Chapter 10 – Party Annihilation

There was no problem until we passed what looked like a military demarcation line.

Even after crossing the line, there were no signs of what should have been a minefield.

Of course, most of the minefields in the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) were unmarked, unconfirmed minefields.

Anyway, none of us expected there to be mines until the moment they exploded.

Not only the other companions, but even I could barely notice just before the mines detonated.

Neither the magician’s magic nor the knight’s detection ability could discover the mines that had been buried for a long time.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one mine that exploded.

Had the mines scattered in the past gathered in one place over time?

Bang, boom, bang, boom boom boom.

The explosion that started at the center of the group extended to the feet of the elf in front, as well as the shiny knight and the magician.

Four explosions, like dozens of fireballs going off, spread even to Hoffman and me who were chasing the group from behind.

“Damn it!”

I pulled Hoffman down and curled my body into a ball.

At the same time, I desperately raised mana.

Thud, boom, thump.

With the explosion, flames and shock struck the armor and the mana enveloping my body.

Although I had been cautious beforehand and filled myself with as much mana as possible at the moment of the explosion, the impact was not small.

The pressure of the explosion and the following fragments.

The armor dented, and the mana rippled.

Woong.

My ears were ringing, and the world was shaking.

It was too strong an explosion, even if several mines had gone off simultaneously.

While enduring the fragments, I felt pain in several parts of my body. It seemed I had been wounded in multiple places.

Still, I didn’t lose consciousness until the explosion ended.

Ku ku ku ku.

The dust that had risen with the explosion quickly settled.

As the dust settled, only the shiny knight was standing at the site of the explosion.

Was it because he was a more proper knight than I thought?

I hadn’t expected him to be standing intact in that explosion.

I was impressed by his will, but his appearance only looked pitiful.

The shiny knight was standing on one leg.

However, compared to the others caught in the explosion, he was relatively intact standing on one leg.

The elf, who wasn’t wearing armor, was lying face down with only his mangled upper body, and our battle magician was lying on the ground with holes all over his body.

Fortunately, Hoffman, whom I had pulled back and laid down, seemed treatable with a potion.

“Somehow I felt it was time to drink a potion.”

Hoffman, while bleeding profusely, took out a potion from his bag and drank it with a welcoming face.

Even though it would take time for the potion to take effect, Hoffman’s expression immediately relaxed.

As expected, he was a war-hardened potion addict.

The common appearance of a warrior steeped in the pleasure of pain disappearing.

Fortunately, unlike drugs, potions didn’t have severe withdrawal symptoms.

I left the ordinary(?) addict behind and headed towards where the mines had exploded.

Although there was no risk of stepping on mines in a place where they had already detonated, I still approached the blast center carefully, step by step.

As I approached, contrary to my thoughts, all three were still alive.

Leopold, with one leg blown off and his armor completely shattered, the magician with holes all over his body, and even the elf with only the upper body remaining.

Of course, they were all merely alive.

“Cough, it’s certainly gunpowder used in alchemy… How can firework gunpowder have such power?”

The magician was trying to find the cause of the explosion even while coughing up blood.

It was just like him until the end.

I clicked my tongue and took out several potions from my pocket.

“Before finding the cause of the explosion, drink this first.”

I tried to pour the potion into the mouth of the lying magician.

But the magician shook his head, blocking my hand.

“It’s… it’s useless. My core is already broken. Orthodox magicians might have a way to survive even if their core is shattered, but… but for street magicians like me, it’s over when the core is destroyed.”

I knew that story too.

I could see at a glance that the magician’s core in front of me was broken.

I had tried to give him the potion because I wanted to ease his pain.

But since the person himself said he didn’t need it, I withdrew my outstretched hand.

“All this time, my choices have never been wrong… but it seems I was wrong this time. Can’t be helped. I’ll have to be satisfied with having been lucky so far… Cough.”

Unable to finish his lament properly due to the gushing blood, he pointed to his waist with his eyes.

“Kek, kek… I’ll, I’ll tell you how to undo the magic formula on my bag, so take it. You can use everything else, but I’d like you to bring two things to my disciple.”

Even while coughing up blood, he told me how to undo the security magic on the bag, where his disciple was, and the disciple’s name.

“I couldn’t prepare everything, but with these alone, my disciple should be able to grow without being ignored at the tower…”

Was this also the power of magic? The magician was able to finish what he wanted to say before dying.

I did as he instructed, untying the bag from the magician’s waist and tying it around my own.

It was the second magic bag to come into my possession.

A magic bag with space equivalent to a cart.

Perhaps because I already had one, I didn’t feel particularly moved by the new magic bag.

I just felt like I had taken one step closer to owning an estate.

I intended to fulfill the magician’s request as much as possible.

I had no intention of just wiping my mouth after receiving such a gift.

Moreover, it wasn’t the first time I had heard such a request, and my space expansion bag was already filled with items from companions who had made similar requests.

Anyway, I was planning to travel around the continent after the war to deliver the belongings of dead comrades.

I could deliver the magician’s items during that time as well.

I closed the magician’s eyes and then stood up.

In front of the dead magician, at the center of the sunken blast site, Leopold was standing and drinking a potion.

Blood no longer flowed from his severed leg.

He seemed to have blocked it with mana.

“Do you need help?”

“I’m, I’m fine.”

Leopold shook his head at my words. He was a tougher knight than I had thought.

So I passed by the knight drinking the potion and approached the child of the divine tree with only the upper body remaining.

When I turned his body face up, he shouted in a rough voice I had never heard before.

“This, this can’t be happening. I’m not recovering. Is it because it’s a different world? I can’t feel Mother’s power! No! That can’t be! I should be able to feel Mother’s power in any world!”

Surprisingly, a person with his lower body gone was shouting in a normal voice.

And this from someone who had been acting as if he had no emotions.

Moreover, the reason he was shouting wasn’t because of pain.

To be alive in that state and to be making a fuss about not recovering.

I had heard that this race had much better recovery abilities than humans…

Could they possibly recover even from such a body state?

Anyway, he seemed unable to use that recovery ability now.

So I tried to give him the potion that the magician had refused.

“Then this potion…”

“Do you think I can recover with such trash! I, I need to go to the firstborn of the divine tree, no, to the hero’s party right away. If I can just get there, I might be able to recover too. No, if I go to her, I’m sure I can recover!”

My words were cut off midway, and once again, I couldn’t give the potion.

Now there was no way for me to help him.

Having refused the potion, he tried to move north with only his upper body remaining.

After turning his body over, moving with his arms.

But his struggle didn’t last long.

He, who had been slowly moving forward by dragging his upper body, stopped moving shortly after.

His breath had ceased.

As if he had been blocking it with mana until now, blood poured from the body with only the upper half remaining, and his body turned white.

Like a withered old tree.

I looked at the half-remaining corpse with bitterness.

Although he wasn’t someone I particularly liked, he had been my comrade for a short while.

I had witnessed countless deaths while fighting the Demon King, but even now, the death of a comrade was disheartening.

Whether it was a grand death or a futile one like this.

In fact, most deaths during war were futile like this.

Like a great swordsman being swept away by a horde of skeletons, or a magician who had burned down legions of undead dying from pneumonia.

Dying in an enemy trap like this wasn’t uncommon.

Of course, back then it was the Demon King’s tricks or magic traps instead of mines.

I put the sword the corpse was holding into my bag.

Since I couldn’t find any other belongings, I thought I’d at least pass this sword on to another elf.

After confirming the second death and turning around, I saw the one-legged knight Leopold looking around. Standing on one leg, using his sword as a cane.

“A weapon that causes explosions without mana… I think I was too arrogant, even though we’ve come to a different world.”

He spoke to me in a calmer voice than before.

“My father’s words that ‘actual combat is different’ were not wrong.”

The young knight, looking somewhat enlightened, continued speaking while looking at the distant eastern ridge.

“And his words to learn from you were probably not wrong either. Although it’s unfortunate that I won’t be able to follow that advice…”

I also looked at the ridge he was watching.

Among the trees shedding their leaves, dry bushes were swaying.

As if a huge wind was shaking the bushes.

But not a breath of wind was blowing here.

Then, what was shaking those bushes was not wind, but something else.

Something like numerous undead.

Gray bones began to appear among the bushes.

From skeletons with only bones remaining to corpses that had died recently.

A horde of countless corpses was approaching.

There were far more undead than I had thought. It seems many people really did die here.

Looking at the approaching horde of corpses, the young knight continued speaking.

“Go ahead. I’ll hold them back.”

Now was the time to regroup with the hero as quickly as possible.

Since he couldn’t move together with his shiny leg cut off, he was saying he would hold off the enemy here.

It was an extremely rational suggestion.

However, who would want that rational suggestion if it meant their own death?

‘He was a more admirable knight than I thought.’

I regretted having cursed him inwardly.

Although he hadn’t properly experienced actual combat, this young knight was truly an excellent knight.

Especially in the sense that he was willing to die instead of me.

There was no way I, who had abandoned countless such admirable comrades, would refuse his words.

“Thank you.”

To my sincere thanks, he handed me a ring.

It was a ring engraved with his family crest.

“I have a request. I’d like you to return this ring to my family.”

Like the others, he also entrusted his belongings to me.

I received the ring and responded politely.

“When I return, I will personally deliver it to Sir Leopold’s father.”

Just as there were things a knight prepared for death had to do, there were also things a survivor who would live on had to do.

At my words, the young knight smiled.

“It’s a shame. I feel like I could have learned so much properly…”

That was where he was mistaken.

There was nothing a proper knight could learn from a free knight struggling to survive.

With those final words, we parted.

I headed north, carrying Hoffman who had only finished urgent treatment with a potion, while he stood to block the approaching undead.

“Come at me, all of you!”

Behind me as I ran hard, I heard the young knight’s shout.

Grooooowl!

And that shout was buried under the roars of the undead.