Chapter 209 Strongest Sage, In Strategy Meeting

 

◇

30 minutes later.
We arrived in front of the Second Academy's gate.
When we were about to get in, a knight guarding the gate halted us.

"You must be Mathias-san's group, yes? Please come over here."

The knight then showed us the way.
He's wearing a Second Academy's insignia on his shoulder.

He's probably a Second Academy's graduate. Apparently, the royal capital's chivalric order is one of the main place of employments for Second Academy's graduates.
...This building originally belonged to First Academy though, they got it completely occupied huh.

While thinking that, we got inside the First Academy as led by the guard and went down from there.
Looks like the sixth conference room is located in the basement.

It's the ideal location for the army's command room.
Seems like the First Academy has gotten quite all right while I was gone.

"We will now hold a strategy meeting to discuss countermeasures for the 『Wooden Troops』!"

The meeting began not long after we arrived at the conference room.

Though it's called a meeting, there's only 10 people besides us.
There's Second Academy's Principal Edward, three Second Academy's teachers, and one First Academy's teacher.
All the teachers are related to augmentation magic.

The rest is probably the upper echelons of the kingdom's knights.
I've seen some of these faces in the audiences with the king.
Presiding over the meeting is the knight commander whom I defeated in the entrance exam, Gayle.

"Two days ago, we received a report that Relaia Barondom bordering on Saihill Kingdom had suffered an attack. The kingdom knights thus proceeded with the standard procedure and made the preparations to sortie out... but then we discovered some unusual situation from a report that came afterward. We'd like to borrow expertises from augmentation specialists and Mathias about this issue."

Afterward, the knight commander put what appeared to be a doll made of wood on top of the desk.

"What do you think this is?"

"...Is it the assailant's body."

"Correct. How did you come to that conclusion?"

The knight commander nodded at the answer given by a Second Academy's teacher.
I see, this is the reason why they're calling augmentation experts here.

"Complex magic circles have been carved in the entirety of this doll. It's impossible for chanted magic to create this, thus it's most likely created via chantless magic... I presume that there is no other reason why we were called here."

"I see... Do you get what this is?"

"I'm afraid to say that its complexity exceeds my present knowledge. Given time to research it, I shall try to analyze it... but it would take about five years. I think Mathias-kun or Ruli-san would likely know. After all, our augmentation is still nothing compared to these two."

The teacher looked at me.
I do have an idea about the mechanics behind this doll.
...In fact, I'm not sure if this thing can even be called a magic item.

"This doll moves with forces generated by a particular magic item located in its heart section. It's not remote controlled, it's an autonomous type. Judging from its output, it's only about a bit stronger than a warrior that's not buffed with magic."

"...It's exactly like the report says... I heard you're good with magic tools, Mathias, but you could even comprehend something just by looking huh... Do you know who made it?"

"I do not know that far, but the augment magic on this doll is indeed considerably advanced. There is nobody in the neighboring countries with a skill this advanced, which means the culprit must be demons."

I don't feel mana specific to demons from this magic item.
But this doll is quite a peculiar type of magic items, it's exceedingly hard to distinguish its creator's mana.

Finding it out isn't really impossible if we go back to Folkia and use the Detector magic tool... but I've used up all the mana stored inside that magic tool to search for the magic sword.
It'd be faster for us to go to the location where the incident took place than going around looking for other detector magic tools.

"Demons huh... Those troublesome bunch again..."
<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.>
The Knight Commander paused after saying that.
And he continued after taking a breath.

"I get the picture about the doll... Well then, I shall now explain our current situation. After all, it's related to Mathias's hometown."

My hometown?
By that he means Hildesheimr right?
Wonder if the accident occurred near the territory.

Hildesheimr territory itself isn't located in the border of the kingdom, but now that I look again, there might be other territories where that apply nearby.
I wait for the Knight Commander to continue while thinking that.

"In conclusion, the national border army received an attack from about 300 dolls, however, they were able to annihilate the dolls without the help of the kingdom's main army. The parent and child pair from Hildesheimr who received a call from a nearby town were of a tremendous help in particular."

I see, Hildesheimr household came as a reinforcement huh.
After all, my brother, Reich can use chantless magic, and my father Castor is good with sword.
These two should be quite a force to be reckoned with.

"That means there's no problem anymore, right? Then you should stop the knights right away. If this attack is really the demons' ploy, mobilizing the army away is exactly what they want."

The principal who had been keeping silence stated his opinion to the knight commander.
Augment magic is outside the principal's expertise, but he's the most experienced one amongst the people here about wars.

The principal is most likely worried about the possibility of demons planning this attack to instigate wars.
From demons' point of view, wars between humans would stave off both resources and be like killing two birds in one stone.
There's a high chance that the situation will progress just as the demons planned if the national army do get mobilized.

However...

"No, unfortunately, the attack is not over yet. Mathias's elder brother claimed that the enemy they defeated was only a very small part of a larger group... As we still occasionally received reports about wooden dolls that appeared to be scouts getting caught, we should consider that the battle is not over yet."

The knight commander denied the principal's request.

"Mathias's elder brother... You mean Biffgel of Glory Crest? I heard that guy is an idiot, sure you can believe him?"

"The one being a huge help is the eldest son, Reich, not Biffgel. I heard that Biffgel did participate but he wasn't much help on the battlefield."

The fact that Biffgel is an idiot has even reached the principal and the knight commander huh....
Well, since my father Castor and knight commander are apparently acquaintances, he must be the source.

"Still, they made this huh..."

I look at the doll in question while muttering such.
Just as my brother has guessed, if they can make this doll, the number won't stop at just 300.

The demons would rather sortie out themselves rather than creating several hundreds dolls of this level, it'd be faster that way.
They must have made preparations to mass produce these things.
At the very least there should be thousands, or at worst, tens of thousands of this, no doubt.

If these dolls are the demons' handiwork... The situation is quite problematic.
Because the driving force of these dolls are human's life force.

It's one thing if there's only one or two dolls, but they must have the backing of quite a huge organization to handle so many dolls.
Or worst, the entire neighboring country might be ruled by the demons.

...Good grief, these incidents involving demons just won't stop coming, do they.
Well, it also means it never gets boring though.








Previous Chapter