The Subjugation
Joseph looked ready to collapse at any moment, but he locked his legs and forced himself to stay on his feet. Eyes wide, he stared down at the fallen demonic beast.
His vision had gone too blurry to see clearly, but the creature didn't seem to be moving at all. The only evidence of the ferocious battle that had just taken place was the steam-like smoke still rising from its body.
Everyone present had fallen silent. After witnessing what had just unfolded, what was there to say? The only sounds came from a handful of soldiers who had been covering their heads and lying flat on the ground — they caught sight of the half-pulverized carcass a beat too late and cried out in shock.
A mage.
They were beginning to understand what a mage who had poured out everything he had truly was.
"A-are you all right?"
Auger asked cautiously, but Joseph didn't answer. More precisely, he couldn't.
This isn't a mana problem...
Joseph was barely clinging to consciousness, his eyes unfocused and dull. Auger's gaze turned to Rekor, but the priest shook his head.
"Healing magic can only mend wounds. This... seems to be a different matter entirely."
"Th-then what do we...?"
After a moment's thought, Auger decided to take Joseph back to the wagons.
"Those assigned to handle the demonic beast's carcass, remain! Everyone else, withdraw to camp!"
And so, supported by the soldiers, Joseph barely made it back to the wagon. He was laid down as he was, and it wasn't until after noon the following day that he could move again.
...My head feels like it's going to split.
He could move, in the most literal sense — but he was far from recovered. A headache like he'd been knocking back hard liquor all day refused to let up. Even as he clutched his head, Joseph took stock of his condition.
It's not a lack of stamina or mana.
Trying to control dozens of Mana Orbs at once had apparently overloaded his brain. On top of that, constantly drawing mana through the gem may have put additional strain on his body.
This is a willpower problem.
He couldn't be certain — he'd never dumped magic this brutishly before — but the conclusion felt sound enough.
I should refrain from recklessly spraying magic around like that...
Joseph's gem was an Artifact so powerful it made your head spin, but it seemed his own abilities weren't yet equal to using it freely.
Joseph exhaled slowly. Just as he sat up, Rekor happened to step inside.
"Brother, you've awakened."
"Yes."
The priest held out a cup of water. Joseph dipped his head wearily in thanks. He drank slowly, and all the while Rekor watched him with the look of a man who had something to say.
"Brother."
Then, carefully, he asked.
"Brother, have you perhaps... ever belonged to the Church?"
"I have not."
He seemed to think Joseph knew how to wield Divinity. It was a question Joseph had more or less expected. Thanks to the staff Rophen had made for him, divinity now clung to Joseph's magic. Priests could sense it — of course they would have been shocked watching his spells.
"But I felt a powerful divinity in your magic, Brother."
"Is that so."
Joseph had no intention of telling him about the Holy Relic. He couldn't predict how Rekor would react if he saw it. The Combat Priest he'd met before had mentioned that some among them were obsessed with such things.
Rekor doesn't seem like that kind of priest, but better to be careful.
Watching Rekor's expression, Joseph slowly opened his mouth.
"Priest."
"...Yes?"
"Isn't everything the will of God?"
At those words, Rekor looked at him with a grave expression.
Guess that didn't land.
"So it is."
"Pardon?"
"Your appearing in such difficult times, and this inexplicable divinity as well. Brother, you are surely a messenger sent by God."
It actually worked.
Rekor clasped both of Joseph's hands, his face overflowing with emotion. Joseph was nodding with a somewhat vacant look when Auger entered the wagon.
"You're awake?"
"Ah, Baron."
"I was afraid something terrible had happened. Glad to see you're all right."
He immediately had a soldier bring a bowl of warm stew. One swallow down the throat, and the spinning in Joseph's head seemed to ease a little. Auger waited until Joseph had finished eating, confirmed the bowl was empty, then spoke.
"It may be hard on you, but once you've recovered a bit, there's something I'd like you to look at."
"Me, sir?"
Auger nodded.
"We found what appears to be the demonic beast's den."
While Joseph had been resting in the wagon, Auger had apparently led the private soldiers out to survey the surrounding forest.
"This used to be an important thoroughfare, so they say people passed through here often. I thought we might find something of value."
"And that's how you found the den."
Guided by Auger and the soldiers into the deep woods, they came upon a hole so large it was visible even from a distance.
Did it dig a den because it was a bear?
Given the size, though, it looked less like a typical bear den and more like the mouth of a massive cave.
"Is this the only one?"
"We didn't find any others nearby. Given the creature's size, there's no way we would have missed one."
"And you haven't gone inside?"
"That's..."
They were scared, then.
He couldn't blame them. It was an overwhelmingly large den, and if another demonic beast came out of it, they'd be in real trouble.
I doubt another demonic beast would be living in its territory, though.
Joseph entered the den in the same formation they'd used when they fought the beast. Once inside, the passage stretched far inward. It felt less like an animal's burrow and more like a spacious cavern.
"...What's that smell?"
The soldier at the front was sniffing, having caught a scent of something. The farther they went, the thicker it grew.
"It smells like something rotting, sir."
Refn, who had been leading, turned to Joseph as he spoke. A few of the others nodded in agreement.
"Let's go a little farther."
Joseph hesitated a moment, then decided to press on. They'd come this far — better to confirm what was inside.
"Found it."
A little farther in, something was piled high in a corner against the cave wall. The party caught their breath as they saw what it was.
Corpses — human and animal alike — chopped to pieces, heaped in one place and rotting. It appeared to be the food the demonic beast had been storing.
"This is..."
As they stared at the scene with sickened eyes, Rekor, who had been watching from behind, approached. His face hardened as he looked down at the pile of corpses.
"What's wrong?"
"I think I can feel a faint trace of demonic energy here."
"Demonic energy?"
"Yes."
"Could it just be because this is a demonic beast's cave?"
"No. It feels... somewhat different from that."
Rekor lightly brought his hand to one of the corpses. A brief flash of light, and faint smoke rose — just as it had when the demonic beast had taken Joseph's attack.
"G-get back!"
Startled, Auger shouted the order as he retreated, but fortunately nothing further happened. Joseph's brow furrowed.
"Do dead corpses normally give off demonic energy?"
"They do not. Death alone does not cause a body to harbor demonic energy."
Rekor added, unable to take his eyes off the corpses.
"If the dead gave off demonic energy, the entire world would be overflowing with it."
That made sense. If this were the kind of world where demonic energy poured from corpses, Joseph wouldn't even have considered leaving Bari Village.
"...But you just saw demonic energy coming from those corpses, didn't you?"
"To be precise, I felt it rather than saw it, but..."
Rekor shook his head at Joseph's question.
"At any rate, this is not a normal situation. It may simply be that they were heavily influenced by the demonic beast."
Just what is demonic energy, anyway...
Come to think of it, they'd said the creature they'd hunted this time hadn't originally been a demonic beast either. But just as with divinity, Joseph couldn't sense demonic energy at all.
He let out a sigh despite himself. Divinity, mana, and now demonic energy... He was reminded all over again that this world was far more dangerous than he'd imagined.
"We should check the rest of the cave."
Following Rekor's words, the party passed the pile of corpses and headed deeper in. Before long, they reached a dead end in the depths of the cave.
"This is where it slept, it seems."
Auger said, looking around. Sure enough, the demonic beast's grayish-white fur was scattered here and there.
"Mage! Mage!"
While they were surveying the area, Refn suddenly called out to Joseph in urgency. He pointed to a small pile of dirt heaped in one corner of the dead end. Looking closely, it had the look of something made deliberately by human hands.
"A pendant?"
One of the private soldiers dug through the dirt with his sword, and an old pendant came into view.
"...What is that?"
Auger asked with an uneasy face, but no one had an answer. Joseph didn't know what it was either.
It doesn't look particularly unusual...
Joseph examined the simply made, round pendant closely. Then he found something.
...This.
Along the pendant's rim, something was written in an unknown language. Joseph's expression crumpled as he looked at it. He didn't recognize the script, but he was certain he'd seen it before.
The pouch that had been wrapped around the artifact...
The artifact discovered at the site of the ogre subjugation. The writing was similar to the inscription on the pouch that had been wrapped around it.
Come to think of it... what did I do with that pouch?
He wracked his brain, but he couldn't remember. Joseph clicked his tongue at his own stupidity for not keeping it, then continued examining the pendant.
There was a small hole in the center, as if something had once been set there. But searching the surroundings again turned up nothing more.
...There's mana left in it.
Something faint lingered in the old pendant. Whether it was the residual echo of magic, or something else entirely. Most of the others were watching with uneasy expressions, clearly having no idea what they were looking at.
Joseph glanced at Rekor, who shook his head.
"I don't sense anything particular from this."
Joseph wrapped the pendant thoroughly in cloth and took it. It was a bit unsettling, but there was nothing else to be done for now. They searched the interior a few more times, but nothing else turned up, and the party headed straight out of the den.
So in the end, all we found was the pendant...
The demonic energy strangely emanating from the corpses. The old pendant hidden in a pile of dirt. He couldn't tell what any of it meant, but he could feel that it was a bad omen.
After returning to camp, Joseph couldn't help but be surprised. The people who had remained behind were smoking the carved-up meat of the demonic beast.
"Wait — is it even safe to eat demonic beast meat?"
When Joseph asked, Rekor answered with a faint smile.
"All living things scatter what they harbored upon death. Whether that be mana or demonic energy."
"And more importantly!"
Auger, who had been listening quietly beside them, cut in.
"They say the meat of a bear demonic beast is quite delicious."
Joseph had no reply to that.
"Besides, if we tried to haul the carcass back as-is, it'd rot on the way. We don't have much choice."
The people gathered here belonged to various groups, but they were, in the end, the subjugation force from Valois Castle. They had hunted a demonic beast, so they had to bring the carcass back and report it. But thanks to Joseph's magic, the hide had been burned away and the inside cooked through, so they were trying to at least salvage the meat.
"It's been thoroughly tenderized. The meat should be excellent."
Joseph remained silent.
In the end, they spent two full days sending up smoke as they cured the demonic beast's meat, and the creature was divided into pieces and loaded onto four wagons. The half-smashed head was loaded onto Auger's wagon, and Auger grinned to himself a little as he looked at it.
"Well then. Let's head back."
Just as when they had departed the castle, four wagons laden with the massive bear demonic beast's carcass began to move at Joseph's word, rolling toward Valois Castle.