III
It was decided that they would go with Clarice’s plan. Olivia dismissed everyone except Felix, pretending not to notice that Claudia was looking at her like she wanted to stay behind too. She then looked at the chair beside Felix.
“You know what ‘dismissed’ means, right?” she said to the gray child who hadn’t gotten up to leave.
“I knew it. You can see me.” As soon as the child spoke, color returned to her.
She threw out her red cloak with a flourish, then, drawing herself up impressively, exclaimed, “Behold! I am Great Mage Lassara Merlin!” A pause followed.
“So, um, if I give you a cookie, then will you leave? I’ve got to talk to Felix about something important.”
“D-Do not treat me like a child! I am 277 years old!”
Children were not 277 years old. Even Olivia, who enjoyed an ignominious reputation for cluelessness, knew that much.
“You’re not going to win any joke contests with material like that,” she said, then patted Lassara on the head. The little girl’s face turned red as a tomato, and she stamped her foot repeatedly.
“You insolent, ill-bred little...!” Lassara raged. “Even that rat-bitten fairy has never spoken to me thus, let alone a human! And what are you smirking at, youngster?! Tell this muttonhead who I am!”
Felix filled Olivia in on the details. Lassara put her hands on her hips and stuck her chin out. Olivia stared at her with interest.
“So you can use magecraft to extend your lifespan? Wow.” If there was magic that could do that, Z had never told her about it. But then, she’d never been interested enough to ask either.
“Now don’t go getting the wrong idea. Not just anyone can do this. I can because I am a great mage,” Lassara said, sticking her nose in the air. A moment later, however, her expression turned peevish. “Magic, eh...?” she muttered. “I wonder if you couldn’t show me that trick from earlier again?”
“Sure.” Last time, Olivia had gone through the steps to make sure everyone understood her explanation of magic, but that didn’t seem necessary anymore. She raised her left index finger and created a butterfly out of flame. It rested on her fingertip, flapping its wings. Lassara’s eyes bored into it.
“It just gets stranger the longer I look at it. It is such a delicate creation, and yet I only sense a speck of your mana within it...” she said. “If I had to guess, I’d say that’s at the heart of whatever sets magic apart from magecraft. I suppose you know what the real difference is, eh?”
Olivia thought hard, trying to remember. “Okay, so magecraft uses mana in your body, and when your mana is completely drained, you die. And you have to use that mark on your left hand as a catalyst. Am I right so far?”
“That’s correct. The mage circle is what makes one a mage.” Lassara held up her left hand proudly so that Olivia could see the mark on the back.
“It sounds like it’s basically the same as magic. The big difference is that magic doesn’t need a catalyst.”
“Mm-hmm. It’s true, I don’t see a mage circle on your hand...” Lassara said dubiously.
Olivia looked at the butterfly. “Also, you’re right that there’s basically no mana in here. That’s because it’s mostly made of magical essence. Oh, yeah, magical essence is...” She raised her other index finger and drew pure magical essence to converge on her fingertip. “These particles of light drawn to my finger are magical essence. It’s the same thing as mana. There’s loads of magical essence floating around in the air, so you only have to use a bare minimum of your own mana. I guess in that sense you could call mana my catalyst. Of course, high-level magic still burns a fair bit of mana, though.”
Incidentally, Olivia decided to keep to herself that Z had called magecraft a “cheap trick.” There was a simple reason for that—she remembered the look of despair Johann had given her after their bout. At the time, she hadn’t understood the meaning behind that look, but she’d learned a lot since then. Now, she understood that Johann must have taken pride in being a mage. Humans carried around a lot of pride, and as little as a careless word from someone was enough to wound it. Z had taught her that to live was to learn. She hadn’t understood that either at first—actually, she still didn’t really understand, but some sense of it was starting to take shape inside her.
“So in other words, there are effectively no limits on the use of magic,” said Lassara. “Well, well. I see your comment about upsetting the balance of the world was apt.” Lassara’s usual cool detachment was gone. Her tiny fists were quietly trembling.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Just the ability to draw mana from the air makes magic far superior to magecraft. If Olivia had used it in our duel... Felix considered this grimly. No wonder she didn’t seem worried. I would never have imagined that she was hiding this much power.
Olivia looked up at him inquiringly. “So, um, I asked you to stay because I’ve got a favor to ask you. Can we talk about that now?”
“Oh, er, yes.”
“When I go to take down Darmés and Xenia, I was wondering if you’d help...” Olivia hesitated. “Will you?”
It was a request perfectly aligned with his own goals. There was no reason not to agree.
“Of course. I will do everything in my power to assist you.”
Olivia let out a sigh of relief. “Great. Xenia’s seriously tough.”
“When you say that...” Felix said tentatively. “Have you already fought Xenia?”
“Yeah. I got beaten to a pulp too.” Olivia scratched the back of her head and laughed. Felix could not find it in himself to join her.
“Just to be clear—you used magic in this battle?”
“Yeah, of course. Xenia’s a god of death, so I wasn’t breaking my promise to Z.”
“So you fought with everything you had, and still you lost.”
“Uh-huh. In the end, it was all I could do to run away.”
Felix let out a long breath. “I’m not sure if I will be much assistance against such an opponent.” This Xenia called itself a god of death. Felix had no intention of turning into a coward now, but he was conscious that for the first time, he was throwing himself into a battle where he could see no hope of victory.
“Oh, yeah, if we just charged in without a plan I’m sure we’d lose,” said Olivia. “I’ve been training to make sure that doesn’t happen, and your help will give a massive boost to our chances of winning.”
“Training...?” Felix repeated. “Does that mean you found your Z?”
“Yep!”
“I see. I’m glad for you.”
Olivia laughed and gave him a smile like the sun coming out. “Thanks.”
For a moment, Felix was entranced. Then he pulled himself together and sat up straight. “The truth is, Lady Olivia, I have a request for you as well.”
“No problem, so long as it’s something I can do. One thing, though—could you stop calling me ‘lady’?”
“That would not be proper, not in my position after seeking refuge with the Royal Army for the Azure Knights and myself.”
“C’mon, it’s fine. With my authority, I can bend the rules a bit. Not that I’m not used to people calling me ‘ser’ and ‘lady’ by now, but something about you doing it feels weird, like I’m itchy.” She scratched at her back. Something about it was so comical that Felix couldn’t help it; he snorted with laughter.
“Very well, then. Let us agree that there shall be no formalities between us.”
“Sounds good!” Olivia smiled at him, and Felix returned it.
Just then, a weary voice broke in. “Sounds as though you’ve wrapped things up.”
“Lady Lassara...” Felix turned to her. “Is it all right with you?”
“Hmph. I’m hardly going to sit around sulking all day.” Lassara turned her nose up away from Felix. He gave her a wry look.
“So you were sulking, then.”
“I-Insolence! Now, if you’re quite done here, let’s hurry up and go get the emperor!” With that, Lassara marched haughtily from the room.
“The emperor?” Olivia cocked her head to one side. Felix filled her in on the situation, then the two of them followed Lassara out of the meeting room.
In one of the rooms in the barrack tower that had been given over to the Azure Knights, Felix, Olivia, and Lassara stood around the prone figure of Ramza. Olivia, her eyes gleaming, held in her hand a certain hapless fairy whose attempt at a surprise attack had ended in her capture.
“Lemme go, you stupid cow!”
“It’s Comet! Comet the fairy!”
“What’d you call me?! I might be a fairy, but I don’t have a stupid name like ‘Comet’!”
“Ooooh, I’ve just got to show Claudia!”
“Hey! What d’you think I am, some kinda circus act? Agh! Don’t you go squishing my cheeks.”
“Ha ha ha!”
“That’s it—this broad isn’t listening to a thing I say. Lassara! Don’t just sit there, do something!”
Silky, wriggling and kicking violently, implored Lassara for help. Lassara, with a profoundly nasty smile, said, “Isn’t it nice that you’re getting on so well?”
“In what universe do you call this ‘getting on well’?!”
“Olivia,” Felix broke in, “please let Silky go. I’ll see to it that you have time to get to know each other later.”
“All right. We’ll play more later, ’kay?” Olivia released Silky, who sped off in a trail of stardust to hide behind Felix.
Poking her head out above his shoulder, Silky roared like a wild animal. “You just try and play with me!!!”
“Olivia, would you?” At Felix’s prompting, Olivia gave Silky a smile and a wave, then turned to look down at Ramza. Almost at once, Felix asked, “Can you cure him?”
“The girl only just started to examine him,” Lassara said, exasperated. “Don’t rush her.”
Olivia didn’t lay a hand on Ramza. Only her eyes moved, taking in everything. Felix sat by patiently, waiting and watching, until he caught Olivia’s tiny nod.
“There’s a regular pattern of disturbance in his Odh,” she said. “That’s probably the problem.”
“You can fix him?!” Felix gripped Olivia by both shoulders, leaning in urgently toward her. He consciously ignored Silky, who laid into his head with her fists, muttering something unintelligible.
“Yeah,” Olivia said, drawing away from him and nodding quickly.
He’ll be cured... Felix thought, dazed.
In his place, Lassara sighed, then said to Olivia, “Well then, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“R-Right.” Olivia hesitantly moved away from Felix, then laid her hand directly on Ramza.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, Olivia said, “There. He should be better now. That was some pretty strange magic.” She had barely finished speaking when Ramza’s eyelids slowly opened. His eyes were vacant, but the gleam of intelligence was visible in their depths.
“Emperor Ramza!” Felix cried. In response, Ramza raised a quivering hand. Felix took it in his own.
“I see it in your face...” said the emperor slowly. “Great have been your troubles on my account.”
“No, Your Majesty, not at all...” Silent tears streamed down Felix’s cheeks. The clouds that had concealed the sun rolled away, and before their eyes, warmth washed over the barracks.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login