Killing Intent

We had been talking normally when Bangagonga suddenly started suffering and said Frenzy had begun.

That was way too abrupt… Give me some kind of warning first!?

No—damn it. Now wasn’t the time for that.

“Eisha! Check Bangagonga’s condition!”

“Yes!”

At my command, Eisha moved at once and checked Bangagonga’s state.

Even as she did, Bangagonga kept letting out pained sounds, cold sweat beading on him… At a glance it looked like a brutal stomachache, but… I had no idea what he was actually feeling.

Still, the last moments of that frenzied goblin I’d seen at the goblin home…

Was Bangagonga going to die too?

Him—someone I’d been speaking with normally just moments ago?

Remembering what I’d seen at the settlement, a nameless rage welled up inside me.

I didn’t understand… What was this? This injustice. Don’t screw with me…!

Even with the campfire right there, my vision darkened… then it burst white as if someone had flashed a camera in my face… Annoying… And my body felt strangely hot… None of this made any sense…

“……”

In my line of sight, Bangagonga lay there while Eisha examined his body with a grave expression. Beads of sweat stood on her forehead, and it even looked like her fingertips were trembling.

On impulse I’d ordered Eisha to examine him… but she was a priest, not a doctor.

And it wasn’t an illness in the first place—he’d said it was caused by the Demon King’s mana or something… If the cause was mana, wouldn’t Kamila be better suited than Eisha?

Thinking that, I looked toward Kamila, who stood a short distance away with a solemn face… and just before I spoke to her, I froze.

I had ordered Eisha to check Bangagonga’s condition.

She was following that order, giving it everything she had… and yet if I issued Kamila an order now…

It would be like telling Eisha she was useless.

It had only been a dozen seconds since Eisha started. I was expecting results in an instant?

Was I an idiot?

This wasn’t a game. Selecting a command wouldn’t make results appear immediately… Understand that properly! This was reality, unmistakably!

My mind boiled as I scraped together my torn reason and forced myself to stay calm, but then I saw Bangagonga look this way and open his mouth in pain—and that snapped my inward focus back outward as my vision regained its contours.

“Ha… haha…”

“Bangagonga…? How is it? Is there anything we can do for you?”

It didn’t feel like something an Overlord should say, but honestly my emotions were hanging by a thread, and I couldn’t act like I usually did.

Watching me, Bangagonga managed a pained smile.

“Fels… making… that kind of face… huh… But… could you… hold back… your killing intent…? That… young lady… there… is scared… you know?”

At Bangagonga’s words, Eisha’s shoulders trembled. Killing intent…? Could I even give off something like that? I didn’t know what killing intent was supposed to be, but… had I been frightening Eisha?

Come to think of it… when I’d been watching Eisha earlier, she’d been sweating a lot and her hands had been shaking… Was that because she was afraid of me?

It was like someone had dumped ice water over my head, and the heat drained away.

“Eisha, I’m sorry. I want to speak with Bangagonga—step back a little.”

I lightly tapped Eisha on the shoulder and spoke as gently as I could.

“Y-yes!”

As I watched Eisha retreat with a slightly dejected look, my guilt only deepened. And damn, it was good I hadn’t spoken to Kamila earlier… If I had, I’d have felt even worse—no, I’d deal with Eisha properly later. Right now, it was Bangagonga.

“I’m sorry, Bangagonga. I made you worry about me when you’re in this state.”

“No… I was… just surprised… But… because you’re like this… I can believe… those words you said earlier… weren’t a lie…”

“I see…”

Even while suffering, Bangagonga smiled again, and I found myself giving a wry smile back.

“This way of speaking… can you forgive it…? I… don’t think… I can spare… the attention…”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t like stiffness in the first place. Unless it’s somewhere I need to display authority, I don’t care if a friend speaks to me casually.”

For a moment, Bangagonga looked as if he’d forgotten the pain.

“…A friend… huh.”

“Bangagonga. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“…Please… take care… of the villagers…”

“Of course. You don’t even need to ask. They’re already my citizens. You have nothing to worry about.”

At my words, Bangagonga’s pained expression eased slightly.

“…Thank… you… Next… I want you… to call… Karmokormo… the one… who was supposed… to be the next village head… Sending me off… is… his… duty…”

“…There’s no way?”

“…None. Once someone… enters Frenzy… there’s… no… turning back…”

Of course… If there were any way, Bangagonga would never have forced that duty onto his own people… and he wouldn’t be suffering like this right now.

But… wasn’t there something? Anything?

…Frenzy… the cause… the Demon King’s mana… Bangagonga’s knowledge… some other method… Wasn’t there an item in Sword and Legions that could help?

Mana… mana… mana… What even was mana, anyway? In Sword and Legions, mana meant mana stones… basically the energy source for casting spells. The game never really went into it.

Was mana in this world different…? No—there was a good chance it was the same.

Because if the mana in Sword and Legions and the mana in this world were different, then a mana collection device shouldn’t be able to generate mana stones… Hm? A mana collection device?

The mana collection device absorbed mana from living beings, right? Since more population meant more mana stones collected… that part had to be correct.

Unless it was something like “more people makes more mana in the air”… but no—Otonoha had said the mana recovered from goblins was different in quality… so it made sense to think it was drawing mana from people themselves.

And Bangagonga said Frenzy happened when someone took in the Demon King’s mana and exceeded their limit… which meant the cause was the mana inside the body…

If I brought Bangagonga near a mana collection device… could it maybe cure him?

I didn’t know… but it was worth trying!

“Bangagonga! Sorry to say this when you’ve accepted death, but… will you let me struggle a little longer?”

“…What… do you mean…?”

“Your condition… there might be a way… to improve it.”

“…I think… it’s impossible… but… do you… have a lead…?”

“Yeah. But we can’t do it here. One hour… can you endure one more hour?”

“…You… called me… your friend… I’ll endure… your words… are mine…”

“Thank you, Bangagonga. If you live… we may be able to save everyone from Frenzy going forward. So for the future of countless comrades, endure with everything you’ve got!”

At my words, strength flared in Bangagonga’s eyes.

Was that village close enough from here…? No, the village’s mana collection device had been removed by Otonoha and a new one was being installed. We had to go to the castle town.

“Ururu! Are you back!?”

I’d had Ururu run to the castle to prepare for accepting the goblins. But… if it was Ururu, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d already returned.

“…I’m here.”

“Good. We’re carrying Bangagonga to the castle! Ururu—use the cloth from the tent as a stretcher… no, use the tent cloth! You and I will carry him! Eisha, you come too! Everyone else, continue guarding the goblins!”

“Your person, yourself—”

“No arguments! Move!”

I cut off Eisha as she tried to remonstrate, and barked orders. I felt truly sorry toward Eisha, but I’d apologize later—she’d have to forgive me.

“Yes!”

Ururu brought over the sturdy cloth we’d used for the tent.

We laid Bangagonga on top as carefully as possible so it wouldn’t burden him, then Ururu and I lifted it and carried him together.

If Bangagonga were a bit smaller, carrying him on my back would’ve worked… but he was too big to handle alone. And in his weakened state, telling him to cling on firmly would be difficult anyway.

Ururu and I carried Bangagonga on the cloth like a stretcher, and Eisha followed while supporting him so he wouldn’t fall.

It was beyond “hard to run,” but we sprinted across the night grassland at a speed easily exceeding thirty kilometers per hour.

If the mana collection device didn’t work… then even if I had to mobilize every item from Sword and Legions in the castle, I would save Bangagonga!

With that resolve, I ran with everything I had… and we made it back to the castle in less than thirty minutes.