#061 Aftermath
#061 Aftermath
Acedia's Attack on Normance.
A large-scale Dimensional Gate appeared at the northern lakeside of Normance.
Adventurers including the Flame Hero 'Bareness' formed a strike force to close the Dimensional Gate.
Acedia opened the Dimensional Gate earlier than scheduled. Spell acceleration is presumed to have been used.
The monstrous bird 'Malphas' led a legion of giant crows that darkened the sky in a surprise attack on northern Normance.
Normance responded with magitech anti-aircraft cannons and other defenses. Some citizens hastily evacuated south.
Acedia used Sandworms stationed to the south to swallow citizens. This is assessed as a prearranged operation.
■■ cut down a Sandworm with a single stroke and rescued the citizens. Began citizen relief efforts together with the Witch of ■■ and the ■■ Princess.
The Flame Hero Bareness destroyed a significant number of the monstrous birds in one strike. Malphas retreated.
Normance organized a strike force and attempted to destroy the Dimensional Gate.
Malphas hid crows inside the Sandworms to infiltrate the city. Given that the magitech detector was destroyed, it is believed he infiltrated demonic operatives to destroy it.
The Witch of ■■ destroyed the Sandworms. Responded to the monstrous birds together with ■■.
Malphas cast Gigantification.
■■, together with the Witch of ■■, executed 'Scarlet Blaze Slash'. Malphas was defeated.
"...No, why are there so damn many ■■?"
Far in the future.
The records concerning Acedia's monstrous bird Malphas, which attacked Normance, had been censored somewhere.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the city was a wreck.
Fountains, main thoroughfares, wells—without distinction, the ground had been turned over everywhere, and it was filled with the corpses of Magic Beasts.
"Hey, Lucius! Give me a hand with this!"
"Yes, I'm on my way!!"
Before repairing the broken facilities and damaged equipment, people first had to dig up the ground by operating golems and combining their strength with spirits.
In order to deal with the Sandworms and crow Magic Beasts underground.
It seemed like they might be overwhelmed by the sheer number, but the most fundamental reasons for wanting to deal with the Magic Beasts were two.
One was the problem of the corpses themselves.
If the Magic Beasts were left alone, insects would swarm from the corpses, and all sorts of corpse poison and plagues would gather and spread from them....
-Raging Undead!
-AAARGH! Demon King, you bastard!!
-Hahaha! To leave corpses lying around like this, you fools!! Corpse Explosion!!
What if a black mage with bad intentions showed up and raised them as Undead and used Corpse Explosion Magic?
Everything would be over.
Therefore, whether human or Magic Beast, the correct answer is to dispose of corpses quickly.
"Rosemas, you can take your time!"
"No, I'm still fine. The faster we extract the Mana Stones, the less mana is lost!"
However, if they were merely corpses, there was no way this many people would gather for Magic Beast disposal work.
People were certainly exhausted from the consecutive battles, and some might be in situations where a precious person was gravely injured or where they had to hold a funeral for someone who was not a Magic Beast.
But people were now frantically focusing on corpse disposal.
Simply because monster disposal was urgent?
No.
The second reason was, in truth, the fundamental one.
"Because it's profitable."
It is human nature that, having suffered losses, people want compensation for those losses.
"Take out all the Mana Stones from these bastards!! These are all mine!!"
The crows were Magic Beasts.
And the Sandworms were also Magic Beasts.
"The Witch has spoken! She said to handle the Magic Beasts she caught however you see fit!!"
Unlike ordinary animals, these Magic Beasts had Mana Stones—another heart that generates Demonic Energy—embedded in their hearts, and people were busy pulling the corpses of the Sandworms and crows buried underground out and dressing them.
"The Witch has donated the corpses of these Magic Beasts for the reconstruction of Normance!"
"""The Witch! The Witch! The Witch!!"""
"The Witch—is she a Saintess?!"
Let's extract the Mana Stones from the corpses and put them toward the repair costs to rebuild the city.
"Hurry up and gather the Mana Stones! I said move them quickly to the wagons bound for the next village!"
"Who are you to order me around!"
"Stop yapping and get moving!"
Facilities and materials were lacking for now, but if they bartered the Mana Stones from the attacking Magic Beasts when supplies were brought in from other cities, resources for a swift recovery would surely be secured.
-If the corpses are left underground, the entire city will be defiled. It may be unpleasant, but think of it as one gold going into your pocket for every Mana Stone you extract from each one, and lend a hand with the corpse recovery.
Centered on Francis de Emery, the Normance branch head of the Adventurers' Guild, the gathered people actively threw themselves into corpse recovery.
"The branch head's words—that's a joke, right?"
"Probably not a joke. Look. They're Magic Beasts, so Mana Stones come out."
"And that's one gold?"
"Not that the Mana Stone is one gold—it means a crow corpse is one gold."
One gold per crow.
One gold was not a joke; it really held that much value.
"Dammit, let's pluck the crows' feathers and roast them up!"
"Pull out all the crows' feathers! We'll make ornaments out of their feathers!"
"Drag out more of the Sandworms. Their shells make good shields if used well."
The meat from hunting Magic Beasts would cover food supplies.
The byproducts from hunting Magic Beasts would be made into various goods.
Eating the Magic Beasts that had attacked and killed humans might be somewhat unpleasant, but the corpses of Magic Beasts whose Demonic Energy had been purified by Divine Power posed no major problem for consumption.
Some, for revenge against the crows.
Some, to make up for the losses incurred while fighting to save Normance.
Some, to recover and dress even one more beast and earn more money.
...And yet others, hoping that the traces of Acedia would disappear from this city even a little faster.
Each had their own reasons, but everyone shared the same desire to recover the Sandworms and crows quickly.
Because only then could they return to the original Normance.
Because only then could they return to the original peace—to before Acedia's attack.
"That Mana Stone is mine!! I found that crow first!"
"Shut up! This crow tore off my house's roof! One isn't nearly enough to cover the repair costs!"
...Rather than such reasons, the practical reason was probably bigger.
"The Witch gave it to me! This is mine!"
"Hey, you pig! You've already grabbed five! I only got one because I was off getting treated!"
"Well, whose fault is it that you got hurt?!"
"What did you say, you bastard?! I got like this saving people!!"
How had it come to this?
It was because the corpses of the crows and Sandworms strewn across the ground had become something like a 'public good.'
And the one who created this chaos was me.
-Witch. How should we handle the Sandworms that died underground from your 'Explosion Magic' and the monstrous birds that suffocated?
The results of the hunt had to go to everyone, and I naturally had the right to dispose of what I had hunted.
-Those? Just take them.
-Pardon?
-I can't process or recover all of them by myself, can I? I'll delegate full authority to Branch Head Francis de Emery. Please arrange it so that those doing the recovery can take them directly.
-Does that mean... you are donating the corpses to the city of Normance itself?
-Hmph...! Don't get the wrong idea! It's only because I can't be bothered to deal with all of that myself! Don't even think about bringing them to me. Understood?!
-Sniff, Witch...!!
After I said that, everyone from nobles to slaves threw themselves into corpse disposal.
"Ahh, Normance is full of humanity's internal strife."
They envied, were jealous of, and fought one another.
Who would find a Magic Beast faster, who would dig up the ground faster and pry open a Sandworm's jaws.
Who would extract more Mana Stones.
Humans are beings full of greed, and if there is a coin lying before them that anyone can pick up, they will pick it up at once.
'This sort of thing is best enjoyed from a box seat.'
From the highest place in Normance, atop the city wall, I enjoyed my rest while freely observing the people in their pandemonium.
Look at the humans fighting among themselves over compensation.
How ugly they are.
How pure they are.
The human desires for possession, competition, and money mingled in one place, and the people of Normance were now straining to have even a little more than others.
"Humans really are entertaining."
Only a day ago, they had strained to save one another, helped the weak in danger, and did not hesitate to throw themselves into harm's way—and now they were snatching up corpses faster than others and gouging out hearts.
The first thing they took was the Mana Stone.
And the next thing they took was the feathers.
The monstrous birds, their feathers all plucked and their pale flesh exposed, were simply tossed onto carts placed here and there, piling up in heaps.
Later, their Demonic Energy and entrails would be removed, and they would be fried or used as livestock feed.
Their numbers were greater than expected.
I had known that quite a lot of crows had been intercepted by Bareness at the north gate at the start, but it seemed most of the crows had actually used afterimages.
The number of crows that had tried to infiltrate through the Sandworm tunnels alone was probably close to six thousand.
'Since results are proportional to the hunt, it's only natural that those who killed more take more.'
Ownership of those Magic Beasts belonged to those who hunted them, and many adventurers stepped up to deal with the crows and Sandworms.
But.
Two-thirds of the Magic Beasts.
What would happen if the person who had killed roughly four thousand of them said, 'I don't need the Mana Stones'?
"Hey! Did you catch this?! It suffocated inside the Sandworm the Witch caught, didn't it!!"
"What are you talking about! The Witch brought it to the brink of death! I landed the finishing blow!"
"......Heh heh."
Total chaos.
Ahh. How delightful.
Humans slandering and turning against one another out of ugly desire.
This would not become a major obstacle to humanity's later formation of a coalition army, but it would become a state with a fine crack running through it.
Distrust of one another.
Azure Moon Goddess or not, humans are beings who become endlessly weak if they do not trust one another.
And now....
Rustle.
I rode my staff down below.
As I approached the two people who were in the middle of fighting, the moment they saw me, they straightened their postures and bowed.
"W-Witch...!"
"We're sorry. We weren't trying to fight...."
Slash.
I raised my sword and split the crow in half.
The two men received the halved crow corpse and blinked, and I handed the Mana Stone extracted from its heart to the man who had found it first.
"Th-Thank you...!"
"......."
"And for you, here."
"Ah, aah...!"
I handed the man another Mana Stone I had picked up from the ground beforehand.
Now, each of the two men had a Mana Stone, making the corpse itself irrelevant.
"Don't fight. This isn't what I want to see."
"...Sniff, we're sorry...!"
"To be ignorant of the Witch's consideration...!"
"Hehe, it's fine. Yield to and consider one another."
"Um, Witch. If you don't have Mana Stones...."
"I'm fine."
Because I had obtained power so immense that paltry Mana Stones like these meant nothing.
Malphas.
The mana that bastard left behind now dwelled within my body.
"They'll be more help to all of you than to me."
And compared to the mana gained from small Mana Stones like those....
"Ugh, Witch...!"
"As expected, the Witch is the true Saintess...!"
"...That's a little embarrassing."
Because erasing their faith in the Azure Moon Goddess—their faith in a Saintess—was a far greater gain.
"Don't fight with each other. Understood?"
""Yes!!""
Normance after the battle.
Amid the ongoing recovery work, I began my own small invasion.
And.
Anyway.
"Rosemas. What about the Sandworm Mana Stones?"
"I've gathered them all here!"
"Thank you, really!"
"W-Witch?! Um, if you suddenly hug me...!!"
Because I had already gobbled up all the truly valuable Mana Stone chunks.