Anxiety (5)
My sister, who had suddenly bolted ahead, came to a halt just as abruptly.
“Is something there?”
She gave no answer. She simply crouched and carefully examined the ground.
“What’s wrong?”
I pressed her when she still didn’t reply, then looked for myself at whatever she had found.
“Huh?”
These were footprints. Human footprints, horseshoe prints… and the tracks of wagon wheels.
This was a very big deal. If it had only been horseshoe prints, I wouldn’t have worried so much. I would have shrugged it off as monsters roaming about. But human footprints and wagon tracks were different.
What did this mean?
It meant people had come here. Into the dangerous Forest of Delusion!
Worse, the tracks led deeper into the forest. What did that imply? Several possibilities sprang to mind. And when I connected them to how restless the forest had been lately…
“Don’t tell me people drove the monsters out?”
That would explain the forest’s agitation.
It was like a chain of dominoes. Monsters pushed out of their territory by humans would invade another group’s territory, fight, and the losers would be shoved onward in turn. As the cycle repeated, the entire monster ecosystem would fall into chaos.
A literal domino effect… one that could be called the harbinger of a Monster Wave.
“An artificial Monster Wave?”
Sister Mary reacted to my muttered words.
“A Monster Wave?”
“Ah—those haven’t happened in recent times, have they?”
I gave her a brief explanation of Monster Waves.
“Habitats and territories keep collapsing one after another until the monsters abandon their homes in a mass exodus.”
When that scale snowballs, it becomes a Monster Wave.
Nowadays the monsters’ range had shrunk and the territories claimed by humans were constantly being cleared, so the phenomenon was no longer seen. But records said that three or four hundred years ago, at least, it had been fairly common.
“I’ve only ever read about them myself.”
Could the Lindel Kingdom have caused this?
I tried to figure out why they would deliberately trigger a Monster Wave.
“Hmm…”
“Isn’t this serious?”
“Yes, it is serious. But it shouldn’t be an immediate problem. Right now the chaos is still building.”
There was also a chance a Monster Wave wouldn’t form at all. If the first pack driven from its territory was too weak to start the domino chain, nothing would come of it…
But if this was deliberate, planned sabotage, they would have wrecked countless monster territories.
“And we have no idea how large the scale is.”
Why? Why would they do something like this?
In that instant, lightning struck inside my head. I had grasped the reason. It was an utterly vicious, underhanded method.
They would send a Monster Wave toward the village we lived in—no, toward the Varga Kingdom—to sow chaos. If the wave came this way, the troops stationed in the Meyer Territory, that is, along the border, would have to move to deal with the monsters.
Then Lindel’s powerful cavalry would smash through the weakened border.
I also recalled what had happened in the capital. If chaos broke out there at the same time? Reinforcements would be delayed while they tried to restore order. In the time they bought, Lindel would ravage countless lands and villages.
No—with a plan of this scale, they wouldn’t stop at mere plunder. They would try to seize territory itself.
Then what would become of our village?
“Julian?”
The more I imagined what would happen if that came to pass, the more terrified I became.
“Julian!”
“Ah?!”
Only then did I hear Sister Mary calling me.
“S-sorry.”
“It’s all right. What were you thinking about?”
Sister Mary still hadn’t caught on to what I had realized. I hesitated over whether I should explain it or not.
My fears might be groundless.
But I thought the possibility was high.
“Hmm…”
This wasn’t something I could keep fretting over alone. I had to tell them. I explained the scenario I had imagined to my sister and Sister Mary.
“You’re saying they would deliberately trigger a Monster Wave to create chaos, then launch a military invasion into the gap?”
“Yes. Considering what happened in the capital as well, the schemes they pulled there around the same time might have been meant to stir up enough confusion that reinforcements couldn’t be sent.”
Sister Mary’s expression grew grave.
“If what you say is true, Julian, it all fits together perfectly.”
“I hope it’s nothing more than baseless worry… but it looks very likely.”
This was truly serious. The fallout if we ignored it would be far, far too great to brush aside lightly.
“We have to report this.”
“I suppose we do, don’t we?”
The ideal solution would be to slaughter the ones pulling the strings and stop the Monster Wave. The problem was that it wouldn’t be easy.
The Forest of Delusion was a buffer zone belonging to no nation. In other words, if they claimed they had only been clearing monsters for their own safety, we would have no grounds to object.
“If either possibility is a problem, then preparing for it is the right course.”
What was my sister thinking?
“They’re coming.”
“Huh?”
My sister drew her new sword. And from ahead—no, from deeper in the forest—people were emerging.
“Who goes there?!”
They had spotted us as well and reacted. I quickly scanned them. Their attire was subtly different from ours. There were similarities, but their clothes were designed for free movement and matched as a uniform set.
They didn’t look like mercenaries.
More than ten of them were mounted, and counting the rest, there had to be at least fifty. The wagons were loaded with monster corpses.
Monster subjugation? Something felt off. Their gear was far too well-equipped for a simple monster hunt. They weren’t adventurers. Soldiers—yes, they gave off the feel of soldiers.
“Tch, kill them!”
We hadn’t said a word. Why would they say something like that?
“Sister!”
Sister Mary swiftly cast a blessing, and I layered a different one so they wouldn’t overlap. Then I readjusted my grip on my spear.
Powerful mana surged from my sister’s blade, and she cut down a charging cavalryman—horse and all. I didn’t like killing people… but they had moved to kill us first. I couldn’t afford to go easy on an enemy like that.
I coated my spear with a sharp wind spell and swung. The wind magic launched along the spear’s arc and raked across horses and riders alike.
I knocked aside weapons flying toward me with the spear while preparing my next spell. Behind me, Sister Mary used minor Holy Magic to harass and bind the enemy’s feet. As for my sister…
She was overwhelmingly strong. Darting this way and that with lightning speed, she cut down foes, dropped them, and drove straight into the heart of their formation.
“Sister! Don’t do anything reckless!”
There must have been a Knight Class among the enemy as well; my sister’s advance suddenly stalled. This was dangerous. To help her, I shifted the spear to my left hand and drew my sword as well. I swung spear and sword like a madwoman, holding back the enemies charging me, then used magic to split their ranks.
“Earth Flip.”
My favorite spell. With it I threw their main force into disarray.
“Damn it, take out the mage first!”
Already ten horses lay sprawled around us. This was no time to stand still…!
I dropped three successive lightning bolts nearby. The people who had been closing in flinched at the sudden strikes.
I was worried about my sister.
Still, thanks to the blessings, she wasn’t losing her fight against another Knight Class. No—judging by the way she was cutting down the surrounding soldiers, she was actually dominating.
Sister… had she always been this strong?
Anyway, this was no time to gawk. Enemies who had lost their mounts but survived were charging Sister Mary and me. I blocked them with sword and spear, cast magic, and was so busy my head spun.
“Julian!”
Sister Mary worked her Holy Magic furiously to support me. Even so, I couldn’t block or dodge every attack.
The battle did not last long. Because we showed no mercy, the enemy’s numbers steadily dwindled.
My sister briefly showed signs of fatigue, but we had two Holy Magic users on our side. We immediately restored her stamina and healed her wounds so she could keep fighting.
“Sister! Get ready to finish it!”
Hearing my voice, my sister pulled back and took a stance for a wide swing. The enemy Knight Class’s eyes went round. He seemed to be weighing whether to exploit an opening or defend.
At that point, it was already over.
I used Holy Magic—sacred chains to bind the enemy.
Clank-clank, the sound of metal chains rang out. He noticed and tried to move, but his reaction was a fraction too late. One instant. I only needed one instant of restraint to succeed.
In a flash the chains wrapped his arms and legs. He tried to tear them apart with mana and raw strength, but it was already finished. The moment he was bound, it was over.
Slash.
My sister’s swiftly swung blade took his head. A fountain of blood sprayed into the air. With their leader dead, the remaining enemies’ morale plummeted.
We finished off every last one of them except a single survivor. It was a cruel act… but they had attacked first. I left my exhausted sister in Sister Mary’s care and set about interrogating the captive.
“You. Why did you go into the forest?”
“Eek!”
“If you want to live, you’d better answer properly.”
I brought my blood-smeared sword close to his throat. Seeing the gleaming blade, he trembled in terror.
“Answer.”
“I-I don’t…”
So he refused to talk? I spun the spear in my left hand into a reverse grip and drove it down hard. Beneath the spear tip was the man’s thigh…
“Aaaargh!”
He screamed as the spear pierced his leg.
“Answer. Now.”
“I-I don’t know!”
Tormenting a person was deeply painful. I was doing all of this to protect the village. If the worst-case scenario I had imagined came true? It wouldn’t just be the village in danger. Young Master Maximilian, who was guarding the border, would be in danger too.
So I steeled my heart.
This time I drove the sword in my right hand deep into his abdomen. The pain must have been severe; he made choking, gurgling sounds. When I yanked the embedded blade free, blood spattered.
It was a harrowing sight. Even so, I had to do it.
I healed the wounds in his thigh and belly with Holy Magic. Not a gentle healing—a rough, violent one.
“Uuugh…”
The man looked as if he wanted to pass out, but I kicked him to keep him conscious.
“What were you doing in the forest?”
My patience was reaching its limit. If he had just spoken quickly, I could have wrapped this up roughly. Because he kept his mouth shut, I was forced to do things I didn’t want to do.
After I stabbed and healed him again and again, his mouth finally opened.
He claimed he didn’t know the details, but what he explained matched my expectations.
Their purpose had been to go deep into the forest and indiscriminately provoke the monsters to create chaos.
Hearing that, irritation flared and I cut the man’s throat.
“Ha… this is the worst…”
They had been aiming for exactly the nightmare scenario I had imagined.
“Juli, you did well.”
Having recovered her stamina, my sister patted my shoulder.
“Sister Mary, you heard that?”
“Yes, I heard.”
“My worst assumption was correct.”
“But we stopped them.”
This time we had stopped them by chance. Or rather, we had merely cleaned up after the fact.
“Let’s head back and report the information.”
This wasn’t something that would be solved by fretting alone. We needed to return at once and inform Priest Daniel and the Instructor… Ah! I had to tell Young Master Maximilian as well.