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Chapter 28

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Translator: Sufficient

Editor: Weasalopes

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Odd Connections in the Steel Forest

There was some kind of commotion at the back of the forest. And then suddenly Mai and Mei, as well as Merdi with Rifa in tow came running in.

The forest behind them was burning and, it seems like they were running away from the approaching fire.

I walked over to where Yoko was and asked Merdi, who was catching her breath, about Rifa’s condition. She said that Rifa didn’t want to run away from the flames, so Merdi hit her on the back and knocked her out.

If she was only unconscious, then she should be able to recover from it later on. So first, I need to stop the oncoming flames.

I released my magic power and formed a summoning magic circle.

I’m not able to use magic that consumes more than ten magic power due to the evil god’s curse as summoning magic usually requires about thirty or so magic power consumption even when calling only the lowest ranked spirits.

In other words, I can’t use summoning magic in the normal way. That’s why I devised a method of summoning spirits by converting the magic power I released into letters and symbols and arranging them in the shape of a magic circle.

Each character has about ten or so magic power to consume, and the summoning magic circle I use is formed of about a thousand characters, so a single summoning consumes a lot of magic power.

Since I’m under the influence of the evil god’s curse however, my magic power doesn’t decrease at all despite it.

 

The magic circle has completed.

If I’m going to put out the fire, I’ll need to call her.

「Aqua Lance!」

I activated my magic while picturing a woman holding a spear made of water.

「Hmm? Haruto, it’s been a while.」

「Yeah, it’s good to see you again. How have you been?」

It’s been about three years since she, the Water Spirit Undine, has been summoned.

「Well, I’ve been lonely lately because you haven’t called me in a while.」

「Sorry, sorry.」

Three years is not a long time for Undine, who lives in eternity, but I used to summon her every day to keep me company with various kinds of magical training, so I can understand why she’s upset right now.

After that, Undine started a conversation with Mai and Mei, so I’m going to have to get Rifa and Merdi back on their feet. Incidentally, Undine was single-handedly manipulating the water to extinguish the forest flames while she was talking to me..

She was a spirit that can work really well, as always.

 

「Ugh, where is this place?」

「Come on, take it easy before getting up. Do you feel any pain?」

I cast a recovery spell on Rifa and after a while she regained consciousness.

I can only use the lowest level of recovery magic, so I’m improving my recovery power by layering it on top of each other about a hundred times.

「Thank you, Haruto-san. I’m all right now.」

「Yeah, that’s good. You okay too, Merdi?」

Merdi, who joined us earlier, seemed to have forced her body to come here to escape the flames, and she crumbled to the ground as soon as she realized that she was safe with Undine’s magic.

Since she seemed to be too tired to stand, I gave Merdi some recovery magic and a little of my magic power to share with her.

「Ah, my magic power has returned in full as well.」

Good.

We got Rifa back on her feet.

「Rifa, I’m sorry about earlier.」

「No, I wasn’t very calm earlier either.. Thank you for bringing me here.」

「I’m glad you’re both safe. By the way, what kind of demon did you two encounter that caused the forest to burn?」

I asked him what had been bothering him for a long time. I don’t think there was any sign of a demon in this forest that could cause this many fires.

「Maybe it’s this guy?」

The mass of fire that Undine had trapped in the water prison was brought in.

「Ah! That! It’s that!!」

The mass of flame that Rifa pointed at was my magic.

「This, this is the one that attacked Rifa?」

「… Rather than being attacked, it just came towards me so violently that I had to attack it too.」

「But it looks like that guy was trying to take down the goblin archer that was hiding in the bushes behind Rifa.」

When the Knight of Fire noticed the goblin archer that was aiming at Rifa and moved to take him down, it seemed that he surprised Rifa and she attacked him.

Rifa’s wind magic was too good for the Flame Knight. The high-density contracted wind was taken in by the Flame Knight, causing the flames the Knight was wearing to explode in size. And that’s what caused the forest fires.

── Then, this was an accident.

I’m relieved to know that my magic didn’t go out of control and attack Rifa.

But I think I need to apologize because I put everyone in danger.

「….Actually, this is my magic.」
『What?』

「I’m sorry for putting everyone in danger.」

I bowed to the four of them.

「Do you have any proof that this Fire Knight is the magic of Haruto-sama?」

Mai asked me. I don’t know why Mai calls me by my nickname, but I’ll show her the proof.

「Undine, let him out.」

「All right. But what kind of construct is fire that cannot be extinguished in my dungeon?」

Undine let the Flame Knight out of the cage while asking her question. The Flame Knight that was let out of the water prison was docile. It’s my magic, so it’s only natural.

「’I’ll teach you next time.」

I replied as I approached the Knight of Fire.

The Knight gets down on his knees and pauses to pledge his allegiance to me.

「I don’t know, is that all right? If you want, I can make another one here.」

「No, no, thank you! Thank you.」

I hadn’t talked much with Mai and Mei.

Mai seemed to be interested in my magic, so I hope we’ll have more opportunities to talk in the future.

「Everyone! Are you okay!」

Tina came running over. Behind her, Luke, Luna, Ryushin, and Ryuka were following her.

Luke and the other four were surprised for some reason when they saw the Flame Knight kneeling in front of me.

「Tina-sensei, we’ve managed to get all of us safe thanks to Haruto-san.」

Rifa explains the situation to Tina. She seems a bit embarrassed when she says that I saved her life.

「Rifa-san, you blew the whistle. I’m sorry I couldn’t rush over right away.」

What’s going on?

There must be a reason why Tina couldn’t go to help Rifa and the others right away.

「……..Yes. First of all, for some reason, there was a large number of Mahonomes in this forest. Then, that herd attacked Luke-san and Luna-san.」

「Eh?」

「But when I rushed over, the herd of Mahonomes had been defeated.」

「Did Luke defeat them?」

「No, no. Listen to Tina-sensei’s story for the time being.」

「When we arrived at Luke and the others, there was a presence that indicated that a fairly strong demon appeared near Ryushin and his party.」

「Demon!?」

「But by the time I got there, he was already down.」

「Well, did you defeat the demon?」

「No, it wasn’t me.」

Rifa asks Ryushin, but he says it’s not Ryushin who defeated him.

It seems that there’s a bunch of Mahonomes, which are B-ranked demons, and the guy who defeated the demons somewhere.

This forest, it’s more dangerous than I thought.

That’s what I was thinking.

「When I spoke to Luke-san and the other four, I found out that the one who defeated both the Mahonome swarm and the demon was a knight made of fire,」

『Eh?』
……….

Surprised shouts came from Mai, Mei, Rifa and Merdi.

「Haruto-sama, do you have any idea what’s going on?」

Tina’s gaze is fixed on the Fire Knight in front of me.

「Ah, that’s it.」

Tina says, knowingly.

「…Yes, this Fire Knight is my magic.」
『I knew it was Haruto!』

Luke and Ryushin shouted.

Well, I thought that a C-ranked demon would be able to defeat it without any problems──but…….these guys were that strong?

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