The Summoning Circle
After the battle ended, Shuren stepped forward, and the tightly sealed gates swung open.
"Young master—!"
"Sir Bilders!"
A man who appeared to be in charge came scrambling out at a full run.
Bilders, was it?
Looks like a manor knight.
A manor knight—a knight who governed a village in the lord's stead. Something like a lord beneath a lord, if you will.
After a tearful reunion with Shuren, he approached us and offered his greetings.
"My apologies for earlier. Given the circumstances, we simply could not open the gates without due caution. I hope you will understand."
"Not at all."
"I hear you are from Falaon?"
"Yes. I am Khtun Falaon."
At my introduction, a spark of recognition lit the manor knight Bilders's eyes.
"Khtun… Well now. I truly would not have recognized you."
"You know me?"
"I took part in the last territorial war myself."
Ah. That would explain it.
That territorial war had been, when you got right down to it, this Saint Khtun's first sortie. Sir Valt had done the bulk of the heavy lifting, of course—but if this Khtun had not stopped that villain Zeke, who knows how things might have turned out.
I had been a legend that day.
Anyway.
"Please, come inside for now. You there! Show these soldiers to a place where they can rest!"
After issuing orders to his subordinates, he led us in.
I, the three knights, the territory mage Ren, and Brother James followed Bilders.
Even as we walked, Bilders never stopped talking.
"I was truly astonished. Just when it seemed we were about to fall without a fight, you rendered us the most tremendous aid."
"Ah, yes."
"And you are a necromancer? Remarkable. I once saw a wandering necromancer years ago, but he cannot begin to compare…"
Hmm. A bit of a chatterbox, this one.
Huh? Why?
Everything he said was perfectly correct—what was there to find noisy about it? Anyone who laid eyes on this Saint Khtun would have no choice but to react exactly like that.
"By the way, what was that holy power earlier?"
"Ah, the holy power…"
"Good heavens, so a priest was among you! That emblem—is it the Twelve Hour Church? Ohhh, the Twelve Hour Church, famed for its demon hunting—!"
Yes. Noisy.
The Ancestor was right. This fellow talked far too much.
"Sir Bilders, could we walk a little more quietly?"
"Ah, yes. Haha, I got a bit carried away."
Yes, you did look rather excited.
Still, a manor knight ought to carry himself with a touch more dignity.
Once Bilders fell silent, I was finally free to take a proper look at the village.
The name was… Boderan Village, was it?
It's fairly large.
Indeed it is.
Boderan was a village of considerable size. It did not quite reach the level of Palatus—the main town that housed the lord's castle—but it sat just one tier below, a middle-tier town, so to speak.
Which, of course, was why the lord had sent a manor knight to govern it.
For reference, villages too small even for a manor knight were called under-towns.
But a question lingered.
A village of this size… nearly fell?
The wooden palisade was solidly built, and the soldiers seemed reasonably numerous. The demon assault earlier had been vicious enough, true—but it had felt a touch short of what it would take to overrun a place like this.
I was still turning that over when—
"This is the manor house. There is much to discuss, but first let us settle your belongings and talk over a meal."
"Mm, very well."
I nodded without further comment.
Once we had more or less unpacked at the manor house, a servant approached.
"Bathwater has been prepared."
"Mm, thank you."
The "bathwater" was nothing more than a large wooden tub filled with hot water, but in this world even that much was a luxury reserved for the privileged classes.
A commoner bathing in hot water…? Unthinkable.
It was not that I was some classist snob—it was simply that firewood cost money, and heating water required firewood.
At any rate, sinking into the pleasantly hot water washed the fatigue of battle clean away.
And yet.
Something still feels off, doesn't it?
What does?
The demons' numbers were fierce enough earlier, but not so fierce that a village of this size should have been talking about falling.
Hmm.
The Ancestor considered for a moment, then nodded.
You are right. It was not quite that severe.
The reason was simple. The village was larger than we had expected, and from the inside the defenses looked quite solid as well.
And the troops?
The troops were not bad either.
Most were conscripts drawn from the villagers, but their numbers had been more than sufficient to drive off demons from atop a sturdy palisade.
And yet they had spoken of falling.
Well… I'll understand once I hear the story.
For the moment I set aside the question of Boderan's defensive strength. It was not a problem that fretting over now would solve.
My thoughts drifted naturally back to the battle just past, and even I had to admit it had been a performance that swelled the chest with grandeur.
We absolutely tore them apart.
…Deeply unpleasant as it is to look at, I cannot deny it this time.
How many demons had there been? I did not know. Easily several hundred, at least.
And those several hundred troops had been utterly shredded by me and the Valhalla Skeletons.
Of course, the ones who had shone brightest were Goltik and Brother Myuhan…
Brother Myuhan's performance in particular was extraordinary.
He had led the sword-and-shield skeletons and cut down the bulkier demons without a moment's hesitation. He truly had not spared his body in the slightest.
No doubt because he knew that so long as my mana held out, he could be resurrected without limit even if he died.
Brother Myuhan, who treated death as a mere inconvenience, had been nothing short of a demon-pulverizing machine!
But the greatest reason such a performance had been possible lay, as always, in the Vessel.
The expanded numbers and command capacity from 1.5 times the control power. The command capacity in particular had been remarkable.
I never noticed it during training…
But the moment battle began, that command capacity had shone. The forty-five Valhalla Skeletons had felt like a single colony sharing one algorithm, responding to one another with organic precision.
Rather than handling forty-five individuals one by one, it was more accurate to say the whole was a single undead entity.
"Mm. A legion."
Tsk.
My chest swelled with grandeur all over again.
More astonishing still was the fact that I had not even drawn on the Vessel's primary function—the mana reservoir.
If I were to amplify the Valhalla Skeletons' output with the mana of their core hearts, and then replenish the depleting core mana through the Vessel… what would happen?
I could not say for certain, but they would become demon-crushing war engines.
The thought filled me with pride.
But was there even an opponent that would require this super-genius Saint Khtun to go all-out?
I did not know.
How long I continued bathing amid those pleasant fantasies, I could not say.
"Young master, the meal is ready."
A servant announced that dinner had been prepared.
I climbed out of the tub and roughly dried myself off.
Now it was time to find out properly.
What was happening in this village of Boderan… and, beyond that, what the situation was in the Hadion Viscounty.
And at the table where we sat, the story I heard from the manor knight Bilders set my heart boiling.
"According to what our scouts recently ascertained, a magic circle that periodically summons demons has been discovered in a nearby old castle."
That was it.
Somewhere in the vicinity, there was a summoning circle that spewed forth demons.
A summoning circle that called forth demons.
What was so special about that?
Ordinarily… nothing particularly special.
The demons that had flooded the south during the great demon calamity had all passed through summoning circles, so the circles themselves were nothing unusual—at least not in the south.
But what we had seized upon was the word periodically.
"Periodically… meaning the summoning circle does not disappear, but continues to persist?"
Brother James's question was met with Bilders's calm reply.
"Yes. That is what the reports indicate."
"Mm… how is that possible…"
Brother James seemed struck speechless by the grim situation.
So was I.
A summoning circle that periodically spews out demons?
That meant those damned demons were, even at this very moment, pouring into Falaon's vassal territory—the Hadion Viscounty—through that circle!
As a wellspring of justice surged up from deep within my chest, Brother James mastered his dismay and spoke again.
"Have you ascertained its scale or the interval?"
"The scale… as the magic circle exists inside the old castle, we have not been able to assess it properly. The same is true of the interval. However, given that the demons attack on average once every twelve hours, I would estimate it is roughly that."
"And the scale of the assaults—same as earlier?"
"To be frank, earlier was on the lighter side. Ordinarily there are medium-class demons mixed in—the kind that can smash through a palisade. Three or four of them, typically."
So that was why.
That was why they had been bracing for a fall.
Apparently, whenever a medium-class demon appeared, the manor knight Bilders and his lieutenants would go outside the palisade to deal with it. Each time, it had cost them no small amount of trouble.
That fellow is lucky to still be alive.
Indeed.
On the other hand, I found myself looking at the talkative knight in a new light.
If he had cared only for his own safety, he could have abandoned this village and fled alone, and no one would have been able to stop him.
At any rate.
"As you can see, the situation is far from good… but I must set aside my shame and make a request of you."
"Please, speak."
The manor knight Bilders bowed his head at once.
"I beg you—destroy the summoning circle together with me. Boderan Village is the gateway connecting to Falaon. I must defend this village with my life."
"Sir Bilders…"
Shuren, the Hadion page who had been silent until now, found his eyes reddening.
The Ancestor was equally moved.
A fellow who cherishes his lord most dearly.
Is that so?
Yes. If he abandoned Hadion and fled, the nearest territory would be Falaon. Other territories are not so far either, but geographically, fleeing toward Falaon would be the wise choice.
In other words, Bilders intended to hold the escape route open for Viscount Hadion.
Seen that way, I could understand why he had neither abandoned the village nor even joined forces with another settlement.
Solely to keep the path of retreat open.
"I beg of you."
"Mm."
I took a moment to gather my thoughts.
Our role, after all, was to purge the demons and the cultists who summoned them. A periodically active demon-summoning circle was unexpected, but destroying that circle would hardly stray far from our purpose.
What mattered here, however, was none other than the opinion of Shuren, the Hadion page.
From Shuren's perspective, he might want to rush to the main town's defense at once.
So I looked at Shuren, and our eyes met immediately.
"Young Master Khtun, I beg you. Please help Boderan Village."
"It may delay our arrival at the main town. Are you certain that is acceptable?"
"If my father had prioritized his own safety, he would have abandoned the castle and fled long ago. What my father seeks to protect is not his own life, but this territory."
"Hmm."
So that greedy fellow had such a side to him?
Of course, there was no way to know for certain.
Shuren is still his son—he might simply be defending his father to move my heart.
But I decided not to think that way.
Why?
Because this is romance.
Lords and knights, staking their lives for their respective duties—the tales of heroes.
Was that not what fantasy was all about?
"The summoning circle—I will gladly destroy it for you."
Romance: approved.
And as I had said, Hadion was Falaon's vassal territory. Looking after one's retainers was a lord's duty and proper conduct.
