Published: September 10, 2025
This is Satou. While it’s not quite a bolt from the blue, there have been several times after drinking parties when I woke up in places I had no memory of and was surprised.
Of course, I’ve only woken up once in a rocky place like Death Valley.
◇
“Count Pendragon, that thing there.”
Heim, the second-ranked member of the Shiga Eight Swords, pointed at something that looked like a purple mound.
The morning after the establishment ceremony of the Bridal Knights, he suddenly came to visit me and brought me out to the outskirts of the Royal Capital.
When we arrived at a spot sealed off by the Royal Capital’s soldiers, there it was—the aforementioned purple mound.
“This thing?”
My danger sense didn’t react, so it didn’t seem particularly dangerous.
According to the AR display, it was classified as an “earth structure.”
I dismounted and handed my reins to the paladin accompanying me, then walked toward the purple mound.
The purple mound stood in the center of a harvested field.
It somehow reminded me of ruins from the Lalacie era.
“That’s right. A farmer in this field found it while making his rounds.”
“Does that mean it wasn’t here until recently?”
“Yeah. According to someone gathering leftover crops, this mound wasn’t here until sunset yesterday.”
Hmm, a mystery monument rather than a mystery circle.
When I checked the detailed information, I noticed the creator’s name was blank. Either someone like me—without a name—made it, or it was erased later by some means.
Well, considering all things, it’s probably the latter.
“Could someone have made it using earth magic during the night?”
“If that were the case, I wouldn’t have called you early in the morning.”
Heim, who had dismounted, picked up a stone from the path and threw it at the purple mound.
“—It went right through?”
The stone Heim threw vanished into the mound and was seen poking out the other side.
“Is it an illusion?”
I asked, but I already knew it wasn’t.
If it were an illusion, I would have recognized it as such at first sight.
“No.”
Heim casually grabbed my arm as I reached toward the mound and stopped me.
He then turned around and signaled to a group that had been nearby the entire time.
One of the group, a mage wearing a blue sash over a robe—indicating the blue band of Shiga’s Thirty-Three Staff—stepped forward and began chanting. From the chant, it was a summoning spell.
The mage released a pigeon summoned by the spell onto the purple mound.
The pigeon perched on one of the protrusions.
Though the mound let stones pass through, it seemed living creatures could touch it normally.
“Magic passes through, but living beings are somehow an exception.”
According to Heim, his light magic and the arcane magic used by the accompanying mage also passed through it.
“Look closely, Count Pendragon.”
Heim pointed at the pigeon.
The pigeon let out a pained coo, and its AR display health (HP) bar began to gradually decrease.
—It’s a drain.
Apparently, after contact for a certain time, it starts drawing life force from the living creature.
But earlier, the AR information for the mound didn’t mention anything dangerous.
I stared again at the mound.
Inside the mound was a complex flow of magical power. It wasn’t magic, or at least its effect couldn’t be read.
At the very least, it didn’t seem to be a spell designed to drain life force (life drain) or magical power (mana drain).
“As you can see, this mound seems to steal the vitality and stamina of living beings.”
The pigeon fell to the ground right before Heim’s eyes.
It appeared to be merely unconscious.
The summoning mage picked up the pigeon and sent it back.
“Count Pendragon, who has traveled the world, might know something about this mound?”
It seemed that’s why I was singled out.
“It looks similar to ruins from the Lalacie era, but I wonder what it could be?”
“Hmm. An ancient civilization’s ruin... Though it only seems powerful enough to kill insects, it’s surprising that something like this appeared all of a sudden—”