Chapter 110: The Fox and the Maid (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 110: The Fox and the Maid (3)
Title: Mirabelle and Rin’s Lesbian Kiss.jpg
Author: Yu-Gi-OhKarami
(Image of the Reaper and the Gumiho clashing)
Sorry. I just had to show you this. Is this fight between Mirabelle and Rin for real? This is truly a battle between the strongest in the world. Is that really the same loser Mirabelle I knew? This is epic.
A battle that, if I posted about it on the TOS forums, would get a ton of upvotes and go straight to the top was unfolding right before Karami’s eyes.
It was a magnificent kaiju battle, the kind you’d only expect to see on a screen.
The giant gumiho kicked off the ground and charged the Reaper. The Reaper swung its scythe down, its massive size creating the illusion that it was about to cleave the world in two.
The gumiho displayed an agility that belied its massive frame. It dodged the scythe, twisted its body, and swung its tails.
The sheer mass behind the attack was so immense that it unleashed a heavy, air-shattering sound, as if a building were being swung like a club.
CRASH!
The Reaper was sent flying. Giving it no time to recover, the gumiho immediately pursued, lunging forward to bite down.
But the Reaper, whose basic trait was levitation, simply slid backward without needing to get up, then swung its scythe upward.
SLICE!
The scythe shot up, splitting the gumiho in two from its chest to the top of its head. The gumiho, unable to withstand the impact, fell backward.
But it quickly regained its footing, and with a shake of its head, the gash instantly healed, returning it to its original state.
“Whoa~”
A gasp of admiration escaped Karami’s lips.
No blockbuster movie he had ever seen could compare to the battle before him. The vibrations and sounds that shook the heavens and the earth hammered a sense of reality into his brain that no screen could ever convey.
‘Popcorn! Is there any popcorn?!’
How could anyone watch something like this without eating popcorn?
Sadly, there was no popcorn to be had. Making do with what he had, Karami grabbed a handful of grapes and stuffed them in his mouth.
The fight was so engrossing that he’d nearly forgotten why it was happening in the first place, or why he was even here.
A fierce battle with monsters rampaging in every direction. Yet their masters, the two women at the center of it all, remained perfectly still, staring each other down.
“So it was you? The one who sent the Reaper to kill Rin.”
“That’s right. Because it was clear you would become a threat to my master.”
“Thanks to you, it gave me a chance to get closer to my master, though~”
“…I see now I should have eliminated you back then.”
She should have been more thorough. Mirabelle bit her lower lip, chastising herself for her complacency.
“You’re ridiculous. Going on about liberation and all that grand talk, yet you’re the one who broke the contracts of the other slaves, aren’t you?”
“I do feel sorry for what I did to them.”
To free them from slavery without going through Karami… she had done those slaves a great disservice. Because of her, they couldn't fully savor the joy of liberation.
They surely resented her for it.
“But I had no choice. I didn’t have the luxury of considering others at the time.”
After Karami left, Mirabelle hadn’t slept a single wink. She was used to falling asleep curled up on top of him.
Without his warmth, his scent, his comfort, she couldn’t sleep no matter what she did.
She’d had to use magic to forcibly keep her mind awake and stave off the exhaustion.
For months on end.
The weary look in her eyes was proof.
But without Karami, Mirabelle had learned how to reconstruct the shackles using only his mana. She collected mana by breaking the cat people’s contracts and once again placed the shackles of subjugation upon herself.
Only then was she able to get even a little bit of sleep by his side, in a sense. Apologies were apologies, but this was a separate matter. She had no regrets about her choice.
“It doesn’t really matter anyway. If need be, I can just put them under contract again, can’t I?”
Karami was too far away to hear her, and the monsters were still fighting, but if he had, he would have shot up with his eyes wide in horror.
Rin’s sensitive beastkin hearing, however, didn’t miss a word. Her ears twitched.
“Put the shackles back on…?”
“Yes. I know how. I even put my own shackles back on myself. Why? Do you want me to do it for you?”
“Yes.”
Rin’s reply was immediate.
She wanted the shackles back on, no matter what it took. She wanted to live as Karami’s slave. For that, she wouldn’t even mind returning to a one-tailed fox.
“Do it for Rin, too.”
“No.”
“What?”
“Why should I? This is a privilege unique to me. For everyone else, once is the limit.”
As she spoke, a look of superiority colored Mirabelle’s face.
To be Karami’s slave. It was a glorious position that anyone who had tasted liberation yearned for. But once liberated, not even Karami could re-establish the contract.
The only one who could was Mirabelle. To the liberated slaves, she was the only one who could grant them the ecstasy of slavery once more.
The moniker ‘Hand of the Death God’ had never suited her better.
“So you won’t do it… Then I’ll make you.”
“If you can.”
At Mirabelle’s provocation, the corners of Rin’s mouth split into a wide grin.
Round two.
This would be no proxy war fought by monsters. The masters themselves were finally stepping in.
Each knew just how dangerous the other was.
There was no room for even a moment of carelessness.
Rin brought her hands together, forming a seal.
“Solar Eclipse.”
An inviolable domain, supreme in heaven and earth.
A realm where not even the gods could interfere.
The sun and moon, which had been shining from their respective places, merged into one. Twilight faded, and an infinite darkness descended upon the Dream Garden.
Trapped in the darkness, Mirabelle looked around and tried to conjure light, but nothing changed. Her mana was being consumed and the spell was active, but no light was visible.
A darkness blacker than pitch had swallowed the light itself.
The shadow space, Solar Eclipse, which hid both sunlight and moonlight.
It was a world of darkness where she couldn’t even see her own chest if she looked down, but the gumiho’s Solar Eye could illuminate a target’s fate even in the dark.
Just as a light shines brighter in the dark, drawing more attention, so too did fate.
‘Let’s have a little peek~’
It was a hobby Rin had picked up after awakening the power of her Solar Eye: peering into the fates of others. She found it particularly amusing to look at the fates of those whose fragments of fate were black.
It was fun to watch them grin, oblivious to their own impending doom, and it was fun to wait and see if they could find a single sliver of light in the darkness to survive.
“…”
But when Rin looked at Mirabelle’s fate, everything was a blur. Not a single fragment had a distinct color.
And this was with her Solar Eye active, within a Solar Eclipse.
It could only mean one thing.
Mirabelle’s very being was on a far higher plane.
It meant Rin wasn’t even permitted to glimpse her fate, and that Rin’s actions could not have a clear impact on it.
It was impossible.
She was a gumiho, a fox spirit, was she not?
“It’s not nice to spy on others.”
Mirabelle’s calm voice suddenly echoed, her tone like that of a teacher disciplining a child.
Mirabelle activated the Heavenly Covenant.
She lightly tapped the ground with the tip of her staff.
Ting.
A clear, beautiful sound, like the ringing of a bell, echoed softly.
A single book materialized above Mirabelle’s hand.
Its title: [☆ 57 Pro Tips for Invoking Teacher Go’s Soul: Divine Punishment Edition].
It was the first magic book Karami had given her.
A precious gift that had awakened her as a Witch.
Fwip-fwip-fwip. The pages fluttered open as if scattered by the wind.
Lines of text poured out in all directions.
It was knowledge.
And knowledge never exists in isolation.
Even if not closely related, all knowledge is connected in some small way.
Knowledge begets knowledge, and that knowledge begets yet more knowledge.
The Magic Tower was a place where all the world’s knowledge, not just magic, was gathered—a place also known as the Peak of Knowledge or the Tower of Truth.
It was filled to the brim with forbidden books that could drive a person mad just by touching them, to say nothing of the knowledge unknown to the world.
And Mirabelle had mastered even those ancient texts. Every single one, without exception. All the knowledge of the Magic Tower was inside her head. She was the Magic Tower.
The web of knowledge, connected like a mind map, created books. Books that floated around Mirabelle, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, even millions.
“I won’t make the same mistake this time.”
Mirabelle had sinned in the past.
She had failed to give Karami the joy of liberation and had disappointed him.
As a result, he had abandoned her.
Becoming the Magic Tower's Elder was, for Mirabelle, a battlefield to prove her worth. To make Karami want her once more.
She could not lose.
Not even if her opponent was a god.
Ting~
Mirabelle tapped her staff once more.
“Akashic Records.”
A system of records transcending fate, containing the beginning and end of the world. It was Mirabelle’s transcendent magic, manifesting the knowledge she held within her as a library.
Within the Solar Eclipse, where not even the smallest glimmer was permitted, light burst forth from the bookshelves like a cluster of stars in the endless universe.
“That’s impossible…!”
The impossible was happening.
Light was illuminating even the shadows.
When Rin drew on her power to apply more pressure, the darkness seemed to eat away at the light for a moment, but streams of light that couldn’t be blocked burst through in scattered spots.
Their power levels were roughly equal. The one difference between them was that Mirabelle was Karami’s slave.
The blessing a master bestows upon a slave.
The boost in ability that came with the subjugation contract.
Mirabelle was receiving that blessing in full. It was something Rin, who had broken her contract and could only claim to be a slave, could never hope to attain.
FWOOSH!
The scales of power tipped ever so slightly in Mirabelle’s favor.
The Solar Eclipse was swallowed by the torrent of knowledge’s light.
Like cleaning an unseen corner, the maid’s light swept away the fox’s shadow.
When the Solar Eclipse vanished, the Dream Garden reappeared. The two women stood facing each other, just as before.
The only thing that had changed was that the giant gumiho now lay on the ground, split in two by the Reaper’s scythe.
Thud.
Rin’s legs trembled, and she finally dropped to one knee. She gasped for breath, her strength clearly failing her. Mirabelle, on the other hand, looked as if it had been no effort at all, her expression unchanged.
It was the maid’s duty to clean up the mess.
Its mission complete, the Reaper returned to its original size and stood protectively by its master.
“As I said, I will be taking the master with me.”
Mirabelle aimed her staff at Karami. Karami, who had been popping grapes into his mouth, floated into the air and was gently set down in front of her.
Karami had to crane his neck down to look at her, while Mirabelle had to tilt her head all the way back to look up at him. Like the dog of Flanders, the moment she saw Karami, a bright smile bloomed on her face.
Beaming, Mirabelle stretched her arms out toward him.
Even after so long apart, Karami knew exactly what that signal meant. He put his hands under Mirabelle’s armpits and lifted her into a tight hug.
The moment she was in his arms, Mirabelle wrapped her legs around his waist like a koala.
“Hehehe.”
She giggled with delight.
“I’ve come for you, Master! You’ve been waiting long, haven’t you?”
“Ah, yes…”
Karami’s feelings, however, were much more complicated.
A single drop of cold sweat trickled down his face.
What was he supposed to have been waiting for?
For his time to die?
Had she come to take revenge for enslaving her?
As if hiring the Reaper to assassinate him wasn’t enough, Mirabelle, whom he had sent back to her mother, had come to find him.
First the gumiho, now the witch.
His future looked bleak.