My Beloved Princess ~The Boy Called Incompetent Rises with Only a Sword and the Princess's Devotion~ - Chapter 066: Once in a Millennium Prodigy

Three times, thunder roared.

Flash, flash—lightning exposed the room in white.

Elesia’s confident, victory-assured smile twisted into agony.

“Guhah…”

The silver knife clattered across the stone floor with a metallic sound.

The one who had collapsed to her knees was the girl with hair tied in twin buns.

Pressing her abdomen, Elesia’s eyes rolled as she showed an agonized expression. As she sat on the ground, the hem of the red and white dragon robe entered her vision, and simultaneously—

“Gah!”

An intense roundhouse kick struck Elesia’s right side, sending her tumbling across the stone floor. Quietly looking down at her state, Kuroyō spoke with a bored tone.

“Timing your ambush with the lightning strikes wasn’t bad judgment in that situation. Moreover, provoking me to disturb my mind would increase the ambush’s success rate. But if it’s already anticipated, it’s meaningless. You, who only know successful experiences, are too confident in your plans. You’ve never once been surpassed.”

A kick slammed frontally into the face of Elesia, who had managed to raise her body. Blood scattered from her nose, and she fell face-up onto the cold stone floor. Stars flew, and amid wavering vision, Elesia, who somehow got up, was in a vortex of confusion.

“Why… why won’t Abyssal Mist activate?”

This time, a heel drop from overhead slammed down as if splitting Elesia’s skull. Consciousness receded, and she collapsed forward as if prostrating.

“The reverse of that time. Although unlike you, I am not careless.”

“I’m asking why!!”

Crawling on the ground, Elesia dug her nails into the stone floor with a creak. Her proud twin buns coming undone, she screamed, disheveling her messy hair. Looking down at the pathetic assassin who had lost composure, Kuroyō sighed.

“I told you, didn’t I? That I analyzed those formulas.”

“Analyzed them so… so what!?”

“Truly understanding formulas enables applications as well. In short, methods to nullify Abyssal Mist.”

Geniuses sometimes instantly render common people’s accumulated efforts over lifetimes mundane. At that tone, as if it were only natural, the despair Elesia felt was precisely that.

“Lies… the magic I accumulated over a thousand years… defeated in an instant by a mere girl who’s only lived fifteen years…?”

Drip, drip—blood fell to the floor like tears.

But the girl praised as a once-in-a-millennium prodigy mercilessly unleashed the next attack. A kick released like slicing wind fiercely sank into her side, blowing the young girl’s body into the wall.

“Gah… ribs broke…”

Dragonkin bodies were sturdily built. Even hypothetically if Abyssal Mist didn’t activate, could such damage truly be inflicted through hand-to-hand combat? Highly questionable, but—

Then, what flew into the eyes of Elesia, raising her face in question, were magic-amplifying accessories prohibited by academy regulations. Bracelets, rings, and earrings—before she knew it, those Kuroyō wore were all auxiliary devices for amplifying magic.

“Wha… isn’t that violating school rules!?”

“Fool. I’m a princess. If I felt like it, following proper procedures, I can easily bring in this much.”

“That’s, chea— agh!”

A merciless kick slammed into Elesia’s abdomen as she rolled on the ground.

“Did you think I would face you without any preparations?”

Looked down on with pitying eyes, Elesia ground her teeth. She loved bullying the weak to death but hated being subjected to the same pain herself. Having lived an eternal time with such a selfish, childish mental structure, Elesia finally snapped here.

“I don’t care about anything anymore! I’ll mess up everything.”

Her face dyed in blood while floating a malicious laugh, she thrust her hands into her sleeves.

What she sought were three Master-Servant Eggs sealing Apocalypse-class demonic beasts.

“Many dead will appear, but it’s all your responsibility. Thoroughly regret it——wait, huh? They’re gone. The eggs, the Master-Servant Eggs are gone!?”

Though thoroughly searching her sleeves, her fingertips never touched the black eggs that should have been stored there.

Beyond the small window, cold rain poured down. Amid strong rain sounds reaching her ears through the thick stone walls, Kuroyō moved her slender fingertips up and down like brandishing a stick. Instantly, three eggs appeared between the gaps of those fingers.

“Looking for these?”

Kuroyō tilted her head, muttering disinterestedly.

Thus, the Master-Servant Eggs burned with sizzling sounds in black flames in her hands, crumbling. Her trump card so easily sealed, Elesia, who had lost words, couldn’t conceive of the next move. Whatever schemes she employed, she would be surpassed. Such a doubt, resembling resignation, crossed her mind, crushing her will to resist.

But without pitying Elesia, beaten down by despair, Kuroyō merely coldly stated facts.

“Eight more minutes. If I don’t reach the clock tower by then, Lord Seiran will likely declare an emergency. Even hypothetically surviving here, either way, your tranquility will never return. I think being destroyed here by me is easier.”

Death sentence remaining: eight minutes.

Elesia had two paths.

One, rush into the basement, demanding Kuroyō’s body while holding Kōran hostage. Obtaining Kuroyō’s body and heading to the clock tower resolves everything. However, this path had low winning chances, plus the secret basement’s existence would become known. If defeated, she’d lose the safety area for emergencies, and her spare body, Alice, would also be destroyed.

Two, flee from this place. Naturally, she didn’t think she could escape this genius as she was. Dispose of the now-unnecessary Fūga body, transfer souls to the base hidden outside the academy, and flee. Though abandoning her comfortable dragonkin life, choosing this would virtually prevent capture, plus retaining the insurance called Alice.

The cunning assassin who had established numerous perfect crimes.

Normally cautious Elesia would have chosen the latter without hesitation. However, her pride—being played well by a fifteen-year-old girl, even having her thousand-year achievements denied—was damaged beyond what she thought.

“That confident attitude… I’ll absolutely make you regret it.”

Gritting her teeth and raising her face, Elesia roared.

“Wind Fang!!”

Releasing breath simultaneously from both palms.

Roar—wind howled, twin winds approaching Kuroyō while leaving scars on the floor and stone walls.

Simultaneously, Elesia ran.

While Abyssal Mist activated, other magic couldn’t be used. In that one instant’s opening, she took distance in one go, reaching the preparation room door. But there was no time to slowly open that side-opening thing.

“Repel that person [Gravity Control]!”

Past caring about appearances, Elesia spectacularly blew away the preparation room door with an invisible gravity field. Bending like a right angle, she concealed herself inside the room together with the blown iron door. Apparently, she’d taken more damage than expected. Without time to breathe, her unsteady legs fluttering, she released a breath at the basement entrance.

Behind her, the god of death approached. But probably, magic attacks wouldn’t reach Elesia. If magic attacks were effective, victory should have been decided when she received [Shadow Spears] throughout her body. Considering the tormenting attacks repeated afterward:

“Nullification is limited to direct contact!”

Throwing her body at full speed into the small hole bored by the wind blades. The shattered hidden floor. Though seeming to impale herself on the jagged, sharp cross-sections, the small body became black mist, passing through unharmed.

Kuroyō chased behind the same way, but was too late.

Six containers filled with green liquid.

Passing by the sides of the fluorescent green-glowing capsules, she picked up the unconscious Kōran in the corner. The young girl’s body couldn’t properly lift her, so she took the form of lifting only the upper body from behind.

“Stop! Approach further and this girl’s life ends.”

Kuroyō arrived precisely at the basement entrance, stopping her feet abruptly.

Thus, she didn’t listen to Elesia’s words, directing her eyes toward the green-filled containers. A gesture of thinking with her hand on her chin.

“Hmm. To think such a secret space existed underground. Well, Alice’s body being intact was unexpected, but looking around, no other spares seem to exist. The issue is if similar facilities exist elsewhere.”

Elesia’s mouth corners rose evilly.

“If you understand that far, talk is fast. You may think you’ve cornered me, but too bad. I can discard this body anytime and flee.”

Kuroyō’s face, which was like a Noh mask, moved just slightly.

“For me too, discarding a stable life at this academy is regrettable. But if paradise ends anyway, what I’ve refrained from to avoid big incidents until now—for example, your precious person—”

The robes clothing Kōran. Forcibly tearing the high-quality red and black dragon robes, she exposed the chest. Elesia thrust her hands into the exposed robe gaps. While fondling the energy center as if caressing, she casually carved Soul Transfer formulas.

“Turning her into a doll seems interesting too.”

Applying curse magic to the energy center, sending Elesia’s soul via kissing completes the Soul Transfer formulas. Once the Soul Transfer formulas formally activate, Kōran’s soul is compressed, crushed, changing into a silent vessel. That namely:

“Ahahaha! Even becoming physically immortal, ego vanishes! Can this be called living? Seems likely to become seeds of worthless disputes.”

Elesia’s madness, having become desperate, viciously decorated the face of the externally under-ten-year-old girl. That ferocious smile severely diverged from the original innocent girl’s appearance, looking several levels more evil than Alice’s.

The basement was wrapped in madness. Yet Kuroyō wasn’t swallowed by that atmosphere, stating observations calmly as always.

“Kōran’s aptitude attribute is fire. I’ll assert—darkness isn’t included.”

Elesia’s back teeth ground with a creak.

“So what!”

“Dragonkin can only use magic with their aptitude. Entering Kōran’s body, which lacks dark aptitude, means never being able to use Soul Transfer again. Meaning, however many spare bodies are prepared, you can’t exit that body. Right?”

Her full-strength bluff was easily seen through, and Elesia ground her teeth.

Kuroyō spoke correctly. If she hypothetically hijacked a body without curse magic aptitude, that instant Elesia couldn’t activate new Soul Transfer, making inter-body movement also impossible. In short, checkmate.

If only that restriction didn’t exist, she’d have processed her as a base long ago.

Kuroyō spoke as if seeing through everything.

“As expected. You don’t intend to be buried together with Kōran.”

“Rejoicing is premature! This girl’s life is in my grasp.”

Unconscious Kōran, her head hanging powerlessly. Roughly grabbing her rear hair, forcibly lifting her face upward, Elesia threatened by thrusting her hand-blade at that throat. When Kōran groaned painfully at the strained posture with both hands restrained behind her back, Kuroyō’s feet about to step forward stopped abruptly.

At that hesitation, Elesia raised the corners of her mouth.

“Now, what will you do? If I kill this girl, naturally this body will be destroyed. But I can transfer souls to bases hidden outside the academy and attempt escape.”

“……”

Silence fell. Nothing was readable from the poker face.

“Two choices remain for you. One, abandon your sworn sister and strike me down. And the other, offer your body in exchange for your sworn sister’s life.”

This was a gamble. Kuroyō’s pack rank was higher than Kōran’s. Therefore, normally, this exchange condition absolutely wouldn’t be established. But:

‘(Hehe. I know you’re a soft pushover who flows with emotions.)’

The Beast King Forest was the same. To keep companions alive, knowing Elesia lurked, she concentrated on defeating the Storm Turtle, using up her full power.

Still a fifteen-year-old girl. Fundamentally soft at the core, Elesia concluded.

No change to that expressionless face. No signs of agitation were visible, her true intentions unreadable. What is she thinking now? An atmosphere suggesting she might readily decide to discard her. But the silence between them most eloquently narrated her inner conflict.

“Now, what will you do? Either is fine for me.”

Elesia, who had been continuously overwhelmed, regained composure at the sensation of gaining an advantage, applying pressure. Opposing Kuroyō bent her brows into an inverted V-shape, letting out a large exhale. The beautiful face distorted gloomily. And as if resigned, shaking her head:

“One condition exists.”

That seemed like a de facto defeat declaration.