reloading with practiced skill.
Through much trial and error, the Reshutal Inquisitors had learned the truth.
When I'm rampaging on the front lines, supporting fire is far more reliable and useful to me than most allies...
As a result, the Kshanti Inquisitors also joined in with the ranged support, though with worried looks on their faces.
The building's interior, lit by candles, was an absolute mess.
In one corner of the large room was what looked like an altar for worshipping demons... and the entire thing was made of human bones and skin.
A prime example of faithfully fulfilling Additional Contracts with demons.
On the other side, I could even see what looked like jewels imprisoning human souls.
The same kind of thing my teacher had used when he sealed the Transformation Demon Thrall.
'Is he trying to pull off a Demon Summoning even now?'
The grunts were so pathetic that I was cutting them down with relative ease.
Then, from the darkness of the back room, a hideous old man slowly emerged.
The Time Mage Molan gave off the unmistakable feeling of being at death's door.
His body was so emaciated that the shape of his bones was plainly visible beneath his shriveled skin, and his posture was stooped.
He looked so frail that even I doubted he could fight.
I complained with a provocative edge to my voice.
"You've got to be kidding me. The so-called emperor who unified the continent..."
"Yes, this is the Curse of Time. No one can escape it."
Molan barely managed to draw his sword with his decrepit body.
In that moment, my eyes caught the bearing of a great emperor.
A monster who had lived for two hundred and fifty years.
In his youth, he must have been a formidable warrior.
But now, that was nothing more than a faded trace.
As I steadied my stance, the Time Mage did something unthinkable.
"You wanted to meet the emperor of the Eastern Continent? Then I'll let you meet him!"
Without hesitation, he cast a spell on himself.
Casting magic on one's own body is the most basic of basics.
For one thing, you don't have to worry at all about the target's Magic Resistance, and the familiarity is on an entirely different level.
But... that still depends on the magic.
Neither Enhancement Magic nor Transformation Magic on his own body, but Time Magic. What in the world did he think he could accomplish with that?
The next instant put my doubts to shame.
Molan's appearance began to change drastically.
"Tch."
Katrina and Petra clicked their tongues sharply from behind and hastily tried using Rejection Magic...
But their magic bounced off Molan's Magic Resistance.
This was one of the reasons why casting magic on yourself is so advantageous.
If he'd cast the spell on an object, they could have easily reverted it.
'He certainly had nowhere better to cast it... but still, on himself? Huh?'
Molan's body rapidly filled out as time rewound.
His dried, shriveled skin regained its sheen and elasticity, and his muscles grew thick once more.
Even his practically non-existent body hair sprouted, stark white.
Moments later, what stood before me was a white-haired old man.
His entire presence had transformed from moments before.
'A walking corpse became a man.'
Overwhelmed by his imposing figure, I made a deliberate effort to provoke him again.
"Is that all you've got?"
"This much is more than enough for a whelp like you!"
Clang!
Molan took the bait without a second thought.
An attack that felt as if it had crossed space itself slammed down onto my sword.