CH 8

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Entrance to an empty cave.

There, with her magic book open, Euthenia mumbled to herself as she read the magic book.

Reading the magic book, Euthenia was dressed in a beautiful tunic she had been newly given.

Before she knew it, a week had passed since the great one she served had presented her with the book.

Euthenia has been struggling to understand the magic book so far.

She has now achieved the desired results.

“The content my father taught me was also quite useful.”

Euthenia’s slender fingers turned the pages of a thick magic book.

Magic is not an easy subject for anyone to understand.

Had it not been for the minimal education Euthenia had learned as a noble, she would have needed more time to understand the magic books.

Fortunately, Euthenia had a natural talent for working with magic .

Understanding a glimpse of magic in just a week meant that.

“Then… I’ll have to check it out.”

Close-!.

Euthenia, who had closed the magic book and stood up.

After getting up from her seat, Euthenia walked slowly out of the cave, still holding the magic book in her arms.

Bush-!.Bush-!.Bush-!.

Euthenia’s light steps skimmed through the bushes.

As she emerged from the bushes, Euthenia began to look through the bottom for large stones.

One rocky stone and next to it, one flat-shaped stone.

After examining the stones in the vicinity, Euthenia lifted a stone of suitable weight among them.

“Is it okay with a weight like this?”

A solid sensation came from her palm holding the stone.

Tuk. Thump.

The stone in her hand was thrown lightly. Euthenia, who received it, straightened her stance.

Immediately afterwards, she reached for the sky, throwing the stone she was holding vertically high.

A blue shimmer rose from the palm of her hand and began to envelop Euthenia’s body.

The moment the magic power that had enveloped Euthenia began to spread to the surrounding area.

Euthenia condensed the magic and used magic.

“Barrier!”

A stone that was about to fall above Euthenia’s head hit the translucent wall and bounced off.

A hemispherical protective barrier spreading around her was what protected her from the stone.

Low-level defensive magic, a barrier.

As the barrier unfolded to protect her, Euthenia looked at it with sparkling eyes.

The bluish barrier kept any substance from approaching her .

Euthenia tried to poke at the barrier spread around the area with her hand, but the condensed magic blocked even Euthenia.

“It’s strange. I guess this is what magic looks like.”

After watching the barrier for a while, Euthenia waved her hand to dissipate the solidified magic.

The magic dissolved and the barrier in the vicinity disappeared without a trace.

It was a supernatural miracle created in the air by her hand gestures alone.

It was the moment when Euthenia became interested in magic.

“If I steadily learn this kind of magic, it will surely be useful.”

Magic is the study of reproducing things and phenomena.

It reproduces phenomena by studying flows and imitates things by observing entities.

Therefore, magic that has reached its extreme can sometimes perform miracles that defy nature.

And Euthenia was a gifted person in the study of such magic.

It doesn’t take long for a genius to realize his or her potential.

The same was true for Euthenia.

Recalling the contents of her magic book, Euthenia reached out her hand before anyone else.

“Shield.”

A barrier of translucent blue light appeared in the air where Euthenia’s hand touched.

Shield magic was not what was in the magic book that Euthenia had received.

It was a direct embodiment of her understanding of the barrier’s characteristics and other magic.

Having created a shield in mid-air, Euthenia reached out her outstretched hand and lightly tapped the shield.

Tok-!. Tok-!.

A ripple occurred within reach of Euthenia’s hand .

“It still looks like it needs a little improvement. It probably needs a bit more magic as well.”

After touching the shield several times, Euthenia moved her hand to release as before.

Having tried each magic once, she thought that she would now try to use it through modifications.

It was the first time that Euthenia had fun with the magic she was learning for the first time.

After that, Euthenia used the barrier and shield for a while and watched the magic change.

Euthenia’s experiments with magic continued until nightfall.

* * * * * *

Centurius branch of the Imperial Enforcement Agency, Cloud.

There, third-level agent Rick Weil looked at his superior.

Rick’s expression was more serious than ever as he gazed at his superior.

Normally, Rick would smile and even joke around with his own superiors.

However, Rick was now in no situation to even pretend to smile at his superior.

The reason for this was the incident Rick was reporting.

“Rick… what’s the damage scale of this incident?”

A single eyed agent sitting in front of Rick asked him.

Second-level agent, Huss-Alemeir.

When he heard Rick’s report, he showed his discomfort without filtration .

“Four villages have disappeared.”

Rick reported to his supervisor in front of him with a feeling of suffocation.

It was a case of four whole towns being disappeared.

The villages were not burnt down nor looted by a gang of bandits.

All the property and utilities were left intact and only people went missing.

It is not a case that can be explained in the normal course of events.

Upon hearing Rick’s story, Huss scrambled up something on a woodblock he was holding and asked.

“Is it possible that it was done by a bunch of bandits?”

“There were items in the village that were quite worth money that were still intact,” he said.

“Not a single item disappeared?”

“Yes. There was no sign of any signs that they had been touched otherwise.”

If it was a bandits, there would be no items or money left in the village.

However, there were no signs of looting or even bloodstains in the village.

That was precisely why Rick was convinced that it was not the work of a bandits.

Such a site can’t be created if it was work of bandits.

At least it wasn’t something that was done for money.

After hearing Rick’s story, Huss nodded his head and asked the following question.

“Possibility of moving somewhere else?”

“No, no. One of the villages that disappeared had a man with a crippled legs, but he too disappeared without a trace.”

It was Rick who was looking for traces of people around the villages, just in case.

Large migrations always leave traces.

However, he could not find any traces of people moving in groups near the village.

The second possibility that Huss considered was also pointless.

As one possibility after another was ruled out, Huss clicked his tongue and stared at the woodblock he was holding.

“So you’re saying that only people disappeared without any traces, just like that?”

“Yes. At least that’s what I’ve been able to confirm.”

“Agent Rick. Do you think that makes a sense now?”

“I swear to God, the words I just said out are true.”

This was also the reason Rick had visited Huss today.

No matter how much he looked through the village, he couldn’t see a single decent trace.

This is a case where everything was left alone and only the villagers disappeared in their entirety.

From Rick’s shallow insight, there was no possible explanation other than that it was the work of a wizard.

That is why he visited Agent Huss, a level combat mage, to make a report.

However, Huss showed a sullen reaction when he heard Rick’s words.

Even Huss, the wizard, seemed to have no idea, apart from.

“How could people have suddenly disappeared? I would rather put more weight on the absence of any trace of them.”

“Agent Huss. Isn’t it possible that it was the work of a wizard?”

“The work of a wizard?”

“It is possible that the village has been obliterated by magic.”

Towards a distressed Huss, Rick lays out his theory.

However, as soon as Huss heard what he had to say, he shook his head.

Instead, he just stared at Rick with bewildered eyes.

“It’s bullshit. If you used magic, whatever was around couldn’t be there.”

“Isn’t it possible that magic was only used on people?”

“Rick Weil. Does your sword move while choosing between your enemies and your allies?”

“…”

“If there was such great magic, there would have been no tragedy of people dying on the battlefield from being hit by the magic of their allies.”

Rick fell silent at Huss’ words.

It was Rick’s opinion that magic could surely do something similar.

However, according to Huss, a combat wizard, no amount of magic could do such a thing.

There is no great magic that works by identifying objects and people.

That was the conclusion of this conversation.

Rick felt more frustrated than before by Huss’ realistic talk.

“…However, some of the villages disappeared without a trace.”

“I see it as even more likely that you didn’t find them than that?”

“…Agent Huss.”

“But if indeed Agent Rick’s story is true, someone might have made an offering to the evil gods.”

“An offering…?”

Offering…

The moment he heard those words, Rick felt as if his chest pinched open.

It was the only clue thrown into the frustrating case.

With a sense of anticipation, Rick’s face turned to Agent Huss in front of him.

“I saw these words in a piece of literature I saw once. It means that priests who worshipped evil gods sacrificed people for their evil deeds.”

“Evil god priests…”

“Of course, they all died during the last war. They moved directly from the Holy Land, so there won’t be a single one of them left.”

“I see.”

“Of course I’m only assuming you’ve done your research roughly.”

Evil priests, offerings.

The three key words meshed together in Rick’s mind to form a single picture.

If there are still priests left who worship evil gods.

And what if those forces are planning something at the expense of the people.

It was not incomprehensible that four villages had disappeared at once.

Having concluded in his mind, Rick decided to search the area around the villages again.

“Agent Huss.”

“Did you feel like going back to check it out?”

“I’m going back to look for traces of the evil god.”

“Huh? Wait a minute, there…..”

Dhum-!.

Rick closes the door and walks out .

The number of towns where people have gone missing is four.

If we search every inch of that perimeter radius, we might find traces of the evil gods.

Rick, with his cold sword at his waist, moved towards his horse, which he had tied up.