Keldric had become certain of something after meeting the demon several times.
“Why did you call me again this time?”
[Your memory seems confused. I have repeatedly told you that I have neither called you nor have the power to do so.]
One of those things was that the cause of these dreams didn’t seem to be the demon.
In fact, he was a little late in realizing it. There was no reason for the demon to keep summoning Keldric.
Besides, for a demon, it didn’t seem to do anything; frankly, it just rolled around in this damp cavity.
[Just now, did you harbor an impudent thought?]
“Must be mistaken.”
However, even a rotten sea bream is still a sea bream; the demon had some power to act like a demon.
Keldric’s sullen gaze turned to the wolf. Having his thoughts read, even a tiny fragment of them, was an unpleasant experience.
The wolf was silent for a while. It simply stood before Keldric, puffing up its glossy black fur and then deflating it several times.
How long did the silence last?
[…You, warrior.]
The wolf opened its mouth. A tongue, peeking out from its long snout, was engulfed in sulfurous flames, and a sour stench assaulted Keldric’s nose.
[Did you find something again this time?]
“Found something? What do you mean?”
[Something like a disc.]
The discs that Jacober and Zamash had possessed. Recalling them, Keldric soon roughly understood what the demon was guessing.
“Could it be that I’m summoned here every time I discover something like that?”
[Premature certainty can easily lead to foolishness, but if there’s no other choice, one must walk even a thorny path.]
In simpler terms, there was no other way to explain these symptoms.
Keldric stroked his chin and thought deeply. Come to think of it, he was always summoned to this demon’s realm when he was connected to the demon in some way.
The first encounter was when he came into contact with the monster summoned by the demon before him, and the second was immediately after discovering Jacober and Zamash’s discs.
When you think about it, the first meeting was a dream he had on the day he entered Spitzenberg.
However, since there was no encounter with the demon at that time, he excluded it.
Looking at it that way, the demon’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
[You have many thoughts, young warrior.]
The demon quietly urged him for an answer. The faint breath that escaped contained hot flames.
Keldric waved away the sparks flying in front of him and answered.
“Yes. Even if what you say is true…”
[Hmm?]
“Why was I summoned now? I haven’t come into contact with anything like that recently.”
Even if the demon’s words were true, there was no reason to be summoned to this place right now.
He kept the disc hidden in his luggage and checked it from time to time, but even if that was the cause, there were times when he didn’t encounter the demon.
If so, it meant that the disc could be a medium, but it wasn’t a panacea that produced gold when Keldric wanted gold, or silver when he wanted silver.
[If not the disc…]
The wolf slowly approached Keldric. Keldric indifferently watched the sight without any tension.
The wolf, which had slowly approached, came close enough for its fur to touch him. A soft, fluffy sensation tickled Keldric’s nape.
[Perhaps, did you meet a foolish apostate again this time?]
“…Ah.”
Keldric, who had been blankly feeling the sensation of the black fur, finally widened his eyes.
Wasn’t the magician of Baron Gottfried’s army wearing the same pattern on his forehead as Jacober or Zamash?
The demon’s words seemed plausible. However, there was no way to explain the phenomenon of being drawn here by something related to the demon.
“That flame mark, what the hell is it?”
Keldric asked, filled with dissatisfaction. He wasn’t comfortable if there was anything he didn’t know.
If he didn’t know, he couldn’t predict, and if he couldn’t predict, he couldn’t cope.
In this case, it was the flame mark, whose power he didn’t know, and which people worshiped it.
Keldric was greatly wary of the destructive explosive power when Zamash self-destructed.
No matter how skilled he was, Keldric would be helpless and die if he was caught in such an explosion.
[They are worshiped by apostates wandering the desert.]
“I don’t understand the meaning of those words.”
[There is no need to think deeply, young warrior.]
The wolf, which had been wagging its tail, slowly circled Keldric’s body.
Soon, when it reappeared behind Keldric, it was in the form of the female warrior he had seen before.
“In any era, and in any place, a people who have lost their faith and are wandering are bound to face a dark truth.”
“…”
“They knew what they shouldn’t have known, and therefore came to worship what they shouldn’t have worshiped…”
The demon in the form of a woman smirked, raising the corner of her lips. Her pearly white teeth, adorned with golden ornaments, sparkled.
“Naturally, they must grab onto the last remaining lifeline, mustn’t they?”
Since they were driven to the edge of a cliff.
The last words the demon muttered lingered like an echo. Keldric clicked his tongue with a troubled expression.
‘What is she talking about?’
It was because he didn’t understand a single word. Even if demons were an incomprehensible bunch, this was too much.
He still didn’t know the identity of the apostates wandering the desert, and he didn’t even have a clue what ‘things that shouldn’t be known’ meant.
Keldric’s head became even more complicated. He came to get rid of one problem, but ended up adding another.
“Can’t you speak in a way that’s easier to understand?”
“Oh, warrior. Don’t you intend to use that wise head of yours?”
“Are you mocking me?”
The demon silently held out a finger. That slender finger slowly approached Keldric’s forehead.
Keldric unconsciously brushed it away with his hand.
A ‘slap!’ echoed through the cavity, followed by the demon’s low laughter, which echoed eerily.
“Heh heh… Your caution is second to none! But I don’t dislike it.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“If it’s difficult to understand with words, it’s right to make you realize it in another way.”
“…If you do anything absurd.”
“That won’t happen, so don’t worry.”
The demon, with a captivating smile, held out her finger again.
Keldric was uneasy, but cautiously placed his forehead on the finger.
A slightly warm temperature touched his forehead, and the moment a sharp fingernail gently scratched his forehead.
“What…”
Something flashed through Keldric’s mind in an instant.
The acrid smell of sulfur, the bright red hellfire, and the city burning within it, and countless people wearing robes.
The desperate screams heard in the burning flames, and the unintelligible words that the robed figures chanted hollowly, still seemed to tickle his ears.
It was only a fleeting moment, but Keldric felt as if he was standing in the middle of the catastrophe, feeling the vividness. In other words, there was a sense of being on the scene.
[Do you understand now?]
When Keldric slowly lifted his eyelids, there was the demon again, transformed back into the form of a wolf.
But even though it asked if he understood now, Keldric hadn’t realized anything in particular.
However, Keldric tried hard to recall a group of people wearing robes.
It was clearly as vivid as if he had experienced it himself, but when he tried to recall it again, it didn’t work well.
But he remembered only one thing.
The robed figures each had a golden, sparkling flame mark.
And that was a pattern that was quite familiar to Keldric.
“That scene…?”
[The ancestor of all peoples was born, four thousand one hundred and sixteen years have passed, and the sun has set one million five hundred and twenty-three thousand four hundred and forty times.]
Flames spewed from the wolf’s snout. The dust in the air that came into contact with it turned into stone powder and fell in droves.
Keldric felt an ominous energy. His breath was gradually being constricted.
[It rained for forty days, wandered all over the land for forty years, and had nothing to eat for forty-one days.]
The demon’s whisper was mixed with impious breaths, as if it were coming from right next to him.
Keldric narrowed his brow at the sticky and unpleasant sensation.
[When the sun and moon set, and even uniqueness falls, the stars prevail, which means that the morning star embraced all peoples. Their number is exactly seventy.]
“….”
[Afterwards, seventy were dispatched, and twelve remained as disciples, but one of them betrayed and foolishly ended up wandering the wilderness for the rest of his life, and the idols of all the lowly he encountered after harming himself gave the fire to burn the people.]
Fire. It flickered once again before Keldric’s eyes.
A fire that would burn everything swallowed the city.
To the accompaniment of the screams heard from there, the robed figures sang a ridiculous song with no rhythm at all.
[Therefore, the apostates follow the fire and wander the desert.]
“Fire…”
[Brave warrior. You are destined to extinguish that fire.]
The uncomfortable tension disappeared in an instant.
Keldric looked at the demon, who had returned to being a docile wolf, with wary eyes.
[Yes, do you understand now?]
“I still don’t understand.”
[……………..]
The demon glared with narrowed eyes. Those eyes gave a silent rebuke.
Feeling awkward for no reason, Keldric scratched the back of his neck.
Even considering the sincerity of explaining it in such detail, he had heard it, but these were words that priests should rather hear.
The demon, exhaling fiery breaths, said bluntly.
[The point is, those apostates were once scholars pursuing the truth.]
“Does that mean… a magic school?”
[Now you’re making some sense. Yes, they revered and united the house of wisdom. In the past, that is.]
“Which school are they from?”
The wolf chuckled without answering. A phlegmy laugh echoed through the cavity.
Immediately afterwards, the smell of sulfur that was felt faded. The demon’s appearance gradually flickered hazily.
Keldric realized that this was a sign that he was about to wake up from the dream.
[Don’t you have a scholar with you?]
“…Alyssa?”
[Wise but consumed by hatred. She will know well. But it would be better not to ask rashly.]
“What does that…”
[You, brave warrior. For now, just remember this one thing.]
The time to defy fate is near.
The words he had heard once before echoed hollowly, and Keldric’s consciousness faded away.
☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩ ☩
The north wind of dawn blows without fail.
When the pure white energy that dwells within it sweeps through the campsite once, the people who were asleep have no choice but to open their eyes.
Keldric was the last of them.
When he woke up from the dream of encountering the demon, the people who had already woken up were roughly tearing bread and stuffing it into their mouths.
Among them, eating warm barley porridge as a side dish was, of course, the privilege of those of high status.
“Sir Keldric. Here, have some food…”
Helga approached with a bowl of barley porridge and bread.
Keldric received it and was about to sit blankly when Alyssa, who had already taken her share of bread, came and sat next to him.
“Sir Keldric. Did you sleep well last night?”
“…”
“Yesterday, um… thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to rest comfortably… Sir Keldric?”
Come to think of it, had Alyssa ever seen that flame mark directly?
At least as far as Keldric knew, she hadn’t.
When Jacober tried to self-destruct, she was out of her mind because of her bladder.
When he killed the magician of Baron Gottfried’s army, she had her face buried in Keldric’s back, so she couldn’t have seen it.
‘She will know well. But it would be better not to ask rashly.’
The demon’s words came to mind. Keldric looked at Alyssa with slightly troubled eyes.
Come to think of it, Alyssa also uses fire.
Alyssa is with Keldric to find a certain mage.
Alyssa is reluctant to talk about that mage.
Alyssa’s family has fallen.
From a general point of view, it would be right to focus on rebuilding the family first.
Alyssa doesn’t do that.
“Sir Keldric. Is something the matter?”
“…No, it’s nothing. Let’s eat.”
Keldric decided to bury his uncertain suspicions for now.
He would probably have to keep riding hard today. He didn’t want to waste his energy unnecessarily.
However, he couldn’t just gloss over it either.
‘Someday…’
Keldric readily promised himself a future discussion. If he couldn’t resolve the nagging feeling right away, it was easier to just forget about it for a while.
After finishing the meal, something foreign carried on the north wind blowing from beyond the mountain range.
Keldric bleakly watched the thing that landed on his palm. It was a cold snowflake.
“We need to hurry more.”
Spring is ending. Summer is approaching.
There is no hot summer in the north, but there are harsh blizzards instead.
It was the time when the rough north wind arrived.
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