“Relax, Count. We are surrounded by trustworthy people. Word will not get out. Besides, who would believe it?”
“Is, is that so? But, there are too many uncertain elements if we simply let the demihumans flee to the South. In that case, why not press them to their wits’ end, and then forge a secret pact with the demihumans…?”
“Employing demihumans, then? Not a bad idea.”
Although the Count sounded like he was disgusted by the idea of using demihumans, that was probably acting too. He was the sort of man who would use everything he could until there was nothing left.
Getting such an excellent man in his own faction was also to keep an eye on him.
In truth, he had already embedded several people in the Count’s family. He had also used people from other factions so he would not be found out even if one used charm spells.
“Count, would you go as well if there was a chance to make a deal with the demihumans?”
The Marquis was keenly aware that the Count was plotting all sorts of things behind those eyes of his.
“I, I don’t really want to go, but if you intend to go, then I would certainly accompany you, Marquis-sama.”
He was probably doing this so he could say “the Marquis said so-and-so” and thus obtain a trump card to use against the Marquis. However, just going there with him would tar him with the same brush. It was too feeble to be used as a trump card.
“…Is that so? Then should we not tell His Highness to stop attacking the demihumans? There’s no need to sacrifice more people in fighting. After this, we shall achieve victory at the negotiation table.”
“It is as you say, Marquis-sama. However, the other Counts seem to be mounting an all-out attack, so we ought to stop them as soon as possible for a better effect.”
“Indeed.”
While stopping them as they were trying to make a name for themselves would be doing them a disservice, it would be better to keep things as they were when one considered the future. The Marquis was delighted that he would soon be able to influence the future of the Holy Kingdom. Of course, he would never let that show on his face.
“Contact the Counts-”
The pillar of fire that erupted cut the Marquis off halfway.
The Marquis was not completely clueless about magic. He might not be able to use it himself, but knowledge about divine magic was commonplace among the Holy Kingdom’s nobility. However, he only knew about spells of up to the second tier, and his knowledge did not extend to spells from other traditions.
Even so, he understood that the pillar of flame before his eyes was incredibly powerful magic.
“What, could that be magic of the so-called fourth tier? The kind that Kelart Custodio and Her Majesty could use?”
“I, I don’t know. What, what should we do, Marquis-sama?”
“Er, hm. I’m not too sure, but let’s just back up a little and move to a safer place.”
Part 3
Trooper Robi was a young man who was 24 years of age. While he had not received a complete education, he understood that there were many things in this world which he did not know.
Therefore-
“Humans. I have returned. -Truly you have indulged yourselves while I was healing the wounds which the Sorcerer King left on me.”
— As the angry roar reverberated through the core of his body, Robi pissed himself.
He could no longer feel his soaked pants sticking to his skin.
After realizing the power of the monster before him, he had a premonition that he was about to die, and so his survival instincts went into overdrive. They abandoned his useless senses and swiftly searched for a way to survive.
However, before they could find anything, Jaldabaoth unleashed his power.
“Die. Burn to ash in the flames of Wrath.”
Fire roared up, and a wave of heat struck Robi in the face. The incredible heat dried his eyes out and filled him with incredible pain. The hot air entering his lungs felt like it was about to set his entire body on fire from the inside. In fact, that was exactly what had happened.
Flames scorched his skin and its water content evaporated. His dermis burned, and then the fat beneath, followed by his muscles and then his nerves. Where the subdermal layers of fat were thin, such as on the arms, the flames immediately reached the muscles and nerves. This should have caused the muscles to contract and make him take up a bizarre pose. However, the high temperatures seared his skin to his armor, which prevented that.
His clothes, skin, muscles and the fat of his belly all caught fire, and his innards poured out intact.
Human bodies contained a lot of water. That was why it took time for their insides to burn, If this were an ordinary fire, the flames would have continued burning inside the body for some time, but since Jaldabaoth’s fiery aura was magically generated heat, it vanished as he moved away.
Therefore, Robi’s scattered guts were not discolored by the heat and remained a pretty pink color. The sight of piles of scorched bodies and the fresh offal peeking out through oceans of blood were enough to make onlookers want to throw up. It looked like hell on earth.
Jaldabaoth left Robi — who had sprouted a garland of fresh innards — and over 50 other scorched corpses around him as he walked forward.
Jaldabaoth — the newly-summoned Evil Lord of Wrath was walking. Even that was enough to kill the people around him who were caught up in his fiery aura.
“Get lost! Out of my way!”
While several such shouts could be heard, the first to scream was Militiaman Francesk.
He thought, why am I so unluckyevery day. Thanks to the Holy Kingdom’s system of conscription, everyone had to do their national service and join the army.
Indeed, even the son of a great merchant like himself — a man with a bright future promised to him — was no exception. Granted, his father had paid the appropriate bribes to have him assigned to a slack unit, but the life of a soldier was still miserable.
And just as that misery was about to end, this war had broken out.
Not a day went by when he did not complain about his unhappiness and the unfairness of it all. Still, it would all be over soon, and he could go back to being the heir of a big merchant family and indulge in the money-making activities he so enjoyed..
Things were just a little bit away from turning out like that.
It had been just a little bit.
However, he was now fleeing desperately from the monster in front of him.
If it caught him, he would certainly die.
He desperately moved his legs, which refused to listen to him owing to his fear.
He was surrounded by other people who were also fleeing like himself. Thus he made little progress despite his panic.
In particular, the fat man in front of Francesk was an eyesore.
Therefore, Francesk shoved the man away.
He did it to get just a single step further away from that monster. He did it for the sake of his joyous future.
However, as he shoved the other man away, Francesk saw that the people in front of him also had the same idea.
If the man who had been shoved away collided with the people in front of him, it was very likely that they would collapse en masselike dominoes. In fact, that was exactly what had happened to the people in front of Francesk.
Perhaps if it was just one or two people, he could have avoided them. Perhaps he could have jumped over them.
However, Francesk was not athletic enough to avoid a huge mass of falling people at once.
He collapsed onto the mass of people.
He thrashed around to get up — but he was not given the time for that.