Volume 1 - CH 10

“You got that, Albert? You really understand that we’ll be attacking the enemy’s main headquarters, right?”

We were hidden in the shadows some distance away from the warehouse we learned about, making our final preparations as we kept watch on the building.

It was crucial that we went in with a plan, and here we were going over it once again so we could both familiarize ourselves with how our attack would go and where we would be at any given moment.

I asked Albert to confirm his intentions one last time, and it was only after he nodded his assent that I continued speaking.

“Frankly speaking, I don’t expect you to understand everything that we’ll be doing; you are not only inexperienced in combat but now also forced to assist with a rescue operation in the dark — that is, an environment you’re completely unfamiliar with. I still think it was a mistake in allowing you to come with me, but that’s not relevant at the moment.”

For a moment, the absurdity of royalty coming to the rescue of royalty from another country baffled me. Really, Albert was so stubborn in the strangest ways — like how he kept insisting he was my follower.

I knew that way of thinking might one day cost him everything, but if he wouldn’t listen, the least I could do was teach him what he needed to remember.

“So since you’re already here, I need you to keep two things in mind. First, do not overdo it. It doesn’t matter who you face; your enemy will always prioritize their life above all else, but if you corner them and leave no room to escape, they’ll become desperate and therefore dangerous. And you have to know that it is not just your own life you put at risk this way.”

“…Of course. The end of my life could mean the start of a war, and the start of a war means our people are then at risk.”

“Good, you understand that much. Well, that was just making sure you understand your own position. This second point is important for our plan.”

I had held up two fingers, one for each point I needed him to remember.

Albert’s face had grown tense; he focused closely on what I was saying, so as not to miss a single word.

“After we enter, immediately close your eyes and cover your ears for approximately five seconds.”

I just needed him to protect his sense of sight and sound.

“Yes, ma’am! …Wait, what?”

Had my instructions been too simple, or did Albert not understand? Well, it was probably a bit of both. The instructions had been so simple despite me stressing its importance, and yet it was so obviously wrong to handicap oneself in the middle of enemy territory, even if temporarily.

“There is no time to explain why, but basically, as soon as we enter, I’ll be using a spell that can also affect you. In order to keep that from happening, I need you to protect your eyes and ears for that moment.”

“…Is that how it is? I do not quite understand what it is you will be doing, but I shall trust in your words and do as you say, Lady Mylene!”

I did complain about it before, but at times like these, I really was grateful that Albert would simply follow my orders without question.

And with that, I’d told him everything he needed to know. I looked over the entrance to the warehouse one more time.

A quick investigation we performed earlier showed that the only entrance this building had was the front door. There weren’t even any windows to the building, but perhaps that was an intentional inclusion.

That would make the front door the only point of entry, meaning there was no option other than a frontal assault, and we would have to plan around that.

Luckily, the new spell I was working on was perfect for this moment.

I made my way over to the door. Once I was settled, I checked for any lookouts before signaling for Albert to follow and manipulating my magical power.

A small sphere of light manifested in my hand, and Albert watched it with great interest.

“Is this light magic?!”

“Yep, and apparently I have an affinity for light.”

Everyone had an affinity for one element or another, which meant they could call upon it or manifest it using much less magical power than usual.

Mine happened to be with light attribute magic, an element specialized in image projection and dealing damage with something similar to heat energy. I didn’t know the full extent of the element’s capabilities, but it seemed pretty versatile to me.

“How amazing, Lady Mylene! There is no one more worthy for God to grant the honor of an affinity for light magic than yourself!”

Albert’s eyes sparkled with awe after I told him about my affinity for light magic; it probably came as no surprise because Iltania was known as the God of Light.

Nevertheless, Albert seemed to remember this was neither the time or the place for expressing his admiration, and he stopped himself from further excitement.

“I’ll count us down then, starting from three. At zero, we break in, and that’s when you close your eyes and cover your ears for another five seconds.”

I checked with Albert one last time, and he nodded in confirmation.

He might not understand exactly what it is I was going to do, but he had a good head on his shoulders. I trusted he knew what he himself had to do.

“Then let’s go. Three, two, one… zero!”

At the end of my countdown, I shoved open the door.

I entered and looked all around the open and spacious warehouse, and there, across the building were four hooded men… and Colette. She was chained up but still alive..!

That meant my job was easier, with much less to think about: all I had to do was take out the trash and rescue Colette. Simple as that.

“Yo! I’m here for my princess!”

And I called out to them as a signal to start our fight!

I felt my cheeks widen with a grin as I slammed the magical sphere of light in my hand into the ground.

As I did so, I covered my ears with a magical shell — something more like earplugs, really — while closing my eyes to protect myself from this spell.

When it hit the ground, the sphere of light exploded, filling the room with a blinding and deafening explosion of light and noise.

After confirming the impact, I waited a moment before releasing my earplug spell and opening my eyes.

“Wh-what..? Why can’t I hear anything?!”

“Agh, my eyes! I can’t see!”

When I looked around after opening my eyes, two of the men were in a panic over their loss of sight and sound. The third man stood in a daze, while the last one was calmly observing the situation.

That guy might be stronger than the rest. He had been radiating magical power this entire time, like he was expecting an attack.

That meant I had to act now and quickly eliminate the small fry first.

I dashed in low towards the two men floundering about and waving their swords around, slicing their tendons at the ankle as I passed by.

“Huh? …Ahhhhhh?!”

“What the hell’s– aiiieee!”

The two men fell to the floor, screaming in pain as they lost the connecting muscle needed to remain standing.

“Gah!”

“Geh!”

When they hit the ground, I delivered a swift kick to each of their jaws, knocking them silent and unconscious.

I hadn’t killed them just yet.

And with that, I moved in on the third guy, bashing his solar plexus with the butt of my rapier.

“Kehhaa!?”

He gave a violent, choking cough as he keeled over, and I smashed my fist into his jaw. Like that, he, too, fell unconscious.

The three nobodies were out of the fight now — it was normal to cut down enemy numbers and even the odds on the battlefield, after all. And now there was just the one man remaining.

It was impressive that he had stayed completely calm this entire time, despite the fact that he should have been deprived of sight and sound.

I looked him over once again, confirming he wasn’t like the three I just dispatched; he was strong. Even with his senses blocked, the magical power coming off him was still calm and composed. It was as though that magical power of his was quietly saying something, like “I’m purposely allowing you to do what you need to do. What of it?”

I didn’t think this would be enough to take him out… but once again I concentrated magical power toward my hand. I formed a sphere, the simplest manifestation of magic, by condensing the light magic that was my specialty and threw it at him like a rock!

This nameless technique of mine fired a projectile made of light magic with the speed of a shot arrow; it wasn’t a particularly powerful spell, but it still contained more than triple the power of a punch thrown at similar speeds.

Its high speed should make it nearly impossible for anyone unused to detecing magic to avoid, and even if my target erected defensive magic in time, it should still be enough to knock them out if the projectile hit their head.

…But of course, that sphere of light didn’t make it that far.

Instead, a wall of ice suddenly grew in front of the man, stopping my spell in its tracks.

There was the sound of something like glass shattering as my spell crashed into his wall; the barrier had shattered into pieces but my own projectile had exploded in the process with that impact. That single shell of ice had been more than enough to stop my attack.

“Tch…”

I clicked my tongue in open frustration.

He couldn’t have detected my magic using sight, so it must have been pure intuition. Then he was able to put up a defense on instinct and without hesitation. I suspected this guy was strong, but it seemed things would be even more troublesome than I first thought.

“Albert, get Colette.”

“A-at once!”

It seemed Albert had followed my initial orders perfectly.

And he sprung into action once he heard my next command.

As for me, I never let my gaze wander away from the hooded man that conjured the wall of ice.

I needed to keep this guy focused on me so that he wouldn’t try and stop Albert.

“Yahh!”

With a loud cry, Albert swung his sword and broke the chain binding Colette.

He caught the stumbling Colette and took her in hand.

“Princess Colette, please allow me to assist.”

“Th-thank you… Is that… Albert? What just happened..? There was a blinding flash of light, and then…”

Her hearing hadn’t recovered, but it seemed she was beginning to regain her sight, and she stared at Albert in surprise.

“I must apologize, but there is no time to explain. Please, we must go at once.”

And with her hand in his, Albert pulled Colette along, returning to my side. With this, we removed the possibility of Colette becoming a hostage to use against us.

Of course, I couldn’t expect Colette to join the fight, but I had already taken that into consideration.

“You… That hair, the Hair of Sulberia! It’s you..! Mylene Petyul..!”

At the same time, the man suddenly put a hand to his face, muttering in anger.

Were his eyes already adjusting? I guess that meant he would soon be able to hear again, too.

Hmm, hearing him though… made me frown in discomfort from how strange he sounded. I answered him anyway.

“So what? What’re you going to do?”

“Hmph… To think Iltania’s Hound herself would come calling. Really, how vexing you all are! Just how far do you all intend to push me?”

It seemed he had recovered enough that having a conversation was now possible.

The effects lasted much shorter than I expected. Was it because of defensive magic protecting his eyes and ears? Or maybe it was a difference in each person’s ability to recover.

The magic I used to cripple their senses, ‘Dazzling Sonic’, was an original spell I created to disable the eyes and ears of my enemies by exposing them to a blinding flash and an explosive burst of noise, not to mention temporarily incapacitating anyone nearby by replicating the feeling of a point-blank magical explosion. Although in its current iteration, there was still much room for improvement.

Ideally, I wanted the flash of light and noises to last a bit longer. However, the biggest issue now was the time and focus I needed to create the sphere and infuse it with the explosion of sound.

…In other words, it wasn’t a spell I could use a second time at the moment.

That being said, it also probably wasn’t effective against enemies with skilled in magical perception, since they would know to put up defenses in time.

“And you’re not just some lowlife drug dealer, either. So who the hell are you?”

I brandished my rapier in a threatening manner as I spoke.

I wasn’t expecting an answer, but…

“So you would ask of us who we are, huh… How should I answer this question…”

For some reason, this guy seemed more than eager to answer.

From my experience, religious nuts like this tended to blabber on about things they weren’t even asked, and it was always the ones from cults that were the most enthusiastic about it all.

And that was especially true for those Gods of the Moon guys… They were prone to cursing out Iltania and wishing ill will on the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia without notice and at random…

Suddenly, memories of the past flooded my mind; the deluge of thoughts and images threatened to overwhelm me, but… this wasn’t the time to be losing focus — I was on a battlefield.

“Mylene, no..! Stop! You must not fight him..!”

The sound of an unusual voice caused my concentration to waver for a brief instant — a desperate, sobbing plea from Colette.

She had cried out to me, her voice full of concern and worry. Myself aside, Colette knew my strength best, but hearing her, who considered me an equal match to the generals of her empire, beg me to retreat had caught me so off-guard that, for a moment, my mind went blank.

It was fortunate for me that the man I faced chose not to attack but instead to clear his throat with glee.

“We are the believers of the Gods of the Moon. Our adherents belong to Dia Myrth, the Great Serpent of the Hanging Glaciers. And it is for a grand purpose that we have gathered here today.”

The man lowered the hood hiding his face as he excitedly introduced his group.

It was shocking to see the face he revealed, but at the same time, I finally understood why I had felt so uneasy when I first heard his voice.

“I was just thinking your voice sounded familiar… but since you were acting like a completely different person, I wasn’t actually expecting to see you under that hood after all.”

But my shock only lasted a moment, and the man smiled gently. I glared at him before continuing.

“All this time, with all your lecturing — about peace and how fighting should be a last resort — did none of it matter? …Answer me, Instructor Pelmann!”

The gentle smile that appeared from under the hood… belonged to the strict but soft-hearted first-year teacher of the Zelfoir Academy of Magic.

I already heard the rumors about his mysterious lack of a background… but of all the potential possibilities, I never would have guessed Pelmann was actually the leader of an evil cult moonlighting as the teacher of a prestigious school.

These guys calling themselves followers of the Gods of the Moon — what else have they got their hands in? How far has their influence spread by now, in the current day? I felt the corners of my mouth twist with annoyance as I considered this new issue.
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