Ch.80Return to the Beginning (5)

Holy Knight Amila immediately recognized the nature of the aura flowing from Alreina’s body.

It was dark magic power. A force that should not exist in this world.

But how could Alreina possibly have dark magic power?

Dark magic power belongs only to dark mages, and its operation is completely different from regular magic power.

While mages use magic power that exists everywhere in the world to cast spells, dark mages use the dark magic power flowing within their bodies.

All dark mages have dark magic power inside their bodies, which is something they’re born with.

They have no choice in the matter, and unless they commit suicide, they must live with dark magic power until they die.

Does this mean Alreina was born with dark magic power?

But that’s impossible.

Dark magic power contaminates its surroundings, so if Alreina had possessed it, Amila and Kareni, who had been living with her, should have died long ago.

Then is that not dark magic power?

Whatever it was, Amila, as a Holy Knight, instinctively knew she should never get close to that energy.

“Step back, Magician! Evacuate everyone to the surface immediately!”

“What? To the surface?”

“Touch that and you’ll die!”

Before Amila could finish speaking, Blanchard cast magic with both hands.

“You there, apprentice mage! Help us!”

Seeing people floating up one by one toward the corridor leading to the surface, Kareni began gathering magical power.

“Alreina! Snap out of it!”

Amila shouted while spreading a holy barrier between Alreina and the people.

But Alreina remained motionless, crouched beside Jack’s corpse.

The black aura flowing from her body continued to burn, creating bizarre shapes.

When the black aura touched the holy barrier, it sizzled and sparked, and Amila gritted her teeth as she mobilized all her holy power.

Meanwhile, people evacuated in confusion along the corridor leading to the surface.

After sending up the last person, Kareni ran over and grabbed Amila’s shoulder.

“Everyone’s out! Let’s get away quickly! Leave the hero behind!”

“Damn it!”

As the black aura now filled one side of the cave, Amila finally turned and dashed toward the corridor.

* * * * *

Uncle is dead…

Trapped in the fog of black aura, Alreina gazed endlessly at Jack’s corpse.

In spring this year, I first met Uncle at the potion shop I visited before setting off on my adventure.

Uncle gave me potions and items in abundance and wrote me a strategy guide.

With what Uncle gave me, I was able to come this far.

I was about to finish everything and return to Uncle.

But Uncle came to find me first.

And in this state.

I wonder what happened to Uncle.

The words of the magician from earlier came to mind.

Somewhere in the south. A corridor leading underground.

“That person” who killed half of the adventure party.

The bright light that rushed from beyond the cave.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

At some point, a regular vibration and noise began coming from a great distance.

Alreina slowly rose to her feet.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP! DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!!

Alreina jumped down to the lower level and stood on the horizontal steel frame.

A dazzling light flickered from the other side of the cave.

BWAAAAAAANG-!!

With an ear-splitting horn, the light rushed toward Alreina with tremendous force.

Drawing her sword, Alreina stood still, waiting for the light.

BWAAAAAAANG-!!

* * * * *

“Please send this by express delivery. It’s truly an urgent matter.”

I handed a sealed envelope to a boat heading to Odelin City via waterway trade.

This was a dispatch to the royal palace regarding the adventure party’s failure to return.

The adventure party had not returned for a long time and hadn’t even provided the promised dimensional gate resupply.

The content stated that since the kingdom couldn’t resolve this on its own, they should request support from the Empire.

The royal court might be reluctant to involve the Empire, but with the king and high officials of the royal palace having disappeared entirely, that was hardly the main concern.

Even searching through my knowledge of the original work, there was no information about the south, so there was no other option.

Bellamy deployed the city guard to control the south gate and all roads.

Adelheid Remugen and Miyumi were running around trying to catch people who were secretly setting off on adventures, evading surveillance.

Not a single adventurer who had already left had returned, and for some reason, the city hall was blocking people from going that way.

For adventurers who had nothing but their lives, what could be more tempting?

Although the city guards had been trained since their days as knights, they couldn’t stay awake indefinitely to deal with such madmen.

During shift changes or in the vulnerable early morning hours, adventurers continued to attempt escapes to the south, and the fatigued guards kept letting them slip through.

“Hmm. Looks like we need to step in!”

Seeing this, Brasya appeared at the southern gate with two hundred pigs.

“Now, if you spot anyone going that way, scream as loud as you can, understand?”

The pigs, thoroughly trained by Brasya, dispersed in an orderly fashion.

The pigs took up appropriate positions, rolling around or lying down to rest, and when they encountered people heading south, they let out monstrous screams.

“KWEEEEEEEK!!”

Then the standby guards would rush to that location and make arrests, significantly changing the patrol method.

This way, they could leave just ten guards on standby and reassign the rest to rest or other security activities, greatly reducing operational fatigue.

With Brasya’s help, the adventurer problem was somewhat resolved.

The Empire needed to come as soon as possible.

“Brother.”

As I stood on the southern watchtower looking at the hazy night sky, Mirella climbed up the ladder.

“What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t come home. You haven’t eaten dinner either. Here.”

Mirella took several sandwiches out of her bag and distributed them to me and the guards on watchtower duty.

“It would be awkward to eat alone. Please have some.”

“Oh, thank you, Mirella.”

The guards who received the sandwiches chuckled and gave us some space in the corner of the watchtower.

“Eat, brother.”

“Have you eaten?”

“No. Let’s eat together.”

Mirella and I leaned against the railing of the watchtower and ate our sandwiches side by side.

Glancing sideways, I saw Mirella taking small bites of her sandwich while looking at the murky southern sky.

Wait a minute. Was she always this tall?

Mirella’s eye level, which had only reached my chest when I first possessed this body, was now almost the same as mine.

Living together at the shop, I hadn’t noticed how much she’d grown.

They say other people’s children seem to grow quickly while your own seem to grow slowly.

I wonder if Alreina has grown that much by now too. They’re about the same age.

“How old are you?”

“I don’t know.”

Ah, right. Mirella is a war orphan. No one knows how old she is.

“What happened to those people?”

I shook my head at Mirella’s question.

“I don’t know either.”

“There are things even you don’t know? You told Alreina everything.”

“I don’t know what’s in the south either. If I did, I would have done something about it long ago.”

“I see.”

Mirella, who had been quietly eating her sandwich, asked again.

“That girl Alreina. She’s really strong, right?”

“Probably.”

“How strong?”

“Demon armies were rampaging in the northern continent, and Alreina recently defeated them.”

Mirella’s eyes widened in surprise, as if she hadn’t known it was that serious.

“Then why not ask her to come here? Couldn’t she go south and rescue the adventure party?”

“There’s no way to contact her. She’s too far away.”

“I see…”

Nodding her head, Mirella wrapped up her half-eaten sandwich and put it back in her bag.

“Are you coming home tonight?”

“I’ll come. Brasya has released the pigs to catch adventurers, so we’ve got a bit of a breather.”

In the distance, we could hear pig squeals and the sound of guards being dispatched.

Looking in that direction, Mirella asked:

“Have you… completely decided to do that now?”

“Huh? Do what?”

“I was wondering if you’ve decided to stop running the potion shop and live as an advisor at the city hall.”

I remained silent, not understanding what she meant, so Mirella elaborated.

“Well, when this was a village, you and I ran the shop together, but not anymore.”

“That’s true…”

“Those were good times. Even if we weren’t as well-off as now, we were happy.”

Mirella smiled faintly.

“But it can’t be helped. You’re the most important person for the city’s development. And I’m nothing.”

“Mirella.”

“Don’t worry about the shop since I’m here. Just come make potions when you have time. I’m studying as you taught me, but it’s really difficult.”

I had previously encouraged Mirella to get a potion-making license.

Liberone wanted Mirella to become a knight, but I had no intention of letting her do something so dangerous.

So I thought it would be better for Mirella to get a potion-making license and take over my shop.

When I made that suggestion, Mirella smiled and told me:

Rather than that, why not get married and run it together as a couple?

She said she didn’t know her age, so let’s just assume she became an adult this year and get married.

But Mirella… I…

“Huh? What’s that?!”

The guards eating sandwiches pointed beyond the railing.

They were pointing at the road a little away from the south gate.

Someone was irregularly waving a torch there. It was the guard’s signal.

“Someone… is coming… from the south…?”

“Ring the bell!”

A guard frantically struck the watchtower bell.