Shikkaku Mon no Saikyou Kenja~ Sekai Saikyou no Kenja ga Sarani Tsuyoku Naru Tameni Tenseishimashita~

Chapter 331: Strongest Sage, Disregarded

Boseil isn't that big of a town.

Its inhabitants would immediately notice a stranger among them.

Zadokilgias might have chosen to kill and take someone's place, but mingling among adventurers is a better way to stay unnoticed.

After all, it's normal for adventurers to travel between towns, so they're outsiders by nature.

It's also not unusual for adventurers to wait around idly until they find a good quest, so even those who don't take on any quest won't raise suspicion.

Which means anyone can slip in.

On top of that… Guilds are a good place to gather information with their heavy foot traffic.

They will be the first to know about a large-scale demon suppression unit.

Heck, members of the suppression unit might even come to the guild to report.

There's no better place to lurk around.

Adventurers didn't exist during the era Zadokilgias thrived, thus it might have no idea about adventurer guilds… but finding out that much should be a simple matter even shortly after its revival.

With that in mind, I decided to investigate the guild last.

Since we're up against Zadokilgias here, it wouldn't surprise me if the demon had anticipated us thinking 『The demon is lurking in the guild』.

So we're going to check it last after exhausting all other possibilities.

"I'll go see things inside the guild. You girls wait here."

"You're going alone?"

"Yea. There could be an ambush waiting for us… I'll get back right away unless our opponent makes its move."

Then I went to the guild.

Our biggest problem is Ruli and Alma getting hit by a surprise attack if all four of us go inside together.

Against Zadokilgias, protecting Ruli and Alma would be tough.

Hence, we need to choose when and where to fight proper.

I'm confident I could handle it if I'm the only one ambushed.

Since it's so much easier to protect myself than others.

Disqualified Crest has a very good compatibility against ambushes due to its speedy casting time with evasion and defense magic.

(Quest board… Over there.)

I went straight for the quest board once inside.

I'm not actually taking a quest, it's just that adventurers usually come to a guild to take a quest.

I'm trying to avoid raising suspicion by acting like your average adventurer.

And while pretending to scan over the quest board--I probe for nearby adventurers' mana reactions.

Then… I found Zadokilgias right away.

(That's the guy.)

I zeroed in on a tall man reading a strategy book in the corner of the guild.

His mana reaction is undoubtedly that of a human.

Absolutely nothing demonic about it at all.

As a demon, his disguise is perfect.

There would be zero chance of the suppression unit uncovering him through detecting mana.

However… It's final. That's Zadokilgias.

The tall man's mana is clean, with no hint of anything demonic.

However… It's clean, way too clean.

Mana of a human who hasn't trained enough should have had much more noise on it.

Mana noise gets lower the more one trains.

Because it's directly proportionate to one's ability to control mana.

As such, you can hazard a guess of a mage's capability by looking at their mana.

This is more to do with the fact that Zadokilgias didn't realize the average level of this era's magic… Than its failure at disguising itself.

Zadokilgias's mana noise is adjusted to the average level of previous era's magic combatants.

Which is a monstrous level in this era.

…I know full well Zadokilgias's feel on this though.

You wouldn't normally believe the world's level of magic could fall this low after being reincarnated from death.

I have fully mastered this world's common sense thanks to Second Academy… However Zadokilgias had only been revived recently.

No surprise it made a mistake at disguising its mana level.

As I looked at the quest board while thinking that… Zadokilgias turned its line of sight at me.

Looks like he's observing my mana.

However, he seemed to have lost interest in me after a few seconds.

He's back to reading a book.

(Well, figured…)

My current mana is weak compared to an average mage in previous era.

Which is normal considering my age. There's a limit to how much you can temper your mana and physical strength in a short amount of time no matter how efficient the training.

From Zadokilgias's point of view which is based on previous era standard, I'm just like a kid aiming to be a magic combatant.

At the very least, I must look nothing like a member of suppression unit dispatched to subdue a powerful demon.

With that in mind, I returned the quest tag I took back on the board and left the guild.