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Chapter 23
Revenge?!
While Daphne was struggling inside the collapsed building, Heros was out with his aide, Pauline. There were reports of an unidentified monster appearing in the Ferry River, which runs through the center of the capital.
Normally, this would be a matter for the Guardians, the capital’s defense force, but with monsters appearing simultaneously in multiple locations, Heros had no choice but to get involved.
“What a nuisance.”
Heros muttered, turning his back on the piled-up monster corpses. He yawned and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Wow. How many is this? One, two, three… Six. And they look so weird. What is this? They’re so thoroughly pulverized I can’t even make out their original form,” Pauline remarked, scribbling in her notebook.
“Chimeras, probably,” Heros answered with a blank expression.
“Chimeras? Those monsters made from combining several others?”
“Yeah.”
At that, Pauline pushed her glasses up and examined the mangled corpses more closely. Sure enough, she could see fusion points on the arms and tails. Good heavens! Covering her mouth, she stepped back.
“Looks like they escaped from some lab. Since the Imperial family hasn’t said anything, they’re probably unauthorized test subjects.”
“Isn’t that a capital offense if they’re caught?”
“The kinds of people who make these abominations don’t value their own lives very highly.”
“Hmm.”
Pauline scratched her head with her pen.
“This isn’t my field, but even I can tell these are very well-made monsters. And there’s no uniformity either. The fact they don’t all look the same suggests there are plenty more of these chimeras.”
“I’m not doing it. It’s a hassle. Let the Guardians handle it.”
“No, I’m curious about who’s behind this!”
Heros, who had been momentarily alarmed at the thought of this becoming his problem, frowned slightly. He too had his suspicions after dealing with the monsters.
“The kind of people who would do this,” Heros said, resting his sword on his shoulder, “are probably those black mages.”
“Oh my god! I knew it! Those lunatics are still at it! Why won’t they just die and disappear?!”
Remembering the past battles between the black mages and Heros, Pauline trembled and shouted.
“Th-there won’t be anything worse than this, right? This must be the end of it?”
“This is probably just the beginning. But I’m not stepping in. I’m tired of dealing with those black mage types.”
Though Heros replied nonchalantly, Pauline could guess what he was feeling. He lost his wife to their curse, and even his child was affected… He probably wants nothing more to do with them. Pauline tore up the report she was writing and burned it.
“Shall we head back now? It doesn’t seem like there are any more monsters.”
“Sure.”
Sheathing his sword, Heros turned on his heel. The Guardians would handle the corpses, so there was no need to worry about that. He’d carried out his orders, so it was time to go back.
Just as he was stepping into the carriage with that thought—
KABOOOOM!
A tremendous explosion assaulted his ears. The ground shook as if an earthquake had hit.
“Your Excellency!”
Pauline quickly cast a defensive spell on Heros and scanned their surroundings. Not far away, black smoke was billowing into the sky. And an immense magical vibration. This was definitely…!
“Argh! It’s them again! Aaaargh!”
The aura of death. It was black magic.
Pauline clutched the back of her neck in despair.
“How about we just go back and pretend we don’t know anything about this?”
It wasn’t a bad idea. Heros’s orders were to exterminate the monsters, not to stop some sudden black magic terrorist attack.
But there was a problem.
“That plume of smoke over there.”
“Yes?”
“Isn’t that near the Pinch Marquisate?”
Pauline unfolded her magical map, which recorded the capital’s real-time mana flow. The black dot indicating the trace of black magic was indeed, as Heros said, at the Pinch Marquisate.
“Y-yes, it is. But what of it? They have plenty of knights over there, I’m sure.”
“Daphne went there today.”
“Ah, the young lady is there… What?! How did you know that?!”
Ignoring Pauline’s shriek, Heros changed direction.
“Your Excellency! Wait! Where are you going?! Your Excellency!!!”
Black smoke was billowing up, threatening to blot out the sky. Heros’s steps quickened.
“Ah, hell.”
Daphne sighed as she looked at the smoke-filled room. From the moment she’d rushed in, her escape route had been blocked. She needed to rescue the child and find a way out.
Daphne activated her Ki Sense to grasp her surroundings. In her original state, she could have done this without conscious effort, but her current body was that of a weak, insignificant human. She had to adjust her Ki Sense more carefully and sensitively.
‘Where are you…?’
The acrid smoke was making her mind fuzzy, but she didn’t back down. Biting the inside of her cheek hard, Daphne focused her mind.
‘Here!’
She soon discovered the child huddled under a table. Daphne quickly ran towards them.
“You! Why are you hiding here instead of getting out?!”
The child, who had been crouched and sobbing, timidly raised its head. Surprisingly, it was Bryasa Pinch.
“D-Daphne, ma’am?”
Bryasa reached a hand towards her rescuer.
“Ahem! M-my, my leg is trapped…! Waaah!”
Bryasa had also evacuated the children immediately upon hearing the explosion, but in the process, her leg had been pinned under debris.
Quickly assessing the situation, Daphne took a deep breath and examined Bryasa’s leg.
“I should be able to lift this. Now, when I lift it, pull your leg out.”
“Sniff, o-okay!”
“One, two… THREE!”
Daphne lifted the debris with all her might. The moment she exerted herself, she felt this damned body nearing exhaustion, but she endured. She was the only one who could move and save this child.
“Eek! Daphne, ma’am! I-I’m out! It’s okay now!”
THUD!
Confirming Bryasa was free, Daphne finally released her strength. Lifting the debris bare-handed had scraped her palms raw, and blood was trickling down. Her arms felt completely limp and useless.
“O-oh no. A-are you okay? It looks really painful…!”
“Worry about your own leg, not me.”
“But…!”
Daphne shook her head and then placed a hand on Bryasa’s head.
“You evacuated the people first, like one of my subordinates should. You did well.”
“…Yes!”
Bryasa swallowed the sob rising from a mix of gratitude and relief.
Who called Daphne Akion a ruffian? Anyone seeing her now would never use such a derogatory term. Wasn’t Daphne truly a righteous person?!
She would never let go of this hand. Sniffling, Bryasa clung tightly to Daphne.
“Now we need to find a way out… Hmm?”
Just then, something registered on Daphne’s Ki Sense. A somewhat eerie and unsettling aura. There was only one thing this could be.
Daphne pulled Bryasa towards where she felt the energy.
“Daphne, ma’am? What are you… Huh?”
Bryasa looked puzzled, but her eyes widened when she saw what Daphne had found. A square device, about the size of a medium box. At a glance, it seemed like nothing, but the aura emanating from it was unusual. Bryasa was one of the children learning magic. She couldn’t fail to recognize this energy.
“I-is this maybe a bomb?!”
“Damn it.”
Feeling the deathly aura flowing from the device, Daphne pressed her fingers to her forehead.
A bomb made with black magic was terrifying not just for its explosion, but also because it spread a deathly aura that drained all life force from the surroundings. One of this size had enough power to consume the entire marquisate estate.
“Wh-what do we… do? Do we… defuse it…?”
“Defusing it ain’t happenin’ in this situation.”
The light drained from Bryasa’s eyes.
“Then we’re… going to die? We’re dying? Really?”
They say when you’re too sad, even tears won’t come? Bryasa felt that kind of lethargy. Her legs gave way, and she staggered and collapsed.
“……”
But Daphne assessed the situation coldly. A way to defuse a black magic bomb… Hmm?
‘Why am I trying to defuse this?’
The principle of black magic utilized the negative energy derived from ‘death.’ What was similar to negative energy? Cellus’s causality of ‘Calamity.’ Simply put, for Cellus, a black magic bomb was practically a treat… Huh?
‘If I absorb this, my magic power will increase, won’t it?’
The corners of Daphne’s mouth curled into a smirk.
A good idea had come to her. Daphne gave the crying Bryasa’s back a push.
“Go wait over there.”
“Huh?”
“I’m gonna blow this thing up.”
“What?!”
“When it blows, the explosion should clear away the debris. We can use that opening to get outta here.”
“W-wait. Then what about you, Daphne, ma’am?”
“I gotta block it.”
“What?!”
Bryasa looked at Daphne with an expression of disbelief, but Daphne herself looked as if she wondered what the problem was. Of course, Daphne had her own separate plan.
“No time for long talk. Get ready to move properly when the time comes.”
“No, Daphne, ma’am! It’s dangerous!”
How could she immediately choose to sacrifice herself? Completely unaware of Daphne’s actual plan, Bryasa screamed to stop her, but Daphne pushed Bryasa away and began channeling force into the bomb.
“Daphne, ma’am!”
KABOOOOM!
A deafening blast engulfed them.
