Chapter 231

Chapter 231 Strongest Sage, Finds a Book

He looks older than when I was still alive, but his face and the atmosphere around him haven't changed at all .

He most likely was put under immortality magic about 10 years after I used the reincarnation magic on myself .

"I would have never thought someone would discover this place . . . I missed how the fight unfolded, but you must be exceedingly talented to be able to defeat three 『Soil Demons』 by yourself . "

Grevil's voice could be heard through the comm magic .

His voice didn't sound like he felt particularly sad to have his allies killed .

In fact, it sounds pleased .

" . . . You must be Grevil . Why are you doing this?"

"You will find out the reason yourself soon . "

I asked Grevil while pretending to know about him beforehand .

But, I couldn't get an answer .

The fact that the he went out of his way to initiate a conversation with me must mean that his goal is not simply mankind's extinction .

No reason to communicate with me and divulge information about himself by using comm magic if he wanted to destroy humans .

He's not even hiding the original location he's sending this comm magic from .

It feels more like he purposely forwent putting a camouflage on rather than not having the means to do it .

As if he wants to tell me his location .

"By the way, have you pinpointed my position?"

Grevil asked after a moment of silent .

"Yeah . Down to last details . "

"Good to hear that . . . I expect much from you guys . . . I give you three months of preparatory period . When that passes, I shall destroy humankind . . . Do your absolute worst and defeat me . "

After hearing my answer, Grevil said that in a satisfied sounding voice .

And the transmission was cut off .

Looks like I've got no choice but to go there myself and ask him directly .

"Preparatory period . . . What did he mean by that?"

Alma asked me .

This is the first an enemy offered me 『preparatory period』 too .

However, I can hazard a guess from what he told us .

"During the next three months, Grevil will not make any move toward destroying humans . So he's inviting us to go raiding him in the meantime . "

" . . . Why would he do all that? Is there even any point in it if he just wants to destroy humans?"

"Exactly . . . Which means, Grevil's objective is not simply the extinction of humanity . "

Grevil said that he 『expected much』 from us .

I'm not sure what he's expecting . . . but 『expecting much』 from the human side is not something someone who wants to destroy mankind would say .

"Err . . . Maybe he wants to enjoy the fight as he destroys?"

"Or he could be faking it, no? Like maybe he said he'd give us time but then he's actually moving forward with the preparations!"

"Doesn't seem like he's looking forward to fighting . Decoy, is a possibility . . . But then there'd be no explanation for him not hiding the comm magic transmission source . If it's too easy, you'd be all the more suspicious instead . "

It's not unusual for demons to make use of such tactics when they do communicate through comm magic .

However, the other party is Grevil–a human who had been crowned a king in the past era . There's no chance of him not aware of that much .

Or rather, he must have been aware that we'd be suspicious and still go through with communicating without camouflage .

"He's not trying to have fun and neither is it a decoy . . . Then just what's his motive . . . "

"No clue . . . But just as Grevil said, we don't have any choice but to directly ask him . That guy most likely has the mean to destroy humans for real . "

We can assume that Grevil has no intention to destroy humans for now .

Rather, if Grevil seriously wanted to do that, the humans of this era would have been cornered enough to be nearly going extinct .

Relics of ancient civilizations contain countless number of weapons capable of annihilating the current mankind even without demons' intervention, and Grevil knows how to use those weapons .

However, if we leave Grevil alone for these three months, there's no guarantee he won't bring out those weapons .

After all, I completely have no idea what's going on in the current Grevil's mind .

" . . . It also might be a trap to get our guard down right?"

"Yeah . Naturally, the security must be strict in his location . Grevil himself should be plenty strong . "

Grevil may have no talent in magic, but that's by the ancient civilization's standard of 『talentless in magic』 .

If you just learn magic properly, and train for quite some time, anyone can become stronger than the current demons .

Even Second Academy students whose strength is seen as monstrous in this era had only started to train in chantless magic for less than a year .

However, Grevil had been trained in high level magic training far above Second Academy's level for 30 years during his time as a king of an ancient civilization .

And if he had continued to train after taking immortality magic, he might be even stronger than the past me at the height of my training .

Even without talent, a magic combatant who has amassed that much experience can't possibly be weak .

At the very least, mana quantity and mana density-wise, Grevil's far exceeds mine .

. . . He might actually be even stronger than Zaridias .

While I was thinking that . . . Ruli suddenly speaks up .

"There's a hidden door in this room!"

"Hidden door?"

Such a thing shouldn't have existed .

I look at the place Ruli pointed at . . . and, a hidden door there was .

It's most likely quite a recent addition .

Judging from the material used, this door was installed during the past decade .

That door is already open .

" . . . It's so small, I don't think I could get in . "

"Doesn't seem like it can fit a person . . . it's shallow too, and I only found this inside . "

Ruli took a small box out of the hidden door .

It's really not a good idea to carelessly poke around suspicious looking stuff like this . . . but well, guess it's fine, no harm done anyway .

I look at the box while thinking .

"This got some real heavy lock . "

" . . . Will it explode, or spray poison?"

"No, doesn't seem like it . "

The box is made of a material that allows mana to pass through .

『Passive Detection』 can see the inside then .

And the result is– .

"There's a book inside . "