Chapter 186 - Episode Thirteen - Live Fogg (3)
“Phew …… I knew I should have done this in the first place.”
…… Eventually, I was riding the large Ortem that I had made up on the spot and heading up the mountain path.
As expected, I can’t make it up the hill after all.
Instead, how does everyone’s stamina can keep up.
It’s a bit embarrassing, but you can’t let your back down.
“Hoh, that’s very convenient, brother. I’m not sure if this is the kind of thing that’s popular in Dinrat Kingdom.”
Augen calls out to me curiously.
This is an opportunity.
“Yes, all sorcerers are using them. It’s not that I’m not particularly strong or anything like that. In Dinrat Kingdom, this is normal.”
“R, right……”
Augen seemed to agree with me and replied.
I used the cultural differences to my advantage and mislead him well.
It seems to be somewhat crisp, but I’m sure it’s just my imagination.
Sophia is now walking with her wand raised and her eyes meditating.
She’s using demon sensing magic.
There are many troublesome demons in this mountain, and it is said that the problem is how to escape without fighting them.
Some of them are so vicious that even the best adventurers are prepared to die in the end if they encounter them.
Sophia seems to be keenly aware of the fact that the lives of five people, including herself, are on her shoulders, and she is meditating with her eyes tightly shut, sweating on her cheeks.
She seems quite nervous.
I’m confident that I can use Ortem to sense it with greater accuracy and ease, but I don’t know anything about the demons around here.
It’s better to leave it to her, who seems to be familiar with it.
…… Well, that is just the cover, and since the example of the fierce solicitation won’t come while her mouth and eyes are occupied, the decision is to let her mind rest in the present.
To be honest, if she comes with that kind of vigor on the already strenuous journey, I might get tired of it and accidentally agree to it.
“Speaking of which, what kind of place was the Live Fogg appeared from? May I see the map?”
I continue to talk to Augen.
We need to find out the inner workings of the Levi Church that is staying in the Pargas Village, and confirm the full extent of the case and the factions.
For that reason, it is important to communicate with Nelgliffe, who is easy to talk to among the entire group, and with those whom Nelgliffe trust.
I need to be proactive in talking to them to sear out any assassins that may be mixed in with them.
“Here it is, here, batten down the hatches. It’s wandering off around here and poof, disappears.”
“Does that mean you’ve lost track of it……?”
“No, Live Fogg…… disappears in a flash. It’s like shooting a moving pea grain with an arrow when you try to kill it from a distance…… but it’s so small and so swift ……”
“Well, …… then how are you going to catch them?”
“When I say disappear, Live Fogg doesn’t travel very far. When it disappears, we’ll split up and search for it thoroughly.”
I see, so Live Fogg has a similar ability to teleportation magic.
Surely that makes sense, even though it’s tricky to catch…… hmm? Isn’t it strange?
“You’re going to search?”
“Right.”
“You’ll find it, won’t you?”
“Right.”
“Isn’t it going to end up getting away again?”
“That’s pretty much how it goes. When he came, we split up and looked for him about 20 times, but…… we couldn’t finally catch him ……”
Ehhhhh……
“There was a time when it was so close. Kamla could have slammed his sword into the Live Fogg’s head if his sword had been a little longer, too. So that guy also borrowed a longer sword from the other guy this time.”
…… If you’re prepared, that kind of pinpoint situation is hard to come by.
Do I have to keep waiting for this to accidentally expose Live Fogg in the vicinity, by any chance?
I’d like to refrain from taking on the challenge in a slightly more straightforward manner.
I can picture the Levi Church seeing Live Fogg and chasing him around all day long, eventually running out of patience, losing him and all of them going back to the Pargas Village in a dejected state.
I could even beautifully imagine Nelgliffe desperately trying to appease the followers.
Huh, I’m starting to think it’s a little cute.
“We took turns chasing them for three days and three nights, but…… it wasn’t working at all. Eventually, we were attacked by a swarm of Ogre sheep…… and we were too exhausted to fight them, so we gave up and ran over here. It was a close call, we almost lost people.”
I-, it was three times more miserable than I thought it would be……
You were that desperate to find it.
Of course, you did. Because it’s the ingredient of the legendary cure.
Maybe I got a little too easily.
It seems to be much more precious and difficult to obtain than I thought.
How could Nelgliffe pass them to me.
If you’re expecting from my magic skills that much, I’d like to answer that, but ……
I just had to get into a searching posture now, I thought, and I looked into the distance.
The trees are marked with ropes and markers to prevent us from getting lost.
The color and shape of the markings seemed to be written on the map, as if they were marks made by the Levi Church.
“Huh…… isn’t the map looking a little strange, somehow? Where are we now?”
It…… feels strange.
I had been following the markings with my eyes, but they were somehow out of place…… or perhaps they were lined up in a different order than what was written down, or ……
“Ahhhh, that is…… uh, …… Huh? I’m sorry, I guess I got totally carried away with the whole conversation. Hey, Kamla…… where are we on the map right now?”
Augen asked as he looked forward, but beyond that, Kamla wasn’t there.
“Huh? Kamla …… is ……”
When I looked to the side, I saw Mea and Kamla talking to each other.
“Hmm hmm, so that’s why Mea-chan left the village. There were some awful places, that’s for sure. It’s tough to run away while being watched, isn’t it? What do you think? When this whole affair is over, why don’t you come down to the Riveras Nation? The Levi Church is based on the motto of not rejecting what comes your way, but rather, it’s based on a mixture of the two. I’m sure they won’t follow you out of the country either.”
Kamla familiarly put her hand around Mea’s shoulder.
Mea was frightened, but somehow twisted her body to try to get a natural distance from Kamla.
When I was being recruited by Sophia, she cut her off easily, but it seems that it’s hard to return it clearly when she’s the one in their sight.
It was kind of irritating to watch.
“Le-, let’s see, …… for now, I’ll have to ask Abel …… ah, Abel …… did you finish your talk?”
Mea looks at me like she needs help.
I get off Ortem and split between them, forcing them apart.
Mea grabs the hem of my clothes and uses me as a shield to get around to a blind spot from Kamla.
“You don’t need to worry about that. It’s like we’ve come all the way to Fage territory for that, and we’re far enough away from each other’s village.”
“Oops…… Oh yeah? Sounds like it was unwanted attention.”
Kamla didn’t seem particularly offended by me butting in, and he was smiling at me.
I took one look at Kamla, then turned back to Mea and whispered into her ear.
“…… Maybe this guy is an assassin from Chloe’s faction. From there, and I think he has a similar vibe to the missionary Ringus. Be careful, the next time you’re approached, don’t worry about it, just call me first, okay?”
“I don’t think he’s that much like him……”
“Sorry, sorry, Am I too overly close? Well, don’t be so tense, because hunting Live Fogg is second only to perseverance in terms of teamwork.”
This guy, he said that he’ll refrain from soliciting…… No, he didn’t say that, I guess.
He did stop Sophia, but that was usually a stop regardless of the solicitation.
…… Or rather, the most important thing is perseverance, after all.
No, I knew that.
“Hey Kamla, you need to focus on the Live Fogg right now. The mountain demons will get us all killed if we let our minds wander.”
“Even Augen, don’t so stiff…… I was just saying that because Mea-chan seemed to be having a hard time with it, so I just said so. Let’s just go ahead and break the ice. There are not so many belligerent demons in this mountain, so there’s nothing to attract their attention as long as you avoid them.”
“Jeez…… that’s good, but where on the map is it now?”
“We’re at…… these symbols right here. We should be getting to that place soon.”
“No, that’s not the point. The symbols don’t match the map.”
“Wha-? Eh…… Huh? Which means……”
Kamla, upset by Augen’s correction, unfolds the map in his hand and moves his face closer to it.
H, hey, hey, …… isn’t this a full-blown lost cause?
“Um, don’t you have a magic direction indicator or something?”
“The distortions in this mountain’s magic field are so bad that it can’t function properly……”
Ah…… I see.
“Hey, Sofia, stop. I think we’re lost.”
Sophia, who was called by Kamla by name, looks back here while opening her eyes.
Her expression is slightly tense.
However, it doesn’t seem to be because they got lost.
“…… I mean, a demon, it seems to have arrived. A big one in its own right.”
“Oh? Seriously…… the timing of this …… Seriously……”
Kamla holds her head up.
“It’s also kind of a back and forth feeling, I’d say …… And even so, it’s strange and …… I can’t firmly say what’s weird about it, but it’s …… strange. I’d say……”
Front and back …… In other words, two of them and a pincer shot, huh?
“At this time when you don’t want to move carelessly ……”
This is the worst.
Being behind us means we can’t take the easy way back the way we came.
Now that we don’t know the way, we’ve been deprived of the safest way out.
Strange.
Even though we were certainly each distracted, I didn’t expect to lose track of our current location so easily……
“Sh*t, what’s up with the markers…… Did the demons trick on it?”
“Anyway, considering the …… worst, this time we have to give up and go down anyway …… I’m sorry for Nelgliffe-sama and the people of Pargas village, but ……”
“Ah, um…… I feel like one of them is far away from the other. However, if they decide to follow him, it might provoke him……”
The trio of Levi Church began to fuss about this and that while looking at the map.
I stretched my neck from the side to look at the map.
Suddenly, an uncomfortable feeling matched in my head.
“Oh …… Somehow, I think I might have figured it out.”
“Re-, really, brother! Thank goodness we can get away with this……”
Augen pats himself on the chest in relief.
I reach for the map and trace my finger down one of the roads.
“Brother, the mark in order of that road is……”
I got to one of the markings before Augen could say it, and then I brought my finger back to where I started tracing it with my finger.
“…… Probably, it skipped from over here to here. This matches the order, and I felt a little uncomfortable in the middle. I don’t know the trick, but …… it’s as if the paths here and here were attached to each other. I’m sure it’s only possible because this mountain has a special magic field, but …… this is a pretty high-level demon.”
This explains why we were suddenly lost and why we were pinned down by the demons.
Perhaps …… it’s one of the demons that are coming for us right now.
But because the paths back and forth were connected, it was probably showing the illusion that there were two of them.
The minute one of them got closer, it makes sense that one of them was retreating.
It was as if we had inadvertently stepped into the demon’s territory.
Even though it’s limited, I’ve only briefly heard of demons that can manipulate space in a fairy tale level story.
However, if the demon’s influence distorted the magic field and as a result affected the mountain’s magic beast ecosystem, giving rise to the Live Fogg, then the main source of the demon should be considered to have that much power.
If it’s just hallucinatory magic, there’s no reason why I can’t notice it, to say the least.
This is something that only a lowly opponent can do, such as using magic to interfere with your mind and not making you aware of this fact.
It makes more sense to think of it as bending space.
“Im-, impossible…… If such a demon exists, why would he take the trouble to aim at us! When I came here, I didn’t even get noticed! If such a belligerent and dangerous fellow is around, there’s bound to be more trouble! “
“We must have… stepped on some kind of taboo, didn’t we? “
Augen and Sophia start to fuss.
“Why are you guys so calm! Hey!”
Kamla yells irritably to me and Mea.
“I, I’m sorry, how can I say this…… Mea is used to it ……”
“The principles of demonic behavior are not something that humans can easily understand. However…… maybe someone has something or someone else that the demon is uncomfortable with. In the meantime, everyone, if there is a cursed magic tool or a suspicious magic tool that you don’t know the source of, please bring it out.”
“I, I see …… but I don’t remember you bringing that weird stuff with you……”
Kamla said and looked back at Augen and Sophia.
They didn’t seem to have any idea what they were doing either.
Suddenly, a Lapides Sword passed through my head.
“Ah……”
It is said that Lapidestatoa is one of the thirteen pillars of the great demon Satan.
The Lapides Sword that was made from its remnants may not be a very pleasant thing in the eyes of the demons.
At any rate, just a strange magic tool is enough to attract the demon.
I felt a cold sweat dripping down my cheek.
“It can’t be helped…… For now, we all have to abandon our bags and try to escape……”
“Le-, let’s just intercept them! We shouldn’t give up before we fight!”
I reversed my opinion and expressed my desire to fight back.
“…… huh?”
“Be-, because…… if you drop your weapons and luggage and run away and are still attacked, you don’t have anything to fight enemies, and if you don’t have your camp ready, you’ll just have to die even if you get away!”
“N, no…… I think that was what brother just suggested……”