Book 5: Chapter 13

I am Lilia.

I am a dog beastkin in Vestier, the Kingdom of the Beastkin. Since last year, I had been working as a soldier, and this year I was dispatched to become part of the Royal Capital Defense Corps.

Ah, I went to a soldier development school properly for three years before working as a soldier. I got great results there, so they dispatched me to the Royal Capital Defense Corps, which was a dream post. In other words, it was a speedy promotion.

I was assigned to the checkpoint station, one of the jobs of the Royal Capital Defense Corps, entrusted with inspecting all incoming applicants for entry. 

There was also a checkpoint before you could enter the country, and disturbing elements, who could possibly plot rebellion, were repelled.

That was why we spent the days in peace.

However, around one month ago, a disaster destroyed the peace in the capital.

A warlock assaulted this country.

The Evil God was the root of all evil in this world. The devils served under him, and the warlocks under the devils and the warlock commanded the demons and monsters.

There were also stronger demons among them who did not follow the warlock’s orders, though.

A warlock is somewhat like an intermediary manager in charge of linking people into evil, but… his power is overwhelming.

The two-horned warlock who suddenly appeared annihilated this country’s army that was in the middle of training. Numerous beastkin were wounded and killed.

Actually, Sally was also in the national army. She is a cat beastkin who went to the soldier training school at the same time as me. When she fought against the warlock, her right hand and both feet were destroyed. She did not even understand what was done to her.

Even though she kept her life, she could no longer fight as a soldier. She was greatly wounded, to the point that living ordinarily already was already fraught with hardships.

When I went to visit, her condition was already stable, but she burst into tears when she saw me.

“Lilia, I… can’t fight anymore, meow.”

While saying that, her tears spilled like waterfalls from her eyes. A combat-type beastkin’s spirit shines brighter during a battle. They were a race that found joy in fighting.

I could only hug her as she cried.

Sally was a lot stronger than me. It was unbelievable that she would receive great damage without knowing what was done to her.

Sally appealed to the king and the Beast Imperial Guards, who were the strongest soldiers of this kingdom, to avenge them somehow.

However, the king was also defeated by the curse cast by the warlock. No one had a stronger fighting power in this country than the king and the Beast Imperial Guards. The strongest beastkin would become king.

Fear and despair spread throughout the kingdom.

If the warlock came again….

The higher-ups of the army started to think about the possibility of the warlock attacking this country again.

An official notice came, stating that we, the soldiers, should prepare for the attack.

Even if we prepared, what could we do when the king himself didn’t manage to win against the warlock?

I was afraid, but I couldn’t flee.

I had to protect the non-combat-type beastkin living in the capital.

I am a soldier.

One month passed after that, but the warlock didn’t come.

Apparently, the damage the king received was relatively huge.

However, we could not relax our guard.

It was like that, and a certain day came.

I met ‘him’ when the whole country became more vigilant, and the majority of the soldiers were in a battle formation against the warlock, protecting the important points.

Since the warlock could use the underworld gate to manifest anywhere, they thought that it was highly unlikely he would enter using the capital gates, so honestly, the checkpoint’s security was short-handed.

Many soldiers who were usually in charge of the checkpoint had been assigned to different places for defense, so only the bare minimum required personnel were here.

Because of that, four soldiers—the checkpoint supervisor, the two beastkin who were on their day-off, and I—patrolled the checkpoint.

Well, the entry to the capital was restricted as preparation for the attack of the warlock, so very few people originally came to this checkpoint.

Our job mostly revolved around issuing one-time permits for merchants who came for work and driving off tourists.

I was working with the checkpoint supervisor on that day. 

He possessed a good deal of power for someone entrusted as the supervisor. Despite that, he helped me light-heartedly, and he even took the initiative to help me with demanding jobs. That was the kind of beastkin he was. 

I received a call from that kind of checkpoint supervisor. 

Apparently, a person who wanted to take the ‘trial’ came.

“Yes. Please follow me.”

I led the human youth and the hooded cat beastkin(?), and we went to the testing grounds where the Unbeatable Target was installed.

Actually, I had zero expectations for these two at that time.

Magic was forbidden during the trial.

Moreover, I didn’t sense a lot of battle aura from the human youth. 

However, if they did pass the trial, then we had no choice but to respond. 

Those who wanted to undergo the trial— even though it was called as such, they just had to destroy the target—had to state their name and the kingdom they came from.

Apparently, the human youth’s name was Halt. He said he came from the kingdom of Glendale, but what did he come here for? Did he have a relationship with the beastkin girl who was with him? Hmm, this beastkin girl’s scent was familiar. I had a feeling I smelled it somewhere… I couldn’t remember. 

While I was thinking about that, Halt conjured a flaming spear in his palm.

Suddenly, the magic detection crystal balls violently reacted.

“W, what are you doing!? I just told you that magic is prohibited!!”

“Ah, I apologize. I just wanted to see what would happen if I used magic.”

My warning was taken lightly.

“Jeez… Anyway, I’ll reset the crystal balls. If you use magic one more time, I’ll fail you.”

So saying, I reset the crystal balls. 

Jeez, did they think they wouldn’t get caught? I closely monitored him lest he cheated.

Huh? His battle aura swelled? I doubted my own intuition.

That’s because I felt he had a much stronger battle aura than the king of this country. I had a fright a few seconds later. Halt blasted off the Unbeatable Target. The magic detection crystal balls didn’t react.

“Wha— Eh! Huh!?”

I did not understand. Halt was a skinny human, and he supposedly didn’t use magic. 

Despite that, he was able to blast the Unbeatable Target a few meters away. By the way, the Unbeatable Target weighed a few tons.

Afterward, I rechecked the crystal ball’s records numerous times.

“Impossible, there were absolutely no traces of magic….”

The strange thing was that there was no record of using body-strengthening magic. Here in Vestier, only the body-strengthening magic was permitted during the trial. That’s why the magic detection crystal balls would not react to the body-strengthening magic.

They will not react, but there would be a record that the body-strengthening magic was used.

There was none of that.

In short, Halt did indeed blast the Unbeatable Target without using magic at all. Maybe he had a special skill?

I had a lot of things I wanted to ask, but the checkpoint supervisor came, and he followed Halt’s wishes and took them inside the city.