The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

139 People who need to take leave

Tarkus, a mage of Duke Marme's army, was surveying the ground from the skies above through the eyes of a bird-shaped familiar created through magic.

This breeze is pleasant... even the heat of summer doesn't bother me like this.

He was proficient in magic that allowed him to share the five senses of his familiars, and he enjoyed it.

In Lambda, where nature often came with danger in equal portions and transport methods and ways to record images were limited, there were few who could enjoy picturesque scenery like on Earth or Origin.

Exceptional mages could fly freely through the sky, but for many mages, flying through the sky like a bird was difficult. They could perhaps only manage to float about helplessly.

Tarkus himself was a mage among the many. However, by using magic that allowed him to share the five senses of his familiars, he could cut through the wind and fly like a bird, looking down upon the earth.

The green of the trees, the water surface of the marshlands that reflected the glistening sunlight, all of it was beautiful.

It is hard to believe that this scenery was originally the territory of those repulsive Scylla.

The land looked too good to be wasted on monsters that had the upper body halves of women and lower body halves of octopuses, but the truth was that it was land that was difficult to make use of for those other than the Scylla, so that was how it was.

No, this is work. Concentrate.

Tarkus, as a mage of Duke Marme's army, had begun this mission a few days ago, the mission to scout the former Scylla territory from the sky, as the resistance was apparently hiding in this area.

He had disguised his familiar with the shape and color of a bird that was commonly seen in this area, and he was searching from above for the resistance, and, if possible, traces of the Scylla that had vanished into thin air.

I don't know the details, but I have been told to be cautious. Though it is a mystery as to what I'm supposed to be cautious of.

This wasn't an unusual scouting mission in itself. Searching from the skies was effective for determining the presence of bandits or monster settlements.

However, his colleagues that had undertaken missions into the Scylla territory recently had gone missing. Tarkus had only been told that they were on leave, but the face of the superior who told him this had been as white as paper.

And just before Tarkus began the mission today, he had been warned to be cautious. To cancel the mission immediately if he sensed anything out of the ordinary. Even if it meant discarding his familiar.

Tarkus couldn't clearly picture any kind of danger that would warrant such warnings and orders, however.

Mages conducting reconnaissance through familiars were normally safe from danger. They shared the familiars' senses, but not the damage that the familiars took. They would feel pain, but once the mage's concentration was broken to a certain extent, the sharing of the familiar's senses would cease, and the mage might lose consciousness at worst.

Their physical bodies would be defenseless while they were concentrating, but Tarkus and the other mages were manipulating their familiars inside the Amid Empire's army's towers; they were essentially being protected by countless soldiers.

If my familiar is destroyed in a gruesome way, then I might inevitably need a few days' rest, but...

... e.