17. Black Consumer
17. Black Consumer
"So, this is the past from a few years ago?"
"That's right. I already returned to my past body. Do you get it now?"
"I get it."
Adam's dead eyes turned toward Pope Milia. Unlike her demeanor a moment ago, she wore an arrogant, cruel smile.
Plenty of people could manage a smile like that. But as far as Adam knew, there was only one person who could wear it amidst hundreds of thousands of corpses: Pope Milia.
That was why he could believe her.
And therefore.
Shnk!
"Ghuk—!?"
Without a word, without so much as a retort, Adam produced a dagger he'd hidden behind his back and drove it toward Milia. The technique was a high-level dagger technique that an ordinary Finance Director would never have been able to demonstrate.
Perhaps because he moved so violently, his muscles twisted and sent pain lancing through him, but his expression didn't so much as twitch.
His mind was fixed on a single goal: driving the blade into Milia's throat.
"W-Wait!"
"............."
"This crazy bastard...!!"
[Telekinesis]
Even as she barely dodged the dagger and rolled across the floor, Milia frantically cast a spell.
A 2nd Rank basic spell, [Telekinesis].
It was the inferior counterpart to the 4th-Class [Object Domination] spell, but precisely because it was so fundamental, she could manifest it in less than a few seconds.
However, when two people were already at close quarters, a few seconds was a lethal window.
Slash!
"Gah!"
Adam's dagger swept toward Milia again, grazing her cheek.
The deep cut sent a searing pain through her, and bright red blood sprayed. Yet even though he'd wounded her, Adam's expression remained dark.
It wasn't that he was emotionless even now.
It was that he'd aimed for the carotid artery—and only managed a 'wound.' The situation was bad.
"Get off me!"
".........!!"
The belatedly cast [Telekinesis] forcibly shoved Adam backward. The spell had been cast in such a panic that it did nothing more than push him away.
Without a moment's hesitation, Adam landed and surged straight at Milia again. The window was still open for a few seconds. Whether it was the original Milia or Pope Milia, she was ultimately 3rd Rank. He'd closed the distance once, and since they were in a sealed room, there was nowhere to run. By all rights, this should have been the worst possible crisis for her.
But Pope Milia wasn't stupid.
For the high position she'd climbed to, she was far too weak—meaning that even within the Order, countless people had always been watching for a chance to snatch her papal seat.
She had her insurance.
[Telekinesis]
She cast [Telekinesis] a second time. If it succeeded, it would shove Adam just like before, but he'd simply charge again—repetition at best.
But this [Telekinesis] was different.
The magic circle completed in her hand contained not only mana but also the blood that had flowed from her cheek.
With a distorted smile, Milia launched a far faster [Telekinesis] straight at Adam.
Crack!
".........."
"I'll give you credit for not screaming even when your hand got mangled. Still a relentless bastard."
"...Didn't you say you returned to the past? How can you still use blood magic?"
"Don't tell me you heard what I said and calculated even that? You crazy bastard. I thought you were listening a little too easily."
The hidden card of the woman who called herself the Pope: blood magic.
It allowed the caster to use magic at the cost of her own or another's blood, amplifying the spell far beyond its normal limits. Viewed in isolation, it was a useful technique that merely used blood as a medium.
If it were truly that simple, though, the Holy Kingdom would never have guarded it as knowledge that must never be leaked to the world.
It was forbidden knowledge obtained by Milia, who had overwhelmed the Holy Kingdom with sheer numbers while commanding millions of followers.
"Curious? Of course you are. You've always been curious about everything. If you weren't, would you have turned the continent upside down to kill the people who murdered that infuriating monster woman?"
"............."
"Look at you, eyes all murderous. But what a shame. I don't have any reason to explain everything to you one by one, do I?"
This was always Milia's nature: she loved deceiving others, mocking them, standing above them.
The problem was that after she became the self-proclaimed Pope, she'd made the whole world her plaything. Apart from being 3rd Rank, the fact that she possessed abilities worthy of that ambition was also a problem.
The corners of Milia's eyes curved upward. She looked down at Adam, blood streaming from his left hand mangled by the blood-magic-boosted [Telekinesis].
Yet Adam still had not let go of the dagger.
And Milia had not forgotten that, either.
"So, you do believe what I'm saying, right? That I've returned to the past?"
"Do you remember when you returned?"
"I remember clearly. That's why I'm already using blood magic, bracing myself for the side effects. I need it to kill that woman... Ahh, you still don't get it, do you?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
"Rus Spero is 6th Rank. Doesn't that look suspicious to you straight away?"
".........!!"
Adam's expression, which hadn't changed a hair, wavered. Milia laughed, savoring his reaction while maintaining her [Telekinesis] without letting up.
Her complexion gradually paled. That was only natural. Blood magic demanded blood as the price, but exactly how much was entirely random.
What was more, sustaining a spell constantly meant the amount of blood consumed grew severe. Even so, Milia didn't let her guard down and kept [Telekinesis] firmly in place.
Even if her opponent was a mere 1st Rank.
She already knew to the point of nausea just how annoyingly persistent that 1st Rank could be.
"Scenarios are playing out in your head, aren't they? Rus Spero is 6th Rank. Could it possibly be coincidence that you and I both regressed to this clearly different past?"
".........."
"And that's why I'm making you an offer, instead of simply killing you on the spot."
Giggling, Milia whispered.
In a sly, cunning voice.
"You reunite with that monster woman you've been searching for, I go back to the Order. We live without bothering each other."
"Nonsense."
"Of course, I'll become the Pope again. But at least I won't invade the Kingdom. I'll just take the Holy Kingdom and the Empire, you know."
".........."
"You have no intention of ever leaving this tiny little fishbowl of an academy anyway, do you? We've both returned to the past, so let's avoid things we'll regret. Though in exchange—"
"...In exchange?"
"Kill or persuade Rus Spero. Find out why she's become 6th Rank, what her real intentions are. At the very least, make sure she never points a sword at me again."
"............."
"On top of that, hand over the Sacred Object, erase my name from the Finance Department... well, there'll be plenty for you to do. And the more you help me, the faster I'll build that paradise meant only for you and your monster woman."
Milia already felt her limits pressing in. Rus Spero was unquestionably suspicious, but she couldn't get anywhere near her.
They were in different fields of study, so unless she went out of her way to visit, she couldn't even meet her. She'd tried to strike up a conversation using the original Milia's memories from the midterm exam, but finding her at all was impossible—as if Rus Spero was deliberately avoiding her.
Each failure intensified her suspicion, but she couldn't face her, so she had no answer. After all, she was 3rd Rank, and she couldn't defeat the 6th Rank Rus on her own.
That was why she needed Adam.
"Honestly, this is a deal with no downsides, isn't it? This is the past. A past where nothing has happened yet. The princess who went mad in the Delphia Ruins isn't flying through the sky with the royal palace; a murderer wielding the Magic Spear isn't wandering loose; 8th Rank monsters aren't invading the Empire from the Western Wilderness; the Holy Kingdom hasn't been utterly destroyed. And as a bonus, that monster woman hasn't died yet."
"...The past."
"I still hate you, and you still hate me. But we can join hands for each other's greater cause, for our goals, can't we? All we have to do is get what we each want. Since we've gone back to the past, we can easily stop or kill the culprits. Right?"
But Milia knew. This 1st Rank called Adam Caines would never join hands with her.
Of course, an unprecedented event like returning to the past might change the story, but originally Milia and Adam were enemies who'd slathered each other in mutual hatred and tried to kill one another. No matter how she suddenly suggested they each go their own way, he'd never accept it easily. It would be lucky if he didn't just swing a dagger again like he had a moment ago.
Even so, the reason she was trying to persuade him wasn't to cling to a thread-thin hope.
It was to buy time.
—Understood. Then I shall give you.
—the 'Eye.'
One of Milia's pupils moved, split in half, and multiplied into two.
The two pupils chased each other, spinning in circles, their tails dragging like tadpoles as they pursued—and so formed a hideously revolving eye.
Before long, it produced a magic she remembered.
[Cyclic Confusion]
This Eye, obtained in a Trade with the Archmage, confounded the target's mind. Milia hadn't expected to use it like this the first time, but she grinned.
No matter how shrewd and impossible to let your guard down around he might be, Adam was still only 1st Rank. His physical and mental limits were inescapable.
Thus, Milia's 'Eye' threw Adam's mind into confusion. Like the revolving pupils, Adam's mind began to spin in circles.
The Eye had been given by none other than the Archmage. Because the magic itself was embedded in the Eye, she could use [Cyclic Confusion] despite it being a high-tier spell far exceeding her own capabilities.
"From my perspective, killing you here has no long-term drawbacks. But if I did that, who knows how the still-alive monster woman might rampage? It's not some pitiful sympathy—I'm making this proposal out of pure, pragmatic utility."
".........."
"You can use me too, can't you? That way we use each other. That's the way of the world. Surely you're not going to let hatred consume you and throw away a chance to start over?"
Logic, reason, appeals, opportunity, emotion.
She used everything to persuade Adam, all while scrambling his mind. Milia was turning a sudden crisis into an opportunity.
Adam Caines had regressed? Of course it threw her off. But if she played it right, things could resolve far more easily.
She could escape her current existence as the Finance Department's slave, get the Sacred Object back immediately, and become Pope far sooner. Above all, the very fact of toying with Adam Caines sent a thrill through her.
She'd wanted to do this a long time ago, but she hadn't been able to. Because alongside Adam Caines, there had always been that other monster woman.
But now, stupidly, he'd come alone, so the story was different—
"The past... the Chairwoman... Rus... Laura... everyone is alive."
"Exactly, they're all alive. And it's not even a dream."
"Yeah. The Chairwoman is."
"Changing the future is easy. You know who the culprits are, don't you? Just kill them all and stop them. Simple, isn't it?"
"...The future."
"The best possible future for both of us."
"The future... right. In the future... in the world from before I came back... ..."
Still.
"...Chloe would still be there."
"Huh?"
"Which means, get lost."
The instant after.
Shk!
The dagger ripped through the air. Hot blood sprayed.
In that fleeting moment when Milia drew closer to use [Cyclic Confusion], Adam dislocated his shoulder to barely slip free of the [Telekinesis] and gripped the dagger with his mangled hand.
It was such a wretched sight that it was more accurate to say he'd wedged it between his fingers than actually held it.
But he had never let go of the blade.
"Kyaaaaaaagh!!"
With a scream.
"Die."
The dagger came plunging down again.
Thunk.