Chapter 23

In the distant past, the Freyans descended to earth, liberated humanity from its existence as livestock and slaves to the other races, and founded the old empire. Although that empire had fallen for unknown reasons, leaving a world divided among countless wizard houses, all humans still worshipped them as gods.

And the teaching written on the first page of their holy scripture concerned the relationship between wizards and humans: humans were to serve wizards, while wizards were to reign over humans and also care for them.

Whether greater emphasis fell on ruling or caring varied from house to house and person to person, but that was the general principle. If the Burner's ramblings were true, many wizard houses would have to wrestle with the conflict between divine teachings and reality.

On the way back to the burned village, Bisen's group debated the subject.

“It just doesn't make sense, no matter how I look at it. Honestly, if that were possible, someone would have tried it by now.”

“Exactly. It's not as though there's any shortage of lunatics in the world.”

“But divine blood has been spreading through the world for thousands of years. Unless you're one of the other races, surely you must have at least some mana? Just too little to actually use.”

“True. Go back far enough, and everyone must have at least one wizard among their ancestors...”

If killing ordinary people could yield mana, the world would become several times crueler than it already was. Every war would see ordinary people captured and massacred by their house's enemies, while those driven into a corner would slaughter their own subjects to fuel one final counterattack.

Of course, if such a method really existed, it would most likely have become common knowledge long ago. Even the superstition that an ordinary human could become a wizard by killing monsters had produced countless monster hunters.

Before long, Bisen's companions had split into two camps. Two argued that they should simply kill him rather than bother asking about what was obviously a baseless rumor; the other two insisted there was no harm in knowing and wanted to subdue him and at least ask. What use would such knowledge be even if it were true? Couldn't they use it on serious criminals? After a lengthy debate, one of them turned to Turan.

“What do you think, Master Turan?”

“Let's attack with the intent to kill first. If we get a chance to take him alive, we can try it then.”

He had no intention of using a method for gaining power by killing people, even if he learned one. Still, he thought it would be better to know. Closing his eyes to something unpleasant would not make it disappear.

As their debate drew to a close, the remains of the burned village came into view.

“Ah, we're here.”

“Shall we start tracking him, then? Asha?”

“Yes!”

“Take the lead and use Search. I'll follow you, with Gil and Kebek in the middle. Master Turan, please bring up the rear.”

“Very well.”

As Turan agreed to Bisen's request, he glanced at Gil, the man who had accidentally fired the flame spear earlier. Gil possessed the Tamer bloodline, which gave him the ability to tame monsters, but he lacked even enough mana for himself and had no useful monster in his care. As the accidental spear launch suggested, he was also the youngest and least experienced of the four.

“I'll start... looking now.”

Asha opened her eyes wide and scanned her surroundings. The most obvious search criteria would be something like “a human man's footprints” or “red fabric.” Turan thought the former would produce far too many traces within the village, while the latter was unlikely to have left much behind unless the man's clothes had snagged on something and torn.

“How is it?”

“I think I'll need to look around some more.”

“All right, let's move. Which way?”

Turan quietly followed rather than stepping in. He was curious how well someone with only partial Zahar abilities could track, and he also wanted to preserve his mana in case anything went wrong.

Fortunately, once the pursuit began, Asha proved as cautious and seasoned as a veteran hunter, quite at odds with her small, youthful appearance. First she led the party down a path, then shook her head when it joined the main road and returned to the village. After she had repeated the process three times, Turan asked a question.

“May I ask how you're searching for him?”

“I look for a human man's tracks, then search for the smell of ash once they reach the main road. Unless he changed clothes there or something, he should have ash on his clothes...”

Her search method was quite professional. Why hadn't she been able to find him like this before?

On reflection, not knowing the culprit's sex must have been a major obstacle. Men generally traveled around more than women, but it still meant twice as many potential targets. Besides, they had said this was the first time they had reached the scene of an attack so soon afterward.

They spent a long time tracking, stopping several times to rest when her mana ran low. As dusk began to fall, Asha cried out while following the thirteenth trail.

“Found him!”

“Wait, Asha! Slow down a little!”

They hurried after her and arrived in front of a natural cave. It was far too small for a person to live in; at most, small animals might pass through its entrance.

“Here?”

“I don't think anything bigger than a cat could fit through there.”

“One moment.”

Turan passed through the murmuring group and pushed aside a boulder standing at one side of the cave. With the help of his mana, the rock, as large as two people, tipped over with a thud, revealing a sizable entrance.

“This must be how he gets in and out.”

“Wow...”

“That rock made too much noise. Whoever's inside will have heard it.”

“We could hardly leave the door closed. Let's go in.”

With combat imminent and their opponent's location secured, they changed formation, putting Turan and Bisen in front and the other three behind. Bisen created a small orb of light with illumination magic and asked Asha a question.

“Anyone inside?”

“Yes. One person...”

“It must be him. No one but a criminal would have any reason to stay in a place like this alone.”

Using the night vision characteristic of the Zahar bloodline, Turan carefully examined the parts of the cave beyond the light's reach. It was desolate, without the slightest sign of human workmanship... Even a noble might manage a few days, but living in such a place for long would be enormously uncomfortable. Were the murders he committed here important enough to endure all that?

A short while later, they found an open chamber in the deepest part of the cave. A small hole in the ceiling seemed to have been made for ventilation. In one corner lay a crude bed fashioned from blankets and pieces of wood, along with pots containing several unidentified liquids. A few torches burned on the walls, lighting the chamber.

In the middle of this makeshift shelter, a man stared at the group as though he had been expecting them.

“What brings you to such a remote place, guests?”

With his hooded red robe—the child had apparently mistaken it for a cloak—fierce face, and beard, he matched the girl's description exactly. A faint smell of ash, not quite washed away, lingered on his body. Asha pointed it out in a whisper.

“I can smell it. That's him.”

Just then, Turan felt a strange sense of familiarity in the man's gaze as he looked at them. Those unnervingly clear eyes...

They bore a startling resemblance to the eyes of Midan, the monster hunter he had recalled not long ago. If not for the difference in their faces, he might have thought it was Midan himself.

While Turan puzzled over this, Bisen nocked an arrow to an ice bow she had already conjured. Her earlier mistake seemed to have shaken her confidence somewhat.

“I'm sure it's you, but I'll ask just in case. Are you the murderer who's been capturing villagers around here and burning them to death?”

The Burner tilted his head at Bisen's question as though he did not understand.

“I'm not sure what you—”

The instant he saw the man thrust out his hand, Turan activated both thought acceleration and his guardian magic tool. At the same time, explosions thundered on either side of the party.

“Aaaagh!”

“What!?”

The explosions came from sacks of unidentified black powder in the corners of the cave. Turan, protected by his guardian magic tool, was unharmed, as was Bisen, whom he had inadvertently shielded from some of the impact. The three behind them, however, took the full force and heat of the blasts and tumbled across the floor. Inexperienced though they were, a trap that could disable three nobles in an instant was absurdly powerful.

'What was that?'

Despite his surprise, Turan swung his loaded sling once to counterattack, but Bisen was a step ahead, firing an ice arrow at the Burner. Faster than sound, her arrow pierced his thigh and froze his leg.

“Agh!”

Even as he crumpled with his thigh impaled, the Burner refused to give up the fight. He slammed his palm against the ground, and the surrounding rock warped into hands that lunged at Bisen and Turan. Earth alteration—and at this distance, with such speed and scale, it was magic of considerable skill.

'This is...?'

Turan had naturally assumed he possessed the Pyromaniac bloodline because he had burned people to death. But with skill like this, he was more likely of the Earthkeeper bloodline, which specialized in manipulating the earth.

“Aaaah!”

Caught off guard, Bisen panicked and was seized by a stone hand. Thanks to his accelerated thoughts, Turan swiftly flung himself clear of the rocky fingers closing around him. He immediately released the sling stone he had been preparing, and with a familiar crack, the Burner's right hand, aimed at Turan, shattered.

“AAAAAGH!”

Turan approached the Burner, who was screaming in agony at the loss of his hand, and rubbed the fingers of his left hand together twice. It was an electrical spell created by amplifying a minute static charge. Precise aim was still difficult, but hitting a person at this distance was easy enough.

A crackling bolt of lightning struck the Burner in the chest. His whole body shuddered, and he collapsed to the floor. Lightning-based spells were certainly the best techniques for subduing an opponent—though too much power would turn them lethal in an instant.

“D-did you get him?”

“I think so.”

Turan gave Bisen a brief answer over his shoulder, checked that the Burner was still breathing, then set about restraining him completely. He scattered a few vine seeds he carried onto the floor and made them grow, binding the man's arms behind his back and wrapping another vine over his eyes to blindfold him.

With his sight blocked, he could not judge where to direct his magic, and with his arms bound, he lacked a useful means of aiming it. Meaningful resistance was impossible. The moment he gathered mana to break free, Turan would sense it through the plants under his control and could simply kill him.

The only drawback was that reinforcing and controlling the plants consumed Turan's mana, so he could not keep this up for too long.

“He's secured. Please see to those three first.”

“... Thank you.”

As he had expected, these four would certainly have departed for the palace in the heavens already if he had not come along. The man seemed to have prepared thoroughly for intruders. While Bisen roused Kebek, the healer, to treat the three injured companions, Turan tapped the Burner's cheek with the flat of his dagger.

“Hey. Wake up.”

“Ugh...”

“Stop. Gather any more mana and I'll kill you.”

Awakening with a groan, the Burner instinctively summoned mana to remove the vines around his wrists. Turan immediately pressed the blade to his throat and threatened him. Apparently understanding the situation, the Burner meekly complied.

“Who are you people? How did you find this...?”

“We have our ways. So, you're the Burner, aren't you?”

“Well—”

Seeing him stall, Turan immediately drove the dagger into his thigh. A raw scream echoed through the cave.

“Answer me. Now.”

What reason was there to show mercy to a butcher who had burned hundreds of ordinary people to death? At Turan's growling voice, the Burner nodded, tears spilling from his vine-covered eyes.

Just then, Bisen and her companions finished their treatment and came up behind Turan.

“You restrained him with vines?”

“I didn't know a guardian-bloodline noble could do something like this...”

“Let's ask our questions first.”

He deliberately avoided mentioning that he could not maintain the restraints for long. The Burner might hear and decide he only needed to stall. Fortunately, the man was not particularly strong-willed, and the interrogation proceeded quickly. He said his real name was Orville Craf, that he was seventy-eight, and that he was a noble of House Craf, far to the south. He was currently wandering after severing ties with his older brother, the House Head...

“So, what brings a wandering noble to burn the villagers here to death?”

“A god... A god told me. That burning the souls and flesh of sinners would bring me closer to the gods...”

“What?”

“You mustn't treat me like this. I'm going to become the founder of a great house!”

According to the Burner's rambling account, a god had one day taught Orville several secret methods for obtaining the powers of other bloodlines. He claimed he had already seen several other nobles acquire new bloodline abilities through them.

The method Orville had chosen granted the Pyromaniac bloodline. It required a ritual in which he burned many humans at once and covered his body in their ashes. He writhed, pleading for them to release him, saying he felt he only needed to do it a few more times.

“... Isn't he just a lunatic?”

“Sounds like it.”

Bisen's companions scoffed at Orville's utterly absurd tale. But Turan could not.

[“Even ordinary people can gain a monster's power by killing it! I've already seen several wizards who did it!”]

A dubious superstition, a claim that several unnamed people had already succeeded... It was not merely their eyes that were similar. The very shape of Orville's claims bore a startling resemblance to what Midan had once said.