We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
“It’s time to introduce ourselves, me!”
“You humans, for your status…!”
The demon who shouted that died the next moment, pierced through his entire body by several swords.
Facing demons and being outnumbered is a common tactic for the weak, but…
In various parts of the burning city, more than ten people were surrounding and attacking demons who were fleeing within the city, just like the slaves.
Humans cannot distinguish races, but they can be identified by the clothes they wear.
Ragged clothes indicate slaves, while fine fabric clothing signifies demons.
However, it wasn’t just demons identified by their clothing who were being attacked.
Wicked blades were also falling upon people wearing non-luxurious clothes who were fleeing alongside the demons.
“Why!?”
A woman with confusion and despair etched on her face was cut down by a rebel slave.
“We rose up for our freedom. But you are different. If you are allies of the demons, then you are our enemies!”
That’s tyrannical! A man who shouted this was also pierced by a spear from behind.
“Win freedom from the demons!”
“We have gained power!”
“Don’t fear the demons!”
“Now is the time to rise up!!”
The rebelling slaves shouted.
Encouraged by this, people picked up weapons from corpses and the roadside and joined the rebellion.
“Tch, with that happening, we have no choice but to join the rebellion,” Slaton clicked his tongue in anger.
If they didn’t join the rebel army, they would be considered enemies and killed, so the slaves had no choice but to take up arms, even if they didn’t want to.
But that is absolutely wrong!
The rebels, who claimed to liberate slaves, seemed to be ruling people with fear, just like the demons!
They surrounded demons with a large group and attacked. But demons fought back, and many rebel lives were sacrificed.
Nevertheless, more people picked up weapons than those who fell.
Because in every city, town, and village, the slaves overwhelmingly outnumbered the ruling demons.
“If the slaves’ rebellion has expanded to this scale, it’s too distorted,” Listea scowled at the rebel army’s abnormal ideology.
“Anyway, our objective is the rescue of Lord Gordon and the others. Let’s think about the rebel army later.”
“Riss, there’s a mansion with a blue roof over there!”
The flames that dyed the city red engulfed even that mansion with the blue roof.
Flames burst out of the windows, burning the walls and roof.
“Damn it, it’s already completely engulfed in flames!”
I don’t know how many mansions with blue roofs there are on the south side of the city. However, almost all the mansions within sight were engulfed in flames, and some had already burned down to a ruin.
“No, wait! Look deep inside the mansion Eruru mentioned! What is that!?”
“There’s one mansion that doesn’t seem to let the flames get close.”
“That must be the lord’s mansion! Just like with the Baron, they’re probably protecting it with a barrier on the grounds!”
Despite the roaring flames that encased and burned the entire city, one area Slaton found maintained a calm appearance of a mansion and its surrounding garden.
“…But that’s just a matter of time.”
Listea placed her hand on the hilt of her red straight sword.
Slaton also gripped the blue longsword on his back with a stern expression.
“Those rebels are swarming the mansion. It’s only a matter of time before the lord’s mansion falls into the hands of the rebel army.”
What should we do? Slaton looked at his partner, Listea.
Listea drew her red straight sword, her expression resolved!
“Having witnessed the distorted thoughts and atrocities of the rebel army, we cannot unilaterally consider them as humanity’s hope. Therefore, we will do good by rescuing people from the hands of those committing atrocities!!”
“Oh, oh, that’s the spirit!!”
Listea and Slaton made their resolve.
Even though it was a rebellion started by slaves aiming for freedom from demons, they couldn’t honestly agree with it at this moment.
Rather, the rebel army’s actions seemed wrong.
Therefore, they decided to wield their weapons to save the people they promised to save from the hands of the rebel army, who were committing those wrong actions.
“Eruru?”
“Yeah, I can’t condone the rebel army’s actions either.”
Without needing Listea to confirm, my resolve was also firm.
“I’ll take the lead!”
Saying that, I drew my Spirit Current Sword.
“Hmph. Don’t get weak suddenly, alright?”
I joked back to Slaton’s retort, “If I get weak, I’m counting on you!”
Glancing at a strained Listea and Slaton, I focused my consciousness.
I directed my consciousness to the Spirit Current Swords in both hands.
I felt them down to the tips of the sword blades, as if they were extensions of my body.
Clearing my mind, I sensed the Dragon Vein.
The Dragon Vein flowing through the earth flowed powerfully beneath this city as well.
But the flow of the Dragon Vein is not just in the earth.
Like a path of wind, the Dragon Vein also flows through the atmosphere.
I gently placed the blade of my Spirit Current Sword onto the path of the Dragon Vein flowing through the atmosphere.
I swung the Spirit Current Sword softly, as if it were floating.
However, I made sure the blade subtly disturbed the flow of the Dragon Vein.
To put it metaphorically, it was like gently paddling with an oar to row a boat through water.
If I did that, the Spirit Current Sword, which is in harmony with the Dragon Vein, would create waves.
The waves born from the tip of the Spirit Current Sword’s blade initially swayed the flow of the Dragon Vein with the size of ripples.
The ripples, leaving the blade, gradually spread out into larger ripples, eventually turning into waves that spread out.
Listea and Slaton, who still couldn’t sense the Dragon Vein well, intently watched my quiet movements, which were the only stillness in the burning city.
The Dragon Vein waves, invisible to them, passed by Listea and Slaton.
The Dragon Vein waves became large waves.
And they engulfed their surroundings.
“…!”
“What was that!?”
It happened suddenly.
The flames that redly enveloped houses, rubble, roads, and fallen bodies were abruptly extinguished as if hit by a strong gust of wind.
The crowd rushing towards the mansion protected by barrier magic was suddenly swept away from behind by an invisible wave, losing their balance and falling with great force.
And then, the barrier magic covering the mansion was swept away!
“Riss, Slanel, go!”
I shouted.
Listea and Slaton started running without even confirming my condition!
The crowd, suddenly swept away by an incomprehensible power, fell into utter chaos. Into this chaos, Listea and Slaton charged.
After watching them, I took a deep breath.
“…Phew. Did it go well this time?”
This was the second time I had created waves in the Dragon Vein’s flow to confound people and disrupt others’ magic, the first being in the border town.
This time, I carefully placed my Spirit Current Sword on the Dragon Vein’s flow, so I didn’t experience rapid Dragon Energy absorption that would weaken me.
Still, perhaps because I did something I wasn’t used to, my spirit, rather than my body, became exhausted all at once.
“For me, it would be difficult to cross that crowd with just physical ability, so I’ll leave the infiltration of the mansion to Riss and Slanel.”
Listea and Slaton, who went ahead, launched a surprise attack from behind the rebel army.
When Listea applied pressure to the crowd with sorcery, the people who had lost their balance or fallen were pushed down as if being pressed against the ground.
Then Slaton charged in, swinging his longsword fiercely to clear a path.
“Orazzzz! Anyone who doesn’t want to die in a place like this, get out of the way!!”
With Slaton’s brutal demeanor and overwhelming “villainous” presence, the rebel army screamed and fled.
Even though they are the rebel army, they were still slaves. If terrifying figures suddenly attacked from behind, fitting the nonsensical situation, they would be consumed by fear and fall into panic immediately.
Listea and Slaton easily scattered the rebel army and infiltrated the mansion grounds.
It seems they managed to maintain the destruction of the barrier until they entered.
However, if the barrier remains broken like this, the rebel army will also invade the mansion.
Of course, Listea and Slaton know this, and upon entering the mansion grounds, they began to swing their swords to prevent the rebel army from invading.
Listea and Slaton, who possess top-class swordsmanship. Even though there were countless people, they were commoners and former slaves.
They easily defeated the rebel army.
Soon after, the crowd was blocked as if by an invisible wall and could not take even a single step into the mansion grounds.
A barrier magic was cast again.
Listea and Slaton were, of course, inside the barrier.
After confirming that the rebel army could no longer invade due to the barrier, they turned around and entered the mansion.
I watched all of that from a distance.
However, I wasn’t late, nor did Listea and Slaton abandon me.
“…Alright. Well then, shall I do my job?”
The Spirit Current Sword I drew remained sheathed.
I shifted my gaze away from the mansion protected by the barrier and glared at the end of the main street, which had been burning so fiercely earlier.
“Well now, it’s about time you came out, isn’t it? We noticed. That there are those manipulating this rebel army from the shadows!”
As the fiery red glow on the ground disappeared, the moonlit night was quickly dominated by darkness.
But my eyes clearly caught human figures on the dark night road ahead.
“Oh? I thought it was a strange entourage: two individuals with quite a spirited aura for humans, accompanied by a weak-looking brat as a burden. It seems you were the main one?”
A chill ran down my entire body.
This was not an ordinary presence.
A high-ranking demon, and a considerable expert at that.
Where I was staring. From the night’s darkness, a man emerged.
Not exactly huge, but tall and well-built. His thick chest and thick arms and legs were covered in silver shining armor.
He had a stern face, with a deep scar running from his left forehead to his right cheek.
The hair he wore back was like wire, silver, and his young, ambitious eyes were also silver.
A silver-eyed knight, hiding his lively presence with exquisite control of it.
“So, it was indeed the demons pulling the strings behind the slaves’ rebellion.”
With each step the silver-eyed knight took, the sound of his armor echoed.
Perhaps because the roaring flames had disappeared, the metallic sound of armor entered my ears unusually clearly.
The silver-eyed knight, with a murderous intent in his sharp, blade-like eyes, glared at me.
“Behind the rebel army? How dare you, a human, think such a thing? …But,”
The silver-eyed knight drew the straight sword at his waist and raised the shield on his back.
“There are things in this world that are better left unknown. Learn that with your life!!”
The silver-eyed knight shouted.
“Ngh!?”
Immediately after. I felt a bad premonition from my side and instinctively leaped far. The straight sword slashed where I had been standing just moments before, leaving a silver sword trail!
“Wh-wha!? You were in my line of sight just a moment ago?”
In an instant, and without any warning, the silver-eyed knight swung his sword from my side.
I hadn’t been careless or let my guard down.
On the contrary, I had been concentrating, not missing a single move of the silver-eyed knight?
Did he use spatial jump magic like me or the Mimicho Race?
But I didn’t sense any such aura?
Or did he move with incredible speed?
No, if he had that speed, I would have been cut down before I could react.
So… it means…?
While surprised by the silver-eyed knight’s unexpected first strike, I analyzed it.
However, the silver-eyed knight seemed even more surprised and a little perplexed than I was.
“Ridiculous. You dodged my blow? Dodged by luck? No, with that strange swordsmanship you displayed earlier, who exactly are you!?”
It seems the silver-eyed knight had seen what I did earlier, using the Spirit Current Sword to extinguish the surrounding flames and confuse the rebel army. To the perplexed silver-eyed knight, I said, “Then, allow me to introduce myself!”
“I am Eruru! I emerged from a hidden village guided by Lady Shooting Star, and I am a traveler!!”
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