The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 121

“The urgent report mentioned an unidentifiable monster at the forefront. Has its identity been confirmed?”

This information might be more crucial than determining the monster’s size. We could prepare for monsters we could roughly predict; it was ultimately a numbers game. But an unidentified monster was different.

A variable.

The unknown monster was the variable I desperately hoped wouldn’t occur. What did it look like? How big was it? How strong? What were its strengths and weaknesses? Since no one knew anything, we couldn’t prepare.

“That is······.”

“Even the smallest detail will help.”

Whether the commander said he didn’t know or gave me all the information about it, I had to go and see them anyway. Still, knowing even a little was worlds apart from knowing nothing, whether in a normal reconnaissance or a sudden crisis.

“I’m not sure.”

“Not sure?”

Not that they saw it, not that they didn’t, but that they weren’t sure—it was the worst answer I could have expected.

“Didn’t you say it was an unidentifiable monster? If you’re unsure, there must be a basis for that judgment.”

“······I didn’t see it myself. The knights who went on patrol returned, mumbled strange things along with their report, and then immediately fainted, saying nothing more.”

“Strange things?”

“Yes. They said they touched something they shouldn’t have, summoned something they shouldn’t have. They only said that those things were coming.”

Something they shouldn’t have touched? Something they shouldn’t have summoned? Those things?

There was no helpful information. The only thing I could suspect was that it had abilities that affected the mind, and at a fairly high level.

“Where are those knights?”

“Follow me.”

The knights I faced under the commander’s guidance were alive, as if to prove the commander’s words were true, but their eyes were unfocused. They seemed to hear and act accordingly when spoken to, but in this state… they were merely alive.

“They’ve been like this since they fainted. Judging from what they said before fainting, they definitely saw something, but they’re not saying anything…”

“Are these the only ones?”

“Yes. Those who went on additional patrols showed the same reaction. The mages tried to heal them, but it was no use.”

It was clear I wouldn’t get a proper answer from them in this state. At the same time, I understood why the other mages had given up. But I would be disappointed if they equated me with ordinary mages.

Recovery.

As a clear green light enveloped the knights, their eyes, once devoid of focus, gradually began to regain life. It was evidence that their reason was returning.

“Are you regaining your senses?”

“······Where is this?”

“Your name, tell me your name.”

“Runan, it’s Runan.”

“Good. Sir Runan, can you tell me the last scene you remember?”

“Well… me and my colleagues were performing our reconnaissance mission as usual. In the process, we detected a large-scale monster advance and… Kuuk!”

As I watched Sir Runan clutch his head, saying he couldn’t remember anything beyond that, I frowned as well. The symptoms were more severe than I thought. Of course, I could forcibly awaken or revive his memories, but I couldn’t rashly do so. There was a high probability it could cause permanent damage to the subject.

“That’s enough. It will be even harder if you try to revive your memories forcibly. You should continue moving and join the main camp.”

“Understood. But what about the Count…?”

“I can’t just go back after coming this far. I’ll gather as much information as possible and return, so don’t worry about me and retreat.”

“It’s dangerous! There are Titan riders in the unit, so take them with you.”

“If I was going to do that, I would have done so when I left. Besides, at my level, it’s easier to be alone. There will be a decisive battle soon, so go back and prepare.”

“······Then please return safely.”

#

‘Something they shouldn’t have touched? Something they shouldn’t have summoned? Those things?’

I kept repeating the words the knight had mumbled. In some ways, it could be seen as useless mumbling, but my senses were warning me not to dismiss that murmur. In such cases, danger was more often the reality.

‘What the hell is it?’

That’s why I couldn’t back down—as a member of the expeditionary force, and as a mage.

‘It’s clear that it’s not just a clumsy higher species that relies on strength and size.’

Higher species that simply relied on strength and size were monsters that belonged to the lower ranks even among the same higher species. Like the Behemoth that almost took my life a long time ago when I was still immature, those with special abilities could only be found in the mid-ranks.

Among those, a monster that could inflict a high level of mental interference just by witnessing its appearance, or in the short moment before the knights were caught by the monster, to the point where they couldn’t even resist… Several candidates flashed through my mind, but there was no one that fit.

‘It’s proof that there are still many things in the world that humans don’t know.’

I hurried to move to confirm that unknown. How long had I been running? After enough time had passed for the sun and moon to change several times, I was able to find traces of the monster group.

‘This is a first.’

As if the repeated reports so far were not false, the traces presumed to have been left by the monster group were also not ordinary. The path of advance, which stretched across a width far exceeding the grand training ground in the main estate, had not a single blade of grass left. The ‘road’ was so clearly made that you could guess its power at a glance.

‘But the scale is small.’

At most, one or two hundred thousand? It was by no means a negligible scale, but it was not close to a million. Still, at this scale, it would be right to see that the units were divided, not scattered.

‘This is better.’

A million would have been a burden no matter what I did, but one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand was a different story. In fact, even in the early stages of the expedition, when the forces were divided into seven units, they had captured up to one hundred thousand monsters without significant damage. This time, they would be moving with concentrated power, so the situation was much better than before. To put it bluntly, wasn’t it just a matter of catching one hundred thousand ten times, or two hundred thousand five times?

Divide and conquer.

It was a situation that could be said to be the first condition for a weak army to defeat a strong army, and they had created it themselves.

‘I can’t be sure yet, and there are still variables.’
The puzzles were falling into place in my head. However, the problem was that there were a few pieces of unknown origin. If I could figure this out, I could come up with a pretty plausible plan, but I didn’t know it.

‘Should I follow it for now?’

Anyway, it was the first trace I found. I didn’t know if the unknown monster I was looking for would be at the end of this, but there was no reason not to follow the trace. Even if I found other traces, I couldn’t know if the one I wanted would be there.

#

‘It’s terrible.’

It didn’t take long to find the source of the traces. It was thanks to the traces being so clear, me moving quickly, and the power of the map.

The sight I faced was terrible, but it was far from the kind of horror that ordinary people imagine. There were no common elements such as red blood, fallen flesh, or corpses, no matter how hard I looked. But if you realize the reason, you will know why I said it was terrible.

Crunch, crunch-

The reason there are no corpses?

It was simple: they disappeared into the bellies of stronger monsters. They had become one, so there was no way they could remain. Perhaps if they had fought back instead of running away, our soldiers would have been in the same situation. Nevertheless, what was strange was that the monsters were not shaken even though their own kind were being swallowed.

Even if the monsters had a faint sense of kinship, it wasn’t to this extent. Rather, the sight of them scattering would have been normal, as the relationship between predator and prey was clear.

‘Is it their doing?’

I strongly suspected that it was the work of the new monsters, who were presumed to have mental interference abilities. If my prediction was correct, it was a really scary thing.

It proved not only the strength of the ability but also the range. I didn’t know if it was just making them blank, or if it was even possible to control them in detail, but in the worst case, a situation could arise where the soldiers would kill each other and self-destruct. In that case, I had to keep in mind the situation where I had to kill only them first with a separate unit.

‘There’s nothing particularly noticeable.’

I looked around intently to grasp the size and composition of the monsters from a distance where they wouldn’t notice me. As expected, it was a huge scale, but it was relatively small as if it had been scattered in several directions, and familiar and unfamiliar guys coexisted in the composition, but there was no one who gave a special feeling.

‘Is it not in this group? Or maybe they’re not scattered and clustered together.’

Considering the military force, if ‘they’ were certain, there was little chance that they would not have sent even one. It would be right to judge that they had not scattered at all.

Flap, flap-

First, I sent information about this group to the main camp with a familiar [a magical creature often used for reconnaissance or message delivery]. It was not a scale that could be ignored, even though ‘that guy’ was not there.

“Then before I go······.”

It was a pity to just send them away like this. As long as I didn’t overdo it like before, it would be enough to escape. There was a possibility that they would notice and run, but that time was enough to pour magic and retreat.

Rumble-

Do you know the saying ‘a bolt from the blue?’

It was a proverb referring to an unexpected disaster in a previous life. But for the monsters, it was literally a bolt from the blue, because I, of all people, wanted it.

“I don’t know if it’s just increasing the food supply.”

#

After that, I continued to run around to find traces of them. Whether it was a coincidence or because they had not been scattered for long, I was able to find them one after another not long after finding the first group.

“That’s the one.”

I was sure. The things the knights were talking about—the things they shouldn’t have touched, the things they shouldn’t have summoned—were referring to those guys. The reason was simple: an appearance that I had never seen in a book or with my own eyes, and a headache that I felt in my head as soon as I saw that appearance. If I hadn’t suddenly caught a disease, there was only one reason to feel a headache: because I resisted mental magic. Judging from the fact that the headache was not severe, it seemed that I could cope well enough if I was prepared. The reason why the knights were helpless was probably because they were careless.

“Anyway, it’s grotesquely shaped.”

< The Second Son of a Baron – 121 > End