Black (10)
They say humans can surpass their limits in extreme situations. In that sense, the Ivestan soldier currently driving the carriage was undoubtedly exerting the greatest ability of his entire life.
Was it because of the poison that wicked blond bastard had made him swallow? Of course that was important too, but compared to the crisis he faced right now, it was practically trivial. After all, even at its fastest, the poison would take hours to take effect. But the bombardment targeting the carriage from behind him could kill him instantly if he slipped up even once!
One might wonder why he'd be so scared of an attack that was obviously staged, but the madness of these lunatics went beyond imagination.
'You want me to pretend to attack from behind? You're telling me to deliberately miss when I could hit? Are you trying to turn me into a clown?!'
'Ah, you can hit them.'
'What?'
'Just don't make it too obvious. If they seem like they're moving too slowly, or trying to talk with their comrades, or showing any suspicious signs, blow them away immediately.'
'...What about the people riding in it?'
'As long as they don't die instantly, they'll handle the rest. Isn't that better than getting caught?'
Crazy bastard. He was seriously insane. The soldier should have realized it the moment he saw that wicked, grinning face. If he had, he might have been able to escape the grasp of that evil demon... or could he? From the beginning, it felt like there had never been any choice.
Even as he pondered that fundamental question rising in his mind, his survival instincts and subconscious faithfully controlled the carriage reins. The horses, likewise stimulated by their survival instincts, responded just as diligently.
"Open fire!"
The base soldiers all fired their arrows at once. Only after the following troops had taken up position behind the carriage did the demonic attacks finally stop. The soldier was finally able to let out a sigh of relief.
"Enemy status!"
"One dual-wielder and two mages! All confirmed as magic power users!"
The soldier listened absentmindedly to the chaotic sounds of battle and sharp exchanges. When the guards began swarming around the stopped carriage, his body stiffened with tension once again.
"Transport soldier, report the situation. What happened to Transport Captain Recton? What about the other carriages?"
For a moment, the urge to report everything exactly as it had happened struck the soldier hard. But the emotion that had risen all the way to his throat was blocked by another feeling—fear and terror.
The poison was one thing, but when he thought about that thing currently listening to his answer, which might swing a sword at him at any moment, he couldn't possibly spit out anything else.
"This is soldier Hans, reporting! During the transport operation, we were ambushed by unidentified magic power users! The carriage carrying the transport soldiers was completely destroyed! Following Captain Recton's final orders to cover our rear, we fled all the way here! We were unable to confirm whether the captain is alive or dead!"
"How many enemies?"
"There were about twenty more besides the trio currently rampaging!"
"What about the cargo?"
"Five in total! They were sealed in the carriage's cargo hold along with the Incense Stones!"
As he spat out the lie that mixed some truth with falsehood, the soldier felt his mind growing faint. He'd done it. He'd said it. There was no turning back now.
"You there! Is there anything different from the truth in what we just heard?"
"I'm sorry! I was so out of it that I couldn't grasp it properly!"
The soldier's insides burned at the sight of the guy sitting beside him trying to save only himself by playing dumb, but fortunately the guard commander didn't press with any more questions. No, he tried to, but couldn't.
Because a faint purple smoke had begun slowly leaking from the gaps in the rear of the carriage.
At first the guards frowned at the sudden stench, but once they realized what it was, they recoiled in horror and backed away.
"You idiots! Did you not even do the sealing properly?!"
"We did it properly! It must have gotten damaged during our escape!"
As the amount of smoke gradually increased, the other side couldn't hold out any longer and shouted.
"Get inside for now! Just put the carriage in and leave the contents alone! Get out with the horses! Don't dawdle, hurry up!"
"Yes sir!"
As if fleeing from the fierce sounds of battle coming from behind, the soldier moved the carriage inward. The place, which had several complicated official names but was simply called the 'warehouse' among them, was blocked by three kinds of doors.
The soldiers guarding the outermost door recoiled at the sight of the carriage and the leaking smoke, hurriedly opening the door. The moment the carriage entered, they closed it again. There was no gatekeeper at the second door, but that didn't mean they had to get down and open it themselves. The moment the first door closed, the magic-tool-operated door naturally slid open to both sides.
The third door didn't require a separate key, but instead had an extremely labor-intensive locking mechanism installed. Normally four people would have to work on it at once, but since two were handling it, it was cumbersome. Still, it was work they'd grown used to, so it didn't take very long.
After passing through the three checkpoints, they finally reached the inside of the warehouse. There, separate Incense Stones from those loaded on the carriage had been installed, endlessly emitting smoke. Inside the cages placed throughout the area, various types of new magic beasts lay docile, intoxicated by the Incense Stone smoke.
Originally they should have moved the magic beasts from inside the carriage into new cages before leaving with the carriage, but there weren't enough personnel to handle that heavy labor this time, and the orders they'd received were to get out immediately, so it was omitted. No, even if such orders hadn't been given, carrying out the original schedule would have been impossible anyway.
Because what was inside that carriage right now wasn't magic beasts.
"...W-we've entered inside."
When he spoke in a trembling voice, the response came immediately. The special material cloth covering the outside of the cargo hold was slowly sliced open by a blade protruding from within. The moment two women revealed themselves, the third companion urgently spoke to them.
"T-the antidote! Please give me the antidote quickly!"
The soldier was worried that the other party might feel uncomfortable at his insistent tone, but the woman with long hair and a greatsword surprisingly handed over the medicine without complaint.
"You won't be able to take it right away... in that state. Well, there's still time, so take it later when you can. And shouldn't you hurry and get out with the horses? If you're too late, they might get suspicious."
"Hoo... Maintaining an air membrane inside a shaking carriage is incredibly exhausting."
While half-listening to the complaints of the woman wearing a dress that, despite its relatively simple design, was still quite extravagant for a battlefield, the soldier and his group hurriedly exited. The thought of wanting to get away from these people as quickly as possible filled their minds completely.
Watching the backs of the figures who hurriedly closed the door and disappeared, the woman in the dress—Hau Pendevig—asked,
"But is it really okay not to silence them? Since they received the antidote, they might tell the truth the moment they leave."
The woman holding the greatsword, Akasha, answered.
"At the point where they cooperated with us to get this far inside, they're already accomplices, so they won't be able to speak carelessly, right? And even if they do talk, it doesn't really matter. It's already too late for them to do anything about it now. Anyway, that Chrome guy was right. If we tear the tent a little to let the smoke leak out, they'll put it inside first without even checking."
"They probably never imagined we'd hold out in here. Though even if they had predicted someone might be hiding in the cargo hold, they definitely wouldn't have thought of that."
Hau looked at the carriage with a slightly fed-up expression. As if taking over for her, Akasha opened her mouth.
"Hey Ligret, you're under there, right? You didn't fall off midway, did you?"
"There's no way I'd fall."
The answer came from beneath the carriage. Ligret suddenly jumped out from under it, as if she'd been hiding there the whole time by some method.
"You think I'd make a stupid mistake like that?"
"No, even without being stupid, most people would fail at that..."
Ligret reacted as if she'd heard something strange, but from Akasha and Hau's perspective, it was simply astounding. The idea that they should have one person in a place other than the cargo hold just in case—they could understand that much. In fact, for this operation itself, just Akasha and Hau would have been enough, yet Ligret had come along precisely to prepare for any contingency.
But even so, hanging underneath a moving carriage—one that was even shaking from bombardment? Was she even human?
Whether the other two found it ridiculous or not, Ligret calmly looked around. The warehouse was quite large, and inside it were packed full of cages containing magic beasts. Because the purple smoke filled the entire warehouse, it was hard to count them precisely, but there were at least several dozen. If each one of them possessed strength on the level of the previous headhunters, this was a force that ordinary magic power users couldn't possibly handle.
The reason so many magic beasts were docilely confined in their cages was probably due to the smoke emitted by those Incense Stones or whatever they were called. The stench was so intensely foul that Ligret frowned.
The other two inside Hau's air membrane didn't seem to have noticed, but the effect of the smoke on the body was so strong that she could feel her condition worsening in real time just from contact. Even Ligret, who had taken the antidote potion in advance before the carriage departed and had reinforced her body with magic power, was in this state. Ordinary people would probably become unable to move after even brief exposure to this smoke.
No, if being unable to move was the end of it, that would actually be fortunate.
"Anyway, it's a good opportunity while the magic beasts are drunk and staggering. Let's finish this quickly."
At Akasha's urging, the group began moving hurriedly. First, they scattered the Attribute Stones they'd received from Chrome—especially the ice-type ones—throughout the warehouse. Hau prepared the largest-scale freezing spell she could use, while Akasha wrapped herself and the other two in white magic power and prepared defensive spells.
And finally, the moment their preparations were complete.
Even the three who had prepared multiple layers of countermeasures in advance shivered from the cold as they waited. Finally, when the spell ended and they saw the scene before their eyes, Akasha exhaled white breath along with a gasp of admiration.
"...You could hold an exhibition with this."
The magic beasts, frozen perfectly clean and turned into statues. The mission was a success.