She stepped forward, her tone colder, sharper.
“Half-measures will not suffice. The ones ruling our land now, the outsiders who usurped our lords, are powerful beyond measure. If your strength is lacking, you’ll only slow us down.”
She’s not wrong. Even if we say we’re here to help, it’d be meaningless if we can’t actually do anything.
But still, if it’s not the Kaizell Empire, then who the hell is it?
It would probably take the Varcia Empire a little more time to stabilize after the recent attack, and the Demon King’s Realm was surely in turmoil as well now that Zephal, the former Demon King and Routier’s father, had returned.
As for the Windberg Kingdom, where we lived… Well, yeah, that place was busy in every sense of the word. Way too busy to be worrying about serious matters like this. The soldiers alone had their hands full dealing with perverts, after all.
Which left only one possibility: an invasion from yet another continent, one different from both the continent Windberg sat on and this eastern land.
Honestly, I didn’t even know how many other continents existed out there. Still, as a possibility, it wasn’t exactly far-fetched.
“I understand your concern,” I said, turning to Tsukikage. “So what would convince you that we’re strong enough to be worth your support?”
“Hm, let me think.” Tsukikage crossed her arms, her expression tightening slightly as she considered it. “Fortunately, the guardian deity has returned. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that you are our allies…”
She fell quiet, eyes lowering as she mulled it over. A moment later, as if something had clicked into place, she looked up again.
“Very well. Let us do this. At present, we are being hunted by agents of various lords who have sworn fealty to that outsider nation. To guard against them, I wish to first test your ability to detect an enemy.”
I see. She wants to test our detection skills.
That made sense. With strong scouting abilities, there’d be no fear of ambushes. If you could spot the enemy early enough, you could even take a wide detour and avoid them altogether.
“So,” Tsukikage continued, already shifting her stance, “I will now conceal myself within that forest over there. I want you to find me.”
“Huh?”
“I am a ninja. Naturally, our enemies have ninjas as well. Attacks from such individuals are the most dangerous of all.” Her gaze sharpened. “If you cannot find me here, then it would only be a matter of time before Lady Muu falls to a surprise strike. That is precisely why this trial is necessary. Do you accept?”
We exchanged glances. No one seemed to have a problem with it. One by one, we nodded.
Tsukikage gave a single, satisfied nod in return, then turned her eyes toward the guardian deity.
“That being the case, I leave Lady Muu in your care for the time being.”
“Of course, I’ll protect her without needing to be asked,” Yaiba said.
He didn’t voice it outright, but his gaze lingered on us with clear unease.
Well, yeah, I couldn’t blame him. Tsukikage was a ninja through and through, exactly as she looked. There was no way she wouldn’t be better at hiding than someone like me.
When it came to detection skills in our group, Origa and Saria were probably the standouts. Origa was an obvious choice, given her past as an assassin. Saria had spent her life in the forest, hunting, tracking, and erasing her presence; she should be well-versed in all of it. Then again, considering how strong she was, maybe she’d never even needed to bother hiding herself. Still, I figured her presence detection had to be solid.
Al had likely picked up similar skills over the course of her adventuring career, so I wasn’t especially worried about her.
The real problem was Zora, Lulune, and me.
I had at least learned one thing. When I went to the underworld, I’d acquired techniques for manipulating life force, originally meant for dealing with evil spirits. Thanks to that, I could sense living beings.
How well that would work against Tsukikage, though, was something I wouldn’t know until this actually started.
Zora, on the other hand, had spent most of her life living inside dungeons. Among this group, she was easily the least accustomed to combat and detection alike. Of course, she had abilities unique to her, so fighting wouldn’t be an issue, but when it came to sensing enemies, she was practically a novice.
And then there was the biggest headache of all: Lulune.
Can she even do detection? I honestly have no idea.
After all, she’d originally just been an ordinary donkey.
And yet, she had now devoured an evil god and become a being whose entire body was “the cosmos itself.” I had no clue where the donkey part had gone.
In battle, she possessed enough raw power to obliterate even powerful monsters with a single kick.
But does that translate into detection abilities?
I can’t even begin to guess.
Without thinking, I glanced her way. Lulune noticed immediately and simply tilted her head, staring back at me with a puzzled look.
Well, whatever. As long as we don’t rely on her.
If the rest of us do our best, that should be enough.
Once I’d more or less organized my thoughts, Tsukikage moved again. To make absolutely sure the captured samurai didn’t escape, she bound them even more thoroughly than before, then rolled them into a spot where they remained firmly within Yaiba’s line of sight.
“Whew, that should do it,” she said with a small exhale. “Now I can step away for a bit without worry.”
“Um, are you sure this is okay?” I asked. “I get that you want to test us, but holding a trial out here like this—”
“There’s no need for concern,” Tsukikage replied calmly. “Aside from the attackers we captured here, there was no one else in the area. In other words, until their side comes to confirm whether we’re dead or alive, we have a little leeway.” She paused briefly. “That said, we don’t have time to drag this out.”
She straightened, her tone sharpening.
“I’ll explain the rules. While Seiichi-dono and the others count to thirty, I will conceal myself somewhere in the nearby forest. As for how far I’ll go… well, I won’t be unreasonably far. I have no intention of moving an absurd distance. If anything were to happen to Muu-sama, it would be unacceptable, so I plan to remain relatively close. If you manage to find me, that will be your victory.”
She nodded once to herself.
“The time limit will be… Roughly one koku should suffice. Find me within that time. Are you ready?”
I looked around at Saria and the others. They nodded, their expressions tightened with focus.
“Good. Then…” Tsukikage drew a breath. “Begin!”
The moment the word left her lips, she moved. In a flash, she dashed toward the forest, and in the blink of an eye, her figure vanished completely.
While that was happening, we used the few seconds we had left before finishing our count to talk things over.
“So… what do we do?” someone muttered. “Think we can actually find her?”
“Hmm… I think we’ll be fine,” Saria said lightly.
“Yeah, I agree with Saria-oneechan,” Origa added with a small nod. “There’s no way she could’ve gone very far in just thirty seconds.”
“But even from here, that forest looks pretty dense,” Al said, narrowing her eyes. “And Tsukikage’s dressed in a way that won’t stand out at all, kind of like Origa. Finding her won’t be easy.”
“T-That’s true,” another voice chimed in. “I can’t feel her presence at all anymore…”
Everyone threw out their thoughts, but nothing really came together into a solid plan. Before we knew it, we’d finished counting to thirty.
“Well, either way,” Al said with a shrug, rolling her shoulders, “guess we’d better start looking. If we don’t pass this test, we can’t even help Yaiba.”
Just as Al was about to head into the forest, something suddenly occurred to me.
Wait. Maybe this could work?
“Huh?” Al said, turning back. “What is it?”
As Al, Saria, Origa, and the others looked at me with puzzled expressions, I quietly turned my gaze downward.
Then, I spoke to the ground beneath our feet.
“Um… Land,” I asked hesitantly. “Can you catch Tsukikage, since she just moved?”
“Hey, Seiichi? What are you doi—”
“Eek!”
Before Al could finish her question to me, a woman’s scream ripped through the air.
I instinctively snapped my gaze in that direction, and there it was. The same rocky tentacle that had swept the samurai aside earlier had wrapped itself around Tsukikage, hoisting her high into the sky.
Then, as if nothing were amiss, the stone tentacle slid smoothly back toward me. When it reached us, it gently lowered Tsukikage onto the ground right in front of us.
“…”
The silence that followed was… painful.