Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyusoukyoku Vol 17 Chapter 4

Published at 15th of April 2019 11:19:17 PM

Chapter 4
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17-4. Purple Mound

Satou here. Although not to the point of like a bolt out of the blue, I remember feeling absolutely stumped waking up at unknown places after a night out drinking away with friends many times over.
Waking up to a Death Valley-like scenery only happened that one time though.

◇

"Over there, Earl Pendragon."

Heim-shi of Shiga Eight Swords points at something that looks like a purple mound.

The morning after Bridal Knights formation, he suddenly dropped by my mansion and brought me to capital's outskirts.
We headed to an area barricaded by the capital soldiers to find the aforementioned purple mound.

"This thing?"

Crisis Perception isn't reacting, it doesn't seem that dangerous.
AR reading says, a [Soil Structure].

I got off my horse, handed over the rein to a knight who led us here, and walked toward the purple mound.

A purple mound is standing at the center of a field that has been fully harvested.
It looks like ruins from Lalakie era somewhat.

"Indeed. This was found when a farmer was making his rounds in this area."
"You mean this wasn't here before?"
"Yes, according to testimonies of harvesters, this mound was not present up to sunset the day before."

Fumu, not a Mystery Circle, but a Mystery Monument huh.
I noticed that the maker's name is blank when I check its detailed info. Either this was made by someone with a blank name like I could do, or the name was erased with some kind of mean.
Well, you'd normally think it's the latter, no doubt.

"Perhaps someone created this with earth magic in the middle of the night?"
"I would not have called for Earl Pendragon so early in the morning if it did."

Heim-shi dismounted, picked up a pebble on the ground and threw it at the purple mound.

"--It passed through the mound?"

The stone Heim-shi threw disappeared into the purple mound, and came out on the other side.

"Is this an illusion?"

I knew it was not despite me asking.
I would have immediately seen through the illusion if it really were.

"It's not."

Heim-shi grabbed and stopped my arm that was going to reach out to the mound.
Heim-shi turned around and made a signal to a group of people that was already in the area around the mound.
One of the people, a magician wearing a blue sash on top of his robe--Blue Sash of Shiga 33 Wands stepped forward and began to chant a spell. Judging from the chant, it's a summoning magic.

The magician summoned a pigeon and released it toward the mound.

The pigeon nested on one of the bumps on the Purple Mound.
Stones pass through it but it appears that living things can touch it just fine.

"Magic passes through it as well, but not living creatures."

According to Heim-shi, his light magic and one of the magicians' force magic just went through the mound.

"Watch closely, Earl Pendragon."

Heim points at the pigeon.
The pigeon started to cry out in pain, so I checked the AR and saw its HP gradually decreasing.

--It's Drain.

Looks like the mound will start draining life force from living things after they come into contact with it for a certain period of time.
However, I didn't saw such a dangerous bit when I checked the mound's detailed info on the AR.

I stare at the purple mound once again.

There's a complex mana flow inside the purple mound. I can't read its effect, not sure if it's because it's not magic.
At the very least, it doesn't seem to be a spell formula for Life Drain nor Mana Drain.

"As you can see. This mound snatches vitality and strength of living beings."

The pigeon fell on the ground before Heim-shi.
Looks like it's only fainted.

The summoner picked the pigeon up and unsummoned it.

"I was wondering, Earl Pendragon who has traveled all over the world would know about this mound, no?"

Looks like that was the reason why he picked me.

"I think it kinds of resemble ruins left by Lalakie Civilization, I suppose?"
"Fumu. A relic of an ancient civilization huh... Even if it has only enough power to kill insects, for something like this to appear suddenly--"

A scholar standing next to the summoning magician nodded, like 'I know what you mean'.
Looks like he's a researcher from the Royal Research Institute.

Numerous dead bodies of small insects are lying on the ground around the purple mound indeed.

"--In my humble opinion, this is some kind of blight."
"Why not just say it straight? Like, this is the demons' doing."

The summoner snapped at the scholar.
Ignoring their feud, I walk around the mound, pretending to check it out, then I tested magic edge and holy dagger on it, but they all passed through the mound all the same.

I probably could intervene with the torrent of mana inside the mound if I just put some strength into it, but since it's dangerous as I have no idea what the formula is about, I refrained myself.

"Usasa, lookf at thatf woof."

--Woof?

"It's likef the thingf at the villagef's squaref!"
"It even gotf the samef colorf too."

I turn around at the source of accented words and found the dogkin boy, Gaugaru, a graduate of the labyrinth city's Explorer School, [Pendora].
He's together with his friends, the bunnykin Usasa, Rabibi and the others.

They were among a crowd that had formed outside the soldiers' barricade without my knowledge.

"It's the young masfter!"
"""Young masfter!"""

The Pendora members waved at me.
With that as an impetus, the crowd who were here to look at the purple mound noticed me.

"Am I seeing things or is that--"
"It's the Demon Lord Slayer!"
"Hail Pendragon-sama!"

The crowd began to call out for my name.

"Oy! Don't push! Stop pushing!"

People at the end of the crowd began to push at the barricade to look at me better.
They're ignoring the soldiers telling them to stop, they're gonna crash here if this keeps up.

These people would go straight to the purple mound at this rate, not good.

"...■ Clay Wall!"

Field soil rose up 30 meter tall before the crowd.
The one who cast the magic was a magician with pink blond hair. Since she's wearing a red colored sash which signifies her position in 33 Shiga Wands, she must be a subordinate of the blue sashed summoner earlier.

"Was that of use to you, lord Pendragon?"

The beautiful magician turned around and let out a smile.

"Why yes, thank you."

When I frankly thanked her, the magician had a complicated look on her face.
Looks like my reaction didn't live up to her expectations.

I check her AR reading.

She's called Athena, with [Sakura Guardian] title, I kind of remember her.
She was the girl I met at the base of the huge sakura tree at the royal castle when I first visited the castle right after I became a Mithril explorer.
If I recall right, she had a little feud with Mia due to her sense of rivalry against Boruenan Forest elves.

Since it's a story long past and not like it's got anything to do with me, I nod at her to end the conversation and ask one of the soldiers to fetch Usasa and the others.
Not because I know them, but because I heard them saying something curious.

"""Young masfter! Congratulationsf for the formationf of your privatef knights!"""

I promptly say, "Thanks" to them and get to the point.

"Everyone, have you seen something like this before?"
"Un, we have."
"No idea what is it, but that thing sprouted up in the village's square this morning."
"It sprung up like nyoki-nyoki-nyoki woof."
"It shone bright before it did, didn't it."
"Right right. Was doing a night watch, then suddenly a magic circle-like something on the ground, that surprised me kuma."
"Kubea's scream woke us up."
"I didn't scream kuma! I was just a bit startled kuma."

I ask them more questions while arranging their words and the content of their testimonies in my head.

"Did you hear a chant before the magic circle showed up?"
"I didn't kuma."
"Neither did I."

"Kinda felt like I heard a grating sound like 'kiiin'."

Rabibi added more testimony to the two who were on night duty.

"The mound was at the center of the magic circle?"
"That's right kuma."
"Was the mound already purple from the beginning?"
"Yup, I think it was. And since the magic circle also shined purple, so was the magic circle's color, I think."

In the middle of the night, a purple magic circle manifested in the village's square, and then soil rose up to form a mound in the center of a magic circle shining purple.

"We tried to poke the mound with a stick and it just passed through."
"Touching it made me lose strength, it felt yucky kuma."
"So, we woke everyone, and ran here to inform young master."

And then they met me by chance here when they took a shortcut through the field from the west gate.
Dryad might have a hand in leading them here indirectly.

"I see. I'm grateful for the valuable information."

I convey their testimonies to Heim-shi of Shiga Eight Swords.
Information about the appearances of purple mounds in other place and that it was created by some kind of magic was a major one to Heim-shi and the researchers, he smiled broadly and clapped the kids' shoulders, "Well done!"

"Uwaah, it's a Shiga Eight Sword in the flesh."
"Awesome"
"You guys, you're being rude."
"Right right woof."

The [Pendora] kids seemed to be fans of Shiga Eight Swords, they were elated to receive a thanks from Heim-shi.

"Everyone, you've done a good job. Since it'd be a struggle to reach my mansion, you should take some rest in one of my villas instead."

I took a paper out, drew a map on it and handed it over to Usasa.
It's close to the market, so it's an ideal spot if they want to tour the capital.

"Oh right, this is for you, young master."

Rabibi fetched a bundle of letters from his knapsack and handed it to me.
The topmost letter has the name Iruna and Jena of [Beautiful Wings], who are working as teachers at Explorer School, written on it. A letter from those two, that's rare.

"Teachers were wishing for more staff, they said."

--I see.

"The Explorer School's selection test was incredible woof."
"Lots of knights-sama and nobles-sama kuma."
"Like that princess with a gigantic hammer, it was amazing."

Skimming the letter over, it was a petition to change the way recruitments work since nobles and knights were flooding in the selection tests, thus they were losing time to teach students.
Looks like the effect of Demon Lord Slayer even manifested here.

--Oh.

Looking at Map, I saw that Pochi and Tama have just started their daily morning practice.

『I'm sorry you two, but could you do me a favor?』
『Aye aye sir~』
『Acknowledged nanodesu.』

I took the readily consenting two here behind a nearby tree with Space magic.

"Usasa~?"
"Rabibi nanodesu! Ah, Gaugaru and Kubea's here too nodesu!"
"""Tama neesan!"""
"""And Pochi neesan!"""

Pendora kids were ecstatic when they saw Tama and Pochi.
The kids whose names didn't get called were pointing to themselves while looking like they were saying, "Me, what about me?", seeing that Pochi looked like she was at a loss for words for a bit and then said, "Everyone, you have done well to come here nanodesu!" to brush over it.

"Sorry but could you two please show them the way to the downtown villa?"

There's a lot of people in the royal capital, I'm worried whether they can arrive at the villa otherwise.

"Roger~"
"Yes nanodesu. Pochi is a pro at showing ways to people nanodesuyo!"

While smiling and praising Pochi for her yet another pro, I sent everyone off.

"Now then--"

These purple mounds are either related to demons, or gods, or neither at all...

For now, I'll check out the most likely location first.
I connect to Arisa and Sera at Pendragon Mansion with space magic [Tactical Talk].

『Sersan, sorry but could you ask Head Miko at the Duchy Capital--Lily-sama as to whether she received an oracle about purple mounds.』
『Yes, very well.』
『Arisa, sorry but could you take Sersan there.』