To the Battlefield of Maslantia (1)
"Finally finished."
Early in the morning. The moment word came that the weapon was complete, I sprinted to the forge in a single bound.
"Are you sure this is really safe? I've told you over and over—this isn't a weapon, it's a suicide device."
Floren said, her face full of worry.
"I don't die, so don't sweat it."
At my words, she let out a sigh and handed over the cloth-wrapped weapon. I accepted it with trembling hands. It felt like facing my first crush back in middle school.
So this is the first true weapon of my life...
God, how hard I'd scoured this continent searching for those two. I'd put up with plenty of tedious nonsense along the way, too, but now it all felt like it had been worth it.
As if undressing something chaste and untouched, I carefully peeled back the cloth. Immediately, a design of white-gold sweeping in an unbroken curve caught my eye.
Wow... that is gorgeous.
My mouth fell open on its own. Within the platinum, ornate patterns inlaid with gold glittered luxuriously.
"Beautiful, isn't it? The engravings are scientifically designed to lower mana resistance values. On top of that, I've layered a lightening spell over the whole thing, so it just snap fits into your hand. And if you look at the grip, @#$@#..."
Floren's words never reached my ears. When there's a Maxim photoshoot right in front of you, who's going to pay attention to the documentary?
As though possessed by something, I shouldered the shotgun and struck a stance. It fit my body perfectly, as if it had finally found its rightful master.
"...that's how it works. I said watch the safety precautions—are you even listening?"
"Forget it. I want to test it right now."
Floren cut me off flatly.
"No. If you're going to die, die alone."
"Is it that bad?"
"It is. I cranked the output up to stupid levels, just like you told me to. Whatever's around you is going to be a smoking crater."
Having said her piece, Floren added one more thing.
"I'd recommend never using that weapon. The instant you pull that trigger, you're dead."
I smirked.
"You've been going on about me dying this whole time. Relax—I'm tougher than you think. More importantly, I'll repay this debt, count on it. Is there anything you want?"
"All I need is a quiet place to run my experiments."
A very Floren answer. I nodded my understanding and swept my gaze around the interior of the forge. Come to think of it, one person was missing.
"Where's Taliesin?"
"You notice fast. He's gone to sleep. The man pulled all-nighters for three days straight."
He must have worked himself to the bone.
It must have been hell getting it to completion. A weapon none of them had ever seen before, with an operating principle he'd had to design from scratch. Without the two of them, this weapon would never have existed.
Thinking that, I spoke up.
"When he wakes, tell him to find me."
They'd done me a real service, and I intended to compensate them properly. I had no idea what Taliesin might want, but still.
"You're leaving already?"
"Yeah. I need to test the weapon. I'll have a testing ground arranged by end of day."
"Quick about it, aren't you. Fine."
"Then, until next time."
"Hold on—you have to name the thing."
Floren pointed at the shotgun in my hands.
"A name for the weapon, huh..."
As it happened, I already had one picked out.
"Blunderbuss." That's the name of this gun.
With that, I walked out of the forge. I was dying to put this weapon through its paces.
**
The place I'd found was the Monarch's Castle.
"Here we are, my Lord. This location will serve perfectly for your test."
Just as I'd expected, Dermian knew of a perfectly suitable spot. It lay behind the castle, along a ridgeline—an ideal test site.
"Works for me. There's even a target."
In the sky, birds of a kind I'd never seen were wheeling about. Judging by their hideous appearance, they were some species of monster—perfect for a test run.
Alright, let's see what you can do.
I shouldered the shotgun, closed one eye, and lined my sight up with the sight post. Beyond the front sight, the bird was reduced to a speck.
Sight Maximization.
The bird snapped into such clarity it might have been hovering right in front of me. At this range, I could hit it, no question. Honestly, even a miss wouldn't matter. This gun was made to be fired point-blank anyway.
Holding my breath, I locked onto the target. Then, without ceremony, I pulled the trigger.
-BOOOOOM!
With a sound that threatened to tear my ears apart, mana erupted outward in a spiraling torrent. And in the same instant, my face drained into sheer disbelief.
A massive trunk of mana yawned open like a maw and began swallowing everything before my eyes. The monsters floating in the sky and the blue grass below crumbled to powder and vanished, and the ridgeline ahead scooped itself hollow, like half-eaten ice cream, smoldering as it burned away.
...Holy crap! Isn't this a bazooka, not a shotgun?
This was, quite literally, insane power. I was starting to understand why Floren had called it a suicide weapon. My body hadn't been knocked back by the recoil—which meant the recoil had been strong enough to threaten my life. Broken spine, severed nerves, that sort of thing.
What's more, the gun glowed a furious red, as though it had been roasting over a fire for hours—one look told you it was scorching hot. Without my defense, my hand would have melted off in an instant.
...What happens if I fire this thing at point-blank range?
Just imagining it made my head spin. It would be a one-way express ticket to the afterlife, no doubt about it.
"Truly magnificent, my Lord."
Dermian applauded at my side, letting out a short breath of awe. He, too, had clearly been stunned by the power.
"You noticed, then."
But at his next words, one of my eyebrows climbed.
Noticed what, exactly?
I regarded Dermian in silence. I couldn't begin to guess where he was going with this.
"When I heard you wished to test a weapon, I had intended to arrange it discreetly. I simply never imagined you would mean to test it on vermin."
Vermin?
Having said that, he strode deliberately forward. And then, some moments later—my pupils blew wide open.
And no wonder. Dermian was dragging over a human robed and hooded in disguise.
...What the hell? How long has that guy been here?
"It seems he was curious about the newly appointed 7th Monarch. Hardly an uncommon occurrence."
Dermian said this, then tossed the man carelessly onto the ground.
"These are aides of the Hero, who still cannot bring themselves to accept the demons' victory. Every so often, they sneak in like this, hidden from sight."
"...!"
I stared at the burned-over man with a stunned face. He was groaning in agony, slowly dying.
Damn it... an aide of the Hero?
Which meant he was technically on my side. Fundamentally, those people stood opposed to the demons, same as I did.
...And he just happened to be there and got caught in the blast.
Unfortunately, though, the man had fallen within my line of fire and was now hovering on the edge of death.
"Can you heal him?"
"Planning an interrogation, are you? Regrettably, he is a breath from death. Even with my power, I doubt he could be saved."
Dermian bowed his head deeply, as if ashamed.
Tsk. I clicked my tongue and looked down at the man.
Poor bastard. Rest in peace, wherever you're going.
All I could offer him was a prayer for the dead. Coming into my line of fire had been his mistake to begin with. And then, a question suddenly surfaced in my mind.
Wait—why couldn't I see his level?
The question didn't linger long. Since I could see the level of the man collapsed before me now, it seemed to be a matter of distance. Beyond a certain range, levels simply weren't visible.
"Bury him."
I said it while slinging the Blunderbuss over my shoulder. At my words, Darmian spoke.
"Understood, my Lord."
**
So it begins.
After that incident, I sat at my desk in the office, lost in thought.
The Hero's party is starting to move.
After humanity's crushing defeat in the war against the demons, the Hero had inflicted a fatal wound upon the Archlord and vanished from sight. Humanity had surrendered, pointing fingers and cursing her for abandoning them. But the truth was nothing of the sort. She had devoted herself entirely to recovering from her wounds, quietly stockpiling the strength to drive the demons out once more.
And now—
Has her body healed to some degree?
Seeing the Hero's aides stirring, as with the man earlier, it looked like they were slowly preparing a counteroffensive. Good news for me. The whole reason I'd become a Monarch in the first place was to keep the demons' strength in check until she recovered.
-Knock knock.
While I was lost in thought, a sound came from the window. I turned my head to find a crow perched there.
...The Archlord, I take it.
I rose from my seat and flung the window wide open. The crow fluttered inside and opened its beak.
-Hey there~ Long time no see, 7th Monarch!
"Archlord. It has been a while. What business brings you here?"
-Seriously, will you ever do something about that stiff way of talking?
"I shall endeavor to try."
-You're lying. I don't believe you.
"If we could dispense with the pleasantries, I'd like to hear the actual matter at hand."
-So cold. I just wanted to see how you were doing. And I have a favor to ask.
...A favor?
A bad feeling began to creep over me. When the Archlord bypasses all her subordinates and asks a Monarch to handle something directly, doesn't that just mean the difficulty is sky-high?
"I'm listening."
-It's simple. I just need you to go somewhere. You've only recently become the 7th Monarch, and there's no one better suited for it than you.
"Then you've left out the most important part. Where exactly am I going?"
-Maslantia.
—!
I couldn't help but flinch at the word. And with good reason—that place was a battlefield.
-I want you to go and annihilate the humans stationed there.
What did she just say...?
At those following words, my expression twisted.