novelraw Chapter 91 : Chapter 91
Chapter 91 : Chapter 91
Chapter 91: Asura (1)
The Boundary.
In a way, it was a land that stimulated more curiosity than even the Otherworld.
Because places where people live are all the same.
The Boundary was not a place where people live.
No, perhaps they were living there and we just didn't know it.
'It would be more surprising if they were living there.'
Either way, it was no different from the unknown.
'Someone passed through here.'
Darkness passed by and made a path.
It seemed that way, but it was wrong.
Darkness was left on the path where something had passed.
'It's about as tall as me.'
The darkness was cut off at the height of my head.
To the side, it was slightly thicker than my body.
It meant that a magical beast as big as me, perhaps in human form, had passed by.
I don't know the principle, but the darkness must be the trace of that magical beast.
In fact, questioning the principle was not very meaningful. In the Boundary, everything was vague.
Where the darkness and the search route met, a spark remained. It went out as soon as my gaze reached it. However, the heat did not disappear quickly.
"That..."
"Not me."
At Ellen's finger, I shook my head.
What foolish mage doesn't know their own magic?
That spark was not a trace left by my fire.
"There's fire in the Boundary."
So I was surprised.
The number of magical beasts inhabiting the Boundary is countless.
The majority I hadn't seen, and it wouldn't be strange if there was a fire-related magical beast among them.
I had never seen one in my past life.
I had seen all sorts of things, but fire was an exception.
Fire. I knew well how precious that Origin was.
My gaze turned to the sky.
There, there was the smoke of the Watchtower, visible only to me.
The distance was too great to confirm the exact location, but... the smoke crossed my field of vision from right to left.
Left. Looking down from that end, there was darkness. It was connected in a straight line with the path of darkness left by something that had passed.
'To hope it's at that end would be a fluke.'
The smoke of the Watchtower. Or the magical item of the Red Tower's king.
The possibility that something related to it existed at the end of that darkness was worth expecting.
I turned my head.
Ellen looked excited. Her curiosity was always important to her, and she craved freedom.
It was the true nature of the person named Elaine.
"Let's go back."
Kalinos said then.
Ellen's mood soured.
"Mage Harad. I respect you. The proof is over."
Kalinos didn't seem to have any intention of exploring that darkness.
It must be because it's not a search route.
The valor of the 3rd Knights that Ellen had boasted of seemed to be valid only on the designated path.
"What are you going to do about that path?"
"I will see you and Lady Ellen off, and the 3rd Knights will take responsibility and search it."
"That's deviating from the search route."
"It's fine if we don't get caught."
Now that I see it, that wasn't the case.
Valor may choose its time, but it doesn't seem to choose its place.
"We have an obligation to check that darkness. It is an order from Serzila."
"The order given to you is to protect the Wall, as I know it."
"If we kill a threat, that is protection."
Kalinos was belligerent.
Indeed, he was worthy of being called valiant.
'There was a knight like this.'
It was a progressive ideology rarely seen in the Serzila Knight Orders.
The knight orders want to conquer the Boundary, but they do not deviate from the search routes.
An imperial command. To be precise, it's because they worry about Serzila, which would be pressured by the Imperial Family if the deviation were discovered.
They don't want to cause trouble for their lord by starting unnecessary things.
Thus, the knight orders of the past life had died just protecting the Wall.
Of course, in my opinion, Serzila was also at fault.
If you order them to protect the Wall, you should have expected that they might really die just protecting the Wall.
"Serzila might be in trouble because of you."
At those words, Kalinos shifted his gaze to Ellen.
"Who is worrying about whom? This is Serzila."
Ellen nodded with a satisfied face.
That's right.
Who is worrying about whom?
That answer, the Serzila of the past life would have wanted.
The knight orders should not have worried about Serzila.
They should not have doubted Serzila's orders.
If so, they would not have died so in vain.
The Elaine of the past life had regretted that I should have used the knights' simple-mindedness.
So I was doing that. I had captivated the 1st Knights. But... there was no need to add all the knight orders.
"I heard you are a friend of the Grand Heir."
"I suppose so."
"Please keep it a secret from the Grand Heir."
Indeed, as Ellen had boasted, Kalinos was valiant.
He wasn't just valiant.
That was the type of person I disliked the most.
Kalinos had flexibility.
To me, that was what these stubborn northern knights needed most.
'What a waste.'
Kalinos was a knight whose death this year was a waste.
That flexibility had to be saved.
If Kalinos hadn't died, perhaps the 3rd Knights of the past life would have died differently.
'Why did he die?'
Kalinos dies this year.
Less than a month was left, and a mystery was right before my eyes.
If Ellen and I hadn't been here today, Kalinos would have gone on a search with his knights.
And they would have discovered that path, and valiantly jumped into it.
'If Kalinos died after delving into that path...'
That path should have been known too.
But it was a phenomenon unknown in the past life.
It meant that the laid darkness did not last.
'If that path is the cause of death, I can save him if I don't let him go.'
I slightly raised my gaze.
If you draw a straight line from the end of the Watchtower's smoke and the path of darkness, at the end is the Watchtower's smoke.
In the first place, I was planning to leave the search route if I had the chance. Ellen is also looking forward to it. Kalinos, the person in charge, is not skeptical about leaving the search route.
"Come with us now. Then I'll keep it a secret."
Is there any reason not to go?
"But..."
"Oh dear. My mouth is already itching. Ellen, what about you?"
"I'm going to smoke with the Grand Heir when I get back."
"..."
* * *
The north does not believe in the afterlife.
To them, the next life is this world they are living in.
Though the number of believers in the Sun and Moon is increasing, the northerners, even if they convert to the Sun and Moon, do not forget that ideology.
The dead must be buried in the earth.
If they are buried in the snow before that, the dead northerner is reborn as snow in the next life.
Only by being buried in the earth can they live again as humans in the next life.
-That's why the 3rd Knights Commander Ahite is so desperate for searches.
-To bury the body of the former knight commander in the ground?
-Not just the knight commander, but the other knights as well. So that the valor can continue.
Gullen of the past life had said so.
-But hasn't it been a few years already? They've probably been eaten by magical beasts and not even buried in the snow.
-...Fuck. This is why you mage bastards.
The northern knights were surprisingly sentimental.
-Then go. I don't like knight bastards either. I can't communicate with them.
-Tell me more about the magic called manifestation and then go.
-I don't want to.
-...I saw the Grand Heir running away towards the southeast district earlier.
-I'll catch him and then tell you.
Looking back, the 3rd Knights had not been able to recover Kalinos's body.
The same was true for the knights who had been with him.
At the time, I didn't think much of it.
In fact, it wasn't a big deal.
Of course, it must have been a deplorable matter for the knights.
Magical beasts don't eat Aura, but they eat people.
It meant that not finding a body was not strange.
But the 3rd Knights had not even found a trace of Kalinos's search party, Gullen of the past life had said.
-They must have licked up all the blood.
-You son of a bitch!
Thinking about it now, it was a strange thing.
'He died on this path.'
Of course, he might have been buried and not found.
He might have been covered by the mystery that had just appeared before our eyes.
It wasn't important.
In the end, the truth would be told by the result.
I had already stepped into the darkness.
Kalinos was in the lead.
I couldn't see his back.
Looking down, I couldn't even see my own hand.
However, there was no fear of getting lost.
The path cut by the darkness was narrow, and to the left and right, the familiar Boundary spread out. The hand that was invisible in the darkness became visible when stretched to the side.
It was as if a single stroke had been drawn on the canvas of the Boundary.
They were walking that stroke.
No matter how I looked at it, it was not a natural alteration.
"Can you see?"
"It's difficult."
"Me too."
Kalinos was a knight who could have crossed the wall at any moment, and I knew best how great Ellen was.
And yet the two of them were having trouble seeing through the darkness.
'It's even more difficult for me.'
I snapped my fingers. Psst. A fire flared up and simultaneously disappeared.
It didn't disappear. The darkness absorbed the fire. The saturation of that spot dropped slightly.
'The place that absorbed it gets a little brighter.'
I thought of the rabbit.
The Divine Beast of the Moon. Its fur also brightened when it touched fire. The fiercer the fire, the more it did.
'Magic power shed by a magical beast? It seems like that, and also like magic.'
If it's the latter, it means it's a magical beast with intelligence.
A magical beast with outstanding intelligence possessed a sophistication worthy of being called magic.
"Is that the rabbit?"
Ellen asked from behind.
The darkness eating the fire and the fur eating it were quite different, but Ellen seemed to have felt a similarity. It must be pure intuition.
"No. That bastard wasn't this big."
I spread my hand to the left and pointed to the darkness they were walking on.
"This darkness is the trace of someone who passed by. They were dragging their magic power as they went."
Or it couldn't help but overflow.
"The height is similar to mine, and the build is a little thinner than Sir Kalinos's."
"A rabbit?"
Kalinos, who was in the lead, asked.
"It was a magical beast I met during a 1st Knights search. A very strong one. The Grand Duke with a single blow..."
"Hiss."
"It was a peculiar magical beast. It acted as if fire were its sustenance."
I briefly explained about the rabbit.
"There's no need to assume it's that rabbit. That bastard doesn't attack me."
Of course, there was a high probability it wasn't the rabbit.
However, there was a need to share information. The darkness continued quite deep.
"We need to share any peculiarities. Does the 3rd Knights have anything?"
"...There is."
Kalinos stopped walking and moved to the left.
His figure, having escaped the darkness, became clear in the area that resembled a snowy mountain.
Kalinos was pointing to his face.
It was a face ruined by burns and stained with cuts.
"I got these burns on the Boundary when I was a member."
Burns were a rare injury to get on the Boundary.
"Surprising."
It was information I hadn't known in my past life.
Since Kalinos had died, there must have been no one who knew. It seemed to be a rather old story.
"It was a magical beast that looked like a crow."
Kalinos explained that the magical beast was a crow the size of a mansion.
He said that each and every feather was a flame.
"Did you kill it?"
"No. I was the only survivor."
Just like I had, Kalinos explained briefly.
That giant fire crow had suddenly sat on the search route, and all the search party members except for Kalinos had died.
"That bastard didn't even pay us any attention."
The fire crow had just sat there for a while and then taken flight.
The knights had died from its flapping wings. The fire crow's eyes had never even looked at them.
Kalinos had survived not because he was great. It was because he had been placed at the rear of the search party at the time.
Thanks to being the farthest away, he had survived with only burns on his face.
"It was a 5th Rank magical beast."
It wasn't a 6th Rank.
The fire crow's characteristics were within a sufficiently understandable range.
"I'll have to be aware of that magical beast too."
Where the darkness and the search route met, a small spark remained.
* * *
The path was quite long.
As we walked, I found out quite a lot about the darkness.
In this darkness, Kalinos and Ellen had to protect their bodies with Aura.
Because my warmth seemed to have been eaten by the darkness and was blocked.
'That's as far as it goes.'
I could still take care of my body without operating magic power.
It meant that the darkness could only absorb what was manifested, and could not penetrate my insides.
Growl.
A magical beast's cry was heard from the left. The sound was quite close. To the point where I could reach out and touch it.
But the magical beast did not perceive them.
The darkness was concealing them.
'Like Cassion.'
It was the same for the Boundary as well as the magical beasts.
If I stuck my head out of the darkness, a simmering rain was falling in that unfamiliar area.
This darkness was crossing that area as a path, but the rain did not enter the darkness.
'Blockade? Concealment?'
Similar, but clearly different.
If it were such a concept, the environment of the Boundary should have had an effect.
This darkness seemed to exist as something that was not in the world.
Thud. It was then that something fell on the back of my hand.
A simmering raindrop. I looked up. The darkness had thinned. Only then, as if the world had perceived this place, was it dropping rain. Some of the rain pierced the darkness and fell with a thud.
Looking back, the darkness they had walked through was disappearing. The farther places were already gone.
It was as expected.
The darkness was the trace of someone who had passed by.
Of course, it couldn't have lasted forever.
That was why this path was not known in the past life.
"What should we do."
Kalinos asked.
He was the commander of this search party.
"We can go back."
He was an irresponsible commander.
Kalinos was planning to go forward even if he was alone.
"Let's speed up. We don't know what's at the end, so there's no need to waste our strength already."
Magical beasts were scattered all around.
Unlike the raindrops, the bastards had not yet noticed us. It would be a matter of time. We had to move forward before the darkness thinned further.
"Go..."
"If you go back, I'll tell the Grand Heir."
Kalinos sped up.
The fact that I could feel it made me realize again that the darkness was thinning.
The raindrops stopped, and Kalinos could no longer be felt. The darkness grew thick again. It was a natural thing. The farther we went, the more recent the trace of darkness was.
I did not slow down. I did not collide with Kalinos. It meant that he was also maintaining his increased speed.
How long had we run? I opened my mouth.
"Let's stop for a moment."
The darkness was thick. The trace is recent?
No. It had become thicker than its original saturation. I stuck my head out of the darkness.
I had clearly escaped the darkness, but it was still dark.
Just like inside the darkness...
'No, it's slightly brighter.'
The area had changed.
Coincidentally, it was a pitch-black space of darkness.
And of a similar saturation to the trace they had walked.
A light was visible in the distance.
No, a fire.
"...It was those bastards."
At those words, Kalinos and Ellen came out of the path of darkness. Surprised by the new environment for a moment, the two looked at the same place as me.
There was the only light source in this area.
"...Fire crow."
The 5th Rank magical beast that had burned his comrades in the past.
Kalinos's eyes, having recognized the light source, widened.
But there was no anger in his voice.
...The fire crow was dying.
The fire that had taken the place of feathers was dying down.
-Fire.
-Fire.
Someone muttered.
It was a pitch-black magical beast with a human form.
"Uh...?"
Ellen's mouth fell open.
The natural enemy of fire. It was the magical beast she had seen in her dream.
"I call them Asura."
I said to such an Ellen.
Asura that covet fire.
They were climbing on top of the fire crow and eating it.
-Fire.
-Fire.
Voraciously.