Chapter 32 - Competent

"... You're going where?"

"You've grown rather informal, Sir Gilberton."

Gilberton cleared his throat quietly.

"Where did you say you were going, sir?"

"Demon territory."

"That's insane. Do you know what that place is like?"

"Do you take me for you? It's Demon territory. Presumably, Demons live there."

Gilberton swallowed the curse threatening to burst out.

Calling Demon territory dangerous hardly did it justice. Even within the First Battalion, only Adrianna's personal unit was permitted to enter. The moment you stepped inside, you were gasping for breath.

A Mage accompanying them into such a dangerous place was unprecedented. Even if Galahad had defeated Demons twice—

'Come to think of it, he's good at killing Demons, isn't he?'

Galahad was better at it than most knights.

"You should be fine."

Gilberton nodded.

"I think so too."

"Did Lady Adrianna give her permission? She's very strict when it comes to Demon territory."

"She said yes. It's our first date."

Gilberton chuckled at the joke. A date in Demon territory? Surely even Galahad wouldn't say something like that—

"... Did you actually say that to her?"

"She insisted it wasn't, perhaps out of embarrassment. I asked Tom to pack us something to eat."

Gilberton opened his mouth to say something, then firmly shut it. The man wasn't going to listen anyway.

"You won't be able to eat there. It's full of ash."

"Ash? I saw Adrianna clear it away yesterday."

"That's true, but... Commander, what exactly do you think Lady Adrianna is? Never mind. Don't answer that."

Gilberton hastily shook his head. Hearing something irreverent would only make trouble for him.

"Then let's be off."

Gilberton picked up his sword without another complaint. Galahad took the bundle Tom had prepared for him.

It was the darkest hour before sunrise.

When they arrived, everyone was already ready. They had been told departure was at sunrise and had timed their arrival accordingly, but somehow it felt as though they were late.

"Sir Gilberton overslept."

"What are you—"

"It's all right. We simply prepared a little early."

Adrianna spoke casually. The men behind her were as hostile as ever.

"What's that?"

She pointed at the bundle in Galahad's hand.

"Lunch."

"It will be difficult to eat anything in there. There's too much ash."

"I'll stay right beside you while I eat, so it'll be fine."

"... Yes, understood."

Adrianna gestured, and the preparations were soon complete. The others stepped aside.

"It seems Lady Adrianna selected the less aggressive members out of consideration for you, Commander," Gilberton said, indicating the men who remained.

'These are the less aggressive ones?'

Their eyes were certainly gentler than those of the woman called Mardian. Even so, they still looked thoroughly hostile.

Including Galahad's party, there were ten of them in all.

The sun had yet to rise, but soldiers and knights were already standing in formation.

BWOOOO!

The horn drove back the darkness. The beating drums shook the ground, and the soldiers gave a vigorous salute.

"We will depart now."

Adrianna took the lead, with Galahad directly behind her. The other knights formed a circle around him as though escorting him. Gilberton slipped into their ranks with practiced ease.

BWOOOO!

The horn sounded deeply once more. The heavy darkness gradually receded. The drums throbbed like a heartbeat.

"Raise them!"

A knight shouted the order. Soldiers cracked their whips, and the oxen gave long bellows. Pulleys turned with a shriek, raising the portcullises one by one.

At last, the gate appeared. It scraped harshly across the ground as it opened.

Smoke made of ash reached through the opening like a hand.

Facing it from directly in front felt quite different.

"I'm trembling."

"You can still turn back."

Adrianna looked back at Galahad as she spoke. The nearby knights snickered.

Judging by the sneers on their faces, they thought he was afraid.

'Afraid, am I?'

Only someone who knew nothing of Mages could think that.

Demon blood contained concentrated mana. The bizarre powers Demons wielded appeared to be the origins of magic.

People didn't call magic Demon filth for nothing.

For a Mage, entering Demon territory felt much like a priest visiting holy ground.

This trembling wasn't born of fear.

"I'm trembling with anticipation."

Adrianna's eyebrows rose slightly at his answer.

"It is our first date, after all."

"... I told you it isn't."

Adrianna's eyes widened a little. Galahad chuckled at her cool denial.

She really couldn't take a joke.

The drums thundered once more.

The gate opened wide. With smoke curling upward and black, rotting earth beyond, it looked just like a gateway to hell.

"Stay behind me."

"I'm counting on you."

Adrianna nodded and advanced.

The thick ash parted as though afraid of her. Black, rotten earth clung to their feet, and the stench of rotten eggs filled the air.

They had truly entered Demon territory.

The knights who had been glaring at Galahad now focused on keeping watch. The tension was palpable. Gilberton's expression was serious as well.

'So this is Demon territory.'

Rather than tension, Galahad felt intense interest.

Naturally, what intrigued him most was the mana concentration. It was already high in the North. What would it be like here, where the Demons lived?

He snapped his fingers, but no Mana Arrow appeared. The mana had dispersed before it could form.

'This mana concentration is absurd.'

He murmured in admiration. All they had done was cross a wall, yet the concentration had risen sharply.

'So this is Demon territory...'

To manifest magic, the caster's mana had to be more concentrated than the surrounding mana.

That was because mana flowed from lower concentrations to higher ones. If the caster's concentration was lower than their surroundings, their mana would scatter and the spell itself would fail. Just as it had now.

Ordinary mana compression wouldn't suffice to cast spells at this concentration. Most Mages wouldn't even dare attempt magic here. That was how dense the mana was.

Galahad, however, was no ordinary Mage.

He also had the highly concentrated mana supplied by the Egg of agony.

He adjusted the concentration and snapped his fingers. A Mana Arrow appeared. Thanks to its high concentration, even this simple spell had a formidable presence.

'Excellent. I'm glad I came.'

Galahad smiled in satisfaction.

"Are you all right?"

"Never better."

He beamed at Adrianna. She briefly narrowed her eyes, then nodded.

"What a show-off..."

One knight sneered, but Galahad was in far too good a mood to care.

Just then, a mighty roar came from somewhere.

"It's coming."

Adrianna drew her sword.

Brilliant white aura surged up, sweeping the surrounding ash away in an instant. The pressure was tremendous.

'Oh... '

That really would melt him the instant it touched him.

An instinctive aversion made Galahad step back without realizing it.

The smoke split, and enormous claws lunged out. Each was as large and sharp as a longsword.

The attack carried tremendous force. Yet despite that lethal strike coming from out of sight, Adrianna met it calmly with her sword.

The demon-beast's paw was sliced clean off. Her white-aura-clad blade cut through it as easily as tofu.

The severed paw, as large as a grown man's torso, flew into the air. No blood spurted from the cut.

Instead, it scattered into ash in an instant, like paper touched by intense flame.

Having effortlessly severed the massive paw, Adrianna continued her sword's motion in one smooth stroke.

The demon-beast came into view. It was a hideous thing with an insect's face and a bear's body. Her sword traced a long line across its chest.

Just one stroke.

Adrianna flicked her blade as though that was enough.

The demon-beast stopped moving. A neat line marked its chest. Like fire spreading through dry grass, the wound rapidly widened.

It let out a dreadful scream, so agonized that it made the hair stand on end.

The creature thrashed violently. Ash poured endlessly from the widening wound. It felt as though its very existence was vanishing, its soul burning away.

'A demon-beast in pain?'

Galahad murmured to himself.

Soon, the demon-beast collapsed. Its form crumbled into ash.

"Are you all right?"

Adrianna was checking on him, of all people. Looking at her, utterly unruffled, Galahad managed a nod.

'If I get on her bad side, I'll be in serious trouble.'

He rubbed his neck for no particular reason.

Then a problem suddenly occurred to him.

'There's no blood left.'

Adrianna's sword burned demon-beasts to ash. Not a drop of blood remained.

He had come to Demon territory to satisfy various curiosities, but his main objective was Demon blood.

With the Egg of agony inside him, he intended to take this opportunity to drink as much as possible.

He had even borrowed canteens from Tom for that purpose, yet Adrianna looked set to turn everything to ash.

One of his main objectives would be lost.

Faced with the prospect of coming away empty-handed, Galahad's mind raced.

'The high mana concentration makes it a little difficult, but if I adapt that... '

He thought of a way to locate Demons.

'I'll have to kill them myself.'

Galahad nodded.

* * *

'He's scared stiff.'

Robert, a member of Adrianna's personal unit, sneered faintly at Galahad's suddenly grave expression.

The Demons and demon-beasts in Demon territory were on an entirely different level from those down south. This place wasn't called Demon territory for nothing.

On their own ground, Demons and demon-beasts grew bizarrely powerful.

The man had swaggered about after killing a few down south, but clearly, encountering a demon-beast here had frightened him.

'Just as I thought.'

It had all been bluster. Robert exchanged glances with the other knights. They were all smirking.

Then the man turned to Adrianna and asked,

"Do you deliberately travel like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Isn't the ash inconvenient? May I clear it away?"

After being quiet for a while, he was showing off again.

Adrianna had already thinned the ash considerably. To find even this much inconvenient... Robert clicked his tongue quietly.

"Yes. We'd appreciate it if you did."

Adrianna nodded.

"Gently swaying grass, a light breeze, a fierce wind, a typhoon."

The man muttered something strange. The peculiar pressure emanating from him drew Robert's attention despite himself.

He swept his hand through the air. For all the grand gesture, it produced only a little breeze.

'Just as I... '

As Robert began to sneer—

"Wow."

Adrianna sounded impressed. She rarely showed emotion; an exclamation from her was high praise indeed.

'What?'

Robert turned his head, and his jaw dropped.

The smoke around them was being swept away as though a raging typhoon had blown through.

Their view opened up.

'Th-this is magic?'

The ashen smoke was the greatest danger in Demon territory.

Merely breathing the foul-smelling haze grated on the nerves. On top of that, they had to remain constantly alert, never knowing when or where a Demon might attack. Fatigue accumulated quickly as a result.

And he had cleared away that smoke, their greatest obstacle, with a single wave of his hand.

"Can other Mages do this too?" Adrianna asked him.

"No, only me. Ah, a tower master could probably manage it."

"I see. That's impressive."

"I've always been an impressive Mage."

Robert narrowed his eyes at Galahad's arrogance.

To think magic could be used this way. The possibility had never occurred to him.

Then again, they had never brought a Mage along in the first place.

"Demon-beasts incoming," Adrianna said, adjusting her grip on her sword.

The approaching creatures were plainly visible, their hideous forms fully exposed. If anything, the sight eased his tension.

What they could see, they could block. It was the unseen claws that were frightening.

Robert readjusted his grip. Aura blazed around his blade.

With Adrianna at their head, the battle began.

Though they couldn't compare to her, they too were elite knights. Robert himself had turned down a deputy commander's position in another battalion.

The battle went almost disturbingly smoothly.

There was only one reason.

'It's because he cleared our line of sight.'

He had to admit it.

With clear visibility, fighting was much easier than before. Demon-beasts were sneaky creatures that attacked from the haze. Naturally, dispelling that haze made things easier.

Adrianna in particular could move freely.

It almost felt anticlimactic.

Even if they were still on the outskirts, this was absurd.

'This... '

Robert swallowed and looked around. Everyone wore similar expressions.

Something about this was... something was... strange.

Clearing the smoke alone was astonishing, but Galahad didn't stop there.

"There seems to be something over that way."

Out of nowhere, he pointed in a direction.

"How can you tell?"

"I adapted Mana Arrow to scatter mana around us, but got no response back from that direction. It works because Demons have such high mana concentrations."

With that bizarre explanation, he indicated their course.

Given what he had already shown them, everyone nodded.

And when they arrived—

"Demons at last."

There really were Demons there.

Unlike demon-beasts, which charged recklessly, Demons were sly creatures that waited for an opening. Finding them was therefore a difficult task.

Yet he had tracked them down.

"You're remarkable."

Robert nodded at Adrianna's praise.

Normally, they had to wander around quite a bit to kill Demons. But this man had pinpointed their location and even cleared away the haze.

This was practically—

'He's spoon-feeding us.'

It was a harsh way to put it, but nothing described it better.

Robert pressed his lips together.

Then the man smiled, putting a cigarette between his lips.

"I'm as remarkable as you are beautiful."

It was an obnoxious reply, but Robert couldn't deny it.

The man was remarkable.

"Prepare yourselves."

They were low-ranking Demons, but there were quite a few of them.

Whatever their rank, Demons were never opponents one could take lightly.

With Adrianna leading, the battle began.

Before, they had been the ones ambushed. Now they were the ambushers.

Striking first mattered a great deal in combat.

All the more so against Demons.

The battle didn't last long.

As the knights cooled down, they looked at one another.

Their expressions were all complicated.

Galahad was a Mage from the Empire. He had barely even arrived in the North.

When a man like that announced he was joining them in Demon territory, they had all thought much the same thing.

He must be desperate to die. He'll make today miserable for us.

It was only natural. He was an Imperial Mage, after all.

He was supposed to be nothing but a hindrance.

So why—

'...is he competent?'

Robert swallowed.

No, competent wasn't enough to describe him.

His presence had changed the entire dynamic.

Until now, they had roamed about, fending off ambushes from Demons and demon-beasts and killing them in turn. Now, they were seeking their enemies out instead.

As though they were hunting them.

'Seriously, why?'

Why?

He couldn't understand it.

Then he heard Adrianna's voice.

"Why are you collecting Demon blood?"

Robert turned and froze.

The man was holding a canteen to a decapitated Demon and squeezing its corpse. As though squeezing juice from fruit.

'What in the world... '

Why was he collecting Demon blood? And smiling while he did it?

Robert couldn't begin to comprehend the situation.

"Ah, it's for my magic. This is a great help."

"Ah, I see. Shall I help?"

"Oh, would you?"

"Yes."

Taking a canteen, Adrianna collected the blood flowing from another Demon's corpse.

Robert swallowed at the cozy atmosphere, so utterly at odds with the grotesque scene.

A little later, they set off again.

GULP, GULP.

Hearing someone drinking heartily, Robert turned his head and froze.

Galahad had a canteen to his lips.

At the sight of the red liquid trickling from the corner of his mouth, Robert turned the other way.

Only then did he notice.

Everyone's head was turned outward to an unnatural degree.

"Mm, excellent."

Their heads turned a little farther.