I Decided To Not Compete And Quietly Create Dolls Instead 34 - Part 2
One Body, Two Hearts
According to Kajero"s explanation…
After I had left the royal capital, there were two attempts on Altrea"s life.
The culprit was quite cunning, as they seem to have tried to pull Kajero away from her using summoning magic.
(I was able to set myself free, however, just as I thought. Regardless, a bigger problem had become evident…)
The sacrifice had been offered.
(Master Phillka, that"s none other than you.)
Who could have come up with such a thing while I was being brought here by carriage?
I was out cold, so I couldn"t have done it.
I may have been intoxicated into falling asleep.
(So in short, you have come to help me, Kajero. I"m sorry for putting you through so much trouble for my sake.)
(…There is no need to thank me. If you were to die, it would be troubling for milady. Besides, this is the best chance to get near the enemy"s throat. That"s all there is to it.
Depending on the situation, I wouldn"t have hesitated to use your flesh and blood in order to manifest myself, Master Phillka.)
He was talking a bit faster than usual. Was he hiding his own embarra.s.sment?
It"s not entirely unlikely.
Kajero gives off a strong impression of being very cool-headed, but he has many different faces.
I"ve seen him many times looking after the animals and cooking for them. He would carefully bathe the dog and personally feed an orphan kitten. He seems to be kind-hearted deep inside.
(Let"s return to our topic. The enemy is not aware of the fact that we"re "sharing". They"ve incorrectly guessed that the second summoning was a failure. They"ve thrown you into this cell, and they"re probably planning to attempt a third summoning tomorrow.
I"m planning on taking this chance to launch a surprise attack. Could you help me?)
(That goes without saying. Let"s give these guys who have kidnapped me one h.e.l.l of a surprise.)
(Thank you for your trustworthy reply. Could you wait a moment, though?)
(Do you need to make preparations?)
(Correct. There was considerable skill behind the summoning technique itself, enough to deserve praise. However, the person who actually used the technique was relatively inexperienced.
As a result, the "exit" was so terribly narrow, that pa.s.sing through it took a great deal of my strength. However, in this darkness here, I should be able to recover fully in about 8 hours.)
(I see.)
As I listened to Kajero, I tried to imagine what the enemy was like.
They were able to separate Kajero from Altrea using summoning magic.
It"s such a crazy idea in the first place.
…It smelled like something I"d try to do.
The enemy is probably as much of a genius as I am.
In that case, this inexperienced use of advanced summoning magic must have been done like that on purpose.
Everything that has happened so far might then be within the enemy"s expectations.
What should we do, then?
What could we do outside of what the enemy has already antic.i.p.ated?
I soon realized that my brain had started to heat up and spin around like a machine for the first time in a long time.
…The enemy that Phillka had envisioned was nothing more than an overestimated illusion.
To begin with, Archbishop Profen and the others did not even know about Kajero"s existence, so they wouldn"t have come up with a plan to separate him from Altrea. The fact that Kajero wasn"t able to rush over to the fight with Zudah was merely a coincidence.
The "relatively inexperienced" summoner Kajero mentioned was actually one of the empire"s greatest wizards. Profen had intended to a.s.semble the most talented people to perform the summoning.
Of course, they had no way of seeing through the "sharing" between Kajero and Phillka. After all, they were going to try the summoning a third time after a short break.
In short, Phillka conjecture was nothing than him embracing his own desire for his enemy to be something like a rival to him. Someone who would match his genius.
If only Kajero had been able to fully recover peacefully, Phillka would have found himself being very disappointed.
However…
Unexpected questions changed the future.
(Kajero.)
(What is it?)
(…What was it like having a children"s doll for a body?
If that"s okay with you, could you tell me?)