Chapter 532 - The Wetlands of Primordia ②
One never knows how much of a legend is true. Humans quickly twist traditions. It's hard to believe things like a fortress set on fire burning indefinitely, or a great rain continuing to fall and submerging the plains just because someone prayed. However, the fact that there are many ghosts here is an undeniable truth. There must be a reason.
"Could we talk to the ghosts?"
If possible, I'd like them to ascend to the Goddess's side without any lingering regrets. Even if the ancient curse actually existed, it should be much better than clinging to such a thing.
"Of course, records remain of various measures taken by the Western Church. However, even when priestesses and priests went to try and persuade them, it seems no progress was made at all. Look over there. That is the cenotaph erected by the Western Church. We have been breaking our backs in various ways like that."
Where Cadogan-sama was pointing was an embankment near the coast, and there was indeed something like a stone monument.
Even though there are so many ferocious ghosts, how did they build that?
"Approaching is not a problem. As long as you don't enter the wetlands. However, once you try to enter the wetlands, they will all attack at once. It's as if they are refusing entry into the wetlands. Those who tried to enter by force were dragged into the water and reportedly never surfaced again."
When the opponent is an evil spirit, magic users, who are usually easily possessed, do not approach. Despite that, Eleanor-sama is participating this time, and even Beatrix is participating, albeit as a transporter. The reason is that there is no harm as long as they stay on the sandy beach during the day. Of course, since they reportedly come out in droves around the sandy beach at night to drag people into the wetlands, we must withdraw while there is daylight. No one would live here.
Unfortunately, the opponent is a ghost. Holy is effective, but the opponent disappears. And they appear in places one can't even imagine. Even silver weapons won't hit. I know that well because I've seen Fiona dodge them in person. One can also force them to ascend with prayer, but for that, our incantation must be completed. If that many ghosts interfere all at once, it's probably impossible.
"I too heard stories back in the time of the previous King. I have seen it from the sea. Dear me, with that many, it's quite impossible. Besides, they are just staying in the wetlands. I gave up."
It was Harrison-san. Even the best evil spirit user on the White Island gave up. However, if it's fine as long as we don't enter the wetlands, we might be able to segregate our areas.
It was decided to actually go down near the stone monument. The sun is still high. It should be fine as long as we don't try to enter the wetlands. In fact, Cadogan-sama and Harrison-san, and not only them but also Henry-sama and Eleanor-sama, have been to the stone monument before. Of course, they must have landed on the sandy beach by boat.
We once went out over the sea and lowered our altitude. The sea water was clear and fish were swimming. We then went to the river mouth and seemed to approach the wetlands as if slowly going upstream.
Looking left and right, sandy beaches spread out. The width of the river is about twenty paces. It's like a moat flowing the wetland water into the sea. If days without rain continue, the water volume reportedly decreases drastically. Right now, since the snowmelt from the mountains is stored in the wetlands, the water volume is likely abundant.
The stone monument is built on the mound of the long, narrow embankment-like plain on the west side, which is partitioned east and west by the river. Beyond that plain, the wetlands spread out. The bowl landed in front of the embankment so as not to head toward the wetlands. From there, it's on foot. Since stairs are made near the stone monument, we climbed up onto the embankment from there.
When you get on the embankment, you can see the wetlands. There are several high places, but basically, almost no tall trees grow, so you can see quite far. The smell characteristic of wetlands hangs in the air. However, the water seems clear and it's not an unpleasant smell. In fact, the river water was clear.
The ghosts gathered, but they don't try to come to the edge of the wetlands. Probably, if we tried to go down the embankment, they would swarm all at once. As proof of that, Cadogan-sama is warning everyone not to go to the edge of the embankment.
Even though the embankment is long and narrow, it has a width of twenty or thirty paces. It would be possible to run a wide road through the middle. If that's done, the roads leading to the east and west of the wetlands should connect.
If a bridge is built over the river or if it's made so people can cross by ferry, a coastal road connecting Engrio and Primordia would be completed... but would that be okay?
Currently, since the mountain road remains destroyed, transportation with Engrio is only by sea. Moreover, there are no ports where large ships can anchor until the Capital. Until then, there are only fishing villages like the one where we did the sea serpent extermination. Assuming Engrio were to invade, the place they would land would be a fishing village where the sandy beach isn't very wide.
"Um, King of Primordia."
"What is it? Jeanne."
"If this wetland were a plain, would there have been a road leading to Engrio?"
"Umu. There are mountainous areas to the east and west of the wetlands, right? Beyond that, there are cliffs falling into the sea, but actually, the coastal road comes up to there. Until this place became a wetland, I think this land was an important spot along the road."
I thought so.
The territory of the Kingdom of Primordia is separated from the central part of the White Island by steep terrain. If the only pass road is in the mountains, it must have been easy to defend and hard to attack. I don't know when this wetland was formed, but the central part of the White Island has been seized twice by people who came from the mainland. This wetland has, so to speak, been hindering the invasion of the invaders.
I called Henry-sama and Eleanor-sama and told them what I thought.
"In other words, are you saying these ghosts in the wetlands were preventing invasions from the center?"
"Uh—I think there's a possibility."
Eleanor-sama probably can't see them. It also involves legends, so it's hard to say, but most of the ghosts are wearing something like old-style armor. There's the matter of the ghosts in Finis, and in Primordia, they even used to collect corpses to make golems. Being a region that draws the blood of ancient people along with Finis, it wouldn't be strange if there was some kind of mechanism.
"If that's the case, these ghosts have achieved a great contribution."
As a result of consulting with the King of Primordia, Cadogan-sama, and Sianya, it was decided that we wouldn't know without checking.
There are four bishops including the Archbishop. For now, we decided to call out to the ghosts and ask.
"Then I shall. Everyone, please stay in the bowl just in case."
It's Harrison-san. As expected of someone who has made a name for himself in evil spirit extermination, he stepped forward without any hesitation.
"Then, I shall assist you."
"Oh, Bishop Phillips. I am grateful."
The two of them head toward the wetlands. This must be that bond from having fought the Demon Lord together as heroes.
Those who remained boarded the medium bowl to prepare for escape just in case. To be precise, it's not a bowl; the front part has no rim. If anything happens, we'll move forward and pick the two of them up as they are. Harris-sama and Sianya began chanting Over-Flow in a low voice, just in case.
The two of them slowly walk to near the edge of the embankment. Harrison-san sat down heavily and placed his staff on the ground. Bishop Phillips stood a step back, diagonally to the right behind Harrison-san. Harrison-san placed his staff to his left. Bishop Phillips's standing position is likely protecting Harrison-san's right.
When facing evil spirits, one must not show an opening. One must not fear the opponent either. One must keep a calm heart and stay composed. Otherwise, one will be taken advantage of by large changes in emotion.
There is no movement from the ghosts that had gathered and were looking this way.
"Ah, I am called Harrison. As you can see, I am a priest."
It's a low, loud voice. However, the tone is ever so leisurely.
"You all, why are you in the wetlands like that? I find it strange. If you don't mind, could you let me hear the reason or something?"
It's a tone as if he's asking for directions.
However, as expected of an expert. Ghosts are looking for someone to listen to them. He poked at that and asked a specific question. If it were as the legend says, the ghosts would all spit out words of curse at once.
The answer that came back was silence.
Far from spitting out words of curse, the ghosts haven't changed their expressions one bit. Are they unable to converse with the living? There are naturally no people around here. For their age, they might be inexperienced.
Harrison-san, who was effectively ignored, still doesn't give up. He pointed at a specific ghost as "You," and talked about various things based on their appearance-inferred cause of death. To those wearing armor, about the battle; to those who drowned, whether the wetland water isn't cold; to those charred black, that it must have been hot. He spoke to more than ten people, but there was no reaction.
Strange. I don't have much experience dealing with ghosts. The first was Fiona, and after that, I've only dealt with the former lords of the north and such a few times. So I can't say anything that sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but there were no ghosts this expressionless. Everyone, even if they can't speak, shows their emotions in their own way. Fiona even chased after me as I ran away laughing.
He asked a few more people, but there was no response.
Harrison-san also seemed to give up, said "I'll come again," and stood up with his staff in hand.
He took one step forward with his right foot.
The ghosts moved forward a little.
When Harrison-san moved his foot back, the ghosts also returned to their original positions.
Harrison-san then backed away, bowed, turned his back on the ghosts, and came back here.
"I am ashamed."
"We are sorry."
The two of them are apologizing, but they aren't that kind of opponent.
We withdrew to the sandy beach for a strategy meeting. The opponent is not an ordinary ghost. They don't seem to be evil spirits either.
There was an opinion to wait until night and see how things go, but it's too dangerous. There are four royals. If anything happens, it won't be settled easily.
"Hey, where was the fortress? Normally, fortresses are built on high ground, right? There are several high-ground-like places, but is it one of those?"
It's Beatrix. What on earth did she get interested in?
"You see, fortresses on ground higher than the surroundings have secret escape routes in the basement, right? Did that lord really burn to death? Didn't he escape through an underground passage?"
I see. It's not impossible. In fact, Stephens-san's fortress also had a secret passage, and we even did bat extermination in such a secret passage.
"Fumu. So there's a possibility he survived. Interesting. Until now, since there was no flight magic, we didn't step into the interior of the wetlands. Now we can fly in the air and might be able to land on a likely high ground."
The King of Primordia showed interest, the Henry Party agreed that it sounded interesting, and it was decided to explore the high ground before going home. However, since there's no record of reaching the high ground, we don't know the movement of the ghosts. We decided on the division of roles: Harrison-san would do Over-Flow, Bishop Phillips would do a simple magic circle, I would do Light, Harris-sama and Sianya would strengthen my Light, and we prepared for any eventuality.
We fly over the wetlands in the bowl. Even when flying at a lower altitude, no ghosts came flying. They are just looking up at us from the wetlands. When we cast Camouflage to disappear halfway through, the ghosts looking up disappeared, perhaps having lost sight of us. They began to move as if drifting through the wetlands.
We lowered the bowl's altitude to a distance where I thought the bottom would reach if a ghost reached out their hand. The ghosts still didn't notice. Apparently, it's okay.
We ascended once. Henry-sama confirmed the position of the river and the high ground, and narrowed it down to two, saying that if a fortress were to be built, it would be on those high grounds. Both are near the river, and their tops are flat. The size is also decent.
We approach one of the high grounds while remaining hidden. The ghosts are drifting fluffily here and there in the wetlands, but they are not around the high ground Henry-sama identified. I wondered about the other high ground and checked with Sight along with Harrison-san, but as expected, they aren't around the high ground. Since they only go to the sandy beach at night, they might be in places with water during the day.
On the high ground, several small trees, a certain amount of shrubs, and grass are growing. The size is about that of the Great Church in Nakanohara. From the look of it, it's just an open field. When Beatrix repeatedly used Wind Cutter to mow the grass, what looked like foundation stones began to appear.
We cut down the small trees, blew away the shrubs, and mowed the grass vigorously. Since there was no change in the ghosts no matter how much grass we mowed, we finally began to burn the mowed grass and trees with Flame.
White smoke billowed up, and the sound of burning grass and trees crackling could be heard.
I thought this would surely make the ghosts react, but not really. If they were human, they would obviously notice.
"It seems to be okay. Should we just burn everything down to make it easier to see?"
Everyone agreed with Beatrix's proposal, and even Wilson-san participated, stopping the bowl's ultra-high speed. After Beatrix mowed them down with Wind Cutter, they burned them by repeatedly using the high-level magic Fire Storm. As a result, a scene like the fire attack in the legend spread out, but in the end, the ghosts didn't react. Finally, all the grass and trees on the high ground were burned, and the surface became pitch black.