The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan: Volume 7 - ebook

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THIRTY-SEVENTH CHAPTER

An Ominous Silence

The calamity was secretly taking place at the same time as the Seven Nations Friendship Magical Tournament.

It was a Fiend known as a Devourer that absorbed mana at a frightening speed. That existence posed an unprecedented danger that would influence humanity’s continued survival.

In order to deal with this, an elite force from Alpha was dispatched to the Outer World beyond Balmes’ borders.

Despite their wealth of experience, the familiar Outer World had transformed into an unpredictable battlefield. And they made their way into the dangerous area where a terrifying foe awaited.

And now... Alus, Lettie and the squad were watching a red ocean of flames turn what was once a green forest into ash.

The perfected spell exceeded human knowledge, and overpowered any laws of physics. Moreover, it was two Singles, the elites of elites—those who stood at the top of hundreds of thousands of Magicmasters—who had cast the spell. Its power and scale were at the very peak of magic.

Detonation—the widespread annihilation spell—was so powerful that there were restrictions on its use.

Aside from the common magic used in everyday life, the spells used by Magicmasters were classified as novice, intermediate, advanced, and expert. But there were actually also exceptions that were classified as ultimate spells. These presented a degree of perfection that required all kinds of factors to be incorporated. They were at the limit of what humans could use and the closest to what Fiends used.

When it came to destructive power alone, Detonation was on the level of ultimate magic, leaving the other spells behind. As it turned its surroundings into ash, it continued to swallow everything in its flames.

In the blink of an eye—the fires spread farther and devoured all in its sight.

The flames were merciless and indiscriminate. The air got so hot it even reached Alus and the others, and heated their faces.

One of the squad members showed consideration by casting a barrier to shut out the heat. The magic membrane resembling frosted glass had a red tinge to it, as the flames wavered on behind it.

The double cast of Detonation by Alus and Lettie also created a powerful shockwave. The shockwave shook the trees and sent the leaves flying. Of course, the trees didn’t survive that kind of blast either. If viewed from above, the trees were surely falling on top of one another like dominoes.

The wind blew in, bringing with it a smell of greenery, as well as the burning.

Lettie gazed at the never-ending fire with satisfaction. But Alus scowled and muttered, “As expected, I fall behind someone who specializes in it.”

Lettie had an affinity for the fire attribute and specialized in explosive magic. So her talent and abilities excelled in this kind of spell. Because of this, even though Alus outranked her, he wasn’t going to beat her in her own field. Even though they’d used the same spell, Alus’ sharp senses had picked up that her ability was slightly above his own.

Yet Lettie turned and gave him a wry smile. “If anything, my pride is in tatters. They were practically on the same level. How strong are you planning to get?!”

“Like you’re one to talk. Thanks to you, we’ve got a wasteland in front of us.” Perhaps he should take Lettie’s words as praise. When it came to this field, surpassing her would be difficult.

After this brief display of overwhelming firepower, Alus spoke up to bring the light mood to an end. “Well, no matter. More importantly... Next move!”

The spells had been fired at some suspicious people assumed to be Magicmasters. And as expected—that wouldn’t be enough to kill them.

Alus had used his sixth sense to confirm that a defensive film had been created around their target. That film was pretty much a massive sphere of some kind, and in better conditions it probably could have been seen from where they were.

_It was only really meant to keep them in check, but it doesn’t look like they had a lot of trouble blocking it._ Without letting his astonishment show, he ordered the second assault to begin.

“I’ve been waiting for those words, Captain!” Sajik said with vigor.

“We’re ready on our end,” Mujir added.

Next to Sajik was a lightning beast that easily surpassed him in height. Some distance away, Mujir had a poisonous serpent known as a Hydra floating in the air near him.

At first glance they looked like Fiends, but they were actually summonses made manifest through Sajik’s and Mujir’s mana.

At Alus’ signal—the two thrust out their hands.

Having been given orders, the lightning beast skillfully jumped over a grove of trees and transformed into lightning to close in on its target in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, the serpent wriggled its way through the trees.

Both moved at high speeds, showing no signs of being stopped by the obstacles in their way. The two could use advanced summoning magic, and the lightning beast and serpent were exceptionally powerful summonses.

Alus had known they were elites, but he was honestly surprised that Sajik and Mujir could control them while giving the other members orders. “One more for good measure... Fire!”

The next moment, the remaining squad members fired spells up into the sky. None of them were too powerful out of fear that they would cancel each other out, but the idea was to crush the enemy through sheer numbers. And the magic rained down on the target with perfect accuracy.

However, a loud roar then made the very air tremble. Despite their distance from it, it reached Alus and the others, shaking the atmosphere around them.

“What happened?!” Lettie asked.

“The magic was cancelled out...” Alus said. He scanned his memories for possible spells. A spell that could cancel out spells and create a shockwave that shook the air narrowed it down quite a bit.

He felt a headache come on, as he realized the spell name that matched the criteria. _So it’s Kurama after all. They’re a bigger pain than I thought. To think they can even use taboos... no, spells banned from regular use._

The spell Alus had remembered was barely used, but it was slightly different from a taboo. It had terrific power, but it cancelled out even the spells of one’s allies. Because of that, it was viewed as being pointless in group battles and its name had been expunged from the spell encyclopedia.

In reality, even Alus had only seen its name before. In the past he’d received permission to look through the full database of all spells ever listed in the spell encyclopedia, and it had only faintly remained in his memory.

However, the squad members were all exchanging dumbfounded looks. And who could blame them? Alus aside, they probably had no idea what had happened.

Lettie, representing the group, asked him, “Whatcha mean? I don’t know how the enemy managed to fight back that rain of spells.”

“I guess you could call it a spell that destroys spells... at any rate, it’s a spell suitable for a criminal.”

Everyone apart from Lettie wasn’t sure if they got it or not, but Alus felt he’d explained it properly enough.

_Now then... what to do next._ This opponent had survived Detonation and cancelled a rain of spells. There must be someone strong even in Kurama among them. If they quarreled with them now, they’d waste mana, which would lead to having to abandon their elimination of the Devourer.

“So the enemy’s really Kurama then. If they can block Detonation, I guess it’s not all lies that they can rival Singles. But... we don’t get a lot of chances to fight someone on our level,” Lettie said with a fearless smile.

_She’s quite the battle junkie herself._ Alus sighed, coldly staring at her. He didn’t think she’d do something stupid, but he decided to reconfirm their objective with her anyway. “Just so you know, we’re not fighting them now. If they come biting back at us that’s one thing, but the Devourer’s our top priority. If not, we’re going to see a pile of bodies.”

“Yeah, no, I get that.” Lettie feigned laughter, as if to say it was all a joke, but Alus saw the curiosity and fighting spirit in her eye. It was like her heart was burning with the wish to fight a strong enemy.

“If you just have to fight them, go put in a request with the Governor-General. Though he’ll probably say no,” Alus added. No sane person would send a Single off on other errands in a situation like this, at least not as long as it was a joint operation between nations, which this was.

In the middle of their idle talk, Alus suddenly felt his body being pressured. It wasn’t something as vague as an intuition. It was something clearly approaching from afar—and rapidly.

“—!” A beat later, Lettie also noticed the large mass of mana flying their way.

The squad members were making a ruckus too. Beyond the trees was an overwhelming presence of mana coming at them. Considering the scale, it was obviously a counterattack from Kurama.

_I guess I could refill on the mana I spent on Detonation._ Unlike the squad, who were bracing themselves, Alus stepped to the front and held out his hand. “I’ll deal with it,” he said, sheathing his AWR, as he wasn’t going to need it.

Seeing Alus put away his AWR, everyone looked at him with suspicion. Yet they still put their trust in him.

Lettie took a step back to give him room, and watch over things.

_Considering the Fiend’s class, I’m going to have to end up using it, and they’ll probably find out then anyway._

Alus’ special ability was a mana that ate mana. This was considered confidential information, but everyone here was a soldier from Alpha.

Moreover, it was inevitable in this situation. So Alus decided to use it here, since it was only a matter of time anyway before they all found out. Of course, he’d only show the result of the absorption; he wouldn’t explain how it worked. On top of that, he was planning to recover the mana he’d expended before.

While his special ability was powerful and useful, it had a complicated drawback. Since the mana had a will of its own, allowing it to absorb too much would force him to focus more on keeping it from going out of control. But if he used it just to absorb the amount of mana he’d put out before, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

Alus held his hand out, as a massive slash of wind approached. The wind blade cut through trees and branches with ease, but the moment it touched Alus’ hand, it was sucked in. Its power was stripped away, and all that remained was a gentle wind that caressed the tips of his fingers.

With a satisfied look, Alus focused on the mana absorbed into him. _Talk about putting stupid amounts of mana into it. But thanks to that, I got more than I expected_, he thought sarcastically to himself, as the amount of mana put into the attack exceeded what he thought was coming.

As a result, Alus’ thrust-out arm hadn’t been able to fully resist the mana’s force, and ended up pushed back a little. However, he continued to absorb the mana as he pulled his hand away, finally killing the momentum.

“—!! W-What was that?!”

Seeing Lettie react as he expected, Alus sighed as if nothing had happened. “That’s a trade secret... but I was able to refill my mana with that.”

“It’s a spell that can absorb mana?!”

Absorb it did, but it was fundamentally different from what Lettie was thinking—because this ability devoured mana out of its own avarice.

Of course, Alus wasn’t going to reveal the principles behind it, so he welcomed Lettie and the squad’s misunderstanding.

With that in mind, he confirmed what the enemy was doing once more. He and the others were here to eliminate the Devourer. And with this, their opponent should have a grasp of his and the others’ abilities as well.

Their primary goal wasn’t to square off against Kurama. And if possible, Alus wanted to avoid any further fighting.

“Well, it seems that settled it.” Perhaps the enemy had decided the same thing as him, as their presence suddenly disappeared from the area. Distance-wise, they were just barely out of Alus’ sight. Any farther than that was in the realm of spotters, but using magical means to detect would make him see unnecessary things as well.

He lost any remaining interest in them, and calmly walked over to Rinne, who was crouching down on the ground. There was tension in her expression and beads of sweat on her forehead. Seeing how her eyes were still closed, she likely hadn’t recovered her full sight yet.

Coming to her side, Alus bent down and whispered, “Please keep what you just sensed a secret. I’m not a big fan of getting rough.” He held his finger in front of his mouth.

She wasn’t able to see his gesture, but since she was called Alpha’s Eye, she must have picked up on it all the same.

In fact, it was very likely that Rinne had realized more details of Alus’ special ability than the others. It was only for a moment, but she specialized in sensing the movement of mana. It would be difficult for Singles like Lettie to pick up on it, but Rinne was a different matter.

There would be no misunderstanding as with Lettie, and Rinne likely already understood that it differed from mere absorption. Which led right to Alus’ secret.

“I-I understand.”

Alus gave the nodding Rinne a small smile, then turned his eyes elsewhere. “We lost some time because of this unexpected incident, but let’s return to our elimination as pla—”

Before he could finish saying his piece, something came upon him from behind at high speed.

He took a few steps forward, managing to stay upright. He could also feel something soft on his back. Alus could clearly feel two mounds changing their shape as they were pushed against him. As his mind began imagining what they were, he decided to quit thinking for the time being.

“Ahaha! That’s Allie for you! There’s no one that could take that No. 1 rank from you!”

“Hey!”

“You’re so strong, and you’ve still got tricks up your sleeve. I knew I was right about you.” Lettie had her arms wrapped around his neck, her moist eyes fixed on him. Alus wondered just what she was so happy about. “Maybe your big sis really will try to make a move on you!”

“Leave that for later! We’re still on a mission.”

“You’re so stubborn... Being so stiff is only gonna work against you. My motto is to be happy when something happy happens, whether it’s on a mission or not.”

“I’ve never heard anything like that...” Alus looked over at the squad for help, but they simply shook their heads with no intention of intervening.

If anything... “Please give her a break, Sir Alus,” Mujir said with a wry smile. “Our captain’s been on edge since the whole Vanalis campaign.”

“Yeah, at times I seriously thought she would be crying for you whenever something happened,” Sajik added, stroking his chin with a grin.

The other squad members nodded in agreement. As they did, Lettie, who’d been rubbing her cheek against the back of Alus’ head, suddenly twitched and stopped.

The next moment, Lettie looked around resolutely. “You’re gonna bring that up now?! When we get back to Vanalis you’re going straight to the frontlines!” she said, staring at the two men who’d blabbered a little too much. Her anger-filled expression had enough intensity to make one think she was letting her mana flow freely.

Faced with that pressure, the two men were unable to excuse themselves as merely jesting. Mujir even timidly pointed to himself and asked, “Huh? You mean me?” He only received a cold nod for his trouble.

“... Or do you have a problem with that?” Lettie said in an ice-cold tone, prompting the two to rapidly shake their heads and gulp as they straightened their postures.

The other squad members looked at them the same way, but that was just to avoid getting caught up in Lettie’s rage.

“Well! We’ve got Allie to help us out this time. Right?” she said, in hopes of hearing him agree, but Alus kept quiet instead.

The squad members weren’t sure if they should honestly rejoice at that or not. Having powerful reinforcements was something to be happy about, but they didn’t want to step on the same kind of land mine as the other two.

Lettie looked over her subordinates. “I guess keeping this up any further will set a bad example for the rest,” she said, letting go of Alus with a smile.

Alus thought it was way too late for that, but didn’t say anything.

Once she was fully off of him, Lettie removed the ring on her right hand and slowly handed it over to him.

He showed a dubious expression for a moment over her inexplicable action.

Lettie, as if unsure of his reaction, rubbed her ring finger with a lonely expression. She then pointed at it, as if to ask him to put it on. It was a very dramatic action, but he more or less understood that she wanted him to put it back on her ring finger.

Alus tended to be pretty dense about these kinds of things, but he felt he would be pulled into a situation he couldn’t get out of so easily if he went along with it. The surrounding squad members were watching them with tense expressions, as if they were here as witnesses. He could also see a faint red color on Lettie’s cheeks.

After thinking for a moment, Alus carelessly threw back Lettie’s ring-shaped AWR to her. He’d managed to escape one kind of dilemma, but he wanted to focus on the mission first. As captain, he needed to hurriedly decide on their plan going forward.

And so he forcibly brought them back on topic. “Ms. Rinne, how are your eyes?”

“Ah, yes! It will still take some time.” She still seemed to be thinking about his special ability, as she answered in a stiff tone.

Anyway, they didn’t have any time to waste. Heading straight for their destination was likely the best option. They were roughly halfway there, so in a while the mineral deposit should come into view.

A little while later...

It was still before noon, and the sun shone down on them through the leaves and branches of the big trees, casting spots of light here and there on the ground. Because of the countless trees, the area felt dark overall, and somewhat cold. So in that sense, it was a good thing they had their cloaks. Though it was still too early for winter, there were no signs of Fiends, let alone critters, around them.

Alus wasn’t the only one who felt something was wrong with the unnatural silence. The squad members were also sensing something ominous. They’d gone with Lettie on long missions in the Outer World. Be it fickle weather, strange plants, or uniquely evolved ecosystems, they were elites that weren’t going to flinch over something minor. But even they felt danger in the air in this abnormal atmosphere.

They all unconsciously recalled past experiences, and realized they were about to encounter something. Moreover, the past experiences they were remembering were all ominous ones.

This quiet brought to mind a certain silence that appeared at specific times. In other words, when a high-classed Fiend began taking control of an area and slaughtering the weaker Fiends around.

The reasons varied from cannibalizing, to evolving, to stress from outside Fiends messing with their territory. The only thing for sure was that in that state, the high-ranking Fiend was anything but tolerant. If anything, they turned mad as they attempted to kill anything that moved. And the silence covering this area was very similar to that.

Alus, taking point, suddenly stopped, signaling the squad behind him with his hand.

There was a massive rocky mountain in the far distance. He jumped up to a branch of a tall tree to take a look.

In the sea of green was an unnaturally placed bulge. The strangely colored soil stood out from the greenery around it. That bulge was unmistakably the deposit they were headed to.

At first glance it looked like a mountain, but it just didn’t blend in with its surroundings, giving off an unnatural appearance. If one had to describe it, it was like a giant mountain had been buried with only the top sticking out of the dirt.

Alus wasn’t exactly an expert on mineral deposits, but it still looked strange. The uniquely colored peak was like the tip of an iceberg, as if there was way more beneath the surface.

However, he hadn’t stopped the squad because he’d spotted the deposit. The main reason was... “There was a battle here.”

“Looks like it,” Lettie said. “But...”

“Yeah, the traces get more extreme the farther up ahead.”

There was a thick smell of blood in the air even now. Considering how much time had passed, the scent of blood should be long gone. But as they continued on, the farther they went, the more stained the ground was with blood. It was so dark it even looked like shadows.

As veteran Magicmasters they didn’t underestimate the Outer World. But this scene was completely different from the greenery they’d been moving through just a moment ago.

Spotting a patch of blood on a nearby leaf, Alus rubbed it with his finger. This was likely the work of magic, and the mowed-down shrubs and severely damaged trees spoke volumes as to how intense the battle had been.

But from Alus’ point of view, the battle traces seemed to lack any clear intentions behind them. “This is all over the place. Was there no chain of command? For all I know, they might have ended up killing each other.”

They had to have been extremely disoriented. There were multiple traces of Magicmasters firing off magic in all directions.

“This is a little away from the deposit, huh?”

Lettie was right. According to the information they had, Balmes’ extermination force encountered the Devourer right next to the deposit.

“That doesn’t change the fact that this is from the extermination force. Maybe they fell back and regrouped, and attempted a counterattack from here. At any rate, there was clearly a battle here.”

“So they couldn’t run away,” Lettie said. “But still... the scale’s pretty small. Is this all the resistance 400 Magicmasters could manage...? That can’t be it. They must have been reduced to a small number before this. I bet there were only around 20 left at this point.”

The 400 Magicmaster-strong force was routed, and they were still only able to get this far, all the while being whittled down to less than a company. He didn’t want to think Lettie’s conjecture was correct, but... just looking at the traces of this battle, Alus could more or less get a grasp of the situation.

Even if Balmes’ Magicmasters weren’t elites, they should have been relatively powerful. Not to mention that there were 400 of them. If they chose to retreat from this dangerous situation there should have been at least several dozen who made it back. And yet only one actually managed to return...

Regardless, the truth was up ahead. “We’ll find out once we get farther up,” Alus said, but he was anything but optimistic.

“Sir Alus, my sight has almost fully recovered. I can use my eyes any moment now,” Rinne called out to him, appealing to him that she was fine, as she blinked a couple of times.

“Ms. Rinne, please don’t push yourself... is what I’d like to say, but that won’t fly right now. So please go ahead.”

“As you wish. I will fulfill my job as a spotter!”

They should be on the border of their target’s territory. So Rinne’s eye would be a godsend. Or rather, without it they would likely surrender the upper hand to their foe.

That said, her powers weren’t at their best yet. As proof of that, Rinne shook her head after failing to spot the Devourer despite her attempts to detect it.

But her face was pale, as if she’d seen something disgusting. Alus could more or less guess what it was, and decided not to ask any questions as they carefully moved on. They’d soon see what Rinne saw for themselves.

It was a hard-to-describe scene... had there been any incidents where this many people had lost their lives in recent years?

“Allie! ... Isn’t this even worse than expected?” Lettie frowned. When faced with this sight, she couldn’t keep herself from asking this.

It was like a scene right out of hell, completely separate from the world of green they’d just been in, with far more blood than before staining the ground, dyeing everything in a sinister dark shade of red.

The undergrowth and bark of the trees around them were all colored red. But even then there wasn’t a single corpse to be found. Only the vast amounts of blood told them what gruesome things had happened here.

“We already expected the worst. This just means we were right,” Alus said. Indeed, things had turned out to be the worst case scenario as he’d anticipated.

Still, it was an intense scene. And one’s steps grew heavier just walking through it. He also found himself impressed that the second force actually continued on from here.

“Captain! Over here.”

Looking in the direction he was called, Alus saw Sajik with an imprudent, proud expression, staring at a certain spot. He’d heard he had a good nose, but it felt like a waste of time confirming the truth.

“These are scratches... and they’re still fresh,” Alus noted. The bark of the tree Sajik was pointing out had scratches left behind by four claws.

It was high enough that he had to turn his head up to see it. This was definitely left behind by a very large Fiend, but was it really made by their target? ... No, considering the situation, if there was another Fiend here it would have to be a very high-classed one. After all, any weak Fiends should have already been destroyed by their target. It would have to be something not so easily killed, not to mention that there had been talk of six A-class Fiends, so it might be one of those.

Of course, there was also the possibility that it was the Devourer.

“It’s too early to tell. But still...” Seeing how high up the marks were, Alus thought it was more likely that the claws simply touched the bark rather than being used for an attack. “At that height, it must be at least five meters.”

That lent credibility to Lettie’s earlier claim that the Devourer might be an ogre after all. Either way, this wasn’t enough for him to classify the Fiend, but knowing its shape and type would help in making plans.

He thought about giving Sajik some praise, but seeing him practically boasting to the others, he lost the urge and turned his back on him. He thought he heard a disappointed voice behind him, but it must have been his imagination.

Well, he could praise him once everything was over, anyways. Alus didn’t know how rewards were divided up in Lettie’s squad, but there shouldn’t be any problem with adding something extra. Either way, it wasn’t something he had to think about now.

Just after that thought crossed his mind...

“Sir Alus!”

“What is it, Ms. Rinne?”

Looking her way, he could see Rinne pressing against one of her eyes. It was less than a kilometer to the deposit, but the way she was pressing her eye was like narrowing a telescope lens when using her magic eye. This way she could perceive distant scenes with greater clarity.

Rinne sounded shaken, but had a somewhat relieved expression. “There’s someone about 200 meters ahead. He or she appears to be different from the enemies before. It might be a Magicmaster dispatched by Balmes.”

“I see...”

“It’s been two months since the extermination force went out, if they’re from that. I don’t think they’d have the time to lie around. They’re probably already...” Lettie said.

“T-The thing is that they’re breathing,” Rinne observed.

“—!! How’d they survive?” Lettie exclaimed. “This place isn’t safe this close to the deposit either!”

The squad began to make a stir at the shocking revelation. “Captain, we should hurry over there. If they’re breathing, they can still be saved. We can rely on the forces behind us,” said one member.

“Hey! Quiet down!” Mujir silenced the squad members with a shout, after seeing Alus’ pondering expression.

Silence fell. Everyone held their breath as they waited for the captain’s decision.

Alus realized this was a very abnormal situation. But abandoning the person here could prove to be a blunder later on, and it wasn’t like he was cruel. If they could be saved, then they should do so.

However, he felt an unease that he couldn’t dispel. That made him cautious. _It’s way too suspicious no matter how you look at it. It’s very possible that it’s a trap, too... if I was alone I could just ignore it, but Cicelnia has a finger in this, so there’s a political aspect to it._

Alus couldn’t help but wish that Fiends were all dumber than animals. There were higher-classed Fiends that could conceal themselves and lay traps when hunting, but that was mostly just primal instincts. They didn’t have human intelligence, so they stopped at targeting weak prey and luring them in.

But what ran through Alus’ head was the incident with Godma Barhong. Back then, Godma had transformed after taking in the flesh and blood of a Fiend. Humans almost never transformed into Fiends, but it wasn’t impossible. And when Godma turned—he had maintained his intelligence.

He was ultimately unable to fight the Fiend’s urges in the end, but maybe it was possible to do the opposite, have Fiends devour humans and take on their appearance.

Anything could happen in the Outer World. And Fiends constantly evolved just like humans did.

Alus sighed and scratched the back of his head. “For the time being, let’s get close enough to get a look at him. Depending on the situation, we might have to consider abandoning him.”

Nobody raised any objections at his decision, but some held their breath as if to brace themselves. They might be up against a powerful foe that might be beyond even an S-class, even a simple miss would come at a great cost.

“But before that... it appears the Consensors won’t work up ahead.” As Alus said that, the squad members all focused on their ears.

The next moment, everyone’s expressions distorted at the strange noises they heard.

“The noise is definitely awful. Is this an effect of the deposit?” Lettie asked.

Alus nodded. The minerals in the deposit must have been throwing mana wavelengths out of order. They’d lose contact with the ones behind them, but they’d been told about this ahead of time so there shouldn’t be any confusion. “Make sure you don’t get too far apart. We’ll approach on high alert in a tight formation until we get in visual range.” Rinne would still be in the center, but they would be on guard for anything now.

They slowed their pace and moved in a way so as not to make any sound, and before long there was even more blood around them. And it wasn’t just the amount; the blood was drier, showing that even more time had passed. It was clear that they were closing in on the site of the main forces battle.

Eventually, Alus and the others arrived at their destination while staying out of sight. As they peeked through the leaves, they saw a single man plopped down on the ground.

The ground around him was stained black. That was because of all the blood that had dried out. The undergrowth around it, equally stained in blood, looked withered.

The man was slumped over and his legs were carelessly strewn about, and he looked dead.

Rinne said, “I can’t sense any Fiends around him, but looking at him... something’s strange.”

Both Alus and Lettie nodded at her words.

“Sir Alus, as far as I can tell, this is the place that saw the most intense battle.”

“Yeah, there really is no reason for him to still be here. If he survived the battle, he would have been eaten long ago anyways,” Lettie noted.

“It’s certainly strange for a Devourer,” Alus said. “He’s still alive, right? I can’t see any wounds from here. So the blood on the ground can’t be his own.”

“So maybe it really is a trap.”

Yet according to Rinne, there were no Fiends lying in wait. So it was hard to imagine one noticing them and laying a trap to lure them in.

Alus gave orders to the squad members through Lettie to stay on guard. Lettie raised her hand to convey it to the others.

“At the moment, we have nothing to go on...” Alus said.

“Wanna go for it?” Lettie replied.

In the Outer World, wasting time was foolish. Swift decisions were required. They were already in Fiend territory so they couldn’t take the time to hold a strategy meeting.

If Alus couldn’t come to a decision, there was always the option of abandoning him, but as the captain he’d be asked to take responsibility afterwards. He supposed he could get away with an excuse if he had everyone get their stories straight, but that was a wasteful use of time and effort.

It was nothing but a pain. When Alus turned back and gave Lettie a signal with his eyes, she got down on all fours and crept closer.

“Who told you to come over like that?”

“We’ll be noticed if we’re not quiet. Now then, let’s get a closer look at this mystery corpse.” She crawled up to Alus’ side and poked her face out from over his shoulder to look at the man up ahead. The next moment, her eyes opened wide and she whispered into Alus’ ear, “Ah, there’s no doubt! That’s Duncal right there!!”

Everyone knew about Balmes’ ranked No. 9, Duncal Konzer. He was in charge of carrying out this mission. Even Alus remembered Jean bringing up that name during the rulers conference.

But this inexplicable situation wasn’t going to get any better just because they knew his name. If anything, if they were to abandon a Single—Singles being treasured by humanity—they would lose a lot of trust.

Alus could only smile wryly.