Campione! - Volume 21 - Chapter 2.4

Part 4
「Now everyone! Please prepare the thing that I will say after this ASAP!」

It was the first voice that she said right after she returned to the surface.

The head court lady who was sitting beside the bed, and a former private tutor, Miss Ericson stared wide-eyed with a surprised face.

「Pri, princess?」

「Miss Ericson. Begin preparation right away. There is no much time!」

「Ce, certainly. However princess, please first return to your body. Your exhaustion must be terrible after separating from your real body for a long time.」

Miss Ericson gestured at the sleeping “real body” on the bed.

That body was the sleeping princess Alice.

In contrast, the “spirit body” that gave the order was floating lightly inside the room. Alice skipped the step of returning to her real body and called out to her retainers.

To Miss Ericson who looked like a strict private tutor, and the maids standing by inside the room.

This place was the private residence of the daughter of Duke Goddodin, that was to say the home of Alice.

「We, welcome home princess.」

「I, It’s very great to see your safe return.」

「Thank you. I too am very happy to be able to see everyone’s face once more. But, please leave the scolding and greeting for later.」

Alice casually warded off the maids’ words and spoke.

「Even things that aren’t in this mansion, most of them should be possible to be obtained if we call out to the old people in Diogenes Club.」

「Ye, yes-.」

「What you all should prepare is first──a fragment of deer’s skull prepared by the priest of Chuvash people. The stone of praying for rain, lapis manalis. The dried branch of holy tree worshipped in Gilgit. The crystallization of lifeblood squeezed out by Tahiti’s shaman. Also……」

Alice smoothly recited the item names.

Hearing that, Miss Ericson fixed the positioning of her glasses with her index finger.

「Princess. Are you intending to mix a secret medicine?」

「Exactly. Although the devil king civil war of the Campiones is over, the disturbance hasn’t ended. There is necessity to prepare for the “last battle”.」

「I see.」

Miss Ericson murmured.

She had slender face wearing glasses with slender frame.

Her hair was pulled back into a bun. Her looks that was a combination of intellect and sternness possessed no showiness. Her knowledge in sorcery was also deep and until now she had served as Alice’s advisor for many years.

The woman who whether in public or private could be called as Alice’s partner spoke with a subdued tone.

「In other words, it’s that thing……that princess often spoke about.」

「Yes. 『It’s the danger to the world that has become familiar each time』──」

「Acknowledged.」

Although Alice said it jokingly, but in the end Miss Ericson accepted it seriously. She was really her advisor.

Miss Ericson told her mistress who was secretly nodding.

「Then, I will also prepare. I will go change.」

「It will be helpful if you do that. I will give the instruction of the mixing method, so for the mixing itself──please take care of it, Miss Ericson.」

「Please leave it to me.」

Princess Alice’s flesh body was far from being healthy.

She had weak constitution, on top of that she would be completely exhausted just from walking a bit. She would also get exhausted after using a lot of spiritual power and would stay in bed for a long time.

That was why, she couldn’t immediately return to her real body while she still had work to do.

Well, she could also handle every kind of medicine ingredients while still in spirit body using “telekinesis”, but it was a work that might resulted in explosion or toxic gas just from a bit of mistake in ingredient’s amount.

If there was a more delicate and skillful 『hand』, then she would want to depend on that by all means──.

「I want to finish this before Kusanagi-sama return to the surface. Now, everyone. Please hurry!」

When the secret medicine was finished, they would immediately transfer it to Japan using mailing magic.

Actually she also asked the other side to mix a different medicine. Their side would create the remaining two kind of secret medicines to entrust to Kusanagi Godou.

In order to send him──to the 『true battlefield』.

–

「As expected from Princess Alice.」

Liliana Kranjcar was in admiration.

「Combining three kinds of witch’s secret medicine to make a an effect that will dramatically sharpen a Campione’s──spiritual grounding is it……」

After the devil king civil war came to an end, half a day had passed.

Tokyo──. Kusanagi Godou’s comrades who had returned to his hometown also strived to mix a 『secret medicine』. The White Hime-miko entrusted that task to Mariya Yuri.

She told her that she wanted them to prepare for when he would need it.

「I didn’t know at all that there is this kind of mixture.」

「If even Lily who is first class as witch is like that, the princess’s knowledge must be terrifying. Could it be that this is the princess’s original creation?」

Erica also nodded beside the impressed Liliana.

「Lucretia Zola of Sardinia Island, the witch who mastered the echelon of earth. The witch who rivaled her is only one, that is Princess Alice who mastered the echelon of heaven. Isn’t that right, Lily?」

「Yes. This is something magnificent.」

「It seems that originally this was Prince Alec’s idea, and then a few years ago it was mixed in an attempt.」

Yuri joined the conversation.

「In fact that person consumed it and the result had also been confirmed. That was what the princess told me.」

The mixing of the secret medicine was progressing with the witch Liliana as the center.

The workplace was an area where there wasn’t any sign of humans even though they were at the city center of Tokyo. Koutou ward of Toyosu area. They were in a corner of a multipurpose building that was constructed to become a new market.

The site was also excessively spacious, to the degree it would make one wonder if it was some kind of factory.

Hearing that even a little bit of mistake when mixing could become a 『state of emergency』, the History Compilation Committee arranged this place for them.

It was a place that was near the city center that was the standby spot, and the space was also spacious.

In the first place it was a reclaimed land of bay area, the character of the place was filled with nothing by warehouse or empty lot, the coming and going of people and vehicle traffic were also few. It was an ideal place.

They were at a floor that was excessively spacious, and had almost nothing placed inside.

The work table that was brought inside was teeming with numerous tools and ingredients.

Experiment apparatus like alcohol lamp, beaker, flask. They were things that accomplished the same role of refinement that was used by alchemist of old.

Furthermore the bulb of secret grass Moly that was said to be discovered by the god of travel and thief Hermes.

Carnivorous plant Nepenthes, the petal of black lotus, aconitum that might even become deadly poison, etc, etc. All of them were nothing but sorcery ingredients that ordinary people wouldn’t even know the name of.

The comrades of Kusanagi Godou were surrounding those things.

Erica Blandelli. Mariya Yuri. Liliana Kranjcar. And then──

「Saying this kind of thing before the decisive battle is surely still too early but」

Seishuuin Ena spoke.

「Supposing that his majesty win this big battle, what will happen to him I wonder?」

「What could you mean by that, Ena-san?」

「The other devil kings are all gone now. The hero of devil king slaying will also be gone. In that case, our king will be the world’s strongest both in name and reality won’t he?」

「……Now that you say that, certainly that’s true.」

Erica made agreeable response. Ena spoke further.

「As Ena thought, as the sole devil king his majesty will be elevated in status even higher than now, he will be worshipped like a monster that make the world prostrate before him by everyone that is in the know.」

Ena laughed innocently from a desire that obviously wished for it to be like that.

The serious hime-miko gracefully reminded her close friend who was being like that.

「But Ena-san. Won’t other Heretic God appeared again somewhere and endanger the only devil king somewhere down the road?」

「If that happen then it might be convenient instead.」

Ena grinned and spoke with an expression like a mischievous child.

「There will be only our king who can be asked to defeat that god. Perhaps everyone all over the world will have no choice other than to prostrate before Kusanagi Godou.」

「Well. It’s a big dream.」

「Erica. Don’t call this kind of idle gossip as dream or anything. No, well, if Kusanagi Godou really wins against the King of the End, it’s a future that might come into reality with quite high possibility though.」

Liliana also muttered that after remonstrating her old friend and rival.

By the way, her hand was moving even while talking.

She was grinding medicine ingredient inside a mortar, then mixed only the necessary amount following the prescribed procedure, and then she further sent witch’s sense into it.

Her performance was good but she didn’t rush by any means, progressing the mixing with a fixed pace.

She wanted to finish it as fast as possible, but the ingredients were all precious items without exception.

There was also the concern that if the work failed, it might not get completed in the end. The process had to be done swiftly and also carefully…….

Yuri suddenly went 「!?」 and lifted up her face.

After that she lowered her voice and whispered to all her companions.

「Everyone──something is coming.」

It seemed that she sensed an omen through spirit vision. The hime-miko’s expression stiffened.

Erica and Ena were taken aback, then immediately after Yuri’s words became words of premonition.

An explosion occurred. The whole building that someday would become Tokyo’s kitchen, new market was──swallowed completely by an explosion.

「Let’s begin, prince-dono.」

「Yes. In order to spectacularly color elder brother’s battle──」

Hanuman who was flying with his own power and Lakhsmana who was driving the flying war vehicle Vimana.

The two gods flew from the sacred Mountain Fuji to Tokyo. They arrived at the capital in this country’s center and began attacking.

In this capital, towers made from stone were packed in dense formation on profusely narrow land.

There was nothing but ugly townscape continuing without end.

Although, the town at coast spreading below still had some leeway. There was quite some space between building and building. Well, it didn’t change how ugly it was though.

「Disappointing.」

Lakhsmana spoke regrettably.

「By all rights, this ugly capital should sink into sea of flame as the signal of outbreak of war.」

「Prince, you promised not to say that. It will make the kind hearted Prince Rama sad. We should hold back to the degree of luring out Kusanagi Godou. Most likely that man is still wandering around somewhere in the netherworld……」

Hanuman responded with discernment.

War vehicle Vimana and the white monkey god of wind were hovering together in the sky.

Prince Lakhsmana was readying his bow with red arrow being nock on it, aimed to below──at the odd building on the ground.

The scale of the building’s structure was similar to a『castle』…….

「This is the flame of purification. Receive the judgment!」

Lakhsmana fired the red arrow.

The target was big. There was no way the prince who was an expert bowman could miss.

The moment the arrow stabbed on the wall, suddenly the whole『castle』 was enveloped in a great explosion. Fierce flame also spread out in the blink of eye. The ugly and imposing building was completely swallowed.

The flame was blazing brightly as though to scorch the sky.

Prince Lakhsmana was also similar with his elder brother, a bowman who used mystical arrows.

In his hand, this bow attack was just a child play.