The Salamander's Crucible (3)
To get to the bottom of the incident that had drained every trace of mana from the village, Ethan and I made our way over the mountain, toward the far side of the ridge.
Though our original investigation plan hadn't called for one rather noisy addition to the party.
“I really don't think you needed to come along, Miss Salamander.”
‘No way! If I let you out of my sight, I just know you're gonna bolt on me again!’
“…….”
Apparently our little exchange back at the forge had cost me whatever trust I'd managed to build.
Thankfully, Ethan couldn't understand a word Salamander was saying, so it hardly mattered.
“You seem to get along well with spirits, Lilith.”
“I'm sorry?”
‘No, I absolutely do NOT!’
“That fire spirit's been following you around ever since you two met in the workshop. Looks like it's rather taken with you.”
“No, that's not really….”
‘That's not what this is at ALL~!’
Watching Ethan carry on so casually, I was certain of it — from the circumstances alone, there was no way he could hear Salamander.
After all, he didn't even see her the way I did. To him, she wasn't a flame-wreathed girl but just a ball of fire, which meant he couldn't read her emotions from her expressions or gestures either.
It was a blessing, I suppose, that I had no need to explain Salamander's every outburst to Ethan.
We wouldn't be seeing her again after today anyway, so there was no reason to walk on eggshells and agonize over her complaints.
And in the end, bringing her up the mountain turned out to be a blessing indeed. When it came to finding a mountain path neither of us had ever walked, Salamander — who had lived in this area far longer than I had — proved far more capable than me.
“How much farther is it, Miss Salamander?”
‘Just keep up quietly and follow me! I'm tracking the flow of mana!’
“I can barely feel any mana in this area at all, though.”
‘Hmph, well, you are human. Dull things like you lot can't sense mana as faint and delicate as this — not the way we can.’
It was a phrasing that grated on my nerves in a rather subtle way, but with her looking like a tiny little girl, I could just about let it slide.
Thank goodness the spirits of this world are cute. If they weren't, they'd have been hunted to extinction ages ago.
With that thought, we followed Salamander along the mountain path for about thirty minutes, until the mana in the air grew strong enough that even I could feel it.
Salamander, too, grew excited as the flow intensified, and began darting off hastily in the direction where the mana was thickening, chasing the source of the problem.
‘This way! It's this way!’
“W-wait a moment! Don't go ahead of us!”
With Salamander blazing straight over the tangled terrain of the mountainside, Ethan and I were left stranded on the forest path.
If we kept this up, we'd lose her for good, so we hurried after the fleeing flame spirit as fast as our legs would carry us.
“Young Master Ethan, this way!”
“Ah, right!”
By the time we'd closed the distance this far, even I could smell the rich, heavy scent of mana, so neither of us had any trouble tracking Salamander without getting lost.
Expecting to face a high-ranking demon who fed on mana drain, Ethan and I slowed our pace and crept closer — but contrary to my expectations, what we found at the scene was not a high-ranking demon, but a band of low-ranking ones.
“Boss, shouldn't we be moving on by now? It's been three days and not a single thing's taken the bait.”
“Shut up, you. What did I tell you? There's still the scent of spirits lingering around here.”
“If there were, they'd have shown up by now. I'd say we've already caught just about everything catchable around here. Before the ones we've already bagged start going bad, we should really….”
‘You BASTARDS~!!’
*Thwip!*
“Well, look at that. I told you something was still here.”
“Oooh, that's our boss for you!”
“This one's way bigger than anything we've caught so far, ain't it? Heh, we're gonna make some real coin off this.”
‘LET GO OF MEEE~!! Stupid low-grade demons, of all things~!!!’
Something about the atmosphere felt deeply off, so Ethan and I hid in the brush for a moment to watch — and in that window, the overeager Salamander darted out ahead of us and was snatched right out of the air by one of the demon's hands.
The demon holding the flame spirit stuffed her into a glass cage and sealed it shut on the spot.
‘Ahh! No~! Open this, open it~!! Heyyy~!!’
“How much do you figure this one'll fetch?”
“Hard to say. It's a fire spirit, at least, so it'll sell for far more than the others. Fire spirits have demand as ornaments not just from mages but from common folk too.”
‘OPEN IT~! Where the hell do you think you're taking me?!’
Spirit hunters.
From the gist of their conversation alone, there was no mistaking what sort of demons these were.
The kind who wandered uninhabited forests and mountains where spirits gathered, collected them, and sold them off at steep prices to demon mages and the like.
The reason they'd gone so far as to invade a remote human village like this one was probably because no spirits lived in demon territory.
And the fact that catching Salamander as she charged at them — snatching her bare-handed and sealing her in a glass cage without a flicker of hesitation — was even physically possible was, naturally, only because they were demons.
Meanwhile, from the unidentified magic device running off to one side, I could feel something like a current sucking in the mana all around it.
It seemed they'd set a trap: wipe out the surrounding mana entirely so that the spirits would drift toward it, drawn by their own faint senses.
‘So these are the ones who drained the mana from around here, huh….’
Spirit hunter or not, a demon was reason enough to be put down, plain and simple.
Left alone, they would inevitably grow into a great threat to the Empire in the future. Luminor Academy was not the kind of story that ended in some wishy-washy "humans and demons signed a treaty and lived happily ever after" nonsense.
And above all else — I did not like watching that Salamander get carted off.
Without her, activating the half-dwarf's forge in Grainstone Village would be impossible, and so would receiving the blessing of that flame spirit.
The blessing of a spirit especially mattered to me right now, since it could, under the right conditions, influence my Luck stat — something I desperately needed.
Somehow or other, I had to deal with every last one of them and rescue Salamander.
“To restore the village and rescue Salamander, I'm afraid we can't avoid coming to blows, Young Master Ethan.”
“They all look like low-rank demons to me… what do you think, Lilith?”
“My thoughts exactly, Young Master Ethan. I fully expected a high-ranking demon, so a pack of low-ranks is a relief in more ways than one. Will you open with a surprise attack?”
“Yeah. It's the most efficient way.”
True to Harold's blood, he didn't much care about means or methods so long as it won.
Truly an admirable mindset. I nodded at Ethan's suggestion.
Before Ethan could step out before the demons with his swords drawn, I conjured three mana arrows through Triple Casting.
“I'll make the first move.”
“…You sure? Your mana arrows never actually hit anything, Lilith.”
“…Today, even so, I feel like a good number will land.”
“All right. If you say so, Lilith, I'll believe you.”
…Why does hearing him say "I believe you" make me nervous? At this rate I'll flub it for sure.
Still, I couldn't very well cancel mana arrows I'd already loaded like some fickle little girl, so I took aim at the nape of the one who seemed to be their leader, and — fired on a foe drunk on his latest prize, careless and distracted with Salamander in his grasp — let all three mana arrows loose in an instant.
“That's it! Now we pull out! The sooner we're clear of this human-stinking place, the bet—”
*Thud! Thwock!*
“G-guhk?!”
“Boss!”
“Wh-what bastard did that?!”
Two out of three. I could definitely feel that my accuracy had gone up.
Back in the day, landing one out of three was cause for celebration.
While I was mulling that over, Ethan surged into the midst of the demons with twin swords raised, timing his charge to my opening strike — and with just two horizontal slashes, cut down two of the subordinates still reeling from their leader's sudden death.
*Shk! Shrrk!*
“Urk!”
“Ggh…!”
That left roughly three demons standing.
I'd take one, Ethan the other two — a situation we could wrap up neatly enough.
With that thought, I charged at a demon, dagger in hand — and in that instant, from somewhere, a sharp whistle of something cutting through the wind reached my ears.
“Arcane Shield!”
The moment my instincts screamed danger, I spun up a Arcane Shield through Double Casting.
Thankfully, the barrier triggered just in time — more than enough to cover my face and Ethan's — and from the far side of it, two arrows came streaking in, one at each of us.
*Bam! Bwoom!*
“……!”
“Young Master Ethan — archers!”
“I see them!”
Thanks to the shield I'd thrown up on pure reflex, neither Ethan nor I had to suffer the misfortune of dying with an arrow through the throat.
That sparring session with Luke really had paid off in more ways than one. Without it, I wouldn't even have been able to summon an Arcane Shield on reflex in a moment like this.
I silently offered her a word of thanks in my head, then lunged at the demon in front of me once more, trading a rapid series of blows with it using the heavy dagger in my right hand.
*Clang! Ching! Clang!*
“Wh-what the hell ARE you?!”
“Not a 'what' — a *who*, you idiot!!”
“What the hell kinda WHO are you then?!!”
“None of your business what I am!”
*Shhk.* The moment my dagger drove horizontally through the demon's throat, its previously rather noisy voice went silent — and I also confirmed, right alongside it, the remaining two demons who'd been ganging up on Ethan two-to-one breathing their last.
“Lilith, let's hide for now! There could still be more of them in the forest….”
“…No, there's no need for that, sir.”
“……Huh?”
I picked up the short dagger dropped by the demon that had just been cut down and fallen before my eyes, and hurled it toward the direction the arrows had flown from with Dagger Throw.
*Thwock!*
“G-ghk…!”
Before long, from between the trees of the forest, came the sound of steel sinking into flesh, followed by a demon's scream cut off mid-shriek.
There had been more than one arrow flying out of those woods, after all — so naturally, I pulled the other dagger from another demon's hand and hurled it into the forest on the opposite side.
This time too came a sound like meat being torn and a dying scream, and the presence I'd felt deeper in the woods guttered out entirely.
Remaining presences… none, as far as I could tell.
“With that, I believe it's over. For now, at least.”
“…Y-yeah… so it is….”
Demons' corpses strewn every which way, and bluish blood spattered across the ground.
Considering we'd also have to clean up this godforsaken mess of a scene, it was looking increasingly unlikely that we'd be making it back to Blackwood by nightfall after all.