Chapter 41
“There were two manticores?!”
“Calm down, Haru.”
Rex said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Does this look like something I can stay calm about?! If one of our two classes hadn’t shown up…!”
“I-I’m sorry….”
The flustered old man bowed his head repeatedly. He was probably the chief of the village currently engulfed in flames.
“We were so caught up in the confusion that it never even occurred to us that there might be more than one manticore….”
“….”
I had raised my voice because I was flustered, but as the elderly man fumbled and kept bowing his head, guilt welled up inside me in an instant. It wasn’t as if I was that heartless.
“…I-I’m sorry for raising my voice. I’m in a position where I teach students, too, so I just….”
I awkwardly supported the old man, carefully helping him back into his chair. Trembling as he used his cane to sit down again, the old man continued speaking with an apologetic look.
“We truly had no idea, either. Since that thing—no, those things—never seemed inclined to leave the mountains, we simply assumed there was definitely only one….”
“…Chief, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
Rex stepped forward and asked.
“When you say ‘that thing,’ do you mean the manticore?”
“Y-yes, yes. That’s right.”
“Did it speak?”
At Rex’s question, the old man’s eyes widened in surprise.
“The manticore spoke?”
“It’s not that strange.”
I asked, startled as well, and Rex answered.
“Adult manticores have roughly the intelligence of a four-year-old human. And their oral structure is very similar to a human’s, so a particularly clever individual can learn language quickly.”
“I see….”
“Four years old?”
Just then, a young woman standing behind the old man stepped forward and shouted.
“That can’t be! Its intelligence was absolutely not that of a four-year-old…!”
“Jessie!”
The old man hurriedly grabbed the woman. But she violently shook her head and flung off his hand.
“It spoke! It said it was a spirit-like being chosen by a great one! It said that as long as we didn’t reveal its existence, it wouldn’t indiscriminately devour us…!”
“You mean the manticore said that?”
Rex stepped forward and asked. The woman named Jessie nodded, tears welling in her eyes.
“Hey, Jessie! What do you think you’re—!”
“You’re no different!”
When one of the murmuring villagers stepped forward, Jessie whipped her head toward him and snapped.
“You call yourselves village elders?! You were so afraid of a mere beast that you blindly followed its order not even to consider calling the kingdom’s knights! You old men are responsible for letting things get this far!”
“Mind your tongue, Jessie!”
“You think you’re the only one who’s right?!”
“You still haven’t come to your senses! You’re the ones who ignored me when I said that manticore might be a female carrying a cub!”
“There was no evidence for that…!”
“A sagging udder is a characteristic of a mammal that has just given birth! Anyone can tell at a glance—was that still not enough evidence?! You think I didn’t know?! You ignored me to the very end because calling in more magic knights would mean paying a higher fee!”
Jessie screamed.
“What if that thing had demanded a person instead of livestock?! Would you have obeyed without a word then, too?!”
“…Th-that….”
The people who had been arguing back soon lowered their voices and began whispering among themselves. Watching them, the woman eventually fell silent and bit down on her lower lip. Perhaps she had belatedly realized that nothing she said would do any good.
I leaned toward Rex’s ear and whispered.
‘…Can we really just leave them alone?’
At that, Rex turned to look at me, his face bright red, as if startled.
“Ah, sorry….”
It seemed I had startled him without meaning to, so I belatedly lowered my head. Rex scratched his head in silence for a moment, then answered me in a low voice.
‘I mean… What good would it do to butt in when we don’t even know the details? It’d only be a nuisance. Let’s let them resolve their own affairs among themselves.’
After saying that, Rex turned to the woman and spoke.
“…It certainly isn’t something a four-year-old child would say.”
“R-really?!”
The woman nodded emphatically and shouted. Rex continued without any clear reaction.
“Even if it has high intelligence, a manticore is still ultimately a beast. It acts on impulse, according to its whims. For it to possess enough intelligence to impose terms on humans and force them to make a pact….”
Rex rested a hand firmly on the hilt of his sword.
“If it comes to that, I may have to intervene as an instructor.”
“Me too…!”
As I hurriedly stepped forward, Rex shook his head at me.
“You keep watch over the people here in case something unexpected happens.”
“….”
At Rex’s words, I looked back at the people who had evacuated in haste.
It would certainly be better to have one or two people standing guard.
=
“Hyaaaah!”
With a forceful battle cry, Miriam charged across the manticore’s back.
Miriam charged without hesitation at its tail, which whipped about like a lash, repeatedly slicing through the air with a cracking sound, and swung both arms.
-Kraack!!
Clutching the base of the five-pronged stinger firmly, Miriam shouted.
“Now!!”
“Got it…!”
Kariya charged toward the middle of the tautly stretched tail, gripping the chain sword horizontally.
-Kwang!!
The thick carapace covering the tail collided with Kariya’s chain sword. With a cracking sound, fissures raced violently across the carapace, but it was still just shy of enough.
“Now, Roxy!”
Charlotte shouted as she watched. At the same time, two fireballs flew in one after another from behind her, as if they had been waiting for that moment.
One fireball slowly transformed into a pointed cone, while the fireball behind it exploded violently in midair.
-Kwaaang!!
Propelled by the explosion, the flaming stake flew in and struck the exact center of the cracked tail’s carapace. With a splintering crack, the carapace shattered, exposing the vivid-red flesh beneath.
-Crack…!
A small bolt of lightning struck down over it. As soon as Kariya pulled back and Miriam released the tail, the two tomahawks that flew in at the same time burrowed into the flesh and discharged electricity.
-Rrrr-rumble!!!
Along with the thunderous roar, the pungent smell of burning flesh filled the air.
“That hit perfectly!”
Miriam shouted. The severed tail was torn free into the air and fell to the ground, and the manticore screamed.
“Kyaaaargh!”
Kariya dove downward in an instant and drove the chain sword into the center of the manticore’s belly.
-Shraaak!!
Kariya shoved the embedded chain sword straight in, slicing the belly hide wide open. The manticore writhed in pain, and Kariya went flying, drenched in blood.
But it was a decisive finish. The manticore, its entrails spilling violently through its torn belly, soon collapsed face-first onto the dirt, frothing blood at the mouth.
-Thud…!
The massive body collapsed with a deafening crash. It was almost enough to make me feel as though the earth itself had trembled for a moment.
“…Did we get it?”
“Don’t say that!”
When Kariya muttered, Miriam shouted in horror. But its belly was split open, and its entrails were spilling out.
Contrary to Miriam’s not-quite-serious expectation, the manticore made one last desperate struggle, merely puffed out a candle-like breath from its jaws, rolled its eyes back, and died on the spot.
“…It’s dead.”
“Didn’t you say not to?”
Miriam muttered, and Kariya objected. Miriam immediately argued back.
“It’s definitely dead this time, so it’s fine!”
“What’s the difference?”
“Do you not read books? You don’t even know that saying ‘Did we get it?’ is a resurrection spell?”
“Miss Miriam, there’s no such magic as resurrecting the dead.”
“No, I don’t mean actual magic!”
Miriam glanced at Charlotte, who had casually joined in and started making serious remarks, then shook her head, hopping up and down.
“In novels, whenever someone says something like ‘Did we get it…?’ the enemy always comes back to life! You know that, right?”
“…That’s news to me.”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen that happen in any of the novels I read….”
Kariya blinked, looking as if to say, What nonsense is this? while Charlotte tilted her head apologetically as she answered.
“…Never mind. Let’s not talk about it.”
This was why uncultured people were so difficult. Miriam grumbled inwardly and sighed as she approached the manticore’s fallen corpse.
“But can we just leave this here?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you leave a corpse lying around, it’ll rot. It’ll attract a ton of bugs.”
As she said this, Miriam glanced at Roxanna.
“We should… burn it, shouldn’t we?”
“Oh, yes! Leave it to me…!”
Roxanna nodded and conjured a flame in her hand.
“Wait a moment.”
Charlotte stopped her.
“We need to secure the evidence first.”
“Evidence?”
“Yes. Evidence that we subjugated the manticore. For example….”
Charlotte raised a hand and pointed at the manticore’s tail lying some distance away.
“The tail we cut off.”
Charlotte said this as she lifted the tail. Roxanna, who had been standing there blankly, belatedly brought a flame back to her hand and stepped forward.
“…Wait.”
Miriam muttered.
The tip of her finger pointed toward the flame in Roxanna’s hand.
A conspicuously large shadow had fallen beneath the flame. It was as if the sun had suddenly set.
“Was it always… this dark?”
“…!!”
Kariya was the first to look up.
“Tch…!”
Kariya sprang forward and kicked Miriam.
“Ack!”
Kicked hard in the side, Miriam rolled across the dirt.
“Miss Miriam!”
The startled Charlotte shouted. Miriam, coughing dryly, sprang to her feet and shouted.
“Hey, you bastard! What the hell are you—!”
-Pook.
Immediately afterward, a gigantic tail shot into the spot where Miriam had been standing and pierced Kariya in the side.
“Ghk…!”
“Kariya!!”
Miriam screamed, and at the same time, a strange shadow writhed overhead like a snake.
The shadow of a carapace-covered tail ending in a five-pronged stinger that spewed paralyzing venom.
“…What is that?”
Roxanna muttered in a trembling voice.
“A manticore….”
“There’s… another one?”
It was a massive beast, appearing to be more than twice the size of the manticore that had collapsed while spilling its entrails.
Its face was black with rage, beyond merely red, and its fangs were bared wide.
Flames billowed between them, while its tail writhed, spraying Kariya’s blood from its tip.
And beneath its belly hung four slack lumps of flesh.
“…Breasts?”
“Could it be… a pregnant female…!”
Kariya muttered through a stiff, numb tongue.
[…How dare you.]
The manticore opened its mouth.
“It spoke…?”
Charlotte muttered in confusion.
[How dare you… my young…!]
“…Damn it…!”
The manticore’s trembling voice rumbled through the air. Kariya clenched their teeth, and immediately afterward, the manticore raised its forepaw high and roared.
[Oooooooo!!!!]
Tears streamed down the mother manticore’s face, black with rage rather than merely red, as it brought the forepaw it had raised high crashing down directly over Kariya.
-Kwaaang!!!
With the deafening roar echoing, a thick cloud of dust reeking of blood billowed into the air.