It had been three days since the sword from the ruins was wrapped into a coc.o.o.n by the bundle of Nere"s hair. Ardis had situated in Reiten for the time being if something happens to the sword.
During that, the sword only continued to glow red without showing any changes. According to what Marrieda had said about her dreams, it"s imaginable that some kind of change will manifest. But what kind of change isn"t known in the slightest.
In Marrieda"s dreams, there aren"t many details regarding that. Since she cannot control what she sees in her dreams, they can only make do with whatever small pieces of information from her dreams and infer from that.
What she knows from her dreams are only the two facts, 『Nere"s hair is used to calm the sword』 and 『The calming of the sword is successful』.
Of course, Ardis doesn"t have the responsibility to see it through the end. But since that he"s related now as well, it"ll be a lie if he"s not bothered about it. It"s a little unthinkable but, the possibility for something bad to come out of that isn"t nil.
In the end, Ardis who had nothing on hand decided to stay in Reiten for a while. Visiting the Litte every day to check on the sword, then getting welcomed by Rovell"s Kyrill and Mary, then the president, Mary"s father. Any leftover time after that is used to accept beasts subjugation request near Reiten.
Today as well, Ardis went out from Reiten to hunt in the gra.s.slands for a few hours. But, unusually, Ardis is not by himself today, he has three companions with him today.
「Ardis, it"s about time the sun is going down, should we return? 」
Ted who is wiping away the bloodstains on his b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword asked Ardis.
「I guess so. Let"s return after we get this guy"s skin off. 」
Ardis pointed at the corpse of the Ractor that a.s.saulted them with his broad sword.
Even for the members of 『Bright Stars of White Night』, they have decided to stay in Reiten for a while. In the end, it seems like they"ve rejected the offer from Jimberyl Merchant a.s.sociation, and after knowing that Ardis is staying in Reiten as well, they have decided to do so as well, saying 「Then we should do that as well. 」
After finishing dismantling the skin from the Ractor swiftly under twenty minutes, Ardis and the other went on their return trip back to Reiten. While walking down the highway that splits the plains, Ardis talked about the fact that Ted and the others rejecting the offer from Jimberyl.
「Hey, Ted. You all come all the way to the Coalition, but you wouldn"t accept the request? Aren"t the conditions good? 」
「The requestor was smelling funky, frankly I don"t like him. 」
Ted said his reason with a grumpy face.
「You rejected it with that kind of reason? 」
Even if they didn"t have to pay for the travel fees, it still took them ten days to come from Thoria, they still rejected the request despite that. Even toning it down, Ardis can only say that it was a waste of effort.
If the reason was only because that the requestor is fishy, it"s too much of a loss that they have to bear. Ardis said so as a matter of fact but, what replied him was the three faces of utter shock.
「Of all people, you"re the one saying that? 」
「Ahaha. Ardis, you ever heard of something called a 『Boomerang』? 」
「Really, I didn"t want to hear it from Ardis. 」
After all, Ardis was the one who rejected many requests just because he didn"t like the requestor. It can"t be helped that Ted and the others are biting back at him.
「Well, it ain"t that bad to hunt together like before. Fortunately, there"s still a bunch of subjugation request in Reiten. 」
「The fact that there"re piles of subjugation request, doesn"t that mean that there"re many victims of beasts or demonic beings? Isn"t it a little irresponsible to say it"s fortunate? 」
「But Orph.e.l.lia. If you say so, aren"t our existence who lives on subjugation rewards irresponsible? 」
「Geez, no one said something like that! In the first place, that logic doesn"t make sense. That"s too far of a correlation. 」
「Ahaha, you knew? 」
As they continued on the road back to Reiten, there were light exchanges of laughter and jokes.
「Huh? What is that? 」
Suddenly, Norris stopped.
「What"s the matter? There"s a demonic being or something? 」
「No, we"re heading to Reiten right? ……Why is there a sandstorm? 」
「Aaan? 」
Ted followed Norris, putting up his hand to cover his eyes from the sun and narrowed his eyes to peer further.
「……Can"t see anything. Ardis, you see anything? 」
「Don"t be ridiculous. I can"t see anything with this much distance. 」
Even for Ardis, his mana detection only extends to a radius of about five hundred meters. Although it"s really useful in an area dense with buildings or in the forest, it isn"t like it"s much useful when the target is too far out.
「Everyone should see it too if we get a little closer. 」
At Norris"s words, the party picked up their pace on the highway back to Reiten. Eventually, Ardis and the others started seeing the situation in Reiten as well.
「That"s true……, that"s quite a sandstorm. Did some kind of out-of-season wind blew through? 」
The party"s eyes had caught onto the irregularity. As for Norris who has the best eyesight in the party, he reported new information.
「There"re a lot of shadows around Reiten……. Are those people? 」
As they got closer, their figures started to become clearer to the party. The countless shadows surrounding the city wall, and the dusts they raise in their wake, it was the reason why it seemed like a sandstorm manifested near Reiten.
「Oi oi, don"t tell me there"s some kind of war going on? 」
「No way right……」
Ted who frowned as he muttered was met with the skeptical Orph.e.l.lia.
「No, they don"t look like figures of people? More like an army of beasts. There"s some demonic beings mixed in there as well though. 」
「Army of beasts? That? 」
Naturally, Orph.e.l.lia would be surprised. Normally, beasts wouldn"t even form groups, even if they did, ten is probably the max for one group. It"s an unimaginable scene to even see more than a hundred of them to be together.
On the other hand, what"s currently happening in front of their eyes, their numbers are in the thousands at a single glance. On top of that, there were demonic beings mixed among them. There"s no doubt some kind of irregularity is happening.
「Oi! Look there! 」
Ted"s voice beckoned them to look at their side. There were a few 『Gra.s.s Wolves』 running not quite far from them.
It"s about fifty meters of a distance to the party. Normally, it wouldn"t be strange if the wolves headed straight to them and attacked at any time now. But the Gra.s.s Wolves wouldn"t even spare a single glance at them, only running towards Reiten.
「What the heck? 」
Ted muttered at the incomprehensible behavior. The Gra.s.s Wolves ignored people. They wouldn"t come and attack nor run away, it"s like they only had their eyes on Reiten.
「Did something happen in Reiten……? 」
「Dunno, but……. Let"s hasten. 」
The party increased their speed further at Ted"s instructions. As they got closer and closer, they started to see the entire situation clearer.
「The east gate is no good! Let"s circle to the west gate! 」
The walls surrounding Reiten had two entrances, the east and west gates. Even from afar, they could see that the east gate had already been buried by the army of monsters.
There weren"t any beasts heading to the west gate yet but, in their place were people who wanted to flee inside the city, and the soldiers who was at the side of the gate.
「Good! The west gate is still open! 」
Leaving behind the army of beasts, Ardis and the others made haste to the west gate.