I'm a court magician. Recently, I’ve been worrying about the princess staring at me. - Chapter 10
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- I'm a court magician. Recently, I’ve been worrying about the princess staring at me.
- Chapter 10 - Contests of strength don't end well.
“—I’ll crush you.”
Arina-san clasped her hands together and muttered to herself. Branches of trees near her mimicked her motion, tightening their grip on demons in their grasp until the bodies snapped with a sickening series of crunches.
“This should be the last of them.”
“I think so, too. I don’t sense anything.”
Ignoring the corpses littering the forest floor, we searched for any further movement in the meadow. I had Short-Range Elementary Magic—Night Vision activated, allowing me to see in the dark.
Finally, several hours after entering the forest, it seemed as if we had completed our extermination of the monsters.
We patrolled in a circle around the capital, but so far we had met only common demons. Having cleared them out, I was looking forward to an easy morning the next day.
To be honest, most of my time was spent watching Arina-san slaughter the demons with her earth magic. I almost felt sorry for them.
We were currently near the main gate leading into the capital. Thankfully, we weren’t quite close enough for any of our attacks to accidentally hit the city. If we destroyed the city walls, I didn’t know how much responsibility I’d have to take.
“Good work.”
“Yes. I didn’t do much, though.”
“Don’t be like that, you helped a lot. And we got a lot of magic stones, so Milena-san will be happy with us.”
She held up a leather pouch full of magical stones.
I was relieved to be able to return home, but Arina-san didn’t seem to feel the same way. She faced the south side of the forest, deep in thought.
“Is something the matter?”
“Don’t you think it’s strange, Raize? Why so many of them have been appearing recently?”
“I guess so? They’re not like normal animals, but even then, it’s hard to believe that every monster suddenly decided to appear in the last few days. And I doubt it’s a simple rise in breeding rate.”
“So what do you think? It has to be something unnatural.”
It was a logical conclusion. An unnatural effect should have an unnatural cause. I didn’t know what exactly that cause was, but I was certain that a third party was involved.
We had encountered about ten times as many monsters as normal. Although subjugating them was easy enough, we needed a more long-term solution. There were major roads leading through the forest that travellers and merchants often used. Leaving the monsters unchecked could affect trading routes. This really is a job for the Knights.
“It could be someone’s magic, or maybe a drug of some sort.”
“…There’s no point thinking about it here. Let’s return to the palace first. We can discuss it there, with Milena-san, while we sort the stones. I’m not too sure, but I think we picked up some pretty good ones.”
“Raize!”
She interrupted me with a warning, and we jumped away from where we had been standing. A huge figure appeared there immediately after, cracking the ground with the force of its landing. I sensed powerful magic. Something’s wrong.
“How far are we from the capital?”
“Uh, not very. Look, it’s right behind us, right?”
“But—if this is the royal capital, then why? It’s supposed to only be found in the western part of the continent—the chimera.”
Arina-san’s eyes were locked in front of us. A beast sat there, staring at us vigilantly—no, that wasn’t quite right. It growled happily, like it was excited to have found prey.
Three heads, a goat on each side and a lion in the center, sat on its gigantic body. Two great wings protruded from the shiny fur covering its back. Just the tail, a fanged venomous snake, was five times longer than I was tall.
The chimera was magnitudes stronger than the monsters I had encountered thus far. The books I’d read didn’t do it justice. Most magicians would be paralyzed by the pressure. Not many could stand in front of it unaffected.
The intimidating aura threatened to envelop me—but I refused to give in. If anything, I was excited for the upcoming confrontation.
“Wow… I want to crush it.”
Arina-san was talking to herself, breathless. Like me, she showed no outward sign of nervousness.
Perhaps angered by our unwavering attitudes, the chimera let out a deafening scream from its three heads. The surrounding brush shook from the sheer force of the vibrations.
But we stood firm. After all, we’re court magicians.
“I want to take my time with it, but I’m tired.”
“Yes, let’s do this quickly. I’ll leave the corpse in front of the main gate.”
“You can figure it out tomorrow.”
“Sounds good.”
With a snap of Arina-san’s fingers, the chimera’s feet left the ground, and the beast was thrown high into the sky. I watched it soar through the air—Hey, hey, that might actually hit the gate. We’re going to be in a lot of trouble if you wreck it, you know? If you wanted to throw it around, you should have gone in the other direction…
“Wouldn’t it have been better to wait for it to do something? It came out of nowhere.”
“I don’t care. I was going to kill it either way.”
“You’re right.”
Chimerae are extremely difficult to subdue. Regardless of how it came to be here, we couldn’t just leave it alone. I drew my rapier. The blade glowed blue under the moonlight.
“Are you going to kill it? Should I not do too much?”
“Your choice, just make it easy for me. If its body is anything to judge by, its magic stone will be pretty big.”
“Well… I’d like to defeat it as cleanly as possible, so I’ll try not to destroy the body. But my Thunder Needle isn’t powerful enough…”
Thunder Needle of Death is magic that pierces through the magical stones of small demons with pinpoint accuracy. It isn’t meant to be used on a creature as large as the chimera.
I needed a different spell.
“The distance is about… six hundred meters. Not too bad.”
I channeled mana into my rapier, and a formula appeared on the blade.
Soon, it was dressed in a crackling sleeve of blue lightning.
“—Blue Thunder.”
A streak of lightning ascended into the sky and disappeared into the dark, cloudless night. Moments later, roaring claps of thunder echoed through the atmosphere and the sky was illuminated by flashes of lightning.
A single bolt fell vertically and pierced the chimera’s body. The impact bent the lion’s head in a grotesque, yet strangely artful, manner.
Wind Attribute Long-Distance Advanced Magic—Blue Thunder.
This powerful spell compresses electricity in the sky before releasing it all at once.
“Unlike a lot of other lightning magic, this spell doesn’t kill with shock damage alone. The physical impact of the lightning finishes its target off.”
“I’ve never seen it before. Is it possession magic?”
“Unfortunately, it’s universal. But as far as I know, only my master and I are aware of it.”
Together, we walked toward the chimera’s body lying on the ground. It was getting late, and a cool night breeze began to blow. Come to think of it, winter wasn’t too long ago…
While I was thinking about the weather, we arrived where the chimera was thrust headfirst into the ground.
“Well done.”
“I think I did a pretty good job. It’s only slightly burnt.”
“Let’s collect our reward.”
After recovering a magic stone about the size of a human head, the surrounding flesh liquefied and was absorbed into the ground. Within a few seconds, the chimera’s body was nowhere to be seen.
“Are you collecting the rest tomorrow?”
“They might be taken to the Knights, but—”
Arina-san snapped her fingers, and the bodies of every demon she had hunted today appeared in a pile by the gate.
“But what?”
“I can’t bring them inside the capital, so I’ll keep them here for now. We took some of them, including the chimera’s, already.”
“Are they not going to decompose?”
“I’ll put some preservation magic on it, so it should be fine.”
“Well then, shall we go home? It’s late.”
“Yes, I’m pretty tired. I’m looking forward to brewing some tea.”
“Sounds great—hey, please wait!”
Leaving me with the pouch of stones, Arina-san hurried home. Wait a minute. The chimera’s stone is way too big for this bag… and she’s getting farther by the second! Why is everyone in our department like this?
At this rate, it seemed like I was going to be returning by myself, so I decided to carry the chimera’s stone in my arms.
Its weight was my only companion as I walked home.