Chapter 10
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 10: Raiding the Duke Estal Family (4)
Delmar raises his staff high and begins to spit out a lengthy chant.
"Oh, breath of the great sun! Respond to my call and become the crimson judgment that burns even the bones of the ungodly! The flame of destruction that turns everything back to ash—!"
Mana condensed at the tip of his staff.
Soon a huge fireball the size of a small warehouse forms.
'Wow, he's really doing a chant.'
I saw it when Yveline showed magic in the lab, but.
This guy is somewhat different.
How should I put it.
A narcissist who believes he is the coolest in the world?
Is it the feeling that sticky self-love is smeared plentifully on every word of the chant?
Biologically, some repulsion rises.
"Senior. Are all mages originally like that? Do they necessarily have to scream like that?"
He looks almost like he's screaming.
Even I watching feel embarrassed.
"No, that guy is particularly unusually narcissistic. He has a wasteful habit where efficiency cannot be found even if you wash your eyes and look."
Eleanor snorted.
It was as she said.
The mana amount Delmar emits was certainly enough to burn me to death and have some left, but.
Its structure is like a mesh net with holes everywhere.
It's just flashy; thermodynamically, it's the worst design.
You absolutely shouldn't do physics.
Making a brief evaluation.
My gaze headed beyond Delmar.
Near the VIP seats.
Yveline's face is already pale blue.
Is she shouting to stop the sparring?
She was grabbing the arm of the Knight Commander standing next to her and shouting urgently.
'She doesn't have to worry that much though.'
I rather calmly reached out my hand.
"Flame is a simple oxidation reaction. But that is closer to a lump of high-pressure energy forcibly tied together with magic power."
I pinpointed the node where the flow of mana crosses exactly.
If I break the equilibrium of the system...... just a little.
My rat's tail amount of 0th Hierarchy mana dug into Delmar's flame.
The amount is insignificant.
But it pierced the vital point exactly like poking a balloon with a needle.
The phenomenon I induce is simple.
"If high-pressure energy suddenly expands, where will that energy go?"
The so-called principle of Adiabatic Expansion.
Sizzle—!
The fireball that was burning hugely shrinks in an instant.
As the hot air cools rapidly, white steam rises.
Soon after, a bizarre rupture sound burst out.
Pop—!
The energy that was forcibly suppressed loses balance and expands explosively.
The direction of that explosion was, naturally, towards the caster, Delmar.
"......Huh?"
Delmar's dumbfounded voice.
The rapidly expanded mana causes the surrounding temperature to plummet below zero.
White frost digs in from the tip of Delmar's staff.
Soon his sleeves, eyebrows, and hair froze white in an instant.
"Ugh, ack......!"
The person himself who used flame magic turned pale and started trembling.
"......."
Delmar stared blankly at his staff.
Soon dyeing his face red with shame, he raised his head fiercely.
"Y-You son of a bitch!"
Embarrassment soon turns into uncontrollable anger.
It's good to see him angry.
I mean, you should have done it moderately.
"......."
It's good to see, but....
The mana amount that guy is emitting is strange.
Is this really safe?
Behind his back, a mana vortex dozens of times larger than before began to swirl.
"Rihan. That guy, is really trying to kill you."
Eleanor's low warning.
I pretended to be relaxed, but cold sweat was already flowing down my back like a stream.
A 4th Hierarchy mage losing his reason and attacking?
There is no answer for a 0th Hierarchy researcher with a mana pool the size of a rat's tail.
In short, I'm fucked.
'Senior! I used up all my mana? Am I really going to die?
The crisis escape instinct unique to graduate students dominates the brain.
'Excuse me, I'm a researcher! Fuck, save me!'
Just as I was contemplating whether to declare surrender immediately and roll on the floor.
Eleanor whispered lowly.
"Don't worry. Isn't this lady here. If it gets really dangerous, I will make that brat half-dead even if I have to burn this doll body."
As expected of Eleanor!
My teacher, senior, and best assistant!
It is the moment the dignity of the 10th Hierarchy shines even inside a doll.
If the seatbelt is securely fastened.
The next thing to do is decided.
It is the time for so-called Teabagging.
"If efficiency is bad, at least your personality should be good."
I stared intently at Delmar and smiled fishily.
"Seeing as both are a bust? Haha!"
"I will tear that arrogant mouth of yours first! You son of a bitch!"
A touch-and-go situation.
Just when Delmar was about to spit out magic.
Snap—!
A sound of snapping fingers clearly.
That short sound echoed throughout the training ground.
At the same time, the overwhelming mana that filled behind Delmar's back scattered like a mirage.
"......?"
Looking towards where the sound came from, Duke Cassian was standing.
An indifferent expression.
With just a light snap of his fingers, the 4th Hierarchy magic evaporated without a sound.
Clap, clap, clap.
Cassian clapped very slowly.
"Truly amazing. It is the first time seeing a scene where the modifier genius feels this light."
His voice is soft.
But undeniable pressure dwells within it.
"Overcoming inferior hierarchy with precise formulas using insufficient mana by twisting laws....... Teacher's magic is a bizarre and beautiful form I have never seen in my life."
Cassian's gaze headed to Delmar.
"Ugly, Delmar. For Estal's Chief Mage to lose his reason."
The rampaging Delmar trembled his shoulders like a dog soaked in water.
Fear crushes the training ground.
"Our mage committed a great rudeness. Teacher Rihan, I hope you understand generously."
The Empire's greatest authority holder tilted his head very slightly.
He was offering an apology, but his eyes didn't look sorry at all.
Only sticky curiosity glistened.
'Right. You should come out like this.'
I appreciated Delmar's miserable expression with satisfaction.
A dog needs to be scolded severely once so it doesn't bite later.
"Hmph, should know one's place. To dare thrust an ignorant lump of mana into a precisely designed law."
Eleanor also snorted as if it was laughable.
"That brat is suited to swinging a pickaxe in a mine rather than holding a staff."
'Senior, still that person is 4th Hierarchy. Annihilating a platoon of elite knights.......'
"In this lady's eyes, it was just a rolling stone on the roadside shaking a little bigger. If that guy Cassian hadn't intervened, I would have overloaded that brat's mana circuit entirely and made him unable to use magic forever. What a pity."
'Please don't say scary things. If I make the Duke family's Chief Mage disabled, I can't live normally either.'
Leaving behind Eleanor's spine-chilling remark.
Cassian approached right in front of my nose and reached out his hand first to ask for a handshake.
I never learned noble etiquette.......
Should I just do it like I learned in the army?
I straightened my back stiffly as I learned in the army and gripped his hand moderately.
"You flatter me, Your Grace."
Cassian smiled, folding his eyes very slowly while holding my hand.
"It must have been a tiring day. But it was worth it for you, Teacher."
He let go of my hand and scanned me down as if organizing a card to use usefully tomorrow.
"See you again tomorrow. There is a matter I want to seek advice from your brilliant head."
Cassian turned his body without waiting for an answer.
"I have high expectations that you, Teacher, might be able to solve my long-standing worry very neatly. Then, rest easy."
He left the training ground like that.
Phew, finally over.
To have to risk my life as soon as I arrived.
As expected, a Duke family is a bloody place in a different sense from the laboratory.
Now it's time to go in and focus on my main job again.
Because my real purpose is the ring sleeping in the treasure vault after all.
"Senior. When should we set the operation time?"
"From what I see, the classic night would be good. The time when shadows become deepest is perfect to avoid magic eyes too."
Correct words.
Thievery is the standard method done under the moonlight.
Packing romance as well.
Walking while making a plan, I saw a familiar figure in the distance.
It was Yveline.
I approached trembling with feigned friendliness to relieve tension.
"Were you waiting for me? How was it, the Master's performance."
"......"
Normally she would have rebuked me saying "Stop being full of yourself".
There is no reaction.
'Why is she like this again.'
Her expression reflected under the hallway lamp looks much more complicated than earlier at the training ground.
As I approached closer, she slowly raised her head.
"......Rihan."
The words I was about to retort playfully like usual went straight back down my throat.
Because her pupils had sunk deep.
"I have something to say. Do you have a moment?"
She looked around and asked in an unusually low voice.
For the Princess of the Duke Estal family to be this intimidated in her own home.
'The family atmosphere is a total mess.'
I think I know why this family was exterminated so miserably in the original novel.
Should I say it's like an old tree that is flashy on the outside but rotting on the inside?
The air of the mansion feels particularly heavy.
I nodded lightly.
Let's hear what it is.
I silently followed her steps to a dark hallway corner where even the lamplight didn't reach properly.