Chapter 62: Instigator

There’s a deep forest of Adelheit in the east of the border. The forest is thick with trees and many large trees that you can look up at, and it is said that even neighbors cannot approach this forest because of the presence of poisonous monsters.

「They are defeated, huh… Even though they have reached level 6, the ending is disappointing.」

However, there’s a mysterious man in such a forest. A masked man is staring at the distance at the top of one of the many large trees. The mask hides the upper half of the face and it’s also covered deeply by the hood. In all probability, other people who see him will think that he’s suspicious. Although, no one will think so since there are no other people in this deep forest.

「I expected Nell would defeat either the Goblin Hero or Orc Satan, but I didn’t expect both to be defeated. But, if I can bring back the fact that there are powerful people who are capable of defeating them, that alone is a good result. As expected of the Magic Kingdom Adelheit, a small country that has survived for a long time even though being surrounded by large countries. Well, we can still make countermeasures for one or two strong people. I shall immediately advise my Lord.」

Standing up from a crouched posture, the masked man smiled with satisfaction.

――――Bang!

The moment he looked away when he stood up, a loud explosion rang out from the place where he was looking at.

「What?」

The masked man immediately returned his gaze. The sound came from the place where the orc army was, in other words, the grassland area where the burnt corpses are on. There is a large hole in the ground as if something had exploded there. Perhaps caught up in the phenomenon, the body of the orc satan disappeared without a trace. But, what surprised him more was something different.

「… Where’s Nell Lemure?」

Nell was nowhere to be found. The grassland has a good view and there’s no place to hide. Well, it would be possible to hide if the burnt corpses were piled up, but now she has no reason to do so. Then, where did she go? The masked man looked at the border fort and the place where the goblin army was, but she was not there.

「Hey, peeping is untactful, you know?」

「――!?」

A woman’s voice came from behind. It was a gorgeous, elegant, and clear voice. However, the masked man was horrified by her voice and jumped from tree to tree right away. The woman behind him was Nell Lemure. She’s the strongest knight in the kingdom that should have been far away just a moment ago.

「Ara, you shouldn’t be so surprised when facing a lady, you know? That’s really rude.」

「… Yes, I’m very sorry. I’m not used to having someone standing behind me.」

For the masked man, being able to stand behind him without being noticed is something praiseworthy. Originally, he highly evaluated her ability that she could annihilate the orcs without suffering even a single wound, but now that her ability is evaluated even higher, he’s having a cold sweat running down his cheek.

「Well, whatever. So, where do you belong to? I know that you are probably from a faction that instigated the orcs and goblins, but I’ll ask you just in case.」

「Haha, do you think that I will answer obediently?」

「I’ll let you choose whether to talk before you are turned into charcoal, or to talk after being burned little by little. Which do you prefer?」

Nell’s tone is ladylike, but the content is extremely disturbing. He feels crushed by the heavy pressure that she emitted to the surroundings when she said so. In fact, the scaffolding trees are starting to scream. And yet, she’s making a smile that can make anyone fascinated, so it’s even worse. For her, either choice is fine, but the damage to the person being asked is enormous both physically and mentally.

The masked man sighed, put out the palm of his right hand that’s wearing a white glove, and said this,

「Let me refuse bot――」

――――He was interrupted. He heard a strange sound like a mixture of the sound of an explosion and the sound of a blade slicing through the air. Looking at his right hand, which is the source of that sound, he had lost his hand from the wrist. It seems that the wound was bisected by something sharp, it was cut neatly. However, there’s no bleeding. The wound was scorched as if it was burned by fire.

「!?」

「I see, you chose to talk after being tormented, huh? I’ve taken a liking to your guts.」

Nell approached in the blink of an eye and pulled out a longsword that’s dyed red from the scabbard on her waist. Rather than ‘slash’, it may be correct to call it ‘burn and melt’. That sword is clearly a kind of magic sword.

The masked man used a certain magic to get out of this crisis situation. As compensation for chanting it, he was cut between the elbow and wrist of his right arm, but he succeeded his magic somehow. The man disappeared in front of Nell and then appeared on a large tree away from her.

「…… Teleportation magic. I was wondering why your presence is a little off, so you have something troublesome, huh…」

「I’ll take it as a compliment, thank you. Unfortunately, I’m going to decline both of your suggestions. However, I will at least introduce myself. My name is Dinbellar, I’m a confidant of Demon King-sama who lives on this continent. I’m sure we will be facing each other in the near future, so I’ll leave this for another time. Goodbye.」

「Do you think I will let you escape?」

The moment Nell was approaching him, the masked man, Dinbellar’s vision was distorted. It was the phenomenon that happens when you move with teleportation magic. The next thing that spread before him was a different scene from a different place. It wasn’t in the deep green forest, but in a hut-like building.

「… Hmm? Indoor?」

A question arose in Dinbellar’s mind. After all, his destination wasn’t indoor. He hurriedly looked around the unfamiliar hut, and then he saw a man in a black robe reading a book by the window. The man seemed to aware of Dinbellar existence, he closed the book without losing his composure.

「Oh, so you really did use teleportation magic, huh? Sorry, but I forcibly made your destination here. Looking at that wound, it seems that you met Nell first.」

「What, did you say…?」

The man saw through Dinbellar’s power and he even guessed accurately the situation that had just occurred. When he looked closely, the man was the person behind the girl who was fighting the goblins. Realizing that he’s Nell’s friend, Dinbellar instantly imagines the worst case in his mind. Moreover, he heard a sound of an explosion again at a considerable distance.

――――Creak.

Nell Lemure appears before the door of the hut that was opened. Looking at Dinbellar, no, at the man in the black robe, Nell made a sullen look.

「It was Deris, huh? I thought that he called his friend since the presence was increased.」

「Thank God for the good luck that the whole hut wasn’t blown away. No, I believed you, Honey. That’s why don’t pull out that sword.」

「Good grief… you pulled the magic power and forced him to move here, didn’t you? Even if you didn’t do that, I could catch up with this guy’s maximum teleportation distance in one shot, you know? There’s no problem as long as I can track his presence.」

「I feel sorry for the soldiers who will do the cleaning up afterward if you leave a big hole here and there…」

For some reason, the two began to have a love quarrel (?). They are disagreeing with each other without minding Dinbellar.

(It’s my chance…)

When Dinbellar activated the teleportation magic―― nothing happened.

「What…!?」

「Hmm? Oh, you can’t use that. As long as you don’t exceed my magic power, you can only move to this place.」