199. Humans And Demons (3)
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“I don’t know······.”
Thud, thud.
Yerina had to run almost at a jog to keep up with Jill’s fast pace, panting heavily.
‘Something’ had happened.
The field where the undead attack was imminent.
The undead army had disappeared from the place where hundreds of peasant soldiers were supposed to buy time.
They had literally disappeared.
Not annihilation or destruction, but obliteration.
By the time the allied forces arrived, the undead army had already been reduced to dust, with not even a trace of magic.
Even the peasant soldiers were unharmed.
Someone had clearly subdued the undead army and left.
No one knew who it was.
It was strange.
The incident had occurred.
Only the results remained, while the process had completely vanished.
“At least tell me the situation! You must have some guesses!”
“That’s······.”
Jill spread her arms wide, blocking Yerina’s path.
She had a slender body that would have been pushed over with a light tap.
But Yerina couldn’t bring herself to do it.
‘I have a guess, but I can’t say it.’
The peasants testified that a white net had filled their vision, and the next moment, the undead army was torn to pieces and rolling on the ground.
When she first heard it, she had no idea what they were talking about.
But when Transylvania said she knew someone who used such swordsmanship, she couldn’t help but be surprised.
Eugene.
The swordsmanship of the man who had passed away long ago.
It was said to be the original secret technique that had given birth to Transylvania’s secret technique, which had inherited the lineage of Dacian swordsmanship.
‘Is it right to give her any more hope?’
It was clearly a trace of Eugene.
But there was still no確実な evidence that it was Eugene.
In this situation, it was not easy to tell Jill that Eugene might still be alive in the present world.
It was easy to say.
But it would not be easy to watch Jill’s reaction afterwards.
A weak girl who would laugh and gain the will to live with a little hope.
And who would cry and think of death with a little despair. That was the reality of Jill, who was known as a strong and steadfast saintess.
She had only held on until now because of the vague hope that she would find Eugene again.
If that hope were to be betrayed again, there was no telling what would happen to Jill.
“You’re treating me like a child again!”
“What······.”
“That look in your eyes is treating me like a child! I’m older than you by age! If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to give you orders as the commander of the allied forces. Tell me what you’ve analyzed right now.”
“Sigh······.”
Maybe it wasn’t like that.
Yerina sighed as she looked at Jill’s trembling pupils.
A girl who laughed and cried with small hopes and despairs.
But perhaps that was why she could be considered steadfast.
She might sway back and forth, but she would never break completely until she was uprooted.
She had been abandoned by Eugene.
She had been loved by Eugene.
She had endured all the suffering of Eugene’s departure. She was not someone to be underestimated, and Yerina had to admit it now.
“The objective fact that has been revealed so far is that the technique that annihilated the undead army is similar to Eugene’s swordsmanship. We don’t know yet if it’s just a similar magic or sorcery, or if it’s really Eugene, or someone else who learned Eugene’s swordsmanship.”
“Eugene······. You’re saying it could be Eugene······?”
Look at that.
Jill was fixated on one thing, as if she had only heard one of the many possibilities.
That’s why I didn’t want to tell you······. Yerina felt a sharp pain in her head.
‘I should contact Mumei first······.’
The most likely suspect at the moment was still Mumei.
She was the girl who had been with Eugene.
At first, she thought she was an ordinary girl, but as time went on, her skills in all fields suddenly improved by leaps and bounds, and in no time at all, she had reached a level that could not be caught up to.
Could she have absorbed and mastered Eugene’s swordsmanship?
It was a slim and absurd possibility.
But she thought it was possible if it was Mumei.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, the magic stone began to flash red.
This was the signal used when the three leaders of the allied forces called a meeting.
Yerina and Jill were both present, so there was only one person left.Julia, the witch.
She had contacted them, saying she needed to meet urgently.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Yerina and Jill nodded at each other and began to retrace their steps.
Their destination was the Allied Forces Command Headquarters located in Hameln.
The two of them arrived at the headquarters in no time, escorted by guards, and continued to descend underground.
In that dark place, where the air itself seemed murky.
The two of them were able to find a woman with disheveled hair waiting for them, with only a single lantern lit.
“Could you please turn on the lights······.”
“I, I’m sorry. I, I should have gone outside······.”
“No, it takes three days to prepare mentally just to go outside.”
“······.”
Julia, who had vomited in the bathroom in secret due to nervousness when she had to go on an emergency sortie during the expedition, was now here.
If they had dragged her outside, they could have met her in a seemingly normal state······.
Even so, she would have been saying ‘I want to go home because I feel sick’ and ‘I’m scared of people’ on the inside, so it was much better to go and see her in person.
Until now, the only person she had opened her heart to was Eugene.
However, after that day, Julia gradually began to show her true self to Jill and Yerina as well.
She had realized that there was no point in hiding anything from those who shared the same thoughts, goals, and pain.
“So what’s the matter? You?”
“You, you’re too close······.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. So what did you call me for?”
Jill ran up to Julia and clung to her.
Julia was taken aback and stepped back a little.
Physically and mentally, she had never seen a creature that could get closer faster than Jill, except for small animals.
“What? What?”
“Ugh······.”
Jill was just curious.
No matter how comfortable Yerina and Jill were with each other, Julia had never called them first to meet her in the past three years, except for urgent matters.
She said she was a friend, but for some reason, she seemed to feel more at ease when there was a distance between them.
For Jill, who could only relieve her loneliness by facing someone and holding their hand, Julia was a type of person she could not understand.
And yet, Julia had called them together.
She wouldn’t have suddenly changed her personality by 180 degrees and called them out to drink.
It was clear that this was the most important of the important matters.
“I, I······. I, I investigated the flow of magic······.”
Julia pulled out a data sheet from a large box and spread it out.
While Jill was running around, applying glue to keep the Allied Forces together and prevent the leadership from splitting up, Julia had not been idle.
She had been tirelessly sending out fleets to patrol and carefully recording the flow of magic and magical power, as well as the weather conditions, and leaving them as data.
No one knows if this data will ever be useful.
It is possible that all the data that could fill a warehouse will turn out to be useless.
However, Julia had been silently in charge of the intelligence agency behind the scenes of the Alliance, just in case it might be needed someday.
And the result of that was now being pushed in front of Jill and Yerina.
“T, this······. I, it’s yesterday’s data······. O, on the coast of Gallia······. T, the concentration of magic suddenly s, skyrocketed, d, do you see······?”
“Yes. I see it. Isn’t it just an occasional anomaly?”
It was not uncommon for abnormal values to be recorded on the data sheet.
There were also cases of natural magic surges.
There were also cases where it was recorded incorrectly due to a defect in the survey equipment.
“I, I checked e, everything. T, the possibility of a magic surge, a, and the possibility of a m, mechanical defect, a, are both l, less than 1 percent······. Y, you can trust it······.”
However, Julia’s information could be completely trusted.
She was a perfectionist who was so meticulous that she could be called a pervert.
She was blind in everyday life, but she was all the more thorough when it came to her work.
“A, and a few hours later······. S, several kilometers away from this point, again······. T, the magic level s, skyrocketed······. N, next is this place······. N, next is that place······.”
Tap, tap.
Julia explained, pointing her finger at the map.
The points were forming a straight line.
And the place where the straight line was heading was······.
“And today······.”
“This place. It’s where the battle with the undead army took place.”
“Y, yes······.”
The battlefield where the undead army was annihilated.
It was the place where the ‘unknown incident’ had occurred.Just before the battle began, the numbers on the datasheet suddenly skyrocketed.
Immediately after the battle, the undead army was annihilated and the magic that spread out caused the numbers to exceed the limits of the sheet and become immeasurable.
“······.”
“······.”
“······.”
Julia, Jill, and Yerina’s eyes met.
There was only silence.
The three looked at each other and realized that they were thinking the same thing.
It was a possibility that they didn’t even want to imagine.
“This is also······.”
“Yes, Net. I, I think the same······.”
“The Great Demon has returned. There is no other being that could land on the Gallia coast, march inland for a day, and scatter this much magic······.”
The return of the Great Demon.
An emergency was declared in the Union.
They had been preparing for a battle with the Great Demon, but now that it had actually appeared, they felt a chill run down their spines.