Abduction

The Grand Council’s regular session came to an end.

Just as they had gathered, people began dispersing.

As befitted the movement of nobles of ducal rank and above, a vast army had massed in the central region.

They also held a military parade to display their national strength to their opponents and inspect their forces.

In that respect, Escolleia was far removed from their splendor.

It was a city of knowledge, free from diplomatic conflicts.

Preferring practical and efficient transportation, they rode in a magic carriage powered by a mage’s magic.

“Couldn’t we switch to a horse-drawn carriage, too?”

Chancellor Bernard complained to the mage serving as the driver.

“Are you bringing that up again?”

“I think that every time we come to the Grand Council. As the chancellor of a city, hm? I need to preserve a little dignity.”

“Oh, please don’t use the word ‘dignity.’ You’re not a mercenary who’s rolled around on rough ground, and when a potbellied middle-aged man uses a word like that, it makes him look pathetic.”

“Besides, where would we raise horses in a city like a chicken coop? People would obviously object that the space needed for even one horse could house another hundred scholars.”

“Still, I am the chancellor in name, so you ought to let me keep a little pride….”

“Do you want to see an audit notice arrive and everything descend into chaos? I know luxury is important in aristocratic society, but people who understand that don’t become scholars.”

“I want to ride a carriage too, sigh….”

“If you keep whining, shall I quit? I’ll clock out and go straight home.”

“Sigh…. Fine, I was wrong. Let’s go. Yes, let’s go.”

There’s no winning with him, no winning.

To think a chancellor is completely helpless when a mage threatens him.

‘If we’re going to prioritize efficiency, it would be nice if we could charge magic power without a mage….’

Bernard grumbled inwardly.

‘Yes, how wonderful would it be if all you had to do was imbue it with magic power and make it move?’

With a few gears and levers….

If all one had to do was operate it, it would be perfect.

Bernard sketched his idea in his notepad.

The carriage, which had been moving without a jolt, suddenly came to a stop.

“What is it?”

“It seems someone is blocking the road. Judging by their appearance, they look like bandits.”

Bandit gangs that blocked roads and collected tolls could be found everywhere.

“Shall I deal with them? It’s not as though I have anything else to do.”

The mage grinned as he mimed drawing a knife across his throat.

“Let’s avoid any unnecessary bloodshed. Just give them a little money.”

“Why give them money?”

“They’re only trying to make a living, aren’t they? Give them a reasonable amount and send them on their way.”

“That’s why people always look down on you….”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. I’ll be back.”

The mage took a handful of silver coins and got out of the carriage.

Chancellor Bernard watched him with a displeased expression.

The mage who had taken the silver put some distance between them, tossed the coins onto the ground, and gestured for them to take the money and let him pass.

Then a sharp flash burst from the mage’s torso.

“Huh?”

The mage’s upper body slid down along the diagonal line of light that had burst through him.

In the place where his upper body had been stood a grinning beggar.

And a sword.

“Wh-what, what is that!?”

The chancellor shouted in horror.

Rather than reacting disgracefully, the mage in the driver’s seat prepared a spell.

It was time to show why he received fifty gold coins a day to serve as an escort.

Yet an object came flying toward him so quickly that it made no difference.

Crash!

A dagger pierced his throat as it came through the window.

“In, in… urk…!”

The mage’s incantation failed.

The magic circle he had drawn scattered into the air and vanished.

Two fourth-circle mages had been dealt with in an instant.

The chancellor stood frozen, watching the beggar approach.

He sensed it instinctively.

That even if he ran, he would only die faster.

The man who had dealt with two fourth-circle mages in an instant opened the door.

Then he sat across from Bernard.

He gave a sinister smile.

“Pleased to meet you, Chancellor of Escolleia.”

“Wh-who are you?”

“You needn’t know who I am. Let’s talk about you.”

The man continued speaking without giving Bernard a chance to respond.

Frozen, the chancellor nodded.

“You’re the one who proposed at this Grand Council that there were signs of the Black Dragon Godwin’s return, correct?”

“I did, but….”

“What were you thinking when you did that?”

“I did it for the safety of the continent….”

“Even though it might put you in danger?”

“I may have been wrong. But I felt I had to say it anyway….”

“Ah!”

The mysterious man cut Bernard off and held a knife to his throat.

“Let’s not waste time on pointless conversation. If we drag this out, you’re the only one who’ll suffer.”

Blood from the two mages dripped from the dagger.

The chancellor swallowed hard and desperately suppressed his trembling.

“So you were planning to announce the demon-appearance prediction device?”

“H-how did you…?”

“I have ears that listen. Everywhere.”

The man grinned.

Only a few scholars he trusted and his secretary knew that fact.

And Ferda Valdrova.

“Ferda Valdrova!”

The chancellor shouted as though he had suddenly realized.

“You… were sent by Regent Ferda?”

“Who knows? Do I look like I was sent by him?”

“Damn it! I should have realized from the moment that brat had eyes like that despite being so young…!”

Chancellor Bernard shouted indignantly.

Instead of answering, the man chuckled.

“Our chancellor is cuter than I expected. This might not be so bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“What else?”

He pulled out a syringe.

“I mean this.”

The enormous needle was a weapon in itself.

But what frightened the chancellor was the tar-like, sticky black liquid inside.

“What exactly is that inside it?”

“A vaccine.”

“A vaccine?”

“Yes, a vaccine. Medicine that will wipe out every mass of germs holding this world in its grip.”

The man placed his thumb on the piston and prepared the injection.

He thrust the syringe in.

Into himself, not Chancellor Bernard.

“Urgh…!”

The man groaned in agony.

But he was not dying.

It was mutation—or rather, evolution.

Something resembling the tar he had injected rose over his skin like greasy sebum and spread across it.

Once the man had finished mutating, his form literally became black.

He was less a human than a mannequin made of a soft material—and a new cocoon.

Red eyes tore open within it, glowing with light.

When his mouth opened, sharp, beastlike teeth emerged menacingly.

“N-no way….”

Putting those elements together, a single word flashed through the chancellor’s mind.

“A demon…!”

The man had become a demon.

“Ha-ha-ha! At last, His… His grace flows through this body as well!”

The man caressed his own face, lost in ecstasy.

Like someone who had achieved his lifelong wish, the man reveled in pleasure before turning his gaze back to the chancellor.

He instinctively sensed death.

Desperate to live, he tried asking the man a question.

“How can a man as skilled as you… serve as a demon worshipper?”

Demon worshippers were people with nothing left to lose.

They were more vicious than even devil worshippers.

“I was once a knight who knew honor.”

The man let out a low, manic laugh.

“But no matter how much honor I upheld, serving a king who was swayed by the smooth words of petty, scheming men was enough to bring me down in an instant.”

He was a fallen knight.

“So I have nothing left to lose. I intend to smash everything to pieces.”

“If you become a demon… you won’t be able to act normally in human society, let alone on this continent of Cerdess…. You’ll become a lost soul unable to go to either heaven or hell. Why, knowing that, would you…?”

“That’s your opinion.”

The man drew the dagger across Chancellor Bernard’s arm.

It was not a deep wound, but blood streamed down.

The man pressed his own hand against the wound.

Before he could even think that the man was giving him the disease and then the cure, something astonishing happened.

“Mother Maroon….”

His pitch-black body gradually turned flesh-colored.

It was not merely a change of color to resemble a human’s; some parts of his body lengthened, while others shrank.

In the end, he transformed into a form extremely familiar to Chancellor Bernard.

Bernard himself.

“How do I look, Chancellor? Do I resemble you?”

The man, now wearing Bernard’s appearance, smiled.

It was a malicious smile he had never once worn in his life.

“What do you intend to do with my research?”

“As expected of a chancellor, you catch on quickly.”

The man tapped his own head with the dagger.

“You know very well, don’t you? You’re making a demon-appearance prediction device, and naturally, there’s only one thing demons need to do.”

Ruin the research and make the prediction device as though it had never existed.

“You think I’ll let you do that!?”

At the thought of losing the research to which he had devoted his life, Chancellor Bernard finally found the courage to resist.

But another Bernard on the opposite side moved nimbly and grabbed him by the throat.

He slowly and powerfully tightened his grip.

“Gk, ggaaak!”

“Rest peacefully. I, too, shall follow you into the world of emptiness.”

Just as he was about to kill the original Chancellor Bernard,

“It’s an ambush!”

The shout of a man standing guard outside pierced into the carriage.

When the disguised Bernard turned his head, a battle was taking place outside.

Strangers were clashing with the demon worshippers disguised as beggars.

Only two men were enough to overwhelm more than twenty people.

One brown-haired and one blond.

Startled by the unexpected ambush, the man released Bernard’s throat and asked,

“When did you arrange an escort?”

“Gk, cough, wh-what escort?”

Chancellor Bernard asked back with a bewildered expression.

Before he could hear the answer, the demon worshippers were quickly dealt with.

The ones disguised as bandits were all mere rabble, while the two men were highly skilled knights.

“This is troublesome.”

The man was genuinely worried.

Two mages could be killed in an instant if ambushed before they could begin an incantation, but fighting two knights at once would be difficult.

The man decided to use his wits.

Specifically, a diversion.

“You there! Be careful!”

He kicked open the carriage door and ran desperately.

“There’s someone inside! There’s someone inside who looks exactly like me! He’s trying to kill me!”

The man ran as if terrified.

At the same time, he kept the dagger held in reverse firmly concealed against his forearm.

The moment he entered striking range, he prepared to launch a surprise attack with the hidden dagger.

“Hurry and take care of that thing over there—urk…!”

The man did not get far before tumbling to the ground.

A dagger was embedded in his ankle.

It was identical to the dagger held by the brown-haired man.

“Aaaagh!! What are you doing!?”

He did not answer.

Instead, the brown-haired man ran over and kicked Bernard hard in the head.

Thwack—!

A dizzying sound like bone snapping.

Chancellor Bernard’s body went limp.

The blond man widened his eyes and shouted,

“Sir Jed! What have you done to the chancellor?!”

The man called Jed jerked his chin toward the fallen chancellor and said,

“That’s not the chancellor.”

“What do you mean!? It’s not even a magical disguise! If you kick him that hard, he’s obviously dead…. Huh?”

His fussing stopped when he belatedly spotted Bernard emerging from the carriage.

“Why are there two chancellors…?”

“Ha, you innocent country bumpkin. Work on your powers of observation. First, tie this man up securely. I’ll go bring the real one over there.”

“Uh… understood.”

Arwen bound the fake, while Jed pulled the real one from the carriage and supported him.

“Are you all right?”

“Uh, yes… I’m fine. You’re… Regent Valdrova’s…?”

“Apologies for the late introduction. I’m Jed Swallow, a knight who has sworn loyalty to the Grand Duchy of Valdrova. This innocent fellow here is Sir Arwen. On the regent’s orders, we were secretly watching over and guarding you.”

“Men of the regent…? Why would the man who stabbed me in the back be helping me?”

“Pardon? I’m not sure what misunderstanding there’s been, but for now, we’ll take you to wherever our regent is.”

His head was dizzy, as he had nearly suffocated to death.

But Bernard had no choice.

The mage who had been driving the carriage was dead, so it could not move.

The road ahead was long, and it was too dangerous to walk it alone.

Chancellor Bernard gave in.

“Very well. I’ll follow you.”

“Then let’s stop the bleeding first.”

Jed treated Bernard’s wound, while Arwen bound the other Bernard and put him on a horse.

Leaving the scene of the incident behind, they set off.

Even while riding, a question lingered in Arwen’s mind.

“Sir Jed.”

“What?”

“How did you recognize him?”

Because he had attacked without hesitation, he had been able to catch him off guard.

But Arwen could not understand why he had not hesitated.

Jed snickered and answered,

“There was no shine.”

“…Pardon? Shine?”

“That fake over there couldn’t even reproduce the chancellor’s shiny head.”

“….”

Arwen’s eyes shifted subtly over Jed’s shoulder.

The chancellor’s head reflected the moonlight with a gentle gleam.

“Oh.”

It was absurd, but he could not find anything to say.

* * *

They arrived after riding through the entire night, and a carriage was waiting there.

The Regent Valdrova’s carriage and tent stood there.

A young silver-haired maid greeted them.

“This way.”

The maid lifted the tent flap slightly, and Bernard stepped inside.

A warmth unlike the cold, merciless wilderness touched his skin.

The inside was several times larger than its exterior.

It was so cozy and well-kept that he could never have imagined he was inside a tent.

‘A subspace tent… Isn’t that an incredible treasure?’

A single subspace pocket made with fairy dust as a medium was a treasure in itself, but a tent was on an entirely different level.

Only a monarch on the level of an empire could possess such a treasure.

Or a dragon.

Once again, he was reminded that Ferda was a dragon’s consort.

“Welcome.”

A young man with gray hair and blue eyes.

Ferda welcomed him.