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Chapter 46
Magician (4)
“Ah! I didn’t mean it in a strange way.”
When I stayed silent for a while, Izumi hurried to smooth things over.
“The Saintess is someone who’s extremely cautious about others being sacrificed. I just thought she’d only ever invite someone into the Hero’s party after being really careful about it.”
So that’s what he meant.
‘I was being too sensitive.’
Ever since Lilliana directly stabbed me with the accusation of being “too much of a utilitarian,” everything people said felt like an analysis of me.
“The Hero is right. But the princess is truly someone our party needs. We had no choice.”
“I see!”
“…You don’t doubt my words at all?”
“Of course not. I would never doubt the Saintess. Never!”
See?
Looking into Izumi’s green eyes makes me feel like I’m being healed.
Unlike me, who hides a pitch-black inner self, he’s always the good and strong protagonist.
If even he, who never doubts people, were to see through my nature, that would mean everyone around already knew.
But that’s different from Lilliana, whose years as royalty sharpened her instincts unnaturally.
“Yus, I brought your meal. …You’re still here?”
“Ah! Sir Cedric.”
The conversation broke off when Cedric appeared. Scowling the moment he saw me, he picked a fight. I was about to retort, but Izumi went one step further with a bright smile.
“Let’s eat together, the three of us! Cheerfully, like a family!”
“It’d be perfect if you were the one missing.”
“Huh? You’re taking the Hero out of the Hero’s party? Wouldn’t it be more natural to remove Sir Cedric, since you don’t have the symbolism?”
“You want to fight me?”
Snarl. Bark.
At first, Izumi took Cedric’s antics well, but after days of Cedric flaunting himself, even Izumi started to push back—attacking him with an innocent smile.
Which just made things twice as noisy.
‘This is supposed to be a Hero’s party?’
I pressed my throbbing temples with a sigh.
“…Would you two please quiet down? My head is ringing…”
“Yus! Are you sick?”
“Saintess, are you all right?”
It’s because of you two, you idiots.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the palace—
“Travel with the Saintess?”
The moment he heard Lilliana’s story, Diold was firmly opposed.
“Your body isn’t normal right now. Just rest comfortably in the palace and then marry some suitably handsome layabout. Father and I have no intention whatsoever of using you for a political marriage.”
“…Of course I know that. I know, but still.”
Lilliana pressed a hand to her forehead and muttered.
Political marriage.
That had always been the duty of royalty.
Marrying into neighboring royal families to form alliances, or tying down powerful nobles by wedding their children—those things were very common.
But she never once thought her father, nor Diold—free now from brainwashing—would treat her as a mere tool. Which meant traveling with the Saintess wasn’t about avoiding such obligations.
“—I haven’t decided completely yet. I’ll reconsider once I see the completed weapon.”
“Have you told Father and Mother?”
“Not yet.”
“So you’ve only consulted me?”
His tone held a touch of excitement.
Lilliana turned her head away.
‘If this were when Diold was brainwashed, I would’ve kept it to myself.’
She loves and respects the king and queen.
But even so, there are always things one can’t tell their parents. As children, she and her brother used to talk about such matters all the time.
“Lill, what makes a good king?”
“A wise ruler, I guess.”
“Father is kind to the people, but he never hesitates to spill the blood of nobles. I don’t know if that still counts as a wise king.”
“Isn’t that enough?”
“Enough?”
“Nobles are born with privileges. When they do wrong, their punishments should be heavier. The crimes of those with influence ripple out much farther, don’t they?”
“Lill, you’re really merciless toward nobles.”
“Royalty too. Our uncles died that way, didn’t they?”
Looking back now, their talk had been reckless and dangerous.
But with Diold himself restored, the siblings now felt as though they were children again.
“When will the weapon be finished?”
“Probably today.”
“Princess! I’ve brought the item you requested.”
The servant arrived just as she said that. Brother and sister turned their eyes toward him at the same time.
“This is—”
Diold picked it up first.
“A gun?”
“I had talismans embedded into it.”
Lilliana explained as she took the rifle from him. Her slender fingers brushed the transparent talisman set into the side of the barrel.
Talismans—gems infused with magical power.
Usually used in magical tools, but the Saintess had set one directly into a gun.
The chamber, the barrel, even the muzzle.
The talisman in the chamber drew out the magic stored in Lilliana’s body to the extreme. The energy then traveled down the barrel, amplifying, until finally bursting from the muzzle.
‘I wonder how it will work.’
She hadn’t been told exactly how it operated.
Yet the moment she held it, her heart began pounding. Lilliana tried to hide her flushed expression as she caressed the cool steel.
“It’s my first time seeing one in person. What a curious shape.”
“Ziguk’s magic is already advanced. They had no reason to import powder-based firearms.”
Indeed, Ziguk’s refusal to import guns was more about geography than usefulness.
The ocean dividing the eastern and western continents. The towering central mountains cutting through the east. And beyond them, a vast desert—all natural fortresses that cut them off from the outside world.
Aside from the Holy Kingdom and a few small nearby nations, Ziguk had no diplomacy with anyone.
As they examined the strange weapon—
“So it’s finally complete.”
Tap… tap. Tap… tap.
Irregular footsteps.
The Saintess’s once steady cane-taps had become dragging beats, ever since she lost the use of one leg.
A large man followed nervously, fretting that the much smaller Saintess might stumble.
‘It’s gotten much worse. Understandable, though.’
The Saintess was not absolute good.
Even Lilliana, who concluded she was a strategist capable of sacrificing the few for the many, couldn’t help but feel pity and awe for her.
So it was no wonder that obnoxious Westerner, who’d defended her from the start, now looked at her that way.
“You came the moment the gun arrived. Were you watching all along?”
“Of course not.”
The Saintess smiled sweetly, but it felt as though everything were under her control.
‘…The pain is gone.’
The ache from her broken magic circuits had disappeared. The Saintess must have taken it all.
“Now then, Princess.”
Her pale hand groped through the air until it settled on Lilliana’s arm. That simple action made Lilliana’s heart race wildly.
Guilt? Discomfort? Admiration?
Or… excitement.
“Shall we test it?”
Lilliana nodded.
No need to move elsewhere. They were already in the palace training ground.
“The firing method is—”
“No need. I’ve heard enough explanations.”
She had already learned while studying the blueprints. And in truth, once she saw the finished weapon, she instinctively understood.
Clack, click.
The satisfying sound of loading.
And then—
Ssshhhh.
With the acrid smell of powder, the transparent talisman turned redder and redder.
“This is—”
Fire magic.
Diold’s mutter was swallowed by a massive surge.
The air itself quivered. He pressed down his golden bangs with one hand, staring fixedly at his sister.
Her eyes were burning crimson, far deeper than usual.
The next instant—
Bang!
Scarlet mana ripped the air apart.
A cylindrical blast of energy, about half a meter wide, erased the very air as it flew.
At its end, the target was left as nothing but a scorched stump, and the meadow beyond was left desolate, as if devoured by a monster.
“Ah.”
With a dull sound, Lilliana’s arm fell.
The recoil made her stagger, but Diold caught her swiftly. Even so, she only gazed at the Saintess with a flushed face, ignoring how close she’d come to collapsing.
“So this is the talent you saw in me?”
Arrogant words, but none present could deny it.
Even Cedric, who usually scorned her, had widened his dark eyes in shock.
That single shot was overwhelming. Even a great mage of the realm would struggle to unleash an attack that annihilated the very air.
As mana traces hung in the silent training ground, the Saintess spoke, meeting Lilliana’s gaze.
“Magician.”
“Magician?”
“Isn’t it quite a fitting title?”
Magician.
One who walks the path of “ma.”
Unlike wizards, who use elaborate formulas to study sorcery, Lilliana’s “ma” was pure mana unleashed without calculation.
And since a human could never truly become a demon, the title felt especially apt.
With a strange feeling, she held the overheated rifle.
“…Magician. I see.”
“Then let me ask you again.”
Her crimson gaze turned to the Saintess.
Sunlight poured down.
“Will you adventure with me?”
The Saintess held out her delicate hand, with the ruined meadow behind her.
“—Yes.”
Lilliana gladly took it.
From talentless to calamity.
It was the moment her life transformed.
