Nothing in the world was easier to handle than a frightened child whose judgment had been clouded after being driven into a corner.
Everyone understood the weight of a life, and anyone who had lost one before trembled at the thought of suffering the same experience again.
Shuran hummed cheerfully as he walked through the mountains.
Visiting Darren’s house had been the right choice.
Although Loeb had apparently left the village, that fact alone made it simple to determine the whereabouts of the Dark Mage.
‘Loeb. Naturally, it must be an assumed name.’
A Dark Mage knew other Dark Mages best. Shuran could see exactly what the man was thinking and what his objective was.
He had also learned what the man looked like.
He was around eighteen years old, with white hair and white eyes.
It was an exceptionally conspicuous appearance for a Dark Mage. Shuran was certain that he would recognize the man the moment he saw him.
Even so, there was only one reason Shuran had ordered Karte to find Letra.
If the Dark Mage named Loeb truly belonged to the police, Shuran believed he would never abandon a human hostage and flee.
“It has been a little over ten hours since Letra left the house. If Loeb had been somewhere far away, she would not have left in such a hurry. The fact that she did means he must have been found nearby.”
A short distance downhill from where Darren had lived was a village called Halaia.
It was the very place where Shuran had been with that woman until recently. The nearest place truly was often the hardest to see.
“There is still time. If Letra knows that he is a Dark Mage, she will undoubtedly have ordered her subordinates to hold him until she arrives.”
Shuran had summoned Karte and sent him ahead to Halaia.
Karte could use Teleportation Magic.
He was also a Mage, so he would be more adept at finding Letra than a Dark Mage would be.
“Do you not agree, Darren?”
Shuran had kept his promise.
He had released all the Dark Magic he had placed on the villagers. However, matters rarely proceeded according to plan.
One needed at least one or two contingency plans to respond gracefully when something unexpected occurred.
“Yes, you are correct, Lord Shuran.”
Darren followed closely behind Shuran and answered in a cold, mechanical voice.
The more advantages one possessed, the better.
Shuran had spared Darren alone on the chance that he might encounter the Dark Mage who came to investigate the incident. Darren had fulfilled Shuran’s expectations perfectly, making him exceptionally commendable.
Genuinely savoring the laughter rising from within him, Shuran disappeared deep into the mountains with Darren.
“Are you serious?”
Just how little did she think of him to make such an offer so readily?
Rud felt more than displeased. He found it downright offensive. He glared sharply at Letra before continuing.
“I appreciate the offer, but I do not understand why you insist on capturing that Dark Mage with me. You know perfectly well that a team could be assembled quickly if you merely requested assistance from the Magic Association.”
“That is true.”
Letra spoke in a serious tone.
“However, only a Dark Mage can find another Dark Mage. To be honest, making a request like this places me at considerable risk as well. Even so, I have the feeling that unless it is you, I will never find the man who killed my older sister.”
“And how do you intend to prove that?”
“Rather than proof, I suppose it would be more accurate to call it intuition. People often say that a woman’s intuition tends to be remarkably accurate.”
A cold chill settled over the food. Letra looked directly into Rud’s eyes as she continued.
“You do not seem to bear a personal grudge against him. Judging from everything we have discussed, I can say that with near certainty. That left me with a question. If that is the case, why is a Dark Mage searching for other Dark Mages? What is your purpose?”
Had the desire to avenge her older sister’s death robbed her of her reason?
Letra’s eyes appeared colder and more composed than ever, yet the emotions raging beneath her words were gradually intensifying.
“I recently heard a rumor that a Dark Mage had joined the police. I did not believe it at first, but what if that Dark Mage is you? Then every piece of the puzzle falls into place.”
Rud’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He had no idea how far the rumor had spread.
Was someone deliberately revealing the information with malicious intent? He would have to deal with the matter before the rumor reached the ears of the general public.
“I am sorry, but I am not that sort of person—”
“W-What is that?!”
“AAAAAH!!”
A sudden commotion erupted outside.
Startled, Rud immediately looked through the window. People were fleeing in every direction as though they had seen a monster.
Rud and Letra exchanged glances and rushed out of the restaurant.
“What…?!”
“What is that?!”
An unbelievable sight unfolded before their widened eyes.
In the middle of a village where the sea was nowhere in sight, a massive wave of murky water was bearing down directly upon Shairin and Didia.
“Girls…!!”
Letra never finished her sentence.
A man with a large hole through his right cheek brought his arm down through the air, and the wave crashed mercilessly over Didia and Shairin.
KRAAAASH!!!!
A heavy roar echoed through the center of the village.
Violent sprays of water burst in every direction, and the wave that struck the streets swept away everything around it in an instant.
A deluge fell beneath the clear sky.
Unable to withstand the water pressure, glass windows shattered noisily.
Even the people working inside the buildings were overwhelmed by the sudden force of the water. They struck their heads against the walls and collapsed.
This was not a real tsunami.
The artificially created magical disaster did not possess enough power to swallow the entire town, but the damage it inflicted was by no means insignificant.
“What does he think he is doing in broad daylight…?”
Rud avoided serious injury by using the Teleportation Magic he had learned from Shedia.
Thanks to Rud, Letra had also escaped to a rooftop without suffering any major injuries. However, the sight of people lying helplessly on the ground, drenched in water, left a heavy knot in her chest.
“Where are Shairin and Didia?”
They had taken a wave more than ten meters tall head-on.
Letra opened her eyes wide and searched for Shairin and Didia, but they were nowhere to be seen. They must have been swept far away.
Step. Step.
The man with the large hole in his right cheek walked calmly along the flooded street as though nothing had happened.
He examined the faces of the unconscious women lying on the ground one by one, apparently searching for someone.
‘A mage who uses water… Wait. Did they not say the man who attacked Darren’s village used water?’
Rud finally understood why the tablecloth had been wet before the rain began. Shuran had used that Elemental Mage to attack the village.
Rud studied the man carefully.
The man wore the uniform of a Magic Association Mage from two hundred years ago. A Droplet-Shaped Badge, the insignia of an Elemental Mage, was even fastened to his collar. However, Rud had no memory of his face.
“Is that another form of Dark Magic?”
Letra suppressed her agitation and asked calmly.
“He certainly appears to be under the effects of Heros. The interesting part is that a corpse cannot normally behave with that degree of intelligence.”
“Then what happened to him?”
“My guess is that his body and soul were separated first. Heros was then cast on his dead brain, after which the captured soul was immediately placed back inside the dead body. That would make it possible to control him in almost the same state he had been in while alive, but it is an extremely difficult procedure. If the timing is delayed by even a single second, the probability of failure rises exponentially.”
A soul had no physical substance.
Even when restrained with magic, there were clear limitations. For that reason, Dark Mages generally preferred creating and using easier substitutes such as the Fake Souls produced by Replica.
“This seems different from what was done to Ritra. What is the difference?”
“He possesses free will.”
The statement alone was chilling. Rud continued speaking as he watched the man’s movements.
“A Fake Soul is precisely what its name suggests: a fake. It is nothing more or less than a mechanical device that makes a dead puppet move. That man possesses free will, which means he can think and act for himself.”
“Then is he not more dangerous than Ritra was?”
“You could say that.”
Heros was Dark Magic that summoned the dead and forced them to fight in the caster’s place.
Just as one could add a different cooking method to the same ingredient to produce a new flavor, Heros allowed a corpse to be customized by layering multiple spells upon it.
“…Can you use it as well?”
“Should we not focus on dealing with that man for now?”
Rud skillfully changed the subject.
“Letra, concentrate on rescuing Didia, Shairin, and the unconscious civilians. I will deal with that man.”
He was certainly dependable.
It would have been wonderful if only he were not a Dark Mage.
After hesitating briefly, Letra appeared to reach a decision and nodded.
“Understood.”
The moment she finished speaking, Rud leaped from the roof of the five-story building without hesitation.
Letra hurriedly looked down, worried that he might have broken his legs. Contrary to her expectations, Rud had landed neatly on the ground.
“Come to think of it, I heard there was Dark Magic capable of tripling a person’s physical abilities.”
Relieved to see him unharmed, Letra immediately began the rescue effort.
‘First, I need to save the people who have collapsed.’
At a time like this, she could not forget her duty as a Mage.
Didia and Shairin would also have asked her to rescue the ordinary civilians before helping them.
A Mage who specialized in Levitation Magic could lift her own body freely.
Letra slowly descended to the ground, gathered the fallen people one after another, and quickly left the area.
The people who had been lying on the ground vanished from sight in an instant. Karte, who had silently watched the entire process, turned his attention toward Rud.
“Are you the one who attacked Darren’s village?”
Rud spoke first.
“A village? Ah, I do not know who Darren is, but I did do something similar recently. More importantly, that woman seems to be using Levitation Magic. Is she Letra?”
“Who knows? You appeared to be searching for a particular woman, so I merely sent her far away.”
“Oh? You are more perceptive than you look. It is almost as though you knew from the beginning that something like this would happen… No, wait.”
Karte stopped speaking and examined Rud’s face closely.
He had failed to recognize him at first, but Rud’s appearance almost perfectly matched that of the white-haired Dark Mage Shuran had been searching for.
‘Were the two of them together?’
What good fortune.
If Karte captured both of them at once, Shuran might release him from the Dark Magic.
Karte assumed a stance and was about to unleash a spell when—
THWACK—BOOOOM!!!!
A heavy explosion battered his eardrums, and Karte’s body flew helplessly backward as though he had been blasted away by a powerful Shockwave.
Rud had closed the distance in an instant, driven his fist into Karte’s temple, and followed the strike with a Shockwave.
“Perhaps that was a little too forceful.”