Recuperating? – J of Hearts (Part 1) Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
One Day I Became a Burikko Villainess n.o.ble Girl, . Honto tutorial .
Think of it as throwing money at the author and Alphapolis, and getting a book with squiggles and pretty pictures as a pleasant extra.
It’s been on my mind for a long time now, but… just what’s up with Camille’s sense of wariness? Even though I’m this, this, this worried about her… She pays too little attention, in more than one way!
Camille who was in my arms wasn’t stiffened up the way she used to be, but even so, perhaps because there was some shame still left behind, she would occasionally wriggle in embara.s.sment. Just thinking that I might lose this warmth of hers makes me succ.u.mb to terror. I can’t allow something like the incident behind the auditorium to happen a second time. That girl tried to directly cast forbidden magic onto Camille and I.
Before long, we met up with the magicians I called for.
“Did any extremists appear in the back?”
One of the magicians answered my question.
“Nah, there wasn’t a single person in the back. Looks like you guys at the front drew the winning lot… But our side did find a door that wouldn’t open.”
“S-, Suspicious! They might be holing themselves in there!”
Camille leaned forward in excitement. It seemed like she was about to recklessly run off, so I tightened my hug and held her down.
“Gueh! Achille, it’s tight, I give! I give-…!”
“…”
When Camille’s here, any sense of tension is just sent flying away.
“You know, I found it suspicious too, so I tried to get inside, you see. But it was shut too tightly, and I couldn’t get in… It seems that there’s some shield-like magic cast on it, so.”
The magicians told us the situation in more detail. And then, once again, Camille began moving in my arms.
“If it’s lock-picking then it might be my turn to shine! Gue-!”
“Quiet, Camille.”
Why did it end up in this situation where she has to go…? Even though I actually wanted her to just stay back.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I won’t do anything dangerous. I had it rough that time with the heroine, after all.”
Some truly untrustworthy words. When Camille repeats her words twice is when you need to take extra care. The probability that she’s just thoughtlessly saying whatever is exceedingly high. Ever since Camille was hurt by that schoolgirl, the number of instances when she’s willingly gone and jumped right into danger has increased. I’m worried to death.
“Achille, I get that your fiancée is important, but you shouldn’t overdo it with the overprotectiveness, yanno~?”
“Yeah, if it’s Camille she’ll be fine. On her own she burned a dragon to death, yanno?”
“She burned that giant squid to ashes too, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, yeah. Even though we could’ve eaten it if we kept the heat down, she went and burned the whole d.a.m.ned thing black…”
Aah, I’m getting p.i.s.sed. Please stop with the irresponsible remarks. To treat her like a superman that much… Even though she’s a normal human too. And Camille being Camille, she’ll try to live up to remarks like that too.
“…Achille?”
Camille who was in my arms peered in on my face, worriedly. I get it, Camille heading out is the right decision. I asked Camille a question.
“You won’t jump into the enemy without thinking?”
“Mn. I’ll jump in after thinking.”
…It really is worrying.
From the back entrance, the sealed door was on the way to the centre of the building. We didn’t meet any extremists on our way there, and easily reached the room.
“Here, huh?”
The other magicians and I cancelled our shield magic, and while that was happening, Camille opened the lock.
“Mn, mn, easy victory. The locks in the castle are scarier.”
So muttered Camille… Thankfully, it seems that none of the other magicians heard it. Before long, the door opened.
At the same time as the door opening, we were engulfed in a flash of light.
“Uwah-”
“What’s going on?”
“So brightt!”
The magicians all responded in their own way. The light quickly returned to normal.
“What was that?”
“A flash to use as cover? But despite that, I can see.”
“Yeah, me too… Just what did the enemy do?”
In the room in front of the bewildered magicians… stood a man. A young man with purple hair, and long, thin grey eyes. He might be around the same age as Camille and I. He was wearing the same black clothing as the other extremists, and a green scarf, and a number of small box-like magic items were hanging from his whole body.
“AAHH-!”
Standing beside me was Camille with a shocked expression.
“What’s wrong? Do you know him?”
Camille’s raspberry coloured eyes stared right at me. Without saying a thing, she drew her lips towards my ears. Her face is close. If we weren’t in this kind of situation, just how happy would I be?
“He’s one of the characters from that story…”
She softly whispered, before turning to face the extremist man, clearly wary. So even she had a certain amount of wariness, huh…? So I was thinking, feeling relieved at an odd time.
The extremist man seemed to be bewildered for some reason.
“Why, didn’t it work…?”
With a baffled expression, he backpedalled. I thought of a certain possibility, and look at the magic tattoo on my arm.
“I thought so.”
The number of scales had decresed on the tattoo Camille drew. It seems that this man cast forbidden magic on all of us at the same time. But, just where’s the magic power coming from…? Even I can’t cast forbidden spells on close to ten people at once. Camille probably can’t either. As for who can, it’s probably limited to only that girl from behind the auditorium. With her mana volume, it might be possible.
When I looked at the man again, the number of magic items hanging from him had decreased. There might be some trick to those boxes. Like stored magic power or something…
“J of Clovers… Galuf Sharohm.”
Camille spoke a name that I’ve never heard before. If he’s one of the characters in the story she mentioned, I wonder what kind of position he had in the story.
“AHHH-, WHY!? s.h.i.t-! That b.a.s.t.a.r.d better not have made me use a defective product-!”
The man wildly kicked a nearby wall.
“I wonder if he’s the commander.”
It seems that Camille is labelling the fl.u.s.tered guy in the room as the commander we’re targetting. I don’t know why, she she said it with confidence.