Phyllis’ car was surprisingly Japanese-made. From the front, its design looked like something straight out of [Predator] or [Alien].
A Toyota SAI. It was a car whose name I had never even heard of before, but apparently, in terms of where it stood in the lineup—
“Above a Prius, below a Lexus. If we’re talking Gundam, I suppose it’d be like a D○m.”
Huh. Is comparing things to Gundam the trend these days?
And why are you so obsessed with ○oms?
Anyway. I suppose what she meant was that it had better specs than a Z○ Aqua or a G○ Prius, but wasn’t quite on the level of a Gelg○ Lexus.
…At least, that’s what I think she was trying to say.
“I’ve always liked things that occupy that sort of middle ground.”
The witch, who claimed to be several hundred years old, spoke with a distant look in her eyes.
Incidentally, when I used [Appraisal] to peek at Phyllis’ status, her age was…Oh?
Sorry, it looks like someone’s here.
I’ll be right back.
――After that, no one ever saw Yoshito Kirasawa again.
End of Volume Two.
Just kidding.
Well, um… how should I put this?
Phyllis is a young lady who’s only lived for a few hundred years, got it?
The four of us left Matsuki City by car. We drove north for two hours. After passing through several tunnels, the road turned into a winding mountain path.
With nothing but the car’s headlights to guide us, we proceeded slowly—
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Phyllis-san! A little slower! Please, a little slower!”
Shizuku’s scream echoed through the night.
Phyllis was a speed demon. And the fact that she didn’t even realize it made things considerably worse.
“Huh? I read it in a manga, but aren’t Japanese people supposed to drift at full speed on mountain roads like this?”
“YOU BASTARD, FUJIWARA TOFU STOOOOORRRRE!”
Come to think of it, there was that manga a long time ago called [Initial D].
What the hell did the “D” stand for, anyway? If you know, tell me.
Incidentally, neither Mia nor I were affected by this roller-coaster of a ride.
――《Gravity Formula》・《Unmoving One Who Does Not Get Carsick》.
Thanks to a spell from the other world, we were perfectly fine.
“M-Masteeeeer! Please cast that spell on me toooooooooo!”
Sorry, Shizuku. This magic only works on one person at a time.
“Waaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Somehow, I’m starting to feel goooooood!”
That day, Shizuku awakened to a brand-new proclivity. Whoever ended up marrying this girl someday was going to have his hands full in more ways than one.
Eventually, the car emerged into an open area. There, more than ten cars were lined up, parked in neat rows.
“There aren’t even supposed to be any campgrounds around here… How strange.”
Shizuku muttered as she rewrapped the bandages that had come undone thanks to Phyllis’s recklessly aggressive driving.
“Maybe some exorcist tracked down Helbert’s whereabouts.”
“Then let’s hurry, Master. If we don’t get there soon, someone else will steal the credit.”
“Does it really matter?”
What mattered most was making sure Matsuki-san returned safely. If the choice was between engaging in something as foolish as a race for credit and tearing down a mountain pass in a car, I knew which one I’d rather do.
“I wouldn’t mind if you hurried up a little.”
Phyllis grinned, flexing the fingers of her right hand.
“If someone else takes Helbert away, I’ll lose my chance to punish him.”
Whoa. Maybe she was actually a pretty terrifying person.
“…Oniisan, can I talk to you for a second?”
Mia tugged lightly at my sleeve.
She wore an uneasy expression.
“I can’t really explain it, but there’s a really bad feeling here. It’s just like that underground temple from my previous life.”
“The underground temple… You mean the place where I fought the evil god?”
“Yeah. The atmosphere feels the same. You should probably be careful.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
I gently patted Mia on the head as I thought things over.
In the information I had obtained earlier by mind-hacking Herbert, he was planning to activate some kind of summoning formula in a cave farther ahead. I hadn’t been able to find out what sort of entity he intended to summon, but…
Surely not.
Evil god. A being whose name was impossible for humans to pronounce.
I had been certain that I had driven it to the point of complete annihilation in my previous life. But it was a god we were dealing with. With something like that, anything was possible.
It would be wise to stay on my guard.
＊ ＊ ＊
We got out of the car and made our way down the slope. Before long, we arrived at a beautiful mountain stream.
If we followed the river from here, we’d eventually reach the cave where Herbert was—but—
“M-Master, look…!”
Shizuku let out a small, frightened gasp.
She was pointing toward the cave entrance. Several men were lying collapsed there.
“You three stay here. I’ll go on ahead.”
Keeping an eye out for any signs of danger, I approached the men.
Every one of them had suffered severe injuries. There were ten in total. Seven were already dead, while two were barely conscious. The last man was just barely clinging to consciousness, his body riddled with holes.
These weren’t wounds that could have been inflicted by any ordinary weapon. Most likely, they had been caused by magic.
“Who… are you…?”
One of the men spoke to me in a hoarse whisper.
His lung must have been punctured, because blood bubbled from his mouth.
“Don’t talk. I’m going to treat you.”
“What… a child… I dunno what family you’re from, but… get out of here… while you still can. There’s no saving me…”
As if I cared.
Ignoring his protests, I activated my magic.
“――《Time Spell》・《Let thy flesh and blood flow backward through the loop》”
“Y-You damn fool…! I don’t know what kind of magic that is, but you’re obviously just wasting your mana… you idiot… I mean, w-wait, what the hell?! All my wounds are gone! What in the world did you do?!”
The answer? I simply rewound the body’s time. There were all sorts of healing spells out there, but rather than bothering with those, it was faster to alter the body’s information directly.
I used the 《Time Spell》 on the other nine men as well. Fortunately, they had only just died, so even those who had already breathed their last were easily brought back to life.
That said, I didn’t restore them completely like I had the first man.
Well, more accurately, I couldn’t. If I tried to heal them that thoroughly, I’d run out of mana first.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.…”
The man gasped.
Just then—
“Fufufu. That’s my Master for you. Ahem!”
Shizuku approached with an absurdly smug look on her face.
“You’re… one of the Aitori family’s…”
“It’s been a while, Hatoba-sama. I’m Shizuku of the Aitori family.”
Apparently, the two of them knew each other.
“You’re still wearing that ridiculous getup, huh, Aitori?”
“With your fake samurai-drama costume, I’d rather not hear that from you, Hatoba-sama.”
She had a point.
This man named Hatoba looked like he’d walked straight out of a period drama. Imagine a wandering samurai from the Edo period, and you’ve pretty much got the picture. His hair was a messy, unkempt mop tied loosely behind his head, and he sported a scruffy beard. He wore a light-blue jinbaori over his clothes, with wooden geta sandals on his feet.
…Were all exorcists cosplayers or something?
“Goddammit, this is the formal attire that’s been passed down through the Hatoba family for generations—”
“So basically, your ancestors have all been crazy.”
Oi, Shizuku. Take a good look at what you’re wearing too.
The bandages wrapped pointlessly around your right eye, for starters. And that long coat with the Cracked Inverted Cross design. By no stretch of the imagination are you in any position to criticize him.
“Dammit, your family is just as bad, dressing up like some weird Western wannabes. You seriously walk around outside in that thing in broad daylight?”
“Wha—…Say something like that again and it’ll be war, Hyoe Hatoba-sama!”
“OW! Don’t pull out my beard! It’s a man’s soul!”
“It’s just filthy! Get over here and sit down. I’m going to pluck that disgusting chin of yours clean!”
“Stoooop!”
…What the heck is this? Where did all that tension from a moment ago go?
The man looked to be somewhere in his mid-twenties, yet he was arguing with Shizuku like they were on exactly the same level.
Sigh. Why did people have to fight with each other?
Overcome with sorrow, I cleared my throat. Then, for good measure, I used magic to blow up a nearby rock.
“Whoa!?”
“M-Master!?”
The two of them flinched at the sudden explosion.
I spoke.
“Save the bickering for later. For now, could you tell me what happened?”
The man’s name was Hyoe Hatoba. Apparently, he was an exorcist who didn’t belong to any organization and worked independently. He was evidently quite skilled, to the point that the Department of Divinities’ Affairs occasionally requested his assistance.
“It was three days ago, I think. You know the Kaminagi family… There’s a kid from the Aitori family who’s about your age, right?”
“Reona-san, I presume. Kaminagi Reona.”
“Yeah, her. I got a request from this Reona girl. She said the daughter of the Matsuki family had been kidnapped, and asked me to help with the rescue.”
“Oh? Please, go on.”
Shizuku was the one nodding along now.
I deliberately kept quiet, allowing my thoughts to turn over in silence.
Kaminagi. I heard that surname before. If I remembered correctly, my Old Man had a mistress named Makina Kaminagi. Something about her being a practitioner of an ancient sword style used to exorcise demons.
Could this Kaminagi Reona girl be related to her?
Things were starting to smell fishy…
“This Reona girl may be young, but she’s no slouch. She went around gathering all the big-name freelancers she could find and put together a rescue team for Ayano Matsuki.”
“How large was the force?”
“The ten people here were the rear guard, and twenty went inside the cave. …Just so we’re clear, though, the assignments were decided by drawing lots. Had nothing to do with skill.”
Hatoba hurriedly added the last part. He didn’t seem to be lying.
I had secretly used [Appraisal] on him, and his stats were easily above Kijima’s.
“Our job as the rear guard was basically to secure a retreat route. Herbert might’ve called in reinforcements, so we took turns keeping watch around the area.”
Hatoba and the other nine men. Every one of them was a seasoned veteran who had been through their share of battles, and apparently none of them had let their guard down.
But then—
“Before we knew it, someone had already slipped right into our midst. …A mage dressed all in black.”
All in black.
I instinctively glanced at Shizuku.
“Eh!? Eeeeeh!? But I was with Master the whole time!”
“Just kidding.”
“Hmmph!”
Shizuku’s face changed expression every few seconds, and it was rather adorable.
“…I meant to ask earlier, but who exactly are you? You don’t look like Shizuku’s little brother.”
Hatoba turned back toward me.
“You look about three or four years old, but I can tell you’re one hell of a kid. Some family’s secret prodigy? Don’t tell me you’re from the main house of the Ajiro family—”
“Let’s talk about that later… I mean, please. Tell me about the mage first.”
I cut him off.
Remembering that he was older than me, I hastily corrected myself and switched to more polite speech. As for explaining who I actually was… well, I’d think of something eventually.
Hang in there, Future Me.
Although I seem to remember dumping things on Future Me last time ended rather badly…
Eh, must’ve been my imagination. Right. Just imagination.
“Fine. The mage is definitely more important right now.”
According to Hatoba—
The man was dressed entirely in a black robe and wore a mask over his face. Another weirdo.
I couldn’t help feeling exasperated, but I listened carefully to Hatoba’s account.
Apparently, the man could wield all sorts of magic without chanting a single spell, and had wiped out all ten members of the rear guard in less than a minute.
“Pathetic as it is to admit, I don’t know what happened after that. Maybe he went after the others who entered the cave. Maybe he’s still lurking around here. …Either way, he’s the worst opponent I’ve ever encountered.”
As for the other nine men, their stats were comparable to Hatoba’s.
If someone had slaughtered a group like that in mere seconds, then there was no question that the “mage dressed in black” possessed an extraordinary level of power.
This is bad.
I had just been handed a completely unexpected variable. I had extracted Herbert’s memories, and according to what I had seen, he doesn’t have any accomplices. Which meant the “mage dressed in black” might belong to a third faction—neither the exorcists nor Herbert’s side.
――In the end, Mia and Shizuku decided to stay behind and use healing magic on the injured.
The treatment I had given them was only temporary. If left alone, they would eventually slip back toward the brink of death.
I asked Hatoba to protect the two of them, then secretly planted several spells around the area, just in case.
“Be careful, Oniisan.”
“I pray for your safe return, Master.”
“When you get back, I’m gonna make damn sure you tell me exactly who you are.”
With the three of them seeing us off—
“Hehe. I suppose this counts as a date, too.”
—I stepped into the cave alongside Phyllis.
＊ ＊ ＊
We made our way through the cave, surrounded on all sides by sheer rock walls.
“What a strange place. It’s almost like a dungeon from a computer game.”
Phyllis wasn’t wrong.
The tunnel had been carved straight through the rock, giving the whole place an oddly artificial feel.
When had it been made? By whom? And for what purpose?
One thing was certain: it wasn’t Herbert. That man had merely kidnapped Ayano Matsuki and brought her here.
After walking for about five minutes—
“…Yoshito.”
“Yeah.”
We both tensed up again.
The smell of blood had reached us.
“Stay behind me, Phyllis. If things get really bad, run.”
“…Fufu.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just a little happy. It’s been, oh, two thousan—…a few hundred years since someone last treated me like an actual woman.”
Did she almost say two thousand years just now?
…No. Better not pry. My instincts were screaming that this was dangerous.
I stepped in front of Phyllis, shielding her as I continued toward the source of the smell.
We soon entered a somewhat wider chamber. The scene before us was even more grotesque than what we had seen at the cave entrance. Heads. Hands. Legs. Entrails. Human bodies had been torn apart piece by piece and scattered across the cavern. The entire floor was stained crimson.
Shizan Ketsuga—a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.
The phrase had never felt more appropriate. What kind of fierce battle had taken place here?
No. What kind of massacre?
Just imagining it sent a chill down my spine.
“Who… are you…?”
A faint voice reached us.
I looked toward the wall and saw a young girl sitting there, clutching a sword to her chest.
She was dressed in red-and-white shrine maiden robes. Another cosplayer.
Though she was covered head to toe in blood, ruining what was otherwise a perfectly good outfit. The girl shakily rose to her feet and cast her gaze toward us.
“I am Phyllis Iris F. Clacia. I’ve come to beat the stuffing out of my troublesome disciple.”
Phyllis answered before I could even open my mouth.
“And who might you be? I heard there were people who entered ahead of us. Are you the survivor?”
“Yes.”
The girl answered calmly.
“My name is Reona Kaminagi, third daughter of the Kaminagi family. I came here with a group of volunteers to rescue Ayano Matsuki, but.…”
“So you were ambushed here, and you’re the only one who survived. Something like that?”
“…Yes.”
Reona’s normally dignified features were clouded with regret.
Come to think of it, according to Hatoba, she had been the leader of the rescue operation.
“Herbert has placed a guardian farther ahead. …If you don’t mind, would you allow me to accompany you? I want to avenge everyone who died.”
“Hm.”
Phyllis responded with an air of complete indifference.
“I don’t really care either way. What about you, Yoshito?”
“Hmmm….”
I thought about it for a moment.
“The more allies we have, the better. Come help us, Kaminagi.”
“Thank you. I promise I’ll do everything I can to be of use to you both…”
The corners of Reona’s lips curled into a faint smile.
She then came toward us,
“――Although, that’s all a lie.”
“Sorry, but that’s all a lie.”
Two things happened at exactly the same time.
Kaminagi Reona drew her sword with blinding speed, aiming to take Phyllis’s head.
I infused a small stone I had picked up along the way with mana and hurled it at Reona, aiming straight for her heart.
The moment each of us realized what the other was trying to do, we immediately moved to defend ourselves.
Reona leaped backward. I deployed 《Barrier Spell》 around Phyllis.
“You noticed?”
“Of course.”
All I had to do was look at Reona’s clothes.
Though they were drenched in blood, not a single thread of the fabric was torn. Everyone else had been reduced to gruesome corpses, yet her clothes remained completely intact.
It was far too unnatural.
I couldn’t say exactly how she’d done it, but—she had probably used the Herbert incident as bait to gather a group of powerful freelance exorcists, then ambushed them from behind once they were here.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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