Chapter 20: CH 20

“…Haah.”

As soon as the black mass slammed into the hastily cast magical barrier, Misha and the one-eyed woman began to run, along with the rest of the rebels. Escape was their sole hope.

It was only natural. There’s no way they could match the opponent in front of them.

“You won’t escape.”

With her eyes closed and holding Yua tight, Veena deployed multiple magical spells at once. A six-pointed magic sigil appeared in thin air in front of her.

It began to revolve, and as it did magical bullets shot from its centre. Exceeding the speed of sound, the spells blast clean through one rebel after another. Some died instantly, others tried to dodge and received mortal wounds instead.

“Veena-sama…”

As she clung to Veena, Yua closed her eyes to the bloody spectacle playing out in front of her.

“Dear, I can’t let that child fight alone. I am going to join her.”

“Y-yes.”

After handing the unconscious Arnight to the King, the Queen moves alongside Veena.

“Veena, thank you very much. You’ve saved all our lives.”

“No, it was nothing. This is only the duty of a member of the Lilyfall family.”

“Is that so?”

One after another. Lives are extinguished.

At a quicker and quicker rate now that the Queen had joined the fray. Escape seemed impossible.

“Veena, we need to capture those two without killing them. They might have some valuable information.”

“I understand.”

Misha focuses on trying to put up magical barriers, whilst the one-eyed woman batted away one of Veena’s spells with a stroke of her sword. Those two stand out from the other rabble, they must be the leaders behind this whole uproar.

They seemed determined to escape, but they were visibly running out of energy.

“Your Majesty, please take care of the woman with one eye. I’ll deal with the redhead.”

“I understand.”

When those two were the last ones left remaining, the Queen and Veena cross paths and rush towards the women.

“You’re a reckless one. Are you sure it’s okay to fight me when you’re carrying a burden like that?”

By burden, she meant Yua who Veena was still holding on to. Was Yua this girl’s weakness? Certainly, she was at least in the way. If you looked at it from Misha’s view, it would certainly seem that way. But the reality was different.

“Burden? I don’t know what you mean.”

Veena sweeps her own hair off her shoulders, and pets Yua’s head.

“My father said that I’m good at creating magical fields and spells. He actually went as far as saying that I might be good enough to join the Five Fingers of Lafalis even though I’m still young. But my magical energy is only ‘so-so’.”

‘So-so’ was still about as much as ten average magicians put together. It’s only low by the towering standards of the Lilyfall family.

“Do you know why I’ve been able to use a limitless amount of magic?”

“…! That can’t be…”

Misha realized the reason and was taken aback. Yua still kept her eyes shut out of fear, but even she tilted her head. She has no idea of her true usefulness herself.

“…What a ludicrous thing to do. To use that child as a battery for magical power. If you make just one mistake, the both of you would be…”

Magical energy differs depending on the individual. It can vary in pigmentation, density, mass and circulation. It’s very similar to blood.

And what would happen if you tried to force your body to circulate blood that was incompatible? The answer is simple. The body would reject it.

The same applies to magical energy, and when energy that isn’t compatible is forced into a body, the rejection symptoms lead to an unimaginably terrible death. It’s incredibly dangerous.

Also, if magical energy beyond the body’s capacity to handle it is introduced to the body, the exact same thing would occur. For that reason, the idea of giving and receiving magical energy is considered a near-suicidal act.

However, the young girl known as Veena still speaks imposingly.

“Don’t try and apply your common sense to me. Like Father said, I’m good at handling magic.”

As if to demonstrate her power, Veena projects many overlapping sigils in the palm of her hand.

“Magical energy transfer. Actually, maybe it’s closer to magical energy absorption. The magic for this was crafted quite a while ago for this reason. A magic sigil that filters magical energy from her and absorbs it into my body. A sigil of that level isn’t a problem for me. And…”

Veena laughs and sticks out her chest.

“This child’s magical energy is like a bottomless well, I can go on using magic forever.”

“Veena-sama…”

Misha’s eyes narrowed as she breathed a deep sigh.

“I get it. I thought that the Queen was the only dangerous one in the royal family, but I guess I was wrong. Or rather, won’t this child be even more dangerous in the future?”

“Yeah. For you guys, she probably will be.”

Veena starts forming another dense layer of sigils as she says so. Countless magic circles that overlap each other constantly.

“Not to mention, I’m going to be Queen myself one day. Your plot both started and ended for good today. What a shame.”

The black sphere manifested once more in her palm.

“So, for now, take a rest.”

She unleashed it. Misha immediately threw up her defensive barrier. But instead of being a strong wall, it shatters like glass the moment the sphere touches it, and it smashes into Misha’s stomach.

“….Ah… Guh.”

As she fell to the floor with a groan, Veena cast restraining magic.

“K-kill me…”

The woman missing an eye said so. Like Misha, she had been bound with restraining magic, and she glared at her captor with as much hostility as she could muster. The Queen answered back.

“No, that time will come. For now, I have some questions.”

She held Yua in her arms. The poor girl must have been frightened beyond belief. As soon as the chaos was over, Yua had run into her mother’s arms, a spoiled side of her she had never shown in public before then.

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“Just hurry up and kill us.”

“You are persistent, aren’t you? I promise that I will kill you later. Before that, you’ll have to answer my questions. Why are you doing this?”

“Hah… At this point, there’s no sense in hiding it. We were here to kill you.”

Murderous intent dwelled in those eyes. Even though she’s held captive by those of vastly superior ability, she remained defiant.

Meanwhile, Misha sat with her eyes closed in silence.

“What exactly did I do?”

“You… You create such hell, and then try to plead innocence?”

“Hell… I see, so you’re from Hell Slum, are you?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Misha, myself, and all those you killed. We’re all from Hell.”

…A slum. Although it’s only a name, Veena had heard of it. It was originally designed as a penal city for the country’s scum, but it soon became so lawless and anarchic that no one tried to exert any authority over it. It is one of the darker parts of the Kingdom of Lafalis’ history.

“I see. So you’re both from Hell, that’s useful information. There are a few other questions I’d like to ask.”

The Queen seemed to have a slight sadness float in her eyes for just a moment.

“Was it Euberto who guided you to the castle?”

“…”

This time, there was no answer. But the silence is an answer unto itself. Their lips had been sealed by magic so that they couldn’t say it. It was clear from the reaction of those two.

“I see. Then, the next question. The person who taught you magic, was it…?”

Before she could say the name, “the person” came himself. Countless forked icicles. Smashing through the floor in the direction of Yua.

Veena reacted a moment too late.

“……..!!”

She immediately deployed a magic barrier. But since it was so hastily cast, the barrier has all the strength of a piece of paper.

(We let our guard down, how could we be so stupid!)

She tries to think of what to do, but there’s nothing she can do. It was a perfect ambush. There’s no time to respond.

The icicles collide with the barrier and tear right through it.

(There’s no other way. I’ll have to use my body as a shield-!)

She tried to get there in time. But Yua’s body was already floating in midair. In a flight like a curve, she was flung away from the Queen’s body.

“M-mother…”

Yua said weakly, reaching a hand out towards her. But those hands never reached her. The next instant, an icicle impaled the Queen.

As the fresh blood splattered into the ice, another magic activated. A purple magic sigil formed on top of the Queen’s wound. Yua has no knowledge of magic, but even she knows it can’t be anything good.

Straight away, several icicles formed in the air and shot towards Yua. But this time, they were all taken out in mid-air by similarly sized icicles shot from another direction, and Yua landed safely.

“Tch… Guh… That one’s still alive, huh…”

The man who had stood with a stoop now collapsed on the ground, with wounds all over his body. He was in a miserable state, with both his arms shredded and terrible burns on his face.

He had eventually broken through that servant who blocked his way. He emerged from the fight mostly unscathed and went to track down Yua. He managed to follow Yua’s latent magical energy still in the castle and followed her. It was when he had almost found her…

He encountered a small monster.

A pretty young girl with a slight lisp. But the outward appearance belied the demon within. She went beyond the level of ‘genius’.

That girl, Leena Lilyfall, stood at a level he could never hope to reach. Even though he didn’t win, luck was on his side, since their confrontation was interrupted by the casting of Descending Earth Calamity.

When the spell activated, he used the distraction to escape. He had been waiting near the throne room since then, looking for an opportunity to intervene. His heart was torn seeing his comrades being killed one by one, but if he was discovered trying to help him there would be no way he could pull off this one fatal attack.

All he could do was wait.

He waited for that perfect opportunity, and when they had finally started to relax, he used what little magic power he had remaining for a final series of spells.

The first was the chain of icicles he had shot at Yua and the Queen. He also layered the spell with a curse of healing prevention, which prevents fatal wounds from being healed.

The second was…

“Uwah!”

“Wha… Where is…?”

The second was this. A transfer spell to rescue his two remaining comrades. After he released the first spell, Veena must have expected him to use another one and moved to protect the King. That made it easy for him to cast the transference spell without interference.

“Ha… Ha… I was hoping to kill them all, but we’ve achieved our main goal. You guys need to get out of here…”

With his magical energy completely exhausted, the man is nearly paralyzed.

“Oi, get a grip! You’re gonna be okay!”

The woman with the eyepatch grabs a hold of the man, but the heat is very rapidly slipping out of his body.

“…Sorry, I don’t think I’m going anywhere. Leave me and go.”

Misha places a hand on his chest, but she can’t feel the presence of magical power. If you completely run out of magical energy in such a state, you will almost certainly die. But, the situation as it is, they have no way of replenishing his energy.

“…Don’t be a damn fool. How can we just leave you here?”

The single-eyed woman shakes the man’s body as her voice begins to crack. However, Misha gripped her shoulder.

“…Hey, read the mood. He was able to eliminate one of those despicable royals, his life’s wish. You should send him off with a smile.”

“…Mm.”

The man smiles at Misha as if to say ‘Thank you’.

“…You guys. From now on, I’ll leave it to you… To fulfil our earnest wishes… Glory to the rebel army.”

He said that with his dying breath. The life that flashed before his eyes were the days he spent in Hell.

Seeing him off, the two that remained spoke as one.

“Glory to the rebel army.”

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