Chapter 97 (2/2)
“We’re not going to let a single one into Filsand!”
Zuun!
The foot soldiers point their weapons towards the bands of Small and Large Demons that are now only several tens of meters away.
But at that moment……
Before Baik’s very eyes, a ‘wall’ suddenly appears. The heavy sound was when the ‘wall’ had landed and caused a small ground tremor.
“Wh-, what….. GYAAHHHH!”
“UWAHHH!”
“Sh-, Shadow Demon?!”
As Baik and Bond look up following the wall, what eventually registers in their eyes is the figure of a warrior wearing full armor. In other words, what they had thought to be a ‘wall’ is actually the warrior's leg.
“G-, g-, g-, GIANT?!”
These are three Forest Giants that Margils, from atop his Phantom Horse up in the sky, had created with the [Create Monster] spell.
The giants are lined up in a straight row, standing between Filsand’s main gates and the Shadow Demon remnants. Facing a whole Legion almost 5,000 strong would have been one thing. But now that there is only a handful of stragglers left, Margils had determined that these three would be sufficient to prevent even a single Shadow Demon from reaching Filsand.
“Were these guys also created by tha-...... I mean, Margils…… Margils-sama?!”
“...... I, I guess so……?”
“More like, look what these guys are holding!!”
“Oi, don’t tell me……”
The three giants are all wearing proper armor. But what they have in their hands are not proper weapons.
At the end of a long handle is a countless number of sticks bunched up and tied together…… to get to the point, those are brooms.
“ “......” ”
The giants brace the brooms in their hands in unison as if they were triplets, and begin to sweep.
Of course, it is the Shadow Demons heading their way that are being swept.
“Uwah?!”
“Hii!”
At this point, if the giants’ movements are as dull as their size implies, a few of these persistent Shadow Demon burning with hatred might have actually gotten past and reached Baik and the soldiers.
However, the giants are changing their standing positions with nimble steps, raising turbulent winds strong enough to blow a child off its feet while quickly moving their brooms back and forth.
«That’s exactly the way my mom sweeps the floor…...»
Still on his b.u.t.t, Baik dazedly recalls the figure of his mother, who he hasn’t met much recently.
“Gyaaaahh?!”
“Gyahi!”
But of course, falling on their hindsides is hardly the Shadow Demons’ worry.
Some are being flung tens of meters into the air, some are being grinded to paste between the ground and the broom, some are being skewered by the bristles……
Baik is thinking more and more how lucky he is that the clouds of dust being whipped up is preventing him from seeing most anything.
“Th-, there are giants there too!”
“That side also!”
The soldiers, who have all sunk to the ground, watch on as more and more giants appear.
They can’t tell due to the clouds of dust, but there are now 3 giants positioned on each of the four sides of a square, boxing in the entirety of the Legion.
“What is this even…… am, am I supposed to laugh? I feel like I’m supposed to laugh……”
“I, I guess……”
Several minutes later.
When the 12 giants have fastidiously swept together all the remaining Shadow Demons……
“GyuuOOOoooo!”
What resounds through the sky is not the sound of meteors slicing through air, but the roar of a dragon.
A single gigantic dragon the size of one of those large model sailing vessels that dock at Filsand’s port comes flying in.
“This time it’s a dragon……”
“Seriously, who on earth is Margils-sama? The Demon G.o.d that the barbarians always speak of?”
The Shadow Demons and Shadow Demon remains that have been gathered into a small mountain thanks to the giants are now being incinerated from the dragon’s searing breath.
The scene has already departed from the realm of reality and become legend. Baik and the soldiers are a given, but even the knights are paralyzed and cannot move.
Starting with Baik, every single person present is praying “may the Duke never anger Margils-sama” from the bottom of their hearts.
♥♦♣♠
“...... If this is a dream, I wish to wake up……”
“Do you want to take a dive into the ocean, then?”
One of the newest models of large sailing vessels currently standing by inside the bay waiting to set sail.
The two men standing in that s.h.i.+p’s crow’s nest are whispering to each other in nervous, stiff voices.
One man has a blue sash thrown over his shoulder to indicate that he is a merchant from Shulendal. The other is this s.h.i.+p’s Captain.
The one who had spoken while peering into a telescope that he had purchased from a dwarf at a high price was the merchant.
“I don’t know the full details, but the one riding that horse flying in the sky must be Gio Margils. And the rumors about him calling down meteors and controlling giants and dragons…… are apparently real.”
“I still find it hard to believe…… a single magician performing such outrageous deeds……”
“Even after all the information gathering that we had done, and even after seeing it with my own two eyes, I still think the same way. It’s only natural.”
The man with the sash wipes away his cold sweat and sighs deeply. Actually, him being a merchant is merely a front, and his true ident.i.ty is an intelligence operative in the service of a certain important person of Shulendal.
“I’ve also seen Purgatory Flames fighting in the arena in the capital, but…… different dimension is all I can say.”
“Even the strongest adventurers can’t annihilate an entire Legion after all……”
Even the adventurer party called ‘the strongest’ in Sedia, Cabran of the Purgatory Flames, cannot hold a candle to [Wizard] Gio Margils. This is the conclusion that this operative naturally arrived at.
“Captain, full speed. Cancel all trades planned on the route. Worst case, we might even need to discard all our cargo. Our priority is to return to the capital as fast as we can in order to give our report.”
“...... If we do that, we’ll be deep in the red though.”
Though their job is only a front, the maritime trade route from Filsand that connects Ran Balt, Reind’Dal, and Shulendal generates ma.s.sive profits.
Their journey this time was also planned to bring in not only information, but also revenue.
“Right now, the information we have grasped is the most valuable cargo we have onboard, Captain. This one man who possesses so much power, whether the Kingdom becomes his enemy or his ally…… it would be no joke to say that that choice would literally determine the life or death of Shulendal.”
The Captain swallows after hearing the words of this veteran operative who has survived many a battlefield.
“I am sure that many in the same profession as ours would also be bringing this information home, but…… the only person who would take it seriously is probably only our boss, right? If some other stupid n.o.ble meddles with him and angers him……”
“Ugeh, I can certainly imagine that happening.”
The operative man, through the Captain, has several subordinates lowered in a small boat with orders to continue gathering information on Margils.
He is truly relieved that he didn’t escape Filsand several days ago when word spread about the approaching Legion.
He has been active as an operative for many years, but this is his first time handling information as important as this.
“What happened today might actually move history itself……”
At this moment, this operative is thinking that this is the climax of his career.
It will be much, much later when he realizes that this is merely the harbinger of the climax.
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