As the dry autumn wind caressed my skin, I advanced on a horse.
I am on my way to the outer city gate under the pretense of tracking the church leader's trails as he supposedly fled to the field.
If I just thoughtlessly went there to answer Lupetta's call when she's a commoner, my dignity as a noble would be lost.
The outer city gate where Lupetta got caught refers to the city gate that's at the outermost walls of the city of Nyuneri.
The outer walls which are designed like a worse copy of The Great Wall of China surrounds the entire city of Nyuneri. There are a total of 5 gates, one in east, south, west, north, and in the northwest where there is a lot of traffic.
Lupetta is at the southern one.
Since the outer city gate is quite far from the military base, I am going there on horseback.
As I turned to my right, I could see the setting sun painting the plains in a beautiful red. If I don't get back quickly, the lands would be repainted the color of the night in no time.
When I arrived at the outer city gate, a few soldiers from the rampart came up to me.
I followed them on my horse as they guided me to the station of the gatekeepers.
「Young master. Please be careful about the Synod church. We are outside of the city's wide-area detection range」
「Yeahh」
My escorts were not enthusiastic about me coming here. It was because of the possibility that an assassin is using the name of Lupetta as a trap.
There is little danger to wander in the castle town. That is because there is a magic circle set up in the city that targets everyone in the entire city and detects people who have magic power.
A support magic circle for wide-area detection has been active the entire time since this morning to prepare for any terrorist attacks from the Synod church. Suspicious people will be captured in real-time and immediately put under arrest/into custody.
However, the range of that wide-area detection magic only covers the entire city area, not the entirety of the city of Nyuneri.
The "entire city area" is mainly the area of the Nyuneri castle and the castle town. The zones outside of those areas are not within the detection range.
After the soldier of the station opened the door, one of my escorts went inside first.
Another one of my escorts stretched his arm out in front of my chest like a railroad crossing bar to stop me from walking. They were probably worried about a possible ambush by an enemy, but it's such a pain in the ass.
3 of my escorts walked in front of me to lead the way, and there were multiple guards behind me and on my sides. I truly am a noble's son.
We walked down a hallway that smelled a bit dusty and entered a small room.
「Mr.Captain!」
When my escorts saw Lupetta quickly rushing over to me, they immediately put their hands on the swords that are hanging on their waists.
This isn't good, I thought. Without speaking, I quickly put my palm out towards Lupetta to indicate her to stop.
Maybe Lupetta came to realize the current situation from that, so she stopped moving with a startled expression on her face and quickly kneeled with her fingers on the floor.
「It's you, Lupetta」
「Yes」
I said Lupetta's name to let the guards know that she isn't an imposter. The guards have seen Lupetta several times before, but I did it just in case.
After my escorts saw her obediently continuing to kneel, they took their hands off their swords.
「It looks like you have gotten arrested again…」
In the middle of my sentence, Lupetta changed from the kneeling stance to sitting on her knees.
As I took a better look at her, I saw that her body was completely dirty, probably due to the fact that she's been in the field for about a week.
「Mr.Captain! Please introduce a healer to me! Mergin…Mergin is going to die! So…!」
「Huh?」
When I looked at the corner of the room, Mergin was lying there on a bed.
At first glance, I thought it was a corpse, but since his body was slightly moving from him breathing, I guess he's still alive.
His clothes were ripped everywhere, and I could see dried black and red blood underneath. The messed up flesh on his arm and his dark-colored feet and shoulders are indeed pitiful. It's so grotesque that just from looking at it makes my skin crawl.
He's in such a bad state that Lupetta has no choice but to ask me to get him a healer.
If he were just an ordinary commoner, he would have probably died long ago. Since humans with magic power are much tougher than normal humans, he's still alive in that kind of condition.
Humans who can use healing/recovery magic are called healers, but there are not many commoners with magic power who can use healing magic.
And since those rare healers are hired with high salaries and given preferential treatment by nobles and armies for their exclusive use, there are very few healers out there who would stay "free" to heal commoners.
In the case of dedicated military healers, they would be busy when there's a war but they would have free time when times are peaceful. Since it would be a waste of taxes to have those highly paid healers just doing nothing, many places have their military healing centers provide healing services to commoners. It does cost money everywhere though.
Since healing magic is very popular, there are lots of people waiting in line on the days those healing centers are open. That is where connections with the army become important. If you have connections to the army, you can get to the front of the line.
If you belong to the upper echelon of the army, you could also ask the healers to heal you even on days when the healing center is not open depending on the situation.
The reason Lupetta asked me is probably that she thinks I'm a big shot in the army.
「Insolent little girl! You think he's someone you can just talk to like that?! Know your place!」
The soldiers at the gate complained about the way Lupetta spoke to me.
Lupetta's shoulders trembled, and then she prostrated herself with tears in her eyes and apologized.
This isn't the bedroom of the villa. This is a public place.
I can't listen to her with her attitude just now. That's because of my position as a noble.
If people see me talk on even terms with a commoner in public, it might hurt my reputation as the next heir.
I want to have an easy, comfortable life in the future, so I absolutely want to inherit the position of the head of the family from my father.
「…I'll forgive you this time. However, there won't be a next」
Good thing Lupetta immediately corrected her attitude and apologized to me. Thanks to that, it allowed me to take a position of "I'll forgive her because I am generous".
If Lupetta made a fuss to fight back against the soldiers, she might have died before Mergin does. It's important for a commoner to have that kind of attitude when dealing with a noble/lord.
I like Lupetta, so I don't want her to die in such a stupid way.
I noticed that Lupetta can't make up her mind about how to not be rude when speaking.
Since the city of Nyuneri doesn't just have healers for exclusive military use, but healers who sell their service to commoners as well, it's not hard to introduce one to her.
However, I can't just give someone who was rude to me what they want even though she apologized. In the first place, she is a rock salt thief suspect, so I have to deal with that before we can even talk about the healers.
For the time being, I decided to begin with a conversation.
「That guy possesses magic power, right? A magic beast did that to him? He seems awfully injured」
「No…That's not it」
「Then what were you guys attacked by?」
I already had an idea in my mind while I was asking her that question.
Other than magic beasts, an existence that could harm a human who possesses magic power has to be another human who possesses magic power as well.
But Lupetta answered me with something that exceeded my expectations.
「…We were attacked by a noble of the Synod church in the field」
I felt like the sound of people gulping echoed in the room. It was only natural since we have been searching for terrorists of the Synod church since this morning.
When I looked over at my escorts, they told the soldiers of the gate to get out of the room as if they understood what I wanted to say.
Important information about the Synod church's plans might come out here, so we cannot let ordinary soldiers know about it.
The room that I, Lupetta, and my escorts were in was engulfed in a tense atmosphere.
「Lupetta. Tell me more about it. When were you attacked by the human from the Synod church? What do you mean by a noble of the Synod church? Was that person a high priest from St.Navenpos?」
「I'll tell you. So please, Mr.Captain. I beg you…! I'll do anything. Please help Mergin, please help him...Mergin fought against the Synod church's noble and became this injured…! You're the only one I can rely on in Nyuneri…I don't want Mergin to die…Please...! I beg you…!」
Lupetta spilled several large drops of tears on the floor like a child as she begged.
Rather than forcing answers out of her like this, it seems better to heal Mergin first. I started to think about an excuse to heal him.
「It seems that this guy had fought against the noble of the Synod church or whatever. We need to find out more information from him. He looks like he's going to die soon, so give him some light treatment」
「Yes sir!」
It might have been a bit of a stretch, but I decided to classify Mergin as a person of interest to give him treatment.
After I gave my orders, one of my escorts applied some light healing magic on him. Since healing magic uses a fair amount of magic power, I couldn't order them to completely heal Mergin. Their magic power is there to protect me.
Then, that escort called the soldiers of the gate outside of the room and ordered them to move Mergin to the military base. Since there are military healers at the base, he could get proper treatment there.
「WAHHHHHhhhHHHh…Mergin, Mergin...! Mr.Captain…Thank you, thank you…」
Lupetta thanked me, the escort who used healing magic, and the soldiers who were carrying Mergin on a stretcher with her hands on the floor.
I don't care whether Mergin lives or dies, but I think Lupetta would hate me if I abandoned him. Therefore, I won't let him die since I want to have an enjoyable sex life with Lupetta.
「That guy is going to be fine now. Take a seat and let's continue our talk. Just what exactly happened inside the field?」
I faced Lupetta after she regained her composure and sat down on the other side of the desk.
She kept on telling me that they were attacked by a noble of the Synod church, but I don't understand what happened before and after at all.
「I need to know more. Start from after you guys entered the field」
「Understood」
Lupetta began to tell the story with a respectful tone.
She entered the field with Mergin and 4 other adventurers who had recently joined their party as a party of 6. They were the same people who were arrested in Nyuneri some time ago.
Lupetta and the others planned to wander in the field however they liked and if they came across any magic beasts, they would just beat the crap out of them.
Since the army of Qualdense had been carrying out expeditions to hunt magic beasts in that field several times a year, there aren't any magic beasts that are grown enough to leave the field.
At the field of the royal capital, I heard that there are only immature scrub magic beasts left as a result of hunting because of the adventurer fever there, but in the field of Nyuneri, there are still magic beasts that would give commoners who don't possess magic power a bit of a hard time.
Lupetta said that they strolled around inside the field while they hunted magic beasts here and there as they continued their adventure smoothly without running into much trouble.
The incident happened after they arrived at the area where rock salt could be harvested and went deeper into the field.
There is a girl called Diana in their group of 6. She's the source of Lupetta's stress and she's "that girl" who Lupetta often complained to me about on the bed at the villa.
After they passed the rock salt area, Lupetta felt that Diana had been deceitfully controlling where they were going with her words.
When she somehow became worried about that, Diana snuck out of their camp that night. They had a system where they take turns as night lookouts, and Diana seems to have left at a time when Lupetta and Mergin were supposed to be asleep.
Their companions who were on watch sent Diana out like they had planned it ahead of time. Lupetta followed her secretly since she had been kind of suspicious about those four people's actions after they entered the field.
Since their camping site was in an area that has huge boulders scattered everywhere, Diana remained cautious of her surroundings as she checked on some kind of note in her hand while she proceeded on a trackless path.
After Lupetta walked for a while, she found a cabin that was hidden between boulders.
She was super surprised at the fact that there are man-made structures that deep into the field.
But contrary to Lupetta's reactions, Diana entered that small house with zero hesitation.
Lupetta sneaked up to the cabin and tried to use magic to eavesdrop inside. Then, she heard the conversation that was going on inside there. Other than Diana, there seemed to be two men there.
Diana said disturbing things one after another.
The conversation between Diana and the men in the cabin used a lot of names of spirits as jargon so she could not quite understand the details. But there was one thing that Lupetta was sure that she heard.
And that is the dangerous content that Diana and the 3 others will launch a surprise attack on her and Mergin and kill them. When Lupetta thought of being attacked by the four of them who she thought were her friends, her heartbeat rose.
Right when she thought of hearing more about their plan in detail, the cries of a baby suddenly came from inside the cabin. Then, several crying voices of babies echoed as if they were drawn in by the first one.
Lupetta felt horribly spooked to find out that there are babies in the dangerous environment known as a field.
After she became terrified of the babies' cries, she fled the scene to tell Mergin about it.
After she returned to their camp, Lupetta woke Mergin up from his sleep and explained the situation to him.
Mergin did not believe what she was saying at first, but since he immediately noticed that something was off about Lupetta, he listened to her seriously.
The conclusion of their discussion was that a 4 vs 2 would be bad for them after all, so they decided to just lead the party to leave the field in a way that won't blow their covers.
So the next day, Mergin suggested to Diana and the others to go back to the city of Nyuneri.
That was when Diana pulled her sword on Mergin without hesitation and attacked him. When Lupetta tried to protect Mergin, the remaining 3 adventurers turned their blades to her.
However, since Mergin was ready for that, he flung Diana's sword away. Then he brought Lupetta's rough 1v3 battle to a 2v3.
After Diana picked her sword that flew away back up, she rejoined the battle. In the end, the 2v4 battle Lupetta feared began in full swing.
In terms of strength of the 6, Mergin was the strongest, then it's Lupetta and Diana, then the remaining 3 is a step further down.
Thanks to that, they were able to hold their ground even in a 2v4.
It was when they really believed that they could make it through like that-
There was a man slowly walking towards them as if he was taking a stroll in the dangerous field.
He had no weapons in his hands and he was wearing the religious garment of the Synod church. Lupetta felt an unspeakable fear after she saw him.
When that mysterious man saw that Diana and the others were at a disadvantage, he activated a spell from a spot far away that was hazy from the fog.
By the time Lupetta noticed that a countless number of ice spears had suddenly appeared in the sky, the spears were released at them at lightning speed.
Mergin, who then shielded Lupetta right away, ended up with his legs and shoulders pierced. Since he became immobilized with the spears of ice piercing him, he could not dodge the slashing attacks coming from the four adventurers and got hit by their blades.
Lupetta was horrified. That was because she saw a glimpse of the man's overwhelming amount of magic power when he activated that spell.
If they were up against someone who possesses noble-class magic power, they were as good as dead, she thought. There's no way they could win against noble-class spells.
The mysterious man then released his magic power to intimidate them as if he was revealing the answer to her for her to see if she guessed right.
Before the man's extraordinary amount of magic power and his murderous intent, Lupetta dropped the sword and spear she was holding in her hands and just stood there.
As she suppressed her body from shaking, she asked Diana.
Why are they attacking her? What was that cabin? Who is that man with the enormous amount of magic power? And what the hell are they planning and such…? Lupetta yelled in order to scare away her fear and keep her consciousness that felt like it was sinking into darkness.
Diana was a bit surprised when she learned that she didn't notice at all that Lupetta had followed her. Then, she immediately made an evil smile and opened her mouth. As if she was rehearsing a line out of a play, she said to her slowly, "You guys will be sacrificed along with those babies. Everything is to end the oppression of the foolish nobles who ignores the voices of the saints".
Lupetta was heartbroken as her shoulders sagged. Then just when she wondered if there was anything she could do, she unconsciously reached into her pockets and realized something.
In her pocket, there was the charm I gave her as a parting gift on the day she departed. She grabbed the charm as her last hope.
「Did you use it?」
「Mmhm…yeah, I used it」
I made a charm like the ones I could buy at the Shinto shrines in Japan from my past life and gave it to Lupetta. I had put a manalal crystal inside that charm. Of the 3 manalal crystals I got from Nambonan city, one was turned into an arrow, and one was turned into a charm for Lupetta.
The manalal crystal I gave to her contained the super-noble-class magic power I would have in one of my spells. I had taught her how to activate the crystal before she left just in case.
Even if she had taken the crystal and ran away with it, I would just call it even for all the sex she had with me. Moreover, the magic power that's stored in there would disappear over time anyway.
In order to make it through that situation, she took the manalal crystal out of the charm, released the magic power, and unleashed a spell at the mysterious man's direction.
The spell she used was a water spell. Lupetta said that she was always good with spells that created water from nothing. Under the extremely tense atmosphere, she seemed to have unconsciously cast the spell that she was most used to casting.
Since the amount of magic power that was stored in the manalal crystal was so enormous, her spell was strengthened to an unimaginable degree.
Caught completely off guard, the water spell quickly reached the mysterious man and the lower half of his body was completely blown off from the excessive force.
Diana and the others probably didn't expect that the mysterious man would lose, so they were all stunned. When Lupetta saw that opening, she took that chance and slashed them down.
With her enemies neutralized for the time being, Lupetta decided to tend to Mergin. As she started to pull the ice spears out of Mergin, another man appeared. She was anxious as she did not know what to do if another enemy who could use magic appeared, but that man just screamed frantically and tried to run away.
She was convinced that she would be able to win since the man was running from her, so she dashed up to him and slashed him from the back.
She was relieved for good at that time, so she tried to treat Mergin with the simple treatment tools they brought, but it wasn't enough.
She wondered if there was anything else she could use to treat him, and then with Mergin on her back, she decided to head to the cabin she went to last night.
She thought that there probably won't be anyone else there at that time.
The cabin had enough space for people to live in and there was plenty of food stored there. Fortunately, there were some treatment tools as well, so Lupetta decided to gladly make use of them.
Although she applied basic first aid to Mergin, such amateur first aid would only be able to prolong his life for a bit, she could tell that Mergin would eventually die at that rate.
She knew that she had to return to the city of Nyuneri as soon as she could to find a healer, but there was one more problem that she noticed.
That was the babies in the cabin.
According to what Diana said to her, there was a high chance that those babies were going to get killed too. Maybe Diana had other allies that were going to go to the cabin later. If that's the case, she had no idea what would happen to them.
Even if Diana's other allies don't show up, it's obvious what would happen to the babies if they were just left there. Lupetta could not ignore them.
She packed all those 8 babies into a big backpack and wore the backpack in front of her chest. And with Mergin on her back, she began to walk back to the city of Nyuneri in tottering steps.
When she approached the rock salt area, there were carts parked around with the purpose of storing rock salt inside. Since there were several empty carts lined up next to each other, she concluded that the salt vendors were storing the carts there.
After Lupetta saw that the babies were getting weaker and how there was no way she could fend off magic beast attacks with them in front of her chest and Mergin on her back, she decided to borrow a cart without permission.
She put Mergin and the babies side by side in a cart and kept on going single-mindedly afterward.
Then, when she saw the outer city gate of Nyuneri and thought that she was finally saved, she got arrested by the gate's soldiers.
The soldiers were suspicious about her because they did not recognize her face even though they often saw the faces of the rock salt collectors.
Thus, Lupetta was treated as a rock salt thief and arrested.
「I see. I got the gist of it now」
「*Haahh*...」
Lupetta sighed with a relieved look.
「Young master, may I speak for a second?」
「Alright」
One of my escorts whispered to me while covering his mouth. He probably had something he wanted to check after he heard Lupetta's story.
After I gave him my permission, he looked at Lupetta.
「The adventurer that attacked you guys, her name was Diana, right? Did you finish her off?」
「I did not」
According to Lupetta, she cut the leg tendons of Diana and the others with her sword, so they could not move anymore. They should be dead from the leeches that appear in the field by now.
「The man in the religious garment that you said was a noble, you said he had as much magic power as a noble, right?」
「Yes」
「You said that the lower half of his body got blown off, but did you cut off his head?」
「I did not」
The mysterious man who took a hit of my magic power literally got the lower half of his body blown off. She said that he was having his last moments with just his upper body remaining. It was quite a gross scene.
「That's why I think he's already dead…」
Lupetta said that, but if that man really has noble-class magic power, her prediction would not be correct.
When I turned to look at my guards, one of them opened his mouth.
「Young master, if that man has as much magic power as this little girl says, it's quite possible that he would still be alive. It would be best if we send the army in to make sure that he's dead」
���Yeah」
「Huh…? But, everything below his stomach was gone…」
Lupetta was confused, but that's how it is. When you have as much magic power as a noble, you won't die so easily. Upper body aside, if it's just his lower body that was blown off, he could probably survive until he's starved to death.
Mergin, a commoner who looks like he has fatal injury, was still alive after more than a day on a cart. If it's a noble, they would be able to last much longer.
Since the mysterious man obviously can't move when he has no legs, he would probably be groaning at the same place.
「I want you to go with the army and guide them to the spot, Lupetta」
Cynthia's testimony also confirmed that Diana was connected to the church leader. I'm also concerned about the mysterious man's real identity.
Mergin and Lupetta who were attacked, the cabin in the field that people could live in, a mysterious man who possesses noble-class magic power, 8 babies, the plan of the church leader, and what the church leader and Diana were after. In the end, how are all those things connected?
Lupetta and my guards probably all noticed that I was in deep thought, so they refrained from talking and the room became quiet.
「Hm?」
「…Young master」
*Donng*, *dongg*, I could hear the sounds of bells coming from the distance. The bell of the castle town that rings to tell time should make high pitched clanging noises.
The bell sounds I could faintly hear right now is a low-pitch sound that is similar to the night bells I could hear in Japan from my past life.
That bell sound could only mean one thing.
「Young master, it's the sound of the alarm bell」
「Yeah, I can hear it」
It was the alarm that warns people that a magic beast had appeared.