Chapter 87
Chapter 87
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 87
Chapter Title: Mad Dog and Mad Maid (2)
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The night was deep.
Even though the night had grown so deep, sleep refused to come.
Staring at the melting candle, the First Princess Luriel had such thoughts. A lot had happened that day. She lived her days busily, but today had been exceptionally chaotic and hectic.
She sorted through the day while gazing at the candle flame.
Watching the flickering fire somehow calmed her mood. It felt like her true face was being revealed.
Whoosh.
A breeze blew in through the open window.
It was early summer, but the night wind was cold. The candle flame wavered in the gust.
"......"
Luriel leaned back into the chair's backrest and gazed out the window. It was night. A night filled with darkness and silence. Amid the vast black sky, stars shone beautifully.
As always.
They simply shone in their places.
Even when her royal sisters, born under those stars, met their ends, the stars had always shone just like that.
"How ridiculous."
Such a murmur suddenly slipped out.
Ridiculous. It was laughable. Death was closing in, yet here she was, so peacefully at ease. The situation itself was absurd.
'...Summoning circuits, was it.'
Luriel mulled over the words she'd heard from the professor earlier that day.
The professor had provided the answer so easily. The solution the professor presented as if it were nothing had been the very answer Luriel had sought her entire life.
Her sisters' deaths.
The death that would one day claim her and Aila.
No one knew its nature, so rumors spread that it was a curse upon the royal family.
'Unrestful rumors were circulating, so my brother quashed them. It's no curse. The girls were simply frail... He spewed such nonsense.'
Because of her brother's interference, investigations had always been conducted in secret. Luriel had pored over every book, researching the deaths that had befallen her sisters.
She couldn't trust anyone.
She could only trust herself.
Luriel delved into magical studies. She studied how to read circuits. She knew she had no talent for magic.
Yet, even without talent... reading circuits fell under the realm of learning and effort.
So she put in the effort.
Her efforts bore fruit.
She became one of the Ivory Tower's pillars of honor.
Right after becoming a pillar, she scoured every circuit in the Ivory Tower. Recalling the symptoms that had appeared in her sisters, she dug through spells and researched relentlessly.
But she found nothing.
She couldn't find it.
And then, death came for her too.
There was nothing more she could do on her own. She needed someone's help.
That's how she came to hire a certain professor.
'Lania van Trias.'
Lord Rosel's adopted daughter and disciple, who had raised an Ashen Mage. And a professor at Aphria Academy, where Aila studied. Looking at her, Luriel thought.
She harbored a faint hope.
If it didn't work, so be it—she resigned herself.
And the gods had sided with hope. Everything resolved so easily. No, it wasn't fully resolved yet, but it would be.
-It's a circuit used by frontline ritual squads.
-It activates the circuit using the target's life force as a medium.
The professor had said as much.
Those words weren't lies or speculation. After hearing them, the evidence Luriel had gathered all fell into place, affirming the professor's answer.
So, only one question remained.
How had this professor immediately identified something Luriel couldn't find no matter how hard she searched? She hadn't asked directly, but the doubt lingered.
'A circuit used by frontline ritual squads.'
Luriel knew a thing or two about circuits herself. She was one of the Magical Society's pillars, after all.
Life was precious.
It held the highest value of all.
Circuits that manipulated it were inevitably complex. They couldn't be easy to draw. Ordinary battlefield mages wouldn't have encountered them.
Besides, Luriel had only heard of ritual squads for the first time today. She had studied frontline spell systems. Through books and records.
But some things couldn't be learned from books.
"Beyond the frontlines, the demonic realm."
A place where even letters barely arrived.
A land long corrupted by mana, now called the demonic realm outright.
'Spell systems there change daily. No time to record them. They weave spells, shatter them, counter them...'
The demonic realm was where magical history was rewritten several times a day. It wasn't called the demonic realm for nothing.
A place where common sense didn't apply.
A place without rules because common sense failed.
'It must be a circuit from there.'
She didn't know how a circuit used only in the demonic realm had infiltrated the palace. Nor what madness her brother had committed to obtain it.
One thing was certain.
The professor she'd hired had the skill to recognize it at a glance. And not just that—she knew exactly how to dismantle it.
'...Those were eyes of conviction.'
Those confident in their abilities had a different look in their eyes. They held certainty. Actions born of certainty were bold. Unyielding.
Such uprightness emanated from the professor.
"It's beyond belief..."
Luriel murmured as much.
Where on earth did such a professor even come from?
'You're fortunate, Aila.'
You seem to have quite a capable person by your side. So murmuring, Luriel closed her eyes. She listened to the sound of the blowing wind.
Knock knock.
A noise mixed into the wind sound.
Someone was rapping on the princess's door.
"Enter."
The one who opened the door and entered was the professor.
She dragged something into the room. Luriel narrowed her eyes and looked at her.
"...What is that?"
"I said I'd catch him during the day."
Thud. She dropped what she was holding.
It was a middle-aged man. She didn't know how she'd dragged him, but that wasn't important.
Who was the man the professor had brought?
It didn't take Luriel long to recognize him.
"That attire..."
Wasn't it the robes of a court mage?
The man sprawled on the floor looked up at Luriel, his eyes trembling.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
It was odd that he couldn't speak. Looking closer, a white glove was stuffed in his mouth. After glancing at his face, Luriel spoke.
"...Isn't that Lord Nekelt?"
Nekelt, the court mage.
He averted his gaze from Luriel. But the professor didn't let him be.
"Hey now."
She yanked him up by the scruff of his neck. She lifted the grown man as easily as a child. As Nekelt staggered to his feet, the professor kicked the back of his knee with her shoe tip.
"...! ......!"
A silent scream echoed.
Thud. Nekelt knelt, head bowed.
"Head up."
She neatly aligned his ankles and stomped on them with her heel. Then she grabbed his hair and forced his head up.
Tremble.
Nekelt, looking up at Luriel perched on her chair, trembled in his eyes. That gaze was closer to pleading. As if begging her to do something about this madwoman gripping his hair.
Luriel tilted her head back.
"...Hoo."
Then she pressed her temple.
What in the world was this commotion in the dead of night?
"Professor?"
"Yes?"
The girl with ash-gray hair tilted her head innocently.
But unlike her innocent appearance, she had a grown man subdued in her grasp.
A court mage, no less.
Seeing him helplessly restrained without uttering a word or weaving a single spell... it brought more bewilderment than surprise.
"What in the world are you?"
"Uh..."
At the question, the professor averted her gaze momentarily. The expression of someone who had a word in mind but chose another.
"Aphria professor?"
"......"
What was she supposed to do with a question as an answer?
And which professor in the world subdued a court mage like cake and dragged him here?
"...Fine, if that's what you are, then so be it."
Luriel gave up on deep thought.
2.
I briefly explained the situation to Princess Luriel. Unlike when I first arrived, when she eyed me and the man with suspicion, she quickly grasped my words.
"So."
She pointed at the kneeling mage.
His name was probably Nekelt.
"This one scattered surveillance familiars around the annex... and when you dealt with him, he came back to deploy more?"
I nodded.
Princess Luriel sighed and pressed her forehead.
"I knew most court mages were in my brother's camp... but to slink into my annex like this."
She furrowed her brow.
"They must think I'm a total fucking pushover."
Her eyes looking down at Nekelt were icy. She closed and opened them once.
"Why bring him to me?"
"You seemed eager to thrash the court mages."
"You really understand my intentions."
Pfft. Princess Luriel let out a laugh.
A smile mixed equally with satisfaction and mischief.
"Understood, professor."
The princess nodded.
"It's time for the mad dog to bark."
3.
Early in the morning, a letter arrived for the court mages. More precisely, it targeted the five court mages who served as the First Prince's hands and feet.
-I hope this finds you well. The reason this princess sends you this letter is nothing major. You serve as the royal family's hands and feet, and I am in dire need of your assistance...
The letter wasn't long.
It could be summed up in two sentences.
-Get your asses here now.
-Unless you want to die.
The letter bore the mana signature of court mage Nekelt. They knew he hadn't returned from inscribing circuits at midnight.
"......"
After a moment's hesitation, the five mages headed to the annex. A guard knight waiting in the annex corridor led them to the reception room.
They opened the reception room door.
Upon opening, one figure came into view.
The First Princess Luriel, legs crossed, sitting alone in a chair. She twirled her silver hair around her finger as she welcomed her guests.
"Ah, you've come."
She smiled.
"I called you so urgently I couldn't prepare chairs for you. Bear with me. Standing there will suffice for this talk."
Princess Luriel gestured.
The court mages bit their lips and stood at a distance from her.
And then.
"Close it."
The princess's voice sank low.
Clunk. The door shut with a sound. No one had touched the handle.
Lock.
A spell sealed the door. No one could tell where it originated. An ominous air filled the room.
"...Why have you summoned us?"
"Well, I've caught a filthy traitor, that's what."
She gestured.
At some point—a maid who had been standing there stepped forward. In her hands was a familiar figure.
'...Nekelt?'
No time for questions.
Whoosh. The maid swung her arm. Nekelt tumbled to the floor with a loud thud. He already seemed unconscious.
"...Your Highness."
The court mages' faces twisted.
"We court mages serve the royal family. Without solid proof, to accuse us of..."
"Proof? I've got it. He sneaked into my annex at dead of night. Without so much as a heads-up."
"He had reason to."
The mages spoke up.
Excuses they'd prepared since realizing Nekelt hadn't returned.
"Yesterday, all circuits inscribed in the annex stopped working. Isn't a failure in the annex's protective circuits a big deal?"
"Oh ho."
"That can't leak out. So Lord Nekelt went secretly to reinscribe them..."
"And came to my annex at night, you say."
The princess nodded with an "Mm."
As she lifted her lowered head, she wore an expression of deep regret.
"I've misjudged a loyal retainer. Not a traitor, but a loyal soul who braved danger to protect me by inscribing circuits in my annex, and I punish him like this."
"Exactly, a traitor? It's heartbreaking for us. Lord Nekelt was purely..."
"Yes, it seems I was mistaken."
Princess Luriel smiled.
Her narrowed eyes curved. With a chilling smile, she crooked her finger.
Splat.
A massive eyeball-like familiar dropped before them. For an instant, the court mages flinched.
'How is that possible?'
The familiar whose circuit they'd thought destroyed and vanished. Now it rolled before their eyes. As they panicked, Princess Luriel continued.
"I truly had no idea."
She pointed at the familiar.
"That horrific abomination was a familiar meant to protect me and this annex? The one that trailed above my head?"
The mages' faces paled.
"F-For Your Highness's safety..."
"Yes, surveilling my every move for my safety. Your loyalty seems a bit different from the world's notion of it."
She placed both hands on her knees.
"The annex's protective circuits never failed once. What broke was something else."
Her golden eyes glared at the mages.
"I destroyed only the circuits scattering those vermin around the annex. You hid them well."
"Th-That..."
"Anything more to say?"
The mages shut their mouths.
They had nothing. But they couldn't stay silent. One finally spoke.
"Th-That too was for Your Highness..."
"Shut your mouth."
The princess cut him off.
With a low, grinding voice, she spat.
"They must think I'm a total fucking pushover."
Her platinum hair cascaded down.
Her golden eyes gleamed sharply like a beast's. A hint of madness flickered in them.
At that point, the court mages realized.
It wasn't a new realization. Merely recalling what they'd briefly overlooked.
"Seize and kneel them."
The Mad Dog, Luriel.
The royal family's mad hound gestured. The maid behind her stepped forward.
"Right now."
She clapped sharply.
The court mages sensed it instinctively. A spell was manifesting. Reflexively, they reached out, drawing mana to resist.
But it was futile.
"Ah?"
The drawn mana dispersed.
The hastily woven spells shattered. In the blink of an eye, a completed spell bound their bodies.
Clank. Chains wrapped around the five mages, dragging them to the floor. Forcing them to kneel.
Click.
Princess Luriel approached with her heels clicking. The mages looked up at her.
"Now you're in position for a talk."
Her cold golden eyes looked down. A bone-chilling gaze.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Professor, did you see their eyes? It was my first time seeing them terrified!"
Princess Luriel chattered excitedly.
Her voice, usually laced with mockery, was now purely elated.
"It felt so damn good. They forgot even basic etiquette of bowing before me. I'll have to drill manners into them from scratch over the next few days."
Princess Luriel laughed. Not a sneer, but genuine delight.
"You look pleased."
"How could I not be? Be honest, professor. I despise those so-called court mages!"
She pointed at the court mages being dragged to the annex basement by the guard knight's hand.
"I was itching to grab and thrash them if I got the chance, and they crawl right in on their own. How could I not be thrilled?"
"...Aren't they the First Prince's faction? Is it okay to drag them off so openly?"
I'd expected more secrecy.
At my question, the princess shook her head dismissively.
"No way."
"Pardon?"
"My brother discards anything easily. Even if they were his, if they're no longer useful, he flips them away like flipping his palm."
"Still, court mages are..."
"Valuable assets. Yes, valuable."
She smiled bitterly.
"My brother is the man who killed the Second Princess just because she didn't side with him. Court mages may be precious, but are they more so than royalty?"
"......"
"And that's not for you to worry about. It's mine to bear."
The princess watched the dragged mages and the maids glaring at them.
Gazes poured through the open door gap.
Meeting those gazes, the princess said.
"If anything, it's good."
"Good how?"
"How many among them are my brother's eyes? They'll report this situation to him."
She drew close to me.
"In their eyes, you're a mysterious figure. The hair pin you wore disguises your identity. None of them recognized you."
She whispered.
"A mere maid staying very close to the princess. Exchanging whispers. And in a place with only the princess and maid, court mages were instantly subdued and dragged out. With 'magic,' no less."
What did that imply?
She smiled.
"They'll catch on. You're some unknown mage I hired. But no one knows your true identity. So what happens?"
"......"
"An unidentified powerhouse capable of subduing court mages has been revealed in my grasp."
That's when I caught on to the princess's plan.
As I looked at her, she nodded back at me.
"They don't know your full capabilities. They can't even guess what you can do or how far. Hell, even I don't know your full strength. You're more capable than I imagined."
From my side, a reliable ally.
But to the enemy, what would I be?
She asked.
"Fear."
Princess Luriel narrowed her eyes.
"The more you rampage, the more my brother shrinks back. He's not a man brimming with boldness; he recoils at even slight threats."
So what to do?
I knew the answer too.
"So, go wild as I please?"
"Exactly."
"Can you handle it?"
"Forgot my first words?"
The princess smiled.
"Rampage as you wish. For you, I'll gladly bark."
Hm.
-Raniel, promise me one thing.
Master.
-Wrap it up quietly. As quietly as possible.
Sorry.
'But the princess said it's okay to go wild.'
Ever since the frontlines, I'd been the knight who stripped when Commander Heinkel said strip. A good soldier strips when ordered.
I smiled.
"Sounds good."
No reason not to when told to go wild.