Jerato's Purpose - Seria's Pout
Seria was pouting. I had no choice but to soothe her.
“It’s all part of the plan.”
“Huh?”
“I was pretty angry back then and couldn’t control my emotions, so I ended up ramming my head straight into her. But it was also to train the kids and make Jerato lower his guard while he watched us.”
“Oh! So there was a deeper meaning behind it.”
She’s actually buying this.
“A mage who looks like a total beginner—wearing an Attelina uniform with just a robe thrown over it—gets her head grabbed by her comrade, the Saint, and slammed into a wall? Perfect way to get underestimated, right?”
To be honest, I really was just pissed off. Unlike when I was Noah, controlling my emotions in Olivia’s body is surprisingly difficult.
“Now that I hear it, that actually makes me feel bad.”
“Let’s just move on. That’s how life works. Thanks to it, the operation was a success. Look at Jerato stupidly throwing his forces at us.”
Jerato isn’t actually stupid. He did manage to damage the kingdom with his dungeon terror tactics. The problem is that his opponents this time happen to be me and Seria.
“That’s true. He’s definitely summoning monsters with the dungeon master’s mana.”
“He must have received power from Clanice, but it’s clear he isn’t conserving his mana at all right now.”
In my opinion, Jerato is no match for Seria. The dungeon is the only reason he’s still in the game. In a straight fight, he’d be crushed miserably. Even now, he’s hiding behind the dungeon like a shield.
“But there are way more than I expected.”
“We have plenty of teddy bears anyway.”
I could probably summon hundreds if I wanted. There are even knight teddy bears and griffin-mounted ones. Everything’s a teddy bear.
“Hey, what do you take me for? Our mage contract clearly states I can only use thirty teddy bears while attending Attelina.”
What?
“You should have predicted a situation like this.”
A mage should always see several moves ahead. I really should have expected it.
“With the Demon King dead, who would be crazy enough to target the imperial capital? Especially when it’s protected by the barrier Lord Noah himself designed?”
“Ah, that’s true.”
“If a dungeon terror breaks out, the imperial knights and troops would mobilize immediately. They’d just fire those new weapons—those guns—from the walls and everything would collapse.”
That makes sense. Protected by the barrier, Jerato’s attacks would never reach the defending forces. The soldiers could hold the line just by firing the cannons mounted on the ramparts.
“Lady Olivia!”
“What is it, Croissant?”
“There are too many undead!”
Does Jerato have more mana reserves than I thought? This wasn’t going to work. At this rate, I had no choice but to step in myself.
I raised my palm and created a small orb of light.
“Light of Purification.”
The orb unleashed rays bright enough to illuminate the entire dark dungeon. Every undead the light touched evaporated on the spot.
“Wait, what kind of magic is that?”
“It’s a miracle called Light of Purification. It purifies every undead in the path of the light rays.”
“Why are you only using that now? Wow, you really made me do all the hard work.”
“Well. I was just respecting your whole finger-snapping pose routine.”
Even after going that far, I couldn’t step forward myself. She could make that resentful face all she wanted—I wasn’t going to budge.
“Wow. You’re awful.”
“I’m a mage, remember? Can’t a mage handle something like this?”
She’s really underestimating me.
“But aren’t miracles supposed to be something only Saints can learn? Isn’t that why you use them?”
“The imperial church is corrupt, you know? I’m a Saint in name only. You already know that.”
Thanks to me, the imperial church has managed to establish itself somewhat, but there aren’t many miracles available to learn there right now. You’d need to go to the monasteries between the Holy Kingdom and the Empire to learn higher-level ones. The Pope will probably bring back some miracle spellbooks this time.
“Oh. Yeah, that’s right. But where on earth did you learn such high-level—”
“It’s called a miracle or holy magic, but in the end it’s all just magic.”
As I always say, magic and miracles are just a difference in terminology.
“That makes sense. But that spell… the visual effect is pretty intense, isn’t it? Where did you learn it?”
“It’s a secret.”
If I had to explain, I simply created it myself. It wasn’t even a spell that properly corresponds to a miracle in the first place.
“At this rate, even our teddy bears should be able to—”
“One of the teddy bears just burst.”
One of the sword-wielding teddy bears had its stuffing explode outward. Cotton spilled everywhere.
“Oh no, my poor teddy bear!”
Seria cried out as she hugged the damaged bear.
“We don’t have time for this.”
“But can you really hold out? Your mana as a Saint. You still have to fight the dungeon master. If Jerato has gained power, even you might struggle.”
“Why? Are you planning to just sit back and watch?”
This bitch needs to step up too. I’ve already beaten him several times before. Even if he’s gained power, he’s still far below the Four Heavenly Kings. He’s the type who would get cut off at Adran’s level. I don’t see myself losing to someone like that. It’s utterly ridiculous.
“Wait, what are those?”
Seria pointed at the red-eyed skeletons rushing toward us from a distance. They were black skeletons with crimson flames flickering in their eye sockets. The striking red hearts embedded in their chests stood out. On those fleshless bones, that single attached organ wasn’t a normal heart. It was a bomb. Their purpose was to latch onto enemies and self-destruct. Since undead could be created anytime as long as there were corpses, they were efficient monsters from Jerato’s perspective. Their destructive power was also enormous.
“They’re skeleton suicide bombers. Jerato must have made them.”
Thanks to that gloomy bastard’s suicide bombers, the kingdom army suffered quite a bit. That’s why the kingdom saw a huge increase in archers.
“Jerato made them?”
There had been similar things before him, but it was no exaggeration to say he was the first to mass-produce them. Dealing with them was simple enough.
“It’s easy. Just hit the red thing in their chests.”
Boom! Boom!
I probably shouldn’t use Light of Purification anymore. Every time the light touched them, the black skeletons melted and exploded violently. They died if you hit the heart, but the enchantment made them detonate if damaged any other way. Since self-destruction was their entire purpose, they had minimal equipment. That’s exactly why that bastard is so creepy. At a distance, purification light could take them out without the explosion affecting us, but if they got too close, the students would be in danger.
“Attention, students. This is the perfect time to test your magic abilities. Those are suicide bombers. Aim for the hearts of the charging skeletons.”
They should be able to manage that much. That Jerato bastard really is an idiot. He’s only doing things that benefit the enemy. This would raise the kids’ magic proficiency even more than a regular dungeon. I should set up a moderate barrier.
“Wait, we don’t have that much mana…”
One student whined.
“A basic spell like Mana Bullet is more than enough. Just hit the heart.”
Elemental magic consumes quite a bit of mana. I didn’t know about students with large mana circuits, but none here had circuits on my level. In other words, if they used elemental magic poorly, they’d exhaust themselves quickly. What mattered was destroying the heart. A heart would burst with even the slightest stimulation.
“Lady Olivia. If we get caught in even one explosion, we’ll die? Even Lady Seria’s teddy bears don’t look like they’ll last long.”
Croissant grumbled.
“I’ve already put up the barrier. They’ll probably just follow their instincts, charge at us, slam into the barrier, and explode.”
In fact, the suicide bombers were rushing toward the students only to collide with the barrier.
“So… this is practical training?”
Croissant finally understood.
“That’s right. I’m raising your magic proficiency.”
Good. Second class starts now.
Whoosh! Bang!
Mana Bullets fired from every direction struck the suicide bombers.
“Saint, this consumes too much mana.”
A student whose face had gone pale from mana depletion spoke up. I handed him a mana potion and gave some advice.
“Don’t underestimate basic magic. Why do you think I asked Seria to bring these out? Minimize the mana used for Mana Bullets. Then just hit the target.”
If the imperial army could fire Mana Bullets with new weapons, mages needed to learn how to shoot them without guns. Only then could they handle higher-level magic.
At my words, the students began adjusting their Mana Bullets and launching them at the skeleton suicide bombers.
“Wow. You’re really good at teaching?”
The useless Seria, busy sewing up the teddy bear’s stuffing, was just sitting there in admiration.
“In this situation, it can’t be helped.”
It wasn’t really teaching. In the end, life was all practical combat. The students were fighting that filthy dark mage themselves.
“It’s like turning a crisis into an opportunity—just like Lord Noah?”
“Ah, I told you I don’t like that comparison.”
Boom. Boomboom—!
At first the students couldn’t handle the Mana Bullets properly. But that only lasted a moment. Starting with the talented ones, then those interested in the magic department, small Mana Bullets formed in their hands and took down the skeleton suicide bombers.
“Hmm, now that I think about it, they say humans display superhuman strength when cornered.”
“Exactly.”
Seria stared at me intently for a while. What on earth was she about to say now? After some time passed, she tilted her head slightly.
“I see. So that’s it.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Before we knew it, the number of skeleton suicide bombers had decreased. We still couldn’t let our guard down. There were more than expected. We advanced down to the lower floors with shields at the front.
“It looks like the rampage has started.”
The absurdly high number of undead. Even if he had converted the monsters Adran had modified into undead, this was excessive.
“It might be the dungeon core’s influence.”
The dungeon core was the heart of the dungeon. I definitely destroyed it before. That meant Jerato had created a new one. Even if Adran had made the original, it would take considerable time to claim it as his own. If he created a core in such a short time, then this…
It must have been given by Clanice. That madman seemed to genuinely believe he could target the imperial capital. Causing a dungeon terror to sever the capital’s connection to other regions would already be significant on its own.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
“It’s strange. Clanice seems to have given Jerato far more than I expected.”
No matter how I looked at it, something was off. Why were Clanice and Jerato so obsessed with the Empire? Creating a core and causing it to rampage meant…
They were truly determined to destroy the Empire. They were doing something incredibly vicious.
No matter how strong the Four Heavenly Kings and their armies were. Even if the Empire was currently overrun with rotten nobles. Could they really uproot a giant tree that had stood for fifteen hundred years? There was a reason people continued to follow despite the corruption and the imperial family’s lack of power. The parliament kept the nation running through a system of mutual checks and balances. Moreover, in the battles against the Demon King’s army, the imperial forces had created new weapons. It meant they were progressing. The Four Heavenly Kings weren’t weak, but if the Empire gathered all its strength and the Seven Stars to confront them, even they would have to prepare for total annihilation. Knowing that, they had avoided all-out war with the Empire and only attacked the kingdom. That’s why this was surprising.
“Impressive.”
It really was admirable.
“What?”
“Picking a fight with the Empire.”
“You mean Jerato?”
“Clanice must be behind it.”
There was no doubt. Jerato would die for anything Clanice said.
“But why would they do that?”
Why? The answer was obvious.
“To overthrow the Empire.”
“They’re insane. Overthrowing the Empire?”
That was exactly what I was thinking. They were making far too reckless a move. Of course, if they mobilized every dungeon in the country it might be different, but this method was simply absurd. Was this some new form of suicide?