“Huff, huff…”
Felice who acted as the leader of the Arunvida residents was doing push-ups with a dumbbell on his back.
He didn’t stop his workout even as footsteps approached his room.
The owner of the footsteps stopped in front of the door and seemed to wait without knocking.
Only after Felice had completed a satisfying amount of exercise and set the dumbbell down with a thud did he stand up.
“It’s rare for you to visit me personally. I hope you haven’t brought a matter heavier than this dumbbell.”
When Felice who was drenched in sweat opened the door, Mimir responded with a wry smile.
“I wish it were only as heavy as that dumbbell.”
“Hah… Of course. Come in. It might smell a bit like sweat, but you’ve probably smelled plenty of blood, so it should be fine.”
“Then I won’t refuse.”
After he entered the room, Mimir glanced around briefly before speaking.
“You are very passionate about your training.”
“What can you do in a place like this? Doing nothing will drive a person crazy. You know my personality well, so why don’t we get straight to the point?”
“That’s fine with me. To get to the point… the orcs’ movements are unusual.”
“Hmmm.”
Felice quietly closed his mouth and wiggled the dumbbell in one hand.
Yet, he listened attentively to Mimir’s explanation.
At first, he wondered what was happening, but as he listened, his mouth gradually began to open in surprise, and the hand holding the dumbbell stopped moving.
Felice wasn’t just idly passing time, so he was aware of the strange phenomena occurring in the monster habitats.
But to think it was caused by orcs using magical power?
What surprised him more was that the princess had confirmed this herself.
“You want to form a special scouting team. Fine. I’m also a resident here, so I won’t refuse. However, I’d like to hear more details about this team.”
“You’ll be the team leader, Felice. However, there will be a separate operations commander.”
“That newbie from outside?”
“Yes.”
“Are you telling me to hand over command to a rookie who hasn’t even been here for a fortnight and hasn’t completed his coming-of-age ceremony?”
Felice’s tone grew heavy.
Some might consider this attitude towards Mimir who was the princess’s right hand to be rude. But Felice never crossed the line set by Mimir.
Mimir, on the other hand, had no desire for undue respect from Felice.
If Anastasia were the type to demand such respect for the sake of her name, she would have been more overbearing, but since Anastasia herself disliked it, Mimir and Felice maintained their current relationship.
In fact, Felice was also an important figure in governing Arunvida.
“That’s not the case. To be precise, he will serve as an operations advisor. The decisions will be yours, Felice.”
“Hmmm…”
Felice fell into thought for a moment.
That newbie had said that soon, a wind of change would blow through Arunvida.
He said results would come within two months, but so far, there had been no news.
Of course, discovering orcs using magical power was a significant change.
But that wasn’t the nuance the newbie had implied.
“If you give me clear command authority, I will take it on.”
“I look forward to your help. I won’t be in the territory for a while because I need to report related information to the Empire.”
“Is it alright to leave the princess alone?”
“This time, I even got a written promise, so it should be fine.”
“You trust the princess too much. Tsk. Well, she’s not someone who would do anything foolish, so I’ll do as you say.”
“Yes. Then, I’ll be counting on you.”
“Bring some souvenirs on your way back.”
“I will do so.”
With that, their conversation ended.
Mimir headed to Shane’s quarters late in the afternoon.
He knocked lightly and there came an immediate answer from inside.
“Come in.”
“Yes, I’m coming in.”
As soon as he opened the door, Mimir’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
“What is… this?”
“These are the scouting team reports from last year to this year and the magic I’ve been personally researching.”
Shane’s lodging which would have otherwise been barren felt like a giant box made of stacks of paper.
The walls were covered with various search reports, just as Shane had mentioned, and a large map of Arunvida was spread out on a wooden blackboard, marked with numerous symbols.
In addition, a complex magic formula was projected onto a circular orb floating in the air in the center of the room.
Mimir who observed it for a moment tilted his head.
As a former renowned mage, Mimir had no difficulty reading the magical formula.
I’ve seen this somewhere before. Where was it?
Judging by the unpleasant feeling accompanying the memory, it didn’t seem to be a good one.
“You’re working hard. Have you discovered anything?”
“There are clear signs of an upcoming monster wave.”
“Hmm…?”
Mimir tilted his head again at those words.
He had been reading the scouting team reports daily.
While he suspected that a monster wave would come due to the unusual movements of the orcs, he couldn’t be certain.
“Have you found any clues?”
If this was actually the case, it would be excellent news.
They could use this as a basis to request help from the imperial family.
Of course, it might be difficult to receive direct help from the imperial family.
However, this would create an opportunity to inform the international community and attract the attention of adventurers.
“Yes, I was thinking of visiting you about this.”
With that, Shane headed to the map of Arunvida where he had left a mark.
“As you can see, most of the monster habitats attacked by the orcs are about to enter the breeding season.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about that too. But it’s hard to find a strong connection between that and the monster wave.”
When Mimir saw this phenomenon, the first thing that came to his mind was monster taming.
However, monsters and beasts were different.
It was nearly impossible to tame a newly born monster, and even then, it was only possible with very docile monsters.
But weren’t the monsters attacked by the orcs anything but docile? They were ferocious to the extreme.
To begin with, the idea of taming monsters to create a monster wave was fundamentally difficult in Arunvida where food was scarce.
“Yes, so I’ve considered various possibilities, but this was the only way I could think of to connect with their actions.”
With that, Shane showed the magic camera he had taken from his coat.
When the light from the magic camera projected into the air, the image of the orc that Anastasia and Shane had fought a while ago appeared.
“Are you talking about the orc’s magical power?”
“Yes, this is what I created by formalizing their magical patterns.”
“What? Are you saying it’s possible for you to formalize it just by looking at the magical patterns?”
Mimir grew surprised when he looked at Shane. He rarely showed such an expression on his face.
It was like saying you could complete the internal design of a music box just by listening to its sound without seeing the inside.
It was something impossible by common sense standards.
“It wasn’t very complicated, so it didn’t take long. Rather, it was extremely crude.”
However, Shane’s analytical ability was not something that could be understood within the bounds of common sense.
Of course, Shane couldn’t recognize complex formulas like advanced magic or the magical patterns of high-ranking knights.
To be precise, it would take too long.
However, since he had also acquired the orc’s memories, it wasn’t too difficult to formalize this.
Ignoring the astonished Mimir, Shane continued his explanation with a stern face.
“But it seems the situation is more serious than we thought.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“This formula, doesn’t it look familiar?”
“Yes. I felt like I remembered something as soon as I saw it, but I still don’t know what it is.”
“It’s blood magic.”
“……?!”
Blood magic. Mimir had participated in the war against the black mages in the past, so he quickly realized why he felt such discomfort as soon as he heard those words.
“O-Orcs use blood magic? No, more importantly, how do you know about this?”
Mimir’s expression grew more serious.
Black magic and blood magic were the most forbidden types of magic across the entire continent, and so, very few people knew about them.
Even the masters of the Magic Towers didn’t know much about those two types of magic.
However, though he hadn’t completely absorbed it, Shane had retained those two magics in his mind after dismantling Gordon’s soul.
“While I was exploring the Great Mezaiya Forest, I was able to gather information in the lab of Gordon, who was the former head black mage who created chimeras.”
“Ah…”
Come to think of it, he read a report that mentioned Gordon’s appearance in the great forest.
Of course, since it was known to the world that Gordon was killed by the queen of the elves Priscilla, Mimir never thought of his lab.
“Anyway, back to the main point, it seemed they had awakened their magical power through some form of blood magic, but… there’s something more important.”
“Do you mean the orcs might use chimeras?”
“That possibility can’t be completely ruled out, but it’s unlikely.”
“Why is that?”
“Firstly, black magic was developed by humans after the Common Era, and in the case of modern blood magic, it’s a result of Gordon combining existing blood magic with black magic.”
“Ah…”
Indeed, just like Shane mentioned, Gordon was a mage with such a track record.
Although Mimir didn’t know the details, it was said that black magic and blood magic had undergone many modifications after the Common Era.
“When I formalized their magical patterns, they were close to the original blood magic.”
“Hmm… in that case, it would indeed be difficult for them to use chimeras.”
Though Mimir didn’t know the principles of blood magic, he could quickly infer the results produced by magic, as mages could obtain such outcomes if they desired.
“That’s correct. Original blood magic is mainly specialized in physical enhancement.”
“Then why does that serve as a way to predict the monster wave?”
“… Like I said, the original blood magic specializes in physical enhancement. The theory involves embedding the monster’s magical elements into your veins.”
“Then, could it be…”
“Yes. On a larger scale, there are cases where the user can command monsters.”
“Isn’t that… impossible?”
In other places, this theory might work.
There are plenty of monsters that form groups out there.
However, most monsters in Arunvida tend to move independently.
Of course, there were quite a few that didn’t do so, but the monsters the orcs went after usually roamed alone.
In that case, no matter how much they imitated the other race through the monster’s magical elements, it would still be impossible to command them.
Even among the same race, monsters would bare their teeth if one intruded on their territory.
However, Shane shook his head.
“There are times when monsters become more ferocious, aren’t there?”
“…The Eclipse.”
“Yes. When the two moons merge into one, monsters become especially ferocious and start to gather in groups.”
In the end, Mimir fell silent.
It was still just a theory, but what exactly was this boy in front of him?
He had uncovered the phenomenon of magical instability in the Great Mezaiya Forest during an academy test. It was a place he had never visited at the time.
Mimir was not so foolish as to disregard what such a person said.
Moreover, he could not find any theoretical or psychological flaws in it.
“It still needs more research, but I think the orcs’ plan is something like this. They absorb the monster’s magical elements through blood magic and somehow mimic the Eclipse to trigger a monster wave.”
“That wave could become a phenomenon that won’t end anytime soon … but how can the orcs use blood magic in the first place?”
Shane also only had guesses about that, but one thing came to mind.
He heard a young girl’s desperate cry during the process of absorbing the orc’s soul.
And then there was the history of the orcs.
Perhaps the orcs…
Didn’t they kill all the young vampires?
Priscilla had told him about the origins of the northern orcs.
Didn’t the orcs attack the young vampires during that process?
It was highly likely that one of those vampires had been captured and exploited by the orcs in a way that was still unknown to him.
However, Shane did not bother to tell Mimir this fact.
“In ancient times, orcs couldn’t wield magic, but they knew how to imbue objects with magical power. There were orc shamans, so it’s likely related to that.”
“Hmm… it’s complicated. How should we inform the Empire about this?”
Mimir who faced the winds of change head-on at the forefront of the north barely understood Shane’s words.
However, the imperial family who still regarded Arunvida as little more than a wasteland would likely not believe what Shane had said.
If anything, he’d be lucky not to be ridiculed and told to stop talking nonsense.
Seeing Mimir’s troubled expression, Shane quietly spoke up.
“Mimir, I have a suggestion for you.”
Mimir looked at Shane who spoke those words with an expressionless face.
His face clearly showed no expression, so why did he feel killing intent directed at someone from that face?
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