Chapter 45
“Damn him, we’ve been searching for over two hours. How can he still not have shown up?”
“H-hiiie….”
“True to form for a bastard who tucked his tail and ran from the battlefield, he sure is a professional when it comes to running away! Aagh!!”
The thickly bearded man huffed, then, unable to contain his anger, suddenly bellowed. The gaunt man following him with a thoroughly terrified look whispered tearfully.
“B-boss, can’t we just turn back now? We’re in the mountains….”
“What?!”
The heavily bearded man whipped around and shouted at him.
“Turn back? After we’ve sunk three hours into this? You want us to tuck our tails and run?! Just like that bastard did!!”
“B-but.”
The gaunt man continued speaking despite trembling all over.
“He’s a former magic knight, boss. He’s on a whole different level from lowlife mercenaries like us….”
“Who are you calling lowlife mercenaries!!”
-Wham!!
The heavily bearded man suddenly swung his fist. The gaunt man was sent flying as though he had been struck by a hammer, and the bearded man strode toward him, shouting.
“Listen up, you bastard! That guy got lucky and became a knight, loafed around doing nothing, then fled with his tail between his legs as soon as war broke out and retired—he’s a washed-up has-been! We, on the other hand, are battle-hardened mercenaries!”
“B-but….”
“There’s no reason to be scared!! If I’d had the money to learn magic, I’d be wielding a magic sword instead of this stinking bow!”
The man bellowed wildly like an enraged bear, then huffed and puffed until he regained control of his breathing. He spun around and said,
“…Listen closely, you bastard. We’re going to catch him today, no matter what. Remember what those creditors said?”
“T-that they’d pay us as long as he was alive, even if we cut off his arms and legs….”
“Exactly, you stupid bastard! Once we catch him, we’ll live high on the hog and eat and drink for the rest of our lives—”
-Pook.
At that moment, something that sprang up from the darkness plunged deep into the shaggy man’s side.
“U-ugh….”
The wound was on the lower right side of his torso, where the liver lay. His face turned deathly blue in an instant, then went beyond that to pale white.
“B-boss!!”
The gaunt man screamed. A bandaged hand slid into view behind him.
“A-aaagh…!”
-Gush, gush…!
The trousers of the man shrieking in a shrill, choking voice grew damp. Behind him, a man opened his mouth.
“They never get tired of sending creditors after me…!”
When the man spread his bandaged hand, something thin and writhing slipped out from between the tightly wound bandages.
It was a plant stem. Impossible to tell whether it was a root or a stem, the thing writhed grotesquely as it stretched out and wrapped around the shaggy man’s head.
-Pooook.
Slowly, yet deeply. The sharp-tipped plant stem burrowed into both of the shaggy man’s ears.
-Crunch, squirm…!
Bright-red, raw-looking saliva flowed from his ears. The shaggy man rolled his eyes back and foamed at the mouth, then collapsed with a limp flop like a puppet.
“A weakling not even worth killing… I’ll make an exception and let you live.”
The bandaged man grabbed the gaunt man’s chin from behind and whispered into his ear in a low voice.
“Instead, go to your employers and tell them this…!”
=
“‘There’s no way I can repay you’…?”
“What’s he talking about?”
Miriam folded her arms and snorted behind Charlotte, who muttered and tilted her head.
Charlotte posed a question.
“Why did he go out of his way to use that expression when he could have simply told them to stop chasing him?”
“There’s no particular reason to try to understand a madman’s words.”
Kariya replied cynically.
“I-I think I understand something.”
Roxanna spoke up.
“You think you understand?”
“What does it mean?”
“I mean… I think that man sees it this way.”
Roxanna explained in a timid voice.
“Generally, when you borrow money, you think of it as using someone else’s money rather than your own, right?”
“Isn’t that… normal?”
“Even when you don’t repay borrowed money… usually, you plead that you’ll definitely repay it later. You’re merely shameless, but you still recognize that it isn’t your money.”
“Yes. But that man thinks differently.”
“Different?”
Miriam asked back. Roxanna nodded and answered.
“He thinks the money he ‘borrowed’ wasn’t originally someone else’s… but something that rightfully belonged to him.”
“Huh?”
“My guess was right. He’s insane.”
Kariya folded both arms and wore a confident expression.
“What does that…?”
As Miriam tilted her head, Roxanna continued.
“In other words, he said it because he couldn’t understand why they were chasing him when he had merely received money he was originally supposed to receive… If you think of it that way, it also explains why he requested a mission from the magic knights.”
“Why he requested a mission from us?”
“Isn’t it simply because he used to be a magic knight?”
“That may be part of it. But even if he was a former magic knight, if you went to collect a debt with people in tow, you’d normally try to resolve it amicably. But that man… he simply killed the debt collectors and fled.”
Roxanna said with a sigh.
“He treated them as robbers who had come to steal his money… and killed them without hesitation before running away. He probably doesn’t even possess the awareness that he did anything wrong.”
“…Damn, he was much more dangerous than I thought.”
“Miss Roxanna’s assessment is more or less correct.”
After listening quietly, I nodded and spoke.
“It’s not as detailed and accurate as Miss Roxanna’s inference, but… it seems the higher-ups, along with the lenders who loaned him the money, reached a similar conclusion. Orders have come down that if we find him, we are to capture him as a rule… but if circumstances make that difficult, lethal force is also authorized.”
“Lethal force is authorized….”
….”
Charlotte’s expression darkened. Kariya nodded and muttered, then shrugged.
“Can’t be helped, can it? Our opponent is a bona fide magic knight who was even drafted to the front lines. By contrast, we’re mere chicks still in training, even if we are the academy’s top students. I think that level of authorization is warranted.”
“…That’s right. And if he’s that dangerous… rather than splitting up carelessly, it would be better for all four of us to move together, or split into pairs while maintaining communication magic at all times and keeping within a short distance of each other.”
Had their psychological barrier been lowered by succeeding at a high-difficulty mission from the start, or did they simply think that, no matter that their opponent was human, he had to be better than a manticore?
Charlotte skillfully worked out a mission plan, and the other students began flexibly offering several opinions of their own.
To the point that I felt I might not even be needed.
…Though that would be an excuse, too. The truth was, my mind had been elsewhere since this morning.
The manticore subjugation incident from two weeks ago.
The higher-ups had reacted with unprecedented severity upon learning that the manticore occupying the village’s mountain had actually been a beastman decoy meant to lure in and murder magic knights.
As a matter of course, the village chief and the other leaders had been given severe sentences. The beastman warrior Rex captured reportedly took his own life after enduring brutal torture.
Of course, considering Charlotte had nearly died, I couldn’t exactly view the village leaders favorably… but when I considered that, in the end, they too were merely victims threatened by the beastman warrior, my feelings were complicated.
Moreover, hearing that the beastman had been driven to his death by torture was something I found impossible to take calmly.
….
I let out a silent sigh. It had brought to mind my own shameful self from long ago.
“Teacher?”
Miriam called out to me.
“Y-yes?”
“Is something wrong? You don’t look so good.”
“Ah… it’s nothing.”
I quickly waved it off and schooled my expression. Miriam narrowed her eyes, then cheerfully shouted.
“Well, whatever! More importantly, I finished the operation plan.”
“The operation plan?”
“Yes. You aren’t participating in the mission, but I thought you should know anyway.”
Charlotte nodded and rose, stepping to the front of the classroom’s blackboard.
“I imagine everyone has gotten a general idea after discussing it, but just in case… and for Instructor Haru as well, I’ll organize it into a final briefing.”
-Pop.
After twisting off the chalk’s cap, Charlotte skillfully began drawing on the blackboard.
“Fortunately, the moneylenders who commissioned the mission have been continuously issuing mercenary requests while the magic knights assigned to the mission were away, allowing us to narrow down the target’s location.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“They even notified the mercenaries in advance that they would be paid simply for pinpointing the target’s location without touching him, but some greedy two-man mercenary team boldly followed the target. As a result, one was killed, and the other barely survived and fled. We can essentially assume the target deliberately let him live.”
“He let him live for no other reason than to deliver that message?”
“That’s right, Miss Miriam. To deliberately pass along that very message… ‘There’s no way I can repay you.’”
Charlotte nodded.
“He seems to have a pretty high opinion of himself.”
Kariya muttered as if sneering.
“Or it was a threat telling us to stop chasing him.”
Charlotte muttered as if answering, then continued the briefing right away.
“And finally, the last place he disappeared was here, in the southern part of the kingdom: Black Earthworm Forest. Also, taking the target’s route, speed, location, and the forest’s terrain into account, the target’s estimated current location is….”
Charlotte drew a simple map and roughly marked the area with a different-colored piece of chalk.
“…around here.”
“You draw maps really well.”
“I have the map of the entire kingdom memorized.”
Charlotte casually uttered a shocking statement. Seeing Miriam wave her hands with a look of exasperation, I had to work desperately not to make the exact same face.
“We’ll split into two teams of two, while maintaining communication magic between us at all times without interruption. We’ll also maintain tracking magic at all times, keeping the distance between the teams within five minutes’ travel time of one another in preparation for emergencies. Since our opponent is a former magic knight, we should note that he may use jamming magic or something equivalent.”
-Click.
“That’s all.”
Twisting the chalk’s cap back into place, Charlotte finished the briefing. Miriam spoke in a languid voice.
“So… Charlotte and Kariya are one team, and Roxanna and I are the other.”
“Miss Charlotte and Miss Roxanna are being separated?”
They had known each other for some time, so they would have been easier to coordinate during a joint operation. I questioned the choice to separate them, but the reason was surprisingly simple.
“It’s because neither Kariya nor I can use communication-type support magic.”
In other words, if Kariya and Miriam ended up on the same team, communication between the two teams would be impossible.
“I’m a transfer student, and the enhancement magic I use is… improvised. Excuse me. More like self-taught.”
Kariya added, shooting Miriam a sidelong glance.
“Unlike a certain someone who attended school for three whole years and still can’t properly use a single support spell.”
“You’ve said enough!”
Ignoring Miriam as she growled again, Charlotte smiled awkwardly.
“…Yes, well. That’s how it turned out.”
“I see.”
I nodded. But even so, there was one more thing that didn’t sit right.
After thinking for a moment, I asked Charlotte.
“This is just something I’m saying in case….”
“Yes?”
“May I make one suggestion?”