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WeD - V2C05 - Tooru: Song of the Great Demon Kings & Esca
🕑 Added 2023-01-30 11:22:34 +0000 UTCThis is Tooru Sagaram.
Former chimney sweep, former servant of the Odille family, now a member of the Magic Knights on top of being a Supreme Magic Advisor for the Royal Palace.
Also, former Demon King.
“Hahahaha, I see you have come, Supreme Magic Advisor and Magic Knight!! Hahaha, even so, you will still be getting the rookie treatment, kid. Hahahaha!!”
Dante Lukemelt, leader of the Order of the Mage Knights, was a large muscular man with a soldier’s face who hasn’t stopped laughing and slapping me on my shoulder with his gigantic hands after I told him that I wanted to become a Magic Knight.
I guess, from his perspective as a middle-aged person, I looked like a complete child. I guess it’s hard to take someone who looks too young seriously, even though I have the title of Supreme Magic Advisor. Still, since he’s the straightforward type, it’s not hard to deal with him.
The other person joining the Order the same time as myself was Melvis Carored, she is a Magic Knight from the Beigrates family.
“Melvis… you’ll be staying at the Royal Capital too?”
“... Tooru, I mean, Sagaram, I mean… Tooru-sama, yes, I am here by the order of my lord.”
“No need for such honorifics, it’s fine to call me the way you used to.”
“... very well, Tooru. I did not expect you to join the Order of Magic Knights. Didn’t you receive a prestigious title that would allow you to preside over things in a more elegant manner? I guess you can’t rid yourself of your desperate need to serve.”
“... since we are at the Royal Palace, I thought it would be pointless to not be more involved.”
“Fufufu… that sounds just like you.”
Melvis has a good elder sister vibe going on. She is in her early twenties, has short beige hair and wears a slim male knight armour that hid her figure.
I have never seen her making any effort to be more feminine, but that doesn’t mean she looks manly at all. There is a crisp sharpness about her that goes beyond mere femininity. As the person who looks after Makia’s old friend, I am fairly familiar with her.
Ruskia’s Royal Palace has less than 20 Magic Knights.
This just shows how few people have the qualities of magic and swordsmanship.
The reason for this is how knights and magicians receive their education in Ruskia.
Those who want to study swordsmanship will go to a school for knights, while the ones who want to study magic will go to an academy for magic. However, there is no such institution for ‘Magic Knights’. Moreover, for whatever reason, these two schools are often on bad terms with each other. Perhaps the chivalric knightly spirit somehow clashes with the arrogance of magic users.
Up till now, this status quo had worked well enough.
Regardless of whether it is the bean sprout mage or musclehead knight, so long as they did their work and [1] submitted their paperwork properly, all is fine. It’s not like the country [1] sends them out in parties to raid dungeons or anything.
However, things are different now. Times have changed and the kingdom is now actively gathering the rare Magic Knights to form the Order of Magic Knights.
According to our Leader, this is an era of “Dynamic Professionals Armed with Swords and Magic’. Recruitment posters with this very same saying had been sent out, but not many had responded to the call.
Sir Raymond was the one who had [1a] strongly hinted for me to join the Order of Magic Knights to, well, [1a] I supposed he wanted someone to monitor the Order on his behalf? Think of it as an extension of my role as Supreme Magic Advisor.
In short, I did not join the Order due to ‘a desperate need to serve’
I want to emphasize this part the most.
Currently, the Order of Magic Knights had been following a recent series of bizarre murders all over the Royal Capital.
After the Giant Soldier incident, [2a] on top of having to root out the remaining Anti-Eastern faction, we have had to deal with [2b] these nasty murders.
A Royal Official was found with his limbs torn off, a merchant was found crushed flat, as though he had been struck repeatedly with a hammer. A corpse had also been found wrapped in chains, inside a clay pipe.
The one truly horrific case was found in a hut on the outskirts of town. Not many people passed by the place, which was why it was found much later. There were nine corpses inside the hut, all skinned and drained of blood. By the time we found them, they had decomposed by a lot, but we could still tell they were the corpses of young women.
All we know about these incidents was that it was done by the same person.
At each of these sites, fancy ‘Turtle Cards’ were left.
[Tis I!
If you wish for salvation, expose yourself and await my judgement!
Good luck on your next life!
PS: I hate the hot weather. I wonder if autumn will arrive soon
by Esca]
It is an embarrassingly chuunibyou message.
“... Esca again… still sending us these crazy messages.”
From what we could gather, this Esca is probably some crazy murderer who takes pleasure in killing his victims.
That fellow is really screwed up in the head. Apart from these murders, he often shows himself all around the Royal Capital at twilight just to mess with the Order of Magic Knights as we investigate these murders.
Thus far, we know that he possesses several types of Magic Weapons: Magic Guns, Magic Rifles, Magic Bazookas etc.
I managed to chase him down close enough for close-range combat. That was when he switched from a gun to a large knife and somehow managed to escape with inhuman agility. I could not make out his face due to the large hood, but there was no disguising the sharp killing intent. The only bit of his face I could see was a smirking mouth.
He is definitely a mage, that’s for sure.
However, he’s no bean sprout. That fellow could move, he has somehow augmented his physical abilities with magic. The fact that he has high physical abilities, is augmented by magic and uses all kinds of magic weapons makes him more of a hitman or assassin than a mere mage.
More importantly, it made him a very hard target to capture. I haven’t been able to do anything even when facing him.
Just yesterday, in a back lane of the Royal Capital’s shopping corridor that encircled the Royal Palace, the corpse of a man was found, drained of blood.
As usual, there was that little calling card. However, this time, the message was a little different.
「Beasts of the snowy country
Their limbs broken and reconnected
Chained to the Black Demon King
Muses of the forest deep
Skins peeled and blood drained
Sucked away by the Crimson Witch
Spirits of the Lake
Tricked and boiled in a pot
Stuffed in cans by the White Sage
How scary!
Beyond the door
Are the Great Demon Kings
PS: I shall pass judgement on the three Supreme Magic Advisors of the Royal Palace who claims to have defeated the Giant Soldiers
Good luck in your next life!
By Esca.」
“... is this… a folk song from the Northern Continent?” Melvis frowns as she reads the card.
I didn’t know that poem.
“It’s a satire of the Great Demon Kings. It is used to scare little children into good behaviour. So, it looks like they are comparing our Supreme Magic Advisors to the three Great Demon Kings,” said Leader thoughtfully.
“... …”
He is looking at me, as though he had something to say. However, I don’t care for his gaze as I read the message again.
“Is it possible… that the murders are connected to this song?”
“?!”
There are a lot of things I want to say.
I understand that legends about the Three Great Demon Kings tend to change a lot over the years, but the Crimson Witch’s part is particularly harsh.
“Captain, do you recall the terrible conditions of the bodies we have found until now? The nine women in the hut, the body in the clay pipe… The ‘muses’ mentioned here could be the nine maiden fairies in the forest, for example…”
“... umu, yes, I see it. But, why would Esca do these things…”
“... …”
We have been looking for a connection between the murders, but if he is just out for blood and fun, murdering people according to a song… it is possible there is no real meaning behind his actions. I just don’t know.
Unless… it’s some kind of ritual or provocation?
“Could it be the work of an assassin from the North? Tooru, if this Esca is really aiming for the Magic Advisors, wouldn’t Makia-sama be in danger?” is Melvis’ input.
I frowned. There is no end to the speculations about this lunatic’s objective. [2c] We still have no idea who Esca might be.
Aside from that, I still have that order from Sir Raymond…
“... Makia…”
Suddenly, I am suddenly aware of the glow of dusk.
[1b] Dusk… twilight.
[1b] Esca has a habit of coming out to make trouble during twilight.
If he is truly targeting the three Magic Advisors, Makia would be in the most danger. She would definitely be the easier target compared to Yuri, who is surrounded by guards at the Royal Palace. As for me, while I am outside, I don’t work alone, [1] and have already clashed with Esca once. At a glance, she would be the most defenceless of us three.
The chances of him targeting Makia is high.
“... Where is Makia-sama?”
“If I recall correctly, she mentioned something about going to Lord Medite’s Mansion… However, since Lepis is with her, it should be fine even if Esca appears…”
[1a] Even as I said this, my body is already turning towards the direction of the Medite Mansion. My feet are desperately trying to take me to her.
[1a] A sharp slap in the back nearly sent me off my feet. Leader is grinning down at me, “Well, go! It is a knight’s job to protect a beautiful princess!!”
“Cough, that’s not really… no, this is seriously not-”
“Enough dawdling!! Hahaha!! It certainly is good to be young!! Hahaha!”
“... …”
Sometimes, I really just can’t keep up with this man’s tempo. He’s a good person, but he’s always misunderstanding some things.
I parted with the rest of the Order. Using the clock tower of the Magic Research Institute as a landmark, I turned and ran in that direction.
All this while, I could feel the eyes of this ‘Esca’ on me even as the scent of dusk grew more intense around me.
[Gumihou: Woah, the plot thickens]
[1] Added Details
[1a] Adjust details so that it flows more smoothly
[1b] Add detail to remind readers why ‘dusk’ is important
[2] Delete Details
[2a] ‘which was supposed to have completely devastated the city, but didn’t’
The above sentence serves no purpose at all, since it was followed by at least two ‘but then’ incidents
[2b] ‘a series of mysterious murders in the Royal Capital’
Deleted because it was already mentioned in the paragraph before it
[2c] ‘are the three of us really in danger’
The speculation really makes no sense, even as a stream of consciousness thought
