New Power (3)
The moment Clara and Freya came out to meet them, Albrecht tensed first. He hadn't done anything particularly wrong—it was simply that the party had grown larger than when he'd left.
"Clara, Freya."
He called the two of them and offered a natural greeting, even lightly returning the embrace of Clara as she threw herself into his arms in pure relief.
"Thank goodness. You made it back safely."
"I only went to help out. Nothing dangerous happened."
He decided not to mention that the tomb raiders had attacked. There was no need to worry them over something already resolved.
"But Albrecht…"
"Hm?"
Clara narrowed her eyes slightly and looked to the side. Freya reacted much the same. The direction of their gazes was, of course, where Mersius stood.
"Who is this woman?"
"…I've never seen her face before."
Mersius bowed her head politely to the two of them.
"Hello."
"…Who might you be?"
"I'm Mersius, a green dragon who formed a contract with my Benefactor this time and will be accompanying him."
"A dragon?"
"Formed a contract?"
Albrecht explained at once to the puzzled pair.
"Mersius is Gergius's daughter. The dragon who was said to be sick."
"But forming a contract means…"
"Since Benefactor saved my life, I wanted to help him as well, so I asked. From what I heard, he seems to get into a great many dangerous situations."
Mersius spoke in a very gentle voice.
"I hoped my power would be of help to Benefactor, so I formed a contract the way Caesius did."
"Ah…"
Freya accepted it surprisingly readily. The precedent of Caesius no doubt helped, and since Mersius was a dragon, Freya figured it wouldn't complicate human relationships much.
Clara, however, seemed different.
"…What happened, Albrecht? Why did you bring a woman of all things?"
"…She's a dragon just like Caesius, Clara."
"It's different."
Albrecht tried to reassure her with those words, but Clara seemed to sense something suspicious.
"She feels different from Caesius. Albrecht, she's looking at you so affectionately."
"…"
"This person is Benefactor's lover, I see?"
"…You told her about me?"
"It just came up somehow…"
When Albrecht answered that way, Clara's suspicions only deepened. Why would such a conversation even arise?
Then Mersius smiled softly and spoke.
"The reason I feel different from Caesius when I look at Benefactor is unavoidable. Benefactor saved my life—how could I look at him without warm feelings? Of course I can only gaze at him with gratitude and affection, don't you think?"
At Mersius's reasonable explanation, Clara hesitated slightly. Still, she could not fully let go of her doubts.
"…I just hope those feelings don't go beyond gratitude."
"That won't happen."
Albrecht said so to reassure Clara. Of course he knew Mersius's true feelings well… yet he had no choice but to calm her that way.
Having Mersius join them would clearly be a tremendous help in combat power—for Albrecht himself and for the party members alike.
Especially after facing the Oblivion Legion, he had keenly realized how vital it was to strengthen their forces. The current Erinn party was strong, but if asked whether they needed no reinforcements at all, the answer was no.
They would face even stronger Legion Commanders going forward. He could not afford to pass up a power like Mersius.
If opportunities arose later to recruit more forces—especially people who seemed certain to help him—it would be right to bring them in.
So while Albrecht felt a twinge of guilt, he did not regret the lie. Letisia, who knew the truth, sensed his intention as well and said nothing.
Clara still looked a little uneasy about Mersius's presence, but Freya spoke first, saying there was something they needed to do.
"Clara, this isn't the time. Now that Albrecht is here, we have to move at once."
"Ah…"
Clara, who had been voicing a bit of dissatisfaction, nodded slightly.
"Albrecht, we have to go to the Empire right away."
"Right away? I heard Erinn went, but…"
"Yeah. Erinn is currently detained in the Empire."
"What!?"
When Albrecht asked in shock, Freya explained.
"When we came here, there was no deployment order from the Empire. The Minister of Military Affairs is handling it strictly by the book and has Erinn under arrest."
"That's… no flexibility at all?"
"We're not on good enough terms for him to show any. The Minister of Military Affairs holds immense power, and he has the justification, so even the Emperor couldn't stop him, it seems."
After hearing Freya's explanation, Albrecht spoke hollowly, and Letisia asked one thing.
"Erinn must have known that and still went, so she must have had some plan, right?"
"That's right."
"So we have to go to the Empire and turn the situation around."
"Us?"
Clara nodded. Freya explained to the puzzled Albrecht.
"Yes. More precisely… Albrecht and Clara need to go."
"Huh?"
"Letisia and I are Erinn's party members… so there's a clear risk we'd be detained like her. The two of you currently have no connection to the party, so you'll be free. You need to enter the Empire and help Erinn."
"But it'll take forever to cross the Empire's border…"
"That's fine. Lady Sharti has agreed to help. You can go instantly with teleportation magic."
"Ah, really?"
Freya continued.
"Head to Obern. Aria will be waiting there."
"Huh? She wasn't caught?"
"She's a High Elf princess, after all. Who knows what would happen if the Empire detained her for no reason."
"Ah."
As expected, having a powerful backer mattered. Albrecht was reminded once again of a truth he already knew.
"Alright. What do I need to do once I'm there?"
"Aria will explain the details. Simply put…"
"She said we need to investigate evidence to bring down the Minister of Military Affairs."
"…Bring down the Minister of Military Affairs?"
Albrecht looked thoroughly startled. Unlike him, Letisia seemed to have roughly expected it and reacted more calmly.
"I wondered what she was thinking going back to the Empire, but it was that after all?"
"Hero Karna provided the information."
"…Hero Karna?"
Letisia furrowed her brow slightly.
"If he knew, that means the Shah Zar Kingdom knows that information too…"
"…There must be a lot of spies inside the Empire."
"Hah."
Letisia let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
As the talk drifted into political intrigue, Albrecht felt a little dizzy. He had never done anything like this. As an ordinary young man in his twenties, he had never gotten mixed up in political schemes.
"Anyway, we can think about that later… the urgent thing for us is that we have to bring Erinn back."
Freya pointed toward the front of the battle line.
"Do you see the clouds moving over there?"
"Yes. But why are the clouds moving so fast? It's like something is pushing through them…"
"We just can't see it, but there's an enormously huge monster over there. Huge enough to reach the clouds… as big as a mountain."
"What?"
To the puzzled Letisia, Freya explained what she had heard from Karna. Then Caesius, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
"I see what they've done."
"Seems like you're thinking the same as me."
Mersius said the same. At the two dragons' reactions, Freya asked.
"Do you know something?"
"It's the unique magic of Magic Legion Commander Arcel. It eliminates sound and presence, and makes the form invisible. It even temporarily reduces weight to an extreme degree. That's why the ground doesn't rumble when it walks."
"I know it that way too. That's how the Magic Legion can move the massive Obelisks around without a sound… my father told me that before."
It was essentially a superior version of the invisibility magic Gergius had previously used for the Oblivion Legion.
"The clouds being pushed aside is because the thing is real, so colliding with objects is unavoidable. If you put a rock in front of it, it would simply get pushed. It couldn't crush it by stepping on it, since its weight is reduced."
"…So that's what it was."
Freya nodded slightly.
"The one silver lining is that Heroes chosen by Holy Relics can see it. Since you said that phenomenon is magic, the blessing of the Holy Relics seems to dispel such magical deceptions. That's why Hero Karna has sent support requests to the other Heroes as well, and we need to bring Erinn back quickly too."
"…Hey."
Albrecht said while looking at the sky where the clouds were scattering.
"Yes?"
"If that's nothing other than a magical effect, then I just need to dispel it, right?"
"…It's already activated magic. Wouldn't that be difficult?"
"It's true the effect is weaker on already activated magic, but…"
If the explanation he had just heard was everything, there was a very high chance that mana was continuously circulating around the thing in an activated form. It had to maintain the invisibility and eliminate sound and presence without pause.
"Magic like that has to keep circulating mana, right? The target under the magic is moving and doing things, so the magic has to keep being maintained and can't just sit still—from what I know."
"That's right. You've learned well."
When Letisia affirmed, Albrecht felt confident. Just as Agresia had told him.
Auxiliary-type magic performed excellently, but because it needed to circulate, it could not take effect against mana-eating monsters like Mana Eaters… and she had said Albrecht's mana could produce a similar result.
If Albrecht's mana, which bound mana itself, interfered with that precise circulation, the cycle would break. Small cracks would grow larger until the magic was eventually dispelled.
"Then…"
"Let's do this."
Albrecht proposed.
"Clara, you go to the Empire and join up with Aria. Bring Erinn back."
"Then what about you, Albrecht?"
"I'll stay here and hold that huge thing off with the people on the front lines. Looking at how Karna judged that multiple Heroes are needed, immediate subjugation is impossible—but buying time should be doable."
Albrecht pointed at the sky.
"It's already come that far. If we go fetch Erinn without buying time like this… I can't be sure we can return before it tramples the front lines."
"That's true, actually. So I asked Hero Karna what he was going to do about it, and he said he'd handle that part himself…"
"Can he?"
"…It'll be hard."
"Right. So if I make that thing's form visible… then we can all pin down its feet together, right? While Clara rescues Aria and Erinn, I dispel the magic and buy time here—that's the right call, I think."
At Albrecht's opinion, everyone nodded slightly in agreement.
"…We just reunited after so long, and we have to separate again?"
Clara spoke a bit discontentedly. She seemed to dislike being the only one separating again. Albrecht smiled slightly at her.
"Just go and come back quickly."
"Even so…"
"Clara."
Albrecht lowered his head slightly and lightly pressed his lips to Clara's forehead.
"!?"
"…!"
At that sight, Letisia and Freya flinched in surprise, while Mersius remained surprisingly as calm as Caesius. Of course, the most startled of all was Clara.
Albrecht lightly stroked her hair and whispered.
"Having to separate again is really disappointing for me too, but this is something we absolutely have to do."
"…"
"When you come back and things are resolved, let's do a little more then. Of course… if you're okay with it."
At his whisper, Clara's face flushed bright red. She was not so innocent as to miss the meaning of "do a little more."
"……Okay."
She nodded slightly, and Albrecht smiled lightly as he stepped back.
"Then let's move as discussed. Clara, go to Lady Sharti and ask for the teleport. We'll talk with the front-line command."
"Come to think of it… before I knew it, Albrecht is taking command."
"What are you talking about, Freya."
Albrecht chuckled.
"Did you forget? I was the party's commander. With Erinn gone right now, it's right that I take command."
"What?……Albrecht, that means…"
Albrecht looked at Clara, who seemed a little surprised.
"Clara, sorry I couldn't tell you in advance. I… want to return to the party."
Clara spoke as if she had been waiting for it.
"It's fine. I was waiting for when you'd want to come back too… I never completely let the party go."
"So you felt the same way."
Albrecht made a bitter smile, thinking he should have decided sooner.
Hearing the two of them, Freya smiled softly.
"Erinn and Aria will be very happy too. Welcome back, Albrecht, Clara."
Albrecht nodded slightly.
"…Alright. Then let's move quickly. This is a race against time."
"Yeah."
"Yes."
"Huh?"
Ser-Aria, who had been waiting in Obern and had laid down mana there to serve as the coordinates for the teleportation magic, was a little surprised to see that only Clara had arrived.
"Why did you come alone, Clara?"
"The plan changed."
Clara explained to Ser-Aria what had happened. Hearing it, Ser-Aria burst out laughing.
"Puhaha! That Albrecht guy—he's pretty reckless."
"Reckless as it is, Albrecht's words are right. That was the most efficient and stable play."
"Yeah, well… doesn't matter."
Ser-Aria chuckled.
"Of course it would have been better with more people, but if you're here, it'll be fine."
"…So where do we need to investigate?"
"Here."
Ser-Aria held out a list to Clara.
"Find the trading companies on this list that actually exist. We need to find out who they traded weapons with."
"…And after finding out?"
"Get testimony and find evidence."
Ser-Aria spoke very simply and clearly.
"Evidence that the Minister of Military Affairs was secretly raising a private army. If we get testimony from the trading company that distributed the arms and secure the weapon transaction records, even that Minister of Military Affairs won't be able to talk his way out of it."
"…Is the occupied place okay? They might have noticed that the illegal private army training facility was seized."
"We're keeping information from leaking outside for now. We can't hide it forever, but it'll take a while for the ducal house to notice."
Clara asked.
"How long do you think we can hide it?"
"It depends on how quickly the ducal house does inspections… at longest, maybe four days from now?"
"Four days…"
"Not enough?"
At Ser-Aria's question, Clara shook her head slightly.
She was currently the most outstanding among active thieves. With a list already prepared for her, gathering information…
"It's enough."
Four days? Two days would be plenty.