Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight Volume 15

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3128-0
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Der Werwolf: The Annals of Veight

Following the defeat of the fake Ason in Wa, Friede returns home and resumes work as her father's assistant. Her first assignment is to guard Kuwol's prince, Shumar, who is coming to Meraldia to study. The two make fast friends but their peaceful time together at school is interrupted by ominous tidings from the forest to the west. A dragon has been spotted-and it aims to suck the land dry of mana! If it goes unchecked, the beast will turn into an unstoppable monster capable of destroying not only Meraldia, but the entire world. Veight and Friede will need the help of everyone they know to bring it down before it's too late.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hyougetsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Teshima, Nari

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter 15

While investigating the Windswept Dunes, I encountered the first reincarnator, Ason. But that Ason had been a fake—a crude copy created by the rampant mana of a magical artifact that the real Ason had once possessed. Thanks to Friede and her friends, we were able to put a stop to the fake Ason, but I was surprised to find out she was in the middle of the desert when she was supposed to be studying in Wa.

Anyway, we were able to successfully retrieve the artifact, and we even got the chance to investigate the Great Torii of the Divine. The trip to Wa provided huge diplomatic and scientific benefits for us. Now, I was back in Meraldia enjoying some downtime. While I didn’t dislike tense fights with powerful monsters, I didn’t want to put myself needlessly at risk now that I had a wife and a daughter. Plus, I was technically one of the werewolf elders now. I wasn’t spending as much time on the front lines, so my fighting skills were getting rusty.

“I feel like I’ve stopped being as reckless recently, Master,” I said with a smile as I handed her the latest report from the Windswept Dunes investigation team.

She put down the thick tome she was reading and brushed aside whatever strange contraption she was working on with a sigh.

“I cannot believe you said that with a straight face. No matter how much time passes, you never seem to settle down.”

Master ignored my reproachful look, stretched her arms, and tapped her shoulders with her staff.

“Should I give you a massage?” I asked.

“No need. This body’s aches are of little importance. That aside, you still haven’t fixed your habit of running headfirst into danger. Even worse, you immediately turn to blowing things up. How many times have I told you that destruction should always be a scholar’s last resort?”

But then Master chuckled and floated up to eye level with me.

“I’m joking. I doubt anyone else would have been able to survive a confrontation with Fake Ason, let alone defeat him. Besides, you successfully saved your friends retrieved the artifact. Your accomplishments this time are commendable.”

As always, Master was soft on her students—though I liked that about her.

Master used telekinesis to float up a number of books in front of her and rapidly flip through their pages. “Being granted the opportunity to study the Great Torii of the Divine was quite the boon as well. I’ve learned much about the principles of reincarnation.”

I thought. “By the way, Iori told me something that might be relevant to your investigation. Apparently, a few decades ago, a foreign mage snuck into the Great Torii of the Divine and went missing.”

“Iori is that new friend of Friede’s, correct?”

“Well...yeah, I guess that’s basically true.”

Iori was the adopted daughter of the head of the Heavenwatchers, Tokitaka. She was most likely going to be chosen as his successor, but she’d taken a liking to Friede and come to Meraldia. I’d been worried Iori’s decision would have diplomatic repercussions, but fortunately, Tokitaka had a soft spot for his daughter and he’d given her his blessing to go to Meraldia. She was now an exchange student at Meraldia University.

“Anyway, there are a lot of oddities regarding this mage that got into the Torii. For one thing, even though the Heavenwatchers meticulously tailed this mage, their records are fuzzy.”

Their report stated that the mage’s name was, “Juna, maybe Juta, or perhaps even Junan (Junan seems likely).” The Heavenwatchers were Wa’s spy organization, and they were as competent as the CIA back on Earth. There was no way they’d normally leave behind such sloppy records. With how many other things didn’t add up, I suspected this mage might have used memory-altering magic. Human memory was an imperfect storage structure, so a combination of illusion magic, strengthening magic, and mind magic could easily mess with it.

“They might have manipulated the memories of the Chrysanthemum Court’s guards to get past them,” I said.

“It’s certainly possible. In which case, it was no coincidence that they ended up at the Great Torii of the Divine.”

Most of the Heavenwatchers knew prediction magic, so it would take someone with immense skill to deceive them.

Continuing my train of thought, I said, “The Heavenwatchers determined that Ju-something had used teleportation magic to escape. They tried to track the perpetrator down with prediction magic, but their magic claimed that Ju-something was nowhere.”

Master narrowed her eyes, her sharp mind immediately picking up on the implication. “It wasn’t that their magic couldn’t pinpoint this mage, but rather that it asserted they were ?”

“Yeah. My guess is their magic tracked the mage to coordinates that don’t exist in this plane of reality.”

“So it’s possible they teleported to another world.”

When this incident happened, the Torii was already starting to break down and was only capable of bringing people’s souls over instead of their whole bodies. If that mage had jumped to another world, they wouldn’t have been able to do it with the Torii alone. They would have needed to know magic that assisted in the process.

“Hmm...” Master plopped back down in her chair, her expression pensive. “It seems there’s more to reincarnation than we realized. Though I cannot even fathom where to begin my research.”

Despite her words, Master looked excited. She floated more books up around her and looked every bit like a great sage as she rifled through them at blinding speed.

“Our recent investigation into the Windswept Dunes confirmed that the desertification was caused by a disruption in the natural balance of mana within the region. We now know for sure that misuse of mana can ravage the land and even cause unnatural life-forms to evolve.”

That reminded me of something else.

“Speaking of unnatural life-forms, aren’t the deeper parts of the forest inhabited by strange creatures as well?” I asked.

“Indeed. I suspect something akin to Ason’s Legendary Treasure lies at the heart of the forest. Unfortunately, the forest is quite vast, and there are many new and rare species that need to be documented and studied first. My research is progressing slowly on that front.”

In some respects, Master was just as childish as she looked. As her disciple, and as the Demon Lord’s vice-commander, I needed to keep her focused.

“In order to do your research properly, you need a stable environment. You won’t be able to study all those new species if the forest ends up like the Windswept Dunes, right?”

“Quite true. Further, it’s possible we may be able to find other completely undocumented races like the fungoids at the center of the forest.”

“Like fire-breathing dragons?”

“Haha, now that I would like to see.”

* * * *

To the west of Meraldia lay a vast forest inhabited by many demon races. When the plains became humanity’s domain, the demons fled to the forest and lived there in hiding. But now, the forest was changing.

“Nnngh!”

Face red from exertion, a young giant lifted up a large boulder.

“I-Is this good enough?!” he asked.

“Yes, now please move it outside the construction zone,” a dragonkin technician said, pointing to the rope that demarcated the construction zone.

“Th-That’s so far!”

“Which is why you should put it on the roller. It will make things a lot easier for you.” A group of canine engineers had laid out a series of logs nearby to serve as a roller.

“I-I see!” The giant placed the boulder on the logs and started rolling it away. “Phew...”

Once the giant had finished removing the boulder, the dragonkin technician offered him a handkerchief the size of a small blanket.

“Well done. Next, we need to build a hut to serve as our temporary lodging until construction is complete.”

“Let me guess. When you say ‘we,’ you mean me?”

The dragonkin nodded as he flipped through pages of schematics. “I wouldn’t be able to finish it before the end of the day, after all.”

“I...guess you have a point.”

The giant mopped up the sweat on his brow with a wry smile. Just then, the group of canine engineers came running over.

“Something’s weird!”

“Yeah, super weird!”

“Super duper weird!”

The giant and dragonkin exchanged glances.

“Looks like something’s going on.”

“You can always trust a canine’s instincts. What exactly happened, you three?”

The canines huddled fearfully by the giant’s legs and said, “I heard this really scary roar in the distance! You guys did too, right?”

“Whatever made that noise was super big!”

...