Chapter 48
“…This is the village we can get closest to Black Earthworm Forest.”
Charlotte, who had been driving the carriage, raised a hand and pointed to a small sign visible at the end of the road.
“The village is called Lower Village of Worm Station. It isn’t very large, but apparently all the villages closer than this one are deserted because people fled from the ‘killer plants.’”
“So even the village has come within the killer plants’ range.”
“Then shouldn’t we sneak over there?”
“The tiger has its jaws open, and you’re planning to walk right into them?”
At Kariya’s words, Miriam silently shook her head.
An awkward silence passed for a moment. Perhaps feeling restless, Miriam spoke again.
“But why is the village called Worm Station?”
“Apparently they raise earthworms and use them for farming, but I don’t know the details either.”
After skillfully pulling on the reins to bring the horses to a stop, Charlotte turned around and said,
“We’ve arrived.”
“Where did you learn how to drive a carriage?”
“This much is basic education.”
Charlotte answered calmly, then jumped down from the carriage and drove the stake tied beside it into the ground to secure it.
“Greetings, Chief.”
“A-are you knights?”
An elderly woman came running out to welcome Class E. It seemed the locals were suffering considerable hardship because the forest that had been their livelihood was ruined.
“They’re knights! The magic knights have arrived…!”
“Can we go home soon?”
The people who had followed the chief outside began to murmur.
The chief thumped a hand against their chest and voiced their frustration.
“The nearby villages have been utterly laid waste. We evacuated the residents to our village for now, but we can’t live like this forever, can we? The people from the neighboring villages left their homes and all their belongings behind. With those monsters causing such a commotion, they simply couldn’t….”
“Monsters?”
“Not plants?”
Sensing something strange, Charlotte asked. Miriam tilted her head as well.
“Yes, there are plants too. Man-eating plants that suck people’s blood… and monsters as well.”
“…You’re saying there are monsters in addition to the plants?”
Charlotte asked.
“Yes.”
Then someone behind the chief answered in their place. The people slowly parted, and a woman appeared between them.
The moment I saw her, I narrowed my eyes.
‘A military uniform…?’
She was dressed in the same magic knight uniform as Rex.
The difference was that her outfit was so worn-out that it could not even be compared with Rex’s neatly maintained clothes.
She seemed to have injured her leg, as she walked with a limp while leaning on a cane.
And she had draped black cloth over herself like a cloak, concealing an empty sleeve where one arm should have been.
“M-Miss Esther.”
“I’ll explain from here, so please go inside and rest, Chief.”
“But….”
“It’s all right. Leave it to me.”
The woman called Esther smiled sweetly and sent the chief inside. Only after the people who had gathered gradually dispersed did the woman called Esther speak in a low voice.
“You came looking for the fellow hiding in Black Earthworm Forest, didn’t you?”
“Before that.”
Just as Charlotte was about to answer her, Kariya stepped forward with a hardened expression and said,
“First, tell us who you are.”
“…What?”
“Wait, Kariya…!”
“Stay out of it.”
Blocking the flustered Charlotte, Kariya turned his head and whispered,
“Something about this seems suspicious. You’ll have to establish your identity first.”
“…My identity?”
The woman called Esther muttered quietly.
“Yes. To put it bluntly, who’s to say you aren’t someone who received the same ‘record erasure’ punishment as that magic knight?”
“Hey!”
Miriam was horrified and poked Kariya in the side. Kariya scowled, shoved Miriam away, and continued.
“If you’re still an active magic knight, you can simply show us the magic sword bearing the royal seal. The weapon granted to every magic knight—and stripped from any knight sentenced to record erasure.”
“…Yes, that should do.”
The woman called Esther nodded quietly and slipped a hand inside her clothes.
Then she pulled out a thick pendant and said,
“Here.”
“…Are you kidding me?”
Kariya frowned and asked.
“I’m neither joking nor teasing you. You asked for a magic sword bearing the royal seal, didn’t you? This is what remains of that magic sword.”
“…The remains?”
Kariya asked. Meanwhile, Miriam slipped over to Estelle, took the pendant-like fragment from her hand, and said,
“It looks like it.”
“…So it seems.”
The woman called Esther took the pendant back from Miriam and replied. Kariya stared at Miriam distrustfully for a moment, then pressed his fingers firmly against the bridge of his nose and said,
“…My apologies, senior.”
“In all my years, I never thought I’d hear someone call me ‘senior.’”
And from such young chicks, at that. The woman called Esther muttered that, then plopped down on a bench beneath a tree in the center of the village and said,
“Well, now that the misunderstanding is cleared up… shall we get to the point?”
“Ahem.”
I approached her with an audible cough, wondering whether it had sounded awkward.
“…?”
She looked up at me, blinked, and asked,
“What is it?”
“Ah, it’s just that…”
I lightly cleared my throat and said,
“Nice to meet you. I’m Haru, the instructor in charge of this year’s third-year Practical Class E at Manus Academy.”
“…Yes, Practical Class. I was a Practical Class student once myself.”
The woman called Esther muttered with a bitter smile.
“I was in Class A.”
“Ah, I see.”
I gave a vague reply, then got straight to the point.
“I suppose it would be stranger for a magic knight like you not to be in Practical Class. Wouldn’t you agree, Estelle Schwelbach, Ninth Seat of the Rounds?”
“…Hey.”
Only then did the woman called Esther—or rather, Estelle Schwelbach—harden her expression and rise from her seat.
“Estelle…?”
Miriam muttered with a dumbfounded look.
“The Ninth Seat of the Rounds?!”
Charlotte cried out in shock, and Roxanna timidly opened her mouth.
“B-but why would someone like that be here?”
“….”
Despite the children’s murmurs, Estelle did not even blink as she silently glared at me.
But honestly, I did not like the fact that she was so blatantly hiding her identity and lying.
To put it bluntly, it was petty spite. Even more so because I knew that she, too, had originally been scheduled to serve as a Practical Class instructor at Manus Academy.
And all the more so because I had already realized that the Practical Class had gained a replacement—
one whose identity
I had already figured out.
“…Sir Schwelbach. I apologize once again for my earlier rudeness.”
Kariya stepped forward and said,
“But if you came here to resolve this mission… I’d like to ask you to step aside for now. We’re the ones who were formally assigned this mission.”
“…What an ambitious child.”
Only then did Estelle glance over at him and answer,
“But that’s what qualifies someone as a first-rate magic knight.”
“There’s something I’d like to ask.”
I asked her another question.
“Why haven’t you returned to the academy?”
I glanced at the empty sleeve where her arm should have been and swallowed the rest of my question.
I had already guessed that was the reason. But I did not say it aloud. I was not so oblivious as to expose something she was hiding with illusion magic, and doing so would have been rude.
Even petty acts of spite have their limits.
“…Did you notice?”
Estelle narrowed her eyes and asked me. I silently nodded, and Estelle let out a sigh.
“…There are circumstances. But let’s discuss that after your mission is over.”
“That’s fine with me. I’m sorry for being rude, but there’s something I absolutely must tell you.”
At my words, Estelle’s eyebrow twitched, and she turned her head away.
“…What is your name?”
“My name is Kariya.”
“Kariya, is it? Yes, you’re right. I came here to cut down the target of your mission, the ‘record-erased magic knight’… Papino Jakma.”
Estelle sat down on the bench again and said,
“The reason… There’s no point in hiding it. It’s a personal grudge from the war. That record-erasure punishment of his….”
Estelle muttered, then shook her head.
“…No, never mind. I’ll trust you to figure it out yourselves and leave it at that. It isn’t exactly a pleasant story.”
Estelle sighed and continued,
“Enough small talk. Let’s get straight to the point. Are you curious about the whole story behind the fact that monsters, not just plants, are appearing?”
“…Yes.”
Charlotte hesitated, then nodded.
“Yes. Those monsters are the corpses of animals and humans. Plants are placed inside the corpses and controlled from a distance, like puppet magic.”
Looking around at the children, Estelle held up one finger.
“And one more thing. The villagers don’t know this yet, but when those things are cornered… they explode on their own.”
“Explode?!”
“The plant hiding inside the corpse and controlling it bursts out like an explosion and attacks by surprise. If it catches you even once, it’ll drain your blood and kill you.”
Estelle paused, then rolled up her trouser leg while remaining seated on the bench.
“…This wound is from being pierced when I failed to react in time back then.”
“…Ugh.”
Miriam grimaced and muttered.
“You said your name was Kariya. You asked me not to take over your mission, but I have no intention of doing so, nor could I physically do so. With my leg in this condition, I can’t move even if I want to.”
“So this wasn’t an injury from the war?”
Miriam asked. Estelle silently nodded, and Charlotte frowned and muttered,
“There’s one more danger now. Along with the killer plants, there are living bombs carrying killer plants.”
“They may already be dead, so ‘living’ isn’t quite the right word.”
I added one remark to the end of her statement.
Estelle glanced at me and said,
“Lastly, this is merely an old woman’s worry, but I think this is something an instructor should intervene in. It’s far too dangerous to leave to children.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Our opponent is a formidable foe who can control every plant in the entire forest at will. It makes me wonder whether he fled from the war because… the battlefield that day was a barren wasteland where not even a blade of grass grew.”
Estelle muttered in a low voice.
“…No way.”
Charlotte bit her lip and muttered.
“Controlling the forest isn’t a trick?”
“Is this really true?”
“…It isn’t an entirely impossible assumption—that he might actually have been a renowned magic knight.”
Kariya clicked his tongue, and Miriam sighed and grumbled. Roxanna silently scraped at the dirt with a dark expression.
But I’m not so sure. I tilted my head and asked her,
“Hmm, I don’t know. Is that really all there is to it?”
“…What did you say?”
She widened her eyes and looked up at me.
“Well, since it comes from the Ninth Seat of the Rounds… I’ll give you a few pointers.”
I stepped in front of the children and said,
“But I won’t be fighting personally.”
“…I don’t know what you took my words to mean.”
Estelle sighed. I smiled sweetly and addressed the children.
“Everyone, do you have a moment?”
“Instructor?”
“Teacher Haru?”
Miriam asked brightly.
“Did you figure out the secret behind how he controls the forest?”
“Yes.”
I nodded, turned to the children, and said quietly,
“The secret behind his control of the forest is… communication magic.”