The elves lost their World Tree.
The dwarves lost their perpetually burning furnace, and humans lost their shining kingdom.
Each potentiality lost something different, but in the end, they are all just another name for possibility.
There was a time when a single being monopolized all the possibilities of the world.
A moment when the light of the stars attempting to rise was gathered and trapped underfoot.
People called that era the Age of Dragons.
And here was another being that lost its potential in those difficult times.
A race with beast-like ears, the beastmen.
They said what they lost was "a mystery."
***
"Knight! Priest!"
A black horse and a young donkey walking along a small trail.
However, their journey, which should have been peaceful, was cruelly interrupted by a beastman following them.
"Let's go together! I'll definitely be of help!"
The man named Nibelun, whom Vlad and Jean had saved from the fire, still followed them and shouted that he wanted to accompany them.
"Should I break your leg so you won't follow us?"
"God is watching us anytime, anywhere. Vlad."
"That's right, actually."
After hearing Jean's words, Vlad scratched his head and frowned.
Although the world of knights dealing with swords and violence was familiar to him, there were still aspects of it he found challenging to deal with, especially with the young deacon named Jean.
"So it's okay to just curse and tell them not to break it, right?"
"...I hope you can see that."
Vlad was the elder and leader, but Jean was responsible for this journey.
A person to follow and a rule to adhere to.
Although he was a boy who could easily be ignored, Vlad had already decided to show respect to Jean instead of ignoring him.
"Hey. You Nibelun, who follows death."
"Yes. Yes, sir!"
Yet, the accumulated anger goes nowhere.
Noir's snort, as angry as Vlad's, brushed against Nibelun's trembling ears.
"How long are you going to follow me like this? I said no, didn't I?"
The growl was fierce, but Nibelun just clasped his hands together and smiled openly.
"Oh, don't consider it a bother..."
Worn-out black robes here and there.
And although he wasn't wearing it now, the strange mask hanging from his back still gave the beastman an ominous aura just as it did when Vlad first saw it.
"I'll be useful no matter what. Because I'm a wizard!"
"What wizard in the world gets caught by swindlers and ends up about to be roasted?"
Nibelun, who claimed to be chasing death, introduced himself as a wizard.
A wizard who wards off diseases and curses.
Vlad frowned again as he watched Nibelun utter only the words he wanted to avoid from their first encounter until now.
"Due to the nature of my magic, it takes some time to activate."
"Well. The more I hear about it, the less useful you seem to me."
The things he held were quite strange, so he might have been a wizard as he claimed.
However, if you get caught by swindlers worse than bandits, then the level will be understandable.
"This is really the last warning. If you keep following me, I'll break your leg."
There was no need for useless words.
Especially if the target is someone who doesn't seem pleasant at first sight.
Vlad still felt uncomfortable with the crow mask Nibelun wore.
"Baron Utman!"
However, Nibelun paid no attention to Vlad's reaction and simply repeated what he had to say.
"Please, let me go. I may not be useful to Lord Vlad, but I'll definitely be useful to others."
"...He's simply a person who only says what he wants to say."
Vlad glanced at the thick book Nibelun still held dearly.
The book he had been looking at while unconscious was filled with images and benefits of all kinds of scriptures.
Wizard Nibelun.
He was a wizard and a plague doctor.
***
"Did death follow you?"
"Exactly. It's not over."
The beastman, who had just woken up, still seemed dazed, but claimed to be someone who had followed death.
"What death? Is there death here?"
The appearance of the beasts, unknown to the northerners, the tattered black robes woven here and there, and even the strange crow mask.
The village chief, standing silently behind, looking at Nibelun's sinister appearance, began to mutter that he should have burned him at that moment.
"You're right. I've followed death... and as you said, death is here too. Because if we stay here, everyone will die anyway!"
"Sir Knight. Could you let me burn that crazy cat? That guy keeps cursing our village!"
"The village is already ruined. We need to get the people out as quickly as possible."
"Please, sir knight!"
First of all, Nibelun seemed like someone who would be burned at the stake even if he wasn't a member of a group of swindlers.
Perhaps it was because he was mad, but the words he uttered in his ramblings showed no consideration for his own well-being or for those around him.
"The land is already contaminated. It will not only result in poor harvests."
"…"
The village chief is furious and says the bonfire is still not extinguished.
However, Nibelun seemed unconcerned with everything around him and simply pulled out a map, offering it to Vlad, asking him to look at it.
"Look at this."
"It's getting more and more suspicious."
The map that Nibelun showed was too detailed for a single traveler to carry.
Not only the approximate location of the road, but also the river, the height of the hills, and the size of the nearby villages.
It was suspicious to carry it just for travel purposes.
"It's a map that spies would do well to carry with them."
However, despite Vlad's suspicious look, the man called Nibelun only listened intently and did not react in any way.
He was waiting for Vlad's response.
"…What are these circles?"
"These indicate that the plague has spread."
The detailed map was filled with black circles.
The circle that seemed to have been drawn by Nibelun even marked the village where Vlad and Jean were now.
"But this…"
After looking at the map for a while, Vlad noticed something strange and frowned.
"That's right. It's strange, isn't it?"
Nibelun was pointing to a spot on the map, as if pleased that Vlad had recognized it.
"If we look only at this, doesn't it seem like the Vatican hasn't properly conducted a purification?"
"…"
The circles on the map grew larger, more numerous, and darker as they headed towards a specific place.
The place the circles pointed to was Moshiam, the capital of Baron Utman's domain.
***
It was early in the morning when the young deacon had not yet emerged from his sleeping bag.
The dawn light began to shine between the bonfires where the firewood burned and emitted a misty smoke.
"Look at that. Didn't I tell you I would be helpful?"
"...The wizard was right."
Vlad, who was rummaging around the cooled campfire, responded bluntly as if he didn't want to agree with Nibelun's words.
A large circle seemed to be spinning around the group.
The circle that Nibelun had drawn yesterday, saying that he didn't have to stand guard, was creating strange distortions that were hard to explain even when seen with Vlad's left eye closed.
"But what are you going to do going to Moshiam?"
At Nibelun and Jean's request, the group decided to go together to Moshiam.
However, Vlad knew very well that in order to be able to get this suspicious mage inside, he needed the assurance of the knight himself.
"If you don't tell me exactly, I won't let you go."
"Ah..."
Nibelun felt a void in Vlad's words, and his amber-colored eyes began to shine.
"Are you letting me go?"
"Tell me exactly why you want to go."
The Holy Knights of the Northern Orthodox Church will already be gathered in the city of Moshiam to look for unusual beings. The reason Bishop Andreas sent his young deacon to Moshiam was because he hoped that eventually he would move with them and gain experience.
"Haven't you seen it yet? I'm a mage who wards off plagues and curses..."
Vlad remembered Nibelun, who shouted that he had to go all the way, even though it was a village that had tried to burn him.
Although many people criticized Nibelun because it was a warning that went straight to the point without proper explanation, he simply repeated what he had to say without the slightest hesitation.
"Because death is there."
And yet, like then, Nibelun kept spitting out the words in his head without organizing them.
It seemed like a nature difficult to change.
"Why death?"
"Death is something you don't know, right?"
I kept it in my heart, but when I let it out, it was only very fragmented things.
Vlad realized that the beastman named Nibelun was no more skilled at speaking than he himself, who lived in the alley.
"The mystery lies in what you don't know. Hiding in an unknown world. We have been wandering seeking it our whole lives."
"We?"
However, Nibelun responded to this question with his hands, not his mouth, without any misunderstanding.
"Beast people?"
"Yes. We are the ones who wander anytime, anywhere, with nowhere to go."
What Nibelun was pointing at was his own ears trembling above his head.
"Please, let me go to Moshiam. There is death there, and death is something that no one has ever experienced, so I am very eager to see it."
"..."
A beastman mage who wants to find the mystery and experience death."
The first rays of the day began to shine on the already completely extinguished campfire.
Nibelun's amber eyes reflected in that light retained a clear color, unlike his blurry speaking style.
- There is information that a plague could soon spread to a bad harvest. You must be especially careful with that.
Before leaving, Joseph whispered to Vlad in a low voice to be careful with this.
The rumor came from a note brought by a retired knight, Ramund, with a clumsy Vatican emblem engraved on it.
"...First, let me tell the person in charge who will be there. I don't know if it will work."
"Oh thank you. Sir!"
Thanks to Nibelun's loud voice at just the right moment, Jean began to wake up from his small sleeping bag with a swollen face.
A black horse, a donkey, and a cat.
The three were now facing each other under today's sun.
***
[That thing moves like a curse. It can't be cut with an ordinary sword.]
The sound of the young deacon's chant resonates in the misty camp.
The voice spoke to Vlad, who was holding his breath amidst the sound.
"So, what should I do?"
[I wonder if you can use Aura now.]
"Are you kidding me?"
[Listen.]
A woman shedding black tears beyond the mist.
She was a poor woman crying for her son.
[To break that curse, you must become an exorcist who wields the will of God and a knight with his own world. And we need a mage who challenges the rules of the world.]
The voice had spoken.
Only these three who have solidified the world can cut the tears of that evil being.
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