Chapter 153: For This Moment
The international laws established by the International Order Alliance are wide-ranging.
Magic law, maritime law, trade law, refugee law, war law, and so on—if discussed in detail, the day would end.
According to Williams, this time the suspicion against India concerns violation of human rights law.
India is suspected of abducting demon children from around the world.
Demons are born as children of Transcendents, or as children of magical beast users who have undergone gremlin implantation.
Also, if the parent is a demon, the child is likely to become a demon too.
Demons can control magic power, and while their possessed magic power is several levels inferior to Transcendents, it is overwhelmingly more than ordinary humans. They can be called the darlings of the magical age.
Just being born a demon means winning at life. Depending on the country, demons are ranked as nobles just for being demons, receive tax benefits, and are celebrated worldwide.
Unlike Transcendents, whose numbers are fixed at less than 1000 even including undiscovered ones, demons are increasing year by year.
The current world demon population is about 20,000. It is even said that “if demons continue to increase like this, national power will eventually be measured by the number of demons.”
Demons are the foundation of future national power.
The more demons there are, the stronger.
Therefore, it is natural that some countries take forceful measures to increase demons.
The International Order Alliance detected that demon children have been disappearing one after another around India recently.
Not just simple disappearance incidents, but there were multiple reports of “narrowly escaped abduction,” and the UN, taking the situation seriously, launched an investigation.
There is a possibility that India is abducting young demon children.
For experiments? For “breeding” purposes? Or for other reasons?
The purpose is unclear. However, it is clearly a violation of international law.
It is also possible that a criminal organization unrelated to any country, based in India, is involved in the abductions.
If you kidnap demon children and educate them to participate in crime, you can generate enormous profits. Human trafficking, passing kidnapped children from one hand to another, can similarly yield enormous profits.
The abductions were carried out across countries, and when looking at just one country’s domestic situation, only one or two disappearance incidents had occurred. Therefore, it took considerable time before it was discovered that demon disappearances were concentrated in countries neighboring India.
This time, the UN noticed purely by chance—Williams, who was working in a neighboring country of India, discovered a demon child together with a bag of drugs during a drug bust.
Without that coincidence, the UN would likely still be unaware of the incident.
That is how clever the crime is.
It was natural for the hero Conrad Williams to move against a long-term, large-scale, cross-border serious crime.
And it was also natural for Williams to seek help from the Blue Witch he had happened to contact.
Whether the enemy is a country or a criminal organization, they are cunning and formidable.
If the abducted demons have been trained and militarized, it could become a battle against a group of nearly 50 demons.
If it were just annihilation, Williams alone would have no problem, but if the goal is to rescue the abduction victims, it is difficult.
To identify the true nature of the organization carrying out the abductions and rescue the victims.
To ensure this is accomplished, Williams sought help from the Blue Witch.
After hearing the story, Hiyori made a difficult face while stroking Tsubaki’s head, who was dozing with her chin on her knee. I also made a difficult face to match the atmosphere.
This doesn’t seem like a very Hiyori-suited case, I think. What do you think?
Hiyori is a reliable woman who excels at blasting everything away with high power. Isn’t she unsuited for sneaking around investigating and rescuing?
Well, she could probably do it, but there would be a rain of blood and ice.
With the great monster, the entire city was frozen solid.
With the Arataki group, all enemy Transcendents were massacred.
With Iruma, I died.
She’s the strongest witch with a 100% lifetime win rate, but quite bloody.
No, but.
With the great monster, she evacuated her Witch Assembly comrades before unleashing her great glacier magic.
With the Arataki group, she was in hiding until Professor Ohinata was released.
With Iruma too, after killing me, she properly resurrected me.
She can actually make quite detailed considerations…?
I’m getting confused.
While thinking about Hiyori’s areas of expertise, the strongest witch spoke carefully to the strongest magic user.
“If I were traveling alone, I would have accepted without hesitation. But now I’m with family.”
“With family…?”
“Ah, no, that’s just a figure of speech, don’t mind it. I mean those who are as close as family.”
She stepped on my foot as I inadvertently glanced at Tsubaki and Hiyori, and Hiyori hurriedly continued.
“If it’s just supporting with familiars or golems, that’s fine. I can’t leave Ollie’s side.”
“Mimi… Blue Witch, worried about Ollie? It’s okay. I can protect Ollie too. This time if bad guys come at night, I’ll properly drive Dairi away.”
Tsubaki, who had been sleepy, suddenly woke up and sat straight, shadowboxing while spitting fire, repeating movements as if punching through the head of someone who had defeated her long ago.
Uuu, the little salamander who was so small has grown up so splendidly! So reliable.
“If Tsubaki is here, nothing much will happen. If you can fight her, you won’t lose easily. Just leave us and go with your friend.”
“Mi! Leave the house-sitting to me. Dairi and I will wait like good children. Blue Witch, you should get along lots with that golden one, Williams!”
“Somehow your way of putting it bothers me… No, I know neither of you means any harm.”
“We expect it to take at least three days at the earliest, up to a month at most, to resolve the incident. I’d like help from beginning to end if possible, but even help at key points would be greatly appreciated. What do you think?”
Ignoring Williams’s refreshing, gentle smile as he made the proposal, Hiyori asked Tsubaki seriously.
“Tsubaki. If you don’t mind, I think it would be good experience for you to follow this guy and learn various things. What do you think?”
“Mi…? What?”
“Ways of fighting, tips for getting by in the world. Things necessary for you to become independent with your own territory. You’re better at hands-on training than classroom learning, right?”
At these words, Tsubaki looked Williams up and down from head to toe.
The tight combat suit adorned with gold threads—probably a composite material of monster leather and Abyss Gold from America’s proud military industry.
The metal arm guards equipped on both arms have intricate magical characters engraved, creating a mysterious atmosphere within a sturdy, simple construction.
The sword at his waist is probably a magic sword. I’ve read papers about recent advances in analyzing magic swords derived from magic users, so it’s probably from that technical series. A magic stone is embedded in the handle. Not my specialty, but quite interesting.
I noticed while looking together with Tsubaki—this guy is fully equipped with swordsman-type gear?
Overall high metal usage in equipment. An outfit befitting the homeland of magic metals.
Just as I’ve made the Blue Witch into an advertisement tower for 0933-made magic products, America has surely made the hero Conrad Williams into an advertisement tower for domestically produced magical equipment.
I see. Everyone thinks the same.
America’s advertisement tower seemed to pass Tsubaki’s inspection, as the fire fairy energetically clashed her hammer and staff together.
“Williams, I am Tsubaki, the amazing! Make me stronger. Please. In return, I’ll teach you magic power sealing too.”
“Magic power sealing? Ah, does that mean you’ll accompany me in place of the Blue Witch?”
“Mi!”
“Tsubaki has learned special magical techniques. There will be much to learn from each other. Conrad and Tsubaki will handle the combat-likely aspects, while I and Dairi will handle information gathering with less danger. How about this division of roles?”
“Hmm.”
Williams and Hiyori hashed out the details for a while and reached an agreement.
In the end, it was decided to split into two teams as Hiyori proposed: “Tsubaki & Williams” and “Hiyori & Dairi.”
I thought Williams had called Hiyori for the reliable execution of the job, not to play with a friend… but that thought was fleeting. The long-eared man said something terrifying as if it were nothing.
“After we resolve the incident, let’s go drinking together, the four of us. I know a good place.”
“Hey, shut up Conrad. Dairi will be intimidated.”
“Dairi is sensitive. Don’t say mean things.”
“Huh? S-sorry.”
Williams was completely overwhelmed in front of the two who protected me faster than I could refuse.
Don’t say scary things. Don’t drag me into drinking parties!
“Drinking parties” are one of the advanced philosophical questions that frequently appear in the theory of friendship.
If you hold a drinking party with someone you hate, you’ll hate them even more.
However, on the other hand, drinking parties are recognized to have the effect of making participants friendlier (Mamono-kun, personal communication).
Are drinking parties necessary social rituals to make disliked people friendly with each other?
Or are they unnecessary social rituals that deepen the rift among participants?
Throughout history, many introverts have developed depression over this mystery. It is a fearsome difficult question.
While I was trembling at the verbal attack using the female team as a shield, Williams honestly lowered his head.
“I was insensitive, I’m sorry. I feel like I somehow understand you now. Let’s forget the drinking party. Instead, I’d like to hear about magic staffs when you have time.”
“I, I don’t want to. I’ll accept all questions in writing.”
The fact that he doesn’t force me to participate in drinking parties probably means he’s a good person.
However, the overflowing aura of extroversion from his entire body is so dazzling it makes my eyes squint.
He’s a good person but incompatible with me. Even if he’s Hiyori’s friend, I don’t want to meet him again.
A friend’s friend is a stranger.
After separating from the Tsubaki & Williams team, we immediately headed into town.
Wangoit is a town bordering the Burmese Kingdom to the south, and it is suspected that demon children abducted from the Burmese Kingdom pass through this town to be taken somewhere.
First is information gathering. Since there is a possibility that India is secretly abducting demons as a national policy, we cannot seek cooperation from public institutions like local police.
“So, where and how do we investigate? The library?”
“Do you think there’s a book in the library with the current location of abduction victims? For this kind of thing, a tavern is best.”
“A tavern open during the daytime sounds like it has bad security.”
“That’s exactly why bad security information gathers there. Don’t worry, you don’t have to say anything.”
She laughed softly and took my hand to lead the way—infinitely reliable. She seems accustomed to this kind of thing. After 80 years of traveling, you’d get good at this. Of course.
Since I really have nothing to do but follow Hiyori and be protected, as minimal support I bought two portions of tandoori chicken-like meat from a food stall and handed one to Hiyori. Use this to fill your stomach at least.
Unlike me silently devouring the sour magical beast meat, Hiyori actively talked to the stall owner, and in exchange for additionally purchasing sauce-heavy nuggets, she successfully extracted the location of a tavern. Apparently it’s a tavern that runs gambling on magical beast fights—it seems like exactly the kind of place where “that sort” of information gathers.
All I can do is buy meat, but when Hiyori does the same thing, information comes as a bonus with the meat. I really am unnecessary.
While savoring the feeling of being a dog taken for a walk by its owner, Hiyori, who had been walking without hesitation at first, gradually began to slow her pace.
The main street was busy with pedestrians at noon, but it wasn’t so crowded that we had to walk slowly to avoid bumping into people. Rather, women with baskets on their heads and men riding tigers passed by while staring curiously at Hiyori in her archaic yet latest witch look, keeping some distance.
Hiyori, who had been munching on meat, tilted her head with a dissatisfied look.
“Something feels… off.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard the secret sauce in India has different ingredients from the Japanese one.”
“That’s not what I mean. Not the taste of the meat—I’m talking about the situation. Don’t you think it’s strange? It feels like… some kind of intent behind it.”
“Huh?”
Now it was my turn to tilt my head.
What are you even talking about? The strange one here is you.
“Listen. At the wand shop Tsubaki followed you to, the owner took a liking to you and gave you a souvenir.
Mixed in with that souvenir was oil, which made us change our destination to its place of origin.
The workshop at that new destination just happened to have excellent equipment, but it was dirty, so we stayed longer to clean it.
Because we stayed longer, Conrad’s transmission just happened to reach my Kyuanos. If it had been off by even half a day, we would’ve missed each other.
A series of highly improbable coincidences piled up, and now we’re here like this. Is this really just coincidence?”
“Uh…? I mean, yeah… maybe? But that’s just how things go sometimes.”
If we’re talking about coincidences, then the fact that an octa-meteorite fell into my backyard is far more miraculous. Without that, who knows if I’d have even become a wand craftsman.
If you start saying “there are too many coincidences, something’s wrong!” and chase that idea to its end, wouldn’t our very existence start to seem strange too?
I get what she’s trying to say, but if you start assigning meaning to every coincidence, you’ll lose your mind. A coincidence is just a coincidence.
But Hiyori didn’t seem to think so. She stopped in the middle of the bustling street, furrowing her brow as she sank into thought.
She muttered to herself, almost like a half-whisper.
“I feel like something like this happened before. Like things were connecting… or being made to connect? Something unusual is happening. The flow is strange. Something’s off.
Remember. That feeling where nothing strange is happening, yet something is. When was it? Where?”
“I don’t really get it. Want me to grab a different flavor?”
“I don’t. Don’t go anywhere. Stay where I can see you—…ah.”
The color drained from Hiyori’s face in an instant, as if she had just realized something.
“This is bad—how much have they seen!? We’re being guided! Dairi, the enemy has foresi—!”
The moment Hiyori shouted, everything changed in an instant.
My arm was yanked so hard it felt like my shoulder would dislocate, and I was pulled down to the ground.
Hiyori dragged me down at her feet, then struck a man who had been sneaking up on us with a cloth soaked in some kind of chemical, sending him flying. At the same time, with a chantless ice spear spell, she blew off the arm of a woman who had drawn a wand from beneath her clothes and aimed it at us.
“Don’t move, Dairi! By the fortress of Noutet, by the barrier of Mihiei, we repel the devourer of the nether—!”
While casting an incantation to place the strongest defensive spell on me, Hiyori unleashed a rapid barrage of chantless ice spears.
Screams erupted as a battle suddenly broke out in the middle of a peaceful daytime street.
With each of Hiyori’s spells, one attacker after another was taken out of the fight.
But there were too many.
The number of ordinary civilians frozen in shock was actually small—most of the people we thought were just passersby wore expressions of chilling fear, yet still kept attacking one after another.
The Blue Witch handled the overwhelming numbers with overwhelming skill. It was obvious at a glance that sheer numbers alone could never defeat her. Like a machine executing perfect programming, she struck, kicked, and cast spells with precision—each movement sending attackers with knives and wands flying.
What made the attackers truly terrifying was their suicidal coordination.
Like a checkmate puzzle, even an overwhelmingly strong opponent began to be pushed back little by little.
Each individual only caused a split-second delay in the Blue Witch’s responses. Alone, it meant nothing—but when perfectly chained together across dozens of people, those tiny delays stacked.
A delay of 0.01 seconds formed. Then it compounded into 0.1 seconds.
No matter how much ordinary strength and magic you gathered, it shouldn’t be enough to even scratch the Blue Witch.
That’s how it should be.
And yet, the attackers were all risking their lives to accomplish something. Dozens of them were throwing their lives away, connecting their efforts, trying to do something to someone they should never be able to defeat.
“Hey, this is bad! Just blow them all away at once!”
“I can’t! There are civilians!”
Hiyori shouted back at me while kicking two attackers away, sending them flying over ten meters.
You’ve gone soft, haven’t you!? Back when we first met, you wouldn’t have cared about anyone outside your circle. You still prioritize your own, but now you actually see strangers too.
“Dairi! They’re being controlled by an appointment spell! It’s Arataki Group’s doing! I’ll dispel all magic at once—but your protection will disappear too, so don’t move! ———!”
The Blue Witch raised Kyanos and began chanting a mass dispel spell.
At last, one of the attackers managed to reach her.
But their target wasn’t Hiyori.
It was Kyanos.
Pinching a strangely modified gremlin between their fingers, the attacker traced the handle of Kyanos in a swift, complex motion.
They were clearly following the engraved pattern used for four-dimensional storage—with deliberate intent and a specialized tool.
Seeing that, Hiyori’s eyes widened in shock.
I couldn’t believe it either. I was stunned.
No way.
No way, no way—Is that even possible? If you can see the future, can you do something like this!?
Right before my eyes, space itself vanished around Kyanos.
Kyanos disappeared.
The attacker who interfered with it was also caught in the effect—their upper body vanished, their lower half dropping to the ground.
Even the supposedly impregnable barrier of the strongest defensive spell was gouged out and destroyed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…!”
Theoretically, it made sense.
But I couldn’t accept it.
Hiyori was caught in the four-dimensional collapse—
and vanished from the world without a trace.
I knew such an accident could happen.
But seeing it happen right in front of me, my mind refused to accept it.
Hiyori disappeared before my eyes, and the overwhelming sense of loss pierced through my entire body, shutting my brain down.
“H-Hiyori…?”
I reached out trembling into the empty void—
and then, as one of the attackers cast a sleep spell, I lost consciousness just as easily.