Well Mathew’s full title says, Brigadier General Mathew, but I am only using General Mathew.
{Chapter 5} Reunion with Peers
Part III
“First, we began to move west from this town with four units, including dummy units. This is the road that connects the main towns, and we moved with General Mathew along the mountain road south of this road. And it was right around here that we were attacked.”
Mizuho and Marion explained the details of the most recent attack to Hiroto, ufsing the map spread out on the table.
“Fumu …….”
“The summoned demons first blocked this road to stop our movement, and then attacked from the north and south sides of this road, respectively.”
“How many were there?”
Hiroto turned to Marion.
“About that. I don’t know the exact number, but there are about fifty quick ones, including gargoyles, on the front, and thirty each on the north and south sides, mainly of the beast type.”
“That’s a lot ……, even for a low-grade demon. The summoner must be someone with great skill to be able to manipulate them without any problems. In that case, we should consider the possibility that they are still hiding their abilities.”
Hiroto was surprised by the sheer number of them, and when he mentioned this guess, both Marion and Mizuho were also surprised.
“You’re saying they still have some power left? It’s not possible. What’s the point of that for an enemy who doesn’t have time to spare, Domori Hiroto?”
“I felt that there was something half-hearted about it, but it’s not like the enemy would cut corners …….”
It seems that they both thought that the assassins had their target in front of them and don’t understand why they would cut corners.
“Ahh …… about that.”
At this point, Hiroto realized that what he had said and their reactions didn’t mesh very well, and he decided that he needed to tell them about summoners while he still could.
Lack of information could put them both in danger in future battles.
“The summoner uses his or her spiritual or magical power as a catalyst, so the amount of catalyst needed is proportional to the number and rank of the non-humans summoned. In addition, the summoning time is not infinite, and the summoner has to keep giving the spiritual power or magical power steadily throughout the summoning. That’s why they are required to maintain extreme concentration while summoning non-humans.”[TN: non-humans refers to spirits, demons, monsters, etc]
Mizuho and Marion also nodded. That is the basis of the summoner’s ability when it is activated.
“As Marion-san said earlier, a summoner’s most powerful ability is to manipulate the summoned non-human in a place where they can concentrate without being detected by the opponent. That’s why summoners are skilled in stealth skills to avoid detection by their opponents. ……”
At this time, Hiroto recalls the female summoner warrior comrade who fought together with him in the demon world before.
She was a well-known summoner in the demon world and had received repeated requests from the kingdoms of the humans living in the demon world to serve them with unparalleled treatment, but she was an eccentric who showed no interest in such requests.
However, when the Demon God attacked the kingdom, the female summoner fought together with Hiroto and showed her great power in defeating the Demon God.
(Amanda-san, I wonder how you are doing? Are you still researching summoning methods? But that person was the exception of the exception, she didn’t run and hide even though she was a summoner. ……)
Hiroto told Mizuho and Marion, remembering the words from that female summoner sometime ago.
“And what if the summoner is found? What if you run into enemies in a place where you can’t even hide from them, to begin with? That can always happen when you are in battle. So the summoner is always thinking about …… what to do in that situation.”
Mizuho and Marion were taken aback by what Hiroto said and immediately understood what he meant.
Ability users with biased characteristics will always have blind spots in their abilities.
In particular, Mizuho, who is a spirit user herself, is good at medium to long-range fighting. On the other hand, it is said that spirit users are not good at close combat.
This is certainly true, but the spirit users know that. For this reason, the Shitenji family, one of the most prestigious families of spirit users, has even systematized their own body techniques to compensate for this weakness.
If so, it would be naive to think that the summoner would keep his or her own weaknesses intact.
Mizuho and Marion accepted what Hiroto had said.
The two of them are very quick-witted in this area.
Hiroto looked at Mizuho and Marion, who had become serious, and quietly continued talking.
“So …… summoners who have surpassed a certain level never fight with all their might.”
“……”
“You can’t hide, and you always leave some extra power in case you have to fight them. And they always have a hidden sleeve for when that happens. In most cases, it is the strongest summoning …… that you can do. You just have to stay focused even when you have an enemy in front of you, a non-human who will protect you or let you escape and crush your enemy. We don’t know about this enemy yet. But keep it in mind.”
“…… Okay.”
Mizuho and Marion braced themselves for what Hiroto had to say.
They didn’t mean to be careless. But even if you are not careless, if you don’t always think about the enemy, you may not be able to get back.
Now, they firmly burned the words of their peers into their minds. And for Mizuho, the reputation of this Rank D boy further increased.
Hiroto was relieved that the two had accepted his story.
Both Mizuho and Marion were outstanding beyond compare. If they were simply good at what they do, they would be able to beat out most non-humans and rank among the best of all the ability users.
However, Hiroto knows that in a battle, the results are not always what they seem. Winning or losing a life-threatening battle has many factors, and a small lack of knowledge can determine the fate of the battle.
And this knowledge is mainly based on one’s own experience and the shared experience of one’s comrades-in-arms. This is where Mizuho and Marion, who are in their first battle, are lacking the most.
This is not their fault.
It can be called the first and biggest obstacle that anyone who wants to put themselves into battle goes through.
Hiroto did not want to see Mizuho and Marion get injured. That’s why he wanted to pass on all the knowledge he had gained from his experience.
At this moment, unaware that Hiroto was seriously thinking about it, the two girls had a question about the boy in front of them.
How could a boy of the same age, but of a lower rank than them, know so much about summoners? They thought so.
It looked as if he was talking about his experience and knowledge as if he had acquired it through actual combat.
And another question…….
Rather, this one is a bigger question.
Why do this boy’s words fit so easily into my mind?
This made me feel as if I had always trusted this boy.
Having such thoughts, Mizuho and Marion stare at the face of Hiroto as if to confirm.
…… separately, they don’t feel anything.
Well, when they stare at him for a while, they will feel a little annoyed, just like when they first met him.
Something about him makes me mad like he’s not telling me something important like he’s not being frank, like he should be more intimate with me, or that he’s distancing himself.
But maybe, unexpectedly, contrary to appearances, you can rely more on …… this boy, though it may be a misgiving.
And I hope you can rely on me, too. ……
“I’m sorry, this is off-topic, but the other spiritual ability user …… what? W-What’s wrong? Both of your faces are a little red. ……”
“It’s nothing!”
“I-It’s nothing.”
“I-Is that so? Well, let’s talk about the other person who seems to be a spiritual power user…….”
Mizuho and Marion responded with a loud voice, which made Hiroto flinch, but he continued to talk.
“Naturally, the spiritual ability user must have some reason to produce spiritual power, right? What was it like? Did you feel anything, like a skill being activated?”
Mizuho and Marion, who had managed to calm down, looked at each other at Hiroto’s question.
“I think so. Marion and I were also on the lookout, but we didn’t feel any skill activation. And what do you mean by that spiritual power too? It was so thin and hazy that you had to sharpen your senses to notice it. It was as if I was in a thin fog of spiritual power. ……”
“Yes, I noticed it too, about the third time after I started being attacked. So I immediately thought it was a newcomer, but no skills were triggered, and here we are.”
“Anyway, they’re creepy as hell! I’m sure they are quite skilled, but they don’t attack all at once. I don’t know what the hell they are aiming for ……. Just because their spiritual power is drifting over a wide area, it doesn’t mean that they are doing anything with it, and we don’t know where they are channeling it from.”
Hiroto tilted his head as they spoke.
“Umm, it’s definitely odd that they are not fighting hard enough even though they don’t have time to spare…… But I think there’s something aimed with that drifting spiritual power,…….”
Hiroto once again looked at the map that Mizuho and Marion explained to him, and confirmed the topography. It was a typical mountain road with poor visibility, with large and small mountains standing in disarray and the road swerving from side to side.
(I thought that the enemy summoner was somehow collaborating with other ability users to prevent them from finding out where he was, but that doesn’t explain it. ……)
“Moreover, if you were to try to drift spiritual power over a wide area in such terrain, the mountain itself would be in the way and take quite a while. What does that imply, exactly?”
Hiroto crossed his arms and stared at the map.
“The summoner should also be fighting while keeping track of us, so he should be nearby. But I can’t locate them at all. ……”
As he mentioned earlier, the summoner can’t be that far away from the summoned non-human.
Though, it would be a different story if the summon is only given a simple command and a suitable catalyst, it is necessary to keep on giving catalysts to the summoned non-human whenever it needs to be moved flexibly.
Of course, in that case, you need to know the location of the non-human you summoned.
To the non-human this time–the catalyst, in this case, is magical power– and the summoner is always thinking carefully about how to allocate the magical power.
“That’s right. Summoners have a limited distance to cover in order to grasp the location of the non-humans. Not to mention this amount of summons. I don’t think they would be detected unless they were close by. ……”
The summoner can grasp the location of non-human they summoned even without looking. This is because they are able to sense the spiritual or magical power of the non-human they summon.
The higher the summoner’s ability to sense this spiritual or magical power, the better the summoner is, and the more perceptive they are, the safer the summoner can operate from a distance.
“While sensing such a large number. The amount of magic power would be considerable, but ……? Wait, detection ability! Maybe the role of this fog of spiritual power is …… then it is no wonder that Shitenji-san and the others could not find the enemy. If that’s the case, they rather wanted us to think they were nearby last time!”
Hiroto took his eyes off the map and raised his head.
“Hiroto, did you find out anything?”
“Well, I’m still guessing. ……”
“Then, just tell us. Domori Hiroto.”
Mizuho encouraged Hiroto to share his thoughts.
“Umm. You both know that spiritual power and magical power repel each other, right? I think that drifting spiritual power may be applied to enhance the summoner’s detection ability. In other words, they’re boosting their detection abilities and attacking us from farther away than we can imagine.”
“Eh?”
Mizuho and Marion didn’t understand what Hiroto was talking about and looked dumbfounded.
The summoner, who is mainly a magician, can raise his sensing ability within a thinly drifting fog of spiritual power. ……
“That’s …… ah …… I see! Maybe!”
“What? Marion, what does that mean? Did you find out anything?”
“Ah, yes, maybe what Hiroto-san is thinking is ……”
When Mizuho turned her head to ask Hiroto for an explanation, Hiroto smiled and explained to Mizuho.
“If you drop ink on a blank piece of calligraphy paper, even a tiny drop will stand out.”
“Huh?”
So what? Mizuho’s expression gave such an impression.
“But, Hiroto-san. Then, where would be the ability user who is drifting spiritual power?”
“That’s also …… assuming that this assumption is correct, and then looking at the map, I vaguely figured out where they are. Well, it’s a process of elimination now.”
“Eh!?”
“Really!? Hiroto-san!”
Marion is amazing! As he’s impressed, Hiroto approaches her, gives her a respectful look, and puts his hands in front of his chest.
“Wait! That one just now… why .”
“Marion-san, you are much more worthy of praise than that,…….”
Hiroto replied, embarrassed by Marion’s gaze.
Looking at the conversation, Mizuho was momentarily annoyed by Marion’s movement but still did not understand what Hiroto was talking about.
“So, Domori Hiroto. Explain from the beginning …….”
“But now we can plan our countermeasures for next time!”
“Yes! Hiroto-san. The summoner is probably farther away than we thought!
“So ……”
Hiroto turns to face Mizuho with a confident and innocent face, probably because of Marion’s praise.
“Shitenji-san! Now you can give your enemy a big blow with this!”
“This is why …… Domori Hiroto.”
Mizuho was looking down and her shoulders were trembling slightly as shadows formed on her face.
“Yes? What is it? Shitenji-san.”
Hiroto enthusiastically asks Mizuho.
“From the beginning, …….”
“……?”
“Explainnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!”
“Yes!? Yesssss —-!
And so, Hiroto and the others meticulously put together a strategy in preparation for the next enemy attack.
–end—
Am I the only one finding Mizuho irritating?
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Thanks for the chapter 0w0
You’re definitely not the only one who finds mizuho irritating but guess it’s just jealousy lol Thanks for the chapter as always 👍
yes, you’re definitely not the only one find mizuho irritating lol
thanks for chap
tbh its probably her prejudiced judgement you are finding irritating.Standing on the top for long she judges according to the overall eval and so her behaviour is cuz she looks down on mc as such