The Way to Prove It (5)
"We really should be heading back soon..."
"I doubt it'll end well even if we do. Haven't you heard the rumors? The north is a complete mess right now. It's not even that far from here."
The soldier standing guard with a spear let out a weary sigh at his companion's muttered complaint about returning.
They were part of the troops hastily gathered by Baron Waut. The purpose of the mobilization had been to seize the opportunity and strike at neighboring Brant Barony while it was in chaos, but the situation had changed, and now they were stranded here, forced to wait and do nothing.
It was only natural that resentment had begun to build among the soldiers. With the political situation already in disarray, their anxiety that they might never return to their peaceful, ordinary lives was only growing stronger.
"If this is how it's going to be, why don't they just pull us back? I don't get why we're still guarding this place."
"I don't know the details, but we've all heard the same thing, haven't we? About the Black Beetle."
He explained what he knew to the grumbling soldier.
The higher-ups' plan to exploit the chaos and devour Brant Barony had gone awry because Baron Brant was still alive and in control, but that didn't mean they could simply turn around and leave with all the troops they had gathered.
The culprit that had turned Brant Barony into a wasteland was the Black Beetle. At first, they had intended to let those monsters ravage the enemy and bring them down, but the situation had moved in a direction no one had expected. The grotesquely multiplying creatures might turn up here at any moment.
"Just from the rumors alone, those things sound like hellish insects. Their true bodies are definitely parasites. They infest healthy living creatures, mutate them into something hideous with tentacles and all, and take control of their bodies. The ones with hard shells like rhinoceros beetles are said to be as strong as knights."
"T-Then doesn't that mean those monsters could cross over here at any time!"
The other soldier blanched and looked nervously around. Their unit was stationed in a village near the border. Just beyond it lay the forest that served as the boundary line with Brant Barony.
He shivered and shook his head, almost feeling a sinister aura drifting from that forest for no reason at all.
"Let's talk about something else. Besides, there's no way those bugs, who were quiet all this time, would show up now."
"Don't worry too much. From what I hear, they only attack places with weak defenses and avoid where soldiers are stationed."
He chuckled at his companion's reaction, finding it amusing. It was true that he'd been frightened when he'd first heard the rumors about the Black Beetle, but now that fear had faded somewhat.
More than anything else, the fact that the Black Beetle still hadn't crossed the territory's border was what mattered most. They were certainly terrifying monsters unlike anything he'd ever seen before, but at least compared with the monstrous orcs currently ravaging the north, he couldn't help but look at them as the lesser threat.
"...What is that?"
And then he saw something moving in the forest ahead.
People?
What he could dimly make out in the shadows was a human shape. A person holding something in both arms.
"Huh?"
But the moment he realized that person was aiming something at him, and at the same time confirmed that the lower half of that body was a giant scorpion, something sliced through the air and buried itself in his head.
"N-No!"
He lost consciousness in an instant, along with his companion's scream. The large arrow fired from a mana-infused greatbow had blown his head apart, leaving only his lower jaw intact.
"Was Baron Waut really not keeping his guard up? Still, I suppose it doesn't matter much."
Robinson, the monster who had loosed the arrow, moved his scorpion legs and revealed himself fully. Seeing the soldiers frantically ring the alarm bell and declare an emergency, he grinned.
Countless troops moved in formation behind him as he advanced boldly forward. They had not simply stopped moving for no reason.
They had only needed time to finish growing.
"Stop those monsters!"
"Hold the line! Request reinforcements, now!"
By then, the stationed soldiers had barely finished preparing their defenses. Robinson, of course, ignored them exactly as ordered and kept advancing.
He was doing it to prove that they had not failed to attack simply because they were incapable of assaulting castles.
"Attack. And devour them all!"
Robinson unleashed attacks from himself and every other minion in a single wave.
And this was happening nowhere near this place alone. Elsewhere, Lena and Karin were each leading their own forces in simultaneous attacks across all of Baron Waut's territory.
It's only going to keep growing.
Robinson, able to share in all of those developments, already felt certain of their victory before the battle had even truly begun.
"Urgent report! Black Beetle have appeared near Lortre Castle..."
"It seems more than a dozen villages around the Levian region have been destroyed, my lord!"
"A unit stationed near Nere has been annihilated by a Black Beetle attack! The 'Black Scorpion' was sighted there!"
In the grand conference hall of the lord's castle, where the ruler of the region received reports, no one was able to keep their composure. The flood of incoming news was nothing but despairing reports, one after another.
"This is absurd. Brant actually survived this?!"
Baron Waut clutched at what little hair remained on his head as he listened to the voices begging for support from the crystal orbs placed on the table.
He couldn't believe what was happening. The Black Beetle had grown strong enough for their offensive to be so fierce, and yet Brant Barony, which had not even prepared properly, had somehow weathered the crisis reasonably well. It defied common sense.
No way.
In the middle of his panic, a thought flashed through his mind: perhaps the Black Beetle had deliberately left Baron Brant alive. If Brant himself had been wiped out in a single blow, then Waut would have rushed to rally the neighboring lords and drive the monsters out.
"Has there been no response yet?"
"I... I'm afraid not."
"As expected. They probably still see the Black Beetle as nothing more than a swarm of beasts. Just like we once did when we used them to wear down our enemies!"
Enraged that none of the territories had answered his plea, he slammed his fist against the desk. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't shake the feeling that they had all been caught up in the Black Beetle, which they'd dismissed as mere insects.
"But if this keeps up—"
He grabbed at his head again. In the end, they were still only the scale of a single barony. It was obvious that they could never drive out the Black Beetle, which had already devoured one barony, with their own strength alone.
So he desperately needed help. More than that, he needed help from outside the influence of the neighboring lords who were always looking for an opening to undermine his position.
If we make a deal, it feels like we could each get what we want.
"!!!"
And then that night, as though he had been waiting for this moment, a being approached him.
"W-Who are you?"
Baron Waut, who had slept alone ever since parting with his wife in death, recoiled in horror and shrank back on the bed.
In the room illuminated only by dim moonlight, a tall figure stood by the window, looking down at the baron.
"What matters to you isn't my identity."
After ending the telepathic speech, the figure grinned and shook its head. When it stepped forward, Waut finally saw its face in the moonlight and drew in a sharp breath.
A pure white skeleton, blazing with red eyes from within the darkness, clicked its teeth beneath the hood.
"What matters is whether you can get through this crisis. Isn't that right?"
"J-Just what...?"
Baron Waut's eyes shook violently at the thought that a monster he'd never seen before was standing in his bedroom. The skeletons he knew were nothing more than dolls animated by dark sorcerers, creatures without a trace of intelligence.
"The world has gone mad. It's a den of demons, plain and simple. In this age of total chaos, where terrifying demon lords have entered the game for the sake of their own desires and now run wild as they please, weaklings like you can only suffer. But that's also an unavoidable reality. If you make a deal with me, you'll get what you want... So, what will you do? Will you avoid the worst and join hands with the lesser evil?"
The skeleton poured out its words and forced the choice upon him.
Baron Waut swallowed hard as he listened, his whole body trembling. Half of it was language he couldn't understand; the other half, he could.
"You're saying... you can give me power?"
Of course, what mattered most to Baron Waut right now was something else entirely.
"Naturally, a price will follow."
The skeleton mocked him, but Waut found that preferable. After all, there was nothing in this world that came without a price.
"Feed this powder, dissolved in water, to your soldiers or your people. Those who become addicted to it will slowly turn into madmen who fear neither terror nor death. They will slaughter your enemies and bring you victory."
"I... I have no choice but to do something like this. But what exactly is your purpose? Why offer me this chance?"
"...Because there is something I desire above all else. Just like you, who would sacrifice the people of your domain for your own greed. Otherwise, you couldn't possibly commit madness like this."
After receiving a heavy pouch filled with black powder from the skeleton, the baron asked why, but the skeleton refused to answer in detail.
Still, one thing was certain. The countless incidents unfolding in this world were not all natural occurrences.
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