Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku (WN)
Chapter 26
6-26. Battle of Muno City (4) Satou"s here. If you travel to a foreign country without learning the custom there, you"re getting yourself into trouble.
It"s a bit more severe in a parallel world.
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I hear Pochi saying, "Bones are chasing after people nodesu.", while still she"s still hugged by the daughter.
"Bones? Are there skeletons inside the city?"
"Yeah, it seems there are some people who could use ghost magic. The elderly are probably scared of undead because of their experiences with the No Life King"s army encirclement during the time of marquis Muno."
"It can"t be helped then. It"s not like we can help them from here."
"Since there are only 20 skeletons inside the city, I"ll do something about them with Remote Arrow, thought it might be futile. I won"t aim at the ghost magic users since they would likely die if hit."
I come out to the balcony using different door than the baron and the others have used.
The magic, Magic Arrow which Remote Arrow is derived from is written in the beginner magic book that I"ve bought.
It is said that [『Magic Arrow』 is the basic and ultimate of magic. The more you master it, the further away it could travel, and the more you could release. If you master it to the limit, and have unlimited magic power, you could destroy the entire army of the whole country with 『Magic Arrow』].
Of course, it"s probably exaggerated, but still, when I, who have skill level 10 on it, use it, I could use my map to lock-on the enemies and shoot them. Since the power of one magic arrow is still far weaker than a punch, one arrow could only defeat one level 5 enemy at most. I could shoot 1-125 arrows at once. It consumes at least 10 magic power, and the consumption increases as the number of arrows increases and exceeds certain range. To be frank, it looks to be inferior compared to something like explosion or fireball magic as an anti-army magic.
"Wa, wait, don"t tell me you"re going to use Remote Arrow?"
"Yeah, I"ll shoot it secretly of course."
I stretch a short cane from the position where the baron couldn"t see and generate magic arrows to aim at the skeletons. The arrows look like they"re made from gla.s.ses.
The marks that signify the skeletons on my map are followed by lock-on marks that look like the ones you usually see in aircraft fighter simulators.
Lock-on mark is nice. No matter how many time I see it, it stimulates my male instinct.
I set the trajectory of the arrows so it would not enter the field of view of the baron and the others, and launch them. Soon enough, the skeletons in the map are annihilated. Magic sure is convenient huh.
"Hey, hey."
Arisa"s voice is trembling.
Dang, is this kind of long-distance shooting normally impossible?
"Don"t tell me you could only shoot 20? How could you think of fighting a level 30 enemy with that. Know your place."
Her way of speaking is unusually p.r.i.c.kly considering she"s Arisa.
Was the number of arrow too low. Looking at the arrow"s power, I could easily win just by shooting 20 arrows, but I wonder that since the opponent is a demon, it"d be easy for it to resist elementary magic.
The arrow"s number depends on the skill level according to the textbook, so should I just tell her half of my level? Though it"s not like I have to keep it a secret, I could just tell Arisa [Hide it] if she looks like she"s going to run her mouth. If level 10 could generate 125 arrows then I should tell her that the level is the same as her mind magic skill level, but since that"s the level of an expert, if I say that the level is 4 then being able to generate 50 arrows shouldn"t be strange. 10 arrows are enough to defeat the opponent even if it has magic defense anyway, so this excuse should be good enough I guess?
"I could shoot 50 arrows at most. If I"m attacking while drinking MP recovery potion, I could probably defeat it by repeating about 10 times right?"
"Right huh~ if you shoot that many, it"s alright huh."
Arisa goes back to the room without saying anything, I pretend not to see her stomping the floor, and she glares at me from inside the room. Tears come out of her dauntless eyes.
The baron and the others are still viewing the city on the balcony. It doesn"t seem like they would pay attention here.
"You, by any chance, are you hiding your level?"
Huh? So it was a leading question?
I wonder where I did wrong, I thought that it shouldn"t be a problem since firing 50 arrows with each consuming 1 MP should meant that I had 50 MP which should be good enough for level 12.
Well, this is just right for coming out I guess.
"Yes, I"m hiding it. Wasn"t it Arisa who told me to hide it?"
"Right, that"s right, but to think you could hide level on top of skill."
"But you"ve guessed well, I only need 50 MP for 50 arrows, there"s no strange point in it right?"
Arisa"s face freezes, and she lets out a sigh while putting her hand on her forehead. She pauses for a bit, and scolds me in a whisper that sounds like it"s been squeezed out. I feel like I"m always scolded by Arisa.
"This careless man! Know this world"s common sense better."
"I understand that I"ve failed, but which one I did wrong? Even the magic books say that the arrow could be shot infinitely you know?"
"That"s only the 『Theory』. Right now the best magician which is also the founder of this country can only shoot 49 at most."
It"s that few huh. Let"s only shoot 30 in front of people from now on.
"I could just say that one is an error."
"Not only that, it"s impossible to only use 1 MP for 1 arrow."
"It uses at least 10 MP for each shoot. It"s just that I only need the same amount of MP until the number of arrow reach 10."
"That"s the strange part. An attack magic with the same efficiency as magic arrow among light magic use at least 15MP for each shoot. According to Nana and magic art scientist that I"m acquainted with, it generally needs 5-10MP per shoot. Furthermore you don"t even use a long cane, but a cheap short cane that doesn"t have magic amplifying or magic power usage reduction effect, if anyone tell me about it, I would have thought that they"re just bragging."
"Then, let"s make it so it need 10 MP for each shoot."
There"s so much difference huh. Then I have to pretend running out of gas after shooting 12 arrows in front of people. This is a bit troublesome.
It seems she doesn"t like my answer, she seizes my robe and rub her head on my stomach while saying, "What do you mean by "then"~". Please stop it since it plainly painful.
"And also! The range is strange too! The 49 arrows magician that I"ve said earlier is able to shoot enemies 2 kilometers away, but that"s only in gra.s.slands with good views. I"ve never heard anything like sniping enemies with pinpoint accuracy in this kind of urban area."
"The sniping could be done integrated with the map."
"Ceh, unique skill. I"ve thought that you"re plain, but you have such features hidden. I can"t make light of you indeed."
Although she"s letting out some questionable remarks, it seems that she has seen through my high level, so it"s turned out alright.
"So yeah, it"s like that, I"ve also hid my level, I"m actually high level."
"I understand, I won"t ask the detail. I mostly understand from the talk just now."
She did huh, as expected of Arisa. Let"s ask in detail next time.
But, it was good that I didn"t tell her that I actually could shoot 125 arrows. It looks like she"d feel bad somewhere rather than relieved. She"d think that shooting one arrow more than the best record is a margin of error. Transported people are generally cheat anyway.
However, I was made to promise to sleep together with her for 1 week as a compensation for all her worries up until now. I"ve firmly said, "No ecchi.", to make sure, but seems like it"d be difficult to hold the virtue firmly for 1 week.
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Yet, the citizens are still gathering near the main gate and the castle gate. Even though the skeletons have been eliminated, do the instigators remain there?
"I, it"s terrible! Undead monsters are attacking!"
Butler-san from earlier barged into the room with different expression on his face.
"Calm yourself, Meyer. If it"s the Skeletons that have appeared inside the city, it looks like they"ve been exterminated by the townspeople."
"No, it"s different. Swarms of zombies have appeared from the giant forest."
"My, it"s scary desuwa."
Are you really scared, daughter-san.
"It"s alright, Soruna-hime. I will protect you."
"Yes, my hero-sama."
I"m leaving this stupid couple alone.
The baron and the others go to the balcony that faces the forest, and check the condition over the wall.
"They"re coming faster than expected huh. Let"s quickly escape from the city. We"re too outnumbered. Your magic could do something with hundreds of zombies, but if there are thousands of them, it"s impossible right."
"Wouldn"t it be easy if we just smash them steadily from inside the wall?"
"There"s no way the demon would wait for that. There must be its minions among the people who will lead them to open the gate from the inside, no mistake "bout it."
Looks like Arisa"s prediction is correct. People are fleeing from the main gate. Seems that someone had opened it from inside. I tell Arisa about that matter.
"The demon and its group are heading here."
"Right, it"s finally the decisive battle huh."
"Before that, the splitter would get here first. The knight Eral from back then is together with it."
"Who"s that?"
"It"s the knight who was going to kill Hayuna-san when she was held hostage."
"Uwah, that guy huh. Then won"t he cut you if you attack the splitter?"
"Perhaps. I"ll prevent it."
"Let"s leave it to Pochi. If it"s that girl, she could handle attacks from that level of knight easily. You"ll be watching the baron"s family for any chance of ambush."
"How about I neutralize the splitter with a knockdown?"
"Un, since physical attack might not work on the disguise, I"ll do it instead."
"Understood."
I call Pochi, give her a dagger from the Item Box and brief her about the situation. By situation, I only said, "If the knight attack, ward him off." to her.
And then, as if waiting for our preparation to complete, the door opens without even a knock.
"Baron! Consul-sama is coming in."
"Sir Eral. Call baron-sama properly, not me."
Baron comes back from the balcony and see the two who have entered.
"Ah, we"ve been waiting for you consul. It"s terrible, undead monsters are attacking from outside the wall. Maybe No Life King has been revived?"
"Baron-sama, I"ve arranged a high-speed carriage. Please go together with hero-sama outside of the baron"s territory."
"But then, the people will..."
"It"s alright, I"m going to stay in this castle and do something about it."
It"d be troubling if it gets too close to the baron. I should start soon.
"Then, you"ll turn all the citizens into undead monsters in the end right, Short Horn demon consul-dono."
Arisa attacks the consul (demon) who turns around with startled face with shock wave.
The consul (demon) helplessly crumples to the floor.
Its figure is that of dark skin with bat wing, truly the figure of a demon.
But, even after seeing that figure, knight Eral shouts.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! What are you doing to consul-sama!"
Knight Eral draws his sword.
The split body (splitter) rises.
The daughter screams when she sees the split body.
And the baron and ossan who can"t stand up.
The fake hero covers the daughter on his back and pulls out his sword from the blue sheath.
And Pochi, with her dagger, skillfully wards off knight Eral"s great sword aimed at me.
With s.p.a.ce Grasp skill, I"ve understood the things happening in this room.
Right when knight"s Eral great sword get stuck on the floor, I kick the blade and break it. Since knight Eral"s big body is a nuisance, I knock him out unconscious just like that.
At the present, it doesn"t seem like there"s any ambush from the baron family.
Arisa has taken out a long cane before I knew it and point it to the demon.
It seems like she can"t make her move since the fake hero is fighting the split body (splitter).
"Uuh~ since they"re moving around the place, I can"t aim with Light Dagger."
Really? They"re stopping aplenty you know?
The split body (splitter) stops the fake hero"s sword with its claws. It"s strong even though it"s just a level 1.
"O holy sword Gjallarhorn! Now is the time to grant me the power to defeat this demon!"
I almost burst into laughter unintentionally. Of all things, it has to be that name huh.
The fake hero cuts the split body (splitter) with his magic sword which lets out indigo light. He"s succeeded in cutting the claws, but the demon is still going strong.