Chapter 50

A full sprint across the ash-gray desert, kicking up gray dust.
Serpens’s feet bounced lightly without sinking into the sand.
He could feel, in detail, each spell wrapped around his entire body.

Every time the Basilisk’s eight legs stepped on the ground, a fierce shockwave surged toward him.
He cut through the incoming cloud of sand with his sword.

A faint blue light lingered in Serpens’s light brown eyes.
The boy didn’t notice it, but he ran with all his strength to face the monster.

Greeeeeeek-!

When the distance between the boy and the monster was no longer that far.
The Basilisk revealed its gaping jaws and let out a roar.
The roar became a sound wave that tore through the air and spread as if even the clouds in the sky would shake.

When he met the eye beneath the monster’s chin, he felt as if his body had stiffened for an instant.
At that moment, a single yellow note passed through the boy’s vision as if brushing past it.
Then his stiffened body loosened, and instead, strength filled him.

The monster lunged to swallow the boy.

Boom-

Serpens put strength into his legs and leapt high.

“……!”

In an instant, the boy rose above the monster’s head.
He had thought he could do it, but actually jumping felt different.

As if reacting to that, the Basilisk twisted its massive body.
Thousands of teeth flashed toward the boy.

However.

Whirik-
Thmp.

When Lars’s conductor’s baton moved, red staff lines sealed the monster’s mouth.

“Uaaaah!”

The boy’s sword cut through the air as it descended.
Along with the force of his fall, the silver blade drove into the crown of the Basilisk’s head as if splitting it.

Boom!

An impact burst out with a metallic sound.
From the force of the collision, the monster’s head slammed straight into the desert.
Gray sand billowed up like an erupting volcano.

Through the sandstorm, the Basilisk’s cry spread like a vibration.

Pchut-

Before the smoke could even clear, poisonous fumes spread out at high speed.
Serpens hurriedly covered his mouth.
Wouldn’t he be safe as long as he didn’t swallow it?
But when the poisonous fumes touched his hand, he felt a burning pain.

“Uwaaak!”

Just before Serpens was about to be buried in the poisonous fumes.
The boy felt someone pull him backward.

Serpens floated into the air again.
Behind him, Lars was wearing a gentle smile.

“You’re doing quite well.”

When he heard those words, the pain in his hand disappeared.

“What did you do to my body?”
“Questions later. For now, let’s take that thing down first.”

Serpens nodded.

The gazes of the two turned toward the Basilisk’s body.
The monster’s tail burst up through the desert sand.
The sweeping tail arced toward Lars.

Ding-

But Lars blocked it easily and unfolded a massive magic array to draw the monster’s attention.

“Kid. Now.”
“Yes!”

Serpens landed on the ground at high speed.
Then he aimed for an opening in the Basilisk and kicked off the ground.
He sprinted across the desert as if sliding, lowered his body, and slipped into the gap.

The boy was amazed by Lars.
He didn’t know what kind of magic Lars had used.
But his magic had enhanced the boy’s abilities.
As a result, the boy’s movements had become like the wind.

Where the giant tail had passed, a shaking sandstorm still remained.

“Hup!”

Serpens twisted his grip on the sword and charged sharply.

His target was the eye beneath the Basilisk’s chin.
He had realized something from the previous blow.
Even with his enhanced attack, he could not pierce the Basilisk’s scales.
But if it was the eye, or the belly area without the spikes.

‘It’s more than possible.’

The sharp blade cut through the sand and drove in.
While Lars’s magic bound the monster.

Serpens leapt once more.

Crunch!

The sword pierced the monster’s eye.

“Uaaaah!”

Serpens put strength into both arms gripping the sword.
With a shout, he swung his arms forward with all that strength.
It was a movement he had practiced countless times.
Even when his body was heavy and his arms trembled, he had swung his sword while promising himself a future.
And one of the futures the boy had promised himself.

Pkakak!

Was this very moment.

Blue Aura burst out along the trajectory of the sword.
The Aura moved forward, cutting through the monster’s massive body.

Kraaaaaaah――!!

The Basilisk’s scream rang across the desert.
Its massive body twisted violently, and Serpens retreated backward as if bouncing away.

The bright red scales of the Basilisk, wrapped in pain, stood on end all at once.
It seemed as if its size had doubled.

But that was all.
The Basilisk, heavily damaged by the blow just now, was roaring while losing its balance.
And that sight didn’t seem threatening to the boy.

The boy began running again.
As his will to cut down the monster grew firm, a blue melody began following the tip of his sword.

With a short leap, he reached the front of the Basilisk,
and when he slashed upward with all his strength, a single brilliant trajectory surged up.

As the boy withdrew his sword, a massive vibration swallowed the desert.
The sand in the area repeatedly leapt violently.
And soon, silence came.

“Hah…… Hah…….”

His heart pounded.
The hand gripping the sword began to tremble.
His stamina was holding out, but when the movements he had made flashed before his eyes, his breathing grew even rougher.

The melody that had followed the tip of his sword slowly disappeared.
At the same time, he felt the strength that had filled his body drain away,
and his calmed heart began to shake wildly.

“Good, good! You’ve got talent!”

Lars leisurely descended from the sky.
His eyes, full of laughter, looked at the boy.

‘Is he not even tired?’

Serpens looked at him.
He looked no different from before the battle.
He hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, and his relaxed smile was the same as ever.
If he had to pick out what had changed, it was only the conductor’s uniform and his hair disheveled by the wind.

Sssaaa-.

“Ah.”

Even from the few things that had changed, one disappeared.
The uncomfortable-looking conductor’s uniform changed back into his usual comfortable clothes.

And before long, the last remaining change returned to normal as well.

Lars hummed.
When he lightly swung the conductor’s baton, a thin line of light rose up.
And a few seconds after that line rose into the sky.
A blue beam burst open and spread like a flower.

Across the ash-gray desert.
Past the High Orcs’ camp and over the hill, at the humans’ outpost.
The troops waiting there saw the firework that had risen into the sky.

The knight at the front drove his horse forward with a roar full of joy.
Countless knights followed behind him.

“That takes care of the signal……. Shall we continue with what we need to do?”

Lars’s pitched voice somehow sounded excited.

“Just what was our vicious king lizard trying to protect that it refused to leave this place?”

Lars headed toward the Basilisk’s corpse with light steps.

“So, Lars. What kind of magic did you cast on me?”

Serpens asked as he followed.

“My movements and my strength didn’t feel like my own.”
“It’s true that my magic helped.”
“My mind calmed down, my sword dealt a huge blow to that giant monster, and some blue thing shot out from my sword. Also, it felt like my judgment improved a lot! It felt like I wasn’t human at all.”

When they arrived in front of the corpse, Lars moved his conductor’s baton here and there.
Following the movements of the conductor’s baton, the corpse separated, disassembled, and moved.

“Hmm. First, before I explain the magic, there is something I need to address about what you said.”

Lars slowly moved forward and examined the monster’s corpse.

“It is true that I gave you the calmness, the strength, and the magic. But the judgment was entirely yours.”
“What……?”
“So be a little proud, little knight. You can be confident about taking down a Basilisk this quickly. Just don’t get conceited, of course.”

Lars muttered something more afterward.
Something about how the more important fact was that his magic was amazing, and that he had also cast weakening magic on the Basilisk at the same time.
In the end, he had pointed out that Serpens shouldn’t get conceited.

“But Lars. Why do you not attack directly?”

At Serpens’s question, the magician’s feet stopped.
He soon moved again, but his steps became slower than before, mixed with thought.

“Put nicely, it’s my will. Put badly, it is a restriction.”

The two walked along the corpse.
Serpens glanced at the fallen monster.

‘Looking at it like this, it almost seems kind of small.’

It was true that it was a giant monster.
When it had burst out of the sand, when it had opened its mouth and roared, and even now that it had fallen, it was ridiculously enormous.
But as they walked leisurely, a distance of fifty meters didn’t feel that far.

Pchut-

At the sudden sound from the corpse, Serpens jumped.

“Pfft. You don’t need to be startled. That is the sound of air escaping from the poison gland inside the Basilisk. It’s proof that we dealt with this thing properly.”
“Aha……!”

The boy calmed his startled heart.

They walked a few more steps like that, and Lars stopped in place as if he had found something.
When he swung the conductor’s baton this way and that, a large hole opened in the corpse.

“Well now. Was it this?”

A small jewel slowly rose from inside the corpse.
It was a jewel Serpens had seen before.

“The Demonic energy is faint, but it could’ve been dangerous. It’s good we came early.”

The dark red jewel, glittering enchantingly, settled in Lars’s hand.

Dgrrr-

The jewel shook wildly as if rejecting Lars’s hand.
It looked as if it were alive, and Serpens blinked with widened eyes.

“Was there something dangerous?”
“Yep. If it had been a few days later, it would have merged with this jewel full of Demonic energy and become a rather troublesome monster. What we caught was something like a great serpent that failed to become a dragon.”
“Oh…….”

Lars put the conductor’s baton into his sleeve and flicked his pure-white fingertips.
With a cheerful sound, the monster’s massive corpse slowly changed into ash-gray sand.

“Well, since the monster has been dealt with, leaving that aside. Can I ask what you meant by the ‘restriction’ you mentioned earlier?”

Serpens asked.
His voice was cautious, but his eyes were sparkling with curiosity.

“There’s no reason you cannot, but…… you mustn’t tell other people.”
“Yes, yes! I absolutely won’t tell.”

Lars smiled gently.

“Have you noticed that I express my magic as music?”
“How couldn’t I? Every time you use magic, I hear some jararang~ kind of sound effect from somewhere.”
“That’s exactly it. The point is that I express magic as music.”
“What?”

Lars began walking while whistling.
The boy quietly watched him, and his mouth naturally opened.

Green slowly bloomed where his steps touched.
The desert sand disappeared, and green grass revealed itself.
The small patches of green slowly spread like ripples across the surface of water.

“To me, music is not a concept that can cause harm. It can make someone feel new emotions, and it can amplify emotions that were already there. The reason I made our little knight stronger also follows that principle. But I cannot understand or accept the idea of someone suffering because of music.”
“…….”
“Was that too difficult? To put it simply, because my will cannot accept the fact of harming others with music, I cannot put it into action either.”
“Hmm…….”

Serpens scratched the back of his head.
It sounded like something impressive.
But as impressive-sounding words often were, it was difficult to understand.

“Well, I think I understand roughly. So what if you can’t attack directly? You are good at everything else!”
“Oh, was that praise?”
“……Ahem. It’s true that you’re good.”

Lars stroked Serpens’s head with a fresh smile.

“You said you wanted to become strong, right?”
“Of course.”

Serpens startled and avoided the hand on his head.
It wasn’t that he disliked it.
His surprise at something unfamiliar had simply come out reflexively.

As if saying it was fine, Lars patted the boy’s shoulder.

“Strengthen the will you have now. The stronger a righteous will is, the stronger the power to carry it out becomes.”

A cool wind blew.
The sound of new grass swaying mixed with the sorrowful rolling of sand.
Within that sound, Serpens slowly nodded.