Chapter 39
It wasn’t something that echoed by her ear—
It surged from the depths of her soul.
‘It’s no different from the weapon you’ve always used. Only its form has changed—from a gun to a bow.’
The voice was cold, utterly devoid of emotion. And strangely unfamiliar.
Yet somehow… it felt as though something essential was missing.
Suddenly, Maia felt as though someone had lifted her arm and was firmly supporting it.
She was certain it was an illusion—certain it wasn’t real.
“……”
And yet, curiously, that sensation didn’t fade. Instead, it anchored her body in place.
“Kiiieeekk!”
Thanks to that, Maia was able to aim her gun squarely at the monster.
‘Slowly. Tighten your grip, don’t take your eyes off the target. And pull the string.’
The moment she felt someone firmly standing behind her, her body no longer trembled.
Though the advice she heard oddly contradicted her current situation—
Maia’s gaze turned fierce as she loaded a bullet and pulled the trigger.
Bang—!
“Kreeeaaagh—!”
The golden bullet struck Lecasa directly in the eye.
Blood burst forth, dyeing the monster’s eye a crimson red.
“Hhhff…”
It was a grotesque sight—beast blood gushing, soaking the earth below.
The moment the bullet fired, the mysterious warmth that had enveloped her vanished like a mirage.
What… was that, just now?
Maia stood frozen, staring blankly at the thrashing, screeching Lecasa.
Whose voice was that?
…She’d never heard it before, not in that tone—but it brought with it an odd sense of yearning.
“Duchess of Western!”
The same voice that had snapped her back to consciousness called out again. A rough hand pulled at her arm.
“…Your Grace the Grand Duke?”
Maia gasped in surprise. The voice had been vaguely familiar, but she hadn’t expected it to belong to him.
“It’s fortunate you had a weapon. Hurry—this way!”
The face that had always seemed draped in indifference and ennui was gone. Now, Grand Duke Aeterna looked frantic as he pulled her along.
Still disoriented, Maia struggled to shake off the remnants of her hallucination.
“What’s going on? Has Lecasa invaded the camp?”
Clutching her arm, the Grand Duke ran ahead and answered.
“I can’t say for sure, but something’s clearly gone wrong with the protective barrier.”
Maia tightened her trembling grip on the gun.
“But how could that be… the barrier—”
“There’s something else I haven’t told you…”
A bloodcurdling scream pierced the air.
“Help! Please—please, help…!”
“Kuaaagh!”
“Hhng, ngh…”
Every shadow cast by the fire revealed a glimpse of Lecasa’s monstrous silhouette. There was nowhere it wasn’t.
The horrific, surreal sight made Maia doubt her own eyes.
“There’s not just one!”
The Grand Duke changed direction and bolted.
What had begun as a single beast attacking the camp had become a full-on assault by dozens of monsters.
Maia bit her chilled lips and looked back.
“Wait—those people—!”
“How many bullets do you have that you think you can save everyone?”
Her mouth opened but no words came out.
She’d confirmed earlier that this peculiar pistol could hold eight bullets—not the standard number—but even so, she couldn’t afford to waste a single shot.
Boom—!
“Sir Gael! Get back!”
A brilliant light burst from a magic circle with a deafening roar.
Maia turned toward the noise, only to see imperial mages and knights working together to fight off Lecasa.
Thanks to the advancement of magic, monstrous beasts were no longer terrifying threats—noble families even hunted them for sport. But unless one was a high-ranking mage certified by the Mage Tower, the gap in power between humans and beasts was still overwhelming.
With the help of high-grade magical tools and a decent mage, a single beast could be subdued by a group of five or six people. But dozens of them? That was a different story.
Compared to the number of monsters, the available force of knights and mages seemed pitifully small.
“That place looks secure.”
While she was still stunned and blindly running, Maia spotted an area encircled by a ring of ten brilliantly glowing magic circles.
As soon as they passed through it, a familiar voice called out in a desperate cry.
“Duchess of Western!”
“Your Grace the Grand Duchess.”
Within the group of mages surrounding the area, Grand Duchess Adelstein rushed toward Maia, visibly anxious.
“Are you hurt? Are you all right?!”
“…Nothing serious happened. What about you, Your Grace?”
“I was fortunate to be near the protective circle… and the Grand Duke Aeterna?”
Panting heavily, Aeterna rubbed his forehead and murmured,
“No injuries. Though I feel like my head might split open.”
“Praise the Emperor… what a relief…”
The Grand Duchess nearly wept as she grasped Maia’s hands.
Maia looked up at the enormous magical circles floating in the air.
“Didn’t Lord Terzen visit earlier and inscribe the protective spells himself?”
Then why… had all hell broken loose?
“Yes, that’s right. All these massive magic arrays floating above us were inscribed by Lord Terzen.”
Wait—maybe it’s because of him that they managed to escape this far at all.
Maia closed her eyes against the stabbing pain in her head.
“And those fireworks in the sky—they’re part of his protection as well.”
“Fireworks?”
Those constant explosions lighting up the night sky were actually… protective magic?
Ah—
Maia bit her lip in a quiet groan. The Grand Duchess continued with a trembling voice.
“Lecasa is a flying-type beast, after all.”
The fireworks weren’t for show. They were Lecasa monsters being burned alive mid-flight.
If Hael Terzen hadn’t placed those protections, Maia and the rest of the party would’ve likely been slaughtered.
Maia clenched her trembling hands into fists and tried to steady her racing heart.
…How many had come, for those fireworks to keep exploding nonstop?
“…Roughly how many Lecasa are we dealing with?”
The Grand Duchess’s blue eyes trembled.
“…It looks like dozens.”
Dozens?
Maia barely kept herself from collapsing on the spot.
“I believe that’s enough of an explanation. So then, Duchess Adelstein, what do you propose we do next?”
The Grand Duke’s sudden question made the Grand Duchess bite her lip in frustration.
“Have you contacted the imperial palace?”
Of course, she had no real plan—just hope for reinforcements.
She showed Maia a golden amulet.
“We sent word the moment it began. This gem sends out a distress signal once it’s shattered.”
But there was a catch. This land fell under the Mage Tower’s dominion.
“The problem is… the nearest teleportation circle is days away—even if we don’t rest at all.”
Thanks to the Tower Lord’s strange barrier, the closest teleportation magic circle was located in a distant city that took days to reach on foot.
“But if the palace contacts the Tower, won’t they dispatch mages more quickly?”
Maia’s hopeful question was met with a painful shake of the head.
“…That’ll be difficult. The palace and the Tower haven’t exchanged any communication artifacts.”
Maia’s face went cold.
“So even if we get reinforcements, it’ll just be additional imperial mages—and even if they use shortcut magic to reach the city, their spell success rate drops drastically in the Tower’s domain. So even getting here will take hours.”
Maia clenched her fists, seething with fury at the Tower Lord she’d never even met.
Just what kind of cursed tricks had the Tower laid over this region to make such chaos possible?
She looked again toward the magic circle’s edge, where the chaos still reigned.
There was something she didn’t understand.
“Your Grace, has anything like this happened in previous Rites of Origin? And why won’t the Tower Lord allow even a single teleportation circle in this area?”
The answer came from an unexpected source.
Maia looked up.
Grand Duke Aeterna, who had been silently watching the ever-changing sky, lowered his head slightly to meet her gaze.
“It’s happened… many times.”
Many times?
“Then why—?”
“They always seemed to happen during the reign of emperors who dared to defy the Tower Lord.”
…What?
Maia stared at him, stunned.
His eyes, steeped in deep green shadow, met hers—calm, unblinking.
