Chapter 46 – What Is That, 10duck Bird!! (8)
In the thick fog, where he couldn’t see even an inch ahead, Luke put his back to the wall of the building, pulled out the holy sword that made him a hero, Unicor, and aimed at the invisible fog, quietly catching his breath. It was… It happened really quickly. As Hawkna struck the assailant with her bow, the fog that surrounded them grew so thick that she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her eyes. And when the fog cleared again, Luke was already here alone, separated from his comrades.
The magic rope prepared to prepare for this situation was immediately cut. There was no way that Luke, who was not a wizard, could know about the magic processing applied to the rope, which even Viola, a wizard, did not know about, but anyway, it was something that the ‘Smoke Witch’ guaranteed that it would not break so easily. Nevertheless, they are in this situation… Either the ‘Smoke Witch’ lied to them, or the ‘Mist Witch’s power is stronger than the ‘Smoke Witch’ thought.
Since Ragnar Armageddon didn’t want to harm them, he thought that his person, the ‘Witch of the Mist’, wouldn’t do anything that would harm him, was it too complacent? Or is this the ‘Witch of the Mists’ trying to dispose of themselves with personal judgment, separate from Rag or Baron Armageddon? In the current situation where expectations were completely wrong, Luke could not take a step into the invisible fog.
But before long, Luke shook his head. After all, this fog is the enemy’s home ground. If you have to hold on while crouching in a corner, you will only be at a disadvantage as time goes by. It was rather that the enemy’s trap was in front of his eyes and moving forward was the only way out in a way, so Luke took a slow step forward with his body tensed.
One step, then another step. In fear that his blurry vision made it impossible to know what was right in front of him, Luke moved forward little by little, relying on his hearing. Just in case someone attacks like a moment ago, he is ready to pierce his opponent’s chest without hesitation with the sharpened holy sword in his hand.
Contrary to his worries, Luke fortunately passed through the foggy streets without encountering any traps or raids. There was no way to tell if he had just been lucky enough to avoid a set trap or if there really wasn’t one, but Luke, gaining a bit of confidence, sped up his pace and explored the streets. The doors and windows of all the buildings were tightly closed, and most of them were covered from the inside so that the inside could not be seen. The only place where this is not the case is an abandoned house where traces of looting remain intact.
In just a week, the streets covered in magic fog were split in two: greedy marauders and frightened, good-hearted citizens. I knock on the closed door, just in case, but there is no answer. Because of the marauders in the fog, it seems that great mistrust has grown in the hearts of the people who live in these streets. Only like this, I can’t expect to receive help from the people living in this city.
“…Ah…Ah…!”
After all, Luke, who was wandering alone again in search of his companion, listened to the peculiar sound coming from somewhere, and then his face turned red like a carrot. The woman’s sweet eloquence and excited breathing sound did not go well with this desolate space at all. Although Luke had no such experience, he did not lack knowledge, so he roughly guessed the identity of the sound that stimulated his ears. But… In a place like this?
Luke tried to ignore the sound, but it was too irritating for that. For him, a full-fledged young man before being his hero, this kind of stimulation was too lethal. In the end, Luke gave himself the excuse that he couldn’t concentrate on other sounds because of that sweet sound, and that he might need his help, and he started walking in the direction of the sound. After walking for about five minutes, Luke finally reached the source of the sound.
“Here…”
Unlike other houses, it is a particularly large and splendid mansion. In front of him was a mansion so large that its shape could be dimly seen even in this dense fog. And the sound of the problem was coming from inside the mansion. In front of the tightly closed door of the mansion, Luke sighed and turned his head. No matter how thick the fog is, you don’t know what will happen, but if it’s a sound coming from a spacious mansion like this with the front door firmly closed, you probably don’t need help. In fact, the sound coming out of the mansion was a voice that could be heard by a woman who was in the middle of a man’s body mixing violently.
The extremely high, thin voice seemed unfamiliar to him, even though he had heard it somewhere, so Luke turned his head toward the mansion again. And at that moment, at the sound of small steps coming from the back, I immediately pulled out the Holy Sword – Unicor and went into a stabbing stance… I let out a sigh of relief when I saw a man wearing very thick and heavy armor that appeared through the fog. Lowered the sword
“Mr. Gordon, you’re all right. I’m so glad.”
“That’s what I’m talking about, Luke. I wondered if the fog had suddenly thickened, but when I returned to my sight, everything was gone. Do you know how surprised I was? I’m glad I found you.”
The fact that he was not alone in this strange land gave Luke peace of mind.
“But how did you get here? Have you not met Viola, Elia, or Mr. Hochna?”
“You mean the other coworkers? I never saw them. Instead… I did see her.”
“…Is she that woman?”
She is that woman, who is she talking about? To the puzzled Luke, Gordon said in a tense voice.
“She’s that woman. She’s that beast trainer.”
Beast trainer Ray.
One of Ragnar Armageddon’s henchmen, and out of the four henchmen, he is on the lower side than Mars in terms of notoriety, but an existence that can be seen as more dangerous than that.
If Mars reverses the flow of her battlefield with one of her pure physical abilities, Ray distorts her common sense of the battlefield by unleashing numerous magical beasts. How powerful her ability to tame demons is, and how compatible that power is with the power of her master, Ragnar Armageddon, she is as much as she is to Luke and her companions, who have been through all the way to the capital, El Harda. There was no troublesome existence. In addition, when she broke into his mansion to defeat Ragnar Armageddon, she was also her opponent who cut their power the most.
“Where is it? Where did you see it?”
“Honestly, I don’t know the exact location either. The fog is so thick, I can’t tell where you are. I was wandering around looking for you guys, and then I happened to find her. Besides, she wasn’t alone. A woman I’d never seen before. I was with you.”
“Is this the first woman you’ve ever seen?”
“Yeah. I didn’t hear the details of what they were talking about, but soon the two of them headed somewhere together. So I desperately chased after them, hoping there might be some clues, but when I arrived, they figured it out. Could someone have come?”
“…Um, no. Actually, I’ve just arrived, so I’m not sure who came around here.”
Beast trainer Ray, as expected, she was hiding in this fog. And she met another woman, and the two of them headed here. The mansion in the mist… Luke felt the puzzle fit in his head.
“…Anyway, another woman I saw with Mr. Gordon, she might be the owner of this fog.”
“What? If you’re the owner of this mist… You mean that ‘Witch of the Mist’ or something?”
“Yes. And probably this mansion is, with a high probability, her mansion.”
“This is the mansion where the witch lives? Huh, really. Didn’t you find it easier than you thought?”
“…Maybe it’s not that we found it easily, it’s because they found it so easily.”
Luke realized it belatedly. That the sweet chatter that had been heard from the mansion in the mist had stopped at some point.
While Luke and Gordon were deciding their course of action in front of the mansion, Elia appeared, and shortly thereafter Viola joined them… Finally, Hochna arrived with a somewhat strange expression.
*
“It’s been a while, isn’t it?”
“…Why are you here…?”
Mist Mansion. The central point of the ‘Wandering Mist’, a large-scale magic barrier spread by the ‘Witch of the Mist’. In other words, there must be the ‘Witch of the Mist’, the culprit behind this incident, and Ray, the beast trainer who has been harassing them for a long time. Judging like that, Luke and the party passed through the gate that opened by itself at the same time as Hochna arrived and entered the mansion… There, they were reunited with an unexpected person.
Ragna Armageddon. The man who taught Luke failure and hesitation for the first time, a man with vulgar demeanor and prodigal sex life that is hardly aristocratic, but with enough strength and power that no one can point out the fact.
“Why am I here? You’re asking the obvious. I’m a supporter of Mystrina.”
“Sponsor?”
“Yes, patron. So that she can study magic in peace, I will provide her with everything she needs. A house, clothes, food, money, and… Safety. Of course, in return, I will give her the magic she needs. But get it.”
“…Also.”
Viola glared fiercely at Baron Ragnar Armageddon.
“Elaborate magic techniques, overflowing magic power, but a very low-level magic management method compared to that. As expected, your magic was created by a witch. You… Don’t deserve to call yourself a wizard! Especially since you destroyed the magic tower. …!”
Viola took out her staff and chanted her spell right away before Luke had time to stop, but the chant was cut off halfway through. Viola opened her mouth in surprise, but no sound came out of her mouth.
“Did you forget? This mansion is also in the fog. And in this fog… No one can do anything they want without my permission.”
A woman stepped out from behind Ragnar Armageddon. The mature beauty, dressed in her loose-fitting clothes, seemed to have measured her size wrong, and leaned her head on Ragnar Armageddon’s shoulder and said sleepily,
“Are you… The hero Baron Armageddon said? You look more ordinary than I thought.”
“…The woman who was with the beast trainer. I guess you were the ‘Witch of the Mist’ as expected.”
Her Gordon glared at her and muttered lowly to her, and her mature woman nodded her head slowly, an enticing smile floating on the corners of her mouth.
“Yes, that’s right. The magic that Ragnar-sama used to destroy the Mage Tower, and this large-scale magic that covered this city, I created them all.”
“Why… Why are you working for such an evil man!”
At Elia’s cry, she let out a mocking laugh.
“That’s because, of course, ‘this way is more profitable’.”
“What, what…?”
“Would you like to be admired as the greatest genius in the Mage Tower with your friends for a while, can you know how it feels to be expelled from the Mage Tower just because of the low magical capacity in your body? Do you know the feeling of deprivation when you were born into a wealthy family and lived without any worries, but were suddenly taken away by a kid who entered the Mage Tower just because you had an unexpected talent? Can you understand the feelings of a wizard who has been denied his entire life of 10 years and is sitting on a cold street?”
Her witch’s voice was lithe and quiet, but I could feel the cold black darkness lurking beneath her still slumber.
“That girl, Cigarete, even a dragon, did not lose hope in such a situation. Although she is my friend, she is a really great child. Of course, after the Mage Tower fell, she regarded me as an enemy and tried to kill me, so it is a bit sad, but I still want her as my own. “I think of her as a friend. She… Is fire. A fire that burns hot and intense, but too short. It’s beautiful, but it’s so fleeting. That’s why, unlike her, I accepted Ragnar’s proposal. If she’s fire, then I’m water.” I wanted to become water that changes its appearance for a long time, stays in the world, and remembers everything.”
“…After all, you’re crazy about that bastard’s eternal life or something.”
Viola, who had lifted the silencing spell from herself, glared at Mystrina with her childish eyes of contempt and shot her coldly.
“Those who have strong powers but have lost their minds due to being too immersed in magic, ‘witches’ tend to pursue eternal life. Make magic for someone who doesn’t even know ‘M’? You… You are a disgrace to wizards! It’s only natural that we banish you from the Mage Tower! It must have been a stain!”
“Viola!”
“What! Did I say something wrong?”
Luke swallowed dryly. Now… Now Viola is so excited. That’s why I’m using such harsh words that I wouldn’t normally use. You said you deserved to be exiled by someone who was deeply hurt by the incident of being expelled from the Mage Tower? The viola he knows is by no means the kind of person who is not afraid to use such words. Right now… He lost his senses for a moment because the magic tower, which was no different from his hometown, and the two people who caused him to lose his friends were in front of him.
“…Under.”
However, even if it was only for a moment, the mage’s abusive words that had lost her reason were more than enough to upset the witch’s planting.
“It’s only natural to be banished…? The stain on the mage tower? The shame of the wizards? Ha, haha,haha… Ahahahahahaha! Kyahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
The frenzied laughter that sent chills down the spine of everyone who saw it suddenly stopped in the middle. Feeling ominous at the unnatural silence, as if the music had stopped playing in the middle, Luke hurriedly pulled out the Holy Sword – Unicor and released its power, and the priestess Elia, who had been breathing the longest with him, also reacted to Luke’s movements. At the same time, he cast a blessing of protection on all party members with divine power. And as soon as the two finished preparing…
“…To a subject who knows nothing, nothing!!”
“Kuu…?! Kwaaaaagh!”
The storm of overwhelming magical power emanating from the witch blew them away in an instant.
What came out of Mystrina’s body was an ominous magic power completely different from that used by Viola, and it was the same magic power used by Rag and Armageddon. The muddy and dark magic power soon spread out in all directions as fog. A black mist reminiscent of pitch-dark darkness, completely different from the existing pure white mist, swallowed Luke and his party in an instant.
“…Hockna!”
And the last thing Luke saw was the sight of Hawkna flying to her side to avoid the black mist rushing toward them, and being caught by Ragna Armageddon, who had been waiting for her and appeared through the mist.
