59. Sealing 1
"Shiro, I need to ask you something," Shestia said, her face serious.
Shiro noticed the look in her eyes, caught on to what she wanted to say, and replied.
"Yeah, about your parents' seal, right?"
"Yeah," Shestia said, offering a small, apologetic smile tinged with quiet hope.
"I'll tell you about this," Sophia began.
Five years ago, in the year 1325 of the Sacred Era, near a fortress on the northern edge of Sotohaim, bordering the Great Tree Sea of Magic, a stampede occurred.
A stampede meant a massive outbreak of magical beasts, swarming in overwhelming numbers. When it reached large scale, entire villages and towns could be utterly destroyed.
Though reports of increasing miasma and rising numbers of magical beasts had been noted for over twenty years, and cities had taken precautions, this time the situation escalated suddenly. At the time, adventurers and the knight corps stationed in Sotohaim tried to respond—but it was far too much to handle.
They barely managed to survive thanks to two S-class adventurers. Those were Shirena and Altia—the parents of Shestia and Albert.
The two managed to eliminate the magical beasts, but Shirena was bitten by an S-class beast and fell into a critical state. At that moment, she said, “Something’s invading me… I feel like I’m being taken over. Kill me.” Upon hearing that, Altia activated a self-sacrificing sealing barrier to save her.
"That sealing barrier is still there, right where it happened," Sophia said, her voice soft, laced with sorrow and regret. "It sealed not only the beasts, but Altia himself. Both of them were sealed—forever."
"Something invading…?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah, that’s right. According to the adventurer who fought alongside her back then, there wasn’t anything unusual around her—nothing visibly different about her, at least, from the outside. She just... after being bitten, she stared straight ahead for a while, then said something serious like that."
Shiro listened, and thought.
Just being bitten doesn’t really sound like a proper way to say *something’s getting in*. Well, sure—there’s the usual infection trope with zombies, or parasites, or pathogens. But if it were that simple, given the magic level of this world, it’s hard to believe something like that would go unnoticed. Not even a flicker of detection.
Then, suddenly, he remembered those mushrooms—those he’d been seeing lately. Mushrooms meant microorganisms. Microorganisms meant bacteria, viruses. And when he thought of viruses—biologically speaking—it was the biological kind. But for him, viruses meant computer viruses first and foremost.
Magic in this world runs like a program. If biological viruses and magical viruses—whatever we’re calling them—were real, and if they were linked somehow… that’d be a massive problem.
Neither kind of virus exists here yet. And neither has the Filidia clan developed any defenses against either. Not a single countermeasure.
If such a thing did exist, and if it was a mental attack spell… that’d be extremely dangerous.
And maybe Shirena had sensed something like that.
Shiro thought about it, and realized the situation might be far more complicated—and serious—than he’d first thought.
"Anyone else around her at that time? Nothing unusual?" he asked, checking again.
"Yeah, nothing unusual was reported at the time. Shelia and Altia eliminated the troublesome beast with fire magic before activating the seal—probably that’s what prevented the damage from spreading," Sophia said.
"I’d like to ask the same," Aria said.
"Count me in," Albert bowed his head.
"Ah, of course we’ll cooperate and do our best. Might not be unrelated to Firumia’s request, either. Either way, can I see the seal?"
Shiro said, and the group set out toward the location.
If you found this interesting, please consider rating, bookmarking, or leaving a comment—it really helps!