Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: The Forgotten Wheat Field
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Was it because he felt bad for creating that awkward moment?
Boris announced he would make a Rhodes specialty and began preparing the ingredients himself.
He diced some root vegetables similar to potatoes, along with some meat, skewered them on straight wooden sticks, and quickly grilled them.
Sprinkling salt and pepper he took from his bag.
"Actually, a dipping sauce is essential, but we'll have to make do with just salt and pepper."
Boris felt a brief moment of satisfaction watching the two devour the food, oblivious to the heat.
After the meal.
Loan, too, felt he should repay the excellent meal in some way.
He also thought he should help Boris calm his turbulent mind and mana.
This was due to his awareness that he was partly responsible.
A quiet moment passed between them, separated by the campfire.
Loan spoke.
"Senior. How do you manage your magic when you throw your weapons?"
"Hm?"
Boris looked bewildered for a moment at Loan's question.
It wasn't the typical tone of a junior asking a senior a question. It felt more like he was about to offer a lesson.
For some reason, Boris glanced at Bella, who was stuck close to Loan's side, but she seemed completely uninterested.
She was just staring blankly at the fluttering embers.
Boris said.
"I don't focus on the motion or the destructive power. That's a common mistake. What's important is the precise point of impact. I throw my weapons with the mental image of extending a line of magic to the target."
"That's good. Magic is the manifestation of that mental image into meaningful power."
"Ooh..."
"The conventional method would be to construct a formula so the object can be controlled by the caster's magic, then activate it with an incantation or a magic circle."
"..."
"The key here is to transfer the caster's magic to the object and synchronize it with their will. If you can properly implement the necessary formula, control becomes possible. That's what the great mages of old defined as psychokinesis. The technique you mentioned, Senior, is also theoretically..."
"Uh, uh. No. Loan. Wait a minute."
"Yes?"
"Forget all those difficult words. Can you make it simpler? Isn't there something like, use your strength like this, your magic like that? Or maybe a specific motion? Or even a short chant or something? Something simple."
Loan closed his mouth and thought for a moment.
He now understood why the academy taught ancient languages first, and why Dean Arthur had so strongly emphasized the dangers and inefficiencies of magic.
It was a fresh realization.
If someone couldn't even understand this, the concept of directly manipulating mana would likely sound like pure nonsense.
It would be the same even if he wrote a new grimoire.
"There's nothing like that. Even if there were, magic learned that way is extremely dangerous."
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"It's not like this is the only time we'll spend together, Senior. We'll see each other at headquarters and on other missions in the future."
"..."
"I was thinking I could teach you slowly, over a long period of time."
"Hmm. Well. Thanks, I guess, but..."
Boris trailed off, then shook his head.
"Let's talk about magic later. I don't understand what you're saying anyway. I guess I was being shortsighted."
After that, Boris didn't bring up the subject of magic again.
He hadn't expected his pride to be wounded after hearing the explanation.
The awkward atmosphere lingered through the night and into the morning.
While they camped by the fire.
Boris watched Loan and Bella sleeping close together and felt like an unwelcome guest.
The next day, the atmosphere remained strange as they traveled.
The three of them walked side-by-side on a wide path, but Loan and Bella were so close it wouldn't have been strange if they'd linked arms, while Boris walked distinctly apart.
Boris felt isolated.
Loan had to control Bella's mana. He didn't want to negatively affect his senior's already chaotic mana any further.
Loan felt a sense of responsibility.
Bella kept giggling, though even she didn't know whose feelings were causing it.
Just as their feelings and thoughts differed, so did their goals.
Bella, now so weak she couldn't resist Loan and was being dragged along, was focused solely on recovering.
Loan hoped that the place Bella was heading to might hold a gate connecting the demon world and the mortal realm, and that getting closer to that secret would help him prepare for the apocalyptic vision.
And.
*‘For now, I'll watch what they're up to. It won't be too late to call the Knights then.’*
Boris himself didn't really know what he truly wanted.
Following Loan and achieving something significant in this new place.
For now, he considered it the best path he could take after leaving the Union.
But it was questionable whether the path they were trudging along was physically the best option.
A bitter complaint escaped him.
"Ugh, seriously."
Now, vines and shrubs were so tangled together that it was hard to find anything resembling a path.
Bella silently guided them through such places, and Loan followed, sensing the mana.
Loan, sensing the mana, would point out places they shouldn't step or enter, and they would avoid them together.
Boris's guidance wasn't particularly needed.
In fact, it was amazing how the two moved so freely, as if it were their own home.
"Loan. Is this even the right direction?"
"I'm not sure. I don't know the exact destination. We're just moving in the hopes of uncovering some secret related to demons. Is there a problem?"
"There is a problem. At any rate, if this is the direction we're going, it's no wonder the Knights can't pursue us."
"Because it's rough terrain?"
"I thought it was strange, but now that I look, this is the way to the Forgotten Wheat Field. It's so dangerous that even people from Rhodes don't go there."
Boris continued his explanation as he cut through vines to secure a foothold.
The Forgotten Wheat Field.
It referred to a place where ancient dwarves lived. They were said to have dug tunnels and lived underground to avoid the elves, who were the dominant power at the time.
"I've read about it in a book."
Later, after the World Tree disappeared and the terrain shifted, the underground city beneath the wheat field became a complete labyrinth.
It's difficult to find any entrance or exit.
Much of the terrain that looks stable on the surface isn't actually solid ground, so one misstep could make it impossible to get out alive.
A place like that.
"It certainly seems like a place demons would like. The direction feels right, too."
From time to time, a strange halo of light could be seen in the distance.
Loan asked Bella.
"You called them demonic beasts, right?"
"Yeah."
"Should I consider them on your side?"
"No. I'd be eaten too, if no one protected me."
"..."
He didn't feel the need to respond, nor did he have the chance.
Something resembling a pig was charging toward them. Two of them.
"Loan!"
"Yes."
Boris dashed out to the left first.
He judged it to be "something resembling a pig" because there were unfitting things attached to its back.
A mass of something was clumped together, and individual pieces sticking out of it writhed like snakes.
Boris instinctively realized that those unpleasant tentacles would be the biggest threat and immediately threw four daggers.
Just as he had professed.
The daggers flew in a straight line and struck their targets precisely.
The things that fell to the ground wriggled like eels.
But that didn't stop the pig's charge. There were still many tentacles left.
"Squeeeeeal!"
Boris immediately reached for his waist.
A shimmering, circular blade.
He hooked his finger inside it and spun it in an instant.
Kiiiiing—
The moment a haze of aura shimmered like a ray of light, the chakram left his hand and grazed the demonic beast's legs.
Kwakwakwa-kwang—!
After repeatedly plunging his dagger into the neck of the beast as it fell and skidded across the ground, Boris, breathing heavily, turned to rejoin Loan.
"..."
There was no need.
It didn't seem like any special process had occurred.
The demonic beast was simply lying on the ground, a sharp hole pierced through its neck, with a single sword fragment hovering nearby as if on guard.
Boris once again felt that strange sense of defeat he had experienced in Dunton.
Along with an overwhelming power that felt even more unattainable after yesterday's discussion about magic.
Loan had no way of knowing how he felt.
He was focused on his conversation with Bella.
"It's different from you. It's somehow... pure."
As soon as Loan's words were out, Bella kicked the demonic beast for no reason.
It was because she found it so unpleasant for him to say that while looking at the pig-like beast.
Paying her no mind, Loan said.
"So you're saying places will be crawling with things like this?"
"I guess so."
Bella's blunt answer proved true.
That day, Loan's party was attacked by demonic beasts five more times.
The attacks weren't significant enough to cause damage, but they were enough to warrant caution.
They camped for another night, with Loan and Boris taking turns on watch.
The next day was a little worse, and the day after that was even worse.
With every step, Loan felt the dark mana in the atmosphere growing denser, and the denser it became, the more demonic beasts they encountered.
It wasn't difficult. Quite the opposite.
The entire process of taking in the dense mana, purifying it, and converting it into Convection was invigorating.
Sheville flew faster and stronger.
He didn't feel his magic being consumed at all.
*‘If I do this right, I might even be able to reach 3rd Class or higher.’*
Loan's constitution prevented him from accumulating magic.
At first, he thought it might be an issue with the size of his vessel, but after circulating the massive chunk of magic he received from Aul, he realized that wasn't it.
His vessel had grown quite large, but it felt like the hole in the bottom hadn't been plugged and had grown along with it.
It still flowed in and out.
Therefore, in an environment like this where he could draw in a vast amount of mana, he could temporarily fill his vessel, even if it would eventually leak out.
*‘This time, I won't release the magic externally.’*
Usually, when he received magic from Aul, he would either dissolve it into Convection or use the mass as an external magic core to convert it into an area-of-effect attack spell.
This time, he tried to cast magic purely with his internal magic—even if it was just passing through.
It worked.
He threw 2nd Class Fireballs relentlessly and pierced dozens of demonic beasts with Ice Spears, yet his consumed magic was replenished instantly.
He blasted hordes of demonic beasts with Explosion, a 4th Class spell, and sometimes trapped them with a Wall of Fire, yet he felt no dizziness.
*‘Should I be happy about this...?’*
The Forgotten Wheat Field was, in a way, the perfect environment for Loan the magician.
Though the fact that it was dark mana was a bit concerning.
*‘An ordinary person would probably go insane...’*
Therefore.
The problem was, indeed, Boris.
"Senior. Any news from headquarters?"
After clearing out the demonic beasts in the area, Loan asked while checking a messenger bird. Boris, with a somewhat slack expression, shook his head in annoyance.
"I don't know."
Then he started walking off on his own again.
He was so heavily exposed to the dark mana that containing Bella with Convection was becoming a moot point.
Since his own mana already had a degree of turbidity, he seemed to be affected more quickly.
Loan tried to keep him close and block the external mana with Convection.
But Boris wouldn't come near Loan.
There was even a hint of madness in the way he desperately hunted the demonic beasts.
Even as he moved frantically, he kept glancing at Loan.
Loan had no choice but to advise his senior.
"I think the energy here is having a bad effect on you, Senior."
"What?"
"Perhaps you should turn back."
"Just me?"
"It doesn't seem to be affecting me. Since we've come this far, I'd like to go a little further..."
"So. You're special, so you get to go on, and I'm not good enough, so I should leave?"
He wasn't wrong.
But Loan couldn't just agree. The look in Boris's eyes was already not normal.
Standing face to face with Boris, who was now glaring at him with killing intent.
"Senior."
Loan carefully chose his words.
But Bella's next words stopped his thoughts.
"We're here."
She was staring down at the tips of her feet.
And then.
K-k-k-koong—!
The ground suddenly collapsed.
Without any warning.
In that instant, it was as if the air, the earth, Bella, and the void below resonated with one another.