Recuperating? – Q of Hearts (Part 5) 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.
“Catch that man who’s making a racket.”
At Achille’s instruction, the magicians began to move. Aside from when it comes to his family and I, he’s generally a keigo-using faker. Even in this situation he’s going all-out with his faking. The Red magicians fired magic towards Galuf. Galuf agilely set up defensive magic, and avoided the magicians’ attack. As you’d expect, being the J of Clovers he’s needlessly high spec.
“Aahh, geez, I knew he wasn’t at school, but to think that Galuf would appear here.”
Galuf Sharohm… A character who appeared in the otome game as the J of Clovers. In the game, he was a delinquent student unsuited for the elite magic academy. Because of his family’s business (they do stuff that’s socially unacceptable), and because of his bad actions, people only looked on at him from a distance, but the heroine spoke to him without fear so he opened up to her, and eventually he reformed because of her. In his friendship end, after they graduated, they ended up having chats in town, just the two of them. But… this Galuf is similar to the way he was before the game Galuf met the heroine. He’s Before-Galuf. And the thing he cast at us earlier, was probably forbidden magic.
“For Galuf to be able to use forbidden arts… What’s going on?”
If you had to say it, he was a character more like Raiga who was bad at magic. Rather than magic, he was better at fighting using magic items. And moreover, his mana volume shouldn’t have been that great. The number of boxes on him… the magic items have decreased in number, so he might be obtaining magic power from thsoe boxes. And as for the condensed mana stuffed inside the boxes… there’s a good chance that it’s the Heroine’s magic. Enough magic power to cast magic on that many people at once can’t be gathered that simply after all. Did Galuf intend on using forbidden magic to turn us into the p.a.w.ns of the extremists, and then turn the tide of the battle…?
If you consider Galuf’s family business, gathering those children wouldn’t have been difficult either. It’s unpleasant, but… I think they’re children who were kidnapped and sold.
“I’ll be taking the lead, so be careful of forbidden magic!”
My magic tattoos can protect me from forbidden magic one more time. On the other hand, the magic tattoos on the other magicians were used up in the earlier attack. We can’t expose them to the risk of forbidden magic. If by chance they ended up falling under the power of a forbidden spell, it’d be hard work to dispel it after all. I stepped out in front of the magicians. Suddenly, Galuf looked at me.
“Mn?”
“You’re, Camille Rhodolite, huh…?”
Why does Galuf know my name? Wondering about this, I stared at his face.
“Well, can’t be helped. As a sorry for losing the town, how ’bout I give you as a present?”
Galuf took out a knife from his pocket. It’s a magic item that can attack by weakening the power of things like magical shields.
“Geh-…”
I don’t really get why, but it seems that Galuf has me as a target. The magicians seethed with killing bloodl.u.s.t, and fired ice magic at him one after another, but Galuf disintegrating the spells with his knife. As I thought, it looks like he’s the type who can show his battle prowess better with magic items, rather than magic. But, he’s strong. Just a little unrest spread through the magicians.
“What’s with this guy.”
“Isn’t he strong enough that he’s like a totally different guy, now?”
While disintegrating the ice magic, Galuf held his hand towards the ground and a giant wall appeared. A thick and see-through wall separated me from the other magicians. From the other side, my comrades were shouting something, but I couldn’t hear.
“With this, there are no nuisances left, huh?”
With a smile, Galuf tried to cast a forbidden spell at me again. Judging from the magic circle in the air, it’s a thought manipulation-type spell. I checked the tattoo on my arm. The number of scales decreased because of the magic from when we first entered the room, but Achille and I can still defend from one more. I can’t let myself be controlled like a doll after all!
“L-, Like I’d let you turn me into a huan bombbb!”
“Mn? What are you misunderstanding?”
“I should be asking you what you were thinking doing something like that to a child. You plan on doing that to me too, right?”
“…Aah. So you met that, huh? It had good luck to be saved by you lot, huh. But I have no plans on doing that to you, yanno? Relax.”
It seems that Galuf doesn’t feel any guilt at all. I quickly went through the steps to the forbidden spell in reverse, and rendered it ineffective.
“s.h.i.tt, why the f.u.c.k did it disappear?”
Galuf tried to use forbidden magic a few more times, but I had them all disappear. As you’d expect, I’m getting tired though.
The number of magic items hanging from him was now zero. But my mana pool is getting close to dry. It feels like I’ll run out of magic power if I counter one more forbidden spelll.
Not knowing when to give up, Galus left me behind and tried to escape. Pushing his back to the wall, a hidden pa.s.sage appeared. It seems that it’s a large-scale trick based on a magic item.
“Ah-, wait!”
I went after Galus. At the end of the hidden pa.s.sage shone a magic circle that seemed to be for teleportationg. It’ll be bad if he gets on that! I have to catch him before he teleports…
Using the remaining magic power I had, I tried to destroy the magic circle. I can’t use anything too large scale, but if it’s just enough to destroy that magic circle, I think I can somehow manage. But I was too focused on the magic circle, and wasn’t paying attention to my feet…
-click- …
“Ah-…?”
-CRUNCH-
By the time I noticed, it was too late.
“Ow-, OWOW! What the heck is this!?”
My right ankle was caught in something something metal like a bear trap. It was painful enough that tears came out. Blood was running from my ankle. Looking carefully, there were bear-traps type things set up here and there on the ground. They’re way too prepared!
“Oh, lucky. Looks like I caught ya at just the right time, huh?”
Galuf tried to fire binding magic at me. I went through the steps in reverse and nullified that magic, and while I was at it, I prepared an attack spell to fire at him. b.a.s.t.a.r.d, using traps on me, I won’t forgive you! However, the magic that should have been activated didn’t come out from my hand.
“Nnn-?”
I didn’t nullify the magic in time, and unable to move because of the binding spell, I fell to the ground. Uuu… I hit my head.
“…Why?”
“That metal is a magic nullifying magic item for prisoners, yanno? Even if you try to use magic, it’s pointless yanno.”
W-, What a thing to use… Speaking of which, my automatic defence tattoos are nullified too… B-, Bad. This is totally bad. In this situation, if he uses forbidden magic… I’m out!
Galuf approached me with a smirk.
“N-, No…”
“Oh? That’s a nice expression, isn’t it. That look that goes ‘stay awayyy’… Let’s have a closer look.”
“S-, Stay away, perverttt!”
At the same time as my shout, a huge explosion happened. I reflexively shut my eyes.
After the smoke and dust thrown up into the air from the explosion settled, I looked around and found… leaving the area around me entirely unharmed, the ground was deeply gouged out. The magic circle along that gouge was splendidly destroyed as well. It seems that Galuf was sent flying against the wall from the shock. He’s flattened against a corner.
“That was magic… wasn’t it?”
At some point, Galus’ binding spell had been undone. Since I could move now, I rose my body to check behind me.
“U- …no good. It really does hurt too much to stand… -wah-?”
While I was on my knees, I was suddenly hugged from behind. Ummm…?
“Ah-, Achille?”
“Of course. Why is that what you asked? Does someone other than me do this to you too?”
“…Of course not.”
I nervously apologised. It seems that Achille’s mood had taken a nose dive. Moreover, it’s an ultra bad mood that I’ve rarely seen in the last few years!
“Show me your foot?”
Not caring about my response, he took a hold of my ankle.
“It hurts, it hurts d.a.m.n it!”
Achille disintegrated the bear trap with magic. He looked painfully at my b.l.o.o.d.y leg. He looks kind of sorry for some reason. Even though there’s no reason he had to make a face like that too… Because in reality, the one that’s hurting enough to cry is me, after all. With a serious expression, Achille cast recover magic on my ankle. The wound rapidly healed.
“Does it still hurt?”
“Mm~mn. It’s fine. It’s healed now… Thanks.”
Before I knew it, the other magicians were standing nearby. Did they all break through that wall together?
“Please look after Camille for a little.”
Entrusting me, who was on the verge of mana exhaustion, and had moreover taken emotional damage from the bear-trap thing, to the other magicians, Achille headed towards Galuf.
“Tsk… Doing something d.a.m.ned pointless…”
Achille clicked his tongueeeeeeeeee!
“Even though I would have liked to stop you from ever taking another breath, if this weren’t a job…”
After giving Galuf a cold and dreadful glance, Achille cast binding magic on him. It was layer upon layer of binding, and it looked like he couldn’t even speak anymore. On top of that, he used magic to tear off a chain attached to the bear trap, and harshly bound Galuf’s arms with it. …It’s overkill.
“Please arrest this piece of s.h.i.t. Take him to the castle.”
“Achille…?”
The other magicians looked at Achille, dumbfounded. It’s probably their first time seeing Achille’s true colours. They’re dreadfully shaken. But even shaken, the fact that they still properly did their job is as expected of the magicians of the castle.
“Camille…”
Achille caught me when I stood up totteringly, and roughly kissed me.
“Nn-”
Magic power flowed in from his mouth. It immediately spread through my body, and I could stand like normal now.
“Achi, lle… ‘m, oka-”
I slowly parted from Achille’s lips. If it continues like this, it feels like this time I won’t be able to stand for different reason.
“…You’re still not standing steadily. Isn’t that because you haven’t had enough?”
“No, that’s diff- …I’m good, I’m good, I said-”
d.a.m.ned Achille… He’s saying this even though he knows, isn’t he? If it’s Achille who can perfectly allot magic power, he should know how much mana I need to stand properly.
“Geez, Camille. You’re being reserved, aren’t you? I have plenty of mana left, so you really don’t need to hold back, you know…”
“Like I said, that’s not- …I’m not being reser-, nn-…”
Aahh, I can feel tepid gazes from the other magicians.
“Was Achille this kind of guys?”
“Nah… but for some reason that way of speaking suits him too.”
“The two of them sure get along, huhh.”
The magicians all gave their own one-sided opinions, and had their fun. Dammmit, don’t just watch and stop him please, somebody.
In the end, my legs gave way, and I was stuck with being carried around by Achille.
tl: Achille speaks to basically everyone politely, but just now he went back to his normal tone and manner of speaking.