Traces of Greater Chaos
Originally, given the difference in strength, there should have been around ten casualties, including knights and mercenaries. No matter how powerful we were, the enemy had a mage capable of roasting a knight without much effort. Yet on our side stood a saintess whose total divine power, efficiency, and activation speed far surpassed anyone else’s. An absurd existence who could bring the fallen back to life instantly, so long as the death wasn’t instantaneous.
“Oof……”
“Are you all right?”
“Me? I’m fine. The one who really carried the fight was Zieg.”
Still, simultaneously invoking both the Miracle of Protection and the Miracle of Healing at high output had left me feeling slightly nauseous and dizzy. Even so, considering the outcome, it was a cheap price to pay. With just twenty-one combatants—including Zieg—we had achieved a complete victory against over a hundred enemies that included a mage, suffering not a single casualty.
Of course, there had been some losses. Before the Miracle of Protection was cast, several horses had been killed, reducing our mobility somewhat.
“Strange. At that scale, there should have been at least one horse left behind.”
“None at all?”
“No. Still, if we track the survivors back to their base, we might find something.”
“Do we have the time? Even if we did, we’re not exactly flush with spare hands, are we? Retracing their trail won’t be easy, and if we’re not abandoning the carriages and supplies, we’ll have to split our forces.”
I wanted to understand the situation better, but there were problems with doing so here. That hadn’t been our original objective, and our current composition wasn’t suited for it anyway. If possible, I would have liked to know exactly what had happened—who in their right mind would attack a saintess’s procession like this.
“I can do it.”
Just as I was about to give up, Zieg spoke up casually. Come to think of it, he had spent nearly a year wandering alone, gaining experience. Even if he wasn’t a professional tracker, following the trail of a hundred people shouldn’t be beyond him. That wasn’t all. He had even managed to locate a slave market that dealt in elves, gather information without being caught, and get out safely.
“But, Sir Hero……”
“We just saw what he can do. I doubt Zieg lacks the skill. Still, are you sure? We killed this many, but who knows what’s left at their main base. And they had a mage with them—one who didn’t even seem to be the leader.”
I couldn’t help but worry. Even a mediocre mage was a talent any count’s household would gladly accept. Yet the mage who had attacked us was clearly capable of standing proudly on any battlefield. For such a mage not to be the leader of his group meant there was likely someone even stronger behind him.
“I’ll be fine. There were several mages at the slave market alone. As long as I avoid ambushes or traps, slipping in and out won’t be difficult. They still don’t know whether this attack succeeded or failed.”
“If you’ve already thought that far ahead… Ah, but something still feels off. Wait a moment.”
I couldn’t go with him myself. That would only create a far greater disaster than the tail wagging the dog. If Yulia had anything more to offer, I would have sent her, but in close combat she was even less capable than I was—a typical scholar and priest. She had originally been a mage, after all.
So the only thing I could do was…
“What’s this?”
“An amber necklace. I’ve packed quite a bit of divine power into it. If things get dangerous, take it out and use it. You’ll know how the moment you decide you need it.”
I hadn’t gone out of my way to obtain it. Amber was fairly common among gemstones, and among such stones it happened to absorb divine power rather well, which was why the Church occasionally made use of it. Given its size and value, it could hold a surprising amount of divine power. Even if Zieg couldn’t perform miracles with it directly, it would still be useful.
“Lucia’s divine power, you mean……”
“Yes. If you keep it close to your heart, it might even activate on its own when needed.”
“All right. I’ll keep it safe.”
No, I meant for him to use it when necessary. There was no need to add that, though. He left without the slightest hesitation, as if that had settled everything.
“He didn’t even set a rendezvous point.”
“Zieg knows the route we’ll be taking. Let’s wait for him at the nearest village for three or four days.”
Even if he had a screw or two loose at times, Zieg wasn’t a fool. He would find us on his own. Besides, we needed to stop at a village anyway to acquire new horses for the carriages. We couldn’t keep using warhorses meant for knights to pull wagons forever. While we were at it, we could also offer healing to anyone who needed it.
Surely nothing else would happen after an ambush like that.
“What the— Why is the village……”
With that reasonably complacent thought, the nearest village greeted us with nothing but charred ruins and piles of bones.
“Wasn’t this village supposed to have around a hundred households? Yulia? Could you check the map again?”
“You’re right, Lucia. It wasn’t a small village……”
A hundred households meant roughly five to six hundred people—a central settlement worthy of a barony. It wasn’t the sort of place that should be reduced to ashes from an ordinary attack. We had come quite far south, yet we still hadn’t left the Kingdom of Tesselia.
“Could it be connected to the people who attacked us?”
“It’s difficult to imagine any other possibility.”
The situation was enough to make anyone frown. If something like this had happened here, similar incidents were likely occurring further south as well. In this world, when something sudden and unexplained occurred, blaming demon kings or monsters was correct more than half the time—especially when there had been no prior omens. The fact that news of a village burned to this extent had never reached us only reinforced that likelihood.
“We’ll have to wait for Zieg after all.”
“I’ll send a messenger to the nearest castle.”
Normally, heading straight for the nearest castle would have been the obvious move. But our group consisted of a saintess, a clergyman with patriarch-level divine power, ten knights, and ten experienced mercenaries. Our combat strength alone was enough to sweep through any minor barony, and if demon kings or monsters were involved, our effectiveness would increase tenfold. We were a specialized fighting force.
Thus, at the village entrance, we arranged the carriages and unloaded supplies into a makeshift forward base and took up defensive positions. We had no idea what might come. A band of mounted raiders could appear out of nowhere, or a demon king might suddenly show up declaring his intent to kill the saintess. In that case, simply leaving traces and moving on wouldn’t put my mind at ease, and we didn’t have enough people to leave someone behind to guide Zieg when he arrived. Our only option was to stay together and fortify the most defensible position we could.
“I don’t sense anything. What about you, Lucia?”
“Neither do I. If this were the work of a demon king or monsters, we would have felt something long before now.”
Just in case something was lying in ambush, Yulia and I dug through the charred remains and scorched fields, checking every suspicious spot. The result was nothing. I was confident we had investigated thoroughly—randomly excavating beneath the ruins and the ashen fields.
If we still sensed nothing, could this have been done by humans?
“I examined the battle traces. It doesn’t look like humans fought here. If they had fought on a scale capable of producing this level of destruction, there should be at least one arrow left behind somewhere, but there isn’t.”
While we were searching, the leader of the mercenaries, who had been examining the area from another angle, reported his findings. There were no traces that should have remained if humans had fought here at this scale.
Still, something felt off.
“Any other traces?”
“There are plenty. It looks like a pack of roughly fifty gnolls approached from over there, passed through the village, and headed north.”
Gnolls looked exactly like what you’d imagine if you pictured a muscular hyena walking on two legs. Throw in some crude leather armor, long polearms, or makeshift bows, and the image would be complete. Despite their shoddy equipment, they were still dangerous. Unless you were a properly trained soldier or an experienced mercenary, you’d be at a disadvantage in one-on-one combat.
But still…
“Do gnolls attack villages like this? Those look like the remains of a palisade that burned and collapsed, right? Or did it collapse after burning?”
“Precisely, Saintess. Moreover, gnolls don’t usually burn villages and fields like this. Especially not the people.”
“Why is that?”
When Yulia quietly asked, the mercenary leader glanced between the knight captain and me before answering. The knight captain looked at me, so everyone’s eyes turned my way.
Well, what could I do?
“I don’t know either, so could you explain?”
“Yes, well… gnolls, they eat people. They especially like the entrails. After a proper gnoll raid, you’ll usually find corpses with their stomachs torn open scattered everywhere.”
Ugh. I didn’t actually vomit, but I couldn’t stop my face from twisting at the mental image. That was just a reflexive reaction, though. What really bothered me was something else.
“For a village this size, even a decent palisade should have been enough to deter a frontal assault by gnolls of that number. Yet they still took it, and then—unlike typical gnolls—burned everything and left without a trace?”
“Yes. This is not a normal situation by any means.”
There was one clear hypothesis that could explain this: the involvement of a demon king or a high-ranking monster.
“But there’s no trace of a demon king or high-ranking monster either.”
“……No, there isn’t.”
If there had been, Yulia, the knights, and I would have found it. Neither one nor the other—an utterly confusing situation.
“In the end, we’ll have to rely on Zieg.”
What else could we do? We had already sent a mercenary as a messenger to the castle, but Zieg would probably return faster than that mercenary anyway. So, unable to grasp what had happened, we spent a sleepless night in an uneasy defensive formation, waiting for Zieg.