「Set, no one else is around, right?」

「Guru~」

At Rei’s call, Set gave a cry.

Currently, only the two of them were in this silent forest.

Outside, there was no longer any sign of the Royalists except on the other side of the forest. Aside from Rei and Set, there were only small animals.

Undead, such as Skeletons and Zombies had also attacked the Mireana Kingdom to some extent. But as expected, being very outnumbered, they were all cleared out by the army.

「All we have to do now is to wait for the order……no, looks like I don’t actually need to wait any longer.」

Feeling the signs of someone approaching rapidly, Rei took out his Death Scythe from the Misty Ring on his right hand.

Of course, he didn’t expect to be attacked by enemies here as this area was on the Mireana Kingdom side of the Selemus Plains. Still, he didn’t let his guard down.

The battlefield was already here. Anything could happen.

However, Rei’s worries soon turned out to be unfounded. Perhaps he had been given Rei’s location in advance, the person went straight to Rei and Set’s location without any hesitation. Furthermore, the man who appeared from the thickets was a familiar face.

「You are someone from the Prairie Wolves……」

Rei had pulled in the Prairie Wolves and introduced them to Daska as scouts for the Rowlocks Army. One of them had been a man who had tried to fight Rei because he hadn’t been happy with Egg’s decision. However, although he looked familiar, Rei had only fought him once before so he didn’t remember what the man was called.

The man looked at Rei and tried to say something before giving up and sighing before speaking.

「Ah. It’s Kirtos, I’m the one you beat up lightly that time. I have a message from Egg-san. He said that in a few minutes, both sides will be asking the other to surrender before preparing for battle. ……And, since there are quite a few Dragon Knights that have been sighted over there, he said you should be careful.」

Rei perked up at the words ‘Dragon Knight’.

He stroked Set’s head with a frown.

「Dragon Knights? I know they’re pretty strong, but I’ve never fought one before. ……How about you?」

Kirtos looked at Rei before shaking his head with an uncomfortable expression.

「Give me a break. Dragon Knights are one of the most elite among the Knights you know? Although it is ridiculously expensive to maintain, their strength is incomparable to an ordinary knight. They are also an opponent that can fly in the sky. If us bandits tried to fight one head one, we wouldn’t stand a chance. We’d be wiped out. Maybe Egg-san would be able to escape though. ……To be honest, I know your strength, I’ve felt it myself. But about your Griffon, was he called Set? I don’t know how strong he is. I don’t know what you’re planning, but it’s definitely better to not fight a Dragon Knight……especially more than one of them.」

Surprisingly, Kirtos’ words expressed some concern for Rei.

「I know what you mean, but this war will be dangerous for us in various ways if we don’t try something reckless. ……Anyway, thank you for delivering the message. I’m about to head out, I’ll leave you to your work.」

Rei said that as he went over to Set.

Seeing Rei like that, Kirtos spoke up again.

「Hey, if you fly through the sky, the Dragon Knights will see you, you know? I don’t know what you plan to do, but if you meet one……」

Kirtos was still trying to make his point, but when he saw that Rei’s face had no sense of tragic resolve or despair, he was puzzled.

He wouldn’t want to fight a Dragon Knight, but maybe Rei would have a chance.

「……What are you going to do?」

「What, it’s not that hard to tell right? Dragon Knights are humans after all, aren’t they?」

「Yes, well, that is true.」

「Then no matter how strong the Dragon Knights are, the altitude to which a Dragon Knight can fly up to is limited. The higher you go, the slower the knights will be. Besides, a Dragon Knight’s Dragon is a Wyvern and not really a proper Dragon. ……Of course, I understand what they can do.」

Kirtos had a difficult expression on his face as Rei explained to him.

Even though he was a bandit, Kirtos knew that the temperature was lower in the mountains than on the plains. He could guess what Rei was talking about, but……

「But isn’t that the same for you? If a Dragon Knight can’t go that high, won’t you be unable to as well?」

Such a question was natural and he asked it frankly.

However, Rei shook his head in response.

「I have a hobby of collecting all sorts of practical magic items. Because of that, I’m quite well protected when it comes to cold and heat.」

To be exact, the Dragon Robe worn by Rei was the key magic item in this case, but Rei wasn’t that naive to tell him that.

Kirtos nodded, as if convinced by Rei’s response. But, he then turned to look at Set, who was standing beside Rei.

「Does the magic item work on the Griffon as well?」

「No, it doesn’t. But, you can’t lump Set in with those other Griffons. He can do this without much difficulty.」

Rei replied while stroking Set’s head.

In fact, he had ridden on Set several times before and had reached an altitude where the air was quite thin. This was something that an ordinary Griffon would probably be unable to do, but Set could because he was created with Rei’s enormous magic power using the Magic Beast Art.

「……I see. Well, you’ve made your point. I’ll head back to where Egg-san is now, is that okay?」

「Ah, please do that. ……Also, leave a message for Egg. The Bestir Empire is serious in this war. It is very likely that they will break into the Mireana Kingdom and cause some trouble in the rear or something like that. I’ll leave it to you to take care of.」

Rei told him that, but was met with a grin on Kirtos’ face.

「Your boss has already told us. Quite a few members of the Prairie Wolves are scattered around to scout the area.」

「Is that so.」

Rei nodded in admiration, knowing that Daska had already thought of the same thing he had been thinking.

「Well, I’ll leave the rear to you.」

「Ahh. ……That is, never mind.」

「Mm?」

「Be careful.」

At those unexpected words, Rei paused for a moment before giving a small nod.

Their first meeting had been one of the worst, but perhaps Egg had done something on his side. Kirtos’ attitude towards Rei lacked the thorniness from when they had first met.

(Seriously, I wonder where all his hostility went?)

Perhaps he was waiting until Rei and Set had both left. For a moment, Rei turned to look at Kirtos, who was looking back from a distance, before getting onto Set’s back.

「Well then Set. Our turn is coming up.」

「Gurururu~!」

Perhaps he was inspired by Rei’s voice. Set rose into the sky after running a few steps and flapping his wings as he gave what sounded like a war cry.

Looking at Rei and Set with at sense of hopefulness, Kirtos headed back to Egg to make his report.

 

 

About the same time that Rei and Set took off, the Mireana Kingdom and the Bestir Empire were facing off on the Selemus Plains.

The Neutral and Noble factions’ forces were concentrated on the front with the Royalist army, the main force of the Mireana Kingdom’s army, waiting behind them.

At the same time, a situation was developing secretly in the forested area behind the Royalist’s forces.

「Damn it, m-monster……gah……」

The man whispered in regret as he fell to the ground.

There was a lot of blood flowing out from his torso that was lying on the ground. It was clear to anyone that the man could no longer be saved.

Looking at the man without feeling was another man with a robe on his body and a cane in his hand. He looked to be about 40 years old. No matter how one looked at him, he only looked like a middle-aged mage.

However, if you looked at the man’s lower body, you would immediately understand why the dying man had called him a monster.

That was because the man’s lower half was that of a giant spider. No, considering its size, it would be more correct to say that the body of a man was growing out from a spider’s body.

There was a monster known as an Arachne that was famous for having the body of a spider and a human. However, Arachne’s had a woman’s body growing from a spider and not the body of an indifferent. middle-aged man.

The man’s name was Gilgos. He was a mage that had volunteered to become a Demon Soldier. Because of that, in addition to his power as a Demon Soldier, he could even use magic. Also, although those who had gone through the Demon Soldier ritual tended to have their reasoning and intelligence deteriorate, Gilgos was an extremely rare type of Demon Soldier whose mind had become sharper than when he had been human. Because of that, he was greatly trusted by Theorem and was often given the role of commanding the Demon Soldiers.

「It was your own sharp senses that did you in.」

Muttering to himself, he spat out some silk from the spider section of his lower body before wrapping the dead man in a cocoon of thread.

「Even a man like this could be used for some sort of experiment. At worst, I don’t mind using him as food for some of the Demon Soldiers that have lost their minds.」

While muttering to himself and talking about eating humans in a completely comfortable tone, he moved the cocoon to a place where it wouldn’t get in the way.

「When did the Mireana Kingdom have such skilled people, was Theorem-sama’s predictions unusually wrong? No, since we’re looking at Arius as the commander in chief, there’s no doubt the Royalists are taking this lightly. In that case, it’s either the Nobles or the Neutrals?」

The man frowned slightly as he looked at the blood spreading across the ground and waved his cane as he cast his magic.

Then, the next moment, the traces of blood on the ground disappeared as if swallowed up by the ground. After a few seconds, all traces that a person had died here disappeared into the ground.

「Even so, it’s too late. It’s about time.」

He glanced at the ground.

What was drawn there was a magic circle. It wasn’t an ordinary magic circle, but a huge magic circle was drawn over most of the ground Gilgos was standing on.

However, even if someone from the Mireana Kingdom was here, they wouldn’t have noticed the magic circle. This was because Gilgos had been using magic to shift the perception of the magic circle away from it. Normally, it wasn’t such a powerful magic, people would feel a sense of incongruity and realise something wasn’t right, but Gilgos had increased its effectiveness by placing himself near it.

Even if someone came over, the first thing they would notice would be Gilgos, due to his strange form. And, of course, the discomfort caused by the ground would be erased by Gilgos’ presence.

It was because of Gilgos’ ability to draw out and maintain such a magic circle that he was deployed here, despite the Mireana Kingdom being some distance away.

「An ambush using transition stones and Demon Soldiers at the same time. It’s a tactic that anyone who knows about transition stones can think of. But, it’s only Theorem-sama who can do it on such a large scale. However, once used, it’s the kind of tatic that will end everything.」

The Demon Soldiers and transition stones were both created in the Bestir Empire. Gilgos judged that this surprise attack using both of them would bring and end to the war when used for the first time.

And……that time had come.

The magic circle before Gilgos shone faintly and blinked. As the blinks became faster……the next moment, countless figures appeared in the forest where only Gilgos had been a few seconds ago. There were about 500 of them. Some had scales growing on their bodies, some had tails like monkeys, some had poisonous flowers growing on their heads, some had snake like bodies and some had huge fangs in their mouth. It was an absurd number of strange people. However, considering the strength of each individual Demon Solider and their position behind the Mireana Kingdom’s army, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they were enough to end this war.

Of course, two people stood out from that group, Theorem and Cyanus. That was because with so many strange people around them, the two humans were very conspicuous, even compared to the Demon Soldiers. However, it wasn’t just their appearance, the power that could be felt from the two of them was also different from the rest of the Demon Soldiers.

「……I’ve been waiting for you, Theorem-sama.」

Gilgos gave a dexterous bow with his upper body that grew out of his lower spider body.

Receiving it with a calm attitude, Theorem spoke up.

「Thank you. No one has found this place yet?」

「Yes. There were a few sharp sighted people, but I’ve taken care of them.」

「I see, well done. Then, what we should do next is to watch the time and head for the headquarters of the Mireana Kingdom’s army……what!?」

As he was about to say something, Theorem instinctively turned to look in the direction of the battlefield. It was the same for Cyanus, Gilgos and the rest of the Demon Soldiers with them.

And then, Theorem and the others saw it. A huge tornado that had appeared in the direction of the battlefield. An incarnation of destruction made from fire and wind.

Even though they were in a forest, and even though they were far from the battlefield, they could still see it clearly.

「What the hell is that……that huge tornado……no. It’s not a tornado?」

Only Gilgos’ stunned voice was heard in the surroundings.

In that situation, only one of the Demon Soldiers had a smile on his disfigured face.

He had tentacle like tree roots growing from his left shoulder. His face was burnt up in some places and he had four eyes.

With his four eyes, he gazed at the tornado of flames as he spoke in a happy and amused tone.

「Ke-, kehe-, I-I’ve found you……I’ve found you, Rei. This is your doing isn’t it? ……..Kehe-!」

The Demon Soldier started convulsing with a smile. The man who had once called himself Vel Sails turned his exhilarated gaze towards the flaming tornado.

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