Dancing Circles on the Horizon of Events

Soldiers walk the dark road at night. It's a group from the capital. The number of people is about 300. I wonder if it's a company.

It was impossible unless there were wars and battles, such as walking in the dark. A soldier is a human being. If you continue to walk during the night, the wear and tear is not compared to the day, and there is a high risk of being attacked by monsters of nocturnal nature.

There was no doubt that they could not take a break for some reason. As you can guess from the route, the destination is the Central Magic Academy. Originally, if you were to send a squadron to an unarmed college, it wouldn't be a calm thing to say.

Such soldiers reach a certain village. The village is the last stop on the main road leading to the Chuo Magic Academy.

They turned their bloody eyes to the surrounding landscape in the dark. It was like looking for something in desperation. And it came to pass from his gaze that all the villagers that had noticed their arrival, even the murderous intent, had shed their breath.

It was only natural that there was a leak of intent to kill from the soldiers. They stripped Josephine of her fangs. If Grand Duke Josephine is not captured or killed soon, they will soon be punished.

It seems that they were going to go to the Central Magic Academy and put the Academy in their hands. As many soldiers are trying to convince us, we will not give up on the use of force.

They were in a hurry because they feared that the remnants of the Grand Duke faction (...) would take away the college. In the higher echelons of the rebellion, there were people who understood the importance of the academy, and the Grand Duke feared the risk of acquiring it. An academy is a school that brings together children of aristocrats from all over the country. I couldn't make a fool of the connection next to it.

Therefore they were in a hurry. To reach the academy before Grand Duke Josephine-Freudheart, who is missing, and the Grand Duke's Knights Guard, who went missing at the same time as her.

As mentioned above, they left the village without stopping. Because I don't have time to stop by the village and take a break.

If you keep walking for a few more hours, you'll arrive at the academy around sunrise... Until then, they decided not to take a break, and they continued to walk while hanging recovery magic on their hips, fraught with fatigue.

About an hour after they left the village, the leading soldier noticed something unusual.

"...... All teams, stop!"

What's the matter?

A soldier on the road stops, and the company commander asks about the situation. Did you find anything or notice anything...? "

The lead soldier replied with a strident expression as he looked around.

I didn't have any problems until the village, but I can't find the landmarks along the road.

"... what do you mean? Did you go the wrong way?"

"No, it's impossible." It should be the main road to the college. Besides, I'm from the academy. I've walked between that village and the academy many times, but I don't remember walking down a path like this. ”

"Hmm..."

The squadron leader frowned and thought about it.

As far as he can recall, he didn't see anything like a turnout. It was always the main road and there was no mistake.

"Is this... phantom magic?!"

The remnants of the Grand Duke faction are lurking in the forest, and they are carrying out a magical attack on themselves... It seems that the squadron commander had such an intuition.

He assumes that they are under the influence of phantom magic and tries to take action immediately. To counter Phantom Magic, you can counteract it by casting Phantom Magic on yourself.

But--,

"Hmm? It doesn't work... It's not phantom magic...?"

--This doesn't seem to have worked... The squadron leader carved the wrinkles between his eyebrows deeper.

"...... I have no choice. Let's go back to the village."

Were you exposed to an attack, or did you just make a mistake...? The Squadron Leader, who could not decide either of them, goes back the way he came, and tries to return to the village. There were many signs of the villagers in the village. If we talk to them, we might find out what happened... "

Even though I was a company captain who turned around, I never got to the village, not even one step at a time. It will take about an hour to reach the point where we turned back from the village. I turned back and walked for more than two hours. Their psyche, stricken by extreme fatigue, was eroding with impatience.