Crack!

Claws, sprouted from a fist clenched like a studded knuckle, raked across the enemy’s neck.

Skin was crushed and torn, and blood splattered.

Chelsea clutched her neck, trying to stanch the bleeding, but the backlash of mana came first.

“Uweeegh!”

She staggered, vomiting black blood mixed with pieces of her internal organs.

The more difficult and powerful a spell, the greater the side effects of failure.

Since this was the trump card she had prepared to stop the Wanderer, it would not be easy to block the recoil.

“Chelsea!”

“I-I’m fine, hurry and counterattack…!”

Chelsea stopped her subordinates who were rushing toward her and shouted.

Her prepared move had been helplessly broken, but the battle was not over.

Her intention was to disregard her own life and somehow inflict a meaningful blow upon us.

What tear-jerking loyalty.

“You look down on the mages of the Magic Tower too much.”

I scoffed at their desperate struggle.

It might be a different story if my companions were ordinary mages, but they were none other than the heads of the Magic Tower’s schools.

The Wanderer was one of the most experienced and seasoned among them.

A situation like this didn't even qualify as a crisis.

“It’s hot out anyway, so something hot should be good.”

Fwoosh!

Colin did not betray my expectations.

As he hummed and flicked his finger, a massive curtain of fire raced out in all directions.

The murderous heat of the desert grew even hotter.

It was a literal blazing heat, so intense that even my lips, at a distance, became parched.

“How can he cast a spell of this scale so quickly…!”

“Kuaaack!”

“H-help me!”

A mage who has reached a certain level is not bound by the magic of the school they belong to.

For a school head, their power was not inferior to that of a specialist.

The power of the fire elemental magic, unleashed in the special location of the desert, was beyond imagination.

“Hup!”

Sage didn't stand still either.

She did not panic even in the chaotic situation.

She manifested her magic calmly and precisely, just as she had in practice.

Charrarak!

Chain Pressure, chains of mana, restrained the bodies of the enemies trying to escape from within the curtain of fire.

They were chains that had the property of digging in deeper the more one struggled.

It was a viciously effective combination, meaning the more they tried to escape to avoid burning to death, the more they were restrained.

“No, way…”

Chelsea forced out her voice as she sat collapsed on the ground.

“How, cough! To a mere contractor, we…”

“It’s not something to be upset about.”

I walked leisurely, responding to Chelsea’s words.

The fight was already over, even without my further intervention.

Colin seemed to have sensed this as well.

As if to give Sage some experience on this occasion, he had subtly shifted his focus to assisting her.

“Think of it as a battle between ruin expedition teams. It’s not like you haven’t experienced this once or twice, so what’s the use of making a fuss. It’s just that this time, it was your turn to be on the receiving end.”

I felt no pangs of conscience.

It was just a matter of whether they fell now or later.

The Thorson Expedition was fated to be dismantled due to the failure of this ruin expedition.

“...”

The truth is not always a comfort.

For some, it becomes a pretext for resentment.

Chelsea, who had been glaring at me as if to kill me, finally lowered her hand from her neck, giving up on stopping the bleeding.

“Heheheh.”

A gloomy laugh soon followed.

Chelsea forced a smile, her face contorted in pain.

“It won’t end just by killing me here. The Thorson Expedition will be after you, so conquering the ruin will be impossible. Even if the Magic Tower is your opponent, we are the experts.”

A sharp, clear voice.

Accepting the ruined state of her body, she had given up on her life and squeezed out her last bit of mana for a warning.

Bang!

I answered with a lead bullet.

“We’re not the ones who should be worried about failure.”

To me, who knew their fate, Chelsea’s warning was not even laughable.

***

The post-battle cleanup, such as erasing the traces of the fight and burying the bodies, did not take long.

Colin, having experienced this many times, finished the work skillfully.

The problem lay elsewhere.

Colin spoke with an expression that looked even more troubled than when the battle had occurred.

“I never thought the Thorson Expedition would be aiming for the same ruin.”

“Did you not notice any signs that they were targeting it before?”

“It’s been months since I’ve been here. If they prepared in the meantime, there’s no way I would have known.”

A deep wrinkle formed between Colin’s brows.

It was a hair-raising expression, like a beast baring its fangs in a threat.

Though he himself was probably just earnestly contemplating how to resolve the situation.

“If the Thorson Expedition has already set its sights on the ruin, things won’t be easy. In the end, they are the experts, so if they focus on obstruction, we’ll be helpless.”

The warning Chelsea left as her last words was not an empty threat.

In fact, fights between ruin expedition teams were not always all-out wars that annihilated one side.

The checks and balances that occurred inside dangerous ruins could be described as the highlight, a way to get what you want without getting your hands dirty.

“In my opinion, it would be better to focus on picking them off one by one, just like now.”

“It won’t be very effective.”

I shook my head.

“We’ve already killed a high-ranking officer, the expedition’s second-in-command. If her regular report is late, they’ll soon notice something is wrong, so at most, we’ll only be able to annihilate about two more groups of this size.”

“And after that, it’ll be an all-out war.”

“I can’t protect Sage in that kind of chaos.”

Even that was a significant amount of damage.

Nevertheless, the enemy still had superior numbers.

One hand cannot block ten.

Sage, noticing our expressions, offered her opinion in a small voice.

“...Should I go back first then?”

“Hmm, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

“Why?”

I thought I knew why Colin was reluctant.

“If you go back, the Magic Tower will likely grasp the situation and put a stop to things.”

The Magic Tower was currently in the middle of an internal crackdown.

They had no capacity to project power externally.

Even considering the audacity of targeting the Magic Tower Master’s disciple, negotiations between the organizations would be prioritized over dispatching mages.

Besides, looking at the results, it was as if Colin, who had been quietly leashed, had caused trouble again.

His future outings would require even stricter permission.

It was unknown when the ruin exploration would become possible.

It was a bad ending for me, and of course, for Colin as well.

“Then what should we do?”

“We have to fight.”

Proceeding with the ruin conquest as is was impossible, and so was turning back.

In that case, we had no choice but to fight.

“Yes. I’ll work hard.”

Although I made the situation sound bad, neither Colin nor I were particularly worried about winning or losing.

If there was anything to worry about, it would be Sage’s safety.

Sage, thinking her own abilities were important, clenched her fists and firmed her resolve.

“No, you don’t have to do that.”

I stopped her.

Sage asked, bewildered.

“Then what? Ah, are you saying you’ll take care of everything before I have a chance to step in, mister?”

“That would be fine, but.”

Her sparkling eyes were a mixture of anticipation and worry.

It wasn't that I couldn't do it, but the risk was high.

There was no need to take a loss when there was a better way.

“If they’re going to push with numbers, then we should bring just as many.”

“...? You said the Magic Tower wouldn’t work.”

“Ah, you mean.”

Colin exclaimed, seeming to have guessed my plan.

“Yes.”

I nodded, confirming his guess.

“I’m going to bring in the magical beasts.”

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

The masters of the Land of Quicksand.

We weren't the only ones currently in a hostile relationship with the Thorson Expedition.

***

A high mound rose in the middle of the desert.

Tents were clustered together there.

Evening time, the heat of midday was nowhere to be found.

When night fell on the Land of Quicksand, a bone-chillingly cold wind blew.

Tents were the best way to spend the night here.

Waggle waggle!

People gathered in the largest of the tents.

The inside was bustling, making a mockery of the icy temperature outside.

The chaotic, market-like atmosphere was settled as soon as the man in the seat of honor opened his mouth.

“So.”

His shaggy hair and informal posture gave him a somewhat wild impression.

His eyes shone sharply from between his messy bangs.

“Still no word from Chelsea?”

“No, we are currently trying to reach her by radio…”

“She’s dead, then.”

“...”

At his declaration, the crowd fell silent.

There was no evidence, but there was a strange persuasiveness that captivated the audience.

“If the captain declares it so…”

“Well, Second-in-Command Chelsea is diligent, so there’s no reason for her report to be late.”

“We’ve lost a valuable asset.”

There was not a single counterargument.

Everyone believed that if he declared it, it must be the truth.

Cliff Burton, the captain of the Thorson Expedition.

His skill, which had single-handedly built the great tree that was the Thorson Expedition, was a myth built on a flashing, wild intuition.

At least the officers present here trusted Cliff’s intuition like a prophecy.

“Who the hell is this audacious bastard?”

“Did the Great Chieftain step in?”

“The Great Chieftain’s location should be under constant surveillance. Besides, he doesn’t get involved in the well-being of a single tribe.”

“The Great Chieftain and his personal guard are elusive, so you never know.”

Chelsea, the second-in-command, was in charge of a squad to clean up the surroundings before the full-scale ruin exploration began.

Therefore, if something had happened to her, the cause would have been a battle with magical beasts.

However, it was hard to imagine that she and her party, who were experts in ruin exploration and veteran adventurers, would have had trouble in a battle with magical beasts.

That was why the intervention of the Great Chieftain was being considered.

The king of the various tribes scattered across the Land of Quicksand, acknowledged by them all.

The existence of the Great Chieftain was the biggest reason why each city hesitated to pacify the Land of Quicksand, aside from its rock-bottom economic value.

“...The Magic Tower.”

It was Cliff again who sorted out the noisy conversation that couldn't reach a clear conclusion.

“Chelsea reported the existence of a contractor. It’s him.”

“What?”

His words sometimes jumped ahead, skipping the intermediate steps.

That was why it was intuition.

Because it was an inference made from instinct, it lacked context, and surprisingly, it was close to the truth.

“You mean a contractor hired by the Magic Tower.”

“The magical beasts lack skill, and the Magic Tower is too slow to make a surprise move on a lesser opponent. It makes sense if it was the work of a contractor.”

The officers pieced together the framework according to Cliff’s hints.

It was a familiar task for them to infer the facts that would serve as stepping stones to match the leaps in logic.

“But the contractor reported at that time was only one person.”

“There could be others who joined him separately.”

“Damn it, things have gotten complicated.”

If the opponent was just a contractor, they could just push them over.

The problem was the Magic Tower behind them.

If the Magic Tower had really started to make a move, it would be like hitting a rock with an egg.

“Don’t make a fuss.”

Unlike his subordinates, whose moods changed from moment to moment, Cliff remained calm throughout.

“You were all prepared to get on the Magic Tower’s bad side when we made this plan, weren’t you?”

“But…”

Crack!

The neck of the man who had been about to retort was broken.

Then, his major joints, from his shoulders, waist, and legs, were twisted and folded like a wooden doll.

The man died without even letting out a scream.

In the blink of an eye, a human being was crushed like a rag and became a corpse.

Cliff looked down coldly at the officer who had become a lump of meat and said.

“If you’re not prepared, then you should die. It’s not like you think ruin exploration is child’s play.”

Historically, the easiest way to establish authority was through a reign of terror.

He had to make them follow his orders without a word, even if he commanded them to jump into a pit of fire with their bare bodies.

Because ruin exploration was originally a task that aimed for such absurdity.

“...”

There was no one here who didn't value their life enough to talk back even after witnessing the death of a colleague.

A young man, who had been exchanging glances with the others, asked as a representative.

“Then shall we prepare for a fight with the Magic Tower?”

“No, that won’t happen.”

Apart from being mentally prepared, the probability of a fight with the Magic Tower was extremely low.

“The fact that they put forward a contractor is proof that the Magic Tower has no spare manpower. Considering their picky pride, the number of contractors who took the job would be small.”

The only loss of strength for the other squads, besides Chelsea’s, was the injuries sustained in battles with magical beasts.

This was evidence that the Magic Tower was not prepared for an all-out war.

“It was probably an unintentional battle for both sides. So ignore it.”

The death of a valuable subordinate like Chelsea was an unfortunate event.

But to expect them to decide on revenge was an excessive romanticism for them.

“We will proceed as planned, clean up the surroundings, and then enter the ruin.”

The death of a subordinate was a common occurrence.

Compared to the great cause of conquering the ruin, it was not even worth mentioning.

“Anyway, if we succeed in conquering the ruin, the Magic Tower will be the least of our worries.”

In the depths of Cliff’s darkly sunken eyes, madness was raging.

(End of Chapter)