Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume 17 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

The Red Wyrm’s Upper Jaw

THE UPPER JAW ITSELF was a single road that took us through a narrow valley. The path wasn’t as straight as the Holy Sword Highway, but it was just as simple. There were no side roads or forks to worry about.

This place was basically a border zone, unclaimed by any nation. It was also a choke point for trade. After a few hours of travel, we met a large caravan heading in the opposite direction.

At a glance, I saw about a dozen covered wagons and more than fifty horses laden with goods. They probably belonged to Asuran merchants on their way to the Magic Nations. There were also tougher-looking sorts trudging along on foot at regular intervals: adventurers who’d been hired as guards, judging from the way they glared at us.

The sight brought back some memories. I’d joined a caravan much like this one on my way up to the Northern Territories. It had been a smaller one, though, with younger guards and merchants.

Back then, I was all alone in the world, and feeling very sorry for myself. In the immediate aftermath of Eris’ disappearance, I was convinced that my future would be bleak and lonely. I lost the ability to put my trust in anyone or anything. The only things that kept me sane were my routines: training myself, and mumbling prayers to my holy idol.

I’d come a long way since then.

Thanks to Sylphie, I’d regained my confidence. I was a father now—maybe not the best one in the world, but still. I’d cleared up that misunderstanding with Eris and married her as well. Somehow, I’d even wound up married to my beloved teacher Roxy, who’d be having my second child soon.

With three loving wives, I wasn’t spending many nights sad and lonely anymore. What would young Rudeus say if he could see me now? I had purpose in my life, and all the emotional support I needed. 

“…Are you gonna say something, or what?”

Eris’ voice pulled me out of my thoughts; I guess we’d ended up riding side by side at some point. I wasn’t much of a horseman, so I was riding pillion with Sylphie.

“Hey, Eris…”

“Yeah?”

“Can I grope you for a minute?”

“What? No. Don’t be ridiculous!”

Hmm. Well, I could ask for emotional support, at least.

Anyway… the sight of me flirting with my wives probably wouldn’t cheer young Rudeus any. He’d probably just smile weakly and say “Congratulations,” then slink away as quickly as possible. That was just the way I was back then. I knew other people were capable of being happy, but I’d convinced myself that it was never going to happen for me. The least painful option was to keep my distance.

“…”

“Uhm, Rudy?” asked Sylphie, glancing in my direction. “Why did you ask Eris for permission, but not me?”

As I was thinking about the past, my hands had apparently worked their way up to Sylphie’s chest. No wonder I’d been feeling something soft against my palms.

“Whoops! Sorry, sweetie. Didn’t even know I was doing it, I swear.”

“There aren’t any monsters around here, so it’s not that big a deal… but keep your hands to yourself once we hit the forest, okay?”

“Thank you, Sylphie! You’re an angel! I’m sorry, really!”

“You do realize you’re still groping me, right?”

Smiling slightly, Sylphie scratched behind her ears in a gesture of mild embarrassment.

To be honest, I’d been doing this a lot ever since we got married. At every available opportunity, more or less. Sylphie had sort of gotten used to it by now, and I definitely wasn’t getting tired of it.

“You can ride behind me tomorrow, Rudeus!” said Eris, from beside us. Before I could respond, she spurred her horse to the front of our party, blushing furiously.

Aw, did I make her jealous? Heh heh…

Anyway. We were coming up on the end of the valley, and the entrance to the forest. I had to assume there was an ambush waiting for us in that place. It was time to focus on the job at hand.

At the very end of the Red Wyrm’s Upper Jaw, we had an almost panoramic view of the forest that stretched out ahead of us. The entrance to the valley was elevated enough that we could see all the way to the fortress walls on the other side. Still, the trees grew tall and dense here, so it was impossible to trace the road we’d be taking past the point where it twisted into the woods. There was no chance we’d spot anything that might be lurking deep inside waiting for us, and it was clear enough nothing that happened in there would be visible from the outside.

The fortress’ walls were tall enough that the soldiers on that side could easily monitor the valley entrance where we stood. In other words, they could keep track of who entered the forest and who left it.

But we couldn’t see the fortress’ gate over the tree line from our vantage point. Anyone coming from the Asuran side had a geographical advantage. This really was the perfect place for them to attack us.

“Well… I guess we’re finally back,” Sylphie murmured quietly, bringing her horse to a halt at the entrance to the forest. Luke had stopped as well, along with the carriage. Eris and Ghislaine drew to a halt a moment later.

Ariel’s two attendants disembarked from the driver’s seat of the carriage. Without a word, Sylphie and Luke dismounted. A moment later, the princess herself emerged from inside the carriage, carrying a small bouquet of flowers. 

The five of them walked together toward a stone sitting at the side of the road. It was a perfectly ordinary-looking rock for the most part, but someone had carved an X deep into its surface.

Ariel stepped in front of the group, bent down and placed the flowers on top of the stone, then brought her hands together in the Millis style of prayer.

I knew the princess wasn’t particularly religious. This was the first time I’d ever seen her pray, in fact. Luke and Sylphie weren’t too pious either, though I wasn’t sure about attendants. But they all knew the people buried under that stone. It was the final resting place of all the knights and mages and attendants who’d fallen fighting for Ariel in this forest. They’d been attacked numerous times on their journey to the north, but many had died in an ambush here. And some of those people had probably been believers.

“There’s a much greater risk of ambush here,” said Ariel quietly. “Let’s camp just outside the forest for today, and then push through it in a single day tomorrow.”

With that, Sylphie and the others walked back to their horses, looking much more serious than before.

***

That night, we went over our battle formation one more time. We also reviewed our techniques and skills, and discussed how we should react to various combat situations.

Eris and Ghislaine would be our frontline. Sylphie, quick-witted and versatile, would be supporting them in the mid-field. And I would hang back, trying to position myself so I could monitor the entire battlefield with my Eye of Foresight.

Luke and the two attendants would be focused solely on Ariel’s personal safety. Their gear was solid, but in all honesty, we didn’t want to integrate them into our battle plans. They’d just get in the way on the frontlines with Ghislaine and Eris. Anyway, we wanted someone close to Ariel at all times, in case of any surprise attacks.

Cleane the attendant would be acting as a body double for the princess, with the help of a magical implement that could change her hair color and facial features. This was the reason why both attendants had hair of similar length to Ariel’s. They were a little different in build and height, but there wasn’t much we could do about that. Cleane was closer to Ariel in height, so the role had fallen to her first. If she were killed, Ellemoi would take on the job in her place.

In a sense, Ariel was starting out with two bonus lives. Our goal was to get through this without losing any of them. I didn’t know Cleane or Ellemoi very well, but it would still feel terrible if we failed to protect them.

Tomorrow, we’d proceed on the assumption we were walking straight into a trap.

“We saved a lot of time by teleporting here,” someone objected. “Won’t the assassins be dispatched much later?”

“Minister Darius is a very thorough man,” Ariel replied. “He likely took action the moment he learned of my father’s declining health.”

The real question was what kind of “action” he’d taken. None of us could say for sure. We did know that he’d retained the services of two powerful swordsmen; and it seemed reasonable to expect that the North Emperor Auber Corbett would be the one to attack us here.

I had considered telling everyone about Auber’s style and how to counter it. But if he and Luke were both disciples of the Man-God, that might come back to bite me. It seemed safer to keep my silence… the last thing I needed was to have Auber ready and waiting for my strategy. For this first battle, at least, I needed to handle him by myself. It would require constant vigilance to protect everyone in the party.

Well… Ghislaine could probably take care of herself no matter what. But still.

I had to be on top of my game tomorrow.

The next morning, we set off bright and early in the formation we’d agreed on.

Ghislaine and Eris took the lead on horseback, followed by Sylphie, with whom I was riding with again. I’d wanted to take Eris up on her offer, but I needed to be further back so I could assume my position if necessary. The carriage with Ariel and her attendants was a few lengths behind us, with Luke bringing up the rear on his horse.

As we moved cautiously down the single path through the woods, we approached a sharp curve with poor visibility. There was a mark carved into a small tree just before the bend which looked a bit like a dollar sign.

This was a signal Orsted and I had worked out in advance. It meant there was an ambush waiting for us just ahead. Apparently, I wouldn’t need to resort to faking an attack on my own party.

Gripping my staff tightly, I activated my Eye of Foresight and fed mana to the Zaliff Gauntlet so I could use the stone of absorption in its palm at any time. Poison darts or arrows might come flying from the woods at any moment. They might even hit us with a high-tier offensive spell. With my Eye activated, I’d be capable of responding to either situation.

As it turned out, that wasn’t necessary. Maybe a dozen armored soldiers waited for us around the curve, blocking the road completely.

“Whoa!” 

Eris and Ghislaine drew their horses to a sharp halt, then paused.

“Who are you?!”

The armored soldiers didn’t respond to Ghislaine’s words of challenge. Their full-face helmets hid their expressions completely. One of them had a large, colorful plume on their helm—could that be Auber?

No. It was probably just their captain. Auber was supposed to be much flashier.

The soldiers remained silent, but didn’t move. They clearly had no intention of letting us pass.

“Hop off, Rudy,” Sylphie said quietly.

I got off the horse and backed up closer to the carriage. Sylphie promptly spurred her horse forward, positioning herself between Eris and Ghislaine. “I am Fitz, guardian mage!” she called out, her eyes fixed on the plumed soldier. “Are you aware that this carriage carries Ariel Anemoi Asura, Second Princess of Asura? Who are you, and who do you serve?!”

Wow. That girl can sound really intimidating when she wants to…

The plumed soldier didn’t say a word in a response. Instead, he drew his sword. The rest of the soldiers quickly followed his lead, filling the air with the sound of ringing metal.

In that same moment, many more armored soldiers emerged from the forest on either side of the road. The majority carried swords, but I saw a few with staffs as well.

“We’re under attack!” Sylphie shouted.

I risked a quick glance backward. Luke had already gotten off his horse and assumed his position in the rear, watching our backs. Ellemoi was frozen in the driver’s seat of the carriage, gripping the reins with a tense expression on her face; I could see Cleane inside the carriage itself, disguised as Princess Ariel.

Everyone was in position, in other words. I turned my attention back to the soldiers in front of us.

“Hraaaah!”

“Graah!”

Eris and Ghislaine were already barging into the enemy’s frontline, cutting down the heavily armored soldiers like wheat, their strokes so swift I couldn’t even see them. The enemy had drawn their weapons first, but we’d still gotten the first blow. That was how just fast those two were.

“I’ll take care of the magic!” Sylphie called, countering a spell as it flew in their direction. 

So there were mages some distance behind the main force, although I couldn’t see them from my position. The enemies I could see numbered more than thirty at this point. More were still springing out of the forest, so their actual force was surely larger. But against the likes of Eris and Ghislaine, mere numbers didn’t mean much. They were thinning the enemy’s ranks faster than the enemy could replenish them.

Eris moved quickly and impulsively. Ghislaine followed close behind, covering her blind spots. And Sylphie supported them both with quick, accurate spells. Together, they were cutting efficiently through the entire squad of trained fighters, never giving the enemy a chance to surround them.

I knew all three of them were skilled, of course, but even so I was a bit surprised by how smoothly they were working together. I guess they’d gotten used to working as a team during our expedition to the Library Labyrinth. In any case, they seemed to have the situation under control for now.

“Luke!” I called, shooting another look back toward the carriage. “Are there any enemies coming at us from behind?!”

“None!” came his reply from the rear.

Weird. It’s like they’re inviting us to retreat, huh? Maybe it’s a trap? 

Yeah, I’m thinking trap.

“Should we fall back?!” Luke shouted.

“No, I think we can break through them,” I replied. “Let’s push forward and…”

I turned my attention back to the frontlines, and trailed off mid-sentence. The enemy ranks had parted suddenly, and someone was striding forward through them. 

Eris and Ghislaine stopped dead in their tracks.

The new arrival was… less imposing than I’d expected. He was less than a meter tall, in fact. 

It was a halfling. A halfling in full body armor—polished, shining body armor. His squat little body was gleaming so brightly that I was reminded of a disco ball.

Still, the enemy soldiers looked visibly relieved to see him stepping forward. They clearly had some respect for his skills. Was this little guy a master swordsman? Maybe even Auber himself?

“I am the North King Wi Taa, one of the three blades of the North God! They call me Light and Darkness!”

Do they really, though? Never heard of you.

“I take you for the Black Wolf Ghislaine, madam. I challenge you to a duel!”

With those words, the walking disco ball drew his sword. The thing was made to match his proportions, so it was only around thirty centimeters long. Just like his armor, though, its blade gleamed brilliantly.

I wasn’t sure why he was asking for a one-on-one duel with our strongest single fighter, given that his forces significantly outnumbered us. Maybe he had some kind of trick up his sleeve?

“Hmph,” Ghislaine snorted, pointing her blade at the little swordsman. “Very well then! I am Ghislaine, the Black Wolf of the Sword God Style! Your challenge is accepted!”

This seemed to bring the formalities to an end. Ghislaine squared off against her foe, holding her sword at her waist. 

For everyone else, it felt like time had stopped moving. The enemy soldiers had broken off their advance, and were watching at a distance. Sylphie glanced in my direction, then took a few steps back as well, keeping a watchful eye on the enemy soldiers. The North King’s sudden arrival had turned a chaotic melee into a tense, dramatic stalemate.

It might have stayed that way, too, but Eris apparently hadn’t noticed the change. Now that Ghislaine had the North King occupied, she took the opportunity to charge straight at the passive enemy soldiers.

“Graaah!”

“Wha— Eris?! Wait!”

Startled, Sylphie hurried forward to lend her support. Within seconds, Eris was right back in the thick of a wild battle, with Sylphie covering her back.

Could those two hold out on their own? There were a lot of enemies… but for the moment, they hadn’t even grazed anyone on our side. Yeah. They seemed to have it under control.

I wanted to join in, of course, but I couldn’t risk moving or using any spells right now. For one thing, Eris’ wild charge had opened up a dangerous amount of space between our frontline and the carriage that we needed to protect. And more importantly, Auber hadn’t shown himself yet. I had to stay put until I saw him.

The North Emperor was an expert when it came to surprise attacks. His favorite strategy was to wait until his target was distracted, then pop up behind and cut them down. The concept was extremely simple, but his timing was flawless. He’d come for you in the one brief moment where your mind was elsewhere, or your attention flagged. 

When facing powerful mages, he particularly liked to attack them right after they cast a spell. For that reason, Orsted had firmly warned me not to use any magic in this battle if Auber wasn’t visible—even if my allies were in danger. It was just too risky. As long as I waited patiently enough, Auber would eventually change his target from me to someone else who’d let down their guard. The instant he appeared would be my best chance to take him out.

Because of all this, I really wanted to stay put for now. My most important job at the moment was keeping a careful watch on everything around me.

This was going worse than expected, though. We hadn’t anticipated that a North King would be here as well. If Auber had any other powerful allies waiting in the wings, we might have to risk a retreat.

“Kuh!”

“Haha! What’s the matter, Black Wolf? Not so bold now, are you!”

As it was, Ghislaine wasn’t faring that well against Wi Taa. Her movements were kind of strange, honestly. Whenever she started to attack the halfling swordsman, she’d pause momentarily to look away, and Wi Taa always took advantage of those opportunities. Moving with remarkable speed for such a rotund little man, he would dart right up to her and launch a series of quick thrusts. Ghislaine managed to evade these attacks, but it was forcing her back, and he’d landed a few grazing blows that left her bleeding.

For some reason, Ghislaine couldn’t get on the offensive. I kept seeing her about to swing her sword, only to flinch to the side and let Wi Taa take advantage of the opening. The halfling was doing something to her, but I couldn’t tell what it was from where I stood.

I turned my attention to Wi Taa and watched his movements closely. The little disco ball’s armor was shining so brightly that it was hard to even look at him, honestly. When he wasn’t on the offensive, he seemed to be keeping a set distance from Ghislaine. Every now and then, he’d swing his left hand forward, although he wasn’t holding anything in it. Could he be using some kind of magic?

Just after he moved his left hand, I saw Ghislaine flinch once again. Maybe he was throwing something in her face? Some kind of sand or powder?

No, that didn’t feel right. I was staring right at his hand, and I didn’t see him throwing anything. Sometimes he didn’t even point his hand directly at her. But there was definitely a connection between that movement and the way Ghislaine kept hesitating. 

…Wait, I get it.

He was hitting her with light. He was using that mirror-like gauntlet to deliberately reflect the sun right into Ghislaine’s eyes, dazzling her in the moment she tried to attack.

Talk about a cheap trick. It was surprisingly effective, though. At this rate, Ghislaine might actually lose. I had to decide whether I should intervene. This wasn’t looking good, and if I hesitated now I might lose my chance to help.

Damn it. What do I do?

I didn’t know for sure if Auber was even here. Was I going to watch Ghislaine die because I was too scared of some guy who might be a hundred miles away?

…All right, let’s do it.

Channeling mana into my staff, I formed a combination Earth and Water spell—a loose variation of my go-to spell, Quagmire. 

“Mud Rain!”

Dark clouds covered the sky, and chocolate-colored rain poured down across the battlefield. This was nothing more than muddy water, with no offensive effects whatsoever, but once it hit the ground, it quickly transformed into a soupy morass, throwing off the enemy troops. Within seconds, the armored soldiers were slipping and falling over each other.

Eris and Ghislaine had trained to fight in any conditions, so the mud didn’t affect them much. Sylphie wasn’t bothered either, although her hair quickly took on an unpleasant brown tint.

“Nwhaa?! What is this trickery?!”

But unfortunately for Wi Taa, his beautifully polished armor was now covered in sludge. Which meant its reflective effect had disappeared entirely.

“Graaaah!”

Ghislaine’s roar of challenge echoed through the forest as she whipped her blade forward from the hip. Wi Taa tumbled nimbly to one side, but he was too slow to react, and Ghislaine’s Sword of Light was too fast. There was a loud metallic clang, and Wi Taa fell back with blood spraying violently from his shoulder.

Okay, we’re good. Now back to looking for Auber.

I spun around to check the area behind me…

“Huh?”

“Oh?”

…and the guy was standing right there.

His appearance was eccentric, to say the least. He wore a rainbow coat with loose pants that only reached his knees and carried three swords at his hip. There was a colorful tattoo of a peacock on his cheek, but his gravity-defying satellite-dish hairdo was just as striking. Dirt poured off his drab brown cloak as he pushed his way through the trees; the path he’d made led back to a nearby hole, perfectly positioned outside of Luke’s range of vision. 

The man had been hiding behind us all along. In a hole in the ground.

“…”

His outfit and his approach to combat matched Orsted’s description perfectly. This had to be the North Emperor Auber.

“My goodness, you actually noticed me.”

In the next moment, my Eye of Foresight showed me Auber moving.

He brandishes the sword in his right hand.

“But I’m afraid a mage stands no chance at this distance… Goodbye, my friend!”

He swings his sword down.

Reflexively, I brought my left hand forward. The Zaliff Gauntlet I wore felt all but weightless, but Auber was still going to be faster.

I did have one last card to play, though.

“Fly, my hand!”

“Whoah!”

At my command, the gauntlet launched itself forward with incredible speed. But Auber had sensed the danger and rolled backward at the last moment, just managing to get out of the way. The gauntlet slammed into a tree somewhere far behind him.

Wide-eyed, Auber looked back toward the gauntlet, then back at me. “W-Well, that was certainly peculiar…”

It seemed I’d startled him. That was good, since I wasn’t especially calm myself right now. My heart was pounding fiercely in my chest. I’d known Auber was going to try something. Orsted had warned me in advance. But I’d ignored his advice and landed myself in a mess. I had to hold him off by myself.

My enemy was an Emperor-class swordmaster. Ambushes might be his specialty, but that didn’t mean he was weak in a duel. The one thing I had going for me was that Orsted had also told me how to fight effectively against his style.

Calm down, man. You’re strong. You got this! You’re number one! I’m strong. I’m stro-ong. I’m Stallone. The Italian Stallion!

“So you’re Quagmire Rudeus, eh…”

Whoops. Right, I already have a nickname. And I’m not a boxer, I’m just Rudeus.

For some reason, Auber wasn’t attacking. He was just standing there… and talking to me.

“I’ve heard plenty about you, but I see there’s some truth behind the rumors. This might be something of a challenge.”

Why was he hesitating? I couldn’t counter his attacks unless he went on the offensive. “Where did you hear about me?” 

“Oh, this was back when I was teaching a certain wild beast how to use the sword. The little creature was always going on about how incredible you are.”

Wait, what? This guy knows Eris?

“I knew a man capable of charming that young tiger had to be a peculiar sort, but I never imagined you could actually shoot your hand off like a rocket…”

It sounded like my robot punch had made a big impression. He seemed to be watching me warily, in case I had any other tricks up my sleeve. He seemed to think I was some kind of sideshow. 

I would have been offended, but his cautious attitude suited me just fine. In the corner of my eye, I saw that Ghislaine had chased off Wi Taa, and was heading our way. Once she got over here and made this a two-on-one fight, our odds of victory would go up dramatically.

“Hmm. Eris, Ghislaine, Silent Fitz, and Quagmire Rudeus. I brought along Wi Taa mostly as a precaution, really…but now that I’ve failed to finish you off, this might prove rather challenging.”

Auber paused for a moment, then nodded to himself. Was he finally going to make his move?

“But a worthy challenge is always welcome!”

It sure sounded that way. Fortunately, all I had to do was hold him off for a few seconds; once Ghislaine was here, we could hit him from both sides. And I knew most of the moves he was likely to open with.

I could do this. We could take him out.

“My name is Auber Corbett, the North Emperor!”

Returning the sword in his right hand to its sheath, Auber drew another with his left hand. I channeled mana into my staff, ready to intercept his charge—

“And I shall now… depart! Adieu, my friends!”

At which point he spun around and ran off. Not toward me, but directly back at Ghislaine.

Uh, what? Is he… leaving?

“Auberrrr!”

“Oh my! Hello there, Ghislaine! It seems…”

“Graaaah!”

“…you haven’t changed a whit, my dear.”

Auber grabbed one of many small bags from his coat and tossed it in Ghislaine’s direction. It arced slowly toward her; reflexively, she slashed it apart in mid-air.

The thing exploded into a cloud of what looked like smoke, which then hit her right in the face. This wasn’t good.

“Stone Cannon!”

“Goodness!”

My spell was targeted precisely at Auber’s back, but he dodged it easily without even glancing my way. Ghislaine could have followed up on this opportunity; unfortunately, she was too busy sneezing and wiping the tears from her eyes. He’d apparently hit her with some kind of pepper spray equivalent.

Auber didn’t slow down to attack her, though. Instead, he scuttled past her like a cockroach and sprinted to the frontlines of the battle, where Eris and Sylphie were on the verge of wiping out his forces.

“Retreat!” he called. “Fall back! We’ll have to try this one again!”

The surviving soldiers turned to flee into the forest, and Eris’ head snapped around. She hadn’t noticed Auber until now, but she reacted quickly, leaping in front of Sylphie to meet his charge.

“Graaaah!”

“My blade, be as a flaming torch!”

With this brief incantation, Auber’s sword burst into flame. Sidestepping nimbly past Eris’ attack, he grabbed something from his hip and brought it to his mouth. 

I’d heard about this move from Orsted. And I had time to react.

“Fwoooh!”

“Water Wall!”

Auber spat out all the oil in his mouth at once, igniting it with his burning sword. A stream of flame rushed toward Eris. But just before it could reach her, the fire hit the wall of water I’d summoned up at the last moment, and was instantly extinguished.

Eris didn’t even flinch. She slashed her sword diagonally from a point high above her head, looking to slice through both my wall and the enemy in one stroke.

“Taaah!”

Her sword was too fast to see, but I heard her strike hit home. She’d cut Auber in two; the upper half of him tumbled to the ground.

“We got him!” I yelled happily. But for some reason, Eris just clicked her tongue in irritation.

On second examination, I realized that the thing lying on the ground in front of her wasn’t Auber’s body after all. It was a log. An ordinary wooden log, wrapped in a dirty brown cloak.

I’d been watching the entire thing with my Eye of Foresight active, but I had no idea what I’d just seen.

A moment later, something came flying through the air toward the log.

It was a metal claw tied to a rope. The claw snagged hold of the cloak, then jerked quickly backward, pulling it through the air to fall at the feet of the man who held the rope.

That was Auber, of course. Somehow, he was standing off in the forest wearing a different cloak, this one camouflaged with a layer of grass and flowers.

Instead of fleeing right away, he’d taken the trouble to retrieve his brown cloak. That meant it was valuable to him. Maybe it was a magic item that allowed him to swap places with whatever the other cloak was wrapped around? That would explain the disappearing act…

The guy’s some kind of ninja. You could have warned me about that trick, boss!

“You’ve improved considerably, Mad Dog!” called Auber. “I’ll take my leave for now, but I look forward to our next encounter!”

“Hey! Get back here!”

“Don’t follow him!” said Sylphie, moving to intercept Eris as she tried to charge after Auber. “There are still soldiers in those woods. You can’t run off on your own!”

Eris shot a hopeful glance in my direction; I just shook my head. For a moment she gazed regretfully in the direction Auber had fled, but eventually she sheathed her sword with a grumpy “Hmph.”

With her prey gone for now, Eris came towards me. Sylphie was keeping a careful eye on our surroundings, her rod still in her hand, but it seemed like the enemy had completely disappeared. The only armored soldiers I could see were the ones we’d killed in battle.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. We’d managed to survive their first attack, at least.

That didn’t mean we could relax, of course. Auber could hit us again at any time, especially if we got sloppy. At the very least, we’d have to stay on alert until night fell.

In the aftermath of the battle, we took some time to review the situation.

The enemy squad had been nearly wiped out, and we’d emerged basically unscathed. Ghislaine was sniffling and sneezing for about an hour, but that was the worst of it.

I got a little worried when both healing and detoxification magic didn’t help with her condition, but it improved quickly once we tried washing out her eyes with a water spell. It was surprising how many things “healing” spells couldn’t fix, really. They probably wouldn’t work on pollen allergies, either… although I hadn’t really encountered such things in this world.

Before moving on, we decided to dispose of the bodies of our would-be assassins. I would have just left them where they were, but we were in the middle of a forest—their bodies would turn undead if they stayed out too long. And there was something of a taboo against abandoning corpses, just in general. Our whole party got to work stripping off their armor, dumping anything that looked like a personal possession in a pile, then burning the bodies themselves.

Partway through this process, I noticed that Luke looked distressed. In fact, his face was getting noticeably paler with every passing minute. It wasn’t like he’d never seen a dead body before, though… he seemed to be fixated on the soldiers’ armor, in particular.

“Luke, isn’t this crest… uhm…”

The reason for his reaction became clear soon enough. Among the many soldiers we’d killed, a decent number had a specific crest engraved on their armor. It was the symbol of the Milbotts region, and by extension, of the Asuran lord who controlled it.

Milbotts was a rich territory ruled by one of the four great noble houses of Asura. And apparently, their troops had been dispatched to join the attempt on our lives.

“I can’t believe it,” Luke muttered to no one in particular.

It was all too clear what this meant.

Pilemon Notos Greyrat, the lord of the Milbotts region, had betrayed Princess Ariel.