Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 35
>Chapter Title: A Night of Counting Stars (9)
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*
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!!”
“Stop spouting nonsense and focus!!”
With eyes still blazing a brilliant blue, Yujin continued to strike down the elves.
Judging by the way pure white light burst from the tip of his sword with every swing, his ‘god’ seemed quite pleased with his prayer.
But no matter how skilled they were, they were still just students. To say they were talented for their year only meant the quality of their experience was on a different level.
“We’re being pushed back! They’re pushing us back!!”
“I know! Just hold on!”
Oswald and Yuri gritted their teeth, swinging their arms relentlessly. Their attacks were blocked time and again, and they saw no way to break through the army advancing in its solid phalanx formation.
These were soldiers who had been through the Demon War. It had only been four years since the dawn of this era of peace. No matter how complacent they might have become, they were still soldiers who remembered their active duty.
In other words, they were an excessively elite force for a group of 21st-century transmigrators with almost no combat experience to face as their first opponents.
If the goal had been to kill them from the start, the battle would have been over long ago. The boatswain smirked and shouted.
“Students! How about you give it up and put down your weapons?”
“When the hell is Ivan getting here?!”
Just as Yuri’s tearful scream grew sharper, the deck began to shake.
*Rumble, rumble, rumble…!*
“What…?!”
“The helm! Get to the helm! What’s going on? Sentry!”
“Where’s the captain?!”
From below deck, the sound of the keel groaning was accompanied by a massive, explosive impact that struck the deck.
Soldiers and transmigrators alike stumbled or were thrown to the floor.
“What is this?”
“Did Ivan do this…?”
Oswald steadied himself with a hand on the floor, then quickly raised his head.
An immense amount of mana… no, he could see the flow of mana infused with a high degree of skill.
Dark green mana swirled and poured into the cabins. *Boom, bang.* The explosions were getting closer.
“No, this isn’t Ivan. This is…”
Oswald narrowed his eyes. Soon, a dense concentration of mana gathered in the middle of the deck.
“Get back!!”
*KABOOOOM!!*
Yuri threw Yujin, who was still lost in his courage buff, then grabbed Oswald by the scruff of his neck and leaped backward. A large crack formed in the center of the deck as something shot out.
The object that flew out twisted in mid-air and landed beside the transmigrators. It was a perfect landing, as if measured with a ruler.
“Ivan!”
“Hmph.”
The acrid smell of something burning wafted from Ivan’s body. He held his axe and calmly faced forward.
“Impressive! To have honed such will in a world embalmed by peace!”
“L-Lord Veolgrin?!”
The sailors’ eyes widened as if they would pop out of their sockets. Ivan narrowed his eyes at their reaction. *What, he deceived his own elves, too?*
*But why?* If the Kallion Archipelago had intended to support Aleksandr on a national level, there would have been no need for such a needlessly clandestine method.
“Uh, Ivan. Could you maybe explain what’s going on…?”
Oswald stared in confusion at Veolgrin, who was floating in the air.
As an elf himself, he had met Veolgrin several times. He was a tremendous… an overwhelmingly powerful mage.
And now, such a being was floating above their heads, preparing an attack spell.
“It seems I fell a little short.”
“You almost succeeded.”
Veolgrin looked down at Ivan with a smile. He had lost one of his arms. *My apologies to Lord August,* he thought with a bitter smile.
“Your appearance was unexpected, but… well, it seems I provoked Princess Elizaveta more than I intended. I was hoping to slip in and out under more amicable circumstances.”
As he raised his remaining hand, dark green mana swirled violently. Ivan prepared to throw his axe, watching the scene unfold.
If even one of the transmigrators could draw Veolgrin’s attention, he might be able to seize an advantage.
But neither the battlefield nor the situation was in their favor.
“We’ll meet again. The situation is not ideal at the moment.”
“Veolgrin.”
“How much do you know about Crown Prince Aleksandr? Are you serving your liege even though you know ‘that’?”
“…What?”
Veolgrin waved his hand. The potent mana coalesced into the shape of a fist and lifted the carriage that had been shoved into a corner of the deck.
A commotion, then screams, came from inside the carriage. Soon, with a clatter, the door swung open.
“Come out.”
“Wh-what is all this commotion…! W-we came for the secret pact…!”
“Shh, shhh. Quiet.”
Veolgrin swung his remaining arm. The middle-aged man who had peeked his head out of the carriage was lifted into the air by the mana.
“As I thought, he didn’t come himself. What is your name?”
“N-Nikolai Slapanovo Rurik…! I-I have come with the full authority of this country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs!! Y-you cannot harm me!”
“Oh, it seems you don’t know who you’re speaking to.”
Veolgrin chuckled and slowly approached the man.
He placed his right hand on the man’s head and spoke in a low whisper.
“Tell me. Where is Crown Prince Aleksandr now?”
Beneath his hand, dark green mana swirled. The mana slithered like a snake, seeping into the man’s ears and eyes.
The expression gradually faded from the man’s face. He muttered with a blank look.
“His Highness is currently waiting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”
“So you know nothing. A waste of time.”
With a sickening *crunch*, the man’s head went limp. Veolgrin tossed the body aside like a piece of trash and slowly descended onto the deck.
“What is the meaning of this? Veolgrin, what were you planning?”
Ivan narrowed his eyes.
Since Veolgrin had said he provoked Elizaveta to make contact with Aleksandr, Ivan had naturally assumed the Kallion Archipelago was trying to interfere in domestic affairs by supporting the Crown Prince.
No other conclusion seemed possible given the circumstances.
But Veolgrin had just killed an envoy. And he was asking for the Crown Prince’s location?
“The Crown Prince in this city is not the real one. Hmm… there is much to discuss between us, but it is difficult to speak of.”
Veolgrin opened and closed his mouth a few times, then frowned.
“It is a prohibition. Unless you discover it for yourself, I cannot tell you. Sadly, are mages not beings who entangle the principles of the universe?”
“Why didn’t you say so from the start? If you never intended to sign a secret pact with Aleksandr, if you had told me beforehand…”
“Then I couldn’t have confirmed your qualifications. I wouldn’t have known which side you were on. Did you not think me dead? It was necessary.”
Veolgrin shrugged. His mana was slowly fading, growing fainter.
“There is little time left. Visit my tower in Kallion someday. You probably won’t be able to meet me directly, but… Ivan. Our scout. You are qualified.”
“Qualified for what?”
“The qualification to turn the final page of truth. The qualification to see the hands on this game board. Ah, dear me. Dammit.”
A crack appeared on Veolgrin’s face. He touched his face once, then sighed.
“To not even be able to say this much is too cruel. Mages are fundamentally talkative, you know.”
“What must I do?”
“Prepare. This game board seems to be the university beneath our feet. Many threads of fate are laid out down there.”
“Prepare…?”
“Those kids aren’t bad, but they weren’t pieces prepared from the start. They appeared suddenly on the chessboard… yes. Shall we call them playing cards? So, pay attention to the chess pieces as well. And please take good care of my daughter.”
Veolgrin’s face grew increasingly faint. Just before he vanished completely, he looked directly at Ivan and mouthed some words.
No voice could be heard, but Ivan reflexively read his lips.
—*Maximilian is not gone.*
With a faint smile, Veolgrin’s mana completely dissipated.
*
The commotion on the deck never reached the citizens of Frichenkaya. To them, the ship was just floating peacefully in the sky, as always.
Ivan and the transmigrators were seen off by the terrified captain and allowed to descend to the ground. After ditching the half-destroyed carriage in a back alley, Ivan scanned the others.
*A game board.*
*Playing cards on a chessboard.* Should he take that to mean a game with different rules has been mixed in?
What story do they need? What story was prepared, and what flow is being induced?
And whose are the hands on the game board?
*The gods?*
Ivan looked at Yujin, who had been able to use divine magic. Perhaps because the [Courage] buff had worn off, Yujin looked utterly exhausted, a vacant expression on his face.
“Those things called divine spell slots. Do you still have them?”
“Huh? Ah, yes, yes.”
“Hmm.”
Unlike magic, divine spells were a form of blessing bestowed directly by a god. They were spells cast using a human body as a vessel to act as an agent of a god’s will.
In other words, the term ‘divine spell slot’ meant that Yujin’s ‘status window’ had been sanctioned by a god.
No, perhaps it was a channel of communication created by the gods… the personal gods of this damn pre-modern fantasy world.
Especially considering it even implemented things as elaborate as a quest window.
“You all went through a lot today. Go get some rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Ivan. Is that really it for today?”
“Tomorrow.”
Ivan glanced once more at the departing transmigrators before turning his back.
He couldn’t very well take them with him to make his report. Especially not with this incident. They couldn’t get any more deeply involved.
If it were simply a matter of being caught in the political struggle between the princess and the crown prince, it would be better to pick a side and ensure a decisive victory.
But now that he’d heard the crown prince in Frichenkaya was an imposter, this incident had escalated far beyond what a student could resolve.
All the more so for these young children, only four years into their new lives.
*How many years has it been?*
Ivan thought as he walked through the night streets.
Recalling the last time he saw Colonel Kirillovna, Ivan headed for the Counter-Intelligence Command.
It was time to face the princess.
*