Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: Faith -2
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Clink.
Steam rose gently from the milk poured into the teacup. True to form as a Crimson Magic Tower mage, she heated it in an instant with just a brush of her hand.
"Here you go."
"Ah, thanks."
"It's hot, so let it cool down a bit before you drink."
"Mm..."
Selvia wasn't the type of mage to bungle the heat control. She could have warmed it to the perfect drinking temperature just fine. So, the fact that she'd made it piping hot meant there was some intention behind it.
Like floating a single leaf on the surface of water.
I blew on it a few times and took a sip. I thought it had cooled enough, but it was still a touch too hot, leaving my tongue feeling slightly scalded. Timing miss.
"Hot hot."
As I stuck out my scorched tongue to cool it, a scolding flew my way from Selvia.
"I told you to let it cool."
"I thought it had."
"Everyone's like that when it's their turn. You see things crystal clear when it's someone else, but when it's you, you can't even tell if it's hot or cold. That's why you mess up."
"......"
I felt a strange sensation and looked at Selvia.
This way of speaking. It was a style I often used.
Taking a conversation from some unrelated tangent and weaving it straight into the main point. It felt awfully familiar.
I'd hardly ever talked with her before. So that style probably didn't come from me—it had to be from that 'childhood friend' of hers. That's what I thought.
"This time, sip it slowly after cooling it properly and tell me. What happened, and what's your dilemma?"
My dilemma. I couldn't boil it down to just one thing.
I wanted to save Yuri Lanster, who was in crisis. Yuna was deeply worried about me for it. Should I give up, or push on? Choose Yuri, or choose Yuna?
When I weighed them on the scales of my heart, both sides were heavy. I laid all these thoughts out honestly to Selvia.
Selvia listened quietly... then suddenly launched a personal attack.
"You're an idiot, aren't you?"
"Why again, what now..."
I shrank a bit from the double idiot strike. Did my wavering conflict look that pathetic?
Selvia crossed her arms, looking at my deflated self, and cut straight to it.
"You're missing the point."
"......?"
"There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to following your heart. If you want to save her, save her. If you want to at least protect what's left, do that. If you want both, go for it. Who's gonna stop you?"
People have their own values. Some will save, some will protect. There's no wrong choice in matters of value judgment. That's what she—and her 'childhood friend'—were saying.
But.
"There are right and wrong ways to go about it. Charging into a dungeon full of traps without any prep? That's insane."
"Ah."
"Prepare, predict, complete your plan, and gear up thoroughly to leap over those traps—that's what a mage does. Your dilemma isn't wrong. What's wrong is rushing in headlong with your blood boiling."
"Ahh..."
It's up to you how warm you drink your heated milk. Cold is fine, warm is fine, but gulping it down boiling hot is definitely wrong. So.
Please, let it cool first. Selvia said it with her eyes.
Selvia rested her chin on her hand, her gaze drifting up and to the right as if reminiscing about the past, and continued.
"That guy Envers, before he left for his family... he went around blabbing about how even if he failed, he wouldn't have any regrets."
Yeah. That was Nangong Cheonghwi, having grown through the session, steeling his own resolve in his monologue.
"You only avoid regrets by giving it your absolute best, perfectly. If you'd charged in like that, you'd regret it later for sure. 'I wish I'd prepared properly.' Definitely."
"......"
"We don't call blind enthusiasm your 'best.' How reckless were you that even I—not anyone else—tried to stop you from doing what you said you'd do?"
What did that mean?
"You're a genius. Around my age but already a professor, playing the entire academy's students like fiddles with your illusion magic. Niore, Bennet, Envers. Their faces get all weird whenever you come up."
"......Like, how?"
"Like they think you could do anything. Especially the people close to you, right? And if even they tried to hold you back, you must've looked seriously unstable."
Is that so.
Then, did I make Yuna anxious?
Did I look like someone about to die any second, enough for her to dredge up past trauma and hurl illusion magic at me?
Selvia stood from her seat and strode over. She grabbed my cheeks with both hands, looked down at me with blazing eyes, and spoke.
It was like she was passing down an ancient proverb.
"Keep your heart hot, your head cool. Even if you use emotions as fuel, never let them control you."
"......"
"Go. Go make a proper plan, convince the fellow mage barricaded in your lab. If you come up with a solid strategy, she'll trust you again."
Is that right. Yeah.
My heart was still impatient. Every time I imagined what Pingbalrez might be going through, my hands trembled and my heart raced with anxiety.
But Selvia was right. I couldn't help the anxiety. If anything, this anxiety proved how much I cared for Yuri Lanster. But I couldn't let it sway me.
Because I'd let it sway me, I'd made Yuna anxious too. If I'd been more level-headed... less shaken. She wouldn't have panicked this much.
I had to accept the emotions and overcome them head-on.
As a faint resolve solidified in me, Selvia grinned like a mischievous kid and said,
"If you succeed and come back... you can brag about that glorious victory to me. I'll take back calling you an idiot then."
That look of hers—like the sun.
Had Selvia always been this handsome? Dazed, I blurted out,
"......Can I call you sis?"
"Ack, what kind of talk is that from a professor to a student, you...?!"
"Selvia sis."
"Creepy! Get out! Go do what you need to do!"
I got booted.
Pushed out of Selvia's dorm room by a storm of Indian rice sprinkles and kicks. Second time today.
But my mood was the complete opposite.
Like a candle flame leaping over, Selvia's fire had spread to me. I'd felt lost in the dark, but now the path ahead was roughly visible. Yeah. I knew what to do.
I organized my thoughts in front of the door.
"......"
I recalled the clues one by one and pieced them together.
Soon, I came up with a plausible rescue plan. I dashed to my lab, where Yuna had holed up. There's a way.
A way to take down the Succubus Queen!
In the room after the mad mage left, Selvia alone propped her chin and muttered.
"......Was I ever that close to that guy?"
No. There was no reason to feel any affinity for a womanizer playing around with two girls.
Sure, she'd learned a lot from his classes, but the mountains of hardship that came with it canceled that out to zero.
Maybe it was the familiar black hair, or pity for his drenched, pitiful state...
Or perhaps a sense of kinship from sharing the desire to reclaim someone precious.
Selvia stared blankly at the milk cup the mad mage had left half-drunk, at the spot where his lips had touched, then slapped her cheeks to snap out of it.
"What am I even thinking...!"
She opened a thick grimoire. Study, she had to study. To reunite with her childhood friend, after all.
Selvia scribbled down spells. She'd given all the advice she could; her role in this was done.
Still, she occasionally wished the mad mage luck. No one in the world wanted to lose someone precious.
I knocked on the firmly shut lab door. Then calmly asked,
"Tower Master, you in there?"
"......"
There was a presence. I could easily picture Yuna on the other side, listening to me. I thought for a moment. Then whispered,
"......Hail Hydra."
"......Snort."
A stifled laugh escaped.
"Mind opening the door? I, uh, slapped my knee and came up with a killer plan even Irid would pass by. You'll be shocked when you hear it."
"......"
The door cracked open slightly. As I cautiously entered the lab, Yuna looked up at me with an expression stained by anxiety.
She was on high alert, unsure when I'd try another reckless charge. I raised both hands to signal no such plans and approached, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Just hear me out first. If you still oppose after... I won't go. How's that?"
Yuna nodded in my arms. I patted her back awkwardly. I'd shown such an ugly side just before.
"Sorry about earlier."
"......Me too, sorry."
"I got desperate, stopped seeing the big picture. Too hasty. Thanks for stopping me, Yuna."
"......Next time, don't. I was really scared..."
We reconciled in that short time. Tension drained gently from Yuna's body. Had her mood eased a bit?
I wet my lips and began explaining the plan.
"Alright, listen. No matter how you slice it, their goal has to be to gobble up me or you, the Tower Master, right...?"
That was the key. There's always a weakness where the enemy covets most. I whispered the details of my Succubus Queen takedown plan...
Yuna hesitated briefly, then accepted the odds of success and nodded.
We placed Pingbalrez on the magic circle, and Yuna and I began a deep analysis together. We'd extract every bit of data readable from outside before diving in.
We applied precision gently, without harming her psyche. Slipping cameras through gaps in the Queen's magic, firing mana and reading the echoes...
"Double-layered structure, right?"
"Yeah. They remodeled Yuri's mental barrier into the first layer, and her core self inside as the second..."
"And basement level two has a wedge hooked to the 'Nest.'"
"......Like you did with Deep Heart Immersion, the Succubus Queen must be interfering remotely too."
Yeah. That was the biggest threat.
Yuna sketched on paper. She diagrammed the structure simply.
[Mental Structure Diagram]
This operation's outline was simple.
I'd detach only my consciousness for a solo infiltration, while Yuna handled the external emergency extraction system. That system was the plan's linchpin.
Like tying a line to a diver's waist. When I signaled, Yuna would yank the line and pull me out.
We promised instant activation at any sign of danger.
To collapse the Succubus Queen's traps from within, I'd pack info-bombs for infiltration. Install them at key points inside and detonate, erasing only the parts that weren't original Yuri Lanster.
Simultaneously, protect Yuri Lanster's mind under assault.
Performing both, breach consciousness layer one, reach layer two.
There, undoubtedly, an entrance hooked to the 'Nest' would be embedded. Remove that connecting passage. Sever in and out.
At that moment, the op was essentially a success.
Without the Succubus Queen's interference, even traps set by her great-grandfather held no fear. We could take the time to fix them.
I finished prep. I lay on the magic circle drawn beside Pingbalrez. Yuna's face peering down brimmed with worry.
Brimming, but equally... with faith. That I could pull it off.
"......Come back for sure. Got it?"
"Yeah. I'll bring runaway Yuri home too, so don't worry."
"Starting."
Snap.
Yuna flicked her fingers.
Light flared from the magic circle, and my consciousness sank like plunging into the earth. Using TRPG techniques for consciousness-only infiltration—did players feel something similar?
Thus deeply submerged, crossing the bubbling sea of the unconscious, I reached the position where Yuri Lanster's mental barrier came into view.
I surveyed from afar before infiltrating. And was surprised.
Structure like a session. No exaggeration to call it a session itself. Built a world from Yuri Lanster's memories, set up for a specific story to unfold.
The stage... Imperial Defense Bureau, Annihilation Squad. Memories from when Pingbalrez was a bit younger, shortly after joining the squad.
But not the original. Some parts showed malicious edits. Especially characters. Traces of one figure carved out from the memories.
Even better. I'd enter through that 'empty space.'
I steeled myself and touched the mental barrier's shell.
The Queen's magic contaminating and dominating it, along with bizarre foreign substances, sucked me in instantly like welcoming me. No resistance.
I got entry permission this easily, but they didn't like the line tied to me.
They strained to sever my emergency extraction system... the lifeline. But up top, the Violet Magic Tower Master was reinforcing it in real-time.
No way it'd snap easily.
I slipped lightly inside. Let's begin.
Time to wake the princess deep in slumber from the Queen's curse.