One month later.

Arima was once again at the library. He was sitting, reading a book. After finishing the last page, he closed the book with one hand and returned it to its shelf. He stood up and left the library.

During this one-month period, Arima had spent a lot of his time reading, and in parallel, he would accept some requests from the guild. In a brief period of time, he read a least three hundred books on different topics. And the most frightening thing was that he had perfectly memorized their contents.

In fact, during this time, Arima greatly enhanced his understanding of magic and invented one to help him. He called it Hardware. Befitting of its name, it would form an artificial memory in his mind, and allow him to remember anything that he learns or reads once. Just like a second brain that would never forget anything. Thanks to that, Arima was already one of the most erudite people on the continent.

Perhaps only he would be crazy or poised enough to use magic directly on his brain though. He wasn’t the only one who had attempted a magic like that. But there was a case where a mage blew his head up because of it. That’s why no one ever tried it again.

When he was still around a hundred meters away from it, Arima heard a commotion through the noise of the streets and hastened his step. He arrived at the Inn almost instantly. As if he was a ghost, he sneakily appeared inside of the building. A group of men was causing a ruckus there. It was a mercenary group led by a noble. They were harassing the owner and her son who were kneeling in front of them.

On the way, Arima had listened to the conversation so he already knew what was going on. It seemed that this group had set their eyes on the owner of the place. It was true that she was a beautiful woman, so it wasn’t surprising.

‘They’re all like that anyway. It’s this world’s fault for making everyone pretty,’ this was Arima's senseless opinion.

This kind of thing wasn’t unusual at all. Arima didn't hear all of it but the group probably blamed something on one of those two and it led to this. It was most likely caused by the small noble there. Arima didn’t think that every noble was trash. There’s an entire spectrum for any kind of people but this one was pretty easy to label in his opinion.

Arima sighed, the owner helped him a lot in this one-month period, so he couldn't overlook this.

"Hey, is it too much to ask you to stop?" Arima approached the group and talked to them when he was around two steps away from them.

"What? This is none of your business," the man who seemed to be the leader of the mercenaries responded. He was startled at first because he hadn’t seen or sensed Arima enter the Inn. The latter sighed again. He looked at the group in front of him with half closed, bored eyes.

"Listen, just get out, and don't come back… please?" He tilted his head at the end of his sentence as if he was really trying to find out what to say. And, maybe because he said it in a bad-sounding way, the merc's expression darkened dangerously after his words.

"I said it's not your problem!" He drew his bastard sword. Arima didn't know why he had suddenly decided to attack him. Maybe he wanted to set himself as the boss here. Or maybe this was how this type of people acted usually.

When the metallic sound of the sword resounded, the other customers of the Inn and the mother-son pair closed their eyes. When they opened them again, the sight left them dumbfounded. Arima was gripping the blade of the sword with only three fingers. He sighed for the third time.

"Seriously, I even tried to be polite. [Sunt robore] (Power up)," Arima circulated some mana in his hand and the blade snapped in half.

"What…?!" The leader exclaimed. The members of his group took a step back after seeing something that they couldn't understand while the noble, who was hiding behind them, cried in fear. That sword was a magic weapon inscribed with runes. Normally, even a scratch would be hard to make.

"…I’ll repeat, get out," Arima said that calmly and leisurely but a suffocating aura was released. It was so strong that the ground shook a bit and the wind blew. The windows were making some noise while the chairs and tables were threatening to fall apart. The mercenaries broke into a cold sweat while the noble directly ran to the door and fled. The mercenaries looked at each other and followed him.

The leader glared at Arima before leaving. "I'll remember that."

"Is that so? I don’t really enjoy nasty people remembering me to be honest. [Umbra Falcon, Set] (Shadow falcon, Set)."

Several falcons emerged from Arima's shadow. This time, their feathers were completely black and their eyes glowed with a crimson color. They flew out of the Inn through the opened doors. Arima didn't even look at the exit and walked to the owner. “You're okay?"

"Y-Yes, thank you," she gathered herself and answered. She stood up with Arima's help.

"Hey kid, it's good now," he patted the son of the owner who was a bit pale. He then looked at the mother one more time. "Don't mind them and be at peace they won't come back."

"What do you-" As soon as she wanted to ask, Arima interrupted her.

"Don't worry about that. Can I ask for dinner though? I'm kinda hungry.”

"Y-yes, wait a moment," she ran back inside the staff quarters with her son. When she was out of sight, Arima looked coldly at the people there who were silently watching with stiff expressions.

"Forget what happened here. Redeem yourselves for the cowardice you displayed today," he said emotionlessly. At that moment, his eyes flashed with an unnatural light and every customer fell into a daze for a few seconds before returning to their normal behavior as if nothing had ever happened.

***

At the same time, the birds sent by Arima had already reached the fleeing group.

"What is that?" A mercenary exclaimed after spotting the blackbirds.

"What are you talking about?" The leader looked up and his eyes narrowed. Strangely, he felt something ominous about those birds.

Right now, the group was in the middle of the street, since they had stopped to retrieve the panting noble that fled first. He was their employer after all. Just after, the black birds that were flying thirty meters high in the sky abruptly plunged, obviously aiming at them.

The leader was quick to react. "Take cover!" He shouted while trying to avoid a bird targeting him. He easily dodged but what followed left him perplex. The birds hit the ground where their shadows were projected and merged with it as if it was liquid. The same thing happened to all of the mercenaries and the noble.

"This… it’s bad," the leader muttered. He had no idea of what just happened and that's what confounded him.

***

Back at the Inn, Arima was eating with the mother-son pair when he suddenly intoned, "[Vashta Nerada] (The Shadow that Melts the Flesh)."

"Hm?" The boy, who heard him, tilted his head in confusion.

"It's nothing," Arima said and chewed on his piece of meat. ‘Now that I think about it, the food is good in this world,’ he casually thought. ‘As for those guys, I don't think they're that strong. Around C-rank, maybe? The leader must be around B-rank… They shouldn’t be able to survive,’ he commented inwardly.

He had developed his knowledge since his arrival. He was perfectly aware of it, if he wanted to, he most likely could slaughter the whole town. A few mercs couldn’t escape him.

***

The noble screamed.

"What's going on?!" The mercenary leader yelled. But when he saw what was happening, he instantly shut his mouth and gasped. The wrists of his employer were wrapped in a black ominous mist and his hands were freed of flesh, nothing but bones.

The leader looked around him, his comrades also had their legs draped in the same mist and they started screaming in fear too. He then looked down at his own body. The dark mass was already at his waist but he didn't feel any pain and he still could stand.

"What the hell is this!? Who did we offend?!" He spoke for the last time. His eyes showed extreme fear and regret during his last breath. Within ten seconds, the black smoke swallowed the mercenaries. And then, it dispersed as if something had blasted it away.

Now, one could see what was under; perfectly white bones. The clothed skeletons stood there as if it was a macabre spectacle. Their jaws were wide open and you could feel the terror had been transmitted to their very bones.

The people who passed by in the street were shocked and scared to death. Some screamed and some ran away. They couldn't believe what they saw. The sight of a dozen men being transformed into skeletons in only a few seconds. If they had been told that those were sculptures of some sort, they would have believed it.

But they knew it wasn’t. It happened right in front of them. They saw the men cry in fear and die afterward. Everyone thought it was too frightening to be something of their world.

***

The next day. Arima woke up and left his room. When he reached the ground floor, someone talked to him, "Good morning, Arima." It was the owner of the Inn.

"Hello, Airi," he replied and walked to her.

"I would like to thank you for yesterday," she bowed.

"Don't mind. You helped me during my stay here. In any case, I'm leaving the town today, so it was my chance to repay you."

"You're leaving?" She asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm going to the capital."

"I see... if you plan to stay in the capital for a while then you can go to the Inn owned by my older sister. She’s called Aria, the name of the Inn is the 'Wing's Nest'."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to go there," Arima bid goodbye to Airi and left the Inn. As he distanced himself from the building, one would be able to see a red-eyed black crow perched on the roof. The crow cawed in his creator’s direction to tell him he would fulfil his mission. Arima smiled and headed straight to the northern gate where a soldier addressed him.

"Are you perhaps going to the capital?"

"Yes," he answered plainly.

The soldier nodded. "Fine, a warning is in order then. It will soon be public anyway. The country is currently in a state of emergency. By now, it will not be a surprise if a war with the Empire begins."

"What? Why a war so suddenly?" Arima frowned.

The soldier sighed. "The King is bedridden apparently. So, the Empire is now seeing a chance to strike the enemy, I suppose. A lot of people already ran away in fear of being caught in the crossfire. Well, I told you. If you still want to go, it's your choice," he shrugged.

Arima pondered for a few seconds. "…I see, thanks for the warning, but I'll still go," he said and passed the gate. As he was walking, he mused about what he had just heard.

‘Bedridden, huh? When a King is sick, a Kingdom has to hide it at all costs. If they don't do that then it's like inviting others to attack. A King is a symbol of strength and authority, an ill one is a symbol of weakness. What happened? Did the information leak out? Was it intentional? ...If it’s a plot, then this Kingdom was targeted for a long time. They waited for an occasion to strike and start a war… and when the critical time comes, they will probably attack from the inside and kill the King. But in that case, why not just assassinate the King? Maybe the illness was something unexpected for the other side as well...’ Arima analyzed the situation the best he could.

He stopped walking. "Well, [Bestia Equus]," Arima chanted and as always, a sphere of black electricity appeared and began to mold into an animal. This time it was a horse. A tall and muscled black horse. He neighed and lifted his front legs.

Arima jumped and mounted him. He gripped the mane of the horse and the latter immediately began to race. And what happened at this moment would stun most people. When the horse began to move, his figure vanished and only left a black trail behind.

Since this horse was created with lightning magic as a base, it was naturally fast. But it’s also because the summon was created 'to be fast' by Arima's magic. Most magics work this way; magic needs a 'meaning' when cast. For example, the strongest magics would be the ones that are based on legends, science, stories, and the sorts. The clearer it is in the mind of the caster, and the more talented the latter is, the stronger the magic will be.

In numbers, this black horse could run at approximately 110 meters per second. The capital where Arima was heading was around 200 kilometers away from Ridia. Arima calculated that he would take half an hour to reach the capital. He bypassed every town and village on the way and the people capable enough to see the horse were thunderstruck.