Colony’s eastern desert.

There, not far from Ashtalon—

“Whew—”

Elivan was staring blankly up at the Milky Way in the night sky.

Still, without moving at all.

How long had that gone on?

“What are you doing, Elivan?”

Only after Yan sat down beside Elivan and spoke did Elivan move the head.

“Just—looking up at the sky.”

“Elivan really likes the night sky.”

“Does it look that way?”

“You spend days out of the week like this, alone, looking at the sky, don’t you?”

At Yan’s words, Elivan kept staring at the Milky Way in silence, then answered.

“Does that look like liking it?”

“Um—doesn’t it?”

“Honestly, I don’t like it that much.”

At Elivan’s answer, Yan looked at Elivan like it was unexpected.

“......Then why are you staring at it like that?”

“.......” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Elivan didn’t answer Yan’s question.

Instead, Elivan changed the subject.

“What are the others doing?”

“They’re getting ready to sleep, I guess? We already ate dinner.”

“Yeah?”

A blatantly obvious topic change from Elivan.

But Yan only shrugged.

Because Yan was used to Elivan diverting things like this—it wasn’t the first or second time.

So Yan quietly looked up at the sky along with Elivan, then asked slowly.

“Still, Elivan.”

“What?”

“About Marquis Palatio. Is it okay?”

“......All of a sudden?”

Elivan asked back, bewildered.

Yan nodded.

“There’s been a lot of talk lately about Marquis Palatio, you know? Like suddenly making a territory and things like that.”

“......Ah, you mean the rumor about founding a new kingdom?”

“Yes. Right now the rumor is going around in a good way, but if the Marquis steps forward properly as a king, a lot of blood is definitely going to be spilled.”

Yan’s words were natural.

For a new person to stand in the sky, there had to be corpses and blood to match—and history had proven that endlessly.

“So?”

“I know Elivan likes the Marquis, but I was thinking... doesn’t that go against the ‘peace’ you talk about?”

“‘Goes against peace’......is it.”

Elivan looked like Elivan was thinking deeply, but then—

“No.”

“......What?”

“I think it’s good, instead.”

Elivan said it plainly.

Yan tried to ask something back, but Elivan didn’t give room and continued speaking.

“Yan thinks I’m saying this because I like Marquis Palatio?”

“......Honestly, yes.”

Yan hesitated only briefly, then nodded.

But Elivan smiled.

“No.”

“That’s... no?”

“Yeah. It’s true I like the Marquis. But this... more than fondness... it matches my purpose.”

“The Marquis trying to become a new king... matches Elivan’s purpose?”

Yan asked back like Yan didn’t understand.

Yan knew it.

That Elivan liked Marquis Palatio in a strangely intense way.

But when it came to the purpose called “peace,” Elivan had almost no room for compromise—cold enough that it felt like it.

To the point that anyone would think it would be the same even if it was Marquis Palatio, Elivan’s ideology about “peace” was straight and exact.

......Depending on how you looked at it, it was extremely dogmatic.

So much it could feel inhuman.

That was why Yan was shocked.

Because Yan knew the answer Elivan had given was the truth.

“......Well, I don’t think you can understand it right now.”

Seeing Yan’s startled face, Elivan smiled and slowly stood up.

Then—

“But you’ll know soon. What my words mean.”

Elivan said something that sounded like it made sense and didn’t, at the same time.

Finally, Elivan muttered that they should go sleep and headed for the camp.

“.......”

Yan stared at Elivan’s back for a long while.

A week and a few more days since Alon arrived at the mage tower.

This time, Alon gained a lot during that span.

If Alon pointed out the two biggest things—

One was that, unlike before, Alon heard from Heinkel how to interpret tier magic a little faster.

And the other—

[How is it?]

—was finishing the interpretation of “Magic Bolt,” one of the first-tier spells.

“Wow—”

“......You really unraveled it in a week.”

Penia marveled, and Alon agreed, and Heinkel only shrugged.

[Calling it ‘in a week’ is a bit misleading. I only organized and finished what you’d already worked on to a certain extent.]

Heinkel spoke humbly.

......Of course, only the tone was humble—the attitude was more like, ‘Mmhm—sure, it’s an achievement you could never do without me.’

[And it still isn’t complete, right? You still have to find the hand seal.]

“Even so, it was fast.”

Of course, Heinkel wasn’t wrong. Heinkel stepped in after Alon and Penia found all the spell phrases.

But finding the sentences required an even higher difficulty.

If it had just been Alon and Penia, it wouldn’t have been a week—it would’ve easily taken at least a month or two.

[Ahem. Don’t praise me too much. This time it was only faster because of a method I newly found, and the second tier will still take a long time.]

Evan, who had been watching them from the side, asked.

“So, Marquis. Are you demonstrating it again this time?”

“Demonstrating?”

“Yes.”

Alon affirmed.

“Even if we haven’t found the hand seal yet, it seems better to try demonstrating it. But why do you ask?”

Evan scratched the head, a little embarrassed.

“No, it’s just—last time the magic the Marquis used was Light, and that kind of thing came out, right?”

“......Right?”

“So this time, I guess I’m thinking... what in the world is going to come ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) out.”

Evan added, “I was kind of curious.”

Alon nodded.

Until they found all the phrases and sentences, they couldn’t demonstrate the magic at all, so Alon had been curious too.

[Then how about doing it right away? I’m curious too.]

“A magic demonstration?”

“I, I want to see too—”

At Heinkel’s words, Selaim and Sharan reacted instantly.

Just a moment ago, they’d been endlessly scribbling something onto paper like zombies, but that was gone without a trace.

Only a week had passed, yet the two had changed so much from the solemn tower-master image.

With the eyes of graduate students Alon sometimes saw passing by at the university, Alon turned pale for a moment, then—

“Then let’s go right away.”

Alon brushed off and stood.

“Then are we going to the demonstration ground?”

“......It seems better to just test it outside.”

“Ah, right—the demonstration ground is under construction right now.”

“It’s not because of construction, it’s just...... if I smash it again, that’s awkward.”

At that, Penia thought for a moment, then said.

“No? Even if it gets smashed, I think people would like it more if you show new magic.”

“......Really?”

“Of course.”

“Ah, that’s right. Every time I go down to talk with the information guild for a moment, people ask me nonstop, day after day.”

Seeing Evan shiver like it made the skin crawl just thinking about it, Alon moved to demonstrate Magic Bolt.

Ashtalon Kingdom’s north.

“......What in the world is that—”

Following King Stalian V’s order, Fillian Merkillan and the knights came up north to grasp what was happening.

All of them stood there blankly, staring at the wreckage spread out before the plains.

No—could you even call it a plain?

Fillian Merkillan couldn’t even turn the eyes, with every thought frozen stiff.

The first thing that entered the vision was black earth stained pitch-dark.

And on that black earth, a reddish plain that should have been fresh green.

Walls smashed to pieces here and there, and a territory dyed red, completely ruined.

And then what came into view was—

Thud— thud— thud—

People.

“.......”

Thud—

Thud—

Thud—

Thud—

A monotonous sound reached their ears.

The sound of mechanically stabbing something.

The knights—and Fillian Merkillan—

knew where that sound was coming from.

They couldn’t not know.

Because the source of that sound was right in front of them.

A man and a woman filled their view.

A man and a woman wearing rings of the same shape on the ring finger.

The man was repeatedly stabbing the woman’s abdomen—already torn up—with a dull knife.

Thud—

Thud—

There was no emotion in the repeated action.

As if it was simply what had to be done, the man continued that act calmly.

Yet strangely, blood tears were flowing from the man’s two eyes, eyes with no vitality left in them.

And the woman, being stabbed in the belly by the man as if it didn’t matter—

Crunch— crunch—

was chewing up the man’s neck with the mouth.

Just like the man, shedding blood tears, chewing and spitting out chunks of flesh with the same numb repetition.

And it wasn’t only that.

Somewhere, a child was tearing open an old man’s back.

Somewhere else, soldiers were mechanically stabbing knights in the neck.

And somewhere else—

a child was chewing up a young woman’s head.

It was bizarre.

So bizarre that—

Fillian couldn’t properly recognize the phenomenon.

The knights were the same.

Sight delivered intuitive information to them, but the mind couldn’t properly understand that information.

Strangely, it was like being in a dream.

Even though what was spread out in front of them was no different from a scene of hell.

So Fillian thought about why that might be—

“......!”

—and before long, realized it.

‘There’s no sound.’

More precisely, the sounds that should have been there were missing.

If it was war, there should have been screams.

The grinding clash of weapons.

Someone’s shouts.

None of it existed.

All that existed here was the sound of flesh being torn.

That unreal situation was stripping reality away from the knights, and finally, the moment everyone there realized it—

“Uweeehk—!!”

Someone collapsed while shouting loudly and started retching right there.

The knights’ eyes all flooded with fear.

In that situation, Fillian quietly opened the mouth.

“......Deputy commander.”

“Yes.”

A face gone bluish, like the stomach was turning.

Still, the deputy commander nodded somehow and answered, and Fillian asked.

“......Are you sure this is the place?”

“I’m sure. This is Triman.”

Triman.

Inside the kingdom, it was also called the gold-mine territory—the territory of Count Harvest.

A huge territory where countless people lived.

“Ha—”

Hearing the report, Fillian let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

“From the place His Majesty ordered us to confirm to here—how many villages and territories were there in total?”

“......Eight villages and one territory.”

“Then they too—”

“.......”

The deputy commander didn’t answer.

Only silence confirmed it.

“.......”

Fillian lowered the gaze.

Even now, a shadow was creeping and widening, like a shadow that turned its back on the sun.

Staring at that sight, Fillian recalled the king’s words.

‘Fillian Merkillan. Since the three powerhouses haven’t returned, go confirm the truth. Without telling anyone. Secretly.’

A very plain order.

......But remembering an order that was completely impossible to carry out, Fillian—

“Deputy commander.”

“Yes.”

“Go back to His Majesty right now and report this situation. And the rest will follow me and move to tell the nearby villages and territories about this situation.”

“Understood.”

“And—make sure you report together to His Majesty.”

Fillian hesitated, then decided.

“That it can’t be concealed anymore.”

Fillian said that and moved quickly.

Even as that happened, the black shadow kept spreading its domain without end.

......Truly, without end.

“......Crazy—”

Evan blurted that out without thinking, then came to the senses late and covered the mouth.

When it was just with Alon, or with Penia, Evan had let words like that slip once or twice, but not now.

“Crazy—”

“No way—”

But as if to erase Evan’s worry, Selaim and Sharan—who had looked interested just a moment ago—also burst out in shock.

“......This is Magic Bolt?”

Even Alon, the one who had demonstrated the magic, was showing emotion on the face—rarely—and looked stunned.

[......I was shocked last time too, but it’s really incredible.]

And lastly, Heinkel, who had been staring blankly at it, muttered.

[This is without using a hand seal, right?]

“That’s right.”

[Then—do you have a hand seal among them that relates to a focusing form?]

Heinkel asked quickly like something had been thought of, and after talking with Heinkel about this and that for a while, Alon said.

“......Tomorrow, I’ll try experimenting that way.”

[Not right now?]

“Normally I’d want to, but unfortunately, my mana—”

[Ah—]

With Heinkel nodding like it was understood as the end—

“......That was really Magic Bolt?”

“Honestly I can’t believe it either, but it is.”

“But wasn’t it too different? Especially this time—depending on how much mana you pour in, it feels like the power would change by an absurd amount—”

“I never imagined it would be that versatile.”

“I think so too.”

“I’m curious what it’s like when you slam mana in as much as you can. Just how far does it go—”

Sharan, Selaim, and Penia traded opinions as they went down below the mage tower.

And when they reached the first floor—

“......?”

Alon sensed something strange.

Up until Alon went up the mage tower, the atmosphere had been loud, but now it had become extremely heavy.

“.......”

Alon subtly turned and checked the mages’ faces.

All of them looked bewildered or serious—or else frowning like they couldn’t properly understand what was going on.

“Hey—”

“......Ah, Tower Master—”

“What’s going on?”

When Selaim called after grasping the mood, a mage who had been holding the head came to the senses and answered.

“......We got word from the Purple Mage Tower—no matter how you look at it, something huge happened in Ashtalon.”

“......Something huge? What do you mean?”

“Um—have you heard the rumor before, about Ashtalon?”

“You mean the rumor about monsters massacring each other?”

“Yes. Recently, in Ashtalon’s north—”

The mage naturally relayed what had been heard before to Alon’s party.

“They say a black domain that drives people insane is constantly swallowing up the ground.”

When all of that ended—

“......A black domain?”

Alon asked back.

“Yes, that’s right. They say a black domain that wasn’t seen at all is eroding the ground.”

“.......”

Alon could understand what was happening in Ashtalon without difficulty.

At least, as far as Alon knew—

‘......the Sin of Sloth.’

—that was what happened when it appeared.

“......So a request for reinforcements has been sent to the entire Allied Kingdoms, including the mage tower.”

The mage opened the mouth slowly and added with difficulty.

“......No matter what, it seems the magic demonstration we were supposed to do tomorrow will have to be postponed.”

Alon had to head to Ashtalon immediately.