The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 4 - Chapter 3.3

III

The Middle Guard of the Winged Crusaders

“Eep? Eep! Eep?! L-Lord Johann, this is terrible! Terrible! The enemy is moving to surround Lady Amelia’s unit! We must go to their aid at once!” Spyglass in one hand, Senior Hundred-Wing Angelica Brenda was practically hysterical. Johann sighed deeply.

“‘We must go to her aid’ is easy enough for you to say,” he replied, “but what do you want to do about the enemies in front of us? You’re not saying we should send reinforcements by retreating from our position?”

Johann’s middle guard had engaged the Stonians not long after Amelia’s vanguard entered the fray. The battle that unfolded was thrilling, but the stark difference in morale between the two forces was showing, and Johann’s force was pressing its advantage.

“I would never say that,” Angelica protested.

“Then what do you want me to do?”

“As if you need to ask, ser!” Angelica spread her arms and bounced up and down. “You use your magecraft and go, kapow! You blast them to smithereens! Kapow!” With every bounce, the weapon strapped to her back gave a dull clang. There was no getting around how disproportionate the thing looked compared to her slight frame. The aggressively crude greatsword had earned her the moniker of “Razor Angelica.” She was one of the Twelve Angels and stood guard on the First Gate of La Chaim Palace.

“You make it sound so easy,” Johann said, “but even if it were, my magecraft is horribly inefficient. If I were to, as you put it, ‘go kapow,’ it would drain all my mana in an instant.”

“Would draining all your mana be bad?” Angelica asked, cocking her head to one side. Johann stared back at her suspiciously. He remembered telling her something to the effect of mana drain equals death in bed.

“Don’t play coy with me,” he said.

“I’m not being coy, ser,” Angelica replied. Her head showed no sign of returning to an upright position.

Am I getting mixed up? Johann thought. For a second, a parade of different women’s faces ran through his mind’s eye. But now that he thought about it properly, he wouldn’t have spoken so openly about the fundamentals of magecraft. In the end, he arrived at the conclusion that it had been Angelica.

“Huh,” he said, glowering at her. “So, what? Are you telling me to go kill myself?”

Angelica broke into a smile. “Don’t be ridiculous. I mean, I don’t mind at all that you blew off our date to go meet another woman. Not in the slightest!” While Johann gaped, struck dumb for a moment by this unexpected angle of attack, Angelica pressed on, widening her purple eyes and affecting a drawl. “Oh, you know, young and perky, with the silver hair. I hear she’s just the absolute prettiest little thing.” Though she bore a resemblance to an adorable tiny animal, there was unfortunately also a sharp gleam in her eyes like a masterfully honed blade.

There was no doubting now that she was roundly pissed off, but the person she was angry about was so different from what Johann had expected that before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “Oh, that one.”

“That one?” Angelica’s eyes narrowed and her smile grew thinner. Sensing he was in danger, Johann hurried to correct himself.

“I didn’t mean anything by that, don’t worry about it,” he said. “Anyway, I didn’t forget about our date, Angelica. I received direct orders from the Seraph to go on a recon mission. I couldn’t do anything about it. It just so happened that my target was a beauty.” He took care to emphasize the “just so happened” part. It was the simple truth, with none of the embroidery he was so good at, and he hadn’t done anything to feel ashamed of.

But Angelica pressed her index finger to her cheek and cocked her head to one side again. “Wait, wait. Now, something doesn’t add up here.” She was obviously telling him that she knew something. Johann was gripped by an ominous feeling, but he asked her to continue.

“Well,” she drawled, “you see, I heard something. I heard that Lord Johann volunteered for the mission himself! And that’s not all. He even knew from the beginning that this girl was incredibly beautiful.” When Johann didn’t say anything, she asked, elongating her words even more dramatically, “What’s this? Why so quiet, ser?” Her eyes bored searchingly into his face. Johann made no rebuttal. Or rather, he didn’t have one.

It was true both that he had volunteered, and that he had known of Olivia’s divine beauty beforehand. Any more bad excuses at this stage would be less like poking a hornet’s nest than aggravating a swarm of the class two dangerous beasts, pterowasps. But why does Angelica know so much? he thought, alighting on the obvious question. Johann himself would never have let slip anything that could sink any ships, but he couldn’t see Angelica looking into it of her own accord.

Johann was cringing internally as Angelica’s eyes glued even more tightly to him when insight struck him like a bolt of lightning. That’s it, I’ve got it! It was Amelia. If she’s the one who squealed on me to Angelica, it all fits. Ugh, she’s so nosy.

Amelia had depressingly few relationships, but for some reason, she occasionally indulged Angelica alone. Just the other day, he’d done a double take when he’d noticed the two of them going into an ornament store. Perhaps Amelia was fond of Angelica’s guileless personality. Whatever it was, this was the result.

Johann cleared his throat loudly, assumed a stern expression, and said firmly, “Enough of this. The third company looks like it’s faltering.”

“Oh! He wriggles out!” Angelica said. She poked his cheek, exasperated, and he swatted her away.

“I’m not wriggling out of anything,” he protested.

“Hmph! That’s not fair, Johann...” Muttering to herself, she still handed off his orders to the runners with precision, and not long after, the ninth company set off to aid the third.

“Now, are we going to help Lady Amelia or not?” Angelica asked again, now deadly serious once more. Johann saw clearly that she was genuinely worried about Amelia.

“Like I told you, we don’t have the soldiers to provide reinforcements,” Johann replied. “I know how you feel, but right now, it’s impossible.”

“Then couldn’t we ask Blessed Wing Lara to go for us?”

Rather than answer, Johann reached out and gently stroked her soft white hair. Angelica muttered, “You won’t wriggle out like that,” but otherwise she let him do it.

“If Amelia is in real danger, Blessed Wing Lara will act without our asking her,” Johann told her. “But I wouldn’t fret. Amelia wasn’t made thousand-wing for nothing.”

Of course, Johann didn’t have anything solid on which to make that assertion. The unparalleled might of the inhuman power of magecraft still relied on a human to wield it. Carelessness could easily result in a quick death. But Amelia was too clever to be sitting on her hands right now.

“I suppose that’s true...” Angelica said hesitantly. Her expression was dark, and she kept glancing at him. Johann could tell she wasn’t convinced.

“Think about it,” he told her, “Forget Blessed Wing Lara. You know she’d let me have it later if I tried to help and messed it up. That woman’s ego is enormous.”

“Okay, I can see that...” Angelica admitted with a small laugh. Johann was just observing that it was only Angelica’s familiarity with Amelia’s nature that made her laugh like that when he was struck by a sudden, choking wave. This was no ordinary sensation. Only a mage could have picked up on it. It was a wave of mana. Well, well, dear Amelia, he thought. You went and used that spell.

Seeing Johann grimace suddenly, Angelica looked puzzled.

“It looks like your worries will have been for naught,” he told her.

“What? How do you know that?”

“I just felt a wave of mana, which means dear Amelia used high-level magecraft.”

“High-level magecraft? What does that mean?” Angelica asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity. It was easy to see she expected something spectacular, but Johann knew those expectations would be met only with disgust.

“It’s better if you don’t ask,” he told her. “The answer will turn your stomach.”

“Come on. When you say it like that I just have to know,” Angelica pouted, puffing up her cheeks and shaking him by the shoulders just like she’d prodded him earlier. He left her to it for a while, but when she showed no sign letting up, he reluctantly took the spyglass from his belt.

“Fine, fine. You can use my spyglass. If you want to know that badly, take a look with your own eyes. Only...”

“Only?” Angelica prompted him.

Looking her right in the eyes, Johann said, “No comments once you’ve looked.”

“Got it! All right!” Angelica enthusiastically took Johann’s remodeled spyglass, then, with deftness at odds with the greatsword strapped to her back, she scrambled up a tree. After a little while, she returned, unsteady on her feet. Her eyes were blank and her face pale.

“Bleeegh...” she mumbled. “That was disgusting. The Stonian soldiers were all dry and shriveled.”

“I told you it’d turn your stomach,” Johann said. “The first time I saw it, I reacted just like you are now.”

“What even was that? That magecraft?” Angelica asked, puckering her lips in distaste.

“It’s called the Verdantwine Myriad. It’s high-level magecraft that sucks the blood out of its victims. Right down to the last drop.”

“Ick. So that’s why the corpses were all shriveled. So those red flowers all around the bodies...”

“You’re quick. I guess you could call the flowers proof of the spell. That’s by far the most vicious of all the magecraft at our dear Amelia’s disposal, by the way.”

“It’s more than vicious enough,” Angelica muttered, then, her eyes turning anxious, she asked, “Do you use magecraft like that too, Lord Johann?”

Johann ran his fingers through his hair and said, as much for his own sake as for hers, “I don’t. Or more accurately, I can’t...”

Personality, preferences, and talents all strongly influenced the kind of magecraft a person could wield. Johann remembered his former master telling him as much. Verdantwine Myriad was a binding spell that reflected Amelia’s sadistic nature. Johann could never have cast it.

When he told Angelica this, she sighed. “Thank goodness...” she muttered with heartfelt relief.

“Anyway,” Johann continued, “what’s happening out there? I suppose the tide of the battle has shifted?” Really, enemy or no, Johann would have been thoroughly impressed if they had held on to any fighting spirit after witnessing the Verdantwine Myriad. But then, he reminded himself wryly, there was no need to concern himself with them anymore.

“Y-Yes, ser! Lady Amelia’s magecraft has thrown the enemy into disarray. It’s only a matter of time before she goes on the offensive.”

“All right. Well, it’s not like we planned it this way, but it’s about our time as well. Shall we finish this?”

“Oh, now you want to?” Angelica said, looking at Johann’s left hand with exasperation.

“I’m not holding out on you,” he said. “I was just waiting for the right moment.”

“The right moment?”

“Yes, in accordance with the will of the Seraph.”

“Is this that demonstration the Seraph talked about back at the war council?”

“It is exactly that. The empire incited this battle, which means they’ll definitely have someone lurking around to see how it turns out. I’m going to put on a good show for them so they know what happens if they come for us,” Johann finished, flexing his left hand.

With a broad smile, Angelica raised her fist high into the air. “Then let’s thump ’em good! Wham!”

Johann sighed deeply and muttered, “Nothing ever gets you down, does it?” Then, he raised his left hand to the sky. As he poured mana into his Blazelight mage circle, Angelica gave the order for a temporary retreat.

“Lord Johann! Our forces have withdrawn!” she called.

“Let’s do this then...” he murmured. “I do sympathize with your plight, but this is the way of war. Forgive me.” Scorching light erupted from his hand along with an enormous ball of flame. The ball, like a miniature sun, stopped high in the sky above the Stonian Army, emitting a thunderous rumble.

“Burn!” Johann clenched his fist, and the ball exploded. Flames poured like rain down on the heads of the Stonian Army.

This was high-level fire magecraft: the Blazered Shower. Its flames clung to the bodies of the soldiers like raindrops, until in the end they became engulfed in a scarlet maelstrom. It was one of the broad area-of-effect spells that Johann favored.