One month later. Arima was one more time at the library, he was sitting, reading a book. After he finished reading the last page, he closed the book with one hand and returned it to the shelf. He stood up and left the library.
In a one-month period, Arima spent a lot of his time reading, and in parallel, he would accept some requests from the guild. In a brief period of time, he read a least three hundred books on different topics. And the most frightening thing was that he learned everything perfectly.
In fact, during this time, Arima greatly enhanced his understanding of magic and created one to help him. He called it 'Hardware'. Befitting of its name, this magic forms an artificial memory in his mind, and allow him to remember anything that he learns or read. Like a second brain which will never forget anything. Thanks to that, Arima was already one of the most knowledgeable people on this continent.
Perhaps, only he would be crazy or confident enough to use magic directly on his brain. He wasn't the only one who had tried a magic like that. But there was a case where a mage blew his head up because he had failed. That's why no one ever tried again.
Arima returned to the Inn he was lodging in. When he was still around a hundred meters away from it, he heard a commotion through the noise of the city and hastened his step.
He arrived at the Inn almost instantly. As if he was a ghost, he sneakily appeared inside of the Inn. A group of men was causing a commotion there. It was a mercenary group led by a noble, they were harassing the owner and her son who were kneeling in front of them.
In the way here, Arima listened to the conversation and already knew what was going on. It seemed that this group had set their eyes on the owner of the place. It was true that she was a beautiful woman, so it's not really surprising.
"(They're all like that anyway. It's this world's fault for making everyone pretty.)" That was Arima's rude opinion.
This kind of thing is not unusual at all. Arima didn't hear all of it but the group probably blamed something on one of those two and it led to this. It was most likely caused by the small noble there. He must have hired some mercs and now he acted like some trash. Arima didn't think that every noble was trash. There's an entire spectrum for any kind of people. But this one was pretty obvious for him.
Arima sighed, the owner helped him a lot in this one-month period, so he couldn't overlook this.
"Hey, is it too much to ask you to stop?" Arima approached the group and talked to them when he was around two steps from them.
"What? This is not your business." The man who seemed to be the leader of the mercenaries responded. He was startled at first because he never saw or sensed Arima enter the Inn.
Arima sighed one more time, he looked at the group in front of him with half closed, bored eyes. "Listen, just get out, and don't come back…please?" He tilted his head at the end of his sentence as if he was really trying to find out what to say. And maybe because he said it in a bad-sounding way, but the merc's expression darkened dangerously after his words.
"I said it's not your problem!" He drew his bastard sword and swung it toward Arima. The latter didn't know why he suddenly decided to attack him. Maybe he wanted to impose himself like the boss here. Or maybe this is how this type of people act usually.
When the metallic sound of the sword resounded, the other customers of the Inn and the mother-son pair closed their eyes. When they opened them again, the sight left them dumbfounded. Arima was gripping the blade of the sword with only three fingers. He sighed for the third time.
"Seriously, I even tried to be polite. [Sunt robore] (Power up)." Arima circulated some mana in his hand and the blade snapped in half.
"What…?!" The leader exclaimed. The members of his group took a step back after seeing something they couldn't understand while the noble who was hiding behind them, cried in fear. That sword was a magic weapon inscribed with runes. Normally, even a scratch would be hard to make.
"…I'll repeat, get out." Arima said that calmly and leisurely but a suffocating aura was released. It was so strong that the ground shook a bit and the wind blew. The windows were making some noise while the chairs and tables were menacing to break. The mercenaries were breaking in cold sweat while the noble directly ran to the door and fled. The mercenaries looked at each other and followed him. The leader looked at Arima before leaving. "I'll remember that."
"Is that so. I don't like nasty people remembering me. [Umbra falcon, set] (Shadow falcon, set)." Several falcons emerged from Arima's shadow. This time, their feathers were completely black and their eyes glowed with a crimson color. They flew out of the Inn through the opened doors. But Arima didn't even look at the exit and approached the owner. "You're okay?"
"Y-Yes, thank you." She gathered herself and answered. She stood up with Arima's help.
"Hey kid, it's good now." He patted the son of the owner who was a bit pale.
Arima looked at the mother one more time. "Don't mind them and be at peace they won't come back."
"What do you-" As soon as she wanted to ask. Arima interrupted her.
"Don't worry about that. Can I ask for dinner though? I'm kinda hungry."
"Y-yes, wait a bit." She soon ran back inside the staff quarters with her son. When she was out of sight, Arima looked coldly at the people there who were silently watching with stiff expressions.
"You all, don't tell anyone what happened here. At least like that, you'll be able to redeem yourselves." He said with an emotionless voice. At that moment, his eyes flashed with an unnatural light.
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At this time, the birds sent by Arima already had reached the fleeing group.
"What is that?" A mercenary exclaimed after spotting the blackbirds.
"What are you talking about?" The leader looked up and spotted the birds. His eyes narrowed, strangely, he felt something ominous about these things.
Right now, the group was in the middle of the street, as they stopped to retrieve the panting noble that fled first. After all, he was their employer. Just after, the black birds which were flying thirty meters high in the sky abruptly plunged, obviously aiming at the mercenary group.
The leader was quick to react. "Take cover!" He shouted while trying to avoid a bird that aimed at him. He easily dodged but what followed left him perplex. The birds hit the ground where their shadows were projected and merged in it as it was a liquid. The same thing happened to all the mercenaries and the noble. "This… it's bad." The leader muttered that but he didn't know what just happened and that's the thing that he was afraid of.
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Back at the Inn, Arima was eating with the mother-son pair when he suddenly chanted, "[Vashta Nerada]"
"Mh?" The boy, who heard him, tilted his head in confusion.
"It's nothing." Arima chewed on his piece of meat. "(Now that I think about it, the food is good in this world.)" He casually thought. "(And those guys, I don't think they're that strong. Around C-rank, maybe? The leader must be around B-rank… They should not be able to survive.)" He nonchalantly commented in his mind.
He had developed his knowledge since he arrived. He perfectly knew at that moment. If he wanted to, he most likely could slaughter the whole town with his current strength.
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At the same time, the noble screamed.
"What's going on?!" The leader shouted and when he saw what was happening, he froze and gulped. The wrists of the noble were wrapped in a black ominous mist. And his hands were freed of flesh, his hands were nothing but bones.
The leader looked around him, his comrades also had their legs wrapped in the same mist and they started to scream in fear too. He then looked down at his own body. The dark mass was already at his waist. But he didn't feel any pain, and he still could stand.
"What the hell is this!? Who did we offend?!" He shouted for the last time. His eyes showed extreme fear and regret during his last breath. In ten seconds, the black smoke covered all of the mercs' bodies. And then, the mist dispersed as if something had blasted it away.
Now, one could see what was under. Perfectly white bones. The skeletons of the people dead there were standing with their clothes still on. Their jaws were wide open and you could see that the terror had even been transmitted to the skull.
The people who passed by in the street were shocked and scared to death. Some screamed, and some were running away. They couldn't believe what they just saw. The sight of a dozen men being transformed into skeletons in only a few seconds. But they remained standing nonetheless and fully clothed. If they had been told that those were sculptures of some sort, they would have believed it.
But they knew it wasn't. It happened right in front of them. They saw the men cry in fear and die afterward. Everyone thought it was too frightening to be something of their world.
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The next day. Arima woke up and left his room. When he reached the ground floor, someone talked to him, "Good morning, Arima." It was the owner of the Inn.
"Hello, Airi." Arima replied and walked to her.
"I would like to thank you for yesterday." She bowed.
"Don't mind you helped me in this month. Anyway, I'm leaving the city today, so it was my chance to repay you"
"You're leaving?" She asked curiously.
"Yeah, I'm going to the capital."
"I see... if you plan to stay in the capital for a while then you can go to the Inn owned by my older sister. She's called Aria, the name of the Inn is the 'Wing's nest'."
"Thanks, I'll be sure to go there." Arima bid goodbye to Airi and left the Inn. He headed straight to the northern gate. There, a soldier hailed him.
"Are you perhaps going to the capital?"
"Yes." Arima answered plainly.
The soldier nodded. "Fine, I think I need to warn you then. It will soon be public. Right now, the country is in a state of emergency. By now, it will not be a surprise if a war with the Empire begins."
"What? Why a war so suddenly?" Arima furrowed.
The soldier sighed. "The King is bedridden apparently. So, the Empire is now seeing a chance to strike the enemy, I suppose. A lot of people there already fled in fear of being attacked. Well, I told you, if you still want to go then it's your choice." The soldier shrugged.
Arima pondered for a few seconds. "…I see, thanks for the warning, but I'll still go." He said and passed the gate. While walking, Arima was musing about what he just heard.
"(Bedridden, huh? When a king is sick, a kingdom has to hide it at all costs. If they don't do that then it's like inviting others to attack. A king is a symbol of strength and authority, an ill one is a symbol of weakness. What happened? Did the information leak out? Was it intentional? ... If it's a plot, then this kingdom was targeted for a long time. They waited for an occasion to strike and start a war… and when the critical time comes, they should probably attack from the inside and kill the King. But in that case, why not just kill the king? Maybe the illness was something unexpected for the other side too...)" Arima thought, he analyzed the situation the best he could.
He stopped walking. "Well, [Bestia Equus]." Arima chanted and as before, a sphere of black electricity appeared and began to form an animal. This time it was a horse. A tall and muscled black horse. He neighed and rose his front legs. Arima jumped and mounted him. He gripped the mane of the horse and the latter immediately began to race. And what happened at this moment would stun most people. When the horse began to move, his figure vanished and only left a black trail behind.
As this horse was created with lightning magic as a base then it's naturally fast. But also, because this horse is created 'to be fast' by Arima's magic. Most magic work like that, magic needs a 'meaning' when cast. For example, the strongest magic would be the ones that are based on legends, science, stories, and the sorts. The clearer it is in the mind of the caster, and the more talented the latter is, the stronger the magic will be.
In numbers, this black horse could run at approximately 110 meters per second. The capital where Arima is heading is around 200 kilometers away from Ridia. Arima calculated that he would take half an hour to reach the capital. He bypassed all the cities and villages on the way and the people capable of seeing the horse were thunderstruck.