Retired Hero Wants To Sleep

Mission No.1 Return of Magic Swordsman (11)

“Singing sound?”

The case briefing from Marcus popped into Ewald’s head.

Victims who testified that they heard creepy singing.

Ewald couldn’t hear it, but it seemed to have been picked up by the ears of demons far beyond the range of human hearing.

“Can you hear it from below?”

“Yes yes. Down there, down there. I can’t hear it very much, but the song sounds right, right.”

May be the devil Ewald searched his surroundings with all his nerves.

And he noticed something strange.

“Usbel, aren’t you using magic right now?”

“Magic? No. No. I am not doing anything.”

“Can you feel the mana flowing?”

It feels like water is pouring out of a finely cracked basin. The subtle but directional flow of mana was captured by Ebalt’s senses. It’s a movement so small that you wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t paying attention.

“Ah, ah, that’s right. Mana is flowing. Why?”

There are no signs of magic. Above all, there was no magic that could create such a slow flow of mana. In terms of air, it was a movement similar to breathing, so there could be no magic that could be realized with such mana.

But obviously mana was flowing.

“Ah?”

Ewald’s gaze turned to Usbel.

“Is not it? It’s not. Is not it? Ah?”

“… What are you talking about?”

“No, that… Weird.”

There were not one or two strange things, but Ewald’s gaze was calmly fixed on Usbel’s face.

“You can’t make fun of me for being crazy, no.”

“… Listen first.”

Usbel nodded his head.

“The singing voice is mixed with mana.”

“What’s the mix?”

“That’s right, that’s right, mana is mixed with the singing voice. Is not it? Is Mana mixed with the song?”

A song mixed with mana?

Ewald laughed involuntarily.

“Say something that makes sense. The singing voice is mixed with mana?”

“Eh, eh, eh. No matter how much you listen to it? I’m not sure what’s mixed with what, but the singing voice and mana are mixed.”

However, Ewald shook his head and denied Usbel’s words.

“Not some kind of barde.”

“A bard?”

Elif, who had been silent, cautiously brought up a story to Ebalt.

“Are you talking about bards?”

“A bard?”

An absurd smile passed across Ewald’s face.

“You shouldn’t compare bards and the like to bards. Then the bard stabbed me with a knife, young lady.”

“Wasn’t the bard a bard?”

“It’s not?”

Ewald tapped the handle of the knife stuck in his waist and started talking.

“Bards are a mysterious clan that moves people by putting mana in their songs, not bards.”

“Hey?”

Elif put on a funny face.

“Mind control specialists who do not manipulate people like magic or hypnosis, but make the listeners move on their own… But.”

But Ewald, frowning slightly at the thought of when this young lady would come to see him, continued to tap the handle of the knife while looking around with that expression on her face.

“They can control everyone who listens to their songs. I have nothing to compare it to, so I compare it to a bard.”

“Hey there, master, master. Is it magic like Huga stjórna?”

Huga stjórna is mind control magic. Ewald smiled lightly, keeping his frown on his face.

“It’s scary because it’s not magic.”

“What do you mean, what do you mean? It’s not magic, so it’s scary?”

Ewald nodded his head.

“What was the beginning? Did you mean that a man who was uglier than the face of an orc who had been beaten for 9 nights and 10 days went to the continent’s most beautiful woman and sang, and the first beauty she saw a man married the man on the spot? It was something similar. That is the beginning of the bard.”

“… Does that make sense?”

“That is nothing.”

… Is that nothing?

“Everyone who hears the song is in control range.”

“Is the object that wide? Wide?”

“It is not an object.”

Ewald looked at Usbel, whose eyes were shining brightly.

“It is to control all intelligent lifeforms that listen to the voice of the bard’s will.”

“Wow, that is a complete foul, foul. Now I understand why it is different from huga stjórna.”

Ewald nodded his head.

“It is completely different. There is no magic that can move thousands. But bards are possible.”

“Thousands?”

Elif listened to Ebalt’s words with a surprised expression.

“One of the contributors to the founding of the El Genor Empire was Pinya. I don’t know the last name, but was it a bard? The last thing she did was stop the war.”

“Ay, ay, master. It’s not a kid’s joke, how to stop a war…”

“It stopped. With one song. It was she who ended the Great Battle of Marks Plains.”

“… Is that possible?”

It was an elf with an unbelievable voice. However, Ewald smiled at such an Elif.

“Because it’s a bard.”

“Hey, if a bard had that ability, wouldn’t she be very famous Oh? By the way, this is the first time I’ve heard of a bard, right?”

“Of course.”

Ewald licked his lips again and continued.

“Because there hasn’t been a bard since Pinya.”

Elif quickly started calculating. Since the person named Pinya was said to be a founding contributor, considering that the current imperial year is 252 years, it can be said that the last time the bard appeared was roughly 250 years ago.

In the end, Elif had to tilt her head.

“Isn’t that just a lie? It’s a scam if you listen to it. It doesn’t make sense for thousands of people to stop fighting.”

“If you look at her abilities, it’s a scam. So it became a legend. Well, it could have appeared somewhere, but at least there are no bards recorded in history.”

“Isn’t it written only in history?

“Hey, lady. If the young lady were the emperor or battle commander, would she just rot the bard?”

Elif pondered and shook her head. If Ebalt’s words are true, he is a being to be recruited even if half of the country is to be taken away.

“Wow, wow!”

Suddenly, Usbel clung to Ewald’s arm, her eyes twinkling.

“Master, Master, then are you going to catch our bard?”

“… Are you crazy?”

Good luck if you don’t get caught. You say you’re going to catch a being that’s magical and sleepy and can control people with just a song?

A passing dog will laugh.

“Are you trying to catch me? What would you do if the bard sang the message, ‘Poke your stomach with your knife, pull out your intestines, jump rope, spin seven and a half times in the air and fall to your death’?”

It’s creepy. No matter what analogy you hear, you use that analogy. Elif swept the goose bumps from his arms and trembled.

Usbel nodded eagerly. After hearing it, I know what a bard is.

“But surely there is mana mixed in with your voice? Are they mixed?”

“I can even plant mana in my voice.”

“Wow, wow! Really? Master, are you for real? Really?”

“It’s possible to rip the opponent’s eardrums.”

Uth Bell opened her mouth at the absurd Ebalt’s remark.

“That’s just a sonic attack, sonic attack.”

“Therefore. It means that it is possible to simply mix mana into the voice. Bards are on a different level. There’s no such thing as manipulating people. The current mana flow must be at least that level. There’s no reason for a bard to be in a place like this, right?”

“Um, uh, that’s by the way, Master. You have to think about that too.”

“… What do you think?”

To Ewald, who had a slightly annoyed expression on his face, Usbel spat out a terrifying remark.

“There are some demons with that ability.”

* * *

“… Hey, that’s different.”

“Yes? What are you talking about, what are you talking about?”

It was Ebalt, whose annoyance gradually increased.

“You did. I heard that there are no people who suck people with their songs. Did you say you were bothered? Anyway, didn’t you say that there are no demons like that among the people you know?”

“No, no. There’s a world of difference between sucking and manipulating. What I told the master is that it has no ability to charm or paralyze humans. So you’re saying there aren’t guys like the Siren?”

“Then what are you talking about?”

“The ability to manipulate people. One of the guys who knows that.”

“… This sure.”

I had to redo the calculations from the bottom up. Ewald spat out a few more curse words with a grimace on his face, then cupped his chin with his right hand.

Are there demons who can control people with their voices like the bard? If it’s magic like Huga stjórna, it can be blocked even if it has to fix all mana in a radius of several meters, but the story is completely different with bard-type abilities.

Ewald showed this with a serious expression.

Elif, who had been quietly listening to the conversation between the two of them, had no idea what the conversation was, and then tilted her head and looked at Usbel.

“Excuse me. Did you say Kitsuka? What is he talking about? Demon? Do you not know anyone?”

“Yeah man! How dare you do this rude thing Demon King Usbuwuk!”

Baek!

“Aoooooh, agooooong, aaa!”

As Mana hit the back of Usbel’s head with her clenched fists, Balt distorted her face.

“Demon King Usbuweek?”

“It’s Demon King Usbel!”

Quick!

“Oooh, fish country. Master, I’m sorry. Stop hitting I will split your skull, split it.”

“Didn’t you hear that you shouldn’t talk about being the Demon King?”

“I get it, I get it. Oops, it hurts It hurts, Master.”

Usbel, who sat down in her seat and held her head, made several more painful noises like that.

She’s doing this nuisance now because of who she is!

“I’ll let you live as a slime for the rest of your life if you say something about the devil one more time.”

“No, that doesn’t work. No. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, master.”

Ewald turned his head away from Usbel, who was wriggling in a strange pose, with a very angry face. But deep inside that expression, a great anxiety began to coil.

Demons who control people with their voices like a bard? Meeting someone like that is terrifying. He opened his eyes and didn’t want to split his stomach.

“Then, then, are the demons okay?”

However, whether he knew Ewald’s heart or not, the mad Usbel spit out such absurd remarks. In an instant, something snapped in Ewald’s head.

“Hey, this sh*t…”

“Hey, stop it.”

It was an elf.

Caught between her Ewald and Usbel, she held her trembling body still with her arms outstretched to the sides.

“I know roughly what the situation is. Is this little boy a demon lord? But, even if you are the Demon King, if you hit a child, ah, no. That’s a bad thing you see…”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh-huh.”

The dejected laughter of such a middle-aged man crawled out of ‘Usbel’. Elif turned her head back as she heard an unexpected laugh behind her.

And Usbel’s quarrel broke out.

“Hey, you little one, I’m over fifty!”

“… Yes?”

Even Ewald’s age is similar.

“Was it your grandmother?”

“Grandma what?”

Sparks flew from Usbel’s eyes.

“If you treat it like an old man, she gets fried! She’ll fry it up!”

“Fry something!”

Ewald frowned arrogantly at Usbel’s choice of language, which only said he didn’t swear, but his expressions were beyond imagination.

“Wake up. Aren’t you moving?”

“Uhhhhh.”

Lying on her floor, squatting like her cat, Usbel then stretched her long and bent her legs hard into her rec spring position, pulling her up to her chest. Then she performed a back roll in an acrobatic stance.

“Thunder, wallow, wallow.”

“… Don’t mimic her with her mouth.”

“Even if I practice, I can’t get up because the recoil is small. Young car! Zero!”

“… Oh my god. What should I do?”

Suddenly, Elif intervened.

“It’s a grandmother, but she’s cute.”

Elif, who had slowly stretched out her hand to caress Usu-Bell’s head, noticed Usu-Bell’s ferociously bared teeth, and slipped her hand back. If bitten, it will hurt quite a bit.

Ewald, who was watching this crazy situation, sighed with the momentum to shake the floor and opened his mouth heavily.

“… Let’s move please.”