Arc 25: The Wall (3)

At first, it was unmistakably an arrow. It had been fired from a bow, after all.

Giving off an uncanny light as it sliced through the air alongside the other arrows, it soon split into dozens, then hundreds.

“Wh-what is that...?”

Someone murmured, forgetting the imminent battle.

But no one could blame them. Everyone was watching that long trail.

The light became a cluster of lights, then a river of stars. The instant it reached the monsters—

SHHHHH

Each streak of light traced its own trajectory. The lights that had looked like an illusion were solid, scattering with the sound of rain.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

The monsters’ heads were pierced. Holes opened in their throats, leaving them unable even to scream. Some had their hearts skewered; others were impaled from the crown of the head all the way to the groin.

The arrows pouring down like rain slaughtered every one of them. Not a single arrow missed. Every shot pierced a vital point with precision and mercilessness.

‘... So this is “Fireworks”...’

Selena swallowed.

—Frondier might be the one behind Fireworks.

Even after receiving that intelligence from the Ten Thousand Capes, Selena had found it hard to believe. The recorded account of “Fireworks” during the monster attack on Constel had been too outlandish.

But now she had witnessed it herself. The sight matched the records perfectly. No, the sheer impact of seeing it in person made the records feel understated.

“The m-monsters...”

Someone spoke in a trembling voice. The massed monsters had become a scattering of corpses in an instant. Those still advancing stopped and hesitated.

Only a handful remained. At this rate, they really would be finished before they reached the wall—Frondier smoothly raised his bow.

“Huh?”

Selena made a sound at the sight of him.

Frondier had drawn the bowstring and was aiming. In other words, this was his second arrow.

‘D-don’t tell me he can use a technique that powerful again?’

As though answering her unspoken question, a second Fireworks flew out and embroidered the sky. The humans simply stared, having forgotten all thought of fighting.

Loud, piercing shrieks rang out. The monsters now knew what it was. With every ounce of strength they possessed, they fled back the way they had come.

Monsters of the Outside, fleeing. It was a sight these soldiers had never seen before.

THUD-THUD-THUD

Of course, whether they fled or not, Fireworks did nothing but snuff out their lives with ruthless precision...

* * *

Never mind battles against monsters of the Outside—no battle humanity had fought on this continent had ever ended so anticlimactically.

After a brief silence, the knights scratched their heads vigorously and went out to inspect the monster corpses, while the soldiers returned to the barracks.

The prisoners went straight back in without having done a thing. Some kept bowing toward Frondier, tears streaming down their faces.

Until now, the knights had offered Frondier the occasional word of praise, but this time, there was none of that.

People went about their assigned tasks like machines, as though there had never been a battle at all.

Everyone was trying to act normally. After witnessing Fireworks, they had no idea how to react.

And Selena.

For some reason, Frondier was still standing atop the wall, looking out. Her eyes darkened as she watched him.

‘... This man.’

She took a step back. She had already been behind him, but she put another step between them.

‘He’s dangerous.’

Feigning nonchalance, Selena slipped a hand inside her clothes. Beneath her elaborate outfit, her needles were already “loaded.”

Her superior, Hagley, had assigned her only to guard and monitor Frondier.

Guard him to preserve his ability to decipher the ancient language, and monitor him to keep him from entertaining other ideas.

So what Selena was thinking now was entirely her own judgment.

—What if she killed Frondier here?

She had yet to gauge the full extent of his abilities. Throughout the battles so far, he had never once engaged in close combat.

Of all the intelligence the Ten Thousand Capes had supplied about Frondier, only Fireworks had proved accurate.

In other words, every report belittling him had been false, while the weapon so powerful it defied belief had been real.

At this point, she had to consider herself completely without intelligence on Frondier. His close combat skills might be as absurdly powerful as Fireworks.

But at this distance, while he remained unaware of her hostility...

The range and circumstances were those she was most confident in. Every condition was right.

If she put everything into a surprise attack, it might work—

“Selena.”

“...!”

Frondier suddenly called to her. She flinched.

“Y-yes?”

“Do you have good eyes?”

Eyes?

“Wh-what do you mean by eyes...?”

“Exactly what I said. I’m asking whether your eyesight is good. Or whether you’re skilled at sensing mana or detecting presences.”

“Yes, yes. Those are my specialties.”

Of course they were. She was an assassin selected and trained by the Ten Thousand Capes. Everything Frondier had just listed was a basic qualification for an assassin.

... But why was he asking? It was as though he already knew she excelled at those things.

“I thought so.”

His matter-of-fact nod only heightened her unease.

“Come stand beside me. Look ahead.”

Selena walked over to his side. She decided to postpone the surprise attack.

... The timing of his question had been so uncannily convenient that the thought crossed her mind: perhaps he had noticed.

“Do you see that forest over there?”

“... Yes. You mean the ‘Sacred Forest.’”

Beyond Teibeon Wall stood a forest visibly lush with green trees. Everyone called it the Sacred Forest.

It should long since have been defiled by monsters, yet no monster could approach it.

Of course, people did not know that Excalibur lay sleeping within, but the forest already seemed special enough in their eyes.

“Watch that forest closely. Use your eyes, or extend your senses as far as you can. Whatever it takes, search every inch of it.”

“... What are you looking for?”

“There should be someone there.”

Someone? Inside that forest?

Selena thought it was impossible. That was the Outside.

Even if monsters could not enter the Sacred Forest, no human could reach it in the first place.

Still, she did as he asked. She concentrated on her vision and heightened her senses to their utmost. Well, if nothing was there, she could simply say so.

“... Huh?”

But she felt it. A faint trace of mana—so faint she could not even tell whether it belonged to a human or a monster.

“Is someone there?”

“... I can’t tell whether it’s a person or something else, but yes. Faintly. Though it might just be a small animal...”

“Do you really think so? That the presence you sensed belongs to a small animal?”

... No.

At this distance, she would not be able to sense a small animal even faintly. If she could detect a presence from so far away, whatever was in there was clearly no ordinary creature.

“No. The mana is definitely too significant to ignore. But why couldn’t I sense it before, and why can I sense it now?”

And how had Frondier predicted that she would detect a trace of mana now?

He gave her only half the answer.

“It came to assess the situation. Its forces were annihilated in an instant, so it ventured a little closer to the wall to find out what happened.”

“Its forces...? Don’t tell me! Lord Frondier, you mean...”

Frondier nodded.

“The monsters’ ‘commander’ is inside that Sacred Forest.”

* * *

In the clearing in front of their lodgings, Aten was confronting a terror unlike anything she had ever felt before.

“Hah, haaah... Ha! How’s that!”

Saibel puffed out her chest proudly and strutted. Her sweat-drenched face and panting rather undermined the effect, however.

“... That’s impressive.”

“Haha! Right? This sort of thing is a piece of cake for me! Ahem!”

Taking Aten’s words as a polite compliment, Saibel chattered excitedly.

But Aten had meant them.

She looked calm to Saibel, but she simply had no idea what else to say in this situation.

‘... She won’t even need five days.’

Saibel’s training had already reached something close to practical application.

The exercise was simple. A fire was lit beneath a piece of ice Aten had created. Meanwhile, Saibel supplied mana to Aten’s ice to keep it from melting.

At first, the ice had melted almost immediately. But one minute became five, then ten... Her time increased steadily and smoothly until, before they knew it, Saibel had passed the one-hour mark.

‘This goes beyond genius. Now I understand why Frondier said that.’

If Aten had to describe Saibel’s talent, it was intuition that never missed its mark.

Pouring mana into ice that had already been made to prevent it from melting—anyone with mana could do that, given enough time to learn.

But people failed countless times while learning something. Through repeated trial and error, they discovered what was wrong, what was right, and which methods were efficient and effective.

Then they internalized it. All of that was a natural part of the process.

But Saibel had no trial-and-error process. Every intuitive guess she made hit upon the right answer.

Because she used the correct method from the very first attempt, she learned in the fewest possible steps, with nothing to slow her down.

“But why is the ice shaped like this?”

Saibel peered at the piece of ice Aten had made.

She had paid it little attention at first, but on closer inspection, it was not just a lump of ice.

“Is this a hammer? Even a hammer looks cute when it’s this tiny.”

As Saibel said, Aten’s ice was shaped like a hammer. It did not particularly suit her.

“... The handle’s really short. I’ve seen something like this somewhere.”

CRACKLE

The ice vanished immediately after Saibel’s murmur.

“Huh? What happened?”

“... I canceled the spell. Let’s try something a little bigger next.”

“Hmm...? Well, sure. The wall’s going to be a whole lot bigger than this!”

Saibel thought Aten was acting a little strangely, but answered cheerfully. They really did not have much time.

“Ah, here you are. Both of you.”

Someone approached from the mansion. It was Frondier.

Aten put a hand to her chest in relief. If he had seen that ice just now—no, it would not have mattered if he had, but still, somehow...

“Oh! Frondier! You sent me off on this weird errand without even telling me!”

“Sorry. The situation at the wall was too urgent. I’m grateful for your help. Really.”

“Hm, well, hmm, all right.”

Saibel scratched her head at his unexpectedly humble response. She had had plenty to say, but suddenly none of it seemed to matter.

“Is training going well?”

“Of course! I managed to keep the ice intact for an hour! Though it was a tiny little thing.”

And she had done it in just two days.

Anyone else would have been astounded to hear it, but Frondier merely nodded.

“As expected.”

“Couldn’t you act a little more surprised?”

“Sorry. I’m not particularly surprised.”

When it came to Saibel, things like this were not surprising.

Aten heard that unspoken implication and glanced at Frondier.

“By the way, I heard something.”

Having broached the subject, Frondier cleared his throat.

He was about to bring up the real reason for his visit.

“Saibel, I heard you rode a Cassian here?”

Cassians. The finest horses in the central region.

Saibel had said she had borrowed hers from Constel, and that was probably true.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Let me borrow it for a bit.”

“The Cassian? I don’t mind, but you’ve only been fighting on top of the wall. What are you going to do with it?”

“I think I’ll really need it soon.”

With that, Frondier gave an ordinary smile.

At the sight of his languid, relaxed face, Saibel nodded without giving it much thought.

In other words, she had been fooled by his peaceful expression.