Chapter 6
Chapter 6
“Apologize to Lord Ban for your rudeness right now.”
“Th-that’s…”
“Now! Hurry!”
Hans showed excessive loyalty as he kept sneaking glances at me.
His expression seemed to say, ‘Please praise me.’ It gave me a headache.
“Y-you…!!”
Cal glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
“…I will never forget what happened today. Just you wait, Brother.”
With that chilling warning, he spun around and disappeared. I put on an awkward expression.
…He’s kind of cute, but running into him is going to be exhausting. I’d better avoid him from now on.
I cleared my throat.
“We’ve wasted enough time. I’m going up.”
It was time to deal with the Evil Spirit Lord.
The Ducal House boasted a history stretching back hundreds of years.
Its ancestral tomb was large and imposing, too.
—Maxim Ecclesia
I gazed at the coffin placed in the very center of the tomb.
The Evil Spirit Lord was sealed beneath it.
A sudden worry came over me.
…Can I do this?
I knew how to defeat it.
The problem was the difficulty.
It takes three protagonists from the Mage class to beat it. And that’s not until their third year.
Naturally, all sixteen protagonists were geniuses.
I had to do the work of three geniuses all by myself.
I’ve come this far. I can’t turn back now. But I need a safety measure in case I fail.
It wasn’t as though I’d succeeded at every venture I’d ever taken on at the first try.
The important thing was to have a plan for when things didn’t go the way I wanted.
As I pondered, an unexpected voice reached me.
“…Brother, apologize for what you said to me earlier.”
It was Cal.
Apparently he was still upset about what had happened earlier, so he’d followed me!
He was drawing up a great deal of mana, as if to intimidate me.
He looked threatening, but in that instant, a good idea occurred to me.
…Maybe I can use Cal?
I glanced at the Sealing Formation.
It was riddled with cracks.
Hundreds of years had passed, and the Sealing Formation had weakened as much as it possibly could.
It was no different from a cracked dam; even the slightest shock could bring it down.
Even in the game, a small mistake was enough to break the Sealing Formation.
Instead of touching the Sealing Formation myself, I’ll provoke Cal and make him break it. Then, if things go wrong, I can pin the blame on him!
In other words, if I succeeded in defeating the Evil Spirit Lord, it would be thanks to me. If I failed, Cal would take the blame.
Don’t call me heartless.
This was how people in the workforce on Earth learned to look after themselves.
“I told you to apologize.”
As Cal’s aura grew more hostile, faint cracks began to spread through the Sealing Formation.
It still wasn’t enough.
“All right. I’ll apologize.”
“…You mean it?”
“Yes. Calling someone who’s already ugly ugly only hurts them more, and I failed to take that into consideration. From now on, I’ll be mindful of your inferiority complex and say things that are pleasant to hear.”
Hmm.
Even I thought that was obnoxious.
If I were my old self, I don’t think I could have said something this obnoxious. Maybe this Black Flame Dragon persona is actually helping me out, in its own way?
As expected, it worked perfectly.
Cal shouted in a fit of rage.
“Brother!!!”
The aura he was giving off was incomparably fiercer than before.
It still wasn’t enough.
I was sorry, but just a little more.
“If you don’t like it when I speak nicely to you, then what am I supposed to do? Cal, it’s true that you’re lacking, isn’t it?”
“Grrr!!”
“How unfortunate. If you can’t admit your own shortcomings, then it’ll be difficult for you to improve. Well, if that’s the measure of your abilities, I suppose there’s nothing to be done.”
“I told you to shut up!!”
Just as Cal was about to leap at me—
RUMBLE!!!
The ancestral tomb shook.
The Sealing Formation had broken!
It worked!!
I raised my voice.
“You fool! Because of your recklessness, the Sealing Formation holding the Evil Spirit Lord has collapsed!”
“Th-that can’t be…!”
Cal’s face turned white.
He’d realized that it was his fault.
“W-we need to call Father right away!!”
“And what about this tomb? Are you saying it’s fine if our ancestors’ resting place collapses?”
“B-but there’s no way I can defeat the Evil Spirit Lord…”
“You’re always going on about responsibility. But when it’s time to take responsibility, you turn into a coward.”
Where do you think you’re going?! You have to fight alongside me!!
Naturally, two people were better than one.
I might have looked down on him, but reaching the Third Star Rank in his second year was an impressive achievement.
Just as I’d expected, a message appeared.
<Before the battle, Gambler’s Judgment activates!>
My odds of winning had gone up to over 90%!
“But there’s no way this is possible…”
“I’ll do it.”
“…What did you say?”
“I’ll be the one to destroy the Evil Spirit Lord. You just have to follow my instructions.”
After confirming that my chance of victory was 90.3%, I spoke with confidence.
“What nonsense are you talking about? You haven’t even reached the First Star Rank, Brother?!”
Just then, a bone-chilling sound rang out.
A scream that reverberated through the soul.
The Evil Spirit Lord was breaking free.
…Is it really 90.3%?
My cowardly little heart trembled.
“…Trust me.”
My voice might have been trembling faintly, but I pretended not to notice.
Cal gritted his teeth.
“Damn it, damn it all!! Fine! But you get out of here, Brother!!”
“Hmm?”
“It’s my fault that thing got loose, so I’m saying I’ll do whatever I can to hold it back!! You won’t be any help if you stay here, so go call Father as quickly as you can!!!”
I shook my head.
“Didn’t I tell you to trust me? Hold him off for three minutes… no, five.”
The strategy I had in mind would grow more powerful the more time I was given.
The longer Cal could hold out, the better our chances would be.
Though there was no way Cal could last five minutes.
“Don’t worry. You can do it. I’ll guide you.”
“!!”
Was my Black Flame Dragon’s Charisma taking effect?
Cal’s eyes wavered faintly.
The corners of my mouth curled into a sly grin.
“As your older brother, I’ll show you my greatness. You’ll come to respect me.”
Crazy bastard.
That was what Cal called Ban in his heart.
Considering all the trouble Ban had caused up to now, he was hardly worthy of being called an older brother. He wasn’t even worthy of being called trash.
‘Why was someone like him born into our family? And why did he have to be my older brother?’
Mana Insensitivity couldn’t be an excuse.
Ban was simply trash.
‘The day that damn bastard changes will never come.’
And yet, when Cal returned to the family after a long time away at the Academy, he heard a strange rumor.
Ban had changed.
He’d become even crazier.
‘He’s even developed delusions of grandeur?’
They said he’d quieted down when it came to causing trouble, but in a way, that was an even more serious problem.
Who knew what kind of huge disaster he might cause?
And, sure enough, Cal’s fears had been justified.
—To think you’ve worked so hard and only reached the Third Star Rank. If you ever need my help, I’ll be happy to teach you.
What kind of nonsense was that?
It wasn’t just ordinary delusions of grandeur!
‘Damn it. How did I make such a mistake?’
Cal had known that the Evil Spirit Lord’s Sealing Formation had weakened over the years.
In his anger toward his older brother, he’d made an unthinkable mistake.
‘Five minutes. I have to hold out for at least five minutes.’
It wasn’t that he believed Ban’s nonsense.
That should be enough time for their father to arrive after noticing something was wrong.
—Kiaaaaaaaak!!
At last, the Evil Spirit Lord appeared.
‘…Can I do this?’
Cal’s hands and feet turned ice-cold.
The Evil Spirit Lord hadn’t yet regained all of its strength.
It probably hadn’t even recovered a tenth of what it had been at its peak, but it was still far beyond the level of an Academy student like Cal.
‘…If I were a real genius.’
Cal clenched his fists tightly.
—It is true that you are lacking, isn’t it?
It rankled, but Ban wasn’t wrong.
Reaching the Third Star Rank in one’s second year was certainly an impressive achievement.
But that was only by the standards of “ordinary students.”
Compared to the true geniuses—
He was insignificant.
Just as his inferiority complex surged again and he gritted his teeth—
“Don’t worry. I’m here.”
Ban’s crazy words reached him once more.
“I told you to shut up!!”
Flash!!
Holy Blast.
A Third Star Rank manifestation-type spell.
The strongest anti-demon spell Cal could use at present.
But the Evil Spirit Lord only flinched slightly. It suffered no damage at all.
—Goooooo!!!!
It seemed all he’d done was irritate it.
“Trying to hurt it with manifestation-type magic won’t help you buy time. Its Astral Body still isn’t complete, so you need to target that. First, cast Binding of the Soul.”
It was a First Star Rank control magic.
‘There’s no way a spell like that will work, is there?’
“What are you waiting for? Hurry!”
At the force in Ban’s voice, Cal followed the instruction without even realizing it.
Flash!
Binding of the Soul took shape.
A basic control magic used to capture lesser spirits.
There was no way it would work on the Evil Spirit Lord.
“From there, sigma-transform the mana at the star’s five points, then twist it toward the three points.”
“!!”
He couldn’t understand the instruction.
‘Damn it! Whatever!’
He squeezed his eyes shut and followed it exactly—and something unbelievable happened.
Whoooosh!!
The star filled with mana trembled, and its “binding” property was amplified to the extreme.
‘Th-this is on a level similar to a Fourth Star Rank suppression spell?’
Of course, it wasn’t actually the same as a Fourth Star Rank spell.
It fell short in every respect, including stability, but the effect of “binding” was amplified to the extreme for an instant.
“Why are you standing there? Keep casting Binding of the Soul over and over in this state. After that, use Holy Exorcism, a Second Star Rank control spell…”
As if entranced, Cal followed his words.
—Goooooo!!!!
The Evil Spirit Lord writhed, letting out a terrible roar.
It was really working!
‘Th-this is impossible.’
Cal looked back at Ban as if he couldn’t believe it.
Ban stood with his arms crossed, composed and aloof. His expression was so indifferent, as though this much were only to be expected.
‘So it wasn’t delusions of grandeur?’
But Cal had no time to keep thinking.
Crash!!
“Guh!!”
The binding magic broke.
As time passed, the Evil Spirit Lord had regained more of its strength.
“There’s no other choice now. You have two minutes left, so hold out somehow with Shield.”
“!!”
It was absurd.
How was he supposed to last two whole minutes against a monster like that?
But—
“You can do it. I’ll help you.”
‘Damn it!!’
Cal cursed and followed Ban’s instructions.
He couldn’t understand himself.
But what was even harder to believe was—
“Use its Astral Body to attack. Move the mana through an inverse transformation.”
“Concentrate the mana on the star’s vertices and reinforce the cracks in the Shield.”
“Next…”
None of it matched the theories Cal had learned at the Academy.
The professors would have thrown stones at him for not even knowing the basics of magic theory.
‘It’s working.’
Cal’s Shield, despite being only a Third Star Rank spell, was holding back the Evil Spirit Lord’s attacks.
Tick, tick, tick.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds, thirty seconds, one minute—the time passed.
Click.
The five minutes we had agreed on were up.
Contrary to my expectations, Father still hadn’t arrived.
I’d pushed myself past my limits and could no longer move even a finger.
Just as despair began to well up inside me,
Ban stepped forward in front of Cal.
“You did well. It’s my turn now.”