Volume 1 Chapter 6 (Escape 3)
Dogagaga!
An explosion resounded. The door didn’t move even an inch. However, in the next moment, the door made loud sounds and then crumbled down. The door was not just opened, but utterly destroyed.
“Now! Please enter…”
Seria’s voice resounded. The soldiers went inside the room which has a very low temperature to the point that one can feel it to their bone.
“As expected. To crush the door by making use of the difference in thermal expansion.”
Toward Rolphs’ words Seria nodded her head lightly. At first, when Seria was going to use flame based magic, Rolph thought that she was going to break the door by melting it with high heat. That’s why he tried to stop Seria by pointing out the problems after doing that. However, Seria understood what Rolph worried about. That the air inside the room will be like a scorching hell if she tried to use heat to melt the door. For Seria and Rolph who can use magic, they will be okay, but for the ordinary soldiers, it would be fatal. They would be unable to enter the room until the temperature cooled down. That’s why rather than doing that, Seria immediately cooled the door the heated door by rapidly using ice related. Making use of thermal expansion.
“Now then. we shall go inside as well.”
The two people went inside the room, and what spread before them is a scene of carnage. A smell of rusty iron hung in the air, which is the unique scent of blood.
“This is…”
“What happened here…”
The two people at a loss for words. They could not believe the scene that appears in front of their eyes.
“G-Grandfather?”
In the eyes of Seria who examine the vicinity, she saw Gaies body laying down on the ground. The characteristic of his robe, made it so she could not be mistaken.
“No~~~~! Grandfather!!”
Seria broke down and fell to her knees. Rolph hurriedly tried to hold her but, Seria brushes his hand aside and made a dash toward Gaies body. Losing herself to her emotions, Seria held Gaies body in her arms. Looking at Gaies being held in Seria’s arms, Rolph grimaced. Even for Rolph who had gone to many battlefields, he’s was still not used to see a dead body with such horrible injuries. By looking at his head, which had been crushed, he could see that he had been attacked while crunching down. And, by checking Gaie’s condition it was clear that his neck had been broken, the criminal had seemingly delivered a decisive blows to Gaies, which had had caused his respiratory tract to block up.
“Just who did such a cruel act…”
Resentful words comes out from Rolph’s mouth. For Rolph who is used to the battlefield where people usually kill one, he didn’t normally feel anything seeing a dead body. He just thought that the weak had died. However, Gaies was different. For Rolph, he’s a fellow soldier who has been fighting together for years. With the death of a friend of his, he’s unable to keep his feeling in check. <Note: I call it BS, it must be because he likes Seria’s breast.>
“I’ve decided! This must be the doing of an otherworlder!”
An exclamation full of hatred came out from Seria’s mouth. The flame of anger because of her grandfather having been killed dwelled in her eyes. Looking at her eyes, Rolph desperately suppresses his own feelings. It is not good to have both commanders lose their calm.
(I guess, it is normal for her… after all, their relationship was pretty much that of a parent and a child.)
Seria’s parents both died at the time when she’s still a baby. They had been killed in action during the war with a neighbouring country. After that, Gaies who was her grandfather took her in and brought her up. He was also Seria’s magic art master and at the same time her only immediate family. That’s why it’s natural for Seria to become distracted due to his death.
However, Rolph thought that her exclamation is misgiving.
“However Seria-dono. Although an otherworlder would be powerful if one were to raise them, aren’t they weak when they appear just after being summoned? After all, unlike here, in their own world, there’s no war, and I heard even carrying a weapon is forbidden.”
“But!”
“But when you mention it, there is no mistake that the summoned otherworlder is suspicious; thus the possibility of the otherworlder being the culprit is also very high.”
He gently comes to Seria’s defense. Right now he does not have other choices other than to try to and calm her down for now. Because if he were to get dragged with Seria’s emotion, they might miss the real criminal instead.
“What we should do is grasp the current situation properly, and discover exactly what happened.”
Being persuaded by Rolph, Seria tightens her expression. She’s a genius who at a young age have been appointed as a junior imperial magician. After hearing Rolph words, she remembers her role and responsibilities, and tries to calm her mind.
“I’m very sorry. It is as Rolph-sama had said.”
Rolph stopped Seria who’s about to lower her head and immediately ordered the other soldiers.
“Check and confirm the soldiers that have fallen here in case of any survivors! And make sure that the person with the weird clothes who is been lying down over there, is dead! After that, examine this room completely. Check if there’s any hole for a person to escape or not! Next is… is there anything? Seria-dono?”
Seria shook her head as a response to Rolph question. Although her calmness has been restored, the death of her family is still affecting her heart. Her mind still unable to think anything though properly.
“Rolph-sama! Seria-sama!”
“There’s a survivor. This person is still alive!”
In a few minutes, the soldier who tried to confirm all the body comes back reporting to Rolph and Seria.
“”What!?”” Is that right?”
Rolph and Seria rushed toward where the soldier had been lying down in the sea of blood.
“R-Rolph-sama…”
The cracking voice is indeed coming from the body of a soldier that they thought had died.
“What happened?”
“What happened here?”
Since the person is a sole witness. Rolph and Seria raided the wounded soldier with their question.
“… Rolph-sama… by a monster…”
Hearing the soldier’s words, their complexion change. Because the soldier is the only person alive, who knows what had happened inside this room.
“What did you say?! A monster you said?”
Listening to the soldier worrisome words, Rolph’s face turned pale. Seria also panicked, wondering whether her grandfather had made a mistake in the summoning ceremony and summoned an unexpected foreign being.
“What do you mean! Hang in there…!”
“Ga… Gai…Ga”
Although they are both desperately asked, the words that came out were unclear and had no meaning. They could barely hear the word monster, but they were both unable to understand the situation, due to it.
“R-Right. Oi! Anyone! Bring this person to a doctor!”
“Say it clearly! Grandfather… what did it do to grandfather!? What is this about a monster?”
While desperately trying to control Seria who forcefully kept on asking, Rolph ordered the soldiers to carry the wounded out on a stretcher and rush him to the medical office.
“Why?! Why did you stop me!?”
Rolph thinks that Seria who flares up at him, appears like a demon. If he doesn’t say anything clearly here, he won’t be able to make someone who had lost their family member to calm down. As expected, is this because of difference in experience? Although she’s a talented person, Seria seems to still have difficulties in controlling her emotion. After he went through the trouble calming her down, after hearing the soldier mentioned the word 「monster」, it immediately threw her mind and heart out of order once again. In the first place, if her respected grandfather were to die because of failure in summoning magic, one cannot help but think of it as a normal reaction.
“However, if you kept questioning him like that, he might die before telling us anything.”
Rolph told Seria who flare up at him, the reason as cool headed as possible. What Rolph had said was a sound argument. Right now, if they conducted such an unreasonable interrogation, that bloodied soldier might die after all. However, Seria’s mind was unable to think about that. Rather than one soldier life, for her, it’s more important to get the information regarding the one who robbed her grandfather life.
“That… Won’t confirming the situation here be more important than that person’s life?”
Thus, Seria tried to fight against Rolph’s words. While she normally would understand the meaning behind Rolph’s words, and find that his judgment was right, her mind currently dismissed such judgment. However, Rolph kept persuading Seria’s calmly in an attempt to put the situation in order.
“Indeed finding that information is important; however, only that man know everything that had happened. Even if we leave his injury as is and keeps interrogating him, no useful information would come out. It would be meaningless if he died before we got any information. Although it would take time, won’t the man recovering be good for the prospect of interrogations in the future?”
After Rolphs explaining it calmly, Seria was unable to refute him anymore. The things that Rolph had mentioned was right. The thing that she could not accept was that her family member had become a victim, to something unknow.
“Fuu… I understand. Rolph-sama words are right. I’m very sorry for being unreasonable.”
After she had sighed Seria regained part of her calmness. Thanks to how much as she flared up toward Rolph, her heart was able to regain some composure. No matter how much of a genius a person is, the difference in life experience is something that one cannot do anything about.
“But still, the thing that man said, what on earth is this monster…”
“Well, we will be able to know about it after the soldier has recovered from his injury. For now, let’s put our energy into things that we can do something about.”
After Rolph had responded to Seria’s words calmly, he ordered some soldiers to resume the search inside the room.
However, Rolph judgment turned out to bring an unfortunate result.
“T-This is bad! Rolph-sama~~!! The medical office! The medical office!”
“”!!””
One soldier came running toward the summoning room. The tone of the soldier’s voice was clearly indicating something serious.
“Calm down! What happened?!”
Rolph’s angry voice resounded inside the room. The soldier after receiving Rolph angry voice began explaining the situation while gasping for air.
“Ha Ha, currently for some unknown reason a fire has broken out at the medical office, the spread of the fire is so fast that the medicine storage also…”
“What did you say! A fire? Is no one extinguishing the fire?!”
Rolph’s high pitched voice interrupted the report. Several flammable goods are being kept inside the medicine storage. Furthermore, they just sent an injured person there a few minutes ago. The only eye witness.
“N… No. As soon as we contacted the imperial magicians, the fire was already being extinguished.”
After listening to the soldier report, Rolph sighed in relief. He was relieved that at least the fire won’t engulf the entire palace.
Rolph then began asking Seria. Because doubt was beginning to build up within his heart.
“Seria-dono. What do you think?”
“I believe that this is very unnatural…”
“As expected… Seria-dono also thought so…”
“Indeed… Too many accident are happening at the same time.”
Rolph then pondered. A particular answer crosses his mind. However, it was quite impossible if he considers it with his common sense.
“I’m able to think one possibility but…”
“Do you think it’s impossible?”
Seria was able to accurately grasp what had crossed Rolph mind. And the things that he cannot say.
“I’m not sure…”
Rolph shook his head. Speculation is just a speculation. And the thing that Rolph want is not speculation but an absolute conclusive.
“I wish to report!”
The conversation of the two people got interrupted by a soldier.
“Umu, go ahead!”
“I’ve confirmed the dead soldiers.”
“And? the cause of the death is?”
The soldiers looked at each other when they heard Seria’s question. The soldiers face showed that it was something that is hard to report.
“What’s wrong? What is the cause of the deaths?”
After getting pressured by Seria’s aggressive attitude, one of the soldier came forward representing the other soldiers.
“P-Probably it was done by bare hands…”
“What did you say! Bare hand? How do you know it?”
Rolph also questioned the soldiers with great shock.
“From two dead bodies, we found that their throats had been crushed, and we clearly saw finger marks…”
Another soldier joined in supplementing the others answer.
“From the corpse that I checked, I determined the cause of death to be a blow that broke the neck from behind. There’s no damage to the armour and helmet; furthermore, there’s no trace of weapon being used to kill the soldier.”
Another one then gives his report.
“And, the thing that worrisomely is…”
“What is it!? Hurry up and say it!”
Rolph who is usually calm clearly shows his frustration. However, that’s reasonable.
“Yes! The body with burned face that I thought was the otherworlder person…”
The soldier reported to Rolph hastily.
“What is it! Say it!”
Winced at Seria vexation, the soldier continues his report.
“Yes! The belt on his pants. If it were being left alone like that, the pants would come off from the corpse. To think that he fought while like that is…”
Listening to the report, Seria and Rolph complexion turned pale.
“Damn it! Rolph-dono!”
As Seria said that, she rushed outside of the room.
“You guys, go alert the guards inside the castle!”
After Rolph had given the order, he chased after Seria. If the various clues were to be combined, it would draw to one conclusion.
“It seems like I was right.”
Rolph began to speak to Seria.
“Indeed. It will become apparent when we confirm all of it at the medical office…”
“However, that means the otherworlder possess the capability of fighting…”
“Indeed. Furthermore, the person is able to kill fully armoured soldiers and my grandfather…”
“Having such abilitys since the start huh…”
Chills ran down Rolph’s back. An otherworlder with such power wanders around inside the palace.
(We will catch it by all means!)
Having determined what he needed to do, power began to flow though in his whole body.
The two used body reinforcement magic and ran to the medical office in 30 seconds.
“It has been extinguished as reported…”
They must have been using water based magic art, since the medical office and the medicine storage were both wet. One young man came towards them after noticing that had come.
“Seria-dono, Rolph-dono. Did something happen?”
“Orlando. The fire is?”
Toward Seria question, Orlando shifted his gaze toward the medical office.
“There’s no problem. Though the entire medical office ended up like this, we managed to extinguish the fire before it spread out to the other place, it’s just…”
Orlando said something ambiguous.
“Orlando! Hurry up and say it! What do you mean by“It’s just”? … a while ago, we sent an injured person here! What happened to that person?”
“Three dead bodies came out from the medical office, but it looks like they didn’t die due to the fire. Besides, if we counted the dead bodies… and one person seems to be lacking… I don’t if it’s the injured person you mentioned, though…”
Seria held her breath. This is because they realize that their guess was right on the mark.
“How do you know the numbers don’t match?”
Orlando answered Rolph question.
“Yes well. Even if the doctor leaves the room to take a rest time, there should still be 2 soldiers bringing an injured person in stretcherー…”
Rolph and Seria then looked at each other.
((Just as we had thought))
“”Then!?””
Rolph and Seria voice overlaps each other.
“The injured person seemed to have a severe injury, and they immediately put the person in bed. However, when the fire was extinguished, and after checking the medical office, there are only three dead bodies, and the bed was empty…”
At this point Seria then interrupted Orlando. They already obtained enough information. The thing they needed to do now was to take action.
“Orlando! Immediately organize a party of magicians! Rolph-sama, please arrange the Imperial guard! And I will ask His Majesty for permission to mobilize! Let’s meet up at the courtyard!”
Having interrupting Orlando, Seria immediately began giving out instructions.
“Understood!”
“W-Wait a minute Seria-dono. I don’t know what’s going on here…”
Orlando who don’t understand the situation called out toward Seria.
“It’s fine Orlando-dono, just follow Seria-dono instruction!”
“Orlando, please! There’s not much time. Or else he will escape!”
Orlando’s expression changed after looking at Seria desperate cry. Though usually unreliable, he’s the third seat of the Imperial court magicians. Since he’s someone who had tasted war, he should be able to assume some courage. From Seria’s tone he could understand that it was an emergency and he switches his mind from normal to battlefield mode.
With a low and cold voice, which one won’t believe came from someone who acted so timid a while ago, he asked.
“Do you need the strength of the army?”
“Yes! Assemble as much as possible! The opponent is quite a dangerous fellow. I will authorize the use of magical art as an emergency!”
Seria issued permission to use magical art which is normally being prohibited within the palace. This is the proof of how dire the situation currently is.
“Understood. 「The supreme deity that controlled light Meneus. In accordance with the contract. Bestow Divine protection to me, Teleportation」”
Orlando who understood the situation immediately casted a magic incantation immediately. He instantly moved to the magicians lodging.
“As expected of the third seat huh~. He was able to use teleportation magic with such a short incantation.”
“Naturally. He’s the pupil of my grandfather after all. If he’s unable to do that much, then he is not worth talking about.”
Then Seria turned toward Rolph.
“Rolph-sama, there’s not much time! I will transfer Rolph-sama to the Imperial guards lodgings. I will say it in advance, for gathering the soldiers, thank you very much.”
“Understood. I will leave it to you to get the permission from His Majesty!”
“Yes! Let’s go. 「The supreme deity of light Meneus shows me thy power! Invite this person to that place! Teleport!」.”
Confirming that Rolph figure has disappeared, Seria begins chanting once again. All to chase after the shadow of the criminal.
“「The supreme deity of light Meneus. In accordance with the contract. Bestow Divine protection to me! Teleportation」”