novelraw Chapter 104 : Chapter 104
Chapter 104 : Chapter 104
104
At first glance, she looked like a farmer's wife.
Her bumpy two-piece outfit with a quilt pattern seemed even more voluminous than usual, and a straw hat with a wide brim was placed atop her pink hair, which was braided into two pigtails down to her waist.
A wide forehead with no bangs. Slit-like eyes that made it hard to tell if they were open or closed, and a face full of freckles.
It was Berlis.
“……Oh my.”
Berlis, upon discovering us, placed a hand on her cheek with a flustered expression.
“There are some unexpected people here. Aren't you in the middle of a class?”
No one here could easily answer Berlis's question.
And for good reason—Berlis's atmosphere was vastly different from usual.
Gloomy mana undulated around her body as if it would explode at any moment.
The long shadow stretching from beneath her feet felt as if hundreds of blades were embedded in it, ready to be shot out at any moment.
They were likely the numerous marionette dolls she called her teaching assistants.
I stepped forward on behalf of the others.
“We're out for a field exercise. Ms. Berlis, what brings you here?”
Berlis seemed to be contemplating how to answer my question.
“Do you deal with demons during field exercises these days?”
In that instant, the atmosphere of the people around me changed.
Everyone's hands went to their weapons.
The air grew tense, and just when it wouldn't have been strange for someone to draw their weapon at any moment.
“That's enough.”
Ulf strode forward in front of us and waved her hand.
The atmosphere, which had been stretched taut and felt as if it would burst at any moment, slowly began to loosen.
“You must be that magician.”
“……Oh my. You're not someone who should be in a place like this, are you?”
Ulf had examined Berlis's research lab right after arriving at the academy.
That's when she said it.
Did I really think Berlis was a 4th-circle?
It seemed Ulf had realized something about Berlis back then.
“Did you hear about the demons from a demon?”
“You seem to know quite a bit about necromancing~?”
“I've heard a few rumors here and there. One tends to learn things when peeking into orders that are not of the human realm.”
Ulf looked at us.
“This child's story seems worth hearing. Let's move.”
* * *
We all boarded the carriage.
The other students seemed to have left safely ahead of us.
Long wagon wheel tracks were left on the ground.
We all climbed into the one remaining carriage.
After seating Berlis in the innermost seat, I sat opposite her.
Rozalin sat to the side, where she could cut down Berlis at any moment, and beside her, Yuria was on standby, ready to unleash her holy power at a moment's notice.
Even in such an atmosphere, Berlis did not seem particularly intimidated and began to speak with composure.
“I've known that the demons would come for five years now~.”
It seemed Berlis had not regressed like Rozalin or the others.
“How?”
“Didn't that old magician just say it? That I heard it from a demon~.”
“You mean you communicate with demons?”
“Fufufu. If a necromancer didn't communicate with demons, how could they use black magic?
We fundamentally converse with beings of darkness and receive power from them.”
“What about the demons?”
“They told me. That they would create a world where they wouldn't just give me power, but where all of humanity would be brought to its knees before me.”
Berlis said she had been preparing ever since.
“I traveled the world and gathered subordinates to fight the demons.”
“Those dolls…… aren't they living people?”
Back when I was with Rozalin, Berlis's doll had sent an S.O.S in Morse code.
Even if it was truly for the sake of the demons, using living people was ethically problematic.
Berlis let out a sly, fufufu laugh.
“The new teaching assistant I just brought in is a pedophile who used his position in the army to massacre civilians. For the sake of the demons, wouldn't it be alright for someone like that to disappear?”
“…….”
The expressions of the students looking at her were mixed.
Rozalin and a few other students seemed to think Berlis was right.
But there was one person who could not agree with her words, and that was Yuria.
Yuria glared fiercely at Berlis with her characteristically gloomy, dead-looking eyes.
It wasn't simply a look of hatred or dislike for Berlis.
It was closer to a more fundamental look, the look of someone whose cherished beliefs had been violated.
“Humans should always be an end, never a means.”
“Of course, a little lamb could say something like that~ But you guys have your Inquisitors who beat people to death for the sake of religion, don't you? Just as you distinguish between who is human and who is not, I simply have my own standards~.”
Yuria was a child who was not in a good mental state to begin with.
Emotionally, I agreed with Berlis's words, but I couldn't just let it be.
“From what I hear, demons seem to be an important source of power for necromancers…… so why are you trying to fight them?”
“Because I know them well.”
Berlis answered without hesitation, as if it were obvious.
“I know more about demons than anyone else. The way demons generate power, what they like, their schemes—I know it all.”
Her slender eyes turned to me.
“Wouldn't it be stranger for me to support them, knowing all that?”
“It seems the interrogation of this corpse-handler is over. Any more questioning will only deepen the emotional rift between us.”
Just as I was about to ask a few more questions, Ulf held out her staff to stop me.
She was right.
I had been told that in the future, humanity had walked towards its doom through conflict and discord.
Now that people had returned through regression, there was no need to make an enemy of someone who could be an ally.
“I understand.”
At that moment, Rozalin, who had been watching the situation with her arms crossed, her eyes sparkled.
“You killed the second demon. No, you will kill it.”
“Ooh-hoong?”
A strange light filled Berlis's narrow eyes.
“I was wondering why we didn't know about the second demon, but it was because you killed it. Yes, that makes sense. The first demon is fundamentally immune to ranged attacks, so it couldn't be killed with magic. The second demon was only known to have appeared, but where and how it died was unknown; of course, that would be the case if you instantly killed it!”
“Oho.”
“And the third demon. The demon that killed the teacher and only Pan barely survived, but there's no story of that demon being killed, is there? That means you probably fought and defeated that demon too, or at the very least, you took it down with you!”
Hearing Rozalin's explanation felt like my eyes were being opened.
If that story was true, then Berlis was a definite ally.
“Teacher. I think we can trust her.”
“No way…….”
Yuria shot up from her seat, reacting emotionally.
There were even small tears welling in her eyes, which in turn made her seem her age.
The usual Berlis would have teased and mocked such a Yuria.
But instead of mockery, Berlis scanned the assembled people.
“So, are all the people here regressors~?”
This was the second time a person living in the present, not a regressor, had asked this question, after Abrahal.
It seemed she also had some information about regressors.
“I am not a regressor. Neither are the students here.”
“Then that means these people here are regressors~ Just as I thought! Hheh heh, I thought something was strange as I looked at them~ They seem different from me and other people, the age of their body and soul just don't match!”
Is there some other piece of information that only a necromancer can see?
At my gaze, Berlis smiled sweetly at me.
“Well, that's not all~ I travel all over the world, you know? And when I do, I hear things! About regressors!”
“Have you seen or heard of a regressor?”
“Yes!”
“What kind of person were they?”
“A politician!”
A politician?
According to Rozalin's words, the people who had regressed at that time were warriors who had stood on the final battlefield.
“Should I say an agitator? He was going around the plazas, talking~! I have already experienced this world once! You must believe me! He said.”
He went around openly revealing the fact that he had regressed like that?
Don't tell me that's the person Abrahal has secured.
“Ah. Don't tell me…… that guy with orange hair and a pointy chin, the one who looks like a rat?”
“Damn it, you mean that weasel?”
Rozalin and Hati seemed to know the person, as they grimaced.
Even Yuria, who had been in a daze, had sparks in her eyes.
“He's a pseudo-religious cultist. He spouts nonsense about how demons are the apocalypse brought by God, so we humans must accept the apocalypse as it is.”
“Was a guy like that on the final battlefield too?”
“There were many people on the final battlefield. Slaves from the kingdoms, vagrants who lost their homes, slash-and-burn farmers who were holed up in the mountains, beggars…… we were that desperate, to the point where we had to borrow the strength of such people.”
I get that, but a pseudo-religious cultist.
“I think he snuck in when Pan opened the gate. Damn it. That guy is a headache.”
“He is not someone who moves for the sake of humanity. Now that he even knows the future, there is a high possibility he will act even more selfishly.”
“No need to worry~? A bad monster has already taken care of that religious nut cleanly~?”
……?
Our gazes turned to Berlis.
Taken care of, don't tell me?
“Huhu. As if I would leave someone who praises demons alone? My pet ate him deliciously.”
At this sudden development, we could only blink and stare at Berlis.
Berlis wore the same smile as always, but the atmosphere emanating from that smile was different.
It was so much so that even students like Pan and Bridget, who had been quietly observing the situation, began to squirm in their seats and move away from Berlis.
“But you must be careful~? As I said, that person was an agitator. Many people besides me heard his words, and they are preparing for the arrival of the demons.”
Right.
Berlis usually only traveled the world during the second semester.
From what she said, it seemed Berlis had killed the agitator this semester.
In other words, the agitator had been going around for at least a year, spouting that he had returned from the future.
‘If many people paid attention to his rumors…….’
Then our efforts in dispatching the demon so quickly were for naught.
‘This is tough.’
The demon I met in person was less scary than I thought.
I even felt that if I could erase the fear my mind had created, I could face them sufficiently.
But the problem was people.
I covered my eyes with my hand and leaned back.
Berlis, the pseudo-religious cultist, the Empire, the greedy nobles, Avril and Abrahal…….
The spies who have now returned will all be chattering about the demon and Aura.
Taking them to fight the demon today was also to serve as a show of force through the power of Aura.
The intention was that if they couldn't be stopped by the Giant-Block, they would at least hear about it indirectly through the spies.
I was tired.
As I closed my eyes, drowsiness slowly crept in.
Three days later.
Upon arriving at the school, we received a summons.
It was from the lord of the Akarind territory.