The Gourmet
Avon Franz was a man who had lived through the age of real war. The experiences of surviving battlefields since childhood had forged the Avon Franz of today. The Golden Lion of House Franz. The golden Franz. The one who forged victory and prosperity. The wars of conquest begun by Avon Franz’s father had ended in defeat against the Brams dynasty in their final confrontation. Not only Avon, but his father before him. The Franz bloodline had never been one to hunger for power. What they craved was war—and victory. The Franz lineage, savage to the point of barbarism. There had even been times when the bloodline itself nearly faced extinction due to problems of lust and succession. So they chose to restrain themselves. Never draw the sword first. Protect the people. Fulfill the duties of nobility. Thus the savage Franz clan earned respect, awe, and even faith. Their heir, Avon Franz, had inherited that bloodline in full. Born on the battlefield, raised on the battlefield. To suppress the savagery in his veins he upheld noble obligations, and to sate his desires he kept constant watch over neighboring territories. After all, if there was a just cause, he could draw his sword. The war in Muller had not been enough to fully relieve that stress, but the long-awaited conflict had at least offered some release. So had he grown careless? No. That was not it. Avon Franz reconsidered.
Nobles constantly reinforced their bodies with magic power. But if they truly poured everything into that reinforcement, daily life would become impossible. Maids and servants could not even stand near them, and the furniture—indeed the entire house—would be reduced to ruin. The intensity of reinforcement was never that extreme, yet they maintained just enough to allow immediate escalation depending on the situation. Reports from Franz had also been reviewed. A stealth-type large-class monster had appeared. Soldiers and knights had been stationed nearby, and Avon Franz himself had remained vigilant. Based on that information, he should have been even more sensitive to his surroundings than usual. Yet it had to be now, of all times.
“My lord!”
“Protect Lord Avon!”
“Assume defensive positions!”
“Medic!”
Avon Franz gripped his own shoulder and cut off his senses with magic power. Objectively assessing his condition, he looked ahead. It was black. Black and long. And above all, it had appeared without warning.
“Hah.”
—Drip, drip!
Blood from his shoulder soaked the ground. Should he curse his own foolishness for that brief moment of carelessness? Or praise the predator for being more capable than expected?
“Not bad.”
Avon’s lips twisted. The pain he had not felt in so long, he accepted as self-reproach. He had not been careless? He had been vigilant? “Mere excuses.”
“L-Lord Avon!”
He saw Grace’s maid approaching, her face deathly pale. The magic waves emanating from the maid’s hands carried traces of the Hemilion family. With a gesture, he signaled her to stop; the hesitant maid immediately retreated. Healing would help, but unfortunately there was no time.
“Grrraaah!”
Roughly twenty meters. A slender, elongated body. Scales covering its form and distinctive slit pupils. He could feel the magic power in his right arm, now swallowed inside its mouth, gradually fading.
“Lord Avon! Fall back!”
“We’ll buy you time!”
Most of the troops had been left in Muller, but the Golden Lion Knights who had followed him quickly formed a defensive line and rushed forward.
“Enough.”
“……Understood! Everyone, retreat! Do not hinder Lord Avon!”
“Fall back!”
At Avon’s command the knights withdrew at once. Had they been as capable as their commander they might have helped, but unfortunately they would only get in the way. In an instant the knights and soldiers—including the non-combatants, maids, and servants—retreated.
“……Hmph.”
Throughout it all, the creature that had been watching him remained silent, staring at Avon. The way it licked the blood from its lips while smacking its mouth resembled a gourmet savoring a delicacy.
“Ho. Gourmet. That suits you perfectly. Gourmet it is, then. So, did my flesh taste that good?”
Having stopped the bleeding from his torn shoulder with magic power, Avon rose to his feet.
“Grrraaah.”
“Hahaha. I thought I hadn’t been dulled by peace, that I was different from those other fools. But in the end I’m just another old man gone senile from peace.”
Golden magic power surged across Avon’s entire body. His disheveled hair whipped about, trailing golden afterimages, while his golden eyes ignited. —Ssssshhk! At the same moment the large-class monster he had named Gourmet began to move. Had it reacted to Avon’s movement? Its twenty-meter-long body shifted without a sound. Complete silence. Even while within Avon’s line of sight, its form gradually faded. He could feel even its magic presence growing faint.
“Oh no. That won’t do.”
It was not fleeing. This creature’s appetite was strong. The look in its eyes as it coveted his flesh told him it would target him again. So he had to end it here. If he let it escape and it followed him back to Franz, the monster would pursue him all the way into the city.
The magic power rising from Avon’s body gathered behind him, taking on a massive shape. The Golden Lion of House Franz. As though enraged by the wound inflicted upon its master, the golden lion’s eyes gleamed as it charged.
* * *
Large-class monsters were akin to natural disasters. Even the Black Wild Boar, considered the weakest among them, possessed an enormous frame, endless stamina, and hide so tough that only when countless knights banded together, risked their lives as bait to draw its attacks, and struck in coordinated assault could it finally be slain. Nobles could defeat them with relative ease, yet a single moment of carelessness could still mean death against a large-class monster. Then what would happen when a noble who had reached the level of a natural disaster as a human clashed with such a monster?
—Kwaaaaaaaaang!
When the two colossal beings collided, the air itself seemed to tear apart as a thunderous roar engulfed the area. Soldiers who had already retreated lost their balance from the shockwave and fell.
“Hurry back to the city and bring Lord Leoric!”
Among the remaining knights, those confident in their speed stripped off their armor and sprinted away at once. The rest led the civilians and moved immediately. Through the transmitted shock they could still feel the protection of their lord, Avon Franz. If they could not help, then at the very least they must not hinder him.
“Fall back at once……!”
—Kuuuung!
“Kyaaaaah!”
“Uwaaaagh!”
A tremendous tremor swept across the area. It felt as though an earthquake had struck. Many people lost their footing and collapsed. Supporting them, a knight turned to look toward his master. The monster was biting into the neck of the golden lion.
* * *
—Kwaaaang!
The massive body vanished instantly, only to reappear from a completely different direction. It was not mere stealth. The Mucker folded space itself to move, with no wind-up or follow-through delay. Naturally folding space to freely traverse the surrounding area. Even now, after striking the golden lion with its enormous torso and appearing from midair the moment the lion staggered, the Mucker’s massive jaws clamped down on the golden lion.
“One isn’t enough, I see.”
Even though he had magically stopped the bleeding, part of his body had been torn away. Though his complexion had gone pale, Avon spoke with his usual composure and formed a strange hand seal. At the same time another golden lion materialized near him.
“Bite.”
“Grrk!”
Seeing the second golden lion appear, the Mucker tried to retreat, but the foreleg of the first lion—still biting into its torso—slammed down with tremendous force.
—Kuuuung!
“Kroooaaar!”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice the moment your magic power faded when you tried to hide?”
The instant it attempted to conceal itself, faint traces of magic power had wrapped around the Mucker’s entire body. Avon had struck at that precise moment. After witnessing its hiding technique several times, he had finally learned to perceive the subtle flow of magic power and delivered a blow the Mucker could not evade, driving it into the ground.
“Kroooaaar!”
Its massive body writhed, yet not a single sound escaped. Only the impact of the Mucker being slammed into the earth echoed strangely. Avon, however, calmly controlled his magic power. Just as another golden lion was about to pounce on the Mucker at his gesture—
“Krrk!”
The Mucker’s reptilian, sharply slit pupils began to glow translucently. Watching through the golden lion’s eyes, Avon instantly heightened his magic senses to the extreme. This was it. No matter how careless he had been. No matter how senile from peace he had become. Failing to detect stealth was unacceptable. That meant it possessed something else. A unique ability of its own. Not merely hiding its body or silencing its movements.
As Avon had surmised, the Mucker’s body—still rolling on the ground while being bitten—vanished in an instant.
“……”
The entire area fell silent. In the space where even the flow of magic power had stilled, two golden lions now stood guard around Avon.
“……”
The initial ambush could only be called luck. Had his instincts not warned him, that surprise attack might have taken his head whole. Avon prepared himself thoroughly. Contrary to his increasingly pale face, his senses grew sharper by the moment. He concentrated his power to the point where he could no longer afford to protect the distant knights, and the magic power radiating from the golden lions surveying the surroundings grew ever more immense. Avon Franz had not been careless. Yet large-class monsters occasionally possessed abilities that transcended common sense. The Mucker’s massive jaws did not target Avon Franz himself. Instead, they moved to devour the very space where he stood, as though trying to tear the space itself apart.
“You damned lizard!”
From the sky, the light of the sun shone down.