The reception table had been pulverized into charcoal, and the chairs had been flung apart, split cleanly in two. This room—Giebe
Trapped with no way for reinforcements to reach him, Matthias stood alone facing Grausam. A blow from the black prosthetic hand meant having his Magic Power stolen, while the blue-flamed right hand meant burns. Having to watch out for the blue flames flying toward him as well, Matthias fought desperately, using his black sword to seal off Grausam's right hand—but he was being driven back relentlessly.
"Hmph. This Magical Tool was crafted with the assumption that I would be fighting Lord
When Ehrenfest's territory had been ransacked, it seemed that Georgine and Grausam had reasoned that the Knight Commander would be the one defending the Noble District and the castle, while Grandfather—Lord Bonifatius—would be the one taking spare knights out on patrol.
"Lord Bonifatius's thinking, drive, and offensive power are not to be underestimated. The last winter, when he was thwarted from obtaining that Commoner..."
Because Grandfather was more likely to derail their plans with unpredictable moves—unlike Father or my adoptive father—keeping him pinned down on land far from the Noble District had been of the utmost importance for Georgine to secure her foundation.
...So the Magical Tool had been designed specifically against Grandfather.
I don't know what kind of Magical Tool he's using, but Grausam right now is absurdly strong. I'll admit that. But I won't let him think he can win so easily. Grausam was right when he said knights train their bodies and civil officials create advanced Magical Tools to fight—but in Grausam's eyes, I'm not even a factor in the battle.
...Well then, here's a question: how have I been fighting all this time?
My eyes flick briefly to the water gun enchanted with the Darkness God's blessing, hidden away as my trump card. I've almost never defeated an enemy on my own. The water gun has terrible accuracy, and if I charged it with enough Magic Power to guarantee a hit across a wide area, Matthias would definitely get caught in the crossfire. My fighting style is basically to leave the attacking to those around me.
...But there's a technique that anyone could use if they wanted to—right now, I'm the only one who does.
I begin channeling Magic Power into my ring. If the enemy will resort to anything and use Magical Tools, then I'll respond with a lavish outpouring of blessings. I'm a woman who abandoned all restraint long ago. I have no intention of holding back here.
"May the Wind Goddess Sterlia's divine attendant, the Swift Wind Goddess Steiferiese, and the Patience Goddess Dirturzetsen's divine blessings be upon Matthias."
Softly, a yellow light rained down on Matthias. He dodged Grausam's lightning-fast kick completely. Once he grew accustomed to the blessings, his movement should become even easier.
"Hmph. A slight increase in speed changes nothing."
Grausam's words irritated me. Give too many blessings, and they become hard to control. I already know from the
...Time to show you what I'm really capable of.
"May the Fire God
Softly, a blue light rained down on Matthias. This should boost his offensive power and accuracy. Watching closely, I could see that Matthias's movements with the black sword had improved dramatically. It was evident from the way Grausam was now forced to dodge Matthias's attacks. But perhaps because of the injuries he'd sustained from earlier blows, Matthias lacked his usual momentum. He needed healing.
"May the Water Goddess Flutrene's divine attendant, the Healing Goddess Runegsweal, the Thunder Goddess Feardrenna, and the Fortune Goddess Greifshaan's divine blessings be upon Matthias."
Softly, a green light rained down on Matthias. Runegsweal should heal his wounds, and the vigor of Feardrenna—powerful enough to drive back even
"What is this? Don't be ridiculous..."
"Lady
"You've really lost your mind, Matthias."
Grausam's attacks still landed, but so did Matthias's, little by little. Perhaps, through the stacking of blessings, we'd managed to bring the fight close to even. Matthias's face seemed to carry the faintest smile.
"May the Darkness God's divine attendant, the Demon-Rejection God Feardreos, and the Light Goddess's divine attendant, the Purification Goddess Unheilschneide's divine blessings be upon Matthias."
As I prayed for Matthias to be able to sever his ties with evil and misfortune by his own hand and walk the path he desired, black and gold light danced throughout the room. Since the divine attendants of the highest gods—the married deity pair—could be prayed to all at once, it was very convenient.
...The Life God's divine attendants, if stacked carelessly, can sometimes erase other gods' blessings, so this should be sufficient for now, right?
I was satisfied with my work, but Grausam—suddenly pushed from overwhelming advantage to something approaching parity, though still stronger—attacked Matthias while twisting his face in fury. He swung down his black prosthetic hand and knocked Matthias backward. A dull thud rang out, and Matthias gasped painfully.
"I didn't account for you to be able to enhance an ordinary knight like Matthias to the point of fighting the current me. I had planned to drain enough Magic Power from you to qualify as the Lord's adopted daughter, but I'll have to revise that. ...I will definitely kill you."
Grausam swung his right hand wide, scattering blue flames across a broad area. Matthias dashed in front of the flames, cleaving them with his black sword to absorb their Magic Power. The flames he couldn't cut through came flying toward Lesser.
The blazing blue flames slammed into the window directly in front of me, and Magic Power was being sucked out through the handle to maintain Lesser. I involuntarily held my breath. Even while mounted, I'd never had this much Magic Power drained before.
...He's insanely strong!
I felt as though I had gained firsthand understanding of Grandfather's superhuman strength through Grausam.
Matthias repositioned his sword between me and Grausam.
"You may call her a Commoner, but my one and only lord is none other than Lady Rozemyne."
While slashing at Grausam's right hand with his black sword, Matthias smiled provocatively.
"Have you ever received a blessing from Lady Georgine?"
"Silence!"
Grausam swung his black prosthetic hand to deflect the sword and fired blue flames from his right hand. Matthias dodged and pressed further.
"Have you ever asked Lady Georgine to use her own Magic Power for your sake—rather than simply offering up the Magic Power you've extracted from yourself and others? Has she ever saved your life, your pride, your homeland—and protected them?"
"Silence!"
Whether he couldn't think of a single instance, Grausam flung Matthias away in a rage and turned his gaze toward me. His gray eyes blazed with fury. Even though he was wreathed in blue flames, his face had turned beet red.
"Come out of there, Commoner wretch! I'll burn you to ashes! I'll make you understand my power!"
"I won't allow that."
Matthias's sword struck home with a sharp clang—the sound of striking hard stone. The blue flames enveloping Grausam grew thinner, revealing a blue magic stone beneath them. It was as though the flames were fading because he'd been drained of too much Magic Power. But more than that, Grausam's movements seemed to have slowed as well.
Matthias's attacks began to consistently land on the blue-flamed portions. At the same time, the black sword absorbed Magic Power, and the blue flames grew thinner and thinner. Beneath the flames, the blue Magic Stone and bare skin began to be exposed.
"Is this the end...?"
Grausam murmured, and the flames vanished as if being sucked into the Magic Stone.
"...What!?"
With the flames gone, it became clear that he wasn't wearing Magic Stone armor—more than half of his body was Magic Stone. It was an uncanny sight: Magic Stone embedded into flesh, or flesh draped over Magic Stone. He no longer looked like a human being. Even Matthias's expression visibly changed.
"What's with that stupid face...? Surely you can imagine how much Magic Power is required to fully operate a Magical Tool of this magnitude."
"Why would you go this far...?"
"There's no reason to tell you."
Grausam briefly averted his gaze from Matthias, then in the next instant, he moved with the speed of someone pouring every last drop of remaining Magic Power into velocity—seizing Matthias and hurling him toward the balcony. The window shattered with a spectacular crash as Matthias was thrown outside. Matthias saw Laurenz rushing to help.
Without even bothering to check what the outcome of his own actions had been, Grausam rushed to Giebe Georgine's corpse, still crumpled on the floor, and drove his black prosthetic hand through the area around her heart. He twisted the prosthetic hand as if gouging, then wreathed himself in flames once more. Giebe Georgine's form and everything else were enveloped in blue flame and vanished completely.
"That Commoner brat..."
His gray eyes glinted with an eerie light as they turned toward me. I thought: That's terrifying. The act of draining Magic Stones and Magic Power from the dead, along with that obsession and fanaticism, was revolting.
"I have to kill you here."
The black prosthetic hand came at me as if to slice through Lesser along with me. There were no knights left to protect me. If I failed with my weapon, there was no one else who would be caught in the blast. I thrust the water gun I'd been gripping out the window and pulled the trigger with all my might. The Magic Power that shot from the barrel became arrows, split apart, and pierced into Grausam, who had closed to within arm's reach.
"Guah!"
Grausam, taking the brunt of the arrows to his face, clutched his head. As he staggered, his black prosthetic hand scraped and gouged at Lesser's face. It seemed that draining Magic Power from riding beasts was possible too, as the blue flames wreathing Grausam blazed with renewed vigor.
"Kyaa!"
"Heh... heheh, hahahaha! This is wonderful! Give me that Magic Power!"
Grausam sprang to his feet like a spring-loaded doll and raised his black prosthetic hand against Lesser. My body instinctively shrank back at the sight of his face, where the spots hit by my arrows had begun turning to Magic Stone. The riding beast I had considered absolutely safe was being carved apart and turned into sustenance for the enemy—a thought that sent chills down my spine. I gripped the handle and frantically poured Magic Power into Lesser.
"Don't come near!"
"I'll drain every last drop of Magic Power!"
No matter how much he was carved away, I needed to keep myself in a safe zone. I went all out, enlarging Lesser to a massive size to intimidate Grausam. Even as the enormous Lesser, now standing on its hind legs, forced him back toward the window's edge, Grausam drove his black prosthetic hand into Lesser's belly.
"What... gold dust...!?"
Grausam's voice wavered in shock, and almost simultaneously,
My escort knights poured in all at once. Each of them drove their black weapons into Grausam. Some struck Lesser instead, but I decided not to comment on that. With his black prosthetic hand—the very tool used to drain Magic Power—having turned to gold dust, Grausam scattered helplessly, like a shattered Magic Stone.
"...Now then. While I was rewriting the Giebe's foundation so that others could enter, would someone care to explain how things came to this?"
At the sound of Ferdinand's icy voice, I flinched—and in that same instant, Lesser shrank with a soft *pssh*. Because Lesser had been enlarged to intimidate Grausam, Giebe Georgine's mansion now had a massive hole in it.
I frantically compared the pale blue sky, now beginning to dip toward evening, visible through the wrecked office window, with Ferdinand standing there with his arms crossed, demanding an explanation.
"Grausam's black prosthetic hand was scraping and gouging Lesser! See—look here! There's a big wound on its face, right? And then Grausam's flames swelled up with a whoosh, and I thought—I absolutely had to make Lesser as big as possible to stay safe—and then, well, you see..."
I was desperately trying to explain that I never intended for this to happen, but all I could see before my eyes were white walls. Naturally—Giebe Georgine's summer mansion was a white building constructed by the Aub in Entwickeln. The townspeople of
"Um, Lord Ferdinand. I've destroyed a white building, but... will I be charged with treason?"
"Rather, wouldn't it constitute a declaration of war from
When he casually told me, "You are the current Aub Ahrensbach," all the blood drained from my face.
"Whaaat! I didn't mean to do it! Lord Ferdinand, please come apologize together with my adoptive father. If I offer gold dust to cover the repairs, won't they forgive me?"
"Well, that's not for me to decide."
"This is exactly when I need your help!"
Ferdinand let out a small, amused snort before extending his hand.
"First, we need to go get scolded. According to the magic letter, it seems things have settled over there as well."
The stacking of blessings, paired with gold-dust transformation.
It was a fighting style that could only be Rozemyne.
The Battle of
Next, we return to the city of Ehrenfest.