Whoa... Max’s movement was truly casual, but Connie, who was worthy of being called a genius, groaned in his mind as he realized that Max had perfect control over the pole, like it was attached to his body by nerves.
Max held the pole tightly with both hands and stood there, staring at Stein. That was all he was doing at a glance.
The quality of his distance is the same as my great-great-grandpa’s, so there’s no way Mr. Stein hasn’t noticed him... But Connie’s abnormal “eyes” perceived the shortest, fastest killing distance straight from Max to Stein, and he shuddered as Stein remained perfectly motionless even though he should have noticed Max.
Max didn’t even adopt any particular stance. He simply held the pole in his hands and approached Stein.
Whoa...whoa... No matter how Connie fretted, the inescapable distance of absolute death remained in place, and even when Max got within direct range with his spear, Stein stood completely still and didn’t waver in the slightest. The sight gave chills even to the somewhat airheaded Connie, and the situation reached its peak when the tip of the pole finally approached Stein’s face.
But even so...even though his weapon was an ordinary pole, this was still lethal range for the Dragonsbane Knight, the man who’d slain most of the mighty, evil dragons who’d sided with the Great Demon King, yet Stein still remained unwavering. And then...the moment Max put a bit of strength into the pole, and when Stein became aware of Sazaki trying to cut him from a distance, he instantly regained his senses and used his fists to deploy his own distance.
“Whoa there. I surrender.” Max had been hit with a counterattack and even his opponent’s killing force, so he jokingly waved his pole around to signal his surrender.
“This takes me back.” Stein had a faint smile, even though Max had seemingly gotten in the way.
“Ha ha, doesn’t it?” Max also smiled as he thought fondly of the past.
During the great war, Stein had asked his companions to get in the way of him becoming one with nature, calling it part of his training, and Max and Sazaki, who’d just entered the mansion, were the ones who’d mostly dealt with that.
They really are incredible... In other words, Connie had shuddered at the kind of scene that had once been commonplace.
At first glance, Stein had just been sitting on the ground, Max had just walked up while holding a pole, then stopped, and Sazaki, who hadn’t even been present, had sent a slash over with just his mind. Franz and the others had visited the domain of a group of freaks whose every single action defied understanding.
After that, Agnes showed the kids to the living room. However, before there was a chance to relax, Franz began speaking.
“How many of your great-great-grandparents’ friends are visiting, Connie?” he asked.
“Umm, there’s four of them, including the ones you just met.”
“Huh. So that makes six in total. They’re one person short.”
“What do you mean?”
“If there were seven of them, it would be like the Hero’s party had assembled! The man sitting down earlier was doing monk training, right? That means one of the roles is filled already.”
“Aha ha ha, I see.” Connie could only laugh in response to Franz’s keen insight, but he shuddered inwardly. I’ll never get used to how sharp he is... He doesn’t have some secret powers of deduction, does he?
The Seven Stars, Seven Zeniths, Seven Hopes—these were the sort of names that the Hero’s party had been given over the years, so it was widely known that there were seven of them. But right now, only six elderly people had assembled at this mansion, so Franz’s guess was a rather outlandish one—or it would have been, normally. Although one of them was missing, the Hero’s party was indeed currently visiting this mansion, so the young man had hit the nail on the head.
“By that logic, wouldn’t that mean that Connie’s great-great-grandparents were also part of the Hero’s party?” Emmeline pointed out, exasperated.
“Could be. Perhaps they’re harboring some kind of secret...” Franz suggested it was at least possible.
“Well...” Connie had an uneasy expression.
“You’re making this awkward for Connie,” Hagen said, throwing Connie a life raft. From his perspective, Connie was simply smiling awkwardly at the ridiculous fantasy his friend had just floated; he never supposed that Connie’s great-great-grandparents really were part of the Hero’s party.
“Have you ever been told you have an overactive imagination?” Emmeline asked.
“I’m only saying this among us friends. People might think I’m crazy otherwise.” Franz himself wasn’t actually convinced that these people were the heroes of lore either.
“Oh, and here I thought you were oblivious to that.”
“I think most people would find that idea impossible.”
“Heh.”
“You just snickered at me, didn’t you?”
The pair started messing around as usual.
“Hello, thank you for waiting,” Agnes said as she returned to the living room.
“Oh, we’re so sorry.” Seeing Agnes floating a large board in with magic, Franz and the others stood up, looking terribly ashamed of their lack of consideration.
“Please, don’t worry about it. This is quite heavy if you aren’t using magic. Now please take your time.” Agnes placed the board down on a desk before leaving with a smile, looking like the gentle, old woman everyone unknowingly assumed that she was.
“Thank you very much,” the teens said.
“Wow, this thing is as big as you said it is.”
“Tell me about it.”
“It’s comparable to the ones they use in tournaments.”
Franz and the rest were looking at an object called a puppet board. The board featured an ultra-miniature replica world, with tiny rivers, mountains, forests, and plains arranged across its surface, all created by magic. Since this one was owned by Agnes, a member of the Magic Council, it was immeasurably elaborate and even larger than the desk it was sitting on.
So, what kind of game could people play on a board like this, one might ask?
“Should we deploy our troops on either side of the river?”
“We could also take advantage of the mountain’s elevation.”
“I want to try a new fortress design.”
The kids picked up some pieces of clay provided with the game board and poured a tiny bit of magic into them to give them form. Then, tiny clay soldiers, which were more or less human shaped, appeared in Franz’s hands and were deployed across a river, while Emmeline’s soldiers took formation on a mountain. The clay in Hagen’s hands squirmed and formed a fortress, complete with ramparts and a gate.
“I’ll try scouting, then.” Meanwhile, the soldiers Connie created ran straight into the forest, concealing themselves. “Oh, there’s the enemy. They’re split into two groups. One group is on Franz and Emmeline’s side and the other one is headed to Hagen’s fortress.” Connie’s soldiers discovered a hidden group of four-legged monsters—as tiny as the soldiers.
“All right. Don’t hit me with any friendly fire, Emmeline.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?”
“Now then, how will this construction fare?”
The others moved their soldiers to counterattack. Before long, the monsters had launched an attack on the clay soldiers and the fortress and a battle broke out, though the combat itself wasn’t anything special. The little humanoid soldiers fired tiny, almost imperceptible arrows at the monsters coming from the other side of the river, and when the monsters got closer, they swung their tiny swords at them. Emmeline’s soldiers on the mountain fired tiny dots of light that imitated magic, but the monsters could only keep ramming against Hagen’s fortress. But even if the combat wasn’t flashy, the board’s function was still incredible.
These game boards had existed since before the great war, and they had since become popularized across the world as a simulation in case the demon army were to return. It was a game of remarkable construction, which allowed players to reproduce the abilities not only of archers and cavalry, but also mages, and it even let them construct fortresses. Mages were often in positions that gave them an overhead view of the battlefield from the rear rather than fighting on the front lines, and they also sometimes used their magic to assist in the constructions of castles and fortresses. For students of the Magic Academy like Connie and his friends, this wasn’t simply a game, but crucial knowledge for their field.
“I heard somewhere that in one country, this game is so popular that it’s recommended study for all the citizens. If I remember right, it was the country that originally made this game board, but...which country was that again?” Franz commented suddenly as he looked at the game board.
“I mean, it’s just as popular in the Rin Kingdom. In any case, focus. Your side is being pushed back.” Hagen forced Franz’s attention back to the game.
“Yeah, the river wasn’t enough to slow them down.”
Franz was right, though. This game was popular in countries that prioritized national defense and had carefully considered the possibility of another invasion from the demon army.
“If the front line collapses, my side will also follow suit, so keep it together.” Emmeline was getting worried that they were getting pushed back a little far at the river.
“I’ll support you from the rear.” Connie’s army attacked the monsters from behind, throwing the battlefield into chaos.
“Thank you, Connie.”
“This might be bad. They’ve started climbing the walls.”
“I might be unable to hold my ground either.”
“Eek! Some more just popped out of the earth!”
“We obviously can’t scout underground, though...”
The monsters had started gradually gaining ground, trampling everything in their path, not even rivers, mountains, fortifications, or soldiers standing in their way. Ultimately, the monsters—the Great Demon King’s army—engulfed everything.
“Ugh. This is still on a low difficulty, right?” Franz asked with a frown.
“Yes. There are apparently difficulties that include a battlefield with dragons in both armies, a mobile fortress, and units that imitate the Great Demon King’s executives,” Connie replied with a nod.
“I don’t understand how we actually won that war.”
During the great war, attacks of sheer numbers had been incredibly commonplace, and in fact this was the preferable situation when it came to such battles. There had been battlefields where the dragons who sided with mortal races—led by the blue dragon who protected the Rin Kingdom—and the dragons who sided with the Great Demon King had engaged in deadly combat in the skies, and others where a gargantuan mobile fortress had run amok. Add in the cases where the Great Demon King’s subjects themselves attacked, and it really began to seem like mankind was done for. Compared to all that, a mere onslaught of innumerable but weak demons had been like a walk in the park.