Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Book 2: Chapter 12

So someone got the jump on us Kicking through the remains of the burned-down house, Kyle muttered with a strained expression.

Right after they received reports of the fire, Kyle and his group rushed to the mayors residence, but the fire had spread too much that it harmed the surrounding houses, so they were forced to wait for the fire to burn out. Once they had all taken a rest, they returned to the scene, but the residence had fully burned down by then.

It burned down to the last bit, to the point it almost feels unnatural. Urzas facial expression stiffened because of the burning scent.

As it was a house built with stone, it shouldnt have burned down so easily, but only a mountain of debris remained.

A fire at such a timing, it cant be a coincidence.

So it was meant as a distraction and means of destroying proof and escaping?

Urza nodded, and continued.

If the demon disappeared, that would be the best outcome

I doubt itll work that way, Kyle scratched his cheek.

City guards of Callan searched through the debris, but the mayor was yet to be found. In a way, this situation was a godsend for Kyles group. Now they could push all the blame onto the mayor.

The only problem left is the official clarification, and that basically nothing was resolved, huh.

The location of the mayor, the safety of the people who had been abducted, and that demonthere are many other problems left to worry about.

HmmmI bet on the one in a million chance that we might find something, but nothing over here, huh. Seran turned around some of the debris, looking for anything worthwhile.

Of course, that anything worthwhile could only be the Holy Sword Rand.

I dont enjoy the feeling of being a thief at such a place, but, well, I also havent found what Id rather not find here.

He didnt put it into clear words, but this What hed rather not find here was actually referring to Gazas. According to eyewitnesses, presumably because he was called over, Gazas had entered the mayors residence yesterday at noon, and he now completely vanished as well. Surely, Miranda was in turbulence on the inside, but she didnt show any signs of that, simply returning to the embassy.

Also, there seemed to be a lot of people working here at this residence, yet we havent found a single corpse anywhere. Seran continued. Not to mention that we dont even know where they are.

If this was some plot to escape from the eyes of the world, they would have prepared fake corpses, so I guess this was just another way of earning time. However, even if it was, the fact that it even came to this showed that the mayors side was dealing with miscalculations in their plan Kyle started thinking, when he tried to remember as much from the previous worlds Miranda and her words.

When Miranda was drunk that one time, she said something about If only I had found that secret passage soonerIn other words, Gazas died underground, past that secret passage?

What if, instead of faking his death, this entire fire was simply meant as a way of hiding the entrance to the secret passage? Kyle stood up, and looked around the area, filled with debris.

Assuming there is a secret passage leading underground, how do I go about finding it

He couldnt waste much time. He came up with one possibility, but that required Urzas strength.

Ummmm, Urza. Can I have a moment?

What do you want? Youre acting creepy. Urza took a step back, evidently having a bad feeling about this.

Well, if my assumption is correct, then there should be a secret passage leading underground from here. However, finding it amongst all this debris would take far too longso, I want you to use your Earth Spirit to dig a hole, and look for that passage directly.

Hold onYou dont even know where it is, let alone if it really exists, right?

Yeah. But, it should be somewhere in these remains. Kyle looked at the ruins of the residence, to which Urzas expression tightened up.

Listen, compared to simply changing the consistency of the rocks like back at Shildonias labyrinth, directly digging a hole takes up much more mana. And even if I had that, if you tell me to just dig around randomly, Ill run out of mana before I get anywhere!

I know thatThats why I have this mana recovery medicine here.

The second Urza saw that small bottle, her mouth opened ready to throw a complaint at Kyle.

I know that all too well. I also know that it works quite welland tastes awful.

Yup, itll also weigh on your stomach.

That magic medicine was expensive, worked wonders, but it was literal hell to consume, which is why not many people really liked using it.

One would be fine, but how many do you think Id have to drink!?

Please! We dont have much time! While were talking, the mayor might be running away, and Gazas could be in danger!

UrkAlright! I just have to do it, right!? Urza screamed in resignation.

Im sorry, but Im counting on you Kyle apologetically handed her the bottles with ominous violet liquid.

Luckily, after the fourth bottle, Urza managed to find the entrance to the secret passage.

Alright, we can do with thisYou okay?

Thanks to Liezes shoulder, Urza somehow managed to stand.

Urk, gross She held her mouth with a pale face.

Seriously, great work out there. Kyle thanked her from the bottom of his heart. Now then, theres a good chance we might have to fight those demons againSeran, let me just confirm one last time, the male demon that attacked you had blue sheep horns on his head, right?

Yeah, our eyes met even from a distance, so theres no doubting it. It annoyed me because he was pretty handsome. Seran wished misfortune to all men who were more handsome than him.

I see

Amongst demons, not many had sheep horns. Aware of this, a certain demons face Kyle encountered popped up in his head.

On top of that, he seemed awfully arrogant. You ran into a female demon, and a beauty, right? Id rather have fought her.

Just to let you know, but that kind of naive thought process wont work with demons, okay.

I know that. Seran saw how serious Kyle was, and nodded. Its fine, Ill imagine that Im fighting my old hag when shes serious.

Yeah, thats perfectly fine. Kyle nodded himself.

Just what kind of image do you two guys have of Layla-san Lieze vowed to snitch on those two once they returned to Rimarze.

Well, if youre that determined, then I can rest easy Kyle said, and then looked at the two girls.

Youre not going to tell us to stay behind this late into the game, right? Lieze glared at Kyle.

I-I wont stay behind after coming this far, you hear me?

Well, I personally would feel a lot better if you stayed behind considering your condition right nowbut I get it. Just promise me to stay on your guard at all times.

If the enemy was any average monster or someone from the human folk, Kyle wouldnt be this worried, but one could never be too careful when dealing with demons. In all honesty, hed rather run off and leave the two girls behind, but now that he didnt know the motive and goals of the demons, it would be safer to keep them around where he could see them.

Maybe I just want to have them close to me so that I feel reassurance

Even for a moment, the deaths of those two popped up in the back of Kyles head, but he brushed that away, and set foot underground.

As the mining city that Callan was, there were many abandoned tunnels, and one of them was used as this underground passage. There were small lamps imbued with [Light] here and there, so it was still easy to walk through. After walking for a long time, they reached a large open area that signaled the ending of this passage. Setting foot inside there, Kyle felt a deja-vu. The ceiling of this space was quite high up, connected to several other underground passages. A magic circle was glowing on the ground, a simple altar in the middle, with shadows that resembled humans lying on top.

Kyle remembered seeing that scenery. The scale was quite a way smaller than before, but it was similar to the scenery Kyle had seen when entering the Demon Lords throne room.

The forbidden ritual, huh Shildonia muttered while looking at the magic circle.

Wazzat? Seran asked. It is a forbidden technique that turns life force into mana itselfbasically, its a grotesque way of turning sacrifices into raw mana.

Approaching it, they saw withered bodies scattered in front of the altar, probably sucked dry of their mana.

I remember these clothes Kyle spotted a body with luxurious clothes, and tilted his head. I remember, hes the vice-mayor that greeted us two days ago.

It was a somewhat puffy and overweight vice-mayor, but now he looked like a mummy so thin.

Thenthat as well?

Amidst the darkness, Lieze spotted a small mountain ofmass, looking like withered tree branches. That just shows how large their numbers were.

Over therethese are probably the Callan people who were abducted. Kyle closed his eyes, and went with silence.

Basically, they want to use some strong magic, and need a lot of mana, so theyre using the people they kidnapped as sacrifices?

Thats what it boils down to, yeah. Kyle reaffirmed Liezes suspicions, who still couldnt believe it.

At the same time, Shildonia looked at the magic circle, thinking.

It seems to be prioritizing quality over quantityWhich sounds awful, granted, but since a sacrifice takes time as you can only use one at a time, this is set up so it can squeeze the most out of every individual. Means theyll suffer longer as well. She scratched her head as she looked over at the deceased vice-mayor.

However, as for the catalysator in the center of it all, this gemstone will soon be at its capacity, and probably grow rampant soon after. Shildonia was talking about the dim-green colored emerald on the altar.

The way it glowed made it obvious that a lot of mana was inside of it.

Grow rampantSo, is it going to explode? As Callan itself might be under the danger of being blown into the sky, Seran carefully stepped backwards.

Rest assured, with this amount of mana, it wont be enough to blow up the cityhalf of it would be the max.

That still is one hell of a calamitySo, what kind of magic are they trying to use?

Since theyre simply at the stage of gathering mana, its hard to say, but because they built this deep underground Shildonia spoke that far, and turned around like she realized something.

At the same time, Kyle looked in the same direction. He felt the presence of someone approaching from a path that continued further past this area.

Everyone, hide! Kyle gave a sharp order with a quiet voice, and hid behind a rock at the entrance of this cave.

Although some demons have sharper senses than humans, the majority is about equal to humanfolk. Since that female demon only reacted after Kyle stormed inside the room, her senses should not be that sharp. As for the male demon, if his assumptions were correct, Kyle judged that hiding should be enough.

Dont speak, and dont move a muscle. Kyle entered a stance that would allow for a quick chance into battle, as he and his group became silent.

And then, sounds of footsteps belonging to two individuals slowly approached the open area.

Hm, it seems like its complete.

A male and female demon appeared. The moment he heard the male demons voice, Kyles cheek twitched.

It appears as if weve gathered enough manaThough if I may ask, what are you so angry about? The male demon showed a bitter smile, as he spoke to the female demon. Maybe you dont like this situation? Gathering a human ally and quietly gathering information, did you not agree to this?

Yes, Id like to remind you of the word quietly here. The female demon clearly was annoyed.

Are you talking about this trash here? I didnt decide on this, it was all that human. Even sacrificing those who were close to him, humans really arebarbarous.

Not about that. I was talking about what happened at thatembassy place! The Demon Lord-sama told us to Leave as many of them alive as possible, and I wont let you tell me that you forgot.

It seemed like the male demon was above the other in ranking, but she clearly wasnt blindly listening to every command.

It happened at the request of our supporter, so I had no other choice. And, all of this is us keeping as many of them alive as we can afford to.

We were also ordered to not stand out too much.

That was also caused by our supporter. An abduction is happening at another location, so go about it in a flashy way, I was toldThat however ended up in a failure, so I simply moved there to clean up after them. The man flashed a devious smile, and continued talking before the female demon could say anything. Also, are you sure that you havent forgotten? Our number one priority was that, yes?

Being told that, the female demon went silent.

That should be our Demon Lord-samas number one priorityand acquiring that is only possible through the contract with that human. Naturally, I do not enjoy being ordered by a mere human, but I can bear it because of my deep respect for our lord, yes? Even if its something so foolish as this, the male demon faintly waved his hand, which created a sudden blast of wind that flung the body of the vice-mayor against the wall, exploding into many smaller parts.

Now then, we cleaned up the trash. This cave is going to be the end of me, so I will step outside for some fresh air. How about you join me? The male demon asked with a smile, and started walking down another path different from the one Kyle and his group came from.

The female demon stayed there for a bit longer, but eventually headed down the same path.

Nobody knew how much time had passed since the two demons left, but after confirming that the air was clear, Kyle signaled everyone that they were free to move again. Immediately after, relieved sighs came from everybody.

That was one situation Id rather never go through again Urza commented, breathing heavily.

I started sweating just standing there. Lieze wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Rather than feeling someone else close to her, she directly felt the pressure from the demons conveyed on her skin.

What a creepy way of talking that guy hadHes bound to be the nasty type. Doesnt fit his looks at all. Seran was feeling hostility towards the demon for a different reason.

Stilltrying to keep as many humans alive as possibleI heard that the current Demon Lord was trying to keep things peaceful, but thats a weird thing to hear. Back during my days in Zaales, something like that was unthinkable. Shildonia exclaimed with a complicated expression.

But at least he was quite talkative, so we got some valuable intel from that.

Namely, that their main goal was to gather information, and that they wanted to acquire a certain object. For that, they worked with the mayor.

Also, the location of the mayor and Gazas.

As a blessing in disguise, neither of their bodies were in this giant mountain of corpses. Conveniently, now that the demons had disappeared, Kyles group walked down the passage the two demons came from.