Chapter 6
Chapter 6:
Every last member of the Demon Race deserves to die. Every Dark Sorcerer who has allied with the Demon Race deserves to die just as much. And anyone connected to those Dark Sorcerers deserves to be wiped out without exception.
That was the vow I had made upon seeing a child in a village the Demon Race had suddenly invaded.
In the child's hand was clutched the hand of its mother—severed at the wrist.
And that day, I had failed to protect even that child.
***
"He—ah, no. Vincent? What are you thinking so hard about?"
"……."
"Ow!"
The gathering place of the Black Night, obtained from killing the Demonic Spirit.
'I sat down for a quick rest in a nearby tree and ended up dozing off, it seems.'
An unpleasant memory had surfaced. Seeing Lucy hovering around in front of me for no reason put me in a sour mood, so I flicked her on the forehead.
"Let's get moving—it's time."
"Okay…."
The old Imperial Palace of the Empire had been an abandoned site for roughly 300 years, ever since a conflict between the church and the imperial administration.
Originally, the Imperial Palace had a temple dedicated to the Goddess within its grounds. That was because the first Emperor of Levanheart had himself been a Holy Man blessed by the Goddess.
The problem arose when the 3rd Emperor of Levanheart and the Pope of that era became adversaries.
That religion was interfering in politics through the temple. That placing the Goddess's temple within a secular Imperial Palace was an act of sacrilege.
The 2 sharply opposed positions continued to clash without either side yielding, and it ultimately ended with the church declaring its independence and proclaiming the Holy Land that would become the foundation of the Holy Kingdom.
"Didn't the 3rd Emperor say a curse would take root in a temple the Goddess had left, so he had the Imperial Palace rebuilt entirely from scratch?"
"I think it was wasteful—but then, it's not a claim without any basis."
"You're familiar with the concept of waste, Vincent?"
Thwack!
"Ow!"
"…Because it's common for curses to take hold in objects and places where a spirit has dwelled and then departed."
"Damn… ah, I know that. Wasn't it called the Vacant Seat Theory?"
The theory that when something departs from an object or place it had dwelt within, a spiritual vacancy remains—and impure things are drawn easily to fill that void.
It was, in fact, a principle the Demon Race sometimes exploited when meddling in the mortal realm.
'I just never expected Dark Sorcerers to be using it in the old Imperial Palace, of all places.'
Dark Sorcerers were, to put it plainly, vermin who didn't even qualify as proper mages.
Had they been mages who studied the discipline properly, they would be called dark mages.
The word "sorcerer" as used here combined the character for demon—as in the Demon Race—with the word for sorcery. In other words, they were brats who, without any real contemplation or training to grow stronger, simply threw tantrums begging the Demon Race to make them powerful.
Crack— as my fist tightened, Lucy walking behind me flinched.
"B—but how are you planning to find the entrance? If they've been using it as a base of operations, they'll have it hidden away very thoroughly."
"……."
Thunk—
I came to a stop at a reasonable distance from the fortress, drove the Holy Sword into the ground, closed my eyes, and focused.
Whoosh—
The night air flowed across my skin.
Sharpened senses. The air, the sounds, the mana flowing over them—all of it stimulated my perception.
…It was one of the tracking arts of the Bow Master, learned alongside Serin.
At the time, Serin had been delighted, saying she'd learned something remarkable herself. Of course, my proficiency had far surpassed hers before long.
"It's that way. Let's go."
"Hm? Wait, what did you just do?"
"……."
I glanced back at Lucy briefly. It was genuinely impressive how she kept on chattering away no matter how many times she got hit.
"Wh—why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing—let's go…."
The path leading underground beneath the fortress was, surprisingly, located on the exterior rather than the interior. Beneath the crumbled ruins, I could feel a subtle flow of mana tracing a path.
I tapped the scabbard against the spot where the mana was most concentrated.
At that, the pile of rubble stones rose into the air, revealing a staircase descending below.
"Wow~ It actually worked."
"Hah…."
A sigh escaped on its own. The method of constructing the door was a dead ringer for the sealing arts the Demon Race used.
'It's the exact same mana arrangement I saw on the Battlefront.'
Thanks to that, even though I was seeing this door for the first time, I could open it immediately.
I pressed my fingers against my aching temples, gave Lucy a single nod, and headed down.
I couldn't tell when or how deeply they had allied with the Demon Race—whether this method was something the Demon Race had taught the Dark Sorcerers, or the other way around.
The fact that there were this many people in the world who needed killing gave me a headache.
After descending the stairs for a good while, an old-fashioned iron door of considerable thickness appeared, and voices came through from the other side.
"Name."
"Vincent."
"Token."
"Token?"
I had disguised my appearance as Vincent using Illusion, a type of glamor magic. I thought even if there was an inspection, this much would be enough to pass through quickly.
'Should I have brought a token along.'
"…It was taken from me."
"Without a token, I cannot let you in."
Hah. Nothing ever flows smoothly even once.
Just as I was reaching for the hilt with no other option—
"One moment—he's under my escort."
"…The Scales of Ash?"
Lucy pushed me back and stepped forward, showing her Scales of Ash identification badge and giving a nod.
"The Scales of Ash—we're cooperating partners, aren't we?"
The person on the other side of the door briefly extended a hand through a small slot, motioning to hand over the badge. Lucy placed it on the outstretched hand, and after it was taken away briefly, it was returned not long after.
"…Enter."
Remarkably, that absurd little act of theater got the door open with ease. I kept my expression neutral and followed behind Lucy as we stepped inside.
"I'm out of the slave role now, it seems."
Lucy smirked as if pleased about something. I watched her for a moment, then shook my head at the headache it gave me and spoke.
"They seem to be more deeply involved than I expected."
"…Headquarters is probably not connected."
Lucy deliberated briefly, then shook her head as if that couldn't possibly be the case. Honestly, given that they let us in simply because of the Scales of Ash connection, the odds were high that headquarters was involved too—but…
'Lucy must have her own circumstances.'
Seeing her genuinely worried about the Scales of Ash, I chose not to say it. There was no need to unsettle her unnecessarily. Of course, if evidence surfaced, I would wipe out every last one of them—roots and all.
Stepping inside, what came into view was quite a sight.
A massive underground cavern stretched out before us, with chains and cages hanging in clusters throughout.
And—
"Hold it in. Hold it in."
Inside the iron cages were slaves whose condition was clearly poor even at a glance.
…And among them, there were no small number of children.
Sensing that my anger was becoming increasingly difficult to contain, Lucy grabbed my arm and tried to calm me. At that, I barely held onto the thread of my reason, clenched my back teeth together, and gave a single nod.
"Let's go."
Lucy nodded, dripping cold sweat.
The cavern was open and hollow, so there was little risk of losing our way. At the center between the cages lay a spot where the ruins of the collapsed temple remained.
Using that as a focal point, a crowd of figures draped in conspicuously black robes had gathered en masse.
I found myself wondering why evil organizations were always so fond of black robes.
'…Around 30 who appear to be Dark Sorcerers.'
They had smashed the head off the Goddess statue that had originally stood in the temple, placed a black crystal orb in its place, and were gathered in a circle around it, speaking about something.
As I walked along to blend in with the group, Lucy nudged my arm and whispered.
"Aren't you worried about your Divine Power being detected?"
"Don't worry. The very first thing I practiced on the Battlefront was concealing my Divine Power."
In truth, during my early, inexperienced days, I had come close to dying several times at the hands of Demon Race troops who had tracked my Divine Power. Thanks to that, I now possessed the skill to conceal not just my Divine Power, but every trace of mana and killing intent I carried—completely and perfectly.
"—The grand plan is ready."
"It'll be starting soon, heh heh heh."
"Such a long time this has taken…!"
'…So what is the plan, exactly?'
The sight of them all cackling and laughing among themselves made me furious enough that I wanted to start by cutting off all their legs, but I held back for now—on the assumption they'd say something soon.
"Oh! He shall come…!"
Listening in, the boredom made me yawn involuntarily. I hadn't expected it to keep going with nothing but dull, pedantic exclamations after that.
My patience had finally reached its limit and I was about to draw my sword—
"…You've lost quite a bit of dignity since I last saw you, Vincent. Have you gone astray from consorting with women?"
The most elderly-looking among them—a hunched old woman—happened to make direct eye contact with me at just that moment.
"Er… well. Something like that."
"…I see. Is that why you brought the woman beside you?"
I stepped on Lucy's foot to signal her as she was about to pull a face, then shrugged.
"She's a Scales of Ash Branch Head. I thought she'd be useful."
"Is that so… I don't know who she is, but you've gone to the trouble of bringing a Scales of Ash Branch Head. You've worked hard."
Snap—
The old woman flicked her fingers as she stroked her chin, and every Dark Sorcerer in the cavern simultaneously pulled out their staffs and fixed their gazes on me.
"…It seems I was found out."
"It's laughable that you thought you wouldn't be. To impersonate Luke, you should have at least come knowing his real name, shouldn't you?"
"Ah—so Vincent was an alias. You knew from the start and opened the door anyway—is that how it is?"
"Well, we won't kill you painfully, at least. The Scales of Ash Branch Head has value."
Lucy looked at me with a tearful face, as if asking what I was going to do now.
Honestly, I found it a little amusing. To think that people dim enough to be born human and still choose to ally with the Demon Race were capable of this level of reasoning. I had assumed they shared about the same intelligence as dung beetles rooting around in filth.
"Luke still hasn't managed to find out where the Hero is—honestly, what has he been doing all this time."
"The Hero's whereabouts?"
"That's right—the only variable in this plan is the Hero."
"Hmm…."
I flicked my fingers in imitation of the old woman. Getting a satisfying snap out of it turned out to be harder than I'd expected, so no real sound rang out.
"…! The Hero!"
In its place, the cry of one of the small fry who had spotted me revealing my true appearance filled the cavern.
"Hero! Hero!!" "Please get us out!!" "Hero…!!"
The ones who reacted fastest were the people locked in the iron cages. A thin thread of hope flooded into eyes that had been nearly dead, and they screamed in something close to a shriek.
"…Well now. I hadn't anticipated the Hero himself paying us a personal visit."
"Yeah—I didn't anticipate it either. That you'd be here."
"The fact that you've revealed yourself means—what? That you've come to negotiate?"
Then, after a brief moment, all the Dark Sorcerers except the old woman began to murmur in unison, and chains made of violet mana rose up from the floor and bound Lucy's arms and legs.
A simple curse, but one with the characteristic of growing stronger the more people supplied it with mana. Despite their shallow magical understanding, Dark Sorcerers acquired large quantities of magical energy by offering sacrifices, so in sheer hardness alone, those chains were a work of art.
"H—Hero!"
Lucy seemed genuinely frightened at this point, her eyes welling with tears as she turned to look at me.
Chains capable of immobilizing a mid-level Sword Expert. The level of the cursework was fairly impressive—I found myself mildly intrigued.
"No. I was thinking it's time to stop with these pointless riddles."
Crack—
But they weren't enough to bind a Sword Master.
***
Lucy was strong in her own right. And her instincts and judgment were genuinely sharp.
Because of that, she prided herself on her ability to accurately gauge the strength of others.
She had assumed Leon was still on the weaker end among Sword Masters. Just reaching that level at his age was already staggering enough as a display of talent.
But watching the scene unfolding before her eyes right now, Lucy understood that every one of her assumptions had been wrong.
'Every last one of them was off. What is that… that's a monster.'
It wasn't any complex sequence of movements.
Leon simply walked. Unhurriedly, as if nothing in the world could obstruct him.
That alone was enough to shatter the chains that Lucy herself could not have budged by a single inch.
Then he drew his sword, gripped it firmly, and took the stance of a man about to cut.
Inside the palm of his hand that gripped the hilt, it felt as though the very air—no, space itself—was being drawn inward.
Lucy's eyes could not follow the swing. Only the stance just before, and the form just after.
Those were the only 2 things she could properly perceive.
Something was cut—whatever it was, it was cut.
And then….
Both knees of every single Dark Sorcerer split apart horizontally.
"Gyaaaargh!!!!" "Nnngh…!!" "Guh—!!!!!" "Aaaah!!!!"
Only Leon and Lucy remained standing. Every Dark Sorcerer crumpled like a tower with its bottom pillar knocked out.
"Hero—!!! Nnngh…!!"
The old woman who had been swaggering with confidence in their numbers rolled across the floor, staring at Leon with bloodshot eyes and screaming in a fit of desperate rage.
"Lucy."
"Y—yes?!"
"Do you have a favorite number?"
"Umm… 3…?"
"Got it."
Leon nodded.
The mere intention to swing his sword caused a brilliant surge of aura to swirl through the entire cavern with blinding force.
"3—exactly 3 will be spared."
The fury he had suppressed for so long came pouring out.