Chapter 437
Chapter 437
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 437
Chapter Title: 2-107. Acalusia (9)
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“Th-this is!”
Asel’s face turned ghastly white. The dome of flames that had erupted the moment the duel began had obliterated the entire arena. The lightning crackling along its searing surface seemed to scream that escape was nothing but a pipe dream.
“Your expression’s priceless, genius.”
A chilling voice echoed from the opposite side of the arena.
“......Lady Erzsebet.”
Asel slowly turned his head. There stood Erzsebet in her uniform, hands clasped behind her back, staring him down. Despite unleashing magic of such massive scale one after another, there wasn’t a hint of fatigue on her face.
“Wh-why are you doing this?”
“Why? You really are dense. Anything that could get in the way has to be eliminated, obviously. I even warned you by wrecking your family’s crest, and you still came barging in. That’s on you.”
“Our family’s crest... so it was that lion statue after all!”
Asel gasped. She had to be talking about the lion’s head that had nearly turned him into strawberry jam. He’d suspected it ever since hearing Liz’s story, but he never imagined Erzsebet was really behind it.
“Yeah. The black-haired kid seemed to catch on quick enough, but you had no clue, huh.”
“I don’t... I don’t understand. Why would we ever get in your way, milady?”
“To be precise, you’re a threat to Acalusia, not me. I can tell just by looking. No matter how talented, there are types who bungle everything with pointless stunts—and you two fit the bill perfectly. You might rack up some early wins, but in the end, you’d just become obstacles blocking the family’s progress.”
“I-I’d never do something like that! I came here to join Acalusia—why would I sabotage it?”
“Is that so? Then answer me this: for Acalusia’s dominance, could you kill ten thousand innocent people?”
“...Pardon?”
“Could you slaughter ten thousand? The only difference between them and anyone else is that they carry the blood of a rival house or aided that house. Women, elders, even speechless infants included. If you joined Acalusia, could you deem that difference a ‘crime’ and carry out the massacre?”
Asel couldn’t respond. Of course he couldn’t do something like that. He couldn’t believe this was the same lady who had served him tea last night and apologized.
Erzsebet snickered.
“See? Cat got your tongue. Even if you groveled and licked my boots while praising everything about me, in a life-or-death pinch like this.”
“I-I...”
“What Acalusia needs most is obedient talent—or even if they’re a bit dim, pawns who follow orders without question. Your talent that glimpsed the shining path is decent enough, but unfortunately, your convictions are too strong.”
Suddenly, Erzsebet thrust out her hand. Tentacles of telekinesis sliced through the air toward him. Asel reflexively began chanting a spell.
“I-Invisible...”
“Guh!”
But it was futile. The invisible hand shattered like an explosion the instant it collided with the telekinetic tentacles. In a flash, the tentacles wrapped around Asel, dragging him straight to Erzsebet’s feet before hurling him down.
“Kahk!”
His frail body tumbled across the ground. Asel lay sprawled like a rabbit hit by a cart.
Crunch! Erzsebet slowly approached and stomped on his chest.
“Gaaahhh!”
Asel screamed as his ribs cracked.
Erzsebet continued unfazed.
“Any last words? I’ll humor that talent of yours that saw the shining path.”
“Hah! Hahh...! Who are you? The lady would never do this!”
Asel shouted. Now he got it. The Erzsebet before him wasn’t the one he’d had tea with last night. The woman who’d cackled at Adeshan’s corpse in the basement wasn’t Erzsebet—it was this thing.
“Took you long enough.”
Erzsebet. No, the monster mimicking her grinned.
“You’re right. I don’t love killing in this form. It’d ruin the mother-daughter bond completely. Adrian would be utterly disappointed and furious—might not speak to me for a year.”
“Urk... ughhh...!”
“But time heals all. Today’s murder will be brushed off as a mishap by her sensitive teenage daughter. Adrian could never abandon Eri. Unlike my ugly self, she’s innately good... yeah, foolishly so.”
The monster trailed off. For the first time, emotion flickered in its cold eyes, but it was gone in an instant. It pointed at Asel’s forehead.
“None of this would’ve happened without you two. For ruining their cozy bond, I’ll make you and your friend die extra painfully.”
A flame bloomed beneath its manicured nail, swelling like fruit. The small fireball would soon melt through Asel’s skull and incinerate his brain.
“N-no...”
Asel gasped. The monster was just about to unleash the spell.
Its gaze, savoring the prey, locked onto his hands.
“...Star Mushroom spores?”
The monster’s brow furrowed. A bluish powder dusted Asel’s hands. The fireball poised to fire fizzled out.
Wh-why’d it stop all of a sudden?
Asel barely suppressed the urge to faint, studying the monster. Up close, it felt subtly off from last night’s Erzsebet. Unsettlingly alien. Residual traces of what seemed like Polymorph magic clung to its body.
Something growled.
“You. Where’d you touch this?”
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb. That powder on your hands can’t be found anywhere in Acalusia lands. Did you sneak into my lab?”
“......!”
Asel gasped. He hadn’t even noticed the powder on his hands. There’d been some floating in the underground lab, maybe—but that couldn’t be. It was a dream, not reality.
“No, that doesn’t add up. I’d have noticed an intruder... so then, perhaps.”
Suddenly, the monster’s eyebrows shot up. It had figured out the powder’s secret.
Muttering, it nodded to itself.
“...I see. So that’s how it went down. Good thing you’re clueless, or Adrian might’ve caught on and ruined everything.”
“What?”
“The powder on your hands is Star Mushroom spores—a rare, useful reagent, but tricky to handle. It sticks like glue unless washed off specially. Looks like my partner accidentally got it on you.”
“P-partner?”
Asel couldn’t comprehend. He’d had no contact with outsiders. After meeting Adrian in the drawing room, he’d just slept in his room. The monster chuckled darkly.
“Who knows. No reason to tell you that much. Ponder it in the afterlife—who dosed you with the spores.”
Something extended its index finger again. Mana gathered, reviving the vanished fireball.
“St-stop.”
“Scream all you want. No one will hear.”
Despair fit no situation better. His foe was a monster wielding terrifying magic casually. All escape routes blocked. Even calls for help were silenced by the dome’s barrier magic.
How did it come to this?
The moment that fireball launched, his life was over. A short yet long life flashed before him like a montage. Mostly unhappy, but the latter half wasn’t bad.
Everything changed after setting off on a raft trip with Ronan.
It was fun.
The shining path through the mist, the beautiful lady of the house’s warm welcome, the cozy tea and the splendor of Acalusia’s gardens in the rain, the lady’s gruff exterior hiding a warmer heart than anyone’s—her genuine apology.
He hadn’t shown it, but right before the entrance exam, the twins’ expectations and recognition—the first he’d ever received—had filled his chest with joy.
He’d just discovered the joy of living.
He wanted more of those experiences.
A single tear traced down his pale cheek.
And then, Asel realized.
“......Ah?”
The scattered puzzle pieces in his mind clicked together like magic.
Now he knew. The identity of the person before him and the partner they mentioned. How Adeshan’s supposedly cremated body ended up in the underground lab. Even why the young, beautiful woman had died so young.
Asel gritted his teeth, having pieced it all together.
“For you...”
“Hm?”
The monster in Erzsebet’s guise tilted its head. The atmosphere had shifted dramatically. He felt Asel straining to rise through his foot.
“What’s this? Courage surging in your final moments?”
“For you, of all people...”
Something sneered. A worm’s resistance meant nothing, so it pressed its finger as planned. The fireball left its fingertip, aimed straight for Asel’s brow.
Whoosh!
The flames extinguished midair like water had been dumped on them.
“What the...? Why...”
Something’s eyes narrowed. A misfire he’d never experienced since becoming a mage. Trembling, Asel raised his arm and gripped the monster’s ankle.
“Let go.”
“Urk... ughhh...!”
“Have you lost your mind? I said let go.”
The monster pressed harder with its foot. He felt his cracked ribs stabbing his lungs, but it didn’t matter.
Blood trickled from Asel’s lips as he squeezed out a voice.
“...For you, of all people... I absolutely cannot die.”
****
Adrian, the family head, tilted her head.
“Someone fighting Asel who isn’t Erzsebet—what do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. But first, let me ask you something. Why’d you forbid us from the basement?”
“Pardon?”
Adrian flinched. Her violet eyes quickly scanned the surroundings. Confirming most spectators were fixated on Erzsebet’s lightning-flame dome, she spoke cautiously.
“Sigh... Truth is, Erzsebet’s been staying down there lately. Ever since losing Adeshan. I didn’t want friction with you all, or to show our grieving daughter to guests.”
“As I thought. But you need to know this: your only daughter, Lady Erzsebet, has never entered that basement. Once or twice might be coincidence, but going in and out daily? None of those were your daughter.”
“...What on earth do you mean? I saw it with my own eyes, over and over.”
“Meaning it was something mimicking Erzsebet, not her. And it’s that thing trying to kill Asel right now. You’re hiding something, aren’t you, ma’am?”
I brushed back my bangs and shot back.
Asel versus Erzsebet... no, the hemisphere engulfing that monster was blazing like a miniature sun.
Stunned, Adrian furrowed her brow.
“Hiding something...? Ronan. That was rather rude just now. I’ve hidden nothing.”
“Maybe. The info you’re concealing doesn’t harm anyone in the usual sense. It’s ambiguous enough not to call a sin.”
I stood, hands in pockets. As I approached, Adrian twitched. A cute reaction straight out of her teenage daughter’s playbook.
Bending down to meet her eyes, I whispered.
“Illuan de Acalusia... your husband. He’s in the basement, isn’t he? In a state too alive to call dead, too dead to call alive.”
“......!”
“When the mana overload happened, you couldn’t kill Illuan and sealed him there instead. People think you cremated him, but his body’s preserved deep underground. Sure, you banned the basement to avoid Eri running into him, but you were also worried we’d find him, right?”
“H-how did you...”
“Wasn’t easy. Ma’am, I visited the swamp last night. The one where Adeshan supposedly drowned. No matter how I tried, I couldn’t buy that the sharp woman met a tribal death. So I cleaved the swamp in half.”
“Cleave...? What does that mean?”
“Exactly that. Pretty deep, but not too wide.”
Only about the size of this arena—nothing I couldn’t handle.
I’d split frozen earth in the first parallel world, after all.
Recalling last night, I let out a hollow chuckle.
“Heh, it was ridiculous... Know what came out from under the swamp?”
I’d expected some secret, but not one this massive. Clutching her chest, Adrian shook her head.
“A passage. One linking to Acalusia manor’s basement. Some pipes of unknown purpose too—wide enough to swap bodies easily. Sure enough, following it led to a creepy basement packed with rooms full of corridors lined with monsters made from modified human and animal corpses.”
“Impossible...! I did seal him, but there’s nothing like that down there!”
“No. It’s there. Or rather, it appeared. You just didn’t notice. Anyway, I found Adeshan’s corpse in one of those labs. As her would-be husband, I’d stake my name it was the real deal. What Eri fished out and cremated was a fake made in that underground lab. Who do you think did it?”
“No way...”
“Only one possibility, ma’am. Your husband.”
“...Ahh.”
Adrian staggered. I caught her to keep her from falling. A kindness I could afford, knowing her innocence. She wasn’t blameless, but compared to her husband’s evil spirit and the black幕 I’d reveal later, her fault was trivial.
If not for that bastard, none of this would’ve happened.
Her husband turning mad from guardian spirit duty, this world’s Adeshan dying—all traceable to that black幕.
Helping Adrian up, I continued.
“Get it now, ma’am? Whoever’s fighting Asel isn’t Erzsebet. It’s Illuan—swapping Adeshan’s body, driven mad by ambitions for the family’s glory. If you don’t believe me...”
I was midway through when—
Boom!
The hemisphere enveloping the arena exploded outward. Lightning, roaring flames, the communication-sealing silence magic—all dissolved back into mana.
At its center, a man in Acalusia uniform appeared.
“You little shit! What did you do?!”
“Wh-what is that?!”
The spectators gasped. The ill-fitting uniform strained to burst. The corpse-pale man’s face was familiar to everyone present.
Illuan de Acalusia—Adrian’s late husband.
His Polymorph magic had unraveled, revealing his true form.
“Hoo... hoooh...”
The culprit was obvious.
Battered and broken, Asel stood swaying before Illuan. He looked ready to collapse and die, but his eyes burned brighter than ever.
For the first time, the guy looked like a real man. My lips curled involuntarily.
“See? Told you he had it in him.”