Liliana stepped into a room far more spacious than the corridor—or even the manor’s exterior—had led her to expect. Shelves ran up to the ceiling, packed not only with books but with various magic- and hex-imbued items. Some objects sat directly on the floor, their purpose inscrutable. Even so, there was still enough space to move comfortably.
Ben closed the door behind them and moved to stand before a wide table. “This room is magically expanded. To enter, you need mana and my permission. You can’t even see the door otherwise.” Judging by his proud grin, he had poured a great deal of effort into creating the space.
“It’s rather surprising,” Liliana said.
Satisfied with her reaction, Ben uttered an incantation, and two maps materialized on the table. The smaller depicted Hudore and its environs; the larger covered all of Slivegrandia. Scattered across them were a dozen small arrows and four large ones.
“The small arrows mark places where monsters have appeared unexpectedly over the past year,” Ben explained as Liliana studied the maps in silence. “The large ones show where swarms appeared.”
Liliana’s eyes widened. One of the large arrows pointed directly at the town where she had encountered a swarm roughly half a year earlier. The others marked different towns and stretches of highway, with no obvious pattern. The only trend was their proximity to deep forests—but countless other towns fit that description and had never seen a swarm.
Petra remained expressionless, while Ben used magic to pull several tomes on magic and hexes from the shelves. Not only were they terribly old, but some weren’t even written in the local language.
“This is the focus of today’s class,” Ben said. “But honestly, it’s more of a research project.”
“In what sense...?” Liliana asked, unable to see how swarms related to a lesson on hexes.
“You’re a wellspring of interesting ideas,” Petra interjected. “You experienced a swarm firsthand, so we might discover something new with your help.”
A chill ran down Liliana’s spine. It almost sounded like Petra knew she’d used high-level light magic to repel the swarm. Liliana pretended not to notice, grateful the mage wasn’t pushing the matter.
“The monsters’ numbers have been abnormal over the past year,” Ben continued. “They’re appearing in places they never have before, and their size and the damage they cause is the worst in Slivegrandian history.”
Abnormal incidents always had a cause. The Ministry of Magic had tried to uncover the truth behind the attacks, but their progress was minimal.
“Yet they’re being written off as a natural phenomenon,” Ben said. To Liliana’s surprise, a clear look of contempt flashed across his normally aloof face.
“You mean they plan to simply deal with the swarms as they come?” she asked.
“That’s right. Those fools are a disgrace to mages everywhere.”
The vice minister spoke with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Clearly, there had been conflict within the ministry. Some high-ranking mages insisted the swarms had a natural cause, while Ben and other younger members pushed for a proper investigation.
“Until we understand why the attacks have become so frequent, the damage will only keep escalating,” he continued. “I’ve tried explaining that we need a solution other than top-tier light magic, but do that stubborn lot listen? Not at all. I’m sure politics are involved, but is power really that important? At least when the younger mages give up, it’s because they want to do research on their own initiative, not for political reasons.”
As things stood, advanced light magic was the only reliable method of exterminating monsters. But few people could use it, to say nothing of its other limitations. Ben’s frustration made perfect sense; ideally, they needed a method that even the manaless could employ.
Seeing that both Liliana and Petra agreed with him, Ben seemed to relax, and his tone returned to normal. “So, I’ve been doing my own research with Myyrylainen’s help. We’ve hit a wall, though, so I figured I might as well rope you in. We could use a fresh perspective.”
“Very well,” Liliana replied. “We need to identify the cause as soon as possible.”
“Glad to have you on board.”
Swarms were a plague upon the ordinary people living in affected areas. And they were growing more and more frequent. There was no time to dwell on the Ministry of Magic’s internal power struggle.
“We’ve outlined two possible explanations,” Ben said. “First, that this is a sign of the Demon King’s impending return. Second, that it’s man-made. Regarding the first—did you know the Demon King is sealed away in Hudore?”
“Um...” Liliana’s face went stiff for an instant before she arranged it into confusion. “I thought that was a fairy tale.”
Well, this is quite the major revelation.
To the public, the Demon King being sealed in Hudore was little more than a story. Some believed it held a kernel of truth, like the legend of the three heroes who ended the three demonic centuries and founded Slivegrandia, but refused to accept it wholesale.
Liliana, however, knew it was real. The Demon King’s awakening played an important role in the game. In fact, after completing all the traditional endings, players could even unlock him as a romanceable character.
It’s much too early for that, though.
Not until the start of the game—still another six years away—would the Demon King’s seal come undone. Liliana resolved to buy time until then, lest things spiral out of control.
“That’s the natural assumption, but it really is true,” Ben said, unaware of Liliana’s restlessness. “Oh, but don’t tell anyone. It’s a state secret.”
“O-Of course.”
Liliana put up a convincing front, feigning the shock expected of a girl suddenly entrusted with such a revelation. When she glanced at Petra in feigned confusion, she caught the mage giving Ben an awkward smile. Petra had clearly already known about the Demon King’s seal.
“The rise in monster swarms could mean the seal is weakening,” Ben went on. “As it deteriorates, a demonic presence seeps into the world. In high concentrations, it becomes what we call miasma, which eventually spawns monsters. The thing is, I went to inspect the seal myself, and it doesn’t seem to be the cause. It’s aged, sure, but nowhere near enough for monsters to appear this frequently. Which leads us to our second explanation.”
“Can people truly spawn monsters?” Liliana asked. She had never heard of such a thing. Miasma was only supposed to leak from cracks in the Demon King’s seal.
“I knew we were right about you,” Ben said, satisfied. “That’s exactly the right question. By all accounts, miasma can’t be created. It’s theoretically possible, but not realistically.”
“But it is possible, in theory?”
“Do you know what else miasma can come from?”