Thus The Red Gate Opens

As I looked at the five men lying on the ground, I thought to myself.

Good grief, I was glad I managed to win somehow.

Phew… It had been the same at the mansion where that self-proclaimed Varnir was, but many-against-one was actually easier for me. It felt like my opponents were too busy being careful of each other to fight properly. Otherwise, there was no way I could have won this easily…

I walked over to the man who had been talking earlier.

I had knocked the other men completely unconscious, but I had gone easy on this one and left him writhing after a single restrained punch. Naturally, that was so I could question him.

“How about you tell me a few things?”

“W-wait…!”

Still wearing a pained expression, the man pulled out something strange from inside his clothes. From a black gemstone about the size of a thumb protruded eight legs curved like arcs. Altogether, it was about the size of a palm.

“Attach this… to the red stone you people have…!”

“…Even if you suddenly tell me that…”

Though I took it from him, I tilted my head.

“Do not ask the impossible. There is no way I can listen to someone who was trying to kill us just a moment ago, is there?”

“That is true, but! There is no time! Hurry—if you do not hurry, it will open!”

“Open? What will?”

“The gate! A gate to a world that is not this one!”

The man cried out in a voice like a scream.

There was such urgency in his voice that it did not sound like a joke or a lie at all.

And so, both Fiona and I involuntarily held our breath.

But—

“I already told you, did I not? Even if you say that, I cannot just believe you. The moment I attach this to the gemstone, it could explode on the spot.”

“I understand what you are saying! But please, believe me! There really is no time!”

After the man finished speaking, I waited a moment before addressing Fiona.

“…That is what he says. What do you want to do?”

“Huh?”

“Well, the red gemstone belongs to you, Fiona-san. That means you are the one who has to decide.”

“Th-that’s true…”

As Fiona groaned in indecision, I gave her some additional information.

“For what it is worth, the item this man produced—it does not have any strange functions. Just as he said, it seems specialized for suppressing something.”

“…Wh-what, how can you tell!?”

“I analyzed its contents with magic. I cannot tell the fine details, but I can understand the general outline.”

“No way! You can do something like that!?”

After thinking for a bit, Fiona said,

“…All right. Then let us try attaching it. It does not seem to me like that person is lying.”

And then she stuck her hand into her shoulder bag and rummaged around—

and took out the red gemstone.

“Um, Ilvis-san…”

Understanding what Fiona meant to say, I gave a quiet nod.

The red gemstone’s glow was growing stronger, and it seemed to be pulsing on and off. As though something inside it were throbbing—

I took the gemstone from her and brought the black device the man had handed me near it. Then, as if pulled by a magnet, it snapped onto the red stone. At the same time, the device’s eight extended legs bent inward and wrapped around the red gemstone with a metallic clink!

And what happened then?

The gemstone’s pulsing glow began to subside.

“Here you go.”

I returned the red gemstone to Fiona, then turned back to the man.

“I did exactly as you said. Now then, what is going on here? Who are you?”

“…”

The man kept his mouth shut and said nothing.

“For now, how about you at least show me your face?”

Saying that, I stripped away the cloth covering the man’s face. He was a man around thirty. Naturally, I did not recognize him.

“It is a problem if you just keep your mouth shut…”

…Though even if he confessed, that would not necessarily help me much.

Because I had no way of knowing whether what he said was true.

It had been the same with that self-proclaimed Varnir. They had said, “I am one of the Eight Stars of Black Dragon’s Fang!” but that had been a lie. In other words, there was every possibility this lot would give me false identities too.

With that precedent in mind, even if these men were to say, “Actually, we are from Black Dragon’s Fang!” I would have no reason to believe them. I would just suspect that they too were trying to tarnish Black Dragon’s Fang’s name.

So, details like that should be left to professionals. The best thing would probably be to take them to the nearest town and hand them over to an official, but dragging five men around by myself would be a bit much…

Well, I would think about it tomorrow.

Using ropes created from magic power, I tied the five men to a nearby tree. During that work, it seemed the other four had also regained consciousness, but they were only glaring at me with unfriendly eyes.

Getting resented for something they brought on themselves was a bit much…

It was then.

“I-Ilvis-san!?”

I heard Fiona’s voice, almost like a scream.

I turned around in a hurry, and a vivid crimson color leapt into my eyes. It was so intense that I reflexively narrowed them.

The gemstone Fiona was holding was shining with a brilliance that seemed to overpower the night.

“It suddenly—it suddenly started glowing!”

I immediately suspected the device the man had handed over. Reflexively, I looked at him.

The man, pale as death, shook his head from side to side.

“N-no! It was not me! That device is meant to suppress it! I am certain of it!”

“But it is not suppressing anything.”

“I do not know the details either, but—probably, we were too late! No one can stop the ‘Eye of the Netherworld’ anymore!”

I looked back toward Fiona.

An even greater radiance was spreading through the area.

At that same moment—

Crack!

With a loud explosive sound, the attached black device burst apart.