14 14. Yagami Teru Ingway.txt (1/2)

One of the Eight Divine Brilliance (Levatein), the pride of the Empire, is a man named Ingway.

He was a tiger beastman and was said to have mastered a profession known as secrecy.

His current job is to search for clues to a mass demon outbreak.

The designation was not changed when Meena was pointed out as a likely summoning art.

The emperor felt that if the dark summoning art was real, there was no need to inform the enemy that there was a being who knew about it.

Ingway asked many questions from Meena about the dark summoning technique.

Perhaps it was because of the timing of Val's presence in the immediate vicinity, but Meena was polite enough to tell him.

(If you're powerful and capable, you don't need a catalyst or a summoning team, but if you're not, you have either ...... demon bones or a lot of poo.)

They say that mere animal carcasses would be inefficient and would require a huge amount of it.

(Plus, they're more likely to be eaten by someone right away or returned to the soil, making it harder to leave evidence.)

Why demon bones are more likely to return to the soil than those of mere animals is one of the issues that have been studied over the years.

The one thing demons have that animals don't is magical power, but that's not the only explanation, he says.

Ingway, who is not a scholar, stops his thoughts there and enters a forest a short distance away from the place where the ogre was massed.

The path was narrow and the tall weeds were overgrown, perhaps because the place was uninhabited.

An average person with no knowledge or experience would have gotten tired quickly, but for Ingway, it was no different than going on a nicely maintained, flat road.

He's unfazed by the fact that he's dressed in a mere blue shirt and cream-colored pants, an unsuitable outfit for going into the woods.

If anyone had witnessed him, they might have been suspicious of the gap too much.

Ingway didn't screw up in any way that anyone would see him, though.

(Though I guess there's a good chance there aren't any left.)

He thought inwardly.

The Eight Divine Brilliance's people were flying around the Empire, defeating the large army of demons and then preparing for the second wave.

If a catalyst was used that made it easy for traces to disappear, it would be more natural to assume that it had already disappeared.

Still, he had to bet on the chance, or even a one in a hundred million chance.

He was a born and bred Imperialist, and there was nothing but righteous indignation at the presence of a threat to his beloved homeland.

A careful search through the forest reveals a cleverly hidden entrance to an underground passage.

Though he had no torch, he had been trained to operate in total darkness with impunity.

He somehow avoids using magic to create a light source.

(If the matter was over, why not just crush the basement, at least. Are you still using it, or is it an irrelevant third party?)

The tricky part is when the innocents have established a stronghold for some reason.

If they are bandits, they can be destroyed mercilessly, but if they have done nothing wrong, there is nothing you can do.

The best that can be done is to give them a heads up.

(...... Is it possible that this is a trap to lure those like me who continue to investigate? In that sense, maybe I should have come to you.)

It is unfair to demand that adventurers have both highly accurate investigative abilities and outstanding fighting ability.

It was rare for even Yagami Akira to be capable of more than one.

He felt a slight magical power from deep underground and narrowed his eyes.

If he had to describe it, it was at most a hair's breadth of presence, and he firmly sensed what most of them would not notice.

This was not his inherent skill, but rather a category of common sense in Yagamiaki.

Killing the sounds and signs, he gingerly opened the wooden door to find a suspicious little man in a black robe happily standing in front of a yellow giant.

(A yellow-skinned, black one-eyed giant ...... troll?)

Trolls are considered to be a higher level demon than ogres, and they are far more skilled and fast moving than ogres.

''It's done, I've successfully summoned a troll. ...... It's a good thing I've been able to summon a troll. If I can do that, I'll rise through the ranks.