episode_0021

In this world, timekeeping wasn’t as precise as in modern armies, where time was meticulously divided. Watches were a luxury. Claire had seen her carry a pocket watch a few times. It was a high-priced item with a luxurious appearance, something ordinary people would hardly ever touch in their lifetime.

People gauged the passage of time by observing the movement of the moon in the sky and waking the next person up, estimating how much time had passed. However, if the weather turned cloudy or rain poured down, it became an unreliable method. Today was one of those days. Clouds had been thick since morning, and the sky remained unchanged. It felt like it might be around 4 am, but it wasn’t certain.

She swiftly tossed some branches into the small flickering fire. Since the heat was becoming satisfying, she started preparing to wake up the next sentinel, Emma.

“Hmm?”

–!

Unconsciously, I turned towards the sound coming from a distance. The direction was Gran Bierre. I held my breath and strained my ears, wondering if there might be survivors.

–!

It was too far to make out the words. All I could tell was that it was a human voice, urgently requesting help. If that was the case, there was a high probability that there were still many survivors at Gran Bierre. And, undoubtedly, there would also be monsters lurking to claim their lives.

Urgently, I kicked Emma and Killian, who were sleeping nearby, and dashed straight to where the horses were tethered. I heard painful groans and the stirring of someone waking from sleep. I quickly untied the horse and shouted as I mounted it.

“There are survivors at Gran Bierre!”

The horse, having rested for over ten hours, immediately galloped at top speed. It seemed the tension from the past two days of relentless riding had come back to life. The towering walls of Gran Bierre quickly filled the view. As the distance closed, the voice became clearer.

“Please help! There are people here!”

The voice echoed from the crumbling city gate. Riding through, it didn’t seem easy to cross the pile of rocks. Hoping the horse wouldn’t run away, I crossed the gate on foot. As I entered the city, a pungent mix of blood and decay filled the air. The night vision was terrible. The moon, obscured by clouds, barely cast any light on the ground.

“Help! There’s someone here!”

I concentrated magic in my eyes to enhance my night vision, but it didn’t help much. While I had a spyglass-like tool, I hadn’t learned how to use a night-vision similar device. I wasn’t even sure if one existed.

The city was dreadful. The paved roads were sticky with blood. Granbierre, a city where thousands once lived, had turned into a mass grave. Corpses littered the streets, buildings, roofs, and ditches.

“Help! There’s someone here!”

Corpses were everywhere. Everywhere. Even at the campsite set up by the Magic Corps outside the city, there were so many bodies that we had to hold makeshift funerals. But the habits of the monsters I had encountered so far had not been like this. They seemed to consider humans as prey. Even during the desperate breakthrough in the fields outside Saint Marg’s, even during the miraculous battle at the Seventh Bridge, the monsters relentlessly devoured without pausing to breathe.

But here in Granbierre, corpses overflowed. Apart from the wounds they had suffered in life, the bodies were relatively intact.

“Help! There’s someone here!”

“W-who’s there?”

Had I been so distracted by the horrific sight of the city that I noticed too late? No matter how far I went into the city, the voice kept repeating without getting any closer. How did this voice reach me beyond the city walls to the camp?

My mind snapped back, and I looked around. Yellow glints watched me from alleys and rooftops. They were a new breed. It was time to come up with proper names to distinguish them.

It felt similar to a werewolf, but far more horrifying. Its ribs were wide open, exposing its internal organs, and its face was human-shaped. Numerous different human faces simultaneously opened their mouths.

“Help! There are people here!”

At that moment, around a dozen of them rushed towards me. I focused all my magical power on defense and quickly rolled backward.

“Hoo.”

There wasn’t a scratch on my body. Those who paraded their internal organs like that couldn’t have been very strong in combat. They seemed more like creatures who lured people with their voices and killed them one by one. Their movements just now were less threatening than the ones I had encountered before. Maybe this was manageable?

I am not the naive mage infantry from the first day anymore. Back then, I almost died from a frontal assault by the frontline infantry, but now, I’ve had too much experience to die from such an attack. And after dying once, the amount of magical power had increased dramatically.

Bang!

The first magic bullet shot out. A coin-sized hole appeared in the head of the closest one, and it fell down. When their comrade died, their relaxed attitude quickly changed. There were still about a dozen of them; one had just fallen, so exactly twelve remained.

I maximized my physical abilities through body reinforcement magic. Normally, it’s only used to enhance reflexes and agility slightly, but I had never pulled it as tight as I did now.

“Ugh!”

I felt my magical power rapidly draining from my body. Without even a moment of feeling disheartened, I kicked off the ground and leaped up.

“Ah, ahh!”

With an unexpected scream coming from my mouth, I jumped nearly ten meters. As I reached the peak, I took a deep breath and converted my magical power into a magic bullet.

The musket’s magic stone began to shine not in blue, but in golden light. However, I didn’t have time to pay attention to that. Before falling back to the ground, I needed to reduce their numbers as much as possible.

Boom!

A different gunshot was heard from before. It was a sound I had never heard before. The golden mana split straight from the monster’s forehead to its abdomen, and I fired three more shots before free-falling. In my battle with the ogre, I couldn’t use my full power due to controlled shooting and managing my mana residue. I thought to myself, “I’ve gotten quite strong.”

To reduce the number of landings, I aimed at a monster in the landing area and delivered another shot of mana. Now, there were only seven left. I thought I could easily handle the remaining ones this way.

Bang!

The fifth shot must have been too ambitious. I landed in a disoriented position, unable to correct it in time.

“Aaargh!”

Landing on the edge of a building, my right ankle twisted completely. Overwhelmed by immense pain, I dropped my musket and collapsed. Despite using a technique to alleviate the pain, it didn’t vanish.

The monsters weren’t foolish. They seized the opportunity as soon as they saw my vulnerability, leaping back onto the roof where I was.

Thud!

The building’s roof couldn’t withstand the weight of nearly eight people and collapsed.

“Ugh…!”

As I fell again in my collapsed state, the cold impact of the stone floor struck my back. It felt suffocating, but I had to get up now. The pain from my twisted ankle had somewhat subsided. Unable to use my right foot at all, I leaned against the wall and managed to stand.

“Phew, damn it.”

I had been too careless. Why did I come here alone, and why did I let my guard down during the battle? Did that monster use some kind of special mental attack?

As the collapsing roof met the dense dust and darkness, nothing was visible. My musket had flown off somewhere, and I had no idea where it was, although it should be nearby.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

Breaking through the thin wall of the building, the monster’s hand jutted out, aiming to stab my abdomen. I narrowly avoided it, but as I leaned against the wall, my support vanished, and my balance crumbled mercilessly as I collapsed to the ground, thinking that I would die once again in this state.

“!”

Gathering my magic, I cast the body reinforcement spell once more. Forcing my right ankle, which had been twisted, back into place. I had mentally prepared myself, but the pain was still unbearable, as if my bone hadn’t properly set. It was an action taken with the hope of enduring just a few more minutes.

The creatures around me, with human faces, shouted curses rather than coaxing words. The venom laced within each syllable was beyond what an ordinary mind could bear to hear. If it were someone other than a mage, they might have already gone mad.

The monsters surrounded me within the narrow building. There was no visible escape. The only option was to leap back into the sky. But in this closely encircled state, would those who had already caught me once simply let me escape?

“There’s no choice but to try.”

There was only one way. I had to actively use my dwindling magic. Others would have likely exhausted their magic twice over by now. Clerics might have managed just once before being incapacitated by magical fatigue. Yet, there still seemed to be a sufficient amount of magic within me. Though I felt it diminishing, my body still held an ample reserve.

As I kicked off the ground, the temporarily fixed right ankle shattered completely. Perhaps that was the reason. The subtly slowed speed provided the seven surrounding monsters with enough time to strike me.

“Gah… This kind of… situation…”

Mercilessly, it pierced. Seven hands pierced through my body. With seven fist-sized holes in my not-so-large body, I couldn’t tell if this was a body or a rag. Crimson blood gushed out. In my fading sight, I saw their human faces chuckling. I vowed to blow off that skull once I revived, then lost consciousness.