Ep 197. Warmonger. (4)

  The smell of burnt goods tio prick at Patrick’s senses.

  Coal-like woods and bricks ched beh his feet. He could swear some of them were bones, but whehing was charred bck, he could hardly tell the difference.

  With his expression twisting into a frown, the mage looked to his friend – who seemed likewise revolted by the sight surrounding them, using one arm to cover her nose and mouth.

  “Are you sure we’re at the right pce?”

  “…Yeah. I’ve been to Kavir before.”

  “…”

  Acc to Iris’ memory, Kavir had never been a particurly lively town.

  Situated within a vast desert, the city had previously seemed like it’d been abao rot. Hardly any activity went by as the eown lived off of the supplies that were provided by Asuria’s capital, just barely enough to keep things afloat.

  But right now, what little livelihood Kavir previously had seemed to have vanished in fmes.

  Walking behind the two enforcers through the razed streets, Serenis tio sniff the air, her eyes darting from er to er to look for its source.

  ‘…I hardly smell anything besides. What is this fiery st? It doesn’t seem natural…’

  Such a rge fire couldn’t possibly have been natural – but as far as Serenis could tell, it didn’t seem to have been induced from magic, either. While the dragonlord tio expand her senses in search of any residual, fire-aspected mana, there was hardly anything of note.

  The surrounding mana seemed devoid of life. Much like the array of razed buildings and corpses that filled her vision.

  “…I must say, this is far worse than what I expected.”

  Hearing his sibling, Patrick let out an exasperated sigh.

  “I agree, but I guess we ’t be too surprised. sidering how much elves hate Asuria…”

  “? They do?”

  Serenis turo her brother with a puzzled expression. The surrounding climate seemed unsuitable for elves, yes – but Patrick’s tone suggested a far more serious reason.

  Without even turning to face his sibling, Patrick made his reply as he tio walk, sing the streets for any signs of life.

  “Oh, you don’t know, do you? Elves aren’t sidered ‘people’ under Asurian w.”

  “…? What do you mean, not sidered people?”

  “…Basically…even if someoo murder an elf in broad daylight, there aren’t any repercussions in Asuria.”

  “…”

  Then, Patrick briefly halted his steps.

  His pierg gaze fell upon what seemed to be a charred at his feet. It seemed that one end had torn out of a crumbled wall.

  As he bent down to gently yank at it, the ’s links rattled in his grasp, leading to a nearby rubble – and finally to a stilled, bed hand that seemed to be g out in desperation. The rest of the body was buried beh the rubble, outside of their view.

  Grimag, Patrick let go of the , this time turning his head to face Serenis with a bitter look.

  “Asuria has a very active sve market – and elves prise a signifit portion of it. Most being desdants of Caldonian refugees who were captured before making it back to Karia.”

  “…Deity or not, that seems ample reason for elves to decre war.”

  As Serenis sidered the implications of her brother’s words, she found it difficult to believe that war HADN’T broken out until now – if the same had happeo her own kin, she would’ve stormed whatever nation it was immediately. A deity’s involvement didn’t even seem necessary.

  However, Iris shot a curt gnce from the ers of her eyes towards Serenis, clearing up the true implications of Kavir’s evideru.

  “Unfortunately, what you’re seeing here is definitely Letherien’s doing. If Karia’s elves had decred war on their own, their first priority would’ve been saving the captured elves…not destroying the pce whole like this.”

  This time, Iris halted her steps as her eyes narrowed on a clump of bck amidst the sands.

  She briefly leaned forward to brush her fiip against the bed patch, coating it with a familiar bck powder. It was a miniscule remnant of the amount that had caused the explosive inferno that swallowed Kavir – but it was all the proof the enforeeded.

  Following suit, she then held it out towards both Serenis and Patrick.

  “This alone is proof enough of Letherien’s involvement. Look.”

  As the two stepped closer, Patrick’s expression twisted even further. He then pinched his own aking a step back to distance himself from the bck powder at his friend’s fiip.

  “Eugh, is that what we’re smelling everywhere? What the hell is that?”

  “Firepowder.”

  “…Firepowder? Isn’t that the stuff that goes inside firearms?”

  Sighing, Iris raised her gaze, looking over the burnt town once more.

  “That’s right – and it be used on its own as well, si produces explosive amounts of fire when alit. A couple barrels, and you could easily burn dowire cities.”

  “Huh. I’ve never actually seen the raw powder…weren’t those expehough?”

  “Extremely.”

  “…”

  “Using rge amounts just to start a rge fire would be absurdly ineffit. Unless someone just had an infinite supply.”

  And as far as Iris khere was only one individual who did.

  As Serenis listened, her eyes gradually closed with a pained expression.

  The ck of residual mana in the air was starting to make sense. If the fire hadn’t been birthed from a spell, then it was only natural that she wouldn’t detey mana in the air.

  But for that reason, she could vividly imagine what the situation must’ve been like.

  Any spell fuelled by magic dissipates upon exhausting its tained mana – fires, metals, winds and ice, it didn’t matter what element the spell beloo. Once mana would deplete, spells disappear with little to trace. As long as one could survive through the spell’s initial duration, they could then mao escape the city unharmed.

  Unfortunately, fires ihrough other means were not bound by their mana amounts.

  The inferno that swallowed Kavir was not bound by anything but things to burn – and it clearly hadn’t stopped until every er of the town had been razed to ashes. Such fires would leave little room for escape. Uhe individual could somehow navigate their way through the burning streets of Kavir, they would practically have been trapped inside, with nowhere else to run.

  “…”

  While Patrick likewise grimaced at the morbid thought of being trapped in a storm of fire, he still mao croak out a small protest to Iris.

  “Still…there could be a survivor that fell unscious or something, right? Beh the rubble or something?”

  Before Iris could answer her friend, the dragonlord dutifully took a step forward – and would soon answer in the enforcer’s stead.

  “I would doubt that, Patrick.”

  “Huh? Why?”

  “…”

  Instead of a verbal answer, Serenis roughly grabbed Patrick by his hair.

  She then abruptly yanked his head towards her to pull him sideways – and in that painful moment, Patrick felt something hot and bright bzing past where he’d been standing to ie the spot. The ground began to release copious amounts of smoke, radiating from the heated sands beh.

  Eyes widened in shock, Patrick looked to the source of the heat bst, together with Serenis.

  An individual stood aloop a nearby rampart, equipped with an enormous hand on that was emitting heaps of smoke from its muzzle. Their bck, tattered cloak covered nearly every inch of their body, with bck bandages c the rest; even their facial features were hiddeh a bck veil, making Patrick questioher they could even see properly.

  But despite their hiddeures, both Serenis and Patrick could at least dis the sharpness of their ear tips: an unmistakable sign of one’s elveage.

  Soon, the figure slightly tilted his head. The voice that followed was husky, almost broken.

  “A surprisingly quick rea. I see Denon’s sendier soldiers now…”

  “…”

  Serenis had no knowledge to ahat remark. No reason to ahat remark.

  Instead, she spared o gowards Patrick.

  “…It seems there already have been efforts to find survivors.”

  Vicious attempts. But attempts heless.

  Then, the dragonlord wordlessly took a step towards the elven individual.

  It certainly wasn’t the deity of creation: if they were, Serenis should’ve loed their divinity. Unfortunately, this individual didn’t even so much as carry noticeable mana, much less any hints of divinity.

  And they weren’t a survivor of Kavir’s inferher: had that been the case, they would’ve been seeking help and shelter, n to kill Patrick who was just walking by.

  But whatever reason there was for the cloaked figure’s decision to remain in Kavir…

  ‘…As long as they provide us with a lead to finding this deity.’