Zesta cracked the whip, and the carriage set off at a breakneck pace. The Demon King’s castle was supposedly less than half a day’s ride from the village.
I was sort of surprised a village so close to the castle had managed not to get itself destroyed, but apparently there were a few reasons for that. For one, the Demon King’s lackeys didn’t eat food; they fed on spiritual energy and vibes. And the village doubled as a source of sustenance for them. They never sucked out enough spiritual energy to kill anyone, so the villagers quietly went along with it.
The village had been built in hopes of forging connections with the Demon King’s forces. Surprisingly, even within his army, there were those who wanted to talk. A lot like how on Earth, even countries that are at war want to have a diplomatic pipeline to each other for when push really comes to shove.
I’d assumed this place was trapped in a tragic, pay-for-blood-with-blood cycle of violence, but it turned out connections could pop up when they really mattered. Could it be that the Demon King’s army wasn’t just a bunch of lawless villains?
✦ ✦ ✦
I didn’t know how much time had passed, but while I was busy thinking about the Demon King’s army, the carriage started to slow down, and then it came to a halt.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We have a problem. The horses are terrified. The castle must be close,” Zesta replied. I looked at the horses, which had stopped dead and were refusing to go any farther, obviously frightened of something. Well, this was no good. Aqua and the others had probably come by carriage, too, so we weren’t going to catch up with them on foot…
Then I felt Megumin tug on my sleeve; she pointed silently.
“Is that their carriage?”
A carriage sat right out there. Maybe the one Mitsurugi and the others had taken or maybe someone else’s. In any case, the horses appeared to have been released. If the carriage did belong to Mitsurugi, they’d probably let the horses go, on the assumption that they would all be able to Teleport back home with Yunyun.
“They must be close,” I said. “Okay, we’ll go on foot, too. If I know Aqua, when she actually sees the castle, she’ll be too frightened to do anything and end up just moping around. Thanks for your help, Gramps. This is far enough. You turn around. We’ll take it from here.”
“Hmm? I daresay having me with you could turn out to be helpful, no? Besides, I’m quite disappointed not to get to join in something as delightful as invading the Demon King’s home base.”
Well, no question he’d proven himself useful, but…
“If worse comes to worst, the rest of us can get out of here with Teleport. But that spell can only transport up to four people at a time. We might be able to link up with Yunyun, but her party already has five people. Combined with the three of us, that means we can get away in exactly two Teleports. Yunyun and I use our spells at the same time and poof, we’re gone. But hey… If you don’t mind being left behind in an emergency…”
“I await good tidings of your quest in Arcanletia! I’ll be going, then!”
We grinned a little as we got down from the carriage. I grabbed the luggage from the luggage rack and pulled it onto my back; then I made sure everyone was with me before I shook Zesta’s hand. “All right, Gramps. Try to cut down on the harassment, mm’kay?”
“But then I would lose eighty percent of my reason for living. In any event, hold on just a moment, everyone.” From the driver’s seat, Zesta stretched out his hands toward us. “Power Up! Protection! And…Blessing!”
He cast a series of buffs on us. Strength enhancers and defense boosters. That last Blessing spell was probably just for good measure.
“Very well, everyone, I pray for your success. Or should I say…may Lady Aqua’s blessings go with you!” Then he smiled with genuine kindness, the first time I’d seen him look like a real cleric, before he set the horses galloping off again.
Aqua’s blessings, huh? That was nice and all, but we were about to go rescue the goddess herself. I waved as the carriage disappeared with the old guy I somehow couldn’t bring myself to hate.
“…Huh?! I just checked my luggage, and I’m missing a pair of panties!” Megumin exclaimed.
“What?! Hey, me too!” Darkness cried.
They’d been going through their belongings, looking for anything they could jettison to make their loads even a little bit lighter as we went after Aqua, when they’d made the discoveries.
…Maybe we really should destroy the Axis Church.
✦ ✦ ✦
Perhaps it was the buffs that made my step feel so light. As I all but pranced down the road after Aqua, loaded with baggage, we ran into a series of monsters.
Already-defeated monsters, that is.
The road wound up a hill that was littered with monster corpses. They looked like they’d each been brought down with a single stroke of a magical sword: Some were missing their heads; others were sliced clean in two. It was kind of gross, actually…
“Hey, Kazuma, this corpse is still fresh. Aqua and the others can’t be too far ahead!” Darkness, checking the monsters’ bodies, said quietly. At that, Megumin, unable to contain her excitement, picked up her pace, and Darkness broke into a trot behind her.
“Wait up! The… The baggage is so heavy…! Hey, don’t leave me behind!”
“I do not understand how this man can fail to be moved by the prospect of an emotional reunion with his friend! Just throw away all that cargo!”
“Throw it away—real nice!”
“Bah, give it to me! I’ll carry it! Sheesh, just when I think you’re going to show us your cool side, you come up short… H-hey, this is heavy! What’s in here, training weights?! You’re supposed to travel light on a journey like this! What the heck is in this thing?!”
Darkness might have been complaining, but at least she’d taken the load off my shoulders, literally. I knew it was pathetic, but that was where my base stats left me.
Finally, we crested the hill to see…
“I-it’s hideous…” The words slipped out of my mouth.
“Y-yeah,” Darkness agreed.
Standing before us was a giant pitch-black castle; anyone could tell it belonged to the boss.
“It’s so…so…cool!” Megumin whispered, clutching her staff with both hands. These Crimson Magic people. It wasn’t even worth quipping anymore…
✦ ✦ ✦
But at that moment, any other thoughts were cut off completely.
✦ ✦ ✦
There she was. In the distance, just down by the castle, I could see a familiar blue head.
“I—I found her!”
““?!””
Darkness and Megumin were startled by my shouting. They squinted into the distance, trying to figure out who I’d found, but they didn’t have skills that granted them enhanced sight like I did, so they couldn’t tell who it was.
Aqua, with Mitsurugi and the others in tow, was approaching the Demon King’s castle, then sticking out her hand as if she was looking for something.
“Aquaaaaa! Hey! Heeeey! I know it’s you, Aqua! Argh, dammit!” I clicked my tongue, pulled my bow off my back, and with my Deadeye skill, I—
“Wait-wait-wait! Kazuma, what do you think you’re doing?!”
“You may intend to fire an arrow to get her attention, but if you miss your aim even a little bit, it’ll go clean through her head! I’m aware of how superb your Luck is, Kazuma, but I also know how terrible Aqua’s is!”
Grrr… Now that she mentioned it, that did seem like how this scenario would turn out.
While I was dallying, though, Aqua’s outstretched hand began to glow.
“Bah! She’s getting inside!”
As I watched, Aqua opened a small hole in the barrier and slipped right through. Mitsurugi and the rest followed her. The moment they were inside, the hole sealed itself up.
This was bad. I didn’t know if she would be able to hear me through the barrier. If I started running right now, would I even reach her in time? Anyway, how could the castle not be protected at all? If it’d had even one single guard, we could have caught up to them while Mitsurugi was fighting! Were the Demon King and his army that confident in this barrier?
Beside me, Darkness slumped to her knees, defeated. “How could we make it this far and not be in time…?”
Megumin, still clutching her staff, looked like she might cry. “Wh-wh-what shall we do? Should I have let you try your luck with your sniper shot, Kazuma?!”
While they were blathering, Aqua and the others winked out of view. Yunyun must have used her invisibility magic. That was only going to make it even harder to stop them!
Darkness looked up at me, her expression changing to one of panic. “Y-you must have something, right, Kazuma? At moments like this, you’ve always got some special plan, some twisted idea…”
Hey, who was she calling “twisted”?
“K-Kazuma…” Megumin looked at me, too, clearly worried, asking with her eyes if I really had nothing up my sleeve.
…Well, to be perfectly honest, I hadn’t come completely unprepared. But playing this card would take courage. It would mean gambling everything, the whole cushy life I’d built for myself.
When she saw me fretting…