Chapter 208 Strongest Sage, Takes a Breather

 

"In the end, there was nothing of interest in the treasury."

"It'd be nice if there was another of that sword in there, but I guess it won't be that easy."

We took a good look at the treasury after the audience with the king, but we couldn't find anything we wanted after all.
The timing for that sword to be brought here was pretty miraculous, but an item of that level should be pretty rare after all.

...To begin with, I could only find that one magic sword using detection magic back then, so I never expected there would be another.
Amongst weapons capable of opposing a demon of that level, nothing else could be easily found with detector magic tool.

If there really are other demons as strong as Zaridias out there, we'd have to defeat them using other means.
That said, defeating a foe of that level without making use of special magic tools would be extremely difficult.

"So now that we beat the demons and all, what's the plan?"

"First thing first, I need to recover my strength. My life force had been depleted a lot to convert it into mana in my fight against Zaridias."

"Depleted life force!?"

Ruli was shocked when she heard me.
Well, I never told her about this method, it's only natural.
Even in my previous life, only I could use magic that convert life force into mana.

"Yeah. It requires quite a specific spell, and it'd instantly kill you if you make a mistake in the adjustment, so I won't teach how at this stage."

"A-a magic like that... But is life force something that can be recovered?"

"It should get back just fine if I take it easy for 10 days. Until that time, it's probably a good idea to stay inside the great barrier of the royal capital for safety's sake."

Though it may seem short, 10 days are quite long.
What we're going to do next will be for when the time comes.

Until then, let's spend our days in the capital.
We might even be able to collect the arrows that Ishisu Company took over.
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka .com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>
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"Mathias-san, we have an emergency!"

A week after we started our stay to recover my life force.
Several guards have come to the inn I'm staying at.
This time, it's an ordinary elite unit not the unit under the king's direct control.

Looks like there has been incident.
I can't sense any suspicious mana reaction around the capital though... Wonder what's going on.

"Are the demons attacking?"

"No it's not that, the national border is under attack by armed forces, but the circumstance surrounding it is quite abnormal, so we'd like to ask for your help, Mathias-san! ...We'll tell you the details in the soundproofed briefing room, could you come to the First Academy in 30 minutes?"

I see, war huh.
I'm curious about the abnormal circumstance part, so I'd at least go and have a listen.
That aside...

"We will be discussing wars in the First Academy instead of the royal palace?"

It's true that there's no safer place in the capital than the First Academy right now.
And since Second Academy's students are using First Academy's building, the students walking around there are stronger than the elite forces under the king, the building is relatively sturdy too.
Once the Second Academy's building that's currently under construction is finished, that's going to the capital's strongest fort, but it won't be for a while.

It's sort of a military academy after all, lending a facility to the army is not a particularly strange thing to do.

But does this mean they're leaving the royal palace and turning the First Academy into the headquarters.
The palace should be quite safe itself, there's no reason to go out of their way and use the First Academy.
The guard answers my doubt.

"We would have held the meeting in the royal palace if it were a full scale war, but there's a possibility that it won't turn into one.... We have repurposed the First Academy's sixth conference room into a briefing command room."

The national border has been attacked, yet no full-scale war option is still on the table huh.
Judging from the diplomacy in this era, the situation must be quite peculiar.
If another country has sent their army, it will instantly turn into a war after all.

That aside, was there even a sixth conference room in First Academy.
I'm sure it didn't exist when I went there before.

...I sent the guard off and called Ruli and the girls who were staying in the next room to my room.

"War... I'm not too enthusiastic to take part in one."

"From the guard's story, it seems like it's not going to turn into war for sure yet... But why are they calling us I wonder?"

The girls began their preparation to leave while discussing that.
True, it's quite weird for us to get called in this situation.

Even if we're a force that's currently staying at the capital, we're adventurers... and students, officially at least.
During war, the first thing to be mobilized should have been the troops.
Calling us before they did that means...

"Isn't it because of that abnormal circumstance thingy? Like say, the army that was attacking didn't belong to the neighboring country or something."

Well, we'll find out what's actually happening if we go.
Let's just hope that they won't involve us in something troublesome.





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