The Strongest Wizard Becomes a Countryside Guardsman After Taking an Arrow to the Knee

Chapter 108 – The Demon’s Base

Translator: ranzan

After we arrived at the capital, we made our way outside the city.

We left Mulg after dinner. Of course, the sun was down. Even so, Cruz and the rest of the party easily got out of the city.

As we left the city, I again asked Vallimie,

「You said the place was close to the capital…which way?」

Of course, I had only asked a few things about it before. I never asked exactly where the place was.

The time for directions was at hand.

「It’s this way…follow me.」

Vallimie rode Rai…we left the high road and ventured into the forest.

Also, Vi-Vi and Yureena rode Moofy, while I rode Femm.

Cruz ran alongside, and said,

「Hey, I was here before!」

「Why?」

「Killing those unicorns! There was a group of them.」

Maybe the reason for the unicorn coming so close to the city was that the demon and his base was chasing them away.

It kind of made me feel sad for the unicorns.

Wait…no I didn’t. Those unicorns were a little TOO lost. There’s nothing we can do but kill them if they’re close to the city.

As we went along, the forest became denser and denser.

Only Femm really could run without problems.

「This isn’t just dense…there’s more tree than air!」

「It’s not natural for there to be THIS many trees.」

Vi-Vi said with a worried look.

「Really?」

「Well, the sun can’t reach down to the ground, right? Then, any new sapling couldn’t grow. Even so, this forest has grown out of control without that effect.」

「You really are smart to notice that Vi-Vi. It is unnatural. Good job.」

「Eheh.」

Vallimie complimented Vi-Vi, and Vi-Vi blushed.

Then Vallimie said to all of us,

「Just as Vi-Vi said, this place is not a natural forest. It’s been overgrown like this to hide the place the demon lives.」

「Just like Lindobal Forest?」

Cruz said, innocently.

Lindobal Forest was grown out out of a wasteland.

Vallimie reacted a bit angrily.

「Not the same at all! I made the forest so that it would thrive naturally for eternity.」

「Is that so? Sorry…」

「N…no need to worry…」

Cruz apologized directly, and Vallimie also did a bit.

It might have surprised her that such a famous hero would apologize so quickly.

As we went farther, I could clearly feel magical power. It might have been magic to identify intruders.

I told everyone just in case,

「I think we might have been detected. Let’s hurry.」

「Okay!」

「I didn’t feel anything.」

「Me either…」

Cruz quickly sped up. Vi-Vi and Vallimie didn’t notice, and were a bit worried.

As we sped up, we saw a large building…no, a cliff, no a castle!

It was a huge rectangular building. No features in the building, no windows. Just a massive gate made of mithril.

Even if a whole army were to attack, it would be a difficult battle just to get in.

Vallimie shouted,

「This is the castle I was talking about!」

「There’s defensive magic on the stone and the gate. This is going to be rough!」

Vi-Vi looked it over and said.

Cruz looked at the castle, ready for anything.

「Al, what do we do?」

「We’ll figure something out. Well, there might only be one way…」

We had already set off something that detected us.

No time to take this easy…so, I started chanting,

「King of gods controlling the heavens. Goddess over the underworld,

Holder of ancient scepter, opener of space and time.

With this life… with these words.

King of the sacred, break open the solid of this world.

For my name is Alfred Lint!」

With that spell being chanted, the space-time around the building itself began to warp.

And then…the stone surface of the building burst open as if a screw had plunged straight through it. It exploded into a mountain of rubble.

「…what the hell…」

「What magic is that?」

「ryaa ryaa」

Vallimie and Vi-Vi both looked astounded at the broken structure.

Shiggy’s face emerged from the pocket, and I could feel it flap its wings.

Shiggy seemed quite happy. It probably loves strong magic like that.

「Good job, Al! WOW!」

「A little too much magic, you think?」

Cruz was bouncing up and down with glee, while Yureena looked a bit miffed.

『Frightening.』「Moo mooo」「Gaahhh…」

The beasts looked a bit scared too.

「Well, you’ve seen the gravity magic I usually use right? This is like one step above.」

「Grav…ity Magic?」

Vi-Vi said with a confused look. Vallimie also was lost.

Maybe, on its face…it didn’t ‘look’ like gravity magic.

「Gravity magic is one type of space-time magic. You know, just like a magic bag.」

「A…magic bag?」

「Listen, a magic bag can hold a lot more than what you see, and it doesn’t get heavy, right?」

「…yeah?」

「Well, you apply that magic and you can use it the same way to break things.」

「Uh…ok…well, wow…」

Vi-Vi shrunk away from me a bit. What did I do?

Maybe it was a bit too powerful. I guess it looked a little more impressive than fire magic.

She might have just been surprised that I could use that very strong gravity magic so easily.

I tried to explain it to her again.

「It took a lot of magical power…so I’m a bit tired.」

「…um, yeah…」

Vallimie looked a bit frightened, took a few steps back, and sounded different than usual.

Anyway, the building was destroyed, and now we just had to get the demon left inside.

「Come on! Let’s find the demon!」

「…uh, would it still be alive?」

Cruz asked…yeah, there was always the possibility.

The demon’s castle was basically a mountain of stone now. The demon could be pinned under the debris, or even torn apart by the destruction of the place.

It was too bad I didn’t have an answer about that yet.

「Ah, damn…maybe I did go to far.」

「Now you tell us.」

「You always do this.」

Yureena and Cruz said, laughing. Vi-Vi and Vallimie were still taken aback.

So I asked Femm,

「Femm, do you smell anything strange?」

『There’s the smell of recently avalanched rock.』

「Anything else?」

『The smell of a quickly crushed metal gate as well.』

That has a smell? Never knew…but if you looked, well, I could see it was crushed.

「No…I mean the smell of demon…like, blood.」

『There is the smell of demon. No smell of blood.』

「I see…that means the demon’s not dead.」

I quickly ran around, looking for any trace of the demon.

The defense of the castle was completely destroyed. That’s why I could search for him with magic.

「Huh? There’s an underground area. The demon must be there.」

「Let’s gooooooo!」

Cruz said naturally as we headed to the rubble.

「…you really messed up my castle.」

Just then, a demon emerging from the rubble said.