* * *

“Hmm, it’s boring. How many days has this been going on?”

On top of the watchtower.

Lydon, already stuffed to the brim with Cadel’s assault on his stomach, sighed heavily as he rolled the candy to cleanse his tongue.

“Today is the 21st day.”

“Are you stupid, Lumen? Do you think someone asked you that because they can’t count days?”

“……The most annoying thing is that I’m immune to your annoyance, so stop whining and just watch.”

Despite Lumen’s blows, Lydon continued to whimper, expressing his desire to be free. It had been 21 days since they were dispatched to the borderline where the seal circle fragment was located. There were no signs of the great magic circle being activated.

For 21 days, the Knight Order’s routine had been the same. They formed groups, took turns standing guard, ate, and trained the rest of the time. The tension only lasted for the first three days. The longer they were on standby, the more they became accustomed to this uneventful routine.

A year of training and about a month of waiting. Lydon wasn’t the only one growing weary from the long break from combat; Lumen, next to him, was eager to prove that their long training had paid off.

Of course, he knew it would be best if there was no war, but if that wasn’t possible, it would be better to do it sooner rather than later. As he thought this, he stared across the border, where not a single ant could be seen.

“Hey! Are there still any signs from the magic circle?”

Van came to the watchtower. Lumen looked down at him and shook his head, and Van waved him over.

“Then come down. Commander calls you.”

* * *

Cadel looked around the group, his face grave. Tapping the paper in his hand, he spoke in a low voice.

“About half an hour ago, I received a report that a fragment of the magic circle in the direction of the Principality of Snivec and the Dunkelhai Kingdom had been triggered. If that’s the starting point, our fragment should be reacting soon.”

Finally.

The atmosphere in the Knight Order was tense with the information Cadel had brought back. They felt a subtle mix of excitement and nervousness at the impending battle. What a foe the great magic circle would unleash once it was activated. Vague visions filled their minds.

Cadel spoke calmly in the center of his subordinates.

“Starting today, you will spend less time sleeping and more time scouting. Three guards instead of two. But for the next two days, you’ll have to work in groups of two and three, because I’ll be gone for a while.”

“You’re going to be away at a time like this?”

When Lumen asked curiously, Cadel answered while grabbing his pendant.

“I told you, it started in the Principality of Snivec and the Dunkelhai Kingdom. The dragon in the nearby mountains has something to check out, and while I’m at it, I’m going to take a look at the great magic circle as a whole.”

* * *

Cadel braced himself, clutching the hard scales tightly. The wind, the force of which he had never experienced before, whipped frantically at his cheeks and ears. With the altitude and wind pressure shifting uncontrollably every minute, all Cadel could do was keep his breaths desperately short.

[We’ve arrived.]

With a voice echoing in his head, his floating hair slowly subsided. His hands were clammy with sweat, and as he lifted his head, he saw a vast expanse of clouds above him.

“What kind of flying speed is so damn ignorant like that……? If I hadn’t been more careful, I would have been killed before the war even started.”

[Do you think this one will let you become a piece of smashed meat? You are always cowardly and have no faith.]

Faith was a shitty thing to believe as he sped on, ignoring Cadel’s screams. Cadel pulled himself up, clawing at the scales as if to remove his hand.

“……Is that the one?”

[Correct.]

“It’s a little different from the explanation. They say it just glows a little bit.”

[Looks like they took it to the next level while I was getting you.]

A straight line of dark shadows cut across his ashen eyes. Cadel’s brow narrowed as he stared at the sinister purple pillar of light that pierced the clouds. That ominous aura that could be felt even from a distance was undoubtedly demonic energy.

Beneath it was the fragment of the magic circle that the demonic energy had consumed, and the soldiers that surrounded it. Cadel groped at his waist, sizing up their numbers, which were as dense as black dots, and soon a small, lozenge-shaped silver jewel was in his hand.

It was an [Ullo], a magical tool for wide-area communication. He imbued it with a small amount of mana, and the jewelry floated into the air, emitting a stream of mechanical noise.

Cadel manipulated the ullo like a radio tuned to a frequency, and before long, several voices emanated from it.

[This is Selvryn Forest, Dunkelhai! The magic circle is activating too quickly. We’re moving our people to a nearby shelter, but we’re running out of time, so we’re asking for backup in the forest!]

[This is the Shadow Knight Order, reinforcing to Selvryn Forest. The nearby standbys should join us immediately.]

[Snivec Inte Snowfields, a crack has been discovered in the center of the magic circle. A large amount of demonic energy is leaking out.]

[This is Dunkelhai’s Hendes’ Cave! Demonic energy from the magic circle has collapsed the ceiling! We have multiple injuries, we need backup!]

Each intermittent infusion of mana into [Ullo] changed the content of the voice that flowed out of it, as if changing channels. After a series of urgent requests for assistance and status reports, Cadel strapped [Ullo] to his waist once more.

“Dunkelhai seems to be progressing faster than Snivec. I think the real starting point is here, Dunkelhai.”

[It is indeed unpleasant that the front of this one’s abode should be the first to be defiled.]

Kunra snorted in annoyance and flapped his wings wildly. It looked as if Kunra was ready to take on the source of the displeasure at a moment’s notice, but Cadel knew he wouldn’t do it himself.

“For now, let’s look at the great magic circle as a whole, just in case there’s something going on elsewhere.”

Then they had to figure out where the fastest progression was. It was important to figure out how the enemies would appear after the great magic circle was triggered.

‘We can’t afford to lose the initiative from the get-go, and no matter what they do, we need to have a response in place as soon as possible.’

Cadel pressed against Kunra’s back as he prepared to fly again, and as if in anticipation, a translucent scarlet shield formed around him. It was Kunra’s doing, not Cadel’s. Cadel innocently asked what it was for, but was silenced by the explosion of speed that followed.

* * *

Kunra’s assurance that it would take two days at most to travel around the magic circle was not a bluff. Cadel had traveled the entire continent in a single day.

Of course, without Kunra’s shield, he would have been swept away, flesh and bone, and disintegrated in the sky, but he survived and was able to examine the state of the great magic circle.

What they found was that the luminescence of the circle’s fragments was progressing clockwise, with Dunkelhai as the starting point. It was clear that the circle was being activated slowly, though only partially. Also, even after they had traveled all the way around the great magic circle, Dunkelhai was the only place where there was any sort of pillar of demonic energy.

They concluded that the Dunkelhai Kingdom would be the first place to change, so they decided to monitor the situation there.

“Which do you think it is, Kunra?”

After hearing Cadel’s scolding, Kunra, who was belatedly adjusting his speed and flying to Dunkelhai, rolled his eyes.

[What do you mean?]

“The great magic circle. What do you think it’s going to summon when it’s all triggered? You mentioned before that it could be used to summon a large group of demons, or it could be used to bring out the entire Demon Realm. Do you think it’s actually going to summon the entire Demon Realm?”

[Maybe, maybe not.]

“What is that boring answer?”

[Realistically, a large-scale of demons would be more likely. If they cherry-picked demons from the Demon Realm, they would be able to constantly reinforce their power from their home base, leaving the defenseless Human Realm to fall to their fate. It couldn’t be easier.]

“…….”

[But if their goal is destruction, not conquest, of the Human Realm…….]

Pausing for a moment, Kunra gently gained altitude and continued.

[The Demon Realm is sealed beneath the Human Realm. To summon the entire underground Demon City would be a victory in itself. Once the summoning of the Demon Realm is complete, the Human Realm will crumble without a trace.]

“……So it looks like either one.”

[My intuition points to their instinct for destruction.]

Cadel’s mouth fell open at the blunt answer. His eyes fell heavy as he stared into the dusky evening sky.

“I’d bet the opposite.”

He didn’t know the full story of the Demon War; all he knew was that the stages involved in the war were quite difficult and that each stage had a constant stream of demons. But if Kunra’s words were true, if the Demon Realm were to be summoned through the Human Realm, the Human Realm would collapse in an instant, with no time to defeat the demons.

‘So it’s not a summoning of the Demon Realm. It shouldn’t be. ……But if, just if, it does happen.’

Instead of falling apart under their assault, they must come up with a plan to fight back. Cadel brushed his windswept hair out of his eyes.

Back in Dunkelhai, the thick pillar of demonic energy was still there, though it seemed to have expanded in scope.

“Let’s watch until tomorrow morning. If this continues until then, it will go back to my subordinates. Kunra, I’ll need you to check in with your main body and let me know what’s going on over here.”

[My main body will never leave the mountains.]

“Dunkelhai is right around the corner, and if you climb to the top of the mountain, you should be able to see something.”

[Are you asking this one to do scouting ]

“I guess what we’re doing now is scouting, right?”

Cadel heard Kunra scratching his neck discontentedly but ignored it. Kunra stopped moving and stayed in the air, finding a suitable location and altitude with a panoramic view of Dunkelhai. Cadel, who had been looking down with him and waiting for the great magic circle to activate, clicked his tongue and lay down at Kunra’s back and looked at the scenery that had not changed as the night deepened.

“I’m going to sleep. If you see anything strange, wake me up.”

[It seems like you’re becoming more shameless by the day. I guess you haven’t noticed yet?]

“Did you notice that I got like this because you accepted it all?”

[…….]

“I’m sleeping.”

Cadel declared and immediately closed his eyes. As Kunra carefully focused his senses, he could hear the smallest, most even breathing, and feel the slightest shifting of weight. How arrogant of him, to leave the scouting to the Scarlet Dragon, while he slept peacefully in the sky above.

Kunra felt like he should dive down and startle the sleeping human, but then he realized that he had been reducing the intensity of his wingbeats as if he didn’t want to wake him up.

A little shocked, he let out a low cry, his oddly colored eyes rolling as he realized that he had indeed spoiled the little human’s good nature. They say that if you raise something, it grows on you, but it seemed he’d been too easy on Cadel lately.

He would make sure to teach the human a lesson when he woke up, Kunra vowed, but he twisted slightly to block the wind from Cadel’s face.