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 7

Chapter 7: Reunion with the Shadow

Well then.

The ray of light I released overtook the magic that the others ahead of me had cast.
But this spell of mine doesn’t automatically chase after enemies or anything.

That’s why I used wind magic beforehand to roughly grasp the positions of the enemies.
Even the ones hiding inside buildings where the naked eye couldn’t reach—I could more or less tell where they were.

“I’m not planning to kill you. I just need you to… stay still for a bit…”

I aimed at the enemies who seemed unlikely to be hit by the spells of my three subordinates and pierced through what looked like their arms and legs.

Sorry if my aim was off.

But you guys have already killed quite a few villagers around here.

Surely you were prepared for something like this to happen to you… right?

“…! Enemy attack! Enemy—guahhh!”

Even though their figures were almost invisible, screams rose from the enemy soldiers in many places.

A little later, the other spells stabbed into the enemy base.

By now they had completely noticed the assault, and the whole enemy stronghold had fallen into chaos.

Still, no magic came flying back toward us?

Since I hadn’t managed to hit every single soldier, some of them should still be able to move.

The troubling part, though… was that all our knights showed no sign of moving.

They just stood there, staring dumbfounded at either the enemy base or my face.

“Um…”

When I spoke to the knight closest to me who was looking my way, he flinched hard and quickly looked away.

It was the kind of reaction you’d give when seeing a monster…

Hmm.

I figured something on the level of the magic I just used could probably have been done by the previous Mage Commander too, and since the knights aren’t that familiar with magic, I thought it would be fine to go a little flashy.

But when it comes to reducing casualties, there’s no option to hold back.

So then—

“Hey, you there, knight. This is your chance right now! Most of the enemies should be unable to move anymore… ah, some got away! Ugh… well then… Clay Commander— I mean, Suu-san! Look, right now!”

“!! Ah, Al-kun! Right now my…! —Yes!!”

The moment I called her name, her face suddenly broke into a bright smile.

“——Shield of the Mane, all troops… advance!! We must not let this golden opportunity Al-kun created slip away…!”

“…Understood! Alright then, everyone’s probably shaken up…! Well, I’m shaken too, honestly!But before the Division Commander gives us a huge scolding—each squad, proceed according to plan! We don’t know exactly how many enemies are down, but there’s no doubt this is our chance…!”

“Yes sir!”

While stealing glances toward me, the knights began moving toward the base at a light run.

Now then, as for the rest of us.

Since our squad had anticipated enemy mages, we would stay on standby while preparing our mana.

…Or so I thought.

But the stares from my subordinates were…

“…Even if they hide far away, even if they conceal themselves inside buildings… a hundred or more spells of that level come flying toward you…! And they change trajectory midway and target you personally? This is impossible to comprehend…! What is going on inside your head… it’s terrifying! Hiiiieee…”

Lily-san, you don’t have to collapse all the way down to your waist like that.

“Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Hiiiiiiiiie!? I-I can stand! I’ll stand up by myself…! Ow!”

Hehe, she panicked trying to stand and ended up sitting right back down on her butt.
When it gets this bad, it actually starts to become kind of funny.

The other two—

“No way… Scale, speed, power, and on top of that, perfect control precision—it’s completely my superior in every way…! And light attribute too? I thought you couldn’t use unique magic…”

“I can’t use unique magic. That was just a combination of the four great elements.”

“…What did you say? Only the four great elements?”

“Yes. —Every unique magic can be reproduced using the four great elements.”

“…Huh? Reproduce unique magic? No way… eh? You’re kidding, right?”

The proof is entirely up to my master to provide, but so far no exceptions have been found.

For example…

“【Earth】 and 【Water】 like this, I think. —There, done… Dark Thread.”

I made a rod-shaped darkness, as if black paint had been hardened, float above one hand.

Ignatz-san’s 【Smoke Shadow】 is simply easier to manifest magic in the form of smoke because of its nature, but at its core it’s the same as dark attribute.

See? The principle is the same, isn’t it?

By the way, the shape is just my personal preference.

This form makes it easier to imagine changing trajectory midway like I did earlier.

“Im-impossible… Just the ordinary four great elements can recreate my unique…? That would mean… being able to use multiple unique magics all by yourself…!!”

Hmm.

Reproducing unique magic manually with the basic four is quite difficult, so in terms of mental burden it’s definitely easier to just have the unique magic itself.

While I watched Ignatz-san looking so deeply shocked and wondered whether I should offer some comfort or not—

“…—Beau-tiful.”

“Huh?”

“—What breathtakingly beautiful magic execution…!”

Whoa.

Keirens-san shoved Ignatz-san—who had been standing right beside him—aside and pressed forward.

He looked incredibly excited.

“How exactly are you doing that!? It’s completely different from my magic… this is the ultimate in functional beauty! Not even a drop of surplus mana leaks out—your flowing spell execution is pure art!”

“Ah, you understand?

Yes exactly—when you don’t want to leak extra mana outside, you have to eliminate waste to the absolute limit.

And there are various other tricks too.”

Ever since I came to the palace, Keirens-san was the first person besides the princess to acknowledge this.

Since he liked it so much, I thought I might as well teach him—right at that moment.

Suddenly, both my shoulders were firmly grabbed.

Keirens-san spoke.

“——Please, I beg you… make me your disciple…!!”

Eh—?

Disciple?

With eyes sparkling like that…?

Both Ignatz-san and Lily-san were looking at him like they doubted his sanity.

“Is it… impossible…?
I sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for having underestimated you until now.

If you require some form of compensation, I will gladly offer anything!

From this day forward I will show you the utmost respect and swear absolute obedience to you as our squad captain…

And if you would permit it, please, that pinnacle of beauty—that supreme technique—please bestow it upon me as well—”

Keirens-san bent at a perfect ninety degrees and poured out those passionate words.

Since I already have one disciple, if he was going to go this far then I didn’t mind accepting him, but—

I was just about to say that… when in the very next moment, I noticed something.

—A very quiet surge of mana approaching rapidly from outside my awareness.

…An enemy, perhaps?

I couldn’t see a figure, but there was definitely mana right there…

“Ma-Master? What happened all of a sudden? Your face just changed color…”

Before I could even reply, he was already calling me Master.

I didn’t even have time to make a comeback before I turned to intercept the unknown approaching mana—

All of a sudden, the space around the incoming mana warped.

And the one who appeared there was—

—a small, familiar girl completely wrapped in jet-black garments.

The girl who never left the princess’s side… one of her shadows?

“Karen-san… why are you here—”

“——Taking on a new disciple is ab-so-lute-ly unforgivable!! Because Master would be furious beyond words…!!”

…

At this point, I had no idea what was going on anymore.