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Chapter 256
Chapter 256
Chapter 256
Aaron Mede was initially astonished that his surprise attack had been so easily blocked by Harriet.
But the real shock came when Ellen suddenly summoned a sword.
“... Lament?”
‘A student wielding a Holy Relic?’
Aaron Mede watched in disbelief as more impossible events unfolded.
Harriet looked at him while maintaining the barrier. “There’s no way I could already use something like an Anti-Magic Field.”
He felt as if he’d been struck by a hammer.
He had fallen for a rookie’s trivial bluff. There’s no way a student could use such high-level magic.
Anxious from the absurd threat and overestimating Harriet’s abilities, he had acted first.
The situation had already been set into motion. Aaron Mede removed his mask.
“Alright. I don’t know what led you to find me, but you still seem unaware of your blunder.”
Among the magical arts, alchemical secrets were the easiest to steal. Even those who couldn’t use magic sometimes managed to steal and use them.
For this reason, most alchemist’s personal workshops were highly secure. High-risk facilities known as dungeons were the creations of paranoid archmages.
To protect items that could be easily stolen, the security had to be tight.
“I’ll show you what happens when you recklessly enter an alchemist’s house.”
An alchemist’s workshop was the most fortified among mages’ workspaces.
Click!
“What...!”
In an instant, Aaron Mede’s body retreated behind a wall, and the door they’d entered through vanished.
All the windows were blocked by opaque protective barriers.
Clank! Clank!
Numerous magical crossbows appeared in the air, pointing toward them, and violet smoke began seeping out from blue mana stones embedded in various places around the room.
Physical attacks, poison gas, and the transformation of the space itself...
An alchemist’s home was no different from a dungeon, and stepping into one voluntarily was nothing short of suicide.
Harriet laughed.
The assassin had revealed his identity, so there was no need for further hesitation.
“Sure, I said I couldn’t cast it myself, but who said I didn’t have something that can?”
Harriet pulled a scroll book from her belongings. With a wave of her hand, the pages automatically flipped to the right spot, and a scroll started to glow.
Harriet was a mage. And on top of that, she was immensely wealthy.
Flash!
The high-level spell, Anti-Magic Field, activated.
***
Before Harriet and Ellen entered Aaron Mede’s mansion, they had a conversation.
“That should be the place,” Ellen indicated, pointing at a mansion visible in the distance.
“Seems like it,” Harriet replied.
Aaron Mede’s mansion was located on the outskirts of the capital. The area wasn’t entirely deserted, but it was secluded enough that few people passed by it.
The mansion wasn’t ostentatious, but neither did it appear modest.
Ms. Mustang had recommended Aaron Mede as an expert with considerable skill in alchemy, though she did not say he had knowledge on the particular subject they were interested in. She had mentioned Aaron Mede in response to a simple academic curiosity, unaware that a homunculus that could control people already existed.
In such uncertain circumstances, Harriet and Ellen were worried they might uncover some uncomfortable truths.
It was unusual to suspect a Temple teacher outright, but there was no reason not to proceed with caution. They weren’t playing a child’s detective game; they were hunting an assassin who had tried to kill Reinhart.
“What do you think?” Ellen asked, and Harriet shrugged.
“It seems suspicious, but not overly so. There’s no such thing as a mage without secrets. Come to think of it, mages often set up workshops or labs in their basements. Then again, the scale of his workshop is rather large,” Harriet replied, assessing the massive mana-shielded space underground.
“Can’t you look through it?”
“I don’t know how to forcefully dispel a barrier of that magnitude, and any attempt to even try to peer through it would be detected. If it turns out to be innocuous, we’ll face significant issues. We’ll be disabling the barrier around a private property without permission, after all.”
The person they were about to meet was probably just an ordinary teacher.
Nevertheless, caution was necessary. Ellen had suggested they prepare for any eventuality, which had prompted Harriet to bring the scroll book her father had given her for emergencies.
The spells contained within the scroll book, accessible only with her biometric data, were powerful beyond imagination. It was entirely possible that the scroll book alone held the destructive power of a magical battalion.
Its value was beyond estimation.
“Let’s ask him some questions. If everything seems fine, we’ll apologize.”
Harriet, feeling reassured after putting on the earrings Reinhart had gifted her, nodded as she took a deep breath to calm her nerves.
“Will an apology be enough...?”
“So what if it isn’t?”
Ellen’s nonchalant tone was enough to convince Harriet.
Since some time ago, Ellen had started to resemble Reinhart more and more.
***
‘She’s a monster.’
Aaron Mede couldn’t shake off the thought.
Thanks to the Anti-Magic Field, all magic-operated traps and facilities were rendered useless.
Anti-Magic Field was not an omnipotent magical spell and couldn’t neutralize all magical devices indiscriminately. However, the level of magic that had been triggered was excessively high. The scroll used by the Grand Duchess of the magic-renowned state of Saint-Ouen was of extraordinary power.
Sure, that was understandable.
But Aaron Mede’s mansion also had mechanical traps, and those should still be functioning.
Bang!
.
.
Bang!
.
.
Bang! Boom!
.
.
The “monster” continued advancing, bursting through his traps with sheer bodily strength and breaking down the barriers of rooms without doors.
He found himself in the peculiar situation of fleeing inside his own mansion.
A single student enveloped in the blue flame of Mana Reinforcement was walking through walls, advancing steadily.
Walls collapsed just by coming into contact with her body. If they didn’t break, she slashed them apart with her sword.
The sacred sword, Lament...
Known for its blade, cold and sharp like moonlight. It was the Holy Relic of Mensis, the god of the moon.
Aaron Mede was being shown the power of a Holy Relic in the most unwelcome manner.
How was this different from facing a Swordmaster? Attacks couldn’t penetrate her mana-reinforced body, and the relic that replicated the Swordmaster’s signature move, the Aura Blade, was formidable.
Thud! Thud! Crash!
Aaron found himself fleeing from Ellen, who burst through walls in the absence of visible doors.
Even without seeing him as he fled, she seemed to be able to sense his exact path and continued to follow him.
He could have used a teleportation scroll, but the damned Anti-Magic Field deployed by the Grand Duchess barred the use of magic.
Of course, the Grand Duchess couldn’t use magic either, but the monster chasing him did not care for magic.
The mansion’s staff might not have been at the Swordmaster level, but they could have at least bought some time. However, they had all collapsed once the Anti-Magic Field activated.
Soon enough, Aaron Mede found himself retreating to his underground workshop.
The situation was the same there. The homunculi he had been experimenting on were either scattered or inactive.
Aaron Mede entered his underground lab, where not only homunculi were housed.
“...”
Ellen bulldozed her way through the fortified, locked door of the underground lab, quietly observing the scene before her, lit up by the blue flame emanating from her body.
Numerous grotesque experimental specimens were contained in vats.
Creatures that looked like chimeras were still alive. They were grotesque amalgamations created by fusing different beings together, evoking horror just by looking at them. Some appeared to be partially human.
There were chimeras that were created by combining humans with non-human parts—some even resembling demons.
“You,” Ellen said as she gazed at Aaron Mede through the flames of mana. “You deserve to die.”
Present issue aside, Ellen resolved that Aaron Mede had to be killed, no matter what.
“Heh, heh heh...”
Aaron Mede’s underground lab was expansive, situated beneath the vast property of the mansion.
It was broad and filled with numerous experimental subjects.
Those that were unaffected by the Anti-Magic Field... Chimeras.
Clang!
Aaron pulled a lever, opening the vats and releasing the chimeras.
Creak... Crack!
Some were formidable, others less so.
But buying time was enough for Aaron Mede.
Ellen watched as the pitiable beings in front of her writhed and screamed.
She looked at those despairing creatures with sympathy.
Aaron Mede ran through the underground lab. If he could just get out of the Anti-Magic Field, he could teleport away.
He sprinted toward the secret exit of the underground lab.
“Kyahhh!”
Ellen observed the dozens of chimeras rushing toward her.
“...”
Slash!
It was only a brief moment before Ellen began slicing through the chimeras.
***
Sarkegar was beside in sparrow form, as was Eleris, who was concealed by an invisibility spell.
Not knowing what might happen, I had brought along all available forces except for Loyar. Aaron Mede was an alchemist, after all, and unpredictable in his actions.
We did not enter through the front door.
“This is the secret passage?”
—Yes, Your Highness.
It was the sparrow on my shoulder, Sarkegar, that replied.
Its cute chirping contrasted bizarrely with the gloomy and ominous voice I heard when it spoke—an eerie feeling.
A tremendous being of darkness, yet in the form of a sparrow... It felt odd to have such a thing tagging along.
The mansion was built on a secluded piece of land on the outskirts of the capital, and the secret passage was even further away, deep within the forest.
Hidden among the thick vines of a leafy hill, one could see what looked like an iron door if one looked closely enough.
We would enter through this passage and capture Aaron Mede from within the mansion before he could realize it.
—The atmosphere seems strange. It feels like something’s happening right now...
Eleris, concealed by an invisibility spell, was just about to explain further when suddenly, an explosion reverberated from within the mansion.
Grrrr...
A metal door that shouldn’t have moved opened, and someone with a panicked expression burst out.
“...?”
The moment that person saw me standing casually outside, their face turned pale as if their heart had stopped.
“... How did you...?!”
“... What the?”
I didn’t actually know what Aaron Mede looked like, since I’d never seen him before.
—It’s Aaron Mede.
Sarkegar’s explanation helped me identify him.
The flustered middle-aged man looked stunned to see me.
“... Why is he coming out through here?”
—I do not know, Your Highness.
For whatever reason, Aaron Mede was standing right in front of me. He had the same expression on his face as I did, clearly wondering what I was doing there.
He looked at the talking sparrow and back at me, waiting by his secret exit, pondering for a moment before seemingly giving up on figuring it out.
His hand moved towards his coat.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Thwack!
I drove my fist into his gut as he tried to reach for something.
“Guuhhh!”
“Whatever it is, don’t even think about it, you bastard.”
I grabbed his hair, pulling his head up from where he lay pitifully on the ground.
“You’re going to take responsibility for what you’ve done, starting now.”
“Gugh... Argh!”
Bang!
Suddenly, the metal door, which had closed itself, was violently kicked open, and someone else came rushing out.
“Huff... Huff... Huff...”
With labored breaths, Ellen appeared, splattered with bits of flesh and streaks of blood. She looked panicked as her gaze alternated between Aaron Mede, whom I was holding by his hair, and me.
“... Reinhart?” Ellen uttered.
“... Why the hell are you coming out of there?”
‘What the hell is going on?’ I thought.
Ellen, Aaron Mede and I—and even though they weren’t speaking, Sarkegar and Eleris—all appeared equally clueless about what was going on.