“!”
Just when did they appear?
A mighty magic power could be felt from the two who appeared right in front of Reiko’s eyes. Nevertheless, It was surprising that she didn’t feel them approaching.
Reiko cautiously put up her guard.
The demon who appeared to be a man put forth his hand in command. “Don’t be hasty. We didn’t come to fight you.” he declared. He was short in stature, but his body was built like a rock. Both his short trimmed hair, along with his eyes were pitch black.
“In the first place, we prefer not to fight in lands with such low ether concentration such as this one.”
To a demon, being in low ether concentration is similar to being in thin atmospheric conditions. It doesn’t kill them outright, but it definitely makes their actions more difficult than they’d normally be.
“Then, why are you here?” Reiko pointed out.
“Fufu, it’s just a simple investigation on our part, but I doubt you’d believe me with just that.”
“Investigation?”
“That’s right. This region is fundamentally low in ether concentration, however, it seems that there is a singular point somewhere, right?”
This time the demon who seemed to be a woman replied. This one was tall and thin, with pitch black hair long enough to reach her ankles. Like the man’s, her eyes were coloured in a similarily shadowed black.
“Singular point?”
“Fufu, yes, a singular point. It’s an existence that cannot exist naturally. Only there, the ether seems to be very dense. …The northern area that we come from is similarly dense, however, it’s cold up there. A warm place of high ether concentration would be ideal. … Do you know anything about this?”
Hearing this, Reiko immediately thought of Horai Island. However, she didn’t let it leave her mouth.
“…… I don’t know. Even if I were privy to such information, I would be under no obligation to share it.”
“Ufu, fufu, fufufufufu. How nice, your response. What courage.” The female demon spewed, her body bending back and forth.
“Are you the ones who created the barrier?” Reiko inquired, disregarding the female demon. This time it was the male demon who replied.
“Hmm? No, that’s wrong. Wasn’t that barrier formed from the start?”
According to the male demon’s story, the Leonard kingdom had the phantom barrier formed over its sky over 100 years ago.
“I don’t know who set it up, or what their goal was. It never particularly bothered us anyways.”
“Is that so.”
The value in that line of conversation wasn’t very high to Reiko, so she chose to end it.
“That man…… Raldus was spreading an infectious disease. I will collect responsibility”
Saying so, Reiko turned to the prone Raldus and took a single step forward. However, in an instant the two demons had somehow appeared in front of Reiko, blocking her way.
“Oops, I can’t let that happen. There are only a few of us after all.”
“…… In that case, do you know anything about the disease Raldus was spreading?”
Reiko judged that she should start with securing information, and although it didn’t seem likely for them to obediently tell her, for the time being, she’d at least ask them.
“Do you mean Magic Exhaustion Fever?”
“Th, that is correct.”
Since Reiko had truly not expected them to obediently talk, she was expectedly thrown off by this response and had stuttered her words.
“Like, that illness isn’t really a big deal for us though.” So the female flippantly prefaced her explanation on Magic Exhaustion Fever.
“…… Basically, the more magic power you have, the lighter the symptoms. Without enough magic power, it can be fatal.” Saying so, she hit her chest and laughed. The gesture frightened Reiko a bit.
“…… And then?”
“Ah, so sorry. Then, the point is, it’s a disease that devours the magic power of the body. Once all the magic power has been consumed, it starts consuming the bodies life force instead. Once that happens it’s already too late.” After saying so, she once again laughed.
“Bemiarché, that’s quite enough” The male demon remonstrated her. Then the female demon who had finally been named, Bemiarché laughed some more.
“I get it, Dogmalord.”
Reiko went through a list of the information that she got from the conversation.
Birds can contract the disease. However, the birds don’t die but recover from it.
The disease is passed from birds to humans through contact, and from one human to another through contact.
The disease cannot be transferred from humans to birds.
There are people who, depending on their magic power pattern, are unable to contract the disease.
Those who had been infected once but recovered, cannot contract it a second time.
The incubation period is at minimum 2 days, and 5 days at max.
The incubation period is long for individuals with a lot of magic power, and short for those with little.
In the case of one having an extremely high amount of magic power, they will not develop any symptoms whatsoever.
The symptoms of the disease are first, feelings of exhaustion, and second, a high fever. At this point, treatment would still be effective.
For the next stage, the entire body is attacked by severe pain. At this point, it would be too late for any treatment.
The cause of death is cardiac arrest.
“Medicare” would likely be an effective healing magic. Provided that you can cast it consecutively for several minutes, the disease is meaningless.
Even though it’s a contagion, previous outbreaks had only lasted a few seconds before being finished through the use of “Medicare”
Therefore it’s possible to render the source of the illness harmless through the use of “Medicare”.
That isn’t guaranteed to be the truth though.
“…… Is that all true? Even if it’s not that’s still fine.”
“Was all of that the truth? Without using info transfer it would be impossible to be any surer, but we can’t let you know all our secrets.”
Dogmalord guaranteed.
“……If it’s such a simple illness as you’ve said, why did you bother spreading it?”
That was what Reiko couldn’t understand.
“That’s simple. Raldus did it of his own accord. In the first place, that guy’s still young, so he doesn’t have good judgment. Though it’s only a little, his power is hard to control.”
“In that case, would you say that the spread of the disease is not your goal?”
“That’s right. However, that isn’t to say I want to help with the treatment.”
Saying so, Dogmalord vanished from before Reiko’s sight, and when she noticed him again he had the collapsed Raldus in his arms.
“No way… does this mean you can use spacial teleportation?”
“I’m not obliged to teach you up to that point… And so I will be taking this guy. I can’t lose him after all.”
“See ya, cute kid. We’re going to return to our country.” Said Bemiarché, blowing Reiko a kiss.
“…Wait a moment! I still have more to ask!”
However, words of refusal were returned to her.
“I don’t have anything else I feel like talking about. This is the end.” Dogmalord said, turning away from Reiko and casting magic.
“gravita”
Before Reiko realized it she was floating off the ground. Either the scope of the magic was vast, or it had a property of following the target.
“This is…!”
Earlier gravity had been increased to dull her movement, but now the opposite was happening.
In other words, Reiko had lost the majority of her weight.
Reiko’s weight was approximately the same as that of the air. If it was just a little bit lighter, she would probably be able to move much faster, but this was far too much.
This meant that even if she kicked the ground with all her might, none of her power would get through rendering it meaningless.
And so, the three demons got away from right in front of Reiko’s eyes.
[Ms. Reiko, it’s possible to trace Raldus’ magic power. We should be satisfied that we were able to complete our first objective.]
Laojun’s advice convinced Reiko.
“…That is certainly true.”
Either because the demons had left, or simply due to the passage of time, Reiko’s body weight gradually returned. After about 15 minutes, the magic lost it’s effect.
“…I should return soon.”
Reiko ran at full speed in the direction of the place Pegasus 1 was waiting. As a precaution, she increased the temperature of her body to sterilize it.
In full darkness, Reiko ran at no less the 200km/h and reached Pegasus 1 in a minute.
“Elder sister, were you safe?”
At Pegasus 1 Luna and Soleil gave their greetings.
“There was a strong magic reaction, so we are on alert.”
Land 1 and 2 were alarmed by the pressure at the time, so they returned from the darkness.
“…I think I was somehow able to complete our goal. Let’s return.”
Reiko used the warp gate she had previously arranged as an escape route to return to Horai Island.
After her, Soleil, Luna, Land 1, 2 and Pegasus 1 returned to Horai island.
＊ ＊ ＊
[Thank you for the hard work, Ms. Reiko.]
After returning to Horai Island, Reiko received Laojun’s words of gratitude.
“It’s a little regrettable. The way I handled the demons.”
Reiko freely expressed what she was feeling.
[I understand that. However, you succeeded in achieving our largest goal. I believe the words of those demons were no lie.]
“Elder sister, there is a fragment remaining in my memory, and it there are no discrepancies. I believe those guys were telling the truth.”
Being told so, Reiko finally raised the face she had been casting downward.
[My Lord is waiting in the laboratory on the second floor. Hearing about your difficult fight has made him worry endlessly. Please show him your safe appearance.]
“Yes.”
Hearing so, Reiko urgently went through the warp gate and ran to the second floor where Jin was.
Note 1: ベミアルーシェ == no idea how to write this in English. It shows up again later in the story so… What do we want it to be? Bemiarché? That’s the best I can come up with.
Note 2: ドグマラウド == much easier, but I’ll list all names at the bottom so we can put everything in the wiki from now on. Dogmalord or Dogmaloud. I’ll go with the first for now.