Chapter 19
Apprentice Mage & Book-Taught Mage (2)
It had happened in Jerpet’s basement.
“Life force from living creatures?”
The Fallen Throne answered.
[Yes. That is the price I ask of you in exchange for the parchment of covenant that shall bind us.]
The Bride of the Black Rose desired the life force remaining within corpses.
[In return, I will remain beside you as your adviser and helper.]
[At times, I will guide your steps as you pursue magic.]
[At times, I will serve as a compass for your choices among other people.]
[And in moments of peril, I will become the lifeline dangling before your eyes.]
A guide for my steps.
The Fallen Throne’s words lingered in Kaspar’s ears.
“But I don’t know how to extract life force from living creatures.”
The Fallen Throne smiled.
[I will do it myself. You need only serve as the causal conduit through which I can touch this world.]
Kaspar recalled what Jerpet had told him.
The absorption of life force was clearly connected to restoration.
The Fallen Throne’s foremost objective must have been to restore herself to her original throne.
After drinking all the spiders’ life force, the Fallen Throne shifted her gaze.
After the spiders came the humans.
She began drawing life force from the mercenaries’ corpses.
The process itself was no different from what she had done to the spiders.
His recollection ending, Kaspar stared at the girl floating in the air. He was relieved that he was the only one who could see her like this.
There had been something chilling about the sight of the girl drinking life force from the spiders’ corpses.
The Fallen Throne longs for restoration...
Mist-like vitality emerged from the dead mercenaries’ chests and empty eye sockets.
The life force rising from the numerous corpses converged into one immense stream and flowed into the Fallen Throne’s body.
The corpses changed visibly as their vitality was taken away.
Their skin lost all color, turning ashen and drying out in an instant. Their muscles shriveled like those of mummies.
As though several decades had passed in mere seconds, the corpses became dolls of dust that looked ready to crumble at the slightest touch.
While inhaling their life force, the Fallen Throne met Kaspar’s eyes.
[...It seems you dislike the fact that I am taking human life force as well.]
Kaspar nodded without avoiding her gaze.
“You’re exactly right. I don’t like it.”
[Why?]
“I’m not sure.”
Kaspar lightly shrugged, as though he did not understand his own feelings either.
[This is merely part of the process of restoring my true essence. They are only corpses. The life force remaining within them would eventually disperse into nature and disappear. What difference does it make if I take it first?]
Despite her words, the Fallen Throne waved her hand.
The life force dispersed like mist.
“Thank you.”
[What a demanding covenant partner you are.]
Naturally, she had not yielded purely out of goodwill.
Kaspar was the causal conduit that allowed her to touch the world.
The parchment of covenant that made it possible could only be maintained through mutual trust and the bond between them.
There was no reason to insist upon something that might shake that foundation.
After all—
She would be given countless other opportunities.
The Fallen Throne looked down at the crown of Kaspar’s head from midair.
For now, she found the unprecedented resistance shown by her covenant partner more interesting than the insignificant vitality of a few humans.
[Your innate emotional distinction between good and evil is fainter than that of most people, yet you feel repulsed by the consumption of human life force.]
She whispered words that would never reach Kaspar as she contemplated him.
Then what standard had produced that aversion?
Was it a remnant of the morality instilled in him after birth?
Was it the tendency of a lonely human to cling obsessively to emotional bonds?
Or was it a mixture of both?
To restore her original throne more swiftly and efficiently—
[...]
The Fallen Throne’s eyes gleamed silently in the air.
She calmly observed him and inferred the principles governing his emotions.
She gathered even the weakest evidence and the faintest possibilities, inserting them all into her calculations.
Only then could she understand him more thoroughly and predict his actions.
Only by adjusting her behavior accordingly could she unconsciously build a tower of trust and connection within his mind.
The mercenaries continued toward Huntingville.
Monsters attacked them from time to time, but none posed a serious threat.
Kaspar took the lead, and the monsters were torn to pieces.
“Waaaaah!”
The mercenaries cheered, while the members of the Aezk Mercenary Company grew prouder by the moment.
“Hahaha! I told you Allen had brought in a truly remarkable talent!”
Ellasen was the most excited of them all.
“Look at that Silver Wolf mage. He was acting so obnoxiously at first, but now he’s completely shriveled up!”
Ellasen deliberately spoke loudly enough for Rude to hear. His face turned red every time.
“Come on, Ellasen. Don’t tease him too much.”
Allen would only intervene after Ellasen had already said everything she wanted to say.
“How could he have known? They had never met before. He only acted that way because he didn’t know Kaspar.”
“Oh, really? Goodness, so that was it! And here I was, completely unaware...!”
Rude’s face turned so red that it looked ready to burst.
The mercenaries walked for another half day.
Eventually, the trees began to thin, and a village appeared ahead.
“We’ve arrived at Huntingville.”
Robens confirmed their location after checking the map.
True to the village’s name, dried animal hides hung everywhere from the entrance onward.
“Finally, a village!”
“I can finally wash! I’m going to soak myself in hot water and... Hehehe.”
“I want food! My stomach’s practically stuck to my spine after eating nothing but jerky!”
The cheering mercenaries rushed forward, only for their steps to slow.
Then they stopped.
The joy gradually drained from their faces, leaving them expressionless.
The village was unnaturally silent.
“There are no sentries.”
Robens growled quietly.
The veterans who understood what that meant drew their swords.
Shing. Shing. Shing.
This was the Eternal Forest, a place inhabited by monsters.
It was impossible for a village here to have no sentries.
“Everyone, be careful. Watch your surroundings.”
The air carried the smell of burning wood and the cloying stench of blood.
Deeper inside, corpses could be seen hanging throughout the village.
The lieutenant remained alert as he reported what he saw.
A gust of wind blew.
Whoosh.
The branches of the surrounding forest swayed.
Creak.
The wooden gate at the village entrance swung open.
The stagnant air trapped inside the village spilled out all at once.
Huntingville was filled with death.
Something unknown had massacred the entire settlement before the mercenaries arrived.
Bodies lay haphazardly across the village square. The doors of every house had been smashed apart, while walls were covered in blood—the traces of desperate resistance.
The corpses lay more densely around the temple’s bell tower.
Had the villagers sought refuge in their faith as their final resort?
“Radiance preserve us...!”
Priest Miley groaned and made the sign of his faith.
Allen and Robens examined the corpses with grim expressions.
“It was an assault.”
Robens nodded.
There were numerous bodies of women and children as well. It proved that the attack had happened too quickly for the heads of the households to evacuate them into the cellars.
The leaders gathered inside the village hall.
Representing Silver Wolf were Robens and his lieutenant. Representing Aezk were Allen and Kaspar.
“Where are Ellasen and Zrek?”
“They’re patrolling the outskirts of the village.”
There were corpses inside the village hall as well.
The strange thing was that an unusual symbol had been branded onto each corpse’s chest.
It consisted of a line wrapped around a cone.
It looked familiar.
Where had Kaspar seen it before?
He remained lost in thought for some time.
“The entire village we were supposed to protect has been massacred.”
Allen folded his arms and spoke calmly.
Robens nodded heavily.
“I have no idea what could have done this.”
Hunters stood with one foot in the realm of warriors.
No ordinary monster would even dare enter their village.
That meant the monster responsible for this attack was anything but ordinary.
“The mercenaries are saying it was the work of a forest spirit.”
Robens sighed at his lieutenant’s report.
That damned legend again.
“It was the Beast Walkers.”
Everyone turned toward the speaker.
It was Priest Miley. The firelight from the hearth gleamed across his plump cheeks.
“The Beast Walkers?”
Allen repeated.
“Yes. Look at that symbol!”
Kaspar, despite sitting the farthest away, reacted first.
The priest’s fat finger pointed toward the symbol on the corpse’s chest—the long line encircling a cone.
“That wicked symbol of evil! A manifestation of heresy! The false idol denounced by scripture!”
“So you’re saying that is the symbol of the Beast Walkers?”
Allen extracted the useful part of the priest’s speech and sought confirmation.
“Yes. I remember it clearly! I learned about it at the Imperial Theological Academy. I remember the symbols of every heretical god on the continent!”
“Then what does that symbol represent?”
“The tribal god worshiped by those Beast Walkers—the Serpent of the Dark Mountain.”
Miley’s face twisted with disgust.
“The Serpent of the Dark Mountain?”
According to Priest Miley, the Beast Walkers worshiped three beast gods:
The Serpent of the Dark Mountain.
The Hyena of the Storm Plains.
The Crow That Brings the Night.
“The Serpent of the Dark Mountain is the most cunning of the three. The Holy See has recently received several academic papers concerning its religion. If you read them, you would be astonished by how meticulously it operates.”
The fire crackled in the hearth.
“The Beast Walkers...”
“There can be no doubt. I guarantee it. These people were sacrifices offered to that abominable god.”
“Could there be another possibility?”
Allen’s and Robens’s eyebrows twitched slightly.
A mere mage had dared question a priest—and about a heretical god, no less.
The two men braced themselves for the priest’s furious rebuke.
“Another possibility? What do you mean, mage of Aezk?”
But no rebuke came.
The priest remained calm.
Power inspired respect.
Having witnessed the magic Kaspar wielded so effortlessly, Miley could not help but respect him.
“I was thinking it might have been another cult that worships the Serpent of the Dark Mountain—or perhaps an order of black druids.”
“An interesting idea, but that possibility does not exist.”
“It doesn’t?”
“Because neither side would gain anything from such an arrangement. The beast gods and their followers desire the destruction of the civilized races and the kingdoms they have built. Even among cultists, what lunatic would sympathize with that? The black druid orders that bring harm to the Empire do not seek the extinction of humanity itself.”
Priest Miley continued.
“The same applies to the beast gods. To them, civilized races are merely creatures to be exterminated, not partners with whom they might converse or bargain. Remember this, mage of Aezk. The beast gods worshiped by the Beast Walkers are not like the gods of the civilized races, who watch over humanity and grant us their grace. All they send us is endless hatred and murderous intent.
“That is why no cultists worship them. Even if such a person existed and somehow made contact with one, their mind would be devoured by its endless hatred and bloodlust, leaving them brain-dead. That is why I can say this with certainty.”
Kaspar left the village hall.
Once it had been determined that the Beast Walkers were responsible, the discussion had shifted largely to military matters. There was little he could contribute by remaining there.
The Serpent of the Dark Mountain...
Priest Miley had claimed that anyone who encountered and communed with those gods would become brain-dead.
Then what was the thing I saw?
It had been far too vivid to dismiss as a mere illusion.
Yet if it had been real, Kaspar had felt neither bloodlust nor malice from that serpent.
Why was my experience so different from what Priest Miley described?
In the village square, the mercenaries had gathered the bodies in the center before scattering into small groups and sharing drinks.
Kaspar’s thoughts were complicated.
He also intended to inspect the spell patterns he had studied earlier that day and see whether they could be refined further.
He was just about to sit on a log at the edge of the square when it happened.
An unexpected sound made him turn his head.
Rude was prostrating himself on the ground before Kaspar like a dog.
“Um... Lord Kaspar.”
Lord Kaspar?