Chapter 140 - Bait

It was a country mansion, but it had still once been a house where a noble lived.

That also meant it could not be brought down by ordinary magic or explosions.

'With an explosion like that...'

It did not seem possible that either Regent Ferda or that Demon could have survived.

Even so, the commander ran toward the collapsed mansion.

Regent Ferda could not die.

At least not until they knew what would happen because of his death.

Then, amid the thickly settled rubble and dust, he saw a single figure standing tall.

Was it the Demon?

The commander drew his sword and poured out aura.

But to his surprise, that figure belonged to a man he knew.

Ferda Valdrova.

That man stood aloof in the middle of the wreckage.

"Regent, are you all right?"

The knight company commander came running.

Ferda threw a sphere of mana at them.

It exploded precisely at their feet.

BOOM!

"Ugh! What are you doing?"

"Don't come any closer."

Ferda's warning.

Ferda's gaze was fixed stubbornly on only one place.

"That bastard isn't dead yet."

He wasn't dead?

A moment later, just as he had said, something writhed up out of the rubble.

It was exactly along the path the company commander had been running.

"I was trying to take at least a few more with me... but you saw right through mee."

"Even when you're half-dead, you still won't drop that goddamn accent."

"I see... I never thought you were defective, but darling, you really were an awfully strong opponent, weren't you?"

He tried to stand on his tattered legs, but kept collapsing again and again.

It meant the Demon's characteristic healing power was not working.

"That strange light... is so strong even my healing power isn't working. At this rate, I really will die, won't I?"

He raised his claws and smiled unpleasantly.

"So, about that. Could I maybe take you with me as my companion?"

"I already have a companion."

"How jealous I am. Was it that beautiful tyrant, Her Highness? I wish I had been a woman too..."

The Demon man's remaining life was fading.

He squeezed out his breath to the very end and spoke.

"Darling, won't you tell me what you did to me? Think of it as a gift for my road to the void."

"Do I look like that much of an idiot to you?"

"Hehe, you're a difficult man to the end."

At last, he sank to his knees.

"Then shall I tell you a secret instead?"

"I don't need it."

"My purpose was only ever to wait until you came here."

Ferda let him speak.

At the same time, he chanted magic and prepared to end his life.

Blue lightning wrought from blue mana crackled in his hand.

"But ultimately, you aren't the objective."

Ferda's magic chant stopped.

"What do you mean?"

The man let out a laugh and answered.

"I mean we're planning to lure out someone other than you. Someone smaller and frailer than you... that cute little creature."

A small, frail, cute creature.

Right now, only one thing came to Ferda's mind.

Because in this situation, she was the only one alone.

'Luri.'

Luri Silverwind.

As one who had inherited Silverwind's blood, she was the fastest warrior, and she bore the epithet Nightmare of the Frost Giants.

To her, beast-type demonic creatures were like a child's game.

Luri did not wait for the demonic creatures to arrive like the other knights.

She chose to cut straight into the middle of the demonic creatures' route and kill them all.

Twenty beast-type demonic creatures and thirty Melteds.

The time it took to deal with them was only one minute.

'I've gotten a lot duller.'

Luri made an objective assessment of her own performance.

Back when she had been the commander of the special mobile brigade Silver Wing, she would have wrapped up troops of this level within thirty seconds.

'Have I become too intoxicated with peace?'

They said peace was a poison that made the sword rust.

Bluntly put, unlike her days in Silver Wing, when she had to swing her axe even in her sleep, after becoming Valdrova's attendant, she had no occasion to use force.

It was only natural she had grown dull, even if she trained steadily.

'Even if I can't regain my prime, I have to train more and restore myself.'

Because now she had even more things to protect.

Having resolved that, she turned her head.

It was the route the demonic creatures had been heading along, in other words, the place where the attack had been planned.

The demonic creatures had been stopped, so the place was safe now.

'Still, I need to see what state the village is in.'

Luri spread her wings and flew there.

Her concern that she should see it with her own eyes became reality.

The state of the village was strange.

'It's quiet.'

To her hearing, which could pick up even the sound of grass insects clearly, there was no human breathing.

It meant this village had been dead since before she arrived.

It was then.

A presence suddenly appeared within Luri's sharp senses.

Her body reacted before her mind could recognize it.

Luri threw her axe at that spot.

The enormous axe flew straight ahead, drawing a great circle.

However, befitting a powerful figure whose presence had suddenly appeared, his response was not easy to deal with either.

The axe, flying in a vicious arc, entered an ominously torn space and was swallowed whole.

A man could be glimpsed beyond the rift that blocked her vision.

"We have already met, have we not?"

A man in a gray robe beneath the sun hanging high in the sky.

Because the sun was blazing, deep shadows lay over him, but even that darkness could not hide his white face.

"I will return your axe."

No sooner had he gestured than Luri felt a chill at the back of her head.

The axe she had hurled at the man was aiming for the back of Luri's head.

Her body swiftly kicked off the ground and turned a great somersault through the air.

At the same time, she caught the spinning axe handle.

She put strength into her body, halted the rotation, and landed on the ground.

At the same time, she spat out the name given to that being.

"You are Gokma."

He was the man behind the sudden demonic creature disturbance that had taken place in Hestia village.

"I expected as much, but was the sudden appearance of the colossal demonic creatures also your doing?"

"Of course. Summoning twelve at once was a little difficult, but it was still manageable."

Gokma smiled broadly.

Even if it had been taxing then, now that a month had passed, he would have recovered completely.

She absolutely could not assume he had grown weaker.

'How strong is this man?'

Luri tried to gauge his skill.

She already had a rough understanding that he was a mage who handled space.

'He is skilled enough to have defeated Tower Master Erica.'

Although dragon spawns tended to look down on the spawns of other dragons, she did not underestimate him.

He had shown superiority even in battles between mages, and because of the nature of magic that handled space, Luri, as a warrior, could not help being at a disadvantage.

But Luri was a descendant of Silverwind.

'If force won't work...'

Silverwind was the Aspect of Steel and Wind.

'Then I'll overwhelm him with even greater force.'

She simply had to strike beyond the range where he could react.

Her eyes narrowed sharply.

"Tormenta!"

When she called a high-ranking wind spirit, white wind coiled beneath her feet.

And then,

she vanished with the wind.

"Oh?"

Gokma exclaimed in admiration.

She had disappeared as though using teleportation magic, but that had been produced purely by speed.

"If that is the speed you possess, then I will give you a corresponding speed."

Gokma moved his fingers.

He spread the space around him and blocked her path.

At the same time, he twisted the surrounding space and caused a deadly explosion.

BANG! B-B-B-BANG!

Distortions in the air erupted around him, and the figure that had not been visible took shape, drawing a trajectory.

She was not simply fast.

Her body changed direction freely, as though inertia had been erased.

With dazzling movements, she escaped the distortions.

Luri persistently aimed for Gokma's blind spots.

"Indeed, you are skilled enough that Silverwind would have favored you."

Gokma spoke as if acknowledging her, but Luri did not hear it pleasantly.

'He's predicting everything.'

Even though he seemed to show openings, he constantly filled in his blind spots and used them as traps.

It meant that even though she was applying absolute speed, the advantage still belonged to Gokma.

'One hit.'

It felt as though something would happen if she could land just one hit, but that one hit would not come.

"Let us leave the pointless foreplay at that."

All the spaces Gokma had opened shrank away.

Luri's axe tried to aim for Gokma's body, but the torn space swallowed his body faster.

Had he disappeared?

No, all he had done was widen the distance between them a little more.

She sensed Gokma's presence nearby.

She turned her gaze.

There stood the village storehouse, tightly shut.

Luri threw her axe.

She did not aim at the center where the presence was spreading, but at the supports of the storehouse.

CRAAACK!

The vicious power of the axe collapsed the pillars inside.

Of course, such an attack could not inflict meaningful damage.

It merely eliminated the enclosed space that had blocked her range of movement and field of vision, making it no different from an open plain.

The collapsing planks did not even touch Gokma's head and fell away as though swept down by some kind of round barrier.

Now.

Like the seasoned warrior she was, Luri once again looked for a chance to sever his breath.

He did not flee or tear open space.

Instead, he put something in front of him.

If it was a simple hostage, she intended to cut them down together.

That was a lesson she had engraved in herself when she was a warrior of Silverwind: clumsy mercy invited even greater disaster.

Luri raised her axe high.

Gokma calmly asked her.

"What does this look like to you?"

WHOOSH!

The wind pressure from the axe burst out.

Luri's axe stopped in front of Gokma.

Even though she had come right up to Gokma, even though this was a chance to cut him down, she could not do it.

It was from the moment she confirmed what he had put in front of him.

"Ah..."

An exclamation slipped from Luri's mouth.

She could not believe her eyes.

Standing in front of him was a brown-haired boy who looked roughly seven years old.

"... No."

Luri denied that sight.

Then the boy opened his mouth and let out a desperate voice.

—N-Noonaaa...

It lodged in Luri's ears.

Then the axe of the girl once called Nightmare of the Frost Giants trembled.

She took one step back.

Then the boy's eyes filled with tears, and he let out a choked voice.

—Save meee...

"No, you're..."

Already dead.

You died a very long time ago.

You're buried in memories so distant I can't even remember your name.

There's no way you could be here in reality now.

—Please don't... let gooo... Please, just this time...

Even though her mind knew that was a fake,

she could not deny it.

"Ah..."

THUD.

Luri dropped her axe where she stood.

She tried to embrace the boy as he reached out and approached her.

As though she would never let go of that form again.

She drew close to wrap him in her arms.

SHUNK!

But that form shattered.

A spear that had flown from behind her had skewered the boy's head and carried it away.

What had pierced the boy's head was a throwing spear made of silver and steel.

Luri knew what that spear was.

Only one person wielded that spear.

Before the name of that being could even come to mind, a figure flew toward the spear.

Wings more than five times larger than his figure descended through the sky, took hold of the spear, and dragged it across the ground.

CRAAAAASH!!!

The boy's form that Luri knew shattered down to the level of particles in an instant and vanished completely.

A cloud of dust blocked Gokma's front.

The silver spear pierced through the dust cloud and advanced toward Gokma.

However, in the place where Gokma's form should have been, space was already closing.

The battle ended like that.

Luri stood blankly in place, and the enormous silver wings folded away and slipped inside.

Goz Silverwind.

The man who had been closest to Silverwind, and who now had taken his essence and sought to become the next dragon.

He had come.

"What were you doing?"

He asked Luri in a cynical tone.

"Dropping your weapon with the enemy in front of you. Were you trying to kill yourself?"

"I, I..."

Luri could not answer.

Instead, she quietly looked down at the form of the boy he had brutally killed.

Human blood and dragon spawn blood were both red.

But that was green.

In other words, it had not been human to begin with, and what Luri had felt was an illusion.

Even so, the shock made her unable to move.

"Why did you hesitate?"

"..."

"Do not make me ask twice. If I look at that pathetic face of yours, I do not know what I might do."

Luri forced her mouth open.

"... This is imperial land."

Instead of answering, Luri said that.

It meant he had no reason to stand there so boldly after trespassing on another's territory.

At that, Goz snorted and answered.

"I know. Do you think I set foot on this land for no reason?"

"Then that means..."

"The Emperor formally requested aid. In exchange for settling part of the debt attached to Silverwind's name."

It meant he had a legitimate cause to set foot on this land.

Disgust toward the Empire surged up in her, but that was not important right now.

She was facing Goz one-on-one.

That terrifying man... now backed even by Silverwind's authority, stood before her.

"You still have not answered my question."

"..."

When she remained silent again, Goz let out a sigh.

"Fine. Yes. What would I gain from knowing your thoughts?"

He glanced at Luri over his shoulder.

"I expect nothing from you, now that you have become so weak you can no longer even be called a warrior."

A gaze filled with contempt.

It seemed to pierce Luri's heart.

It hurt so much, and it was agonizing.

"Even an honorable death is wasted on one who has abandoned the heart of a warrior."

He pulled out the spear and walked forward.

"You will no longer need to fear me. I will not come looking for you after this. Return to that castle and live your life. Even if you change your mind and come back, the north will no longer be your home."

Leaving those words behind, Goz disappeared.

Luri lowered her head.

Both her fists trembled, soaked in resentment.

In the completely empty village, she stood alone.

Just like that day.