“Damn it! What’s happening with the search?! Haven’t you found them yet?!”
Eugen, who had come from the imperial capital, began shouting as soon as he arrived at the mountain pass where his company had been attacked.
He had brought three skilled mages from among his disciples.
These disciples wore their hoods pulled low, standing behind Eugen in a way that intimidated the soldiers.
“You useless fools! You have guns, yet you showed such disgrace against knights and mages! Garnets-sama is furious! Don’t think you can return to the Empire until you find those thieves!”
The soldiers looked at Eugen with distaste. They were not pleased with this fat mage who fawned over his superiors while being harsh to his subordinates.
“However, Eugen-sama. Even if the thieves are hiding in the mountains, this area is full of treacherous peaks, and the search area is far too vast. It won’t be so simple…”
The officer commanding the search voiced his concerns. He was an excellent soldier faithful to his duties, and he felt a sense of crisis that no matter how many personnel they deployed, this mission would not be easily accomplished.
“Hmph, without your guns you’re nothing but commoners. Finding where thieves hide is simple with my magic.”
Eugen looked down on the officers and began chanting an incantation in a resonant voice.
His appearance was arrogant and pompous, as if showing off that he was “casting amazing magic.”
After waving around his flashy staff with exaggerated gestures, Eugen muttered:
“Heh, I can see it.”
Simultaneously, a thin light emanated from the ring on his right hand, pointing toward somewhere around the middle of a nearby mountain.
“There’s an old fortress at the end of this light. That’s the thieves’ lair!”
“Ohhh!”
The officers were genuinely impressed. While they didn’t like Eugen as a person, they held his magic in high regard.
The soldiers at the front used axes and swords to cut through the undergrowth as Eugen’s group advanced.
Since they were traveling through pathless mountain terrain, their progress was far from swift.
However, thinking that the attackers who had humiliated the Empire lay ahead naturally gave strength to their steps.
But—
“Eugen-sama, how much further must we advance to reach our destination?”
An exasperated officer asked Eugen.
Though they should have departed before noon, the sky was already beginning to turn crimson.
No matter how much the soldiers walked, the surrounding scenery remained completely unchanged, giving them the sensation of wandering in circles.
“…It shouldn’t be much further. We should arrive soon, very soon!”
Eugen was also growing anxious. The location his ring had indicated shouldn’t have been that far, yet there was no sign of reaching it. Moreover, considering the distance they had walked, they should have crossed an entire mountain by now, yet they continued climbing endlessly.
(This is strange… could it be that a barrier to confuse travelers has been set? No, that’s ridiculous. For me to be misled by some ordinary mage’s barrier…)
Having boasted to the soldiers, Eugen could no longer back down.
“Eugen-sama.”
One of his disciples spoke respectfully.
“I’m sure you’ve already noticed, but it appears a barrier has been erected. My apologies—we’ve only just realized it ourselves.”
“So you’ve finally noticed, you fool of a disciple!”
Eugen seized this opportunity to scold his disciple.
“I wasted unnecessary time testing you lot!”
Eugen decided to shift all responsibility onto his disciples.
“Yes, please forgive our inexperience. As compensation, might you grant us the chance to break this barrier?”
His disciples were accustomed to this. Having served under Eugen for a long time, they were well-versed in handling their master. The disciples didn’t hate Eugen at all. While he had various personal flaws, he was first-rate as a magic instructor. Therefore, it was common for the disciples to cover for Eugen.
“Very well.”
Eugen haughtily granted permission.
Immediately, the three disciples began chanting spells. By layering incantations like a round, they amplified the effect and increased the magical strength. While each was reasonably skilled individually, they were the type of mages who displayed even greater power as a group. This was the fruit of Eugen’s instruction.
Through the effect of their magic, the surrounding scenery gradually began to change. The space distorted by the barrier was trying to return to normal.
“There it is!”
One of the soldiers cried out. At the end of Eugen’s ring’s light, they could see the form of an old fortress.
They had approached to within a short distance of the fortress.
“Impudent thieves! I’ll give you your punishment right now!”
Having been made to walk in vain, Eugen revealed his anger with veins bulging on his forehead.
The soldiers raised their rifles, preparing for the attack order.
“—So you’ve finally broken through the barrier.”
A white-haired man appeared from their path ahead. Suddenly, from what should have been empty space.
“Still, to break through that is admirable. You show considerable promise.”
It was Yuri. Facing the imperial army without showing any sign of being disturbed, he praised those who had broken his barrier.
“Yuri! You bastard, you were alive?!”
At the sight of Yuri, whom he should have killed, Eugen’s face twisted greatly in surprise.
“Eugen. The spell you cast on Emma and the carriage was quite skillful, but well, that level is only natural for you. Unfortunately, I don’t see much progress in your magic. You’re still caught up in trivial matters and can’t concentrate on magic, it seems.”
Yuri frowned. His interest was solely in magic, even when it came to enemies.
“I’m asking why you’re alive! I should have killed you!”
“Ah, that’s right, you shot me from behind with a gun, didn’t you? But you know, if you’re a mage, shouldn’t you have used magic?”
When Eugen had betrayed Grimoire, he had shot Yuri from behind with a gun.
He hadn’t used magic because he feared that Yuri would notice the moment it activated. Eugen had abandoned his pride as a mage in his attempt to kill Yuri—the only mage he acknowledged as superior to himself.
“Well, either way it would have been pointless. The me you shot was an illusion. It was convenient, so I pretended to be dead. But you really didn’t notice? I thought you knew and were just leaving me alone. You really have no sense for magic.”
“Shoot! Shoot!”
Eugen screamed like a madman. The soldiers who had already been aiming their rifles began firing at Yuri all at once. Yuri immediately ran patterns along his left hand, deploying a blue magic circle in the space before him.
He blocked all the bullets aimed at him.
“Impossible! A barrier that can stop bullets shouldn’t be possible!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Eugen’s eyes widened. He knew of magical barriers that could block physical objects. Eugen himself could use them. However, they weren’t omnipotent. They only had about the strength of a wooden board. While they could stop arrows, blocking iron chunks shot by gunpowder explosions was nearly impossible.
“You can’t do it because you think you can’t, you know? Magic can do anything. If it doesn’t exist, just create it. Using only the magic you’ve been taught is your bad habit, Eugen.”
Yuri said this casually. But this was the arrogance of genius. Magic had thousands of years of history and had reached perfection through refinement. Therefore, magic was fundamentally something to be learned, never something to be created. That was the normal way of thinking. The very idea of trying to create something new was heretical.
“Don’t mock me!”
Eugen began chanting magic. Unlike when he had searched for the fortress, he spun words at a tremendous speed without regard for appearances. This was also proof of Eugen’s constant effort.
“[Flame Wolf!]”
Finally, he pointed his staff toward Yuri. From its tip, flames shaped like a wolf manifested.
“Really, you’re only skilled at using existing magic.”
Yuri showed no panic at the charging flame wolf.
The magic Eugen had used was quite advanced sorcery. Flames with will that would chase enemies anywhere, treating swords and guns as nothing—it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a killing technique.
In response, Yuri ran patterns along his right hand while uttering short ancient words from his mouth.
“[Freeze],” he said.
Then the flame wolf that had approached close to Yuri stopped moving. Its red flames began changing into white ice crystals.
“The flames froze?! That’s impossible!”
Eugen condemned the absurdity of Yuri’s magic.
“See, that’s why you’re no good, saying things like ‘impossible’ or ‘can’t be done.’ Magic is about making the impossible possible.”
When Yuri snapped the fingers of his right hand, the flame wolf that had become a lump of ice shattered.
“Such…”
The fat mage collapsed to his knees. He was shocked that his specialty magic had been so easily broken.
“Half the soldiers circle around behind the enemy mage! The barrier is only on the front! The other half provide suppressing fire! We’ll support with magic too!”
The one who gave instructions instead was one of Eugen’s disciples. He had accurately identified the weakness of the physical barrier that had blocked the bullets.
“Good judgment. But too slow.”
Yuri smiled.
“A scary knight has arrived.”
Before the soldiers, a black-haired knight holding a sword in one hand blocked their path.
“This is the end of the road.”
Murakumo wore a vicious smile like a bird of prey.
TLNOTE
While waiting for the next chapter, I encourage you, dear readers, to explore other masterpieces written by Daken-sensei :
- Monster Meat Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Wicked Princess and 12 Eyes – The Strongest Squires and the Legendary Evil Woman, the Second Time in Her Life
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
- The Last Magic (translated by my friend narwhal)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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