Why Is This Your Wolf? - 2
It started with the chandelier.
As it plummeted toward the Black Mage’s head, he had no choice but to yank his hand free from the portal he’d been hastily weaving open and leap forward out of the way.
At the same instant the mountain of gold coins collapsed, sealing off the space between him and Garm completely.
I’d kept Garm from being stolen—great—but now I was the one stuck on the wrong side of the pile.
So money luck doesn’t come with any built-in murder stats, huh?
“I don’t know what trick you pulled,” the Black Mage said, “but if you insist on interfering, I’ll simply have to kill you.”
“Hoo…!”
Asking him to let me off with a warning at this point probably wouldn’t work, would it?
He clearly had no intention of showing mercy. The Black Mage lifted his feet from the ground and began to rise slowly into the air.
I was in a tight spot, yet my mind felt strangely calm. Even as a spear of black magic streaked diagonally toward me, my heart didn’t skip a single beat.
Not because I’d accepted death, of course.
The reason I could stay so composed was simple: I was certain I wasn’t going to die.
“You will not lay so much as a fingertip on Lord Heinz.”
Clang—!
Right in front of my nose, a crimson spear shot out in a straight line and collided with the black one, canceling both out.
Maribel stood atop the collapsed heap of gold coins. Blood dripped steadily from her clenched fist.
She had formed the spear with the Blood Magic she’d newly mastered and hurled it.
“Persistent, aren’t you?”
The Black Mage floated three black orbs above his palm.
Kiiiiing—!
The spheres spun faster and faster, emitting a harsh, rising whine. Energy gathered at their centers and then vomited forth a jet-black beam.
The superheated ray melted even gold coins in an instant. Maribel had already dashed clear a step ahead; the spot where she’d stood was left scorched black.
Anyone else might have flinched. Maribel didn’t so much as blink. Calmly she drew a dagger from her sleeve and flung it at the floating Black Mage.
“Useless.”
A mage’s hand materialized in midair and snagged the dagger. Maribel tilted her upper body sideways, scooped up a handful of gold coins, balanced them on her index finger, and flicked them off with her thumbnail in rapid succession.
Not quite railgun speed, but fast enough to bury themselves in flesh on a clean hit.
“Resistance befitting a gnat.”
A single beam from the spinning orbs melted every last coin into nothing. Maribel bent low at an angle, slipped past the ray, then reshaped her blood into a throwing-axe and hurled it.
The same hand that had caught the dagger shot out again—only for the axe to collapse mid-flight, fragmenting into hundreds of needles.
“Kh…!”
“How does it feel to be bested by that gnat?”
Blood needles punched into the Black Mage’s right arm.
Does he not know that Blood Magic can freely change form? It was rare enough that knights and ordinary mages might be ignorant of it, but a Black Mage not knowing surprised me.
“Damn parlor tricks…!”
“I’ve still got plenty left, you know?”
Even a solid hit from needles that small couldn’t become a fatal wound. But in Maribel’s left hand there now rested a rope no one had seen before—woven from the blood the Black Mage himself was spilling.
The needles had been preparation to draw his blood. The blood rope remained connected to the wound in his right arm; he couldn’t sever it.
“How long do you plan to keep looking down from up there?!”
She yanked hard. The Black Mage was hauled downward. The moment Maribel thrust her sword for his heart, he desperately severed his own right arm.
Kwaang—!
Agony shattered his levitation spell; his body slammed into the floor. Gold coins that had been underneath him sprayed upward in a glittering shower.
“Your tenacity, at least, is impressive.”
“Haaah! Haaah! Guh…!”
“Not used to pain, are you?”
The Black Mage was already cauterizing the stump with fire. If he didn’t stop the bleeding at once, Blood Magic would keep toying with him to the end. That was precisely what made the art so troublesome.
At first it required the caster’s own blood as a medium. The moment an opponent was wounded, however, failing to cauterize immediately let the caster commandeer the enemy’s blood instead.
“Now that you’ve lost an arm, I suppose those fancy orbs of yours are off the table too.”
He’d spun the spheres with both hands to fire high-energy particles. With the right hand that controlled and maintained the rotation gone, one of his attack methods had vanished.
Yet the light in his eyes still refused to die.
“I hadn’t intended to bring this out…!”
Pretending to drop to one knee, he pressed a hand to the ground. A magic circle carved itself into the floor—more precisely, a summoning circle. From its center rose a Flesh Golem, a three-meter abomination of packed human meat.
True to a Black Mage, he’d called forth a creature stripped of every shred of human dignity. I was about to order Maribel to destroy it at once when—
“Kyaaaaak!!”
Before anyone could react, Garm launched itself from the side and slammed into the Flesh Golem. The golem stood three meters tall; Garm was under a meter. Yet it toppled the construct with ease.
Needle-sharp tongues erupted from the mouths covering its body and punched into the golem’s hide. They drank blood and marrow while razor teeth tore into the flesh and began to feast.
Terrified of regular humans, but fine with Flesh Golems, is that it?
“M-my masterpiece…!”
“Your masterpiece just got reclassified as dog food for my little buddy.”
“Stop it this instant!”
The mage’s remaining hand lunged for Garm; Maribel’s sword sliced it clean in half. His trump card had become nothing more than a meal without even putting up a fight. All we had to do now was keep Garm safe.
“Look at you, eating so nicely. Hey—got another one? Bring it out if you do.”
“That creature is not your property!”
“True, it’s not an object. It’s my pet dog.”
“Have you lost your mind? You intend to keep that grotesque monstrosity?!”
“For something that ugly, it’s actually pretty cute.”
Sure, it looked nightmarish, but with proper training it would grow into an excellent hunting dog. Its preferred diet was… unique, but I figured it would eat other meat just fine. It probably wouldn’t touch anything that wasn’t meat, but I was rich enough that it didn’t matter.
World-class tycoons kept elephants and tigers, didn’t they? Raising Garm was the same idea. And with a face that terrifying, people would think twice before picking a fight with me or threatening me. Silver lining.
“Your aesthetic sense is thoroughly broken.”
“Whatever. How about worrying about your own life instead?”
“No choice, then. I’ll have to withdraw quietly this time.”
“Wow, what a funny guy. Who said you get to leave?”
Maribel, sword still in hand, radiated the clear intent to take the Black Mage’s head at any moment. Aside from the wounds she herself had inflicted, she was spotless. The Black Mage was missing an arm and limping from the fall. I couldn’t understand why he still looked so composed when the fight was unwinnable.
“You seem to have forgotten where you are. Did you think I snuck in on foot the way you did?”
Countless footsteps echoed down the stairs that led into the vault. After the racket we’d made underground, of course the knights of the Belda Viscount household would come looking. I finally understood what the Black Mage had been counting on.
“Don’t misunderstand. The Belda family courteously requested our cooperation. To them, you are nothing more than intruders.”
“So in short, you’re scared and pulling the ‘call a friend’ card so you can run away?”
“As expected of a mana-less inferior—you fill your mouth with the basest of words.”
“Be grateful I’m not swearing. If I felt like it, I could cuss until your ears rot off.”
There was no courtesy to be shown to something that barely qualified as human. Deep down I wanted to borrow Maribel’s sword right then and cut his head off myself. Instead I kept talking.
While I did, the household knights sealed the entrance. From between their ranks a noblewoman strode forward.
“So it’s you! The ones who laid hands on my precious children!”
“If you mean the drunkard and the chubby young lady, yeah, that was me. But don’t get too mad—you were planning to wreck a happy family yourself, weren’t you?”
“You don’t seem to grasp the situation you’re in. I will capture you, flay the flesh from your bones piece by piece, tear out your organs, and throw them to the stray dogs!”
“Brutal. But I doubt it’ll be as easy as you make it sound.”
The knights packed the entrance tight; the Black Mage limped over to join the Viscountess. The agony that had twisted his face had already given way to a thin, triumphant smile. He was certain the tables had turned.
True enough, breaking through a knight cordon in this cramped space would be difficult. Maribel alone could have escaped—but she would never leave me behind.
“Lord Heinz, stay glued to my side. You must not fall behind under any circumstances.”
Her words confirmed that abandoning me was never an option. It was reassuring… even if the cool move would have been me protecting her instead.
Shame, but what can you do when you possessed the Ketchup Young Master?
Still, right now I didn’t even need her help.
“You can come out now.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
At my call, the elderly butler who had been standing beside Viscountess Belda answered. Every gaze in the room snapped toward him—
“Guhk!”
“Kyaaagh!”
“Wh-who’s there?!”
—and death screams erupted from behind the knights surrounding the treasure vault. At the same moment a voice thundered through the entire wine cellar.
Hear me, members of the Belda Viscount household!
The Empire’s great sun has uncovered the full truth of the Belda Viscount family’s treason!
From this moment forward, any who do not cast down their weapons and surrender will be executed on the spot!
Secret Imperial Inspector on the scene.