TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: none
Join the discord! Here
'But is a mystery really involved?'
Ian thought this, but kept it to himself.
Ordinary people who hadn't studied magic couldn't tell what was and wasn't mysterious.
Sotis they missed obvious mysteries right in front of them, while other tis they made huge fusses over things that weren't mysterious at all.
Just look at how typical dieval people imdiately blad ghosts whenever anything spooky happened.
"Missing persons. That's serious."
Demonite muttered.
Though it was the harsh dieval era, people still worried about missing persons.
Especially since children had disappeared.
Though it was a barbaric age, concern for children hadn't vanished.
"Professor Inglan. You ntioned a mystery being involved..."
"Yes, Professor Demonite. That's why we need your help."
Inglan explained the situation.
Two children had gone playing in the forest.
And hadn't returned after a full day.
The worried villagers sent hunters to search around the forest.
And the hunters discovered sothing shocking.
"Giant footprints."
"Footprints?"
"Seems a hill giant passed through."
Ian crossed his arms and tapped his fingers.
A giant, huh.
True to the fantasy world, a giant had made the suspect list for kidnapping.
"If they're huge footprints, they must be from a giant."
Like the experienced summoner he was, Demonite made a reasonable deduction just from the situation description.
"But it's strange. There's no hill giant village nearby. And hill giants know this is a human stronghold."
In this dieval fantasy world, non-human beings ford their own communities.
Hill giants were one of the high-intelligence non-human races.
Humans and hill giants had a sort of non-aggression pact, rarely entering each other's territories.
"I thought so too. But with footprints discovered, we need to investigate what's going on."
"You're right."
Not just Demonite, but Ian too wanted to investigate the scene.
Well... finally a real mystery had appeared!
Though he was studying hard at university and investigating Maronius's mories.
Directly encountering mysteries was just as important as theoretical study.
"Inglan. Can we go now?"
"Ah. Of course. Co along."
With Inglan, Demonite, and Ian moving together, they gave off an aura that most university students couldn't even make eye contact with.
But Elia wasn't 'most' university students.
"Professors! Are you going now?"
"Ah. Sorry, Elia. The lesson later..."
"Can I co too?"
"?"
Ian looked at Elia, slightly dumbfounded.
Following was fine but... what did she plan to do?
Demonite seed to have similar thoughts but didn't stop Elia.
Field investigation could be part of magic training too.
"You can co along, but you'll need to be careful."
"Thank you, Professor!"
With Elia joining, the group headed straight for the village hall.
#
"Oh my! The wizards!"
As expected.
The village atmosphere was quite unsettled.
Understandably so, since giant footprints had been found in the nearby forest.
Even in this fantasy world, they didn't encounter fantasy monsters every day.
Giants were plenty fantastic even to dieval fantasy natives.
"What exactly happened?"
Ian asked the villagers for an explanation.
But the answer ca from an unexpected source.
"I'll explain."
"Sir Salvador?"
The ones who'd finished investigating the scene before Ian were none other than Salvador and Belenka.
Living in a house near the university, the two were practically unemployed and could deploy quickly.
"Ian. Salvador says it was indeed a giant."
"Specifically a hill giant."
As expected, his experience hunting monsters with the Knights of Santiago hadn't gone to waste.
Salvador had instantly identified the monster's identity with amazing insight.
"Well, this is a hill..."
A hill giant appearing on a hill wasn't strange.
The problem was this being clearly human territory.
"Hill giants don't antagonize humans. If anything, they rather like them."
Professor Demonite stroked his chin as he spoke.
If orcs had kidnapped the children, the village would already be in mourning.
Orcs were clearly man-eating monsters who enjoyed human soup.
But if hill giants had taken the children?
Though the exact situation was unknown, it was too early to assu death.
Hill giants weren't monsters that ate humans.
"We must send soldiers imdiately!"
The baron's proxy argued strongly.
Given the circumstances, it had to be a hill giant's doing.
If they left it alone, soone else might get kidnapped. The surest response was sending knights to eliminate it.
But Demonite objected.
"We must get the children back, but we don't necessarily need to use weapons."
"What?"
The baron's proxy was flabbergasted at the wizard's words.
No need for weapons?
Suggesting not using force against monsters - was he in his right mind?!
He'd known wizards were crazy beings, but seeing it firsthand made it even more absurd.
"Easy for you to say! Would you say the sa if it was your son taken by the giant!"
Demonite calmly answered:
"Of course."
"..."
"As I said, hill giants like humans. They won't harm children without reason."
"But-but if they kidnapped them with malicious intent..."
"Then the children would already be gone from this world, so no point worrying now."
"..."
The baron's proxy gaped at Demonite's words.
He'd heard rumors about wizards being crazy...
But they really were crazy!
Even creepier was that neither Inglan nor Ian strongly objected to Demonite's words.
"Why draw swords first against a non-hostile being?"
"That's right. Ian. Let's try talking first, we can decide later."
...These crazy wizards.
Honestly, the baron's proxy couldn't follow the wizards' conversation.
What? Talk with a hill giant?!
How the fuck does that make any...
Ian nodded at the proxy's expression that seed to have a hundred things to say.
Wizard thinking was hard for normal people to understand.
Even Ian, a forr modern person, sotis struggled to follow it - how much harder for dieval people without education or internet.
So Ian tried to soothe the proxy with more understandable terms.
"I understand your concerns, but Professor Demonite here is a master of summoning. Let's trust him with this."
"But..."
As the proxy hesitated, Salvador put in a word.
"The wizards are right. If the giant ant harm, the children's lives are already forfeit. Better to assu there's so circumstance and leave it to the wizards."
At the Sword Master's persuasion, the proxy bowed his head.
"Since you say so, my lord. We'll leave it to the wizards for now. But if things go wrong, we'll send knights imdiately."
"Ho ho. That's reassuring."
In the end, they settled on having the wizards investigate.
Ian made brief preparations and headed out to investigate the scene.
#
"Hmm... typical giant traces."
Demonite said while looking around the scene.
Three wizards had deployed.
Ian, Demonite, and Elia(?).
They'd minimized numbers in case they encountered the giant.
Supposedly they'd be safe if they didn't startle it.
"Hey~ Why are you looking at like that?"
"I'm just wondering why Princess Elia is joining the field investigation."
Demonite burst out laughing and said:
"Field investigation is also part of lessons. The most precious knowledge cos from the field, not books."
"..."
I know that but.
Why are you giving lessons now when people are missing?
Ian glanced at Elia.
Maybe the princess had sohow offended Demonite?
Is he trying to quietly bury her!
Ian felt slightly anxious but decided to bury his suspicions for now.
'A non-malicious giant kidnapping...'
From one perspective, it could be seen as strange behavior by an eccentric giant.
But...
Honestly speaking, Ian still doubted Professor Demonite.
Another monster attack, and Elia just happened to be at the scene again?
He couldn't help thinking of black wizards.
'There's likely a black wizard hiding at the university.'
A fact already proven by Black Wizard Pals's attack.
Ian stayed on guard.
"Hahaha! Look here!"
Demonite shouted.
Ian rushed over.
"The footprints continue this way!"
"Demonite! Wait!"
When he arrived, Demonite was nowhere to be seen.
He was chasing the giant's traces like crazy, leading Elia along.
No, not like crazy - he just seed crazy.
"Elia! Where's Elia!"
"I'm right here~"
"...?"
Ian turned around in confusion.
Elia was there.
Wait, hadn't she been with Demonite?
"Hehe. Professor seed to be going wild, so I cut my losses early~"
"...Where did you learn words like 'cut losses'?"
Elia said with a grin:
"By the way, it was kind of exciting when you spoke casually earlier. Should we just drop formalities?"
"If you need excitent, I'll throw you from the wind tower again. And we shouldn't drop formalities carelessly with others watching."
"Tch. How stingy."
Though Elia pretended to grumble, she soon smiled brightly and said:
"Then how about when others aren't watching?"
"You really want that?"
"Of course! Ian!"
Ian smiled and answered.
She wanted it so much. And it wasn't a difficult request.
"Alright. Elia."
"Eek! I love it!"
While chatting with Elia, Ian suddenly realized:
"What about Professor Demonite?"
"He wasn't around earlier either. Maybe he went ahead?"
Ian felt slightly flustered, but there was sothing more startling.
Rustle!
A nearby tree shook violently.
Pushing through the forest, a huge face appeared.
"!"
"!"
Ian reflexively pushed Elia behind him and prepared to use skill magic.
He'd felt sothing was off-!
Professor Demonite!
"[Flas of...]"
Just as Ian was about to activate his skill.
The giant fully revealed itself.
Standing nearly 4 ters tall, it...
Was holding a ridiculously huge basket in one hand!
The giant t Ian's eyes and-
"[Oh my, look here! A human!]"
Covering its mouth, it shouted.
"[So cute!]"
"???"
When Ian tilted his head in confusion.
The 4-ter giant stamped its feet in excitent.
'This is ridiculous.'
Ian seriously debated whether to complete his spell.
---
Reviews
All reviews (0)