Chapter 44 - Monsters, the Corps Commander, and the Demon Lord
He had captured a fairy, and because she had struggled violently there, her wings had been torn off.
He had not intended for that to happen.
If only she had simply become medicine as she was.
To the man, the memories of Elenoa and Lumina were nothing more than that. He did not even remember their faces that well.
And until now—up to the present moment—he had been confident that he could insist his actions had been a matter of course.
Self-sacrifice was heroic in any era, in any book, in any history. His father and his grandfather had praised such stories. Therefore, the man believed in universal virtues, believing that doing so was the right thing.
Thus, the man had even secretly blamed them for fleeing and dying arbitrarily out of fear of death, despite having the possibility to save everyone on that day.
If one could save the masses with one's own death, then dying alone was only natural. If he were in that position, he would have gladly offered up his body. He could become the people's hope amidst the sincere grief of his weeping family.
—If he were in that position, he could have done it. He should have been able to.
But the man could not expose such 'justice' to this young man.
Faced with the young man who was kin to those women, his sense of justice shrank back and hid itself.
He recalled how, on that day, he had met the gaze of Louis, who had been the Chief Court Mage at the time, and had averted his eyes as a slight sense of guilt sprouted within him.
Louis placed his index finger under the man's chin. With a beautiful and alluring face, as if dealing with a beloved woman, he forcibly aligned their gazes.
Louis's eyes sparkled brightly, shining with an unfathomable darkness.
What spilled from the man's mouth was his true heart, from which justice had peeled away and fallen off.
"Louis, sama...!"
"Yes."
"It's different, I just, my wife!"
"Your wife?"
"I didn't mean to hurt Elenoa-sama either, it was unavoidable at the time!"
"Oh, is that so."
Because he had wanted to protect her, it had been unavoidable. The man asserted as much. He had had to protect her. Because he loved her.
Louis's smile did not waver.
The man, continuing to protest, tried to create some distance, but the pressure did not allow it. He genuinely believed that if he moved even a twitch, he would be killed.
Tilt. Louis tilted his head cutely. The man immediately understood the meaning of that gesture.
—"My arm!"
The people murmured, and only then did the man notice the abnormality in his arm. His arm was abnormally heavy. Cold. When he looked at his right arm, moving stiffly like a machine, he saw—it was frozen.
It was encased in massive ice.
Louis, who had finally taken his distance after the man recognized it, snapped his fingers with a clap.
The man's right arm shattered and fell away along with the ice.
"Gah...!"
The contrast between the transparent ice and the viscous, overflowing blood.
No matter whose eyes looked upon it, it could not be considered beautiful.
"It is mercy. Since you took only one wing, I will let you off with just one arm. Considering the meaning of a fairy's wing, I would like to take a leg as well, but it would be meaningless if you were to die from excessive bleeding."
Louis had not been listening seriously to the man's excuses.
The onlookers widened their eyes at Louis's deeds, which could be called brutal.
But Louis had intended to do this to the man from the very beginning.
A blue magic circle was laid beneath the man, who had collapsed, groaning about his arm, his arm.
The man, frightened by it, looked around for help. No matter where he moved his bloodshot eyes, the people either averted their gaze or showed only fear in their eyes.
Before the man stood only a quiet and eerie young man.
As for the court mages he relied upon, they merely stood there clutching their staffs. Whether they could not move or would not move, they were all rigid, dripping with cold sweat. As guardians of the citizens, they had become the lowest of the low.
Cold sweat ran down the man's skin. He wished for someone to help him.
Someone,
Someone,
—Someone!
As if answering such a man,
"『Bind』!"
Someone shouted.
And what appeared around Louis was a small barrier. Louis, covered by it emitting a vague red light, made a slightly surprised face.
He innocently tried to turn around, thinking the voice had come from behind, but before he could, the owner of the voice solemnly pronounced ancient words.
"『×××・××・××××』"
It was fluent, just like the things Louis sometimes used. And it was a low voice he remembered hearing.
—Instantly, fire exploded within the barrier.
The explosions chained. Again and again, sounds like striking a hard object with a blunt weapon echoed. But the small barrier mitigated them.
The sound, wind, and flames, strong enough to rupture eardrums if one were at zero distance, attacked him one by one without mercy.
Smoke, driven away by the flames, wandered about, unsure where to go in that cramped space.
The ground beneath Louis's feet had been confined within a circular barrier and shattered pitifully, scattering about. The ground shattered into stones, then into sand.
It was a certain skill, generating numerous merciless explosions and creating ultra-high pressure, concentrating it all on a single minimal point.
"...Mage Corps Commander..."
A female mage called out. What appeared was the Mage Corps Commander, with a bitter expression.
His gaze did not leave the point where Louis was.
Just as the fifty-fifth explosion ended, the sounds stopped.
Black smoke escaped from the barrier, which had exhausted itself and vanished. The pressure and heat swirling inside had caused a storm like a tornado, but it settled down immediately.
"...Did none of you run away?"
Standing calmly, as if to say that he was the one who was surprised, was Louis. No matter how one looked at it, there was not a single stain on his clothes.
"I thought it was merely a stalling tactic."
"...You are a monster as always."
"It has been a while, Mage Corps Commander. Thank you for your praise."
The aged Mage Corps Commander and Louis, who had now become a murderer, faced each other.
"The magic from earlier was the highest-rank multiple magic—Tuning Magic, was it not? Wonderful. As expected of someone who has served as Corps Commander for so many years. Even a part of my magic exists thanks to your teachings and research. I am grateful for that, you know."
—Please, just as you are, become my stepping stone.
Louis spoke the magic he had just heard,
"『×××・××・××××』"
The Mage Corps Commander was confined in a narrow barrier and caught in fifty-five explosions.
The same pronunciation, the same scale, the same pressure as before.
But the result was not the same; the released target collapsed, bearing severe burns.
Corps Commander, someone whispered.
There was no one who could stop Louis.
Those who knew Louis's magic best were his former subordinates from the Research Institute.
This situation was a natural disaster. The talent that made people say he was loved by the gods had become a cursed calamity.
It was a fortunate thing that the 'Bind' magic had been cast on all the court mages from the start.
Even mages with magic resistance values higher than average were in this state. Even if there were Rank A magic defense items here, they might hold no meaning.
The man, unaware of the circumstances, felt like cursing them for not moving. He could not believe the reality that he had no arm. It was humiliating, painful, and unbearable.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." At the smile directed at him once again, the man's spine trembled with a chill.
The blue magic circle resumed. To the frightened man, Louis said, "It is just a transportation magic. I will send you outside the Royal Capital. There are no monsters, so you will not be attacked."
The man's face relaxed slightly.
He thought he had been forgiven with the loss of one arm.
And if he could go outside, there was someone he had to go with.
"Wait, if we are leaving this place, my wife should be here too, I won't make you wait long."
"Pardon?"
Louis tilted his head at the man's words.
"That would be meaningless, so I refuse."
And he laughed heartily.
"When I entered, I took the barrier covering the Royal Capital under my control. I will dispel the barrier as soon as the sun rises, and I intend to withdraw the monsters as well. Until then, you had best pray hard that your wife remains safe."
"Eh...?"
"By the way, I have also rewritten the Transportation Magic Circle, so it will take time to restore it. You can go outside ahead of everyone else, how wonderful. Please live your life to the fullest without worrying about what you leave behind."
"Wait! Shar, Shar! ...I beg you!"
Shar was, presumably, the name of the man's wife.
The man searched for the woman who should be within these grounds. From a distance, a voice shouted, "Darling!"
The man was startled by that voice. He struggled to move away from the magic circle, which was growing brighter, but his body was immediately bound by invisible chains.
The man vanished instantly. Leaving behind the words that he was a devil.
A hush fell.
The heavy silence complexly expressed grief, anger, and dark emotions.
"By the way, what has become of Claire?"
The answer was silence.
The Mage Corps Commander, the only one who had been able to speak to him as an equal, was no longer in a state to speak.
Louis searched his memory and spoke the name "Kiri Runark" arbitrarily.
The called man, trembling in his legs like a newborn fawn beneath his robes, answered with a hoarse voice.
"C-Claire-san, ...I heard she left the Royal Capital."
"That is good."
Louis said, "Thank you." Before his tongue had even dried, he whispered ancient words again. As soon as the words, which might have been a single word or a sentence, ended,
—Thud.
It sounded. It was too close, too sudden, and the source of the sound was unknown.
A vibration strong enough to crack the ground. The rumble left an echo, but there was an even more imposing sound that made one forget it.
Rooooar.
Everyone wondered what it was. Soon, a child pointed upward and shouted.
"Fire...!"
The pure white Royal Castle had turned red.
The sight of the symbol of the Royal Capital engulfed in a great fire was reflected greatly in everyone's pupils.
The people broke their momentary silence, and starting with a single cry, erupted all at once.
"Gyaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" "Ah, ua, ahhh, ...ah" "Millia! Where is Millia!" "Please stop!" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" "I don't care what happens to me, but my son, just that child!" "I wasn't there at that time! I'm not involved!" "What the hell... just for one fairy..." "You're insane!" "You said to kill the fairy back then too! Don't act like you're unrelated now!" "Everyone calm down!" "Collette!" "Why... so much, but, Louis-sama was a kind person!" "Idiot, run!" "Where are we supposed to run to!?" "Father! Where are you!" "Hey, pull yourself together, stand up, let's run!" "There are injured people here!" "There are monsters outside!" "Move it, old hag!" "It's better than staying here!" "Louis-sama, Louis-sama! Do you remember me, it's me, the one you saved..." "Damn it, why did it come to this" "Darling, hold on..." "I don't want to die!" "Mother, it hurts, it hurts!"
Many "I'm sorrys," "monsters," "run," "where," "demons," "help," and "I'll apologize" saturated the grounds.
Chaos reached its peak.
Everyone shouted, trembled in fear, and ran recklessly, falling and getting injured. There were those who directed their aimless anger and impatience at others. Everyone, unconsciously, began to help destroy their daily lives.
Perhaps having lost interest, Louis quietly moved toward the main gate.
There was no longer any meaning in being here.
From the group of mages, magic flew toward Louis without hesitation or mercy. Fire, ice. But before Louis, they were all like gentle breezes, their trajectories unnaturally shifted, not even grazing him.
While gazing at them, Louis walked leisurely.
In the monster attack incident about three years ago, Louis had supported the resignation of the court mages who had realized they 'could not become allies of humans.' He had freed about twenty subordinates, even going so far as to give Fairy Tale to that King.
He had given them enough time to resign from their positions as court mages, who had a duty to protect people.
He still left some leniency for the mages who remained.
If they used magic, they might survive.
Louis called out to Bis, who was leaning against the wall beside the main gate, letting out a big yawn. Bis raised his tail with a pop and ran up to him.
"Is it okay now, meow?"
"Yeah, sorry for the wait. Do as you like with the rest."
"Yessir!"
With his back still turned, Louis released the restraints he had placed on the mages.
From the main gate, monsters that had caught the scent of humans glared with shining eyes. Pairs of red eyes peered out. When Louis headed in that direction, the monsters opened a path for him alone. And after he passed, many monsters entered, as if they had been waiting.
"Well, well, I was told I could do as I liked, wasn't I."
Bis snapped his fingers. There was a crack, a sound like joints breaking, but it was merely Bis's warm-up exercise. Veins and muscles bulged. Vicious claws extended.
Louis did not look back. With a suspicious smile plastered on his face from start to finish. Clatter, clatter, he walked through the burning city, stepping on the cracked stone pavement.
In that single night, the Royal Capital Grenole turned into a ruined capital.
With this incident as the trigger, the sad news of the new Demon Lord's ascension spread to various regions.