房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"We on the other hand are already exhausted."

"More than a quarter of our mages is under severe mana depletion, it's three-quarters if we count light mana depletion."

Mizoe heard the complaint from afar and called back and Rokiana in between the two ice magicians joined the conversation.

"The reinforcement from the royal castle is still being organized... what the hell are they thinking? Were we not clear enough about how dire the situation is?" *crunch*

Devios shook his head in disbelief, conjuring an ice spear and piercing the quite large black crystal in the submission collar around the neck of a dead seven-limbed bear.

pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ "..."

Mizoe and Rokiana looked at each other – they were amongst the group that actually didn't understand the danger, after all, no one amongst the vast majority of the people who had no memories of the previous timeline truly realized the danger that the return of Arisu – or how Zoemi was calling him, Cherro – was.

The operation to seek and destroy all the magic crystals containing the will of the accursed magician was already considered to be overextending the limited forces that should be resting in preparation for the next wave of the invaders.

-----

"Hello~? We are the forward reinforcements sent by the royal palace! We were told that the person in charge should be around here?"

"...?"

Sometime later a small group of mages arrived at the battlefield, with a tall crimson-haired beauty taking the lead and calling out towards the people working around the numerous corpses.

"...ugh... she's the last person I want around with a threat of Arisu returning..."

Devios looked over and his face twisted in an annoyed grimace as he recognized the young woman to be none other than Ehmi Gamemi Victureo.

She was leading the group composed of mostly youngsters taking part in the King's Gaurd training.

There was Ehmi, Xeonith, some heavily armored individual whose armor was glowing with all kinds of magic stones embedded into the metal, the white-as-snow Metavicero, George, and even Grazio.

"..."

Devios sighed and had to take a few deep breaths to compose himself enough to not show his real feelings and walked over to them.

"Greetings. Young lady Victureo, I'm the acting commander in this unfortunate situation, Devios Elef Perserios. Please tell me that more forces are on their way. We are dealing with quite the situation here."

The pale-blue-haired boy with one murky-black eye raised his hand and gave quite the unenthusiastic welcome, causing Ehmi to furrow her brows and her younger brother to straight up scowl at the younger magician.

"..." "..."

Still, that didn't seem to bother you lord Perserios as he ended up in a glaring contest with the brownish-black-haired martial artist, George. The history between them was was rather difficult considering the past timeline although Devios wasn't even sure whether the other youngster even remembers it, or just returns his hostile glare out of reflex.

"Oh... I wasn't expecting someone so young to be in charge, you must be quite exceptional, young lord Perserios."

The crimson-haired girl seemed a little bit upset that a transcended magician like her isn't treated like the powerhouse she was and gave a rather backhanded compliment to the pale-blue-haired boy.

"Damn, you look like shit, Devios – it really is that bad, huh?"

"Duke Derizno...?!"

As if unbeknownst to the tense atmosphere, Xeonith moved forward, getting in front of the shocked Ehmi, and called out with an outrageous amount of familiarity.

"Yeah... yeah... you being so chirpy can only mean that Zoemi didn't let you in on the depths of the septic tank that we were shoved into."

Instead of getting angry the pale-blue-haired boy scoffed, shaking his head with a wry smile, and raised his fist which the brown-haired duke bumped with his own.

"Also, you looked leagues better with a baby-face, I can't believe what lady Reo see's in you."

Then Devios did something even more outrageous to the rest of the newly arrived group and responded with a no less familiar banter.

*clatter*

As if upset, the heavily armored person fidgetted in embarrassment.

"My duke... why is it that during our time together you failed to mention you are on good terms with the Perserios family...?"

Ehmi tried to push the conversation back on its correct track and appropriate tone so she breathed out and asked while crossing her arms under her chest that she puffed out proudly – or rather with annoyance...

"Ugh. Do not phrase it like that. I don't see the reason for you to know anything about my private life."

Xoenith shrugged his shoulders and scoffed while giving Ehmi the coldest before turning back to Devios.

"The situation at the Atreterve border ended up being much more of a mess than what you had to deal with here so most of the available forces were delegated here. We have part of the army coming here, just that it might take them a few days. Now. Order us around and we can get filled in on the details while on duty."

Young duke Derizno patted young lord Perserios's shoulder reassuringly and informed him with a smile, basically taking away the leading position from the speechless Ehmi.

"..."

Devios leaned to the side eyeing out the rest of the group before nodding to himself as he decided on the course of action and the choice of words.

"Barbariacca nation developed magic devices that work very much like their curses and hexes – that being the ability to take over the mind of a person or a monster. The devices are highly dangerous and must be disposed of as the possession can take effect at the slightest touch. While we wait for more of the enemy forces to show up we have to dispose of all the jet-black mana crystals which are the core of those artifacts."

The pale-blue-haired youth explained, turning around and beckoning the others to follow him toward the area where they segregated corpses.

"M-MONSTER!"

"!!!"

As they walked, Grazio who kept himself in the back suddenly cried out in panic, pointing towards the mountains and got everyone in hearing distance on alert.