Episode 271
"Heheh..."
"........."
Ruby-colored eyes and sky-blue eyes cross in the air.
"What brings you here? Disciple of the Magic Tower Lord?"
Among the two girls who had been fiercely glaring at each other for a while, the first to speak was none other than Ruby.
"What kind of business could you possibly have to come here on your own two feet... no, to come find me?"
Ruby, who had been narrowing her eyes like crescent moons, changed her expression to an ambiguous one and asked a question. Glare, who had been fiercely glaring at her, answered.
"I want to talk with you alone."
"What?"
"So, send out anyone unrelated."
Hearing those words, Rosewin opened her eyes wide and then timidly mumbled.
"I, I'm also... related..."
But she couldn't finish her words.
"Ugh..."
It was because of the fear that she didn't know what might happen to her if she didn't leave right now, and the question of whether she even had the right to say she was related to someone like herself.
'If, if I stay, won't I just become a burden? B-but that kid? That kid is even younger than me...'
"Hurry...!"
"Eek...!"
Thanks to that, she who had been trembling and worrying was pushed out the door by Glare, losing her balance and falling forward outside.
"Please go down to the 1st floor!"
"Um..."
Glare poked her head out and shouted urgently at her. Rosewin, with a pale, frightened expression, handed her the scrolls she had brought.
"I have plenty of those too! I can use them without scrolls anyway! It's dangerous here, so please hurry down!"
"Ah..."
- Click...!
Glare glanced at that and then slammed the door shut after saying that.
- Zap zap...
"M, Master told me to do this... o, okay."
After locking the entrance with clumsy but powerful magic, she took a deep breath and turned around.
"My, how cute..."
Then, Ruby, who had straightened up and was now sitting on the bed, came into her view.
"Heh... You're the first child I've wanted to ruin this much since the Hero..."
"The Hero's... enemy."
"Yes, that's right. I am indeed the Hero's enemy and nemesis."
Ruby, speaking like that, was now revealing her true nature.
"You already know what kind of existence I am, don't you?"
Ruby-colored eyes still shining. Though one side was shattered, a horn slowly growing even at this moment above her head. Wings that sprouted from her back in an instant. A tail swaying behind her.
It was clearly the appearance of a demon.
And anyone with even a slight interest in the Empire's history would have noticed that the form Ruby was taking was that of a being that could be called the king among demons.
"Demon King..."
And Glare had studied history diligently to be of help to the Hero, her benefactor.
"To think I'd show my true form to a woman..."
- Swoosh...
"My, are you trying to break my horn again?"
Ruby, blushing and quietly swaying her tail, quickly waved her hand as Glare quietly raised her hand.
- Swish swish...
Then, the horn on her head instantly disappeared.
"...Tch."
Seeing that, Glare frowned slightly and then quietly began to prepare for combat.
"So, why did you come here."
The Demon King, who had been looking down at Glare with cute eyes, asked in a low voice.
"Did you perhaps come because you wanted to see me?"
"I came to stop innocent sacrifice."
"Hm?"
"That woman who was here until just now... you were going to kill her, right?"
Glare asked with an unusually fierce expression, and Ruby snickered and mumbled.
"Is there some way you can monitor my every move?"
"......Ugh."
Then, Glare flinched slightly without realizing it.
"As expected... even if you act tough, a kid is still a kid."
Looking at Glare, the Demon King whispered in a low voice.
"I acknowledge your potential and magical power. But, you're far too inexperienced."
"Sh...shut up. Don't judge me rashly..."
"Isn't the mere fact that you came here alone right now enough to judge?"
When Ruby said that, Glare tilted her head.
"You haven't met the Hero yet?"
"No, I already met..."
"Lie."
Ruby, who asked as if to provoke her, cut off Glare's words as she tried to answer, and looked at her with cold eyes.
"If you had already met the Hero... there would have been no reason for you to come here alone."
"What... do you mean?"
Glare asked cautiously, sensing the somehow changed atmosphere of the Demon King. The Demon King answered with a chilling smile.
"Because he would have told you in detail about my danger level."
".....!"
Immediately after those words ended, complex magic circles floated around the Demon King.
"Do you think I look funny just because you cut off one horn?"
"Shut up..."
Glare, looking at unknown techniques that she couldn't even recognize with her magical skills, and that even if her master came, it was questionable whether he could defend against them let alone break them, was sweating cold sweat. She quietly raised her hand.
- Snap!
- Crash...!
And when she flicked her hand, one of the techniques filling the area around the Demon King shattered.
"Just now, did you break the magic itself?"
"........."
"Amazing! Even I can't do that. What exactly are you?"
The Demon King, seeing that sight, smiled with delight.
"But... that ability has one weakness too."
However, Glare wasn't wearing a relaxed smile like her.
"I don't know what that ability is, but it can only destroy one object at a time."
"Ugh."
The moment Glare frowned at those words.
- Rumble...!!!
The equations the Demon King had summoned began to activate all at once.
"Hah!!"
At the same time, Glare kicked off the ground and rushed at the Demon King, gathering mana in her hand and shouting.
"I can use magic as much as I want now too!!"
At that moment, magic circles appeared around Glare.
Those magic circles, created by her innate talent, were complex magics that even average adult mages would spend over an hour creating.
"And, anyway..."
- Zap zap...!
Seeing her magic circles activate and begin emitting powerful light, she looked straight at the Demon King and said.
"...You can't attack me, can you?"
At the same time, lasers poured out from the magic circles she had summoned, raining down on the Demon King.
- BOOM!!!
Thus, a massive explosion occurred in the empty hospital room.
"...Cough, cough."
Thanks to the barrier and soundproofing magic that Ruby and Glare had set up to prevent physical harm to others, the hospital room was fine, but inside, huge dust clouds and smoke rose.
"Ugh..."
And from inside, coughing and groaning sounds could be heard.
"H, how..."
"Puhuhuh..."
Unlike last time, this time it was Glare who had fallen to the floor.
"Cough..."
Glare, with scratches all over her body and thread-like blood flowing from her mouth, quietly raised her head and looked at the Demon King.
"Why? Don't you understand what happened?"
Then, she smiled and pointed at her own body.
"Even like this?"
".....!"
At that moment, the equations stacked layer upon layer on her body were revealed.
They were exactly the same shape as the massive equations that had floated around the Demon King just before.
"No way..."
"It's just a simple reflection magic, isn't it? I merely implemented a very basic magic by twisting it in the demon language."
Only then did Glare realize what had happened, and her eyes began to tremble.
"I didn't attack, I just 'defended'. Reflection is also a legitimate act of defense, child."
Ruby spoke as if teasing Glare.
"Besides, I didn't target you for reflection. I just randomly reflected at various angles. You just got hit by those blind attacks."
"Ugh..."
"Well, that's that. If you don't attack, it's a draw. As you know, I can't 'attack' you unless I use such tricks."
Shrugging her shoulders, she looked at Glare as if mocking her.
"So, now go home, kid."
"Don't mess with me..."
"Or else, surrender to me and become my subordinate."
Glare's eyebrows twitched at those words.
"This is the second chance I didn't even give to the Hero. Accept it before it's too late."
".........."
Ruby, who said that to Glare in a soft voice, added with a cold expression.
"Do you think the Hero even has a chance of beating me?"
Along with that sneer, a system window floated in front of Glare.
[Helper System]
[0%]
Glare glanced at the number that hadn't changed even once since that night when she first awakened the Helper System.
"I don't care about that."
Not even glancing at the text below that, she whispered in a low voice.
"Because I will defeat you."
Glare, saying that, made a fierce expression and rushed at the Demon King again.
"Puhuh..."
The Demon King, watching Glare with a quiet smile, mumbled in a low voice.
"See? Kids are easy."
Thus, Glare and the Demon King's long, long battle began.
.
Meanwhile, at that same time, in the vast courtyard of the Order.
"Hmhmm~! Hmm hmm~!"
Perlotche, with her hands behind her back, was walking with a pigeon on her shoulder, wiggling her body.
"Today~! The weather is very clear!!"
She shouted like that even though no one was around.
"It's a really! Good day for a walk!"
"Coo."
"Hm? Gugu?"
But at that moment, Gugu, who was on her shoulder, started pecking at Perlotche's forehead.
"Coo!"
"Argh, eek. That's not good! I'm hurt! Ow."
"Coo coo!!"
"I, I'm your master! I can peck you too!"
At Gugu's attack that started in broad daylight, Perlotche narrowed her eyes and started fighting with the creature, swinging her fingers shaped like a bird beak.
".......Ah."
But then, she opened her eyes wide.
"Coo."
"I'm sorry..."
And Perlotche, who suddenly smiled gently and stroked Gugu's head...
"...Gulp."
Swallowed dry saliva and, with an extremely tense expression, began heading somewhere.
"Lady Perlotche? Why are you here..."
"Saintess, this place is dangerous..."
Where she headed was none other than the basement of the Order.
"I just have some business to attend to!"
The basement that she hadn't even gone near since going in with Frey, the entrance of which was now being managed by bishops.
"Saintess, this isn't a place you can enter just because you have business..."
"Gugu!"
As a bishop managing the entrance approached with a troubled yet benevolent smile, Perlotche smiled brightly and said to Gugu on her shoulder.
"...Pull out his soul."
"Coo!"
She, who was now making an expression she had never shown before, slowly began walking toward the entrance of the basement.
- Rumble...
Whether to welcome her or not, the basement was shaking greatly.