Preparations for the Subjugation
A single blow, carrying the weight of a whole life.
Eric’s strike tore through the thick Magi Canaria had wrapped around herself and reached her at last.
...Could I do that again?
No. Impossible.
Eric shook his head.
He had charged in with nothing but the conviction that he had to connect, and when he came to his senses, he had already landed the hit.
How he had unleashed that swordsmanship, how he had managed to reach Canaria—Eric himself had no idea.
“...Hah!”
Even so, one thing was certain.
Even if it had been nothing more than a miracle piled on top of miracle, once he had managed to land a blow, there was no reason he couldn’t do it again.
Realizing that his limits did not end here was the greatest reward of all.
Of course, the price had not been light.
“Huff... huff... If you’ve got time to laugh...! Then get down here and run, will you, huff...?! You can’t just keep... huff... running like that!”
“Sorry. I’m out of strength.”
“Aw, come on...!”
The first price he paid was simple: he had thrown everything he had into a trance-like frenzy, and now he didn’t have the strength left to twitch a finger.
Eric hadn’t expected things to end up like this, and he had started thinking it was all over, but one of his subordinates had noticed his condition, hoisted him onto his back, and run for their lives—thanks to that, he was still alive.
Swish!
“Waaah! The captain’s lost his mind!”
“Ack! Don’t yell in my ear! Huff... Don’t give me that nonsense about not having the strength to lift a finger— you’re practically overflowing with it, huff!”
“Huh? You little bastard, have you been living a life of blind trust? Look at this arm and tell me I’m overflowing with strength!”
“Aw, move that orc leg out of the way! I can’t see in front of me!”
“What? Orc leg? Orc leeeeg?!”
“Is that really the important part right now? Hurry up and do something about that thing! Whoa!”
Sensing a chill down his spine, the man instinctively hurled himself aside.
He nearly fell because he had changed direction too sharply while running, but somehow he managed to keep his balance.
In the end, his choice had been the right one.
Ka-ka-ka-ka!
Black Magi swept through the place where the man had been just moments before.
From the jagged, charred ground, the lingering traces of Magi rose in a creeping haze.
The man had no time to feel relieved that he’d escaped death before he was leaping and dodging the attacks flying in from behind.
Canaria, who had first held back and only reacted passively even when attacked, changed the instant Eric’s sword wounded her.
Running from Canaria as she poured out Magi with dead, empty eyes.
That was the second price Eric had paid.
Though, to be honest, it wasn’t really a price so much as the successful fulfillment of his original goal—to lure her elsewhere.
Still, when he saw that Magi had shredded through dozens of trees and had yet to lose any of its momentum, he felt no sense of accomplishment whatsoever.
Glance.
“Hmm.”
Eric, slung over his subordinate’s back, looked behind them.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Canaria’s walking speed was about the same as before, so she wasn’t catching up to their all-out sprint.
That was the only reason the man had been able to keep dodging her attacks.
“Well, if the captain had been in her right mind, this distance would’ve been nothing at all. Lucky, right?”
“If she had been in her right mind, we never would’ve needed to do this in the first place!”
“...Oh. You’re actually pretty smart.”
If Canaria had heard that, she would have clapped and said something like, So you recruited a guy like that as a subordinate? Amazing.
“Right side.”
But the only thing falling on them now was not applause—it was Magi.
At Eric’s words, the man turned without a shred of doubt.
Trusting both instinct and Eric’s guidance, he successfully made it out of the forest.
There, in an open clearing so wide he could see the horizon in the distance, the man caught his breath and asked Eric,
“Will this really work?”
“Of course it will! Naturally.”
“Ah, so the boss really does have a plan.”
“Well, if it doesn’t work, we all die. No big deal, right?”
The man’s eyes turned icy in an instant.
Of course. Naturally.
Why had I trusted this guy for even one second?
Should I just dump him here and run on my own?
While the man was seriously considering it, Eric spoke again.
“I was joking. It’ll definitely work.”
“R-right. Of course it will.”
“...You little—”
Eric glared at him with bulging eyes.
How dare this subordinate show such a shameless attitude toward a superior as lofty as the sky!
Back in my day, I couldn’t even imagine doing something like that. How dare he challenge a superior of the heavens?
What a sorry world it had become.
As the saying went, a frog never remembered the time it was a tadpole, and Eric clicked his tongue as he looked down at the man carrying him.
He wanted nothing more than to get up right then and there and give the fellow a proper scolding, but...
Unfortunately, Eric was in no condition to move without the man’s help.
...Tch. If only my body had been fine.
With tears prickling at the corners of his eyes, Eric said in a trembling voice,
“...Ahem. If I’ve been unfair to you in any way, I apologize.”
“...What’s with that all of a sudden?”
“Nothing. I just thought that in times of crisis, we should stick together.”
“I’ve said this a few times now, but if you’ve got the strength to say useless things, get off my back. Carrying around some big black guy doesn’t exactly put me in the best mood.”
“...Hey! You think I like this?! I hate it too, damn it!”
“Then you can get down!”
“I don’t even have the strength to get down!”
It wasn’t as if Eric had any memory of abusing his subordinates, but from a subordinate’s point of view, the feeling of it could be very different.
Fearfully asking whether he might be abandoned, Eric read the man’s reaction and took comfort in the certainty that he wouldn’t be left behind.
...Though seeing him recoil in disgust did make Eric’s mood a little worse.
A little.
...Really, only a tiiiiny little bit.
“Honestly, I don’t buy it.”
“Buy what?”
“That bastard. That bastard. If it had been possible to keep him trapped in this clearing, we should’ve stopped him ages ago. Doesn’t it seem weird to drag him all the way out here now?”
“Since when have those mage bastards ever done anything understandable? Why bring it up now?”
“...Fair enough. That’s true too.”
Because he was a mage.
That single word was enough to persuade the man.
The hatred for mages that had begun with Canaria had passed to Eric, and through Eric, to everyone else.
“And you can trust that guy.”
“...Boss, did you eat something bad? Or get brushed by Magi somehow...? Kgh, is it because I’m lacking that the boss has to...!”
“You’re making a damn spectacle of yourself.”
Eric nudged the man with one leg, some strength finally returning to it.
“He’s the most skilled mage I’ve ever seen.”
“...Boss, weren’t you from the Crimson Aegis Knights?”
“I was. Why?”
“Then maybe... he was from the royal magicians or something?”
“Didn’t your tone just get a little more respectful?”
“Pardon? Oh, no, don’t slander me. When have I ever said that? I’m not some rude person who goes around calling strangers this and that.”
“Oh, really.”
Had he greased his tongue or something?
His words were so slick and grandiose that they were positively obnoxious.
“He’s not a court mage.”
“Aw, seriously? You got me all worked up for nothing. Just wait until I see him next time. I’ll treat him to a bellyful of Ordo specialty dishes, I will.”
Even by rank alone, the mage who had come to see Eric stood at a level that couldn’t be compared with a mere court mage from Grasis.
The Arca Empire, which ruled over the Ardeena Continent.
How could one compare the being called a sage of that Arca Empire to a court mage of some small kingdom?
For Eric, who had personally seen and felt the magic that man unleashed on the battlefield, it was simply impossible.
...So what’s his angle?
But it was also true that he found it suspicious.
A man with that much ability and status had suddenly shown up and said he wanted to help.
Setting aside how he had found out in the first place, Eric had no idea what his real intentions were.
Maybe he’s using us as a shield.
If you kept heading east past Ordo, you’d reach Imperial territory.
If the captain were to step into Imperial territory like this, it’d become an absolute disaster.
Eric didn’t exactly like the Empire, but even so, the picture in his head was anything but pleasant.
Crack!
While Eric was busy turning the problem over in his head, the waist of a tree at the edge of the forest snapped in two.
With a thunderous boom, the dust rose and settled, and through it, a girl appeared.
It was a fair distance away, but Eric could still tell that a pair of pink eyes were staring straight at him.
“A woman with attachment issues isn’t really my type.”
“Which means if she didn’t have attachment issues, she would be your type?”
“...Hey, you little—”
You trying to send me straight to hell?
Eric glanced around before realizing that no one else had heard their conversation, and he let out a sigh of relief.
“Listen carefully. My type is women with fantastic bodies—full in all the right places, slim in all the right places—not some bland little kid like that.”
Whether it was his imagination or not, the instant he finished speaking, Canaria’s glare sharpened.
The man, half-listening to Eric’s excuse, bit down on his lip for no good reason.
“You’re going to be okay?”
“What now?”
“That person. She looks like someone you know, Boss.”
“... ”
Eric fell silent.
He had been calling her the captain so openly that he had never expected he could hide it.
After a brief silence, Eric spoke.
“I’d better be.”
If he wasn’t, that didn’t mean he could just leave her alone.
“She looks like she’d chase me to the end of hell. What can I do? That stubborn streak of hers hasn’t changed one bit.”
As they talked, they slowly backed away.
Canaria, in turn, moved forward little by little as she pursued them.
By the time Canaria, scattering black Magi around her, reached the exact center of the clearing—
“...!”
Flash!
The magic circle hidden in the clearing burst into blinding light.
Feeling the foul mana seeping up from the circle beneath her feet, Canaria narrowed her eyes viciously, and the Magi leaking from her body swelled violently.
But the magic circle completed itself faster than Canaria could make her move.
As the circle, embroidered with all manner of geometric patterns, finished forming, a massive silver barrier rose up in the clearing.
The man, staring at the sight with his mouth hanging open, muttered without thinking,
“...Got her—”
Kwaaaaang!
“Whoa?!”
“Ack!”
Before the words were even out, the barrier shook and spat out a deafening roar.
The man lost his balance in the violent tremor that seemed strong enough to shake the ground itself and fell over.
Eric, still strapped to his back, crashed to the ground as well.
“Ow... my back...”
Groaning while clutching his waist, Eric flopped flat onto the ground.
Unlike Eric, the man stared at the barrier with a tense expression and asked,
“Is it over?”
“Probably.”
Even after that, several more explosive crashes rolled out, along with sounds that seemed to be ripping something apart, but the barrier stood firm and unshaken.
Only then did the man finally slump down onto the ground with a sigh of relief.
---