One month later.Arima was one more time at the library, he was sitting, reading a book. After reading it for five minutes, he closed it with one hand and returned it to the shelf. He stood up and left the library.
In one a month period, Arima spent a lot of his time reading, and in parallel, he would accept some requests. In a brief period of time, he read a least three hundred books on different topics. And the most frightening thing was that he learned perfectly all that he saw. In fact, during this time, Arima greatly enhanced his understanding of magic and created one to help him. He called it "Hardware", befitting of its name, this magic form an artificial memory in his mind, and this magic would allow him to remember anything that he learns or read. Like a second brain which will never forget anything. Thanks to that, Arima was already one of the most knowledgeable people on this continent.
He returned to the Inn he was lodging. When he was still around a hundred meters from it, Arima heard a commotion and hastened his step. He arrived at the Inn. And a group of men was causing a commotion, it was a mercenary group led by a n.o.ble, they were a.s.saulting the owner and her son who were kneeling in front of them.
In the way here, Arima listened to the conversation and already knew what was going on. It seemed that this group had set their eyes on the owner of the place. It was true that she was a beautiful woman, so it"s not really surprising.
They all are like that anyway, that was Arima"s rude opinion.
This kind of thing is not unusual at all. Arima didn"t hear all of it but the group probably blamed something on one of those two and it led to this. It was most likely caused by the small n.o.ble there, he must have hired some mercs and now he acted like some trash.
Arima sighed, the owner helped him a lot in this one-month period, so he couldn"t only look.
"Hey, is it too much to ask you to stop?" Arima approached the group and talked to them when he was around two steps from them.
"What? This is not your business" The man who seemed to be the leader of the mercenaries responded.
Arima sighed one more time, he looked at the group in front of him with half closed, bored eyes "Listen, just get out, and don"t come back…please?" Maybe because he said it in a bad-sounding way, but the merc"s expression darkened dangerously after his words.
"I said it"s not your problem!" He drew his b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword and swung it toward Arima. The latter didn"t know why he suddenly decided to attack him. Maybe he wanted to impose himself like the boss here. Or maybe this is how this type of people act usually.
When the metallic sound of the sword resounded, the other customers of the Inn and the pair of mother-daughter closed their eyes, when they opened them, the sight left them dumbfounded.
Arima was gripping the blade of the sword with three fingers. He one more time sighed.
"Seriously, I even tried to be polite, [Sunt robore] (Power up)" Arima circulated some mana in his hand and the blade snapped in half.
"What?!" The leader exclaimed. The members of his group took a step back after seeing something they couldn"t understand while the n.o.ble who was hiding behind them, cried in fear.
"… I will repeat, get out" Arima said that calmly but a suffocating aura was released. It was so strong that the ground shook a bit and the wind blew. The mercenaries were breaking a sweat while the n.o.ble directly ran to the door and fled. The mercenaries looked at each other and followed him. The leader looked at Arima "I"ll remember that" And also left.
"Is that so, [Umbra falcon, set] (Shadow falcon, set)" Several falcons merged from Arima"s shadow, this time, their feathers were completely black and their eyes glowed with a single, crimson color. They flew out of the Inn by the door just after they were formed. But Arima didn"t even look at the exit and came to talk to the owner and smiled "You"re okay?" He asked.
"Y-Yes, thank you" She gathered herself and answered. She stood up with Arima"s help.
"Hey kid, it"s good now" He patted the son of the owner who was a bit pale.
Arima looked at the mother one more time and said "Don"t mind them and be at peace they won"t come back"
"What do you-" As soon as she wanted to ask. Arima interrupted her.
"Don"t worry about that. Can I ask for dinner though? I"m kinda hungry" He asked her
"Y-yes, wait a bit" She soon ran back inside the staff quarters with her son. When she was out of sight, Arima looked coldly at the people there that were silently eating "You all, don"t tell to anyone what happened here, at least like that you"d be able to redeem yourselves" He said with an emotionless voice. At that moment, his eyes flashed with an unnatural light.
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At this time, the birds sent by Arima already had reached the fleeing group.
"What is that?" A mercenary said after spotting the blackbirds.
"What are you talking about?" The leader looked back and saw the birds. His eyes narrowed, strangely, he felt something ominous about these things.
Right now, the group was in the middle of the street, as they stopped to retrieve the panting n.o.ble that fled first. After all, he was their employer. Suddenly, the blackbirds that were flying twenty meters high, descended at full speed, obviously aiming at the mercenary group.
The leader was quick to react "Take cover!" He said while trying to avoid a bird that aimed at him. He easily dodged but what followed let him perplex. The birds. .h.i.t the ground where their shadows were projected and merged in it like water. The same thing happened to all the mercenaries and the n.o.ble "This… its bad" The leader said that but he didn"t know what just happened and that"s the thing that he was afraid of.
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Back at the Inn, Arima was eating with the mother-son pair when he suddenly chanted "[Vashta Nerada]"
"Mh?" The boy, who heard him, tilted his head in confusion.
"It"s nothing" Arima chewed on his piece of meat "(Now that I think about it. The food is good in this world. And those guys, I don"t think they"re that strong, around C rank, maybe? They should not be able to survive)" He nonchalantly commented in his mind
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At the same time, the n.o.ble screamed
"What"s going on?!" The leader shouted and when he saw what was happening, he gulped. The wrists of the n.o.ble were wrapped in a black ominous smoke. And his hands were freed of flesh, his hands were nothing but bones.
The leader looked around him, his comrades had their legs wrapped in the same smoke and they started to scream in fear. Then he looked down at his own body. The smoke was already at his waist. But he didn"t feel any pain, and still could stand "What the h.e.l.l is that!? Who did we offend?!" He shouted for the last time, his eyes were showing extreme fear and regret. In ten seconds, the black smoke recovered all the members of the group. And then, it disappeared like it was blasting.
Now, one could see what was under. Perfectly white skeletons, the ones of the people dead there, were standing with their clothes still on.
The people who pa.s.sed by in the street were shocked and scared to death, some screamed, and some were running. They couldn"t believe what they just saw. The sight of a dozen men being transformed into skeletons in only a few seconds remain standing nonetheless and fully clothed. They thought it was too frightening to be something of their world.
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The next day. Arima woke up and left his room. When he reached the ground floor, someone talked to him "Good morning, Arima" It was the owner of the Inn
"Ah, h.e.l.lo, Airi" Arima said and walked to her.
"I would like to thank you for yesterday" She bowed.
"Don"t mind you helped me in this month, anyway, I"m leaving the city today, so it was my chance to repay you" Arima smiled
"You"re leaving?" She asked curiously
"Yeah, I"m going to the capital" He said
"I see, if you stay in the capital for a moment then you can go to the Inn owned by my older sister, she is called Aria, the name of the Inn is the "Wing"s nest""
"Sure, thanks, I"ll go there" Arima said goodbye to Airi and left the Inn. He headed straight to the north gate. There, a soldier called to him.
"Are you going to the capital?" He asked
"Yes" Arima answered plainly
He nodded "Fine, I think I need to tell you then. Right now, the country is in a state of emergency. By now, it will not be a surprise if a war with the empire begin"
"What? Why a war so suddenly?" Arima frowned and asked.
The soldier sighed "The King is bedridden apparently. So, the Empire is now seeing a chance to strike the enemy, I suppose. A lot of people there already fled in fear of being attacked. Well, I told you, if you still want to go then it"s your choice" The soldier shrugged
Arima pondered for a few seconds "… I see, thanks for the information, but I"ll still go" He said and pa.s.sed the gate. While walking, Arima was thinking.
("Bedridden, huh? When a king is sick a kingdom has to hide it at all costs. If they don"t do that then it"s like inviting others to attack. A King is a symbol of strength and authority, an ill one is a symbol of weakness. What happened? Did the information leak out? Was it intentional? ... If it is a plot, then I think this kingdom was targeted for a long time. They waited for an occasion to strike and start a war …and when the critical time comes, they will probably attack from the inside and kill the King. But still, why not just kill the king? Maybe the illness was something unexpected for the other side too...") Arima thought, he a.n.a.lyzed the situation quickly.
He stopped walking "Well, [Bestia Equus]" Arima chanted and like before, a sphere of black electricity appeared and began to form an animal. This time it was a horse. A tall and muscled black horse. The newly made horse neighed and rose its front legs. Arima jumped and mounted it. He gripped the mane of the horse and the latter immediately began to race. And what happened at this moment would leave blank most people. When the horse began to move, his figure vanished and left behind a black trail.
As this horse was created with lightning magic as a base, then it"s naturally fast, but also because this horse is created "to be fast" by Arima"s magic. Most magics work like that, magic needs a "meaning" when cast. For example, the strongest magic would be the ones that are based on legends and sorts, the clearer it is in the mind of the caster and also the more talented the latter is, then the magic will then be equally strong.
In numbers, this black horse can run at approximately 110 meters per second. The capital where Arima is heading is 200 kilometers away from Ridia. Arima calculated that he would take half an hour to reach the capital. He pa.s.sed all the cities and villages on the way, and the people capable of seeing the horse were thunderstruck.