CH 26

Chapter26 - Extermination

Lou and Fran went shopping at Kingsley Company for the day.　

They returned home and spent the afternoon preparing for the spring semester, which would start the day after tomorrow, and then had dinner…

Fran went to bed early, probably because she was tired.

Meanwhile, Lou refused Adelaide and Zeimon, went back to his room, and locked the door.

Sowell, the now deceased Arlv…

He decided to do what his teacher, Schulvestre Eltvara, had “taught” him.

He was worried about the hate-filled glances of Lazar Barbier’s henchmen, whom he punished during the day.

Schulvestre taught him that…

It is a “caution” to think of the forest as the standard for all places.

The forest had a variety of facets.

It had day, night, front and back.

Various causal relationships were involved.

As the Alrvs were essentially inhabitants of the forest, they must live with not only the spirits that governed the forest they resided in, but also a wide variety of creatures, including humans, demons, monsters, and beasts.

“A town or village inhabited by any race is just like a forest,” his master told him.

“Regardless of the duration of your stay, if you are going to settle down, it is only natural that you should look into the forest to understand the status quo. Otherwise, you will not be able to fall asleep.”

Lou’s teacher laughingly said.

The room that Lou was given at the Dumer residence was on the second floor, in a corner of the quarter where the servants lived.

It was windless outside.

There were no clouds at all, and the sky was glittering with stars.

After opening the window of the room, Lou lay down on the bed.

Then, he began to chant Kotodama in a whisper.

“As the night curtain falls, open the gates to the spirit world that has emerged, and I depart as a soul. Thou whose divine work was once called the Bright Star of Dawn, who served as God’s chief apostle, and who fell to this earth. I have received thy blessings and have mastered thy divine works. Now open the gates to the spirit world!”

Lou’s magical power increased, and after a moment of pause, the magic was activated.

“Great Spirit Transformation!”

As soon as it was activated…

An astral, a humanoid mental body invisible to normal people, broke free from Lou’s body.

***

As Lou was about to leave the room after transforming into a spirit body, someone, who had been waiting beside him, lined up beside him.

She had waist-length blond hair, blue eyes, a well-defined face, and a slender body clothed in a transparent, shiny garment.

She was a beautiful woman who was out of this world.

But somehow, her expression was grim.

“Sylph, the Wind Spirit, you seem in a terrible mood.”

The woman called Sylph shook her head without changing her expression.

She looked up and stared at Lou.

“Thank you, you’re coming with me, won’t you? Then, Undine, the Water Spirit, please keep your wards up and protect my body.”

Lou was now looking down at his physical body.

Lou’s physical body, which his spirit body had been detached from, was flanked by a slender, beautiful woman with long, chestnut hair.

She was the Water Spirit, Undine.

She waved her hand as if to say, “Got it!”

When Lou signaled with his eyes…

For the first time, Sylph smiled and slowly raised her hand.

Then a gust of wind blew, and Lou and Sylph disappeared in the blink of an eye.

***

When Lou left his room, he emerged right above the Dumer residence.

Lou, who had turned into a spirit, existed in a different world, in a slightly different dimension from the world in which people live.

Naturally, there were many inhabitants in this spirit world that were different from those in the mortal world.

Many of them were thought-bodies of former humans, classified as wandering spirits.

They were the so-called ghosts.

What was a mind body to begin with?

It was a residue, not a complete being.

Normally, the moment when humans and other living beings die, the so-called soul and the mind body would be separated from the body.

It was said that the spirit body instantly leaves for the underworld.

However, if a person’s thoughts about his life were too strong…

If a person was too attached to the world, a part of his spirit would remain in this world as “residue”.

A “residue” could turn into wandering spirits or earthbound spirits that could bring misfortune to people in the world.

These ghosts have a small amount of self-awareness.

They seemed to have an instinct to identify what kind of existence Lou’s spirit body was.

When Lou, a perfect spirit body compared to their imperfect selves, approached them…

Several ghosts attacked, with bared hostility.

But Lou was completely unfazed.

He invoked his Funeral Magic, and with a ‘Requiem’, he easily extinguished the ghosts that attacked him.

Ghosts also seemed to feel fear.

Once Lou had eliminated some of them, they no longer attempted to approach him.

Sylph smiled as she followed beside him.

It was apparent that she was in a better mood.

Lou smiled back at Sylph and proceeded to fly far above the royal capital.

He immediately searched for the magical auras of Lazar Barbier and his henchmen and located them.

Barbier’s henchmen…was his task tonight.

“Over there?”

What was the reaction of Lazar’s henchmen…

From the south gate of the royal capital, it was further back in the artisan’s district on the left side…

It was a favela, a slum, that was considered the most unsafe district of all.

Lou’s spirit body and Sylph flew straight down to the place.

***

In the basement of a house in the favela…

“So you mean to say, a brat threatened Lazar Barbier so he fired all of you?”

“Not only that, Boss. He seemed to have gone crazy and rushed to the guards and confessed everything!”

One of the henchmen who had been with Barbier during the day reported.

The rest of the henchmen were standing behind him.

The man the lackey called Boss was a bearded middle-aged man with a brutish countenance. 

“Tch…Then, it’s entirely possible that the Royal Guards will reach out to you and get the Scorpions in trouble.”

“Exactly, Boss! W-What should we do now?!”

“Are we gonna get caught?!”

The Boss folded his arms in thought, while his henchmen panicked.

However, after thinking about it for a while, the boss seemed to have decided on a “plan”.

“Hmph! I’ll let you guys hide in Bardland until the excitement dies down.”

“Really?”

“It’s vaulting.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a while. Of course, we’ll pay our respects to the brat!　Didn’t you say the Countess’s daughter is a very fine young woman?”

“Heh, she’s an irresistible woman. If we take her and sell her as a slave to another country, I’m sure it will be enough to fill in the money Barbier was paying you.”

Had the Boss been staring at Fran during the day, he would have dug a hole through her.

One of his henchmen behind him licked his tongue fondly and gave the Boss a nod.

“Hahahaha, once we kidnap her, we’ll have our way with her to our contents before selling her, right?”

“Hee-hee!” “Hehehehe!” “Hee-hee-hee!”

The Boss laughed lewdly, imagining how Fran would be violated…

The henchmen laughed as well.

“I can’t let you do that…”

In an instant!

Someone’s voice echoed in the heads of the Boss and his henchmen.

“Huh? Who’s there?!”

“Boss! H-H-Here in the room! There’s no one in this room but us, Boss!”

The mysterious voice flustered the Scorpion Gang members…

The panicked Boss instructed.

“Hey! Open the door and see if there’s anyone outside!”

But!

The henchman who was about to turn the knob of the door screamed.

“B-Boss! The door! I can’t open the door!”

This unsettled the Scorpion gang members even more.

“I retrieved some memories from your magical aura…Looks like you’re doing even more wickedness than that noble brat, huh?”

The voice echoed in everyone’s head again, not only the boss, but also his henchmen who were in a hurry to grab the knob.

The Boss spoke to the invisible entity. 

“S-Screw you! Could it be…”

“…………”

“Are you the brat my henchmen were talking about? Are you using some kind of magic or something?”

The moment he yelled that…

The chest of the leather armor the Boss was wearing was torn open like paper, and gushes of blood spurted out noisily.

“Aaahhhh!”

“…You are vermins, vermins that have no use in this forest called royal capital, and I will not tolerate such people.”

While the boss’s screams echoed…

Lou’s voice echoed in the heads of members of the Scorpion Gang.

And again!

This time, the head of one of the henchmen was easily chopped off.

The headless henchman’s torso took two or three steps, staggering downward…

“Thud!” And fell to the ground.

This picture easily threw the men of the Scorpion Gang into a panic.

There were those who tried to hit the door first.

Some pushed their friends out of the way.

But this time, an invisible wall in the room bounced them off.

Before they knew it…

Lou had also put up a magical barrier in the room.

It was obvious that he used a wind attribute attack magic.

In the blink of an eye, most of the men of the Scorpion Gang were mercilessly chopped up into mere lumps of flesh.

And the only survivor…

The only person with a head left was the Boss, whose chest was first slit open.

The leader of the gang was also bleeding heavily from his wounds and seemed comatose.

“W-W-Why?!”

“I…I can hear the screams and wails of the dead women you have tortured and sold into slavery.”

“AHH-Uh-u-u…..”

“Outrageous! I will never let that happen to Fran or any of my students.”

The moment Lou muttered that lowly, the entire body of the Boss burst into flames from within.

“Gyaaahhhh!!”

“For the sins you have committed, you will fall to the lowest level of the underworld! Prepare to die.”

Lou said in a voice with no inflection at all, and stared at the Boss as he was reduced to charcoal.

***

Bodies of the Scorpion gang littered in the room…

Lou, along with Sylph, stared down at the room.

Shortly after…

The Fire Salamander perched on Lou’s shoulder.

The Fire Salamander must have been the one who put an end to the Scorpion Gang’s leader.

“Vivi.”

When Lou called out, the empty space cracked open.

A young girl, about 120cm tall, clad in leather armor appeared.

She had a lovely face, and she was the female form of the Gnome Spirit of the earth, Gnomide.

Her name was Vivi…

“Vivi, bury all of these people deep in the bowels of the Underworld… along with their bloodstains.”

Vivi smiled and nodded, then put her small hand on the floor.

Then a pitch-dark hole opened up on the floor.

When Vivi raised her hand again, the corpses of the men were sucked into the hole.

Soon…

When all the bodies and blood-stained dirt were sucked into the hole, Vivi gave a thumbs-up and disappeared, drowned out.

As soon as Vivi disappeared, the hole she had created into the mysterious netherworld disappeared without a trace…

“Well done, Vivi.”

The Fire Salamander flew around, and the Wind Spirit, Sylph, by Lou’s side, looked at his face as if she wanted to say something.

“Well done, Salamander and Sylph!”

Lou turned to the spirits and smiled at them.

It seemed that his gratitude was conveyed.

Because the Fire Salamander went crazy, and Sylph smiled and gave a thumbs up, as Vivi the Gnomide did.

Lou snapped his fingers and disappeared.

The spirits disappeared at the same time. As for the basement of a certain favela…

An eternity of silence enveloped it.