Chapter 136: Elf (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 136: Elf (5)
Boradori – The Captured Heroine?
"Who kidnapped whom?"
They say a certain reaper from somewhere wakes up every morning for decades wondering about the night before.
Today, I found myself wondering about last night too.
"Adam! He was kidnapped by a dark mage!"
To think Daisy knew something that even his direct subordinates didn't.
Is this the power of a lover? ...Actually, it was probably just—
"Esid told me!"
As expected, it was the power of a RoFan heroine.
"...Really?"
I shook my head, trying to clear the sleepiness, and thought it over.
Would that walking strategic weapon really get caught by a dark mage?
I highly doubted it.
Even if he talks himself down, Ellen—at this point in time—has almost no equals. It feels like no one could beat him unless they were a Sword Master.
And Adam? Even if he had to endure dozens of losses, the fact that he could win even once against Ellen meant he was already qualified to be called a human weapon.
Was that all?
He had even secured an official victory against Arwen, who could be called the Ellen of the magic world.
Granted, Ellen had become stronger than in the original work because of Adam, while Arwen remained the same.
And sure, it was a fight between a swordsman and a mage—a matchup full of variables rather than a clear-cut hierarchy within the same class—but beating Arwen was no small feat.
In the original work, Arwen was already close to being a strategic weapon by the time he arrived at the Academy. There’s a reason he was portrayed as the rival to Silence.
After experiencing various incidents at the Academy with Daisy and surviving several crises against enemies like Silence, Arwen eventually grew to become the pinnacle of mages, just as Ellen became the pinnacle of swordsmen.
...The problem was that Silence, the catalyst for that growth, was already dead.
Arwen had barely encountered any enemies that made him feel a sense of crisis, and most importantly, his connection with Daisy had been slashed to a fraction of what it was in the original!
Still, Arwen was Arwen.
I couldn't imagine the man who beat him being taken down by a mere dark mage.
At most, he probably fell into a magic trap he didn't know how to handle.
He knew so little about magic that I sometimes suspected his "mage hatred" was just pure ignorance. He really didn't seem like someone living in a fantasy world when it came to that subject.
There was a very high probability he was trapped in something like that "Room You Can't Leave Without XX-ing" from before.
In novels, things that seem like a big deal the first time usually end up being used like common tools later on. The first appearance is the hardest; after that, they pop up everywhere.
And as if to prove my point...
"You mean that barrier from last time?!"
Daisy's interrogation of Aeryun—the Imperial agent we'd seen several times now—yielded the exact answer I expected.
"No, but why?"
"Uh, well. That is..."
Even if she was a Saintess, that was a title in the Holy Kingdom, not the Empire.
Technically, Aeryun couldn't reveal Imperial secrets to a "civilian" like Daisy. However...
"Speak."
"......"
Standing beside Daisy were the RoFan male leads, looking ready to do anything she asked.
And unfortunately for Uncle Aeryun—I mean, Agent Aeryun—he was a subordinate of one of them: Esid.
"Well..."
Looking like he had given up all resistance, he explained the situation to us, omitting the most sensitive details.
"So... he was chasing a dark mage and fell into a trap. And now he's trapped alone in that barrier with elven royalty?"
"Yes."
"Uh, um... is it that room where you have to kiss to get out?"
At Daisy's cautious question, the RoFan male leads looked flustered, their faces clouded with PTSD.
"The condition is different this time."
"Oh, is it?"
Fortunately, it wasn't that.
"Then what is the condition?"
"D-Daisy. As I said before, one can leave even without fulfilling the condition."
"Right! If we rescue them from the outside like last time..."
"Exactly. We are doing our absolute best to achieve that, so..."
The male leads and Aeryun tried to steer the conversation away.
"So. What is the condition?"
Daisy asked, her eyes narrowing.
"...Answer her."
Sensing something ominous, Esid gave the order. Agent Aeryun squeezed his eyes shut and answered.
"......"
"......"
"......"
The answer suddenly turned the conversation from a General Audience rating to an Adult rating, leaving everyone speechless.
Yerisha – A room where you have to do WHAT to leave?!
It feels like days have passed already.
According to the explanation, time inside this space flows differently than outside.
I don't know how much time has passed in the real world, but to me, it feels like several days.
The only saving grace was that the human I was trapped with had plenty of food and water.
Furthermore... he had all sorts of equipment and even magic tools.
"...You're sure you're not the one who cast this magic?"
I asked as I watched him naturally remodeling the space.
"If I could use space-related magic, I'd be the Tower Master of Leon."
Should I believe that answer?
Of course, I didn't have a choice. He was the one providing all the food and supplies.
Even...
"What are you doing?"
"Building a bathroom and a shower."
...He was even taking care of the infrastructure.
No, wait a minute.
"Why do you even have those things...?"
I couldn't hold back the question as I saw the magic tools for a portable toilet and shower appear so naturally.
Unless he had planned to get trapped here, it meant he carried these things around daily.
Does that even make sense?!
"If you want to survive at the Academy, it's best to carry this much at all times."
Apparently, it does.
He even recommended I carry them if I planned to live at the Academy.
"...Wasn't the Empire supposed to be one of the safer human nations?"
"Maybe not in the conflict zones, but the capital and the grand territories are safe."
"...If my memory serves me right, the Academy is located very close to the Imperial capital."
"Right?"
"What do you mean, 'Right?'! Nothing you're saying matches your previous answer!"
"Well, it's the Academy."
"????!"
Is he trying to play a prank on me, despite being so much younger?
I almost wished he was.
He looked dead serious as he hammered away, building a wall for the toilet on one side and a shower on the other.
If he wasn't joking... then the Academy he spoke of was a truly dangerous place.
To think I have to spend the next few years in such a place.
It's hell.
I'd have been better off not knowing.
I should have sent Yenika as the head of the delegation.
I want to cry.
But I must endure. I cannot show weakness in front of a human much younger than myself.
He seems uninterested now, but didn't the Elders say that humans are creatures who suddenly reveal their true nature?
—You cannot leave unless you perform a sexual act.
Just like right now!
"......Pardon?"
"Yes?"
I turned my head at the sudden voice, but he just looked at me as if wondering what I had said.
"No, just now!"
—You cannot leave unless you perform a sexual act.
"......"
The voice spoke again, even though he hadn't opened his mouth.
Thinking about it, it felt less like I was hearing it with my ears and more like it was being projected directly into my mind.
"Y-You! That was your magic, wasn't it!"
"The only magic I can use is this."
He produced fire and ice in his hands.
"T-That can't possibly be magic!"
I shouted, looking at the clumps of mana that were essentially just corrupted, unbalanced energy.
"The Ancestor said it was magic..."
"You mean Lady Irin?!"
If a Dragon Descendant called it magic... I suppose I had to accept it as such.
In the midst of my confusion, the voice spoke in my head again.
"Y-You're saying this telepathy isn't your magic?"
"If I could do that, I'd be an Elder of the Leon Magic Tower."
"Seriously, what can that Magic Tower actually do?!"
"Combat? Destruction? Self-destruction?"
"......"
I made a tearful face, unable to tell if he was messing with me or being sincere.
Meanwhile, the voice continued to echo in my head.
"Ah, is it that? I heard that when you're trapped in here, the condition for leaving is whispered to you."
"...T-That is true, but..."
It was indeed telling me the way out of this space.
B-But there's no way I can do something like that just to leave!
"What does it say you have to do? If it's something simple, let's just get it over with and—"
"I absolutely cannot!"
"......?"
I-I'd rather die.
How could I possibly do that kind of thing with a human I just met?
"What is it?"
"Hieeeek!"
He suddenly took three steps toward me, and I screamed, backing away thirty steps.
"It's something I absolutely cannot do!"
"I'm asking what it is."
"Y-You're just a green boy! Are you trying to make me say it out loud?!"
"......?"
He looked genuinely confused, but I couldn't let myself be fooled.
Humans are black-hearted creatures.
F-For now, he was a human from Leon, a nation of ignorant swordsmen that the Elders said was relatively safe.
But you never know!
S-Still!
"W-Whose magic did you say this was?"
"Dale. The country of Magic Spammers."
Dale. To think they created such wicked magic.
As expected of a nation founded by such a sinister race.
Ruelle Dale – Damn Ancestors.
"Is someone talking about me?"
Ruelle muttered, scratching her ear.
"Surely no one's cursing me just because I haven't found them yet."
If there was such a person, she was seriously considering blasting them with a spell.
She had been summoned since dawn and told out of the blue to solve the barrier.
—Where is it?
—How are we supposed to know that!
—?????
That had been the elves' response.
"This is so unfair."
Ruelle made a tearful face but raised her staff anyway.
"Damn ancestors..."
But she had no choice.
Before Dale became Dale...
Her ancestors—or more accurately, the ancient forebears of Dale—were the ones who had enslaved the most elves.
And unlike other nations that took slaves for base desires based purely on elven beauty...
Most of them took slaves for "research purposes," claiming it was part of their magical studies.
In words, both were trashy acts.
But if you dug into the details, being a sex slave was "cute" compared to what happened in those labs.
Even after countless generations and the founding of the nation of Dale, the elves still hated the people of Dale with a passion.
"Sigh..."
So, Ruelle had no choice but to squeeze out her mana and search for the magic circle while looking miserable.
The only consolation was that she wasn't the only one suffering.
There were Imperial agents searching everywhere.
And the human trapped with the elf was that guy.
"When he gets out of the barrier, I'm going to tease him so much."
Since she could never win in a fight, she had to take the upper hand this way.
She had to make those stupid sword-swingers admit they couldn't solve things like this!
"Surely he won't complain that it was made by Dale after I rescue him."
No matter how shameless Adam Smith was, he wouldn't go that far.
With that thought, Ruelle found her second wind.
"The audacity of Dale!"
"???"
However, Ruelle never imagined that the High Elf trapped with Adam Smith would be the one lodging the complaint instead.