"What's going on, Aida?"
"It's an emergency! Tenma, come too!"
Primera tried to ask Aida what was happening, but before answering, Aida grabbed Primera's arm and called my name, telling me to follow.
"Got it. But wait a moment. Grandpa! You and Jeanne take the carriage to the Knight Order headquarters, and we'll meet up there."
"Very well. We'll head out as soon as preparations are done."
I handed Grandpa the bag containing Raiden and the carriage, then headed outside. Jeanne was giving water to Amour and the others, who had been drinking.
"All right, let's go."
"Huh?"
Primera and Aida seemed to think it would be faster to wait for the carriage to be ready, but there was an even faster method. Which was—
"Both of you, hold still!"
"Nooo!"
Tucking them both under my arms, I shot into the darkened sky above Gunjou City. At full speed.
"We're here... Both of you, we've arrived."
"Please, for the love of God, at least warn me before you stop..."
"I feel sick... blegh..."
It was only about a minute of aerial travel, but between the suddenness, the completely unpredicted detour, and the unfamiliar movement and positioning, both of them had gotten motion sick.
"A-Anyway, what exactly happened?"
"Over here— *uugh*! ...Come, the Commander should be in there too!"
Aida, who had largely recovered her composure, dragged Primera and me into the Knight Order's quarters the same way she had back at the Full Belly Inn. And where she took us—
"Terrible..."
"What on earth happened?"
In the square inside the Knight Order headquarters, several knights lay sprawled on the ground, their uniforms stained with blood. Fortunately, there didn't appear to be any dead yet, but at this rate, it would only be a matter of time.
"I'll heal them with magic right away! Starting with the most critical — who should I treat first!"
"Simon! Simon's injuries are the deepest!"
"Captain Simon is over there. That's where they're gathering the seriously wounded!"
Aida answered my questions immediately, and a nearby knight pointed toward where Simon and the other critical cases were being tended. Perhaps due to a shortage of hands, even knights who were clearly untrained in healing were helping out. The medics alone couldn't keep up.
I immediately checked the wounds of the critically injured, starting with Simon, and began administering emergency treatment by firing off recovery magic in rapid succession. Ideally, I would have liked to focus on each person individually, but doing so would have meant several people here would definitely be beyond help, so I prioritized sealing the wounds first.
"Primera! There are recovery potions in this bag — give each of the seriously wounded a bottle marked with the number five! While you do that, I'll go check on the others!"
"Understood!"
The dozen or so people who had been separated out as critical cases had, thanks to the barrage of recovery magic, temporarily pulled through the immediate crisis. They still needed treatment, but to check whether there were other knights in urgent need of help elsewhere, I decided to leave this area in Primera's hands for the time being.
"Tenma, what happened?!"
"Grandpa! I don't know all the details yet, but for now, please help me treat the seriously wounded. Jeanne, Aura! Distribute potions to the knights who are treating people! Amour and Ms. Reni... and Lili — I need you three to help the knights!"
When Grandpa and the others arrived slightly late, I gave them instructions before any explanation. Grandpa could use recovery magic too, and he had more magic power and experience than most others, so treatment would progress rapidly. Jeanne and Aura always carried a large supply of potions on them, and Ms. Reni, given her line of work, would know how to treat injuries as well. I was surprised that Lili and the others had come too, but all three of them were adventurers, so they'd surely had at least some experience with wound treatment. As for Amour — in terms of brute strength, he should be more than enough of an asset.
Under normal circumstances, outsiders wouldn't exactly be welcomed with open arms, but given the emergency situation, the fact that someone connected to the Knight Order had asked for help, and the fact that they were already familiar faces, no knight particularly objected. Well, you could also say they simply didn't have the luxury of caring.
Shortly after Grandpa and the others arrived, knights who hadn't been on duty also began to gather, and so more than enough hands were on hand. Treatment of the seriously wounded progressed to the point where it could be considered mostly under control.
"Tenma! The Commander-in-Chief would like you to come!"
Once things had settled down somewhat, a call came from Commander-in-Chief Alan. It happened to be about the time I needed to give Grandpa a proper explanation anyway, so I had him come along as one of our representatives.
"Tenma Ootori. Merlin Ootori. I am truly grateful for your assistance this time."
The moment we entered the room, Alan rose to his feet, bowed his head, and offered his thanks.
"So, what was the cause this time? It looked like a war had taken place."
It might have been small in scale, but the scene was convincing enough that it could have been described as a field hospital during wartime. And that seemed to be the main reason Alan had summoned us, as his expression grew even graver than before.
"Actually,"
a
creature
appeared."
That creature must refer to the same individual as Chaos. However, I didn’t think its appearance alone would cause that much devastation.
"I understand what you’re trying to say. No matter how you look at it, the Knights of Gunjou City aren’t so weak that a single one of them could cause that much damage."
"So, multiple creatures appeared."
If that creature was a manufactured being created by someone, then the simultaneous appearance of several was something we could have predicted. We deduced from Alan’s story that this incident was simply an unlucky instance of that prediction coming true… but in reality, the situation was several degrees worse than that.
"First, five creatures appeared. Two of them launched a surprise attack from behind the knights, leading a pack of Monsters."
We had assumed "multiple" meant two, or at most three, but the actual number was nearly double at five. Furthermore, the fact that they executed a strategic surprise attack was shocking. And while a few might not sound like much, the fact that they were commanding Monsters was significant.
The summary of the incident was as follows: Simon led half of his unit (the Second Division) and half of the First Division to the outskirts for training. On their return, they spotted a suspicious trio. When several knights went to investigate the trio, the three fled. Consequently, about half the knights gave chase and surrounded them. At that moment, two creatures attacked the knights from the rear, accompanied by Monsters. Simultaneously, the surrounded trio began fighting back, turning the engagement into a chaotic melee.
Because the creatures, each thought to be as strong as several knights, attacked in coordination with the Monsters and rampaged, the knights were on the defensive from the very start of the battle. Amid this, Simon kept shouting for several knights to engage one creature each, as they had practiced. He managed to cut down one of the creatures, but it seems he was identified as the central figure of the unit and received a concentrated attack that left him seriously injured.
Shortly after Simon was wounded, they succeeded in deeply wounding a second creature. At that moment, the remaining half of the knights arrived, prompting the creatures to retreat. As they fled, the Monsters delayed the knights while the creatures carried their injured companion away. Their intelligent actions were leagues beyond what we saw from Chaos.
"Grandpa. If you wanted to heal your wounds and recover your strength, what would you do?"
"Well, I would rest or eat something."
"And the Monsters?"
"The same, I suppose… Don’t tell me, Tenma, you think those creatures would do the same?"
"It’s just speculation, but since their bodies are probably built almost identically to humans, I think it’s possible."
"We're thinking the same thing as Tenma. And unfortunately, there are several villages in the direction the Monsters fled. We've dispatched the remnants of the First and Second Squads as a subjugation force, but honestly, I don't think they can take them down without suffering casualties."
Even if it was a surprise attack, dozens of knights had been wounded to varying degrees. Besides, you couldn't tell from outside whether Monsters were hiding in a village, so it was inevitably going to take time to search. In that situation, avoiding casualties entirely would be impossible. If one or two villages were destroyed but the Monsters were eliminated, that would be considered fortunate. In the worst-case scenario, even that level of damage might not be enough, and the Monsters could still escape.
"Gramps, let's head out on the subjugation too! If we fly there, we might be able to take them down before they do any damage!"
"Aye. Before that, show me a map with the villages' locations and the terrain."
"I've already prepared one."
Alan unrolled the map he'd had rolled up and placed stones on it to make the positions of Gunjou City and the villages easy to see.
"The closest village is about five kilometers away. The farthest is around thirty kilometers."
"The subjugation force is starting from the closest ones, then. In that case, it might be better for me and Tenma to start from the farthest ones."
"For now, let's go with that plan. Primera, Gramps and I are going to fly straight there, so I'm leaving the explanation to Jeanne and the others. Also, tell them they're authorized to deploy Golems at their own discretion."
"Understood. Tenma, and Merlin... Grandfather, please take care."
"Tenma, Merlin — I'm counting on you. Primera, I know you're on the verge of discharge and have already resigned as squad leader, but given the emergency, I'm granting you authority equivalent to that of a full squad commander. Aida will serve as your deputy with deputy-commander authority as well, so if anything happens, I'm entrusting you with command of the unit."
"Yes, sir! Understood!"
There were probably other knights besides Primera who could serve as acting commander, but those knights would need to be on the front lines in an emergency. So it made sense to put Primera — a former unit commander who still held a position in the Knight Order — in the superior role.
"All right, Primera. Stay safe out there too."
Seeing Primera and the others off, Gramps and I took flight from the Knight Order's courtyard.
"So, Tenma — are we heading for the farthest village, or a couple of villages ahead of the subjugation force?"
"We'll start searching from one village ahead of where the subjugation force is headed."
"You think the second village is the most likely target?"
"No, I actually think the third or fourth is most likely. But since we're just searching for the Monsters, it shouldn't take long. We'll just start from the areas the Knight Order hasn't gotten to yet."
I believed the closest village was the least likely place for the Monsters to be hiding. After all, if they had enough intelligence to formulate a strategy, it wouldn't be strange for them to expect enemies to reach the nearest village first. That said, it was also possible the closest village had already been attacked — but even in that case, the Monsters probably wouldn't still be there.
"I understand the reasoning, but how do we plan to search? More importantly, wouldn't it be better to split into two groups?"
Grandpa was convinced about searching from the second village, but he proposed that it might be better to split up — sending one pair to the second and third villages, and another to the fourth and fifth. However,
"No, I have a spell called 'Exploration' that lets me scan the surrounding area. I'll use that while we search for the Monsters. With that spell, I can cover a ten-kilometer radius, so it won't take much time at each village. That's why I think it's better for the two of us to stick together."
"Hmm, so that's your reasoning... Well, that spell of yours and
all
those
other
spells — I'll hear about them in due time. As for the Monster search, I'll leave that to Tenma. I'll just follow along quietly."
Saying that, Grandpa dropped back slightly to fall in behind me.
We overtook the subjugation team and were just on the verge of bringing the third village into sight when—
"Grandpa, I found them! Four Monsters — no Monster presence nearby! Two of them are engaged in combat with the villagers! No casualties yet!"
"Then let's charge right in!"
The Monsters that weren't fighting the villagers appeared to be eating inside a livestock barn. Fortunately, the victims seemed to be cows rather than people, but it would only be a matter of time before the villagers suffered casualties. Since the fight seemed to have just begun, we might be able to prevent any deaths if we hurried.
Thinking that, I moved to wedge myself between the Monsters and the villagers, but in the very next instant, the villagers were all swept aside in a single blow.
"Grandpa! I'll draw the Monsters' attention — use that opening to pull them away!"
"Roger that!"
I adjusted my tactics, slowing down and generating a burst of light and sound with magic directly above. Well, when I say light and sound, I mean at a level that would burn your retinas and rupture your eardrums if you were close by.
The two Monsters had been about to close in on the villagers, but the sudden light and sound startled them into freezing. In that opening, one was launched into the livestock barn by Grandpa's tackle, while the other was knocked flying by a blow from his staff. Both of them had probably been caught off guard by the backlight from my magic, leaving them wide open.
"Tenma! Take care of the barn! I'll crush that one!"
The one he was pointing at was the one that had been knocked back by his staff. Because it hadn't built up much momentum, it hadn't been sent very far, and the impact had been weaker too (though still enough to incapacitate an ordinary person). It staggered back to its feet, brandished its blade, and glared at Grandpa.
"Alright, I'll handle the one in the barn. But first — 'Heal'... We were searching for those Monsters on behalf of the Gunjou City Knight Order. If you can move, get back behind me!"
I cast recovery magic on the injured villagers and directed them to fall back. Then, drawing Kogarumaru, I turned toward the livestock barn —
"GRAAAAAAAAH!"
The Monster that had been blown away came bursting out, smashing through the barn as it went.
"So it's got four arms now... It can add and remove them at will, huh? Well, that makes three."
The Monster that had grown from two arms to four came at me, but I promptly lopped one off, leaving it with three.
"But it regenerates again, does it... What a pain. So — how long do you two plan to keep playing hide-and-seek?"
The severed arm grew back just as quickly as Chaos's had.
Annoyed, I closed in on the Monster and called out to the other two hiding in the half-destroyed barn, but they didn't seem inclined to show themselves yet.
"Fine — have it your way!"
I figured they had some kind of strategy cooking, so I dashed forward into Kogarumaru's striking range in one burst. The Monster panicked and scrambled backward.
"Not letting you escape — wait, this is what you were after!"
I took another step forward in pursuit, and sure enough, the two that had been hiding behind it finally leaped out. They'd probably been trying to set up an ambush — surround me from three sides: front, left, and right.
From the Monsters' perspective, they'd probably thought this was a brilliant strategy. But the moment I knew they were hiding, the plan had already failed. Still, if this had been a normal opponent — and if the Monsters had been able to press their advantage with their power and their sheer number of arms — they'd probably never lose.
In
more
than
one
sense
— this only applies against a "normal" opponent.
Actually... you know what?
I've also
got
four
arms
too.
The moment the two on either side entered range, they were slammed into the ground simultaneously.
Their true form was the "Giant's Guardian."
It had crushed both of them from above with the Gigant's fists.
The result was that one was barely clinging to life in a critical state, but the other had its magic core in its chest shattered and died instantly.
Perhaps because the situation it had thought so advantageous had been flipped on its head in an instant, the monster directly in front of us stood there frozen with a dumbfounded look on its face. And in the next moment, it was split in two and perished.
"Tenma! I'm done over here!"
Just as I'd finished off my two, Grandpa seemed to have wrapped things up as well, and he came over while stuffing the corpses into his Magic Bag.
"Almost done here too. Those two are completely dead, so it's just this one left."
"Well then, finish it off quickly. Even if they're monsters, torturing them to death is just poor taste."
Grandpa said that, urging me to finish it off, but I had my reasons for keeping the monster alive for now.
"Well, I guess you could call it poor taste, but there's one thing I want to confirm first."
With that, I drove Kogarumaru into the arm of the monster, which had recovered somewhat and was gradually starting to move more freely.
The wound I'd created sealed itself within seconds of pulling Kogarumaru out, and before even a minute had passed, it had healed so completely that there was no trace of where it had been.
"Grandpa — you saw that, right? The wound I made healed completely."
"I saw that... but what exactly are you planning to do?"
"Like this."
As if answering Grandpa's question, I drove Kogarumaru into the center of the monster's chest, then plunged my hand inside and tore out the magic core.
"What are you— guah!"
The moment the magic core was ripped out, the monster thrashed in agony and quickly died.
"Grandpa. This thing's cause of death was clearly from the chest wound, right?"
"Indeed. It is more reasonable to say it perished from losing its magic core, not from the wound itself."
"So we've figured out the weakness of this ridiculously fast-regenerating monster?"
"That we have. There are various conditions to consider, of course, but discovering a clear weakness is quite the prize."
There were still challenges — you needed the skill to precisely target the magic core, and the physical ability to pull it off against a monster. But finding its weakness was enormous. If there were some way to immobilize the creature, a blunt weapon like a hammer might be able to take it out in a single blow.
"Let's put the monster talk on hold here. Maybe we should go check on the injured and talk to the villagers about the damage."
Nobody had asked me to go that far, but what happened in Duke Sanga's territory wasn't entirely someone else's problem. I could at least relay a few requests directly to the Duke. Still, I figured it would be best to keep my involvement within the bounds of my standing —
as
merely
an
adventurer
who'd slain a monster in Duke Sanga's territory.
After that, I healed the injuries of the villagers who'd been hurt by the monster, gave the village head a brief rundown of the situation, and warned him not to breathe a word of it to anyone outside (I was thorough about it since I didn't know what judgment Duke Sanga might render — in exchange, I promised to relay their requests for livestock and barn repair costs). Then I left the village and rendezvoused with what should have been the approaching subjugation squad.
I reported to Santos, the first squad captain leading the subjugation force, that the monster had been defeated, and relayed the details of the village's damage and the request for information blackout. He took meticulous notes on every condition I'd proposed and every detail of the village's losses.
I worried I might have overstepped, but given the emergency and the fact that I...
The Duke's Daughter
As her fiancé, that much shouldn't be a particular problem... or rather, since I'm the one involved and I invoked Duke Sanga's name, the right to punish me belongs to the Duke Sanga household, so apparently there's nothing Santos can do about it.
He said the notes were to prevent any misunderstandings or falsifications of the conditions I'd proposed — basically to keep things above board — and also because they'd be necessary for the Knights' official report.
Grandpa and I parted ways with the subjugation squad and headed back to the Knights' headquarters at a slower pace than we'd come. The headquarters was in a state of high alert, with everyone ready to deploy at a moment's notice, but the tension eased slightly once we arrived. When Alan relayed that the monster had been subdued, the alert was lifted and half the squad was dismissed. The remaining half went back to tending to the injured and their usual duties — patrolling and guarding the city.
"Tenma-san, Merlin-sama, are either of you injured?"
"Nope. I crushed it with a Gigant."
"None here either. Just the one, and it wasn't exactly a strong specimen, no sir... On another note, would it be all right if you called me 'Grandpa'?"
Grandpa had wanted to use that form of address from the start, but Primera said she wasn't used to it yet and couldn't manage it unless she was consciously trying. So I told him we'd work on it.
"By the way, what about Jeanne and Amour?"
"Jeanne and Aura are helping prepare late-night meals and assisting with treatment. I sent Lily and the others back to the Adventurers' Guild to report the incident to the Guild Master, so they can lend a hand from that end if anything comes up. Amour is asleep."
The instructions for Jeanne and the others made sense, but I was wondering if Amour had been officially taken off the roster for this —
"Embarrassingly enough, with you and Mar— ...Grandpa away from Gunjou City, Amour is one of our strongest assets, the Knights included. If something were to happen, we'd need him on the front lines, so rather than having him assist with something he's not suited for, we decided it'd be better to have him rest in case of an emergency. That said, I didn't expect him to sleep this soundly..."
Like the Golems — three knight-type units under Primera and two scorpion-type units under Jeanne and Aura — and the Slarin, Amour was a combat asset who could potentially fight Monsters on his own, and simultaneously a unit capable of coordinating with anyone (in the sense that he could communicate through human speech). So they'd been having him conserve his energy. Granted, they hadn't expected him to actually fall asleep in the middle of all this tension, but conserving energy was conserving energy, so they were letting him be.
"Well, there's no immediate crisis, so let Amour be. Tomorrow's probably going to be busy with all sorts of things, so I'm going to get some sleep. I'll move the carriage to the corner — wake me if anything comes up."
Tomorrow would probably bring a debriefing that included the Guild Master and the others. A few days after that, Duke Sanga or Albert would likely show up, and I'd have to report to them as well. That alone would be a real pain — I was already going to be swamped, and yet in between all of that I'd still have to make time to visit Felt for the costume fitting.
"Primera, you've got preparations of your own to deal with, so make sure you rest when you can. Or just lean on me whenever you need to."
"Yes, understood. Then — I'd like to start relying on you right now, if that's all right."
"Hm?"
When I said that and started off toward sleep, Primera grabbed my arm, making it absolutely clear she wasn't letting me go. And with that look on her face —
"The Guild Master is already waiting. We're about to hold a meeting with the Adventurers' Guild, so please attend as one of the responsible parties."
Saying that, she pointed at the sour-faced Guild Master.
"Apparently he's in a terrible mood because Flint and Hart took up his time. He wants them to leave as soon as possible, so even though I know you're tired, would you please help us out…?"
Primera said this with a troubled look on her face, and I couldn't exactly refuse, so I ended up joining the meeting just like that. As for the other subjugation participant—
"I only followed Tenma's instructions, so I'm getting some rest."
He'd cleverly wriggled out of the meeting entirely, stolen my carriage, and gone to sleep. Incidentally, the report and discussion continued until close to dawn, and just a few hours after I had finally finished and drifted off to sleep, the subjugation team returned, so I was woken up by the old man and somehow given the title of "Second Subjugation Team Captain" and forced to attend a second round of discussions.