Chapter 63
Chapter 63
“Normally, I don’t go around in my original body, but I’ve taken quite a liking to you, so I came to do the handiwork myself. If I want to make you a top-quality piece, I have to get my hands dirty. Hyah!”
Clatter!
The color drained from Julia’s face when she saw the “tools” Puppet had laid out.
They were nothing less than horrific instruments of torture.
“Do you think my master will let you get away with this?!”
“Oh! You’re the Mad Dragon’s disciple, aren’t you? The Mad Dragon is scary, sure. But I’m not the sort of person who gives up the pleasure right in front of me just because I’m worried about the future. What do I care about the Mad Dragon? Heehee. Heeheheehehehe!!!”
A mad laugh.
Julia’s face turned deathly pale.
No! I have to get away.
At that moment, something landed in Julia’s hand.
It was the emergency signal Magic Tool Ban had given her.
But just as she was about to press the call button, she hesitated.
I’m going to ask Professor Ban for help?
It wasn’t because of her pride.
Would Professor Ban even come?
It was Puppet, of all people.
He might not measure up to her master, the Mad Dragon, but he was a nightmare of the Abyss, infamous throughout the Empire.
And hadn’t she even tried to harm Ban?
There was no way he’d come.
“Hehe. What are you hesitating for? Go on, press it. If you can’t, I’ll do it for you.”
Puppet snatched the call device away and pressed the button firmly.
“Not that Ban would come, even if you called him like this. Heehee!”
“……”
“Still, you tried to slander Ban, and yet you come looking for him when you need him. How repulsive. I like you even more.”
Puppet twisted the corners of his mouth into a grotesque grin.
“How about we play a fun little game? I’ll give you a chance.”
Click.
Puppet flicked a finger, and the restraints binding Julia’s hands and feet came undone.
He tossed her sword to her, then pointed at Wilhelm, who was bound beside her.
“Kill that pig. Then I’ll let you live.”
“!!”
“You never even treated him like a person anyway. Just close your eyes and stab him.”
It was one of Puppet’s vile little tricks.
Before physically breaking his “toys,” he had a persistent nasty habit of making them do something agonizing like this.
Gulp.
Julia swallowed.
Watching her, Puppet’s face lit up with eager excitement.
“What’s the big deal about killing one person? If you’re worried about rumors, I’ll keep it a secret. I can see your twisted soul. You’re going to become a horrible villain eventually, anyway.”
Julia’s hand trembled.
Her face set with resolve, as if she had made up her mind, and Wilhelm—gagged beside her—turned deathly pale.
And then—
“It doesn’t matter what I do. You were never going to let me live anyway. Do you think I’m stupid? Die!”
Flash!
Julia’s sword slashed through Puppet’s neck.
I did it!
Puppet’s head flew up into the air.
But—
“Heehee. Twisted, but not completely vile. I like you even more.”
Puppet’s head reattached itself, as if it were mending a doll, and despair flooded Julia’s face.
Snap!
At the sound of his fingers, Julia’s body stiffened as though bound in a spiderweb.
“Now, Puppet’s Happy Time begins! Torturing you normally would be boring, so how about we do it like this? Tell me all the wrong things you’ve done up to now. Like a confession.”
“What?”
“When you confess your sins, I’ll punish you for them one by one. I’ll be the judge of justice. Ah, I’m so merciful. Giving you the chance to repent for your sins before you die. Heehee, doesn’t that sound fun?”
But at that very moment—
“Shut up.”
“!!”
A weighty voice, filled with such overwhelming authority that it suppressed even Puppet’s presence.
At the same time—
Fwoosh!
Puppet’s head was severed once more.
“If my student has done something wrong, it is my job as her professor to punish her. Not yours.”
It was Ban.
“…Puppet?”
At the news Hans and Linden brought, the air inside the tent turned rigid.
Why now? Could it be that Ouroboros put him up to this?
I clenched my fist tightly.
“This is dangerous. We need to return immediately.”
Flash!
It was Sir Giseu, the Third Prince’s escort knight.
He had been following us in secret, but had revealed himself when an emergency arose.
“Puppet is a Superpowerhouse who requires a whole knight order to confront. I regret what has happened to the students who were captured, but first we must leave this place. Then we can properly assemble an extermination force.”
For the record, Sir Giseu was Level 5.
A fairly high level, but still disappointing for a knight serving as a member of the imperial family’s escort.
That was because Mikhail was being kept in check by the Imperial Palace, and Level 5 was nowhere near enough to face Puppet.
“I think it would be best to do that, too. We have no choice in the matter.”
“…Your Highness, the prince should return. Katrinne and Libel, you two should return with him as well.”
“You wouldn’t be thinking of—”
“Yes. I’m going to rescue the two of them.”
“That’s reckless!”
Mikhail raised his voice in anger.
Katrinne and Libel also reacted as though to say it was out of the question.
They were right.
Puppet wasn’t an opponent I could face with a mere sense of responsibility.
He was a calamity.
Even if I retreated here, no one could blame me.
This is different from when I dueled Duchess Beth.
Back then, it had been a Magic Gunner duel where we exchanged magic head-on, so the Power of Chaos had worked easily. In a real fight, though, it had its limits.
The reason I had resolved to rescue the two of them, reckless as it was—
<Probability of winning in a head-on battle against Puppet, who has become defective>
Defective.
That meant there was something wrong with Puppet right now!
‘The odds of winning are high, too—8.7%. They should’ve been 0%.’
In a straight-up fight, the only opponents I could normally defeat were around Second or Third Star Rank.
‘And I have a countermeasure ready.’
I hadn’t predicted the Puppet specifically.
But, as had always been the case up to now, I’d worried that something else might go wrong, so I’d prepared a countermeasure.
‘Of course, I can’t be sure it’ll work.’
In fact, no matter how I looked at it, the chances of failure were much higher.
If I failed, I’d die.
Even so—
“These two are students of Ban Ecclesia. Even if our opponent is the heavens themselves, I will never allow them to lay so much as a fingertip on my students.”
The Black Flame Dragon’s grandiose theatrics were mixed in with my words, but I meant them.
Wilhelm and Julia were both thoroughly unlikeable, with not a single redeeming quality between them.
Even so, they were my students.
I had to take responsibility for them.
‘…There’s a practical reason, too. Even if I don’t suffer any direct consequences for running away now, my reputation at the Academy will be finished. In the end, I’ll be driven out.’
Meanwhile, at the sight of me, the Third Prince bit down hard on his lip.
“…To risk your life for your students. You really have changed. If only I’d had courage like yours in the past…”
The past.
The incident that had played a decisive role in earning the Third Prince the name Demon Blade.
I pretended not to hear him.
“……”
“……”
Katrinne and Libel clenched their fists tight and looked at me with reddened eyes.
They knew this wasn’t a situation they could get involved in, so they weren’t being stubborn—but the look in their eyes showed how hard they were struggling to suppress their frustration.
The unexpected ones were Hans and Linden.
I’d assumed they would make a big fuss and hang back, but—
“Heh heh, it’s time to show that Puppet bastard what Hans can do.”
“Are you crazy, old man? Your bald head is getting in the way. Stay back.”
“You brat! This head is my pride and joy! I’ll catch the Puppet and make him bald!”
They were saying they’d come with me!
“…Are you two serious? What are you thinking?”
“My young master and I are like needle and thread! If the young master, the needle, is going, then shouldn’t I, the thread, go too?!”
“That’s not it. I bought a whole pile of high-grade escape scrolls with the money I made from our last bet. I figured I could try to take credit for the professor’s work, but if things looked like they weren’t going to go well, I could always make a run for it.”
“You brat! Don’t twist my devotion into something like that!”
Just as I’d expected.
But the moment I heard the two of them, an idea suddenly struck me.
‘With this plan, I can drastically raise my chances of success!’
I explained the “plan” to them.
When we arrived, thankfully, both Julia and Wilhelm were still unharmed.
“Hans, Linden, stay on standby for now. When I give the signal, start the plan.”
I hid with the highest-grade Invisibility Magic Tool I’d borrowed from Amanda and waited for an opportunity.
I was on edge the whole time, worried the real Julia might stab Wilhelm, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.
‘Julia hasn’t turned completely villainous yet. There’s still some innocence left in her.’
A little farther into the scenario, after she’d been completely consumed by her inferiority complex, she’d do far uglier things without hesitation—but not yet.
‘Now!’
The moment the Puppet got excited and tried to lay a hand on Julia, I infused the First Star Rank Wind Cutter spell with the Power of Chaos and sent its neck flying.
Shhk!
Its head was severed, but the blow hadn’t been effective.
The Puppet’s head floated in the air as it let out a chilling laugh.
“Well, well, who’s this? You really came? Ah. A sense of justice? A sense of responsibility? Is that it? Those are the things I hate most. What am I going to do with you, Ban? I want to kill you right now.”
Swish.
Killing intent settled thickly over the area.
If I hadn’t been the Black Flame Dragon, I might have wet myself on the spot, but I gritted my teeth and endured it.
‘There can’t be even the slightest opening if I want the plan to succeed.’
From beginning to end.
I had to make every part of the situation go exactly as I intended if I wanted to succeed.
“Shut up. Let the two of them go, and face me.”
Naturally, there was no way the Puppet would comply.
As expected, it responded exactly as I’d intended.
“Heh heh. I’ve got a twisted personality, so when I see a noble person like you, I just have to trample all over him. Hee hee, now, shall we start some fun time?”
It snapped its fingers, and something terrible happened.
Julia and Wilhelm began pointing their swords at me.
‘Just as I expected.’
Making people kill one another was one of the Puppet’s notorious malicious hobbies.
“Well, what’ll it be? You can kill your precious students, or you can die yourself. Choose. Or you could just leave the two of them behind and run away. I’m already getting tired of killing you, so if you run, I’ll make an exception and let you go.”
“I told you to let them go.”
“Hee hee. You think I’m going to listen to a request like that?”
“No. It isn’t a request. It’s an order.”
“What?”
It happened in that instant.
Shhk!
Julia’s sword severed the Puppet’s neck.
“?!”
The Puppet’s face, floating in the air, twisted in shock.
I’d interfered with the Puppet’s Puppetry and temporarily taken control!
Of course, it was only a temporary trick.
Ownership of the two of them would return to the Puppet in no time.
My eyes gleamed.
‘Normally, it would never have allowed interference like this. The Puppet really isn’t in full condition. I have a good chance of winning.’
There was one condition, though.
I cast a message spell in my mind and connected myself to the two of them.
—Julia, Wilhelm, can you hear me? There’s something you need to do. Swear, right now, that you’ll entrust everything you have to me. Even your lives and souls.
—!!
The two of them looked at me in bewilderment.
She looked as if to ask what on earth that was supposed to mean, out of the blue.
I was serious.
What I was about to use was the “Moonlight Waltz.”
A First Star Rank Puppet Art that controlled someone who entrusted everything to you.
In other words, I was going to use the most basic technique to counter the methods of Puppet, the greatest master in the field of Puppet Art—and a Master.