"We're off . "
As I'm about to open the door leading outside .
The knight commander called out to me .
"Please take this . "
He handed over a piece of paper .
"And this is?"
"His majesty the king ordered me to pa.s.s that to Mathias . . . Make use of it well, he said . "
The top of the paper was written with 『Nomination of Plenipotentiary Commander in States of Emergency』 .
. . . The doc.u.ment states that collateral damage caused during a state of emergency shall not be condemned, and the country will cover for the damage . . . or so written on it .
It also gives one full authority over local knights .
We had done similar actions before . . . but having a doc.u.ment that clears it up helps .
Frankly, there is no way to avoid collateral damage if we fight inside a town, and there are ways to utilize the knights in such cases .
Advertis.e.m.e.ntFor example, it was the knights who helped evacuation during the fight between Second Academy and demons in the capital back then .
If they didn't fully blockade the districts where the battle occurred, it could have gone in a completely different direction .
"Give my thanks to the king . "
"I shall . "
We left the capital afterward .
Our destination is the town where Zadokilgias was revived--Boseil .
"For the time being . . . Doesn't look like there's that kind of mana here . " "Yeah . Just as expected . " We went inside town of Boseil while talking . We had already antic.i.p.ated that there would be no trace of demonic mana here . Plan it out carefully and meticulously . . . then go fight once all of winning conditions have been met, that's how Zadokilgias fights . Were . . . Zadokilgias to readily show itself up, you should consider it a trap or a part of scheme . "Have you girls memorized the plan yet?" "Of course!" "Perfectly!" "Yes! . . . Even though it's been so long since I used that . . . I'll give it my all!" We were having a conversation under the effect of soundproof magic while walking in the town . The town is rather lifeless . " . . . This town was famous for its good food, wasn't it?" "That's what I heard, but . . . Uun . . . " I see a lot of restaurants in the town indeed . "The yield rate must really have been padded to levy heavy tax . " There were many stores that didn't have a guest or downright closed . They must be expensive . . . Or rather, none of the populace could afford stores that sell things at normal prices . We kept walking in town while thinking that . It's not like someone has died in the town either . . . . We couldn't find anything suspicious in the lord's mansion either . "Uun . . . I can't find it anywhere . . . " "Yes, absolutely nothing came up . . . Maybe the demon's gone to another town already?" "Nope, this fits just right . The fact that there is no trace of its mana or any kind of hint toward it actions is all but expected . " Indeed, the possibility of Zadokilgias leaving for another town is not nil . Zadokilgias must have foreseen a subjugation unit that excels at killing demons being sent here after it scattered its mana all over the place right after it was awakened .
◇
Two hours later .
We arrived at Boseil after as we came up with a plan along the way .
I don't sense demonic mana anywhere as of yet .
Zadokilgias isn't a type of demon who would resort to a direct confrontation right away .
In a way, it's the exact opposite of our strategy against demons .
Zadokilgias will hide itself until everything is set .
Since this demon hasn't done so . . . it must be not finished yet with preparations .
Conveniently for us .
It's like . . . Everyone seems to be starving .
Food lined up on stalls are mostly those that are cheap but filling, like raw monster meat and grain .
But most of them are closed .
Stores oriented for adventurers and cheap things seem to be flouris.h.i.+ng . . . But stores that offer intricate food have mostly gone out of business .
Business being bad is one thing . . . But this is just a whole other level of bad .
To the point that the town ruled by someone under demon's control was doing better than this .
But we couldn't find any trace of demonic mana .
Business may be doing bad . . . but the town itself looks to be free of incident .
We didn't catch a sight of the lord himself . . . but there were no suspicious s.p.a.ces or anything in the mansion like it was at Gravy Woods .
Doing so by flying would make it obvious . . . but we wouldn't have any way to detect it if the demon just walked away while pretending to be a human .
If a demon as skilled as Zadokilgias was serious in trying to hide its mana, there's almost no way to discern it .
Zadokilgias would most likely win against such a unit . . . But its tendency to not pick the easy way to engage in combat is a bothersome quality of this demon .
