The Invincible Aloof Yandere Princess Falls in Love with Her Younger Court Mage's Fatherly Warmth! ~She Clung to Him So Much That the King Fired Him. When He Made Marriage His Official Reason for Resigning Under Royal Order, the Light Vanished from the Princess's Eyes~ - Volume 2 - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Icarus’s Wings

Still from Killriera’s point of view.

—

What Albert talked about—the “realization of ideals” that star trial possesses. It showed itself in the absolute worst way possible.

He didn’t have to go this far. For Killriera’s goal, it would’ve been enough just to let Albert go through the kind of hardship any normal person would think is tough…!

Countless silver arrows, the huge silver cannonballs Mel fired, and Leo’s unpredictable, ferocious slashes appearing out of nowhere. In this encirclement that would definitely kill any normal person, Killriera cursed her own screw-up.

“S-sorry… I’m so sorry, Papa…!”

She couldn’t stop it anymore.

If this kept going and Albert really got captured by Mel and the others. If they got separated. If he ended up hating her.

—If he ended up facing something like death again, just like back then.

A hopeless thought popped into her head. The view of Albert in front of her started to blur with tears.

But at this point, all she could do was pray to the gods. Pray that this slender, gentle-looking boy could somehow make it through this deadly encirclement.

And then.

That desperate wish… was actually heard… by Albert himself.

“—It’s okay, princess. Don’t make that face. It’s gonna be fine, yeah?”

Albert smiled gently while watching the attacks coming straight at him.

“This shield from earlier wouldn’t cover enough area. If I turned it into a barrier surrounding us, Leo would just break in and force super close-range combat…”

Yeah, he muttered it in his usual totally chill tone.

“So the simplest thing is…”

And then he said it.

“…to shoot everything down. ————Heavenly Sword Moving Wings, Icarus”

Right after that.

A magic circle about as tall as Albert appeared. And not just one—six layers…!

“Papa!”

“See, even Onii-san is loved by the stars, huh…!?”

“Tch. Who cares! Compared to that bullshit magic from earlier—”

The first one to reach Albert was Leo, using 【Transfer】 to skip the whole attack process entirely.

Up until now, Albert had blocked every single one of Leo’s surprise attacks. Probably thanks to star trial boosting his senses… dynamic vision or magic perception, or maybe both, letting him deal with 【Transfer】.

But this time, Leo left the countless bombardments as backup and unleashed ki-coated slashes right at Albert.

And right after that—

—Suddenly, six swords with different designs appeared in midair.

“Wha—!?”

While Leo was shocked, those swords easily caught his slash.

“Guh, but…!”

And right after. From all directions, star trial bombardments came flying, dodging Leo to try piercing Albert.

But.

“Severance Sword—”

The moment Albert muttered it.

One of the floating swords—a slender light-blue one—swept out like it was building a wall against the bombardment.

—As if an invisible wall was actually there, the attacks got stopped perfectly along the sword’s path.

Even though star trial attacks were way stronger than they looked, it handled them so easily.

Killriera saw it and immediately got it.

“That unnatural movement just now… could it be space-type…!”

Space-type magic, starting with Leo’s 【Transfer】, was the highest difficulty among all magic. And using it with star trial, which was already hard to control—that kind of magic could only work because of its nature of automatically drawing out the ideal form.

The countless arrows Killriera fired, Mel’s big cannon shells too—every single one that hit got frozen in place instantly.

“Shit, even this much saturation attack doesn’t work!”

Leo grimaced and charged again, but his slashes never reached Albert.

Five of the floating swords just hovered behind Albert like wings, and the space magic from earlier didn’t activate again. Only one—the blue sword called the Severance Sword—danced around with total ease.

“My movements are completely…! Automatic interception, huh! And these aren’t energy constructs—they’re real swords…! Is the true nature of this magic some kind of 【Summon】 or something!?”

“No, no, Leo…! That magic circle earlier wasn’t just some summon! This is way, way more complicated…—”

“Got it in one, Mel-chan. The principle is the same as the Stargazer’s Canopy Orion. Looks pretty different, though.”

While Albert said that, the floating sword kept automatically blocking Leo’s fierce attacks.

“Damn it, random attacks aren’t getting through at all. Guess I’ll just 【Transfer】 for a—”

“Nope, Leo. Time to settle this already. You’re not getting away.”

“What? This… my technique just got broken…!?”

This time it was a different sword clashing with Leo. A white-and-black blade with kinda oriental vibes.

It sliced right through the magic circle Leo had deployed for 【Transfer】 and headed straight for him.

“—Anti-Demon Exorcism Sword”

“Guh, ooooh!? My magic…! Body reinforcement’s coming undone—!”

That thing… it was interfering with magic that only the user themselves should be able to touch!?

Leo had no choice but to focus magic at his feet, using a small explosion’s force to jump back from Albert. Even though reckless magic use was tearing tiny cuts all over his body, it was better than staying put.

Albert floated the six-sword wings behind him and looked down at Leo with somewhat cold eyes.

“—Wait, does that mean… each sword has its own separate ability!? That’s insane, Onii-san…!”

Killriera knew her own star trial control could never pull that off. But even Mel, who was a better star trial user than her, seemed to think it was on an impossible level.

“H-how can you even do that!? If the heavens love you that much…! Maybe Onii-san could even reach the Supreme Seat—”

Albert cut off Mel’s words with—

A playful, gentle look in his eyes as he turned toward Killriera.

“The will of the heavens isn’t always that thoughtful, y’know. If I’m gonna go pick up my princess————I guess I have to ditch the autopilot and escort her myself, all the way.”

…Ahh. Someone with this terrifying amount of talent.

Yeah… no matter what it takes, I have to tie him to me.

Because if I don’t… he’ll disappear from in front of me in no time at all…

—

Star trial is super hard to control, but it moves on its own toward what it thinks the ideal form should be. So sometimes it ends up doing stuff the user didn’t even want…

Which is why “manual control is still the best” ends up being the muscle-brain solution.