The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 247

Aran, the adventurer, took the lead as he began to guide us.

“Wow, you knights are really strong! You took down that direwolf in no time! Meanwhile, we lost six of our guys in a flash, you know!”

“Flattery from thieves won’t change your fate.”

“Shut up! I wasn’t talking to you!”

The surviving thieves were fawning over us, trying to make themselves look good, but Aran didn’t seem too pleased with their behavior and kept butting in while he guided us.

It was kind of nice to hear their flattery, but not really what I wanted.

“Hey thieves, keep being noisy and I’ll have you for dinner.”

““““We’re sorry!!””””

Gemma let out a low growl, and at once, the thieves fell silent.

The forest looked quite similar all around, but maybe because he had been searching diligently, Aran unfurled a small map and surveyed the area, moving towards a clear destination.

“This is the spot. Just looking at it, doesn’t it seem really suspicious?”

The place he led us to had an unsettling vibe about it.

It was slightly different from what I had wanted.

“A poison swamp, huh? Odd, but not really what I was looking for.”

Aran had led us to the Black Swamp.

The dark mud bubbled like sludge, with steam mixed with soil rising up from it.

This was also a strange phenomenon that rarely occurs naturally.

It did look quite ominous, but it wasn’t the place I had in mind.

“Is this… not it?”

“It’s not what I wanted, but this is still weird.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

“What can we do? I guess we should investigate this place.”

Usually, such occurrences only come from marshy areas, but Narni’s forest wasn’t particularly humid.

It wasn’t just any swamp; it was a bubbling poison swamp.

However, all I could do for now was make a note of the location and toss it to the intelligence department for investigation.

I’m confident in dealing with things I can smash or fight, but not in solving problems like this outright.

Of course not; it’s not like I expected much from a half-hearted inquiry.

When it was revealed that this wasn’t the place Aran mentioned, the thieves perked up.

“Look who’s strutting around! You should be embarrassed! We know where it is for sure!”

“Yes! There was a strange symbol on the rock!”

“It’s been a creepy place with suspicious guys lurking around, so we avoided getting too close!”

It seemed likely that the direction the thieves mentioned would lead us to the right spot.

Let’s head over there first.

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.

.

The path the thieves pointed us to was quite rugged.

“Ugh.”

More direwolves rushed in but got sliced in two.

Blood splattered everywhere, but of course, not a drop landed on me.

I was at a level where I could even control the direction the splatter went, so that’s just common sense.

As long as I kept my composure and confidence, I could slash through a hundred of them without getting a single drop of blood on me.

A total of seven attacked; three cooked from the lightning shot by Gemma, while the other four I split with River and Lucia.

“Hey, hey, are you thieves trying to lead us into dangerous places on purpose?!”

Aran, who had been just standing there shocked during the direwolf attack, shouted at the captured thieves in anger.

That’s one way to look at it.

They might think of luring us into a risky situation and taking us out while they escape themselves.

“We’re innocent!”

“That’s why we don’t usually come this way.”

“We stumbled upon a new route, but it was unsettling, and there were monsters, so we only come back every couple of months.”

But curiously enough, for us to really get into trouble, there must be something tremendous hiding there, and if such a thing exists, it somewhat aligns with the place I’m looking for.

“I don’t trust those guys…”

“Is it really okay to follow what the thieves say?”

With the untrustworthy thieves in mind, River and Lucia were feeling suspicious.

It was only natural not to trust those thieves.

“If not, we’ll deal with it. For now, let’s just follow along.”

When they heard my calm words, the thieves flinched.

“I see it!! Over there!!”

While we were searching, one of the thieves finally shouted.

“….”

As soon as I looked at the place he was pointing, my face crinkled in disgust.

On the surface, it looked like an ordinary hut.

There were several rocks scattered around, which made an impression.

It didn’t feel particularly lived-in, but I found this place incredibly unsettling.

This was truly a Devil’s Mansion.

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.

.

The place the thieves brought us to indeed possessed traces of demons.

The rocks lying about bore the mark of the strange symbol.

There was a faint trace of magic energy in the earth, enough to suggest that a ritual to summon a demon had taken place nearby.

“This place… is really creepy.”

It seemed River felt the magic energy too.

Though it wasn’t visible to the eye, it was undeniably residing in the ground.

“And here it is! Inside this house, there’s a weird guy wearing a strange robe…”

“Don’t just go in there recklessly; it’s dangerous.”

The Thief Leader hopped up and grabbed the doorknob of the hut.

Even as I warned him, he was already turning the knob.

“It looks like no one’s been here recently given the dust! It should be fine!”

The Thief Leader grinned as he turned around while holding the doorknob.

-Swish

And just like that, he vanished.

“Huh…?”

I couldn’t even tell who said that.

Where the leader had been, his clothes were left on the ground; if it weren’t for those, no one would believe he had been there.

If he had simply disappeared completely, I could’ve conjectured the door was a path to another space.

“Eeeek??? L-leader???”

The thieves panicked and all rushed back.

“A-a person….”

Even Aran was astonished, seeing someone vanish without any warning before his eyes.

It wasn’t terribly different here either.

If it had been something like losing a limb, that I could understand, but River and Lucia were grappling with a scene that defied reality.

“W-what happened to Atlas…?”

But all I could say was one thing.

“Stay prepared. There might be a demon.”

“…Understood.”

“Uh… okay!”

“Got it!”

I grabbed the Squirette I had been carrying on my back.

Whether it was a trap triggered by an intruder or something else, I wasn’t sure, but we had to stay on guard.

“Gah!”

I swung the Squirette and slashed at the spot where the leader had just been.

The door shattered with a dry sound from the strike of my sword qi, but the Thief Leader didn’t return.

In this case, the best way to overcome a potential trap is to smash everything.

I unleashed another wave of sword qi.

The massive sword qi utterly obliterated the hut.

“Weren’t you trying to investigate inside?”

“Well, I didn’t think there would be a trap; but even with just the fragments left, we can do some investigating.”

Seeing the fragments of the hut bounce playfully into the air was amusing enough to make River chuckle.

As the hut crumbled, the faint magic energy that had been swirling in the ground suddenly erupted out.

“Gah?!”

“What the… is happening??”

Everyone was startled by the sudden surge of magic energy, but my gaze was locked on the hut.

The dark magic began to coalesce into a singular form.

[Who dares to wake me from my slumber…!!]

“D-demon!!”

[I shall turn your screams of interruption into a lullaby!!]

A demon, now taking shape, made Aran gasp in shock and start to flee.

Not just him; seeing the dense magic, Lucia seemed to recall the Hunting Festival and braced herself, readying her sword.

“Haah..!!”

Her sword, infused with aura, sliced through the space where the demon had stood.

Yet, the demon emerged unscathed.

This average attack was ineffective against a demon.

“Ugh!! Why didn’t it work?!”

Lucia looked stunned as she prepared for a stronger strike, believing the first had been weak as she swung down.

“Hey, hey. You can’t hurt a demon like that.”

“But…!”

Perhaps driven by instinct to act, Lucia felt anxious as she set herself up for another blow.

This was no mere fallen human in the shape of a demon.

Appearing right here on this land, the demon was far from common; a standard attack would leave no marks whatsoever.

[Die, human!!]

The demon expelled dark magic from its hands.

Though it seemed formidable, I could easily discern its true strength.

This thing was nothing more than a mid-level demon.

At this level, they can’t do much but scrape by with tricks and deceit.

I didn’t even need to use my Aura Blade.

-Slash!

With a fluidity in my movements, my sword, forged from the rare metal Adamantium, cleaved the demon’s body.